Segundo Barrio mural found on South Campbell St., right before Paisano St.

        Historically, the Segundo Barrio or Second Ward, which hugs the border of Juarez, Mexico and El Paso, Texas has been a marginalized ethnic community, subjected to many attempted demolisions in the early 1900's.  These demolision attempts have been resisted to the last because Segundo Barrio functions as a rhetorically inscribed identitification of the people who live there.  Cloke and Johnson in their chapter "Deconstructing Human Geography Binaries" state that "environment, space and place - are frequently used in creating collective and personal identities.  Many of us identify with places (some very intensely), at a variety of scales - from our home, through our street and neighbourhood..." (page number to go here).  For the people of Segundo Barrio their idendity inscribed in the streets, the homes, and the shops that have been open for business for decades such as historic Bowie Bakery.  Specifically, the shops and businesses in the area occupy a space and place of resistance to the main stream capitalistic giants of the American such as Walmarts, Targets, and  any other chain stores.  The stories these stores tell about resistant are evident through their materiality: the outer facade of the buildings, with some previously having been homes, the colors the patrons use, as well as the names they choose for the business. 

   The materiality of the tienditas in the El Paso / Juarez region take on their own agency.  Traditionally, agency implies human agency of the rhetor or actor.  Yet, these buildings can be seen as taking on their own agency because of the resistance they project to the captilistic status quo. Nicky Gregson states that "the forwarding of an argument that agency is not a property unique to human beings, and that correspondingly it cannot and should not be identified exclusively in terms of linguistic a communicative capabilities and possiblities" (pg. ?).  The tientitas in the segundo barrio begin to take on their own rhetorical value as agents of resistance.

 Joe's Meat Market (above right) was once a home converted to a store  (Above) This small tienda is located on

 Yslleta area.                                                                                                    S. Park in El Paso Segundo Barrio

 (Left) Sunset Grocery located off of I-10

in the Sunset Heights Historic District of El Paso.

(Top right)