The next day was the first show of our tour at El Paso Community College. We were excited about the prospect of performing at colleges for National Poetry Month, something we hadn’t done since last April. As we drove to the campus we realized that it was about 2 miles from the Mexican border. Even though we realized that it’s ultimately just a line on the ground, it still presents a bit of eeriness.
We met with the campus programming board and they were absolutely great. We chatted in the office with one girl about her dreams and her family. She was a fourth generation American.
The border looms over the town, physically and mentally. It’s hard for conversations with the locals to not eventually turn into some kind of discussions about family heritage, and their thoughts on living on the border.
The show was co-hosted by the EP-Community College Hip Hop Club. They were very excited to have Spoken Word Artists who understood their art form come through and bless the mic. We got to hear the students perform and it was amazing hearing them share their writing. It was like seeing the former version of my self on stage.
We got up, did our poetry, and had a blast with it. The girl who hosted the show had a mic the whole time so she was able to chime in from time to time. It was a lunch time show in an open room, so the poems draw people in and the crowd grows as time goes on. We were sad for the show to end, and scared of the drive ahead.
We chatted with the students before packing our bags. Many of the students had never had poetry move them like that before, and had never seen spoken word at all. Of course, as it had during our time in El Paso, the conversation moved to talking to people about their heritage in the area. One student said his Aunt tried to come over the border legally many times. She said she had all of her documents in order, and approval from the U.S. but the Mexican government always said her papers were not in order, but offered to fix them for a fee. After paying many fees and never seeing results, she gave up. The student commented that this is why many people end up crossing the border illegally; and many of the illegal residents of El Paso tried to get there the right way, but were unable to. When they finally make it over, many of them work hard, keep their heads down, and don’t cause much trouble. This is one of the many factors that people believe contribute to the “El Paso Miracle.” Which is the term for the anomaly in which El Paso is one of the safest cities in the world, with Juarez being on the other end of the spectrum.
We packed our bags and were greeted with two jars of cookies and two bottles of local milk for performing. We headed out with three things in mind. Getting to the border, getting some churros, and driving the scenic drive.
We got to the border, drove along the Rio Grande, got to see the massive X sculpture that we saw on our way in, and headed to the mountain. We skipped the Churros.
On the mountain we took in the views of El Paso-Juarez from high above the city. Courageous really needed to pee, so he got the idea the he would just pretend to be taking video while he peed. Unfortunately he did not bank on the El Paso High School Cross Country team to be running the scenic drive that day. We imagined that they had to have heard the distinct splattering sound. We took some actual pictures and video and hit the road for Midland TX.
