A JOURNAL OF THE BORDERLANDS
APRIL
DOS
2010
Est. 1994
Vol. XVI, No. 4
I may have been fierce, but never low or underhanded.
Locally Owned
Ty Cobb
64 PAGES
The Laredo Broncos, an integral part of the community, but City Council doesn’t see the asset
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News
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atholic Social Services of Laredo (CSSL) will honor Odilia and Martin Cuellar Sr. with a first-ever CSSL Recognition Dinner Thursday, May 20, at the Laredo Country Club. CSSL is a non-profit corporation that operates under the auspices of the Diocese of Laredo to strengthen and empower families through its diverse programs and social services. One of cssl’s most significant programs is to provide immigration assistance to Laredo and surrounding communities. Martin Cuellar, originally from Guerrero, Tamps., Mexico, has been married to Odilia for 57 years. “It is with great pleasure that we recognize Martin S. Cuellar, an immigrant from Mexico, and his wife Odilia for their life successes,” said Rebecca Solloa, CSSL director. “As migrant workers the Cuellars started a family that ultimately grew to eight children, all of whom are contributing members of our community.
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The Cuellars have instilled in their children a strong sense of obligation to community and public service,” Solloa said. The Cuellar siblings are U.S. Congressman Henry Cuellar, Webb County Sheriff Martin Cuellar, Rosie Cuellar Castillo, Carlos Cuellar, Antonio Cuellar, Jorge Cuellar, Odilia Cuellar, and Manuel Cuellar. “On behalf of all my brothers and sisters, we congratulate our parents for receiving this well-deserved recognition. They were dedicated parents and were always there for us as children, and continue to be there for us as adults,” said Congressman Henry Cuellar, the eldest of the eight Cuellar siblings. “My parents always instilled in us the importance of getting a quality education and always stressed the significance of having strong work ethics, and for this, we are all very grateful.” For more information about the agency and the event please contact Rebecca Solloa at (956) 722-2443. u
Courtesy Photo
Odilia and Martin Cuellar Sr. are CSSL honorees
Odilia and Martín Cuellar Sr. honorees at Recognition Dinner Catholic Social Services of Laredo honoree Odilia Cuellar (seated) is pictured with Bishop James Tamayo and four of her children, Sheriff Martín Cuellar, Odilia Cuellar, Rosie Cuellar Castillo, and U.S. Congressman Henry Cuellar.
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Henri Kahn Randy Koch José Antonio Lopez Charlie Loving Salo Otero Rosanne Palacios Lem Railsback Rogelio Sanchez Jr. Steve Treviño Jacob Walters Leslie Young
Dear Editor, Because of blocks by the other side, the majority party in Congress failed last month to pass the extension of jobless benefits. The major effect of such “blocking” is that, as the National Employment Law Project estimates, over 200,000 presently unemployed individuals who have already exhausted their respective benefits cannot at present re-apply for additional benefits. Without a doubt, there may be individuals among those 200,000 who remain unemployed because of their own laziness, lack of capability, and disorganization: in point of fact, I know both of them personally. However, for those remaining 199,998, many lost their jobs through no fault of their own. The economic meltdown -- i.e., “The Great Recession” -- that was led by the “banks that cannot fail,” the predator credit card companies, and government bureaucrats -- e.g., certain high profilers in the last administration -- reverberated throughout our economy. In turn, business had to downsize (please read “layoff”/fire/suspend/close/etc. ad nauseum), transportation slowed, mortgages flushed downward, credit fees and charges rose, and many of us lost enormous IRA savings. Whenever a working individual takes a regular paycheck, cashes it, and spends it in the local community, a “multiplier effect” of about 2.8 percent benefit accrues to the local community. For example, the worker pays for groceries, utilities, gas, rent/mortgage, and other payments. In turn, the employees of the grocery stores, the utilities companies, the gas companies, the landlords, and other business are paid their own wages through their respective servicing of the working individual and thousands of other working individuals. Then those very employees of those very
same businesses begin buying their own respective groceries, utilities, gas, rents/ mortgages, and so on. Each local economy can be genuinely stimulated many times via cash from work or from social assistance. In short, if we are really serious about “stimulating the economy,” then probably the most effective stimulus would be to create new jobs and to bring back many of the older lost jobs. But since the big-banksthat-cannot-fail, the predator credit card companies, and some of our federally paid specialists participated, knowingly or unknowingly (as claimed by some), in the current debacle that caused so many jobs to be lost and kept others on the drawing board, the hoped-for “turnaround” remains far off. As the same time, however, nearly a quarter of a million of our workforce and used-to-workforce citizens remain broke and broken. And they have suffered a host of hardships directly because of their lack of cash, and, now, even unemployment benefits. As I understand, a human stomach works every day. Food, water, safety and shelter, and a sense of belonging to a group that helps are basic human needs. For our quarter of a million former workers who cannot apply any longer for government assistance/cash, the sense of belonging to a group that helps is being sorely tested. And, consequently, even the 2.8 percent multiplier effect within a local community cannot race into motion since that is not even a dollar to be had. When I hear all of the excuses offered by those cantankerous “no!!!” politicos, I am reminded of Attorney Welch’s query to the McCarthy-who-would-be-president back in the 1950s -- “Sir, have you no decency?” Lem Londos Railsback
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Candidates line up for Nov. 2 General Election
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ith the Webb County elections decided, Laredoans vying for City posts have begun to look alive in preparation for the Nov. 2, 2010 elections. Incumbent Mayor Raul G. Salinas will face a challenge from Gene Belmares and José A. Valdez Jr., both members of the current City Council. District I incumbent Mike Garza, a UISD administrator, will square off with South Laredoan Rolando García, a retail manager. In District II, the seat now held by Tito García, political newcomers banker Victor García and Esteban Rangel will face each other. Incumbent Council District II member Michael Landeck faces Webb County employee Javier Martinez Jr. Businessmen Fred Santos IV, Or-
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lando Navarro, and Javier Mendoza comprise the field of three for District VI, the position currently held by Gene Belmares. Attorneys Madeline Lopez Escoto, Juan Caballero, Charles Wise, and Rosie Cuellar-Castillo are running for Municipal Court Judge, the position currently held by Alfonso Ornelas. July 25 is the first day to file for a place on the General Election Ballot, and August 24 is the last day. September 3 is the first day to apply for Ballot by Mail. October 4 is the last day to register to vote. The first day of early voting is October 18, and the last day to apply for Ballot by Mail is October 26. The last day of early voting is October 29. For further information on the election, contact the City Secretary’s office at 791-7308. u
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Santa María Journal
By María Eugenia guerra
An obligation to personal history
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By MARíA EUGENIA GUERRA
s I’ve worked to strip layers of green and blue paint off an old iron bed that reportedly came long ago from the Guerrero Viejo home of our antecedentes, I’ve come across some beautiful details on the handfashioned frame. I’m pretty sure I’m in the minority thinking there’s much artful about the old bed, which stripped of paint and void of a mattress, looks rickety and thin like a tall spider. Except for a few splendid (to me) bits of artistry, it’s a spindly and pitiful proposition, so much so that an interior decorator once told me it would look great in the garden as a platform for potted plants. With a wooden deck across its frame, the bed did time in our tack room for 50 pound sacks of feed, offering an ideal height so that you didn’t strain your back to lift from the floor. The frame is gently bent in places, probably from the manner in which the bed was moved over decades. Its bedpost finials are missing, the bare threaded tips lending an air of expectancy to the restoration effort underway on the porch of the building that has served as ranch headquarters. The 2x4s (real 2x4s) of its laterals look like new lumber, held square at each corner by metal gussets that bolt into the wood and hold the steel uprights of the bed frame in place. This bed never met a box spring. The mattress was instead suspended on a metal mesh at one time held to the wooden frame by small nails.
It’s amazing to me that this bed’s casters still work, that the frame moves easily across a hard surface. I’m guessing it was built about a hundred years ago by a pretty good welder, someone who knew how to be artful with metal. I’ve looked it over thoroughly for a name or some stenciling that would indicate a shipping point or where it might have been manufactured. As the layers of paint sloughed off, I understood the four gussets were not painted steel -- they were heavily tarnished bronze. A metal cleaner and a little tallada revealed the metal beneath and the initials V. P. and a single star between the letters. Was V.P. an individual, the crafter of the bed? Or was V.P. the American or Mexican manufacturer of the gussets? An Internet search for V.P. has turned up nothing, but I did track down some finials. The mystery of the bed’s origins persists, and so does the discovery of pretty ornamentation, such as the hot lead used at the juncture of steel to steel on the headboard. The uniformity of the detail at each of those pieces is pretty amazing. It’s the age and the simplicity of the bed frame, the small hints of craft of the bed’s maker, and the suggestion that it could have once belonged to a family member, that have drawn me to the work of wanting to make it function as it once did. The task has begun to feel akin to an obligation. I think of ancestors who may have caught a nap or a night’s slumber on this bed. What might have been their dreams, I wonder, on this day that the whole rest of the world beyond the porch’s edge explodes with growth and intense color. u
II. It’ll take more than matches and diesel fuel to light this fire The glorious rains have answered many a prayer. The soaking downpours have transformed field and pasture into blankets of grass and wildflowers. The mesquite trees are sporting outrageous bonnets of greenery. The ponds have taken on water, and the ground is damp and muddy. And so was the carcass of the late mama cow I tried to burn. She had died of unknown causes in the callejón between the corrales and the presita near my house, a tight place inaccessible by truck, so that she had to be burned in place and could not be moved away. There’s no masking the ugly truth. She was bloated and pungent as we worked to gather brush to pile atop her. Jorge cut down the small mesquite next to her, making its branches part of the pyre. The thing that burned the best, besides old copies of my newspaper, was the dried- up endoskeletons of nopales, but they were scarce. Everything was so wet and green that we had little luck keeping a fire lit. The five gallons of diesel Jorge poured onto the smoldering greenery made for a delayed ka-boom that jolted us from our green mesquite smoke trance and made us focus-focus as it prompted a promising, albeit short lived, start to a good
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fire. Now and again a gust of wind stoked the fire and filled the air with nasty, greasy smoke, and no doubt the ashes of maggots and flesh eating flies. Some ranchers throw old tires into the dead cow fire mix, but I don’t keep old tires, and if I did, I’d not add plumes of latex and carbon black into the atmosphere. Jorge had to get back to Laredo, but my friend Leslie and I, determined to have success, kept adding to the sorry fire. Nightfall found us conceding defeat. We turned off the 150-foot hose and went to the house to wash the soot from our faces, hands, and arms. Despite the failed task of the gory afternoon, we enjoyed a splendid dinner with friends in San Ygnacio, the beautifully presented meal and the art on the walls stark contrast to our earlier endeavor. Midnight found us back at the ranch assessing our unsuccessful effort by the light of the headlight beams on the other side of the barbed wire. With resignation in our weary bones and muscles, we turned on the hose and sprayed the few coals that taunted us in the dark. u WWW.LAREDOSNEWS.COM
I Choose Camilo Lopez
Bariatric Surgery Weight-loss surgery at Doctors Hospital helped me take 160 pounds off ‌ and keep it off. Thank you, Doctors Hospital!
BEFORE
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Physicians are independent practitioners who are not employees or agents of Doctors Hospital of Laredo. The hospital shall not be liable for actions or treatments provided by physicians.
LareDOS | APRI L 2010 |
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Chris Rincon
Fort Treviño
Private David B. Barkeley Cantu Veterans Memorial Chapel
Paso del Indio
Sam Johnson named President of the Republic of the Río Grande; May 8 Founders Day luncheon to recognize historical preservationists and celebrate Laredo’s 225th birthday
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he induction of Sam Johnson as President of the Republic of the Río Grande, the recognition of individuals and organizations who foster historical preservation, and scholarship awards are the highlights of the Webb County Heritage Foundation’s (WCHF) Founders Day festivities set for a noon luncheon May 8 at the TAMIU Student Center Ballroom. Johnson, himself a walking-talking chronicler of Laredo history, is a longtime supporter of the WCHF’s educational and preservation programs. He will portray the original President of the Republic of the Río Grande, Jesus Cardenas, and has named as his cabinet Alfredo R. Gutierrez Jr. representing Francisco Vidaurri y Villaseñor, Vice-President and delegate for Coahuila; Jennie Leyendecker Reed representing Juan Francisco Farias, Secretary; Tano Tijerina representing Col. Antonio Zapata, Commander of the Cavalry; Nancy Stewart Blair representing Manuel Nina, Quartermaster General; Charles G.T. Johnson representing Antonio Canales, Commander-inChief of the Army; Millie Slaughter representing Juan Nepomuceno Molana, delegate for Tamaulipas; and Joe Arciniega representing Manuel María de Llano, delegate for Nuevo Leon. Laredo Community College
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Coca Cola Bottling Co.
Hank Sames and Evelyn Sames Cain
Holy Redeemer
Bede Leyendecker
Sames Motor Co.
Deborah Matthew
José A. Ramirez will be recognized for the historic rehabilitation of the old Ft. MacIntosh Chapel; TAMIU dance instructor Bede Leyendecker for her work in preserving the historic dance arts of Laredo (Preservation of Folklore, Customs, Traditions Award); Holy Redeemer Church, Sames Motor Co., and Coca-Cola Bottling Co. of Laredo in celebration of their 100-year anniversaries serving the Laredo community; José A. Ramirez for publication of his book, To The Line of Fire, Mexican Texas and World War I (the Jim Parish Award); María Eugenia Guerra for excellence in journalism and raising public awareness of local and regional history (the Jim Parish Award); the River Pierce Foundation for ongoing dedication to the preservation of the national historic landmark Fort Treviño in San Ygnacio (Good Neighbor Award); Deborah Matthews for dedicated volunteer service at the Heritage Foundation (Volunteer Services Award); and the Lamar Bruni Vergara Environmental Center along with the U.S. Border PatrolLaredo Sector for their collaboration in preserving the Paso del Indio Nature Trail at Laredo Community College. Continued on page 144 4 LareDOS | APRI L 2010 |
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News
Attorney Ron Rodriguez nominated for Public Justice Foundation Lawyer of the Year
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By MARÍA EUGENIA GUERRA
aredo attorney Ron Rodriguez is a nominee for the 2010 Public Justice Foundation Lawyer of the Year Award. Rodriguez is in the running for the prestigious award for his trial work and historic winning verdict in the suit of the family of inmate Gregorio De La Rosa against private prison operator Wackenhut Corporation (now the GEO Group) and warden David Forrest. The high profile trial in the 404th District Court in Willacy County found that Wackenhut and its warden destroyed evidence of the 2001 murder of Gregorio De La Rosa at the hands of two inmates who beat him to death. In finding Wackenhut and Forrest liable for negligence, gross negligence, and malice, the 2006 jury verdict awarded the De La Rosa family $55 million in compensa-
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tory and punitive damages, an amount reduced to $42.5 million after the death of De La Rosa’s father, Gregorio De La Rosa Sr. The GEO group appealed the verdict, which the Court of Appeals upheld with a scathing opinion of the private prison corporation’s destruction of evidence and practices that led to De La Rosa’s murder. The Court’s opinion found the GEO Group’s intentional destruction of evidence “showed intentional malice, trickery, and deceit” and called that conduct an attack on “the integrity of our courts and the rule of law.” It was the Court’s opinion “that the destruction of evidence so offends this Court’s sense of justice that a high ratio of punishment is warranted.” The opinion has become case law. The GEO Group hired 25 attorneys from 10 firms to square off with Rodriguez, who said that a company that makes a billion dollars a year in gross revenues has many friends. “Getting prison guards to tell the
truth when the truth was against their employer was challenging. The Texas Rangers, investigators from the State Attorney General’s office, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, the Texas Criminal Justice Commission, and the Texas penal system all stood behind Wackenhut/GEO,” Rodriguez said. The case charted a course in new waters, that of defending the civil rights of prison inmates using state negligence common law to hold wrongdoers accountable, providing inmates with a clear remedy for violation of their civil rights. Rodriguez said, “The case preserved the integrity of the legal system and made new law that sets the standard of care required by private prison companies and jailers. The agonizing beating death of Gregorio De La Rosa, which wardens watched and laughed at and aided in removing and destroying evidence presented a horrific picture of ev-
erything that is wrong with prisons for profit.” The unprecedented, history making verdict, the sixth largest in the country in 2006, has become part of the national debate about private prison operators that put profit before humanity. Over a span of nine years and two court battles, including the Texas Appellate Court, Rodriguez was relentless in pursuit of justice for the De La Rosa family. He testified before the Texas Legislature, the Texas Senate Criminal Justice Committee, the City of Laredo, and Webb County, attesting to the fate of De La Rosa at the hands of Wackenhut/GEO, the second largest private prison operator in the world. A settlement for an undisclosed amount was reached in October 2009. The winner of the 2010 Trial Lawyer of the Year Award will be announced at Public Justice’s annual award dinner July 13, 2010 in Vancouver, B.C. u
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www.laredo.edu LareDOS | APRI L 2010 |
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News
Laredo Public Library to host Wall of Tolerance Center and Museum, displays and lessons to be main focus of exhibit
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he Laredo Public Library hopes that their new permanent exhibit, the Wall of Tolerance Center and Museum, will be one step to teaching the world, or at least, Laredo, about the consequences of intolerance and indifference. The exhibit at the Laredo Public Library, located at 1120 E. Calton Road, will offer citizens and visitors of Laredo a place to meditate and observe the past so that they may change the future -- a center where they can create and thrive within an atmosphere of tolerance. The project was originally born in 2007 in the mind and heart of United High School teacher Marco Franko, who attended the Freedom Writers Institute in Los Angeles. Part of his training included a visit to the Simon Wiesenthal Center and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum where he received a copy of Echoes and Reflections, a visual history of the Holo-
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caust developed by the Anti-Defamation League, the University of Southern California Shoah Foundation Institute, and Yad Vashem. The text is a comprehensive -- and powerful -- multi-media curriculum on the Holocaust composed of 10 modular lessons, accompanied by a CD. Another trip to the Freedom Writers Institute solidified the idea of creating a Holocaust Wall in Laredo, and a visit with Rabbi Elliot Rosenbaum and Les Norton, both of Laredo’s Congregation Agudas Achim, as well as a meeting with Pam Burrell, the reference librarian responsible for adult programs at the Laredo Public Library, showed Franco there was a desire in Laredo for such a display. “The response by Laredo to Holocaust survivor Gerda Weissmann Klein and Rwandan child soldier Ishmael Beah, who came to our community to discuss their experiences, was overwhelming and very moving,” said Burrell. “People of all ages
want to learn more about what these ordinary people did to survive in such horribly extraordinary circumstances, and that is why this project is so important to have in Laredo. So that we can continue to study and learn the lessons of the Holocaust, the genocide in Rwanda, or the slaughter in Bosnia-Herzegovina, we have created the Wall of Tolerance Center & Museum,” she concluded. The Wall of Tolerance Center & Museum will be more than just a static display of pictures and memorabilia. It will be a living exhibit, one that changes and features different elements; however, one what will make the display truly educational will be the lessons that will be the nine-month curriculum that will be taught that accompanies the exhibit. “The Center will provide classes and discussion to foster a conscience of awareness and social responsibility toward eliminating acts of violence, prejudice and discrimination against men, women and children in our community, across our nation and throughout our world,” said Carmen Escamilla, Laredo Public Library Advisory Board member and head librarian at Alexander High School, who will be teaching a lesson associated with the curriculum. Currently, several of the lessons are being taught by United I.S.D. teachers; however, the curriculum is open to teachers of all districts and educational institutions who wish to participate. An introductory lesson for educators participating, or wishing to participate, will be held on Tuesday, May 4 at 6:30 p.m. Additionally, the Library will try to bring in authors and guest lecturers to be part
of the lessons. Anyone wishing to participate should contact Burrell, who will serve as curator for the Center and Museum, at 795-2400, x2268 or via e-mail at pam@laredolibrary.org. The first lesson for the Wall of Tolerance Center & Museum kicks off on Saturday, May 8 and will take a look at genocide in the 20th Century. Some examples of mass genocide that took place in the last century and that will be studied include: Mexico’s Yaqui Indians – 1900 – 1909 (2/3 of population died from enslavement) Armenians in Turkey – 1915-1918 (1,500,000 deaths) Stalin’s forced famine – 1932-1933 (700,000 deaths) Rape of Nanking – 1937-1938 (300,000 deaths) Nazi Holocaust – 1938-1945 (6,000,000 deaths) Pol Pot in Cambodia – 1975-1979 (2,000,000 deaths) Rwanda 1994 – (800,000 deaths) Bosnia-Herzegovina 1992-1995 (200,000 deaths) Future lessons set for 2011 include “The Hispanic Experience in the 20th Century,” a look at the efforts by Hispanics, particularly Mexican-Americans, to gain civil rights for themselves and to fight for equality in education and the political arena. In 2012, the Center will focus on “The African-American Experience in the 20th Century.” For more information on the Laredo Public Library and its programs, please call 795-2400 or visit the website at www. laredolibrary.org. u
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Liberty Bell Recipient Sylvia Bruni of the Children’s Advocacy Center to be honored at Laredo-Webb County Bar Association luncheon
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he Laredo-Webb County Bar Association (LWCBA) will host its annual Liberty Bell Luncheon and Awards Ceremony on Friday, May 7 at the Laredo Country Club. The luncheon is held in honor of Law Day, established in 1958 by then-President Dwight D. Eisenhower. As in years past, the LWCBA honors attorneys and non-attorneys for their significant contributions to American legal institutions and the justice system. The highlight of Law Day is the bestowal of the Liberty Bell Award in recognition of outstanding service performed by a non-lawyer citizen who has given his or her time and energy to strengthening the effectiveness of the unique American system of freedom under law, in keeping with the spirit of the Constitution and the legal system. This year’s Liberty Bell Award recipient is Sylvia Bruni, executive director of the Children’s Advocacy Center (CAC). In recognition of the important work of the CAC and in acknowledgment of the scarcity of funds for their important work in the community, all proceeds from the luncheon
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will benefit the center. The bar association will also donate the toys featured as centerpieces at the luncheon. LWCBA will also award its inaugural Fernando D. Laurel III Memorial Scholarship in the amount of $2,000. The scholarship was donated by the family of the late Fernando D. Laurel III and will be awarded to a TAMIU student bound for law school. Presenting the scholarship on behalf of the family will be Laurel’s sister, attorney Kristina Laurel Hale. The LWCBA will also present J.B. Alexander High School student Jessica Rojas with a $1,000 scholarship, $500 of which was donated by Marcel C. Notzon III. Rojas won the award for her essay on the impact of passport laws on the city of Laredo. The contest was sponsored by the LWCBA. The Law Day luncheon will also honor the Honorable Raul Vasquez for his 29 years of service as the judge of the 111th District Court and Webb County’s own 2009 Texas Super Lawyers and Rising Stars, recognized for their excellence by the State Bar of Texas and Texas Monthly.
LWCBA is offering tables of 10 at the following levels: $5000 Champion, $2,500 Underwriter and $1,500 Sponsor. Each Champion, Underwriter and Sponsor will be recog-
nized with a table placard, notation on event signage, and the official program. For more information or tickets, please contact Martha De Llano at (956) 727-4441. u
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News
Council of Excellence Award for Sames Honda Michael McCormick, Honda Regional Finance Director; Evelyn Sames Cain, Sames owner/ general manager; Mario Reyes, Sames finance manager; and Ernesto Lona, general sales manager are pictured with the Honda Council of Excellence award conferred upon the dealership and its financial professionals.
