PART I LAND DEVELOPMENT + BOOSTERISM

+COAHUILTECAN TERRITORY pre-1746 +NUEVO SANTANDER 1746-1821 +TAMAULIPAS 1821-1836 +REPUBLIC OF TEXAS 1836-1848 +REPUBLIC OF THE RIO GRANDE 1840 +UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 1848-present +THE MAGIC VALLEY +EL VALLE +956

artifact narrative literature scholarly article

NATIONAL

RIO GRANDE VALLEY

The inquiry moves between four different scales to gain and establish a critical resolution of the site: from continental to the Public Land Survey System’s Quarter Quarter Section (40 acres). REGIONAL

COMMUNITY

QUARTER-QUARTER SECTION - PLSS

COAHUILTECANS + RIO DE LAS PALMAS

The earliest imaging of the Lower Rio Grande Valley occurred in the mid-18th century with the colonization of the land by Spaniards, led by Jose de Escandon in 1747. Cartographic scenes depict a terrain dotted by waterways and wetlands along the coast. Authors of these early maps were sure to also include depictions of the indigenous people they encountered, known as Coahuiltecans, who were not an organized tribe so much as groups of nomadic communities that would traverse the wild landscape as the seasons provided parameters for.

The Spaniards in the area described encountering a Rio de las Palmas, or “River of Palms”, that extended over one hundred kilometers into the land from what is now known as the Gulf of Mexico. These explorers were able to navigate the mighty river using water-based vessels, discovering that the seemingly unforgiving patches of thicket could be suitable for settlement, and in particular, the raising of livestock.

While other areas of New Spain were settled up to a few hundred years before this time period, colonists based further south in the interior of what is now central Mexico were motivated by the need to reinforce their northern territories due to the gradual movement of other European colonists in the far north and east.

SPANISH PORCIONES 1769

NUEVO SANTANDER 1746 - 1821

In regard to land development in the newly settled state of New Spain called Nuevo Santander, land parcels were granted to colonists by the King of Spain according to a relationship with the river. These units were called porciones and had a linear form due to the fact that each grantee was given access to a piece of the riverfront. In this way, the parcels were narrow and long, extending for several miles into the land on either side of the river. The densest clusters of porciones occurred well away from the river mouth due to the extensive wetland systems that occupied the coastal region.

During this period of time, town sites were very small and largely cutoff from other more populated settlements to the north and the south. This was due to the fact that it was difficult to navigate the dense vegetation that extended on all sides of the area. Therefore, the first network of cattle-ranching communities were very rural throughout Spanish rule, which ended firstly with the Mexican Revolution in 1821, and another subsequent political shift with the Texas Revolution a little over ten years later in 1836.

REPUBLIC OF TEXAS 1836 - 1848

Having first changed names from Nuevo Santander to Tamaulipas under Mexican rule, the area occupied heavily disputed territory throughout the decade after Texas’ revolution from Mexico. The area was still largely inhabited by descendants of the Spanish cattle ranchers, who left most of the vegetation intact for the raising of livestock; however, Anglo northerners in Texas began to migrate into the region as conflicts arose with Mexico regarding the annexation of Texas to the United States. This was due to the fact that as Texas gained independence in 1836, Mexico believed the established border to be a river a few hours to the north whereas Texans were under the impression that the Rio Grande was the true border.

After tension over this boundary culminated in the U.S.-Mexican War of 18461848, the Lower Rio Grande Valley finally became the southernmost frontier of the newly acquired American state of Texas, which led to new waves of immigration comprised of Americans in large part as a result of federal troops having been stationed there throughout the war.

Further into the settlement of the area by American Anglos in the latter half of the 19th century, the first major technological shift came to the Valley in the form of the railroad in 1904.

Print advertising and railway tourism became a leading source of the second wave of imaging in the area, heralded by a combination of railroad empires, newly established chambers of commerce, and land development companies. BOOSTERISM

A faction of business-savvy settlers learned that the area was filled with rich alluvial soil, deciding to capitalize on that by coining the term ‘Magic Valley’ to promote land development in the region.

The rail and introduced irrigation technologies began to dramatically transform the material landscape, primarily through the production of agriculture. The formula to the Magic Valley was described as being comprised of:

1. Fertile soil 2. Inexhaustible water and ditches 3. A twelve month growing season 4. Cheap labor 5. Transportation

A segregated border society was comprised of Mexican descendants and Anglos who hailed from Midwestern states and perceived of Mexicans as being passive in the landscape, and therefore easily put to work after losing much of their inherited lands as a consequence of periodic threats and maneuvers brought to them by the Anglo immigrants with growing political clout.

