WE HAVE SOME GOOD NEWS, AND SOME BAD NEWS...

                                                                                           

                                                                                                El Beis

One could safely say that baseball was to Homero Rios and Jesus Romero as precious a gift as life itself.

It was all they talked about. It was constantly on their minds. And it was something they shared with a passion. They literally ate, drank, and dreamed about baseball.

Often, the two could be seen walking in the afternoons to the baseball park to see this team or that one play the city’s nine on the local diamond. Of course, they went along discussing – and arguing – about baseball.

Who had been the greatest player of all time? Who was the best pitcher? Who achieved greatness with less games and less times at bat? What about the ERA? Didn’t that count more in a pitcher than longevity?

Ruth, Gehrig, Dimaggio, Cobb and the names of the other greats flowed from their lips as easily as their batting averages, years in the majors, and an infinite storehouse of trivia and official records would resound on the sidewalk as the two compadres walked toward the park.

The city’s team, the Browntown Bombers, well...usually ended up bombing out to their neighboring rivals. Still, like most Chicago Cub fans will tell you, they were fans and there is nothing more loyal or intransigent than the fans of a losing club. At the games, amid the peanut sellers and the souvenir hawkers, their pleading cries could be heard as they urged this player or the other to “put it down the tube, Fernando,” or “Way ta snag ‘em, Eddie!”

Yet, no matter how much they encouraged the local nine, the results were almost always the same. The local boys, overpowered by teams filled with “ringers,” would succumb to the superior players getting better salaries for wielding better bats and better gloves.

“C’mon, guys,” “It’s all yours, Mike,” the solitary voices could be heard calling out to the Bombers behind the third base line. Inevitably, the two would visit the Bomber dugout to tsk-tsk sympathetically with the coach and players.

“We’ll get them next time,” Homero would say into the dugout.

“You got it, chief,” a player would answer.

“It’s our turn,” another would call.

“Shake it off, Earn,” Jesus would tell Ernie Alfred, the Bombers coach.

“Just like the Reds in ‘95,” Ernie would say. “Don’t count us out yet.”

And so, having achieved a certain vicariousness, both would head out of the park –  usually the last ones – and then on homeward. They talked, of course, about the game they had just seen.

“That fourth inning made the difference,” said Homero. “If Rodriguez had trapped that ball in left center, we would have been in hog heaven.”

“That’s true, compadre,” Jesus answered. “We’d be in the clouds, maybe even getting near that .500 average. You know, our guys deserved to win. A lot of close calls in that game. I don’t know about those Mount Pleasant umps, though. Seems to me all the breaks were going to the other guys. They work in the same league as the Rio Hondo Rattlers. You know that smells,” he said and arched his left eyebrow knowingly at Homero.

“Oh, compadre, it don’t do no good to blame the umps. If our bats had been talking, it would have been a different story,” Homero argued. “Besides, when are you going to have a perfectly called game? You’d almost have to be in heaven!”

They chuckled over that and walked in silence for a while, each picking his brain for memorable moments of the game to trigger the memory of the other and continue their beloved topic.

“You know, compadre,” said Jesus, “I wonder if there’s anything like that up there?” he said pointing toward the darkening sky.

“What, compadre, fair umps?”

“No, man, baseball,” answered Jesus. “I wonder if there is there is baseball in heaven? If there was, I wonder what it would be like?”

“Well, we’ll never know, will we?,” asked Homero. “But come to think of it, it does make me curious a bit.”

In silence they pondered the great question of the possibility of the sport’s existence in the hereafter. Then, Jesus turned to Homero and said: “Let’s make a deal, compadre, just between you and me.”

“What kind of a deal?,” asked the other.

“Well, why doesn’t the first one to die come back and tell the other if there’s baseball in heaven? That way, if the other knows, what’s there to fear in dying? Hell, a baseball of eternity awaits! What do you say?,” Jesus asked earnestly.

Homero, who was leery of mentioning death in vain, looked nervously at Jesus.

“Let’s not talk about that, uh?,” he pleaded. “That gives me the heebie-jeebies.”

“Ah, c’mon, compadre,” Jesus persisted. “If nothing comes out of it, what could it hurt?”

“Alright, I agree,” Homero said hurriedly and they shook on it. The compadres quickly steered the conversation away from the subject.