Continued from page 9 The President of the Republic of the Río Grande Scholarship, awarded for the best essay on family history or a personal topic concerning history or heritage, will be presented to J.B. Alexander High School student Melissa Saucedo. “Webb County Heritage Foundation is the only organization to celebrate the city’s founding, so it is with great pride that we renew our invitation this year, as always, to all the community, friends, and neighbors to join us in this commemoration of history. The Founders’ Day luncheon honors the descendants of founder Don Tomás Sánchez and all the founding families of this historic
community. The event is open to the public and all descendants of founding families are cordially invited to attend,” said Margarita Araiza, WCHF executive director. “We are also very happy to be making a special announcement of a tremendous gift to the Foundation from the D.D. Hachar Foundation which will be formally presented during the program,” she said. The event closes with the annual Grand Raffle, a fundraiser that helps underwrite the programs and services of the Webb County Heritage Foundation. Tickets for the luncheon can be obtained by calling the Foundation office at (956) 727-0977 or by email at heritage@ webbheritage.org. u
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Plans underway for LPO’s first ever Phil Phun Run May 8 at TAMIU
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he Laredo Philharmonic Orchestra hosts its first ever Phil Phun Run May 8 at TAMIU. The five-mile run and 5K walk serves as a fundraiser and further integrates the Philharmonic’s role in the community. As part of this effort, the organization is selling sponsorships for the walk and run. The sponsorship categories are: Maestro Level ($800) - Logo featured on the finish line banner surrounding the event logo, company name on official Tshirts, company name as a Maestro Level Sponsor in media advertisements. Maestro sponsorships are limited to ensure optimal size and visibility on the finish-line banner. Company name acknowledgement and thanks to sponsor announcements to
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those gathered. Symphony Level ($500) - Logo on the finish line banner surrounding the event logo, company name on T-shirts. There will be a very limited amount of these to ensure the optimal size and visibility on the banner. Company name acknowledgement and thanks to sponsor announcements to those gathered. Concerto Level ($300) - Company name on T-shirts. Company name acknowledgement and thanks to sponsor announcements to those gathered. Ensemble Level ($250) - Company name acknowledgement and thanks to sponsor announcements to those gathered. For further information either as a runner or a sponsor please contact Joe Arciniega at inicra@msn.com. u
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Profile
John Valls: Hitler’s “best commander” climbed down from his tank and personally surrendered to this Laredoan
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By JOHN ANDREW SNYDER
ohn Valls was a big kid who grew up to be a big man. He was a one-of-a-kind track star in Laredo -- low hurdles, high hurdles, high jump, pole vault, mile relay. America got involved in World War II, and Valls got drafted at the age of 18 and soon wound up in England, where he defeated Britain’s finest tracksters in all of his five specialties, running at the request of an anonymous English lord who caught sight of Valls running the hurdles all by himself one cool afternoon and asked him to compete in an upcoming meet. “We want this guy,” the lord told Valls’ commander. After taking first place in the 400-meter hurdles, Valls was flown to London to perform at a track meet before the Queen. They let him compete in high jump and pole vault, and he won both events. This was August 4, 1944. In recognition of his triumphant sporting deeds, Valls was invited to an exclusive party at the lord’s country mansion. From the penthouse to the foxhole -winning track meets before British royalty was just the icing on the cake, and the British commandos that put Valls and his compatriots through grueling infantry training were there to make soldiers out of green recruits, and not cakes with or without icing. It’s a long walk from the Normandy coast to Berlin, especially when they’re shooting at you -- just ask Valls. “Every night you had to dig a hole in the ground to sleep in, no matter what the weather -no roof over your head,” Valls said, adding, “At night we’d see the B-17’s and B-24’s flying south in formation into the heart of Germany, and a few hours later we’d see them flying north back to England, in not so good formation. He was a member of the 52nd Armored Infantry Battalion of the 9th Armored Division of the 3rd Army under General George Patton. There can be no doubt that World War II is a story of lifetimes -- many, many lifetimes -- some that began and ended before the first shot was fired, the first treaties were broken, the first ship was sunk, the first plane was shot out of the air, or the first civilian politico nut-case donned a designer general’s uniform and buckled on a spit-shine pair of hobnail boots, and before American GI’s like Johnny Valls,
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John Valls outside his quonset hut in England after winning three track meets, photographed by a Stars and Stripes photographer. Golden Boy Laredo athlete, shipped out to Europe or the Pacific to put an end to all the madness and the mayhem. Lifetimes upon lifetimes of direct and indirect input, deliberate and indeliberate influence, willing or unwilling participation, links in a chain, strong links, weak links, broken links, rusty links, even would-be links. But this story is concerned with one man and one war; specifically, with Johnny Valls’ participation as an infantryman going up against the Nazi war machine in Europe, and how he, “an army of one,” (as he tags himself on a personal calling card) helped bring the Third Reich crashing down around the ears of Hitler, Himmler, Goebbels, Hess, Goring, Rommel, von Runstedt, Speer, Barbie, Bormann, Jodl, Kaltenbrunner, Mengele, Model, Reder, Ribbentrop, and so may more happy-go-lucky members
of the Nazi sewing circle. In fact, one of the above mentioned good-will ambassadors of the Master Race, Field Marshal Walther Model “skipped the light fandango” right off his Panzer tank after running up the white flag of surrender when he caught sight of Valls at the “point” position of his 120-man foot patrol, and made a beeline over to Valls right behind his English-speaking interpreter, to throw in the towel, as the saying goes, cry ‘Uncle,’ bow out, give up, yield, chicken out -- surrender. The field marshal did not want to surrender to the whole patrol squad; he picked out Pfc. Johnny Valls of Laredo, Texas to surrender to -- personally. That’s a great (and true) Laredo war story in itself! But there’s even more to it! About 300,000 more to it -- Model’s entire army of 300 thousand German troops!
For when Model humbled and humiliated himself before the lanky Laredoan, and clicking his heels as he bowed reverently to his captor, the field marshal who had had his fill of the field (some time later he committed suicide), was also acknowledging that the 300,000 men at his command -- a whole army -- was now taking orders from Laredo’s “army of one,” not from Model, not from Hitler, not from Patton, not from Ike -- not even from Roosevelt, but from an American GI from Laredo who had slogged across Europe from northern France, ate K-rations courtesy of the Red Ball Express, slept in an open foxhole in all kinds of weather, and took the battle right into the teeth of Nazi Germany, and now wondered, “What the hell am I going to do with 300,000 German prisoners?” That happened in April of 1945. Valls says he can still hear the interpreter’s words as clearly as if they were being spoken today -- “General Model wishes to surrender.” Valls received a Presidential Citation for this action. “History records that the British and the Canadians captured Model’s army, and a couple of days later their photographers and media people showed up, but let’s set the record straight -- I captured that army -- they surrendered directly to me,” Valls said. Valls recalled, “We were out on patrol when we saw and heard a whole bunch of men and vehicles coming east toward us -- we didn’t know what to expect, thought they might have been Americans -- right up until they were close enough for us to see the swastikas flying everywhere and the insignias on the vehicles -- Germans! Almost as far as the eye could see, German soldiers, tanks, other vehicles, and equipment. It was an awesome sight to behold, but then a single jeep broke away from the mass and drove up to where we were. It was driven by a Nazi soldier, a colonel. His jeep was flying the white flag, and about 30 yards way you could see General Model in a huge, heavily-armored vehicle, not actually a tank. The colonel got out of the jeep and walked straight over to me. When I heard, ‘General Model wishes to surrender,’ I figured Model was the man in the armored vehicle. The German colonel suggested that we get into his jeep and drive over to the general’s vehicle. ‘I’ll drive,’ the colonel said. ‘No, I’ll drive,’ I said and hopped into the driver’s seat. But it took only a few seconds to figure out that the gear system in WWW.LAREDOSNEWS.COM
that jeep were not like the gears in American vehicles, and I couldn’t get it to go. After a couple of tries all I had succeeded in doing was grinding the gears, and before I had stripped them completely, the colonel said nervously, ‘No, I’ll drive,’ which he ended up doing.” Valls said, “This was a memorable day, but it may also have been the day that I made the biggest mistake of my life. I probably should have headed over to Col. Westmoreland (the future General Westmoreland), my Before shipping out, Valls posed with other soldiers at Central State Teacher’s commanding ofCollege in Stevens Point, Wisconsin. Standing next to Valls is Henry Lord who ficer, and told him that stood 6’6’’ and played with Valls on the basketball team. I had just captured an army. Are you kidding? 11-C to be exact. It was a camp That would have made Valls posed with front-page news all over the world, can for war prisoners, that is, untwo unknown girls you imagine? So instead, the word got sent til 1943, when a near-sighted, by the roadside in back through the wires and by other means heroin-addicted, ex-chicken Reahau, Gemany on the and other people took the credit. Within a farmer named Heinrich HimCzechoslovakian border. few hours there were British, Canadian, mler ordered that it be transand American officers all over the place, formed into a concentration plus reporters, photographers, cameramen, camp, which it remained unyou name it, there were people all over til Johnny Valls kicked in the the place trying to get the story and get it door, arrested the guards, and out. People were posing for pictures, giv- secured the perimeter. Kicking down that door ing interviews, and taking credit for everything that I myself had done. I don’t know, and being the first Allied solmaybe that’s the way it was meant to be,” dier that the prisoners saw Valls added philosophically. “I often think was a particularly satisfyabout the consequences of not just saying, ing act for Valls at the time, ‘Colonel Westmoreland, I just captured an and remains a memory that he cherishes, despite the army.’” Valls said. One might say that Valls had an out- dismaying, to say the least, standing day at the office the day he cap- sights that he witnessed, the tured Model’s entire army, tempered, as it smells, the groans, the livturned out, with a touch of regret. But that ing conditions, the piles of wasn’t the only red-letter day that month the dead and the dying, the indescribably horrible odors, for the squad leader. For it was on April 15, 1945, that Valls, at the mass graves dug too shalthe head of an advance squad with the 9th low, the looks of grief, sufferArmored Division, burst open the gate to ing, loss, desperation, despair, surprise, havoc, committing genocide, hating Jews, Belsen Concentration Camp (also known as relief, disbelief, and thankfulness. Belsen overseeing carnage from a ringside seat, Bergen-Belsen) in northwestern Germany, was one of those finalist candidates for the and congratulating and promoting the and was the first man through. Again, real “Most Disgusting Places in the Universe,” perpetrators who have been following his history and recorded history are at odds. courtesy to Reichsfuhrer Himmler, head direct orders. This time it was the British 11th Armoured man at the Gestapo, who earned that lofty Belsen was the place where Anne Frank Division that took the credit. position by being one of those typical, un- and her sister Margot met their doom. It But both Valls and the history books sightly, depraved, maniacs that deeply ap- was a place right out Dante’s Inferno, only concur on one thing -- the 60,000 living pealed to der Fuhrer (which literally means more sinister, and casualties were in the souls that they found there “looked like liv- “the Leader”), for his viscerally anti-Semit- thousands, even though this was not one ing skeletons.” Belsen started out as a Ger- ic, delusionary Aryan predispositions, and of those camps rigged with gas chambers man stalag, or prisoner of war camp, Stalag his casual-seeming devotion to wreaking for wholesale extermination. But the reason WWW. L A R E D O S NE W S . C O M
John Valls for Belsen’s existence was still the annihilation of Hitler’s racial undesirables. Typhus and starvation were Death’s handmaidens here. Anne Frank died of typhus one month, almost to the day, before John Valls arrived to set the remaining 60,000 inmates free. “When Ike saw these people he got so mad he had all the people living anywhere near that camp rounded up and forced to walk through the camp to see everything and to smell the odor of death -- there were 5,000 dead bodies piled up in an open area, just thrown there by the Nazis when they died, or sometimes even before they had died. I wish I hadn’t seen what I saw at Belsen,” Valls said, adding, “When we first walked in, you could hear a sound like when somebody scores a touchdown -- only low, very, very low, because all these people were practically dead -- most of them just sat there and stared while we walked in. But one little man who looked like a corpse with all his ribs sticking out came up to me thanking me in whatever language he spoke and offered me his most precious possession, part of a little rabbit-skin vest, but I told him that I was an American soldier there to set him free, and that I didn’t want anything in return.” Valls added, “But he kept insisting, and I could see that I was hurting his feelings, so I finally took it, and the little man was so happy that it made me feel good, and still does.” Continued on page 194 4 LareDOS | APRI L 2010 |
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News
Jr. Achievement names 2010 Laureates: Imelda Navarro, Rod Lewis, and Tom Lamont
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anker Imelda Navarro and energy exploration executives Rod Lewis and Tom Lamont share the spotlight as Junior Achievement’s 2010 Business Hall of Fame Laureates. They are recognized for business excellence, vision and innovation, leadership, and service to the community. They will be honored Thursday, May 6, at the Laredo Country Club. All proceeds from the Laredo Business Hall of Fame benefit Junior Achievement’s economic education programs in the Laredo Area. Junior Achievement is the largest and fastest-growing business and economics education organization in the world. Junior Achievement of Laredo, which was established in 1994, will reach more than 9,000 students with the help of more than 350 classroom volunteers. Imelda Navarro serves on the boards of International Bank of Commerce-Laredo and its parent company International Bancshares Corporation, the largest minorityowned bank in the country. She is senior executive vice president, CFO, and COO of International Bank of Commerce-Laredo. A 29-year veteran of service to the bank, Navarro began her career as a 16 year-old vocational high school student. After graduating from J.W. Nixon High School, she continued working for IBC while earning a BBA in accounting at Laredo State University. Upon graduation Navarro continued
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to work in the bank’s accounting and operations divisions and learned all facets of personal and commercial banking. As IBC grew in the 1980s and 1990s, her responsibilities evolved to include financial accounting, human resources, and bank operations. She was promoted to senior executive vice president in 1998. She serves as second-in-command to the president/CEO and as Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer for IBC. Her duties include management of the operations, sales, and accounting functions for International Bancshares Corporation.
Navarro participates in IBC Boot Camp and other employee oriented programs, counseling newcomers to develop leadership skills and solid communication for career advancement. She serves on the board of Casa de Misericordia, and as a member of the City’s third-party funding committee. She is also on the board of the Laredo Center for the Arts and has served as president of TAMIU Alumni, Borderfest, Laredo Business, Professional Women’s Association, Financial Women International, and the Domestic Violence Coalition. Navarro is a former director of the Laredo Chamber of Commerce and has served on the board of the Laredo Commission for Women and on the advisory board for Mercy Regional Medical Center. In April 2005 Hispanic Business magazine named Imelda Navarro as one of its 2005 Outstanding Women Leaders and in October 2005 the magazine recognized Navarro as one of the 100 Most Influential Hispanics in the country. Most recently, in 2009 Navarro was recognized as one of the top 25 finalists in the country in Hispanic Business magazine’s Women of the Year award. Energy wildcatter Rod Lewis is president and chief executive officer of Lewis Energy Group, L.P. (LEG). He began his professional career as a gauger with Stampede Energy until he purchased his first well in 1982. He worked to build a vertically integrated company, buy out the competition, own most of the acreage he drilled on, and have a stronghold on the market. Today,
LEG is a fully integrated, privately held, E&P company with approximately 325 employees and over 1,000 wells. In addition, LEG has a strong presence in both Mexico and Colombia. A native of Laredo born in 1954, Lewis earned his bachelor’s degree in criminal justice in 1976 from Texas A&I University in Laredo. He lives in San Antonio with his wife and their four children. He is an avid aviator and warplane collector, and he serves on the board of directors of the National Air and Space Museum. Thomas A. Lamont is the owner of L.O.G. Energy Exploration, Ltd. and Hal’s Landing, Ltd. A graduate of the South Dakota School of Mines, Lamont is a registered professional engineer with 33 years of experience in the oil and gas industry. After working on offshore and South American projects, he moved to Laredo in 1983 as area director for Texas Drilling Company. Lamont established his own engineering firm and in 1993 purchased Howland Surveying Company. He sold Howland Surveying to three employees, and in early 2007 started L.O.G. Energy based out of Laredo with an exploration office in Houston. He and his wife Marianne also manage Hals’ Landing, a 35,000 square feet entertainment center that employs 75 Laredoans. The Lamonts have two children -- Sara Courser, a teacher at St. Augustine School who is married to Kevin Courser, and Amanda Lamont, a Montessori teacher in Marina Del Rey, CA. u WWW.LAREDOSNEWS.COM
Continued from page 17
Courtesy Photo
Valls had also had a busy and memorable month of March. At the head of his squad, he reached (and crossed) the Rhine River before anyone else. It was a place called the Ludendorff Bridge near the village of Remagen. “Our job was to secure the bridgehead and hold it until the rest of the 9th Armored Division (Patton and his tanks) could reach us and cross over to the other side,” Valls said. “Of course,” Valls added, “we weren’t the first ‘official’ people to reach and cross the bridge.” When Patton and the heavy machines got there, the bridge was used, along with a pontoon bridge below that American engineers had built. “Getting across the Rhine was no problem, but all Hell broke loose the next morning,” Valls said, adding, “That day we took Remagen (March 11, 1945).” Valls vividly recalls the uphill walk from the Ludendorff Bridge to Remagen. “The Germans threw everything they had at us -- you couldn’t see them, you just heard the artillery shells coming in on top of us. The guy right in front of me was cut in half. Everything fell on me, all his internal organs. Guys would say, ‘You’re hit, soldier,’ and I’d say, ‘It’s not mine, it’s his!’ The poor guy never knew what hit him. We took a lot of casualties that day. The Germans just clobbered us with everything they had. I’m telling you, it was terrible. And you could see some of the shells coming in -- they used white tracers.” Valls received the Bronze Star for bravery in action and took some injuries to his left leg above the knee. His most serious injury, however, was the damage to his hearing when a 90mm shell exploded directly above him, leaving him with 80 percent hearing loss. “I have to go to the VA to renew my prescriptions every month -- I
still take 14 pills a day.” War is a dangerous and unpleasant business. “Every day I should have gotten killed 10 times; I guess I was lucky,” Valls said. As the spearhead for Patton’s army, Valls’s squad’s main job was to “take towns -- sometimes we’d take three towns in one day.” He saw five months of combat. No furlough. “At the end, I was like a robot, I had no feelings at all. When they told me the war was over, I felt numb -- I wasn’t happy and I wasn’t sad -- just numb.” “In combat, you’re always cold, hungry, and scared. Anybody who says something different is lying through his teeth,” Valls said, adding. “We were just kids -- 19 years old!” Bruised a bit, but no way beaten or broken, John Valls came back and was awarded one of only four track scholarships to the Baylor University track team and made All-Southwest Conference in 1949-50. He captained the squad in 1950. He received a B.B.A. degree in education and economics, and came back to Laredo and taught at Martin High School and was an assistant basketball coach to Coach Bill Batey during the Tigers’ State Championship season in 1956. Valls is one of America’s foremost model airplane (the kind that fly) engineers and has won many awards and patents for his designs. Valls is married to Gladys Jones Valls (one of the Jones twins -- the other is Isabel) and they have five children -- Edward, John Jr., Antonio, Maureen, and Larry. One personal note: Eddie Valls was my first best friend in first grade, and Mr. Valls taught me how to play the infield in baseball. I will always cherish my friendship and that of my family with the Valls family. When I asked my dad one time who were the great athletes of his generation, his answer was short and to the point --“Johnny Valls.” u
Ruthe B. Cowl Center celebrates National Occupational Therapy Ruthe B. Cowl Rehabilitation Center executive director Julie Bazan, City Council member Dr. Michael Landeck, RBC board president Lillian S. Dickinson, and Webb County Judge Danny Valdez were on hand for the joint city and county proclamation marking the observance of National Occupational Therapy Month. Established in 1959, the Cowl Center has offered licensed professional services to children and adults in need of physical therapy to improve and restore physical function following disease or injury. WWW. L A R E D O S NE W S . C O M
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Profile
Sam Johnson: the arts in Laredo have known no better friend; historical preservationist named President of the Republic of the Río Grande
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By MARÍA EUGENIA GUERRA
harm and an innate goodness are two things about Sam Johnson that draw you to him. Add erudition, great recall of historical detail, and a love for his community and you’ve got the picture of the man known and beloved by Laredoans of all ages. Sam Norman Johnson III was born in Laredo on June 17, 1927 to attorney Sam (Jr.) and Elizabeth Korbly Johnson. Johnson’s grandfather, the first Sam, was an agent for Anheuser Busch in the Arizona Territory and at the turn of the century established the S.N. Johnson Bottling Works in Laredo. Besides the bottling company, he also owned a brick factory and operated a farm and a general store in South Laredo. Sam III attended the school of the Madames of the Sacred Heart, which was situated where the old American Legion building is on Zaragoza Street. He also attended Ursuline Academy and for a time attended school in Washington, D.C. He graduated from St. Edward’s Military Academy in Austin before serving a year in the Air Force. After the military, he returned to St. Edward’s University where he majored in philosophy and earned a business degree in 1951. He’s the brother of Elizabeth Johnson Gill who is known, like Sam, for philanthropy and a commitment to historic preservation. “She is a very supportive sister. We have many common interests. We travel together. A love of art and museums and music was inculcated in us by our mother,” he said. After college Johnson entered the family bottling business, then run by his father, learning it at all levels, and for a while he worked for the Coca Cola Bottling Company in Galveston. He took university classes in nearby Houston in radio, TV, and drama and worked on and offstage as a member of the city’s blossoming amateur theater community, participating in productions of such classics as The King and I, Damn Yankees, Plain and Fancy, and Kiss Me Kate. He recalled that the Laredo Little Theatre ceased to function for the duration of World War II. “Hortense Offerle and Stanley Keilson were in year three of a revival of the theater when I came back to Laredo,” he said. “I’ve stuck with it ever since,” he added, recalling, that scenery was moved by the bottling company’s trucks and stored in its warehouses. “We produced our first homegrown musical in 1960, The Boyfriend, with María Eugenia Lopez, Rogelio Rodriguez, Danny Sharkey, José Angel Villarreal, and the Altagracia Azios
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The president and his cabinet dancers. We filled up the house at the Lamar Junior High Auditorium, which back then was the state of the art stage facility,” Johnson said, adding that he has since produced 50 or so plays over the last five decades. He also recalled the production of My Fair Lady with Offerle and Keilson, and the orchestra conducted by Elmo Lopez Sr. “I have enjoyed being in plays and doing the technical work. I can read a play and actually see the characters moving,” he said, adding, “In more recent years I helped organize the Laredo Musical Theater with a production of The King and I.” That group has since morphed into the Laredo Theater Guild International (LTGI). Johnson said he considers himself fortunate to have worked with many talented actors and musicians over the years. “There’s a treasure trove of good people interested in theater. I’ve made so many long lasting friends, and this has been very satisfying. The musicals we have produced have pulled children into acting which gives them a unique learning experience,” he said. There’s no shortage of accolades for Sam Johnson. He portrayed George Washington in
the 1979 Washington’s Birthday Celebration festivities. He’s a member of the Caballeros of the Republic of the Río Grande and was named a LULAC Council #12 Tejano Achiever. He is a Junior Achievement’s Laredo Business Hall of Fame Laureate. A theater at TAMIU bears his name, the Sam Johnson Experimental Theater. And there is the esteem of many. Lifetime friend E.H. Corrigan, last year’s President of the Republic of the Río Grande, said of Johnson, “I have known him since we were schoolmates in the third grade at the old Ursuline school on the riverbanks. We share an interest in the performing arts in Laredo and have collaborated on several projects. “I admire Sam for the way he has opened his home to the arts, to singers and musicians. He has been a constant in the arts – creative, dependable, cool, and rational,” Corrigan added. “Over the history of theater in Laredo, Sam’s been such a major component, and in every way possible -- actor, producer, director, benefactor,” said Joe Arciniega, executive director of the LTGI. Continued on page 594 4 WWW.LAREDOSNEWS.COM
Feature
