Rio Vista Farm
Socorro, El Paso County, Texas
Marker Inscription
El Paso County's second poor farm, known as the El Paso Poor Farm, was established here in 1915. John O'Shea, a wealthy farmer and businessman whose farm was nearby, assumed operation of the farm. His wife, Agnes O'Shea, was in charge of the residents. John O'Shea died in 1929, and the couple's daughter, Helen O'Shea Keleher, came from her home in San Antonio to operate the farm with her mother. The farm was scheduled to be closed in 1929, but, with the troubled times of the Depression era, its population grew. Renamed "Rio Vista Farm," the poor farm hosted a variety of public welfare programs beginning in the 1930s. It operated under the Texas Transient Bureau and later the federal Works Progress Administration. A temporary base for a Civilian Conservation Corps unit in 1936, the farm continued to shelter hundreds of homeless and destitute adults and children. From 1951 to 1964, the farm was used as a reception and processing center for the Bracero program, which brought Mexican laborers to work in the lower valley of El Paso and other agricultural areas in the U.S. New federal welfare programs and state law reduced the population of the poor farm to four, and it was closed in 1964. Unlike other Texas county poor farms, Rio Vista followed a familial rather than institutional model, accepting neglected and abandoned children in addition to the adult indigent population. In later life, Helen O'Shea Keleher cited the fifty years she spent with the more than four thousand orphans and neglected children of the Rio Vista Poor Farm as her proudest accomplishment. (2000)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
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.
Why it matters
Rio Vista is one of the most significant surviving sites of the Bracero program, the vast guest-worker system that shaped both American agriculture and Mexican migration for a generation.
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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
Granja Rio Vista
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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.
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