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Note: Thanks to Criminal Wisdom for portions of this statement. And, while you should trust nothing, you can learn something.
January122012
(via Remembering Esme Barrera)
“If you’re reading this, didn’t know this woman and you’re saying to yourself, ‘big deal, I know someone just like that,’ tell them. Today. We can’t bring Esme back, but any moment going forward not spent trying to match the very high bar she set … is time wasted.” — Gerard Cosloy, in a blog post at Cantstopthebleeding.comThe weird truth is you really don’t know whose lives you change at any moment, or how you change them. What might seem a small gesture to you might be huge for the person who receives it, positive or negative. Barrera was a lot of different things to a lot of different people, all of them positive. She is going to remain a vibrant presence in a lot of people’s lives.
“She was the best kind of person to have in Austin,” Chovan said. “She was hip and smart, but genuinely good.
“It wasn’t about pretense.”
Tags: /esme barrera /el paso /austin /momento mori
November142011
Faced with the failure of Mexican and U.S. authorities to prevent crime, Urias and his friends founded a charity, Project Paz, to try to help. Nothing has seemed able to quell the violence, so Urias turned to an unlikely source to help raise awareness of Juarez—the New York art community. […]
Sara Beltran, an artist from Juarez whose family has moved to El Paso, says, “All the sicarios, the ones killing people… they’re young.” Beltran moved to New York 12 years ago to attend the Fashion Institute of Technology. We stand near a display of dresses made from fabric from the Oaxacan Museum of Textiles, and she shows me bracelets she had designed for the event.
Beltran softly explains that her grandmother was recently murdered in Juarez, “They broke into her house… it was a 17 year old that killed her.”
“The violence affects everyone,” Beltran continues.
“We all have war stories,” Urias says. That’s the reason they founded Project Paz.
Tags: /juarez /mexico /project paz /soho /art /art gallery /border /el paso /felipe calderon /new york /rio grande river /sergio urias /U.S. /youth
November102011
(via Angels in Ciudad Juárez Try to Reduce Violence - NYTimes.com)
At crime scenes and busy corners recently, more than a dozen angels have appeared — 10 feet tall, with white robes and wide feathered wings. The fact that these angels are mostly teenagers from a tiny evangelical church on a dirt road makes their presence no less striking: they carry signs to murder scenes that say “murderers repent.” “It’s incredible, one of the most spectacular things I’ve seen,” said Jesús Nuñez, director of Tocando Puertas, a local social service agency. “It’s dangerous, but they keep doing it.”
Tags: /juarez /el paso /mexico /angels /social protest /Ciudad Juárez
June42011
A new mural named “El Pa Chuco” by artists Werc & Gera in Downtown El Paso, TX on the side of the San Carlos Building.
March132011
March62011
Illustrated version: “There’s no other place like El Chuco” by Ramón Rentería
There’s no other place like El Chuco
by Ramón Rentería \ El Paso Times \ 03/06/2011 12:00:00 AM MST
How do you define or describe El Paso?
Historians from across Texas were in town the past few days possibly pondering that simple yet often-complicated question.
Forget the obvious: brilliant postcard sunsets, the Rio Grande 
imprisoned in a wall and a mountain so near you can touch it from your backyard.
You don’t need multiple degrees to figure out El Paso is people speaking Spanish, English, Spanglish and sometimes only Spanish.
El Paso is viejitos soaked in history, sexy headless mannequins lined up on a Downtown sidewalk, midnight dining at Chico’s or any other burger joint, friends laughing in your backyard, proud veterans overdosed on patriotism, tearful UTEP graduations and ministers barking biblical scripture to the fiberglass alligators in the plaza.
Is it just an El Paso thing?
Or do all tattoo parlors in Texas have a mannequin wearing a cowboy hat perched on a chair like a beached mermaid?
In El Paso, we eat gorditas or tamales any day, not just on holidays or when the monks do their fall bazaar.
