The Humanities and El Paso's Haunted History

The event’s coordinators included both EPCC instructors and graduate student fellows from The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP): EPCC Humanities Collaborative Faculty Fellows Dr. Elizabeth Acosta--English instructor) and myself (philosophy instructor) Carmen Ordaz (Humanities Collaborative Graduate Research Fellow from UTEP), and Maria Schrock-Espinoza (EPCC history instructor and Humanities Collaborative Doctoral Fellow from UTEP)  As a team, we wanted students to gain a deeper understanding of their city by exploring its history and its cultural traditions.  Furthermore, we wanted students to learn how fields in the humanities can come together to enrich their learning experience in a practical and artistic manner. We thought that having the event on Halloween and focusing on haunting urban legends about historic sites would help us accomplish our goals, and we titled our programming "The Haunted History of El Paso."

Many places in El Paso, Texas, have a rich history, and even though most EPCC students have lived here their whole lives, many are not aware of it.  We hoped that by having students participate in this event, we could change that. Our city also has a rich cultural heritage.  Even though it is multicultural city, its two dominant cultures are American and Mexican.  We chose to have the event on Halloween because it is a big part of the American tradition, celebrated every year by millions across the nation, including El Pasoans.  Building on this Halloween theme, we also wanted to encourage students to learn about their city by appealing to the Mexican culture—in particular, the culture’s belief in an afterlife.  In the Mexican culture, it is commonly believed that the spirits of the dead coexist with those of the living.  It is also believed that when a spirit has unfinished business, it stays among us instead of moving on to the land of the dead.  Those restless spirits are believed to stay in places that are significant to them and haunt them.  There are many different historic sites that are rumored to be haunted in El Paso, Texas, and we thought that by curating this event, we would encourage students to learn about this city’s history in a culturally significant way. More than that, we also wanted students to tap into their creative capabilities by asking them to render artistic representations of the historic sites that they chose to explore in their research.

Students participating in the event were required to present projects on one chosen historic site in El Paso, Texas.  Projects were required to include historical information about the site, the urban legend behind the haunting, and an artistic representation of the historic site.  EPCC students taking philosophy and English courses at both the Northwest and Valle Verde campuses participated in the event.  An array of historic sites was chosen for these projects, including, but not limited to, Concordia Cemetery, the site of the former Magic Landing Amusement Park, and The El Paso Playhouse.  Unfortunately, not all students who made projects were able to attend the event.  Those who were able to attend presented projects on El Paso High School, The Plaza Theatre, and the EPCC Rio Grande Campus.  After giving us a brief history of the historic site and explaining the haunting urban legend, they explained how these places and stories inspired them to create paintings or models representing what they had learned about the history of El Paso, Texas.

Aside from the presenters and the event’s coordinators, about twenty EPCC students attended the event to hear their classmates present.  Also present were Dr. Brian Yothers, Principal Investigator of The Humanities Collaborative at EPCC-UTEP initiative, and Dr. Lydia Tena, Dean of Instruction at the EPCC Northwest Campus.  Before students presented their projects, the organizers discussed the goals of the Humanities Collaborative, and those present were able to get a sense of the importance of studying humanities courses and to see that there is ample administrative support and enthusiasm for humanities-led projects.

Overall, I believe that “The Haunted History of El Paso” event was a success in accomplishing its goals, but since it was the first "Haunted History," it was also a learning experience.  This was the very first time any of the coordinators had attempted a project such as this one, and after seeing the amazing work by the students, one of the things we set a goal to see more student participation in the future.  With the riches of so many historic sites in El Paso, Texas, that students can learn about and be inspired by that were not presented over, we saw that students would have no shortage of sites to study and explore.  We also tried to think of ways in which students could get more class benefits from the event.  The students who presented their projects got extra credit points for participating in the event, but another way we can encourage students to participate in the event and by linking it to their courses is by making it part of the course requirement.  One of the event coordinators, Maria Schrock-Espinoza, is planning to incorporate participating in the event into her history course curriculum, which I think this will make the event even a greater success.

We would also have liked for UTEP students to participate in the event as presenters.  This would have helped us solidify the connections between EPCC and UTEP and would have been a great opportunity for EPCC students to learn about what possibly lies ahead of them as future UTEP humanities students.  Originally, we wanted the event to take place in the Centennial Museum at UTEP so that EPCC students could become familiarized with the university, but due to time constraints, we were not able to do so.  Having a student exhibit at the museum would have been great because it would have made the student projects available to the general public.  In the future, we can plan the event even earlier and give students plenty of time to research their projects while allowing us more time to hold the event at The University of Texas at El Paso.  Despite this, I think that having the event at the EPCC Northwest Campus turned out to be good, and having a more intimate event at a smaller venue this first time around allowed us to see how the event would unfold without the added stress of having a public event at a bigger venue.

Personally, I have to say that I was very impressed with our students’ quality of work and their willingness to learn about their community.  The effort students put into their historical research was apparent in the quality of their projects.  I was glad that this event took place because I was able to see that our students, given the opportunity, can show that they are capable of doing great work and because I, too, was able to learn about the fantastic history behind some sites in El Paso, Texas.  I’m really looking forward to next year’s event and seeing (again) how El Paso's history haunts the humanities today!

Written by Crisol Escobedo
Faculty Fellow, The Humanities Collaborative at EPCC-UTEP