El Paso (; from Spanish, "the pass") is the
county seat of
El Paso County, Texas, United States, and lies in far
West Texas. In 1659, Fray Garcia de San Francisco, established
Our Lady of Guadalupe Mission of El Paso del Norte. Around this mission, the village of El Paso del Norte grew into what is now the El Paso–Juárez region. El Paso stands on the
Rio Grande (
Río Bravo del Norte), across the
border from
Ciudad Juárez,
Chihuahua,
Mexico. The two cities, along with
Las Cruces (in the neighboring
state of
New Mexico), form a combined international metropolitan area, sometimes referred as the
Paso del Norte or
El Paso–Juárez–Las Cruces. The region of over 2.7 million people constitutes the largest bilingual-binational work force in the
Western Hemisphere.