El Paso is a big city with a distinct small-town flavor, an overgrown village.
As someone said the other day, El Paso’s strong sense of family lures us back when we strike out on our own to make our fortunes in New York, Los Angeles, Dallas or Austin.
El Paso feels like home even if you are not a native, even if you swear you will be buried someday in your true hometown.
In El Paso, we don’t really care if actor Charlie Sheen implodes. (That’s his expensive problem.) We would rather worry about stuff that matters, like making sure they don’t run out of Miner football season tickets before payday.
El Paso is cruising on Alameda while the cops aren’t looking and stopping at the red light next to a guy in a souped- up truck playing oldies, rap or mariachi music.
El Paso can be called El Paso, Chuco Town or El Chuco without having an identity crisis. It is what it is, a hybrid sort of place, sometimes a state of mind that we struggle to define.
To live in El Paso is to rub elbows with artists and writers, politicos, movers and shakers, and comadres and compadres. Sometimes, we forget ordinary people also contribute to El Paso’s diverse personality.
El Paso is full of unsung heroes, people who dedicate precious time to helping others, individuals who truly follow the footsteps of Christ or César Chávez like the 
priest said, without calling attention to themselves.
El Paso is about la gente, generous souls who become friends, neighbors, compadres or co-workers.
Forget about copying San Antonio, Tucson or Albuquerque. We’re better.
And it really doesn’t matter if misguided outsiders think we’re too hot, too sweaty, too fat, too illiterate, too ugly or too dirty.
El Paso is our personal sliver of paradise — special in its own crazy way.
Ramón Rentería may be reached at rrenteria@elpasotimes.com; 546-6146.
(Source: elpasotimes.com)
Tags: /el chuco /el paso /Ramón Rentería
January152011
The Judge and Gabriel “Fluffy” Iglesias. He was at the Best Buy at Sunland this afternoon before his show tonight at the Plaza Theatre.
Tags: /gabriel iglesias /fluffy /the judge /the plaza theatre /el chuco /el paso
December302010
Snowfall near Foxes Arroyo, North Chaparral Park, El Paso, TX
December 30, 2010. Edited with SimpleMovieX, and shot with a Nikon Coolpix S630. Combined three separate shots. I wanted to add transitions and music, but unable to edit in iMovie. Children across the arroyo play and can be heard in the background.
Earlier, I told friends that today is my anniversary, and on that night it snowed, too.
Tags: /elpaso /el paso /foxes arroyo /nikon coolpix s630 /simplemoviex
December62010
(Armando) Velez said new rules have emerged for journalists covering the daily maelstrom of violence in Juarez, a city that is the most violent in the hemisphere. Most of the stories about the most grisly incidents are bylined “staff” rather than the reporter’s name to prevent reprisals.
McClatchy blog: Mexico Unmasked by Tim Johnson
I’m attending a conference in El Paso, Texas, on the dangers faced by Mexican journalists, particularly along the U.S.-Mexican border. It is quite sobering.
Tags: /juarez /narco war /el paso /utep /journalists /bloggers /el diario
December22010
Cinco Puntos Press reissues Terrence E. Poppa's 'Drug Lord »
Tags: /el paso /Juarez /Terrence Poppa /Drug Lord book /Cinco Puntos Press /el paso herald post /el paso times
November182010
Project Paz Auction Helps Raise Funds for Juárez Youth | VF Daily | Vanity Fair
The Juárez and El Paso region is home to many of New York’s young fashion talents, including W.’s Karla Martinez, Thakoon’s Stacey Caldwell, Marie Claire’Dania Ortiz, makeup artist Alexa Rodulfo, Carolina Herrera’s Veronica Martinez, Lucia Zamarron (formerly of Carolina Herrera), and Ralph Lauren’s Rita Beltran, among others.
Tags: /vanity fair /juarez /el paso /fashion /project paz auction /Juárez
