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| Abandoned building. Puerto Palomas, Chihuahua, Mexico. September 2016. |
September 2016
Brother4 dropped by El Paso to visit with me for the weekend. Posts here and here and here about same.
We drove out to Columbus, New Mexico, via Highway 9, and popped over to Puerto Palomas for a quick look-see. (Here are related posts about Columbus and Palomas in 2013.)
Back in 2013, a grand maison, incomplete, drew my attention and my imagination. So close to the border wall and so lovely in its lines and color, yet obviously abandoned - what was it to have been? What stopped its completion?
The word I heard then was that it had been meant to be a casino, but its construction ended due to the cartel wars.
Here's what I wrote then:
I felt particularly attracted to an abandoned .. what? Mansion? Hotel? Restaurant? It was intended to be grand, and I was later told that it was to have been a casino, but construction ceased as soon as the drug cartels moved their violent stage to Puerto Palomas for a time.
If it had opened, how many people would it have employed directly? How many people would have been employed by suppliers? How many others would have derived indirect economic benefits?
For now, doves are the only evident residents of the empty, beautiful building.
However, on this trip with Brother4, we had occasion to speak to the person who'd actually owned and built on the property. She told us that there was a time when the US and Mexico intended to move the port of entry right next to this property, and the Mexican government claimed it under eminent domain. I don't recall how she and any co-owners were compensated, but the end result was an abandoned building. The original plan was for it to be a shopping complex; a destination for American tourists to buy Mexican goods.
In addition to the photo at the top of this post, here is how the building looks in 2016:
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| Abandoned building. Puerto Palomas, Chihuahua, Mexico. September 2016. |
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| Abandoned building. Puerto Palomas, Chihuahua, Mexico. September 2016. |
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| Abandoned building. Puerto Palomas, Chihuahua, Mexico. September 2016. |
The resident doves have been joined by human roommates, who try to keep things a little organized with this public hygiene sign:
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| Abandoned building. Puerto Palomas, Chihuahua, Mexico. September 2016. |
"Gentlemen: For the health and well-being of all, piss and defecate over there."
We gave a nod to the Mexican Revolution and the role that Columbus and Puerto Palomas played in it:
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| Puerto Palomas, Chihuahua, Mexico. September 2016. |
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| Puerto Palomas, Chihuahua, Mexico. September 2016. |
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