BISD SIGNS, ADS, AND COLLAGE OF CONSTITUENCIES

By Juan Montoya
With 20 or so candidates for the four positions open on the board of the Brownsville Independent School District, every candidate is looking for something to make his or her candidacy stand out.
Some go for the basic enchilada (like Hector Chirinos, for example) and splash their picture in corner of the ad and highlight that he is an army veteran.
Of course, it's probably been at least half a century or more since Chirinos served in the military, but hey, who's counting?

Otis Powers is another example of the simple and sweet approach and those of us who have witnessed his campaigns know its his photo, his name and catchwords like integrity, character, etc...

Others opt for the personalization of the campaign signs like Rigo Bocanegra with his baby blues to go along with the color of the block letters.

"Dr." SYLVIA Atkinson and LAURA Perez-Reyes and KENT Wittenmore obviously favor the first-name basis approach, a strategy favored in most elections across the river in Mexico which seems to work for them.
Some, like Orlando Treviño, seem to have chosen colors for the season, like Halloween. Treviño's orange and black seem geared toward the jack o'lantern group.

Katy Presas-Garcia got a bit more artistic and uses pink kid brush strokes to call attention to her bid for reelection.

One of the more noticeable ones are those by Anna Hernadez Oquin, a McDonald's franchise owner who chose a RAnna McDonald's approach using letters to suggest they are French fries.
In fact, most – if not all – of the local McDonald's Restaurants display her BISD campaign signs outside. We have even been told that she will soon be including one of her push card in every bag that leaves the restaurant.
This has led some local wags to comment that instead of the kids being fed spoiled barbacoa meat, she will have Happy Meals delivered to every cafeteria in the district.

"If you thought barbacoa was unhealthy, wait until your kids' arteries start to get clogged with french fries and salt," quipped a former board member.
Now, don't corporate policies such as those by McDonalds and Walmart apply to political support for any candidate? Or does anyone even care?

A candidate who chose to go along with the FIRST-name basis and numerical proliferation is LAURA Perez-Reyes, whose signs virtually dot the landscape and even has special frames constructed with 2x4s to placer her above the rest. Someone is investing a lot of money into that candidacy. As far as we know, LAURA has never been a candidate for public office and might feel obligated to comply with her money backers once in office. If there is a message in her hoity-toity signs, that might be one.
Oh, well, you never know how any message is going to go over nowadays.

But if it's a garbled message you want, it's hard to beat the one in the Phil Cowen newspaper ads. Phil throws a haymaker at the "leadership of the BISD board."
Now, there a majority and a minority on the BISD board.

The majority (and that which is leading the district now) is headed by Joe Rodriguez, Hector Chirinos, Cesar Lopez, Carlos Elizondo, and sometimes Minerva Peña. Cowen is running to replace Powers, who is on the minority.
So is Cowen saying that there is "Something Wrong" with the board majority led by these fine gents (and sometimes gal)?

He goes on to say that there is nothing wrong with the teachers, the administrators, the support staff, the administration (again), our children, and our parents.
So it's just Joe, Hector, Cesar and Carlos who are the problem? So why run against Powers, then, who is in the minority along with Presas-Garcia?

So far, Cowen has been the only consistent advertiser in the local newspaper and his ad remains the same from week to week.

Who will the rank-and-file of the school district support? Judging by the political stickers being sported by some of the BISD staff, that question is hard to answer. Take a peek at the stickers affixed to a car's rear window below.
The owner of that car appears to favor the incumbents Powers, Chirinos and Peña, but at the same time is a Donald Trunp supporter for the presidency of the U.S.
With the ignominy that the signs carries among Hispanics across the country, will that translate into bad vibes for the BISD candidates?