SHARYLAND BOOSTERISM

PUBLIC LAND SURVEY SYSTEM HYBRID

By this point in time, the land parcel layout in the region was a hybridized version of America’s Public Land Survey System and the Spanish porciones. This division of land when juxtaposed with an aerial image begins to frame land-uses across the geographic terrain. The booster era of railway promotion extended across the American Southwest, eventually making its way to Los Angeles, California which stands as a compelling comparison to the Valley due to its history of Spanish colonization and similar site conditions.

ATCHISON TOPEKA SANTE FE RAILWAY

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA

ST LOUIS BROWNSVILLE MEXICO RAILWAY

BROWNSVILLE, TEXAS RAILROADS

WESTERN GRADIENT

CENTRAL GRADIENT

EASTERN GRADIENT

CURT TEICH

LINEN PAPER - EMBOSSED 1931-1950 COLOR CHART - C.T. “ART-COLORTONE”

CURT TEICH + THE IMAGING OF A NATION

In addition to the railways transporting people across the country, they also disseminated droves of touristic media in the form of postcards, which worked to not only attract new visitors and express the experiences their senders were privy to during travel, but to establish identities of place. While not exclusively boosters, these printmaking enterprises can be seen as responsible for the depiction of, and therefore perception of landscapes.

A particularly notable maker of postcards was Curt Teich & Company Inc., of Chicago, Illinois. The company employed hundreds of traveling salesmen, who sold picture postcards to domestic residences, and encouraged business to create advertising postcards. These salesmen also photographed the businesses and worked with owners to create an idealized image. In many cases, the production of these images was highly curated by graphic artists who also operated under the company’s wings. Similar in fashion to the way that contemporary designers use digital software to edit visual content, this method of imaging sought to embellish the backdrop of various settings. The usage of linen material and highly saturated inks for printing gave the postcards an artistic quality that made them appear as miniature paintings.

PLACE MYTHS

Upon comparing postcards produced for the Valley with Southern California, a heavy emphasis on featuring botanical elements in the landscape is apparent. In this case, the usage of exotic palms and other tropical foliage optimizes the allure of these areas. Vibrant colors are mixed in with perspective views to draw viewers into the scene.

Postcard captions and hand-written anecdotes often further exaggerated the scenes being depicted. A type of written and visual propaganda, the combined text and imaging became a way of creating place myths, which are how sights associated with a location gain traction in the public consciousness.

PEOPLE OF THE VALLEY

Postcards also depicted the inhabitants of the area, with certain biases and particularities. In the Valley, Hispanic people were shown as having a specific type of relationship with the rural landscape- one that was agrarian and humble in character.

The postcard featuring workers in the field has a caption that states: “Scenes like the one featured are frequent throughout the Valley. There is an abundant supply of native labor, Mexican in descent, which has been proved by experience to be quick to learn hand skills, industrious, and home-loving by nature.”

PEOPLE OF THE VALLEY

In stark contrast, postcards depicting the Anglo population in the Valley tended to promote a relationship to landscape that was more indicative of the conquering and fetishization of nature. This imaging continued to carry forth into new generations of printmaking that eventually began to convey a more urban, or suburban, condition in the region.

The postcard featuring workers and a farm owner in an orchard states: “Picking grapefruit in a 7 year old grove that has produced as high as $1,500.00 an acre on one crop of fruit.” This caption highlights the sense of economic vitality that was crucial to the imaging in the booster era due to its ability to draw in more investment opportunities from new settlers.

As the decades continued to roll into the second half of the 20th century, the continued emphasis on exotic botanical romance established a strong footing in the Valley, carrying forth a designed landscape vernacular into subsequent years. The collective product of intensive marketing through railroad magazines and postcards depicting the so-called Magic Valley created an imaginary for the people that evolved over the generations to become an illusion of nature.

Much of the Valley’s modern settings reinforce the illusory effect that early imaging fostered, retaining the character and material elements of the booster era postcard, which by now had combined with the structural components of urbanization. By the year 2020, urbanized sites of the region have sprawled across the land, dominated by automobile-oriented development riddled with highways, strip malls, and suburban communities. However, a shrinking rural area remains comprised of agriculture and natural lands.

URBAN AERIAL 2020