Art imitates life. What does that mean exactly? In the context of our discussion today, it means that even the most outlandish movie script has some scant basis in reality. A ragtag group of friends streaking across the cosmos in a rattletrap starship to battle the Galactic Empire as depicted in Star Wars is pretty outlandish. Striking out against long odds to save a kidnapped damsel, the basic concept that drove that tale, has likely actually happened somewhere before. Word monkeys like me typically take inspiration from the real world, even if our subject matter is fairly fantastic. Alejo Garza Tamez, a real-life “good guy with a gun,” will help demonstrate my point.

A Quick Trivia Interlude

Western movies are not the standard stuff of Hollywood they once were. Back when I was a kid, the American West was fertile, dramatic ground. TV shows and big screen productions depicted flint-eyed cowboys staring down long odds to secure a little frontier justice. My personal favorite of the genre was set in Australia. Quigley Down Under was arguably the perfect Western movie. 

As an aside, the script for Quigley was first optioned in 1979 by producer Mort Engelberg. The story was originally written for Steve McQueen. It was to be his next film after The Hunter. However, McQueen succumbed to pleural mesothelioma at age 50, Quigley went to Tom Selleck, and the rest is history. 

A trope in classic Western films has the hero, forlorn and woefully outnumbered, fortifying his farmhouse against a vicious coordinated attack by an overwhelming mob of savages. The protagonist pre-positions his weapons at strategic locations and fights his glorious last stand. Sometimes the cavalry arrives in the nick of time, and sometimes not. However, this basic formula is a reliable source of frontier drama. Now hold that thought…

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Human Nature

We all come from the factory broken. There’s this lie floating about that some folks are just innately good. That’s simply not the case. Mother Theresa, Ronald Reagan, Mister Rogers, and that sweet, selfless lady who taught you in kindergarten—they are all dark-hearted sinners in need of redemption.

Some folks resist that sinful nature better than others, but we’re all pretty icky on the inside. Regardless, Alejo Garza Tamez was, by all accounts, a pretty decent guy.

Alejo Garza Tamez

Alejo Garza Tamez was born in the summer of 1933 in Alende, Nuevo Leon, in northern Mexico. He grew up some fifty clicks south of Monterrey. Alejo’s dad ran a sawmill. He and his brothers grew up helping their dad harvest, process, and sell lumber in Monetemorelos and Allende.

Some folks are just born outdoorsmen. Alejo embraced that calling. As a kid, he tore about the rural spaces around his home like a wildman. Like most burgeoning real men, young Alejo thrived in the wilderness.

As he came of age, Don Alejo developed a reputation as a man of character. Those who knew him later said that a promise from Alejo Garza Tamez “was as good as a contract.” He was known to go out of his way to help his neighbors. As local orange plantations began to struggle, Alejo played a fundamental role in transforming his local farming community into poultry production. This was something that was both more reliable and more lucrative. Along the way, Don Alejo earned the respect of those who knew him.

Throughout it all, Alejo retained his enthusiasm for the outdoors, occupying his free time hunting and fishing. Don Alejo established a local club in Allende where like-minded friends could come together over common outdoor sporting pursuits. He also developed his skills as a marksman while hunting geese, deer, and doves. In the process, Alejo accumulated a decent collection of sporting weapons.

Global Gun Rights

There are only four nations on Planet Earth that enshrine the individual right to keep and bear arms within their foundational documents–the US, Guatemala, Haiti, and Mexico. Haiti is an ungovernable hellhole. The US does a fairly decent job of taking gun rights seriously, relatively speaking. Guatemala still heaps restrictions upon individual gun rights despite what their Constitution says. Mexico pretty much ignores the issue.

There is but a single gun shop in the entire nation of Mexico, and that is run by the government. The drug cartels are armed to the teeth, but it is still a serious nutroll to purchase firearms as an individual law-abiding Mexican. Regardless, for a guy like Alejo, who was willing to go through the hoops, sporting weapons were nonetheless still on the menu.

Eventually, Alejo’s character and propensity toward hard work paid off. With the help of his brother, he bought the San Jose Ranch in Tamaulipas some fifteen clicks outside Cuidad, Victoria. This became the man’s home. However, Fate seemed destined to bring chaos to his world.