Time passed, and after a few years, Jesus passed away. It was a terrible blow for Homero, since Jesus, besides being his life-time friend from his barrio, was also his baseball buddy. In the seasons that followed, Homero would walk alone to the park and sit behind third base, just as he had done with Jesus.

But it wasn’t the same. Some of the guys at the park didn’t know beans about the old-time players like the Cuban Roman Mejia who played with the old Houston 45s, or Bob Lilly at short, and Bob Aspromonte at third.

After yet another disappointing ninth-inning loss by the Bombers, Homero was walking home along the sidewalk by the college when he heard someone call his name.

He turned. There was no one there. He thought he was hearing things when he heard his name called again. This time he turned around and leaned against a fence so bypassers wouldn’t think he was going crazy and called out loud: “Who’s there?”

“It’s me, compadre,” he heard Jesus answer from out of  nowhere.

“But compadre,” stammered Homero, “you’re..dead. How can it be you?"

“Do you remember the deal we made that the first one to die would come back and let the other know if there was baseball in heaven?,” Jesus’ voice spoke out again. “Well, apparently I have to fulfill that promise before I can rest. It’s a heaven rule or something. Anyway, I’m here to tell you.”

“Gee, compadre, you didn’t have to,” Homero protested weakly. But his curiosity got the best of him and he asked him, "Well, is there?”

“I have some great news, compadre,” said Jesus, or rather, his voice. “But I also have some not so great news.”

“Well, tell me, is there baseball in heaven or not?,” persisted Homero.

“Is there ever,” said the happy voice of his compadre. “Man, the best guys in the history of baseball are in the teams up there. Even the Mick has to sit on the bench sometimes while the older guys are on the field. They can pitch. They can bat. They steal bases right under your nose. And St. Peter’s the umpire, so there’s no question of a fix. It’s great.”

“Well, compadre,” answered Homero happily “if there’s baseball up there like you say, what bad news could there be?”

“You’re scheduled to pitch next Sunday,” his compadre’s voice answered.

ALL NEW STUFF FOR BIKE-HIKE TRAIL: AND BUS SHELTERS?

(Ed.'s Note: One of our seven readers noticed that there were new trash receptacles and benches along the bike and hike trails and wondered why people like the lady above waiting for the bus were not provided with the basic bench and shelter to use what passes for mass transit in the city of Brownsville. It's easy to see that the priorities at City Hall are somewhat disconnected from the needs of may of our residents.)

A SOUTH TEXAS MOM'S MEMORIAL DAYS

By Juan Montoya
Doña Mari is having a pulga, once again
She’s pulled out the folding table
and laid the clean white cloth upon it
and neatly, like an undertaker,
lays out her goods

Along the river road that natives trod
And Oblates walked, preaching of God
Where Thornton skirmished
and soldiers died
Sits Doña Mari, biding her time

Like clockword, each Saturday, the neighbors see
Doña Mari,
under the shade of the mesquite tree

A few cars stop and we can overhear the talk
“How much you asking for this cartridge belt?,” asks he
“You mean this green one, by the worn fatigues,” says she
That was my son’s, my Juan, the one he used to wear
I still remember when he taught the neighbor kids to march,
and turn, and do right face
You should have seen them marching through the living room...
You can’t imagine how much pride I felt...
Oh, no, I’m sorry, but I just couldn’t sell that belt.”

“Well, how much for that dress cap with the shiny bill,” she’s asked
“He’s wearing it with his dress blues here,” she cuts him off, and picks the photo up
“You can just see how proud he felt, trying to look so fierce,
so...official, can you see?
But you can tell that he was still so young, my only one, my Juan...
I’m, I’m sorry, I just can’t see myself selling that one.”

“Pardon me, sir?,” she asks the man with boots in hand
“I asked how much you want for these,” says he
“I was in the service once and...”
“Oh, how he used to shine and shine those boots
until he saw his face on them,” she said
“‘Spit-shine’ was what he used to say...
Now, why did I bring those out...No, no, no, they’re...they’re not for sale today.”


Her hands wring the faded apron as she moves among her wares
The hands that counted rosary beads
Each night he wasn’t there

“And this folded flag with medal pinned?
How much for these?,” she’s asked
“Oh, no, I can’t, that’s all this country left to me,” said she
“A week before I got them, two nice young men knocked on this door
and when I saw them, standing there erect and neat,
they tried to act like they were used to it...
Then they told me that my son was gone...
In distant, hostile sands, they say he died
I screamed at them that they had lied...
That my son Juan, my only one, was coming back...
Don’t ask me how, I just know that...
So you see, I cannot possibly sell that flag
Perhaps you’d like a nice backpack instead?”

