The Neighborhoods
Neighborhoods featured in this project include: Sunset Heights, Segundo Barrio, Rio Grande, Five Points and Chamizal, though several others not included, including the high-profile neighborhoods of Durangito and Chihuahuita, near downtown, are also experiencing similar issues.
It changed over a period of time, but when the project first started, I was like, “We’re going to take pictures of everything that’s being painted over white in the community.” And we did. Documenting, you know, a lot of that. In the architecture, too, right? Moving, from the maximalist, you know, this aesthetic of Latin American maximalism, to this, minimalist aesthetic. Everything is a box and everything is painted white. These sorts of things in terms of increasing the so-called value and whatever. But then starting to think about it in terms of the longer history of the community.
The Neighbors
Kathy reflects on the impact of the 2024 demolition of the Planty for the People community garden, on Arizona Street in the Rio Grande Neighborhood, where she was a long-time volunteer.
Alma reflects on the more than twenty years she has lived in Central El Paso neighborhoods, including Rio Grande, Chamizal, and Segundo Barrio, and discusses challenges faced by her family and other community members concerning rising rents, housing instability, and displacement.
“I was going to ask you about how your landlord raised your rent… but they took you first.”
Tamy reflects on the thirty years she lived in Central El Paso’s Sunset Heights and Rio Grande neighborhoods after immigrating to the U.S. as a child. She discusses the factors that drove her family’s relocation to Sunland Park, New Mexico, in 2018, and its long-term impacts.
Abby reflects on her time living and working in Central El Paso’s Sunset Heights, Rio Grande and Segundo Barrio neighborhoods and the factors that drove her family’s relocation to Northeast El Paso in 2021 and its long-term impacts.
