Bowie High School

Ambrosio Guillen, whose name the old campus took, was born at La Junta, Colorado, and entered military service at El Paso, the Handbook of Texas says. On July 25, 1953, as a staff sergeant in Company F, Second Battalion, Seventh Marines, he helped hold an outpost near Songuch-on, Korea, moving his platoon into position at night under fire. Pinned down by an estimated two battalions, he exposed himself to mortar and artillery fire to direct his men and the wounded. Critically wounded, he refused treatment and died hours later. He is buried in Fort Bliss National Cemetery.

What the plaque says

Bowie High School is one of the oldest operating high schools in El Paso. Originally located in the Segundo Barrio neighborhood of South El Paso, the school would go on to primarily serve Mexican American students. Built in 1922 and named Bowie Grammar School, the campus became Bowie High School in 1927 to relieve overcrowding at El Paso High School. Principal Robert C. Jackson oversaw 695 students during Bowie's first academic school year. In 1931, 1,059 students enrolled at Bowie High School. In 1939, a new school building was constructed adjacent to the original 1922 building. The two buildings created the Bowie Junior and Senior High School campus that spanned 25 acres with more than 1,200 students. In 1949, Bowie High School won the first-ever class 2A high school baseball championship in Texas. In September 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) met with Mexican president Adolfo López Mateos (1910-1969) on the Bowie campus to sign the Chamizal Treaty that would resolve a border dispute along the Rio Grande. The school was soon relocated to the west side of Cordova Island due to the newly resolved national boundary. In spite of the relocation, Bowie High School continued to grow with 1,515 students attending the 1973 school year. When a new Bowie High School campus was developed, school trustees agreed to rename the existing school after Ambrosio Guillen, a Bowie alum who received the Medal of Honor for his actions during the Korean War. In 1989, the 1922 building was razed and replaced by the new administrative and resource center for Guillen Middle School. While the name and location of Bowie High School has changed, its mission of educating and empowering students continues. (2020)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Magoffin Home State Historic Site — 0.6 mi
  A U-shaped adobe of the 1870s in central El Paso that joins Mexican building to an Anglo plan, closed for restoration through 2027 while its visitor center stays open.
• Chamizal National Memorial — 1.4 mi
  A park on land the Rio Grande once put in dispute, where a century-old border quarrel between the United States and Mexico was settled by treaty and a new concrete channel.
• Ysleta Mission (Corpus Christi de la Ysleta del Sur) — 9.6 mi
  The Tigua mission church at Ysleta, rebuilt in 1908 around the walls, bell and Santo Entierro that came through fire, its interior painted with rain clouds and corn.
• Tigua Indian Cultural Center, Ysleta del Sur Pueblo — 10 mi
  The cultural center of Ysleta del Sur Pueblo, the Tigua nation that has lived in the Mission Valley of El Paso since 1682 and keeps its own history here.

More markers nearby

• Houchen Community Center — steps away
• Trinidad Concha — 0.3 mi
• Douglass Grammar and High School — 0.6 mi
• Magoffinsville — 0.6 mi