The cars are gone, the light of day subsides
As Doña Mari gathers up her wares
She neatly folds the greens, and packs the gear
In the green foot locker she keeps near

The belt, the boots, the picture dear
And those old fingers pull the long white table cloth
and in it wraps her goods
Doña Mari will have another pulga soon
and out will come the boots and belt and then the folding table
And she will lay the long white cloth upon it
like a shroud

STUDY POINTS TO GBIC-BEDC ECO-DEV "DISCONNECT": FOR $1.6 MILLION A YEAR, CITY NOT GETTING ITS MONEY'S WORTH

By Juan Montoya
Years ago, current interim Brownsville Economic Development Council CEO Jose Herrera would make presentations in his role as a member of the BEDC's nine-member executive committee member.
Herrera would pull out his poster board which showed the 10 top recipients of the BEDC's list of firms that had received incentives to relocate to Brownsville. At the very bottom, almost as an afterthought, were local businesses. Then came Titan Tire, Delphi, and other notable failures.

At yesterday's Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation's monthly meeting, Herrera – owner of Herr Metals, a company which provides metals and plastics to the maquila industry  – was at it again. He made a cursory presentation going over all the current projects and their "potential" to create 100s of jobs and the magnified role of BEDC in the recruitment of outside companies to come to the Brownsville area through monetary incentives. BEDC is the subcontractor for the GBIC to vet potential companies and to provide the support for the entity to foster economic development and create good-paying jobs.

Under a three-year contract with the GBIC, they get paid $1,672,400 each year, for a total of $5,017,200. That contract ends this September.
It is safe to say that that BEDC did not attract anywhere near that $5.07 million in new jobs or industry that it spent on its "operations."

One of the reasons that there has been a "disconnect" between the GBIC and subcontractor BEDC – according to an assessment undertaken by a three-person panel made up of representatives from the UTRGV School of Business, the Brownsville Public Utilities Board, and the Texas Southmost College Workforce Development Office – is that neither of the entities has clearly defined their goals or objectives.

"Neither GBIC nor BEDC has undertaken a comprehensive yearly strategic planning effort for some time," the report states. "BECD has produced some 'planning documents' which appear to be sporadically done, and in large measure are repetitions of prior years' documents. There does not appear to be any external environmental assessment, internal assessment, or stakeholder input...measurable goals are not readily apparent."

"In such a vacuum, BEDC has apparently in large measure gone its own way," it concludes.

The report goes on to say that it appears that BEDC has focused the very great majority of its energies on marketing Brownsville to firms outside the region and, to a smaller degree, to work with existing firms to encourage growth and expansion.

In previous years, Herrera used to carry a poster board listing the top 10 recipients of the monetary incentives. At the very bottom the existing local businesses were listed, even though its bylaws speak to a broader mission with a wider agenda. Its mission statement it says it purpose is "conducting research and development of information regarding area economics, growth, finance, education and training, housing, human relations, planning and development, and other similar related to economic and industrial development."

"Obviously, this represents a very broad scope of work that would likely be difficult to fulfill given current resources," the study concludes. "The resulting failure to fulfill some of those roles, while aggressively fulfilling others has left select stakeholders disenchanted."

"The possible disconnect between the priorities of BEDC and its stakeholders, notably GBIC, appears the result of the failure of the two contracting parties to establish priorities. It appears BEDC does a competent job of performing a relatively narrow set of functions it has defined for itself. The much larger question of whether these functions maximize the city's utility for the money spent does not appear to have been addressed either internally or externally," the report states.

There appears to be no valid way to analyze BEDC's performance to evaluate success because of the dearth of information to gauge several indicators, the authors state.

"Unfortunately, we were only provided with this sort of date for fiscal year 2015. "Jason Hilts, who heads (headed) BEDC, stated that the FY 2015 Report was a first time trial run that 'wasn't met with great success.' and that maybe they would look to revive the endeavor but would have to assign the responsibility to someone new because the person who previously generated the report has now left the BEDC. To that end, we have no valid way of quantitatively evaluating BEDC's performance during the course of its ongoing contract with GBIC."

The report noted that as the North American economy shifts from traditional manufacturing and agricultural bases to "advanced, rapid-response" manufacturing and service economy, BEDC should broaden its focus from traditional manufacturers.

