Article first published in Vol. 26 (2007-2008)
By Ruth Vise
Over the years I have been blessed with talented, devoted students as editors. This fall I had dinner with two former editors, both of whom are now teachers in El Paso schools, and they still spoke with enthusiasm and affection of working on this writing project. I remember the first semester they sat in my class. After reading their first essays, I knew they were special. They excelled in my English research course and in all their other classes, obtaining their teaching degrees at UTEP. They both now direct their own classrooms with ease and grace. As we excitedly exchanged classroom experiences, I looked with such pride and pleasure at the professionals they had become. And I see Adrianna doing the same thing in the medical field.
This issue features three stories on border pioneering families that were written by relatives, students who are two, three and more generations removed. Several years ago as a student in my English 1302 class, Ken Kurita III researched the coming of Japanese families to El Paso, and his paper provided the base for this topic. We are featuring two stories on the Japanese in early El Paso that Ken’s research inspired.
Evan Karam and Belinda Alvarez researched family members who dedicated their lives to helping develop El Paso and Juarez in the early 20th century and whose influence is still alive in our community: Ted Karam and Rómulo Escobar. What fun it was to find that student editor Adrianna Alatorre and Belinda Alvarez are related to Escobar and thus to each other. The two students had not known one another before this serendipitous discovery. It turns out that our editor’s grandmother helped to transcribe the agricultural encyclopedia that brought Adrianna’s uncle so much recognition.
Our featured articles are on Hillsboro, N. M., once a thriving gold mining town, and Canutillo, Texas, a quiet but fiercely independent town on the edge of El Paso. Today Hillsboro is home to only a couple hundred residents. Canutillo, on the other hand, is growing in many ways, with new home construction, a beautiful new high school and an outlet mall just opened in October.
In addition, this past fall the Northwest Campus of El Paso Community College, in partnership with Canutillo Independent School District, broke ground on an early college high school to open in 2008. Entering freshmen in this school will earn in four years not only their high school diploma but two years of college credits from EPCC. This accelerated academic concept is growing rapidly throughout the country, and EPCC already has two early college high schools functioning at Mission del Paso and Valle Verde campuses.
This issue is dedicated to Monica Wong and Joe Old, two EPCC professionals and stalwart supporters of Borderlands throughout the years. Without you two, producing Borderlands would be much more difficult and not nearly as enjoyable. Thanks for your encouragement and hard work, Monica and Joe!
Ruth E. Vise, Project Director and Faculty Editor
Image caption: Ruth Vise, Faculty Editor and Adrianna Alatorre, Student Editor.
Article first published in Vol. 26 (2007-2008)
Special thanks to:
Dr. Richard M. Rhodes, President, El Paso Community College
Dr. Dennis E. Brown, Vice President of Instruction
Dr. Lydia Tena-Perez, Campus Dean and Dean of Instructional Programs, Northwest Campus
Monica Wong, Head Librarian, Northwest Campus
The El Paso Times
Michael Price & Mary Acosta
Thanks to:
Joe Old, Instructor, EPCC Mass Communication and English Disciplines
Lou Vest, Professor, English EPCC
Leon Metz
Becky Ortega, Jeanette Dominguez and staff, Dean's Office, Northwest Campus
Lourdes Garcia, Robert Sandoval, Terri Zarate, Concha Vaquera, Steven Martinez and Lorely Ambriz, Northwest Library
Rachel Murphree and Helen Bell, Northwest Library
Laura Gaither, Nancy Coe, Marye Booth, and Emma Uresti, ISC, Northwest Campus
Pat Worthington and staff, El Paso County Historical Society
Claudia Rivers and staff, Special Collections, UTEP Library
El Paso Public Library
Martha Andrews, Rio Grande Historical Special Collection, NMSU Library
Friends of the Library, Hillsboro, N.M.
Lucy West
All EPCC students who submitted manuscripts, photographs and illustrations to Borderlands
Cover photos: Hillsboro ruins by Monique J. Ortega; Canutillo High School by Adrianna Alatorre.
Produced by the Students and Faculty of El Paso Community College
El Paso Community College District does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, gender, age, disability, veteran status, sexual orientation, or gender identity.
