Coyotes (immigration smugglers) (1923)

Fri Oct 5 04:56:08 UTC 2007

OED added the "immigration smuggler" sense to "coyote" last year, with
a 1924 citation. Here are two cites from 1923 and and earlier one from
1924...It's strange that J. Frank Dobie wrote a book called "The Voice
of the Coyote" and neither OED nor HDAS cited from it?
...
I added some fine website entries, such as Texpatriate/Texpat; Border
Buttermilk/Tequila Sour; Jalapeno Chicken; Jalapeno Pie; and the
Austin stoner motto "Onward thru the fog." I don't understand how I
can be adding 5 new entries a day, but my visits are down about 2,000
per day from three months ago (when I was out of the country and made
one new entry an entire month).
...
The Texas Oklahoma game is this weekend, and I see that my most
popular entries are "Tuck Fexas," "Fuck Texas," and "Fuck Y'all, I'm
from Texas." (But not more than $5-a-day popular.)
...
...
...
http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/texas/entry/coyotes_wolves_of_the_border_immigration_smugglers/
...
Entry from October 04, 2007
Coyotes ("wolves of the border" immigration smugglers)
The coyote is an animal seen in the Southwest; J. Frank Dobie's The
Voice of the Coyote (1949) tells of the folklore of the coyote.
Smugglers of aliens (Mexicans and other nationalities) into the United
States from Mexico have been called "coyotes" or "wolves of the
border" since at least 1923. The 1918 silent film Wolves of the Border
might have influenced both terms.

Wikipedia: People smuggling
People smuggling is a term which is used to describe transportation of
people across international borders to a non-official entry point of a
destination country for a variety of reasons. Typically those being
transported may not have adequate formal travel documents or prior
approval to enter the destination country.
(...)
In the Southwest United States, a "coyote" is a person paid to smuggle
illegal immigrants across the border between Mexico and the United
States. Snakeheads are smugglers from China who smuggle people into
the United States and other Western countries.

Internet Movie Database
Wolves of the Border (1918)
Director: Clifford Smith
Writer: Alan James
Release Date: 12 May 1918 (USA) more
Genre: Western
Plot Synopsis: This plot synopsis is empty. Add a synopsis
Plot Keywords: Cowboy / Kidnapping / Rancher / Rescue

Internet Movie Database
Wolves of the Border (1923)
Director: Alan James
Release Date: 15 January 1923 (USA) more
Genre: Western / Comedy / Drama

(Oxford English Dictionary)
coyote, n.
Zool. The name, in Mexico and now in the United States, of the
prairie- or barking-wolf (Canis latrans) of the Pacific slope of North
America.
(...)
U.S. slang. A person hired to assist people in illegally crossing the
border from Mexico into the United States.
1924 Los Angeles Times 4 June I. 12/7 There has been..the immigration
service says, a band of criminals on this border, known as 'coyotes',
who live by preying upon persons wishing to secure an easy entrance to
the United States.
1943 Econ. Geogr. 19 359/2 The facilitators of illegal entrance, the
smugglers or 'coyotes', the contractors or 'engachistas' who provided
peons with jobs over the border.
1972 Los Angeles Times 17 Sept. (West Mag. section) 19/3 The coyote
took us by way of Tecate in a station wagon… He let us out on the
highway and we waited there..to lose the border patrol.

(Historical Dictionary of American Slang)
coyote n.
Police. S.W. a labor contractor or other person who brings illegal
immigrants into the U.S. from Mexico.
1929 Gill Und. Slang: Coyotes—Labor agents.
1970 S. Steiner La Raza 300: "Coyote!" is what the campesinos say of a
man like Corrilio Macias.
1973 U.S. News & W.R. (July 23) 32: Smugglers, known as "coyotes" in
the Mexican-American community in Los Angeles.
1974 Martinez & Longeaux y Vasquez La Raza 127: A worker in Mexico
would be picked up by a labor smuggler—called a coyote.
1977 L.A. Times (Jan. 15) II 5: His name was Roberto and he paid a
"coyote" 300 American dollars to smuggle him across the border.

