POPE MARTINEZ THRUSTS PET PROJECT INTO FUNDRAISER

By Juan Montoya
This Saturday in Brownsville's Ghost Market Square, there will be something called the Downtown-Tres to benefit several organizations doing some good work in the area.
The event, which begins with the gates opening at 5 p.m., runs until 11:30 p.m. and the music begins at 7 p.m. and will feature several area musical groups of different genres including La Ensemble la Mision, Los Halcones del Valle, Mr. Whiskey and Los Jetsons.
Admission is $10 – $40 for VIPs – and there will be a cash bar for participants.
The groups that will benefit from the fundraiser are the Brownsville Historical Association, the Brownsville Children's Museum, the Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA), the Good Neighbor Settlement House, the Sunshine Haven Hospice, the Camille Playhouse, and ... the Guadalupe Regional Middle School.
Now, we understand how the secular organizations like CASA, the museums, the hospice and even the homeless shelter would be involved in this alcohol-fueled fundraiser, but the inclusion of the private Catholic Middle School seems like a reach.
From talking to some of the members of the participating organizations, the event – hosted by the City of Brownsville, the Brownsville Visitors and Convention Bureau, the RGV Media Group – is one of their major fundraising efforts. Insiders say that the Guadalupe Middle School was allowed in because of Brownsville Mayor Tony Martinez's personal interest in keeping it afloat.
That school was featured prominently among  his campaign literature as proof of his commitment to the community. So the school appearing among the beneficiaries of the fundraiser hosted by publicly-funded entities like the city and Bean Ayala's BVCB have prompted some to question why Martinez's religious-based middle school was included.
We all know the mayor's relationship to the Catholic faith, including the fact that one of his sons is a priest, that he worships at his own private chapel and that he has a personal relationship with the new bishop at the Brownsville Catholic Diocese. But usually, these religious-based schools avoid the appearance of benefiting from whiskey-driven bacchanals no matter how lucrative the revenues might be. You'd never catch, say, the Baptists, participating in this type of activity, although individually they have been known to imbibe of the spirits.
This mayor has more than once fudged the lines between the church and state when it benefits his image. Now he has the city including this religious private school benefiting from an event that is paid in the majority with public funds. After a few quaffs of the dregs, participants might find out that they've embarked on a slippery slope from which there is no return.