Marfa - the village

It came to me as a surprise that Marfa got its name after one of the characters from a book the Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevski. This was apparently an idea of railroad executive`s wife who was reading the book at the time. Marfa then became an important water and freight stop along the newly built railway on the way down south to Galveston. At the beginning of 20th century, Marfa played an important role during the Mexican Revolution when the US government sent cavalry troops to Marfa to protect its territory. The military presence continued during the Second World War in Marfa, when the Government set up the Chemical Warfare Brigades, prisoners of war camp and Army Air Filed in the close proximity of Marfa, which rocketed the local population to 30,000 at its peak. We heard a lot about this history from a very kind guide at the Marfa Visitors Center, whose whole family was connected with the military, including his granddaughter showed on the second line from the top and the fourth picture from the left. He also told us about the women pilot group that was trained in Marfa during the WWII, called W.A.S.P..

Later on, we returned to the current Marfa visitors center but for a completely different  occasion. We were invited to "after the end of the world party" on the 22nd December for all survives living in Marfa! This was a private party organised by Dave, a Marfa lover living in Boston, and we had a great time. We met a lot of locals including the mayor of Marfa (the first from the right on the picture below) and my mum fulfilled her childhood dream and had a picture taken with a native american indian or rather half Apache and half Aztec (second below).

Despite the fact that the pictures form the party looks quite mellow, the party got going later on and we danced and danced... And we were not alone in this. A professional dance group from Austin kept us a company. Have a look at the video. There are some interesting moves out there. 

But Marfa is no longer about military as it was in the first half of 20th century. Marfa is now a town of artists. Despite being so small, every corner is  unique. Marfa has many small galleries, funky shops, amazing bookshop, restaurants, Paisano Hotel and El Cosmico accomodation.... it has a healthy population of young people and  you don`t miss a style when you walk around. And by this I don`t mean cowboy hats and boots as you would expect in this part of the world. So I hope it will stay this way and it will be an inspiration for its people and visiting tourists. I could show you more pictures showing Marfa`s character, but I would leave it up to you to fill the gaps. May be with the help of internet, or perhaps by buying a ticket : )