BORDER RULES OF ENGAGEMENT: THROW ROCKS, WE'LL SHOOT YOU DEAD: DEFEND YOURSELF, WE'LL CHARGE YOU

By Juan Montoya
Consider this: In one case a man performing his duty enforcing the immigration enforcement laws of his country feels threatened by a rock thrower half a block away and shoots across the Rio Grande at him.
In another, just a few miles away from the border, a father feels threatened by an unmarked SUV and a suspected trespasser who sits in an unmarked SUV next to his property in the wee hours of dawn and orders his sons to shoot the intruder.
In the first case, the alleged rock thrower dies. In the other case, the suspected intruder survives, and only later does it turn out that he was a Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent on surveillance.
In the following days, a spokesperson for ICE defends the actions of the agent who loitered by  private property and alarmed the shooters, two brothers and their father.
Pedro Alvárez and his sons, Arnold Alvarez, 18 and another son,16, fired at ICE agent Kelton Harrison's vehicle and chased the agent as he sped away. Prosecutors say Harrison had been watching for an anticipated drug deal. His condition is improving. Alvarez and his sons are facing serious criminal charges, including attempted capital murder, after they shot at Harrison and another agent who was parked outside their home in Hargill, along the Texas border.
Relatives of the family shot because they were afraid someone was going to break in their home.
Amparo Ramírez, the family's mother, told a San Antonio newspaper that no attempt was made to notify home owners of surveillance activity.
"They thought it was somebody breaking in," Ramírez said. "The ICE didn't identify itself. The kids explained what they did."
In the case of the Border Patrol agent who shot at the Mexican national across an international border because he felt threatened is defended as justified, and cite one case in Hidalgo county where an agent was injured by a rock thrown by someone across the river. Now the say that there was yet another man who was seen pointing a gun at the agents, not the rock thrower who was shot to death. That man has neither been identified nor found.
The question then becomes: If the agent is justified in shooting at someone throwing rocks from another country across the river because he feared for his life, aren't the actions of the sons defending their property from an identified armed stranger justifiable as well?
Of course, perhaps the ICE honchos knew that the rock thrower had been a first draft pick for the Houston Astros pitching staff and could throw a rock on a straight line more than half a block away with unerring aim we wouldn't be so picky. But if they did and didn't tell us, then we've been kept in the dark.
The trigger happy nature of federal employees and members of the military carrying weapons on the border with nebulous rules of engagement has resulted in several confrontations that have resulted in death. The first well-known incident was the one involving an 18-year-old Hispanic goatherd who stumbled across a squad of armed camouflaged Marines who though he was shooting at them and shot him dead in 1997 near Redford, Texas.
In that case, the Pentagon decided that the soldiers were acting in self-defense and feared for their lives when they shot the teen.
Yet another involved the recent shooting of a rock-thrower in El Paso in 2010. In that case, a Border Patrol agent shot and killed a 15-year-old Mexican boy across the Rio Grande. Investigators said the agent fired after being attacked by people throwing rocks.
Last summer, Border Patrol agents seizing 4,000 pounds of marijuana in March near Roma got into a shootout with drug smugglers. In that incident, it also was not known whether anyone on the Mexican side had been hit. Authorities said Border Patrol agents and Rangers with the Texas Department of Public Safety exchanged about 300 rounds of gunfire with suspected drug smugglers. Officials said the suspects threw rocks at U.S. lawmen in that incident, too.
With the border crawling with armed lawmen and the military and the violence spilling over across the border, it'll only be a matter of time before these type on incidents become commonplace. If someone feels threatened in the Wild West atmosphere created by the militarization of the border so many groups have advocated, what else can we expect?

MANDO SPRING BREAKS IN ISRAEL; WAS TRIP KOSHER?

By Juan Montoya
Now we have learned that last year, The American Israel Education Foundation, based in Washington, took Cameron County District Attorney Armando Villalobos on a jaunt to the Holy Land as part of its efforts to influence congressional members and those it considers to be shoo-ins for a congressional seat.
The AIEF is a charitable organization affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a pro-Israel lobby.
At the time that it invited Villalobos and his wife to the all-expenses paid trip, he was widely considered the leading contender for the Democratic nomination for the newly-created Congressional District 34.
Mando never shared any of his vacation trip with anyone locally, but if practice holds true, he probably wore a yarmulke when he entered some of the Jewish holy places. He probably also ate matzos or bagels and cream. Whether he hung out with the Hasidim or visited a kibbutz may never be known. Nonetheless, we're sure he tasted some of the Israeli dishes and looked over the occupied real estate as part of the Hispanic contingent that was hand-picked by the AIEF as part of its effor to influence the political outlook of current and potential congressional members.
And if visiting the places where Jesus walked wasn't being in the majors, his acceptance of tickets to the World Series to the Texas Rangers sure was.
We wonder if when he and the wife looked over the the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the Christian Quarter of the Old City he ever thought that one day he would also be the target of a crucifixion back home, albeit a legal and political one.

YES, SILVIA IS OUT AT HUMAN RESOURCES; RACHEL AYALA TO RUN FOR BISD BOARD

By Juan Montoya
In answer to a commenter on a previous post, yes, we have confirmed that Sylvia Atkinson is out as Assistant Superintendent Human Resources for the Brownsville Independent School District Human Resources director and has now been made the Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction, the position filled before by Mary Jo Monfils.

There has been no formal announcement by Superintendent Carl Montoya (no relation to the writer), but we have confirmed the change through our sources. We don't know whether Monfils is taking over another post or whether she has opted for the golden parachute.

However, while Atkinson was said to have dominated the HR position and ultimately decided who would end up feasting where in the $500 million Gravy Train, now her new role as Curriculum and Instruction means that not only will she yield considerable power over what gets taught where, but principals at the elementary, middle and high schools can look forward to having her look over their shoulders.

Atkinson yields considerable political muscle with the BISD board as well. When rumors surrounding the employment by BISD of her brother – deposed Brownsville City Commissioner Charlie Atkinson – as a coach at the district, board members denied that such a move was in the works. Only later, when Charlie emerged from the shadows as an assistant coach at Faulk Middle School on a program that allowed someone to be hired on a probationary certificate pending his certification, did the BISD administration acknowledge that he was on board.

The perfunctory lawsuit from at least one certified coach who was not hired followed. How many more are in the wings in Sylvia's wake?

Meanwhile, we hear that Rachel Ayala, who retired in 2011 after 45 years in the district as area assistant superintendent for Educational Services, was said to have picked up a candidate's election package. She is said to be considering a run for the board against Catalina Presas-Garcia, former chairperson of the board and now head of the budget committee.

Ayala left the district after working there as a teacher, elementary and middle school principal and assistant superintendent. Ayala, the longtime area assistant superintendent for the Porter cluster of schools, left after she was last reassigned to head the district’s programs for students with dyslexia.

Now, as she is apparently getting ready to run against Presas-Garcia, people wonder whether someone

who has spent the last 45 years and hasn't raised her a finger to change the way in which the system was operating (compadrismo, favoritism, nepotism) can convince the voters she can lead the district in the new direction the board majority and voters have chosen.

