Viva! El Paso is an annually performed musical which celebrates El Paso's cultural history through dance, drama, narration and songs. It has been running almost continually since 1978 and was updated with a new script and music in 2016. The musical play is performed outdoors in the McKelligon Canyon amphitheater. [1]
With 2020 being cancelled caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the 43rd was deferred to 2021.
The performance describes over 400 years of El Paso history. [2] There have been two versions of the musical play. The original play was created by Hector Serrano and was first performed in 1978. [1] It was first produced by the Los Pobres Bilingual Theatre Repertory Company. [3] In 2014, Viva! went on hiatus when there was not enough funding to support the play. [3] A new script was written by Marty Martin for the new production starting in 2016. [4] The new version was produced through a partnership with the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), El Paso Live, the El Paso Community Foundation and the El Paso Community College (EPCC). [3] [5]
The new script includes additional musical and dance scenes and streamlines the original script. [2] [4] The 2016 version is also more character-driven than the original, with the focus on two lovers who move through history and time starting with indigenous settlers to the more present day. [4] Musical arrangements were done by Jim Ward and Cody Ritchey. [5]
El Paso is a city and the county seat of El Paso County, Texas, United States, in the far western part of the state. The 2019 population estimate for the city from the U.S. Census was 681,728, making it the 22nd-largest city in the United States, the sixth-largest city in Texas, and the second-largest city in the Southwest behind Phoenix, Arizona. Its metropolitan statistical area covers all of El Paso and Hudspeth Counties in Texas, and has a population of 840,758.
Northeast El Paso is part of the city of El Paso, Texas and is located north of Central El Paso, and east of the Franklin Mountains. Its southern boundary is variously given as Fred Wilson Boulevard or Cassidy Road and Van Buren Avenue, and it extends northward to the New Mexico state line; some portions of this region lie outside the city limits, including parts of Franklin Mountains State Park and areas of Fort Bliss: the Logan area of Fort Bliss around Chapin High School and Castner Range, an old firing range northwest of Hondo Pass Avenue and Gateway South Boulevard. Development of Northeast El Paso, which had begun before the Second World War around the Logan area, started in earnest during the 1950s, when many homes were demolished in the process of the construction of Interstate 10. It is one of the more ethnically diverse areas of town due to a high concentration of enlisted military families. Northeast El Paso has historically not developed at a rate comparable to East El Paso and Northwest El Paso, but in recent years, it has seen an increase in development. It is expected that the population in Northeast El Paso will grow more rapidly as a result of the troop increase for Fort Bliss in the coming years. Northeast El Paso has gained recognition throughout the city for schools like Parkland, Irvin, Andress and Chapin because of their outstanding athletic programs.
Kern Place is a historic neighborhood on the West side of El Paso, Texas. The neighborhood lies just east of the University of Texas at El Paso, and north of downtown. Kern is part of District 1 in the City of El Paso and currently represented by Peter Svarzbein. The neighborhood was created by Peter E. Kern, and once had an unusual gate marking the entrance. Madeline Park in the center of the neighborhood is named after Kern's daughter. Businesses and a small entertainment district border the eclectic housing featured in the neighborhood.
Janice Woods Windle is an author of historical novels. She grew up in Seguin, Texas and lives in El Paso, Texas with her husband and family.
Chapin High School is a public high school in El Paso, Texas. Chapin is located at the intersection of Dyer Street and Ellerthorpe Avenue on land reserved for the United States Government and is a part of the El Paso Independent School District. It is the only high school in the continental United States that is on government property but not owned by the government. The school enrolls approximately 1,900 students in grades 9 to 12. Nearly half the students are military dependents from the nearby Fort Bliss installation. The school also accepts students from throughout the city of El Paso as part of the school's pre-engineering magnet program.
Texas is a stage musical produced annually by the Texas Panhandle Heritage Foundation at the outdoor Pioneer Amphitheater in Palo Duro Canyon outside of Canyon, Texas. The show is performed every Tuesday through Sunday from June through August. It was written by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Paul Green and conceived of as an idea by Margaret Pease Harper.
