National Hispanic Heritage Month 2008

By Presidential Proclamation, President George W. Bush designated September 15 - October 15 as National Hispanic Heritage Month. Heritage Documentation Programs is pleased to promote awareness of and appreciation for the history and accomplishments of Hispanic Americans during this month. As part of this celebration, our site showcases a selection of historic properties documented by the Historic American Buildings Survey and the Historic American Landscapes Survey, commemorating the events and people, the designs and achievements that help illustrate Hispanic Americans' contributions to American history. This year we commemorate the New Mexico town of Mesilla, nestled within desert brush near the Rio Grande River. Though small in size, the town of Mesilla is rich with history spanning American Indian settlement, early trade routes, wars, and the establishment of the United States and Mexico border. The history of Mesilla lives not only through memory but through its physical presence, which preserves many of its traditional adobe structures and architectural features as well as its unique, multi-cultural, social character.

Featured Properties

On November 16th, 1864, the United States flag was raised on the Mesilla Plaza to signify the Gadsden Purchase Treaty. Learn more...

Considered an excellent example of a Territorial-style structure. Learn more...

The Church of San Albino, built in 1906, occupies the location of an 1857 adobe church and is one of the oldest churches in Mesilla Valley. Learn more...

This is one of the oldest documented brick buildings in New Mexico, built by Augustine Maurin in 1863. Learn more...

Learn More

• Presidential Proclamation declaring National Hispanic Heritage Month
• National Hispanic Heritage Month website at the Library of Congress
• National Register of Historic Places celebrates National Hispanic Heritage Month
• Heritage Documentation Programs National Hispanic Heritage Month feature from 2007