"BEDC needs to define what our community can do proactively to anticipate the needs of such firms," the authors write. "BEDC should also consider tracking non-manufacturing jobs...as many jobs in the service sector offer comparable salaries to manufacturing jobs – for example, jobs in professional, scientific and technical services or jobs in health and social service sectors.

"If BEDC starts to capture information related to 'knowledge-based' jobs such as IT, computer systems development, marketing and design, then those data can be used to create economic development programs to support these nascent industries. Moreover, those data can also be shared with organizations such as Texas Southmost College. Texas State Technical College, the University of Texas-RGV, the Texas Workforce Commission, and the Brownsville Independent School District to keep and grown these industries in our community."

PAROLE BOARD DENIES GONZALEZ FREEDOM: CITES VIOLENT NATURE OF CRIMES, CONTINUING THREAT TO COMMUNITY

By Juan Montoya
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice Parole Review Board has denied the application of Marco Antonio Gonzales for early conditional release citing the violent nature of the crimes of which he was convicted and said he continues to be a danger to the community.

In its decision made May 24, the TDCJ Parole Review Board stated that: The record indicates that the instant offense has elements of brutality, violence, assaultive behavior, or conscious selection of victims' vulnerability indicating a conscious disregard for lives, safety, or property of others, such that the offender poses a continuing threat to public safety."

As a result of the denial by the parole board, Gonzales' release date is still scheduled for June 15, 2019.

The Victims Assistance Unit of the Department of public safety informed the victims who had protested his release that he had been denied his application for conditional release from the Stiles Unit of the Texas Dept. of Corrections Friday.

Gonzales was sentenced on November 4, 2016, in the 404th District Court on eight counts of aggravated assault of a public servant and one count of aggravated assault in retaliation. At an earlier trial, he was acquitted of the murder of Ivan Reyers, a co-worker at the Cameron County Rucker-Carrizales Detention Center.

His defense attorney, Ernesto Gamez, managed to convince a jury that Gonzalez had acted in self defense when he went to the house of his former lover Monica Robles armed with a loaded rifle and shot Reyes as he sat in a sofa.

Testimony that was barred from the earlier case indicated that he had told a neighbor of the woman the day before that he planned to return the next day and kill Reyes. Gamez – without the objections of Asst. District Attorney Peter Gilman – was able to exclude the testimony of the neighbor. When Gonzales arrived at the house with the weapon, the woman tried to keep him out but he grabbed her and used her as a shield when he entered the house and Reyes pointed his handgun at him. When Reyes lowered his gun, Gonzalez shot him in the chest with a 223 Bushmaster rifle and then in the back of the head as he tried to crawl out of the house.

During the murder trial he said he had gone to his former lover's house to return the rifle, but could not explain why he had taken it out of its case and had it fully loaded when he confronted her outside the home. Gamez pleaded with the jury to consider Gonzales' "state of mind."

The shooting occurred on June 4, 2014 at the woman's home on the 200 block of Orchid Path, off McAllen Road in northwest Brownsville.

After shooting Reyes, Gonzales held her hostage and stood of law enforcement officers for the next six hours, trading shots with them and shooting at Robles' brother as he walked away from the house. He shot at the officers and struck a SWAT vehicle, shattering a mirror. It wasn't until after his hostage managed to escape that officers captured Gonzales, who suffered minor injuries in the incident.

But if the Reyes family though that Gonzales had victimized them by killing their son, they were not prepared for the way they were victimized by the justice system in Cameron County. After Gamez managed to get him acquitted of the capital murder charges, he then faced 11 counts of aggravated assault of a public servant. The defense argued that two of the 11 counts constituted double jeopardy and Gilman did not object, settling for the nine other counts.

The jury found Gonzales guilty on the nine counts and that's when instructions by Judge Elia Cornejo-Lopez muddied the waters even further. In her initial charge to the jury, Cornejo told the jury they would be the ones to decide whether the sentences on the nine charges would run consecutively or concurrently. When Gamez objected and asked for a mistrial, she denied it but then instructed the jury that it would be up to her to decide how Gonzales would serve his sentences. That was not correct either, as courts are bound by state law on sentencing if the charges stemmed from the same incident.

They jury, thinking that by finding Gonzales guilty of the nine charges and assessing a five-year sentence on each, he would get 45 years in prison. When they found out that under state law – contrary to what the judge told them that it would be up to her – Gonzales would serve all of the five-year terms concurrently and would be released after serving only five years with credit for time served (two years), they protested to the DA and the court, with no avail.

