Editing El Paso, Texas (section)

===1900–present===

[[File:El Paso Downtown 1908.jpg|thumb|left|[[Downtown El Paso]] in 1908]]
[[File:El_Paso_Electric_Railway_travels_from_Smelter_town_in_1912.jpg|left|thumb|El Paso Electric Railway traveling from [[Smeltertown, Texas|Smeltertown]] in 1912]]
[[File:Mesa Avenue, the heart of El Paso, Texas.jpg|thumb|left|Mesa Avenue, the heart of El Paso, Texas (postcard, c. 1917)]]
[[File:Camping on the Border, near El Paso, Texas.jpg|thumb|right|[[General Pershing]]'s [[Pancho Villa Expedition|punitive expedition]] camp near the border, El Paso, Texas (postcard, c. 1916): Franklin Mountains, left-to-right (i.e., south-to-north) are: Ranger Peak, Sugarloaf Mountain, and part of South Franklin Mountain]]

In 1909, the [[El Paso Chamber|El Paso Chamber of Commerce]] hosted U.S. President [[William Howard Taft]] and Mexican President [[Porfirio Díaz]] at a planned summit in El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, a historic first meeting between the Presidents of the two countries, and also the first time an American President crossed the border into Mexico.{{sfn|Harris|2009|p=1}} However, tensions rose on both sides of the border, including threats of assassination; so the [[Texas Rangers Division|Texas Rangers]], 4,000 U.S. and Mexican troops, U.S. Secret Service agents, FBI agents, and U.S. marshals were all called in to provide security.{{sfn|Harris|2009|p=15}} [[Frederick Russell Burnham]], a celebrated scout, was put in charge of a 250-strong private security detail hired by [[John Hays Hammond]], who in addition to owning large investments in Mexico, was a close friend of Taft from Yale and a U.S. vice presidential candidate in 1908.{{sfn|Hampton|1910}}{{sfn|Daily Mail|1909|p=7}} On October 16, the day of the summit, Burnham and Private C.R. Moore, a Texas Ranger, discovered a man 
holding a concealed [[Protector Palm Pistol|palm pistol]] standing at the Chamber of Commerce building along the procession route in El Paso.{{sfn|Harris|2009|p=16}}{{sfn|Hammond|1935|pp=565–66}} Burnham and Moore captured, disarmed, and arrested the assassin within only a few feet of Taft and Díaz.{{sfn|Harris|2009|p=213}}{{sfn|Harris|2004|p=26}}  By 1910, an overwhelming number of people in the city were Americans, creating a settled environment, but this period was short-lived as the [[Mexican Revolution]] greatly impacted the city, bringing an influx of refugees—and capital—to the bustling boom town. Spanish-language newspapers, theaters, movie houses, and schools were established, many supported by a thriving Mexican refugee middle class. Large numbers of clerics, intellectuals, and businessmen took refuge in the city, particularly between 1913 and 1915. Ultimately, the violence of the Mexican Revolution followed the large Mexican diaspora, who had fled to El Paso. In 1915 and again in 1916 and 1917, various Mexican revolutionary societies planned, staged, and launched violent attacks against both Texans and their political Mexican opponents in El Paso. This state of affairs eventually led to the vast [[Plan de San Diego]], which resulted in the murder of 21 American citizens.<ref name="TSHAPSD">{{cite web | url=https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/ngp04 | publisher=Texas State Historical Association | title=Plan of San Diego | access-date=October 4, 2015| date=June 15, 2010 }}</ref> The subsequent reprisals by a local militia soon caused an escalation of violence, wherein an estimated 300 Mexicans and Mexican-Americans lost their lives. These actions affected almost every resident of the entire Rio Grande Valley, resulting in millions of dollars of losses; the result of the Plan of San Diego was long-standing enmity between the two ethnic groups.<ref name="TSHAPSD" />