FINALLY, THE NWS AND FREEDOM NEWSPAPERS LISTEN TO EL RRUN-RRUN

"The Brownsville office of the National Weather Service will soon begin transmitting emergency alerts in Spanish to provide many Rio Grande Valley households the early warnings necessary to save lives."

JARED JANES/The Monitor

By Juan Montoya
Are barrio-friendly hurricane warnings needed?
Back in 2008, a friend sent me a Email from Houston that made fun of U.S. Rep. Shirley Jackson Lee’s complaint of the National Hurricane Center’s traditional practice of naming tropical storms and hurricanes with Anglo Saxon names and ignoring names from other ethnic backgrounds.

We suggested something of the sort that the National Weather Service is putting into effect this year as the hurricane season approached in June of 2010, but apprently it took a while for the thought to register with the federal bureaucracy.
Now, I don’t know whether Rep. Jackson Lee's criticism will be taken to heart by the folks at the storm center, but it would be an interesting change of pace to hear the weather forecasters talk about Hurricane Shaquille, DeJuan, or Takeisha.
It would be just as refreshing to hear them warn us of the projected path of Hurricane Panfilo, Lupita, or Juanito.
The missive my friend sent me went on to list other criticisms that Rep. Jackson Lee made concerning the wording of the hurricane warnings. She stated that perhaps the conservative (and bland) language that was used in the broadcasts did not convey the seriousness of the situation surrounding these massive storms.
Apparently, she is of the opinion that the current warnings do not convey the sense of urgency, or perhaps, passion, that would make the average black listener or viewer take the precautions they need to keep themselves and their families safe.
Mulling over this, I applied the same logic to Hispanic listeners and wondered how we might be able to make the hurricane warnings more, how shall I say, barrio friendly.
For starters, we would have to use some Spanish, Tex-Mex, or even some slang in the messages to get the message to reach a majority of the people. There are already plenty of sayings (dichos) associated with the weather in South Texas.
These “dichos” are a rich source of folk wisdom that convey a serious message to the listener. For example, “Cuando viene tempestad del sureste, suelta las bestias y vete,” means that when a storm approaches from the southeast, let the livestock loose, and make tracks.
And many rural South Texans are acquainted with sudden swarms of ants that come out just before a bad storm. Likewise, when one saw spiders or other insects climbing the trees, it was a sign that a storm was brewing. Realizing that we have rich and creative diversity of expression in South Texas, we might have to warn our listeners that bad storms are on the way in a way that they would understand.
The average Southmost adult could understand something like, “Hay viene la agua. Paña a grannma y los guercos, agarra tus tiliches y patitas pa que son.” A rough translation of this would be something like “A bad storm’s coming. Gather up granny and the kids, a few things, and feets don’t fail me now.”
Or, if you happen to be addressing the younger, hipper, crowd, one could go with, “Hey, homey, hay viene un storm bien bule. Apaña un ropin y la Baby Doll, y ponle en la carrucha, Bro.”
Since recent federal policies by the Department of Homeland Security have singled out the border area for a crackdown on illegal immigration, that adds an extra wrinkle to the mix here. Past stories in the local daily indicates that some community activist groups have sued to have the Border Patrol disclose the extent of their immigration checks if an evacuation would be ordered.
We all know that South Texas is a corridor through which illegal migration occurs. And most of us know someone who has relatives here without proper documentations. Since these people would also be included in the evacuations, perhaps our warning should also be aimed at informing them of the potential for arrest and deportation if they get stopped by the Border Patrol.
Perhaps a message such as this may be broadcast to warn this segment of the population: “Gov. Perry has ordered the evacuation of Brownsville and urges all residents to use the evacuation routes leading north and west of the Rio Grande Valley. People unable to produce at least two forms of acceptable identification should be aware that they face possible arrest, deportation, and separation from their children if they are U.S. citizens. If this is the case, please make arrangements for the care of your children should you be arrested as you try to evacuate the area.”
You can see how providing this information to potential evacuees is of critical importance. For example, if you are transporting someone who cannot prove he or she is a citizen, this subjects the owner of the vehicle to forfeiture and arrest for harboring an illegal entrant. Suddenly, amidst the mass evacuation from South Texas, your kids will be left without transportation and on their own.
Is it any wonder that in case a major storm were to hit the area, a large number of people would chose to weather the storm rather than be arrested and have their car confiscated because they were carrying la tia who doesn’t have any papers?

Aa barrio-friendly warning could go something like this: “El gobernador Perry dice que hay viene un chubasco muy feo, gente. Dice que salgan de sus casas y se suban al mueble y se vayan para Laredo, San Antonio, o a otros pueblos lejos de la costa. Pero aguas la migra porque si no tienes papeles te van a pescar y deportar. Y si llevas a alguien en tu carro que no tenga papeles de repente te lo quitan, te suben al Suburban y te arrestan.” Our homeboy message might sound something like this: “El Gov. Perry dice que hay viene un chubasco con mad--. Quiere el bato que le pongan pa’ San Anto, Laredo, o pa’ otras cities lejos de l’agua. Pero wachate con la migra porque van a andar bien perros pidiendo papers, Bro. Si eres mojarra te van a pescar y tirar pa’ l’otro lado. Y si llevas un homey sin papiruchos de repente te quitan la ranfla y te meten al taris a ti tambien por llevarlo. Aguas porque se te cai el canton.”There is also, believe it or not, a public health consideration to this message as well. Taking into account that high blood pressure and diabetes plagues the health of Hispanics in higher proportions than other groups, Perry’s message might include advice to take along their medication.

The accompanying Spanish message might include an addendum such as: “Y no se les olviden las pildoras pa’ la presión y pa’ la azucar.”

There is a sense of urgency about this now since are well underway into the hurricane season. Will our elected officials and disaster-preparedness administrators get the message and incorporate some of the ideas that Rep. Jackson is advocating to warn blacks and other minorities to the gravity of the situation?

If not, then we’re sure some local residents might not heed the warnings of our emergency preparedness because they’re not “barrio friendly.” There is yet another dicho that might come into play here. That is the one that says: “Todavia ves que viene la tormenta y no te hincas y te arrepientes.” (Even after you see the approaching tempest, you still don’t kneel and repent).

AND THEY BELITTLED BEGUM FOR HAVING AN ACCENT?

By Juan Montoya

Despite the fact that Erin Hernandez Garcia and her camp of followers backed off the xenophobic criticisms of her opponent Yolanda Begum for having a Spanish accent (who doesn't?) their mantra of belittling her for the fact that she doesn't have a law degree continues.
Regardless of the fact that it has been pointed out elsewhere that out of 9 Justice of the Peace positions in the county eight are filled by non-lawyers, this, apparently, is the slim hook that Erin and her daddy Cameron County Pct. 2 Commissioner Ernie Hernandez are counting on to help her overcome her 500-vote deficit in the July 31 runoff election against businesswoman and community activist Begum.

However, as the countoff to the election approaches (early voting starts July 23), we have taken a closer look (and  listen) to the Erin Hernandez pitch and were appalled at her total lack of skills and langugae presentation when she tries to speak in Spanish to potential voters.