Angel's Triangle is a neighborhood located in Northeast El Paso in El Paso, Texas. It lies within a right triangle bordered by Dyer Street on the east, the Patriot Freeway on the west, and Hondo Pass Avenue on the north. Dominated by apartment complexes and older duplexes or single-family homes with a high poverty rate among its residents, and once notorious for crime, drug trafficking and prostitution, it was known as the Devil's Triangle before being officially renamed at a meeting of its residents in the 1990s. and is still sometimes referred to as such, or as the Triangle. The neighborhood's commercial portion is along its eastern and northern edges, on Dyer and on Hondo Pass, respectively; there is almost no business development along Gateway North Boulevard at the western edge of the Angel's Triangle.
McKelligon Canyon is the location of a 1,503-seat amphitheater located in El Paso, Texas, United States, where the play Viva El Paso! is presented. The amphitheater is also used for concerts, graduation ceremonies, and other special events. Adjacent is the 300-seat McKelligon Canyon Pavilion.
El Paso Community College (EPCC) is a community college district headquartered in El Paso, Texas, United States. EPCC operates five campuses in the Greater El Paso area, as well as courses offered at nearby Fort Bliss.
Transmountain Early College High School, commonly referred to as TMECHS, is the Early College High School for the El Paso Independent School District. TMECHS participates in the STEM School program, and through collaboration with EPCC, allows students to take courses at its Transmountain Campus and receive an Associate degree before their high school graduation. It has also collaborated with the University of Texas at El Paso to allow its advanced students to attend UTEP courses in their senior year upon the early completion of their associate degree. All TMECHS students graduate under the Texas Distinguished Achievement Plan, which requires that they conduct original research under the guidance of professionals in their field. Its students are representative of all geographic areas of the city. A lottery and interview process are used to select the 125 student freshman class each year since 2008.
Sun Metro Mass Transit Department, simply known as Sun Metro, is the public transportation provider that serves El Paso, Texas. Consisting of buses and paratransit service, it is a department of the City of El Paso, and the agency also serves the rest of El Paso County and Sunland Park, New Mexico. The major hub is located at the Bert Williams Downtown Santa Fe Transfer Center in the surrounding block areas in Downtown El Paso.
Stephen F. Austin High School is a high school in El Paso, Texas. Austin opened in 1930. It is part of the El Paso Independent School District. The school's mascot is a Golden Panther named "Henry." Austin High School is located in the heart of historic Central El Paso and serves the Central community.
Lucy G. Acosta was a Mexican-American activist with the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC). She was a political appointee under various mayors of El Paso, Texas. She was elected to the Texas Women's Hall of Fame in 1987. The Lucy G. Acosta Humanitarian Awards were named in her honor, and have been presented every year since 1993.
The El Paso Formation is a geologic formation that is exposed from the Permian Basin of New Mexico and Texas to southeastern Arizona. It preserves fossils dating back to the Ordovician period.
The culture of El Paso, Texas is influenced both heavily by American and Mexican cultures due to its position as a border town, its large Hispanic population, and its history as part of Spanish America and Mexico. El Paso is home to a number of cultural events and festivals. El Paso also hosts various theaters, museums, and other cultural sites.
The first round 2017 El Paso city elections was on May 6, 2017 to elect the Mayor and City Council of El Paso, Texas. The run-off election was June 10, 2017. Incumbent Mayor Oscar Leeser was eligible for another term, but announced in July 2016 he would not seek another term. Leeser had a cancer-related surgery in 2016, but stated that his decision was not because of his health. Instead, it was because he "ran to do things I thought were really important for our community and I did that."
Margarita "Mago" Orona Gándara was a Chicana artist. She is known for her murals which can be seen throughout El Paso, Texas and in Ciudad Juárez.
Malena Cano is a ranchero music and mariachi singer from the El Paso, Texas area. She is known for her work in both music and stage.
Lucy Scarbrough was an American pianist, conductor and educator. She taught at El Paso Community College (EPCC), and founded the El Paso Chopin Piano Festival in El Paso, Texas.