SUDDENLY, HYPHENATED HISPANIC CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATES ARE ALL THE RAGE

By Juan Montoya

It has become the rage on the East and West coasts and now we see that the fa is spreading to our secluded little part of the United States.

Whether it's Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Florida Republican congresswoman, Lucille Roybal-Allard, Democrat from California) or Lincoln Diaz-Balart, another Cuban-American from Florida in the U.S. House of Representatives, the use of hyphenated names to appeal to the burgeoning Hispanic population has become the thing to do.

These congress people are now being emulated in South Texas, specifically in the newly-cr

eated congressional district 34 encompassing some 11 counties (or part of). Even some longtime public figures such as Denise Blanchard have suddenly discovered a new pride in her Hispanic heritage and touts her maiden name (Saenz).

I am an incidental collector of business cards and have a handful of them that I gathered over the years from former congressman Solomon Ortiz's office. Some have Denise's name on them.

And wouldn't you know, not one of them have the name Saenz on them. In fact, the only time the name reappears after Denise married was on her campaign signs and material. Denise now makes the rounds locally and remembers that she was the proud daughter of a policeman and, coincidentally, a veteran. Now that's called killing two birds with one stone.

The same applies to

the Republican female candidate for District 34, Jessica "Puente" Bradshaw. We notice that just as the name "Saenz" doesn't appear on any of Denise Blanchard's previous identification, neither does the name "Puente" appear on Jessica's ID material.

In her business address in Austin, it is always "Robinson" or "Bradshaw," with "Puente" nowhere to be found.

Same goes for her driver's license, her homestead tax information, etc.,

In fact, there is nary a sign of her living in the Brownsville area part from the information listed on her campaign website. Some have told us, in fact, that when they call her Brownsville business office, they never get a response.

The winsome lass, whose bio says she was born to a Puente in Matamoros, apparently didn't hesitate to ditch the name once she got across the international, ahem, puente.

In the case of the Florida Republicans, it is easy to see that they, the prime emulators of Anglo culture, are cashing in on the strong Hispanic (Cuban, etc., ) population living in South Florida, especially around Miami. In fact, even Jeb Bush, the brother of W, flaunted his relations with his Hispanic in-laws.

Mitt Romney, for example, after considering his Mexican relatives an impediment, suddenly found that saying he had Latino relatives in Mexico was a sure-fire winner in the Sunshine State.

In South Texas, the way to get at the property of local Mexican families was for the Kings, Kenedys, etc., to marry the daughters of Mexican landowners. Under Spanish law, they got an equal portion of their parent's property. Richard King and Mifflin Kenedy lost no time in romancing the senoritas of the right families and thus started their fortunes and land-grabbing here. Thus, the King Ranch and Kenedy County were born.

What Blanchard and Bradshaw may be attempting to do is much the same thing, but in reverse. Instead of Mexican land, they would settle for Mexican-American votes.