El Paso. There is literally no other place like it, I grew up here, and for that I am forever connected to it. As much as some people hate El Paso, I don't. I do in fact get tired of it, but there is times, when I really love El Paso. Especially when I return to it after being away a while. Once, about last spring I was sitting in the car with my sister. We were driving down the freeway, the window was open, and there was ranchero music ringing in my ears from the radio, I closed my eyes, and for some reason, at that moment I remember falling in love with El Paso.
El Paso is a unique city. There are many reasons why I love El Paso, its been said that El Paso is the biggest small town you'll ever see, and its true. Everyone I know in El Paso is connected somehow to another person. Not to mention the food, its Mexican food is world renowned (maybe its because were right next to Mexico?) but nonetheless, the outstanding Mexican food is something I pride myself on when telling other people I'm from El Paso.
El Paso is also called the Sun City. Now, for me this is something I have mixed feelings on. El Paso promises to have sun 360 days out of the year. And lemme tell you, Good Ol' El Paso doesn't bluff. And as much as this can get irritating having so much sun, I have learned that it is kind of a package deal when you get El Paso. So if you don't like sun, your going to have a problem, its better to just embrace the sun.
Theres moments, I have while living here, (like the one I mentioned earlier) that make me love El Paso even more. Like when I am walking back from the Burrito Truck at lunch, where I didnt have enough coins to make 3.00 for the burrito and Takis and the Mexican man took my 2.85 instead and said that was good enough. Things like that, I thought while walking back and listening to the mariachis blaring from radios, and the cholos sitting on the porch, this is what El Paso is all about.
El Paso is this odd mix of cultures. The Mexican-American relationship that is prominent in El Paso is something I have held close to my heart. A mother of one of my very good friends once told me I had a Mexican Heart. (Please don't get me wrong, I love America, and I am fully a patriot but hey whats wrong with a little cultural expansion right?) Anyways, when she told me that, I was honored. She meant it in the sense that I am like an honorary Mexican. And I was honored because being around this culture so much in my life, I do feel like an honorary mexican.
To some, El Paso never changes. This is sometimes a problem, but in an odd secret way, I kind of like the fact that El Paso doesn't change. I know one day, I will leave El Paso, and I know when I come home to visit, I want the same El Paso. I want to see the same rugged desert mountains greeting me with their towering form and letting me know I'm home. The simple El Paso that is unique and quirky. Its special little treasures that we pride ourselves on, Chico's Tacos, Scenic Drive, El Paso High, our sunsets, Music Under the Stars, the Franklin Mountains covered with poppies in the spring.
I realize that El Paso has its problems, but when I sat in the car (yet again), I looked out the window to see a truck filled with cantaloupes on the corner of a gas station parking lot, and a for sale sign, I saw El Paso yet again, in its raw form. It's cheap sophistication, and simple people showing through that make me contented to say I am from El Paso, Texas.
El Paso is this large (yet small-town feeling) city, it is simple and commonplace. We're nothing elegant, extravagant, or glamorous. But we are proud of who we are and our simple treasures.
We are who we are, us El Pasoans, bonded by a strange connection to El Paso, and I hope we never change.
Viva El Paso.
Love, down from the West Texas town of El Paso, Shelby.
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