Concordia Cemetery and the Power Over Space, 1800-1895 Nancy Gonzalez University of Texas at El Paso, [email protected]
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
University of Texas at El Paso DigitalCommons@UTEP Open Access Theses & Dissertations 2014-01-01 Reinventing the Old West: Concordia Cemetery and the Power Over Space, 1800-1895 Nancy Gonzalez University of Texas at El Paso, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.utep.edu/open_etd Part of the Chicana/o Studies Commons, History Commons, Latina/o Studies Commons, and the Other International and Area Studies Commons Recommended Citation Gonzalez, Nancy, "Reinventing the Old West: Concordia Cemetery and the Power Over Space, 1800-1895" (2014). Open Access Theses & Dissertations. 1630. https://digitalcommons.utep.edu/open_etd/1630 This is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@UTEP. It has been accepted for inclusion in Open Access Theses & Dissertations by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@UTEP. For more information, please contact [email protected]. REINVENTING THE OLD WEST: CONCORDIA CEMETERY AND THE POWER OVER SPACE, 1800-1895 NANCY GONZALEZ Department of History APPROVED: Yolanda Chavez Leyva, Ph.D., Chair Jeffrey Shepherd, Ph.D. Maceo C. Dailey, Ph.D. Dennis Bixler Marquez, Ph.D. Bess Sirmon-Taylor, Ph.D. Interim Dean of the Graduate School Copyright © by Nancy Gonzalez 2014 Dedication I dedicate this work to my parents Salvador Gonzalez+ and Nieves T. Gonzalez, to my siblings Juan, Gloria Velia, Sal and Ray and to my good friend Joseph Michael Cascio+ REINVENTING THE OLD WEST: CONCORDIA CEMETERY AND THE POWER OVER SPACE, 1800-1895 by NANCY GONZALEZ, M.A. DISSERTATION Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at El Paso in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of History THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT EL PASO May 2014 Acknowledgements I am very fortunate to have received so much support in writing this dissertation. I would like to thank my dissertation chair, Yolanda Chávez Leyva for her patience and understanding. Her knowledge and love for this region made working with her exciting and inspirational, and with her guidance, I articulated this project that will hopefully inspire others. I want to thank my committee Jeffrey Shepherd, Maceo C. Dailey, and Dennis Bixler Márquez for their support. I have known Dr. Bixler Márquez for many years and he has always encouraged me to climb upwards rather than remain flat-lined. Thank you Edith Yañez and Alma Acosta for all you do to keep the Department of History running smoothly. I am grateful to all the professors I worked with, including Sandra McGee-Deutsch, Cheryl Martin, Charles Martin, Jeffery Shepherd, Samuel Brunk, Ernesto Chávez, Michael Topp and Julia Schiavone Camacho. Mark Norbeck, you are truly generous, I enjoyed working with you and learned from your strengths. Eddie García, I wish you all the best, always. To Inez Vásquez, thank you for sharing in part of my journey. A special thanks to my nephew Jason Martínez for taking over when our friend Mike passed away and for all your help with technology. I want to extend my gratitude to Claudia Rivers, Laura Hollingsed, and Anne Allis from Special Collections; you are true life-savers. I am also grateful to the staff from the New Mexico Records and Archives Center in Santa Fe; in particular, I want to thank Al Regensberg for helping me search through hundreds of colonial documents until I found my protagonist. v Abstract Utilizing Concordia Cemetery as a framework, this study analyzes the social and economic development of El Paso County and the surrounding areas after the U.S.-Mexico War (1846-48). The cemetery was a vast commercialized zone before it was a burial ground, and silenced histories, voices, and people that lived and thrived on this land, are incorporated into this work. The role of the original owners, Hugh Stephenson and Juana María Ascárate, as well as the Mexican networks, intermarriage and Mexican American women, and the presence of ethnic Mexicans are subjects that are also examined. In addition, this dissertation interrogates the pioneer narrative and how the Concordia Heritage Association utilizes its power to produce historical narratives that emphasizes Anglo superiority and their contributions to the economic growth of this region, while they utilize this same power to silence certain aspects of the past. vi Table of Contents Acknowledgements……………………………………………………………………………….v Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………………..vi Table of Contents………………………………………………………………………………..vii List of Illustrations………………………………………………………………………………viii Chapter Introduction…...……………………………………………………………..………………......1 1. Concordia Cemetery: A Warehouse Of History……………………………………….