Part 2: El Paso County Colisum's place in history — A venue of music, pride and resistance

The El Paso County Coliseum has played a significant role in the history of the Chicano movement, the American experience and the lives of many musicians.

It hosted the first national convention of the La Raza Unida Party, a third political party for Texas, and regularly hosts U.S. Naturalization ceremonies.

The coliseum has also been a refuge for many immigrants and a place where many artists have played, including Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra and Johnny Cash.

This is the second of a two-part series on the history of the El Paso County Coliseum, often called The Barn. In the first part, El Paso Inc. examined the beginning of the coliseum and its role in national politics.

In this part, we look at the Chicano Movement, the American experience and the history of music.

The Chicano movement

The tumultuous political era of the 1960s gave rise to another national campaign important to El Paso, the Chicano movement, which resonated with many communities with Mexican American populations.

For the first four days of September in 1972, Chicanos – politically engaged Mexican Americans who identify Aztlan as their homeland – came from 17 states and the District of Columbia to the El Paso County Coliseum for their first national convention.

“That was where the convention was held to try to create a new political party because they felt that neither the Republicans nor the Democrats truly represented the needs of the Chicano community,” said El Paso historian David Romo.

During that event, Romo said, the coliseum became “a site of social justice and resistance to power that were trying to erase our community, our political power and our memory.”

Three of the most important figures in the national Chicano movement attended this convention – Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzales, Jose Angel Gutierrez and Reies Lòpez Tijerina. These men, together with Cesar Chavez, were known as “The Four Horsemen of the Chicano movement,” and created a viable third political party for Texas.

“Out of the fight against institutionalized racism and injustices came La Raza Unida Party,” states a September 2022 article in the Texas Tribune. “The party won local elections, made political organizers out of marginalized Texans and brought scores of new voters into the electoral fold.”

As noted by Herman Baca, a Chicano activist and political organizer, the 1972 Raza Unida convention at the El Paso coliseum “represented at that time the broadest-based number of Chicanos to attend the largest political gathering of our people in U.S. history.”

The American experience

Throughout this region’s history, the plight of the immigrant has always been present.

As the national mood toward immigrants has often shifted, since its opening in 1942 the coliseum has been a refuge. It was among the first venues, in the 1940s, to call for desegregation, and today it is the place where many immigrants, from Mexico and countries around the world, take one of the most meaningful steps into the American dream: The U.S. Naturalization ceremony.

“If you ever need to cry, come to one of those,” said El Paso County Judge Ricardo Samaniego.

In groups of 500 to 1,500 people, the coliseum regularly hosts the U.S. government as it welcomes its newest lawful residents.

“When the National Guard was going to be deployed to some war zone, they were here,” recalled Samaniego. “And I told them, ‘This place where you are at, this is where people come into our country. This is the place you will be defending,” he said.

Antonio Rodriguez, director of events at the El Paso County Coliseum for the past three years, shared that his great grandmother migrated from Mexico to the United States, so he considers that naturalization ceremony to be among his favorites.

“They come in at 7 a.m. to line up,” he said. “They are all excited, their families are excited, they have balloons, they have flowers, and you see that look on their faces, and you can tell they know they have accomplished a big goal in their lives.”

Rodriguez described a scene of exuberant families crowding around their new Americans, snapping photos.

“They get a flag, and ‘America the Beautiful’ is played, and they wave that flag with smiles on their faces, these big smiles on their faces,” he said. “They will always remember that. Driving by the coliseum, they’ll remember ‘I became a citizen here,’” he said. “That’s pretty cool.”

A history of music

Perhaps the most enduring legacy of the El Paso County Coliseum has been the generations of musicians, from an expansive collection of genres, who have performed before El Paso audiences.

There’s a consensus that there’s something special about hearing live music in the coliseum. The intimacy of the building, the camaraderie and enthusiasm of the El Paso fans all come together for a connection between the artists and the crowd for a uniquely moving experience.

“It was just an amazing place to play. There’s plenty of seating, and all seats are good seats, and the huge crowds and the energy made it special,” said José María De León Hernández, better known to his fans as “Little Joe” from the Tejano band Little Joe y La Familia. “The coliseum has played a big role in my career, and meeting so many wonderful people, I just feel at home there.”

A frequent performer at the coliseum, Little Joe, known as “The King of the Brown Sound,” has recorded 70 albums and win five Grammy Awards.

He said he has wonderful memories of the coliseum and the people he has met through the years.

“I would come into the coliseum and sit a spell with the different tables, with different families, and there would be different celebrations, maybe birthday or anniversary,” he said. “I was always invited to come in and have a piece of cake and a shot of bourbon, or beer, or whatever the occasion might be.”

The history of the musicians, many who played the coliseum during their early start with small arenas before expanding their star presence to become giants in the industry, added an allure for every artist walking the coliseum’s halls.

“It was sort of a mystical place,” said Samaniego. “The coliseum is like a rite of passage.”

He said many artists he has spoken with are in awe about the musical history of the building.

“They would get really excited when they come here, to know that Elvis Presley was here, Frank Sinatra, Johnny Cash, all these artists,” said Samaniego.

Rodriguez, “a die-hard Elvis fan,” agreed.

One of his first experiences after being hired at the coliseum was to retrace the steps that legendary musicians have taken through the long hallway, up a narrow flight of stairs and into the dressing rooms.

“I did that walk. I walked up the stairs, came in here and sat down, with just a couple of lights on,” he said, seated on a couch in the corner of one of the coliseum’s original dressing rooms. “You get the chills.”

Struggle for recognition

When the U.S. General Services Administration in 2023 proposed tearing down the El Paso County Coliseum as part of the Bridge of the Americas’ expansion, the El Paso community pushed back, successfully convincing the GSA to adopt alternative plans without the demolition of the building.

But in the following November election, El Paso voters narrowly turned down a bond initiative that would have provided $105 million in coliseum improvements.

With legislation pending in the Texas Senate that would limit failed bond elections from being resubmitted to voters for at least five years, Stout on Feb. 10 unsuccessfully tried to place the same $105 million bond on the May election.

He was alone in his vote, and the future is uncertain for the massive input of dollars needed to fully modernize the building.

Also frustrating for some El Pasoans is that the coliseum has never been designated as a National Historic Landmark, an omission that El Paso historian Romo believes “is very deliberate.”

“Less than 2% of all American National landmarks have to do with brown or black history,” he said.

Email El Paso Inc. reporter Reyes Mata III at rmata@elpaso