El Segundo Barrio

El Segundo Barrio has been the "starting point for thousands of families" coming from Mexico since the 1880s.[8] It is the second historic neighborhood of El Paso, the first being Barrio Chihuahuita.[9] The railroad arrived in El Paso in 1881, and afterwards, the population of El Paso grew quickly.[9]

The first resident of Segundo Barrio was a campesino, or farm worker, named Santiago Alvarado, who received a Mexican land grant to farm the area in 1834.[2]

During the Mexican Revolution, many people fled the country, immigrating into El Segundo Barrio.[2] Wealthier migrants continued north, while the poor remained in the barrio.[2] Revolutionaries, spies and journalists lived in Segundo Barrio during the revolution. Francisco Madero lived in different houses in the neighborhood while he was working on a plan to defeat Porfirio Díaz.[10] Pancho Villa also visited El Segundo Barrio, eating ice cream at the local Elite Confectionary.[10]

In the 1930s, the barrio was overcrowded, with residents living in presidios or tenements.[2] Progress on upgrading housing had still not been improved by the 1950s. In the 1950s, it was recorded that there were still "more than 12,000 substandard dwelling units in the area, an average of seven families per toilet, with an average of ten persons per family."[11]

In the 1960s, the city finally made improvements to Segundo Barrio, paving and lighting streets.[11] The Rio Grande, which did not flow in a regular channel was eventually routed through a cement channel in the 1960s.[12] Land containing tenements on the El Paso side was given up to create the channel.[12]

July 1967 saw a tragic fire that destroyed a tenement building which had no fire escapes.[13] Three children died in the fire.[13] People were mobilized by the tragedy of the fire and began to protest, first starting at the El Sagrado Corazon Catholic Church and then moving on to City Hall.[13] The protests had the effect of scaring local officials and spurred a conference held at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), to "study the social, economic, and political conditions of south El Paso."[13] A local activist, José Aguilar, created a program called the Mexican-American Committee on Honor, Opportunity, and Service (MACHOS), which required that members live in Segundo Barrio and which advocated on behalf of residents for improved living conditions.[13]

Photo by Danny Lyon for the National Archives, 1972.

In the 1980s, Segundo Barrio was considered a "rough neighborhood."[14]

Flooding in 2006 affected Segundo Barrio. The area was evacuated temporarily in August 2006.[15] A historic building which dated from 1910, the Casitas del Norte Apartments were damaged by the flooding and subsequently renovated by the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG).[16]

In 2010, the City of El Paso devised a Neighborhood Revitalization Strategy.[17] The strategy was known locally as "El Plan," and was written up initially by the Paso del Norte Group.[10] The plan was intended to help "address El Segundo's substandard housing as well as its high levels of unemployment," however, the plan also advised demolishing many historic and important cultural buildings.[1] The City would use eminent domain to take property in Segundo Barrio.[10] Approximately 168 acres were slated to be destroyed and about 157 acres would be designated as historic areas.[10] The public was furious, creating a group called Land Grab Opponents of El Paso.[18] The outcry against destroying buildings in Segundo Barrio caused the city to change its plans.[18]

Segundo Barrio is bounded by Paisano Drive, Cesar Chavez Border Highway, Cotton Street and South Mesa Street.[6]

Due to historic flooding from the Rio Grande, the curbs of the oldest streets in El Segundo Barrio are still "raised a foot or more."[2]

Businesses in Segundo Barrio make "roughly half a billion dollars in business a year."[10]

Cardboard for recycling is piled on a bicycle in front of an alley in Segundo Barrio, 2016.

Historically and currently, most residents of Segundo Barrio are farm workers.[1] Segundo Barrio was one of the poorest zip codes in the country for "many years."[8] Today, there is still a low median income in Segundo Barrio.[19]

Segundo Barrio is part of District 8 in the City of El Paso.[20] Currently, the district is represented by Cissy Lizarraga.[21]

The first school in the area was the Sacred Heart School, which opened in 1892.[22] The school was founded by Father Carlos M. Pinto, who was also known as "The Apostle of El Paso."[22]

In general, the El Paso School Board did not allow children who did not speak English to enroll in public schools and so "Mexican preparatory schools" were created instead.[23] The first schools in the neighborhood were created by Olives Villanueva Aoy, a member of =The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who opened an escuelita (little school) 1887 with his own money and started teaching in both English and Spanish.[24] Aoy also helped provide food, clothing and medical assistance.[24] He also provided his own seats, books and blackboards.[25] The El Paso school board took it over in 1888 and renamed it the Mexican Preparatory School.[24] The board appointed Aoy as the principal of the preparatory school and given two assistants.[25] Later, Aoy was given another building to use for teaching in 1891.[24] Later, in 1899 the School Board built a six-room school, named Aoy School, in the center of the neighborhood.[26][24] The new school had the largest enrollment of students in any El Paso school in 1900, with 500 students enrolled.[24]

The superintendent of schools in 1913 was supportive of the generally unpopular idea of improving and creating schools in Chihuahuita.[27] Also in 1913, the suggestion of compulsory school attendance was brought up.[28] In 1915, the El Paso Herald was advocating for the creation of schools in the area.[29] Around 3,000 mostly Spanish-speaking children were not being educated at the time because there were not enough schools in the area.[29] The schools that existed had as many as 120 students to a room.[29] Plans to save money for schools in 1919 included cutting the amount of class time for students by teaching first graders in Chihuahuita and other "Mexican" parts of town half days instead of full days.[30] The public schools, Alamo School and Bowie High School opened in 1923.

The public is served by the Armijo Library, part of the El Paso Public Library system.[31]

In 1921, the Methodist Church in El Paso built the Freeman Clinic.[9] The clinic had ties to the Rose Gregory Houchen Settlement House.[32] Freemen Clinic was geared towards well-baby exams, and prenatal care.[32] The emphasis on infant health was due to the "alarmingly high" rate of infant mortality during the time.[33] Later, the Freeman Clinic was demolished in 1937 in order to open a twenty-two bed hospital, the Newark Methodist Maternity Hospital.[33]

Centro De Salud Familiar La Fe provides healthcare through clinics in the area.[34]

For many years, the only playground in Segundo Barrio was part of the Rose Gregory Houchen Settlement House program.[33]

Several books have been written about living in El Segundo Barrio. Champion of the Barrio: The Legacy of Coach Buryl Baty (2015). It is a biography of Baty who coached football at Bowie high school.[57] In 1996, Gloria López-Stafford wrote a memoir of her life in Segundo Barrio. It was called A Place in El Paso: A Mexican-American Childhood. Marquez, Benjamin. Power And Politics in a Chicano Barrio: A Study of Mobilization Efforts and Community Power in El Paso. Lanham: University Press of America, 1985.

A documentary film created for PBS, "One Square Mile: El Paso - Segundo Barrio" was created in 2014.[58]

• Centro de Salud Familiar La Fe
• Chihuahuita
• El Paso, Texas
• Central El Paso

• El Segundo Barrio
• DOCUMERICA photos by Danny Lyon
• El Corrido Del Segundo Barrio (video)
• One Square Mile - Segundo Barrio
• One Square Mile (video)