WHAT THE HELL IS GOING OVER AT THE BHA?

By Juan Montoya

Someone pointed out to us that the list of staff on the Brownsville Historical Association did not contain the name of born-again neo-confederate Craig Stone, listed before as the Program & Education Coordinator for the group.

You remember Stone. 

He was the avowed neo-Confederate who decked out in the gray of the Confederate States of America and celebrated Jefferson Davis' birthday at Washington Park. He was also a strident defender that the monument to the president of the CSA should remain at Washington Park because it celebrated the "heritage" of the Southern states, and did not glorify slavery.

We have often wandered how the BHA has become a coven of neo-Cons subsidized by a city who does not support the views that some of these people celebrate. 

Take for example, Eugene Fernandez, the Old City Cemetery Coordinator. We attended a part of his lecture on the Cortina Wars and quickly discovered that his lecture was one that slurred Juan N. Cortina as a "bandit," and illiterate, a horse thief, and a wastrel.

His take on Cortinas "pronunciamineto" where he lays out his reasons for resistance against the encroaching settlers supported by Texas authorities and U.S. military was that "it reads like it was written by a drunk poet."

Fernandez, defending the Davis monument, "very passionately expressed how he would defend it from "these bandy-legged upstarts." 

According to Juan Fidencio Trevino, the publisher of Brownsville Bright, a blog recently joining the local blogosphere, he has uncovered what he feels are hints of racism at the BHA and pointed to Stone as the most brazen of the bunch.

Since June 2013, Stone was the Program and Education Coordinator at the BHA, an institution dedicated to "preserve, educate, and promote the history, heritage, and cultural arts of Brownsville exhibitions." 

Treviño said that "However, I am disappointed to inform you that Mr. Stone is also an active member of the 6th Brigade of the Texas Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, meaning that he holds a view on the American Civil War that does not coincide with historical facts.
This does not sound like a man who should be considered a reliable educator or museum coordinator, but maybe I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's take a look at the evidence."

He also charged that the BHA committed an "injustice...by promoting the glorification of the confederate movement but disregarding Rev. Martin Luther King Jr, a man whose words and actions were used to liberate rather than oppress, the day after...

"The 1902 SCV Constitution states that the group's purpose is "to instill into [their] descendants a proper veneration for the spirit and the glory of [their] fathers, and bring them into association with our Confederation.

In reality, Treviño said, they attempt to justify lingering bits of racist memorabilia as cherishable historical pieces of nostalgic and educational value, and they are very defensive about their stuff.

In December 19th, 2015, Brownsville citizen, Antonio Castillo, started a petition to remove the Jefferson Davis Memorial, a physical manifestation of outdated bigotry on public display, from Washington Park. Two days later, Stone shared a counter petition on his Facebook page, urging people to oppose its removal.

His cause is supported by James Mills, Vice President of the BHA board of directors, who told  the Brownsville Herald "we have a lot of dark history in the past" and that "we can reinterpret it today but it doesn't change the past." 

He thinks "it is important that it stays there in Washington Park." 

This statement shows that Mills either does not understand that there's a difference between acknowledging and glorifying these dark times or simply does not respect people of a different color."

We can only say that Mr. Stone's departure is welcome in many quarters where there is no room for glorification of ideas which have been tossed along with others into the "dustbin" of history.

Come to think of it, maybe Fernandez might take a little trip to the heap himself.