Socorro to build bracero museum at Rio Vista Farm, a National Historic Landmark
October 1, 2024
SOCORRO, Texas – Socorro’s City Council recently approved a contract to begin building a bracero museum at a site designated a National Historic Landmark.
“We are excited to take this important step in preserving and honoring our city’s rich history,” Isabela Perez, a city of Socorro recreation department leader, said during a Sept. 19 council meeting.
City Council representatives voted unanimously to enter into an agreement with Skyridge Construction for nearly $756,000 to build the museum. The company has done other work at the historic site known as Rio Vista Farm.
Some of the structures have been renovated, but many of the historic buildings are deteriorating. Surrounded by cotton fields, they were part of a hidden history dating back to a period when the United States relied on the strong-armed men from Mexico known as braceros.
“We are a National Historic Landmark, you know, for the same significance as the Alamo or Ellis Island,” said Victor Reta, Socorro Historic Preservation Officer, during a recent tour.
“We’re so, so incredibly grateful, that not only our community sees the importance of that, but also people at the national level. We’re very proud to be the custodians and the stewards of it.”
After years of work by multiple organizations, in December 2023, Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland officially designated the Rio Vista Farm as a National Historic Landmark.
The designation is awarded to places that tell the stories of nationally important historic events, places and people for all Americans.
In 1942, the United States reached out to Mexico for help filling a labor shortage and the two countries created the Bracero Program. Men from Mexico came to work while America’s men were off fighting in World War II and, later, the Korean War.
Rio Vista was the first permanent bracero reception center and the last still standing. Less than 1% of the places listed in the National Register of Historic Places are associated with Latino history or heritage.
“Our sites are typically demolished, erased, replaced and not a part of that narrative,” Sehila Mota Casper, executive director of Latinos in Heritage in Conservation said. She spent years searching for a place that embodies the bracero story.
While working at the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Mota Casper reached out to state and local governments all along the border before learning about Rio Vista from the private, nonprofit organization Preservation Texas, which listed the site as “endangered.”
“There it was in Socorro after all this time. It was just remarkable that this special and sacred place was still there, that it still existed,” Mota Casper said.
The Rio Vista center opened in 1951 at the height of the Korean War. The desperately needed workers from Mexico received a warm welcome when they arrived.
“There were two flags standing there side-by-side, one American flag and one Mexican flag. And there was a big sign that said, ‘Bienvenidos,’ and they had mariachis playing for them,” Mota Casper said.
But historians say the men also went through a degrading health screening process that included being sprayed with chemicals such as the now-banned insecticide dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane, or DDT.
“They’d get in, they’d be deloused, they’d be stripped down naked. Their hands would be checked to see how many calluses they had. Their muscles would be checked to see if they were strong,” Mota Casper said.
Some descendants of braceros are only now learning about their family history, including Mota Casper and Reta, who discovered their grandfathers were braceros while working for the National Historic Landmark designation.
“It’s been a passion project of mine. The labor of my life,” Reta said.
The city of Socorro needs to raise $35 million to complete the restoration project. The effort is supported by a $750,000 grant from the Mellon Foundation and about $1 million from Congress. The city plans to break ground on the new bracero museum in October.
The national recognition resonates with millions of families across the country, descendants of the braceros who trace the beginning of their American story to the site. Overall, nearly 5 million men took part in the program from 1942 until 1965.
For some, including Leticia Pacillas, this is a sacred spot, the place where the dreams of her father began. He was a bracero. He died two years ago at the age of 94.
“Our fathers and grandfathers struggled to come here and work and went through a lot. And because of them, many of us are here,”
Jose Rodriguez is part of the last generation of braceros to come through Rio Vista in 1964. Now 81, he spends time at the Socorro senior citizen center housed in one of the restored buildings. It’s the same place where he arrived as a young bracero. He remembers the hard work in the fields of West Texas
“I harvested melons. I picked them and then put the cantaloupes in a sack slung over my shoulder,” he said.
Like many of his generation, Rodriguez is a man of few words, not prone to complaining when talking about his experience. He’s proud to be a bracero and glad their contributions are finally being recognized with a museum.
“It will be beautiful to remember again that time when we were protagonists,” he said.
