Sunday, February 26, 2017

El Paso: Segundo Barrio: The Turtle and the Treasure


Felhaber turtle, Segundo Barrio, El Paso, Texas. October 2016.


October 2016

Well, I am laughing as I write this. Because you just never know what incredible story lives behind a picture, a discarded item on the street, a tiny altar, a ribbon tied onto the desiccated branch of a dead tree, a half-clothed Barbie doll stuck through a chain link fence. 

So it was with the militant turtle-dinosaur(ish) on the wall above.

I snapped the turtle (heheheh) because I had a language student affiliated with a company that has a turtle logo. I planned to show him the image and we'd consider the messages it conveyed.

But I also looked up the business that shared the wall.

Holy tortoise shells!

The headlines burst at me:

The story opens like an action movie that glues you to your seat for the next two hours: The businessman arrived at the Treasury Department carrying a suitcase stuffed with about $5.2 million. The bills were decomposing, nearly unrecognizable, and he asked to swap them for a cashier's check. (Associated Press)


You can watch the real-life trailer here, in this AP video:




And people ask me why I moved to El Paso.

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