The Chamizal and Cordova Island Land Disputes 1911 - 1960

National Park Serivce Chamizal U.S. Department of the Interior Chamizal National Memorial The Chamizal and Cordova Island Land Disputes 1911 - 1960 Not one inch of Texas for Mexico – U.S. Senator Tom Connally Starting in the summer of 1911 and hand, had its fare share of problems continuing until 1963, Mexico had in the early 20th century. Since 1899, a sour taste in its mouth. There had Cordova Island had essentially been a been an arbitration commission set Mexican enclave in the U.S. Starting up jointly by the U.S. and Mexico to in the 1920s and somewhat due to resolve the Chamizal dispute once Prohibition, Cordova Island was a and for all. In the first months of 1911, trouble spot. In 1920, alcohol was the commission reached its verdict, made illegal in the United States. but the U.S. federal government Conveniently for booze-hungry rejected it. Although a Mexican U.S. citizens, there was a bar and farmer by the name of Pedro Garcia nightclub, called the Hole in the Wall, had clear title to the Chamizal tract, on Mexico’s Cordova Island. Being a the land was on the U.S. side of the thirty second walk from U.S. soil, the river, so U.S. residents settled on it. Mexican bar made unprecedented profits from U.S. citizens. This ticked Also, just east of the Chamizal tract off some local officials, but drinking was another piece of Mexican land was perfectly legal in Mexico, so they known as Cordova Island. Cordova could not do anything. Island was not an island but rather a “land peninsula” surrounded on three The 1920’s also saw the rise of sides by the U.S. From 1864 until drug trafficking across the border. 1963, the Chamizal tract and Cordova Moreover, especially after the Island (the two were collectively Immigration Act of 1924, thousands known as the Chamizal dispute) acted of illegal immigrants attempted to as thorns in the relationship between enter the “land of the free.” Signed Mexico and the United States. As into law by President Calvin Coolidge, the essay entitled “The Rio Grande the act significantly limited the Floods” discusses the first half of number of immigrants allowed into these issues, this essay will discuss the U.S. The act also excluded all the issues of the Chamizal tract and Asians from immigrating to the U.S. Cordova Island from 1911 up until Entering the United States illegally by roughly 1960. way of Cordova Island was relatively easy due to the fact that there was Soon after the Arbitration of little in the way of an actual border 1911 failed, the dispute regarding (no fence, river, etc.). Also, the area the Chamizal tract (the dispute was thick with brush that one could revolved around the question of hide behind easily. As a result, drug which nation owned the tract of traffic and illegal immigration turned land) became a stalemate due to the Cordova Island into a “No Man’s Mexican Revolution. Mexico was Land.” Firefights between border too busy with war, coup d’états, and patrol agents and unlawful Mexicans Stanton Street Bridge and the Chamizal tract, circa 1910 assassinations to focus on their lost became common. In 1930 alone seven NPS Photo land. Cordova Island, on the other U.S. civilians were killed on the island. Raymond Stover, a journalist for the Mexicans “felt that the land had Chamizal National Memorial is El Paso Times, reiterates these points been legally adjudicated to them by actually located on historic Cordova in an article he wrote in 1930: the Arbitration of 1911,” and they Island (not the Chamizal tract). In the were getting the raw end of the deal 1920s and 30s, some people claimed “No Mans Land. To the soldier who (Interview with Michelle L. Gomilla, that Cordova Island was the most fought in France [in World War I] that Chamizal Oral History Project, UTEP, dangerous spot along the entire 2,000 name recalls battle-scarred fields over April 12, 1994). Mexico wanted the mile long U.S.-Mexico border. which he waded in mud and blood Chamizal tract back; this is why the ankle deep in a fight against German issue was brought to the attention imperialism. To the immigration of every U.S. president from 1911 to border patrolman and the mounted 1963. customs officer it is a name to be thought of as the bloodiest section In 1932, under the Herbert Hoover of the entire United States-Mexican administration, the U.S. offered to buy border… They think of their brother the Chamizal tract in a strange bargain officers who have fallen before deal. The Mexican government owed smuggler bullets, and of the countless 1.4 million dollars to the Roman smugglers who have forfeited their Catholic Church of California (the lives in vain attempts to cross the Pious Fund Controversy). The U.S. international border with liquor, offered to wave this payment if it narcotics, and aliens from Cordova could have clear title to the Chamizal. Island (The El Paso Times: “No Man’s But Mexico remembered that it had Land Cordova Island, Smuggler lost more than half of its country Hotbed,”December 30, 1930).” to the United States in the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, and it did not Recall that the other thorny issue want to give up any more land. With politicians and civilians on both sides this in mind, Mexico said no to the of the border were dealing with was deal. the Chamizal tract. Pedro Garcia, the Mexican farmer who had title It should be noted that throughout to the land, died in 1911. Pedro’s the era there were many Texans wife, Beatriz Azcarate de Garcia, who adamantly opposed giving the then became the property holder. Chamizal tract back to Mexico. Tom After Beatriz’ death in 1925, her Connally, a Senator from Texas and son, Raymundo S. Garcia, became also the Chairman of the Senate the official property owner of the Foreign Relations Committee from Chamizal tract. Of course, since 1941 to 1947 and from 1949 to U.S. citizens had settled on his land, 1953, was at the forefront of this Raymundo Garcia couldn’t live or group. Joseph F. Friedkin, the U.S. work on his property. Raymundo Commissioner for the IBWC at had a son named Pedro N. Garcia. the time of the Chamizal Treaty, In 1972, Pedro N. Garcia inherited remembered Connally’s famous the title of the Chamizal tract. The saying which he repeatedly declared: name Pedro N. Garcia will come up “not one inch of Texas for Mexico again at the end of the Chamizal story (Chamizal Oral History Project, April (specifically, in the essay entitled “The 6, 1994).” Chamizal Residents”). In 1954, Senator Lyndon Baines With the waning down of the Johnson (LBJ) of Texas introduced Mexican Revolution, the Chamizal legislation to form the Special tract became a hotbed of tension Chamizal Advisory Board. Johnson between Mexico and the United picked the recently retired IBWC States. For Mexico, according to Commissioner, Lawrence Lawson, Joaquin Bustamante, an employee to be the chairman. LBJ also wrote a of the International Boundary and letter to President Eisenhower stating Cordova Island, circa 1960. Why does the island that the Chamizal dispute needed to look like an easy place for drug traffic and illegal Water Commission (IBWC) Mexican immigration? Sector from 1944-1985, the Chamizal be peacefully settled. Unfortunately, NPS Photo issue was mainly a matter of pride. Johnson’s legislation did not pass, nor did his note to Eisenhower Mexican tract of land surrounded persuade the president to take on three sides by U.S. soil. In action in ending the Chamizal just a few years, the lives of the dispute. Nevertheless, history residents and business owners of would show a decade later that the Chamizal tract and Cordova Texas’s very own LBJ would play Island would change forever. The a significant part in resolving the land itself would change forever. Chamizal dispute. Most importantly, the Chamizal tract and Cordova Island disputes By 1960, the Chamizal dispute would be solved forever. However, was in its 96th year. The Chamizal in 1960, there was still one question tract itself had 5,600 U.S. citizens that remained: would the Chamizal residing on it. Cordova Island was dispute be solved by bloodshed and still a geographical oddity—it was a war or by diplomacy and peace? Lyndon Baines Johnson tried to get the Chamizal dispute settled when he was a U.S. Senator in the 1950s NPS Photo.

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