I hope you enjoy RumpToons No: 183!

We have to remember that the labor movement in Mexico is bigger than any one politician, whether U.S. or Mexican. The Lexmark workers plight has ignited a labor struggle that is 50 years old, ever since NAFTA was signed into law. The Mexican workers are sick and tired of being exploited and paid starvation wages… Read More Stories from the history vault (January 29, 2016)

From: Paul Foster Sent: Wednesday, April 29, 2020 11:41 AM To: Dee Margo <mayor@elpasotexas.gov>; Peter Svarzbein <district1@elpasotexas.gov>; district2@elpasotexas.gov; Cassandra Hernandez <district3@elpasotexas.gov>; Sam Morgan <district4@elpasotexas.gov>; Isabel Salcido <district5@elpasotexas.gov>; distrist6@elpasotexas.gov; Henry Rivera <district7@elpasotexas.gov>; Cissy Lizarraga <district8@elpasotexas.gov> Cc: Tommy Gonzalez <gtgonzalez44@gmail.com> Subject: Thank you for Defending the Citizens of El Paso Mayor and Council, I just wanted to… Read More Paul Foster’s letter to the Mayor and City Council thanking them for voting against agenda item 19.1, which would have suspended the “Arena” and Cultural Heritage Center for budgetary reasons

El PASO – Chinese immigrants have a rich history on the border that is often overlooked or left to individual families like the Wongs to try to preserve.

“My grandfather was from Guangzhou, China. He moved to Mexico in the early 1900’s,” said Francisco “Paco” Wong, 62, owner of Paco Wong’s restaurant in El Paso. “My grandfather died in 1937 when my father was only ten years old. (His death) was the first strike on my family’s Chinese culture.”

Wong has family ties on both sides of the border and relatives who have created their own fusion of Mexican and Chinese culture even as they tried to maintain contact with relatives back in China.

“My uncle, my grandfather’s brother, continued to stay in touch with my grandmother and the kids,” Wong said. “Keeping (our) tradition was hard. Basically, my father had to create his own Mexican-Chinese traditions by himself.”

This inspired his father, Fernando Wong, to open the Shangri La restaurant in Ciudad Juarez in 1960. The restaurant celebrates its 60th anniversary in September.

“In the early years he was the pioneer of the Chinese (food) industry. People used to go from El Paso to Juarez. It was very popular in El Paso with the older generations,” Wong said.

Shangri-La became a gateway to understanding Chinese influence. But growing up Wong said rumors were also part of local lore about the border’s Chinese immigrants.

“I lived in Sunset Heights for about 20 years and there are a lot of rumors of tunnels that the Chinese immigrants used to live in,” he said.

He followed in his father’s footsteps and opened his own restaurant, Paco Wong’s, in El Paso in 2006. The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted business and forced Wong to close the restaurant temporarily. He has shifted to providing take out orders with curbside service.

The impact of Chinese immigrants in Texas

Wong’s family and others are part of a resilient, hardworking Chinese community that was the largest in Texas during the early 20th century. Many immigrants opened stores, worked for railroads and did other jobs to send money back to their families in China.

“I would call it like one of those hidden histories that we have,” said Stephanie Gardea, education and curatorial associate for the El Paso Museum of History.

“Starting with some of the first neighborhoods here in El Paso with the Chinese immigrants and how a lot of these immigrants played a role in building the railroads and how they immigrated here through the U.S. Mexico border because of the Chinese Exclusion Act are all a part of these larger histories that people don’t really realize played a part in our history,” she said.

Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882 to prevent Chinese laborers from immigrating to the United States. It was the first federal law explicitly suspending immigration of people of a specific nationality and was repealed in 1943. Chinese immigrants have faced discrimination on both sides of the border.

But there’s a new effort to spotlight Chinese culture in El Paso. In January the El Paso History Museum hosted a Lunar New Year Celebration and plans to make it an annual event.

“It will be nice if it can become a tradition,” Wong said.

Click hear to read Borderland reflecting more on the contributions of Chinese immigrants in El Paso, Juarez

The sounds of off-road vehicles grinding through the desert in east El Paso County are mostly just a memory now. The sprawling dunes area known as Red Sands is closed and Sheriff’s patrols are turning off-road enthusiasts away to limit the potential for public contact over coronavirus concerns.

But, before the closure, the sounds of 4x4s filled Red Sands day and night as groups of vehicles roamed the rugged terrain, climbing over dunes and sometimes getting stuck in the soft sands. That’s when the Texas Rescue Patrol might come to the rescue.

