“Order to Bathe Starts Near Riot among Juarez Women,” El Paso Morning Times, January 29, 1917
Courtesy University of North Texas Libraries
A group of domestic workers led by 17-year-old Carmelita Torres—referred to in the newspaper as the “auburn-haired Amazon”— refused to submit to the humiliating and dangerous delousing procedure. Their protest failed, and the bathing requirement continued for decades, despite lack of evidence of typhus danger from Mexico. The incident became known as the El Paso Bath Riots.
