Los Portales
San Elizario, El Paso County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Local farmer, rancher, and landowner Gregorio Nacenseno Garcia constructed this building as his family's residence about 1855. Built in the territorial style, it features milled wood detailing. Because of its distinctive inset gallery (portal), it became known as Los Portales. In the 1870s, the structure was converted to use as a schoolhouse. The first teacher was Octaviano Larrazola, who later became governor of New Mexico and a U.S. Senator. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1962
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Around 1855 the farmer and rancher Gregorio Nacenseno García built this territorial-style adobe as his family home, its distinctive inset gallery — the portal — giving it the name Los Portales. By the 1870s it had become a schoolhouse, and its first teacher, Octaviano Larrazolo, went on to serve as governor of New Mexico and a United States senator. The building ties the Hispanic ranching world of the Rio Grande to a nationally significant political career.
Why it matters
Los Portales links the old borderland ranching community of San Elizario to Octaviano Larrazolo, one of the first Hispanic Americans to reach the U.S. Senate.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Gregorio Nacenseno García
- · Octaviano Larrazolo
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
First Christian Church of El Paso
El Paso, TX
In the booming border town of 1880s El Paso, a Pennsylvania blacksmith named Philip Miner gathered thirteen charter members to found this Disciples of Christ congregation, refusing any pay for his preaching. Since coming to Texas in 1849 he had devoted himself to planting churches and public schools, and he continued that work on the far western frontier. From rented rooms in south El Paso the fellowship built successive sanctuaries and helped seed other congregations as the desert city grew.
Salt War
San Elizario, TX
For generations, the salt lakes near San Elizario had been a shared resource that Hispanic communities of the El Paso valley gathered from freely. When private interests moved to control access in the 1870s, resentment boiled over into the El Paso Salt War of 1877, a violent clash that cost many lives and much property. The conflict remains one of the most turbulent episodes in the history of the far West Texas borderlands.
San Elizario
San Elizario, TX
Founded in 1789 as the Spanish Presidio de San Elceario, this outpost was relocated northward to shield settlers from raids, guarding the El Paso district through the twilight of Spanish rule and the Mexican War for Independence. After the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo drew the border at the Rio Grande, the town became El Paso County's first seat and, in 1877, the flashpoint of the violent Salt War over access to communal salt beds.
The Camino Real
San Elizario, TX
For more than two centuries the Camino Real, the "Royal Road," carried goods and travelers between Mexico City, Chihuahua, and the New Mexican towns of Santa Fe and Taos. First traced by Juan de Oñate on his 1598 expedition, the route threaded through the San Elizario–Socorro–Ysleta settlements and crossed the Rio Grande near present-day El Paso. When the river became the U.S.–Mexico boundary in 1848, this ancient artery of Spanish colonial commerce became part of the United States.