POPE LUIGI SEEKS TO CHANGE THE MR. AMIGO CALENDAR

By Juan Montoya
 In 1582, the Catholic Church – to make sure Easter came in April – established the Gregorian calendar as a reform to the Julian Calendar. It was introduced by Pope Gregory XIII, after whom the calendar was named.
The motivation for the reform was to counteract the steady drift in the date of Easter which had been associated with the spring equinox.
So they changed the dates, skipped 10 days, and inserted a leap year to make sure Easter stayed where they put it.
Well, guess who's following in the footsteps of Gregory?
Would you believe Luigi Cristiano, the former Port of Brownsville commissioner and newly-anointed president of the Mr. Amigo Association?
Luigi, as his friends call him, has apparently decided that since he's president he will reign over the 50th anniversary of the first time that the Mr. Amigo Association brought its first personality to Brownsville .
Let's do the math.
The Mr. Amigo Association was incorporated in early 1964. The first Mr. Amigo celebration was held on October 12, 1964 at the Fort Brown Memorial Center and honored former President of Mexico, Lic. Miguel Aleman.
The 2012 Mr. Amigo was Eduardo Yanez, who visited Brownsville in February 2013.
Why Mr. Amigo 2012?
There was a skip of the Mr. Amigo Association's annual event in 1967, when nasty Hurricane Beulah blew into South Texas and reconfigured the geography and many other things. Even though the storm bit Brownsville in September, the immediacy of focusing on rebuilding from the hurricane threw a monkey wrench on the organization's plans for next February. So they skipped a year.
Now, with the 2014 Charros looming ahead, Luigi feels its time to pull a Gregorian sleigh-of-hand and celebrate a 50th Anniversary on his watch, even though it'll only be the 49th year of the organization's celebration.
Many members aren't taking this kindly and we received a report that at least four of the dwindling herd had resigned over the sleight-of-hand by Pope Luigi.
It was bad enough, they said, that the organization had taken a torrent of criticism over the imperious nature of Yesenia Patiño, the Mr. Amigo past president. Her detractors say that she did things on her own and didn't consult with the membership over where their money was being spent, who rated an invitation to private events held by the group, etc.
Well, it looks like Luigi is taking the same road because we hear that he has already approved the printing of 50th Anniversary Mr. Amigo logos to be used for 2014, conveniently skipping over the lost year as Gregory XIII did in 1582. Could it have been the plan when he decided to push forward time and count 50 instead of 49?
We will await the papal bull from Pope Luigi if he deigns to explain.