Borderlands: Best of Borderlands 1991-2000 -- From the Editors

 

 Click on article title in right hand column to read article.   

Acknowledgements

 

From the Editor

This year we bring you some of the “Best” stories from volumes 9 through 19. We have provided a replica of the cover and a short selected update on  each topic, including web sites to access since some of these stories date back more than 25 years.

Several student editors directed Borderlands twice, some three and four times, including Lynn Córdova, Linda Tarin, Leigh E. Smith Jr., Chris Fumagalli, and Sandra R. Pierce. Tony Barron provided illustrations and Danny Martinez took photographs for several issues. College students who were in their early 20s and 30s in the 1990s would be in their 40s and 50s and maybe older! I still think of them as my students, despite the fact that some have several degrees and have had more than one career — some are even retired! But they remain very special in my mind and heart.

All of our issues are now on the Web and can be accessed at epcc.libguides.com/borderlands.   If you would like to see what other stories appeared with the one we are featuring in this issue, just click on the volume number and browse through the article titles. For paper copies of any issues, call me at 915-831-8841 and leave a message with your name and phone number or email me at rvise@epcc.edu and we will arrange for you to receive the issues you desire. Volumes 9, 11 and 17 are no longer available. There is no Volume 16, the result of a numbering error.

Remember that in the 1990s, students were using mostly print sources for such topics, as much of local history had not been digitized — and some still is not.  Our students use digitized databases, but most still have to go to the main branch of our public library to search older issues of local newspapers and go through manila folders called “vertical files,” which often contain typed scripts, programs, letters and other documents that cannot be otherwise cataloged. And personal interviews are gold mines! Books and articles are now available for many of our topics, but students realize there is more to serious research than checking social media.  Please remember that we use AP (Associated Press) style for punctuation and other grammatical elements.

Image caption: Ruth E. Vise, Faculty Advisor & Editor

A huge thank you to our loyal fans who have been reading Borderlands all these years and still call every fall to let us know that they enjoyed the latest work of my English 1302 students who research local history. If Borderlands is new to you, thank you for opening this special gift to the community and browsing. We hope you find one or more stories on the region’s history of interest to you.

Librarian Rachel Murphree, who also keeps Borderlands on the Web, is serving this year again as faculty editor. Thanks for your invaluable help in putting this issue together, Rachel. Thanks to former student editor Isabel Hernandez who helped us once more by proofreading and taking photographs, while continuing her education at UTEP and working full-time. This issue is dedicated to my colleague and friend Ruth Peña, who passed away this summer. Ruth was one of the early Borderlands faculty editors and advisors.

Image caption: Isabel Hernandez, Student Editor

So as the dog days of summer make us want to stay inside under the air conditioner and sip our favorite cold beverage, relax and read some of what we think are the Best of Borderlands 1991-2000! See you next year!

Ruth E. Vise, Faculty Advisor / Faculty Editor, Borderlands

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From Rachel Murphree, Faculty Editor

Writing updates on past Borderlands articles made me realize yet again how fortunate we are to have the internet for research, and I’ve learned how community involvement is helping El Paso preserve our past and grow into the future!

How exciting that the trolleys from “back in the day” are being reborn to 21st-century transportation; I can’t wait to take my first ride. And while I’ve visited Mission Valley, I haven’t been in a decade or more and it is on my “must do” list. Learn why in our update.

I have learned in depth, thanks to Estela Reyes of La Fe, of the phenomenal growth of the Centro Familiar de Salud (La Fe) and learned from historian Fred Morales of the strides made in the community standing of Chihuahuita. The restoration, rather than destruction, of El Paso’s historic treasures thrills me! Read our update about the Magoffin Home restoration and the Mills Building with a lobby surprise. Hopefully many more historic treasures will be restored, including the El Paso Laundry on Santa Fe Street in Chihuahuita.

People who are finally getting long deserved national honor are the men of Company E, a Mexican-American regiment from El Paso and the Southwest who bravely fought in the battle of the Rapido River in WW II’s Italy. Our update gives the details. And we give you the latest on tuberculosis research and education, once a significant part of El Paso’s history.

