Mesquite is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

and

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counte ...

(CDP) in

Doña Ana County The terms Don (in Spanish and Italian), Dom (in Portuguese), and Domn (in Romanian), are honorific prefixes derived from the Latin ''Dominus'', meaning "lord" or "owner". The honorific is commonly used in Spain, Portugal, and Italy, as well a ...

New Mexico New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...

, United States. The population was 1,112 at the 2010 census, up from 948 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Las Cruces Metropolitan Statistical Area.

History

Mesquite was established and named by executives of the Santa Fe Railroad after brush which grew profusely along the tracks. The persistent desert shrub had long been a feature of the landscape. In 1847 a military detachment left El Paso, Texas, on an expedition against the Apaches. Before leaving the saloon of El Paso, where "Pass Whiskey" was plentiful, they armed themselves with a supply. By the second day out, a portion of the party where so befuddled that they got lost in the jungle of mesquite that grew in the area. When they finally found their way back to the main body of troops, their Commander ordered them to make camp, confiscating the rest of their whiskey, and gave them the remainder of the day to sober up.

Geography

Mesquite is located in southeastern Doña Ana County in the

Mesilla Valley The Mesilla Valley is a geographic feature of Southern New Mexico and far West Texas. It was formed by repeated heavy spring floods of the Rio Grande. Background The fertile Mesilla Valley extends from Radium Springs, New Mexico, to the west ...

, on the east side of the

Rio Grande The Rio Grande ( or ) in the United States or the Río Bravo (del Norte) in Mexico (), also known as Tó Ba'áadi in Navajo language, Navajo, is one of the principal rivers (along with the Colorado River) in the Southwestern United States a ...

Interstate 10 Interstate 10 (I-10) is the southernmost transcontinental highway in the Interstate Highway System of the United States. It is the fourth-longest Interstate in the country at , following I-90, I-80, and I-40. It was part of the origina ...

passes just east of the CDP, with access from Exit 151. I-10 leads northwest to Las Cruces, the

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...

, and southeast to

El Paso, Texas El Paso (; ; or ) is a city in and the county seat of El Paso County, Texas, United States. The 2020 United States census, 2020 population of the city from the United States Census Bureau, U.S. Census Bureau was 678,815, making it the List of ...

. According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...

, the Mesquite CDP has a total area of , all land.

Demographics

As of the

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

of 2000, there were 948 people, 262 households, and 227 families residing in the CDP. The population density was . There were 276 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the CDP was 65.30%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 0.42%

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, 0.84% Native American, 0.11% Asian, 29.01% from other races, and 4.32% from two or more races.

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

or Latino of any race were 94.83% of the population. There were 262 households, out of which 54.2% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 65.3% were

married couples Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...

living together, 16.8% had a female householder with no husband present, and 13.0% were non-families. 9.5% of all households were made up of individuals, and 3.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.62 and the average family size was 3.86. In the CDP, the population was spread out, with 38.1% under the age of 18, 13.4% from 18 to 24, 26.2% from 25 to 44, 14.9% from 45 to 64, and 7.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 24 years. For every 100 females, there were 95.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 90.6 males. The median income for a household in the CDP was $21,875, and the median income for a family was $21,458. Males had a median income of $20,370 versus $15,577 for females. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...

for the CDP was $7,129. About 38.4% of families and 43.4% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...

, including 49.7% of those under age 18 and 15.9% of those age 65 or over.

Education

The Gadsden Independent School District operates public schools, including Mesquite Elementary School, and the designated high schools would either be Gadsden High School or Alta Vista Early College High School.Elementary schools
." Gadsden Independent School District. Retrieved on August 19, 2015.

References

{{authority control Census-designated places in Doña Ana County, New Mexico Census-designated places in New Mexico New Mexico populated places on the Rio Grande