Borderlands 2002: We're now on the Web!
By Ruth E. Vise
Ruth E. Vise Faculty Editor &
Adviser
For the past three years, students in my Research and Critical Writing classes have chosen to research various aspects of the Mexican Revolution. Pancho Villa topped the list of popular topics. Dozens of students explored facets of Villa's life, military career and the countless legends that have grown up about him.
Related articles include an exploration of the Cristero movement following Mexico's crackdown on the Catholic Church, a story on female revolutionaries known as soldaderas, and one on the early Houchen settlement house established to care for young Mexican immigrant women. Our back cover story discusses Otis Aultman, the photographer noted for recording many of the battles of the Mexican Revolution.
Other articles pertain to the 1860s, including one on Juneteenth, the Texas holiday celebrating the news of freedom for its slaves, arriving two years after Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation. We also salute the black cowboy, a topic largely ignored in a state with a great cowboy heritage. Other stories include one on El Paso's opium dens and another on the brief influence of the Ku Klux Klan on the city.
We feature articles on mining in the Southwest, including El Paso's Smeltertown. I was born in mining country, Silver City, N. M., and raised in Central, now known as Santa Clara. Most of my friends had family working for Kennecott Copper Corporation. Their good paying jobs enabled several generations to own their own homes, send their children to college and maintain Grant County's economy. I went to college on a Kennecott scholarship. We were all affected by the ups and downs of the mining industry.
This year, former Borderlands students, Vanessa Mendoza and Christina Díaz, prepared historical markers for two El Paso locations under a grant obtained by Dr. George Torok and supported by Borderlands. Way to go, ladies!
Editors Kazstelia Vásquez and Gretchen Dickey proved themselves over and over this semester, as they tracked down elusive sources and historical photos. Both are outstanding students as well as wives, mothers and leaders in their community. Thank you, Gretchen and Katie, for your hard work and exceptional good humor as we worked. I will never forget you.
Thanks go to my colleagues and faculty editors, Joe Old and Robert Yarbrough, for their sharp eyes and advice. I thank Monica Wong, Northwest librarian, both for her unfailing help to all my students throughout the year and for her enthusiasm for Borderlands.
Thanks to my daughter who has always been my biggest fan. Congratulations on doing so well your first year at NMSU, April.
This issue is dedicated to Dr. Carroll Nardone, my friend and former colleague at EPCC, and now a professor at Sam Houston State University. Thanks for serving as my first faculty editor and for always believing in our project. Congratulations on receiving your Ph.D. from NMSU, Carroll.
Congratulations on your retirement from UTEP, John O. West, friend, colleague and the department head who first hired me to teach in El Paso!
Thanks to you, our readers, for writing and calling each year with your comments. Enjoy this year's issue!
by Ruth Vise, Director EPCC Borderlands Project, NW Campus