Ricardo Sanchez (1941-1995)
Ricardo Sanchez, a renowned poet known as the “Grandfather of Chicano poetry,” grew up in the El Jardin Addition to the City of El Paso in the 1940s and ‘50s. The son of Pedro Lucero Sanchez and Adelina “Lena” Sanchez, Ricardo was one of six children growing up in the Sanchez family home at 3920 Oak (later renamed Avenida de las Americas) in El Jardin.
This area of South El Paso, along with the Cordova Gardens Addition to the east, was colloquially known by residents as “Barrio del Diablo”—a reference to the sulfur-like stench from the nearby city sewage disposal plant. Even well into adulthood, Sanchez always referred to this area as “Barrio del Diablo” or “El Diablo” for short. Today, Barrio del Diablo does not exist on maps of El Paso. In the 1960s, portions of the neighborhood were ceded to Mexico as part of the Chamizal Treaty. Other areas were condemned and demolished to make room for the Border Highway.
In 1971, shortly after his release from prison, Ricardo wrote a poem titled “Homing” about the destruction of his childhood home. Published in the 2006 anthology Hecho en Tejas, “Homing” laments the erasure of Barrio del Diablo and decries narratives of “progress” that necessitate the elimination of Brown, working-class places.
You can read Ricardo’s poem “Homing” below.
El Paso County public records also confirm that part of the Sanchez family home was condemned by the Chamizal Treaty, and the remaining parts condemned by the Texas State Highway Commission.
According to these county records, in 1964, at the height of Chamizal Treaty finalizations, Pedro and Adelina sold their El Jardin home to a Cruz Carbajal and Victoria Carranza Carbajal. In 1966, the U.S. federal government purchased from the Carbajas a portion of this property as part of the Chamizal Treaty; later, in 1970, the Texas State Highway Commission purchased from the Carbajals the remaining portion of this property in preparation to build the Border Highway.
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1966: Carbajals sell portion of their El Jadrin property to USA
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1970: Carbajals sell remaining portion of their property to Texas State Highway Comission
Ricardo Sanchez with his mother and father, Adelina and Pedro Sanchez. Photo courtesy of LLILAS Benson Latin American Studies and Collections, University of Texas at Austin.