Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

In battles that occur day after day and year after year, thousands of El Pasoans are taking on life below the poverty line, but that doesn't mean they're not winning.

Take Margarita Arvizu and Lorenza Alvarez. Both are Montana Vista mothers who continue to fight to make ends meet years after moving to El Paso from Juárez.

"Some (Juarenses) think we have everything," Arvizu said. "But really, we live just like them."

Arvizu's daily life involves stretching the $12,000 her husband earns annually as a mechanic to pay bills and keep the lights on at their mobile home and to feed, clothe and care for their three children.

When money's especially tight, she said, she'll bring home only basics like milk and eggs, figuring she can cook without some ingredients.

Even in those situations, she said, she shops without food stamps because her husband simply won't accept such a handout. Her strategy is to bargain-hunt before buying anything. "I go to the biggest stores and look for the best deals," Arvizu said.

According to a survey conducted by Belden Associates, the majority of low-income El Paso families are bargain-hunters -- in the sense that they shop at Wal-Mart. It is estimated that at least 200,000 El Pasoans live in poverty.

Known for having lower prices than its competitors, Wal-Mart draws 85 percent of El Paso families earning less than $25,000 annually, the survey found.

And, based on an informal study of grocery prices conducted by the El Paso Times, Wal-Mart shoppers are saving money -- between about $2 and $6 for each $40 spent.

The Belden survey found that another trend among El Paso's poor is limited Internet access. Among low-income residents, 59 percent had not used the Internet in the month before participating in the survey. This means people like Alvarez who are looking for work often do so by making phone calls to inquire with local organizations at a time when many employers post their job listings online. Alvarez said her family -- which includes her husband, a carpenter, and four children, two of whom also work -- does not have a computer.

The family does have a television, as do many low-income homes, although without cable. Arvizu smirked when asked whether she had a microwave, explaining that she does, but that it's not the newest model.

Some El Paso families go without phone service to escape the monthly bill, and rely on a neighbor or friend when calls must be made or received.

Arvizu and Alvarez said balancing bills on their incomes is a constant task. Arvizu said she paid what she must every day while holding on to what she can for the week to come.

Alvarez said that when there is no work for her husband, she must juggle her money -- paying the most pressing bill and holding off on others.

"Work or no work, we still have to pay bills," she said.

Despite the pressure, both women said they endure while making ends meet, and neither expressed feelings of defeat.

Their goal -- providing lives for their children that are better than their own -- is something they are proud to be accomplishing.

"We have to live life and enjoy it," Arvizu said.

Alvarez added: "You have to give thanks to God for the good and bad."

This article was published in Week 1 of the El Paso Times Poverty Series.