[2] More recent scholarship has placed the war within the context of the long and often violent social struggle of Mexican-Americans to be treated as equal citizens in the United States and not as a subjugated people.
[3] Most recently, the "mob" has been described as an organized political-military insurgency with the goal of re-establishing local control of their fundamental political rights and economic future.
Long before claims to the region were made by Anglo-Americans, Spanish colonials and later Mexicans settled a series of communities along the south banks of the river, which provided protection from Comanche and Apache raids from the north.
Prior to major water-control projects on the Rio Grande such as Elephant Butte Dike, which was constructed in the early 20th century, the river flooded often.
This position relative to the river became more important in 1836, when the newly independent Republic of Texas proclaimed the Rio Grande as the southern border of the new country.
Many Republicans settled in the small community of Franklin, Texas, a trading village across the Rio Grande from the Chihuahua city of El Paso del Norte (present-day Ciudad Juárez).
At the base of the Guadalupe Mountains, about 100 mi (160 km) northeast of San Elizario, lie a series of dry saline lakes (located at 31°44′36″N 105°04′36″W / 31.74335°N 105.07668°W / 31.74335; -105.07668).
Its value made it a commodity used for barter along El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro and was an essential element in the patio process for extracting silver from ore in Chihuahua mines.
The Republicans' loss of state government control in 1873 prompted Fountain to leave El Paso for his wife's home in the New Mexico Territory.
[5]: 142 Cardis had a stronger allegiance to the former citizens of Mexico than to either US political party, and was influential in swinging their votes in any direction he thought beneficial to the community or to himself.
The Tejanos of San Elizario, encouraged by Father Borrajo (by now the former pastor), with the support of Cardis, gathered and kept salt in spite of Howard's claim.
Falling back on a long tradition of local self-government, they formed committees (juntas) in San Elizario and the largely Tejano neighboring towns of Socorro and Ysleta, Texas, to determine a community-based response to Howard's actions.
When Howard learned of their activities, he had the men arrested by El Paso County Sheriff Charles Kerber and went to court in San Elizario that evening to legally restrain them.
Arriving on November 5, Jones met with the junta leaders, negotiated their agreement to obey the law, and arranged Howard's return, arraignment, and release on bail.
Traditionally, Tays has been described as an uneducated handyman, but later research indicated he was a mining engineer, El Paso land speculator, and smuggler of Mexican cattle.
The Ranger detachment recruited by Jones and Tays was mixed, composed of Anglos and a few Tejanos, including an old Indian fighter, several Civil War veterans, an experienced lawman, at least one outlaw, and a few community pillars.
To these immediate financial losses (collectively equivalent to $1,404,000 in 2023) can be added the further political and economic marginalization of the Mexican-American community of El Paso County.