[Published under fair use
No mention of the 73 page 1998 confidential for settlement only document, covered bu nytimes front page in 10/2006]
Jane Little Botkin
jane@janelittlebotkin.com
Growing up with ASARCO, EL Paso, TX
February 10, 2019 / Jane Little Botkin / Comments Offon Growing up with ASARCO, EL Paso, TX
The University of Oklahoma Press recently released a new book that certainly caught my attention. Copper Stain, by Elaine Hampton and Cynthia C. Ontiveros, [written using EPW grant] should be an excellent read. I was raised on El Paso’s northeast side but moved near ASARCO (the west side) after I turned 18. The smelter’s community plays a small role in my book Frank Little and the IWW: The Blood That Stained an American Family. I thought I would share an old blog post from my Frank Little website, though Copper Stain should tell a broader, poignant story about the people who suffered the most from ASARCO’s legacy. I congratulate its authors! The old posting begins below:
"When I was an aspiring college student at the University of Texas at El Paso back in the early seventies, I had to park my car in a designated area beyond some low sand dunes and navigate a beaten trail just south of the dorms before my feet hit pavement. Immediately to my left was I-10, and beyond that, railroad tracks, the border fence, a corralled Rio Grande, and Mexico. On many occasions, my mouth immediately filled with a metallic taste—ASARCO was emitting fumes on these days. While I understood that the dingy-colored boulders and buildings next to I-10 and the university were due to these emissions, I, like many other students, had no idea that the fumes were laden with toxins. ......."
........"As for ASARCO, the landmark smoke stacks were demolished on April 13, 2013. Crowds of El Pasoans arrived to view the historic event from the UTEP side of I-10. To many, ASARCO’s demise was long overdue. For me, I now feel slightly discombobulated driving on I-10 since the tallest concrete stack was my point of reference for the west side, aside from the Franklin Mountains. But for many Mexican and Mexican-American families, its destruction marks the end of a poverty-filled era, characterized by illness and death during the tenure of an American-owned corporate giant."
Posted in Frank Little and the IWW, Growing Up in El Paso, TX
Jane Little Botkin
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[Excerpts published under fair use, contact for removal, buy his book or visit his blog for more detail]
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