cash only

 

If you are making lodging reservations in El Paso, do not confuse the Hotel Cortez with the Cortez Motel. 

 

The Hotel Cortez was in downtown El Paso, built in the 1920s as Hotel Hussman and renamed later in a contest.  JFK stayed there in 1963.  The hotel ceased operations in 1970 but there are on-going renovations plans for the building.

 

The Cortez Motel is on Alameda and accepts cash only.  An internet ad stated for the motel stated: "Cortez Motel is located near endless parking possibilities, allowing drivers to park with ease. So check in to Cortez Motel for a great night's rest while you're on El Paso."

 

Cortez Motel

7174 Alameda Avenue

El Paso, Texas

6.10.2016

the line-up

 

These forms look more like aliens than pinatas in progress.  After drying, these newspaper mache figures will transform into colorful cartoon characters, including Donald Trump.  The traditional piñata had  with seven points, each with streamers. These cones represent the seven deadly sins, pecados - greed, gluttony, sloth, pride, envy, wrath and lust-- all traits exhibited by kids at birthday parties vying for the piñata's candies and treats.

 

El Paso, Texas

6.10.2016 

The bronco looks more like a tired, old nag and rightfully so after 66 years.  All that remains Bronco Drive-In's marquee is the horse's head.  Built in 1950, the drive-in attracted El Pasoans to its single-screen and 600 car capacity.  After closing in 1975, the drive-in, except for the marquee signage, was razed and the property became home to a dance hall and finally a swap meet.

Bronco Swap Meet
Alameda Street
El Paso, Texas
6.10.2016

madonna

 

As the deadline nears for entries to the 13th annual High and Dry exhibit, I browsed through the rejects from previous years.  Although fortunate enough to have images exhibited 10 of the 13 years, for every image selected there might be 4 rejected.  Each judge brings a different perspective to what reflects the people and land of semiarid regions.  Click here to see the 2011 exhibit.

 

Somewhere in El Paso, Texas

2006

opera at the plaza

One can still catch glimmers of the glamorous past of downtown El Paso, although it's hard to envision the past cosmopolitan aspect of this border city.  Just down the street from the elegant Paso del Norte Hotel with its Tiffany-glass domed bar, the Plaza Theater welcomed sophisticates.  Built in 1930 and billed as the largest theater of its kind between Los Angeles and Dallas, it was a jewel in downtown El Paso.  Designed in Spanish Colonial Revival style of architecture, the interior featured intricately painted ceilings, mosaic-tiled floors, decorative metal railings and sconces.  With such grandiose rococo design, it's no wonder the Plaza was known as The Showplace of the Southwest.

http://www.theplazatheatre.org/about_history.php

El Paso, Texas

10.14.2006