Postcards from the Chihuahua Border: Revisiting a Pictorial Past, 1900s–1950s by Daniel D. Arreola (review)

Postcards from the Chihuahua Border is an interpretive analysis of the urban geography and history of the border towns of Chihuahua—Ciudad Juárez, Ojinaga, and Palomas—from around 1900 through the 1950s. It is based principally on period picture postcards from author Daniel D. Arreola’s collection, numbering about ten thousand items, which is likely a good representation of the range of subjects produced by the postcard industry during that period. Picture postcards were souvenirs for travelers and advertising for the emerging tourism industry. Arreola includes postcards from other collections; photographs, maps, and ephemera such as advertising flyers; published scholarly studies; and other printed materials, including newspapers from the region as source material. The textual descriptions of the visual materials and the context of the border towns were meticulously researched by the author and are presented in clear, analytical language that is a pleasure to read. The book is a valuable historical and urban geographical portrayal of these Chihuahua border towns and their relations to unfolding events across the border in Texas and New Mexico. The study demonstrates the utility of picture postcards as sources of historical and geographical information. The author is to be congratulated for his outstanding and innovative book that provides new insights into border towns and the diverse connections across the international boundary.

The book’s introductory section describes the geography and urban history of the Chihuahua border region. It reviews the origins and evolution of picture postcards, technical processes used for production, and commercialization. Arreola also examines the universe of postcard photographers and commercial publishers, with short biographies of two leading photographers active in the Chihuahua border region, the American Walter H. Horne and the Mexican Jesús Prieto Solórzano.

The bulk of the book consists of thematic sections for Ciudad Juárez and the other border towns, Ojinaga and Palomas. Subjects of postcards determined the topics discussed for each settlement. The breakdown for Ciudad Juárez includes “Greetings from Ciudad Juárez” (general scenes for tourists), “Crossing, Transit, and Streetscapes,” “Popular Venues,” “Curios,” “Bars, Cafes, and Cabarets,” and “Everyday Life.” This border town occupies some six chapters of the book due to its large population and the abundant flow of tourists from El Paso that created a high demand for souvenir postcards. The growing city was a major stopover for transcontinental rail travelers and then for growing numbers of automobile travelers. El Paso was also a popular site for conventions from the 1920s, a booming international trade hub, and home to a burgeoning military presence with thousands of soldiers inclined to visit Ciudad Juárez. This activity drove picture postcard sales to visitors from El Paso, eager to enjoy a trip to “Old Mexico.” The El Paso Chamber of Commerce and tourism authorities regularly advertised the city’s attractions to include an exotic foray to Ciudad Juárez. By 1929, more than 500,000 people visited the two cities.

Ojinaga and Palomas were quite small towns and far from large settlements in Texas and New Mexico. Nonetheless, they attracted visitors and were well represented by picture postcards. The Ojinaga chapter has sections on “Crossings” (a ferry across the Río Bravo‒Rio Grande and then a bridge), “Townscapes,” and “Bullfights, Cabarets, and Curios.” The Palomas chapter features “Prohibition and Community Celebrations,” “Cattle Crossing Town,” “Port of Entry,” and a marvelous vignette of two local entrepreneurs, Pete and Tillie Alvillar, and their store and bar, business establishments that used picture postcards to attract customers from the United States. The final chapter in the book explores the importance of picture postcards as historical and geographical sources, pointing out that “postcards . . . permit a visualization of the places between 1900 and the 1950s” that enriches the content of the text (p. 289).

The postcards clearly illustrate the duality of Mexican border towns, one part of the urban landscape primarily oriented toward tourists and another...