El Paso, United States Travel Blogs

Evening of Trouble & Beauty
Mar 19, 2008 (6 photos)

... many: femicide in Juarez that's spreading through Mexico. She and novelist Stella Pope Duarte addressed the issue at El Paso Community College, following a Borderland debut screening of the film Border Echoes, the movie which narrates the investigation ...

Actually crossing over the International Bridge
Jan 1, 2008 (10 photos)

... ;sola for the first time recently. Not so many years ago, I had never walked into Mexico. This entry will simply record the experience of crossing from El Paso USA into Juarez MX. For details on each step of the sequence, click on the photo.

A visit to the local CBS studios
Apr 23, 2007 (5 photos)

I was promoting the Wheels of Justice stop in El Paso on the local CBS affiliate today, so got my photo taken with the new young journalist/newscaster in town. Skylar and I had met several weeks back at the Maryknoll house: Casa Puente. It was fun to watch ...

Adopt-a-Farmworker-Family Xmas
Dec 20, 2007 (15 photos)

This month's project: playing "Santa" to a Farmworker family. When a hometown family sent money to the Border with me to sponsor a needy family (instead of exchanging gifts with each other), I adopted a family of seven: parents, their 15 ...

Human Trafficking in El Paso
Mar 24, 2007 (2 photos)

... not smuggled, they're trafficked-often originating in their being tricked or lied to by the perpetrator. A conservative guess is that the United States receives 15,000 new slaves annually (could be as high as 50,000!). So, we learned some warning signs to ...

A Dubuque German-American on immigration
Jan 5, 2007 (1 photos)

Different eras, different homelands, but sharing hard work and dreams by TIM TRENKLE SPECIAL TO THE Des Moines REGISTER The storefront next to City Hall advertised Old World sausage. Family had plied the German method of an ancient recipe, ...

Chamizal National Monument and Scenic View Park
Mar 25, 2007 (9 photos)

... , too.   While speaking of parks, I'll also post my photos from the city park on the point of Franklin Mountain that overlooks El Paso (and, beyond to Juarez) on Scenic View Drive. From here, you can see "the Pass to the North" or "El Paso Del Norte ...

Ruben Garcia
Jan 3, 2007 (1 photos)

... informative at this website: Columban. I encourage you to look at it. I'm looking forward to meeting him as part of my life in El Paso. "I don't want to be defined that way. I don't want to be in a country that takes 12 million human beings who are ...

Lovely, historic Secondo Barrio: "The Second Ward"
Apr 20, 2008 (15 photos)

... Paso Del Sur website] "the destruction of the heart of the Segundo Barrio, both a living community and the oldest neighborhood of El Paso. To replace the neighborhood with a 'big-box retail store' (Wal-Mart or Target), a strip mall and service economy ...

A visit to the Muslim community in El Paso
Apr 29, 2007 (6 photos)

The mosque of the Islamic Community of El Paso is only a 5 minute walk from my Vista Sol apartment, but the cultural divide kept me away. Since the Wheels Tour was bringing a Palestinian American, I did venture over to the Middle Eastern restaurant and ...

Farmworkers' March Honors Cesar Chavez
Mar 31, 2007 (8 photos)

... workers from past years] the wages withheld from their pay, 2) to include the people's agenda in any renovations done in El Segundo Barrio, 3) to honor Cesar and the farmworkers. Those "in the know" wore black and red, the Farmworkers' colors. We ...

Your Texan passport to Asia. Apply within.
Feb 9, 2008 (13 photos)

... levels. The temple is only 10 blocks from my place. I attend religiously. And I recommend it. This movement's popularity in El Paso shatters my stereotypes of Texan's "King of the Hill"-cartoon lifestyles. What's more, they can 'do' martial arts ...

Holy Week in El Paso
Apr 6, 2007 (4 photos)

Palm Sunday Mass at Annunciation House was particularly touching. We had the largest group in our brief history helping there on Sundays: maybe about 25-30 people. Maybe because all participants receive palms, more people came than usual. The palms were ...

Close Encounter with TX politics
Mar 18, 2007 (2 photos)

... Texas Ranks among the 50 States (you need PDF viewer) Summary: Texas isn't doing too well compared to the other 49 states. You may be suprised just how poorly it's doing. Lifting the Lamp Beside Texas' Door is his statement on Texas' intersection ...

April Desert Hail-storm
May 2, 2007 (3 photos)

Shocking photos show the sudden storm results (accompanied by tornados) in the desert, that hit El Paso...flooding streets and closing the main library's computer lab for several days. And I was just beginning to blog when the first signs of the storm ...

