From the January/February 2021 issue.
Rogelio Chavira and Dolores Chacon were sweethearts in high school, class of 1970. Although they split up before starting at the University of Texas at El Paso, Dolores and Rogelio have fond memories of their first romance. “He was just so polite, just the sweetest and most respectful man,” Dolores says. “He was reserved and very hardworking. I’ve really never understood how such a hard worker wouldn’t want to be a Republican.”
Forty-five years later, in 2013, Dolores and Rogelio ran into each other at the mall in El Paso. Both were single. After their run-in, Rogelio followed up with a phone call and they started dating again. Soon enough, Rogelio asked Dolores if she would marry him.
The newlyweds moved into Dolores’ childhood home. The single-story adobe, built by Dolores’ great-grandparents after they’d fled Chihuahua during the Mexican Revolution, had fallen into disrepair. Dolores felt she owed it to Chihuahita, the historic border neighborhood where she’d worked as a teacher for 40 years, to fix up her family’s home. The fence that bounds Dolores and Rogelio’s backyard is part of the federally funded border wall that separates El Paso from Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. Dolores loves it. She calls it her “freedom wall.”
Rogelio, a retired ESL teacher, knew he stood to the left of his wife on most issues when they got married—he identifies as an independent and voted for Joe Biden in 2020. Although they argue, Rogelio and Dolores insist they don’t allow their political differences to get between them. “We’ve gotten really good at tuning each other out,” Dolores says. “But we respect each other. I close the door when I listen to Hannity. It just comes down to tolerance of different opinions.”
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COVID-19’s Deadly Toll on Texas Workers: As COVID-19 devastates workers unable to stay home, families are left struggling for justice.
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Texas Republicans Fanned the Flames of Insurrection Long Before January 6: It’s not just Ted Cruz. For years, Texas Republicans have fueled the toxic politics that led extremists to storm the Capitol.
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Bringing the Dead Home: Thirty years after Congress passed the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, only a fraction of human remains held by Texas’ museums and universities have been returned.
