DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it — and it's quite a story. Now, if you think a church has to be young to have a complicated life, Socorro Mission La Purísima is about to set you straight. It begins in 1680, with fire and flight.
That was the year of the Pueblo Revolt, and when it came, it came hard. Governor Don Antonio de Otermín and Father Francisco de Ayeta led Piro Indian and Spanish refugees out of New Mexico — out of everything familiar — and brought them south into this region. They put down roots and named their new settlement Socorro, after the home they'd left behind.
That name, that echo of somewhere else, carried real weight for people who had lost nearly everything. Eleven years on, in 1691, they raised Socorro's first permanent adobe church. And they gave it a name as grand as the circumstances demanded — Nuestra Señora de la Limpia Concepción de Los Piros Del Socorro.
Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception of the Piros of Socorro. Say it out loud sometime. It's a mouthful, but there's a whole people's identity built into every syllable.
That church stood. Generations came and went. And then 1829 arrived, and the Rio Grande had opinions.
A destructive flood that year — destructive enough to change the actual course of the river. The Rio Grande moved. Shifted from north of Socorro all the way to south of the townsite.
Now, when a river moves like that in the nineteenth century, it doesn't just rearrange the scenery. When that river was later declared the boundary between the United States and Mexico, Socorro — because the river had moved — found itself on the American side. One flood, and a whole town crossed an international border without taking a single step.
Construction on the present structure began after that 1829 flood, and the building was completed in 1840. Over the centuries, the mission passed through many hands — Franciscan monks held administration for a hundred and seventy-two years, and after them came Diocesan priests, and then Italian and Mexican Jesuits. The church has lived under the flags of Spain, of Mexico, and of the United States.
Not many buildings anywhere can say that. These days, Socorro Mission La Purísima sits somewhat in the shadow of urban growth spreading out from nearby El Paso. The city has grown up around it, and the world moves fast now.
But that mission remains one of the oldest continuously occupied settlements in the entire Southwest — a place that survived a revolt, a flood that moved a river, and the drawing and redrawing of national borders. Some things, it turns out, are harder to wash away than a riverbank.
What the marker says
During the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, Gov. Don Antonio de Otermín and Father Francisco de Ayeta led Piro Indian and Spanish refugees out of New Mexico into this region, establishing a settlement they named Socorro after the home they had left. The town's first permanent adobe church was built in 1691 and was called Nuestra Señora de la Limpia Concepción de Los Piros Del Socorro (Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception of the Piros of Socorro). Construction of the present structure began following a destructive 1829 flood and was completed in 1840. The flood changed the course of the Rio Grande from north of Socorro to south of the townsite. When the river was declared the U.S. - Mexico boundary, Socorro became part of the United States. Under the administration of Franciscan monks for 172 years, the church was later governed by Diocesan priests, as well as by Italian and Mexican Jesuits. Its history spans the time of the region's occupancy by Spain, Mexico, and the United States. Although Socorro Mission La Purísima, as it is now known, has been overshadowed by urban growth in nearby El Paso, it remains one of the oldest continuously occupied settlements in the Southwest. (1983)