Local police and other law enforcement officers who were targeted by Gonzales during the standoff protested the short sentence and both the DA and the judge blamed each other for the lenient sentence for his conviction on the eight counts of aggravated assault of a public servant and the one for retaliation.

As a result of the denial by the parole board, Gonzales' release date is still scheduled for June 15, 2019.

RIGO, A LA WOODS, IS RUNNING FOR COUNTY WHAT????

By Juan Montoya
Remember the days and months before the election for Cameron County judge when John Wood, the current Brownsville Navigation Commissioner and former Pct. 2 Cameron County commissioner, started putting up signs all over the county with his name and the year of the election, and nothing more?

There was no mention of the fact that Wood was going to run for county judge. Since he had more than a year left in his term, he would have had to resign his position, give up his salary, and name a treasurer. That would not have been convenient, so he opted for the teaser that he was going to be a candidate for...something.

Well, we're in mid-2017, scant months before the March 2018 primaries where the parties hold elections to see who'll face the other parties' candidates in the 2018 general elections. It used to be a sure thing that the Democratic Party candidates who emerged victorious in the primaries were a shoo in in November. But the election of two Republicans for county judge and a smattering of constables have changed all that.

So if you are eyeing a run at a county position coming up for grabs, say a county commissioner's post, it is to your interest to start putting your name out in the district to at least let people know you'll be running for...something.

We say this because we checked with the Cameron County Elections Office and found that so far only six candidates have filed an appointment of their campaign treasurer. They are:

JP Pct. 2-1: Linda Salazar, Treasurer Rick Zayas
JP Pct. 2-3: Mary Esther Sorola, Treasurer Ruben Gallegos, Jr.
County Commissioner PCt. 2: Joe "Joey" Lopez, Treasurer Frank Wood
JP Pct. 2-2: Javier Reyna, Treasurer Tony Torres, Jr.
County Court At-Large #2: Laura L. Betancourt, John R. Serna
County Clerk: Dahlia E. "Lali" Betancourt, Luis D. Gonzales, Jr.

Noticeably absent from the list is the guy with the baby blue signs (and eyes) Rigo Bocanegra, who last ran in the race for a position in the Brownsville Independent School District. In that race (a majority vote race), Dr. Sylvia Atkinson took the race.

Bocanegra has been coy about naming the position he is going to seek, but a cursory reading of his social media pages leave little doubt that he is eyeing the Pct. 2 county commissioner's seat currently held by Alex Dominguez.

Dominguez, in turn, has made it no secret he will be considering unseating State Rep. Rene Oliveira should the District 38 incumbent decide to seek reelection. It's hard to gauge Oliveira's intentions since he has racked up more that 30 years there and says he only seeks reelection with the justification that he has some "work" he has to finish before he retires.

Yet, a review of the treasurers' filings indicates Bocanegra has not filed his treasurer's appointment. As such, he is not supposed to collect or spend money on any campaign. Yolanda Begum was his treasurer for his BISD run, and when we asked him about this current endeavor, he said his treasurer – once he announces – will be Aida Montenaro-Flores. He said her name appears on his campaign signs and that he had forgotten to file it with the county elections office. He said he will do that this coming Tuesaday.

Bocanegra is being supported unabashedly by "Team Saenz," a group headed by Cameron County District Attorney Luis V. Saenz and his brother Mario. Both men have appeared in social media endorsing him as a "humble" man.

His campaign signs do not display the name of a treasurer, either. Of course, it may just be an oversight on Bocanegra's part, but having the DA as your supporter lessens the risk, it would appear.


The Texas Secretary of State website states that: "the law provides that you must file a campaign treasurer appointment form with the proper filing authority before you may accept a campaign contribution or make or authorize a campaign expenditure, including an expenditure from your personal funds. A filing fee paid to a filing authority to qualify for a place on a ballot is a campaign expenditure that may not be made before filing a campaign treasurer appointment form with the proper filing authority."

So, Rigo. It's still early before the March 2018 primary. Perhaps conforming with this small detail might make it easier sailing as the 2018 campaign season starts.



 

PROOF IN THE PUDDING, SOSSI LIED ABOUT OUTSIDE WORK

By Juan Montoya
At the meeting where former contract attorney pleaded with the City of Brownsville commissioners to change his status to full-time city employee so he could include a child he had with a woman fighting him for child support in his health insurance, he promised that henceforth he would work exclusively for the city.

