The first to die were Chinese agricultural workers, who were killed in the orchards and gardens surrounding the Mexican city of Torreón by advancing revolutionary forces in the early hours of 13 May 1911.

As the rebels entered the city, they were joined by thousands of locals, fired up by racist speeches. A herb-seller is said to have clutched a Mexican flag and screamed: “Let’s kill the Chinese!” Over the next 10 hours, the mob sacked Chinese-owned businesses, looted the Chinese bank and dragged their Chinese neighbors by their distinctive braids, trampling them to death with horses. Everyone joined in the killing. It was soldiers, men, women — everyone.

A total of 303 Chinese people were murdered in this burgeoning railway town some 500 miles south of the US border. Afterwards, rebels and locals posed for photographs with the bodies of their victims before they were hauled away by the cartload.

In Torreón, nobody was ever charged — let alone tried or convicted — over the massacre, and today the events of 1911 remain largely unmentioned. In Torreón no monuments mark the massacre. A commemorative plaque was swiftly stolen. A statue erected in a public park in 2007 was vandalized and later removed.