El Paso, Texas, is a city that borders Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua. A place where people cross daily to get to school or work. A place where the lives of well-to-do people are concealed and left with a great mystery. 

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The Stories We Hear:

Students cross from Juarez to El Paso: they wait in the line that they walked about half a mile to reach, go to the machine that scans their passport, talk to the CBP officers, place their backpacks through the conveyor belt, grab it when it comes through the other side, and head to the bus station where that bus will take them to school.

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Others get into their friend’s car or their friend’s mom’s car, cross through SENTRI (where there is little to no line), barely get questioned by CBP, and get to school quickly.

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Meanwhile, 20 minutes away…

Students walk out of their houses, wait at the bus stop, get picked up by the smiling bus driver, and are dropped off at school early.

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Others get into their parent’s car, their parent(s) silently drive them to school while music comes out of the speakers, and they get dropped off with no words, not even a thank you to their parent(s).

Some get into their own cars, drive to Starbucks, get coffee, and head to school early – or late, it doesn’t matter.

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These are the different sides of that experience. Some teenagers go to Cathedral or Loretto, others go to Coronado High School, Chapin, Bowie, or Jefferson. What differentiates these schools? The financial status of the people who attend. When people find out someone went to Coronado High School, the first statement that pops out of their mouths is, “Oh, so you’re rich?”

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Usually, high school is where people start to notice financial status. Coronado students are known to have big houses, wear expensive brands, and drive fancy cars (but of course, this is all ‘daddy’s money’). Not to mention, living on the Westside of El Paso also adds a different connotation of where you came from, how much money you have, and even what kind of person you are. 

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We hear so many inspirational stories of incredible people who have come to the United States and built a great life for themselves. But we don’t often hear the other side of people who are very comfortable in their lifestyles because they don’t want for anything. There is balance in the chasm between people who struggle and people who simply don’t. Financial status is a big topic in El Paso. It defines who you are and how people view you. However, because it is not a ‘nice’ topic to discuss, it is rarely mentioned. People gossip but never outwardly admit that they are interested in talking about it. 

How would I know this? Because I’ve somewhat lived it.

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Now, I grew up as others would say… privileged. I moved to El Paso when I was five from a small town in Mexico, and my parents paid for private school education for nine years of my life. I grew up getting everything I had ever wanted and was denied nothing. So, while others struggled with paying for school, rent, or food, I lived a very fulfilled and blessed life. However, I spent some of my high school life and most of college feeling the need to justify my financial status. I went to high school with people who were (in plain words) very wealthy, but I also went to school with first-generation U.S. citizens who were even the first to gain a high school education or higher. I didn’t belong to either of those categories. Instead, I was stuck in this place of limbo. 

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In college, as I began to meet people and they began to ask what side of town I lived and where I went to high school, it was interesting as I saw them draw up their conclusions of who I was based on the things I had because of those underlying stereotypes. I also began to meet people with so many different stories than mine, and it was nice to see how we could all get together and appreciate learning and growing. It may seem like a first-world problem (and it is), but it was exhausting to be asked what my parents did when I had people over to my house or if I was rich because I wasn’t, they just saw it that way. El Paso is filled with different people. I happened to grow up with people who went to parties and took vacations in Europe, and while that was not me, people who don’t know me associate me with those things. 

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I feel like the lives of the rich is something taboo – something that everyone knows exists but never talks about. Here is an insight into their lives: Their parents are usually wealthy business owners who come from a line of wealthy people, they have several cars and huge houses, their parents pay for college to wherever they want, and usually the kids go to party schools outside of the state, some of them join sororities or fraternities, their parents are out of town A LOT, they throw parties and their parents let them underage drink because they are doing it ‘inside the house,’ as if they don’t do it outside as well. Ultimately, while some may feel very satisfied with their lifestyles, they will never have enough because they have the world at their disposal. Now, I know this is also generalizing, but much of it is reality. I think people are uncomfortable thinking and talking about it in fear of offending others. I also want to note that this is not exclusive to one ethnicity or race. In fact, some of the wealthiest people in El Paso are not white Americans but migrated people from Mexico.

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It sucks to be told that you are privileged, but it is also important to be realistic and own it. That’s the reality of many lives in El Paso, and there’s no use ignoring that part of the city just because it may not seem as attractive or universal. No one should diminish the importance of everyone’s stories and lives. This is the world and city we live in, full of stereotypes, judgments, and monetary differences. At the end of the day, we are all humans living the human experience, and it can look different for everyone.