ARTICLE: New Mexico’s First World War

New Mexico only became a state in 1912, and in 1914, the war came. The state was eventually dragged into the Zimmerman affair that helped plunge America into war on the side of the Allies. In short, Germany quite fancied exploiting friction between Mexico and America. In January 1917, British intelligence intercepted a coded message bound of the German Ambassador in Mexico. It suggested that if America declared war, Germany would support Mexico, in particular in an attack across the border, thus tying up American interests. Mexico’s reward would be Texas, Arizona and New Mexico. Needless to say, this was dynamite and the British left the revelation exactly where the Americans would find it. But what did that mean for ordinary people in New Mexico? Today I want to share five brief stories of men who left behind desert vistas and endless mountain scenery to fight on the Western Front.

By the end of the war, well over a million American soldiers would be present in Europe. This involved a massive expansion of what had been a small pre-war army. Patricio Chavez had come all the way from Chimayo, near the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and close to the Colorado state line…

Patricio Chavez (History Press/Daniel Cillis)