The Texas Rescue Patrol is a group of volunteers who are part of the off-roading community who respond to calls for help and try to do whatever they can for stranded vehicles or accident cases, especially in the hard-to-reach areas of the desert. According to its website, The Texas Rescue Patrol has about 40 members, who volunteer their time and personal resources to help out a potential 4,500 square mile response area in the Chihuahuan desert. The group has access to ATV’s, horses, drones and other equipment that helps them respond to accidents. In addition to rescue efforts, the Texas Rescue Patrol conducts safety trainings and workshops for the public.

“Some people just don’t, uh, how do I say it? They just go crazy, with no concern for safety and that’s what causes the accidents,” said Rick Peinado, 41, a Texas Rescue Patrol volunteer. Peinado has been off-roading the desert since he moved to the Montana Vista area of El Paso at age 13. He has been volunteering with the patrol since 2017, a year after they formed.

He said volunteers are committed to supporting a safe off-roading community.

“If we need the horses they bring them same thing with the drones. It’s a team, if we need them they come, all volunteers,” Peinado said.

Jamil Moutran is the creator and chief of the Texas Rescue Patrol. He is also the owner of Rent-A-UTV Off-Road Adventures, a UTV rental place located at the entryway to the Red Sands area.

“Jamil and those guys are great they pretty much saw a need and they filled it, they filled that need very well,” said Martin Arellano, 35, a frequent off roader.

The group responds to many incidents ranging from minor injuries to major roll overs. Recently, Polaris donated a Ranger Crew 1000XP rescue vehicle to the Texas Rescue Patrol. It can transport seven first responders and one patient across the most difficult to reach off-road settings. Arellano said this sort of equipment is essential for desert rescues.

“I’m sure you’ve seen an ambulance or firetruck, they’re all big heavy vehicles that couldn’t handle the terrain. The Texas Rescue Patrol have an EMT prepped jeep that can make it out here just fine,” he said.

Digital networking

Arellano and Peinado are both active on a popular off-roading Facebook group called Dirt Alert El Paso. The members of Dirt Alert help each other out when they’re stuck in the dunes. Anyone that finds themselves stuck in the middle of nowhere can pin their location, post it on the Facebook group and soon one of over 13,000 members will respond.

“I’ve used it a couple of times, had a flat tire posted it on there and someone comes out to help you,” said Christian Slaughter, 27. He is an Army soldier, stationed in El Paso and often goes off-roading with his 4-year-old son. “I’m just glad that there is something like that, that people would volunteer, that there’s people like that, that will help. It’s all good.”

To demonstrate how the community works together, Arellano posted pictures of a mess left behind from a party in the desert. By the end of the day the post was shared and commented on enough that the culprits went back and cleaned up their mess.

“That’s the exact response we were looking for,” Arellano said.

Now, many members of Dirt Alert El Paso are responding to concerns over the spread of coronavirus by urging people not to go out to the desert where they’re risking their own safety and that of anyone who would come to their rescue.

Ren-A-UTV Off-Roading Adventures Photo credit: Alex Mercado

 

Not public land

While off-roaders have built up a self-policing community and support each other on the trails, Roger Esparza, fire marshal for El Paso County Emergency Services District 2 said they are largely operating on private properties. Montana Vista Fire Department has the gear and training for desert rescues, but is concerned that off-roaders shouldn’t be rolling through Red Sands in the first place.

“We do have the equipment to do that, we have the equipment, except we’re not there. We don’t go patrol private properties which is what these people are doing,” Esparza said.

The dangers of off-roading can lead to serious injury from rollovers or being ejected from the vehicle. Esparza said rescue efforts should be led by professional, official first responders.

“If people were allowed to do that how many people would want to create their own little rescue patrol to bypass the government? We don’t want people freelancing because what happens when those people get hurt,” he said.

Michael O’Connor, a member of the Texas Rescue Patrol, is a combat medic currently stationed at Fort Bliss. He says several other members of the patrol have similar medical training.

“It doesn’t get more professional than that,” O’Connor said.

 

 

Click hear to read Desert drivers come to their own rescue in El Paso’s off-road community

It’s Saturday.

What’s on your mind?

We deserve better

Brutus

Alice Leora Briggs was recently awarded a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship for her work in the visual arts. See: www.gf.org/fellows/all-fellows/alice-leora-briggs/ You can see her work at aliceleorabriggs.com. Her publications include: Dreamland: The Way Out of Juárez, an illuminated manuscript-police blotter with writer Charles Bowden, and The Room, a suite of twelve chine collé woodcuts with poet Mark Strand.

