Photo by Danielle Gallo
The interior of the Socorro Mission features a
classic cruciform design and original vigas dating
from the late 1680s, many with carvings and paint-
ings executed by the Piro tribe, who built the
church. Mission Socorro, founded around the same
time as Mission Ysleta a mere 4 miles to the west,
was built by the local Manso tribe and the Piro
Indians of northern New Mexico, who fled the
Indian revolts of the 1680s to seek refuge with the
Spanish at El Paso.
1851. Architectural elements such as roof gables
and a rounded bell tower were added over the
years, creating a classical example of the evolu-
tion of Spanish architecture.
The chapel at San Elizario was originally part
of the presidio, or fort, which was established in
1789 and named for San Elceario, the French
patron saint of soldiers. Elizario is a corruption of
his name. After the Mexican War of Indepen -
dence, San Elizario became an important farm-
ing community and later, in 1850, the first seat of
the El Paso County government. The chapel is
the most recent of the three missions and has
undergone drastic changes due to flood, fire and
renovation; however, the surrounding area con-
tains some of the best examples of Spanish colo-
nialism, with its wide plaza anchored by the
chapel, adjacent orchards and host of 18th and
19th century adobe structures.
One of San Elizario’s claims to fame is that
one of the first North American Thanksgiving
feasts was celebrated near the location of the cur-
rent chapel. On April 30, 1598, after trekking for
weeks across the Chihuahuan Desert from Santa
Barbara, Chihuahua, Don Juan de Oñate arrived
at present-day San Elizario with a caravan of 500
Spanish settlers. These included monks, soldiers,
civilians, women and children, Indians and ser-
vants. Grateful to have reached the river after an
arduous desert journey, Oñate called for a day of
rest and thanksgiving. The settlers were joined by
the local Mansos, and the feast was held on what
is now U.S. soil, 23 years before the pilgrims at
Plymouth and 21 years before the first
Thanksgiving in Virginia.
Mission Socorro was established in 1682, with
the first Mass said on Oct. 13 of that year. The
original church was a hut comprised of cotton-
wood branches. The church, like its neighbors,
has been damaged and rebuilt several times due
to flooding and fire, yet it retains a number of ele-
ments from the original building. Built by the
Manso Indians and the Piro tribe, the church is a
classic adobe with whitewashed stucco, built in
the cruciform style and ceiled with vigas and latil-
las. Some of the vigas were salvaged from the
original 1682 structure, and geometric carvings
and paintings executed by the Piro to express
their happiness with their church are still visible
upon them. The original wood floors of the
Socorro Mission were taken up gradually and
replaced with adobe block, and the wood was
fashioned into crosses and sold to support the
mission.
Mission Socorro boasts its own miracle. To the
left of the altar, high on the wall in a niche, is a
life-sized wooden statue of St. Michael the
Archangel. In 1845, this statue was en route to
Santa Fe from Mexico City, traveling by oxcart,
when it was caught in a heavy rain and the cart
became mired in the mud. The townspeople
brought the statue into the church to protect it
from the elements.
Marti Gutierrez, who was born in Socorro
and works for the mission’s gift shop, recalls her
grandmother telling the story: “She said that
when the rain stopped and the men tried to take
the statue back outside, it became so heavy that
they couldn’t carry it. They called more and
more men, and finally they were able to pick it
up, but as they carried it, the door became small-
er and smaller, and they couldn’t take it outside.
They thought St. Michael wanted to stay here,
and when they decided to keep the statue in the
church it became light again. It’s only a wooden
statue; why should it be so heavy?” Gutierrez
questions. The parishioners of Socorro consider
St. Michael to be their patron saint and still refer
to the mission church as San Miguel, though it
was dedicated originally as Nuestra Señora de
Limpía Concepción de los Piros de Socorro del
Sur, or Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception
of the Piros of Socorro of the South.
Originally, all three churches were located on
the south bank of the Rio Grande. The cata-
strophic flood of 1829 relocated the river to the
southwest, placing the missions not only on the
northern bank, but a considerable distance from
the present-day location of the Rio Grande.
Masses are held daily at Mission Ysleta, and
each mission has an annual festival on the feast
day of its patron saint. San Elizario also has Los
Portales, a small museum in the historic adobe
buildings across from the chapel.
The Mission Trail is a stellar example of the
rich history of West Texas, spanning three cen-
turies and a multitude of cultures. It serves as a
strong reminder not to take for granted the nooks
and crannies of Far West Texas and of the treas-
ures available to those willing to turn down what
may seem to be a prosaic street in a familiar town.
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Cenizo
Second Quarter 2012
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