Historic Hispanic church celebrating 100 years in New Mexico

A historic Hispanic church in southern New Mexico is set to celebrate its 100th anniversary.

The Deming Headlight reports parishioners at Santa Ana Catholic Church in Deming are preparing for a monthlong festival in honor of the commemoration.

The church was built in 1918 as Deming grew from the merging of the Southern Pacific and Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe railroad lines.

The emergence of World War I and the Mexican revolutionary Gen. Francisco “Pancho” Villa and his attack on U.S. soil in the border town of Columbus, New Mexico, brought the U.S. Army into Luna County. Those troops and a growing Hispanic population helped expand the Santa Ana Catholic Church.

The church centennial celebration and fiesta will begin June 3 with the Feast of Corpus Christi. It concludes on June 24.

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