Untitled from TJ Karam on Vimeo.
These folks would love to see San Jacinto Plaza return to its former glory, alligators included!
Monday, March 14, 2011
Tumbleweed Times: Alligator Plaza
This article was originally published in the February 2010 issue of Tumbleweed Times:
The first baby alligators arrived in El Paso in a box. According to the story, they were a gift, sent from someone in Louisiana. This was back in the 1800s when El Paso was growing from a dusty pioneer town to a busy city. A storekeeper kept the baby alligators in a barrel. When the reptiles got too big for the barrel, it was time to find another place for them. “Why not put them in the pond in the center of San Jacinto [Ha-SEEN-to] Plaza?” someone suggested. And that’s what they did.
The plan worked
From the beginning, the gators loved the pond. And the people of El Paso loved the gators. In those days, shoppers from El Paso and Juarez crowded the downtown streets. Trolley cars and city buses brought people to town. The people walked to the movie theatre, or the department stores, or the El Paso Public Library. Along the way, they stopped to watch the slow-moving reptiles in the pond.
The alligators ate two pounds of raw hamburger meat or liver a day. They grew big and fat. They laid eggs. In time, there were seven alligators in the pond in the center of town.
During warm summer days, the gators took long, slow walks around their pond. When they yawned, they showed their pointy, white teeth. They slept with their tails dipped in the green water and their fat tummies on the grass. But mostly, they stared back at the many adults and children who stood watching on the opposite side of the wall.
During the winter, the alligators stayed inside a rock cave in the center of the pond.
The alligators lived in the plaza for 80 years. The people called the park “Alligator Plaza.”
New home at the zoo
In the end, some hoodlums were causing problems for the alligators. The reptiles were in danger. In 1965, the remaining alligators were moved to the El Paso Zoo where they would be safe. The last alligator died of old age in the 1970s.
Artist Luis Jimenez built a giant fiberglass alligator sculpture that is now in the middle of the plaza in downtown El Paso. It is in the very same spot where the real alligators once napped in the warm sunshine.
In the sculpture, the four alligators seem to be frozen in time as they leap from the base of the sculpture. Two of the alligators have wide-open mouths, showing sharp, white teeth.
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For more news and information from Tumbleweed Times visit tumbleweedtimes.net.
Bring Back the Alligators
Downtown needs a "Constant Attraction" and that is what this would mean to Downtown El Paso.
Before you go any further, understand that the only way we would consider pushing this issue, is if the new alligator exhibit were to be done in a state of the art way. A way in which the Alligators would have a better living environment than they would have at a zoo. That being said.....
Downtown El Paso is beginning its revitalization process. In this process, the Plaza de los Lagartos will undertake a major renovation. We believe that it would be a huge asset to Downtown El Paso to bring the park back to its original state and include a state of the art live alligator exhibit.
Sometime in March, there will be a charrette to obtain public opinion about what should be included in the revitalization of Plaza de los Lagartos, aka San Jacinto Plaza.
Now is the time to have your voice heard and be a part of something that will go down in the history books.
The plan is to spend between 5 and 7 million dollars in renovating the park. This is going to be done once which means that in our lifetime, barring any natural disaster, it will not be done again. Don't miss out on your chance to be a part of History, and have your voice heard, in a decision that will put El Paso back on the map.
Stay tuned to find out the date of the charrette
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