El Paso, Texas
El Paso, Texas, is one of the largest cities in the state and ranks among the twenty-five largest in the United States. It is situated in the Chihuahuan Desert, bordered by Mexico and New Mexico, and is characterized by its predominantly Hispanic population, accounting for approximately 81.6% of its residents. The city, known for its warm and dry climate, offers a range of sunny days and light traffic, making it a popular choice for retirees. Economically, El Paso has transitioned from an agriculture-based economy to one centered on manufacturing and military presence, particularly due to Fort Bliss, a significant employer in the region.
Despite facing challenges such as high unemployment rates among Hispanic immigrants and a shift from manufacturing to service-oriented jobs, El Paso maintains a reputation for affordability and quality of life. The city is rich in cultural history, with landmarks that include Spanish colonial missions and unique architectural styles influenced by both local and international designs. El Paso's historical significance is underscored by its role during the Mexican-American War and the subsequent influx of Mexican refugees during the Mexican Revolution. Today, the city continues to grow, benefiting from cross-border collaboration with its sister city, Ciudad Juarez.
Subject Terms
El Paso, Texas
One of the largest cities in Texas, El Paso is among the least diverse due to its predominately Hispanic population. One of the twenty-five largest cities in the United States, it is also among the poorest, as are other large metropolitan areas along the border between Texas and Mexico. At the outset of the twenty-first century, however, the area's economy was improving, and the city offers relatively low crime rates, light traffic, and sunny, warm weather, making it a favorite retirement location.
Landscape
El Paso is located in the Chihuahuan Desert in western Texas, on the border with Mexico and the state of New Mexico. The city lies below the Franklin Mountains along the Rio Grande River, about halfway between Los Angeles and Houston, and is far enough west to be in the Mountain Time Zone. The Juarez Mountains lay just to the south, above El Paso's Mexican sister city, Ciudad Juarez.
The city spans 255.24 square miles, with an altitude of nearly 4,000 feet. The sunny, warm, and dry desert climate brings winter lows around freezing, while summer highs are in the mid-nineties. Average annual precipitation is less than nine inches, falling mostly during the summer monsoon season. The local weather bureau claims the city sees predominately sunny skies more than three hundred days per year.
Architecture in El Paso reflects the influence of Spanish mission and native pueblo styles. One of the most influential forces in the early creation of the city skyline was architect Henry C. Trost, whose firm designed over two hundred buildings in the city, many in the downtown area. In addition to taking cues from traditional local design, he was also influenced by the work of Chicago architect Louis Sullivan, and the Prairie Style of Frank Lloyd Wright, featuring reinforced concrete. The city's skyline reflects the modern trends toward tall, glass towers.
People
El Paso and San Diego are the two largest border cities in the United States. As is typical in the Sun Belt, El Paso continues to grow rapidly as Mexican immigrants come from the south, and American citizens relocate from cold northern cities.
The estimated population of the city in 2022 was 677,456. The ethnic breakdown of El Paso is roughly 81.6 percent Hispanic (mostly Mexican), 12.0 percent non-Hispanic White, and 3.6 percent African American as of 2022.
From 2010 to 2020, the city's population grew from 649,121 to 678,815. El Paso grows daily, as many residents of Juarez cross the border to work or shop.
Many retirees, often with some connection to the nearby Fort Bliss US Army base, have winter homes or permanent residences in El Paso.
El Paso is highly ranked in many quality of life criteria. While crime dropped significantly, with rates of reportable crime down by 4 percent between 2015 and 2016, they rose by 10.4% from 2022 to 2023. Real estate is affordable and traffic is light. Steakhouses, Tex-Mex, barbecue food, and country music are plentiful. However, unemployment is high among the city's Hispanic immigrants, putting significant strain on the city's resources for education, health care, and other services.
Economy
During the 1900s El Paso moved from an economy based on agriculture (cotton, fruit, nuts, and vegetables) to one based on mining, manufacturing (particularly textiles), and the military.
