Tejano History

La Junta De Los Rios

Tejanos |

       LA JUNTA DE LOS RÍOS. La Junta de los Ríos is a term used to describe the fertile region surrounding the juncture of the Río Conchos and the Río Grande. Located at 29 degrees latitude and 104 degrees longitude, La Junta forms a roughly triangular shape extending from the rivers' juncture to approximately twenty-five miles in each direction along the banks of the two waterways. Straddling the United States-Mexico border at the cities of Presidio, Texas, and Ojinaga, Chihuahua, people have perhaps continuously cultivated La Junta de los Ríos longer than any other area of Texas. This is due to the excellent farmland created by the region's fertile soil and relatively well-watered floodplains along the banks of the river, which serve as natural irrigation. In comparison to the surrounding dry and sandy Chihuahua Desert, La Junta has proved to be an oasis to the various peoples who have called it home. Although drought and temperature extremity—it ranges well below freezing in the winter to upwards of 120 degrees in the summer in the region—are deterrents for human habitation, humidity in La Junta is very low and long summers allow for multiple harvests in one year.

 

Full article on the Texas State Historical Association's Handbook of Texas Online

   Courtesy of the Texas State Historical Association.