Erin starts off endearing herself to the listeners talking about her native roots, her eight-year marriage, her attending law school, etc., and promises them that she will "bounce around in English and Spanish" in her presentation.

Well, bounce around she does, albeit embrarassing herself before her listeners and thoroughly mangling her articles and nouns in the process. It makes one wonder whether she ever took Spanish classes in school or has ever lived among local speakers.

As she gears up the rhetoric about where we are headed as a community and a state and needing to raise the bar, she says "we need to elect people to positions that they are qualified for."

She is, of course, referring to her law degree and her claim that it takes a lawyer to fill the position because, "anyway you look at it a Justice of the Peace court is a courtroom and it is s problem. It is a place where people come...al corte, cuando tienen...una problema legal."

"No es necesario ser abogado pare esa posicion porque el estado no lo necesita," she struggles on. "El razon es que..."

A charitable translation of what Erin is apparently trying to say is that she while she considers her opponent unqualified for JP, she acknowledges that the State of Texas does not require candidates or JPs to possess a law degree. But she lays out her rationale in terms of if your car breaks down you take it to a mechanic, if your child gets sick to seek a pediatrist, if your pet is ill you take it to a vet, etc."

Actually, a longtime Houston JP disagrees with Erin and her supporters. Quoted in a local blog, she said that:

"Being a lawyer actually is a hindrance. It creates a conflict of interest. Let's say a woman comes into your court as a victim of domestic abuse. You might say privately, as a lawyer, 'I can help you.' But as a JP we're not allowed to give legal advice. We offer rulings, settle disputes, but we don't give legal advice. Maybe fatherly or motherly advice, from our life experience, but not legal advice. About the only place being a lawyer might help would be in evicting people from their homes, but those rules are not difficult to learn."

That message would probably be lost on the Hernandez crowd, but what was not lost on the Spanish listeners who heard Erin make her pitch in their predominant language were phrases like: "Si la persona presentan a su causo....solucionar la problema...el posicion...los calificaciones..., ad nauseum..." 

We had mentioned before that out of nine JPs in the county, eight are non-lawyers. Bennie Ochoa, Linda Salazar, Julian Sanchez, David Garza, Manuel Flores, Sally Gonzalez, Juan Mendoza, and Adam Gonzalez – all sitting JPs – are not lawyers. And, unlike Erin, they all speak intelligible Spanish to serve their predominantly Spanish-speaking populations.

Would Erin and her supporters tell them that they are not qualified and that voters need to "raise the bar" and be replaced with lawyers?

On the other hand, former 404th District Court Judge Abel Limas (convicted), Jim Solis (convicted), Ray Marchan (convicted), Joe Valle (convicted) DA Armando Villalobos (indicted), Mark Rosenthal (indicted), are lawyers.

This is not even taking into consideration all those lawyers who were implicated with Limas in his corruption case (State Rep. Rene Oliveira, Charles Willette, Michael Young, Joe De la Fuente, former Brownsville Mayor Eddie Treviño, etc.).

So does simply having a law degree insure us that they raised the bar to the heights that Erin and her supporters would have the voters of JP 2-2 district do?

ORIGIN OF TEXAS HISPANICS MORE COMPLEX THAN SOME THINK

By Richard G. Santos
Zavala County Sentinel
richardgsantos@yahoo.com

Historically, political refugees and exiles are forced or voluntarily leave their homeland as a result of a revolution, or overthrow of the government with which they were associated.
Such was the case with numerous individuals and families of northeast Mexico with the fall and execution of Mexican Emperor Maximilian (1867), execution of Nuevo Leon-Tamaulipas and Coahuila Governor Santiago Vidaurri (1867), death of Benito Juarez (1872) and rise of Porfirio Diaz (1876).

Always thinking they would return to Mexico, the refugees and exiles settled in the townships, ranchos and farms along the Rio Grande with few venturing no more than fifty miles from the Texas-Mexican border. Their presence can be dated by the number of Mexican Masonic Lodges, Mutualista organizations and membership in socio-civic organizations including the Woodmen of the World chapters.
The building of rail lines from San Antonio and Corpus Christi to the Texas–Mexico border communities (1881-1883) energized the geographic area between the San Antonio River and Rio Grande as land owners now used the railways to move their horses, cattle, sheep, goats and agricultural products from the Winter Garden and South Texas to markets beyond San Antonio and Corpus Christi. Railroad work camps became loading sites which in turn became townships.

At the same time, older townships and communities skipped by the railroad became ghost towns. Lack of a labor force drove the land owners to recruit individuals and families from the Texas-Mexican border area and settle them in housing on the ranchos and farms where they were employed.

Few Mexican border laborers were settled at the railway loading townships but always in the segregated “across the tracks” or “across the main road/street” barrios. In time they established their own churches, civic, religious and social organizations, schools, “mom and pop stores”, bakeries, fruit stands and entertainment establishments (namely cantinas and dance halls).

Senior citizen “anglos” and “Mexican Texans” have told this writer how “in the old days grandpa would hitch the wagon and take all children at the ranch or farm to school. The “anglo” kids were the first to be taken to their school and then the others to the Mexican or Black schools across the tracks.

The same order was kept in picking up the kids after school. First the “anglo” kids, then the Mexican kids and finally the Black kids, if any. Although segregated at school, churches, cemeteries, movie theatres and such, at the ranch or farm all kids played together and got along fine.”
The Mexican Revolution of 1910 through 1929 saw an exodus of political refugees, exiles; anti-war people and members of defeated factions mass migrate to Texas and the United States.
The rebels in exile (Madero, Flores Magon, Reyes etc) who had been in Texas since 1904, were replaced by the followers of Porfirio Diaz when he abdicated in 1911 and thereafter by the followers or politically-militarily active members of the various governments between 1911 and 1929 including the devote Catholics forced to leave during the 1926 – 1929 Cristero Uprising.
The college educated, wealthy professionals gravitated to San Antonio and beyond away from the violence along the border. Many veterans, conscripts and Mexican labor class settled in the smaller communities in the Winter Garden area and South Texas.

A great number became migrant farm workers and more so during both World War I and World War II. The Corrido de Kansas of the 1920’s states “ya me voy pa’ pensilvania por no piscar algodon (I am going to Pennsylvania in order not to pick cotton). The ballad then related the trip by train, what they saw between “Forowes” (Fort Worth) and how they were greeted when they arrived at their destination. Many individuals and families stayed in the Midwestern states and communities where they can still be found today.
Far out numbering the Spanish Colonial Tejanos, it was and has been the Mexican families of the Revolution of 1910 that gave cohesiveness to the Hispanic Mexican American population of the United States and Texas.

They introduced the mariachi, quinceanera, Cinco de Mayo, Diezyseis de Septiembre, pinata, Our Lady of Guadalupe and initiated in 1911 the effort to establish English-Spanish Bilingual Education and the “Mexican culture” in the Texas public schools (Congreso Mexicanista; Laredo, Texas).

