On a corner of the Mexican state of Chihuahua lies the town of La Ascension, about 60 miles from the border crossing port of Columbus, New Mexico, and Palomas. Founded between 1871 and 1872, La Ascension represents a particularity between the overlooked topic of Mexican repatriation in the aftermath of the Mexican American War. This town, affectionately known as “La Chona,” is the culmination of a double repatriation (two migrations to Mexico within the same generation) process that started in Doña Ana, New Mexico, in 1850, and continued after the Mesilla Riot of 1871. Regardless of scholarship that describes the different repatriation processes as acts of Mexican nationalism, little survives in the case of La Ascensión despite this double relocation experienced by its settlers in the span of a generation or two. While the Mexican government tended to frame the existence of Ascensión as necessary emigration of paisanos who would use their American experience to modernize and protect the frontier region (Hernández, 2012), recent historical memory has often ignored this foundational event and replaced it with the involvement of the town in the Mexican Revolution of 1910. Similarly, its counterpart of La Mesilla has been deeply folded into foundational narratives of American History like the Civil War.
As will be argued in this paper, an initial review of the historiography of these towns (that is, the way historians have written about these spaces) proves that a lack of literature on the connection between La Ascensión and La Mesilla has is double caused: each town is explained through the lens of broader historical events with stronger mythical narratives, and little has been done to explore political violence as a factor that led to the creation of both spaces.
After the ratification of the Mexican Cession, many families in Doña Ana resented the arrival of American military personnel and encroachment of civilians who were granted land grants in the area, leading to the relocation of a significant portion of the town’s population to La Mesilla, which was established on the Mexican side of the border (Sisneros, 2001). Nonetheless, national boundaries did not remain unchangeable. A border dispute resulted from the use of inaccurate maps during peace negotiations between Mexico and the United States in 1848. This conflict, generated by the inaccurate coordinates that defined El Paso as the point to establish the border west of the Rio Grande, was resolved with the Gadsden Purchase in 1854. The ratification of this treaty would bring La Mesilla into the fold of the American government, and its people again wrestled with defining their national allegiances. Despite the decades of growth that were experienced in La Mesilla as it was slowly incorporated into both Mexican and American markets and US politics, a political riot in August of 1871 led to an unsatisfied group of Hispanics leaving the town and relocating on Mexican soil one more time. By 1872, more than 500 individuals resided on the new settlement of La Ascensión (La Ascensión, 1872).
How is this event remembered today? Interestingly, just a few elements of the town serve as reminders of its origin, such as a decaying tile marker in the central plaza telling the arrival of the first families. In contrast, several markers commemorate the role played during the Mexican Revolution. This historical identity, which traces back to the 1910s, allows for an exploration of how communities decide to remember certain events of their past. In 2013, the Congress of the State of Chihuahua authorized the town to receive the official title of Cuna de los Dorados de Villa, the birthplace of revolutionary General Pancho Villa´s personal guard. While public reminders of La Mesilla are subtle and often disconnected from historical narratives or context for those who are exposed to them, Los Dorados are widely recognized, and markers about their involvement in the Revolution and Columbus Raid of 1916 are many. A horse-riding parade is celebrated annually, with riders paying their respects to Villa´s soldiers who fell in Columbus before crossing the American border and performing cultural events in the place of the attack.
In words of the Official Chronicler of the Municipality of La Ascensión, Humberto Gómez Fernández, the enthusiasm around this historical identity could be explained by the interest in such a pivotal period in Mexican history, as “the Revolution is more talked about because Villa was everywhere, in every place was Villa. Villa is recognized internationally, globally, so he is more… people lean towards knowing more about Pancho Villa” (2024). While it is natural to create distance from the first settlers because of the nature of time, an explanation for this change of attitudes towards the foundation, may rely on the influence of traditional Mexican historiography and its role in transforming the Mexican Revolution into a second foundational myth (just behind the Independence movements from Spain). As noted by Laura Collin Harguindeguy, the strong presence of revolutionary remembrances has its roots in subsequent political factions that efficiently attempted to claim their positionality and success as products of the Revolution ideals. The Revolution, embedded in its own myths of redemption for the peasantry and the farmer, is then interpreted by specific communities involved in the conflict that now create a direct connection with the larger nation’s foundational tales (1999).
