Where God and the Devil Wheel Like Vultures: Report from El Paso


Tom Russell nails it on the head. Worth a read to summarize the current Wild West.

I’ll watch it all go down from Ardovino’s Desert Crossing, the great bar and restaurant which sits up near Mt. Cristo Rey, overlooking the lights of El Paso. (Okay, there are a few good bars here.)Trains roll cross the mountain at happy hour and border patrol trucks chase illegals through these desperate, yucca-choked rocks and rills. Over yonder the ugly black border wall snakes across the sandy hills. The wall is our knee-jerk attempt to intimidate Mexican illegals who want to do the dirty work we shun. But this is still the old west, amigo. Those class equations have always been such. The Chinese built the railroads with a shotgun at their head, and their opium was always available in the back of the chop suey joints and whore houses. The “greasers” and “chinks” did the dirty work; and those red devil Apaches raided our horse camps until we sent Geronimo down to Florida to chill out. We’re getting it under control, ain’t we? It’s the coked-up, Manifest Destiny politics of Methland.

Where God and the Devil Wheel Like Vultures: Report from El Paso


Peter C November 7, 2009 - 8:29pm
( categories: Mexico )

at Democracy now as well.

It's dated--2,159 people have been murdered in Juarez so far this year according to Molly Molloy.

I did inhale.

Don November 7, 2009 - 9:22pm

How can an invisable line that runs under a muddy river hold back the lions share of violence in the War Over Drug Control?

"There are two types of folk music:
quiet folk music and loud folk music.
I play both."

Dave Alvin

Peter C November 7, 2009 - 9:31pm

but there's historical precedent.

During the Mexican revolution, rich Americans bought tickets and watched through binoculars as Mexicans slaughtered each other from hotel balconies.

For what it's worth, a reliable source tells me Tom Russell no longer goes across the bridge to Juarez and hasn't for some time.

I did inhale.

Don November 8, 2009 - 2:08pm

That is why objective journalism like Charles Bowden supplies is so valuable.

"There are two types of folk music:
quiet folk music and loud folk music.
I play both."

Dave Alvin

Peter C November 9, 2009 - 9:21pm

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.