The Mexican Food Cook-off was on El Paso Street this year and it also took up part of Overland. Check out Buzz's experience!

To me, this is the real Downtown El Paso. I’m going to miss it. I haven’t seen the blue-print for the downtown development but I have a feeling it’s not going to include shops where you buy clothes by the pound and dollar stores that sell garden trowels on the same shelf as knock-off Liz Claiborne perfume. There’s a pawn shop right there which has Pancho Villa’s mummified finger for sale and that’s not a joke. It’s awesome but, sadly, it probably won’t have a place in the new and improved, “revitalized” downtown.
Here’s a photo of me judging the fajita category of the cook-off.

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Check out that delicious looking, spicy Mexican dish! AND the plate of food I’m holding. Just two of the things to love about El Paso. Four things, really.

Also, I got to play my first game of Loteria, which is the Mexican misspelling of “lottery”. It’s really “bingo with tarot card symbols”, though

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Wait a second! THAT’S not a sign of the zodiac. Let me just zoom in a bit…

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What…the…fudge?!?! “El Negrito”??!! Suddenly, I’m looking around to see if anyone notices me playing KKK Bingo. Now, I looked it up and learned that “Negrito” isn’t derogatory. It’s kind of like saying “black guy” but not in an offensive way. I don’t know if they’ve run this past any actual black latinos (African-Mexicans?) but if the word isn’t offensive, then the portrayal of “El Negrito” as a tap dancing Chalky White surely has to be. Or, maybe, all black guys in Mexico dress like a Boardwalk Empire version of Mr. Bojangles. That has to be offensive, right? It’s not like they portray “El Irishman” as a dru…

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I stand corrected. I’m assuming here that “El Boracho” mean “The Irishman”. Actually, I speak Spanish like a second language that I never bothered to learn. I should probably brush up. This loteria card should do the trick.

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OK, El Borracho and El Negrito…Irishman and black dude, I’ve got those already.

“El Corazon”…judging from the picture I’m going to say “to be killed by Hawkeye from the Avengers”

La Estrella…The Christmas Decoration

El Sol means “The Annoying Orange”

El Cantarito…obviously, “The Bong”

El Venado….The Venison

La Palma….The Hospital. (I cheated on that last one. I actually had a colo-rectal exam at La Palma Hospital a few years ago).

Well, I think we’ve all learned something today. I’ve learned a little new Spanish. And you, Mexico, have hopefully learned a little something about portraying black people as extras from The Cotton Club on your bingo cards.

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