This is a photograph of my mother’s grandmother, Helen Spiegel Dobbs, and a friend putting on a show of international unity at a resort in New Mexico sometime between 1913 and 1916.

In this picture, Helen (right) represents the USA, and her friend, Claudia Meador Sanger (left), wearing a sombrero, portrays Mexico as they toast the friendship between those two countries. The photograph was taken at The Lodge at Cloudcroft, a resort in New Mexico about 100 miles north of El Paso, Texas.

During the first half of the Wilson administration, Helen’s husband, my great-grandfather, James M. Dobbs, Sr. was a consular officer working for the State Department and was stationed at Eagle Pass to observe and report on the course of the revolution taking place south of the border. James, fluent in Spanish, was looking forward to retiring to his farm in Georgia. At the same time, James’ daughter, my grandfather’s half-sister, Emmita, was married to a high-ranking cavalry officer who was an aide to General Pershing stationed at Ft Bliss near El Paso. In 1916, Pershing led an expedition into Mexico to capture Pancho Villa.

Yet, while the US Army was busy chasing Pancho Villa, Helen and her friends kept things light.

Here is Helen (left) again representing the USA with her hat adorned with the American eagle and her friend (right) sporting a hat festooned with the Mexican eagle.