Cameraphone session, 5:15pm, December 20, 2007 / Centro El Paso
El Paso’s El Centro, the downtown, is packed with people at Christmastime. Unlike most cities of the southwest and of the rest of the United States, El Paso’s downtown is alive and bustling at all times of year, but especially during this season.
Many of these other city’s downtowns are now reduced to “cultural,” creations, created by the elites for the elites, as opposed to naturally occurring, shopping districts for the average person, as is the vibrant center of El Paso. These downtown creations, slick, cute, smart and empty are rarely used except for evening concerts that cater to the elites. In El Paso, the Centro is the people’s by day and most nights. Once in a while, for example when they have a mainstream something like River Dance or BB King, the elites occupy it for a few hours, then return to where they came from, and the Centro returns to the people who live there). El Paso’s downtown, on the south side of the city, is situated directly north of the border that joins Mexico and the United States, Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, and El Paso, Texas. Merchants cater to Mexican and Mexican American shoppers (many of whom reside in the neighborhood immediately north of the border in a historic neighborhood called El Segundo barrio). The merchants there offer what these shoppers want at the prices they need and the commerce is brisk and plentiful.
Additionally, if Christmas, Navidad, is “all about family,” then this is a holiday seemingly invented for the latino population of El Paso/ Juarez who are, also “all about family.” The shopping is more than about the merchandise purchased in El Paso’s south side. It’s about being together, sharing the hustle and bustle, creating memories- and, in this case, cellphone pictures- to remember the season of Christmas 2007.
Feliz Navidad a todos, del lado sur / Merry Christmas to everybody from the south side.
