IS MARTINEZ RUNNING FOR MAYOR, OR FOR POPE?

By Juan Montoya

I am in receipt of Brownsville mayoral candidate Tony Martinez's slick campaign pamphlet and am ready to write Pope Benedict and nominate him for Bishop of the Diocese of Brownsville.
If we are to believe the San Antonio ad agency that produced the campaign mail out, Tony – who attended Catholic schools, graduated from St. Mary's Law School, is on the boards of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Nursing Home, the Incarnate Word Academy and St. Joseph's Academy, and is the founder and benefactor of Guadalupe Regional (Catholic?) Middle School – believes in "education and the need to give back" to the community.
So why hire someone from outside the city to produce his campaign literature?
I thought giving back meant hiring Joe King (also a Catholic), or maybe even some local advertising gurus to pump his apparently hefty campaign chest into the Brownsville economy.
Combine that cozy relationship with the Almighty and the lyrics of Vicente Fernandez's "El Rey," and Martinez's propaganda neatly corners the religious-cultural niche that is supposed to make local Hispanics feel warm and fuzzy all over.
The cover of the pamphlet features a smiling (and unshaved) young graduate of Guadalupe Regional Middle School(?) with the caption in a western-Hispanic font that reads "No Hay Que Llegar Primero, Pero hay Que Saber Llegar."
You know the lyrics. Inside the pamphlet he is identified as "El Rey de Jobs," as brazen an attempt at pochismo is there was ever one in this season's pre-election hype.
Then lower, and reminiscent of the five-year plans favored by communist regimes in the past, is a five-step plan toward high-paying jobs that advocates strengthening ties between city libraries and public schools, co-sponsoring parental involvement forums, lobbying Washington for money for mentoring local students, nudging local businesses to provide internships, give awards to recognize quality teachers, and to encourage their employees to volunteer their time (and money) to better the city, and (finally), to make it easier for adults to get a college degree.
Our only question to Martinez would be: Are you running for the local school board, a college trustee, or UT System Regent?
Now, we all agree a little education is a dangerous thing, but the feel-good approach only works when combined with real dollars and cents investments in the community.
Is he satisfied with the performance of local schools? Obviously, as a product of Catholic schools, and a founder of one, he must feel that his kids deserve only the best. And further, since he is an obvious advocate of higher education, where does he stand on the UTB-TSC question? We know that Juliet Garcia and her son Oscar are playing key roles in his campaign and are often seen campaigning together and at his events.
Is he satisfied with the 17 percent graduation rate over six years at the Harvard or by the Rio Grande track record over the last 20 years under Garcia's watch? Or with its less than 50 percent retention rate for freshmen, its "unrated" rank among institutions its size, and how it saddles local students with the highest tuition and facility user fees in the State of Texas?

Unlike the lyrics in Chente's El Rey where the crooner sings that, "Con dinero y sin dinero, yo hago siempre lo que quiero." he'll find out that local residents – while championing education – have to focus on basic survival working for the depressed wages available in the local economy made so by a tradition of exploiting local labor by local industry and manufacturers across the Rio Grande.

This is the way the sunshine boys over at the Chamber and at the college have sold us to potential investors.

If in the four years as mayor you can improve Juliet's track record, you may get some bites. But if it turns out that she is your image of a concerned local citizen "giving back" to the community, entonces "sigues siendo el ..ey"