Recovering the stories of the borderland
Los Caminos del Rio: Texas and Mexico

Preserving the Past

Rachel Torres, executive director of Los Caminos says current projects include restoration of los ejidos, the collective farms which were a legacy of the Mexican Revolution; refores­tation of the river bed near Rio Bravo, including creation of a new nursery; plan­ning for a festival in Roma, Texas to cele­brate the filming of the 1950s clas­sic “Viva Zapata”; and the $2 million res­toration of a landmark suspension bridge which links Roma with Ciudad Miguel Ale­man.

Near Brownsville, the Palo Alto Battlefield — site of four Mexican and Civil War bat­tles, including the final battle of the Civil War — was recently named a U.S. National Park. In Ciudad Mier in Tamaulipas an old prison is being restored for use as a library.

One of the most ambitious projects is taking shape in Matamoros, the cultural and economic hub of the region in the 19th cen­tury. There, in the formerly walled old city, 173 different structures have been qualified for Mexican national historic monument status. And, despite three-party political conflict, local and national administrations have committed to finance a 20-million peso restoration.

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