By Juan Montoya
In George Orwell's "1984," the main character was Winston Smith.
Smith worked as a clerk in the Records Department of the Ministry of Truth, where his job was to rewrite historical documents so they matched the constantly changing current party line. This involved revising newspaper articles and doctoring photographs...
According to an anonymous letter circulated to members of the Mr. Amigo Association, this is exactly what is happening when articles like the one above appeared in the local newspaper crediting Bob Torres Sr. with being a "founding member" of the association.Not so, says the anonymous letter writer (see graphic. Click to enlarge).
Instead, the writer says that it was Fausto Yturria, Bat Corrigan, Eugene S. Hurt, Glen Herman, Dave Cooper, Chano Hinojosa, Steve Bosio and Bill Rudd.
There is no mention anywhere of Torres Sr. being among the "founders."
In fact, the letter writer says, the descendants of the late Bob Torres Sr. are modern-day Winston Smiths who he says are trying to "re write history" and say they were the founders.
He (she?) points to the Anthony Knopp, Anthony Medrano and Priscilla Rodriguez book "Charro Days in Brownsville" which credits the photos provided the authors to Bob and Rachel Torres without consulting with the association members.They, the letter writer asserts, were behind the plan to have the statue of Pancho Villa (actually Emiliano Zapata) for crass self-aggrandizement.
Is the attempt to install the statue of the Mexican campesino champion the consequence of the attempt to "hijack" the Mr. Amigo Association by the Torres clan? Or is this a tempest in a teapot?
With the citizens of Brownsville footing much of the bill for the Mr. Amigo week long bash, is it time that the city stepped in and made them accountable, perhaps placing their activities under supervision of the Brownsville Visitors and Conventions Bureau where a regular audit of their activities (and finances) can be performed annually?
4 comments:
Written in language for your readers: White folks created Charro Days. Today Brown folks act as if they did. Even white folks like to make boastful claims about their family with or without something to help prove their claim. We're all the same people from the same place that have intermixed since our beginnings. There is no need to be divisive. That isn't going to change anything for the better.
The current majority residents of Browntown like to treat the contributions of the Anglos to Brownsville history with contempt and as irrelevant. So this attempt to rewrite history on brown paper is right in keeping with the thinking in this part of the world.
The early Anglo and Tejano families that settled this area are responsible for the community, it's development and everything good we have today. When the Mexican's took over in the 70's all we got was corruption, poverty and ignorance.
This story got me pretty hard down there
Ben Jamins, folks lets not kid ourselves, all of these activities are made for pilferage of the public tit don't mater if white or brown, charro days, somberfest etc. Its about making money on the side like the tax assessor collector, one for me one for you, two for me, one for you etc etc etc and how to get away with it. GW
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