Mexico is a large and very diverse country. Many travelers from the United States know the country for its beaches – Cancun, Playa del Carmen, Cabo San Lucas, Puerto Vallarta, Zihuantanejo, maybe Huatulco. Some visitors may have only penetrated as far as border towns like Tijuana, Mexicali, Agua Prieto, Ciudad Juárez, Neuvo Laredo, Matamoros and others. There is a lot more magic awaiting beyond, however, as well as welcoming peoples of a mélange of cultures and even languages.
LIONS IN SIGHT – LIS
Lions in Sight are an operational subgroup working under the larger umbrella of the Lions Clubs of California-Nevada regions. The group has been operating since the 1990’s and brings together optometrists, opticians and various Lions Club members from all across the United States. LIS has various goals which you can read about on their website. One of the more important ventures is sending out vision clinic teams to restore vision to those in need around the world. The work gains accomplishment in concert with host Lions Clubs sponsoring the clinic which can go forth in any place where there are Lions Clubs with possibilities existing even beyond those very few areas without clubs.
Eyeglasses are collected in the United States in various Lions warehouses. LIS uses a warehouse in Vallejo, California. Those eyeglasses are then sent with or before the team arrives at the site of the clinic. The local Club(s) procure a site for the clinic and give out tickets before the event to those they believe are in need. So many tickets per hour are given out so as to not block up the clinic with too many people at one time and so visitors do not have to wait too long for service.
CHIHUAHUA, THE STATE
Diversity extends to the economy, too, with a wide gap between those who have and have not. Those who have not are the main target for the many vision clinics Lions in Sight runs in many areas of the country. For this trip, our clinic centered on the south side of the smallish town of Casas Grandes, Chihuahua State in the far north of the country.
Chihuahua shares a size factor with its neighbor across the Rio Grande River – Texas – in being the largest of the 32 Mexican states (OK, I realize Alaska is bigger, but not in the Lower 48). And while Chihuahua is smaller in comparison to its neighbor to the northeast, the state would still not be out of place, size wise, with other western states in the United States covering 95,543 square miles (247,455 sq. km.). When you consider land area only, Chihuahua would sit in around 11th place just behind Oregon – 95,988 sq. mi. Over such a vast region, the State features a vast array of environments, though the overarching feature – like in neighboring states on both sides of the border – remains the desert.
QUICK HISTORICAL OVERVIEW
Casas Grandes has a long history, especially if you take the ruins of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Paquimé into account. The town itself today boasts over 5,000 people. Paquimé dates back to 600 AD but was abandoned by the time Spanish friars reached the region in the 1500’s to build a church and settlement. In the 19th century, a rail line went in a couple of miles to the west on the east side of the Casas Grandes River. This is where the larger town of Nuevo Casas Grande exists today with over 60,000 people. This is where the LIS team members stayed during our trip.
EMPTY QUARTER
The population of the State comes in over 3.7 million – 11th most populous in Mexico. A good chunk of those people lives in two cities: Ciudad Juárez 1.5 million and Ciudad Chihuahua 926,000 or two-thirds of the State’s population. That equals only 39 people per square mile, good for 29th place in the rankings of Mexican states per population density. Making the long drive from El Paso to Nuevo Casas Grandes via Columbus, New Mexico, you drive long straight stretches with through just and the occasional hill to go up and over. The countryside appeared empty as we drove west and then south, though agriculture and history abound.
ON THE BORDER
Crossing the border, we chose to head west from El Paso on the Pete Domenici Highway – New Mexico Highway 9. This way we could cross over at Columbus-Palomas, a much quieter place than Juarez. Normally when crossing the border by car, it takes less time to go south – border crossing going from Chihuahua into the US can take hours at times in Juarez – but this trip took a little longer to clear immigration and customs. When we returned, a quick show of passports was all that was needed.
Driving out along New Mexico 9, you can see the straight line of the border wall running just to the south of the highway. The wall stops at the border crossing, picking up again on the other side of the road. Serious speed bumps keep your speed down to 5 mph.
HISTORICAL SIDETRACK – PANCHO VILLA AND BLACK JACK PERSHING
This border crossing was the site of the 9 March 1916 attack by men under Pancho Villa going from Las Palomas in Chihuahua north to Columbus. That attack saw between 500-600 Villistas attacking the little town where a detachment of about 350 US troops from the US 13th Cavalry sat stationed – Camp Furlong. The surprise raid – one to one and a half hours long – resulted from American government not siding with Pancho as his Division del Norte operated as one of the main forces in the Mexican Revolution. About 18 Americans died during the raid, mostly civilians, while Villa’s force lost between 70 and 75 men shot down by two machine guns the cavalrymen finally set up after the initial surprise of the raid.
The American response was to send a Punitive Expedition under General John Pershing into northern Mexico to find and capture Villa. Columbus became the supply hub for that venture which last into 1917. While Villa was never captured, his force wasted to little as the Villistas tried to stay out of range of Pershing’s force. There is more to found about the raid and the Expedition both in the Visitor Center of the Pancho Villa State Park and the Columbus Historical Museum located in the former rail station, both near the intersection of NM 9 – running east-west – and NM 11 running north-south.
INTO MEXICO
PALOMAS
Once through customs and immigration, you drive into the small border town of Palomas, past a few shops and restaurants – a very small version of the much larger cities you can find in other areas of la Frontera. An interesting sidenote about the town – which is about the same size as Columbus – is most children in Palomas go to school in Columbus. Women living in Palomas can give birth in the nearest hospital, that being to the north in Deming. That gives the children US, as well as Mexican citizenship.
