Document Type
Full Length Article
Abstract
La Ascensión, a town in Chihuahua, Mexico, was founded between 1871 and 1872 and represents a unique case of Mexican repatriation after the Mexican-American War. Its settlers underwent a double relocation, first from Doña Ana, New Mexico, in 1850 and again after the Mesilla Riot of 1871. While the Mexican government saw the town’s formation as a strategic emigration to modernize and defend the frontier, historical memory has largely overshadowed this foundational event, favoring the town’s role in the Mexican Revolution of 1910. This paper argues that broader historical narratives and political violence have obscured the town’s original settlers in historiography by using archival materials as well as contrasting recent scholarship around the early development of the town and its surroundings.
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Recommended Citation
Gonzalez Parra, Joel
(2025)
"Defined Places, Contested Memories: An Analysis of Historical Memory in La Ascensión, Chihuahua, Mexico,"
The Agora: Vol. 3, Article 5.
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.nmsu.edu/the-agora/vol3/iss1/5