I THE TEXAS LLOYD BENTSEN Dsel7ver (Pg• 4)

A JOURNAL OF FREE VOICES JULY 29, 1988 • $ 1.50

REBECCA McENTEE Willie Velasquez 1944-1988 DIALOGUE

Jackson 6/17/88), was right on target in identifying Detraction why voters are not blindly accepting the bTEH TEXAS statistics that say the U.S. is in an Hats off to Richard Ryan for his recent unprecedented period of economic article entitled "The Jackson Mystique" expansion. The magnitude of the bank and server which appeared in The Texas Observer (TO, S&L failures eclipses those of the Great A JOURNAL OF FREE VOICES 5/6/88). Ryan's assessment of Democratic Depression. There is an unprecedented We will serve no group or party but will hew hard to Presidential candidate Jesse Jackson was number of business bankruptcies and home the truth as we find it and the right as we see it. We refreshingly to the point and free of the foreclosures. Hundreds of thousands of are dedicated to the whole truth, to human values flaptrap nonsense that is so frequently an above all interests, to the rights of humankind as the workers have been removed from the labor foundation of democracy; we will take orders from everyday trademark in the Pro-Jackson news market due to forced early retirement at ages none but our own conscience, and never will we over- media hype. But then, in all likelihood, Pro- that make finding meaningful employment look or misrepresent the truth to serve the interests of Jackson media and campaign supporters virtually impossible. They are receiving the powerful or cater to the ignoble in the human spirit. alike have suffered quantum doses of toxic, Writers are responsible for their own work, but not retirement pay that is far less than they had for anything they have not themselves written, and in charismatic, mind-numbing Jackson Juice planned to receive. Thus, low publishing them we do not necessarily imply that we which, in the end, reduces one to repeatedly unemployment figures do not tell the whole agree with them because this is a journal of free voices. babble Rainbow Coalition poppycock like story. SINCE 1954 "Multinational Banks and Corporations The bank and S&L failures were the result have forged a new global order which has Publisher: Ronnie Dugger of greed — theiis and the developers. The Editor: Dave Denison replaced unionized labor at home with slave lenders apparently never asked for market Associate Editor: Louis Dubose labor abroad." The only comfort here, of studies to determine if a building or an Editorial Assistant: Kathleen Fitzgerald course, is knowing that nature and fate being apartment complex were needed. All they Editorial Intern: Doug Anderson what they are inevitably had to produce a Calendar: Kathleen Fitzgerald cared about was high-interest income. The Washington Correspondent: Richard Ryan reverend Jesse Jackson, opposite bipolar developers were lured by the ill-advised 15- Contributing Writers: Bill Adler, Betty Brink, cosmic counterpart to the insufferable year depreciation schedule that was allowed Warren Burnett, Jo Clifton, Craig Clifford, John reverend Jerry Falwell. by Reagan's 1981 tax law and the ability Henry Faulk, Terry FitzPatrick, Gregg Franzwa, Especially perturbing and contradictory, Bill Helmer, James Harrington, Amy Johnson, to use paper losses to offset other tax Michael King, Dana Loy, Rick Piltz, Gary even for a politician, are Jackson's views liabilities. The unneeded properties were Pomerantz, Susan Raleigh, John Schwartz, on the United States role with developing sold to unsuspecting investors in limited Michael Ventura, Lawrence Walsh countries of the so-called Third World. A partnerships who were seeking tax shelters Editorial Advisory Board: Frances Barton, Jackson Presidency would fail to see a Austin; Elroy Bode, Kerrville; Chandler through paper losses. Ironically, they also Davidson, Houston; Bob Eckhardt, Washington, beneficial cause and effect relationship in ended up with real losses of capital. D.C.; Sissy Farenthold, Houston; Ruperto Garcia, doing business abroad. Jesse's linear world The taxpayers now face a monstrous Austin; John Kenneth Galbraith, Cambridge, is made up of United States Robber Baron federal deficit caused by the huge tax write- Mass.; Lawrence Goodwyn, Durham, N.C.; Corporation Monsters who manifest their George Hendrick, Urbana, Ill.; Molly Ivins, offs claimed by the developers, tax write- Austin; Larry L. King, Washington, D.C.; Maury willful power with the macho agenda of offs claimed through the limited Maverick, Jr., San Antonio; Willie Morris, inflicting "exploitation," "economic partnerships, and in the subsequent capital Oxford, Miss.; Kaye Northcott, Austin; James violence," "slave labor," and general losses the investors claimed, and the losses Presley, Texarkana; Susan Reid, Austin; Geoffrey suffering on our foreign neighbors. He fails Rips, Austin; A.R. (Babe) Schwartz, Galveston; claimed by banks and S&Ls related to the Fred Schmidt, Fredericksburg; Robert Sherrill, to see even a hint of socioeconomic and defaults on these properties. Now, the Tallahassee, Fla. cultural exchange in promoting business and taxpayer must fund the huge FDIC and trade with the world community at large. Layout and Design: Layne Jackson FSLIC payments that are needed to bail out Typesetter: Becky Willard Blind of the fruits of a global economy, be the banks and S&Ls. If that were not Contributing Photographers: Vic Hinterlang, Bill assured that a Jackson Foreign Policy would enough, the public is seeing commercial Leissner, Alan Pogue. be a romantic charade of show boating and property values plunge, which in turn causes Contributing Artists: Eric Avery, Tom Ballenger, U.S. bad mouthing with the likes of Castro Richard Bartholomew, Jeff Danziger, Beth the individual's ad valorem taxes to Epstein, Dan Hubig, Pat Johnson, Kevin Kreneck, of Cuba