San Antonio de Senecu

San Antonio de Senecú (also known as Senecú del Sur), a pueblo and mission in the El Paso area, was established in the spring of 1682 after the Pueblo Revolt in New Mexico. It was settled with Piro Indians, former residents of the pueblo of Senecú in New Mexico. The pueblo and mission were located two leagues from the site of modern Ciudad Juárez, Mexico; the Texas Highway Department has erected a marker locating the approximate site as two miles northwest of Ysleta, Texas. In 1683 the missions in the El Paso area were reorganized, and Senecú may have been moved. In 1744 it had a population of seventy families. In 1756 the missions in the El Paso area were secularized, but because they were unable to support curates they were restored to missionaries in 1771. The settlement at Senecú was probably destroyed by a sudden change in the course of the Rio Grande early in the nineteenth century. In 1949 a community called Senecú was located on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande about 1½ miles southwest of Ysleta.