FBA#20-El Paso/Juarez-Dec. 2008
First block of America (FBA).
El Paso Street. La Frontera. I’d call it Texas but it ain’t. Everyone knows it if they’re from here. Texans hold their arms out, full length. Americans think it’s part of Mexico…or hell. New Mexicans…furgidaboutit! It’s all they have to really feel superior to.
El Paso, the nation-state of nowhere.Jump off that Paso del norte bridge and there you are. “Welcome,” to America. Well, welcome to the marketplace anyway. But, truth is, this is the first block of America, and millions have come over it and never turned back. Some have called it the “Ellis Island,” of the south. Latinos have pured through hwere for centuries, some just visiting, thank you, many heading north to El Norte, not looking back.
More like the Lower East Side of the Spanish Americas. Tumultuous.
A lot of feet have passed over these streets (mine, too, for a lot of years), heading somewhere, hitting that first block of the so-called “first world,” because the United States is so enlightened, because it has such clean elections, because it has such sterling laws that permit no corruption (Please, do not look at the Nightly Financial News, or watch the local cable show of the clownish County Court, OK?), because the little people are “everyman,” and are treated equally to an Oligarchy.
Right.
Come on…say it with a straight face.
Dare you.
But, every once in a while on the FBA, someone is rushing backwards, back to Juarez, back to the third world, back to the murder, back to the other. Well, actually, every night, many are rushing back, away from the enlightenment and the elevated morality (I’m choking) and the safety, back to home.
Many nights I follow them.
What kind of an Ellis Island is this?
1 Comment
I’m just home from spending the afternoon on the FBA. But your poetic imagination will allow me to see it–REALLY see it–when I return next week.
As always, thank you so much for this post.