El Paso- path to the North

03Dec09

When I lived in Albuquerque, I visited my grandparents in El Paso every Thanksgiving.  My trips there inspired these paintings:

El Paso del Norte I.

This is a picture of the Franklin Mountains that border EP to the North and West.  I could leave my grandparents front porch, walk up the street past the rosemary bushes, Bouganvillia and orange trees and up into these mountains.  From up there you can see hazily across the border to Juarez y Las Colonias.  The mountains on the other side read, in whitewashed rock letters, “LA BIBLIA ES LA VERDAD LEELA”.  I have no idea who Leela is, but it’s a cool vista.  Makes my heart swell with orgulla chicana.

This next one is El Paso del Norte II.  It gives you an intimate feeling of El Paso at the ground level:

EPDN II.

What is it like to tend your beautiful garden of Lantana and Bouganvillia? What are the smells and the view across the street to your neighbors, who are busy warming tamales y menudo for almuerzo?

I made this painting from a photo I took in my grandparents backyard.  That’s Angelito’s T-bird under the tarp in the driveway.

I’m reminded of these visits- the last one was during Thanksgiving in 2005, and would like to commemorate their passing:

In Memory of Angel and Dolores Rojas- 2009 and 2008 respectively.

Filed under: representational art   |  1 Comment
Tags: borderlands, chicano art, southwest