El Paso - the briefest history of Mexico

Most days at the shelter I worked from noon to nine-ish so I tried to inject some border tourism into my life. -- Not on Tuesday though because I spent that whole day in the bathroom. I'll spare you the gory details but at one point my day involved puking down a flight of stairs. (Ok, I didn't spare you the gory details.) -- But on Wednesday I headed over to the El Paso Museum of History which for some reason had a whole room dedicated to the Federal Reserve Bank.

The Museum's focus is the fact that El Paso is a transient railroad town with many people coming and going. El Paso is known for the five C's: cattle, climate, copper, commerce (including the eponymous salsa), and cotton. It has some interesting displays: neighborhood photos from the 1950s, a room of travel items including a vanity case donated by a woman under the condition that it be sold if she needs money, an exhibit of movies filmed in the city, and a copy of Pancho Villa's death mask.

I'd discovered that I know very little about the history of the Southwest and Mexico. This was hammered in when I ask someone if Porfirio Diaz was a poet. In fact, Porfirio Diaz was President of Mexico from 1877 until 1911. One of those benevolent neoliberal dictators, he was supported by the US. After like six terms in office, he held an election but had his challenger Francisco Madero arrested thus sparking the Mexican Revolution in which Pancho Villa was a leader of pro-Madero military forces. Villa wasn't a poet ether although he had like 25 children with like 75 women.

In addition to historical and tourist sites, I also seek out good food in the cities I visit. Another volunteer recommended that I visit La Malinche to which I responded, "I'm sorry, what?" In my experience, that is a not very nice word meaning traitor or whore or traitorous whore I suppose but I didn't know the background of the term. Historically, La Malinche was an enslaved woman who acted as interpreter and intermediary for conquistador Hernan Cortes (and later had his child the first mestizo). Anyhoo, I continued my historical education over enchiladas. I was not terribly impressed but I'm a gringa so don't take my word for it.

At the shelter that night, I notice a teenaged boy sitting miserably outside of the bathroom. Everyone was trying to get him to come to dinner or lay down but he was not having it...and I totally empathized. Later on Wednesday night, I again traded a ride to the hotel for interpretation duties. This time we were dropping a woman and her daughter off at the airport...for a morning flight (gah). I explained where to find a clock, how security works (it's different for migrants without picture ID), where to find water, and how to change flights in Houston (a huge airport that even I got turned around in). The woman's husband had asked that I make her a sign to say "I don't speak English. Please help" and I wasn't sure if that would make her more of a target or less. I was starting to get really nervous when one of the airport cleaning staff came up to us and said (in Spanish) "If you have any problems, in any airport, look for us. We'll help." And we all welled up. It's a theme.

On Thursday I rolled over to the El Paso Museum of Art which was just a really cool space to rest and reflect over historical and contemporary art alike. Including a butter sculpture:

Ha!