THE B'VILLE SUNDAY RITUAL: PAYING HOMAGE TO DA LARD

(Ed.'s Note: This sight is repeated all over Brownsville every Sunday morning as residents use drive-throughs at tortillerias and other food businesses to buy barbacoa de cabeza. There are, of course, Stripes and HEBs but connoisseurs prefer the greasy - but delicious - recipes of the independent sellers. 

There's Vera's, Capistran's, Marcelo's, to name a few.

The local aorta-clogging delicacy is a Sunday morning tradition in many Brownsville and South Texas homes to the dismay of "wellness" advocates, who point out that a diet with a hefty weekly dose of grease through the consumption of barbacoa and tamales or carnitas does nothing in the good fight against obesity, diabetes and a host of other ills. 

Psst. I'll let you in on a little secret. These guys in line at Capistran's aren't going to suit up in Spandex Sunday mornings and mount a 10-speed bike and hit the trails, regardless of the wishful-thinking of city commissioners and hike and bike boosters. 

Something gets lost in the translation  between the Austin wannabes and the barrio folk. But a public finance policy allotting millions in tax funds to please a nanny state approach to counter personal diet choice is the direction our community "leaders" have opted to follow. This community's limited resources, we think, could be better spent on finding a fix to the sorry state of our infrastructure, the city's hard-scrabble appearance, and a reassessment of our community's priorities. Instead we throw away the people's money on these gentry pleasures and find new ways to raise taxes and fees on the rest of us.

 Nothing is going to get fixed by riding out a mild norther with a chubby city commissioner. Having a taco or two of barbcoa con salsa casera on a chilly day waiting for the game is a lot more appealing. Bite on that COB. ONE KILO CITY. )