Granja Rio Vista
Socorro, El Paso County, Texas
Marker Inscription
La 2a casa de caridad del condado de El Paso, conocida como La Granja Pobre de El Paso, se estableció en este lugar en 1915. John O'Shea, empresario y agricultor rico, tenia su granja a corta distancia, se encargo de las operaciones y su esposa, Agnes, se encargaba de los residentes. En 1929, cuando murió el Sr. O'Shea su hija Helen O'Shea Keleher vino de San Antonio para operar la granja con su madre. En 1929, iba cerrar la granja, pero por los tiempos difíciles de la era de la Depresión, su población aumentó. Bajo el nuevo nombre de "Granja Río Vista," a principios de los 1930, varios programas sociales se realizaron en la granja. Funciono bajo el Texas Transient Bureau y federal Works Progress Administration. En 1936, como base temporal para un Cuerpo Civil de Conservación, la granja siguió de albergue para cientos de adultos y niños desamparados y destituidos. De 1951 a 1964, la granja funcionó como centro de recepción y procesamiento para el programa de Braceros, a través del cual personas de México venían a trabajar en el valle bajo de El Paso y en otras áreas agrícolas de los Estados Unidos. Con los nuevos programas federales de prestaciones sociales y leyes estatales, la población de Río Vista se vio reducida a cuatro personas, cuando cerro en 1964. A diferencia de casas de caridad de otros condados de Texas, Río Vista seguía un modelo familiar y no institucional, donde se aceptaban niños descuidados y abandonados y a la población indigente adulta. En sus últimos años, Helen O'Shea puntualizo que los 50 años que paso con más de 4 mil niños huérfanos y abandonados en Río Vista, fueron su logro de mayor orgullo. (2001)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Founded in 1915 as El Paso County's second poor farm, this refuge was run by the O'Shea family and later by daughter Helen O'Shea Keleher, who spent fifty years caring for more than four thousand orphaned and abandoned children. Renamed Granja Río Vista, it hosted Depression-era relief efforts including the Texas Transient Bureau, the WPA, and a Civilian Conservation Corps unit. From 1951 to 1964 the farm became a processing center for the Bracero program, receiving Mexican workers bound for the fields of the El Paso valley and other agricultural regions of the United States.
Why it matters
Told here in Spanish for the community it served, the farm's story preserves both a rare familial model of poor relief and a key chapter of the Bracero labor migration that bound Mexico and the U.S. together.
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Related people
- · John O'Shea
- · Agnes O'Shea
- · Helen O'Shea Keleher
Related events
- · Bracero program, 1951–1964
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Rio Vista Farm
Socorro, TX
Established in 1915 as El Paso County's poor farm, this place sheltered the destitute under the care of the O'Shea family, and later Helen O'Shea Keleher, who devoted fifty years to the thousands of orphaned and neglected children who passed through. Renamed Rio Vista Farm, it hosted a parade of Depression-era relief programs — the Texas Transient Bureau, the WPA, and a CCC unit — before taking on its most far-reaching role. From 1951 to 1964 it served as a reception and processing center for the Bracero program, funneling Mexican laborers into the fields of the lower valley and beyond.
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