Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Date of Award

4-1983

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

History

First Advisor

Dr. James Irby

Second Advisor

Dr. David Vassberg

Third Advisor

Dr. Hubert J. Miller

Abstract

This thesis examines the history of the Horcón Tract, an unusual area of United States territory situated south of the Rio Grande near Mercedes, Texas. The tract was created in 1906 when the American Rio Grande Land and Irrigation Company illegally diverted the river to protect its irrigation operations, leaving approximately four hundred acres of United States territory on the Mexican side of the river. Although the diversion altered the river’s course, it did not alter the international boundary, producing a territorial anomaly that persisted for seventy-one years.

Drawing on government records, International Boundary and Water Commission materials, court documents, maps, newspapers, and other historical sources, the study traces the legal, political, economic, and geographic circumstances surrounding the tract’s creation and continued existence. It examines the development of the nearby community of Rio Rico, disputes over land ownership and jurisdiction, flood-control projects along the lower Rio Grande, and the consequences of allowing Mexican authorities to exercise de facto administration over territory that legally remained part of the United States. Particular attention is given to the citizenship questions that emerged for individuals born within the Horcón Tract, including the case of Romero Cantú Treviño.

The thesis demonstrates how the failure to promptly resolve the Horcón Tract’s anomalous status created decades of uncertainty involving sovereignty, property ownership, immigration, customs enforcement, and citizenship. The situation was ultimately resolved under the 1970 boundary treaty between the United States and Mexico, with sovereignty over the Horcón Tract formally transferred to Mexico in 1977. The study concludes that the history of El Horcón illustrates the legal and diplomatic complications that can result when changes to an international river boundary are allowed to persist without timely governmental resolution.

Comments

Copyright 1983 Stephen Jay Phelps. All Rights Reserved.

https://go.openathens.net/redirector/utrgv.edu?url=https://www.proquest.com/pqdtglobal1/dissertations-theses/el-horcon-united-states-territory-south-rio/docview/303294050/sem-2?accountid=7119

Granting Institution

Pan American University

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