The River Has Never Divided Us: A Border History of La Junta de los Rios

by Jefferson Morgenthaler

Overview

Winner, William P. Clements Prize, Best Non-Fiction Book on Southwestern America, 2004

Not quite the United States and not quite Mexico, La Junta de los Rios straddles the border between Texas and Chihuahua, occupying the basin formed by the conjunction of the Rio Grande and the Rio Conchos. It is one of the oldest continuously inhabited settlements in the Chihuahuan Desert, ranking in age and dignity with the Anasazi pueblos of New Mexico.

In the first comprehensive history of the region, Jefferson Morgenthaler traces the history of La Junta de los Rios from the formation of the Mexico-Texas border in the mid-19th century to the 1997 ambush shooting of teenage goatherd Esquiel Hernandez by U.S. Marines performing drug interdiction in El Polvo, Texas. "Though it is scores of miles from a major highway, I found natives, soldiers, rebels, bandidos, heroes, scoundrels, drug lords, scalp hunters, medal winners, and mystics," writes Morgenthaler. "I found love, tragedy, struggle, and stories that have never been told." In telling the turbulent history of this remote valley oasis, he examines the consequences of a national border running through a community older than the invisible line that divides it.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780292778689
Publisher:	University of Texas Press
Publication date:	01/01/2010
Series:	Jack and Doris Smothers Series in Texas History, Life, and Culture , #13
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	355
File size:	12 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Jefferson Morgenthaler was a lawyer and corporate communications consultant in Boerne, Texas.

Table of Contents

• Acknowledgments
• Forgotten
• Junie
• The Land
• La Junta
• Before 1830
• The Promised Land
• Anglos Arrive
• In Doniphan's Wake
• Jack Hays Gets Lost
• Whiting Draws the Line
• Forty-Niners
• Scalp Hunting Redux
• A Sudden Death
• The End of Isolation
• Railroads and Ranches
• The Armies
• Skillman's Raiders
• The Rise and Fall of John Burgess
• The End of the Mescaleros
• Victor Ochoa
• Toribio Ortega's Rebellion
• Orozco and Huerta
• Pancho Villa
• Punitive Expeditions
• The Spencers
• Pablo Acosta
• Rick Thompson
• River and Border
• Gilbert Spencer
• An Afternoon with Enrique
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index

What People are Saying About This

Andres Tijerina

No other history of the area has approached the broad interpretation of this book as it weaves this intensive study of La Junta so closely into the international trends and events taking place in Texas, Mexico, and the United States. . . . The writing is witty, bold and enticing.