From El Paso with Amor

More than half a million people live in El Paso Tx, and 35,0000 visit a day! El Pasoans took to the internet to reach out to their friends and family.

This letter is to Thank all of the amazing people who kept us in their hearts and minds.

On behalf of all El Paso, THANK YOU all for your support. The facebook hearts and shares and for all the tweets.

Thank you for keeping your porch light on, a candlelight, and the light of your heart on for us in mourning.

Your prayers, thoughts, and good vibes are felt in all the hearts of the El Paso people.

El Paso is known lovingly by locals as “El Chuco," known officially as the “Sun City," and locally as “Hell Paso,” because of our incredibly hot summers.

El Paso has a unique vibe, it is more like a big family—sure we have weird Aunts and Uncles, but they have a seat reserved at our table.

Multiple cultures are also brought here by happenstance. Fort Bliss houses US Military personnel from all over the world.

Hurricane Katrina also brought in a lot of people. EL Paso housed, sheltered, and offered jobs to those dis-allocated by their tragedy.

Most tourists come to visit our neighbor, Ciudad Juarez, known for their nightlife. Yes, Mexican girls should be credited for attracting tourism.

El Paso becomes home to everyone. Multiple cultures bring us foods, customs, traditions, and we embrace them as just more color that integrates amicably within our very own colorful world.

El Paso is home to everyone, Home is as far south as the City of Chihuahua Mexico, up north to Santa Fe NM, as far East as Dallas Tx, and far West as Phoenix AZ. El Paso is a large city with a small-town feel. We thrive on diversity! Many cultures gather here for business, pleasure, food, but most importantly for family.

The charm, the friendliness, and warmth of El Pasoans is felt throughout the city.

The community has deep family roots, and we treat everyone as such. El Pasoans gathered food and supplies for the volunteers, handing out water bottles to the people standing in the blood donation line. We checked up on each other through social media. We looked out for each other, then we looked for each other.

35,000 private passenger vehicles cross the US Mexican Border through our four ports of entries. Our family members are scattered through the small southwestern towns.

When the news started popping up on social media sites, All of the American South West was on the edge!

El Pasoans are particularly concerned about the area that was targeted. Known locally as Central/East area or Cielo vista area is the most frequented by our 35,000 tourists that come by on the weekends. We know the diversity of cultures that gather here on the weekends, and yes, most of them are from the city of Chihuahua Mexico.

The Cielo Vista area is near two of the most used international bridges. The Santa Fe bridge, and The Cordova bridge, also known as "free trade bridge."

The Cielo Vista shopping area has a large mall "Cielo Vista Mall" a Costco, a Sams Club, a Wal-mart, which were the effected areas. This site is the most convenient shopping site for our sister and cousin towns.

Yes, it is common here for people to drive three or four hours to shop here. Nevermind the long one or two-hour wait in line at the ports of entry, it is worth it, for bargain shopping, the food, and to stop by to visit family.

In this town, tourists do not stand out as much. Again, we really are very diverse. The manifesto of the gunman who opened fire on Saturday stated that he had a "dark vision of America overrun by Hispanic immigrants."

20 people! 26 were injured! Only seven of them are confirmed as having Mexican Nationality!