Little Mexico (Northeast Junction)
Junction, Kimble County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Northeast Junction, commonly known as Little Mexico, is a “Latin American” community that is separated by the Llano River from the main portion of Junction. In the late 1920s an automobile route called the Old Spanish Trail was established with Junction near the halfway point between Florida and California. A portion of present- day FM 2169 was created from the route. On September 1, 1922, Alberto Martinez and Romauldo Sanchez purchased land from Oren C. Reid. Along with additional land from Antonio Medina, this neighborhood became part of Junction in 1927. On November 13, 1945 Julian Pompa presented the city with an area of lots and accompanying streets located east of the Old Spanish Trail. Little Mexico did not receive amenities from the city until after World War II continuing into 1984. School buses did not serve Little Mexico and students walked several miles crossing the South Llano River Bridge to attend school. Two churches located in Junction, St. Theresa Catholic Church and the Mexican Baptist Mission, served the Hispanic community, but in 1968 the mission was razed for construction of Interstate Highway 10. Early Hispanic residents did not have a cemetery and most were buried on area ranches. In 1920 land for a cemetery was purchased from Tomas Perez. George Willis was among those who collected the money to pay for the land. His wife, Julia Valdez Willis, was the first to be buried at the new cemetery named Campo Santo. Two veterans from World War I are buried in the cemetery along with veterans from World War II, the Korean conflict and Vietnam. Even though development of Interstate Highway 10 displaced many residents, the community continues to thrive and preserve its unique history and culture. (2009)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Separated from the rest of Junction by the Llano River, the neighborhood long known as Little Mexico grew from land Mexican American families bought in the 1920s along the route of the Old Spanish Trail. For decades the community went without city amenities and school buses, its children walking miles across the river bridge to class, while two churches and a cemetery of its own anchored its life. Though the building of Interstate 10 displaced many residents, the community endured and kept its culture alive.
Why it matters
Little Mexico's story reflects the resilience of Mexican American communities across the Southwest, who built rich civic lives even as segregation and highway projects worked against them.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
Northeast of the main part of Junction, across the Llano River, lies the community long known as Little Mexico. Its separation was geographic and, for much of its history, social — a Mexican American neighborhood set apart from the rest of town by both water and custom, in a Texas where such divisions were the norm rather than the exception.
The community took shape in the automobile age. In the late 1920s the Old Spanish Trail auto route ran through the region, with Junction near the halfway point between Florida and California, and a portion of that route survives today in present-day FM 2169. A national highway passed close by, even as the neighborhood beside it went without the basics.
The decades that followed — through the Progressive era, the Second World War, and into the postwar and contemporary period — were ones in which Mexican American communities across the Southwest built full civic lives while contending with segregation in schools, services, and public investment. Little Mexico's history runs squarely along that line.
People & events
The neighborhood grew from land that its own families bought and gave. On September 1, 1922, Alberto Martinez and Romauldo Sanchez purchased land from Oren C. Reid; with additional land from Antonio Medina, the area became part of Junction in 1927. Later, on November 13, 1945, Julian Pompa presented the city with lots and streets east of the Old Spanish Trail, adding to the community's fabric.
The hardships were concrete. Little Mexico did not receive city amenities until after World War II, a process that stretched into 1984. School buses did not serve the neighborhood, so children walked several miles, crossing the South Llano River Bridge to reach school. Two churches anchored the community's faith — St. Theresa Catholic Church and the Mexican Baptist Mission — until the mission was razed in 1968 for the construction of Interstate Highway 10.
The community also made its own sacred ground. Early residents had no cemetery and were often buried on area ranches, until land was purchased from Tomas Perez in 1920; George Willis was among those who raised the money, and his wife, Julia Valdez Willis, was the first laid to rest there, in the cemetery named Campo Santo. Its graves include veterans of World War I, World War II, the Korean conflict, and Vietnam.
Its place in the American story
Little Mexico's story is the story of Mexican American communities throughout the Southwest in the twentieth century — communities that bought land, built churches, buried their dead, and sent their sons to war, all while being denied the ordinary services their taxes helped fund. That children walked miles across a river bridge to school because no bus would come is not merely a local grievance; it is a snapshot of segregation's everyday arithmetic.
The presence of veterans from four American wars in the Campo Santo cemetery is its own quiet argument. Here were citizens who served the nation abroad while waiting decades for paved streets and city water at home — a contradiction that Mexican American civil rights advocates named plainly in the postwar years, and that helped power a generation of activism.
And the interstate is part of the national pattern too. Across the country in the mid-twentieth century, highway projects were routed through minority neighborhoods, taking homes, churches, and community landmarks. That I-10's construction displaced residents and claimed the Mexican Baptist Mission places Little Mexico within one of the era's most consequential and painful stories.
If you visit
Approach with respect: this is a living community that has held onto its identity across a century of pressure, not a ruin or a curiosity. The Llano River still separates it from the main part of Junction, and that geography is the first thing to notice — the physical line that shaped a social one.
Let the layers register as you look around. A national highway passed nearby in the 1920s while the neighborhood waited generations for basic services; an interstate later cut through and carried families away. The landscape holds both the ambition of the road-builders and the cost borne by the people beside the road.
The most powerful place to reflect is at Campo Santo, the cemetery the community created for itself when no other ground was open to it — where veterans of four wars lie among the founders. Stand there and you understand the marker's final word best: that despite displacement and long neglect, this community endured, and chose to keep its own history alive.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · Alberto Martinez
- · Romauldo Sanchez
- · Julian Pompa
Themes & tags
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