The Response to Glass Beach

At El Centro De Mujeres Tonantzin was an old man sitting among a circle of residents from Lomas De Poleo and activists and students from the border cities of El Paso and Cd. Juarez and beyond. The residents of Lomas and some who came from Yale were all taking notes or videotaping the testimony of Guadalupe Pineda. As I was taking photographs of Ms. Pineda and the participants of the meeting, I noticed this viejito who was writing fervently in his notebook. Hunched over the chair with a bolsa de mandado, the extremely old man was attentive to Ms. Pineda and the congregation.

Before I pressed the shutter, an ad from Glass Beach flooded my mind. I could see the snapshot of an elderly man who might be Mexican or Anglo walking along a blurry strip of shops. The photo exhibits an exterior space as the perspective has a distant feel: for the features of the man are fuzzy, almost abstract. He might not have been aware that someone photographed him and dehumanized his image for the purpose of justifying eminent domain with the attempt to dispossess a working class and immigrant neighborhood from their homes and businesses.

On the summer of 2006, the ad agency Glass Beach describes a historically Mexican barrio, El Segundo Barrio as an Old Cowboy who is gritty, dirty, lazy, Spanish speaker and uneducated. I wonder if this consulting firm asked this elderly stranger if he wanted his image to be slandered or they just stole his image to sell the potential demolition of people's neighborhood for national chain stores and expensive condominiums? Would he sue a city council that not only applauds the racial slurs but utilize his image unknown to him and the El Pasoan public to a minority of investors called Paso Del Norte and decide over the fate of residents living in El Segundo Barrio? The presentation of Glass Beach was given by the city manager Joyce Wilson and the objections that Robert O'Rourke, the representative of the Segundo Barrio had toward the slide show were the grammatical errors. Robert O'Rourke who is the son-in-law of the leader of Paso Del Norte Bill Sanders has yet to denounce the plan to raze the Segundo Barrio as being racist and illegal.

Glass Beach which is a consulting firm founded by Will Sander's father already has a name for the Segundo Barrio as the Golden Horseshoe that will consist of national chain stores, restaurants, garages, expensive apartments, and a mercado. In a Town Hall Meeting, a consultant from Glass Beach presented the Golden Horseshoe as a board game and asked the audience to pretend that they were pilgrims. As settlers or pilgrims they could select what new item to keep over the dispossession of peoples lives and memories. Where would they like to have a bike route over the erasure of the barrio continual historical sites? The Segundo Barrio was once a refuge for Mexican artists, intellectuals, curanderas and activists fleeing Porfirio's Diaz regime but for Will Sander's who is the driving force behind demolishing and evicting people from El 2ndo, the Segundo Barrio is empty land waiting to be exploited and colonized while evicting our histories and Mexican presence. Unfortunetly city council supports Bill Sanders delusional dream of being a psychopath conquistador.

The following link is a video produced by Paso Del Sur where residents of Segundo Barrio confront Robert O'Rourke over the City's plan to demolish the resident's homes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wgv_aDrsOcg

Looking at the photograph of Glass Beach's racist ad, I do not know who that individual might be and if he is aware that his image has been manipulated. I also ignore the identity of the old man who sat diligently writing while at El Centro De Mujeres Tonanztin; however he lives in a community where developers are illegally bulldozing homes and terrorizing those who resist to relocate. That old man might have been documenting the attack that Guadalupe Pineda and Antonio Gonzalez suffered from Fernando Carrillo, a Guardia Blanca.