Some commissioners said that they felt sorry for the child since it was not his fault that he was caught in that predicament through no fault of its own. That decision was made on January 12, when Sossi was in the throes of the child custody-child support fight and was held on Thursday, January 12.

According to the minutes of the meeting, the discussion in executive session centered around:  A) Discussion and Possible Personnel ACTION to make City Attorney a City Employee. Commissioner Ricardo Longoria, Jr., moved to proceed as discussed in Executive Session to make City Attorney a City Employee. The motion was seconded by Commissioner Cesar de Leon and carried unanimously.

According to accounts of the meeting, an emotional Sossi pleaded and cajoled the commissioners to change his status since the court child support ordered included the provision that Sossi provide him with medical insurance.

Yet, almost a month to the date, on February 13, Sossi signed a retainer agreement with the City of Mission that would pay him $2,500 a month.
In fact, under that agreement, he has committed to work at least 15 hours a month for Mission. So Since February, the City of Misison has issued checks to "Sossi and Associates" totaling $8,839 (Click on graphics to enlarge).

At the time of the change from contract attorney to full-time employee he was receiving $10,000 a month from the city and another $5,000 a month from the GBIC for a grand total of $180,000 a year.
As far as we know, he stills draws that money minus deductions.

One of the conditions of being a full-time city
employee is that you are prohibited from working  simultaneously for another employer. In other words, you cannot serve two masters. Yet, Sossi, on February 13, 2013, signed the retainer agreement to advise the City of Mission "in matters regarding police, fire, labor, employment and civil service when requested..."

Additionally, under the agreement, Sossi is required by his contract to "attend all Civil Service meetings and/or hearings and shall represent the commission. The attorney shall be available for

consultation with the client at reasonable times, at the request of the client."

Now, we happen to know that Sossi – used to living high off the hog and lavishing his cash on wine, women and song – has fallen on hard times. No one blames him for scratching for cash where he can. In fact, we have published posts here where we show that the U.S. Internal Revenue Service has issued several liens against him for unpaid taxes totalling a whopping $565,593.70.

But the rules are the rules. If one of the conditions of changing the status from contract attorney to a full-time city employee, the agreement with Mission – and the $2,500 monthly retainer – are clear violations of the conditions of employment. Now that the makeup of the city commission has changed, is anyone going to make the city administration enforce the rules? Or do they apply to different people differently?

BECERA: LOS VERSOS DE RAY RAMON, FROM 1970 RACE

By Juan Montoya
Herminia Becerra's introduction to politics began in 1969, when a young Georgetown graduate in charge of the Cameron County Anti-Poverty Agency decided to take on the powers that be and challenge the political structure.
To Becerra, who had seen poverty in all its miserable aspects, he was a champion of the poor, a voice for the dispossessed, and a representative of the people against the entrenched Anglo power structure. Becerra remembers that she had left the migrant stream with her daughters when she started working with Ramon to get him elected.

"The school kids didn't have buses," she recalled today in Spanish. "They had to walk to school in all kinds of weather. People went hungry and no one helped them. There were no clinics for the disadvantaged and women had no Planned Parenthood."

She has kept a weathered copy of the corrido that Ramon's supporters put together for that first run for county judge as a heirloom. The verses speak of the humble people's champion who "has no riches, no inheritance, and offers no liquor or beer to the people of Cameron."

She wasn't the only one to join in and politick to help Ramon become the first Hispanic county judge in the county. Others, like Blanca Vela, also walked the barrio streets chanting "Con Ray Ramon hay Corazon," the slogan that Ramon kept throughout his political career. In an interview she gave to an oral historian she stated that Ramon was "a graduate from Georgetown and young, energetic. And we walked those streets and we would say, at that time, "Con Rey Ramon, Hay Corazon." (There is Heart with Rey Ramon) We knocked on doors left and right, comadres," etc...

Vela – as did others over time – eventually became disenchanted with Ramon, but recognized that he had led Hispanics to political power in the county.
The sudden rise to power of the upstart Hispanic to the top of the political heap didn't come without blowback from the entrenched political elite in the county, both Anglo and the Mexican-American elite.

Moises Vela, her brother-in-law, ran against Ramon and won. After that, others took over the county's helm, including Tony Garza, another Ramon foe who dealt him the final political blow because he became the first Republican since Reconstruction to win that post. Most saw it as an anti-Ramon vote. But that didn't explain Garza's reelection for two more consecutive terms.

