What The Bridge Got Wrong About the El Paso/Juarez Border
Don’t start the hate comments yet, I love the show, The Bridge on FX, and El Paso, where I’ve lived for over twenty years. I loved seeing the ‘city of the sun’ make it into the entertainment spotlight. It was only while binge watching the first season I noticed problems, big problems about The Bridge. They weren’t filming the real El Paso.
1. 80/20
El Paso is eighty percent Hispanic and twenty percent everyone else. Rub your eyes all you want but you didn’t read that wrong. To put it in perspective, if you’re white and you walk into a Walmart, you will be THE ONLY white person in Walmart. So when you see The Bridge characters from the US are predominantly white (except the hired help of course) and you only find Mexicans across the border, that’s false. I understand Hollywood may have been a hard sell for the show in the first place but they’re propping up a stereotype that hasn’t belonged in this part of the US for decades. Speaking of stereotypes, the snap button up shirts, cowboy hats, handlebar mustaches, and Texas drawls are all long gone too. The accent you’ll hear in El Paso is a Spanish one unless of course you hear Spanish because…
2. You have to speak Spanish to get along.
When character Conchas from The Bridge says, “Whoa, I don’t speak Spanish, I’m from El Paso.” she’s not being realistic. There are Chicanos in El Paso who are proudly non-Spanish speakers, but they are not the majority. If eighty percent of your population comes from a Spanish-speaking background then that language will seep into everything. In some places you will only be able to converse in Spanish because that’s just how it is. When I get my hair cut down the street I have to explain how I want it in Spanish. When I eat at a restaurant they will take my order in Spanish. When I feel the urge for some Menudo at the Panderia on the weekend or buy groceries at most supermarkets, I will get smiles if I use Spanish and panicked stares if I use English. When you search for jobs in the classified section, it will politely request, bilingual applicants, which means you better know how to speak Spanish. Even with all this bilingual good will there are still some lines you don’t cross like…
3. Law enforcement doesn’t cross The Bridge, ever.
In reality US detective Cross from The Bridge would never show up at Juarez detective Ruiz’s door because law enforcement doesn’t cross the border. There are the logistics, it usually takes half an hour to enter Juarez, Mexico while the return trip to the US can take up to three hours. The Mexican officials don’t really stop anyone trying to get into Mexico but the US has strict controls on anyone getting into the US, which means long lines and having your passport ready. Not only do police officers NOT cross the border but their families don’t either. Many have family straddling both sides of the border but with the violence in Juarez officers can’t risk someone finding out a close family member is visiting Mexico. They may be kidnapped or worse. That’s not to say other things don’t cross the border like bullets. Downtown El Paso is a stone’s throw from Juarez and the city municipal building (since torn down) was shot at from the Juarez side. A US Border Patrol Officer has reportedly shot and killed a teenager throwing stones at him from across the Mexico side which you’d think would be illegal, but sadly, the Border Patrol does not have any civilian or outside oversight, which means the border really is the wild, wild, west and they can do whatever they please. But don’t let that stop you from going downtown in El Paso because…
4. Downtown El Paso is changing from a desolate area to a less desolate area.
That’s not to say because of what’s happening in Juarez means El Paso is not a safe city. With over 800,000 inhabitants it constantly ranks as the top three or five safest metropolitan cities to live in the US. So the downtown area should be hopping and downtown has gotten better. There are bars and restaurants and the shops along the border downtown area on the US side are still hanging in there. There are still a lot of empty buildings but that is slowly changing too. The El Paso Chihuahuas recently broke Minor League attendance records. You’d think with sunny days most of the year there would be loads to do, and there is, BUT. . . El Paso is often hotter than the surface of the sun. The average of ninety-six degrees doesn’t do it justice when the June temperatures for 2014 were 100+ all but eleven days out of the month and as the summer progresses it only. gets. hotter. Spring is incredibly windy with frequent sandstorms that blot out the sun and during the winter it cools down and even dips below freezing. There really is only a short month or two in the fall when El Paso is completely comfortable. Which makes me wonder why they don’t film the show in El Paso…
5. El Paso desert is not the same as California desert.
Most of The Bridge was shot in California and it shows. Which is too bad because El Paso does have spectacular scenery, especially the sunsets. The Franklin Mountains are the highpoint with the city wrapped around it. But it is flat and it is a desert and there are lots of different shades of brown. It’s hard to grow grass even in the Upper Valley where the water level is only five feet below the ground. In fact the character Daniel Frye when he was shot off the bridge in the first season’s final episodes would have certainly died because the Rio Grande has dried up the last couple of years because of a prolonged drought.
I’m waiting excitedly for season two of The Bridge to start because I understand why the show has to differ from the reality of the border crossing in El Paso. If it stayed true to El Paso, the show would just be a telenovela and you can watch tons of those on Univision or Telemundo.
