SATURDAY, MARCH 16, 2013
THE ZAPATA TIMES 9A
DAMIANA PRESAS Damiana Presas, 62, passed away Friday, March 8, 2013, at University Hospital in San Antonio. Ms. Presas is preceded in death by her parents, Calixto and Isabel Presas; brothers, Martin Bernabe Presas, Calixto Presas and Jesus Presas; sister, Maria Petra Sanchez; brothers-inlaw, Enrique Villarreal and Oscar Sanchez; and nephews, Enrique Villarreal Jr. and Agustin Sanchez, Jr. Ms. Presas is survived by her sisters, Francisca (Eduardo) Gutierrez, Cira Villarreal, Josefina (Ramiro) Guerrero, Julia Luisa Sanchez and Azucena Isabel Presas; sisters-in-law, Francisca G. Presas and Elida H. Presas; and brother-in-law, Agustin Sanchez; and by numerous nephews, nieces and friends. Visitation hours were Monday, March 11, 2013, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. with a rosary at 7 p.m. at Rose Garden Funeral Home. The funeral procession departed Tuesday, March 12, 2013, at 9:30 a.m. for a 10
a.m. funeral Mass at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church. Committal services followed at Zapata County Cemetery. Funeral arrangements were under the direction of Rose Garden Funeral Home, Daniel A. Gonzalez, funeral director, 2102 N. U.S. 83 Zapata.
COURT Continued from Page 1A south of the town of Zapata. Court records state Ambriz reduced speed when he drove by the agents’ location and tried to hide. Ambriz accelerated as agents began to follow him. When they activated their emergency lights, Ambriz abandoned his vehicle, jumped a gate and ran toward the brush. Shortly after, he was apprehended.
Agents discovered several bundles of marijuana inside the Dodge and on the pickup’s bed. The contraband had a street value of $371,120. Ambriz had been offered $500 to drive the marijuana from a warehouse in Roma to Zapata, according to court records. (César G. Rodriguez may be reached at 7282568 or cesar@lmtonline.com)
PARADE Continued from Page 1A tinez said he has been bringing his family to the festivities since he moved to Zapata 10 years ago. “We get here early, park and eat at the restaurant here and then wait for the parade,” he said. Corina said she looked forward to getting some candy and going to the carnival afterward. Zapata native Nora Presas was there with around 20 family members, including her in-laws and grandsons. She said the main reason she came out to watch the parade was
to see family members who were in it. As if on cue, one of her nephews promenaded by on horseback as part of the 4H Club. “Juan,” she yelled and waved and he shyly waved back. Many of the spectators, it seemed, had someone they knew in the parade, as the calling out of names was frequently heard. Presas agreed with the statement made by some of the organizers of the fair that many of the area
families reunited during this time. “Yes, that’s true. I just saw my niece, who lives in Orange Grove,” Presas said. Three ladies sitting in lawn chairs were Winter Texans from Missouri. They were all named Pat. Two of them were seasoned spectators of the parade. One of them said she was usually on one of the floats, while the third Pat said she had never been to the parade before. John, husband of one of the Pats, said they enjoyed
coming to the fair and all its events. “We’re all just kids at heart, don’t you know?” said one of the ladies. Other events were scheduled throughout the day at the Zapata Fairgrounds, among them, the selling of fair arts, crafts and food entries, dance performances, the livestock auction, the jalapeño eating contest, the grito contest and street dances. (Rick Villarreal may be reached at 728-2528 or rvilllarreal@lmtonline.com)
BORDER Continued from Page 1A The letter describes the effects the required 5 percent mandatory cut under sequestration will have on components of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, including the U.S. Border Patrol and Customs and Border Protection. The reduction in work hours is equivalent to the department losing 5,000 Border Patrol agents and 2,500 CBP officers. The cuts not only affect security, Gallego insists, but also increase wait times at ports and hurt trade with Mexico. The country is Texas’ largest trading partner and the country’s third-largest trade partner overall. The automatic budget cuts, which could total as much as $1.2 trillion over 10 years, took effect March 1 after Congress failed to reach agreement on how to curb federal spending.
So far, Republicans aren’t buying Democrats’ claims about the severity of the cuts. U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said last week on the Senate floor that Democrats are “fearmongering” and suggested the Obama administration needed a fact-checker. “Now is the time for governing, not for delivering more partisan stump speeches,” he said. “After all, the American people didn’t send us here to kick and scream over a 2.4 percent budget cut. They sent us here to make some hard decisions that are necessary to ensure longterm fiscal health and long-term economic prosperity.” Last fiscal year, CBP processed about 25 million containers, seized more than $100 million in illicit cash and prevented about 4.2 million pounds of ille-
gal narcotics from entering the country, according to Gallego’s office. “Furthermore, CBP’s National Targeting Center and Immigration Advisory Program prevented over 4,000 high-risk individuals from boarding flights destined to the United States — a 32 percent increase from the previous year,” he wrote. Gallego’s office said he has fielded calls from anxious constituents who have received furlough notices that warn of a pay cut as large as 30 percent. Officials in the CBP’s Del Rio sector estimated that an agent’s decrease in pay could range from $525 to $860, depending on his rank. For some agents, it means as much as a 30 percent reduction. “Sequestration will make it extremely challenging — and in many
cases impossible — for employees to meet their mortgage payments, pay their healthcare expenses, plan for retirement, or help their children attend college,” Gallego wrote. “To be blunt, these families are at risk. After years of service, CBP employees deserve more from their country’s leaders.” On Thursday, one of Gallego’s Democratic colleagues, U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar of Laredo, sent out a statement condemning the cuts, citing a U.S. Department of Commerce study that states that each minute of delay at the nation’s five busiest southern ports, which include Laredo, Hidalgo and El Paso, cost about $116 million in economic output. Last year alone, more than $229 billion in trade passed through the Laredo customs district.
