Pancho Villa with Generals Patton and Pershing, photo: Museum of the Big Bend
One hundred years ago, Texas’ border with Mexico represented a safe haven for thousands seeking refuge from the horrors of the Mexican Revolution. Violence, oppression and economic misfortune drove Mexican families to numerous border cities, El Paso in particular.
Influencing Migration and Settlement in Texas
A century later, the Mexican Revolution is remembered as a shaping force for Texas and the communities along the Rio Grande. The decade-long power struggle stemmed from many sources of discontent among the Mexican people, including the policies of the Porfirio Diaz dictatorship, monopoly of power among the elite, repression of labor, drop in food production and decline in real wages.
“The political upheaval and military violence of the Mexican Revolution resulted in thousands of people fleeing to safety to the U.S. states bordering Mexico,” says Troy Ainsworth, historic preservation officer with the City of El Paso. “In El Paso, the number of Mexican nationals displaced by the war swelled and drastically impacted the city’s demographic makeup that persists to this day.”
Celebration Plans for El Paso
In 2006, the City of El Paso Museums and Cultural Affairs Department initiated discussions with community stakeholders to commemorate the city’s Mexican Revolution-related events. What resulted was a comprehensive program of activities, exhibits, lectures, performances and educational opportunities spanning even beyond the anniversary of the revolution’s first year (1910).
The city, in collaboration with the El Paso Convention and Visitors Bureau and other community partners, will release two brochures related to the Mexican Revolution’s anniversary, one covering events occurring from January–May, the second covering June–December. Additionally, plans call for commemorative events to take place throughout the coming decade in recognition of the conflict, which took place from 1910 through 1920. The first brochure can be downloaded here.
Programs include a lecture series, “The Mexico Revolution in the Greater El Paso Borderlands,” at the El Paso Museum of History, featuring topics like “Booker T. Washington in El Paso during the Mexican Revolution” and “The Experiences of Children during the Mexican Revolution.” The series is produced with funding from Humanities Texas.
Other programs include a film series at the El Paso Public Library, a conference on the Mexican Revolution in contemporary Mexican literature and a two-day teacher training produced by the University of Texas-El Paso’s Center for History Teaching and Learning. Exhibits around the city will feature Pancho Villa’s involvement with the revolution, money of the revolution and posters of social protest.
Other Celebrations in Far West Texas
Elsewhere in the Texas Mountain Trail Region, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s Fort Leaton State Historic Site, in collaboration with the Mexican Consulate, is planning an all-day event on Nov. 20, 2010, the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the revolution. Fort Leaton will also host an exhibition on the bloody Battle of Ojinaga, produced by the Museum of the Big Bend in Alpine, as well as its fourth annual writers’ event. The Museum of the Big Bend includes archival film footage of the Battle of Ojinaga among its permanent displays on the campus of Sul Ross State University in Alpine.
The Museum of the Big Bend in Alpine has an exhibit on the Battle for Ojinaga in its permanent exhibition gallery. Click here to see a portion of the Museum's exhibit video on YouTube. Video, courtesy of Museumscapes.
(This page is currently under development; please check this page again for new information and updates on the celebration.)