Whitewashing El Paso

The El Paso Times online edition used to be a good source of humor, especially the column by Ramon Renteria. Renteria is essentially a social commentator disguised as a "human interest" columnist. For years, critics have enjoyed chiding him each Sunday about his quasi illiteracy and mixture of "cholismo" with a not-so-fluent English. He often writes and rails about race and ethnicity issues, with a heavily biased tilt against Anglo American culture. Most clowns are actors, but Renteria is the consummate buffoon because he takes himself seriously.

Criticism of Renteria once got so bad that the El Paso Times online edition came out with a new editorial policy, requiring that all those posting comments on the erstwhile Topix message board (once available for a few carefully selected Times articles), now must identify themselves by posting through Facebook, or other means whereby they can be identified. Apparently, the Times thought that identifying each messenger would intimidate Renteria's critics from posting negative comments. In last Sunday's column, he lashed out at an anonymous telephone caller, claiming all his critics were afraid to confront him to his face. That brought on a surge of old critics, now identifiable by their Facebook profiles, to the comments section of his article, but nearly all were edited out, mostly no doubt by Renteria himself.

Well, the new Times policy did not deter any negative comments, but it made it much easier to delete them for no reason at all other than the fact that, though truthful, they were "offensive to the offenders"--such as Renteria. Before the new policy, other amateurish Times reporters also caught their share of criticism for poorly worded, poorly organized articles not infrequently containing misspellings, malaprop and other affronts to the conventions of our mother tongue. Apparently, they now let one or two negative commentators get through their censorship, to give Renteria's column a false appearance of being "fair and balanced," but most criticisms of Renteria and the City of El Paso are now edited out for no other reason than being negative, no matter how truthful and honest.

I enjoyed the negative posts and admit that I was sometimes a contributor. After all, teaching by antithesis is the method most preferred by the scribes in the Holy Bible. Unfortunately, in spite of heavy criticism, Renteria's writing has not improved at all. While his critics used to be 90% negative, now, thanks to careful censorship, and no doubt contributions by shills with multiple Facebook accounts, they are 90% positive. This new Times policy coincides with the El Paso Chamber of Commerce's, and City Hall's, efforts to censor anything negative about the City of El Paso. They sometimes censored even Topix comments if they reflected too negatively on the city, no matter how sincere and well stated, but back then it took more than just a click of a mouse.

Censorship of honest, quality and eloquent criticism smacks of totalitarian-type policies and reminds one of the government banishment of the best writers in Russia to the Caucasus as border guards in the mid 19th century (most of whom did not return alive). In spite of the City's and the C of C efforts, most outsiders are not convinced that El Paso is as "safe" a city, as they claim. The fact remains that it is also a "sanctuary city" where illegal aliens enjoy (illegal) immunity from arrest by the police for immigration-related crimes. Sanctuary cannot be limited to illegal aliens, for many of them are also criminals of various types, and sanctuary is therefore a dangerous, political practice.

The City of El Paso and its newspaper, the El Paso Times online edition, are ill advised in their new "image conscious" campaign. El Paso has never been seen by most Americans as a "tourist mecca," and never will be. With so many politicians and public figures being indicted in an ongoing FBI clean-up campaign of official corruption, whitewashing efforts are futile. But so are clean-up campaigns futile, for corruption and unethical conduct is embedded in the El Paso psyche and culture by tradition and have no doubt been influenced by affinity with its sister city across the Rio Grande.

Many outside visitors to El Paso and Juarez, have historically been motivated mostly by "slumming" urges. I remember when soldiers from as far away as Fort Carson, Colorado used to carpool and go down there for a wild weekend of debauchery and carousing. Common sense now dictates a more prudent selection of places to carouse, in spite of El Paso's newspaper, and the city's, whitewashing efforts. If, metaphorically speaking, tourists prefer "a clean, well-lighted place," as did Hemingway's deaf mute in the story by the same name, they won't go to El Paso or Juarez to find it.