El Paso priest, educator and acclaimed author Benjamin Alire Sáenz, 71, died on July 28, 2026.
Sáenz obituary in the El Paso Times described him this way:
He graduated from Las Cruces High School in 1972 and received a B.A. in Philosophy at St. Thomas Seminary in 1977. He also earned a master’s degree in Theology from the University of Louvain in Belgium in 1980.
He was ordained a Catholic priest in 1981. After serving three years, he left the priesthood. He then received an M.A. in Creative Writing at UTEP in 1987 and became a professor there in 1992, where he remained until his retirement in 2016.
He was a very successful writer with many published books, including a New York Times bestseller, numerous awards and accolades, as well as a remarkable movie made from his book, “Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe.” He loved the border and his life in El Paso, where he was loved and idolized. He will be greatly missed.
Sáenz was buried in Concordia Cemetery Monday August 17.
Concordia Cemetery at 3700 E. Yandell Drive, is a 52-acre cemetery located off Interstate 10 near the Spaghetti Bowl.
The cemetery is full, only people with reserved plots with deeds can be buried there now, according to the Concordia Heritage Association, a non-profit organization that promotes and supports the renovation and preservation of historic cemetery.
The cemetery was declared a historic cemetery in 2005 by the state of Texas, but it’s long been known for being a place where you can delve back into El Paso’s history.
Heroes, heroines and common folk rest eternally in Concordia along with gunslingers, Buffalo Soldiers, Texas Rangers, Civil War veterans, early Mormon pioneers and some local legends.
El Paso historian Leon Metz, who was interned in Concordia in Nov. 2020, wrote the following about the site in Oct. 2008:
El Paso had a large assortment of Texas Rangers. Many of these are buried in Concordia. And probably the greatest collection of early day El Paso priests lies in Concordia Cemetery. Several of our early day mayors, county judges and businessmen are there.
A section is set aside for the Buffalo Soldiers, the black men who served so honorably and so well in the frontier army. A multitude of early day El Paso church leaders are buried here.
Moses Carson, the younger brother of Kit Carson, is buried in Concordia. Sam Ravel, whose business activities some believe led to Pancho Villa’s raid on Columbus, is there.
The cemetery’s biggest draw is the grave of noted outlaw-turned-lawyer John Wesley Hardin, who was killed in El Paso on Aug. 19, 1895. Hardin admitted killing at least 42 people.
Outlaw-turned-lawman John Selman Sr., the man who killed Hardin, also is buried at Concordia.
City’s history laid to rest at Concordia
In this Sept. 5, 1995 article, Metz elaborates on others buried at Concordia:Other people besides John Wesley Hardin are buried at Concordia Cemetery, and some of them were important figures in El Paso history.
About 60,000 other people are buried at Concordia – and some of them are big names.
At least one is really big: Jake Erlich, once billed as the world’s tallest man. Erlich 8 feet 6 inches tall and tipping the scales at 340 pounds, traveled with the circus for a while and finally made his home in El Paso. He died in July 1952 at the age of 46.
El Paso historian Leon Metz said plenty of other notables are spending eternity at Concordia.
“There’s Mamma D. Alizina Ornforff,” Metz said. “She built the Cortez Hotel.”
“There’s John Woods, a Black man who was a blacksmith along the Plaza. He’s one of the only Black men I know of who died in a gunfight,”
Lt. James Biggs is in Concordia, too. You recognize the name from Biggs Army Airfield. Bigs died in a plane crash in France during World War I.
Concordia holds the remains – though no one is quite sure exactly where – of Moses Carson, half-brother of Kit Carson. And there’s Florida Wolfe, a Black woman who was mistress and wife to Lord Beresford, an English baron who threw some legendary parties in El Paso.
Other permanent residents of the graveyard, according to Metz include:
Allen Blacker, Joseph Sweeney and Henry Dexter, El Paso county judges.
Ben Dowell, Richard Caples, Adolph Solomon, Robert Campbell, Ben Hammett and W.F. Robinson, all mayors of El Paso.
The Rev. Joseph Tays, who opened the first Protestant church in El Paso; it was forerunner of St. Clements.
Charles Longuemare, publisher of The Bullion, a mining newspaper. He walked in his sleep one night through an open doorway; unfortunately, the doorway was on the second floor of his unfinished house.John Selman, the constable responsible for putting Hardin in Concordia. Selman, himself shot to death, lies in an unmarked, unidentified grave.
Carlos Pinto, known as the Apostle of El Paso. He built Sacred Heart Church in Juárez and was involved in the building of Sacred Heart Church and School in South El Paso. Immaculate Conception Church, Guardian Angel Church, St. Ignatius of Loyola Church and St. Patrick Cathedral.
Juana Stephenson, wife of El Paso pioneer settler Hugh Stephenson. She died after being gored by a pet deer; her husband died on a trip to the Organ Mountains just north of here and is buried beneath a bank parking lot in Las Cruces.
Metz added, “Concordia is also well known for two men no longer there. One was Pascual Orozco, a Mexican revolutionary killed by soldiers, Rangers and cowboys near Sierra Blanca. His body was placed in a vault alongside the granite spire in the cemetery’s southwest corner.
“A few months later, Victoriano Huerta, a former president of Mexico, died in El Paso and was placed in the same vault. During the 1950s, Orozco was declared a hero of the Mexican Revolution, and his body was returned to Mexican soil. Huerta was considered a traitor. His body was removed from Concordia and buried in Evergreen Cemetery.”
A Buffalo Soldier Memorial at Concordia Cemetery was dedicated in 2009. The memorial has 42 engraved granite markers to recognize the African American Buffalo Soldiers who are buried in Concordia Cemetery. There is also a plaque recognizing all Buffalo Soldiers that are buried at Ft. Bliss and in Juarez.
Buffalo Soldier units stationed at Fort Bliss primarily included elements of the 9th and 10th U.S. Cavalry regiments and some infantry detachments.
Trish Long may be reached at tlong@elpasotimes.com.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Who’s buried in Concordia Cemetery? A walk through El Paso history
Reporting by Trish Long, El Paso Times / El Paso Times
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Trish Long, El Paso Times | USA TODAY Network
