History of El Paso

nd launched violent attacks against both Texans and their political Mexican opponents in El Paso. This state of affairs eventually led to the vast Plan de San Diego and a large scale Mexican uprising against Americans which resulted in the murder of 500 white men, women, and children in forty eight hours in the city in March 1916. The subsequent reprisals by local militia soon caused an escalation of violence, raids, counter-raids, and large scale invasions by Mexican irregulars throughout El Paso city proper, the county and the Rio Grande Valley area.

Eventually, a special force of Texas Rangers ruthlessly suppressed the insurgency killing over 5,000 Mexicans by 1917. The small scale civil war had long-term impact on politics in the city as the traditional white El Paso community began excluding the Mexican population, most of whom were recent immigrants and refugees from civic life for the several decades. In turn, due to increased calls for reinforcements to secure the border the US Army took a large presence in the city expanding Fort Bliss and fortifying the border.

Simultaneously, other Texans and Americans gravitated to the city and by 1920, along with the US Army troops, the population exceeded 100,000 and whites once again were in the clear majority. Nonetheless, the city increased the segregation between Mexicans and Mexican-Americans with Americans. In reply, the Catholic Church attempted to garner the Mexican-American community's allegiance through education and political and civic involvement organizations, including the National Catholic Welfare Fund. In 1916, the Census Bureau reported El Paso's population as 53% Hispanic and 44% non-Hispanic white.

Mining and other industries gradually developed in the area. The El Paso and Northeastern Railway was chartered in 1897,