and Ortega of Nicaragua, at the increase. Carlos Lowry, Ben Sargent, Dan Thibodeau, Gail expense of laying waste to numerous fragile The final irony is that most of the failed Woods. semidemocratic sovereignties. In fact, upon projects were financed with no-recourse Managing Publisher: Cliff Olofson close examination of Jackson's platform loans that absolved the developers of any Subscription Manager: Stefan Wanstrom with respect to U.S. business abroad, one personal financial liability and with a few Publishing Consultant: Frances Barton concludes that Jackson's views are molded exceptions the developers have been able Development Consultant: Hanno T. Beck of the stuff of spy novels and tempered with to protect their ill-gotten gains. THE TEXAS OBSERVER (ISSN 0040.4519) is published biweekly except the gobbly gook slime of Mother Jones for a three-week interval between issues in January and July (25 issues per The American public may be forgiving, year). Copyright 1988 © by the Texas Observer Publishing Co., 307 West Comic Books. but there is no way they can forgive an 7th Street, Austin, Texas 78701. Telephone: (512) 477-0746. Second class postage paid at Austin, Texas. In closing, many thanks go out to the administration that has permitted this brilliant Richard Ryan for his shining POSTMASTER: Send form 3579 to P.O. Box 49019, Austin, Texas 78765 travesty to occur. There was a total lack Jackson Mystique article. of regulatory oversight of the vast banking SUBSCRIPTIONS: One year S27, two years $48, three years S69. Full- Norm Worthington time students 515 per year. Back issues S3 prepaid. Airmail, foreign, group, and real estate industries. This is the classic and bulk rates on request. Microfilm editions available from University Las Cruces, New Mexico example of hands-off government carried Microfilms Intl., 300 N. Zee)) Road, Ann Arbor, MI 48106. Any current subscriber who finds the price a burden should say so at renewal time; no too far and unrealistic tax loopholes that one need forgo reading the Observer simply because of the cost. Address Economic spawned gross abuse and the resulting all correspondence to: The Texas Observer, 307 West 7th Street, Austin, Texas 78701. Fault Lines disaster. Blake Cowden Your editorial, "Something Happens" (TO, Dallas 2 • JULY 29, 1988 EDITORIALS ir,,,,,, THE TEXAS 110 server JULY .29, 1988 Electoral Empowerment VOLUME 80, No. 15

IT IS A FUNDAMENTALLY radical merce. According to Glossbrenner, it is FEATURES proposition. That is, to register as many likely that it will come before the Legislature eligible voters as can be included on county next session. "If the Secretary of State will The Velasquez Legacy clerks' rolls. It is not a very romantic fight. just remain neutral, we feel that it will have By Larry Hufford 6 In this issue we remember Willie Velasquez, a good chance of passing," Glossbrenner the founder of the Southwest Voter Registra- said. At the federal level, a bill sponsored On Willie Velasquez tion and Education project, who died last by California Senator Alan Cranston would By Ernesto Cortes, Jr., month in San Antonio. In the pages that provide for a simplified, universal system James C. Harrington, follow, a half-dozen voices of some of those of registration for federal elections. Jose Angel Gutierrez, who knew Willie Velasquez consider his life Cranston's commitment to voter registration Malcolm Greenstein, and what he was about. was strengthened by his close victory in Juan Sepulveda, Federal policy is fairly hostile to voter 1986 over Republican Ed Zschau. Ramiro R. Casso 8 registration. State legislators hire staff The story of Cranston's recent feud with contortionists to draft legislation that pro- the Southwest Voter Registration and Who Will Lead vides for state-employee-assisted registra- Education Project is only beginning to SW Voter Project? tion but does not violate the ironclad unfold. Some public policy activists have By Kathryn Kase 13 proscription of use of federal funds. The suggested that Cranston sees voter registra- tion as a prelude to an election and is The Hispanic Agenda U.S. is the only Western democracy where By Henry Cisneros 14 the national government spends no money inclined to spend large amounts of money on voter registration, according to Lafe on registration drives in election years. This contrasts with the SVREP approach of Larson, Texas director of Human SERVE, DEPARTMENTS a nation-wide voter reform organization. institution building, litigation, registration, And, Larson said, it is the only Western and education. Cranston's focus on state- Dialogue 2 Democracy without a universal voter regis- wide and federal elections also differs from tration system. "Consequently, we rank last the SVREP grassroots approach to local Editorials 3 in voter turnout among the 20 Western elections. democracies." According to Andy Hernandez of Political Intelligence 16 And state governments are not always SVREP, in 1986 Cranston approached the Books and the Culture open to reform. Two bills were vetoed by San Antonio-based organization and offered to raise money for registration projects. America and Her Children Governor Clements last session. One would By Louis Dubose 18 have allowed state employees to serve as Cranston then said he would work with deputy voter registrars. Another would have existing groups, including the SVREP where Afterword delayed the purging of voters' names from projected expenditures were based on funds Sabat's Fifteen rolls until after elections, thus allowing the Senator had promised to deliver. Money Minutes of Fame people who have moved, particularly within that Cranston raised, however, was provided By Debbie Nathan 22 the same precincts, to change their address to a group that he established in Los when they vote. Angeles: the Center for Participation in