Southern NM community of Chaparral had trouble accessing COVID-19 relief funds
CHAPARRAL - “All we had out here was a dirt road. We picked out a patch,” recalled Madrid, remembering how his father stood out amid the desert sand and mesquite trees more than 50 years ago scanning the land that would become the family’s home. “He picked it for one reason – it's got good soil, and it is still very fertile land," said Madrid.
Chaparral is an unincorporated New Mexican colonia with roots going back to the 1920s as a small farming community. With a population of about 14,000 people, Chaparral today serves as a rural bedroom community for families of area military bases and for people commuting to work in the nearby cities of Las Cruces and El Paso, Texas.
Still predominantly rural, Chaparral has an odd overlap of political representation. It is governed by two different county commissions – Doña Ana and Otero – and has one state senator, and no local government.
During the pandemic, the federal government poured money and aid into communities to help them survive and recover. But the Southern New Mexico Journalism Collaborative found that Chaparral faced major challenges when it came to accessing those funds. That left the relatively poor community with great needs and few resources – a situation aggravated by the small town’s complicated governance.
“Nothing has happened for Chaparral for decades and decades. It has always been last,” said Madrid, who now represents District 53, including Chaparral, in the New Mexico House of Representatives.
Chaparral is 59 square miles of desert shrubs, small homes and trailers. A 15-minute drive takes you across vast empty grasslands and over the Texas state line. Another 20 minutes takes you to the Mexican border overlooking Juarez, a giant metropolis of nearly two million people.