Point of no return -- with thousands of legal residents locked up indefinitely, far from home, Texas’ immigrant detention centers are boiling over. By MELISSA DEL BOSQUE (This story first appeared on March 18, 2010 in The Texas Observer, www.texasobserver.org.) n March 10, 2008, 39-year-old Rama Carty, who’d lived in the United States since he was a year old, became Alien #A30117515 in America’s booming immigrant detention system. At the time, Carty never imagined he’d be shipped to seven detention facilities around the country. Or that he’d help organize hunger strikes in South Texas’ Port Isabel Detention Center, 2,000 miles from his Boston home. Or that he would inspire an Amnesty International investigation into human rights abuses by the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Carty was born in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1970. His Haitian-born parents worked there as middle-school teachers. The following year, Port Isabel Detention Center they moved to the United States, where they also taught. Carty’s mother be- tory detention.” came a U.S. citizen. When he was 16, she petiBefore a second stiffening of immigrationed for her son to become a citizen as well. tion laws in 2006, the official policy for imThe immigration agency, Carty says, did not migrants (other than Mexicans) was “catch process his paperwork before he turned 18. and release.” Under that policy, Carty probAt that point, he needed to start his citizen- ably would have been granted a bond and ship claim over as an adult. For one reason been given an immigration court date to and another, like many legal residents, he determine whether he would be deported. never did. He didn’t know how much it But critics of “catch and release” had long might matter someday. complained that too many immigrants were Like many legal residents, Carty as- skipping out on their court dates. As the sumed he had the same constitutional 2006 debate over immigration reform grew rights as a citizen by virtue of his legal sta- toxic in Congress, the Bush administration tus and longtime residence. When he left announced a new policy designed to placate prison in Maine after serving two years reform opponents: “catch and detain.” for trafficking and conspiracy to distribute The number of detention beds across cocaine, he found out differently. Immigra- the country quickly multiplied as the Detion-reform measures passed in 1996 made partment of Homeland Security tripled its Carty subject to mandatory detention and budget for detention and deportation to $1.9 deportation by ICE after he had served his billion in 2007. ICE began detaining and decriminal sentence. porting more legal residents for misdemean“I figured I could get bond and work to ors and crimes of “moral turpitude,” a growreverse the drug charges,” says Carty, who ing list of offenses that runs the gamut from claimed all along he was innocent. “But I shoplifting to murder. By 2008, the year ICE couldn’t get bond because of the manda- deemed Carty a criminal alien, the agency
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had become the largest jailer in the nation, housing more than 378,000 immigrants in more than 300 private or federally run facilities. The criminalization of immigration has become so prevalent that it has its own buzzword: “crimmigration.” Like other legal residents swept up in the crackdown, Carty found that once he landed in the immigrant detention system, he had no constitutional right to court-appointed counsel. He was herded into a small courtroom in Maine with five other men for his first deportation hearing: a videoconference with a judge that took a few minutes per detainee. “I didn’t have an attorney,” he says. “I had no documents on my immigration case history. I’d never been to Haiti in my life, and Congo didn’t recognize me as a citizen.” So Carty was put in leg irons, with handcuffs anchored to his waist, and marched onto a government-chartered plane with other immigrants -- some undocumented, some legal residents like himself. They were flown to Massachusetts, where Carty was locked up in the second of seven detention
facilities he’d experience. Carty’s story is hardly unusual: On average, 52 percent of ICE detainees -- whether legal residents or illegal immigrants -- are transferred at least once before they are released or deported, according to a study by the nonprofit Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse. Each time Carty was transferred to a new detention center, his fiancée and family were unaware of his whereabouts until he gained phone privileges. Each transfer also meant several additional weeks in detention while he waited for a new immigration judge to set a court hearing. “It was very dehumanizing,” says Carty. “We have our lives invested here and have equity in this country, but there is no consideration for us at all.” In December 2008, Carty was shipped to his fifth detention center: Port Isabel, 24 miles northeast of Brownsville. That, too, is a common story. About one-third of the nation’s immigrant detainees are housed in Texas facilities. Port Isabel and the neighboring Willacy County Detention Center, known as “Tent City,” are two of the state’s largest, which can hold 4,000 ICE detainees combined. Like Carty, many detainees in Texas have been relocated from urban areas in the Northeast, where detention beds are scarcer. This brings them under the sway of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which has earned a reputation as the most conservative in the nation regarding immigration rulings -- a conveyor-belt to deportation. (See “Pleading With the Fifth” at http://www.texasobserver.org/archives/ item/16380-pleading-with-the-fifth.) Since most detention facilities are in Southern states like Texas, Mississippi and Louisiana, ICE is sending an increasing number of detainees’ cases to the 5th Circuit. When they arrive at these largely rural facilities, far from home, they find few immigration lawyers available or willing to help. Continued on next page
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Continued from page 21 “It seemed like we were being set up,” Carty says. Taking matters into his own hands, Carty started studying immigration law in Port Isabel’s meager law library. An official in charge of the library noticed his abilities and hired Carty at $1 a day to work there. He began to help other immigrants with their cases, including a man from Eritrea who’d been denied political asylum and was about to be deported. “I saw his face the day he got the order,” Carty remembers. “He had the look of imminent death on his face. He had been tortured for two years in Eritrea, and he really thought he was going to die.” Carty helped him challenge the deportation; the man was later released on a parole bond. The more Carty studied immigration law, the more he realized that many people were stuck in detention because they were poor and had no access to a lawyer. A recent report by Amnesty International found that 84 percent of immigrants in U.S. detention have no legal representation -- either because they can’t afford a lawyer or because they can’t find one in the remote areas where most detention centers are located. Carty remained at Port Isabel for seven months. The detainees there, he says, were unusually desperate. One man from El Salvador, he says, had been detained for eight years while fighting deportation. Carty and a few others tried to reach out to local attorneys to help such detainees. They attracted some media attention, but nothing changed. One day, Carty says he was approached by two detainees who wanted to start a hunger strike. “We felt we had no other recourse,” he says. “We were ready to stop eating to let people know how serious things were.” Last April, at least 100 men at Port Isabel participated in that initial hunger strike. Carty didn’t eat for a week. He relented after
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officials threatened to take away his access to the law library. “I would have crawled to that library to work on my case,” he says. After the hunger strike had been broken -- with its “ringleaders” transferred to other detention centers by ICE -- Carty contacted Amnesty International. The human rights nonprofit had just released a report, “Jailed Without Justice,” which found, among other problems, that many immigrants and legal residents were being held unlawfully in mandatory detention. Carty persuaded Amnesty to come to Port Isabel and investigate. On the second day of the Amnesty investigators’ visit, Carty was preparing for his interview with them when two guards told him he was being transferred to Louisiana. Carty says he tried to get to the phone to notify Amnesty, but was beaten by the guards. “They made an example of me,” he says. “They sent a very clear message that this is what will happen if you do something like setting up a meeting with Amnesty International.” Carty was transferred that day. The next month he was indicted by a federal grand jury on two counts of “assaulting, resisting, opposing, impeding, intimidating, or interfering with” the two Port Isabel guards “in the performance of their official duties.” Carty used his self-taught legal training to petition for a writ of habeas corpus and challenge his detention. He argued that because neither Haiti nor Congo would accept him as a citizen, he could not be deported. On Dec. 22, after 21 months in the immigrant detention system, Carty was released when a judge granted his claim. Carty returned briefly to Boston, where he was reunited with his family and fiancée. Now he is back in South Texas to stand trial for allegedly assaulting the Port Isabel guards. The detention center released footage of the incident to Carty’s public defender, Paul Hajjar, who says it shows Carty -- as he claimed -- being punched by an ICE officer. What it doesn’t show, Hajjar says, is Carty assaulting the guards. Port Isabel of-
ficials claim the security camera panned to another area of the dorm and didn’t record that part of the incident, Hajjar says. While awaiting trial in February, Carty joined several Texas nonprofits in launching a “Dignity Not Detention” campaign to raise awareness about mandatory detention policies, lack of legal representation for detainees, and physical and verbal abuse in ICE facilities. “The long-term effects of these detention policies -- no one is talking about them,” Carty says. “People are losing family members by the planeload.” While “catch and detain” began during the Bush administration, President Barack Obama’s Homeland Security regime has expanded the policy and pushed it aggressively to local law enforcement. Local police report non-citizens in their jails to ICE agents, who place a “detainer” on them -- meaning they will be transferred automatically to an ICE detention facility, where they are held until a judge decides whether they will be deported or allowed to stay in the United States. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano often touts catchand-detain programs as “an effective tool to identify and remove dangerous criminal aliens who pose a threat to public safety.” But these programs cast a much wider net than Napolitano likes to acknowledge, targeting not only the undocumented, but also legal residents with spouses and children who are U.S. citizens. The vast majority of people who land in ICE detention are not “dangerous” criminals. An October 2009 report by DHS showed that only one-sixth of the immigrants held under mandatory detention had committed violent crimes. “The majority of the population is characterized as low custody, or having a low propensity for violence,” wrote the report’s author, Dora Schriro, former director of the Office of Detention Policy and Planning for ICE. As the number of immigrant detainees continues to grow, the waits for hearings continue to lengthen, and immigration reform languishes in Congress, the atmosphere in ICE detention facilities has grown predictably volatile. Last October, the Observer reported on riots that broke out over conditions at a privately run prison housing immigrants in Pecos after a man in solitary confinement died from epileptic seizures. At Port Isabel, hunger strikes have continued. Last July, ICE had to obtain a court order to force-feed a legal U.S. resident scheduled for deportation to Haiti. The hunger strikes have spread beyond Port Isabel. In early February, The New York Times reported that more than 100 detainees refused to eat at the Varick Detention
Facility in New York City. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in SWAT-team attire used pepper spray to remove the men from their dorm. Some were beaten, the detainees told the Times. The “instigators,” as usual, were transferred. The most recent large-scale hunger strike at Port Isabel began a week later. In a recorded telephone interview with the Edinburgbased Southwest Workers’ Union, which advocates for immigrant rights, detainee Dion Charles said that Port Isabel officials warned the strikers that it was no use to launch another protest. Charles said that Michael Watkins, ICE assistant field office director of the facility, “said they could get a court order to force-feed us. He said there was nothing we could accomplish with our hunger strike. No one could help us.” Even so, the worker union estimates that 200 men participated. (ICE will confirm that only one person was, as the agency calls it, “voluntarily fasting.”) According to Charles, “We’d been on a peaceful hunger strike for 48 hours” when ICE agents entered the Charlie 4 dorm wing, which mostly houses legal residents with prior criminal convictions, to break it up. Two men refused to leave and were assaulted by ICE agents, Charles said. “They put handcuffs on them and were kicking and hitting them,” he said. Two other detainees, speaking to the Observer on condition of anonymity, said they’d witnessed the two men being assaulted. Deborah Achim, who oversees Port Isabel and four other ICE facilities, offers a different version of events. The men were taken out of their dorm to be questioned and examined by medical personnel, “but two refused to come out.” Were they beaten? Achim would only say that there were “no injuries.” After the sweep, 17 strikers were transferred to a privately run detention center in Karnes City, 56 miles southeast of San Antonio. “They were coercing others and discouraging others from eating and moving freely around the dorm,” says Achim. KuJoe Agyei-Kodie was one of the detainees transferred to Karnes. The 36-yearold from Ghana was in the United States on a student visa, working on his postdoctoral thesis in electrical engineering at Morgan State University, when “things went horribly wrong” in 2008, says his friend Hollie Holt of Philadelphia. A woman from Nigeria whom Agyei-Kodie had been dating accused him of aggravated sexual assault, stalking, and telephone intimidation. He denied the charges and was acquitted of all of them except for phone intimidation, a misdemeanor. “He didn’t want to plead guilty to the charge,” Holt says. “But we encouraged him to do it and move on because the D.A. was really gunning for him.” WWW.LAREDOSNEWS.COM
Within seconds of pleading guilty, AgyeiKodie was whisked away by ICE agents. “I was literally reaching my hand out in the courtroom to congratulate him, and they grabbed him and took him away,” says Holt. Agyei-Kodie and his friend had no idea that the misdemeanor to which he’d pleaded guilty was considered a crime of “moral turpitude,” a deportable offense. “What happened to KuJoe was like a bad movie,” says Holt, who along with her husband James had befriended him in Philadelphia. “It’s really shaken my belief in our judicial system.” Agyei-Kodie has been to three detention facilities. After eight months, he hasn’t received a bond hearing. He has no attorney. He knows that he eventually will be sent back to Ghana. First, he says in a phone interview from the Karnes facility, “I want to clear my name. I work in the high-tech industry. I don’t do drugs. I live a clean life. I don’t want this following me for the rest of my life.” Two weeks after the latest hunger strike at Port Isabel, reporters were allowed a rare peek inside the detention center -- with strict instructions to neither speak with detainees nor photograph their faces. Passing the guard booth on the way into the facility, one hears the sound of gunfire rattling in the distance as local police officers practice at a firing range on the grounds. The center sprawls across some 300 acres, with several World War II Army barracks being used by the immigrant detainees. On this day, the facility was housing 687 detainees, short of its capacity of 850. Since September 2009, when a guard was found guilty of sexually abusing female immigrants in one of the dorms here, only men have been housed at Port Isabel. (The female immigrants were transferred to the T. Don Hutto Family Residential Facility, northeast of Austin.) As reporters were escorted through the Alpha dorm, which houses non-criminal detainees, men dressed in blue uniforms stared at us through large, plateglass windows. Each dorm is called a “pod,” with the detainees, all under 24-hour surveillance, housed in circles around a glassed-in guard booth at the center. Inside the booth, two guards sit in front of a console that controls everything from the lights to the detainees’ TV channels. It’s like a human aquarium. Michael Watkins, the facility director for ICE, has worked at Port Isabel for 16 years. During the guided tour, he repeatedly emphasized that the center meets or exceeds American Correctional Association standards. Leading us through a freshly scrubbed kitchen, he pointed out a plastic bowl filled with chicken tenders, and macaroni and cheese. This, he said, is what the detainees had for lunch that day. “I’m not mandated to give them more than WWW. L A R E D O S NE W S . C O M
six ounces of food,” Watkins said, “but why not give them eight ounces? It doesn’t hurt me to go a little bit over and above.” Watkins was not so eager to talk about hunger strikes. “Someone might not like their meal that day,” he said. “I don’t eat every meal every day. But if someone misses a meal, of course it’s a concern, and it’s incumbent on me to have staff ascertain why people are missing meals.” After the tour, I asked Watkins and Achim whether they think it’s appropriate for immigrants in civil proceedings to be held in prisonlike conditions. They deflected the question. “We know there is going to be a new approach to detention,” Watkins said. “It’s coming, but we don’t know the details yet.” Last August, the Obama administration indicated it would make changes -- including opening more ICE facilities near larger cities, where there is greater access to courts, medical care, and attorneys. Immigrant rights activists also were encouraged by a DHS study that recommended immigrants be assessed by risk to determine whether they should be held in detention awaiting a court date, or released into alternative community-based programs. “There needs to be a risk-assessment model in place,” said Bob Libal of Grassroots Leadership, an Austin nonprofit that is part of the nationwide “Dignity Not Detention” campaign. “Many people in detention are neither a flight risk nor a security risk.” The Detention Watch Network, which advocates for reform, argues that an alternative system relying on electronic monitoring of immigrants awaiting deportation hearings would keep families together and cost just $12 a day per person -- far less than the average of $99 a day the government spends to house detainees in facilities like Port Isabel. Immigrant advocates acknowledge that changes to the “crimmigration” system would take years to implement. And the Obama administration has signaled that it will not de-emphasize detention. “We are going to continue to detain people, and we are going to continue to detain people on a large scale,” ICE Assistant Secretary John Morton declared in a press conference last August. As the number of detainees swells, so does the despair and frustration. With every day that passes in detention, KuJoe AgyeiKodie is among those losing hope in a country they once saw as a beacon of justice. “There’s no reason why I should be in mandatory detention at the maximum-security level,” he says. “If something like this can happen in a country where the Constitution says all men are created equal, then it’s really a bad sign for all of us in other countries who look up to the United States.” u LareDOS | APRI L 2010 |
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Literary Classics
Ward No. 6 by Anton Chekhov Sanity lessons from the insane asylum
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By JOHN ANDREW SNYDER
verybody that I have ever met who has read anything written by Anton Chekhov (1860-1904) is an admirer of that writer. But it’s hard to say which we admire more -- his writing or his intelligence. This guy was smart! His works -- plays and short stories -- have appeal for literature lovers and classic Russian literature fearers -- they’re not frightfully long like Tolstoy’s and Dostoevsky’s, and your eyes don’t take a beating while your brain and your sensibility get treated to rewarding Russian literary fare. This is a long short story that deals with the world in the microcosm of a Russian insane asylum known as Ward No. 6. Serious matters are discussed here, often with a frequency and intensity that is lacking outside in the “intellectual” confabs in the town squares, the houses of government, the classrooms of universities, the sidewalk
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coffee shops. Serious questions are often raised and answered, like -- “What is the good of the brain centres and convolutions, what is the good of sight, speech, self-consciousness, genius, if it is all destined to depart into the soil? Only the coward who has more fear of death than dignity can comfort himself with the fact that his body will in time live again in the grass, in the stones, in the toad.” Action is minimal, and Aristotle’s unities are observed, namely time, place, and a minimal number of characters. Five inmates, the “imbecile” Jew Moiseika; the ignorant, violent, and cruel porter Nikita; Dr. Andrey Yefimitch Rabin, hospital director, who has an intelligent, probing mind and is a doctor by his parent’s wishes, cares for his patients and had wanted to be a priest; the intelligent inmate Mikhail Averinych, with whom Rabin carries on many a meaningful dialogue; and Gromov the lunatic (who critics interpret as the author Chekhov himself).
Readers who enjoy the thriller genre where the characters skip over the surface of the waves like flat rocks will find that this thoughtful story will not make much of a splash in their minds. But to those who enjoy the subtle intellectual and psychological rewards to be reaped through hearing engaging conversation between thoughtful individuals, this story is a gold nugget. The world within the Ward No. 6 microcosm doesn’t seem peopled by characters that are very much different from the ones that can be found in the larger world outside its walls. They all have a past, a penchant for certain kinds of actions, quirks, to be sure, and most of them have opinions. The main character, or protagonist, is Dr. Rabin -- smart, engaging, and more interested in philosophical questions than in the practice of medicine. At first a caring and sympathetic doctor, Rabin eventually loses interest in his world and his work. But he continues to probe into the reality of this world through conversations with Dmitrich and Gromov. At one point, he tells Dimitrich, “If you are banished to a settlement, or even sent to penal servitude, would it be worse than being shut up in this ward? I imagine it would be no worse…. What, then, are you afraid of?” Ivan Dmitrich replied, “It is so long since I lived like a human being, It’s disgusting here! Insufferably disgusting!” Rabin replies consolingly, “It’s a good thing you have faith. With such a belief one may live happily even shut up within walls.” During frequent discussions, Mikhail and Gromov worry about Rabin’s sanity. Mikhail and Rabin were quite close friends, and they took a trip to Moscow and Warsaw
where Rabin spent all his money. When they returned, Rabin learned that he has been fired without a pension and replaced by Khobotov who made him a patient in Ward No. 6. Disconsolate, Rabin refused all offers of help from Khobotov and Mikhail and admitted he was seeing “real life” for the first time. Gromov has Nikita beat him soundly for protesting. Rabin admitted to having mistreated lunatics in the past and saw the justifiableness of his own mistreatment now. Rabin had rationalized his lax care to his patients, and that’s part of what the story is about -- should you have a conscience, be stoic, admit to the reality of suffering, or show pity? Rabin died of a stroke shortly after his confinement. Something that Rabin said during one of his earlier moments of lucidity could serve as this great story’s theme. “Free and deep thinking which strives for the comprehension of life, and complete contempt for the foolish bustle of the world -- those are two blessings beyond any that man has ever known.” u
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News
UT Health Science Center holds conference for those caring for the elderly he University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio recently held a daylong conference for doctors, nurses, professional caregivers, and families of the elderly at the D.D. Hachar Building at the UTHSC Regional Campus in Laredo. The conference, which was free and open to the public, aimed to educate medical and health professionals, as well as caregivers, on the latest research and information regarding caring for elderly patients or family members. Keynote speaker Dr. Arlan Richardson is the foremost expert on aging and director of the UTHSC’s Barshop Institute for Longevity and Aging Studies. The institute has had two recent breakthroughs regarding the use of rapamycin, an FDA approved drug currently used in patients who have had an organ transplant, to slow aging. Richardson studies how aging occurs and whether it is possible to slow it down. “The concept is, because it happens to everyone, aging is inevitable,” said Richardson. “If you look at nature, some animals age rapidly, some more slowly. There is nothing to suggest aging can’t be interrupted.” According to Richardson, in an experiment with mice, those that ate less throughout most of their lives looked younger. “We could do this,” he said, adding, “But you can’t get people to eat less themselves. Everyone asks is there a pill they can just take.” Studies have shown that rapamycin has increased the lifespan of mice up to 15 percent. Identified as one of the top 10 science breakthroughs of the last year, Richardson pointed out that this is first time anyone has found that a pill could slow down aging in a mammalian system. “The key is not to extend life but to give people a greater quality of life for a longer period, to slow down the progression of diseases like Alzheimer’s. Aging can be retarded,” he said. When asked whether we should slow down aging, Richardson asked, why shouldn’t we? He said, “If you can increase a lifespan, this could lead to a lot less frail old people. Curing a disease won’t solve the problem of frailty. What’s the point in curing cancer to allow someone to grow older if when they’re old, they’re too frail to do anything?” Also addressing frailty at the conference is geriatrician Dr. Sarah Espinoza. Originally from Corpus Christi, the native Texan attended medical school at the University of Virginia, did her residency in Rochester, NY, and did her fellowship at Johns Hopkins University. “The population over 60 is growing in this country. In five years, 15 percent of the population will be over 60,” said Espinoza. According to her, there is a shortage of geriatricians, as medical students have little to no incentives to go into it. Most students graduate with over $150,000 in debt, and it is not a well-paid field that requires extra years of study. WWW. L A R E D O S NE W S . C O M
Photo by Jacob Walters
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By MONICA MCGETTRICk
Dr. Carmen Roman-Shriver Mendoza loves geriatrics, and she enjoys the complexity of working with such an underserved population. “Frailty in the elderly refers to a lack of resilience, she said, adding “If there are two older people the same age and with the same disease who get sick, one might get well while the other rapidly declines. That inability to recover is what we mean by ‘frailty.’” Numbers show that currently 10 percent of the population is considered frail. By 2030, almost 90 million people will be over the age of 60. Of those, nine million will be frail. Said Espinoza, “This will become an epidemic because there won’t be people to help them. There will be a geriatrician decline.” She believes the key is to better incorporate education into medical school classes, to train future physicians to see subtleties they might miss otherwise. In 2000, people
over age 65 made over 25 percent of all doctors visits that year. “Really, the best way to prevent frailty is to exercise and practice good nutrition all our lives,” she said. Covering the issue of diabetes was Dr. Nicolas Musi, an associate professor of medicine in the Department of Medicine’s Division of Diabetes and the Barshop Institute. Musi, who is from Mexico City, attended medical school there and interned at the University of Miami. While in medical school, Musi developed an interest in how bodies metabolize food, and through his training he saw firsthand the effects of diabetes on the human body. “My research is about why as people age, the risk of diabetes increases dramatically. There is a linear relationship with the risk of developing diabetes, and the risk increases every year. Someone 65 years old has a 25 percent chance of developing diabetes, and by age 80 or 90, that percentage jumps to 50 percent,” said Musi. “While Mexican Americans and African Americans have a higher risk, the effect of age applies to all.” Speaker Dr. Carmen Roman-Shriver is the director of the UTHSC’s Dietetics and Nutrition program. A brand new program, it was introduced last fall and currently has three students in Laredo and eight in San Antonio. There is a capacity of 12 for each campus, and Laredo students remain in Laredo. UTHSC is hoping to increase enrollment, and applications are due May 1. Students complete coursework with their fellow students in San Antonio, often sharing lectures via teleconferencing. Coursework involves supervised experience. It is a three-year program that begins in the students’ junior year, and it is a dual degree program. Students graduate with a bachelor’s and master’s degree in Dietetic Nutrition. Careers in dietetics range from working in hospitals, clinics, wellness centers, community nutrition, and management. “There is a wide range of opportunities. Dieticians who work in healthcare primarily work with clients to obtain optimal nutritional status, mainly through health promotion. They also work with clients to change they way they make choices for diseases like diabetes and cancer,” said Roman-Shriver. Dr. Roman-Shriver obtained her bachelor’s degree from the University of Puerto Rico, her master’s from Texas Woman’s University, and her PhD from Ohio State University. She presented on the nutritional needs of the older adult. Others speakers included Dr. Joaquin G. Cigarroa Jr., internal medicine and cardiologist specialist; Dr. Lyda Arévalo-Felchas, R.N., assistant professor and the John A. Hartford Foundation’s Claire M. Fagin Fellow in the department of acute nursing care; Maria Wellisch, R.N., vice president of corporate training and quality assurance for Morningside Ministries of San Antonio, and Dana K. English, RDH, an instructor in the department of dental hygiene. u LareDOS | APRI L 2010 |
