San Benito holds a singular place in Texas history. It was the site of countless extrajudicial executions during La Matanza of 1915 and is home to the State Historical Marker commemorating those atrocities.

In the early twentieth century, people of Mexican ancestry were routinely vilified as bandidos. Those who were not summarily killed by the Texas Rangers were often jailed in Harlingen, then known as "Six-Shooter Junction" because it served as the Rangers' first southern headquarters.

Under the law, prisoners were to be transported to Brownsville, where the courts would determine their guilt or innocence. Instead, Rangers frequently acted as judge, jury, and executioner. Presuming their prisoners guilty, they often shot or lynched them in and around San Benito rather than make the long journey to Brownsville. The true number of these extrajudicial killings will likely never be known.

For generations, the Texas Rangers have been celebrated as the legendary law enforcement force that brought order and security to Texas and the Rio Grande Valley. Far less acknowledged is their darker legacy. During this period, the Rangers became Los Rinches—a state-sanctioned vigilante force that used terror, intimidation, and extrajudicial violence to dispossess Mexican Americans of their land, suppress their civil rights, and deny them of due process and the constitutional protections guaranteed to every person.

Día de los Muertos is a Mexican tradition devoted to honoring and remembering the dead. La Caminata is part of that sacred observance, paying tribute to the victims of La Matanza of 1915 by symbolically retracing their final journey—the path they were forced to walk as they were unjustly led to their execution. With each step, participants bear witness to a history too long forgotten and honor lives cut short by racial violence and injustice.

The State Historical Marker becomes an altar of remembrance, where a floral wreath is placed as an ofrenda (offering) to the victims of La Matanza. In keeping with Día de los Muertos tradition, it is a moment to welcome the spirits of the departed, believed to return to visit the living, and to affirm that those who were denied justice in life will never be forgotten.