On September 14, 1911, the owners of the Laredo newspaper La Crónica organized El Primer Congreso Mexicanista, bringing together Mexican Americans from across Texas and citizens of northern Mexico during a period of conflict shaped by shifting racial hierarchies, large-scale property transfer, agricultural industrialization, economic problems, and increased immigration to Texas after the Mexican Revolution in 1910. Likely the largest Mexican American Civil Rights meeting to that time, the congress addressed economic disparities, racial violence, labor exploitation, inadequate educational opportunities, women's rights, and social discrimination, with delegates often citing the recent lynchings of Antonio Rodríguez in Rocksprings and Antonio Gómez in Thorndale as evidence of the threats they faced. With representatives from dozens of cities and towns, the congress met for more than a week alongside a statewide meeting of the International Grand Lodge of the Caballeros de Honor and Laredo's Diez y Seis Celebrations, elected Jose P. Reyes of Brownsville as president, Nicasio Idar of Laredo as vice president, and Lisandro Peña of Nuevo Laredo as secretary, and met in the order of the Red Men Hall and the City Market to discuss strategies for addressing Civil Rights issues. Through later court cases and legislation, the delegates and their constituents achieved short-term progress and long-term impact on the rights of Hispanic Texans and relationships among the state's citizens.