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News
Closing of bookstore inspires documentary
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By MONICA MCGETTRICK
hen B. Dalton shut its doors this past January, Laredoans Courtney Sames and Federico Cavazos were inspired to commit to film the effect the store’s closing had on Laredoans. In search of human-interest stories, the pair has been interviewing locals from all walks of life. Both born and raised in Laredo, Sames attended Sweet Briar College in Virginia. She received her MBA in digital media management. Cavazos attended Rice University and received his degree in architecture. Childhood friends, Sames and Cavazos grew up down the street from each other, and Cavazos returned to Laredo five months ago to work on their first film together. “We’re both new to the field, but the subject matter was a call to action,” said Sames. “It’s about giving Laredoans a voice. This is besides the typical debutante coverage people like to come in and pick up. There hasn’t really been a documentary about Laredo from the inside.” Added Cavazos, “Laredo is really a dynamic place. You don’t always get that until you’ve really lived here.” So far the pair has met with Mayor Raul Salinas, Councilmember Gene Belmares, and others involved in the effort to attract a new bookstore to Laredo, including those in education, librarians, students, even members of local book clubs. “We interviewed the students at Heights Elementary, people who don’t have Internet at home, members of a book club that have been together for over 30 years, and Dr. Keck (from TAMIU) has been really helpful as well. When we talk to politicians, they touch on the coverage Laredo has received. The response to
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Courtney Sames and Federico Cavazos
those articles is that it’s a little bit of negligent reporting,” said Sames. “We really want to clarify some misinformation,” said Cavazos, referring to the Wall Street Journal article that painted a picture of a Laredo filled with non-English speaking, illiterate citizens who don’t buy books. At the heart of the documentary is how the closing affected people. “It’s the tension of not having a bookstore, of finding those individuals pushing to get a new one,” said Cavazos. While Sames and Cavazos have been successful in their effort to get people to open up on camera, they are still eager to interview others who feel the loss of the bookstore. “We haven’t been able to tap into South Laredo very well,” said Sames, adding, “Everyone says online is an option, but the truth is, it isn’t an option for everyone. The nearest bookstore is 150 miles away, and that’s a 300-mile by car roundtrip. Not everyone can do that.” “The printed word is changing,” said Cavazos. “Maybe this is foreshadowing what’s ahead. We want to document these changing times. After all, this problem isn’t just local.” Cavazos and Sames encourage those who wish to participate to contact them at (956) 286-3041 or bookstoredocumentary@gmail.com. They ask Laredoans to consider how the closing of the bookstore has affected them, and they want readers of all kinds -whether they prefer paperbacks, hardcover, or read their books on a Kindle. They want all opinions. “We don’t know what or who we’re missing,” said Sames, adding, “We want to bring in all perspectives. This is not a “rah rah!” Laredo piece.” “It’s not an exposé,” added Cavazos. “It’s a comprehensive look at a unique place we know well. There is no agenda. We’re just curious.” u
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News
Center for the Arts hosts the 4th Biennial Salsa Collegiate Student Art Show
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stallation, ceramics, digital media, film, and video – is set for May 7 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Laredo Center for the Arts. One $250 cash prize will be awarded to the Best of Show. Accepted entries will also be eligible for first, second, and third place prizes in 2D, 3D, & Media Art categories. The Laredo Center for the Arts, located at 500 San Agustin Ave. coordinates, promotes, encourages and supports the arts in the Laredo and South Texas area. The Center, an independent non-profit organization, receives support from private and public sources including members, the City of Laredo, the County of Webb, and the Texas Commission on the Arts. u
Photo by Jacob Walters
he Laredo Center for the arts will host the Fourth Biennial Salsa Collegiate Student Art Show. The show, which will be juried by Jerry Cabrera, adjunct professor of art and design at Texas State University and adjunct professor of art at the University of Texas at San Antonio, is open to all college students enrolled between Spring 2009 and Spring 2010. Only original artwork completed in the last year and not previously shown at the Laredo Center for the Arts may be entered. The opening exhibit and reception -- which will feature submissions of mixed media, drawing (includes pastel and ink), painting, photography, printmaking, jewelry, sculpture, in-
VMT student work on display A visitor at the Laredo Center for the Arts admires the work of Vidal M. Treviño School of Communications and Fine Arts journalism students at their 14th annual photography exhibition. Their work will be on display in the LCA’s community gallery throughout the month of April. WWW. L A R E D O S NE W S . C O M
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News
2010 Pro Tour of Nature Photography pairs photographers from around the world with local ranchers
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By MELISSA BLAIR
p to $180,000 in prize money was on the line for the 20 U.S. and international nature photographers and 20 Laredo borderland ranches selected to compete in the 2010 ProTour of Nature Photography competition. The Images for Conservation Fund (ICF), a Texas non-profit organization, recently held their bi-annual matching party for the Laredo Borderlands photography competition that randomly matched 20 professional nature photographers with 20 ranches in Webb and the six surrounding counties of Dimmit, Duval, Jim Hogg, La Salle, Maverick, and Zapata. “For most of these ranches, it is the first time they have had photographers on their land to capture the beauty and roughness that makes the borderlands such an excellent photographic oasis,” said John Martin, founder and chairman of ICF and the Pro Tour. “By bringing in some of the world’s top nature photographers and giving them
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a month to capture their best images of the wildlife, landscapes, plants, and flowers on the ranches they are paired with, it allows them the opportunity to convey the value of nature, the importance of habitat conservation, and share the beauty and biodiversity of the region through their photographs with the world.” As part of the ICF Pro Tour kick off, a daylong conference, “Nature Photography Symposium: Ranch Nature Photography for Fun and Profit,” was held at Texas A&M International University for landowners who were preselected as part of the Pro Tour and landowners interested in having nature photography as part of their operation. There was also an educational track for amateur and professional photographers to enhance their skills and opportunities in nature photography. “Nature photography has the unique ability to preserve wildlife habitat permanently by making it profitable,” said Martin, who opened the session discussing ICF’s vision for nature photography and conservation. “Through the photography, landowners
learn the value of having diverse habitats, plants, and flowers that provide temporary or permanent homes for a variety of birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, fish, and invertebrates including insects, arachnids, and arthropods on their land. Things that they might normally take for granted.” Martin reminded landowners that nature photographers and nature watchers are willing to pay top dollar to visit their ranch to photograph and watch these creatures. By creating this type of opportunity for photographers and nature watchers, ranches create a new form of income for the landowner, a new industry in the community, and also new jobs in nature tourism for the local community through hotel taxes and money spent in restaurants and stores. Blasita J. Lopez, acting director for the Laredo Convention and Visitor’s Bureau (LCVB), discussed the services offered by the department to both landowners and photographers, and specifically those that are tour operators. “Landowners offer a new tourism prod-
uct that the LCVB could sell and the photographers would be able to tap the LCVB as a resource to decide which ranch might fit their needs,” said Lopez, who also helped ICF tie in the event as part of the Laredo Birding and Wildlife Festival. “Eventually, the LCVB’s long term goal is to assist in fostering the establishment of a new nature tourism industry to have what they in turn would market permanently as one of the varied attractions and reasons to visit Laredo.” Since conservation is such an important part of being able to offer the habitat and environment that nature photographers and nature watchers desire, the USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), whose mission is helping people help the land, was on hand to visit with landowners. NRCS can provide technical assistance without a fee to landowners to help them with conservation planning to optimize their land’s potential and develop the wildlife habitats. Continued on page 634 4
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The Mystery Customer BY THE mystery Customer
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At Sames Motor, they mean business about Tires for Life; it’s whatawait at Del Mar and Springfield; black day at TortaMex over-the-top bad service at IHOP
lack day at Torta Mex on Corpus Christi. The bread on our torta was charred and the guacamole was yukka-mole. It’ll take the MC a few years to forget, like long ago when the tacos de ternera tasted like Fabuloso, el cleaner. The MC enjoyed a quiet, delicious breakfast at Café Candela, a perfect place to catch up on reading with a good cup of coffee. At Michael’s (the craft place), management once again let the single line at the lone checkout counter pile up mightily. The manager came along, uh-ohed, and then opened another line. Shouldn’t the register clerks call for help before the angry foot-stomping customers get hot about the waste of time and poor service? Whatawait at Whataburger on Del Mar and Springfield. It was more than 20 minutes to wait for two burgers. The service was so slow that the MC was asked to park out of the line because it was going to be quite a wait for the two burgers, the kind they’ve cooked everyday all day long for decades. The MC parked elsewhere and the person at the register came out with one burger, not the MC’s order. When the clock hit 20 minutes, the MC got back in the car line and was asked to move again. The MC refused to move and then the service got really good and fast. A customer in highly flammable poly blends behind the MC looked like she was going to beat up the MC for cutting in. Actually she looked like she might self immolate as she stood between the MC and the drive-up window as the sun had gotten a bit hot. The store manager brought out the order, apologizing for trainees slowing things down. At Sames Motor Company, they mean business about Tires for Life. All said and done, the MC left the service department with new tires for just the cost of a balancing job. Much of the company’s 100-year history and generations of Sames car buyers has to do with their good service. At the Home Depot plant department, the MC found excellent knowledgeable service at the register on 3/31/10 at about 6:45. Not a kid, not someone having a chatfest on her cell phone. April 1 at the IBC Banquito on MataWWW. L A R E D O S NE W S . C O M
moros, the MC was one of 20 customers waiting for one of two tellers, and one of the tellers was permanently engaged with a yahoo on his Nextel radio making calls to his office and periodically looking at the teller’s screen, which the teller all too gladly turned to him. Clearly the customer wasn’t looking after his own money. That customer easily held up that teller 15 minutes. Every time he and the teller shared a chuckle, the MC wanted to step on both their insteps or whap them with a bank bag. When the MC had enough, she approached an IBC employee on the phone at a desk to ask why there were not more tellers. She said, “He’s in the vault.” MC said, “Shouldn’t someone get him?” She said, “Why don’t you tell the teller at the end?” The MC said, “You tell her.” She sighed big time, having to get off the line to look for the teller. Vault man took about eight minutes to sign in, cue in, tally his tally, whatever he needed to do to be a teller. If looks could kill -- both the guy making calls on his radio to figure out what to do with somebody else’s money and the IBC teller who dedicated 20 minutes to that dude’s indecision -- they’d be laid out. You should have heard the comments from other customers or counted how many customers walked in and decided not to join the line. The MC took up the slow service with Vault Man who was actually very nice, giving the MC IBC supervisor Erika Alcorta’s number. Ms. Alcorta was very empathetic, but said that unfortunately really long lines were the rule and not the exception. Long waits are not a good component of sound business practices. The MC has not had this experience at other IBC branches, including Zapata. Nor has she ever had it at her other bank, Texas Community Bank, which seems to have an HR alert system when things look backed up. Driving down Loop 20 past the airport to Saunders got a bit tricky Easter Sunday. Despite the presence of numerous police vehicles and orange cones marking off traffic going to Lake Casablanca the day and night before, by 7:30 p.m. on Sunday, both were gone. One officer with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department attempted to direct traffic in and out of the park, but with numerous
automobiles making illegal u-turns north of the exit, the danger increased exponentially for cars traveling south. When the MC informed the officer of what was going on, he merely shrugged his shoulders and said he was doing his best. When the MC suggested he call Laredo PD before someone was seriously hurt, he said they said they were done and left. The MC wants to thank the folks at Bank of America on San Dario for their improved service. While she used to dread visits to the bank, the faster and improved drive through service no longer makes her want to yank her hair out. While the MC didn’t expect highquality service at Golden Corral, she certainly didn’t expect downright hostile employees. Filthy tables and a crowded dining room made it difficult for the MC to find a seat, and when she and her friend did, a waitress ran over, smacked
her hand down on the table, and quite loudly stated that the table was reserved. When the MC asked she might find an unreserved table, the waitress just lifted one hand and gestured towards the rest of the building before walking away to resume her conversation with her friend, passing two tables littered with empty plates and dirty utensils. Needless to say, it isn’t likely the MC will ever return to GC. If you’re looking for genuine Thai food, check out Lotus on McPherson next to F-Bar. The staff was incredibly friendly, the food delicious, and an adorable bulldog greets you outside the door. Despite a simple and somewhat dark interior, the food is reasonably priced (if you’re concerned about cost, beware ordering off the menu, as the price seems to be a bit more) and definitely authentic.
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Opinion
The Laredo Broncos, an integral part of the community, but City Council doesn’t see the asset
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Opinion
Dazzled and blinded by dollar signs, cm and most of council ignore the home team
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By MONICA MCGETTRICK
n a 2008 referendum, Laredo voters, believing they were approving the construction of a baseball stadium for the hometown Laredo Broncos, approved the measure with a 60 percent vote. The City thereafter initiated a Request for Proposal (RFP) process to select an operator for the stadium, and two entities, the Laredo Broncos and Ventura Sports Group, responded. Much to the public’s surprise, the Council voted on March 15, 2010 to choose Ventura over the home team Broncos as the operator and manager of the proposed stadium. According to City officials, “The decision was predominantly based on a finding that Ventura submitted the best proposal for revenue generation.” “When the public voted for the stadium, they were voting for the Broncos to be in it,” said Broncos general manager José Melendez, who was stunned by the Council vote. Witnessing the self-congratulatory love fest that is a Laredo City Council meeting is nauseating enough in the best of times, but watching the March 15 meeting as several members stumbled over one another to prove who drooled most and best under the watchful gaze of greedy out-of-towners, well, the effect was profoundly disgusting. Such was the spectacle as City Manager Carlos Villarreal and Council member Gene Belmares defended their choice of Ventura. Despite Council members Michael Landeck and Cindy Liendo-Espinoza’s attempts to remind Council and Villarreal that Laredo voters thought they were voting to build a stadium for the Laredo Broncos, Belmares, Juan Narvaez, Johnny Rendon (who was notso-surprisingly mute throughout the meeting), and Hector “Tito” García voted for Ventura. Fortunately, as Council member Mike Garza was absent from the meeting, and five votes were needed to move forward, the issue will have to once again go before Council at an as yet to be determined meeting. Members of the United Baseball League (UBL) -- an independent league for injury rehabbed players or overlooked college players -- the Laredo Broncos have been entertaining Laredoans for the last five years, keeping the love of the sport alive after the Tecos flew the coop. UBL has six teams -- Amarillo, Robstown, Edinburg, Laredo, Harlingen, and San Angelo. Based at Veterans Field, a historic landWWW. L A R E D O S NE W S . C O M
mark with a significant lack of parking (200 spots for thousands of seats) and poor bathroom and concession facilities, the Broncos have admirably struggled through their five seasons, thus far investing $1 million in a good faith effort to be Laredo’s home team. Broncos president Melendez, a native Laredoan and former marketing director of the San Antonio Missions, is the youngest general manager of a minor league team. His experience, his education (an MBA with a minor in sports management), and his management track record with the Broncos speak to his abilities. The loyal fan base reflects the love and support of lo- José Melendez and Arnold Cantú cal baseball mavens. Despite the vote of no confidence, Me- to make sure that everybody understands lendez said he hopes that Council members what the parameters are, so that we can put will come to their senses. “We lobbied to get everything on the table. For us not to do that the new stadium on the ballot. We got it on would mean that we’re not doing our jobs.” the ballot, and then they’re kicking us out,” He then went into the first of several bizarre he said, adding “But we’re proud of our loy- tirades against “blogs,” which he characteralty to this city, and even though we’ve strug- ized as “editorial comment, not necessarily gled, we have a five-year history of financial factual information.” Clearly, the purpose of stability and holding up our commitment.” Ventura’s presence was to address the conWhile City officials claim they’re work- tent of blogs critical of the company’s busiing in the interest of taxpayers, the casual, ness practices. Even more transparent was detached handing over of the reins of a that city manager Villarreal’s support was Laredo team to an outside company that behind Ventura. has lost teams due to failure to pay rent, that One of the blogs to which Villarreal abandoned a team midseason, and that is made reference was that of Atlantic City currently being sued in El Paso for allegedly Weekly writer Pinky Kravitz who wrote his issuing stock without the approval of the “opinion” regarding the closing of Ventura’s board of overseers for the El Paso Diablos, is Atlantic City Surf baseball team. ACW is disheartening. a free weekly newspaper that covers enterBefore Ventura’s Mark Schuster began tainment, news, and sports in South Jersey. a presentation to Council at the March 15 It was established in 1974, and Kravitz has meeting, Belmares interrupted him to ask been working in television and radio broadwhy they were presenting again (they pre- cast and newspapers for over 50 years. In the viously appeared before Council on March offending “blog” entry Villarreal never di1, 2010). Villarreal interceded to say that rectly alluded to (perhaps he was referring to emails had been circulated amongst staff our excellent local blog La Sanbe’s coverage) members regarding accusations against Kravitz wrote, “In recent years, minor-league Ventura’s credibility (see above). “We want baseball game attendance has been growing.
It could have worked here with the proper owners. Don’t fret my friends; one day in the not too distant future, we’ll have a successful sports team. Goodbye, Mark Schuster, you never lived up to your promises. I am glad to see you go.” It isn’t hard to see why certain City Council members have been blinded by dollar signs dancing before their eyes. Schuster has promised a sports bar and grill, a VIP club, a merchandise store, concessions and bathrooms to accommodate 10,000, and a clubhouse that meets professional and NCAA standards. Compared to the Spartan amenities of Veterans Field, this seems like a dream, even if a costly one. Ventura’s estimate for this new stadium is $18-20 million. Yet they stated that the average cost of a 4,000-seat stadium for the last fiscal year was actually $23.7 million. By their estimates, this figure will rise to $25 million for 2010-2011. Schuster made it a point to state that whatever events the proposed stadium would host in the future, none will interfere with the Laredo Energy Arena. He proposed that the stadium park will host outdoor events that have a larger capacity than the arena. Ventura anticipates that attendance will rise from 410,000 in 2012 to 523,313 in 2016. These are heady numbers for City officials. The dollar signs began to flash brighter and brighter with the thought of thousands of people flocking to the city, checking into hotel rooms and going out to dinner while they’re here to see Bob Dylan (one of Schuster’s examples of possible artists who might want to play in our outdoor ballpark on the fetid evening of a 100° summer day.) “You need a professional group who has done this in other places,” said Schuster. Villarreal asked Schuster to address Ventura’s abandonment of the St. Joseph, Missouri team, the pending El Paso lawsuit against Ventura, and the closure of the team in Atlantic City. According to Schuster, it was never Ventura’s intention to stay in St. Joseph for long, adding it was a short-term project. He said Ventura and the city of St. Joseph mutually agreed to terminate the relationship because it was not working. Villarreal said he spoke with the city manager of St. Joseph, who indicated that there were some concerns when Ventura left town and that the marketing for the team should not have been done as it was. Continued on page 57
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Courtesy Photo
J.W. Nixon High School captures One Act district championship The J.W. Nixon High School UIL One Act Play troupe recently captured the District 31-AAAA in Calallen with their production of Tartuffe. It was the fifth straight district championship for the Nixon theater program under the direction of JosĂŠ Flores and assisted by Diego Bernal and Martin Rodriguez. Individual acting awards went to Alex Lopez for Best Actor; Oscar Cortez, Abby Fernandez, and Melissa Bracero for All Star Cast; and Bruno Gutierrez, for Honorable Mention-All Star Cast. The cast, crew, and alternates for the production were Mario Flores, Tessa Martinez, Melissa Bracero, David Barrera, Desiree Arredondo, Abigail Fernandez, Oscar Cortez, Bruno Gutierrez, Alejandro Lopez, Benito Bondoc, Evy De La Cruz, Raymundo Macias, Linda Newland, Natali Padron, Patrick Carroll, Kassandra Gallegos, Cecilia Rodriguez, Rodolfo Salinas, Katheryn Villarreal, Lisa Villarreal, Kristina Gamboa, Janie Palacios, Ricardo Pereza, and Valerie Reyes.
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Apparently a few employees at Starbucks Mall del Norte need to brush up on their company promotions. Despite large ads splashed all over the Internet offering a free brewed coffee for customers who bring in reusable travel mugs, the MC received a complaint from a regular customer who was made to wait when a female employee (tall, dark hair, glasses) disappeared into the backroom to figure out whether they were indeed offering the free coffee. When she emerged 15 minutes later, she said she wasn’t able to find the discount code. She eventually gave him the coffee, although not the one he asked for. “She did take the time to rinse the travel mug with hot water,” said the customer, who entered the store at 10:20 and left at 10:41 on April 15. It was raining cats and dogs when the MC called the City’s Animal Control office around 9 a.m. to report she’d caged a feral cat in a Have-a-Heart trap. She provided a complete address and a good description of the building. The MC called back twice to ask que paso as the caged cat was not happy with the downpour. They were on it, Animal Control assured the MC. At 11 a.m. Animal Control called to say there was no building of that description at that address. The MC went curbside in the downpour to flag down the City’s truck, and after 15 minutes she called Animal Control who called the lost officer in a vehicle, who as it turns out was 10 blocks away at the 800 block, not the 1800 block. We know AC staff are understaffed and overwhelmed by stray and feral animals courtesy of folks who don’t care for them, but how can Animal Control improve on its internal communications? Over the years, the MC has had hit or miss experiences at IHOP. Good service one day might mean horrible service the next, but the bad has ultimately beaten out the good, and the MC is wondering why she keeps going back. On April 15 at approximately 8 p.m., the MC and a friend wandered in to the restaurant for what they hoped would be a quick dinner. Pretty much sure of what they wanted, they ordered their drinks and asked the waiter for a quick minute. Ten minutes passed before the waiter came back, and then he only asked if they were ready, disappearing back to his dinner before either the MC or her friend could order. After he took their order, repeating it sev-
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eral times so as not to forget (since he didn’t write anything down), he disappeared. About 20 minutes after ordering, the waiter arrived to inform them that he’d asked about the food and that it would be right up. After all, there were people ahead. The MC looked around, spotting three other tables of people, all of whom had already eaten. Two women who arrived about 30 minutes after the MC received their food in less than five minutes. The icing on the bitter cake, however, came when the MC heard their waiter barking out their order to the chef. He apparently forgot to place the order. Ten minutes later, the MC and her friend received their food. The MC’s plate was piled high with food while her friend’s plate was full of holes, despite having ordered the exact same dish. Both were missing a crucial ingredient. When the MC’s friend said something to the waiter, the waiter took the ball and ran with it, calling over the manager and listing complaints neither the MC nor her friend brought up. When the MC tried to speak up, the waiter spoke over her, continuing his bizarre list of complaints. The manager grabbed the plates and said she’d “fix” it, but the MC snatched hers back before her food disappeared for another 20 minutes. A 45-minute wait for food was more than she could bear. When it came time to ask for the bill, the MC was sorely tempted to simply walk out the door, as she heard her waiter ask another waiter, who asked another waiter, who asked the manager to send over the bill. The manager never did. She was too busy wandering aimlessly through the restaurant while her staff asked her other staff members to fetch water, bring a plate, take an order, or refill a glass. IHOP is never organized, but this was the worst the MC has ever witnessed. No one on staff, save for a quiet waiter named Osiel, seemed to want to work, including the feckless manager. Although she did eventually pay the bill, the MC did not leave a tip, which is unusual. No matter how bad the service, she likes to keep in mind that the behavior of one individual should not affect the tips of all. However, it appeared to her that none of the staff at IHOP, with the exception of Osiel, were deserving of anything other than disapproval. If you haven’t met the professionals at Splish Splash car wash, you’re in for an excellent surprise. Robert Lopez and staff come to your locale to take care of business. Great service, great product, a handshake, and a square deal. u
Photo by Jacob Walters
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Earth Day Farmers Market Laredoans explored the various items available at the Laredo Main Street Farmers Market on Earth Day, hosted by the Keep Laredo Beautiful program.
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Courtesy Photo
Laredoan honored at UT Honor’s Convocation Armando Manuel Lopez, a 2006 Nixon High School graduate, was recently honored along with other outstanding scholars at the University of Texas 2009-2010 Honor’s Convocation. Lopez, a student in the College of Liberal Arts is the son of Armando and Mary Lou Lopez.
