Housing and Urban Removal

     During the late 19th century and the first decades of the 20th century El Segundo Barrio was a segregated neighborhood that provided housing for the working poor of El Paso. For this reason, El Segundo Barrio received few funds from the city to improve housing, build schools and recreational centers, provide health-care, or promote economic development. The city failed to fix many of the basic housing needs in El Segundo Barrio, and did not force Euro-American property owners to improve living conditions.

     Because el Segundo Barrio housed the majority of people of Mexicans and Mexican Americans in the city, officials continually described the barrio as a place of disease, crime, and backwardness. They viewed the South side as the cause of the city’s problems and pushed forward plans to “renovate,” “redevelop,” or “clean-up” south El Paso. In reality, these plans never considered that hundreds of families would lose their homes and be displaced.

     Inadequate housing and experiences of community neglect in El Segundo Barrio go back to the period when El Paso industrialized (1880-1920). During the early 20th century El Paso’s south side served the working-class families that worked in the strong economy that emerged in the city. However, many who came to El Paso to work could not afford adequate housing because of a system of wages that paid whites more than non-whites for the same job, and a work system that kept non-whites in low-paying jobs. Not willing to admit that the city was to blame for the housing problems in the city’s second ward, many city officials ignored the community’s needs. Instead, they placed the blame for inadequate housing, poverty, outbreaks of disease, and crime in downtown El Paso on the people of the barrio.

     Instead of valuing the important jobs performed by the people from El Segundo Barrio, city leaders viewed the growth of the south side of the city negatively.

     The discriminatory views of south El Paso held by many city officials led to one of the first urban removal projects during the Mexican Revolution (1911-1920). Before leading a fruitless punitive expedition for Pancho Villa in 1916, General John J. Pershing was stationed in El Paso and asked to assist Claude C. Pierce, the director of the United States Public Health Service in El Paso. Pierce identified Chihuahuita, a South side neighborhood, as a slum area in 1915 and placed Pershing in charge of razing the community. Pershing’s troops forcibly removed the residents of Chihuahuita and burned down their homes. According to one historian, Alexandra Minna Stern, “Pershing’s men hosed streets, burned carrion and refuse, and tore down dwellings.”

     The struggle for adequate housing in south El Paso continued in the 1920’s, 30’s and 40’s as the neighborhood continued to serve the majority of the working-poor in El Paso and property owners continued to disregard housing conditions.

     City housing projects in the 1930’s and 1940’s, and the construction of Paisano Street in 1953 also displaced many families from el Segundo Barrio. Though housing projects and tenements were supposed to improve living conditions, many became overcrowded and were neglected by tenement owners. The continuation of poor living conditions in el Segundo Barrio caused one Jesuit priest, Carmen J. Tranchesei to complain.

     The creation of Paisano Street in 1953 also took 6000 people out of their homes. Paisano Street was not created by city planners to help the barrio but was built to bring more business to downtown.

     Displacement and housing problems continued to affect the working-poor of south El Paso and were not seriously discussed until the 1950’s and 1960’s. The election of Raymond Telles as mayor in 1956 began the period when the housing needs of the community were seriously discussed. During the 1950’s, 60’s and 70’s community members formed numerous organizations to fight for better housing, better education, and jobs in El Segundo Barrio. For example, the Mexican American Youth Association (MAYA) was one south side organizations that fought for better housing and respect for El Segundo Barrio. In 1970, MAYA organized a protest rally called “Marcha por Justicia” to pressure the city to improve living conditions. The work of MAYA was continued by La Campaña Pro Preservación del Barrio in the 1970’s, and by many other people and organizations that have not stopped fighting for better housing in el Segundo Barrio.

     The City of El Paso has historically responded to the community needs of El Segundo Barrio through neglect and by imposing urban removal programs. By labeling sections of el Segundo Barrio as slum districts politicians have built housing projects, roads, and businesses that have displaced community members. Instead of working to improve the overall living conditions in el Segundo Barrio they have chosen many times in history to destroy people’s homes. In reality, it has been the work of community members and organizations that has created better living conditions in el Segundo Barrio.