Regino Santana Carrasco

On January 30, 2025, halfway through his 100th year of life, Regino Santana Carrasco passed away. Regino had been surrounded all day by his family in the loving home of his daughter, Elvia. Then, late in the evening, when the house quieted and most of the family had left for the night, he peacefully left this world behind. There in Heaven, he joined his adored wife of fifty-four years, Guadalupe, and their beloved first- born son, Raul.

Missing their dad are his daughter-in-law Lucy Carrasco (Raul - deceased), daughters Elvia Tafoya (Johnny), and Patricia Calderon (Art); and sons, Jorge (Ana - deceased) Esteban (Martha), and David (Ofelia), son-in-law Pete Episcopo (deceased). Regino’s granddaughters are Anel (Gilbert), Naomi (Pete), Deanna (Paul), Crystal (Charlie), Ursula (Mike), and Bianca (Andy); his grandsons are Raul (Angie), George, Mark (Valerie), Saul, Peter (Darby), Nathan, Esteban, Reggie, and John (Mariah). Also missing their grandpa are twenty-seven great grandchildren, and eight great-great grandchildren.

Regino came into this world as the ninth and last child of Maria del Refugio and Benito Carrasco. All their children were born in small towns across the territory of New Mexico. On July 26, 1925, Regino was born in Cloudcroft. In the 1930’s, the family moved to Texas.

Regino had many stories to tell about growing up in South El Paso. Although life was difficult and opportunities were limited, Regino and his brother Luis, who was two years older, found ways to work and have fun. One of their favorite activities was swimming in the Rio Grande. They would pile their clothes on the riverbank and leave their German Shepard, “El Aleman”, in charge of guarding their clothes. Despite having to leave school at an early age, the boys were very intelligent and continued to be inquisitive. They even managed to save up and purchase an Erector Set and a radio which they built. The loyal brothers Luis and Regino stayed away from the gangs that were around the area. If any of those characters dared to mess with Luis, Regino would deal with them.

As a child Regino embarked upon a lifetime of working at an amazing variety of jobs. Some of his boyhood endeavors included picking cotton, newspaper boy, shoeshine boy, and door to door fruit vendor. Regino also was a potter’s assistant helping with painting. He was even loaned out to a relative to pick cotton for no pay.

It was there in Segundo Barrio (Second Ward) that Regino met the almond-eyed, black-haired beauty, Lupe, and quickly fell madly in love. The young couple was separated by the outbreak of WWII. Regino was drafted into the Army and sent to Amarillo, Texas where he and Lupe were married. After training, Regino was sent to the European theater and Lupe returned to El Paso to be with family and await the birth of their son Raul. Regino was assigned to the infantry where superior officers soon realized that he was legally blind in one eye! He was transferred to a medical division based in France. It is unimaginable what it was like for a teenaged soldier during WWII in Europe; however, all of Regino’s military stories included memories of the beautiful sights he visited and the cultures of France and Germany where he picked up a few words that he never forgot. Veteran Carrasco once commented during his presentation to a group of schoolchildren that, “War is gory not glory.” Nevertheless, despite the obvious hardships of being in a war-torn country, the young soldier was forever taken with the people, culture, and wonders of Europe.

Shortly after Dad arrived home from the service, he and Mom blessed Raul with little brother, Jorge. Five years after Jorge came Pat, five years after Pat came Elvia, fourteen months after Elvia came

Steve, fourteen months after Steve came our last brother David, completing our family. Having to provide for a growing family, Dad once again began working at a variety of jobs. Some of the jobs he took at different points of his life included short order cook, working in a butcher shop, selling insurance door to door and amazingly even hammering railroad spikes. He once told his granddaughter that his svelte waistline was due to swinging the hammer from side to side.

Along the way Dad became a master carpenter and worked many different job sites at his trade. One of these was the State National Bank, in downtown El Paso. Mom avoided going downtown because she didn’t want to see her husband high up on a steel beam. Dad fearlessly walked the beams doing his job as if he were on flat ground. Through the years, he was also self-employed as the House Doctor, remodeling, doing home additions and repairs.

Dad’s last company job was in the carpenter shop at ASARCO. He was an excellent worker and was often called upon to work overtime as a fill-in foreman. Dad also became one of the founding members of the ASARCO Credit Union and continued as a loan officer. Many men learned how to manage a bank account and apply for low interest loans under his guidance. For a time after his retirement, Dad continued sharing his knowledge and skills by teaching carpentry to young men in the Job Core Program.

Our Dad was a lifelong learner. After the war, he and Luis went to night school on the GI Bill. In the late 90’s he took an adult computer class at EPCC. But Dad was mostly self-educated. Our home always had stacks of newspapers, magazines and books. Furr’s grocery offered little children’s books so along with groceries we were excited to get a Little Golden book or small encyclopedia volume. Our parents never had to push us to read. They created a family of readers by their example.

Regino Santana Carrasco was an unforgettable character. An avid reader, he collected books on a variety of topics including biography, science, and medicine, as well as classic and popular fiction. A lover of beauty, he collected and created art objects. A lover of places and adventure he traveled to Mexico, Canada and around the United States. In his eighties he bravely took a solo road trip all the way to the Florida Keys enjoying himself immensely along the way. A lover of fine clothing he was always the most stylish person in the room. An occasion where others might choose to wear slacks and a button-up would call for Dad to show up in a three-piece suit. A lover of words, he was well-spoken in two languages. Dad never shied away from speaking in public. He wrote notes within the covers of some of his books and kept notebooks with poems he’d written in Spanish. A lover of music he collected many albums and cassettes, and off-key or not, he sang along knowing the lyrics to many songs.

Above all, Regino loved his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, his one true love, Lupe, his children, of whom he was extremely proud, his grandchildren who provoked his biggest smiles, all his extended family, and just living his life as he pleased.

This has been but a few highlights of a long and storied life. We could write a long novel and still not relate all the adventures, misadventures, experiences, travels, and just outright antics of this truly most unique man.

Dad, we love you and we’ll miss you until we can all be together again.