Good morning, Tucson!

Yesterday afternoon I nearly danced out of my seat as we flew into Tucson. The view out of the plane window gave me goosebumps – capillary systems of sun-baked creekbeds and green veins of greasewood along flowing creeks; mountains breaching sharply out of the desert floor as ribcages, lizard tails, goliath knuckles, forceful and comforting; the indigo of distance that stains the mountains and desert floor farther and farther away.

I feel comforted and invigorated by being in the desert again. I love the smell of juniper in the heat (mid-nineties), the lobes and colors of prickly pear, the skitter of lizards, the intensity of sunset.

I’ve been reading Going Back to Bisbee by Richard Shelton, and a few other sources, to set this place in a historical context. In 1822, the territory of and around AZ was freed from the Spanish and had become part of Mexico. Less than two centuries ago, this region was celebrating its independence from Spain as part of a Mexican state. About three decades after this independence, however, Arizona was purchased from the Mexican government by the U.S. with the Gadsen Purches, or Treaty of La Mesilla, in 1854. The 29,665 square miles of territory purchased (AZ and NM) was defined by water; the Rio Grand traced the east side, the Colorado marked the west, and the Gila River defined the northern border.1

The sale was made by Santa Anna, the dictator of Mexico at the time. Many interpretations float around of US and Santa Anna’s intentions and the balance of power between the two. In Going Back to Bisbee, Shelton writes,

“[The territory], as is generally believed, purchased from the Mexican people or from any duly constituded Mexican Government. It was privately and secretly sold by the one-legged dictator, Antonio López de Santa Ana, who had already played a leading role in Mexico’s loss of another chunk of real estate now know as Texas. …He billed himself ‘The Napoleon of the West,’ and needed much money to maintain his army and his style. …He lived in gilded, rococo luxury, and loved parties and huge celebrations… He also sold the natives of Yucatán slaves to Cuban plantation owners at twenty-five pesos each [to make ends meet from government expenses].”

In 1856, when the treaty was finalized, U.S. troops marched into Tucson, replacing Mexican troops. Bisbee writes of the transition in the town of six-hundred:

“…hoisted an American flag over Miles’ store, with loud cheers, while the Mexican troops ere filing past on their way out of town. It was an insult. …
Some [of the Mexican civilians] packed up amd moved south across the newly established border. Many of the older residents stayed. They had already lived under two governments, although on the ragged frontier of both, and they would wait and see if this one would be different. …Nobody had consulted them about whether or not they wanted to become part of the American era.”

This history is so fresh. A century-and-a-half seems like a long stretch on the US timescale of history, but for most nations, these stories are still a part of family memory, are still playing out.


1Source: Finley, Monique, et al. "Gadsden Purchase clarified U.S. boundaries." Borderlands 18 (1999-2000): 7. Borderlands. EPCC Libraries.