Depending on your point of view, Tiburcio Vasquez was either a notorious bandido who terrorized California in the mid-1800s or a charming Robin Hood-type character fighting for social justice against oppressive authorities.

Vasquez’ place in history has been primarily a subject for historians, but occasionally the public at large takes an interest, as did the Alisal Union School District in Salinas, which decided last month to name a school after him. Vasquez, who was hanged in 1875 for murder after 20 years of banditry, was the unanimous pick of the school board to be honored with a nameplate on the district’s newest elementary school, still under construction.

Salinas is two-thirds Latino and in the heart of an agricultural region that many of its Mexican-American residents say is still grappling with the same social problems faced by Vasquez. School District Superintendent John Ramirez Jr. told the Associated Press that naming the school for Vasquez was an act of cultural pride and a statement against discrimination.

“Vasquez was a folk hero, a revolutionary who was a product of the environment that existed at the time,” Ramirez said. “He represents a . . . time when the people of Mexican descent were treated in an offensive way.” Francisco Estrada, a retired teacher who served on the selection committee, said, “The community does not see Tiburcio as a thief or a murderer. We see him as a fighter for social justice of the Mexican-Californio whose rights have been deprived.”

New Salinas Mayor Joe Gunter and Councilman Steve McShane disagree. They both called Vasquez a criminal and said the community would have been better served by the selection of someone else. The Monterey County Deputy Sheriff Association and the Salinas Police Peace Officer Association issued a joint statement expressing “extreme disappointment” in the selection of Vasquez.

One local resident, given space to vent online at The Californian, wondered if the next step would be schools named the “Manson Mercantile Academy and Dahmer Culinary School.”  

Vasquez was born in 1835 in Monterey and grew up in turbulent times as control of California passed from Mexico to the United States. His family had money, he was well-educated and was considered intelligent and charismatic. But he spent years living a life of crime and served five years in San Quentin prison before being executed.  

If the school name sticks in Salinas, it wouldn’t be the first time Vasquez was honored in such a fashion. The Vasquez Rocks County Park near Agua Dolce in Los Angeles County, named for the man who often hid from the authorities there, was created in 1964. A clinic in Alameda County that provides care for the uninsured, the Tiburcio Vasquez Health Center, has borne his name since 1971.

And in 1993, the Santa Clarita School Board unanimously voted to name a high school after him, although the technical explanation was that it was being named for the famed rocks nearby. That didn’t stop the community from engaging in heated debate over outlaws and heroes.    

–Ken Broder

To Learn More:

Tiburcio Vasquez School in California Named after Bandido Ignites Controversy (by Gosia Wozniacka, Associated Press)

Villain or Hero? Flap over California School Named for Bandit (by Samira Said, CNN)