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Feature
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By LEM LONDOS RAILSBACK
t our NSSA meet in Hawaii’s newly renovated Outrigger Waikiki on the Beach Hotel last August, I visited with two of my dearest friends, Bill and Pat Kirtley. Both are accomplished researchers and authors. Currently, Pat is finishing her big fish tale for children, and Bill has submitted his volume on dignified departure. In Hawaii, Bill and Pat reported on pirates, particularly those of the Caribbean. About a month later, the New Yorker ran a short piece on “pirates,” which I thought made an interesting political point but suffered from shortage of actual research on real pirates. I suggested to the magazine that if it really wanted to know about pirates, then it should secure a copy of Bill and Pat’s work for publication. Predictably, the magazine apparently wasn’t all that interested in pirates, after all. As of this date, Bill is serving onboard a US war vessel cruising, among other places, the coasts off Somalia. I just hope that Bill is not going to attempt a face-to-face interview with one of those pirates of that area. During our visitations during the Summer Seminar, Pat and Bill explained that they had spent their honeymoon in Hawaii. And they bragged on the old Moana Hotel. In Pat’s words, Actually, Bill and I did not stay there on our honeymoon in 1966. We could not afford it. The only reason we were in Hawaii was because Bill’s aunt gave us the tickets for a wedding present. We were so broke we restricted ourselves to two meals a day and tried to make one of them a buffet so we could take some back for a snack the next day. We left for HI on Christmas Day. We stayed at a tiny motel that did not even have glass windows in the rooms. Our tickets were a package deal and included several tours and luaus, including one at the Ala Moana where we celebrated New Year’s Eve and welcomed 1967 dancing under the banyan tree. Each time we return to HI we go back and have high tea under that same tree. Bill and Pat’s descriptions of the old hotel, the giant banyan tree, and the beachfront were rich in colorful detail. I decided that I would stay on after the seminar so that I could visit the Honolulu Zoo -- of which I am now a “Sustaining Member” -the Aquarium, the Hale Koe (where I usually buy Hawaiian seeds that I plant in my Laredo garden), the park with many monuments to WWII heroes, and Bill and Pat’s Moana. After I had visited the other sites, I walked back up through the beachfront hotel section. Suddenly, from two blocks WWW. L A R E D O S NE W S . C O M
The open sea hotel
away, I saw the majestic Ionic columns that reminded me of the ancient Greek temples: I knew that I had found Moana. As I got closer, I saw that the temple spread out on both sides with two great Renaissance wings. I walked through the open lobby past the check-in, a restaurant, a bar, a souvenir shop, and all the way out to the beach in back. Dozens of beach lounges, dozens of groups and solos, and dozens and dozens of swimmers enjoyed the beach and the sunny ocean. I retraced my steps back to the front door and then throughout the lobby to study the beautiful woodwork and beautiful structural assets. I felt that I had found, indeed, a temple. As I found my way back onto the beach, I looked over to the right and discovered Pat and Bill’s giant banyan tree. I felt almost kin to the place. In two hours at Moana, I ate a meal, drank several sodas, and gazed at a vast diversity of humans, bathing suit styles, foods, drinks, shiny beach views, far-off vessels, and surfers. I vowed that upon my return to Laredo, I would research how such a beautiful place had come into being. Today’s Ala Moana Surfrider Hotel was opened in 1901 by Walter Chamberlain Peacock in order to attract tourism to a neglected section of the city, the section we now call “Waikiki.” Peacock, originally from Lancashire, England, was a wealthy Honolulu landowner. (The W.C. Peacock and Bros., had introduced into Australia an improved disc
The Moana Hotel’s banyan tree plough -- still known today as “the Peacock plough.” Corbert, the younger brother, had managed the Australian enterprise for about three years before he returned to Hawaii.) In 1896, Walter incorporated the Moana Hotel Company. He hired architect Oliver G. Traphagen and the Lucas Brothers contractors and spent $150,000.00 to establish his Moana -- in Hawaiian, “open sea” or “ocean” -- as the first hotel in Waikiki. It featured the first electric powered elevator in Hawaii. Evolving through several different ownerships and massive expansions and additions and renovations, Manoa retains its majestic Greek-Renassiance-Victorian-
Hawaiian features with grace and elegance. Manoa is listed on the National Register of Historic Places; it has received the President’s Historic Preservation Award and many other honors. And it has hosted many celebrities. From 1935 to 1975 the live radio show Hawaii Calls was broadcast from Monoa’s courtyard. Webley Edwards, the program’s creator and master of ceremonies for 37 years -- until a nearly fatal stroke in 1972 -- introduced Hawaiian music to middle America. While I was fishing among the 600,000+ www links on Hawaii Calls and related items -- e.g., “78 RPMs & Cylinder Recordings,” I downloaded and played “Blue Hawaii.” I recognized it as one of the old instrumentals that I had first heard on a buddy’s radio in a slop chute during basic training at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego in 1954. The nostalgia -- sounds from an ancient world -- was tearing. Of worldweb.com Travel Guide’s “Top 10 Architectural Wonders in the USA,” I have seen the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, the White House, the Empire State Building, and now the Moana Surfrider, the “First Lady of Waikiki,” the “Open Sea Hotel.” By the way, Bill and Pat’s majestic and magical Indian Banyan tree, planted in 1904, still stands over 75 feet high with an expanse of over 150 feet. What a beautiful living monument to have high tea under. u LareDOS | APRI L 2010 |
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Inside the Checkpoints By jay j. johnsoncastro, sr. Jay J. Johnson-Castro, Sr. is a human rights activist and founder of www.FreedomAmbassadors.com.
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A letter to Congresman Cuellar
e are writing to you as our 28th District Congressman, urgently calling for your help in attaining a moratorium of and an intervention on the proposed private exploitation of the waters of the Río Grande watershed. On the Mexican side of the international boundary, the Río Grande has historically been called the Río Bravo. In this correspondence, we refer to this 1885-mile long international river as the Río Grande-Río Bravo. The watershed of the Río Grande-Río Bravo covers eight states in our two countries. In the United States, that would include Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas. In Mexico the watershed includes Durango, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, and Tamaulipas. For their agricultural, industrial, commercial, and residential existence, millions of US citizens and millions of Mexican citizens have historically relied on the natural hydrological flows of the Río Grande and its tributaries, from its headwaters in the Colorado Rockies all the way to its mouth as it flows into the Gulf of Mexico. Due to drought, just a few years ago, the waters of the Río Grande-Río Bravo dried up before it could reach the Gulf. In this era of global climate change, the likelihood of more droughts seems imminent. In this past year Texas came out of the worst drought on record. Yet, new threats are looming on the horizon for the Río Grande-Río Bravo, especially on the Texas-Mexico portion of the river. The Mexican side is the fastest growing region in Mexico. Similarly, the Texan side of the Río Grande is the fastest growing region in the United States. Such growth will continue to put a lot of added pressure on the waters of the river, both in the terms of consumption as well as contamination. As it is, according to American Rivers, the Río Grande-Río Bravo is one of the most endangered rivers in North America. According the World Wildlife Fund, it is the seventh most endangered river in the world. The newest endangerment is upon us. This threat is somewhat stealthy, as it is under the radar of most state, federal, and international agencies and organizations. For over a century, the State of Texas has regulated its waters based on the archaic “rule of capture,” or “right of capture.” Essentially, the biggest pump and pumper owns the water that can be extracted. Based on this “rule,” an appli-
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cation has been made by a private party to extract 47,000 acre-feet per year out of the Río Grande-Río Bravo watershed. An acre-foot is equal to roughly 326,000 gallons of water. The application is from Clayton Williams Jr.’s Fort Stockton Holdings to the Middle Pecos County Groundwater Conservation District (MPGCD). The application proposes to extract 41 million gallons of water a day, or about 15 billion gallons of water per year -- for 30 plus years -- out of the watershed. If approved, the permit would allow 45 trillion gallons of water to be taken out of the watershed as a result of this one application alone. Others will follow. The final decision will be rendered on May 18, 2010. With all this in mind, the Río Grande International Study Center (RGISC), a non-profit organization based at Laredo Community College on the banks of the Río Grande-Río Bravo, along with our sister organization in Mexico, El Centro Internacional del los Estudios del Rio Bravo (CIER), has allied with the City of Fort Stockton. We are also allying with not only the citizens of Pecos County but also the millions of citizens of the international community who reside within and depend upon the river for their existence. On their behalf, we are appealing to you to help us prevent such an unprecedented action that would be taken without adequate science. We request that you please utilize your office and position of authority to call for a moratorium on any extraction of waters from the watershed. Approval of such extraction of billions of gallons of water a year should not be granted. There is a need for time -- time for an adequate hydrological study to be performed that would reveal what impact such a diversion away from the international watershed would have. Our concern is that there is insufficient science that would show the impact on the natural hydrological cycle of the watershed, on which millions of bi-national citizens downriver depend. Under the 1944 Treaty with Mexico, the waters of Fort Stockton and Pecos County are within the geographical boundaries of the International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC). Never before has a massive amount of water been extracted and transferred out of the watershed and IBWC boundaries. This is a precedent-setting case. How would this impact the spirit and intent of the 1944 treaty? Continued on page 444 4 WWW.LAREDOSNEWS.COM
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Profile
Carlos Picard: This Gaucho engineer is a true international Rotarian; growing up in Patagonia was a windblown experience.
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By JOHN ANDREW SNYDER
uropean settlement in the Río Gallegos region of Patagonia continued until the mid 1880s, when the Argentine government created a naval base there. The town officially became the capital of the province of Santa Cruz in 1904. Any appreciable influx of people wishing to live there didn’t take place until the years 1912 through 1920, when Falkland Islanders and Chileans were invited to farm the area as homesteaders. The settlers became sheep farmers, and Río Gallegos became an important sheep exporting center. Laredoan Carlos Picard was born in Río Gallegos on Nov. 16, 1925, when Santa Cruz was still considered a territory and had a population of about 2,500. “Sheep farming was about the only commercial action going on down there in those days,” Picard said, adding, “and Río Gallegos, Puerto San Julian, and Puerto Deseado were practically owned by the Swift Meat Packing company and other companies who owned slaughterhouses and exported all of the meat to England. In 1930, for example, they exported two million metric tons, shipped at 52 degrees Fahrenheit, over the Atlantic back to Britain. Picard’s early childhood was a happy one that left in his memory many indelible impressions of the landscape, the climate, and the weather. “Patagonia is the southern part of Argentina, from the Río Negro downward,” Picard said, adding, “It includes five provinces -- Neuquén, Río Negro, Chubut,
Santa Cruz (the furthest south on the mainland, about 15 miles from the Straits of Magellan), and Tierra del Fuego, an island just south of Santa Cruz Province.” Immediately to the north of the Río Negro lie the provinces of Mendoza, La Pampa, and Buenos Aires. “The grass is never green in Santa Cruz because the cold wind from the South Pole dries it up,” Picard said. “Also, there is a westerly wind of about 50 mph but sometimes gusting to 80 mph, that makes a ‘woosound,’ and this wind blows almost constantly,” he added. “My father was in charge of a small telephone company that took care of all the lines to the estancias (large ranches or land holdings). Sometimes these lines stretched for 150 miles -- the largest estancias were owned by big English companies.” Picard recounted, “There was more wind in summer, but when the wind combined with snow in the winter, there was almost always trouble of some kind with the power lines or relay stations,” Picard recounted. He said that during extreme winters when the snow was unusually heavy, the sheep, for whom Nature has not provided any protection from the weather except their wooly coats, would gather together down in the gullies, or cañadones, which were 15 to 20 meters deep and approximately 150 meters wide. Sometimes the snow would completely cover them up. “All you could see was what looked like a white creek, which was really the snow-filled gully containing the flocks of sheep. You could actually walk
The city couple enjoying a day at an estancia
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right over the top of that white creek, and you could tell where the sheep were by the breathing holes at the top that the sheep’s warm breath had made. The sheep could live for one month covered up like that, thanks to their wool,” he said, adding, “I remember the very cold winter of 1938, when the estancia that my father and I were visiting lost 200 sheep in the cañadones. That same winter, one of the estancias closer to the Andes lost 8,000 sheep. There is always more snow the closer you get to the mountains. But there are good winters and there are bad winters.” Picard continued, “For about six years during my younger days we had very severe, snowy winters, and then the wind would turn around and blow from the north during the summer for two or three days at a time.” He added, “The Chilean side of the Andes is more forested than the Argentine side, but the land is very fertile on both sides. I’ve eaten delicious pears and apples from both sides of the mountains, he said.” Public schools existed at that time in that area, although mandatory education was not yet a government requirement. Many parents opted to send their children to schools run by the Salesian Sisters of St. John Bosco, also known as the daughters of Mary Help of Christians, but Picard’s father had a strong preference for public schools because he felt his children should ‘rub shoulders with all kinds of people, including those from less well-to-do families.’ Picard recalled that his daily schooling lasted for four straight hours, either in the morning or in the evening, depending on the season of the year. “The peak of summer is during January and February, and maybe early March, but we attended classes from September through May,” he said, adding, “Winters were too cold, and the schools had no central heating, so we enjoyed ice-skating a lot during the winter months.” As a member of the British Club in Río Gallegos, Picard’s dad impressed one of the local bankers who offered him the job of first accountant with the bank, which his dad accepted. “I already knew when I was seven years old that I wanted to be an electrical engineer, from having watched my father during our trips out to the estancias,” Picard said. In 1936, Picard’s father was invited to become a member of the Río Gallegos Rotary Club by the district governor, who was also the principal of an elite industrial school in Buenos Aires. The nearest high schools to Río Gallegos were in the
Carlos Picard neighboring state of Chubut, north of Santa Cruz. At the district governor’s suggestion, Carlos took a plane to Buenos Aires to enroll in this school. While in Buenos Aires, he lived with his paternal grandmother. Picard completed the coursework, passed the exams, and went to work as a technician. It was now 1943, and within a short time, he was called up to serve 15 months of military service by the system of mandatory conscription. “I divided my time between guard duty and technical work; I enjoyed being a soldier,” Picard said. After terminating his military service, Picard attended the University of Buenos Aires, where he earned a degree in electrical engineering in 1954. Once he received his degree he became the chief engineer at his own company that manufactured television components in Buenos Aires. Continued on page 444 4 WWW.LAREDOSNEWS.COM
Feature
Shimmying her message to Laredo
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By DANI RASCHEL JIMENEZ
hen I first saw Bel Cantu dance in 2006, only one word flew from my lips: “Wow.” With a shimmy of her shoulders and a toss of her hair, she yanks goose bumps from your arms. But you won’t catch Bel bragging. In fact, like a true artist, she feels she has so much more to learn. “I’m still growing as a dancer and am nowhere near being a ‘professional,’” she said. We met at Starbucks on Del Mar, where I learned Bel isn’t your typical “I’ve-been-dancingsince-the-womb” dancer. She was in her early 20s when she began her career at Laredo Community College in 1996. Flamenco and Mexican folkloric classes interested her, so she enrolled. That’s all it took to hook the young girl. The next semester she signed up for ballet, jazz, and tap. So how did a traditional dancer become involved with not just another dance form but with a culture so distant from Laredo’s? Bel took a flamenco workshop, in which an instructor introduced simple belly dance movements to the participants. Intrigued, Bel began researching on her own. She bought videos, browsed traditional belly dance garments, and undertook anything and everything Continued from page 38 The City of Fort Stockton is a small community of some 7,500 people. The total population of Pecos County is about 20,000. Alone, they are hard-pressed to handle the magnitude of this challenge. The residents there already have a historic natural spring, Comanche Springs, that is dried up most of the year due to high impact pumping of the aquifer for irrigation by the same businessman who now wishes to export water out of the watershed to Midland for profit. The City Council of the City of Fort
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that could bring her closer to understanding the form. This meant traveling outside of Laredo to find workshops to hone her skill. She visited Dallas, Austin, and Corpus Christi as well as California, Florida, and Monterrey, Mexico. Bel set down her coffee cup and sighed, a sure sign she was about to go down memory lane. Tearing up, she remembered meeting Neena and Veena, the Belly Dance Twins, superstars in the world of belly dance, for the first time in Dallas. Bel wiped her eyes. “It was an exciting and emotional experience for me,” she admitted. If there were ever any doubts in her mind about bellydance, the Dallas workshop quieted them. Bel had found her calling. Emerging styles and techniques motivated her to become a perpetual student. To date, she’s studied under 30 belly dance professionals and has learned to include props in her dances -- bells, wings, candelabras, feathers, scarves, tambourines, etc. When asked when she considered herself ready to teach belly dance, Bel smiled. “I never really felt ready,” she answered. She was already teaching flamenco and Mexican folkloric dance when she decided to add belly dance to the mix. “Maybe I wasn’t ready at the
Stockton has drafted a resolution. Together, the City Council and RGISC appeal to you to intervene and prevent Río Grande-Río Bravo waters away from almost 10 million inhabitants within the IBWC boundaries would be to divert water away from the fastest growing region in our two countries that already depends on this river. This action is being done for one entity’s profit. It is also being done so that other areas outside the watershed region can experience economic growth. That such an action would jeopardize the growth along the border seems discrimi-
time, but years have prepared me,” she stated. She also wanted to let Laredoans know a new art form was available to them. It hasn’t been easy. Outside the city limits, many women, all body sizes, all ages, all races, all socioeconomic statuses, shimmy and shake their ways across dance floors to Indian rhythms. But for some reason, women in Laredo feel they need to have the perfect body -- a model’s body -- to take a belly dance class. It’s a dream of Bel’s to end that myth. “We should enjoy our ‘imperfect’ perfect bodies,” she said. “Just enjoy yourself. Art is art. Don’t let the ‘details’ of your body affect your art.” Bel focuses so much on what belly dance can do for others, but what has belly dance given her? “Selfconfidence,” she replied, leaning forward and looking me straight in the eye. “Courage, the chance to meet so many beautiful women, the opportunity to travel and to learn from my students.” She recalled competing against 12 women for an award at a belly dance workshop. Many times, when people attend these workshops, they go in groups, so people have friends who will vote for them. Bel travels alone. School and work obligations keep her son and husband in Laredo. Bel knew while she was performing that the chances of her winning were slim, but still she danced. Afterwards, while shopping in the makeshift bazaar, various attendees came up to her and told her that they loved her technique and that they voted for her. Bel was surprised. Someone voted for her? Although she did not win the competition, she felt satisfied knowing that people believed in her art. Before the interview ended, I asked if she ever danced for her husband? Bel laughed. “Never,” she said. “You’re dancing for you.” She readily agreed that belly dance is a sensual art and advised that the beauty of the dance is not in the face but in the movements. Want to become involved? Bel offers hour-long technique classes for “mujeres valientes” every Tuesday and Thursday at 7 p.m. If you’re curious but not ready to take that first shimmy, Bel’s next recital will be Saturday, June 5, 2010 at the UISD Student Activity Complex. u
natory against those who live on the USMexico border. We are also writing the IBWC, the Council on Environmental Quality, Office of the White House, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of the Interior, US Fish and Wildlife, the Army Corps of Engineers, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, the Texas Water Development Board, and Texas Parks and Wildlife. We are writing all the members of Congress who have border districts. We are writing the governor of the State of Texas as well as all the mem-
bers of our Texas Legislature that represent the border. In Mexico, we are writing the Comisión Internacional de los Límites y Agua, Comisión Nacional del Agua, Secretaría de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales, and the governors of the five states within the watershed. Will you please intervene and help us attain the moratorium and necessary hydrological study? Respectfully, Río Grande International Study Center u
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Feature
Little League Baseball: An old institution for the younger set is setting up for a new season Kiwanis player Humberto Abitú fondly recollected
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By JOHN ANDREW SNYDER
ittle League Baseball has evolved in the 39 years since I left it behind and went on to the next level of competition, which was called Pony League at the time. I’m not exactly sure of this, but I think that Little League Baseball (LLB), that traces its American origins back to 1947 in Pennsylvania, got started up in Laredo in the late middle 1950s. I would call that time the probable Golden Age of Little League in Laredo, mainly because of the terrific young talent that was out there on the field, but also because of those great baseball benefactors, true believers, managers, volunteers, parents, and fans that made those twi-night doubleheaders so wonderful to participate in or attend. I hope that Laredo history will never forget the names of Dr. Al King, Carlton Whitworth, Nate Colbert, José M. “Joe” Guerra, Tommy Leyendecker, Bob Rosenbaum, Chester Long Sr., John Snyder Sr., Pepe Moreno, Nacho Wolff, Oso Montalvo, George Haynes Sr., Fidel Hale Sr., Baltazar Ramos, George Granados, Peter Farias, Sr., Johnny Valls, Mario Tijerina Sr. (Mr. Umpire), Dave Leyendecker (first live radio broadcasts), Lester Clouse, Bill Ellis, Antonio Perez Sr., Pascual Martinez (concession stand manager), and so many more dedicated men and their wives and families who gave so very much of their time, love, and spirit to the hundreds of baby-boomer youngsters who needed and so craved a wholesome, character-building form of positive interaction to pass the long summer days in play, camaraderie, and sheer fun. The Laredo Kiwanis Club was an on-board sponsor from the get-go and produced legendary performers like
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very pure-hearted. He could have struck me out easily, judging by the way I was trembling in the batter’s box, but he let up and let me hit a weak grounder back to the mound. He fielded it and lobbed it softly back to the first baseman for the put-out. Abitú was the best pitcher, the best catcher, and the best hitter, the best player. No tribute from my trembling pen could ever do this great boy justice. At a recent Kiwanis meeting, former Kiwanian Sabás Zapata provided some updated statistics on Little League Baseball. He said, “With over one million adult volunteers and nearly 2.7 million players, LLB is the largest organized youth sports program in the world.” He cites that, as in the earlier days, the leagues are “staffed by individuals who participate of their own volition.” Zapata said that Webb and Zapata counties are included in District 34, which “had 2,970 young women and men that participated with the help of 604 volunteers.” Zapata is the current District 34 administrator. According to Zapata, it is the broadened scope of Little League that offers the most inclusive opportunities for youth participation and community service, as compared to earlier incarnations of LLB. Indeed, Little League Baseball is a world phenomenon today, and it is so diversified that it is subdivided into two divisions -- Baseball: Tee-Ball, Minor League, Little League, “Pilot” division for ages 12-13, Junior League, Senior League, Big League; and Softball: Little League Softball, Junior League Softball, Senior League Softball, and Big League Softball. Zapata said that background checks were mandatory for LLB sponsors and volunteers. He added, “Annual training in coaching clinics, umpire seminars, and district administrator training are readily available.” u
2009 Astros
Humberto Abitú and Horacio Acevedo Jr., among others. I spent five full years as a Yankee in the American Little League from age 8 to age 12, and though we won only one championship (when I was 12), I don’t regret a single dusty, sunburnt moment. I learned how to win gracefully, lose honorably, and persevere no matter what. I played five more years of organized baseball -- two as a Noon Lion, one as a Martin Tiger, and two as a Nixon Mustang, and we won a championship each and every year. I’m proud of my six championships in a row, and I doubt that such a record has been matched very often around here or anywhere, but it was the ’61 Little League victory with the Yankees that was the crowning glory of my baseball career, although the real victory belonged to those guys I just mentioned, many of whom are looking down on us from God’s Grand-
stand right now, not remembering if we won or lost, but judging mentorlike if we learned our lesson on “how you play the game.” God, please always keep these people in your company, as we keep them in our hearts. But I also have in mind another set of immortals -- the players, my comrades in uniform -- God bless them all. And here’s a special toast to the great ones that I saw perform, played with, or played against -- Gilberto “Gato” Gonzalez, Humberto Abitú, Grady Vela, Tony Rubio, Sal Hale, Joe Gutierrez, Victor and David Sauceda, Robbie Snyder, Johnny McKendrick, Johnny Webber, Oligario García, George Medina, the Haynes brothers, Beto Volpe, Ernesto Dovalina, Mike Hodges, Larry Stroll, Jimmy Powell, Horacio Acevedo Jr., and Roy Nieto. I hope we’ll all be together again someday inside of some diamond star. Ironically, the most talented one of us all, Humberto Abitú, was the first to leave us. I know this much, though, that his grandmother and his cousin (who was my student at Nixon High in the early 80s) back in Laredo loved him and missed him very much over 20 years after his tragic passing. I hope that some of you readers remember him, too. He was a hard-luck kid if there ever was one, very tough and
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Continued from page 40 Col. Juan Perón had come into power in Argentina in 1946, and immediately began a campaign of nationalization of all the railways and the steel industry. The coming of Perón to power stimulated high school students to become very politicized. Kids aged 16 or 17 were very well versed in politics. The longer Perón remained in power, the stronger he got, and through his labor secretary, he controlled the sindicatos or unions. “Perón put personal friends of his or other persons he could control in charge of everything,” Picard said, adding, ”and pretty soon he bought the railways from the British and had also bought out the telephone companies with, and this is my guess, a lot of money changing hands under the table. My father was a man of ethics and moral principles and wouldn’t personally sell out to Perón. Perón ordered the government to take over my father’s company for a very small amount of money. Everybody ended up either a Péronist or a Radical.” Picard’s own company changed hands, and with his livelihood taken from him, he worked as a technician with the army for two years before becoming a teacher at the Otto Krause Industrial School in Buenos Aires where he imparted theoretical knowledge as a professor for seven years.