While waiting, they established the escuelitas (neighborhood school) also known as “the school of 400” (where pre-school and elementary aged children were taught the most basic 400 words of English they needed when attending school). Hundreds of photographs can still be found of the students of las escuelitas as well as socio-civic-religious organizations performing Christmas programs or celebrating the Fourth of July as well as Cinco de Mayo and the Diezyseis.
Today it is the grandchildren and great grandchildren of the refugees and exiles of the Mexican Revolution of 1910 that make up the vast majority of the Mexican Americans, Mexican Tejanos, Hispanics and Chicanos. They far outnumber the Spanish Colonial Tejanos.
Both groups, however, are fully fledged U.S. citizens, U.. S. English dominant, and most have never travel into Mexico beyond the border area. They are not to be confused with the individuals and families who have migrated to the U.S. since the Korean War and more so within the last twenty years.

In closing it should be stressed that as a rule in South Texas the term “Latino” is primarily used by Tejanos and Mexican Americans for Hispanics with a country of origin other than Mexico.

As stated at the beginning of this series, once you understand the diversity and complexity of the ethnic group you begin to realize why we cannot agree on what to call the group and that there is not one thing all have in common. Members of the group come in all shapes, sizes and color of skin, eyes, hair type and anything else you may wish to cite. Incidentally, it is not true that all Spaniards are light skinned, have blue eyes and all Spanish women have a mustache and are as wide as they are tall.

IS FORMER VFW LEADERSHIP CADRE PLANNING A COUP?

By Juan Montoya
As some Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 2035 members tell it, when former commander Luis Lucio and his compadres resigned from their posts, the Texas State Comptroller had filed a report on the organization and discovered that there were taxes due on income that hadn't been reported.
There was also the little matter of "salaries" paid to Lucio and some of his inner circle as payments that hadn't been reported to the IRS as income that is now being demanded by the tax collectors.
And, finally, as the organization struggle to straighten out its payments on the $300,000-plus loan used to build the new post on Veterans Drive, it had to refinance the note because the only payments that were being made were on the interest and penalties and not on the principal.

As a new leadership was elected and took over – under Commander Juan Hurtado III – it must now face rumors of a possible coup by those allied with the former leadership said to be planning a takeover from their new hangouts. Reports indicate that the semi-official headquarters are the Southwinds Lounge and the Boss Club.

One attempt had been staged at a prior meeting by was foiled because the move to oust the new group was not placed on the agenda, as required by the VFW bylaws.

Ostensibly, the changes that broke the camel's back were made at the post and included the prohibition of consumption of BYOB liquor brought in from the outside. After, the changes took place, the usual hangers on who patronized the club went looking for other locales where their plastic containers were allowed. The new VFW leadership said that the insurance required for BYOB was not cost-effective since the liquor drinkers did not consume much other than a few bottles of water and ice for their drinks.
Then, on the VFW website and on Facebook postings, the reason the VFW stopped allowing outside alcohol to be brought in is explained.
"Patrons:A note on the liquor liability. Most mainstream insurers would not insure the VFW Post 2035 due to our high risk BYOB (Bring Your Own Bottle/Liquor) policy," it stated. "The risk of liability from patrons dispensing their own... liquor is simply too high to cover and the direct contribution to sales has been small, with many hard liquor drinkers buying only one setup for $2.00 to last hours or even asking for tap water or using ice for their liquor, meanwhile using our electricity, VFW Post 2035 manpower, supplies, space and miscellaneous."
Some members say that the state and national VFW leadership is well aware of the situation facing the Brownsville post and is encouraging the members to move forward. They say that efforts to verify the membership of some veterans should be put aside and continue to serve the veterans on the existing list.
 No one knows what other hurdles are in store for the new VFW leaders, but according to VFW members, the fact that Lucio resigned automatically makes his return as commander impossible under the organization's bylaws.
"It's viewed as if a ship captain left his post," said one. "The rules prohibit his return."
Meanwhile, the veterans are calling on the community for support as the new leadership attempts to set the organization on a sound financial course, a somewhat difficult undertaking in lean economic times.
"We have volunteers coming in and cutting the grass and helping out," said a VFW member. "There is a small core of dedicated, loyal VFW members who are pitching in and helping out. We'll pull though this."

DOES ANYONE SEE THE $25 MILLION GORILLA IN THE ROOM?

By Juan Montoya
The spin control media coverage of the press conference in Brownsville mayor Tony Martinez was by all measures, a phenomenal success.
Martinez and his son "Trey" (The third Benigno) hosted a press conference for local broadcasters and later,
provided interviews for the media by the parents of Zetas-slain ICE agent Jaime Zapata from their law offices.

There was talk about filing the lawsuit against the federal government for the sake of "closure," to "prevent the same thing happening to the children of other parents," etc.

The pliant media reps never mentioned in the broadcast (or the newspaper accounts) that Zapata's family and the family of the other agent injured by a group of Zetas who stopped their bullet-proof car on the Mexico City-San Luis Potosi highway wanted $12.5 million apiece for the loss of their son and in the case of his partner Victor Avila, for the injuries he sustained in the attack. Both families filed a $25 million wrongful death claim against the U.S. government.

Zapata's family says officials with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) knew that the men who bought the guns used in Zapata's murder were buying weapons bound for Mexico, but did nothing to stop them.
Zapata, of Brownsville, was serving as U.S. adviser in Mexico when he and Agent Victor Avila were gunned down on a highway in Mexico. Avila survived and has joined the case.
Now, $25 million ain't nothing to sneeze at, but that small  fact apparently did not seem to be of that much importance to the media types, who perhaps, as Brownsville Mayor Tony Martinez whose son Trey is representing the Zapatas said: "It's not the money that's important, here."
Back in May of 2011 we published a post outlining the list of the 17 questions that the Zapata family had for the federal government regarding the rules agents must follow when working in Mexico. Way back then we realized that it was easy to see that a lawsuit was in the offing.
Now that it has come to pass it merges neatly with the congressional probe into the Fast and Furious program that the Dept. of Justice through the ATF implemented to attempt to trace te flow of arms to the drug cartels in Mexico.
Already, the congressional committee has held US Attorney Eric Holder in contempt for refusing to provide them with thousands of documents related to the implementation of the program. At least one of the weapons that were used in the attack was said to have been acquired by the gunmen in the Zapata attack.
In fact, a report submitted by the slain ICE agent indicated that of 80 weapons seized in a similar program in Texas, some 55 were "walked" into Mexico under the eyes of the ATF.

Also, one of the weapons that was obtained via a straw purchase in the U.S. and carried across the Mexican border has been identified. This one is “connected to the murder of Immigration and Customs Zapata,” which took place in February 2011, sources told the US Open Borders blog.

And Armed American Radio reported that Zapata was investigating Fast and Furious weapons—despite Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano’s sworn testimony that there was no connection.
There are also some politics involved in the local case. The Martinez (both dad and son) were heavy contributors to the Obama campaign and there was some talk of the mayor receiving some sort of appointment (an ambassadorship?) as a reward for his support. Now that he has sued the Obama administration, will that sour the deal? Or will his cut on the $25 million make the the denial of an appointment bearable?

