GILBERTO'S MUG TO GRACE COUNTY COMMISH COURT JAN. 2

By Juan Montoya
In the days just prior to the election of the second term of Tony Garza as Cameron County Judge, Port Isabel's Baldemar Port Isabel declared himself a candidate for the Democratic nomination.
He used to sit in the old commissioners court on Harrison Street and point to a spot above the picture of Judge Dancy and say "See where that nail is? That's where my picture is going to be hung when I'm elected county judge."

Alaniz was slightly more flamboyant than most Democrats. At 26 the youngest mayor ever elected to office there, he moved to rename Second Street after himself and was nominated to receive the Bum Steer Award by Texas Monthly for that bit of self-aggrandizement.

Alaniz liked to wear a $20,000 diamond ring, a $6,000 watch, drive fancy cars and live in a house that sort of looks like, and as he described it, the White House of South Texas. He sought a special look with silk suits, big cigars and Stetsons. He earned a living administering $2 million in estate interests for an Oklahoma oil and gas heiress.

 

But alas, he was also a kind of bon vivant who eventually got in trouble with the PI cops for brandishing a handgun and making one of his victims waddle like a pet in a parking lot.

 

Well, Alaniz will never get to see his portrait on the county commissioners court meeting room. Now that venue has changed to the old Dancy Building on Madison Street where the portraits of former county judges now hang. But visitors to the court will notice that there is a recent county judge whose portrait is not hanging along with the others.

 

No, it's not Pete Sepulveda's, the outgoing appointed county judge who will be replaced by elected judge Eddie Treviño. His portrait is still in the works to join the rogues gallery at the courthouse. The one missing is that of two-time county judge Gilberto Hinojosa, now the chairman of the Texas Democratic Party.

 

Why isn't it there alongside Tony Garza, Moises Vela, Jack Goolsby, D.J. Lerma and even Ray Ramon?

 

Apparently, Hinojosa was irked that Republican Carlos Cascos was occupying the seat he thought rightfully belonged to a Democrat and asked that it not be placed while Cascos held office. And, like Pablo Picasso's Guernica, it did not see the light of day until Bad Old GOP dictator Carlos was gone from the throne.

 

In fact, Hinojosa lost to Cascos after holding office for 12 years. Later, as the state's Demo Party chief, he saw Carlos beat Democrat John Wood. With Treviño, a kindred Democratic spirit taking office, the photo is going up.

 

"It's been ready for a long time but it's never been put up," said a county insider. "But come January 2, it will be hung at the commisisoners' court. I guess Gilbert can live with Treviño's taking over the county judge's office."