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On Texas soil, presidents meet for the first time
On this day in 1909, presidents William Howard Taft and Porfirio Díaz
met in El Paso and Ciudad Juárez, the first meeting in history between a
president of the United States and a president of Mexico. The local
press described the meeting as the "Most Eventful Diplomatic Event in
the History of the Two Nations." An El Paso historian has added that it
was a "veritable pageant of military splendor, social brilliance,
courtly formality, official protocol, and patriotic fervor." The
proceedings for the meeting were planned in the greatest detail by the
United States Department of State and the Mexican Ministry of Foreign
Affairs. In addition to matters of protocol, the two governments made
the most elaborate arrangements for the protection and safety of the two
presidents. Significantly, the area in dispute in south El Paso known as
the Chamizal was declared neutral territory, the flags of neither nation
to be displayed during the meeting. Because both presidents were
bilingual there was no need for interpreters, and no one else attended
the meeting. Although official reports of the meeting stated that
nothing of political or diplomatic significance was discussed, some have
suggested that the basis was laid there for the treaty of arbitration
that the two nations signed a year later.
- Links to Related Handbook of Texas Online Articles
- TAFT-DIAZ MEETING
- CHAMIZAL DISPUTE
- EL PASO, TX
- Other Texas Day by Day Articles for This Date
- Pan American Round Table founded in San Antonio (1916)
- Attempt to kidnap alleged Union spy fails (1861)
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