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On a visit to Cleveland, Ohio in 1960, a businessman who had toured Picards’ company in Buenos Aires and remembered Picard’s splendid mechanical drawing skills, hired him on the spot to be vice president for production and engineering at his manufacturing plant. Picard first became a Rotarian in Cleveland. The company eventually sent him to Brownsville to oversee a plant in Matamoros across the border, where the Rola Company produced components for Zenith television sets. After one year in Brownsville-Matamoros, Picard came to Nuevo Laredo to oversee two plants for Videocraft, but peso devaluations and labor relations made the going rough, and the plants were taken over by a firm from Chicago. Three months later, Picard came across the border to Laredo where he ran the highly successful Jensen, Inc. plant, which was part of a conglomerate that also owned Hunt’s and Swift Meats. “I understand that they eventually sold their assets for $1.4 billion,” Picard said. Picard retired as an engineer as president of his division at the age of 60. He is proud of his two beautiful daughters, Monica and Jacqueline. His wife María Alicia is a retired LISD art teacher and a creative artist in her own right. He has been a proud and active member of Rotary International and the Laredo Rotary Club since he came to Laredo. u
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Opinion
Preparing Hispanics for the immigration reform debate
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By JOSÉ ANTONIO LÓPEZ
ftentimes, I receive emails from good-intentioned friends concerning President Obama and health care reform. While they are meant to be funny, the tone of most of them tends to be crude and hateful. Of course, some of these people find it hard to accept the fact that President Obama fulfilled his American dream and won the election fair and square. Add the tension at the angry Tea Party rallies, and a disturbing picture begins to emerge. The email-ers and rally organizers claim their right to free speech and assembly against government spending. And yet the problems they’re complaining about took years to develop. That makes their conduct now a bit suspicious. That is why there are detractors who question the motives and timing of these noisy activities. The critics may have a point. For one thing, they ask where “tea party” indignation was at the time the real spending blunders were being committed. Encouraged by their vocal national leaders, rally attendees scream they want “their country back” and “real America back.” What do these phrases mean? In my view, the subtext is unmistakable. It is coded language used by bigots to announce that minorities should not fill high-level positions. The proof is in the vile rhetoric in rally speeches, the hateful signs, and the racist-laced tirades toward the Black president. If you think that the rowdy anti-health care rallies were loud and nasty, it was just a practice run for the approaching immigration reform debate. It is at that time that the racism is sure to spill over to the Hispanic community, especially here in Texas and the rest of the Southwest. The question is: Are Hispanics united to defend themselves against the coming Tea Party attacks? Violence against Hispanics is sure to increase throughout the country, but those in the Southwest need to be especially watchful. There’s reason to believe that the immigration reform rallies may very well revive old prejudices against anyone who “looks” Mexican on this side of the border. In fact, hateful attacks against Hispanics have already started. Screams of “wetback” and “go back to Mexico” were directed at Hispanic congressmen during the health care bill debate. No doubt such insults were yelled by those who are
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totally ignorant of Spanish Mexican history in the U.S. Adding to the tension, selfappointed trigger-happy border vigilantes are looking for an excuse to increase the level of their panic. Whether by design or not, negative anti-Mexican news reporting adds fuel to the fire and is already part of everyday television programming. The homeland defense media blitz is scary and meant to make viewers afraid. For example, in all but the same breath, TV commentators and opportunistic politicians constantly warn viewers of al Qaeda terrorists, drug traffickers, and illegal Mexican workers as part of the war on terror. News clips of would-be plant workers being pursued by the Border Patrol are often accompanied by images of terrorists overseas waving weapons in the air. Many reports end with a view of the U.S.-Mexico border in the background and scenes of the streets of Laredo and similar border towns filled with Hispanics. With the constant visual barrage of harmful images being shown 24/7, the viewers are forced to connect brown-skinned residents on both sides of the border with brown-skinned al Qaeda terrorists. These subtle images tend to say more than a thousand words. To understand the complex nature of the attacks, Hispanics must get to know the coded language being used. For example, “Voter ID” is the 21st century equivalent of the “poll tax.” It is an intimidation attempt to keep Hispanic citizens from voting. “No amnesty” is meant to scare not only illegal aliens, but also to question the legitimacy of legal immigrants and U.S.-born Hispanics. Those who push “conservative values” are intolerant of vital social programs for minorities, the elderly, and the poor. The “We want our country back” crowds want to turn the clock back to the 1950s “Happy Days” era, complete with their despicable “No Mexicans Allowed” signs in restaurant windows and public places across South Texas. The “homeland defense” term is meant to demonize the U.S.-Mexico borderlands and residents on both sides of the border. Its real purpose is to eventually militarize the border, placing its residents in virtual martial law. That is why those of you on the border must confront the tea party-ers head on. Border tea party supporters are easy to pick out. They are basically hypocrites who for years (generations) have been hiring maids, gardeners, and workers from Mexico and now complain about illegal immigration. Tea party-ers who own busi-
nesses have enriched themselves for years at the expense of those they now consider undesirables. Flaunting their cynical indignation, tea party-ers are poised to attack us in the guise of protecting our borders and are making Hispanic ethnicity their target. It is time to unite and fight back. What can we do? Join established groups fighting for our civil rights (LULAC, the American GI Forum, etc). Spread the word that there is need for alarm, preparation, and a plan of action. Be alert. Stay informed. Participate in the debate; write letters to the editor; enroll in adult education classes. Vote. Make your elected representatives accountable. Learn about your civic rights and duties, such as jury duty. Become involved in your children’s education; make sure they graduate. Be a good role model. Be proud of where you came from; never stop learning about your rich history. Instill the Spanish Mexican heritage passion in your children. For over 170 years, bigoted mobs have persecuted our Spanish Mexican ancestors in the Southwest. They have come and gone in a variety of names -- vigilantes, los rinches, KKK, patriots, border minutemen, and now, the latest version, Tea Party-ers. They possess the same extremist narrowminded agenda. For example, the more vocal Tea Party members tend to blame all the country’s problems on the passing of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. That may be the reason that their hateful rhetoric incites white supremacist militia type groups to commit violent attacks against anyone in the U.S. who looks differently than they do. So, be ready for those anti-health care reform rallies in South Texas towns to rapidly turn into anti-Hispanic immigration reform rallies. It is expected that Tea Party members will renew intimidation tactics of the past. No doubt, they will be wearing their loaded side-arms to terrorize those they consider a weaker group -Hispanics. If you think that the threat against Hispanics will never happen, it has happened before. If you think that you’re not affected because you are a Hispanic who speaks English fluently, think again. If you think that because you were born here, only illegal aliens
need to worry, the militia-types have already proven that they are unable to tell the difference. If you think that you have made it in mainstream society, think of the shameful caste system that for generations has ostracized most Spanishsurnamed people in the Southwest just because of the color of their skin. If you are looking for a wakeup call, consider the two paragraphs below. Arizona has passed the most radical anti-immigrant laws in the country, including unrestrained harassing of brown-skinned U.S. citizens. The action is reminiscent of the early 1900s anti-Mexican hysteria. Law enforcement officials will be able to stop anyone whom they believe is in the country illegally. When asked what that meant, the Maricopa County sheriff who has been leading the effort arrogantly said that only those people who “look like illegal immigrants will be stopped…” When pressed to explain his answer, he smugly implied that his police force would be alerted by “clues”, including the way the “suspects” are dressed, the way they look, and if they are heard speaking Spanish. The Arizona sheriff reflects the typical anti-Mexican attitude that has existed for over 150 years. The fact is that the U.S.-Mexico border is a permanent Mason-Dixon Line where families are still split in two. Little did the U.S. realize that when it put an invisible line in 1848 in the middle of the Republic of Mexico taking half of its territory, it was in fact establishing an impractical border. In reality, the border sets up a “borderlands” region with its people looking exactly alike on both sides. Sadly, Mexican-looking U.S. citizens, many whose families have been in the U.S. longer than the sheriff’s, will be challenged just for how they look. In short, White Northern European-looking people are unlikely to be stopped by the police. On the other hand, the “class apart” (White, brown-skinned, Native American-looking citizens) will be stopped and asked for identification. The bottom line? The kinds of horrible stories of intimidation we heard from our parents and grandparents are about to be repeated. Poor and defenseless Hispanics along the border (unsure of their rights) will be especially vulnerable to humiliation and attacks on their dignity. That is why we must unite and stop this “racial profiling” in its tracks. Continued on page 48
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Courtesy Photo
Fun with the Easter Bunny Two young Laredoans joined Laredo Public Library staff member Diana Gallegos (as the Easter Bunny) for the library’s Easter Pary.
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Continued from page 46 Finally, the immigration reform debate promises to turn very ugly, very quickly. If this latest mob wins, it will embolden far-right officials at state level institutions to continue to bias their decision-making against minority citizens. If they win, all U.S. citizens who “look” Mexican will be treated with suspicion. If they win, the inclusion of early Texas history in the school curriculum will be in jeopardy because it will continue to be seen as irrelevant by those same officials in power. We cannot let that happen. That is why Hispanics must make it their mission to unite against those who are preparing to attack our heritage. The threat is real. The situation should be familiar to all Hispanics. The odds are the same as our ancestors faced many centuries ago in a narrow swath of Northern Spain. Here were the conditions then: If the last threads of Spanish willpower give out, the Muslim army wins and completes the full take-over of Spain. The invasion of Europe is next. If they hold
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fast, our Spanish ancestors can begin to reconquer their land from the invaders. History tells us that the Reconquista took over 700 years. Because the Spanish people were united, the Muslims were driven back to their lands, never to threaten Spain or Europe again. We need that sense of commitment to win this time! We can repeat our own form of a reconquista. Not as a means toward land reclamation. (We are in the union to stay because Spanish-surnamed soldiers, marines, and airmen have shed too much red, white, and blue blood in the name of the U.S.A.) Rather, a reconquista of honor by re-establishing our Spanish Mexican heritage as a respected panel on the U.S. national tapestry. (José Antonio ‘Joe’ López was born and raised in Laredo. He has written two books -The Last Knight (Don Bernardo Gutierrez de Lara Uribe, A Texas Hero), and Nights of Wailing, Days of Pain (Life in 1920s South Texas). He is the founder of the Tejano Learning Center, LLC and www.tejanosunidos.org , a web site dedicated to Spanish Mexican people and events in U.S. history.) u
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Mercy Ministries
Grant allows Mercy Clinic to continue cancer outreach
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By rosanne palacios
ercy Ministries of Laredo (MML) was recently awarded a $300,000 grant from the Cancer Prevention Research Institute of Texas for a peer to peer cancer outreach program called Trae a tu Comadre. “This funding will allow us to continue our health care model which includes education, early detection through screening and most importantly, patient compliance,” said Sister Maria Luisa Vera, CEO of MML. “The grant secures this particular part of our outreach by partially funding promotora salaries and educational materials over a 24-month period.” Trae a tu Comadre will continue to provide breast, cervical, and colorectal cancer outreach and education to the Mercy Clinic patient population. Ninety-nine percent of Mercy patients are uninsured and 88 percent fall below the federal
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poverty guideline, which allows a total of income of only $22,050 for a family of four. The funding will enhance and fund our existing outreach and education program that promotes screening. Screening is a means of detecting disease early in asymptomatic people. For nearly all cancers, treatment options and survival are related to stage of diagnosis, which is generally characterized by the anatomic extent of disease. Detection of cancer at an earlier stage yields better outcomes. In general, larger primary malignant tumors have a higher incidence of metastasis to regional lymph nodes and to distant sites, thus making treatment more extensive and invasive, and decreasing survival. Adequately screening populations for the most detectable cancers (cervical, breast and colorectal) improve survival and quality of life, and decrease mortality and disability. The program includes (1) promotorabased outreach through platicas in the community and at MML clinics, and
through direct telephone contact with patients who are flagged as past-due for their breast, cervical and colorectal cancer screening; (2) mailed reminder cards and telephone calls to patients when the date for their screening tests approaches or when they are already past due; (3) scheduling screening appointments at point and time of contact in the community; and (4) peer-to-peer motivation using a snow-balling strategy getting individuals who have been contacted to bring another person from their family or community who also needs screening services. In addition, MML will partner with local television stations to broadcast messages using PSAs produced and tested by the Cancer Therapy and Research Center at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio – Institute for Health Promotion Research. Finally, these messages will be reinforced at every touch point with the cases by clinical nurses, case managers, and promotoras using evidence based, culturally appro-
priate bilingual educational materials. Thank you Laredo We spent the last few weeks visiting Rotary and Kiwanis Clubs and the Women’s City Club. We were always greeted open arms and warm smiles. The purpose of our visit was to share our stories so that members might become ambassadors for Mercy Ministries. Thank you to the leadership of the many clubs we visited -- Jim and Nancy Williams and Catalina Zaragoza at the Laredo Rotary Club; John Kidd, John Ulbricht, and Danny Guevara at Daybreak Rotary; Vicki Garcia at Seven Flags Rotary; Jorge Ceballos, Ricardo Villarreal, and Mario Peña at Next Generation Rotary; Memo Cavazos and Pastor Miguel Zuniga at the Kiwanis Club, and members of the Women’s City Club. Finally, we wish to congratulate the Laredo Rotary Club, the father of all Rotaries in our community, on their 90 th Anniversary. Thank you for your years of service. u
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News
Stop wrangling and read a good Western, like The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky by Stephen Crane
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By JOHN ANDREW SNYDER
hink of Stephen Crane (1871-1900) and you immediately think of The Red Badge of Courage, and you feel sorry for the author because he lived such a short life and wasn’t able to write more great books. He died when he was 28 years old, and I doubt that there has ever been any New Jersey jokes told about this precocious son of a Newark Episcopalian minister. He was born when his mother was 45 years old, married a cathouse madam, and died in the Black Forest. For an encore, he published two works posthumously, Whilomville Stories and Wounds in the Rain. Crane’s ancestors on both sides of his family arrived in British America in the mid-1600’s and fought on the American side in the Revolution, some of them attending the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia. He admiringly remembered his father as a clear-headed thinker and competent writer of sermons, and his mom, who was a member of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, and who doted on young “Stevie,” was fondly remembered by Crane as a remarkably open-minded woman of her generation. Most of the remainder of his upbringing took place in Port Jervis, New York, under the tender care of his mother and his sister Agnes, who was 15 years his senior, while his father, who spent the last decade of his live as a preacher at Drew Methodist Church in Port Jervis. Although he was a sickly child, he had taught himself to read before he was three years old, and had written his first book by the time he was four. When Crane’s father died in 1880, his mother sent him to live with his brother Edmund at Port Jervis, after which he moved in with another brother, William, and his wife Helen, who were both journalists with the New York Tribune, beginning a period in which Crane, too, became fired-up with journalistic ambitions and literary aspirations beyond the confines of the newsroom. In 1891, Crane published his first novel -- Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, which he followed up in 1895 with The Red Badge of Courage, set during the American Civil War, and a book where practically every single scene takes place in a cloud of smoke. Maggie is considered the first work of American literary Naturalism, while Badge is an internationally popular work of Real-
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ism, Naturalism, and Impressionism. For the record, Realism deals with ordinary events and the conflicts of ordinary people -- rich, poor, or in- between; Naturalism is a type of realism that highlights the pain of suffering of mankind and the cruelty and callousness of many people and institutions; and Impressionism is an artistic device for emphasizing nuance and highlighting special points of interest or artistry that the author wants the reader to notice. In 1898, right after the outbreak of the Spanish-American War, Crane published two medium-length works -- The Blue Hotel and The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky, a story divided into ten chapters. In The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky, Marshal Jack Potter of Yellow Sky, Texas had just gotten married in San Antonio to an average-looking girl of the lower echelons of the society that existed in those days of the late 1800s, and the newlyweds boarded a train heading westward to Yellow Sky. This was when West Texas and the Stephen Crane rest of the West were still quite empty, unsettled, and uncivilized, and the few towns out there were mostly small and half lawless, peopled by a potpourri of individualists from anywhere and everywhere, mostly unskilled opportunists with nowhere else to go and no definite plans except to try to eke out a living by hiring out on the hardpan farms and ranches in the land of the cactus patch and the rattlesnake, or by grubbing around in the dusty excuses for towns, where cantinas, desperadoes, and prostitutes usually outnumbered churches, books, people who could read or write, or “decent folk” of any description. Yellow Sky was one of these places, and Marshal Potter and his San Antonio bride had boarded a luxurious Pullman car at the beginning of Part 1 to begin their honeymoon ride out to the young lawman’s do-
main. Crane describes to us what he wants us to know about the young bride through the observations of the couple’s fellow passengers in the train car -- very Impressionistic. Thus, we find out that the girl’s hands show signs that she has cooked a lot (she’s not a high-class lady with servants), and they sensed that she was unused to be dressed up in fine “duds.” Most of the other riders seemed to enjoy “staring at them with derisive enjoyment,” and even the negro porter got into the act by affecting superior manners and a sophisticated turn of speech and phraseology. The probing questions of the other riders who were having a delicious time at the expense of the honeymooning couple, established that this was the bride’s first train ride. One of them took it upon himself to point out to her all the Pullman car’s special fittings and adornments as if he had designed them and owned them himself, talking with a tone that a more sophisticated person than Potter’s new wife would have taken for gallingly rude superiority. The author describes the rude man’s attitude as “the most unconquerable kind of snobbery.” The train eventually swung within view of “a little ribbon of mist where moved the keening Río Grande,” near which was located the village of Yellow Sky. Tension is rapidly building up within the Marshal, and he grows increasingly restless and anxious about something. He was thinking of his “duties” as a lawman. The yellow dawn broke as they arrived, and a makeshift brass band and a rag-tag group of well-wishers cheered while accompanying the newlyweds part of the way to their adobe abode. The wife noticed her husband’s consternation on the walk from the station to the house. He was offhandish in a way that outwardly denied that he was in-
wardly nervous or preoccupied. “The freshcut bank of the Río Grande circled near the town, and there could be seen beyond it a great, plum-colored plain of mesquite.” There were “drummers,”( traveling salesmen), Mexican sheep-herders, and an assortment of run-of-the-mill locals in the the Weary Gentleman Bar, the local watering hole, along with the bartender and his barking dog. It was a typical day in this Texas bordertown. The conversation in the bar was haphazard until it began to revolve around a gun fighter named Scratchy Wilson, who was itching for a fight. He was apparently a formidable opponent in a showdown, and no one envied Marshal Potter’s job of having to calm this dangerous man down, or facing him down in a gun battle. There was mention of a previous gunfight between the two that ended with Wilson getting shot in the leg by Potter. But everyone feared the consequences for Potter this time, if indeed he had returned from San Antonio yet, because “Wilson is a terror when he’s drunk.” The next thing that happened was that Scratch Wilson holding two drawn blue-black revolvers was marching down the main street shouting challenges “that rang against walls of silence.” It was midnight, and the chance presence of a stray dog in the street drew two shots that kicked up the dust and sent the dog scurrying away. But when Wilson got to Potter’s house to call him out, he practically bumped into Potter himself, Potter and his wife, that is, who were just getting home from the station. Potter was unarmed but unafraid, while the nonplussed gunslinger made a few threats before holstering his guns and calling off the feud forever. Some have said that this story is partly a happy-ending parody of typical Old West tales of bravado, heroes, badmen, and gunsa-blazing showdowns. It certainly seems that way to me. But Stephen Crane breaks way from the formula and is more realistic -- the bad guy isn’t all that bad, the good guy isn’t a fast-draw hero, the hero’s gal is just the girl next door, and the effect of the whole story is a bit of pleasant reading that doesn’t try to rile you up for or against any causes, social disgraces, legal anomalies, or historical injustices. Crane was writing during the Gilded Age, and this delightful little story was written with gold-leaf ink. u WWW.LAREDOSNEWS.COM
Texas A&M International University
TAMIU SIFE named regional champs exas A&M International University (TAMIU) Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) took top honors in two regional competitions and are preparing to represent the University at two upcoming national competitions. Earlier this week, the group competed in the SIFE regional competition held in Dallas and were named regional champion, beating out 50 other groups. “SIFE presented seven projects which focused on the 2009/10 academic year. The goal was to implement sustainable programs which focused on market economics, success skills, entrepreneurship, financial literacy, environmental sustainability, and business ethics,” explained Gerardo Alva, director, Office of Student Affairs. For those seven projects, TAMIU SIFE invested more than 1,500 hours and impacted more than 62,000 individuals. TAMIU SIFE was also named regional champion at the “Sam’s Environmental Challenge,” sponsored by Sam’s ClubLaredo. “SIFE worked with El Mesón de San Agustín and Alicia Ruiz Elementary for the ‘I-TransGreen Project.’ The Project focused on helping the two groups become more environmentally friendly and adopt cost-saving measures. “SIFE spent more than 200 volunteer hours on the project and assisted in a cost savings of more than $500 a month for El Mesón and an average of $25 a month for families participating through Alicia Ruiz Elementary,” added Alva. The group will compete in the national championship April 22-23 in Bentonville, Ark., at Sam’s World headquarters. TAMIU SIFE was founded in 2004 with seven charter members. The team is comprised of 21 members representing eight different majors and four countries, with a business advisory board that includes 14 community leaders and executives. For more information on TAMIU SIFE, contact Dr. Rivas at arivas@tamiu.edu or 326.2484. For more information on student organizations at TAMIU, contact the Office of Student Affairs at 326.2280 or student_ activities@tamiu.edu or visit offices in Student Center, room 226. University office hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. WWW. L A R E D O S NE W S . C O M
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By STEVE HARMON
TAMIU SIFE Champs Members of Texas A&M International University Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) recently took top honors at two regional competitions. Pictured, sitting (L-R bottom row) are TAMIU faculty, staff and student SIFE members: Dr. Robert Evans, Elena Solano, Heidi Arias, Kesia Rodríguez, Yuri Robles, Linda Mercado, Holly Herrera, Juan García, Jr. Standing (L-R top row) Baldemar Lopez, Edwin Martínez, Dimas Chacon, Diego Garcia, Nelson Figueroa, Miguel Chavez, Luis Rodríguez, Rene Rodríguez, Ivan Molina, and Juan Maldonado. TAMIU ‘Financial Aid Saturdays’ help students, parents plan for future An opportunity for parents and high school seniors to get assistance in their search for higher education financial aid is being offered at TAMIU every Saturday through May 8. Assistance is offered from 9-10 a.m. and from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. at TAMIU’s Dr. Billy F. Cowart Hall, room 116. Sessions are limited to 20 students or parents per session. Interested persons should pre-register by calling 326.2908. Attendees can get assistance with completing required Financial Aid forms (FAFSA) in either English or Spanish. Organizers recommend that sessiongoers bring a list of colleges or universities the student is interested in attending; the student’s driver’s license and number; alien registration card if the student is a legal permanent resident; student/parent/ guardian PIN number for FAFSA application; and the student/parent/guardian federal income tax return. High school students can contact their school counselor or financial aid advisor for further assistance and should also check with selected colleges and universities for application deadlines. The next dates for the TAMIU sessions are April 24, May 1, and May 8. Information is also available online at councilforeducationalexcellence.com. u
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Kiwanis Club Notes
Kiwanis Club Notes
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By JOHN ANDREW SNYDER
or over 65 years the Laredo community has benefited immeasurably from the tireless efforts of the membership of the Laredo Kiwanis Club. This public-spirited service organization has sponsored hundreds of projects down through the decades for the benefit of local youth causes, civic betterment causes, informational political awareness projects, economic stimulus campaigns, international cooperation and understanding initiatives, educational opportunities, and public dialogues. Kiwanis espouses and promotes positive public service at each and all of its regular Tuesday meetings, where the club regularly hosts proponents and officials of various and sundry business-oriented and charityoriented organizations, including sponsors, volunteers, and supporters of downtown revitalization, international cooperation, po-
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Memo Cavazos: bright architect, Kiwanis program director, and youngest member litical and religious dialogue, banking and ranching development and diversification, not to mention the media, law enforcement, the arts, and sitting government officials and candidates for office. The open-mindedness of the membership and the good-humored dialogue that comes into play after guests’ presentations have been made and respectfully listened to by the Kiwanians in the audience, is like a breath of fresh air that speaks highly of a community like Laredo that prides itself on its traditional role as a host city with friendly, open-minded people whose doors are always open to new ideas from a variety of sources. Also, anyone who views Laredo as a place where all the food and most of the dialogue go down better with a little salsa picante, a little homespun philosophy, an occasional nod to the Man Upstairs, and an occasional poke in the ribs from a true compatriot “just to keep you on your toes,” will not be disappointed at the
Kiwanis Tuesday meetings at the Holiday Inn Civic Center’s Covey Lounge. Hey, Kiwanians are real people -- doctors, lawyers, bankers, school superintendents, college professors, real estate experts, insurance people, people of the cloth, forwarding agents, educators and education administrators, journalists, stock brokers, and professionals from other fields of business and public service. Guillermo (Memo) J. Cavazos Jr., a bright young architect on the staff of Cavazos and Associates, is currently serving as Kiwanis program director. Memo is a 1996 graduate of St. Augustine High School and a 2002 graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, where he earned a Bachelor of Architecture degree. “I guess I’m one of those lucky people who get to do what they really love for a living. I like my profession and I love my work.” He has been working with his father “Willie” Cavazos since the winter of 2002. Cavazos has personally designed Arturo L. Benavides Elementary School in San Ygnacio and Hal’s Landing, and has also been part of the team that produced the designs for Tuscany Luxury Townhomes Phases 1 & 2 and Texas Community Bank Headquarters. A Kiwanian since 2007, Cavazos assumed responsibilities of program director a year and a half ago from Robert Chapa, who had held the post for 12 straight years. “I passed the baton to Memo a little over a year ago, and he has done a fantastic job of bringing speakers to the table,” Chapa said, adding, “I think that Memo’s involvement in civic clubs and organizations affords him the opportunity to interact with people affiliated with different groups and professions, and this enables him to bring those people who serve our community over to communicate with us at Kiwanis, who in turn can learn to better benefit our community. Pastor Miguel Zuñiga, Kiwanis president, said, “Memo is the youngest Kiwanian that we have. He is very mature for his
Guillermo (Memo) J. Cavazos Jr. age (32), and he is a very responsible person and a great role model for other young people.” Kiwanian Luis de la Garza, certified real estate appraiser and a member of the Texas Appraiser Licensing and Certification Board, said, “Memo brings youth and energy to the club. On top of showing responsibility for arranging and setting up our speaker schedule, his good judgment has helped Kiwanians become better informed on community affairs.” Drew Claes, sometimes known as the resident Kiwanis philosopher, said, “Memo is doing a fantastic job of setting up the programs. He brings in well-informed speakers on topics of current interest. He’s intelligent and seems to experience a certain comfort factor when speaking before the assembled group.” u
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Reflections of a New Texan By DENISE FERGUSON
Denise Ferguson is newly arrived in Laredo. A Rhode Islander by birth, she and her husband retired to Laredo to be near their family. She can be reached by email at denise291.1@juno.com.
