By RUSSELL CONTRERAS and CEDAR ATTANASIO
Associated Press

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - Historians and Latino activists say it's time to acknowledge the terror experienced by Mexican Americans years before white mobs attacked and murdered African Americans in dozens of cities across the country in 1919.

As the U.S. prepares to remember the 100th anniversary of "Red Summer," historians say the U.S. also must come to terms with the violence experienced by Mexican Americans in the American Southwest.

Historians say from 1910 to 1920, an estimated 5,000 people of Mexican descent were killed or vanished without a trace in the U.S.

Brown University American Studies professor Monica Muñoz Martinez says the violence was so barbaric it attracted the attention of newspapers abroad and the fledgling NAACP.

Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.