The Bad Guys

I mentioned earlier how everybody enters the world with a sinful nature. Here’s why. While some folks like Alejo Garza Tamez fight those primal urges, others simply submit to them. History is dirty with examples of pure, unfiltered monsters. 

The Nazis, the Khmer Rouge, The Lord’s Resistance Army in Liberia, and pretty much anything Vladimir Putin touches stand out as examples. In each case, groups of people willingly visit pain and tragedy upon their fellow man in pursuit of some short-sighted, self-centered goal. In Alejo’s neck of the woods, the local villains were the Los Zetas drug cartel. I have it on reliable information that ultimate justice does indeed await those people. However, these guys can foment some serious mischief on this side of the curtain.

Violence in northern Mexico all comes down to money. Drug trafficking is the primary engine behind the cash, but it is the basic primal lust for wealth that drives that train. If you take folks born into abject poverty and then offer drug running as their key to opulent wealth, then you shouldn’t be surprised to find plenty of takers. Along the way, such life choices invariably cost these people their souls.

Los Zetas

The term “Los Zetas” literally translates, “The Z’s.” The Zetas were born of a group of ex-Mexican Army commandos who deserted and began working as enforcers for the Gulf Cartel. In 2010, the Zetas hung out their own shingle. They soon developed a reputation for ruthlessness that was simply unrivaled. Beheadings, wanton torture, human trafficking, kidnapping, and indiscriminate murder kept their economic wheels greased. 

Los Zetas is a designated international terrorist organization today. Their influence within the formal Mexican government is both deep and pervasive. The combination of great gobs of cash and a willingness to torture innocent people to death can be terribly motivational.

The Fuse is Lit for Tamez

For whatever reason, Los Zetas decided they needed Don Alejo’s ranch to support their nefarious criminal activities. On 13 November 2010, representatives of the cartel showed up at Alejo’s home and informed him that they were seizing his property. They gave him 24 hours to vacate. 

Alejo was 77 years old. He had little patience for such foolishness. Tragically, government corruption is legendary in Mexico, so he felt that he had no recourse with the formal authorities. The man directed the farm workers he employed to take the next day off and retrieved his personal weapons from his gun safe in the cellar, positioning them in various strategic spots around his home. Then he simply waited.

The following day, a large number of heavily armed cartel sicarios arrived in SUVs. They fanned out around the building and fired warning shots into the air to prove that they were serious. Alejo responded by blowing one of the cartel thugs away. That precipitated a real-deal, full-bore gunfight.

Tamez in a Firefight

The cartel assassins attacked using automatic rifles and grenades. Alejo fought back with his sporting weapons. However, Alejo had a lifetime’s worth of hunting experience under his belt. He was an exceptional marksman.

Neighbors heard the gunfire and alerted the authorities. Nearby Mexican Marine units responded in short order. They arrived to find four dead cartel shooters along with two more who were grievously wounded and abandoned by their peers. Once they cleared the farmhouse, the Marines discovered the body of Alejo Garza Tamez.

Alejo had suffered two bullet wounds—one to the chest and another to the head. He had also been badly wounded by grenade fragments prior to being shot. The inside of his pulverized home was littered with shell casings. The location of his guns demonstrated the tactical wisdom that drove his epic last stand. Though it cost him his life, Alejo successfully prevented the cartel from taking his home.

Fallout

Los Zetas built their nefarious reputation upon intimidation. They had little interest in word getting out that their vaunted private army had been bested by a lone 77-year-old farmer. They used their influence with the press and local government to suppress news of the exchange. However, a debacle of this magnitude couldn’t be hidden forever. Word got out eventually.

READ MORE HERE: Dr. Dabbs – Chalino Sánchez: Dead Man Singing

The Milenio newspaper launched the story, and social media took it from there. Don Alejo soon achieved cult hero status for his steadfast resistance to cartel tyranny. In a world characterized by blood, pain, and injustice, one man’s fight against the darkness galvanized the downtrodden.

Despite his folk popularity, Alejo’s death was never formally investigated by Mexican authorities. The power of Los Zetas runs deep, and no charges were ever filed. Regardless, even today, the story of Alejo Garza Tamez serves as a beacon to freedom-loving Mexicans sick to death of the relentless violence infecting their nation. Alejo’s last stand has been described in the Mexican media as having been fought with “dignity, honour, and courage.” Don Alejo showed the world that one determined man with a gun still can make a difference.

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