Wanderers in Wonder

Out in the West Texas town of El Paso…my ‘new hip joint’ is off to a rousing start. The ‘new hip joint’ recommended by our El Paso friends, Sandra and Susie, Ardovino’s Pizza is also off to a rousing start. You fold one of their wonderful slices like pizza is supposed to be eaten and the olive oil drips out ever so slightly. Might as well be at Grimaldis at the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge in The City. We are off to points East Tuesday 1 March. Some items from our El Paso stay.

Artwork by El Paso native Tom Lea. Born in the city in 1907 and passed away in the city in 2001. His work is on display at the El Paso Museum of Art.

Tom Lea served in the Army in WWII. His paintings and sketches from the battlefields are considered to be among the best images ever produced of that tragic confrontation.

The grave of John Wesley Hardin (1853 – 1895), Concordia Cemetery, El Paso. John Wesley was named for the founder of the Methodist Movement, John Wesley (1703 – 1791). Hardin’s father was a Methodist preacher and school teacher. Obviously, John Wesley Hardin did not live up to his name. He killed his first man at the age of fifteen. Before he was done he would claim to have killed forty-four men. His oft repeated quote was, “I never killed a man that didn’t need killing”. Hardin served sixteen years in prison for murder. He taught himself law while incarcerated. After prison he tried to make a go of the legal profession. He just could not stay out of trouble. He was killed by El Paso Sheriff John Selman in El Paso in 1895.

The very popular L&J Cafe is located directly across the street from the Concordia Cemetery. L&J was established in 1927 by Antonio and Juanita Flores. The original name was Tony’s Place. Story was Tony’s Place thrived by serving cold beer to the soldiers from Fort Bliss who frequented Tony’s…prohibition be damned. It didn’t hurt that Juanita’s cooking was first rate. In 1968 Antonio and Juanita’s daughter Lilia and her husband John took the Cafe’s reins. They would rename it the L&J Cafe. Antonio and Juanita’s grandson Leo and his wife Frances took over in 1987. They operate it to this day. Their Chili Colorado con Carne plate is wonderful.

Ysleta del Sur Mission church in El Paso. In 1680, in one of the few times Native Americans cooperated to fight their European tormentors, the Pueblo Indians united to attack the Spanish settlements in Northern New Mexico…Espanola, Pojoaque, Santa Fe, Bernalillo, and Albuquerque. By 1682 the Spanish had retreated to the El Paso area. Many of the Tewa Natives in the Albuquerque area fled with the Spanish. 1682 they established the Ysleta del Sur Mission along the Rio Grande about ten miles southeast of downtown El Paso. Sadly for the Native Americans, their Pueblo alliance eventually crumbled and in 1692 the Spanish Conquistador, Don Diego de Vargas, would easily retake the former Spanish towns and reestablish Spanish rule. The Tewa’s (Tiguex in Texan) stayed at the mission in El Paso.

Peace…Wanderers in Wonder.