The day after Columbus

Oct. 13 – El Paso, TX

Some people in this country believe Americans should not have to "press '1' to continue in English". These people ought not visit El Paso.

Walking down El Paso Street, past pawn shops selling pneumatic guns, accordions and life-sized novelty statues, past shops selling clothes para niños y niñas, past mercados that spill over into the sidewalk to promote browsing and haggling, you could be in any Mexican city. With one exception, that is: the proportion of Mexican people is much higher here.

For all the spaciousness of Texas, El Paso seems uniquely crowded, and not merely from the throngs of cross-border shoppers on El Paso Street. The city spreads out in three wings where it can find space between the Franklin Mountains, Fort Bliss Military Reservation (a vast tract of mostly vacant desert that must be worth thousands of income tax returns per acre) and the Rio Grande. At the hub of these wings, freeways and the railroad jockey for position, not always with a clear winner emerging. Trying to edge into the fray, already bursting at its own seams, is Ciudad Juárez in the Mexican state of Chihuahua.

Urban revitalization has claimed only a small pocket of downtown El Paso. Pioneer Plaza is the locus of an arts and cultural district that includes the Plaza Theatre, marvelously restored in the Mission style with stars in the auditorium ceiling and a mild summer breeze blowing across the seats. Across the street is the elegant, old-fashioned Camino Real hotel, whose cocktail lounge boasts a 25-foot cut glass Tiffany dome and live cover bands. And I heard that around the corner is a great low-down dive with a six-piece mariachi combo and home-cooked Mexican grub. Wish I'd gone there: press "2" to continue in American.

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