EL PASO, Texas (CN) — Long before the lawsuits over bond elections, historic buildings and Apache archaeology, this area north of the Rio Grande once marked a boundary of Spanish settlement.
It was Indian country, an uncolonized land leading up to the Franklin Mountains. Across the river in what is now Ciudad Juarez, Spanish settlers viewed this place with some apprehension.
Tribes like the Mescalero Apache, which lived nomadic lifestyles and knew the land, held strategic advantages over the Spanish. When conditions were right, they could raid for horses and other goods, wading across shallow parts of the river before disappearing back north.
As Spanish settlement expanded, the colonists looked for ways to bring the north bank under their authority. They built a fort and a wooden bridge. They set up a “peace camp,” where Apaches could adopt sedentary lifestyles in exchange for Spanish subsidies.
Spaniards viewed camps like this as Apache “surrender.” In reality, they were more like “colonialism in reverse,” David Dorado Romo, an El Paso historian and activist, writes in the upcoming book La Otra Banda del Río, “The Other Side of the River.”
“The Spaniards had to concede to the demands of the Ndé [Apache] as much as, if not more than, the reverse,” Romo writes. "The Spanish built acequias, or irrigation canals, to help the tribespeople water crops. They provided them with a range of goods — “a form of war tribute that the Europeans were forced to pay in exchange for temporary and limited truces.”
Fast forward to the present day, and a new conflict is raging over a plot of land between the Rio Grande and downtown El Paso. This time, the battle is happening in U.S. courts.
As officials try to build a sports arena in the historic Duranguito neighborhood, they’ve faced fierce opposition from historians, activists and residents. The court fight has no clear winners yet, though court injunctions have put a pause on redevelopment plans.
The controversy has spawned numerous lawsuits. One of them, which argues the Duranguito might contain remnants of the Apache peace camp, is now before the Texas Supreme Court.
Last month, the El Paso City Council hinted it might be willing to negotiate a settlement that could revitalize the neighborhood while leaving intact some historic structures. That's good news for both preservationists and local business owners, who say the legal fights have stunted neighborhood growth.
For years, Duranguito has waited in limbo for lawsuits to resolve. A central street is blocked off, dividing the neighborhood with fencing.
“Whatever happens, we have to open this whole thing,” said Juan Lara, who runs the El Comalito del Guero food counter out of a neighborhood gas station. “We lose business because everything’s closed.”
Numerous historians, including Romo, have questioned whether there might have been an Apache settlement in this area. Another is Mark Santiago, whose 2018 book “A Bad Peace and a Good War” offers a record of Spanish-Apache relations.
While historians have known about Apache settlements farther down river, Santiago argues they also camped near modern-day El Paso. He stressed that he was a historian — not an archaeologist — and that he wasn’t involved in the El Paso lawsuits. Still, he said, the area around Duranguito was a “logical place” for the camp.
The fights over Duranguito started as most gentrification stories do. In the early 2000s, a neglected neighborhood near downtown El Paso caught the eye of developers.
Investors bought up properties and started the process of evicting and/or buying out longtime residents. In an apartment near the neighborhood’s core, only one resident remains: 93-year-old Antonia Morales, who has so far refused to leave.
Follow @stephentpaulsen
