Lost Architecture of the Rio Grande Borderlands (Nonfiction)

In 1953, twelve Spanish Colonial-period settlements were inundated by Falcon Reservoir’s rising waters—the U.S. and Mexican government’s effort to dam the Rio Grande River.  Eighty-seven thousand acres soaked with promises of flood control, irrigation, power and recreation while generations of Spanish homes and architectural treasures obliterated. During 1983 and again in the late 1990s, the submerged village was uncovered by receding water, revealing a lost way of life and historic artifacts. Lost Architecture documents these settlements, specifically Guerrero Viejo, a thriving community during the mid-18th century, the grandest of cities, where European goods were shipped up the Rio Grande from New Orleans.