DOMINGUEZ ENDORSES BEGUM IN JP 2-2 RUNOFF

Teacher. Attorney. Family Man. Alex Dominguez has made his mark in helping the community around him in Cameron County. After attending Rice University and teaching students in Texas, Alejandro “Alex” Dominguez gained a legal education at the prestigious Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University, and made his home in our beloved Cameron County.
He has run for office, he has helped the poor, he has fought for the rights of those who need a voice in a sea of turmoil. Alex Dominguez shares the views, concepts, and passions of working for the betterment of the public good which Yolanda Begum believes in. For this reason, and so many more, he endorses Yolanda Begum for Cameron County Justice of the Peace Precinct 2, Place 2.
Like Yolanda Begum, Alex understands that representing the needs of the public begins with a belief that selfless service is the foundation for the role of the public servant. Alex has always shown a commitment to the betterment of the citizenry of Cameron County, and as such is enthusiastic to endorse the candidacy of Yolanda Begum for Cameron County Justice of the Peace 2-2.

THE STORY OF THE FORT BROWN MURAL

SMOKING LOOKING NOT KOOL IN BROWNSVILLE

Unless they're lighting up at home, Brownsville smokers may soon have to walk a mile to find a place where they can smoke a cigarette in peace; the Brownsville City Commission today passed the first reading of the Smoke Ban. The City Commissioners will be voting on the Ordinance during their next meeting on July 17th, 2012 and if Ordinance 2012-1556 passes, then the Smoke Ban would be taken into effect 60 days after their vote. Among the public places where smoking will not be allowed:

 Sec. 54-173. Prohibition of Smoking in Enclosed Public Places Smoking shall be prohibited in all enclosed public places within the City of Brownsville, including but not limited to, the following places: [for full list click here]

A. Aquariums, galleries, libraries, and museums.
B. Areas available to and customarily used by the general public in businesses and non-profit
entities patronized by the public, including but not limited to, banks, laundromats, professional offices, and retail service establishments.
C. Bars.
D. Bingo facilities.
E. Child care and adult day care facilities.
F. Convention facilities.
G. Educational facilities, both public and private.

H. Elevators.
I. Gaming facilities.
J. Health care facilities.
K. Hotels and motels.
L. Lobbies, hallways, and other common areas in apartment buildings, condominiums, trailer
parks, retirement facilities, nursing homes, and other multiple-unit residential facilities.
M. Polling places.
N. Private clubs when being used for a function to which the general public is invited.
O. Public transportation vehicles, including buses and taxicabs, under the authority of the City of
Brownsville, and ticket, boarding, and waiting areas of public transportation facilities, including
bus, train, and airport facilities.
P. Restaurants.
Q. Restrooms, lobbies, reception areas, hallways, and other common-use areas.
R. Retail stores.
S. Rooms, chambers, places of meeting or public assembly, including school buildings, under the
control of an agency, board, commission, committee or council of the City of Brownsville or a
political subdivision of the State, to the extent the place is subject to the jurisdiction of the City
of Brownsville.
T. Service lines.
U. Shopping malls.
V. Sports arenas, including enclosed places in outdoor arenas.
W. Theaters and other facilities primarily used for exhibiting motion pictures, stage dramas,
lectures, musical recitals, or other similar performances.
X. Municipal City Buildings

FOURTH OF JULY IS THE TIME TO REASSESS THE PROMISE

American Tune
Lyrics by Paul Simon
Music by JS Bach

Many's the time I've been mistaken, and many times confused
And I've often felt forsaken, and certainly misused.
But it's all right, it's all right, I'm just weary to my bones
Still, you don't expect to be bright and Bon Vivant
So far away from home, so far away from home.

By Juan Montoya
The American Republic and its inhabitants have seen turmoil from its very inception. When the Pilgrim colonists landed on Plymouth Rock and left the Mayflower, they were a sect of religious believers that were not content (and not very well liked) in their native England.

Dissatisfied with their situation, they sailed off to the new English colony that would eventually become the United States. Interestingly, the sect also had its disillusioned members who splintered off and formed new states away from the core colony because they complained of...religious intolerance.

The lot of the Native American under these new settlers was not a good one. The natives were not immune to the Old World diseases, and those who didn't succumb to the pestilences of small pox and other contagious illnesses were driven from their lands or simply slaughtered to drive them away from the Christian settlements. A sort of low-level intensity war raged for years.
The goodwill extended the new comers by the naive natives at the first Thanksgiving that helped them survive in the Brave New world was badly repaid with a strange sort of return.

It would result, eventually, in the natives being decimated, dispossessed of their ancestral homelands and relegated to a system of dependence on their conquerors. What if the natives had had an immigration service to filter out the newcomers?

I don't know a soul who's not been battered
Don't have a friend who feels at ease
Don't know a dream that's not been shattered
Or driven to it's knees. 
But it's all right, all right, We've lived so well so long
Still, when I think of the road we're traveling on,
I wonder what went wrong, I can't help it
I wonder what went wrong.

By 1776, the 13 colonies had acquired their independence from Mother England and set about to establish a country rooted in the ideals embodied in the U.S. Constitution that still hold the nation together. It was the promise of freedom and equal justice for all.
The United States spread west and incorporated into it the masses of Europe, the tired, the hungry, the poor, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free. The young country soon contracted the dreaded European disease known as imperialism and spread its wings – as newspaper editor John O'Sullivan , the sloganeer, phrased it – to accomplish its "manifest destiny."
By 1848, having invaded and defeated the newly-independent and division-torn Mexican state and acquired more than half of its territory, it set about to settle and grab the great stretches of land west of the Mississippi and beyond the Continental Divide. Hungry European and Irish refugees looked across the ocean to a new beginning, for them, the American Dream.
They came by the millions, often to face a backlash by those who were already here. Even the Irish often found that in the lowest jobs, the statement "Irish Need Not Apply" was posted below the advertisement for workers.
And still, the nagging and lingering "peculiar institution" that relegated the black slave and his descendants to a life of servitude and second-class citizenship (remember the three-fifths Compromise?) continued to hang around the nation's conscience like an albatross. It would only be a matter of time before the festering sore would explode "like a raisin in the sun" and the matter was brought to the fore and faced squarely in a bloody Civil War between brothers.
It had to reconcile its comportment with its stated ideals, or, as one of the descendants of slaves, Barbara Jordan, so simply and eloquently stated: "What the people want is very simple – they want an America as good as its promise."

And I dreamed I was flying. I dreamed my soul rose

unexpectedly, and looking back down on me, smiled

reassuringly, and I dreamed I was dying.

And far above, my eyes could clearly see

The Statue of Liberty, drifting away to sea

And I dreamed I was flying.

Lately, it seems the Good Ship America doesn't want some of us anymore. In contrast to the laws of the past that actually sought out agreements with nations like China, Mexico and others to fill jobs no one – not even the descendants of the Irish – would take, it now seeks out those who appear different and targets them for banishment from the realm. During wars and times when labor was needed, the trains and transports would stream to the border to load up with laborers only too glad to find any kind of work to feed their families back in their homelands. Chinese workers built – and died building – the railroads in the West. The Germans made the Plains fertile. The Irish provided the raw muscle for huge public projects in the East.