The area's largest private employer is the Fort Bliss installation, with over twelve thousand civilian employees. Combined with active duty personnel, the installation employs a significant percentage of the city's population.
Copper mining and garment manufacturing industries have traditionally drawn workers from Mexico for low-paying jobs. At the turn of the twenty-first century, El Paso typified the struggles of many US cities trying to move from a manufacturing to a service-based economy.
Copper smelting operations in El Paso have been closing in the 2000s, and garment makers have moved south of the border—partly because of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), but also because the devaluation of the Mexican peso during the 1990s helped lower operating costs in Mexico.
During the 1990s, the city's unemployment rate was consistently double that of the national average. New businesses moved into the area to offer jobs to laid off garment workers, but the job market was still dominated by low-wage industries such as call centers, including Echostar's. City leaders are actively recruiting better-paying manufacturing jobs, and have won site selections from high-tech firms such as Axxion and Acer Computer.
The dusty Southwest apparently makes an ideal location for vacuum cleaner testing, as both Hoover and Eureka have manufacturing plants in El Paso. Other large employers include hospitals, schools, and retailers such as Walmart.
Landmarks
Another large employer, the University of Texas at El Paso, also boasts some of the city's most unique architecture. Formerly the Texas State School of Mines and Metallurgy, the school was redesigned in 1916, and a decision was made to copy the sloping walls and other characteristics of buildings in the Himalayan country of Bhutan. The school library is one such Bhutanese landmark. The campus is also home to the Centennial Museum, which chronicles the history of southwestern native cultures.
Famous Trost-designed landmarks in the city include the Palace (Alhambra) Theater, now a nightclub, and the Plaza Hotel. The city is home to three Spanish colonial missions: Yselta and Socorro, both established in 1682, and San Elizario, first established in 1789 as a Spanish military outpost.
The statue of Fray Garcia on Pioneer Plaza in the city's downtown area symbolizes the economic and social ties between El Paso and Juarez, Mexico. Also near the downtown area, the Magoffin Home is a preserved adobe home built by rancher Joseph Magoffin in 1875. The El Paso Museum of Art features Mexican, American, and European artwork.
Just north of the city is Concordia Cemetery, final resting place of many of the area's infamous gunslingers, including John Wesley Hardin, known as the fastest gun in the West until he was shot dead in El Paso in 1895.
Sun Bowl Stadium, which seats more than fifty thousand, is home to the annual college football game of the same name. First played in 1935, the Sun Bowl is the nation's oldest bowl game after the Rose Bowl, and brings thousands of visitors to the city each year.
History
El Paso was once home to the Manso and Suma tribes, but these cultures disappeared after Spanish explorers came to the area. The explorers first identified the region as the pass (el paso) through the mountains in the 1580s.
Much of the original settlement was on the south side of the Rio Grande. Six years after Mexico gained independence from Spain in 1821, wealthy merchant Juan Maria Ponce de Leon bought acreage for a ranch on the north side of the river. This area eventually grew into El Paso, and came under US control following the Mexican-American War (1846–48). Fort Bliss was established by the US military in 1854, and the city was incorporated in 1873.
The city remained sparsely populated until the arrival of the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1881. The population then expanded rapidly, with El Paso gaining a reputation as a bawdy, violent bar town. While the 1880s was the decade of the gunslinger, El Paso's "Wild West" reputation continued up until prohibition, at which time much of the bar business moved just south of the border into Juarez.
During the Mexican Revolution, thousands of Mexican refugees came to El Paso. In 1916, Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa raided Columbus, New Mexico. US President Woodrow Wilson ordered General John J. Pershing, stationed at Fort Bliss in El Paso, to go after Pancho Villa, but Pershing failed to capture him and withdrew in 1917. Pancho Villa surrendered to the Mexican government in 1920 and was generally treated as a hero although he was assassinated in 1923. Pershing went on to lead US troops in France during World War I.
El Paso continued to grow after World War II, as Fort Bliss expanded and mining and manufacturing plants drew additional workers from Mexico.
Bibliography
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