| Welcome |
Welcome to my website. This website has two purposes: first, to link websites that show
and highlight the things going on in the El Paso community via the
www.ept915-now.biz
website,
and second,
it’s the main front to my business, which is to develop custom computer software solutions.
Please register in my
www.915ept-now.biz
website if you wish to inquire about how I can help you meet your computer software needs.
I would appreciate the opportunity to help you envision and put into words the system that you need me to build that will
help your business thrive in this digital age.
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| San Elizario Mission |
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| Tourists/New Residents |
I have included a menu with the landmarks and things to do in or near El Paso Texas in
my
www.ept-915.net
website .
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| About |
Please e-mail me at admin@mannysoto.com if there is some history of El Paso Texas that you want me to include.
Although it is not nessary, include any information sources which can be referenced,
and I’ll be sure to give you credit for providing information that I publish.
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| El Paso, Texas |
El Paso, Texas is a town located directly to the north of the Mexican state of Chihuahua and to the west of
the American state of New Mexico. That is, El Paso, Texas has two borders that lead out of Texas, where
crossing some of the southern borders will take you to Juarez, Chihuahua, which is one of the largest cities
in Mexico, and where crossing a Southern, Western or Northern border can take you to one of several
locations in the state of New Mexico: Sunland, Old Mesilla, Las Cruces, or the path to the city of Alamogordo.
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| The Path to the North |
El Paso Texas has some rich history. It has been said that El Paso is short for The Path to the North. As
the saying goes, merchants coming from old Mexico, who were headed north, would call the town El Paso to
indicate directions for getting to the northern territory, i.e. the passage to the north.
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| The Spanish Conquistadores |
The early Spaniards who passed through the most western area of Texas back in the 1800s built three missions. These missions
served as the main Catholic churches for at least a century on the corresponding communities of
lower valley El Paso.
There are three missions, one in San Elizario, one in Socorro, and one in Ysleta.
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| San Elizario |
The town of San Elizario Texas is famous for its
Salt War and for having the jail where only one inmate ever escaped. The jail has two adjoining iron cells inside of an adobe building.
It is said that the iron was placed on the ground and that the adobe walls were build to surround the iron, similaryly to how a fence would
be built only after the house has already been built. To me this sound logical since I don't think San Elizario had
the technology for building iron cells from the inside of a building.
The two iron cells for
the inmates are about 15 ft by 15 ft. If I had to guess,
I would say it got pretty crowded in there sometimes.
About an inmate escaping, to the San Elizario jail guard’s credit, the only one
who ever escaped was the man known as “Billy the Kid.” On the same token, there were others who didn't escape.
Because they are not famous like John Wesley Harding, their story is dying away.
Acutally, I only remember of one other story of an inmate who tried to escape. As my father told it to me,
El Marcelo Lujan got put in jail and he
didn't want to wait until his sentence was served to get out. So his sister took him a gun, she hid it in his food.
El Marcelo Lujan then pointed the gun at the sheriff and said "Me sueltas".
"Te suelto pura madre!!!," responded the sheriff as he drew his gun.
The end result was a dead Marcelo Lujan .
[To be fair to you and to my uncle, you must know my uncle's version of the story.
According to my uncle, and corroborated by my father, Marcelo Lujan was a bootlegger (i.e. what would be
today's drug runner or drug dealer), and he was a feared man. This is where my father's and uncle's version of the
story diverges. Back to my uncle's version: Al Capone's men would come to San Elizario from Chicago to buy liquor.
All this time a rivalry was building between the San Elizario sheriffs and Marcelo Lujan. Then one night, during a
wedding, the sheriffs were waiting outside the church in a car, waiting to assasinate Marcelo Lujan. When Marcelo approached the
car, he caught the Sheriffs by surprise and asked them if there was a problem while he pointed his pistol at
their faces. "Their is no problem," was the response. Days later,
as Marcelo Lujan was riding his horse, he was assasinated in a way similar to that of President John. F. Kennedy.
To cover the assasination up, the sheriffs said Marcelo Lujan died while trying to escape from jail.]
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| Socorro |
The second mission is in Socorro Texas, which is
probably one of the oldest towns in the area since this is the street that joins the missions and had
been dubbed the mission trail. This road has one of its ends in Ysleta Texas the other in
Fabens Texas. It is not a freeway; it only has two lanes,
but it’s the only road that completely crosses San Elizario, Texas.
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| Ysleta |
The other mission is filled with some of El
Paso’s richest history; it involves the Tigua Indians. [I have heard the reference “Ysleta del Sur Pueblo,” which I believe refers
to the Tigua Indian Reservation.]
The Spaniards built a mission in Ysleta Texas. The area where the mission was built is a bit different than that of Socorro and San
Elizario. The area surrounding the Socorro mission has a cemetery next to it. I believe that this cemetery might be as old as
the mission itself. Elders from San Elizario have told me that the area next to the San Elizario church also used to be a
cemetery, but it’s hard to imagine seeing the trees there.
Back to the area in the proximity of the Ysleta mission, in addition to a Catholic church that came later, this area
has
an Indian restaurant that bakes fresh Indian bread on abobe ovens, a museum where Tigua Indian children perform their tribal dances in their Tigua Indian
regalia, the Tigua Government buildings, where the Tigua Indian Governor, War Captain, Sheriff, and the other officers perform
the duties of doing what’s best for the tribe.
Having gone to Catechism in the Ysleta mission when I was seven-years-old,
and having been part of one of the festivals that the Tigua Indians celebrate annually at the Ysleta mission, I believe that the
Tigua Indain Tribe welcomed the old Spaniards and befriended them.
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