Interestingly, Gómez Fernández notes that the initiative for seeking the title of Cuna de los Dorados de Villa took place from historians outside of La Ascensión: “they just needed proof from someone living here [Ascensión] […] They had to justify in the Congress of the State that they [Dorados] were really here” (2024). To corroborate a local event in front of a congress is very telling of this “kidnapping” of revolutionary tales by the State. By this means, Harguindeguy argues, the State becomes the Revolution, solidifying the creation of a general cultural order that will be embedded with local anecdotes and family tales of the time in question.
The hegemony that certain events play in professional historiography and foundational myths creates a distinction between memorable sacrifices or struggles and events that are plainly seen as episodes of violence. Memory is memorialized and performed, and both La Mesilla and La Ascensión have immortalized different local events by giving little attention to the riot that provides them with a common history. In Mesilla, several markers speak for the vibrant early years of the town, touching on a wide range of events. Billy the Kid and crime mystery in the Wild West are present in the town, as well as reminders of the role of La Mesilla in the American Civil War. Like Ascensión and the Mexican Revolution, the Wild West and the Civil War go beyond simple notions of political/social violence: they represent national foundational myths that come to add to the picturesque image of a town with an already peculiar history. In contrast, the Riot of 1871 does not replicate the narratives of sacrifice, service, or “needed evil” often seen in the aforementioned conflicts: it is a tragedy that saw a significant part of the town’s population leaving La Mesilla’s memorialized social, cultural, and political spaces permanently. Even contemporaries of the events would write about the history of La Mesilla by stating that, even among different violent episodes that took place there, the riot stood as the “first cloud that would blur, to an extent, the glory of La Mesilla” (Albert Jennings Fountain Document, 1885).
On behalf of those who left for Chihuahua after the riot, limited mentions of the conflict might have served as a way to erase their failure in establishing their political vision onto the community, a past not worth remembrance. The narratives that both towns decide to preserve are also influenced by more simple and pragmatic causes such as tourism. When asked why La Ascensión and La Mesilla have ceased they participation in a cultural event held as part of their Sister Cities agreement, Gómez Fernández stated that it may be due to a higher level of attention given to the Cabalgata Binacional Villista that goes from Central Chihuahua to Columbus and the tourism attraction it has become (2024).
While scholarship on Ascensión is scarce, it has proven to be ground for contested perspectives and memories. Regional historiography attempted to portray La Ascensión as product of patriotic endeavors of people who repatriated after “a resurgence of their national feelings” (Ramírez Caloca, 1944), tales of people “whose heart burned with love for Mexico” (Sánchez De Terrazas, 1951). The endorsement of the Mexican Revolution would reinforce nationalistic discourses by focusing on regional involvement during the conflict, something that is performed in regional festivities today. Conflicts like the Ascensión Riot of 1892 stand in the middle of contrasted historical perspectives. This conflict, originated over issues with land titles, might be the best example of disputes within regional historiography. Some authors establish the event as an early predecessor of the Mexican Revolution, a sign of initiative in what was soon to become a glorious moment in the nation’s history (Gutiérrez Chávez, 2022). Others prove to be skeptical of nationalistic narratives, giving more importance to the role of this occurrence in the development of the Mexican border during a time of competing notions of nation-state projects with the United States (Hernández, 2012).
The making of La Ascensión represents, to a degree, the making of the frontier region and the making of arbitrary decisions over foundational myths. While it would be easy to assume that the repatriation from the United States suffices for the construction of a distinctive foundational story, the circumstances around the violence that led to such an outcome could be framed more in line with an outcast who is forced to start over. The riot of 1892, once in Mexican soil, would transform the narrative of industrious and patriotic citizens who returned to improve the motherland into an “obvious” outcome considering the previous riot in La Mesilla and the nature of “bad Mexicans raised in the US” that come back talking bad about their country (Hernández, 2012). It would be in the unfolding of the Mexican Revolution of 1910 that La Ascensión would have the opportunity of being an active player on an event of national transcendence, with later historiography condoning the idea of redemption that may have fallen upon the town. This time, the violent events that took place in La Ascensión were not mere negative occurrences but honorable sacrifices that have been celebrated ever since.