Recommended Reading
Apr 13, 2007 (2 photos)

... decades, from resisting war in Vietnam and Central America, to accompanying the homeless and displaced in Brazil, El Salvador, Mexico, Guatemala and the United States. Larry is a friend of our Ciudad Juarez Oblate priest friend Fr Peter (also a very ...

What I didn't see on the evening newscast
Mar 6, 2007 (1 photos)

TODAY'S UPDATE Photo taken at the Centro Mujeres de la Esperanza here in El Paso. Click to enlarge. Or scroll to enlarged photo below text. Night after night, you don't hear this on the evening newscast. Regarding the last point: Border ...

More on Las Americas and Our Big Project!
Jan 29, 2007 (3 photos)

Well, El Paso is the poorest major metropolitan area in Texas, and the fifth poorest city in the U.S.! Nevertheless, thousands of immigrants pass through here each year, many of them unaccompanied children who are fleeing abuse, neglect and/or persecution. ...

The El Paso Zoo
Feb 21, 2008 (27 photos)

Lots of fun at the El Paso zoo, even more fun in a few months when the new exhibits open. The highlight is the sea lion exhibit/show. Enjoy the photos.

Teaching English as a Second Language
Mar 13, 2007 (3 photos)

In my Midwestern life, people politely asked me (when they heard of my Border Plans)"What will you DO there?" Since I didn't really know that, I'd always answer, "Well, I'll probably teach ESL," and that seemed to satisfy them. So, when the opportunity ...

blowing it with NPR but May Day happy anyway
May 1, 2008 (11 photos)

... stupidities. All I can say is: Thank God for tape; I'm glad it wasn't live. It wasn't my day. A couple hundred marched through El Paso even though winds were roaring gusts of 45 MPH, the air filled with dust and blowing sand. The little rally set the right ...

Border Peace Presence
Jan 27, 2007 (6 photos)

There's a weekly demonstration for peace in El Paso, giving us opportunity to show our commitment to ending the Iraq War. It meets at noon for an hour each Friday at the intersection facing the federal and county court buildings. That hour just flies by, ...

Wheels of Justice
Apr 28, 2007 (7 photos)

... , elevated my disgust level nicely at the horrific injustice perpetrated against Palestinians by Israel ["the 51st state of the United States", they called themselves back when I was visiting the country in 1988 referring to the mother load of U.S. ...

Opportunity Center
Apr 22, 2007 (2 photos)

This political cartoon is similar to one in today's El Paso Times. Thursday we toured El Paso's Opportunity Center, a multi-plexed site assisting the homeless in various configurations. Staffer Sr. Elise remarked that the majority of the folks she ...

two incidents on the peace corner
Apr 25, 2007

Two memorable moments on the corner of Campbell and San Antonio Streets from Noon-1 PM each Friday [anti-Iraq war vigil]: 1) It happened to be Good Friday. I happened to be holding a very stark black-and-white sign that declared in bold letters: "Too ...

"Illegals" or "my friends"?
Apr 9, 2008

I am so lucky to be able to assist many poor people in El Paso, among them are the so-called "illegal aliens" so maligned by the media. How can a person be illegal? Who makes those rules? They become my friends and, as I prepare to leave in a few weeks, my ...

Listening in El Paso
Mar 5, 2007 (2 photos)

Three women's centers (from MX, El P, and NM) joined forces to sponsor a day with Sr. Marianne from San Francisco. She directs one of the two training programs in the U.S. that teach people how to carefully listen to Spanish-speakers as they reflect on God ...

ASARCO: pollution on the Border
May 4, 2007 (4 photos)

Environmental pollution was a concern I had about living in El Paso. Indeed, the ASARCO smokestack was one of the first landmarks I noticed on the skyline. ASARCO is a copper smelting plant that operated for years here and is trying to start up ...

El Segundo Barrio
Mar 30, 2007 (7 photos)

... reside in this area in numerous apartment complexes. It could affect many of the poorest of the poor, living in shelters in El Paso, since this area is home to several shelters. Sacred Heart Church is a major actor in uniting and advocating for the ...

Week 2: When Need Meets Gift
Jan 14, 2007

... woman-originating in Paris, France and having served in Lebanon-Sr. Liliane was trailed by a French cinematographer who was in El Paso to film her for a television documentary for European broadcast. Since we were part of her day, we signed permissions to ...