What's in a Name?

The photo at left shows the vast expanse of Chihuahuan Desert between Las Cruces, New Mexico and El Paso, Texas, maked by the mountains in the background. In the right foreground is the Ocotillo (pronounced Oc-Oh-Tee-Yo), aka the "buggy whip." Drivers on the Butterfield Stage routinely used the Ocotillo as a horsewhip whenever their whips were stolen by the Apache Indians, who loved to interweave the whips into the framework of their teepees. The city of El Paso wraps around the Franklin Mountains, so named for Ben Franklin, one of the founding fathers of the United States. Rumor has it that Franklin once visited the area, shortly after the signing of the Constitution. He had hoped to replicate for an Hispanic audience his infamous kite-flying experiment, in which he proved that lightning was, indeed, electricity, but he was unable to find a key in the Borderland, where everybody left open the doors to their adobe abodes.