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When most people think of Marfa, they envision its minimalist art scene or the mysterious dancing lights. However, last weekend, in a particularly poignant way to mark the beginning of Hispanic/Latine Heritage Month, community members and former students of Marfa’s Blackwell School gathered for a ribbon-cutting ceremony to commemorate the newest symbol of their complex cultural history. Specifically, the Blackwell School National Historic Site, the nation’s 430th national park, was officially established on July 17.
Starting in the late 1880s, “Mexican schools” were established throughout the Southwest as parents of Mexican-origin demanded that their children have the right to a free public school education. The government’s solution was these schools, which were separate but by no means equal, as they received less funding and resources compared to their white counterparts. By the 1940s, there were more than 120 towns in Texas with segregated schools for students of Latine origin, but today very few structures remain.
At a simple adobe house near Marfa’s Border Patrol station, the celebration, featuring ballet folklórico performances, a mariachi band, and the traditional music of the Chihuahuan desert, somewhat contradicted the complicated history of the school. From 1909 to 1965, Blackwell School was the sole public education institution for the city’s Latine population. During its tenure, it served 4,000 segregated students, a separation “written by prejudice but not by law.”
“Blackwell School NHS is a tangible reminder of the period when the doctrine of separate but equal dominated education and social systems,” National Park Service’s David Larson told Thrillist via email.
The Blackwell School Alliance
There were also good memories. The school had a remarkable marching band and football team, and the active multilingual PTA raised money for uniforms and instruments. In a USA Today article, former student Mario Rivera, who attended the Blackwell School in the 1950s at the age of 7, said he simply regarded it as a normal school. “We were never told that there was another school for the white students across the tracks,” he said.
Perhaps it seemed normal because at that time, the segregation of the Latine community from whites was widespread, and interactions between the two groups were often violent. Before integration in the 1970s, West Texas separated schools, barber shops, and movie theaters (unofficially). Three cemeteries in Marfa are still segregated, with fencing dividing white and Hispanic residents by race.
At Blackwell School, the experience was one of forced assimilation. Alumni described the school as “barracks.” On a display in the school titled “Burying Mr. Spanish,” students recounted having mock “funerals” for the Spanish language, pledging their allegiance to English, and writing “S-P-A-N-I-S-H” on a piece of paper to be placed in a cigar box and buried. If they spoke their native language, they would receive a paddling. (The paddle is also on display. It is called “Sputnik.”)
“A lot of us forgot our language and didn’t want our children to speak Spanish,” former student Jessi Silva said in a statement to the AP. “But even today, we are in danger of forgetting our history. The Blackwell School is part of our history, not just in Marfa but also beyond.”
The Blackwell School Alliance
It was the efforts of Blackwell alumni that set the ball rolling towards achieving national park status. In 2006, a former student named Joe Cabezuela was at a local restaurant celebrating the reunion of the 1960 Blackwell class when he learned that there were plans by the school district to demolish the last remaining buildings of the Blackwell School. He joined forces with fellow alumni to visit the Marfa Independent School District and pleaded with them to preserve the building. It was a historical artifact. The school district agreed. Now it is officially on record, with a 99-year lease signed with the Blackwell School Alliance, according to Larson.
The school was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2019, and in 2002 President Biden signed the Blackwell School National Historic Site Act into law. Two years later, the necessary paperwork was in order, and the new national park was established. It is just the third national park site dedicated to telling modern Latino history (out of 431 in total), joining Cesar Chavez National Monument in California and the Chamizal National Memorial in El Paso. Larson doesn’t know if there is a movement to preserve other Mexican schools in Texas.
“Many other segregated schools for Mexican Americans have either been demolished or not been preserved,” he said. “The goal with the Blackwell School NHS is to allow more stories like this to be told. We hope that with its new establishment, BLSC will encourage others with similar experiences to come forward and tell their stories, or their family’s stories.”
The Blackwell School Alliance
The Blackwell School is open on Saturdays and Sundays from noon to 4 pm. There are plans to have a 3-D imaging virtual tour in the future for those who cannot physically visit BLSC.
