Mexican American lawman Elfego Baca (1865–1945) made a name for himself in New Mexico by protecting his fellow Hispanic Americans from the rough and tumble cowboys of the Wild West.
Another tale says that Baca was kidnapped as a toddler by Native Americans. They promptly returned him because his nonstop screaming disturbed everyone at their camp.
The family moved to Topeka, Kansas. There, his mother, a sister, and a brother passed away from a sudden illness. His father placed Baca in an orphanage and moved back to New Mexico territory with Baca’s older brother. As a teenager, Baca reunited with his brother in New Mexico. He also helped his father escape prison where he was jailed for murder.
A Young Deputy
Before he was 18, Baca settled back in his hometown of Socorro. At this time, a bunch of rowdy cowboys rode through town, stirring up dust and firing off guns. The local sheriff asked the young Baca to help settle the disturbance. Baca jumped on a horse, chased after the gang, and shot one of the culprits from a distance of 300 yards.The skirmish raised the young man’s confidence, even as he came close to dying. In 1884, Pedro Sarracino, a county sheriff from Upper Frisco (now Reserve, New Mexico) rolled into town. He asked the citizens of Socorro for help. Cowboys were harming the Hispanic citizens in his town, which lay 100 miles west of Socorro. Baca offered his help, and admonished Sarracino for allowing such unruly behavior.
Baca was deputized and rode to Upper Frisco. He entered the town saloon to find drunken cowboy Charlie McCarty. McCarty was shooting at the feet of the Hispanic people inside the saloon, forcing them to “dance.” McCarty had the temerity to shoot Baca’s hat off.
Baca took the suspect’s gun and arrested him. He took the drunken cowboy into custody and held him in a house. This greatly angered the town’s other inebriated cowboys. Soon an angry mob came pounding on the door. Baca fired several warning shots at the hostile cowboys. The leader of the mob, Young Parham, died when his horse was shot and crushed him, and another shot hit a cowboy in the knee.
A Big Shoot-out
Baca’s shelter was insufficient as it was only made of mesquite sticks and mud. The mob found him and demanded he come out; he fired a shot that hit one of the cowboys in the gut and killed him.
The cowboy mob answered by firing more than 1,000 shots into the small structure. They set fire to the jacal and then blew it up with dynamite, which collapsed the roof.
The next day, the mob inspected the wreckage, only to find Baca cooking himself tortillas, beef stew, and coffee for breakfast. Not a single bullet hit Baca as he hid beneath the fallen walls of the building. There were 400 bullet holes in the front door. Eight pierced through the handle of a broom inside the house.
An Honest Law Enforcer
The incident made Baca known all over the West as a tough lawman. His friends and family knew him as an honest enforcer of the law. “My uncle was a good man,” Baca’s nephew Abe Baca said, according to the 1992 biography titled “Elfego Baca in Life and Legend” written by Larry D. Ball. “He didn’t abuse his authority. He liked kids, old folks, and animals. And he had a good sense of humor.”Baca continued his career in other areas of public service. He served as sheriff, district attorney, school superintendent, and mayor of Socorro.
While Baca served as the Socorro County district attorney, he kept his promise to citizens to be tough on criminals. “In February 1906, the Albuquerque Evening Citizen noted that Baca ‘is making a vigorous and determined effort’ to purge his town of ‘very undesirable characters,’ said this journalist, who urged ‘every officer of the law’ to assist the ambitious attorney,” Baca’s biography stated.
“In the following month, the same journal reported that Baca ‘is hot after pistol ‘toters,’ and added that Baca had extended the no-gun order to lawmen ‘when not actually in the performance of duty.’”
Baca passed away in 1945, but he left his mark on history as a tough Hispanic American who strove to keep order in the wild, wild West. During his deputy sheriff days in the late 19th century, Baca was known to write a letter to wanted criminals asking them to turn themselves in, or risk being “shot on sight.”
Throughout his life, Baca stared death directly in the eyes in several brutal gunfights. His life and legendary shoot-outs were even featured in a 1950s Disney Western miniseries.
