WITH AMALIA "MOLLY" CANO, IT WAS THE BEST OF TIMES

Special to El Rrun-Rrun 

First it was the Crossroads, the Rio Delta Times, and finally, The Progressive Times.

But the weekly tabloid that the late Texas State Representative Henry Sanchez launched in 1991 to campaign against the University of Texas -Texas Southmost College "partnership" in the early 1990s took on a decidedly fashionable turn when then-Amalia Cano Acevedo bought the weekly in 1999.

Cano, now Amalia Benson, was not new to the public limelight, having been at one time Cameron County's Elections Administrator, and then executive secretary to Cameron County Democratic Party Chairman Ed Stapleton. 

Her family used to own Cano's Bar in Matamoros and other businesses such as Cano's Pharmacy and a neighborhood grocery store on Calle Primera on the way to Lauro Villar. There's even a Cano's Gift and Flower shop in Brownsville operated by another Cano branch.

Now she was the publisher of a feisty, if not controversial, weekly. 

As such, she was the tabloid's best advertising sales executive with a staff that included the likes of El Bravo's Delia Alvarez, Juan Montoya, and contributors such as Jerry McHale, Luis Saenz, and attorney Patricia Hernandez. Our illustrator was the illustrious Joaquin Rivera. (See front-page illustration at right.)

Why the trip down memory lane?

We ran into Amalia "Molly" Benson recently while on the political hustings for Erin Gamez, now state representative for District 38 and we shared some memories of our times on the struggling weekly. Times were hard, the hours long, and profits scant, but the product was worth reading. 

And it was well read, too. 

Henry Sanchez's campaign to do away with the UTB-TSC "partnership" was a recurring theme that wasn't accomplished until 2013, some 20 years later.  

A sample issue addressed the over-policed border area, the plight of the  Sunny Skies colonia, local veterans call to name the new federal courthouse after Medal of Honor winner Jose Lopez – a local 421 boy who served heroically in Belgium, – the first annual South Texas Conjunto Association Awards ceremony in Mercedes with Timo Ruedas where David Champion and Montoya were presenters, and a Guiri-Guiri section that later became "El Rrun-Rrun" a name suggested by the late Pete Avila, the fireman and later Pct. 2 constable.

(Gilberto Perez y Sus Compadres won that first year. Ruedas presented the award.)

Just last week we got a call from Amalia and said we should visit her office where she had established the Real Connect Realty (RCR) company in the Denis A. Downey Law Building on 1185 FM 802.   

What are you up to now?, we asked innocently enough. 

We shouldn't have. She had launched a career as an artist, then delved into real estate, and lord knows what else. Never a dull moment with this gal!

Along the way she had vacationed in China and crisscrossed the country with her new mate and their families. And even our gift was novel, and fashionable one, too. 

It was a box of circular buñuelos in package depicting traditional Mexican toys. We got the yoyo, appropriately. (Is there a sublime message there?) Others got the wooden top, the spinner, un valero, or a Toma Todo Pirinola. 

As with anything Amalia does, it's the thought that counts. And those thoughts will remain with us as long as the memories of the Rio Delta Times remain. Our thanks to Amalia and we wish her and her family a Merry Christmas!