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American politicians: the unpatriotic, the corrupt, and the incendiary
hen I arrived in Houston in 2003, the last thing on my mind was to become acquainted with the political figures of the city or state. However, as I picked up the daily Houston Chronicle I happened to notice a picture of Governor Rick Perry. I couldn’t help but register the “wow” factor when viewing a profile much more handsome than any political figure I had seen back in Rhode Island. (Texans might view that as a sorry situation for Rhode Islanders). Politically speaking, Gov. Perry ran “under the radar” that year as far as making any statements that raised a red flag in my mind. He seemed to adhere to typical Republican tenets and appeared to lead a respectable life. At the same time the name, Houston mayor Bill White jumped out from the pages of the Chronicle because I happen to have an extended family member by the same last name. (Do they clone middleaged men named “Bill White” who have white hair and extremely congenial personalities?) What particularly astounded me about him were the consistent favorable reports I read in the Chronicle, having been told back in the day that large newspapers usually favored Republican politics. I also couldn’t help but notice the wonderful rapport Mayor White had with people of all races and religions. An interval of 21 months occurred in 2004 to 2006 when I lived in the beautiful state of Wisconsin where loose grass is brushed off the sidewalk daily by the residents and people get up at 5 a.m. to plow the snow. The only political observation I made in Wisconsin was the monthly hauling off of crooked politicians to court. On returning to Texas in 2006, I was pleased to see the familiar, kindly face of Bill White, and I noted that Gov. Perry, despite a few new wrinkles, was more glamorous than the Wisconsin politicos who didn’t look too great wearing handcuffs. Gov. Perry did get my attention in April of 2009 when he was reported saying something about seceding from the Union in response to his concern about Democratic Party actions. I wanted to see if this report was taken out of context or in an unusual fit of temperament or possibly when after having indulged in an alcoholic beverage. WWW. L A R E D O S NE W S . C O M
According to the Internet, Gov. Perry said at a Tea Party gathering “… We’ve got a great union. There is absolutely no reason to dissolve it. But if Washington continues to thumb their nose at the American people, who knows what may come of that?” While the full comment was not terribly strident (but apparently repeated in subsequent speeches), does this indicate that members of two important Republican families representing the two largest states have had at least quiet moments of thinking about secession? (The other being Todd Palin, the husband of ex Governor Sarah Palin -- “kill, kill, kill” of Alaska.) Is it not possible to have civil, patriotic, reasonably intelligent discourse anymore? If not, you know what we used to say back in the day -- “Love it or leave it.” And what about that “executive order” by Gov. Perry to require (with parental opt outs) that young Texas females be inoculated with Gardasil (produced by Merck, a contributor to political campaigns) to protect against some virus strains which cause cervical cancer? So, Gov. Perry is the one who is running on “no governmental interference?” By the way, why not order the potentially painful STD injection for males? Gee, back in Rhode Island, the only trouble we had with politicians was corruption. One Governor, Sundlun, was brought to the attention of the police on an occasion when he shot a raccoon in his back yard in a residential neighborhood. Police were called again when Sundlun illustrated his contempt of the working class by banging on the door of a CVS store after hours where a frightened, young female college student employee was alone in the store. The reason? He and his wife were throwing a party, and they had run out of silverware. Rhode Island mayors are a little more problematic. Mayor Buddy Cianci was once charged with a felony after attacking his exwife’s boyfriend. And later, he was charged with felony extortion in connection with Providence snowplow gigs. He was recently released after five years in prison and returned to his job as a radio station talk show host. My spies in Rhode Island tell me he is thinking of returning to public office, where Providence citizens would probably welcome him with open arms. Not to be outdone, the residents of the
pleasant town of Cumberland, where I lived as an adult, decided in the 1990s to rid themselves of the long time “Good old Boys” network politics and show how enlightened we had become by electing a young gay lawyer, a divorcee with an ex wife and three children. Citizens of Cumberland were impressed with his credentials and the devotion of his family and voted him to be their mayor. (I didn’t vote for him because he looked like a crook.) However, his first term went well, and I decided that my concerns were without merit. Wouldn’t you know that during his second term, he was charged with larceny in connection with the city library funds and coffers. In addition, he had hired his “boyfriend,” a beautician, to a responsible public position. (Oh well, back to the “Good Old Boys”.) But what is it with mayors confiscating or destroying publicly owned reading material? LareDOS has had a story to tell in con-
nection with Mayor Raul Salinas and media property. It is not a big deal to me if politicians swear or curse or yell at each other. (I lived near Providence for many years.) Actually, a group such as the Tea Party could have developed into a decent watchdog group to record the abuses of both parties. Instead they so far seem to have affiliated themselves with ex-Gov. Palin, whose recent battle cry was “Don’t retreat --- reload!” There are signs of hope, however. Gov. Perry has been reported as saying, “Once you cross the line of passionate to threatening, then you’ve got problems.” And, hopefully, someone put a bee in Palin’s bonnet. She appears to have revised her “Don‘t retreat… reload” quip. Can she remain non ballistic? Do people who threaten the dissolution of America or the safety of fellow Americans deserve to lead its citizens?
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Laredo Community College
LCC is ‘exemplary’ choice for transfer students; Summer, fall advisement-registration is launched By STEVE TREVIÑO JR. AND ROGELIO SANCHEZ JR.
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ollege students with economical disadvantages and those who are the first in their family to attend college can go far at Laredo Community College, according to a detailed report released recently by the Pell Institute for the Study of Opportunity in Higher Education. In the Pell Institute’s “In-Depth Study of Six Exemplary Community Colleges in Texas,” LCC is recognized as one of those higher education institutions offering the programs, tools and commitment that low-income and first-generation students need to launch their college education and then be able to transfer to a university to obtain a bachelor’s degree or higher. The other community colleges featured in the study are Northeast Texas, Southwest Texas, Trinity Valley, Tarrant County (Southeast Campus), and Victoria College. The community colleges were singled out based on the “higher than predicted transfer rates of low-socioeconomic status students. Given the higher than expected transfer rates exhibited at these schools, we assumed that these institutions were successfully preparing their students, academically and socially, for completing a degree at a four-year institution,” the report states. The strategies for success that the selected community colleges utilize are highlighted in detail in the report. The report noted that there are three common campus characteristics found in the six community colleges, including a structured academic pathway, a student-centered culture, and a culturally sensitive leadership. LCC President Dr. Juan L. Maldonado said that the college is proud to be showcased in the study. “Laredo Community College has a long and rich history serving as the starting point to a college education for students from all walks of life,” Maldonado said. “This study validates that Laredo Community College is doing
New writing center named for English instructor Laredo Community College officials unveiled the new Manuel Blanco Writing Center, named after 50-year LCC English instructor, Manuel Blanco In attendance were LCC President Dr. Juan Maldonado, Manuel Blanco, English Department Chair Maria Garcia, LCC board member Cynthia Mares, and student tutor Ivette Lopez. the right job to help students overcome obstacles and prepare them for the challenges of obtaining a degree from a university.” The study, which notes that more than 600,000 students are enrolled in 67 community colleges in Texas, stated “the need for a strong, culturally-sensitive leadership committed to involving all segments of the campus community in a data-driven discussion of current practice and, based on an analysis of what does and doesn’t work, the development of an action plan to foster a student-centered transfer culture and improve transfer rates for all students.” The report was done by Abby Miller, project manager and research analyst, and Chandra Taylor Smith, director of the Pell Institute. The Pell Institute is recognized as being the first research institute to specifically focus on the challenges affecting educational opportunity for low-income, first-generation students and students with disabilities to help policymakers, educators and the public improve educational opportunities and outcomes for these populations. The study was made possible with support from the Texas Guaranteed Student Loan Corporation through the Public Benefit Grant Program. u
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As for the El Paso lawsuit, Schuster said, “There has been a suit that was filed against us in early January, and for anyone who’s ever been in business before, you know that anybody can sue anyone for any reason. It is a lawsuit without basis, without merit, and it’s frivolous. We fully intend to have this in court and show it to be meritless.” García and Mayor Raul Salinas asked what the basis of the lawsuit was. The suit contests whether the general partner, Ventura Sports Group, had certain rights to issue new stock. There are several complaints to the suit, but that is the core contention. Schuster was equally defensive about the Atlantic City Surf. He said Ventura did not bail on them, they bailed on Ventura. Schuster said Ventura invested millions of dollars in Atlantic City, and were promised a new ballpark. The stadium was to be built on a valuable 130 acres (according to Schuster, worth over $1 billion). When the city’s administration changed, they did not build Ventura the stadium and did not renew their lease. So Ventura ended their season. Once again, Villarreal chimed in to defend Ventura, “In all due fairness to Mr. Schuster, some of the information that was circulated was in a blog, and a blog is your own personal opinion,” he said, comparing Kravitz’s entry to an anonymous letter. Villarreal’s vigorous defense of Ventura and eschewing of blogs critical of Ventura begs the question, in all due fairness Mr. Villarreal, if you want Council to be fair to poor Ventura, who were promised a stadium but bailed when the going got rough, why not be fair to the Broncos, who stuck it out when they did not receive their stadium after they were initially promised one? Melendez and UBL did not abandon Laredo. Schuster, under the guise of being “fair,” subtly implied that Melendez and the Broncos were the source of critical emails to City staff, but said that Ventura did not want “to sling mud.” Even if the blog allegations against Ventura were just the personal opinions of a 50-year veteran writer and resident of Atlantic City, is it not the City’s duty to thoroughly and not begrudgingly investigate every aspect of a company that may potentially be handed close to $20 million of taxpayer money? To give credit where credit is due, Council member Landeck stepped up to the plate (forgive the baseball analogy) to defend the Broncos. He reiterated the views shared by numerous Broncos fans and citizens who had gone before Council to express their opinions regarding the project, including former sports writer Salo Otero. Landeck WWW. L A R E D O S NE W S . C O M
reminded Council that the public voted under the belief that the ballpark would be built at around $8-15 million and for the Broncos. If Council wanted to move in a different and more expensive direction, Landeck proposed the issue go back to the public. His question to Ventura was whether they would be willing to work with an $8 million stadium. Schuster replied, “To answer your question as directly as possible, I think we’re good listeners. Throughout the process of this RFP, we have listened to everyone about what their thought was, what the ballpark would look like, what is the image, what is the wow factor, so we just didn’t pick the $18 million number out of a hat. We basically listened to what was important to you all, and that’s how we came up with the number. We have not built an $8 million ballpark, and an $8 million ballpark could be built. As a matter of fact, Grand Prairie came to us originally and said we have $8 million for a ballpark. And through our presentation, through some of the things they wanted to accomplish and we wanted to accomplish, that’s how it got to where it was.” Reader, be mindful that in the information Schuster presented, the Grand Prairie ballpark ended up costing $20 million. Landeck, understandably unimpressed with so indirect a response, once again asked Schuster, this time more succinctly, whether or not Ventura would work with an $8 million stadium, to which Schuster replied, “I don’t believe so.” On several occasions Villarreal restated that the money is already allotted specifically for the purpose of building a stadium. What he seems to have forgotten is that while the money may already be in a fund for the ballpark, the money is taxpayer money. Is it prudent to waste it simply be-
that what they’re agreeing to isn’t necessarily what Laredoans voted for. Council member Belmares weighed in to add that Council never really looked at it like an $8 million project. He said that as he visited other ballparks, he realized it was naïve to consider building an oversized Little League field with lots of parking, an assessment Villarreal agreed with. To Villarreal, $8 million gets Laredo a “slightly more sophisticated” stadium than Veterans Field. He said he was under the impression that they’d get a more unique set-up to bring in a fan base larger than what they have now. He said, “Remember, the money is there. We don’t have to wait another year.” Council member Liendo-Espinoza spoke up and said that Ventura’s response, “I don’t believe so,” indicated unwillingness to compromise. Belmares, however, saw the City’s partnership with Ventura as a forgone conclusion. He said, “If we’re partners, how do I cram something down someone’s throat? If my partner says I’m not willing to work with an $8 million stadium, he’s basically telling you this isn’t going to work from a business perspective.” He supported Villarreal’s opinion that Ventura was the logical choice for revenue generation, despite the fact that Ventura admitted to giving up when the going got rough at least once before. It’s not a long shot to guess that some of the Council members, no doubt following Villarreal’s lead, had their minds made up long before the March 15 meeting and long before John Bryant of the United Baseball League and Melendez made it to the podium. When Bryant began, he immediately apologized for not having a presentation. His principal desire, he said, was to answer the Council’s questions. Melendez said they were not advised to prepare a presenta-
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cause it’s there? He stated that Laredoans, by voting for the stadium, have given the project a green light, regardless of whether they thought it was for the Broncos or not. Landeck, on the other hand, seemed to be trying to get the council to see
tion as Ventura and Schuster had been. “In 2006, the Broncos began playing at Veterans Field. We began with the understanding that we’d get a stadium,” he said. The league paid a huge premium for the first year in order to win the bid, and they struggled over the next few years, operat-
ing at a deficit at a ballpark with insufficient parking and facilities. “We’re not here to convince you of a particular stadium project,” he added. “We want to stay on as operators. We like to play baseball,” Bryant said, reminding everyone what was at the core of the exchange -baseball in Laredo. “Fine stadiums can be built for the $8 million price,” Bryant said, citing the one in Edinburg as an example. We can manage it, design it, and build it. We’re here to play baseball. We’re not going anywhere. Our reputations are at stake. We can pay the $100,000 in rent. We are proud of our loyalty to the city and to the fans.” Melendez, who seemed somewhat shell shocked by the proceedings, and no doubt seeing the writing on the gilded wall, stepped forward and said, “We hope you make the right decision for Laredoans.” It was hard not to contrast the earnest optimism of Bryant and Melendez with Schuster and company. Unable to make the leap between what the Broncos have done and what Ventura failed to do in Atlantic City, Council member García spoke up and implied that because the Broncos are struggling, the taxpayers have had to pay to keep the team from folding. Bryant, whose six UBL teams all pull their own weight financially, responded by reminding García that they have only struggled because of infrastructure restrictions at Veterans Field -- that any team would. According to Bryant, UBL and the Broncos took on the struggle willingly because the goal was to work towards a new stadium. He, like countless Broncos fans, did not think their work at Veterans Field should work against them but rather as a mark in their favor. Liendo-Espinoza and Council member José Valdez Jr. agreed. “We owe it to the Broncos. They’ve been here, stood by us through the last five years. And they have struggled because Veteran’s Field is not in tip top shape,” said LiendoEspinoza. “You shouldn’t be penalized for the lack of things that we have not been able to give you,” said Valdez, adding, “The stadium is for the community, too.” Then spoke the unintelligible and heretofore silent Council member Juan Narvaez to ask what guarantee Melendez and Bryant could give Council that if they were given the new stadium that they wouldn’t struggle. He said, “You da tenant. We’re the landlord. You supposed to show us that you really want to work, that you want to bring some events to really show you want to work with us.” Continued on page 60
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Maverick Ranch Notes
By bebe & sissy fenstermaker
A beautiful spring at the Maverick Ranch around. I recommend his theory. Unfortunately he didn’t raise my rooster -- I did. I have to watch him every moment I’m in the chicken house. He has the rotten habit of sneaking up behind me and spurring me as fast as he can. There’s a triangle scar on one leg where he hit me with both spurs and his beak right through my jeans. I don’t know how he managed to live after that one -- I guess I was racing for the medicine cabinet. Our usual chick order with Ideal Poultry in Cameron, Texas is never usual. Our neighbor and his daughter try out new breeds, never worrying whether they are good layers or not. They go for unusual feather color, form, top-knots, feathered feet, and size. They’ve had chickens with upside down feathers, curly feathers, and feathers that covered the eyes (the hawk and/or fox got those right away). I think
Photo by Jacob Walters
Our good neighbor is raising everyone’s chicks again this year. He swears he loves the job and I, for one, am truly happy he does. Raising baby chicks is not so much difficult as intense. You’ve got to be there daily to change out the newspaper in the box, make sure their water is clean and sufficient, and that they haven’t slung all their food out of the feeder. Chicks love to stomp over perfectly good feed, leaving it filthy and mashed into the paper. They have to have heat maintained overhead so that they are just warm enough and comfortable. Several years ago our neighbor added a special touch to his chick-raising with 24-hour classical music on the radio. This has led to more laid-back chickens. Sissy has four of these hens and I have at least 10, and all are generally happy and curious ladies that are a pleasure to be
Keep Laredo Beautiful Sonia Vidal joined James Heibert of South Texas Solar Systems in answering questions about solar screens as part of Keep Laredo Beautiful’s Earth Day activities at the Civic Center.
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Easter at the Ranch we’ve seen most of the breeds available because of this. I want chickens that lay eggs. Color is a factor, as is size and history, but they’ve got to be good egg producers first and foremost. This time our order included two breeds I already have because they’ve proven themselves and a new one called welsummers. His group has two topknots and silkies and a whole lot of new ones. We both got leghorns but different kinds. The other day our neighbor emailed his running assessment of our order -mentally. He daily watches the chicks in their cages and takes them out to chat and handle. He says my buff leghorns are excitably crazy and his red leghorns have a better grip on things but that generally “all those leghorns, Americaunas, welsummers, and buttercups are just plain dumb -- perhaps as they age, they’ll settle down...” His silkies and bantam Rhode Island reds are the most intelligent and are “curious, confident, not histrionic acting.” He’s sure the top-knots are “nuts, to be expected from previous experience” but that my little English speckled Sussexes are cheerful and entertaining. “The two partridge cochins (his) are slower, not as excitable, hopefully will be nice big hens!” One can’t have chickens that have started life any better, and it sets a high standard to have this cracker-jack assessment of the upcoming chicken herd. Bebe Fenstermaker We are having a beautiful spring, one of the best I can remember. The bluebonnets are a deep blue and prolific. They
and the verbena -- mixed together with splashes of yellow, pink, white, and purple -- fill the pastures and fields. We have cousins coming from New York toward the end of April, so I hope there will still be a wildflower extravaganza for them to see. The newly appointed Regional Administrator for the EPA’s Region 6, Dr. Alfredo Armendariz, was in San Antonio last week. Included in Region 6 are Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, and 66 Tribal Nations. The Greater Edwards Aquifer Alliance (GEAA) invited him to speak with a number of its members on various environmental problems around the state -- TexDot proposing another loop around Houston that would go through the Katy Prairie; four gravel quarries on the Comal River; and our issue with San Antonio Water Systems wanting to put sewer lines up our pristine creeks in northwest Bexar County to name a few. Easter weekend brought friends from Austin for lunch and a good visit. The cows and calves were held in the pens until they arrived for the children to see. They both promptly climbed up on the fence for a better look. That seemed to whet everyone’s appetite, so we trailed down to the house to take care of that. However, along the way a large white rabbit piñata waited amongst the cactus and caused quite stir. After lunch and much conversation there was a trek over to see the chickens, but they promptly disappeared into their house. The white rabbit was last seen headed for Austin. Sissy Fenstermaker WWW.LAREDOSNEWS.COM
South Texas Food Bank By salo otero
Salo Otero is the director of development for the South Texas Food Bank. He can be reached at sotero@ southexasfoodbank. org or by calling 956-726-3120.
F
Little Sister in concert for the South Texas Food Bank
amily budgets are not the only ones hit hard during tough economic times like these. The coffers of charitable non-profit organizations also suffer. Enter Hal’s Landing and proprietor Tom Lamont with monthly charity events for six Laredo groups in 2010. The fundraisers, which feature entertainment, started in February and run through December. The next scheduled event is May 6 from 8 p.m. to midnight at Hal’s Landing, 6510 Arena Road next to the Laredo Energy Arena (formerly Laredo Entertainment Center). It will feature the music of Little Sister and benefits the South Texas Food Bank’s mission of feeding the hungry. The South Texas Food Bank serves 21,000 families per month in an eight-county area, including 15,000 families in Laredo-Webb County. Lamont was born in Brownsville but graduated from high school in Chicago and attended the South Dakota School of Mines. He moved to Laredo in 1983 to start L.O.G. Energy. He opened Hal’s Landing, a restaurant and entertainment business, more than three years ago. Explaining his involvement, he noted, “We (along with wife Marianne) started charity events for non-profits to make a difference. We know about the economy and how hard it is to raise funds.� Little Sister is a Laredo group that has been playing the local and area scene for 10 years. They will entertain with classic rock, rock and roll, and pop. The band members include husband and wife Monique Godines on vocals and Ramon “Mony� Godines on guitar. The other two band members also have family ties -- Al Rubio on bass guitar and his son, Chris Rubio, on drums. Al is a longtime Laredo musician and Chris is a TAMIU music student. Ramon and Al also do vocals. Monique and Ramon, parents of two young children, are schoolteachers. She is in the classroom at Borchers Elementary, and
he is a music teacher at Killam Elementary. According to Monique, Little Sister has been the opening act for the likes of Flaco Jimenez, Outfield, and Fastball. “We had Little Sister when we first opened Hal’s. Everyone enjoyed them very much. They put on a good show,� said Lamont. Danny Cuellar, treasurer of the food bank board, is the event chairman. He said, “Tom and Marianne are very giving people to their community. This event proves it again.� Tickets are now on sale for $10 per person. Tickets will be available at the door on May 6 and at the food bank by calling (956) 726-3120. The STFB raffling off $2,000 worth of prizes, including a Laredo Bucks St. Patrick Day game jersey, season tickets for two to 2010 Laredo Broncos baseball, Pancho Farias framed artwork, a $50 gift certificate for Silpada Design Jewelry, a Mother‘s Day gift basket, a Holiday Inn buffet dinner for two, three months membership for Curves, an ice chest from Southern Distributing and L&F Distributing, and four-pack tickets to the Laredo Energy Arena-South Texas Empty Bowls concert Aug. 25. Raffle tickets will be $5 each or five for $20. Upcoming events May 15: The Laredo Legend Riders Motorcycle Club will sponsor a Poker Run through the streets of Laredo to feed the hungry from 2 to 6 p.m. For more information, call 726-3120. June 28 to July 11: Border Media-South Texas Food Bank fifth annual radio drive over the five BMP stations -- La Ley 100.5 FM, Hot 106.1, The Works 94.9, Digital 107.3 and Norteno 1490. Sponsorships are $1,500, $5,000, and $10,000. For more information or to make a donation, call 726-3120. August 25: The Laredo Energy ArenaSouth Texas Food Bank fourth annual Empty Bowls fundraiser. 6:30 p.m. Three Dog Night will perform. Floor tables will be available at $100 per person with a minimum table seating $1,000. For more information, call 726-3120. u
Continued from page 20 Dianne Ramirez of the Laredo Little Theatre concurred. “There’s nothing Sammy Johnson can’t do. He’s good at all aspects of a production. He’s very astute about casting, and he brings everything he knows, all his experiences, what he learned traveling and seeing other productions -- he brings all of that to every undertaking on the stage.â€? She said Johnson’s Vaudeville production and Ballyhoo were among the most memorable. “Classics,â€? she said. Besides his life in theater, he has served as a tour guide for the Webb County Heritage Foundation, narrating tours downtown and through the old Depot District. He said he was amazed that the Webb County Heritage Foundation named him President of the Republic of the RĂo Grande. “Quite an honor,â€? he said. Johnson, who will portray the original President of the Republic of the Rio Grande Jesus Cardenas, has named as his cabinet Alfredo R. Gutierrez, Jr. representing Francisco Vidaurri y VillaseĂąor, Vice-President and delegate for Coahuila; Jennie Leyendecker Reed representing Juan Francisco Farias, Secretary; Tano Tijerina representing Col. Antonio Zapata, Commander of the Cavalry; Nancy Stewart Blair representing Manuel Nina, Quartermaster General;
Charles G.T. Johnson representing Antonio Canales, Commander-in-Chief of the Army; Millie Slaughter representing Juan Nepomuceno Molana, delegate for Tamaulipas; and Joe Arciniega representing Manuel MarĂa de Llano, delegate for Nuevo Leon. “This year’s celebration theme is ‘Honoring Our Guides Through History’ and who could be more deserving of that recognition than Sam Johnson,â€? said Margarita Araiza, WCHF executive director. “Sammy has been the heart and soul of our popular Walking Tours of the Downtown Historic Districts -entertaining his audiences with a vast array of historical information combined with delightful personal anecdotes about local characters and events. And in later years, Sammy continued his support of the Foundation by helping us to develop a new tourism offering -- the Trolley Tours of Historic Laredo.â€? Araiza continued, “Thanks to his generosity and expertise, countless local students and visitors to our community have learned quite a lot about our city’s history while enjoying a trolley tour experience through the oldest neighborhoods of Laredo. Sam is the epitome of a true historic preservationist. He is a dedicated supporter who has been personally generous to the Webb County Heritage Foundation, sharing his knowledge and resources for those who will come after us.â€? u
Alzheimer’s Support Group Meeting Tuesday, May 6, 2010 at 7 p.m. Laredo Medical Center, Tower B, Meeting Room 2
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1-866-478-6979 LareDOS | APRI L 2010 |
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Notes from LaLa Land By dr. neo gutierrez
Dr. Neo Gutierrez is a Ph.D. in Dance and Fine Arts, Meritorious Award in Laredo Fine Arts recipient 2009 from Webb Co. Heritage Foundation, Laredo Sr. Int’l 2008, Laredo MHS Tiger Legend 2002, and Sr. Int’l de Beverly Hills, 1997. Contact neodance@aol.com.
