(NASA announced that the diet of the Artemis moon journey crew included almost five dozen tortillas that the crew had requested. We remember when kids would laugh at you if you pulled out a taco for lunch at the school cafeterias in the district. Those were the days when you could be punished for speaking Spanish on school grounds. Times, apparently, have changed. It reminded us of something that happened a few years ago. Have fun as you munch on a taco.)
By Juan Montoya
A few years ago, when we were looking up a file with the Cameron County District Clerk's office, we found ourselves wandering over to what used to be Amadeo Rodriguez's courthouse coffee shop. (Zeke Silva now has his coffee Roast House there.)
But back then we ran into a couple of attorneys, among them the late Ruben Herrera, and Trey Mendez and Alfredo Padilla, who are still with us.
As oft happens when people who have an inside track on civic and court stuff come together, the talk turned to local politics.
Herrera, besides being a hotshot criminal lawyer, also sat on the Brownsville Housing Authority board and the Brownsville Visitors and Convention board. He also went on to become a trustee on the board of the Texas Southmost College, too.
Padilla has made a nice living defending the accused and has often been talked about as a possible candidate for one of our courts. He was also a court magistrate and is now a prosecutor for the City of Brownsville.
Trey, of course, before he did a stint as city mayor, was one of the four trustees on the Texas Southmost College majority that defied the powers that be and separated the University of Texas at Brownsville from college district so that we could have two free-sanding institutions like other communities in Texas.
Padilla declined to order the cholesterol-rich huevo con chorizo con papas y frijoles submarines that used to pass off as breakfast tacos at Amadeo's shop. Instead, he opted to slice off a piece of Herrera's bulging flour breakfast taco.
"Cuidando la linea," he said as he sliced off the piece and put it on a plate. All of us, except for Trey understood exactly what he meant. Pork chorizo and eggs with refried beans would tip off any diet red flag anywhere.
We commended Trey for his stand at UTB-TSC and told him that some of us would love to take a photography class or audit a history course, but that the $700 in student fees apart from the cost of the course was prohibitive.
"We're working on that," he replied as he wiped his mouth and started walking away. "I know exactly what you mean."
"But Alfredo," I commented, turning back to the talk at the table. "Nowadays you can get reconstituted wheat tortillas, low-fat, low-bleach ones that are actually healthy for you."
"That's true," he replied as he munched on the morsel. "But not here."
"Furthermore," I continued with the set up, "You can get blue corn, black corn, yellow corn, all kinds of tortillas without the chemicals that we got used to eating when we were growing up. I'm not talking about gorditas, now."
There was a general murmur of contented agreement around the table and I let them have it.
"Well, if anyone, as a lawyer you should know. It's called tort reform."
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