Becerra eventually branched out and participated in other state and national elections, always with the Democrats. Her activities eventually earned her the title of Queen of the Politiqueras, a name that not always conotes admiration in political circles. Yet, throughout her political activities and experiences, she still recalls the first Ramon run at the county judgeship wistfully.

"Era muy gueno, ayudaba mucho a la gente..."

RAY RAMON, POPULIST MAVERICK DIES AFTER LONG ILLNESS

By Juan Montoya
Ray Ramon, the maverick populist politician who served as Cameron County Judge from 1970 to 1981, has died.

Ramon rose to power using a base he built up for a constituency through the clients of federal, state, and local economic and social programs to help children, seniors, and those most in need in the county.

The local daily quotes County Commissioner for Pct. 1 Sofia C. Benavides and who worked close to Ramon for 12 years.
"He was a good man, and a good friend and mentor to me, as to many," Benavides said. "He was the first Latino to serve as Cameron County Judge, paving the way for others..."

In 1978, I returned to South Texas armed with a journalism degree and hooked up with the Brownsville Herald.
Cameron County was in an uproar then.
The Old Guard was on the way out. A young Ray Ramon had just beaten D. J. Lerma for county judge after longtime judge Oscar Dancy died. Before he died, Dancy endorsed Ramon to succeed him.
Joe Rivera was in the second term after having been elected county clerk in 1974 and  Eddie Lucio was county treasurer.

And the Brownsville Herald, with Bill and Becky Salter at the helm, were in a give-no-quarter, take-no-prisoners war with the county judge.
Salter's pit bull – or rather bull terrier – was none other than Dave Crowder, a piss-and-vinegar reporter who eventually ended up at the El Paso Times.

Ramon – a Georgetown graduate – had come in with the War on Poverty programs and at thirtysomething, had become the youngest –  and the first – Hispanic county judge in Cameron County. Many youths in the county got summer jobs through his efforts, and he was a hero in the barrios.
Salter, after a stint at Kerrville editing Becky dad's paper, had taken over the Herald and latched on to Ramon in alliance with Dolph Thomae, the lone remaining Anglo on the county commissioners court from precinct 3.

Hardly a day passed that Crowder did not have an article on the alleged wrongdoings of Ramon and his associates, including Lucio and the other administrators on the poverty programs, "el queso."
County meeting day usually meant a full-banner, front-page story featuring the latest dispute between Thomae and Ramon over just about everything. Thomae, of course, was the vanguard of the Anglo community that was still smarting over losing its political control over the county to the young upstarts from the "outside."

Ramon and Thomae had been at odds after Ramon leveraged his directorship of the Cameron County Anti-poverty Agency at Brownsville in 1966 into a political powerhouse. Thomae, long a controversial figure in Cameron County politics, was a member of the board of directors governing the agency.
The antagonism peaked when a county grand jury indicted Ramon on a charge that he had solicited a drug dealer to seek a hit man to off Thomae.


At the time, the Herald was an afternoon newspaper and relied on newsboys to hawk it through the streets of Brownsville. Among those was was one Felipe "Pipe" Solis, an adult man who suffered from a cleft lip (un gangoso). Pipe had the courthouse market sewn up. He hand delivered the newspaper hot off the press to the county offices and was on a first-name basis with the secretaries and, employees, and elected officials.

He was the unofficial Herald mascot.

I was covering for the courthouse beat one day when someone told me that judge Ramon would like to talk to me. I sauntered over to the second floor of the Dancy Building and was surprised to see Ramon, Lucio and Rivera sitting around the judge's desk. Ramon said that they had decided that they would like to do something special for "Pipe's" birthday. They envisioned a pachanga over at the Dean Porter Park Pavilion with botana and beer. And they would like to know if the people at the Herald would like to buy the $5 tickets they were selling for the event.

I hadn't come aboard the last wagon load of green wood to see that instead of fetting Pipe, what the trio wanted was to use the goodwill people had for Pipe to shame the Herald.
"How many tickets do you want to sell at the Herald?" Ramos asked.
I demurred and told him that I'd write an article on it and that I personally would buy one for myself.

