Taming the Wild Horse Desert

MARIE SALDAÑA

I am a multidisciplinary scholar and designer working at the intersection of cultural heritage and data.

I studied humanities and archaeology before earning an M.Arch. and Ph.D. in Architecture at UCLA, and I am currently an assistant professor of cultural heritage informatics at the University of Arizona.

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TAMING THE WILD HORSE DESERT

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Windmill - powered well at La Salada ranch near Hebbronville, TX. Photo by Al Canales, 2010.

Garza house, Hebbronville, TX, 1893. Photo by author, 2025.

Research, Digital Project
2018 - Ongoing

Project Website

Before the border between Mexico and the United States was drawn in 1848, generations of Spanish and Mexican soldiers and settlers had arrived in the frontier north of the Rio Grande. They intermarried, crossing racial boundaries; they started families and put down roots; they applied for land grants and established garrisons, towns, ranches, and homesteads. This project tells the story of these settlers and their spaces in an architectural and social history that traces the family networks, placemaking practices, and built environment of Spanish and Mexican habitation in Texas.