Twelve (12) Travelers Memorial of the Southwest
MISSION STATEMENT: To proclaim the value of our rich heritage with artistic bronzes, paintings and other mediums of the men and women who characterized significant historical eras in the El Paso Del Norte region over the past five centuries, thereby honoring regional creative excellence and promoting the engagement of our region’s citizens with the wealth of their history.

Causes: Arts and Culture

       The Twelve Travelers Memorial of the Southwest, now doing business as
       the Frontera Arts and Heritage Alliance, has boardened its mission to include mmany forms of two and three dimensional Art.  
       
       Our dedication to Arts, Culture, and History of El Paso, Ciudad Juarez and Las Cruces areas will encompass both budding and established 
       artists and will include educational programming for our youth about 
       the importance of their heritage. 
       
       Please be assured that your contrubution will be handled with 
       the utmost fiduciary care and is fully deductible in accordance with
       federal tax law.
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  The Twelve Travelers Memorial of the Southwest established in 
  1993 and was formed to promote and fund a series of 12 monumental
  bronzes of Tom's Lee historical figures during the past 500 years.  
  
  Four have been completed:  Frey Garcia de San Francisco at 125 Pioneer
  Plaza downtown; The Equestrian at the El Paso Airport; Susan Magoffin 
  at the Keystone Heritage Park, and Benito Juarez at the Chamizal 
  National Memorial.  They are unique.  These sites have been visited by
  thousands of El Pasoans and tourists.
  
  
  
  
  Candidates for the next PROJECTS are:
    **Cabeza de Vaca**- Explorer & Healer and **Estebanico**- Linguist, 
    Explorer, First black man in the U.S.
    Monument of **Francisco Tilagua and Bartolo Pique** - Founders of
    the Tigua Indians.
    Monument of **Henry Ossian Flipper** – Soldier, Engineer, Surveyor, 
    Translator & Historian.
The historical links between U.S. President Abraham Lincoln and Mexican President Benito Juarez have been long studied by historians. The shifting of the course of the Rio Grande that began the Chamizal conflict began while these two Presidents were in office, and both were locked in battles to save their respective republics (The Civil War for Lincoln, The War against France for Juarez).  Completed in October 2022.  Completed October 2022.
On July 29, 2009, the bronze maquette of Susan Shelby Magoffin was publicly unveiled in downtown El Paso at the Doubletree Hotel. The public event officially inaugurated the monument's public involvement, community education, project promotion and fundraising. The next day, ironically on the birthday of Susan Magoffin, the sculptors spoke at the Encaustic International Art Gallery and Studio in El Paso where the bronze maquette and the bas-relief (clay sketch) were featured
When El Pasoans walk, they celebrate the endurance of the Franciscan friars and the Native Americans who long ago traversed on foot the vast Southwestern landscape. Fray García founded Our Lady of Guadalupe Mission at the Pass of the North in 1659 (El Paso, Texas and C. Juarez, Chihuahua). The little community became an important settlement on the Camino Real de Adentro (Royal Road of the Interior) that linked Mexico City to Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Some of the contributions of these first Hispanic pioneers and subsequent expeditions to North America are the introduction of the Spanish language, Christianity, European musical instruments, farming and mining equipment, spices, cookware, fruit tree cuttings, seeds and domestic animals, that included cattle, pigs, and goats. Most dramatic historically among the livestock introduced on the Oñate expedition was the horse – war horses and mares --which became so culturally vital to Native Americans in subsequent years.