Читать книгу Ringside Seat to a Revolution - David Dorado Romo - Страница 26

21

TERESITA URREA: THE WOMAN WHO STIRRED THINGS UP

“Santa Teresa has such power over the ignorant

Mexican peasantry that she could, if disposed, stir

up the worst kind of a revolution, especially in the

border Mexican states, and make things very hot

for the Mexican Government.”

—El Paso Herald, August 27, 1896

TERESITA URREA PASSED through El Paso like

a comet—a heavenly portent that shone brightly for a

brief period then vanished.

In March 1896, hundreds gathered at the Union

Depot train station to wait for the 22-year-old miracle

worker known on both sides of the line as “Santa

Teresa.” “But the young lady,” the El Paso Evening

Telegraph reported, “did not come.”¹³ When she final-

ly did arrive at El Paso on June 13, 1896, about three

thousand pilgrims camped outside her new home on

the corner of Overland and Campbell Streets. They

had traveled by foot, wagon and train from all over

the U.S.-Mexico border.

Soon the El Paso Herald was comparing her to

Jesus Christ. “El Paso has the distinction of having a

live saint within its borders. It is understood that she

has commenced her work of healing, but here comes

the rub. Strange as it may seem, dominant religions

never welcome one that comes to do good in individ-

ual lives. The Nazarene had the experience, and Santa

Teresa will find that she is no exception to this rule,”

the evening newspaper predicted.¹⁴

The El Paso Herald’s prophecies weren’t far off

the mark. Within a year, Teresita would suffer three

assassination attempts and be forced to leave the city

in search of safer grounds.

THE EL PASO that Teresita passed through in 1896

was a booming border town. Railroad lines from the

four cardinal directions—connecting it to Mexico

City, Santa Fe, Los Angeles and San Antonio—had

transformed the town into the main gateway between

On average Teresita saw between 175 to 250

patients a day during her residence in El Paso,

ca. 1896. Photograph by Charles A. Rose.

(Southwest Collection, Texas Tech University.)

13

El Paso Evening Telegraph, March 24, 1896.

14

El Paso Herald, June 16, 1896.