mexican revolution vs cartel wars

I usually prefer talking about the positives of the el paso - juarez region, and so it may come off like I'm ignoring the elephant in the room. Media coverage on the drug cartel wars taking place in our sister city of Cd Juarez are nothing new. It is no exaggeration the wave of crushing violence that has plagued Juarez for the past two years. Most people are completely taken aback to learn that el paso is one of the safest large cities in the country. I don't get it either, but I hope we keep that designation.

El Paso fueled much national interest 100 years ago during the mexican revolution of 1910. It was not uncommon to find tourists observing the war taking place literally a mile or so from the tops of their downtown hotel. There is much intrigue to that era of our history. The current war takes on a much different feel. The high ideals of the revolution have been replaced with unsympathetic violence, seemingly without much thought or care for the innocent.

I came across an article in today's paper about the difference in loss of life between the revolution and the current cartel war. I think it helps put things in perspective about the severity of the violence.

100th anniversary: Mexican Revolution not even as deadly as Juárez now
By Daniel Borunda / El Paso TimesPosted: 01/22/2010 12:00:00 AM MST

Juárez is deadlier now than during the Mexican Revolution, a border history expert said Thursday. Oscar Martinez, a history professor at the University of Arizona, gave the first in a series of lectures at the El Paso Museum of History marking the 100th anniversary of the Mexican Revolution. Martinez said he is often asked about casualties in Juárez during the revolution compared with the current violence. The conservative estimate is that about 300 people died in battles in Juárez during the entire Mexican Revolution of 1910, he said.

"The important thing is the total number is only a fraction of the people killed in the last three years in Juárez," Martinez told an audience of more than 70 people at the museum. "It's a catastrophe. And that is no revolution going on. It is a civil war between cartels." About 4,000 people have been killed in Juárez since 2008. Law enforcement officials have said that current violence in Juárez is part of a war between the Sinaloa and Juárez drug cartels for control of a lucrative smuggling routes into the United States.
Martinez, an El Paso native, teaches courses on the history of Mexico, the history of Mexican-Americans and the border. He has written several books. Martinez's lecture on Thursday was an over view of the revolution.

Sue Taylor, senior education curator at the museum, said more events linked to the Mexican Revolution would take place at the museum throughout the year. The lectures are sponsored by a grant from Humanities Texas. Martinez said cities on the U.S.-Mexico border like El Paso played an important role during the revolution, which altered Mexico politically, socially and culturally. And no city was more important than Juárez. "Ciudad Juárez was always on center stage in that decade. Ciudad Juárez was the prize city on the border," Martinez said.

The revolution was fueled by several factors, including resentment of the masses toward a corrupt elite that dominated Mexico. The revolution gave rise to changes that bore fruit decades later, Martinez said.
The next lecture, on Feb. 18, will focus on the African-American experience during the Mexican Revolution.

I'm with coco!

I know this doesn't have anything to do with old houses, but dammit -- I'm with coco!

pic of the day

lone row house

window restoration, misc thoughts

I know there has been a dearth of content lately. Rest assured, I'm working on my windows slowly but surely. One nice thing about el paso is the climate -- working exterior projects through december is usually met with 60+ degree weather. I had planned to finish off the western wall I'd been working on as well as the front windows and door trim. Hopefully I can squeeze that in to the next two months before exterior project season officially picks up again (60+ degree weather). Hopefully the weather complies.

So what have I learned from all this window craziness?

1. It takes longer than I thought.

Best thing I can say is suck it up and know that after you're done, you won't need to worry about them for a while. One, you're saving money by maintaining them and not having to replace them with new windows. And two, it is just the cool thing to do to up your DIY cred. :)

2. Should I not cheap out and actually restore these to fully working order?

I've thought alot about this. Aside from the peace of mind that I completely restored the windows, I'm not sure that future owners of this home will appreciate the amount of work I put into them. I mean this is already taking forever -- I can't imagine taking the sash out, heatgunning all the glaze and paint off. Removing glass without breaking it. Reglazing and repainting? Ouch. I have a day job you know? I'd like to finish these sometime in my lifetime. This is why I've decided to keep the downstairs windows inoperable. Several windows have the sash cords and/or weights removed. However as I complete each window I take great pains to really scrape the heck out of the border between sash and frame. Meaning they are superficially painted shut. It shouldn't be too hard to unstick them if you wanted to. At some point far in the future I may decide to do this, but right now it's just not in the cards. I think I will have my work cut out for me by taking on the top floor windows. The monster windows in the office (sun room) scare me, but it needs to be done.

3. Should these windows be fully stripped down to bare wood?

I don't think it's completely necessary, I'm hoping that if you're having a hard time getting it off, it's still good. At least for a while. Over time as you scrape and repaint it will most likely be to the parts that were not scraped down all the way. I don't think that's too big a deal though.

4. Can I apply the primer over non-bare wood?

I conveniently sidestepped this issue when I redid the dining room windows on the rear of the house. The paint was mostly already off and what was left was seriously flaking. I easily took these down to 90% wood at least. I don't believe these had been recently painted as those on the other side of the room so there were no issues with latex paint. I hadn't really thought about this until after the fact. I believe the standard is latex over oil but never the other way around. When you get down to bare wood you don't have to worry about this. Just primer the whole thing, then give two coats latex. But what if you're windows have a coat of latex that you weren't able to completely get off? You then put an oil based primer over it and proceeded with another layer of latex. Depending on how much we're talking about this could be an issue with the paint flaking up prematurely. I've chalked this up to experience and will keep an eye on my recently completed windows to see if this does indeed prove to have been a mistake. On future windows that do have significant amounts of latex still there after the scraping/sanding phase I will apply primer to only the exposed wood. Hopefully in 10 years there will be no difference between the two. Or I could be at it again on the windows in question in 2 - 3 years. I hope I'm being overly paranoid.

