Soledad Aguirre Loya (1907-1980)
Soledad Aguirre Loya and her WWII veteran husband, Raul Loya, owned several properties in the Cordova Gardens Addition to the City of El Paso—although archival records suggest they did not live there. Even so, Soledad would become an active protestor against the Chamizal Treaty.
When Soledad learned that Cordova Gardens had never been part of the originally contested tract of land known as El Chamizal—but had nonetheless been promised to Mexico as part of the Chamizal Treaty—she took the U.S. government to court. In 1964, she filed a suit in the U.S. District Court to stop the U.S. from ceding the 264-acres of Cordova Gardens on the grounds that this area had never been identified as part of El Chamizal. In turn, the suit requested that a three-judge federal court review this petition before condemnation proceedings in Cordova Gardens began. As the plaintiff in the case, Soledad named the defendants as Secretary of State Dean Rusk and International Boundary and Water Commissioner Joseph F. Friedkin.
For reasons that are unclear, it appears that Soledad’s petition was nullified on a technicality. The El Paso Times praised this development. “Formal opposition to settlement of the 100-year Chamizal Dispute seemingly has died a timely death,” reported the paper on September 24, 1964. In that report, Soledad was identified by name.
“How about Soledad Aguirre Loya High?”
Included in the 264-ceded acres of Cordova Gardens was Navarro Elementary School—a public school built in 1962 to serve the Cordova Gardens barrio & surrounding communities. As part of the Chamizal Treaty, Cd. Juárez acquired the school property & turned it into a public high school known as La Prepa del Chamizal or Chamizal High School.
In 1967, El Paso resident Ernestine Busch wrote a letter to the El Paso Herald-Post arguing that “Chamizal High School” should be renamed in Soledad Aguirre Loya’s honor. “May we not use this occasion to honor those who gave us land and homes?” she asked the editor of the paper. “How about Soledad Aguiree Loya High?” she added, “She tried to take the proposed treaty to court, but there was not enough money.”
Although Soledad had been unsuccessful in her efforts, Ernestine argued, “the failure was not hers.” “She took every lawful and honorable action she could to save the land. She could serve as an inspiration and a lesson to the young.”
Today, the former Navarro Elementary School is known as Colegio de Bachilleres del Estado de Chihuahua Plantel No. 19 Chamizal.
Soledad’s ongoing conflict with the City of El Paso.
In the years that followed the condemnation of the Loya’s Cordova Gardens property, Soledad would continue to experience conflict with the City of El Paso
In 1974, Soledad filed a $25,000 lawsuit against the city after city employees entered her Woodlawn Addition property in & removed several structural items without notice & while she was serving as a juror.
The City of El Paso argued that Soledad’s property was a nuisance & fire hazard—& therefore had to be dealt with quickly.
In addition to asking for $25,000 in damages, Soledad also filed for a restraining order against the City of El Paso, asking that the city stop from “irreparable damage & harm to her by virtue of the City destroying her property.”
