Steampunk is the nostalgia for a time that never was. It's picturing a world where Victorian culture is the aesthetic context of present and future space-age technology. Picture us in waistcoats, cravats, spats, vests, and bowlers. Women with corsets, underbusts, parasols, and tabby boots. We would present call cards and tip our hats but also carry copper-plated MP3 players and bronze-encased telecommunicators. There would be no viable electrical grid so gas/oil lamps and candles cast a soft, balmy glow on our world at night. We ride horses and buggies and take commercial steam air ships for long trips. And our law enforcement officers, military and criminals possess ray gun technology.
As 2010 starts to rolls near, I'd like to reset El Paso's timeline to 1910 and redraw its history. One in which the Republic of Texas is a protectionist, independant country. Flanked on one side by an expansionist United States and on the other by a powerful Mexico that is fueling its means of production with the gold struck in its state of California.
What would a strategically situated border city like El Paso look like culturally and socio-politically in this fantastical, speculative cold war situation? Let's find out shall we? Unfortunately, no alternate history books describing these events have survived. Nah. Just a random little Tijuana Bible fag rag published off a steam printing press is all that's left to offer us a glimpse into the way life wasn't back then.
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