Being as close as Las Cruces is to the border with Mexico, it’s not surprising that smuggling — in both directions — has been going on in this area for centuries.
As you may recall, I resurrected my finely honed investigative reporting skills (yes, that was a joke) about three years ago to find out if Mexican bologna was available in our area. There had been several news reports about large scale smuggling of Mexican bologna into the United States and I wanted to determine if this evil encased meat was lurking in the dark alcoves of local ethnic-oriented grocery stores. Indeed, I was able to acquire some and even consumed it, only to conclude that it wasn’t as tasty as the good old American-made Oscar-Meyer brand.
Last week there was a news story about eggs from Mexico being smuggled into the United States at El Paso because of the dramatic rise in prices due to the bird flu epidemic. I haven’t yet decided whether I’m going to try to track down some smuggled eggs in Las Cruces, but I did decide to look up the topic of “smuggling” in the Las Cruces area in old newspapers.
In my subscription to “Newspapers.com,” I set a range from 1850 to 1925 to search for stories using the word “smuggling” in old issues of the Las Cruces Sun-News and the Rio Grande Republican. I found a lot and some are worth mentioning.
In the early 1900s up to the mid 1920s, it appears there were quite a few instances of Chinese being smuggled into the area from Mexico, apparently to be used a laborers.
On Feb. 20, 1909, a story in the Rio Grande Republican spoke about the preliminary hearing for a train conductor and a “Negro porter” who had put eight men from China in a train going from El Paso north to Santa Fe. A man who was identified as a “Chinese inspector,” admitted on the stand that for some “financial consideration,” he looked the other way when the Chinese were put on the train.
Another story in the Rio Grande Republican about a similar incident from 1911 announced that an investigation had been initiated into “Smuggling Chinks.” (Pardon the politically incorrect terminology).
In another story about that same period, the local newspaper announced the latest smuggling scheme as “The Japs are Coming.” (More non-PC terminology)
“Commission (not identified) men report that a great influx of Japs may be expected in the (Mesilla) Valley right after the first of the year,” the newspaper reported. “Many of them are preparing to leave California, where unfavorable laws have been passed.”
Smuggling involved other things, as you might expect. There was one story from 1905 about smuggling of Mexican horses across the border and another one about cattle a few years later. There was also a report from the Prohibition era in the El Paso Times of two men who had smuggled 72 gallons of tequila and one gallon of another unidentified intoxicant headed for New Mexico. The report says the smugglers were spotted by “sentinels perched in the top branches of a lofty tree that stood starkly against the sky along the New Mexico-Mexican border…”
And of course, things go the other way as well. Two wholesale grocery establishments in El Paso were shut down for “smuggling four and sugar to the Mexican side…” sometime in the early 1900s, according to another story in the Rio Grande Republican.
The strangest smuggling story I discovered was about a group of men in the Rincon area (north of Las Cruces) who had decided to round up dogs they thought “deserved banishment” and “smuggled them in empty (railroad) box cars” to be sent off and discovered days later in depots of towns down the line. The scheme was reported in a letter to the editor of the Rio Grande Republican from Oct. 6, 1893.
“This company (of men), in their zeal to promote the welfare of the public, forgot to ship any of their own dogs,” the letter to the editor said. “It (the smuggling of dogs into outbound box cars) seems to be comprised of a few unworthy citizens who propose to reform the old time-honored style of dog (ownership)…”
It was a heartless approach and I am hopeful it was discovered and stopped.
So based on the stories I read, smuggling efforts seem to get caught, including the latest attempt with Mexican eggs. But I’ve thought of a plan to get us more cheap eggs in the United States. What if someone just releases a flock of laying hens in Mexico near the border with New Mexico. They could easily slip in between the gaps in the border wall, strut into New Mexico, and suddenly become “free range” chickens — even better for the quality of eggs, as we’ve been led to believe.
We recently bought a dozen eggs from a “natural grocer” in Las Cruces for $12+ a dozen — more than a dollar per egg. I think I’ll give my “free range” chicken — border style — a try.
aero-cordero.com 