Speakeasies Sell 'Atomic' Booze in South El Paso
July 3, 1956

EL PASO, Texas—The age of the speakeasy is not over in El Paso.

Just recently I sat in one of those alcohol joints at 1217 South Oregon street and had a glass of tequila. It was cut with something which made it smell like kerosene. The taste is terrible. The effect on my stomach was atomic.

The man who took me to the speakeasy had the specialty of the house: an "alky." That, simply, is a drink of rubbing alcohol cut down with boiled water.

It all started when a South El Paso woman called me to ask: "Why don't the police do something about all these places down here that sell alcohol to bums?

"My kids are growing up having to observe the parade of alcoholics staggering up and down our streets all day long on their way to the speakeasies."

Bum Buys Booze

I went to South El Paso and started a conversation with a bum who looked like he needed a drink. He did. He immediately asked me for a quarter for a "pisto," a drink.

I followed him to an apartment house in the 500 block of South Mesa

avenue. The bum went in through the back and came out right away. He had a pint bottle of a smoky-looking liquid. He offered me a drink and I took a swig. It rasped my throat like sandpaper. A few minutes later I felt the results. I didn't get drunk—I was dazed.

I poured a sample from the bottle into a small container. Later I struck a match to the sample. It burned like gasoline.

The bum killed that bottle and announced he was going to "work" that is, panhandle.

I went a little deeper into South El Paso and found another bum.

Queen of the Speakeasies

We went to three places where we were informed the supply hadn't arrived.

"Guess we'll have to go to Chencha's," the bum said. "It's the best place anyway."

Chencha is at 1217 South Oregon street. The speakeasy is in a basement apartment. Chencha, I am told, is the queen of the speakeasies.

A member of Alcoholics Anonymous told me later he used to drink there 18 years ago.

At Chencha's the alcoholic, if he has money, can satisfy his thirst with anything he desires: alky, tequila, mescal and beer. The specialty, though, is the 10-cent alky.

I had a tequila because I had had enough alky. The tequila cost me 25 cents. In Juarez you can get unadulterated tequila for a nickel.

Big Bruiser in Action

My bum friend had an alky. A woman poured the alcohol into his glass.

Then she took a coffee pot from which she poured boiled water into the alcohol. We were told to pay when served.

A couple of men went in while we were at Chencha's and had an alky. They paid their dimes and left.

I left after a big bruiser, said to be a relative of Chencha, started asking me a lot of questions. He didn't like me; I didn't like the polluted tequila so I didn't mind leaving.

According to information I gathered there must be about 20 speakeasies in South El Paso. Most of them do not offer as much as at Chencha's, but all of them specialize in the dime alky.

The respectable people in South El Paso don't like it a bit.

He Likes It

"Why do they get away with it?" a woman asked. "Doesn't the police or the Liquor Control Board care what happens in South El Paso?"

"My husband likes to drink. We have a big family to support so he doesn't have much money to spend on drinking. A few months ago he discovered he could get a drink of alcohol diluted with water for a dime."

"Now he drinks it all the time. I'm sure it's affected his health and mind. When I found out I even tried to get him to start drinking good liquor. He didn't want to. He says he likes that poison."

Why Not Raids

An irate man, who said it is hard to. rear a family in the midst of speakeasies, commented: "I read in the paper that several policemen raided a bingo game in which old respectable people were having bare innocent fun."

"Why don't these policemen raid these speakeasies? Just because we're poor down here does it mean we're not entitled to police protection?"

Yes sir, the speakeasy is not a thing of the past in El Paso.