Domingo Morales, at right, pours a round of tequila shots
for patrons at the bar 33 on a recent Saturday night
This buttoned-down city on the Mexican border feels like a boomtown these days, as entrepreneurs fleeing drug violence in Ciudad Juárez head across the Rio Grande to open hip clubs and hot restaurants here.
While the violence has put a damper on tourism and Mexico cruises, it has provided an unexpected economic boost to El Paso, a city of more than 600,000 residents at the westernmost tip of Texas. The unemployment rate here was 9.8% in September, equal to the national average but far lower than in other border towns such as Brownsville and McAllen.
Cindy Ramos-Davidson, chief executive of the El Paso Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, said her staff was swamped with requests from Juárez businesspeople wanting to settle in El Paso. They started more than 200 companies in the 12 months ended July 31, a 40% jump from the same period last year.
"It's the largest migration of wealthy Mexican nationals [to El Paso] since the Mexican Revolution," said Beto O'Rourke, an El Paso city councilman, referring to the decadelong rebellion that began in 1910.
Not all newcomers to El Paso are refugees from violence. Other factors helping to boost the city's economy include a multibillion-dollar expansion of Fort Bliss, a military base that is attracting thousands of soldiers and aiding the local building industry, said Bill Gilmer, a senior economist at the El Paso branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.
But El Paso is drawing hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Juárez residents looking for a safe place to live.
There is no official estimate of the influx, but real-estate agents report a bump in home sales to Juárez residents. The apartment occupancy rate is about 92%, higher than in Houston apartments and Dallas apartments where occupancy rates have slipped below 90%, according to MPF Research, which compiles apartment market information.
It isn't hard to understand why: The number of murders in Juárez exploded in the spring of 2008 and grew to more than 300 a month by August and September 2009, the highest monthly levels in a particularly violent year.
One migrant is Aril Anzures, who recently opened a branch of his family's burrito business on busy North Mesa Street in El Paso. After several kidnapping attempts, the Anzures family moved north earlier this year, though they still own seven restaurants in Mexico.
"It was getting pretty awful," Mr. Anzures said. "We're not rich people, but we had to travel with bodyguards."
He said he didn't worry about his safety in El Paso, where Burritos Crisostomo offers the same freshly made flour tortillas and fillings as in Mexico. Many of his clients are fellow Juárez expatriates. Business is so good, said Mr. Anzures, that he expects to open another location in El Paso next month.
Rafael García used to manufacture plastic parts for vacuum cleaners but fled Juárez after being kidnapped. He is now a restaurateur in El Paso, serving dishes such as ravioli stuffed with cuitlacoche, a black corn fungus considered a delicacy in Mexico.
New arrivals like Mr. García are importing a nightlife that didn't exist in El Paso. In the past, many people who wanted a good time would cross the river into Mexico.
Lariza Varela, a 28-year-old who works for a financial firm, has cut her weekend visits to Juárez in recent months, turning instead to a new El Paso nightclub called 33.
"El Paso is really boring, but here they play music in Spanish and it's almost like you are over there," she said. A gaggle of waiters make sure clients don't have to get up to get more beer, just like in Juárez, and every weekend a jovial musician named Walterio Magdaleno sings mariachi songs.
Carlos Chávez said he and his brother opened the bar to replace the one they closed in Juárez after patrons became too worried about drug violence to go out for drinks.
Despite fears of violence spilling across the border to El Paso, the city remains one of the safest in the nation for its size, according to federal statistics, with 10 homicides in 2009.
In Mexico, some are lamenting the flight of citizens. "You can definitely feel their absence," said Lucinda Vargas, director of a nonprofit that promotes development in Juárez, noting that the departures further complicate the task of reclaiming the city from the drug lords.
But for certain El Paso residents, the recent arrivals are a clear boon. Jorge Villegas, a contractor, said that more than half of his construction projects are for people from Juárez. And Pedro Gómez, who owns a landscaping business, said he has redone the yards for many recent Juárez transplants.
Cindy Ramos-Davidson, chief executive of the El Paso Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, said her staff was swamped with requests from Juárez businesspeople wanting to settle in El Paso. They started more than 200 companies in the 12 months ended July 31, a 40% jump from the same period last year.
"It's the largest migration of wealthy Mexican nationals [to El Paso] since the Mexican Revolution," said Beto O'Rourke, an El Paso city councilman, referring to the decadelong rebellion that began in 1910.
Not all newcomers to El Paso are refugees from violence. Other factors helping to boost the city's economy include a multibillion-dollar expansion of Fort Bliss, a military base that is attracting thousands of soldiers and aiding the local building industry, said Bill Gilmer, a senior economist at the El Paso branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.
But El Paso is drawing hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Juárez residents looking for a safe place to live.
There is no official estimate of the influx, but real-estate agents report a bump in home sales to Juárez residents. The apartment occupancy rate is about 92%, higher than in Houston apartments and Dallas apartments where occupancy rates have slipped below 90%, according to MPF Research, which compiles apartment market information.
It isn't hard to understand why: The number of murders in Juárez exploded in the spring of 2008 and grew to more than 300 a month by August and September 2009, the highest monthly levels in a particularly violent year.
One migrant is Aril Anzures, who recently opened a branch of his family's burrito business on busy North Mesa Street in El Paso. After several kidnapping attempts, the Anzures family moved north earlier this year, though they still own seven restaurants in Mexico.
"It was getting pretty awful," Mr. Anzures said. "We're not rich people, but we had to travel with bodyguards."
He said he didn't worry about his safety in El Paso, where Burritos Crisostomo offers the same freshly made flour tortillas and fillings as in Mexico. Many of his clients are fellow Juárez expatriates. Business is so good, said Mr. Anzures, that he expects to open another location in El Paso next month.
Rafael García used to manufacture plastic parts for vacuum cleaners but fled Juárez after being kidnapped. He is now a restaurateur in El Paso, serving dishes such as ravioli stuffed with cuitlacoche, a black corn fungus considered a delicacy in Mexico.
New arrivals like Mr. García are importing a nightlife that didn't exist in El Paso. In the past, many people who wanted a good time would cross the river into Mexico.
Lariza Varela, a 28-year-old who works for a financial firm, has cut her weekend visits to Juárez in recent months, turning instead to a new El Paso nightclub called 33.
"El Paso is really boring, but here they play music in Spanish and it's almost like you are over there," she said. A gaggle of waiters make sure clients don't have to get up to get more beer, just like in Juárez, and every weekend a jovial musician named Walterio Magdaleno sings mariachi songs.
Carlos Chávez said he and his brother opened the bar to replace the one they closed in Juárez after patrons became too worried about drug violence to go out for drinks.
Despite fears of violence spilling across the border to El Paso, the city remains one of the safest in the nation for its size, according to federal statistics, with 10 homicides in 2009.
In Mexico, some are lamenting the flight of citizens. "You can definitely feel their absence," said Lucinda Vargas, director of a nonprofit that promotes development in Juárez, noting that the departures further complicate the task of reclaiming the city from the drug lords.
But for certain El Paso residents, the recent arrivals are a clear boon. Jorge Villegas, a contractor, said that more than half of his construction projects are for people from Juárez. And Pedro Gómez, who owns a landscaping business, said he has redone the yards for many recent Juárez transplants.