The centerpiece of voter registration, Democracy. Southwest Voter was left with however, never made it to the floor last a $110,000 deficit. American Statesman. Cranston's office had session. Rep. Ernestine Glossbrenner's The California group has planned voter not responded to Observer questions at press motor-voter bill made the logical connection registration drives in cities where the time. between voting rolls and Department of SVREP is already working, Hernandez said. The California group founded by Public Safety's issuance of licenses, identifi- According to Hernandez, he questioned Cranston has a $3 million budget and cation cards, and address changes. It also Cranston about the duplication of effort in designs on registration of one million voters. would have provided for voter registration voter registration and was told "A little But it is hard to argue with the success of in the Department of Human Resources. The competition is good for everyone." the institution founded by Willie Velasquez. bill was opposed by Secretary of State Jack Hernandez describes the California In California, the state with the largest Rains who argued that the costs of printing group's approach as typical of the old patron Hispanic population in the U.S., there are registration cards and of postage for return system: "Voters are registered every fouf 466 elected Hispanic officials. In Texas, mailing were too high. Rains presented the years but the streets don't get paved, the where the SVREP has worked longest, House Elections Committee with an inflated schools don't get any better. 1,500 Hispanics now hold elected office. fiscal note that seemed designed to discour- "This is not a question of turf," Hernan- Some of the Texas increase might be age fiscal conservatives. dez said, "it's a question of principle. . .a explained by demographics; most of it can Even after the fiscal note was lowered question of in whose hands the future of be attributed to the work of Southwest and the language of the bill altered to Hispanic politics lies." Voter. accommodate DPS and DHR directors, the A spokesman in Senator Cranston's office The San Antonio-based group has 100 bill was opposed by committee Republicans. said he was vaguely familiar with the story campaigns scheduled this year — 40 in The motor-voter concept is currently under but wanted to look at initial press accounts Texas and others divided among California, consideration by an interim committee before responding. The story was first Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona. chaired by Rep. Bobby Aiken, D-Corn- reported by Dave McNeely of the Austin Adelante! L.D.

THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 3 of populist discontent across the land, if there were widespread disenchantment with the economic order, would he recognize it? Would his heart be in the right place? The answer seemed to be yes and no; Dukakis and Bentsen but more often no than yes. Most of his speeches were aimed at the professional N THE DAY Gov. Michael Dukakis hope that the Democratic Party belonged to class — the voters who wanted sane and O announced that he had chosen Senator them. Those who had come to feel that the competent leadership and an end to the Lloyd Bentsen as his running mate we began Party was dominated by insiders and myriad absurdities of the Reagan age. No to get calls from journalists all over the corporate financiers and party hacks were need for the kind of administration that puts country asking, essentially, "Who is Lloyd urged to come along with Rev. Jackson and the likes of Ed Meese in charge of the Justice Bentsen?" The question on our minds was, to make their presence known. This seemed Department. No need for a stupendous "Who is Mike Dukakis?" to us to be a movement worth encouraging. federal budget deficit. No need for a bloody A year ago, there were those who would At the same time, it wasn't hard to foresee foreign policy. No 011ie Norths, no tell us that Dukakis was the next best thing Jackson's campaign falling short. The Poindexters, no Deavers, no Borks. No to Mario Cuomo. He was a reform-minded Democratic Party, after all, is not a piece drug-runners. No star-gazers. governor, a man with a social conscience, of ripe fruit ready to be plucked by any On one occasion we listened to Dukakis a politician with progressive roots. Granted, old hungry hobo to come along. There are address a grassroots organization in Hous- Dukakis was not Cuomo's equal as a claims on the Party already — claims of ton. His audience was a generous mix of passionate orator, but he was a man of the people. An immigrant's son. And if you were to take New York's Governor Cuomo at his word and you believed that he would not run for President, well then, Dukakis was worth a look. So we got a look at Dukakis as he began to distinguish himself in the early primaries at the beginning of the year. Turned out that he was much less inspiring, much more colorless, than you would expect if you were expecting the next best thing to Cuomo. Still, he seemed to know what he was doing. He was a man who could think on his feet and if you imagined him in a one-on-one debate with George Bush you could imagine that he would be a strong match. Dukakis presented himself to Texas and to the nation as a guy who knows how to manage economics — to put it in his already too familiar argot: a guy who knows how to create good jobs at good wages. By the time our Supposedly-Super Tues- day rolled around in March we had seen enough of this Guy Dukakis to be impressed by his unimpressiveness. There was no reason to vote for him in the primary — he was overshadowed in style, class, and (most important) political content by the Bill EISSNER Rev. Jesse Jackson. Dukakis was just Bentsen and Dukakis on recent visit in Austin another politician with an