TONY ZAVALETA WILL RUN FOR DISTRICT 4 COMMISSION SEAT

By Juan Montoya
After spending years above the fray in positions of academia, Dr.Antonio “Tony” Zavaleta, the former associate provost at the University of Texas-Texas Southmost College, is entering the hurly-burly world of city politics and will run for the District 4 city commission position left vacant by Eduardo Camarillo who is running for mayor.
The unfinished term has two years left.
Zavaleta is no stranger to politics. He has served as city commissioner in the 1990s and made a run for mayor then against current Mayor Pat Ahumada.
Today, however, he returns after spending years at the center of the university's decision-making vortex with an eye to putting his years of research into local health and social conditions to good use.
"I have always remained close to the issues affecting the people and the region, even as a university professor," Zavaleta said. "If anything, my experience and studies into the local issues gives me the ability to know the long-term consequences of the decisions we make at the municipal level."
Zavaleta, a descendant of a Brownsville pioneer family, traces his roots back to the early days of the city's history, and can claim a lineage to Juan Cortina, an early fighter for the rights of local residents and land-grant families.
He studied at UT-Austin under Americo Paredes, marched with Cesar Chavez for farmworker rights, and was in Austin when Jose Angel Gutierrez was organizing La Raza Unida party.
Tony, as he is known to his friends, rreceived his doctorate in anthropology from The University of Texas at Austin in 1976 and has dedicated his career to activity on and the study of the U.S.-Mexico border.
In 2009, Zavaleta received the prestigious Ohtli award from the Republic of Mexico honoring his 35 years of research and study.
Zavaleta specializes in topics concerning border health, health disparities, folk-beliefs and cultural competency in the delivery of health care to American Latino and immigrant populations. In 2009, he and curandero Alberto Salinas Jr. published "Curandero Conversations: El Niño Fidencio, Shamanism and Healing Traditions of the Borderlands."
And in 1978, he was a prime source in a five-part health-care newspaper series that was awarded the prestigious Public Health Media Excellence Award (PHAME) for the Brownsville Herald in competition with newspapers of all sizes and circulations in the stste of Texas.
With professors emeriti, Anthony Knopp and Milo Kearney, Zavaleta continues the border history series, now in its ninth volume.
He is a tenured faculty member, is one of the mainstays of UTB-TSC and is considered an expert in a diverse range of topics related to the culture, customs and folklore of the Texas-Mexico border and Latin America.
With the creation of the UTB-TSC partnership, in 1992 Zavaleta became the first dean of the College of Liberal Arts, where he served for six years, two of which he also worked as the interim dean of the College of Science, Mathematics and Technology.
He has moved on to various leadership positions, holding the titles of interim vice president for partnership affairs and interim vice president for institutional advancement. In 1998 he was named the university’s first vice president for external affairs.
"We are at a critical stage of our city's development," he said. "Just as there are challenges, there are opportunities to be had that will be of great benefit to our city. I'm excited about this race and look forward to meeting with as many people in my district and the city to listen to their input and share our views."