ABSTRACT
The overriding goal of Chapter 4 is to link the previous chapters together by examining the framing of El Paso’s identity through heritage tourism and public memory. There are many elements to tourism in the city but as anyone who lives in the city knows, it all begins with Juan de Oñate. Business leaders, few of them Mexican American and none Chicano, within the Chamber of Commerce (there is a Hispanic one too) help shape and guide policy regarding what makes the city great. For them the answer seems to be anything that draws individuals here. We also examine the economic turns made by the city council, the El Paso business community, and minor league baseball to switch gears and stake their claim by developing the downtown area. This shift included building a minor league baseball stadium, the demolition of a fully functional city hall building, developing clubs and restaurants as a way of bringing people to the downtown area to spend their money and have “something to do.” In the process, the focusing of developing the Mission Highway and Onate-related activities seems to have fallen to the wayside.