opinion. Jackson ownership by the people who are accus- ethnicities, mostly working-class and was leading what we hoped (and hope) was tomed to making the decisions and people church-going people. Dukakis did not stir (and is) a movement for change in the who foot the bills and have for decades. the crowd the way Jackson would have, but Democratic Party. Jackson was trying to In Texas many of these people were drawn he spoke to their concerns. Here was direct the nation's attention to root causes to Tennessee Senator Al Gore. In the East, Dukakis casting himself as the liberal that of economic problems and he was trying Gov. Dukakis was the choice. As it turned George Bush would later warn us about. to offer hope to those who had given up out, Dukakis was surrounded by superior The candidate spoke for state-assisted strategists, image-makers, and fundraisers housing programs, for a national health care and he put together a string of primary plan, for government funds and resources A Note to Our Readers victories. to be used to spur economic development, So as this was unfolding we watched especially in places such as the Rio Grande The issue you hold in your hands was Dukakis, wondering what kind of Demo- Valley. Despite an assertion that he didn't written and produced in the week before cratic nominee he would make, what kind foresee a "top-down from Washington" the Democratic National Convention. of President he would make. Amidst his approach, it was clear that he was more Gur coverage of the convention will packaging as the Massachusetts high-tech comfortable thinking of himself as a be presented in our next issue, which will wizard, the Miracle Guy, the Cool-headed manager of a gover rent that would help be printed three weeks after this one, as Duke, would there be signs of liberalism? the people, which is G ..tinct from the leader we are taking our annual week off in Would there be signs that he saw value in of a government that is of the people. Which the kind of movement Jesse Jackson insisted the summer. ❑ is only to say that he was running as a liberal was afoot? If there were indeed stirrings and not as a populist. He was a politician 4 • JULY 29. 1988 whose job it was to make the appropriate Democratic Party — is already bought and of note for farmers or small businessmen. promises in the appropriate settings, so that paid for? How will he put forth any message Both parrot the line of big oil on energy a majority of the consumers who participate other than the one so many Democrats are issues. Both are defenders of wasteful in the limited market surveys we call weary of? That is: you are welcome to come military spending, both have foreign policy elections would choose the Dukakis-brand along but you are expected to come on our views more suited to 1956 than 1976, and candidacy. terms. neither has a programmatic concept of We will hear, ad nauseum, the reminder economic democracy." Then he suggested ROM HERE. the story begins to lose that there is nowhere else to go, unless one that progressives hold their nose, bite the F focus. Or perhaps it only loses focus is shameless enough to vote for George bullet, and do what they had to do. "Then if you thought you had it in focus in the Bush. This is the oldest game in two-party hunker down and wait for 1982," he added. first place — if you thought you had in Mike politics. Most Democrats who vote can be Well. Came 1982 and Lloyd Bentsen was Dukakis a dependable liberal who would expected to succumb to the timeworn logic running for reelection again and Hightower offer a clear alternative to economic at least by the time they are parking the car wasn't hunkering down. He was on the Reaganism. If you thought you had another outside the polling place on November 6. ballot as the Democratic candidate for Texas mainstream Democrat who would ultimately But the risk of Dukakis's strategy is that Commissioner of Agriculture. Lloyd Bent- end up beholden to the same economic he has done nothing to expand the universe sen sunk enough of his considerable cam- interests that captured Walter Mondale, you of potential voters. The Bentsen selection paign funds into getting out the vote that could say the story has now become clearer. alone wouldn't have done irreparable Hightower was swept into office, along with For Michael Dukakis is running with damage in this respect. What made a mess State Treasurer Ann Richards, Attorney Lloyd Bentsen on the ticket! In the weeks of it for Dukakis the week before the General Jim Mattox, and Land Commis- after the primaries ended and. before the convention was his weird inability to sioner Garry Mauro. (O.K., and Governor convention, Dukakis determined the course acknowledge that there has been something Mark White, too.) of his campaign; he decided who he was important going on in. the Party for the last Six years later, Bentsen still hasn't done most interested in appealing to — and it year or so that has nothing to do with his much for farmers or small businessmen, still wasn't Jesse Jackson and it wasn't Jackson's campaign. It was difficult to watch Dukakis parrots big oil, still votes the 1956 line on constituency. He decided that first in that week without the gnawing suspicion that foreign policy, etcetera, etcetera. And now importance were the parts of the business he had made a calculation that he would he is running for Vice-President of the sector that can be lured to go Democratic: look good to the nation by "standing up United States. the investment bankers, the real estate to" Jesse Jackson, and even snubbing him. You could not find a candidate who has developers, the oil industry, the corporate He may have thought he was showing some less to do with the kind of economic attorneys. In choosing Senator Bentsen, sort of Presidential toughness. populism that Hightower advocates