'El Chuco': Historical roots of El Paso’s nickname

At this week's UTEP football game, the university showed some El Paso pride by wearing helmets emblazoned with "El Chuco." They also gave away T-shirts with "Viva El Chuco" printed on them.

All the El Chuco talk brought to mind one of my favorite people, former coworker Ramón Rentería. He wrote about El Paso, El Pasoans and El Paso culture in his columns.

Following are some experts of Rentería explaining what El Chuco is and what it means to be from El Chuco.

Chuco tells of El Paso pachuco history June 29, 2013, El Paso Times

Some guy insisted I stop calling El Paso El Chuco.

I said nel, not possible in what's left of this lifetime.

He said El Chuco sounds too ghettoish, a word that allegedly sophisticated people sometimes use to put others down.

Maybe you're an intellectual or a professional vato, someone your jefita would be proud of, the type of guy who soon forgets that in this great town a majority of Chicanos started out with casi nada, bottom-of-the-heap pobres nourished mostly with amor, beans, rice and papas.

You're not the first to suggest I'm an absolute idiot. Pues maybe yes. But I'm comfortable in the skin God gave me. No need to pretend that I'm much more than a beer-drinking orphan from el ranchito.

I did not invent El Chuco, a nickname that's been around for generations.

California scholar Rafaela G. Castro suggests in her 2001 book "Chicano Folklore" that El Chuco evolved from pachucos, a name that first emerged in the El Paso-Juárez area during the 1920s and 1930s.

Pachuco designated those who made up a "fascinating urban subculture."

Pachucos were routinely called chucos. They were identified by their hairstyles, clothing and a distinct language with its own vocabulary, usually a combination of English and Spanish as in hay te wuacho or "see you later." The men wore "zoot suits" and danced jitterbug.

Even though some vatos in East Los Angeles might swear they invented pachucos, Castro says vatos from El Paso started moving to California in the 1940s and took the pachuco culture with them.

So, there you have it. Pachuco and El Chuco Culture 101. By the way, colloquial means informal conversation, like the chismosos at the newspaper...

How to tell if someone is from El Chuco February 6, 2010, El Paso Times

EL PASO - Jose Luis Torres collects memories that remind him of his past life in El Paso and Juárez.

As a broadcasting executive in Dallas, he misses the border but says you're really from El Chuco if you:

Went to La Tech, La Bowie, La Jeff, La High, La Austin or La Burges and still cherish the memories.

Tried to date girls from Loretto Academy and struck out. But you were a muy lucky vato if you dated a Radford girl.

Bought inexpensive clothes at Fed-Mart and still remember shopping at Globe on Montana before it became a Kmart.

Remember dancing muy suave with a girl at the Arthur Murray dance studio next to the Plaza Theatre. (Until Chubby Checker performed at La Fiesta in Juárez and proved you don't have to dance real close to have fun).

Still remember when they sold Pearl, Falstaff, Blue Ribbon or Bud at some Oasis restaurants.

Ever "parked" with a girlfriend in the canyon, Trans Mountain, Scenic Drive, Ascarate or sometimes Memorial Park.

Bought your girlfriend a necklace at Newberry's and then ate popcorn at the nearby Kress store if you had leftover change.

Thought swimming in the canal near your house was the "in" thing to do.

Lived in a house with window bars but often left the front door unlocked.

Ever had a Coney Island hot dog across from San Jacinto Plaza, where your mother or tía told you not to feed the sleepy lagartos but you still did.

Started drinking Pepsi because Steve Crosno did.

Bought loafers or chukka boots at Thom McAn's in Downtown.

Had a Lucky Boy hamburger in El Paso and drove to Juárez for a beer at el K-4, el Bronco, el Bronquito or Casa Blanca.

Danced at the Hilton, ate menudo at the Good Luck Café or rooted for La UTEP at Kidd Field.

Worked at Farah or had a root beer at the A&W near Bassett.

