IT'S FRIDAY: MARISCOS AND POLITICS AT CAPT. BOB'S

By Juan Montoya
We usually traverse East Price Road during lunchtime, and on Friday's the natural tendency is to get a bowl of sopa de marsicos or other seafood plates at Capt. Bob's restaurant next to the main office of the Brownsville Independent School District.

What caught our eye was a new sign outside the restaurant advertising the availability of chicharrones de alligator gar. Now, to the uninitiated with border cuisine, the alligator gar is commonly known around these here parts as catan.
Bob – always the businessman – has used graphic ways to attract customers. It cold be a guy in a Mr. Shrimp outfit, a real stuffed mako shark hung atop the marquee, or clever sayings on the marquee. The latest was Picasso working his way through the skeleton of a fish.
Today was no different. The catan is a fearsome looking fish with a scaly armor and a snout filled with nasty looking teeth, therefore the alligator gar moniker. Imagine being a snowbird and seeing the pitch for alligator gar. It's enough to take a photo to send to the folks back in Minnesota.
What was different today was that Capt. Bob himself was at the head table sitting with Ed Rivera, a candidate for the board of trustees of Texas Southmost College. Now, we're not saying that Bob is a night owl, but there was a time when he couldn't be found until after 3 p.m. or so. Now it seems that he's slowed down a bit and tries to keep regular hours to make the rounds at the two Capt. Bob's restaurants.

We sat down and chatted with Rivera and the Captain as people went in and out for their Friday mariscos.
It turns out that both Rivera and Robert (the captain) are in the same generation and knew many of the same friends. Rivera was appointed to the TSC board after Dr. Robert Lozano found the task was taking too much time from his profession as a physician and begged off. A majority of the trustees appointed him to finish Lozano's unexpired term and he is running to fulfill the unexpired two years of the six-year term. In other words, if he wins as everyone expects, he will have to run again in two years.
He is running against J.J. De Leon, the personal secretary of BISD administrator Bertha Peña.
As we spoke, none other than Sylvia Garza-Perez, the candidate for Cameron County Clerk showed up to touch base with Robert and was introduced to Rivera. Both agreed that this year's political season was too long, the holding of two elections in the same month on separate days confusing to voters, and the sudden inclusion of the Cameron County election office in the port and TSC elections suspect.
The port and TSC elections are to be held May 10, with an early voting period starting April 28 through May 6.
The county races, in which Garza-Perez is in a runoff with Arnold Flores for county clerk, isn't held until May 27 with early voting from May 19 through May 23.
"It's hard enough to get someone to vote without the confusion surrounding both elections," Garza_Perez said.
Nonetheless, both candidates are on the hustings and are off and running.
While we were there, we learned that Garza-Perez's better half, Rudy, was hospitalized for a heart condition. All politics aside, we wished him well and then went on our merry way with the warm feeling in our belly from the sopa of the catch of the day.