JERRY: "DOES VICE OR VISE BEST DESCRIBE ELIZONDO?"

By Gerardo F. Scully

El Rrrun-Rrun's Mexico D.F. Correspondent and

Abuelo de Brownsville Soccer

We knew Carlos Elizondo back in the day when he would gather with Rigo Bocanegra, Jorge Lerma and the rest of the vatos to drink, talk about women and shoot the shit in general. But something happened on his way to the Fat Farm. He not only lost weight, but he lost himself.

The skinny Elizondo, with his ascension to Brownsville Fire Chief and election to the Brownsville Independent School District Board of Trustees, could no longer support his fat head on his scrawny body.

He became arrogant and despotic. The good ol' boy had disappeared with the pounds. We can only conclude that the plump Carlos was hiding the real Carlos, a bully who tried to intimidate others because he believed he was an untouchable and above the law. A product from the other side of the river, it's called the Matamoros mentality.

If the eleven felony counts that he is facing mean anything, they mean that he isn't above the law. In fact, Cameron County District Attorney Luis Saenz, who may give his constantly drunk nephew breaks for committing one crime after another, doesn't consider Elizondo family and intends to send him to prison to compensate for his fiasco in charging Tax Assessor Tony Yzaguirre with more than 20 counts and failing to convict him on any of the charges.

And there are, of course, Elizondo's many other indignities. The BISD Board met hurriedly to rectify a public embarrassment when an unexpected set of circumstances culminated in Elizondo becoming board president. In an impeachment of sorts, the trustees quickly replaced him with Cesar Lopez, who had just resigned because he claimed that he wanted to spend more time with his sons although if he hadn't run for the Port of Brownsville he might have been home more. To Lopez's chagrin, he not only lost time with his kids, but he lost the race as well by a substantial margin. It seems that it's only his wife who isn't rejecting him these days.

Elizondo, on the other hand, has more than enough time to spend with his daughters. Once fire chief, he was terminated. Once a firefighter, he was fired. Once a somebody, he's a nobody. Once a man of ambition, he has been condemned to perdition.

Therefore, it wasn't surprising in an official BISD document that Elizondo was introduced as the board's vise president, not vice president. Perhaps Superintendent Dr. Esperanza Zendejas didn't want the public to recollect Elizondo's sinful past. Vice too accurately describes the fallen Elizondo. But by referring to him as vise president, did the BISD depict the true Elizondo?

As we have stated earlier, Elizondo is a bully. Didn't he endeavor to put the squeeze on a former Veteran's Memorial principal and when she wouldn't accede to his demands, he was part of a vengeful conspiracy to exile her to a junior high?

And hasn't International Academy of Emergency Medical Training LLC, a company with whom Elizondo is associated, already squeezed the BISD taxpayers for a cool million and expects to squeeze the BISD for more than $300,000 this coming school year?

Vice or vise? It really doesn't make any difference when you are guilty as charged.