THE ERNIE HERNANDEZ WE KNOW AND LOVE

By Juan Montoya  

The year was 1998.
If you think politics is hot in the City of Brownsville now, you should have been in town that torrid summer.

At the time a commissioner named Bud Richards was at odds with the City of Brownsville police union and in a conversation with then-city manager Carlos Rubinstein, complained the union was acting like "the Gestapo" and suggested he "treat them like Hitler would" in his dealing with them.

Richards knew Rubinstein was Jewish and he referred to him in a letter as "a Jew boy" and other choice ethnic slurs.
Rubinstein made the contents of the letter available and also disclosed the substance of a March 30, 1998, phone conversation where similar sentiments were made by Richards to the other city commissioners. After Richards apologized to Rubinstein for his remarks, Rubinstein withdrew the letter, but alas, city gremlins had already distributed the letter far and wide.
The resulting controversy gained the attention of the Texas and U.S. media and Brownsville was again catapulted into the national limelight as a result.

The situation was rendered into an eye-opening caricature by Crossroads Weekly newspaper by artist/contributor Joaquin Ribera. It showed Rubinstein defending the police who are depicted wearing concentration-camp garb standing behind a barbed-wire pen.

McNair and Hernandez are wearing Nazi-like uniforms and stand timidly behind Richards, who is seen giving the Nazi salute.
A local group headed by Bill Hudson (yeah, our Paseo de la Resaca Bill) launched a recall movement that ended going nowhere and Richards ended his term.

McNair went back to being a local businessman. Hernandez resurfaced and got elected to another public office, and Rubinstein was on the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

Richards went back to whatever hole he came from and disappeared from public view. In his case, good riddance.

In the cartoon below, Ernie is seen helping his good friend and fellow city commissioner Harry McNair carry Bud past the struggling William Garza during the previous year's runoff election.

Garza, lacking in funds, was beaten by Richards withe the help of Hernandez and McNair and resulted in the concentration camp scenario. Our man Ribera aptly caricatured the events for us then. Where is he now when we need him?

After a topsy-turvy career as a city politician, Ernie has the opportunity to overcome his foibles and create a positive legacy as county commissioner. For all of our sakes, let's hope he does.