Simultaneously, other Texans and Americans gravitated to the city, and by 1920, along with the U.S. Army troops, the population exceeded 100,000, and non-Hispanic Whites once again were in the clear majority. Nonetheless, the city increased the segregation between Mexicans and Mexican-Americans with non-Hispanic Whites. One prominent form of segregation, in the form of immigration controls to prevent disease, allegedly was abused to create [[Consent|nonconsensual]] [[Pornography|pornographic]] images of women distributed in local bars.<ref>{{Cite web |date=July 10, 2019 |title=John Carlos Frey: America's Deadly Stealth War on the Mexico Border Is Approaching Genocide |url=https://www.democracynow.org/2019/7/10/john_carlos_frey_sand_and_blood |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190713234210/https://www.democracynow.org/2019/7/10/john_carlos_frey_sand_and_blood |archive-date=July 13, 2019 |access-date=July 13, 2019 |website=[[Democracy Now!]]}}</ref> These rumors along with the perceived hazard from [[kerosene]] baths led to the [[1917 Bath riots]].<ref>{{Cite news |date=1917-01-29 |title=Women Force Anti-American Riot in Juarez (pt. 1) |volume=82 |pages=1 |work=Detroit Free Press |issue=124 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/6582406/detroit-free-press/ |access-date=2022-11-08 |via=[[Newspapers.com]]}}</ref> As a result of the increased segregation, the Catholic Church attempted to garner the Mexican-American community's allegiance through education and political and civic involvement organizations, including the National Catholic Welfare Fund.<ref>{{Cite book| title = ''Mexicans "of the better class": The elite culture and ideology of Porfirian Chihuahua and its influence on the Mexican American generation, 1876–1936''| first = Víctor M. | last = Macías-González | year = 1995 | publisher = El Paso: UTEP }}</ref> In 1916, the Census Bureau reported El Paso's population as 53% Mexican and 44% Non-Hispanic whites.<ref>{{Cite book |editor-first=Emmons K. |editor-last=Ellsworth |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hF3JAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA4 |title=Special Census of the Population of El Paso, Tex: January 15, 1916 | publisher=United States Bureau of the Census |date=January 15, 1916 |access-date=July 1, 2010}}</ref> Mining and other industries gradually developed in the area. The [[El Paso and Northeastern Railway]] was chartered in 1897, to help extract the natural resources of surrounding areas, especially in southeastern New Mexico Territory. The 1920s and 1930s had the emergence of major business development in the city, partially enabled by [[Prohibition era|Prohibition-era]] bootlegging.<ref name="handbook"/> The military demobilization, and agricultural economic depression, which hit places like El Paso first before the larger [[Great Depression]] was felt in the big cities, though, hit the city hard. In turn, as in the rest of the United States, the [[Depression era]] overall hit the city hard, and El Paso's population declined through the end of World War II, with most of the population losses coming from the non-Hispanic White community. Nonetheless, they remained the majority to the 1940s.{{Citation needed|date=October 2013}}

During and following the war, military expansion in the area, as well as oil discoveries in the [[Permian Basin (North America)|Permian Basin]], helped to engender rapid economic expansion in the mid-1900s. Copper smelting, [[Petroleum|oil]] refining, and the proliferation of low-wage industries (particularly garment making) led to the city's growth. Additionally, the departure of the region's rural population, which was mostly non-Hispanic White, to cities like El Paso, brought a short-term burst of capital and labor, but this was balanced by additional departures of middle-class Americans to other parts of the country that offered new and better-paying jobs. In turn, local businesses looked south to the opportunities afforded by cheap Mexican labor. Furthermore, the period from 1942 to 1956 had the [[bracero program]], which brought cheap Mexican labor into the rural area to replace the losses of the non-Hispanic White population. In turn, seeking better-paying jobs, these migrants also moved to El Paso. By 1965, Hispanics once again were a majority. Meanwhile, the postwar expansion slowed again in the 1960s, but the city continued to grow with the annexation of surrounding neighborhoods and in large part because of its significant economic relationship with Mexico.{{Citation needed|date=October 2013}}

[[Farah strike|The Farah Strike]], 1972–1974, occurred in El Paso, Texas. This strike was originated and led by Chicanas, or Mexican-American women, against the Farah Manufacturing Company, due to complaints against the company inadequately compensating workers.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.marxists.org/history/erol/ncm-1/farah.pdf|title=Chicanos Strike At Farah|website=www.marxists.org|access-date=December 7, 2018}}</ref> ''Texas Monthly'' described the Farah Strike as the "strike of the century".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.texasmonthly.com/articles/the-best-of-the-texas-century-business/|title=The Best of the Texas Century—Business|date=January 20, 2013|website=Texas Monthly|language=en|access-date=December 7, 2018}}</ref>

On August 3, 2019, a [[2019 El Paso shooting|terrorist shooter]] espousing [[white supremacy]] killed 23 people at a [[Walmart]] and injured 22 others.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-49221936|title=Texas Walmart shooting: Twenty killed in El Paso gun attack|date=August 4, 2019|access-date=August 3, 2019|work=[[BBC]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/active-shooter-near-el-paso-mall-police-responding-n1039001|title=El Paso shooting: 20 people dead, 26 injured, suspect in custody, police say|date=August 3, 2019|first1=Andrew|last1=Blankstein|first2=Minyvonne |last2=Burke|website=NBC News|access-date=August 3, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |title=El Paso Walmart Shooting Victim Dies, Death Toll Now 23 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2020/04/26/business/ap-mass-shooting-texas.html |date=2020-04-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200427180001/https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2020/04/26/business/ap-mass-shooting-texas.html |archive-date=27 Apr 2020 |access-date=2024-01-19 |url-status=dead |work=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/texas-man-pleads-guilty-90-federal-hate-crimes-and-firearms-violations-august-2019-mass|title=Texas Man Pleads Guilty to 90 Federal Hate Crimes and Firearms Violations for August 2019 Mass Shooting at Walmart in El Paso, Texas|date=February 8, 2023|website=www.justice.gov}}</ref>