People like Albert Einstein, a Jewish scientist refugee fleeing the Nazi nightmare, helped us win the war. Countless other human beings cast out by want or the authoritarian regimes of their homelands migrated here and contributed their grain of sand.
Mexicans bent their backs to make the deserts green and gathered the minerals from the depths of dank, dark mines.  

An now, the 911 tragedy combined with the world economic downturn has antagonized us against each other.

Fences were built.

Deportations have began again.

And so we find ourselves like that first load of Pilgrims who unloaded their meager belongings at Plymouth agonizing over what kind of nation we want to be, what kind of people we want to become, what kind of future we want for our children. Will we forget the promise that was made back when?

Or can we soar higher?

We come on a ship we call the Mayflower,

We come on a ship that sailed the moon

We come at the age's most uncertain hour

And sing the American tune

But it's all right, it's all right

You can't be forever blessed

Still, tomorrow's gonna be another working day

And I'm trying to get some rest,

That's all, I'm trying to get some rest

BROWNSVILLE OFTEN AT CROSSROADS OF WORLD HISTORY

By Juan Montoya
BROWNSVILLE – Throughout history, it is often surprising to see how often this border city shows up in narratives of different times.

There is, for example, the story of the capture in 1917, of German couriers arrested a few miles upriver from the Gateway International Bridge carrying copies of the infamous “Zimmerman Telegram” where Germany was inducing Mexico to join it against the United States in WWI in return for the territory it lost in the southwest.

There are now some historians who say the telegram was a clever British forgery to draw the United States into the war on its side, and that debate continues.

More recently, in 1976, the death certificate of billionaire recluse Howard Hughes places the airspace over Brownsville as the place of his death from kidney failure as his private jet flew across the border. Whether this was necessary to place the billionaire’s will well away from the hands Mexican authorities or whether he really died immediately upon entering U.S. airspace has become pretty much academic.

Charles Lindbergh’s presence here to promote international air mail is well known, as is the fiction that Dr. William Gorgas worked at what is now Texas Southmost College and found a cure to eradicate yellow fever that enabled workers later to continue the digging of the Panama Canal.

Brownsville also was known as a strategic point in the Civil war.

The Union navy had blockaded many southern ports, including Point Isabel. However, Puerto Bagdad and other Mexican ports served the confederacy to smuggle cotton and receive contraband from other nations, notably England.

The Sept. 22, 1862, Emancipation Proclamation by Lincoln that on Jan. 1, 1863, all the slaves in all the rebelling states would be free unleashed unexpected fallout across the world.

The motivation was clear. Lincoln had recently told an anti-slavery group in Washington that no other step “would be so potent to prevent foreign intervention.”

The Chicago Tribune agreed, describing the proclamation as “a practical war measure ... to be decided upon according to the advantages or disadvantages it may offer to the suppression of the rebellion.”

Most British observers did not believe that the proclamation was a moral or humanitarian measure. It was more an attempt to bring down King Cotton from within, with which Britain carried on a brisk trade running the Union blockade.

They feared that emancipation would incite a slave revolution that would grow into a race war.

The British government feared that a terrible slave revolution would ensue. This would upset the entire commercial relationship with the American States and, as a result, it would pull England into the conflict too. The British asked the chargé in Washington to make the point to Secretary of State William H. Seward that a race war would “only make other nations more desirous to see an end to this desolating and destructive conflict.”

Seward was infuriated with the British reaction. He said Union victory “does not satisfy our enemies abroad. Defeats in their eyes prove our national incapacity.”

Seward promised that British intervention would turn the conflict into “a war of the world.”

As the demand for manufactured goods from the Lancashire textile factories was high, the conditions and temperaments of the workers hit by the cotton famine were improving.

France was suffering from the reduced supply of cotton and Napoleon publicly condemned the war that had exhausted “one of the most fruitful of (French) industries.”

Meanwhile Union patience was running out with Britain since, despite her words, Britain's continuing dereliction of neutral responsibilities implied favor to the South. English vessels continued to compromise the blockade and confederate warships were being built in England.

Yet, the British government made no moves to condemn these actions on the part of her subjects. Neutral obligations with respect to the warships had been defined in the Foreign Enlistment Act of 1819. This stated that “No British subject ... could engage in equipping … any ship or vessel, with intent or in order that such ship or vessel shall be employed in the service of a belligerent.”

Things came to a head off the Texas coast when a vessel carrying goods to the Confederacy, The Peterhoff, en route to Puerto Bagdad, off Matamoros, was intercepted by the blockade off the coast of Brownsville.

(We used David Herbert Donald's "Lincoln", 1996, as a prime reference for this article. However, recently we have found divergent accounts of how the ship was seized in other sources such as Wikepedia. Unless Donald's account is discredited through other academic works, we will continue to use it as the most credible source.)
Although the British argued that the seizure was illegal as goods were bound for Mexico when on the ship, the incident resulted in a decision by Lloyd's of London to stop underwriting such trips.
The British protested this as a violation of international law, while U.S. Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles defended the navy, claiming the Peterhoff was carrying contraband intended for the Confederacy. The mails aboard the Peterhoff posed a specially touchy issue because they might prove the vessel was really a blockade runner.
Secretary of State Seward insisted that under international law, mails were inviolate, while Welles argued that they had been lawfully seized.
Although a minor affair in the context of the civil war, the incident had the potential for becoming an explosive issue and occupied the secretaries of state and the navy until the middle of 1863, when Lincoln decided to release the mails.
He reminded his secretaries “we are in no condition to plunge into a foreign war on a subject of so little importance in comparison with the terrible consequences which must follow our act.”
And so, with Lincoln proclaiming that the U.S. could not fight two wars at one time, the incident off the coast of Brownsville came within a hair's breadth of instigating a major international incident when the divided country could least afford it.

VERA'S PIT BARBACOA PUTS BROWNTOWN ON CUISINE MAP

From: Food and Wine Magazine
Best BBQ Cities

South Texas: Brownsville

July, 2012 Issue
South Texas barbecue takes its lead from Mexico, incorporating flavors and techniques from south of the border. The defining dish in this area is beef barbacoa, traditionally whole cow head wrapped in maguey leaves or foil and cooked overnight in an underground pit filled with hot coals. The fall-apart tender meat is then served in tortillas or simply on a plate, covered in cilantro, onions and salsa. Real pit cooking is rare these days due to Health Department regulations, but tiny, family-runVera’s is one of the few establishments whose pits were grandfathered in. There, customers find tender mesquite-smoked barbacoa by the pound, along with homemade salsa and tortillas, but plan ahead—Vera’s is only open on weekends.
Vera's Backyard Bar-B-Que is located at 2404 Southmost Road Brownsville, and their phone number is (956) 546-4159.

ENFORCE LITTER LAWS IN CAMERON COUNTY BEACHES, PARKS

By Rob Nixon

http://robnixon.blogspot.com
The Surfrider Foundation South Texas Chapter's "Cite Litter Violators In Cameron County Beach Parks Petitition" (SIGN AND COMMENT NOW) has definitely taken off and I can't tell you how stoked we are with the amount of signatures and comments that have been posted to the petition site.  At the time of me writing this, there are 621 signatures of our 2,500 signature goal and hundreds of comments to go along with them!  Our goal is to get to 1,000 by the July 5th, 2012 Cameron County Commissioners Court Meeting at 8:30AM where they will be discussing this important issue.  Judge Cascos has put it early on the agenda for convenience of those that want to be there!