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Tejanito Rico Rodriguez stars in ABC sitcom hit Modern Family
x-Laredoan and Neal Head Start Center (Bryan, TX) director Lucy Rincón wrote “I just read on Facebook that our little boy Rico Rodriguez (Manny in Modern Family) is going to walk the red carpet at the Oscars. To think he’s a Hollywood star now, and just seven years ago he was in our Head Start program. We had a star in the making and didn’t realize it! He comes to visit every Thanksgiving and Christmas, and he’s still the same Rico. Fame has definitely not gone to his head.” Now 11, Rico plays Manny in the Wednesday night sitcom that gives us a bird’s eye view of today’s American families. From the show we gather that life is neither tidy nor politically correct. Modern Family will receive a Peabody Award on May 17 for distinguished achievement and meritorious public service by the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia. The show has been cited as a “wily, witty comedy that puts quirky, contemporary twists in family ties but maintains an old-fashioned heart.” In real life, Rico is somewhat the opposite of the character he plays on TV. Born in College Station, he has always been very shy. But all that is changing somewhat now that he’s in LA. He moved from Texas to LA with his mom and sister when he was six to support his sister’s dream of becoming an actress. After he saw how much fun and success his sister was having, Rico decided to enroll in acting classes, and soon started making a name Continued from page 57 The professional, albeit slightly nervous, Melendez responded to Narvaez by stating that should the Broncos be the operators of the new stadium, the object would be to promote and repackage the whole team, including a new logo and a marketing blitz. He said, “There will be room for more sponsors, more season ticket holders, more concession sales, and we can sell luxury suites. We can get people excited about the Broncos again. We are open to a lot of ideas.” Although not stated at the meeting, Melendez later sent a press release to members of the media announcing that the Laredo Broncos had reached an agreement with Leisure and Recreation Concepts, Inc. (LARC) of Dallas to build a privately financed water park adjacent
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Rico Rodriguez and Lucy Rincón for himself. He got his first role in the video of How the Grinch Stole Christmas. He has played Chanchito in the film Epic Movie, a kid janitor in Opposite Day, and a part in The No-Sit List. He has had TV roles on Jimmy Kimmel Live, Cory in the House, ER, ‘Til Death, iCarly, Nip/Tuck, Surviving Suburbia, and NCIS. Let’s also consider the story of Rico’s daycare teacher in Bryan, former Laredoan Lucy Rincón, from whom he may have gotten some of his spunk. She writes, “I have little to tell about me, and a lot to tell about Rico. I left Laredo in 1980 at my sister Leticia’s request. She had been living in Bryan for three years, and she kept telling me and my other sister Sandra that we needed to move to Bry-
an. When I first got to Bryan, I missed Laredo tremendously. My children were so little and my daughter Selina was a newborn. I couldn’t afford daycare, so I decided to open up my own daycare. I got licensed to operate a registered home. When my daughter Selina entered kindergarten, I decided it was time for me to go and join the workforce. I applied at several daycares, since taking care of children was the only thing I knew how to do. I got called from several places, but I chose the one that I thought would better benefit me. I have been employed with the Brazos Valley Community Action Agency Program. I have been Center Director with Neal Head Start
to the new stadium (should they be chosen as operators) and to be operated jointly with the Broncos. LARC agreed to invest at least $8 million on the proposed water park. The agreement was reached on April 1, 2010, and Melendez stated that he did not feel comfortable presenting the proposal before Council members until the agreement was completed. In their five-year history in Laredo, the Broncos, under Melendez’s leadership, have become an integral part of the community. The team has held morning games and invited local schools to attend for free. The morning games reach Laredoans who may not be able to afford tickets, and the Broncos also hold baseball clinics and offer free tickets. They help with fundraisers, and they take their coaches and players to Little League teams. Outreach has been a core part of their loyalty
to the City. Despite his hard work at the efforts of the Broncos to bring a new stadium to Laredo, Council member Belmares condescendingly told Melendez “the reason we’re entertaining you tonight is because you’re a stand-up guy.” Interesting he should use a word like “entertaining” when the entire meeting ran like an amateurish improv night, a farce of the worst kind. Garza’s absence prevented council members Belmares, García, Narvaez, and Rendon and CM Villarreal from moving forward with Ventura. Rendon sat characteristically silent throughout the entire process, giving rise to ask what if anything goes on behind those eyes. Villarreal, however, couldn’t help but have the last word as he swiped at Melendez
for 17 years, and I love my job, working with children and their parents. I love watching children develop at their own pace as we provide for them experiences that will help them develop their full potential. Working full-time and going to college part-time worked well for me. I have experienced a lot of low blows, but the good outweighs the lows in my life. I focus on the positive and I don’t dwell on the negative. I love my children and my grandchildren, as they are my life. There is nothing I wouldn’t do for them.” To close, let’s do an about face, and go to a note from Ernesto Uribe, who informed me that I was totally wrong in saying that Oscar winner Sandra Bullock was “ours,” because she’s from Austin. Not so, says Ernesto. “Sandra is not from Austin. She is originally from Arlington, VA where she was born, raised, went to elementary, middle, and high school. John Bullock was my wife Sarah’s voice coach for a number of years in Arlington. I remember one day Sarah came home and said that we had to go see this movie Speed because her voice coach’s daughter was starring in it. I think that was her first major role in a movie. Bullock was such a little girl in that movie -- now she is a woman and what a lady! She does own a house in Austin (no state income tax), but that does not make her a Texan.” (Neo Note: In her Laredo days, Sarah was known as Sarah Meade, sister of Linda, one of my dance partners back in those days.) And on that polite correction note, it’s time for -- as Norma Adamo says -- TAN TAN! u and Bryant, addressing them like naughty children who haven’t done their chores. He told them that should Council choose the Broncos, they could not pay the minimal rent while the city “does the painting of the lines, cutting of the grass, and cleaning of the bathrooms,” adding, “You are the private sector, just like everyone else.” (To let your City Council representative know how you feel about this issue, send them a note. You can email Mike Garza at mgarza@mikegarza.net, Michael Landeck at mlandeck@stx.rr.com, Johnny Rendon at district5@stx.rr.com, Gene Belmares at council6@stx.rr.com, Jose Valdez Jr. at jvaldezj@ stx.rr.com, and Cindy Liendo Espinoza at district8@stx.rr.com. You can reach Hector Garcia by phone at (956) 337-8255 and Juan Narvaez at (956) 286-7201.) u WWW.LAREDOSNEWS.COM
Movie Review
Girls who want to be boys who want to be girls; Floria Sigismondi’s The Runaways
I
By CORDELIA BARRERA
know what you’re thinking because I thought it too. A film about “The Runaways”? The all-girl rock band that gave us Joan Jett (aka “I Love Rock & Roll poster queen) and Cherie Currie -described by the late 70s fanzine Bomp! as “the lost daughter of Iggy Pop and Brigitte Bardot.” I mean, come on…wouldn’t it just be simpler (and less costly) to just check out the old videos on YouTube? The answer, quite simply, is no. Sure, you can check out all manner of alwaysentertaining, infinitely time-draining 70s and 80s videos and images online, but you’d have to dig around acres of plastic platform shoes, tacky make-up, and scraggly coifs to find an ounce of meaning, a sliver of significance, a scrap of vision. It’s there. I’m just saying you’d have to look for it. The truth is, although music video director and photographer Floria Sigismondi delivers a well-crafted, visually provoca-
WWW. L A R E D O S NE W S . C O M
tive biopic, The Runaways is substantive, even crucial, for its exploration of gender roles and pernicious patriarchal norms that were alive and kicking in the 70s and 80s. Oh, yeah…We’ve come a long way, baby. The Runaways features Kristen Stewart as Joan Jett and Dakota Fanning as lead singer Cherie Currie. In short, these two are awesome. Stewart dumps that whiny, girly malaise of those dreary Twilight films and plays Jett from the gut, and Fanning is dead-on as the shell-shocked 15-year old Currie turned overnight bombshell. They’ve got the moves, the looks, the clothes, the hair, and the attitude of, respectively, the groundbreaking “guitar goddess” and “trailer park jailbait jackpot” down. Kim Fowley, The Runaways’ Svengali/Producer is the film’s one true caricature. Michael Shannon plays Fowley as a brash, garish, and exploitatively outrageous sleazeball. The three make for a triangular tincture that is at times disorienting and at times surreal. Director Sigis-
mondi is, at first, a photographer, and her impressionistic blend of avantgarde tones and images is often dizzying, yet these are just enough to evoke a visceral response from the audience, especially when Stewart and Fanning share a sultry first kiss. The music rocks and only intrudes when it must. The Runaways might feel like a music video at times, but it’s got the sense and structure of a decent film. Producer Fowley exploits the dysfunctional family angst these kids felt. Born of the void that was the suburban disillusionment/ abandonment of a wave of divorce in California in the 70s, Kim Fowley created families of his own -- The Runaways were his “girls,” and he, their dysfunctional, cross-dressing “father.” At first, he berates the girls with a mania that’s truly comic. His lunacy spirals downward though, eventually becoming sadistic when the band has a final melt-
down during a recording session. Fowley was “gender-bent” enough to play into the girls’ bewitchment of the “glam band” image they so wanted to emulate. Continued on next page
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Serving Sentences By randy koch Randy Koch earned his MFA at the University of Wyoming and teaches writing at Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania.
D
r. Ana Castillo’s long black hair and sleek leather pants made for a striking entrance for the 56-year-old author at Bloomsburg University in February. But the trite, often cheesy, cliché-riddled excerpts she read from both her recent novel The Guardians and two previously unpublished leftovers coupled with her frequent bragging that she’s “a self-taught writer” all suggested “vain author,” not “writer and leading Chicana feminist theorist” as she was advertised. However, three weeks later another visiting writer offered a sharp contrast -- black cropped hair above an angular face, black rectangular glasses, sleeves rolled to the elbows, dark slacks, and black oxfords like my dad used to wear to church. This was cartoonist Alison Bechdel, whose reading from her graphic narrative Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic and her discussion of the creative process and family history that caused her to write the book revealed a skilled, honest writer and a genuine -- not just posturing -feminist. Granted, I’ve read only two of Castillo’s books and Bechdel’s lone memoir and attended just one one-hour presentation by Continued from page 61 The film’s soundtrack is alive with the tunes from these bands, and it adds to the brazen tone of the movie. These girls longed to be the effeminate “bois” who were their idols -- Bowie, T-Rex, Gary Glitter, Lou Reed, Iggy Pop. They needed to be masculine to be taken seriously as a band, and their masculine role models were effeminate front men in English pop glam bands of the seventies. They were girls who wanted to be boys who wanted to be girls. The Runaways wrote songs about what they knew, like most pop-rock bands. Inexperienced in sex, they wrote about implied sexual acts and flirtations that seems quaint compared to the explicit lyrics of today. Lyrics from “Dead End Justice” typify their isolation from their parents and feelings of abandonment: I got away clean with my fake ID, No more school or mommy for me Stealing cars and breaking hearts, Pills and thrills and acting smart Dead end kids in the danger zone, All
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Perpetuating the specious each writer, but the differences are and were palpable. It makes me wonder if Castillo’s reputation is like her wardrobe -- more style than substance -- and if packaging oneself as a “feminist writer” leads others to excuse certain patterns of insincerity, superficiality, and unoriginality. That’s what caused me to examine the opening pages of 20 books by primarily Chicana/feminist and Chicano writers, where I found some surprisingly predictable patterns. The opening two paragraphs of Castillo’s The Guardians and Loverboys -- like those of eight other books by Julia Alvarez, Norma Cantú, Denise Chávez, Sandra Cisneros, Cristina García, and Demetria Martinez -- are all written in present or present-progressive tense. Is this evidence of the stereotypical feminine tendency to be more attuned to the moment, more present in the present than men? Predictably, Chicanos and Hispanic men follow the male tendency to reflect, to move in the past, a pattern easily discerned by reading the first page of 10 of the best known narratives by Oscar Zeta Acosta, Rudolfo Anaya, Ron Arias, Oscar Casares, Javier Cercas, Junot Díaz, Dagoberto Gilb, Gabriel García of you are drunk and stoned Dead end kids you’re not alone, You sleep in the street when you’re not at home The Runaways should be compulsory viewing for any girl who wants to play the electric guitar, tear into the drums, score heavy on the college basketball court, or actively pursue a dream that was once held to be the dominion of boys and men. Girls need to know that it has not always been so easy to defy norms, explode gender roles, and break deep-seeded social and cultural ideologies. Given the glut of reality TV shows like America’s Got Talent and the fact that anyone can instantly broadcast play by plays of their daily lives online, I think many kids today live in a historical vacuum. In fact, I’m sure of it. As a teacher, I coax understanding from their empty eyes for a living. Civil Rights Act… Feminist Movement? What’s that? Ah, yes, if only it were a joke. (Native Laredoan Cordy Barrera holds a PhD in English and teaches Literature at The University of Texas at San Antonio.) u
Márquez, José Antonio Villarreal, and Carlos Ruiz Zafón, nine of which begin in past tense. Granted, exceptions exist for both groups, but this pattern is noticeable and split along traditionally female/male lines. Second, feminist writers seem to rely more heavily on figures of speech, which supports the popular notion that women are more intuitive than men. In the second paragraph of Castillo’s novel, she uses a comparison to describe in a most traditional way a female character “rocking her [dog] like a baby” while Chavez in her novel’s first page metaphorically suggests burning coals when describing a movie star’s “smoldering eyes,” and Cisneros uses a series of similes to describe the “Texas girl who smells … like Frito Bandito chips, like tortillas, something like that warm smell of nixtamal or bread.” Male writers, however, more consistently concentrate on the literal than the figurative. Only four of the 10 authors whose work I examined included a figure of speech in his opening lines, and one of those was this blunt though less-than-literary metaphor from Gilb: if a man “can’t keep his self-respect, he don’t have shit.” I’m not claiming that feminists should deny their intuition or that they should use figurative language less often. I’m only asking, “What exactly distinguishes a feminist writer from the typical female writer?” And last, feminist/Chicana writers routinely ease into their stories with images of life and love whereas men more often jar readers with death or the threat of death or physical violence. What could be more traditional than the woman as caregiver and nurturer, yet this is how almost all of these women’s books begin. Consider these examples: “when he emerged from an airplane one late afternoon, I knew I would one day make love with him” from Demetria Martinez’s Mother Tongue, or “Pedro Infante, the Mexican movie star, stares straight at me with his dark, smoldering eyes” from Chávez’s Loving Pedro Infante, or “[t]wo boys are making out….like they’re in the throes of passion” from Castillo’s Loverboys. Don’t these suggest the stereotypical feminine infatuation with romance? And even when Chicanas/feminists don’t start with explicit human passion, they often imply it by describing or referring to the sensual, lush, natural world, as in “Lucy Anguiano, Texas girl who smells like corn” from Cisneros’s Woman Hollering Creek,
or “She is plucking her bird of paradise of its dead branches” from Alvarez’s In the Time of the Butterflies, or “the ocean … roiling with nine straight days of unseasonable April rains” from García’s Dreaming in Cuban. As you likely guessed, given the commonly held stereotypes of men and women, Chicanos and other male Hispanic writers begin with death, the threat of death, or violence. Take the opening lines of Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude: “Many years later as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.” Javier Cercas echoes this in the first sentence of Soldiers of Salamis: “It was the summer of 1994, more than six years ago now, when I first heard about Rafael Sánchez Mazas facing the firing squad.” Similarly, Junot Díaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao begins, “They say it came first from Africa, carried in the screams of the enslaved; that it was the death bane of the Tainos.” And even if they don’t start with literal death, they imply it or the violence inherent in it, just as the Chicanas do with life. For example, Oscar Casares in Brownsville leaves out the bullets but still has the gunpowder: “The boy rode in the car with his father. It was late afternoon and they were on their way to buy fireworks.” Yes, these are predictable interests and beginnings for writers of both genders, but what, then, distinguishes ordinary women writers from feminist writers? Some feminists may well accuse me of trivializing their work and focusing on coincidental similarities that I cherry-picked for my own purposes. Maybe. I’m certainly no expert on feminism, and I may have simply exposed all my long-repressed male biases. But what exactly makes Ana Castillo a feminist writer? Is she, unlike Alison Bechdel, simply perpetuating the stereotypical blandness of average writing -- whether by males or females -- by slapping the feminist seal of approval on it? Why does a movement that revolts against accepted attitudes and patterns of social behavior produce writers who slip right into the common mold, a feminine pattern even more apparent when compared to typical male narratives by Chicanos and Hispanic men? Feminism as a political stance is one thing, but as a reason to pose as a writer -- in leather pants, no less -- is quite another. u WWW.LAREDOSNEWS.COM
Seguro Que Sí By Henri Kahn
Contact Henri D. Kahn with your insurance questions at (956) 725-3936, or by fax at (956) 791-0627, or by email at hkahn@ kahnins.com
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How to guarantee a safe stream of income for your golden years
here has never been a better time than now to add an annuity to your retirement plans. With the stock market coming off the worst decade in its history and interest rates at one of the lowest points in history you would be hard pressed to find a better time to be considering annuities and their guaranteed benefits. Whether you are 42, 52, or 72 years of age you would be much more relaxed through the market turmoil of the past few years knowing that, thanks to that annuity purchase, you have a guaranteed nest egg to fall back on. Annuities can help you avoid the risk of outliving your assets. It’s interesting to note that 90 to 95 percent of people carry insurance on their home to protect that asset in the event of a disaster. Well, if it makes sense to insure your home it also makes sense to insure a financially secure retirement. Fixed annuities offer security in that the rate of return is certain with no assumption of market risk. It is worth your time to investigate a fixed equity-indexed annuity that offers the ability to participate with a rising stock market while at the same time offers a minimum interest rate guarantee that essentially keeps you from losing money when the stock market declines. Fixed equity-indexed annuities offer several interest-crediting strategies that provide the method used to calculate how much interest is credited to your annuity. The S&P 500 Index is a stock market index that is generally recognized as the index that most closely mirrors the stock market Continued from page 30 “Many of the ranches involved in the competition, in the past and this year, have worked with NRCS specialists, to develop a voluntary conservation plan based on their land management goals to help them balance their land use and develop habitats for cattle and wildlife,” said Garry Stephens, NRCS wildlife biologist, who spoke to the group of more than 30 landowners. “By working with your local NRCS and soil and water conservation district, they can help you take an assessment
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performance. A qualified agent must be well versed in these strategies and be able to explain what can be fairly involved but beneficial concepts. The bottom line here is that you can participate in stock market index increases without completely giving up principal and minimum interest rate guarantees available with traditional fixed annuities. This means, in general terms, that a fixed equity-indexed annuity holder will make money when the stock market rises, but will not lose money when the stock market falls. Fixed equity-indexed annuities are definitely not short-term investments because of the potential disadvantage of surrendering the contract before the end of the contract term. However, there are various other options and benefits that will ameliorate, (improve), this potential disadvantage. The annuity company that I recommend is part of the fifth largest insurance group in the world, with a history dating back over 300 years with 45 million customers. Some studied predictions indicate that $80 to $100 billion of fixed annuities will be purchased in 2010. Check this safe, secure way to enjoy financial peace and tranquility during your golden years. Finally, if you employ 10 or less employees and provide group health insurance, your premiums will be reduced by a 35 percent tax credit. I guarantee that it’s to your advantage to spend a little of your time with me investigating fixed annuities and/or group health insurance due to the current advantages of both. u of your land in its current state, and then make recommendations based on where you want your land to be in the next five to 10 years.” Landowners also learned about the programs available to financially assist with implementing the conservation practices recommended by NRCS for improving their land, including the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program (WHIP), Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP), Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP), Farm and Ranch Lands Protection Program
Social Security Leslie L. Young
Is a Social Security Public Affairs Specialist in Laredo.)
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A new twist in the law may help your mom
om has always been there to nurture and take care of you. Mother’s Day is the perfect time to give back and look out for her. If she’s having a hard time paying for her prescription drugs, tell her about the Medicare Prescription Drug Plan and the extra help available through Social Security. If your mother, or any special woman in your life, is covered by Medicare and has limited income and resources, she may be eligible for extra help to pay her monthly premiums, annual deductibles, and prescription co-payments. The extra help is worth an average of $3,900 per year. Perhaps you’ve looked into the Medicare Prescription Drug Plan for mom before, and discovered that she did not qualify due to her income or resources. As of 2010, the law has changed. As Chubby Checker will tell you, a new “twist” in the law makes it easier than ever to qualify for the extra help It’s easy to figure out whether Mom is eligible. To qualify, she must be receiving Medicare and: Have income limited to $16,245 for an individual or $21, 855 for a married couple living together. Even if her annual income is higher, she still may be able to get some help with monthly premiums, annual deductibles, and prescription copayments. Some examples in which income may be higher include if she or her husband support other family members who live with them; have earnings from
(FRPP), and Grassland Reserve Program (GRP). “Since Texas is 95 percent privatelyowned, the voluntary actions that you take on your land not only make a difference to you and your family, but also can provide benefits to all Texans,” said Stephens. “These benefits extend well beyond the farm or ranch gate and include clean water and air, and a healthy and productive environment that provides recreational activities, hunting, fishing, and even nature photography.” The 20 photographers from as close as
work; or live in Alaska or Hawaii. Have resources limited to $12,510 for an individual or $25,010 for a married couple living together. Resources include such things as bank accounts, stocks and bonds. We do not count her house or car as resources. Thanks to this new twist in the law, we no longer count any life insurance policy she has as a resource, and we no longer count as income any financial assistance she receives regularly from someone else to pay her household expenses like food, mortgage or rent, utilities, or property taxes. Don’t take our word for it, check out www.socialsecurity.gov/prescriptionhelp. While you’re there, you can fill out an easy-to-use online application for your mom. To apply by phone or have an application mailed to you, call Social Security at 1-800-772-1213 (TTY 1-800-325-0778) and ask for the application for help with Medicare prescription drug plan costs (SSA-1020), or go to the nearest Social Security office. If you’d like to learn more about the Medicare prescription drug plans and special enrollment periods, visit www. medicare.gov or call 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227; TTY 1-877-486-2048). Maybe it’s been a few years since mom has taken to the dance floor to do The Twist. But saving an extra $3,900 a year on prescription drugs may cause her to jump up and dance. What better gift could you give her this Mother’s Day?
Texas to as far away as Holland, France, and Canada were able to experience the benefits provided by great land stewardship and healthy habitats as they captured thousands of images of the border region and their native inhabitants, but for the 20 ranch owners who have finely tuned the canvas of their land for many years, they already know the true treasures hidden among the rough terrain and brush country they call home. (Melissa Blair is a public affairs specialist with the USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service.) u
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Congratulations, Ron Rodriguez on your recent recognitions and accolades,and on your nomination for 2010 Trial Lawyer of the Year by the National Public Justice Foundation. Your history-setting trial work and verdicts have made for good stories about just causes. I’m proud to have chronicled your successes against a corporate giant that may have outstripped you in numbers of attorneys but not in acumen or the will to fight the good fight. María Eugenia Guerra, Publisher
2010 Nominated by the The National Public Justice Foundation of Washington, D.C. for 2010 Trial Lawyer of the Year Award for his work on the wrongful death case against the corporate giant The GEO Group, Inc. The Public Justice Foundation presents this award each year to an attorney who has made the most outstanding contribution to public interest through precedent-setting or otherwise extraordinary litigation. Recognition by the Laredo Webb County Bar Association for being nominated by the National Public Justice Foundation for 2010 Trial Lawyer of the Year. Recognition by Texas Río Grande Legal Aid for his contributions to TRLA’s Laredo Branch Office and his commitment to justice for all.
Trust only a Board Certified PERSONAL INJURY SPECIALIST with a Top Ten Verdict to handle your serious injury case.
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| L a r e DO S | AP R IL 2010
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