than Dukakis gave the Vice-Presidency to the Instead, he caused a great many potential Lloyd Bentsen. Try to imagine Bentsen Party's big business constituency. Democratic voters to begin to wonder again joining the stage with Hightower as High- Bentsen could not be seen to represent who this guy from Massachusetts really is. tower lets loose with one of his favorite anything else. From his days in the 1970s And to worry. D.D. battle calls, that being to "redistribute the as a member of the Senate Finance wealth." Committee up through his current days as Yet Bentsen was glad to share the wealth chair of that committee, Bentsen has been The Winds in 1982 with his fellow Democrats and on intimate terms with the business lobby. Hightower knows it. And thus, we behold Every corporate operator who wanted a tax of Change him in the delicate position of Democratic break knew there was a line of approach team player, which even Hightower admits through Senator Bentsen. Common Cause, EHOLD THE MYSTERIOUS winds of is sometimes a little "weird." the public interest group, consistently ranks B politics! What are your feelings about Lloyd Bentsen first in the collection of campaign In 1976 Lloyd Bentsen was running for Bentsen? a reporter asked Hightower at a contributions. Since 1983 he's taken in more reelection after his first six years in the press conference the other day. than $5 million for his always bloated Senate. The Presidential campaign of the "Nothin' but warm," said Hightower. treasury. Oklahoma populist Fred Harris was packing "It's a weird position from the old days at This is Bentsen's abiding talent. When it in and Harris's national coordinator, name the Texas Observer and my service with he was in private business in the late 1950s of Jim Hightower, was looking for a job. Ralph Yarborough to have come to respect and 1960s he benefited from the family He found one in Austin, Texas. He joined the ability of Lloyd Bentsen, the man who fortune and made himself a millionaire in Kaye Northcott on the staff of the Texas beat Ralph Yarborough in 1970. But that the world of insurance and banking and oil Observer. has come to pass." investments. When he went to the Senate Hightower immediately found himself on Hightower, who backed Jackson in the he simply adapted to the change of rules the Bentsen beat. His first cover story for primaries, said he would be "on the boat" and went on making money there, too. the Observer, in October of 1976, assessed with Dukakis and Bentsen in the fall. He Conservative Democrats and business Dem- the Bentsen race against Republican chal- is a good enough politician now that he ocrats (and some Republicans) love Bentsen lenger Alan Steelman. Here was executed his public stand for Bentsen pretty because he is one of their own. He is not Hightower's lead paragraph: "Lloyd Bent- well. It was, of course, mostly an exercise one of these Democrats who seems to have sen Jr. was raised rich, and it shows. He in diplomacy. Entirely an exercise in it out for the rich folks. By selecting has the sort of self-assured, slightly arrogant diplomacy, we would hope. Bentsen, Dukakis is trying an "I'm O.K., bearing that characterizes wealthy corporate His well-chosen words of October 1976 you're O.K." approach to this skittish group executives who are certain of their place still have a ring of truth to them. D.D. of occasional Democrats. in the scheme of things." Undoubtedly he will make overtures to Thus began the Hightower period at the the rest of us, too. He will campaign in Observer in which the rich and the powerful This publication is available:\ black districts and in Hispanic circles and were held to the populist fire. in microform from University with farmers and factory workers. He will Hightower went on in his October 1976 Microfilms International. Call toll-free 800-521-3044. Or mail Inowry to try to win back support from the Jesse piece to deliver a ringing no-endorsement University Microfilms International. 300 North Jackson voters. But how will he change the of Bentsen (and of Steelman, for that Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor. MI 48106. perception that his campaign — and the matter), writing, "neither has done much THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 5 The Velasquez Legacy

BY LARRY HUFFORD San Antonio FIRST CAME to Texas as a VISTA is active — to assist the main office in the N THE 1960s, as a student at St. Volunteer in 1966. After training in selection of sites for local voter registration Mary's University, Willie Velasquez I San Antonio, I spent a year in drives and the need for litigation. Over the I was a radical — in the best sense of Robstown, an interesting place in those years, the committees have become impor- the word. He was involved with the days. It was the kind of place where an tant centers of formulation of minority farmworker movement, the founding of organizer might be run off the road at public policy in the Southwest. MAYO (Mexican American Youth Organi- gunpoint, as I was, and told it was not in Since 1974, SVREP has conducted over zation), the Mexican American Unity his best interest to continue - trying to 850 voter registration campaigns in more Council, and the creation of La Raza Unida organize "our meskins" — and for damn than 204 communities throughout the South- — the Chicano political party that served sure not to register them to vote! Such west. In one decade, 1974 to 1984, SVREP the necessary purpose of putting the fear vigilantes for thestatus quo probably wasted helped to increase the number of registered of God into the Democrats. their efforts on me — I was having no great Hispanic voters by 79 percent or 1,669,000. The Texas Democratic Party had always success, anyway. At that time in my life, There was an increase of 1.7 million taken the Mexican American