DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Out in El Paso, there stands a church that stops you cold the moment you lay eyes on it — Guardian Angel Church, a Romanesque revival building that's been holding its ground since 1908. Now, that's not a typo.
Nineteen-oh-eight. Before most of El Paso was much of anything, somebody was already raising arches and laying brick in the style of north Italian medieval tradition. Think about that for a second.
Medieval Italy — showing up in the West Texas desert. The kind of thing that makes you pull the car over and just stare. The man behind it all was the Rev.
Carlos M. Pinto, a Jesuit priest born in 1841, who not only founded the church but drew up the plans himself and stood on-site to supervise the construction. That's not a man who delegated lightly.
Pinto had already been out there carving missions into the El Paso area before this building ever went up, and when it came time to plant something permanent, he picked up a drafting pen along with everything else. He passed in 1919, but the building he put his hands to is still standing. And it wasn't just the walls that got attention — the elaborate decoration of the interior was directed by another Jesuit, the Rev.
Carmelo Tranchese. Two priests, one extraordinary building. Those brickwork courses and those sweeping arches pulled straight from a northern Italian medieval playbook don't just tell you something about faith.
They tell you something about the kind of stubbornness it takes to build something magnificent in the middle of the desert — and make it last.
What the marker says
This Romanesque revival style building was constructed in 1908, soon after the church was founded by the Rev. Carlos M. Pinto, S. J. (1841-1919). A Jesuit priest who began several missions in the El Paso area, Pinto also drew plans and supervised the construction of the building. The elaborate decoration of the church's interior was directed by the Rev. Carmelo Tranchese, S. J. An El Paso landmark, Guardian Angel Church features brickwork and arches derived from the north Italian medieval tradition of building construction. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1983