Needless to say, I've decided to invest in a book I recently found out about. It's called "Working Windows". I'm hoping the experts will guide me through the many questions I will eventually endure when I start tackling the upstairs windows. Until then I shall restore in ignorant bliss.

chimney gunk

Take a good hard look at that picture. A couple weeks ago we started having problems with our furnace shutting off constantly and never really heating properly. After much frustration with the HVAC guys, they finally figured out there was an obstruction on our furnace exhaust pipe. This leads to the utility chimney stack shared with the water heater. Needless to say, it's been (many?) years since this has been cleaned out. It doesn't help that the chimney is unlined -- the pipes only entend a few feet up the stack. Aside from the obvious fire danger, this is also a carbon monoxide danger. It needed to get fixed ASAP.

I called a company that specializes in chimneys to come out and take a look. They gave it a good cleaning and I'm so happy that everything is finally back to normal. Furnace is heating as it should, yay!! In the next few weeks we're going to schedule them to come out again and line the chimney with a flue for both pipes and cap it off. Also considering getting it repointed while I'm at it. Let this be a warning to never assume all your exhaust vents are peachy clean. I know I won't..

McBroom history

I happened to be in the downtown library the other day and did a little research. Still trying to find the specifics of the house like builder/architect, etc. Unfortunately if your house wasn't built by someone prominent (like Henry C. Trost) then you probably aren't going to find anything. Well at least not in the library. I plan to hit the Special Collections at the university sometime in the future. Little by little a picture is forming from the clues though. I uncovered some very interesting info about Joseph H. McBroom, the original owner of this house. As soon as I can get my hands on a scanner, I'll upload images of these articles. In the meantime you'll just have to take my word for it.

El Paso Herald - Oct 10, 1902

FOUR NEW LAYERS FOR THE EL PASO BAR

Joseph H. McBroom, from Indiana, is the latest addition to the legal fraternity. Yesterday he was admitted to practice in the courts of Texas by Judge Walthall. Mr. McBroom presented credentials from Indiana and the motion for his admission was made by Adolph Heffman. This is the fourth man admitted to the local bar this week.

So now I finally learn a bit of the back story on McBroom. He was in town for a quite a while before he had this house built. I'd love to know where he lived prior to 1914, if it still exists. Many non-hispanic residents of this period were transplants from the midwest of german or irish descent. I had a feeling he might have moved here from the midwest.

El Paso Herald - Oct 22, 1915

CITY ATTORNEY WARE RESIGNS; J.H. McBROOM IS APPOINTED

City attorney W.B. Ware has resigned his position, effective November 1 and will be succeeded by attorney J.H. McBroom. The resignation was given to the city council at 5 o'clock Thursday evening and was acted upon by the mayor and his councilmen, who selected Mr. McBroom to take attorney Ware's place.

The report that the city attorney would resign has been current for several weeks, as Mr. Ware has stated that his law practice demanded more of his time than he contemplated and that he could not give the city affairs enough time.

The plot thickens. So it appears Mr. McBroom got a promotion round the time this house was built. He had a few weeks lead time, but from my research this house was built in 1914. Maybe he was expecting it before his boss actually gave word. I'm not sure if city attorney means the district attorney. I suppose he could have served in a more general capacity for all legal matters of the city.

El Paso Times - Jan 9, 1956

J. McBroom, Former City Attorney, Dies

Funeral arrangements for Joseph Howard McBroom, 84, who died Sunday in his home, xxxx Elm St, were pending with Harding and Orr Funeral Home.

A resident of El Paso since 1902, McBroom was a retired lawyer and former El Paso city attorney. Having served from 1915 to 1919 and again in 1931.

From 1923 to 1929 he served on the El Paso School Board and at one time was its president. He was a law partner of Walter H Scott and later was associated with Attorney Frank Clayton.

Mr. McBroom was a member of the El Paso Bar Association, First Presbyterian Church, and Kappa Sigma Fraternity.

Born in Monticello, Ill. on Jan. 30, 1871, he was graduated from Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Ill., in 1897. In 1898 he was admitted to the Indiana Bar.

On Sept. 15, 1954, he and Mrs. McBroom observed their 50th wedding anniversary.

Survivors, in addition to his widow, include a daughter, Mrs. R.P. Langford; two grandchildren, Joseph H. Langford and James M. Langford, all of El Paso; and a sister, Mrs. Emma Humphrey of Illinois.

Whoa, its the biggest helping of house history I've yet uncovered. Where to begin? After starting his career, Mr. McBroom didn't stay in the midwest very long before relocating to El Paso. He seemed to be very involved in his community and a devout family man. I have seen the city directory from 1927 with him still listed at this address. So I'm unsure when he moved to the house on Elm St. The street sounds familiar, I do know it's somewhere in the central area. I'd be very interested to know if his descendants still reside in El Paso. I would love to see some old photos of the house and any other information they would like to share.

pic of the day

snow!