Romeo and Juliet Contra Los Rangers

This chapter examines Shame the Stars by Guadalupe García McCall, a literary appropriation of Romeo and Juliet that is set in Texas during the Mexican Revolution (1910—1920). Reading Shame the Stars as a critical counter-story that rights wrongs by presenting a more accurate view of a period in history that saw the lynching and murder of hundreds if not thousands of Mexicans and Tejanos allows us to see how Romeo and Juliet can be deployed to restore a sense of history to young Latinx readers. Understanding the role of the Texas Rangers in the past, I contend in this chapter, invites young Latinx to contest present oppressions built on historical myths. In other words, healing the wounds of history by reconnecting a people to a newly reconstructed and more accurate history is transformative, principally for Latinx youth who are growing up with faulty historical mirrors and thus false narratives.