Once again, the problem of actually issuing a litter citation is already being used as an excuse for not aggressively enforcing litter laws.  In a response to an email sent to Judge Carlos Cascos from a concerned citizen, Judge Cascos wrote, "We will do all that we can, but at the end of the day, the ultimate responsibility of keeping our beaches clean are the users. However, we should be aggressively monitoring glass on the beach.  We need to make sure that our law enforcement officials are enforcing the laws we have in place already, however, every single law enforcement officer I have spoken to have told me that unless they see someone actually discarding trash, they're hands are tied.  They cannot make assumptions or speculate as to whom the trash belongs to unless there is some kind of evidence tying the trash to that particular individual."

This mindset of the challenge of issuing litter citations is limited in the way enforcement can be achieved and is a wall that is constantly put up when this debate comes back up.  However, as I stated in the Letter to the Editor that was submitted last week, there are solutions to this and ways citations can be written after seeing violators leave trash behind.  Simply put; wait until the end of the day, between 5:30 and 7PM and watch as they leave and THEN issue the ticket after they have packed up and left their area for home.  It is literally a commitment of just an hour and a half instead of the entire day.  Furthermore, if it is a glass violation, that citation can be written on the spot.  It just takes actually having officers (Deputy Constables, Code Enforcement or even Park Rangers if need be) on the beach patrolling!

People often think of the trash issue as an environmental and public safety issue by itself and there is no doubt that it is but it goes much further than that and in to a much larger picture.  That picture is beach access and the public's right to access and use Texas Public Beaches.  Why in the world would decision makers or those that own businesses and homes on the beach want to have large groups of people out there that are going to continually disrespect and trash that beach making it dangerous for them, their families and their customers?  Beach litter on the scale that we are seeing in Cameron County is a huge weapon in the movement to continue to gut the Open Beaches Act and privatize Texas beaches.  The Rio Grande valley is quite literally shooting themselves in the foot by destroying the beaches that the Surfrider Foundation and Texas Constitution says they have every right to use and enjoy! My Parents and Grandparents taught me to respect what I love or someday I would lose it.  I know hundreds of others my age that were taught the same thing.  What happened with this lesson in Deep South Texas?  Has it been lost?  I wrote a post on this last year tying beach trash to the loss of our beach rights and I still believe it is a problem now.

At a time when the Texas Chapters of the Surfrider Foundation are organizing and getting ready to launch a major campaign to get the Open Beaches Act fully restored, the litter on our Cameron County Beaches is actually getting worse and providing literally piles of ammunition for our opponents to use against us!

The big picture is this.  If South Texans continue to destroy our beaches and create a public safety risk on the scale that we have never before seen, then the Open Beaches Act is dead in the water before the Surfrider Foundation can even get started helping them preserve their rights to access and use those beaches!  We educate the public and we clean up after them every day!  The County Parks and Recreation Department does the same thing.

What we need is a real aggressive and concerted effort by Constable Zamora and his Deputies to assist us and help change the attitudes, behavior and culture of some of our beach users now before it is too late!

Take action now!  Sign the petition, leave your comments and pass it on to your friends and families so we can present your support for litter law enforcement for cleaner and safer beaches to the Cameron County Commissioners Court on July 5th!

SIGN THE PETITION HERE!

CONTACT YOUR CAMERON COUNTY COMMISSIONER BELOW AND FIND OTHER WAYS TO PLUG IN HERE!

1. Judge Carlos Cascos- Carlos.Cascos@co.cameron.tx.us
2. Pct.1 Commissioner Sofia Benavides- sofia.benavides@co.cameron.tx.us
3. Pct.2 Commissioner Ernie Hernandez- ernie.hernandez@co.cameron.tx.us
4. Pct.3 Commissioner David Garza- DAGarza@co.cameron.tx.us
5. Pct.4 Commissioner David Sanchez- 956-427-8069 (No email available)
6. Pct.1 Constable Horacio Zamora- horacioa.zamora.co.cameron.tx.us
7. Parks and Recreation Director Javier Mendez- JMendez@co.cameron.tx.us
8. Parks and Recreation Deputy Director Joe Vega- JEVega@co.cameron.tx.us

PC GROUPS PRIORITIES OUT OF TOUCH WITH REALITY

By Juan Montoya
South Texas has traditionally endured some of the highest unemployment rates in the state, if not the country, high poverty rates, a dismal quality of life, backward infrastructure, and blatant political corruption.
In Brownsville, the city's streets rival those of Venice after a half-hour downpour, streets crumble, ditches overflow and resacas collect the assorted garbage and debris that once littered the roadways.
Dogs and other animals roam the streets and alleyways scavenging for food, numerous homeless panhandle on street corners, and some take over the bus stops to have a place to sleep. And some of those homeless are veterans or mentally ill people fighting their own demons.
In fact, actual bus shelters are much sought after because of their absence.
Most bus stops are merely a pole with a BUS sign on it and bus riders must endure South Texas 100+ degree temperatures waiting for the chronically late buses. Every do often, a public relations bliss is made by the folks at BUS announcing that five new bus shelters are being funded by some agency in the U.S. Dept. of Transportation. Compared to the need for them, these are but a drop in the bucket for what's needed. But the public relations blitz puts off the critics and gives the BUS bureaucrats breathing room until someone else points out the transportation department's shortcomings.
Locally, teenage pregnancies and sexual assaults against girls and boys are common. These result in trauma to the victims and in the case of girls, a lifetime of living off welfare and the end of their education.
Already, downtown is the haven of crackheads and prostitutes (male and female) hustling for a few dollars at a cost to their dignity and safety, not to mention the bad aspect it gives the heart of our city.
The answer to all our urban woes and course of action?
How about outlawing plastic bags, campaigning against cigarette butts, and battling the scourge of people throwing chewed up bubble gum on the city's streets?
Whaaaat?
Yes, for the past few months we have been made subject to the dangers of the chicle scofflaws who would have us walk on "unsightly" dark spots left when someone throws away their gum and it lands on a sidewalk. We wonder what the health hazards to the general public or morals are generated by these thoughtless walking-and-chewing-gum-at-the-same-time criminals except perhaps for the assault on out urban aesthetics.
Would the Double Bubble reformers have the chewers save their spent gum and stick it on the bottom of the nearest restaurant or bar table instead? How about chicle recycling stations strategically placed on downtown street corners? How about drafting an ordinance to this effect?
How about (and this is probably what is being envisioned in some dark spot somewhere) levying a fine for anyone suspected of thoughtlessly tossing a chewed piece on a public roadway? Yeah, that's the ticket.
Or, a local wet towel suggested something that is so simple in its elegance that it could not possibly be adopted by the do-gooders who would protect us from the thoughtless chewers. How about looking up when you walk on the sidewalk and ignore the harmless dark spots on the sidewalk?
Too simple? Probably.

