page_title: History of El Paso, Texas
section_title: The Roaring 20s, the Great Depression, the Repatriation, and the Second World War
hierarchical_section_title: History of El Paso, Texas / The Roaring 20s, the Great Depression, the Repatriation, and the Second World War
caption_attribution_description: English: Mesa Avenue, El Paso, Texas
context_page_description: Founded as El Paso del Norte by Spanish Franciscan friars at an important mountain pass, the area became a small agricultural producer though most settlement was south of the river where modern Mexico lies. The city was considered part of New Mexico under Spanish Conquerors and was tied economically to Santa Fe, New Mexico and the Chihuahuan mining districts of San Felipe El Real and San José del Parral.
  The Texas Revolution when Texas revolted from Mexico, which itself had recently become independent from Spain, did not involve paseños as the region was a part of Chihuahua. However, after Texas' annexation by the United States the boundary of the state was claimed to include what would become this important trading center.
  As railroads were built through the area it boomed as a commercial center. The World Wars and the Texas Oil Boom helped develop the city further. As international trade has become increasingly important in the U.S., and Juárez has grown as a manufacturing center, El Paso's economic importance has continued to expand.
context_section_description: Beginning in the 1920s and into the 1930s, El Paso became the birthplace of several locally and nationally well-known businesses and events. In 1930, Conrad Hilton opened his first high-rise hotel in El Paso, the now Plaza Hotel. The Plaza Theatre opened on September 12, 1930.
  The 1920s and early 1930s would prove to be a particularly violent period in El Paso's history. During World War One the city's legal saloons were shuttered by wartime liquor policies and remained so in the months that followed the Armistice with the passage of the Dean Act, a statewide prohibition law that would remain in affect until 1935. However, given the city's proximity to Juarez, where nightclubs, dance halls and gambling dens flourished in the 1920s and where alcohol remained legal, El Paso would become a major hub in the illicit liquor trade during both state and nationwide prohibition. Between 1920 and 1933, there were perhaps hundreds of shootouts between area lawmen and smugglers in and around El Paso resulting in the deaths of numerous local and federal officers and countless bootleggers. Simultaneously, the narcotics trade along the Rio Grande also flourished, setting the stage for the drug wars that would plague the region in the decades to come.
  In 1934, Walter Varney and Louis Mueller established the passenger airline called Varney Speed Lines in El Paso and operated out of the old El Paso Municipal Airport (1934–36) and then the El Paso International Airport. After the airline was taken over in 1937 by Robert Six, he relocated its headquarters to Denver, Colorado and renamed it with the more recognized name of Continental Airlines, as was known until its purchase by United Airlines in 2010. Although Continental Airlines would have its headquarters stationed in Denver, El Paso was still a major hub for the airline up until the late 1980s.
  The college football Sun Bowl has been held in El Paso since 1936 and is the second oldest bowl game in the nation. Second only to the Rose Bowl.
  The Great Depression greatly affected the city, halting its boom years. Many moved away, seeking opportunity elsewhere in the West, particularly in Tucson and Phoenix, which boomed in the 1940s thanks to the defense industries established there. El Paso experienced an influx of Mexicans and Mexican Americans expelled from other parts of the country between 1931 and 1934, when some 400,000 were forcibly "repatriated." The Civilian Conservation Corps as well as the Work Projects Administration aided many of the unemployed, who were hired to do work on public buildings and building roads and infrastructure, such as Scenic Drive. Another important project of the period was the privately funded Cristo Rey shrine and road project.
caption: Mesa Avenue, the heart of El Paso, Texas (postcard, circa 1917)
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