Lastly, we celebrate the explosion of mariachis and chiles, ambassadors of the vibrant Mexican-American culture of the Southwest. That makes me proud, and frankly makes me want to listen to great music while eating wonderful food. I choose green, how about you?

Image caption:  Rachel Murphree, Borderlands Web Librarian and Faculty Editor

 

 

 

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Buildings 
Vol. 17 Missions..................... page 3 
Vol. 18 Anson Mills ............... page 4 
Vol. 12 Chihuahuita ............... page 5 

Traditions 
Vol. 10 Mariachis ................... page 6 
Vol. 9 Chile .......................... page 8 
Vol. 14 Trolley ..................... page 10 

Health
Vol. 15 La Fe Clinics ........... page 11
Vol. 19 Tuberculosis............. page 12

People
Vol. 13 Company E .............. page 14
Vol. 11 Magoffins................. page 16

*There is no Vol. 16 Table of Contents

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Acknowledgements: 

Special Thanks to:

Dr. William Serrata, President, El Paso Community College

Steven E. Smith, Vice President of Instruction and Workforce Education

Dr. Lydia Tena, Campus Dean & Dean of Instructional Programs, Northwest Campus

Monica Wong, Head Librarian, Northwest Campus

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Thanks to:

Rachel Murphree, Librarian & Faculty Editor, Northwest Campus

Helen Bell, Librarian, Northwest Campus

Terri Zarate, Yvonne Lopez, Son Bell, Lupe Arreola, Yolanda Barboza, Leo Alferez, Yasmin Nunez, Ludivina Quevedo and Mark Rodriguez, Northwest Library

Elvia Guzman-Jarnagin, Marisela Hernandez and Sonya Rosalez, Dean’s Office, Northwest Campus

Rosa Rodriguez, Oscar Acevedo, Adriana Badillo, and Erick Bautista, Northwest Campus ASC

Laura Gaither, Nancy Coe, Marye Booth and Emma Uresti, Northwest Campus ISC

Leigh E. Smith Jr., Curator, US Army Non-Commissioned Officer Heritage and Education Center, Fort Bliss

Claudia Rivers, Head of Special Collections, UTEP Library

Abbie Weiser, Assistant Head of Special Collections, UTEP Library

Fred Morales, Historian

Danny Gonzalez, Border Heritage Center, Main Branch, El Paso Public Library

Dr. Paul Bosland, Director of Chile Institute, NMSU

Estela Reyes, Publicity & Media Officer, Centro de Salud Familiar La Fe, Inc.

Robert Díaz, Vice President, El Paso County Historical Society

Erin Ritter, Public Affairs Coordinator, El Paso Museums and Cultural Affairs Department

Aidee Cosme, Public Art Program Supervisor, El Paso Museums and Cultural Affairs Department

Sylvia Barron, Volunteer, Mission Trail Association

Martha McBain, Magoffin Home State Historic Site

Teddie Moreno, NMSU Library and Special Collections

All the students who researched local history and submitted illustrations in Ms. Vise’s English 1302 classes

Margaret and George Lang, Debbie Luna, Conchita Alvarez

Cover photo of Paul Bosland, the “Chile Man,” courtesy of The Chile Institute, NMSU

Other cover photos courtesy of Rachel Murphee, Anji Morgan-Thornton, Isabel Hernandez, The Catholic Diocese of El Paso and Centro de Salud Familiar La Fe, Inc.

Borderlands is published annually by El Paso Community College, P. O. Box 20500, El Paso, TX 79998. It is written by students and staff of the college. All rights reserved.

Printing is by PDX Printing, 100 Porfirio Diaz, El Paso TX 79902, a private firm in no way connected with the El Paso Community College. Funds for the publication of this supplement are provided by El Paso Community College District; however, the views and opinions expressed in this magazine do not necessarily reflect those of the El Paso Community College staff, faculty, administration and board. Submissions become property of El Paso Community College.  Furthermore, El Paso Community College does not accept responsibility for possible errors in the accuracy of student research that is represented in these articles, although every effort has been made to ensure accuracy.