Texas Almanac, 1984-1985 Page: 22
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TEXAS ALMANAC 1984-1985
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This Aztec sun calendar in downtown El Paso emphasizes the dual character of the heritage of the Texas-Mexico
borderlands. (Highway Department Photo)
The Borderlands: Between Two Worlds
This article was prepared for the Texas Almanac by David McLemore, the San Antonio bureau chief for The Dallas
Morning News.
N Texas, the border between the United States and gion encompasses sleepy, dusty border towns, thriving
Mexico cuts along the southern edge of the state, commercial centers and the glass-and-steel urban
following the Rio Grande as it meanders 1,248 miles towers of maior cities. It is a land of ancient myths, old
from El Paso to the Gulf of Mexico. But this is merely a standards and the rewards of 20th century progress, all
fiction of mapmakers and politicians, blended into a unique whole.
For in this region of sharp contrasts and contradic- Following their conquest of the Aztecs in the 16th
tory realities, the Texas borderlands defy such simple century, the Spanish conquistadores came to the region
definitions. Life here is never a matter of American on nearly 400 years ago, seeking more land and wealth to
one side of the river and Mexican on the other, claim. The broad, fast-flowing river they found in the
arid country of the north was known by various names,
The U.S.-Mexico border, as nowhere else in the but two stuck: El Rio Bravo (The Brave River) and El
world, is a place where a poor, developing nation lies Rio Grande (The Great River). Along this river, they
next to the vast wealth and strength of a superpower. founded a string of settlements as staging points for
Yet in the borderlands, the tensions of wealth versus their exploration of the northern provinces of New
poverty and the seemingly overwhelming cultural dif Spain.
ferences between the two nations are continually In 1598, Don Juan de Onate found a pass to the north
blurred and refined in the crucible of the strange and at a place where the great river flowed out of rugged
unique region. To those who live in the borderlands, it is mountains. He called it El Paso del Norte. Situated where
a third nation, complete with its own customs, its own the Mexican city of Juarez now lies, the city grew,
language and its own economy. For them, the border- spreading out to the other side of the river. Following
lands is a land between two worlds, part of both, but the Mexican revolution of 1824, an intense nationalism
never belonging completely to either. grew along the river, but one tinged with the individual-
The close economic ties of the two nations that join ism of the region. In the 1870s, the residents of El Paso
at the Rio Grande underwent a massive shock in 1982 del Norte renamed their city after the Mexican patriot
that again clearly defined the intertwined destinies of Benito Juarez. The American town on the northern bank
the border region. The crippling peso devaluations re- retained the name given by a Spanish soldier.
suiting from Mexico's unparalleled economic crisis, Down river, the settlement founded by Tomas San-
coupled with the recession that buffeted the U.S. econo- chez in 1755 also prospered in rugged brush country.
my, disrupted the border economy as it never before Called Laredo, it too served as a northern staging area
has been. Retail sales dropped dramatically in cities on for trade routes out of Monterrey in Mexico's interior.
both sides of the river and unemployment rose to crisis Today, Laredo and its sister city across the river, Nuevo
levels. But the border has always been resilient to the Laredo, remain a commercial center for trade between
shifting tides of economic uncertainties. Already, the the United States and Mexico.
beginnings of a long and painful recovery can be seen With the revolt against Spain and the creation of the
along the border. Mexican Republic in 1824, the area along the Rio
The land itself highlights the contrasts of the re- Grande remained virtually unchanged from the days of
gion. Starting in the desert highlands of El Paso, the the Spanish conquerors. But a new group of settlers,
Texas borderlands follow the Rio Grande down through Anglos from the United States, began to enter the re-
ranch lands dense with mesquite and gas wells, past gion in the early 1800s, drawn by the region's promise
lush farmlands in the tropical Lower Rio Grande Valley and sometimes by the ease of escaping the laws of two
and the salt marshes outside Brownsville, on to the wa- nations. At first, the flow of Anglo settlers was small.
ters of the Gulf of Mexico. Even after Texas won its independence in 1836, the re-
It is a region rich in the legacy of Spanish conquer- gion remained more Mexican than Texan. But after
ors, Mexican patriots and Anglo entrepreneurs. The re- Texas' annexation by the United States in 1845 and the
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Texas Almanac, 1984-1985, book, 1983; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth113817/m1/24/: accessed May 21, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.