WTF Statement Rep. Henry Rivera claims he was talking to a starving orphan begging at his door.
Rivera said on the record, “So What the Fuck are you complaining about. You fucking idiot” to a citizen at April 28th City Council Meeting
May 1, 2020 Associated Messby Ben Dejo 
El Paso City Representative Henry Rivera stated to the Associated Mess that his statements at the April 28, 2020 city council meeting were taken out of context.


At that meeting, while a citizen was making public commentary, Rep. Rivera stated, “So what the fuck are you complaining about. You fucking idiot.”
This morning, Rivera put out a statement claiming these comments were not directed at the citizen who was commenting, but to a third party. 

  “I was addressing an orphan begging at my door for more food and not the citizen commenting,” says Rep. Rivera. 
“The comments were directed at two people actually and the microphone did not pick up what I said before my WTF comment."
Rivera's continued: "I had responded to the orphan begging for food, shouting at him saying: 'More!'. It was then I said 'WTF'."
“The ‘fucking idiot’ comment," says Rivera, "was not directed at the citizen who was commenting or the orphan."
“I was talking to a local poor widow that I’m trying to kick out of her house.”
“As proof, I think my record of kicking poor widows out of their land and houses speaks for itself. I'm proud to represent District 8.” 

I have thought that Dee might have a chance of making into the run-off thereby giving him a chance to win. But with all this shit going on, is it worth it? It is shit pay for shit storms. So why bother? The job is not worth it. First, you... Max Powers

Here’s another example of government using words that don’t mean what they say:

How can anything interim be final?

We deserve better

Brutus

After twenty years of work, it is now live – Amitor®. I have been working on this App for about twenty years. It has been a dream and it has finally come to fruition. Today, it officially launches. Now, the hard work begins. I need to keep it relevant and serving the needs of its… Read More It’s Alive!

I know there is a lot going right now. But I do not need to cover that for you. Instead, let me offer you a break from all that. Okay. Your CongresswomXn is working really hard to send her energy my way. A couple of nights ago, somehow, some way,... Max Powers

The late Felipe Adame painted his first murals in El Paso in the early 1980s.  Felipe was born on August 23, 1942.  He considered his murals “as a means to preserve the culture, to retain a heritage, and to value the community organized effort behind a work of art.”   Adame was a seasoned muralist who… Read More Remembering the late Artist Felipe Adame, QDEP

It is unfortunately frequently true that whatever words a government uses to describe something are the opposite of what they are doing.

My favorite example is Internal Revenue Service.  It’s not as though we can write them and tell them that we don’t want their service this year.

Here’s another example:

This is the opposite of transparency.

We deserve better

Brutus

America, the world and all of us have been through and are living an unprecedented global crisis. Not only has our social reality changed, but our psyche and our livelihoods are experiencing some drastic reality checks. Not since the Great Depression has the future looked so bleak. The fundamental reality we must all embrace is… Read More Tomorrow Is The Day!

In recent days, American taxpayers have begun to receive IRS notices in their mail boxes. The IRS letter, labeled “Notice 1444 (EN-SP)” is an official notice from the IRS. However, inside the IRS envelope is a letter on White House letterhead. The IRS letter is one-page, printed on both sides. The letter notifies the recipient… Read More American Taxpayers Receiving IRS Letters About Stimulus Checks

When did it become our responsibility to feed our neighbor’s children?

The kids aren’t even in school.

EPISD is not unusual–it seems that all of our local school districts are doing this.

In the case of EPISD they are distributing 33,000 meals a day that are free to their students.

Yes the feral government is reimbursing them.

We all know who reimburses the feds.

We deserve better

Brutus

As America starts to prepare for the reopening of the economy there is a serious problem awaiting everyone. Officially America’s unemployment rate hovers around 4.4%. That is the official government number before the pandemic killed the economy. Anecdotally, the unemployment rate is at, or above 20%. We will not know for sure for some time,… Read More The Pending Unemployment Catastrophe

“The deepest problems of modern life derive from the claim of the individual to preserve the autonomy and individuality of his existence in the face of overwhelming social forces, of historical heritage, of external culture, and of the technique of life.”  Georg Simmel As it started to dawn on me that the Corona Virus was… Read More Dispatches to El Paso from the Boston Surge: Early Days.

The city budget is going to take a big hit because of the COVID-19 situation.

Two of our city representatives believe that the big quality of life projects should be postponed if not cancelled.

Shouldn’t they also be looking at the recent public safety bonds?

Can we afford a 90 million dollar police headquarters or a 30 million dollar fire headquarters?

Isn’t this 413 million dollars that we can avoid spending?

We deserve better

Brutus