Remember Estela Casas doing the news in Spanish at Channel 26-KINT or Bill Mitchell doing the news at Channel 4.

Heard James Brown sing "I Feel Good" at the El Paso County Coliseum.

Went browsing Downtown at The Popular Dry Goods but shopped at Lerner's or Aaronson Bros.

Had a margarita at Tommy's Rendezvous in Juárez, a Rathskeller beer and burger near UTEP, or the machaca plate at Lucy's.

Remember the on-air fight between KELP-TV personalities Al Hinojos and Jim Pratt.

Still recall when the wait at the international bridges coming from Juárez was 3 minutes.

Know that Chuy De La O actually appeared in the film "Lone Wolf McCade."

Got bird poop on your shirt while waiting for the bus at San Jacinto Plaza.

Life was safe and simple.

As a good friend said, "Oh, I miss those days."

There's no other place like El Chuco March 05, 2011, El Paso Times

How do you define or describe El Paso?

Historians from across Texas were in town the past few days possibly pondering that simple yet often-complicated question.

Forget the obvious: brilliant postcard sunsets, the Rio Grande imprisoned in a wall and a mountain so near you can touch it from your backyard.

You don't need multiple degrees to figure out El Paso is people speaking Spanish, English, Spanglish and sometimes only Spanish.

El Paso is viejitos soaked in history, sexy headless mannequins lined up on a Downtown sidewalk, midnight dining at Chico's or any other burger joint, friends laughing in your backyard, proud veterans overdosed on patriotism, tearful UTEP graduations and ministers barking biblical scripture to the fiberglass alligators in the plaza.

Is it just an El Paso thing?

Or do all tattoo parlors in Texas have a mannequin wearing a cowboy hat perched on a chair like a beached mermaid?

In El Paso, we eat gorditas or tamales any day, not just on holidays or when the monks do their fall bazaar.

El Paso is cruising on Alameda while the cops aren't looking and stopping at the red light next to a guy in a souped- up truck playing oldies, rap or mariachi music.

El Paso is about la gente, generous souls who become friends, neighbors, compadres or co-workers.

Forget about copying San Antonio, Tucson or Albuquerque. We're better.

And it really doesn't matter if misguided outsiders think we're too hot, too sweaty, too fat, too illiterate, too ugly or too dirty.

El Chuco memories savored by locals June 25, 2011, El Paso Times

If you grew up in El Paso in the 1950s or 1960s, you probably remember riding the streetcar (el tranvia) to Downtown or Juárez for the first time.

Carnitas always seemed like a special treat at that spot near El Bronco after a night of partying or bar hopping in Juárez.

Some of us planted relatives at the cemetery near Chico's Tacos on Alameda. Some Chicanos called it el venado because of the deer sculpture at the front entrance.

El Paso was special even back then. If you made it out of high school, more than likely you'd wind up in the Army, Marines or Navy, where the vatos from San Antonio or Califas respected you.

You are a full-blooded El Pasoan if you remember freezin' your butt at the Sun Bowl Parade on New Year's Day.

Some of you marked your turf, made it clear that you were from Clardy, or del San Juan or del Sherman. KELP Radio had its studio on Delta Drive, which technically made it part of the barrio.

If you are past 60, you will never forget dancing cheek-to- cheek con las baby dolls, sometimes at the old Cathedral High School gymnasium, the Knights of Columbus Hall on Myrtle or the Catholic Daughters of America Hall on Magoffin. Or dances at McKelligon Canyon.

How many times did you ride your bicycle with your best friends to that magical playground for every barrio kid, Memorial Park.

How can you forget the crunchy golden fries at the A&W Root Beer burger stands across El Paso or the grilled cheese sandwiches at the Downtown Oasis, next to the Plaza Theater?

Here's a little toast to Fred's, El Kentucky, La Caverna and all other once popular watering holes of our youth in Juárez.

Que viva El Chuco, las oldies and los mas rucos tambien.

Ramón Rentería died Nov. 3, 2023.