FOREWORD

There is a dicho that says – The water that falls from the sky today is the same water that has been falling since the beginning of time.

Growing up in El Paso, we are able to survive in the desert because of the river and aquifers. For people living on the border between the United States and Mexico the river is an international boundary and a symbol of division between communities. So we grow up not understanding a lot about the ecology and history of the river itself. River Stories is an on-going series of short stories about the river, border and people of the Paso Del Norte region. This project is in no way meant to be comprehensive but only contribute to addressing the cognitive dissonance about river and help change the way we understand our relationship to water.

RIVER STORIES

The River Stories comic was originally published in 2019. Edited and republished March 2023.

A SUPer BRIEF and problematically simplistic TIMELINE

FARM BY THE RIVER

Lencho grew up in a small farming community in the Mesilla Valley. This short comic illustrates some of the memories he had when he was a boy and the deep history his family has with the river.

BOTH SIDES OF THE RIVER

Cassandro El Exotico is a Mexican luchador who was born in Ciudad Juárez. For him the river has good memories and bad ones - from family parties on the riverbank to losing a family member that drowned. Over his life, Cassandro has watched the river change. Today, he lives in El Paso’s lower valley just yards from the river and border.

YSELTA DEL SUR PUEBLO

In 1680 a man by the name of Popé from Ohkay Owingeh (renamed San Juan Pueblo by the Spanish during the colonial period) led the Pueblo Revolt to overthrow the Spanish Colonizers and stop the brutal oppression of native people. They successfully expelled the Spanish Governor, Antonio de Otermin who fled the governors palace in Santa Fe. In an attempt to reconquer New Mexico, Otermin captured approximately 702 people from the Isleta pueblo in New Mexico and forcibly relocated them to an area 13 miles south of Paso Del Norte. Ysleta del Sur Pueblo has been home to this group of Tigua people for over 300 years and they have witnessed the changes it has gone through.

The Thirsty conquistador

This no-text short comic is a visual story about the arrival of the Conquistador Juan de Oñate who almost didn’t survive the long journey from Central Mexico to the modern-day border. After being saved by the indigenous people of the region, Oñate continued to brutally massacre many tribal people to conquer the region and set the foundations for the colonized Paso Del Norte region we know today.

WRITE YOUR OWN COMIC

Use on the border using these illustrated panels to write your own narrative about water on the border. You can rearrange them and even draw some of your own.

FEEDBACK

AUTHOR’S NOTE

River Stories: Shaping the Border Community of Paso Del Norte is supported in part by the National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Ford Foundation, Southwest Airlines, and the Surdna Foundation through a grant from the NALAC Fund for the Arts Grant Program. https://www.nalac.org/grantee-resources-nfa