Rosa's Cantina

 

In article "Re: Patriot Alert: America OCCUPIED by 38 Million
Illegal Aliens!" Robert of St Louis wrote:

 >  I want phone numbers of all the really cute ones damn it.

Robert should be wary; more than one Gringo has come to grief
over a hot Mexican señorita:

   Out in the West Texas town of El Paso
   I fell in love with a Mexican girl.
   Night-time would find me in Rosa's cantina;
   Music would play and Feleena would whirl.

   Blacker than night were the eyes of Feleena,
   Wicked and evil while casting a spell.
   My love was deep for this Mexican maiden;
   I was in love but in vain, I could tell...

Without quoting all the lyrics I can let on that it all ends
rather badly.

Researching this song with my usual impeccable source (Wikipedia)
I found some interesting info:

------------------------------------------------------------
Plotting the hints from Marty Robbins’ “El Paso” trilogy, one can
determine approximately where to find Rosa’s Cantina, and at a juncture
near where Texas, Chihuahua, and New Mexico converge, at the bottom of
a hill, with a back door from which the narrator can run. There is
an actual neighborhood bar called Rosa’s Cantina, located 3454 Doniphan,
El Paso, TX, whose ambience lends itself to the lyrics of the 3 songs.
------------------------------------------------------------

I grew up in a cow town, Calgary, Alberta, where the radio stations
featured C & W music in a big way. I heard this song many times,
never realizing that Rosa's Cantina was a real place.

Since I plan to tour the American south-west I've made a point
of having a beer in there. Who knows, I may get real lucky
and see Feleena...

SQ

 

Sean_Q_ wrote:

Marty Robbins was a Nascar driver at one time.  Additionally, there used
to be a Rosa's Cantina in Algodones, New Mexico, just north of
Bernalillo.  Used to go there to people watch, in days gone by.  Ed

 



Seeing Felina is as far as it ever gets.

I suppose you don't know about the "bait" girls in Mexican bars. The
pretty ones hang around the bar and ask you to buy them drinks. After
several expensive drinks (she's drinking iced tea, you're drinking
tequila or watered whiskey), she takes your money and tells you to
wait a minute and then meet her upstairs in a bedroom.

When you get upstairs, there's a mean looking Mexican pimp and a fat
ugly Mexican girl, and the pimp tells you that's what you get for your
money, take it or leave it.

In the meantime, Felina is downstairs at the bar, "hooking" another
customer.

If I was in El Paso, I would head for Café Mayapán to try out the
caldo tlalpeño...

Café Mayapan operates as both a restaurant and a nonprofit
organization that provides job training in South-Central El Paso. This
noteworthy eatery offers some of the most authentic Mexican food that
will please every palate. Try one their signature dishes or their
scrumptious soups such as the caldo tlalpeño and wash it down with a
refreshing agua de limón. Address: 2000 Texas (map) Telephone: (915)
351-1070

Caldo de pollo is a common Latin-American soup made with whole chicken
pieces instead of chopped or shredded chicken, and large cuts of
vegetables, such as half-slices of potatoes and whole leaves of
cabbage. Another variation of chicken soup is caldo tlalpeño which is
garnished with chopped avocado, white cheese, and a chipotle chile.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Mexican_cuisine_dishes

As you tour the Southwest, you'll find that you can get fiesta foods
like tacos, tamales, enchiladas, burritos, and all that sort of snack
food anywhere.

But it's really hard to find hearty Mexican dishes like mole poblano,
birria, or pozole, you have to look hard for that stuff, so I make my
own, from scratch.

Right now, I'm happily digesting a meal of arroz con pollo that I made
myself.

 


One of the best Mexican Food places I've ever eaten at is right off Lee
Travino Blvd, about a mile and a half up from the 10 in El Paso. I can't for
the life of me remember the name.   :-(