Historias: Stories of El Paso - Virtual Exhibition
Historias: Historias de El Paso - Exposición Virtual

Historias: Stories of El Paso - Virtual Exhibition

Historias: Stories of El Paso A virtual exhibition curated by our community Courtesy of: Patricia Brunson Title: Jesus Norman Historia type: Photograph I took this picture around 1979 while hiking around the mountains near UTEP with my nephew, Jesus Rene, when I was about 17. We were overlooking the Rio Grande into Ciudad Juarez. He was visiting us with my brother and his family from Van Horn, TX. Jesus and I talked about the differences in the rocks, about what the trains might be carrying - where they might be going, looked for quick-moving lizards and watched the slow pace of the river flowing below. In that river, we saw The Crossers moving cautiously in the shallow water, sack in hand, heading to “our side” of the world. Like the lizards, they’d quickly vanish out of sight. I tried to tell Jesus what my mother always taught us, say a prayer for Esos pobrecitos, but he was too little as he shut his eyes closed, to do more than move his lips saying nothing as I prayed, “Cuidalos Señor y que encuentran trabajo”. My older brother had given me a Nikon camera. This particular day, Jesus and I went wandering for a photo adventure. This shot is weak in composition and quality, but I chose it because it sums up life here on this dusty border. Here, what seems bleak and impoverished is -- not that. What you might see as dirt, to us, is life! The border is that mystical place between here and there, where the winner of The Quality of Life Award – in my eyes, always ended in a tie. That side was fun, so how did we really have it better here? As a little girl in the ’60s, it was always a thrilling adventure when my dad would take me to that side as his companion, for whatever reasons; to visit his friends who owned gas stations, food stands for groceries, and cantinas for what my dad said were “refrescos”. As a young ‘Dancing Queen’ in the late ’70s, my friends and I would dance the night away “over there”, where life seemed so worldly, clubs so exotic. We’d order Brandy Alexanders, served to us on silver trays by older gentlemen with crisp white towels draped over their serving arm, wearing tuxedo jackets. They’d call us “mijita” like a watchful old uncle making sure no one got overserved or too friendly, yet gave us the freedom to shake our groove thing until we threw caution to the wind and drank a gallon of Juarez water. By day, we’d spend hours outdoors playing sports in the world’s perfect climate. Too hot? Not for us desert rats who ran over Scenic Drive at 3 p.m. in September and drank from the hoses of lush homes on Rim Road. Yet the best part of life was the gatherings with family: siblings, elders, and cousins. We’d have barbeques, baptisms, birthdays, weddings, and celebrations of service men coming home. Being with family was the best life had to offer. The elders would depart, kiss us on the forehead and say, “Dios los bendiga”. Love was everywhere.

Area: Central / Downtown

Source: Patricia Brunson

Uploaded by: El Paso Museum of History

Comments

Add a comment
Thank you for your comment

Report this entry

Choose the most important reason for this report

Your name

Your email address

Optional detail

Thank you for your report

More from the same community-collection

Plaza Theater water fountain

Old water fountain in the Plaza Theater.

Plaza Theater 'coat room'

The old coat room in the Plaza Theater, it was used to store ...

The White House, Mills Building, and The Plaza Hotel

All of these famous El Paso landmarks in the historic Pioneer ...

The White House Department store

This department store has been around for over 100 years in one ...

Inside the White House - El Paso, Texas

One of the oldest and most well-known businesses in El Paso, ...

Me and the White House Department Store

This is a picture of me standing in front of the building that ...

Me y mi familia in Pioneer Plaza

Most of my family have grown up in this fine city. This is me ...

The Wyler Aerial Tramway

It looks very scary upon initial view but this was a very ...

Plaza theatre

The front of the plaza theatre, by the box office. (Me next to ...

John Wesley Hardin

John Hardin was a feared gunman of Texas. He is said to have ...

StreetFest 2010

Saliva performing at StreetFest 2010.

tricky falls

Tricky Falls in El Paso Texas is now an entertainment venue for ...

Soundcheck

Lead guitarist of local band "the genders", Alexia, tuning her ...

The Genders

lead singer of "The Genders" ,Mona, belts out an original song ...

Julia Bussinger - Visionary For The Digital Wall Says Goodbye

Julia Bussinger - Director of the El Paso Museum of History says ...

Christmas 2015

Working on the naitivity

Christmas 2015

Working on naitivity

Christmas 2015

Checking the lights and checking them twice

Christmas 2015

Christmas tree

Christmas 2015

Ready for assembly

Julia Bussinger

On December 3, 2015 - staff members said goodbye to Julia ...

Goodbye To Julia Bussinger

On December 3, 2015 - staff members said goodbye to Julia ...

Celebration of Lights

Photograph taken before the Celebration of Lights in Cleveland ...

home.search_collection