Word got around the courthouse and the buzz was what a good guy Ramon was for putting together the pachanga for Pipe. What many couldn't see was that Ramon, Lucio and Rivera were taking advantage of the gullible newspaper delivery boy (man?) to get back at the Herald and its editors and reporters.
The afternoon of the event – a Friday afternoon – the place was filled with elected officials from the city and county, and included federal judge Reynaldo Garza, who surreptitiously drank beer from a plastic cup careful to hide it when a photographer was in his vicinity.
Pipe arrived in the backseat of a new convertible sitting alongside the reigning Miss RGV, the poor girl looking somewhat out of place alongside Solis who was wearing a mismatched coat and tie and crooked smile, immensely pleased with himself.

There was a small ceremony held and mariachis sang Pipe Las Mañanitas. Then he was presented with a new bike for his newspaper deliveries. The afternoon then degenerated into a beer drinking pachanga. The next Sunday,a full-page Lifestyle page featured the event. I heard that Pipe kept a copy as a souvenir. No one else from the Herald had attended the event.

I recall this because these were more innocent times. The event was held not to honor Pipe, but to get back at the Herald's editor and reporters, their tormentors.
I was reminded of those days of innocence when I read an interview and Sen. Lucio harked back in candid admissions he made to an interviewer that he made side money being a lobbyist for prison construction firms and also for "an engineering firm from Houston."

That "engineering company from Houston" that left a few bucks in the senator's pocket was none other than Dannenbaum Engineering, which was accused of billing the Port of Brownsville more than $15 million in unjustified expenses for work on the famous "Bridge to Nowhere" that cost taxpayers more than $21 million in bonds and for which they are still paying. Lucio talked the port commissioners into firing Brown and Root and hiring Dannenbaum as part of his "consultant" side job. The deal resulted in loads of cash in Eddie's golf knickerbockers.

On their face, these pursuits may seem perfectly normal until you realize that his so-called "consulting" garnered him $100,000s and that his involvement in Willacy County resulted in the steering of jail-building contracts to this company. Several county commissioners were indicted and convicted of receiving bribes for their votes.

According to Texas Ethics Commission filings, Lucio worked as a “consultant” for Corplan in 2003 and 2004 at a time when the company was part of a consortium of private prison interests seeking to build a 2,000-bed immigrant detention center in Raymondville, the seat of Willacy County.

In 2008, Lucio was indicted in Willacy County and accused of profiting from his public office by accepting honoraria from the private prison industry. The charges were dropped after a judge ruled the indictment failed to address whether Lucio, who had been accused of trying to steer construction of private detention facilities to the GEO Group, knew he was being hired as a consultant because he was a state senator. Lucio vowed he was innocent and had done nothing wrong.

In April, 2010, his son, State Rep. Eddie Lucio III, a Brownsville Democrat, followed in his father’s footsteps by joining forces with Corplan Corrections, the same scandal-plagued prison development company once represented by the elder Lucio. This time the corporation wanted to build a prison in Weslaco but the deal fell through.
The fruit, the saying goes, does not fall far from the tree.

Ramon was the first person in the Valley to break the 60 to 80-year-old Anglo "stronghold" in the Valley's politics when he was elected to be the Cameron County Judge while he was in his thirties.
As he was involved in politics, he became the focal point of many successful new adjustments and changes in Cameron County, and also of many controversies, leading him to consider himself a "lightning-rod" of political life in the Valley.

Ramon had been living in San Antonio. Once a virile, athletic man, his last days passed in the care of a provider after suffering a debilitating stroke. He left public life after three Democrats on the commissioners court opted to support Republican Tony Garza over him for county judge, among them Lucino Rosenbaum Jr., who had just defeated him for Pct. 1 commissioner by six votes in a bitter runoff election. The other two commissioners who signed on with Garza were Thomae and Mike Cortinas.
Garza became the first Republican county judge since Reconstruction.

Rivera is now in retirement after the commissioners court opted to appoint Cameron County Administrator Pete Sepulveda, the former county administrator. He, in turn, was replaced by former Brownsville mayor Eddie Treviño.

Compared to the prank using an innocent half-wit like Pipe to get back at the Herald, the later acts by Lucio under the guise of a God-fearing, family-loving public servant reveal that under the Cheshire-cat grin and bow tie, he has turned out to be a self-serving lout who now wants to clean up his legacy as he nears the end of his 40-year political rampage that started out in the halls of the Dancy Building in Cameron County.

That, too, unfortunately, is part of the Ramon legacy in Cameron County.
May he rest in peace.