Of all the little towns I visited or lived near, Mesilla, New Mexico, near the city of Las Cruces, was among the most interesting and welcoming. Other small towns that I liked included Portal and Arivaca, Arizona, and Raton and Cloudcroft, New Mexico, but I spent more time in Mesilla’s narrow avenidas than in any of them.
I lived in the Las Cruces area for 32 years, and with a little over two year period before that. I also grew up along the Mexican Border in Yuma, Arizona, and was a student for nearly five years at the U. of A. in Tucson. My well over 50 years along the border I think qualifies me to be a certified desert rat. Unlike many Southwestern desert towns, which often look like they died somewhere around 1950 and are quietly melting into the ground, Mesilla was a fascinating place to visit and to sit at a cafe drinking a Mexican beer and eating chile, while watching the local flock of Turkey Vultures fly overhead, or to wander down a back street to the Fountain Theater and watch art films. For a short time my family and I were Mesillaros, living in an apartment in the same building complex as the theater. We were able to walk to movies and restaurants and generally enjoy the ambiance of the area. The town looks literally like it emerged from Mexico no later than 1900, complete with narrow streets, stuccoed adobe and brick buildings and a plaza with a bandstand, a Catholic church at one end and former local government buildings (now shops and restaurants) around the perimeter.
Mesilla means “little mesa,” although it is somewhat difficult to see what they meant by the name. There seems to be no mesa in the immediate vicinity. The town actually dates from the end of the Mexican War, when a group of people wanted to move from the now US east side of the Rio Grande back into Mexico on the west bank. Mexico City issued a permit for a new townsite and the town was initially founded in 1848. Years later the fickle Rio Grande changed course and left Mesilla on the east bank, but before that happened the US bought the whole area in the Gadsden Purchase (1854) and Mesilla became part of the US. It fell to the Confederacy in 1861, but was “recaptured” by California Union forces in 1862. Although Mesillaros welcomed the troops of Lt. Col. Baylor (nephew of the founder of Baylor University), they soon found that Baylor was not a kind man. One of my wife’s distant cousins may have been hung by Baylor from a cottonwood tree for Yankee sympathies and the editor of a local newspaper was shot dead by Baylor near the town plaza. Since Baylor was now the self-proclaimed governor of the Confederate territory of “Arizona” he could do something like that without fear of being arrested and was almost immediately pardoned by the AG of the territory (remind you of anyone?) However, Jefferson Davis relieved Baylor not because of that, but because he disagreed with Baylor’s order to massacre the Apache under a flag of truce. The California Column, including one Albert J. Fountain, then entered Mesilla, after detouring because the Rio Grande was in flood, but found that the Confederate forces had been defeated at Glorieta Pass (See: en.wikipedia.org/...) near Santa Fe by Colorado Union forces and had retreated into Texas. Fountain decided to stay in Mesilla and married a local Hispanic woman, Mariana Pérez. He became a prime Republican mover and shaker in the county until his disappearance and apparent murder, with his son, near White Sands in 1896. Oddly, I had an office at the university (NMSU) next to that of the son of one of the prime suspects in the murder, Billy McNew! See: www.alamogordonews.com/… As Billy’s son used to jokingly say to me, “My father was accused of all of the murders in Doña Ana County, but was only guilty of half of them!” Actually George did not know of his father’s checkered past until after the old gunslinger died. Billy McNew had become a respectable rancher! George, in his own right, went on to become a highly respected agricultural scientist.
Mesilla was a hangout for all sorts including Billy the Kid and his nemesis, Sheriff Pat Garret (who was finally shot years later while relieving himself on the east mesa.) Teddy Roosevelt stopped on the train in Las Cruces, noting that he envisioned a time when the simple adobes of Las Cruces and Mesilla would eventually give way to civilized New England-style houses. Now adobes in Mesilla sell for top dollar and you can hardly afford one in Santa Fe!
Mesilla was a stop for the Butterfield Stage Company and the last standing station is now a Mexican restaurant- La Posta. The town comes alive at Dia de Los Muertos, Cinco de Mayo, 16 de Septiembre (Mexican Independence Day), the Forth of July and Christmas, as well as being invaded by tourists during the day and night over much of the year (COVID-19 has certainly put a crimp in all that!) It is still not as touristy as say Sedona in Arizona and has somehow maintained a low key nature.
On the south side of town is a very interesting cemetery attached to San Albino Basilica, which is supposed to contain the body of a bruja (witch) encased in concrete so it will not touch holy ground. The black cross on the gravesite is supposed to have “666” on it, but I could not get close enough to read it. In addition one of the local restaurants, the Double Eagle, is thought to be haunted and the Rio Grande is thought by some to be frequented by the ghost of La Llorona, the wailing woman. It was a tale told by parents to discourage their kids from venturing too close to the river. North of Mesilla there is a La Llorona Park along the Rio Grande, now dry during much of the year.
Like many people I found Mesilla to be a great place to unwind and just drink in the history and rich cultural heritage of the region, as well as a very tasty margarita!
San Albino Basilica, Mesilla, New Mexico.
San Albino at Christmas time, Mesilla, New Mexico.
Luminarias and Christmas creche on old courthouse, Mesilla, New Mexico,
Grave of a bruja (witch), Mesilla, New Mexico.
Peace Crane Wall, Dia de los Muertos, Mesilla, New Mexico.
East edge of Mesilla plaza, Mesilla, New Mexico.
Doorway in Mesilla. Note hanging Chile ristra.
Piranha in tank, La Posta, Mesilla, New Mexico.
One of the locals, Mesilla Valley Bosque, New Mexico.