Originally, the town founded by Mexican families emigrating south from the US. They came south because of conflicts over land ownership in lands in what became New Mexico. Most of New Mexico was included in the land purchase following the conclusion of the Mexican American War of 1847-1848. A large southern tract comprising of today’s Arizona and New Mexico became furthered purchased from Santa Anna in 1853. Locals who owned land for generations lost what little political power they previously had. The town’s sister city is appropriately Mesilla, New Mexico. Appropriate because both towns used to belong to the same Mexican territory of La Mesilla before the 1853 Gadsen Purchase.
LONG ROAD CONTINUES
Beyond the Palomas, you are off again on straight roads running through the desert until you reach the first town of any size since leaving the metro area of El Paso, Ascensión with over 10,000 people though most of them appeared to be hiding as the sun was almost setting. There are a lot of cotton plantations around the town, as well as in nearby Mennonite colonies.
Another group of hills are crossed before a descent into the wide Casas Grandes valley. Turning off Mexico Federal Highway 2 onto Highway 10, the last stretch of road runs straight south to Nuevo Casas Grandes, past shops advertising chilis and Meninito queso. The end of a long travel day including two flights and the four-hour van ride.
CLINIC DAYS
Day one of the two-day clinics started off quickly. The team, with much help from local Lions, set up the clinic with different stations. Patients were given tickets beforehand with so many given out in two-hour blocks. Team members new to clinic work got a quick lesson in how to proceed. Proceed they did with work mostly on the job learned. Quickly they were veterans. The afternoon dropped off somewhat. Those patients not seen would show up the next day.
HISTORY TIME AFTER CLINIC – Paquimé
Finishing off the clinic – held in a gymnasium located next to the local baseball stadium – we ventured the short distance to the UNESCO ruins at Paquimé. It was already 5 pm and the site was closing, but they held it open just long enough to get in a quick glimpse with a stop at the gift shop.
Our guide was a local retired American, Philip Stover. He served as a theology and history professor as well as a school district superintendent in the San Diego area. Philip has written several books about the history of the area, especially relating to pottery and religious affair in the both the region and Mexico. Especially interesting to several of us was the unique Mormon and Mennonite history in the area.
NEXT, IT IS ON TO THE MORMONS
And that was our next destination, the Mormon colony at nearby Colonia Juárez. Founded in 1886, one of ten such colonies established in northern Chihuahua State after the anti-polygamy Edmunds Act passed in the US in 1882. Although planned before the end of polygamy, many of the colonists continued the practice until the LDS church officially ended the practice in 1904. The town, pleasant enough town sits in a little side valley at the eastern edge of the Sierra Madre mountains. The plan of the town is familiar to anyone who has traveled to rural Mormon towns throughout the American West.
A short visit took us to the top of Romney Hill. Here, the smallest LDS temple stands dedicated 6 March 1999. Below the hill, a well-known private high school run by the Mormon church, Academia Juárez. The hill is named after the local family who donated the land for the purpose of building the temple. That family also represents the same family from which former Michigan governor and secretary of the US Department of Health and Urban Development George Romney came from. He was born in Colonia Dublan next to Nuevas Casas Grandes. His son, Mitt Romney, served as governor of Massachusetts, senator from Utah and was the Republican candidate for President of the US in 2012.
DINNER ON THE RIVER
Dinner found us in nearby Juan Mata Ortiz. This is a small town along the Casas Grandes River at the home of Dr. Stover. He and his wife tired from their frequent 14-hour drives from San Diego. They searched for the now famous pottery from the village. They decided to build their beautiful retirement home here along the river. The pottery, the Mormons and the Mennonites are all interesting enough to deserve their own blog posts.
DAY TWO
Day two of the clinics was much busier. 400 patients showed the first day, while the second day mushroomed to 600. While there were plenty more patients, we were able still to finish the day by around 4 pm.
The team stopped off at the entrance to Casas Grandes for the obligatory team photo and we pushed back to our hotel. Dinner with the mayor of Casas Grandes and local Lions members ended our official clinic time in Mexico.
THE LONG ROAD HOME
Nothing was left then but to return to where we had come from. The LIS team literally hailed from across the country, west coast to east coast with several members from Missouri in the middle, as well.
Another great experience meeting people from all over the United States and Mexico. The work is always rewarding giving the chance for people to see with the simple giving of glasses. A local Mexican ophthalmologist came up to the clinic from Chihuahua, as well, to schedule those who suffering from ocular problems more substantial than just the need for glasses. I knew very little about the Casas Grande area before the trip beyond the little I had read regarding the American Intervention in 1916. Seeing the area, experiencing the people all gave me help in further educating myself not only about the region, but left me with potential lasting friendships.
friendships and knowledge in return for hard work
One of the local Lions refracting technicians had been a part of our recent LIS team in Panama – she was also in Albania, as well. One day in Panama, she sported a Chihuahua Dorados baseball jersey that looked very chic. Knowing I would see her again in Casas Grandes, I asked her how much a jersey like that would cost. She smiled and shook her head, “Don’t worry. I know people.” Sure enough, I now own my own sharp looking shirt. Many locals – even in the airport in El Paso – found themselves impressed asking where I obtained the jersey from. I replied, “I know people.”
Quick aside – other local Lions related, “I know people too!” when I used that line. I ended up with two more jerseys to take home from a great long weekend of shared work.