Mapping and Empire: Soldier-Engineers on the Southwestern Frontier

Chapter Six: Trabajos Desconocidos, Ingenieros Olvidados: Unknown Works and Forgotten Engineers of the Mexican Boundary Commission

Six u Trabajos Desconocidos, Ingenieros Olvidados: Unknown Works and Forgotten Engineers of the Mexican Boundary Commission paula rebert ‘‘It is a pity that the works on our boundary line with the United States remain unknown and forgotten—that nothing is published about them, when both for their extent and their accuracy, they are among the best works that the country owes to our engineers, and could be of great benefit to geographic science.’’1 In 1881, such was the lament of Manuel Orozco y Berra—geographer, map collector, and one of Mexico’s early national historians. Some twenty-five years had passed since the boundary between the United States and Mexico was established, yet the Mexican engineers had received little recognition for their accomplishment. Since Orozco y Berra’s time, the Mexican Boundary Commission and its works have continued to be neglected. Mexican historians have been understandably unenthusiastic about the boundary survey as a topic, for the boundary was a consequence of defeat in war and its surveyeffected the transfer of a large portion of Mexico’s territory to the United States. The Mexican boundary surveyors have not been celebrated as have the U.S. boundary-makers.2 U.S. authors have tended to emphasize the work of the U.S. Boundary Commission, using its records as their sources—records that generally ignore the Mexican Commission or criticize its efforts. For example, the most important primary source on the U.S. survey, the final report by U.S. Boundary Commissioner William H. Emory, dismissed the Mexican Commission efforts at the very outset. Emory wrote that the role of the Mexican engineers was simply to observe and accept the U.S. engineers’ work, because, he said, although the Mexican Commission was ‘‘composed of well educated and scientific men, their instruments were radically defective.’’3 Emory’s early judgment has often served as a basis for evaluation of the work of the Mexican Commission.4 Unknown Works and Forgotten Engineers u 157 The Mexican work on the boundary line need not remain unknown and forgotten, however, for records have been preserved. Especially valuable are the contributions of Manuel Orozco y Berra. A scholar whose fortunes fluctuated with the turbulent politics of nineteenth-century Mexico, Orozco y Berra held various positions in Mexico City, including director of the National Archives and professor of geography and history at the Military School, and he produced many publications on various topics in Mexican history.5 In a work that he completed near the end of his life, the Notes for the History of Geography in Mexico, Orozco y Berra included an account of the U.S.-Mexico boundary survey. Based on the engineers’ reports and on discussions with several members of the commission he knew personally, his account also reproduced some of the commission’s primary records.6 The history of cartography was one of Orozco y Berra’s principal interests , particularly for the study of the geography of Mexico. He wished to form a collection of maps that would demonstrate the progress of geographical knowledge of the country, but finding it impossible to assemble the maps himself, he instead conceived the idea of compiling a bibliography of all the existing maps that illustrated the history of Mexico. He combed the libraries and archives of Mexico City, examining and listing maps.7 Among the thousands of maps he found were the U.S.-Mexico boundary maps. These, together with many other maps Orozco y Berra studied, are preserved today in a map archive named in his honor, the Mapoteca ‘‘Manuel Orozco y Berra,’’ in Mexico City. Contrary to the often perceived view of the boundary survey as an achievement of the U.S. Commission alone, Orozco y Berra’s account, the engineers’ reports, and the Mexican Boundary Commission’s maps support each other. Together they present a picture of the extensive accomplishments of the Mexican Commission in surveying and mapping the boundary. boundary treaties and boundary commissions The dividing line between the territories of Mexico and the United States was established as a result of the U.S.-Mexican War, brought to an end by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo on February 2, 1848. The treaty directed that the international border was to commence in the Gulf of Mexico and 158 u paula rebert follow the middle of the Rio Grande (known in Mexico as the Río Bravo...