SACRED HEART MURAL:
A VISION THAT RESPECTS BARRIO'S HISTORY & CULTURE
By Fr. Rafael Garcia 
Dear Sister or Brother:
Sacred Heart Church, with the help of many collaborators, is proud to display a beautiful new mural that depicts persons, events, history and scenes from the Segundo Barrio and nearby areas. I want to thank Francisco Delgado for his beautiful design and hard work. It was important to create this mural at this time in the history of our parish and the barrio.
Presiding in the mural are the Crucified Jesus, a powerful symbol of faith and hope for our suffering immigrant community. To one side is Our Lady of Guadalupe, “madre de los mexicanos”, the mother of all of God’s children, showing her loving care for the migrant on the journey. These two images could be located anywhere where suffering and injustice occur—thus, most anywhere in the world.
The Jesuits have staffed Sacred Heart Church since it’s founding in 1893. The parish’s continuous principal mission: Serving the immigrant, generally poor community of the Segundo Barrio. The mural includes Fr. Carlos Pinto, S.J., the founder and builder of Sacred Heart Church and School, as well as several other churches and schools; Fr. Harold Rahm, S.J., well known for his ministry to area gang youth through the barrio’s Our Lady’s Youth Center; Fr. Robert Gafford, S.J., pastor for over 25 years and builder of the gymnasium; Fr. Richard Thomas, S.J., continuing the ministry at Our Lady’s Youth Center and with the very poor in Cd. Juárez.
In the mural, one also finds Loretto Sister Magdalen Dietz, first principal of Sacred Heart School, Olivas Aoy, Mariano Azuela, Pancho Villa and the “common” man, woman and child of the Segundo Barrio. These unrecognized people have been and are hard workers, parents, soldiers, friends, students and suffering members of our community.
In 2006, the City of El Paso adopted a downtown re-vitalization plan.The origins of the plan came from an elite group, the Paso del Norte Group. Most upsetting is the inclusion of this sector of the Segundo Barrio as part of a downtown in a plan that will destroy the character and disregard the humble yet important history of the barrio.
As pastor of Sacred Heart Church I’ve expressed opposition to the plan for the following reasons:
1. The plan will displace the poorest of the poor in the Segundo Barrio, many of whom may not qualify for public housing.
2. The plan focuses on acquiring this small sector of the city for the purpose of making it attractive to those with economic means. The plan tramples on the barrio’s unique cultural richness, history and tradition as a refuge and a home for the poor immigrant from Mexico.
3. The history of the Mexican immigrant is not given the importance that many of us think that it should.
4. The plan could focus on re-vitalizing the core of downtown, the Central Business District, without this planned major destruction of the Segundo Barrio.
5. The City of El Paso for years has allowed “slumlords” to unscrupulously rent sub-standard housing without an apparent concern for the tenants who are typically powerless and poor. It is hard to believe that the City is now truly interested in the poor. Why is the City of El Paso presently not taking action against similar sub-standard housing situations in other areas of Central El Paso?
6. Developments planned by the rich and executed by the rich, with the concepts of “good” and “tasteful” defined by the rich, will undoubtedly favor the rich, most surely to the detriment of those on the bottom of society.
7. Saving the church building as an historic landmark is not the issue. The church is the People of God and in our case, the Immigrant Poor People of God.
8. Restoration of the Segundo Barrio, respecting its people, history and culture will probably attract more people than the generic mall-like environment found everywhere.
I urge you to pray for and work for a grass-roots, community centered, restorative improvements of the Segundo Barrio and not approve the typical destructive, economically driven methods that benefit those on the top, displace the poor and creates a more materialistic society.
God bless you,
Fr. Rafael Garcia, S.J., Pastor, Sacred Heart Church |
Photographs by Bruce Berman