FRANCES Continued from Page 1A single mothers and washed the feet of recovering drug addicts; how he became one of them. “Four years ago, I was at my worst and I needed help. When the Mass started he knelt down and washed my feet. It hit me hard. It was such a beautiful experience,” said Cristian Marcelo Reynoso, 27, a garbage collector trying to kick a cocaine addiction through the church’s rehab program. “When I saw the news on the TV, I began screaming with joy, and look, I’m still trembling,” Reynoso said. “El Chabon (The Dude) is so humble. He’s a fan of San Lorenzo (the soccer club), like me. You talk to him like a friend.” Long after he became a cardinal in 2001, this “prince of the church” wore a simple black T-shirt with a white collar. For many at the slum’s Caacupe Virgin of the Miracles Church, it’s nothing short of a miracle that their friend is the pope. “He was always part of our slum,” housewife Lidia
Valdivieso, 41, said after praying while resting her palm on a statue of St. Expeditus, patron saint of urgent and impossible causes. Her 23-year-old son has cerebral palsy and is learning carpentry at the church’s technical school. “When I heard the news I couldn’t believe it. Having a ‘papa villero’ (slum pope) is the most beautiful thing that can happen to us. I still remember him going on long walks through our muddy streets or talking to our children,” Valdivieso said. Inside the concrete block chapel, there’s a painted message commemorating Bergoglio’s inauguration, and another big painting of Pope John Paul II, but no sign of Benedict XVI whatsoever. Near the altar, there’s a large black-andwhite poster of Carlos Mugica, an iconic Argentine slum priest who was killed in 1974 by a right-wing death squad intent on eliminating the “liberation theology” he preached.
Bergoglio never favored liberation theology because of its alliances with armed leftist guerrilla movements in the 1970s. But he has done much to follow in Mugica’s footsteps, sponsoring all sorts of outreach programs in Argentina’s slums. This can be messy work, obliging priests to challenge drug dealers for the slumdwellers’ allegiances, and putting their beliefs, even their lives, at risk. Sometimes compromises must be made. Just a few steps from the chapel, melted candles stand in a red shrine to the pagan folk hero Antonio “Gauchito” Gil, a 19th century outlaw revered among Argentina’s poor for sharing his stolen bounty with the poor. Many Argentines are as likely to pray for miracles from “Gauchito” as they are from authorized Catholic saints, but Bergoglio didn’t object to the shrine’s presence next to his chapel. “For more than 20 years he came here. He’s always
been close to us and his impact on this slum is huge,” said the parish priest, Lorenzo “Toto” de Vedia. Cameras followed Bergoglio once as he washed the feet of 12 young men at a rehab center. “Then he kept coming back, taking confession and counseling them,” Vedia said. On the priest’s desk lay a newspaper with a huge, one-word headline: “FRANCISCO.” “You can tell that the church is going to change,” Vedia said. “The fact that he chose the name Francisco says it all. It says: ‘Let’s stop messing around and devote ourselves to the poor.’ That was St. Francis’ message and now ‘Francisco’ can live it.” In his first appearance at St. Peter’s Square, the first Latin American pope bowed to the crowds and asked for their blessing. Back in Argentina, his friends in the slums recognized the gesture as the same sort of humility that won their hearts. In the 13th century, St.
Francis of Assisi made it his mission to respond to the poor and show that through simplicity and love, a stronger foundation for the church could be built. Pope Francis’ “mission is now to go on a pilgrimage to all lands, to walk with the people, to lead a church that walks,” said Mercedes Trovato, 24, a youth volunteer who wore a wooden cross around her neck. The pope’s sister, Maria Elena Bergoglio, said she is very confident that the pomp and protocol of the Vatican won’t dent his lifelong humility. His message to Argentines to spend their money on charities instead of for trips to Rome to see his installation in the Vatican on Tuesday is a strong sign that he won’t change, she said. “That message ... makes me feel like he is still on the same path, that he hasn’t been affected — for the moment, at least,” she said in an interview with The Associated Press at her home 25 miles west of downtown
Buenos Aires. “There is no worse poison than power.” She added that her brother’s preference “is for the poor, the weakest, the old, children.” “He has a clear preference for the poor,” she said. Nor did he ever express a desire to become pope, she said. “We would challenge him about it and he would say, ‘Oh, please!’” Bergoglio’s friends say he’s fundamentally shy. He hardly ever grants media interviews, preferring to speak from the pulpit. But he did agree to chat recently with Jaidr Flores, a 22year-old host on the parish’s Radio FM La 96. “He was hesitant at first. But I convinced him, and at the end of the interview, he started laughing and said: “You did it! You got me on air!”’ said Flores. “One day I went to visit him at his office and I was amazed to see how many pictures of the volunteers and recovered drug addicts from this community he had on his desk. He truly cares for us.”