24 May 1923, Galveston (TX) Daily News, "Border Bandits Commit Many
Murders: Immigration Inspector Says Recent Killing of Italians One of
Many Similar Crimes," pg. 1, col. 8:
A new race has sprung up on the Mexican side of the border, referred
to often as the "wolves of the border." The greed for gold has got
their blood aflame, and their prey is the simple European alien who
wishes to make his home in America but is unable to comply with the
immigration standards.

ONE VICTIM ESCAPES.
The recent murder of six Italians, who bartered for their passage
across the Rio Grande only to be betrayed and shot down by their
guides and robbed of their money, is believed to be only one of a
series of wholesale murders the bandit smugglers have committed.
(...)
Captain Hanson, who has just returned from the border, believed that
hundres of unsuspecting Europeans have met similar fates. The
characters of the "coyotes" at the border are the lowest and "the
murder of a fellow man means nothing to them,": he said.
(...)
Says Guides Are Coyotes.
The "coyotes," as Captain Hanson refers to the guides, then return to
take another party and if any questions are asked they simply state
that the party has been safely carried across the river, with no one
to deny their statement.

27 June 1923, San Antonio (TX) Express, "Scores of Mexicans Use
Others' Head Tax Receipts to Enter United States," pg. 1, col. 2:
Reports from Laredo Tuesday also told of the arrest of one German
alien who claimed to have been robbed by "coyotes," the Mexican
nickname for those who smuggle aliens across the river, the German
charging that $150 had been taken from him.
(...) (Col. 3 --ed.)
He explained that the alien passes through the hands of about five
"coyotes" before he reaches the American side of the river and
ultimately falls into the hands of government officers who place him
in jail for deportation.

11 January 1924, New Castle (PA) News, pg. 2, col. 6:
With legal entrance of aliens practically cut off until June 30 the
border "coyotes" a smugglers term for a criminal class which preys
upon foreigners anxious to enter this country are becoming more active
in piloting an undesirable class over the Mexican border, according to
official reports.

19 January 1948, Dallas (TX) Morning News, "More Talk About Coyotes"
by J. Frank Dobie, section I, pg. 13:
In Mexican popular speech, coyote means: a pettifogger, a thief, any
kind of shyster or go-between, a curbstone broker, a fixer who has
"pull" to sell, an oil or mining scout with "practical experience" in
selling leases, also the respectable Minister of Mines, a drink of
mixed beer and brandy. As Lumholtz puts it, "the regard that the
Indians have for their Mexican masters is shown in the name by which
they refer to them—coyotes."

Use in Southwestern States.
On the border, a smuggler of aliens is called a coyote-enganchista. In
the interior of Texas a certain kind of agent, often a jackleg lawyer,
who hangs around court houses and charges ignorant Mexicans outrageous
fees for services as commonplace as getting a notary public's
certification is called a coyote. He is often a Mexican himself. In
New Mexico, the name, among other meanings, denotes a half-breed—a
mixture of Anglo and Hispano bloods or of Caucasian and Indian—who is
loyal to neither line. Mexicans call bastard children coyotitos.
Without aspersion they call also the last child in a family a
coyotito. In the folklore of ignorance—and not all folklore by any
means springs from ignorance—the coyote is a cross between lobo and
fox.

Google Books
The Voice of the Coyote
by J. Frank Dobie
Boston, MA: Little, Brown
1949
Pg. 258:
On the border, a smuggler-over of aliens is called a coyote enganchista.

10 April 1977, Dallas (TX) Morning News, "INS nominee appears capable
for job," section A, pg. 11:
"We need tougher laws on the smugglers, the coyotes, the guys who
smuggle people. They smuggle people and the penalties we assess are
relatively light."

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