As the Glass Beach image debate continues, it is poetic coincidence that Halloween is around the corner. The holiday is said to commemorate the time of the year when the fabric of time and space rips apart and allows the living and the dead to tread on each other's territory.
Those that live in the fixed delusion of hard core identities of white, black, catholic, atheist, democrat, republican, mexican, american, nazi, gay et al. have an opportunity to be the "other" on this holiday.
"Caras vemos, corazones no conocemos," (Faces we see, hearts we cannot).
How American it is to dare to explore the unseen corners of one's own personality and how wondrous and fascinating it is to be someone else for one night. How bold to simply change the image of an entire city from an undesired one to a beautiful one.
My grandmother, ever the compassionate realist, never quite understood Halloween. The Day of the Dead was matter-of-fact: one is supposed to take flowers to those loved ones that rest in the cemetery to commemorate and celebrate their lives.
Alternatively, Halloween is about changing identities and this didn't seem to quite make sense to a woman grounded in living and facing the demands of a difficult existence. She would often recite her favorite psalm to me as a means of preparing me for life's challenges.
The Lord is my shepherd: I shall lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He guides me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil. My cup runs over. Surely goodness and loving kindness shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the Lord's house forever. - Psalm 23:4
On quite another level, the Glass Beach controversy uncorked the continuing local tug and pull, just under the surface of El Paso society, between those that identify opposite each other.
Print and television media have seized upon our differences and attempted to set up polarities of opinion between Anglos and Mexicans because it sells, while, ironically sidelining others that carry completely different masks. Yet, is it not true that we cannot escape the hatred of the pasts? I do not know.
Yet, when pressed to define these labels, no one seems able to accomplish the feat. What is a Mexican? Is it the guerito that just got here from Chihuahua City or the Huicholito from Nayarit or the Latin Lover from the Chippendales in New York or the farm worker in La Union or the Baptist from Mexico City or the Mayan from Merida?
Who is the Anglo? Is it the guerito that just got here from Ireland via Chihuahua City…..
Identity encompasses a world of difference and sameness at the same time. As a society we are free; free to focus on our sameness and shared humanity or on our external differences.
"If you prick us do we not bleed? If you tickle us do we not laugh? If you poison us do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?" - Shakespeare
El Paso has to make a decision.
Those that ask the question: Who are we?..And also those that attempt to define who we are, make a fundamental mistake when they focus on outward appearances such as skin tone, hats and dress. That will never be who we are or who we may become.
For the fact is, we change over time within the same envelope of skin and bones and sometimes do not change at all but in external appearance do the clothes make the man?
"What remains after you die is the kindness you have shown the weak, the rest turns to dust." -Doña Conchita Diaz de Guerrero Roman.
Return to top.
This perspective first appeared in Border Observer, Jaime O. Perez, Editor