…...22 2. Paso Del Norte: 1800-1848: A Vibrant Commercialized Region…………………………57 3. El Paso, Texas: The Invention Of A Historical Past……………………………………….89 4. Gender, Race, Intermarriage And The Mexican Elite…………………..…….…...............135 5. Bandidos, Outlaws, And The Law: A Violent Western Landscape………………………168 6. Creating Myths, Silencing History: Concordia Cemetery And The Wild West Show……………………………………………………………………………………….200 Conclusion………………………………………………………………….……………….…229 Selected Bibliography……………………………………………………….………................280 Curriculum Vita…………………………………………………….………………………….294 vii List of Illustrations I-1: Map of Paso del Norte 1779…………..……………………………………………...…239 1-1: Concordia Chapel.……………………………………………………………………….240 1-2: Concordia Cemetery Historical Marker………….……………………………………...241 1-3: Mt. Sinai Cemetery Entrance….………………………………………………………...242 1-4: Mt. Sinai Cemetery……….……………………………………………………………..243 1-5: Masons Monument……….……………………………………………………………..244 1-6: Mundy Section….……………………………………………………………………….245 1-7: French Section….…………………………………………………………………….….246 1-8: Juana María Ascárate Stephenson Honorary Grave Marker….………………………....247 1-9: Chinese Section, entrance………….…………………………………………………....248 1-10: Chinese Section, Raised-top Markers.…………………………………………………..249 1-11: Buffalo Soldiers Memorial…………..…………………………………………………..250 1-12: Mormon Section……….…………………………………………………………….…..251 1-13: Jesuit Section….…………………………………………………………………………252 1-14: Pauper Section………….………………………………………………………………..253 1-15: Booth on top of Gravesites…..………………………………………………………….254 2-1: Map of Tierra Adentro Route……………………………………………………………255 2-2: Convoy on the Camino Real Route………………………………………………….......256 2-3: Map of the Santa Fe Trail………………………………………………………………..257 2-4: Hugh Stephenson………………………………………………………………………..258 2-5: Juana María Ascárate Stephenson…………………………………………………….…259 2-6: Caravan of Neutrals……………………………………………………………………...260 3-1: Ascárate Grant Boundaries 1859………………………………………………………...261 5-1: Billy the Kid…………………………………………………………………………......262 5-2: John Wesley Hardin…………………………………………………………………......263 6-1: Singing Troubadour………………………………………………………………..........264 6-2: Actor Portraying John Wesley Hardin….…………………………………………….....265 6-3: John Wesley Hardin Gravesite……………………………………………………….....266 6-4: Actor Portraying Constable John Selman…………………..……………..………….....267 6-5: Actors Portraying a Card Dealer, a Shady Lady, and Doc Holiday…….………………268 6-6: Gunslinger Chugging Pass Whiskey…………………………………………………….269 6-7: Actors Engaged in a Gunfight…………………………………………………………..270 6-8: Gamblers at the Reenactors Corral………………………………………………………271 6-9: Replica of a Jail Structure……………………………………………………………….272 6-10: Actor Portraying Octavia Magoffin……………………………………………………..273 6-11: Actor Portraying Mrs. Mundy…………………………………………………………...274 6-12: Actors Portraying Sun Bonnet Helpmates……………………………………………….275 6-13: Actors Portraying Calamity Jane and Annie Oakley…………………………………….276 6-14: Actor Portraying Beulah M’Rose………………………………………………………..277 6-15: Actor Portraying Madame Tillie Howard……………………………………………….278 viii ix Introduction This study of the Concordia Cemetery in El Paso, Texas examines how the historical past and its people have been silenced throughout the decades by our local historians and civic leaders. I discovered the cemetery as I searched for population demographics that placed ethnic Mexicans north of the river, in the El Paso County area, when the U.S. invaded Mexico in 1846.1 I found an editorial published in the El Paso Times in 1890, which confirmed my position that population counts in this part of the borderlands did not reflect the reality. It is titled “OH THAT CENSUS” and it clearly exposes the government institution for its incompetence. The editor stated the following: The present census will do an injustice to our city. It will be incomplete and inacurate [sic] unless every citizen interests himself in the work. We are glad to learn, however, that prompted by general complaints from all parts of the country, Superintendent Port has decided that wherever a census supervisor requests an extension of time for the completion of his returns it will be granted. As rapidly as the returns are corrected they are to be forwarded to the census bureau…Perhaps the saddest commentary on the rottenness of modern politicians is the shameful, disgraceful manner in which the present census of this country has been taken. It is a matter that the whole country is interested in, that cost the government an enormous amount of money, and coming as it does only once in ten years, ought to be executed with the utmost precision and dispatch, because unless it is exact it is practically worthless. Instead of this, political jealousy is permitted to creep in, incompetent neuro [sic] enumerators have been appointed all over the [country], and the result has been