vote for I wasn't looking at structural problems such Hispanic voters in the 1984 Presidential granted as a vote in support of the Anglo as district versus city- or countywide (at- election, and most importantly, there was Party elite. The Chicano movement forced large) elections. Willie was a fast learner an increase of 82 percent in the number of Democrats in Texas to confront the struc- in this sense. minority-elected officials in the Southwest. tural barriers that prevented Mexican In the 1960s, political activists (Chicano, To a great extent, the large increase in Americans from participating within the Black, Anglo) too often went into the barrios the number of Mexican American elected Party as equals. and ghettos already knowing the problems, officials was due to SVREP involvement in As a political science student, Willie issues, and answers. It was part of the 82. successful lawsuits forcing cities, coun- Velasquez understood the role that third- idealism. It was also patronizing, paternalis- ties, school boards and other elected bodies party movements play in U.S. politics. He tic, hierarchical, and at times racist. to change from at-large systems of election understood that the long-term goal was not Willie, the political science student, began to single-member districts. A recent study to maintain an ethnically separate political to question himself — his approach. He put shows the change to single-member city party but to rejoin the Democrats once their together a questionnaire to discover opinions council districts has, since 1974, doubled political consciousness had been touched. and attitudes in the barrios. His findings the number of minority representatives in Willie left La Raza Unida, returned to were a sort of reality therapy. The issues 56 Texas cities (from 14.9 percent to 29.1 the Democratic Party, and organized the of concern were hardly revolutionary: percent). Much of the redistricting is a result Southwest Voter Registration and Education drainage, sidewalks, street lights, parks, of litigation provided under Section II of the Project (SVREP), based in San Antonio. crime, education, jobs. Voting Rights Act. Velasquez, who died June 15, was an Illiteracy and poverty did not prevent Hispanics are now the fastest growing optimist, a person of hope. His philosophy Chicanos from understanding the problems, electorate in the U.S., increasing at a rate was one of aiding the oppressed gain issues, and structures created to keep the of 27 percent faster than any other group political power. The starting point for the state's Mexican American population from in the nation. In Texas this March we SVREP was the Mexican American in full participation in the political system. witnessed the third consecutive Democratic Texas. Willie's institute now works for all In 1974 Willie organized the SVREP as Presidential primary in which Mexican Hispanic and Native American groups a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization com- Americans turned out at a higher rate than throughout the U.S. mitted to increasing political participation non-Hispanics (29 percent versus 21 per- I know of no other organization that has of Mexican Americans, Blacks, and Native cent). The 1988 Mexican American voter done more to empower Mexican Americans Americans through voter registration cam- turnout represents an increase over the than the SVREP. I know of no other paigns, nonpartisan voter education, voting presidential primary in 1984 when 26 individual who has done more to make rights litigation, and solid research on voter percent of Texas Hispanic voters partici- political democracy meaningful for Mexican participation and opinion. pated in the Democratic primary. Americans in Texas than Willie Velasquez. SVREP, at Velasquez's insistence, has What makes SVREP's efforts so impor- It was painful to hear that the personable, always been a grassroots organization. tant in Presidential races is that 85 percent charismatic Chicano organizer, at the age Local participation has been the key to of all Hispanics in the U.S. live in nine of 44, had terminal cancer. SVREP's success in registering minority states. These nine states have 70 percent It is important to reflect on the impact voters in 13 Southwestern states. Velasquez of the electoral college vote. Fifty-one Willie had, and will continue to have developed an organizational model utilizing percent of the nation's Hispanic population through the SVREP, where he began the coalitions of civic, church and neighborhood reside in two states: California and Texas, fight against the structural and institutional associations, labor groups, and volunteers. which happen to account for 28 percent of violence that kept democracy from being a They conducted door-to-door voter registra- the total vote in the electoral college meaningful term for Mexican Americans. tion drives and education campaigns de- (California, 47 and Texas, 29). In a close signed to have impact at the local level. Presidential election, such as occurred in Larry Hufford is a professor of politics at Regional Planning Committees have been 1960 or 1976, the nine states with 85 percent Incarnate Word College in San Antonio. formed — in every state in which SVREP of Hispanic voters provide Hispanics consid- 6 • JULY 29, 1988 erable potential in determining who will seminars, regional tours, polls, and publica- Washington, D.C., and reported their reside in the White House the next four tions, a large group of Hispanic leaders who findings to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. years. will understand the key issues of U.S.