For the people of San Elizario, the journey to preserve their mission and their homes, has been their mission.

"Every day we work on it, we have meetings, and everyone's busy, at least 35 of us," San Elizario resident Grace Sanchez said.

Originally, the idea of incorporating the town of San Elizario into a city came out of desperation as residents struggled to prevent Socorro from adding their land into its boundaries. For incorporation to happen, a town has to get the permission of surrounding cities if they want to incorporate. Each city has a buffer zone around it called Extraterritorial Jurisdiction, or ETJ. San Elizario falls in Socorro's ETJ, A spokesperson from Socorro says the city does not plan on giving towns in its ETJ permission to incorporate.

"We're not giving up. Our community is getting together with committees, working very hard to find out any research about our past," Sanchez said.

A possible savior is the town's history, as it had previously incorporated in 1906.

"In 1911, the town of San Elizario did dis-incorporate, We're trying to go back and see where the election of that is, which we can't find," San Elizario resident Maya Sanchez said.

But hope is not lost, as Texas State Rep. Mary Gonzalez has introduced a bill in the state Legislature.

"They wouldn't have to ask for consent. They would just have to incorporate, but they would still have to go through the other steps," State Rep. Mary Gonzalez, D-El Paso said.

Those steps, the petition with 10 registered voter signatures, the approval by a county judge, and the public vote on the incorporation, are not enough to stop San Elizario committee members from making the town into an independent city.

"I haven't lost the hope that we can do something about it. Since we've been in existence 400 years, how can we not exist," Grace Sanchez said.

Gonzalez says that the incorporation bill is isolated to this one incident involving San Elizario. She says she considers this a special issue, because of what she says is the rich history of the town.