1. Folks In El Paso Know How To Throw Down The Pickaxe
El Paso is the one of the largest cities in the country without a professional sports team. So they take all of their pent-up sport fandom and pour it into UTEP. And those pickaxe hands have nothing to do with surfing.
And you don’t have to be a football team to get some El Paso love. The recent surge of the women’s basketball team goes to show that if you give a little love to El Paso, they’ll give it right back and then some.
2. Everyone In El Paso Basically Lives In Mexico Too
You can actually park your car in some places in El Paso and gaze over the fence at miles and miles of Mexican land. The border might be a physical barrier, but it doesn’t stop the culture from seeping in.
The people here all speak plenty of Spanish and you’ll hear it peppered into conversations—one word here, another there. And the best cultural hybrid has to be Tex-Mex. Order your tacos rolled if you want to fit in, and don’t even bring up those Old El Paso seasoning.
3. But They’re All Still Old-Fashioned Cowboys At Heart
There might not be any tumbleweeds left today, but once upon a time El Paso was the epitome of the Wild West, brimming with saloons, brothels, and lawlessness. Laws weren’t even really taken seriously until the early 1900s. And that old-fashioned cowboy spirit still remains.
Wrangler jeans, cowboy boots, and plenty of cowboy hats—you won’t have to go far to find yourself a modern-day cowboy or cowgirl in El Paso. Just stop by the Southwestern International PRCA Rodeo—the oldest continuously running rodeo ever.
4. Everyone In El Paso Has A Pair Of Rain Boots
El Paso might as well be The Sun City for the amount of sunshine and heat, but the rain can also control the lives of the residents here. People can go weeks seeing nothing but perfectly blue skies, but when they go gray and the wind shifts, everyone knows what’s coming: Buckets and buckets of rain.
Flash flooding is very common in El Paso for this reason. And no matter how many times it happens, everyone still acts like it’s the first time every time. And if you check your news feed, it will undoubtedly be filled with shots of the storm people have nabbed on their phones.
5. They’re A Rare Breed
No one knows how to eat a steak the way someone from Texas does. But the people in El Paso take it to a whole new level. Not only do they have the best steaks, but they have the best places to eat them, too.
Two words: Cattleman’s Steakhouse, which deems itself as the “Manliest Steakhouse in America.” The cuts of beef are comparable to the size of a newborn baby, and folks in El Paso know the only manly way to order them is rare. Very rare.
6. They Always Have A Reason To Drink To That
And it usually comes with salt. Margaritas are as important to the culture of El Paso as the border itself. That’s because everybody’s favorite salty mixed drink was born at Tommy’s Place Bar in the El-Paso-Juarez area in the 1940s.
But just because they’re good at margaritas doesn’t mean that’s all they drink. Locals have their pick of specialty brews from places like Primo’s Craft Beer, BJ’s Brewhouse, Number Brewery, and The Hoppy Monk. And the annual El Paso Craft Beer Festival is the perfect way to drink it all in one shot.
7. They Totally Believe In Ghosts
Almost all of Texas is brimming with tales of hauntings, but El Paso has a ton of creepy stories and legends of their very own and the folks here know them all. They also know that they’re a little more than just legend.
There’s the very haunted house on Piedmont Street, where a couple completely vanished off the face of the earth. More than 60 years later the case is still unsolved. Ghosts are known to haunt the historic Plaza Theater. The folks here are used to it. Some even whisper about the possibility of the new Area 51 underneath the city itself.
8. They’re Ready To Correct You About Their City Even Before You Open Your Mouth
Everyone in El Paso knows what you think about them and their home: A bunch of uneducated Texans living basically in the middle of Nowheresville, who can’t drive worth a damn.
Well, one part of that is right. They definitely are Texans. But El Paso is far from the middle of nowhere. These people have mind-blowing food, craft brews and killer cocktails, festivals, the arts, an epic music scene and much more.
9. So Don’t Mess With These Texans
Don’t mess with Texas? More like don’t mess with El Paso. Because loyalty to their city comes even before loyalty to their state.
They love their city, the melting pot full of history, killer food, and a culture so unique, no one else can claim it. El Paso is home and if you live here, you’re considered family. So if you mess with one of them, you mess with all of them. Word of advice – don’t do that.
Feature Image Source: UTEP – The University of Texas at El Paso Facebook
Did we miss anything? Tell us what you think of El Paso in the comments below!