MAKING MONEY OFF CANDIDATES HAS BECOME A SCIENCE

By Juan Montoya
Whether it's standing on street corners waving a candidates' signs, wearing their T-shirts or placing leaflets on car windshields in parking lots, those are some of the many ways that some people have earned a few extra dollars in local politics.
Then there are, of course, the weekly payment to politiqueras (from $150 to $250) to gather votes from the elderly and illiterate through the mail-in ballot or walking them to the polls during early voting or election day.
Besides the accepted work of local ad agencies and graphic artists who design the candidates appeal, there is also a darker side to the art of making politics pay.
We have heard of a certain local politician who pays people $5 for each sign of his opponent that they bring in and deliver to him. And what about those that travel the dark roads in the wee hours of the morning defacing and destroying political signs?
In the end, unless they have something specific against the candidate in that side of town (like Erin Hernandez Garcia's sign on Southmost at right), their motivation is all about money.
Why else would someone risk getting caught by the local gendarmes destroying someone's political signs?
Now we understand that there is a new twist to the art of money making in the political arena.
We have heard that a local political "activist" goes around collecting the metal sign posts of candidates who did not make the runoff (and we heard, those of some candidates of  whom his benefactor is against), and offering them for sale to those candidates still in the running for their use.
"The metal poles are about $7 at Lowes or Home Depot and he sells them for $2," said a purchaser recently. "That's a $5 reduction in price. Last time I saw him he had more than 150 posts for sale. That's $300 in his pocket for something he didn't pay a penny for. It's all profit."
Now, if the motivation is money, we're sure that this new entrepeneur isn't above pulling some posts from candidates who are still in the running. Several candidates have complained to police that their signs have been stolen and their sign posts have also been missing. Now we know why someone would collect metal poles of the political sings.
At least once candidate who has lost signs and posts is now spray painting the tops of the metal poles with florescent paint to make the heist a little more difficult.

BROWNTOWN MEDAL OF HONOR WINNER HOMEY JOSE LOPEZ MERITS RECOUNTING HIS STORY

By Juan Montoya

We ran into Texas Southmost College trustee Rene Torres this weekend and he said he had something of interest to us.
He had been as usual at his untitiring task of doing research for one of his historical sports pieces when he ran into a 1945 edition of the Brownsville Herald advertising the Brownsville War Bond Drive and a big party at the Missouri Pacific Park in 1945.
The featured guest of honor was none other than La 421's Sgt. Jose M. Lopez, the Congressional Medal of Honor winner who in one day killed more German soldiers than Texan Audie Murphy when he won his.
Some commenters on this blog say they are tired of hearing about Mexican-American war heroes (like Luz Saenz, who wrote his WWI wartime diary). Sorry, but we're not. In this day and age when Hispanics are considered the new foreigners, recounting their courageous deeds reminds us that their sacrifices have given us, their descendants, every right to demand that we be treated as first-class citizens like everyone else.

The bronze sculpture of Lopez that now adorns the Veterans Memorial Park on Central Boulvard was once shunted to the rear of the Veterans Memorial Bridge office at Los Tomates (known as Ignacio Zaragoza in Matamoros).
Only through the timely intervention of the local VFW post and the county commission was the work moved where it would be more accessible (and visible) to the public.When he saw it, Lopez said everything was accurate except for the depiction of the weapon the soldier was carrying. The war bond ad shows him behind the actual weapon he used to counter the Geman attack and allow his unit to withdraw and save themselves from destruction.
Lest we bore those tired of hearing of Hispanic bravery under fire, below is the story behind the decoration. An anectdote to the awardng of the medal in the field was that when Third Corp Commander Maj. General James Van Fleet awarded him the recognition, they had to camouflage a parpet for Lopez to stand so that Van Fleet wouldn't have to stoop to pin it on his chest. Chiquito pero picoso!
His life story and reason for the medal is taken from Wikipedia and states that: "Lopez was raised by his mother Candida Lopez in Santiago Ihuitlán, Oaxaca, Mexico. As a young boy he helped his mother sell clothes that she made as a seamstress in the city. However, his time with his mother was cut short due to tuberculosis which took her life when Lopez was only eight years old.

Lopez then relocated to Brownsville, Texas to live with his uncle's family.
While living in with his uncle's family Lopez began working various jobs to bring in income and never returned to school. As a young man, Lopez caught the attention of a boxing promoter and for seven years he traveled the country fighting a total of 55 fights in the lightweight division with the nickname of 'Kid Mendoza'. In 1934, during a boxing match in Melbourne, Australia, he met a group of Merchant Marines and signed a contract with them. He was accepted in the union in 1936 and spent the next five years traveling the world.

He was en route to California from Hawaii on December 7, 1941, when he learned about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. When he arrived in Los Angeles, the authorities believed he was Japanese and he was forced to prove otherwise.

Lopez returned to Brownsville and, in 1942, married Emilia Herrera. That same year, he received his draft card and relocated to San Antonio where he enlisted in the U.S. Army. Lopez was first sent to Fort Sam Houston, Texas, and then to Camp Roberts, California, where he received his basic training."He was assigned to the U.S. Army, 23rd Infantry, 2nd Infantry Division, and was involved in heavy fighting in the forest near Krinkelt, Belgium, on Dec. 17, 1944.

The Medal of Honor Citation reads: "On his own initiative, he carried his heavy machinegun from Company K's right flank to its left, in order to protect that flank which was in danger of being overrun by advancing enemy infantry supported by tanks.
Occupying a shallow hole offering no protection above his waist, he cut down a group of 10 Germans. Ignoring enemy fire from an advancing tank, he held his position and cut down 25 more enemy infantry attempting to turn his flank. Glancing to his right, he saw a large number of infantry swarming in from the front.
Although dazed and shaken from enemy artillery fire which had crashed into the ground only a few yards away, he realized that his position soon would be outflanked.
Again, alone, he carried his machinegun to a position to the right rear of the sector; enemy tanks and infantry were forcing a withdrawal. Blown over backward by the concussion of enemy fire, he immediately reset his gun and continued his fire.
Single-handed he held off the German horde until he was satisfied his company had effected its retirement. Again he loaded his gun on his back and in a hail of small arms fire he ran to a point where a few of his comrades were attempting to set up another defense against the onrushing enemy.
He fired from this position until his ammunition was exhausted.

Still carrying his gun, he fell back with his small group to Krinkelt. Sgt. Lopez's gallantry and intrepidity, on seemingly suicidal missions in which he killed at least 100 of the enemy, were almost solely responsible for allowing Company K to avoid being enveloped, to withdraw successfully and to give other forces coming up in support time to build a line which repelled the enemy drive."

Upon the outbreak of the Korean War, Lopez was accidentally ordered to serve for his country and without hesitation was prepared to do so, until President Harry S. Truman heard of and corrected the matter so that Lopez could remain in the United States.

The city of Mission, Texas, who also claims to be Lopez' hometown, recognized Lopez by naming a street and a city park – Jose M. Lopez Park – in his honor, as did the  North East Independent School District in San Antonio, Texas, which named a middle school in his honor, Jose M. Lopez Middle School.

Way to go homeboy!