Chihuahuita

The Chamizal case turned on how the river had moved. Treaties of 1848 and 1884 kept the border in the deepest channel if the river shifted gradually, by accretion, but held the old channel if it jumped suddenly, by avulsion. Pedro Ignacio García del Barrio told the boundary commission in 1895 that an abrupt 1873 change had moved his land. Testimony from old residents pointed to 1864, but the commission never decided which kind of change it had been.

What the plaque says

Chihuahuita (Little Chihuahua) was settled by Ricardo Brusuelas, who received a land grant from Spanish authorIties in 1818 and developed a prosperous ranch. After 1848, when the Rio Grande became part of the U.S.-Mexico border, new settlers arrived to farm the land. With the coming of the Santa Fe railroad in 1881, Chihuahuita began to grow dramatically. Soon a crowded urban area, it was designated the city's first ward in 1887. When the wooden Santa Fe bridge was built in 1892, the area became a major entry point for people and goods from Mexico into the American Southwest. The old Brusuelas land grant eventually became the property of Pedro Y. Garcia, who filed an 1894 claim in a Mexican court that led to the Chamizal land dispute, finally settled in 1963. The Mexican Revolution, which began in 1910, brought a surge of refugees north, many to Chihuahuita, and it served as a center of intrigue. It also provided views of the fighting across the Rio Grande. After the revolution, it continued to grow as a gateway to El Paso. At the same time, it became an overcrowded and neglected area, beset with housing and health problems. Renewed interest in the historic neighborhood in the late 20th century resulted in clean-up and rehabilitation efforts. In 1991, the City of El Paso declared Chihuahuita a historic district because of its long and significant history. Today, Chihuahuita is an important reminder of the region's early growth and development. (2003)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Magoffin Home State Historic Site — 1.1 mi
  A U-shaped adobe of the 1870s in central El Paso that joins Mexican building to an Anglo plan, closed for restoration through 2027 while its visitor center stays open.
• Chamizal National Memorial — 2.3 mi
  A park on land the Rio Grande once put in dispute, where a century-old border quarrel between the United States and Mexico was settled by treaty and a new concrete channel.
• Ysleta Mission (Corpus Christi de la Ysleta del Sur) — 10 mi
  The Tigua mission church at Ysleta, rebuilt in 1908 around the walls, bell and Santo Entierro that came through fire, its interior painted with rain clouds and corn.
• Tigua Indian Cultural Center, Ysleta del Sur Pueblo — 11 mi
  The cultural center of Ysleta del Sur Pueblo, the Tigua nation that has lived in the Mission Valley of El Paso since 1682 and keeps its own history here.

More markers nearby

• This Block was the Site of the Stage Station — 0.5 mi
• Hotel Paso Del Norte — 0.6 mi
• El Paso & Southwestern Railroad Locomotive Number One — 0.6 mi
• Felix Martinez — 0.6 mi