DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it — Felix Martinez, El Paso County. Now, the early twentieth century had no shortage of big personalities in the American Southwest, but every now and then a man comes along who seems to have his hand in just about everything that matters — commerce, newspapers, electricity, diplomacy, flood control — and you start to wonder when he slept. Felix Martinez was that man.
He was born in 1857 in Peñasco, New Mexico — a frontier town, the marker takes care to say, and that detail tells you something about the world he started in. From those beginnings, Martinez climbed into the New Mexico Territorial House of Representatives and then the Territorial Council, where he pushed for economic development, educational reform, and public health. Not a man content to sit still, in other words.
He also had a voice — literally. From 1890 to 1916, Martinez published La Voz del Pueblo, which grew into the leading Spanish-language newspaper in the territory. Twenty-six years of ink and opinion, shaping how an entire community understood the world around it.
Then in 1897, he moved to El Paso, and that city would never quite be the same. He co-established the El Paso Electric Railway company — the outfit that brought electricity into the homes and businesses of the city. He helped found the El Paso Realty Company.
He owned the El Paso Daily News from 1899 to 1907. And he contributed to the construction of what stands today as the Centre Building on Pioneer Plaza — you might know it from its earlier lives as the White House Department Store or Hotel McCoy. And while he was building things up, he was also tearing things down — the bad things.
Martinez worked with reformers in the early 1900s to rid El Paso of gambling, crime, and prostitution. That's the kind of civic housecleaning that doesn't always make a man popular, but he did it anyway. He served as a director of the 11th District Federal Reserve Bank in Dallas.
He was a leader in the joint U.S.-Mexico effort to construct a dam and reservoir at Elephant Butte on the Rio Grande — a massive undertaking completed in 1916 that modernized agriculture and helped control flooding throughout the Rio Grande Valley. That dam is still there. Still working.
And then, in 1913, President Wilson named Felix Martinez U.S. Commissioner General to South America. He traveled across the entire continent, strengthening diplomatic ties and soliciting participation in the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco, set for 1915.
That is not a small assignment. That is a continent. He kept on as commissioner general, working, traveling, building relationships across hemispheres — right up until 1916, when pneumonia took him.
The marker calls it a premature death, and that word — premature — lands hard when you've just been tallying everything this one man did. Felix Martinez: born in a frontier town, died in the middle of work that wasn't finished. The dam was complete.
The newspaper had run its course. The lights were on in El Paso. But the man himself — the marker wants you to know — left before he was done.
What the marker says
In the early twentieth century, Felix Martinez was a prominent Hispanic businessman who worked closely with Anglo American leaders to transform El Paso into a major commercial, industrial and agricultural center of the American Southwest. Born in 1857 in the frontier town of Peñasco, New Mexico, Martinez was elected to the New Mexico Territorial House of Representatives and Territorial Council, where he fostered economic development, educational reform and public health. He published La Voz del Pueblo from 1890 to 1916, which became the leading Spanish-language newspaper in the territory. After moving to El Paso in 1897, Martinez co-established the El Paso Electric Railway company, which brought electricity to many of the city’s homes and businesses. He helped found the El Paso Realty Company, owned the El Paso Daily News (1899-1907) and contributed to the construction of today’s Centre Building (formerly the White House Department Store and Hotel McCoy) on Pioneer Plaza. Martinez worked with reformers to rid the city of gambling, crime and prostitution in the early 1900s. He also served as a director of the 11th District Federal Reserve Bank in Dallas. He was a leader in the joint U.S.-Mexico effort to construct a dam and reservoir at Elephant Butte on the Rio Grande. Completed in 1916, the dam modernized agriculture and helped control flooding throughout the Rio Grande Valley. In 1913, Martinez was named U.S. Commissioner General to South America by President Wilson. He traveled across the continent, strengthening diplomatic ties and soliciting participation in the panama-pacific international exposition in San Francisco in 1915. He continued as commissioner general until his premature death of pneumonia in 1916.