Adios a ciudad de El Paso

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Greetings From El Paso, N.M.

Sunday, March 13, 2005

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Residents of El Paso, Texas, may soon find themselves living in New Mexico.

That's if two New Mexico state senators have their way, the Carlsbad (N.M.)

Current-Argus and WOAI-TV of San reported.

Last Wednesday the New Mexico state Senate, citing a long-dead surveyor's

error, passed a bill urging the state to sue Texas for the return of 603,000

acres, mostly vacant, where the Panhandle meets northeastern New Mexico.

But Sen. Gerald Ortiz y Pino (search <javascript:siteSearch('Gerald Ortiz y

Pino');> ), D-Albuquerque, saw no reason to stop there and focused his

efforts to the south.

" I think we should broaden our effort to reacquire El Paso, which was

equally maliciously taken from us, " Ortiz y Pino said on the Senate floor.

His colleague Sen. (search <javascript:siteSearch('

');> ), also an Albuquerque Democrat, explained that the state line

around El Paso is based on the course of the Rio Grande, which shifts with

time.

As the boundary was being determined in 1850, explained, Texas had

several engineers reinforce its claim, while New Mexico could only put

forward some local shepherds as witnesses.

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" The water master relied only on the data of the Texas engineers, " he told

the newspaper, " and his statement in the report to the U.S. Supreme Court

said, 'The only evidence supplied by New Mexico was from some illiterate

Mexicans who testified as to what they remember when they were 11 years

old.' "

didn't address the likelihood that placing El Paso on the other

side of the Rio Grande would put it not in New Mexico, but in Mexico proper.

New Mexico's claim to El Paso was not included in the final version of the

bill.