El Auto — Local Bar’s Car Show Draws VW Classics

By |

EL PASO, Texas — I love retro vehicles. As a graduation present, my aunt is giving me a 1965 emerald-colored bicycle, which I will be sanding, repainting and outfitting with a big basket and a rotary-action bell this summer. When I get married, I hope to drive away into the sunset in a 1960s shiny red convertible Mustang, veil floating gracefully in the wind. By no means am I car expert, but when I found out that a local bar was hosting a Volkswagen car show I knew I had to be there. Hope and Anchor, located at 4012 N. Mesa, managed to get about 80 cars into their tiny parking lot, all of them VWs and all of them oldies.

Thousands Relive the Passion of Christ on Mount Cristo Rey

By |

EL PASO, Texas — Andre Karam carried the six-foot wooden cross  for more than four miles up Mount Cristo Rey on Good Friday to relive the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. He had trudged up this mountain every year for the past 35 years, but this was the first time he carried a cross on his back. It took him five weeks to finish it in faint white brushstrokes covering the ornamental details.  A rope and round metal plates ran down the longest plank of the cross. “They represent the five continents. One, two, three, four, five,” he said as he touched each plate.

Ancient Traditions Refresh Aztec Pride

By |

EL PASO ­ — Two elders lifted conch shells to their lips and bellows from these primal trumpets — primordial prayers aimed at the sky — signaled to a third man to kneel as smoky incense wafted from a clay cup in his left hand. The offering ceremony, repeated three times as the heuy tecuhtlis, or elder leaders, paid tribute to mother earth in a rite that has been performed for thousands of years, long before European settlers set foot in the new world. This is how the Danza Azteca, or Aztec Dance, began at the Mercado Mayapan, a local marketplace and community center. “The dances that we do are thousands of years old. They’ve been passed down from generation to generation,” said Ramón Arroyos, 60.