Friday, January 28, 2022

PAT AHUMADA REMEMBERS POLITICAL BATTLES, MEMORIES

Special to El Rrun-Rrun

Just recently we ran into our old on-again, off-again friend Pat Ahumada. You remember Pat, he was elected mayor from 1991 through 1994, and ran for U.S. Representative in 2000 and 2002.
In the 2000 election run, he ran for Congress as a Republican.

Most recently, he ran for mayor, and lost, in a runoff election in 2015 against Tony Martinez.

It also just happened that we were cataloging our voluminous files that we had kept since we started a weekly in the 1990s with the late Henry Sanchez, of the Texas House of Representatives. Sanchez was replaced by Rene Oliveira, who held on to the position for more than 30 years.

Ahumada recalled that when he beat Tony Zavaleta - a former city commissioner and now a trustee on the board of Texas Southmost College, we predicted that the old family-controlled Brownsville politics was over and that mavericks like Ahumada now had a chance at public offices previously controlled by old families and the political and socioeconomic elite of the city.

During the sorting of our files, we ran into a yellowed copy of a November 1991 edition of Jerry McHale' rag El Rocinante, where he – true to form – heaped praises on Zavaleta and berated Pat with a dismissive "Who is Pat Ahumada?"

Still, Ahumada prevailed and beat McHale's paladin Zavaleta in that mayor's race. He also beat a DWI charge and his alleged theft of a $26,000 city check that was placed in his city mail box. Later, he also prevailed after his arrest for operating an eight-liner establishment.

There is no love lost between Pat and Jerry, and the very mention of his name gets Pat going. But when we told him that we had come across the issue, he eagerly accepted it as a  gift and remembrance of days gone by. 

Brownsville has had – and continues to have – a cast of characters who make life here interesting. Pat and Jerry are part of that cast as are we. Some love us. Some hate us. But all of us are part of this cultural and diverse mosaic that has always characterized this cosmopolitan border city since its inception.

Celebrate it.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Two losers - Pat & Jerry.

One's gone from politics and the other is almost dead.

(Si, que bueno, Apa. Ya dieron las nalgas!)

Anonymous said...

Idota, todas las viejas andava con calentura, that's why he won

Anonymous said...

Pat Ahumada was a dinosaur. He was both understood and misunderstood. His fans saw a better world at the end of the tunnel with Pat; his detractors saw Matamoros.

Whatever.




Anonymous said...

Ese vato se la mama a Trump. He has his nose so far up Trumps ass, he can't hear nothing.

Anonymous said...

I was at the bar where Jerry said something to Pat and Pat got pissed. You have never seen a grown man melt into his socks like when Jerry backed down.

McHale says Ahumada feared him, but the opposite is true. Pat was this close to pushing his boot down McHale's throat.

Ahumada would have pummeled El Jerry.




Anonymous said...




Zopilote.


Anonymous said...

You are absolutely right in our conclusion about our cutlural and diverse mosaic.
.

Anonymous said...

Who's taller....Pat Ahumada, Eddie Trevino or Trey Mendez

Anonymous said...

Is this the same Jerry who wrote you were the 3rd-best writer in Brownsville, Montoya?

ja ja ja ja


Anonymous said...

hediondo

Anonymous said...

The guy is a thief!!!

Anonymous said...

You can tell he is drunk in the picture. Y tiene gusanos en el culo con rayito de canela en los chones.

Anonymous said...

He carries a herrero y wesson 30-41 a pistola that hasn't yet been invented wachale peligro bad hombre jajajajaaaaa.
karma

Anonymous said...

y baboso

Anonymous said...

call the giant 41414141

Former RGV LEO said...

Does he remember that he cashed a check that didn't belong to him? He got lucky that he got some dummies on the jury who couldn't see the evidence and let him walk!

rita