-Latin American relations. Velasquez's goal for the Latin American Project is to compile polling data from U.S. OLLOWING THE INITIAL success The Latin American Project began in Hispanics on Latin American issues and to of the SVREP, Velasquez broadened January with a two-week fact-finding trip establish working ties with Latin Americans the scope of the organization. The to Nicaragua and Costa Rica for North F American Hispanic leaders. Why Central to promote fair elections and political Southwest Voter Research Institute (SVRI) America first — a region considered by freedoms. Willie's fundamental idea is to was created to work with Hispanic leaders make polling and voter registration/ on policy development. According to Velas- many to be too controversial for an education techniques available to citizens of quez, "Now that substantial numbers of organization like SVREP? The decision was Latin American countries. Hispanics hold elected and appointed office made because "data from ... SVRI exit polls consistently indicate that opposition to Ruben Salazar once wrote that a Chicano [3,317 elected officials in five Southwestern is a Mexican American with a non-Anglo states, as of April 1988], we must widen current U.S. policy in Central America is widespread among Hispanics in the U.S." image of himself. This is a fitting description our horizon to include the important public of Willie Velasquez. And, it is precisely policy questions facing the nation." This After returning from Central America, the delegation held a seminar at the Roosevelt because Willie remained a Chicano that he includes both domestic and foreign relations was so valuable as a Texan and U.S. citizen. issues. Center for American Policy Studies in On the domestic front, the SVRI just released a study documenting the fact that the number of Hispanics falling below the poverty line increased dramatically during the first half of the 1980s. One in four Cisneros on Velasquez Hispanics was poor in 1986, only slightly regarded this as the best of its kind and less than the rate among Blacks, and two (Editor's note: On a recent trip to San Antonio, we asked Mayor Henry Cis- support it on the national scale. And and one-half times the proportion of whites. because the politics of the Hispanic The SVRI report did not please Republi- neros to share a few thoughts about Willie Velasquez. The following interview community is essentially national. cans as it documented that the increases in When I go to St. Paul, Minnesota, and Hispanic poverty during the 1980s have was conducted on June I I , a week before Velasquez died.) they take me to Our Lady of Guadalupe been accompanied by decreasing effective- Church, and when I go to Seattle and ness of anti-poverty programs. Cash benefit Observer: I wanted to ask you about they're running a council member there programs lifted some 13 percent of all poor Willie and some of your recollections with a good chance to win, and when Hispanic families out of poverty in 1979, about him. I go to Milwaukee and run into leaders but only eight percent in 1986. Cisneros: Well, Willie went to the same of the Hispanic community on a very The most severe poverty and the most active basis there in the mayor's office; dramatic increases in poverty are found high school that I did, although I didn't it's a national phenomenon. among children. In 1979, 28 percent of know him in high school. I guess my Hispanic children were poor. By 1985 the first knowledge of Willie was in the late Observer: What about the specific impact poverty rate for Hispanic children in 1960s. I was on the staff of the Model on Texas? families in general had increased to 40 Cities program in 1969 and Willie was beginning to be active with MAYO and Cisneros: Well, of the 3,000 Hispanic percent, the highest level ever recorded. elected officials in America, 1,500 of Two out of three Hispanic children living some of the other early Hispanic organi- zations in the area. And Willie was in them are in Texas. And you would think in female-headed households are poor. that that would be odd, given Texas's Quoting a report released by the U.S. the news, because at that time he was defining an ideology that was opposed history over a long period, but it's not Census Bureau, the SVRI noted that the an accident. It's directly attributable to median net worth of all Anglo households by many in the more traditional Hispanic Willie's leadership role. And Willie's ($39,135 in 1984) was eight times that of leadership. And so it was news. understanding that the incubators of Hispanic households ($4,913), and almost I have known Willie also because one of my best friends, Narciso Cano, is power are the school board and the twelve times that of Black households county commission and the city council ($3,397). Among married couples, the very close to Willie. So I knew him more then on a personal level as well. Then and from there come the state representa- median net worth of Anglos was $54,184, tives. And from there come the state of Blacks, $13,061, and of Hispanics, of course we all came to know Willie's work through the Southwest Voter Senators and the future Congressional $10,823. leaders, etcetera. That strategies that When the SVRI produces such studies and Registration project. And I have watched focus simply around big macro politics utilizes them in education workshops and him intensify and bore in on the mission fail to capture the importance of prepara- programs for elected Hispanic officials, the and [he] really has done a marvelous job tion and education and training and result will be new public policy proposals of it. Has changed the politics of the country, pure and simple. experience building. supported by most of the 3,317 Hispanic One only needs to look at the Dukakis officeholders — local, state, and national Observer: Why the country? Why not strategy in the Presidential campaign to elected officials. understand the role the Hispanic commu- Willie Velasquez felt strongly that just the Southwest? nity plays in the Democratic Party "because of its geographic proximity and primary today, and that is going to be a vast complex of cultural and economic Cisneros: Because the Midwest Voter evidenced in every election from now ties, Latin America is the paramount foreign Registration Project in Chicago is a clone of the Southwest Project. And because until forever. And it will only grow in relations issue facing Hispanic leaders" in importance and much of that is attributa- the U.S. To address Latin American policy people in the Puerto Rican and the Cuban community look at his efforts and chart ble to the voter registration and to the Velasquez developed the Latin American voter awareness dimensions of Willie's Project. them. . . . Because the Ford Foundation The goal of Willie's most recent project and other national organizations have work. is to develop, through a program of THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 7 Texas is a far more democratic and progressive state today because of Willie and his voter registration project, his voter research institute and his Latin America Project. Norman Cousins, the eminent humanist, Willie Velasquez, once said, "When it is darkest, the stars shine brightest." Cousins also said that "No one person could possibly know enough to Beloved Friend be a pessimist!" In a way, these lines describe Willie's commitment to a life of political activism. At a time when many of BY ERNESTO CORTES, JR. us who had worked in the War on Poverty were becoming frustrated and pessimistic ILLIE VELASQUEZ was my The Willie that I would like to reflect about the possibility of making the system friend. He was a man I worked more responsive, Willie let us know, upon is the one that I knew over a 23-year W with, argued with, fought with, period. When I first learned that Willie was through his actions, that we had no right respected. Willie made an enormous contri- seriously ill with cancer, I was of course to be pessimistic. We had a duty, obligation, bution to the quality of life in the Hispanic and responsibility to be optimists and stunned and dismayed. I finally got up the community of the Southwest. His achieve- courage to go see him on Tuesday, June activists for change. ments have been admirably eulogized by Willie Velasquez spent his entire adult life 7. As I made the drive from Austin to San others; therefore I will make no effort to Antonio, I was filled with anxiety. taking on the status quo and challenging detail them other than to say that he was established elites, in an effort to force the How was I going to say good-bye to an enormously important and effective someone I've known for so long? I imagined United States to live up to its potential as spokesperson for the interests of ordinary the tension, the pain in his home. I could a democratic nation. The goal remains working people. feel the sorrow and grief that surely existed unfulfilled. The way to honor Willie within his family. Velasquez is by working as optimistic Ernesto Cortes, Jr., is a member of the When I arrived that Tuesday afternoon activists for a more just and democratic national staff of the Industrial Areas society. In this way we honor, as he did, I was taken aback. Everything about Willie Foundation, the Saul D. Minsky Institute. seemed abnormally normal. He was his the best ideals of our nation. ❑ He supervises the I. A.F. projects in Texas. usual self, talking about politics. People kept Power and Responsibility BY JAMES C. HARRINGTON

EW PEOPLE in Texas changed state responsibility. Over and over again, high. F politics and the judiciary as much Willie urged Hispanic voters to use their as Willie Velasquez. The Rio Grande The new leaders are not Mexican power not merely to elect Mexican patrones being substituted for Anglo Valley is a good example. When Willie Americans in the places won so hard started his work, virtually every school bosses. Rather they are articulate in from Anglo domination but to elect foreign affairs (opposing contra aid, for board, city and county commission, and Mexican Americans who will excel. most state representative seats were example), savvy in economic develop- His message to Chicano politicians is ment (rather than welfare programs), and controlled by the Anglo establishment, the same: "We have to be different. We even though the Valley is 82 percent aggressive in diversifying opportunity must show intelligence, compassion, and throughout the state (favoring equalized Mexican American. The double hammer innovation as part of our leadership. It of single-member district litigation and school financing and regional profes- is not enough to be like the people we sional schools). aggressive voter registration turned that replace, using patronage for personal around so that now the school boards, Many of these new leaders reflect a ambition. We must be better. - Changing background like Willie's: graduate-level government commissions, representa- the skin complexion of officials is not tives, and judgeships reflect the popula- education, participation in the La Raza enough; the community structures must Unida political movement and its subse- tion of the Valley, much more in keeping be in place to keep the political leaders with the American ideal. quent integration in the Democratic accountable. Party, experience with the 1966-67 The implications go further than that: Willie saw a two-stage process. First the enhanced Mexican-American politi- United Farm Workers' Strike in La comes the wresting of power through the Casita Farms in Starr County. In fact, cal power makes the election of populist ballot box. Then follows the slow process Anglo statewide officeholders more Willie's dedication to farm workers led of grassroots organizing to fill those him to leave graduate school to help possible than what one would generally positions with the best possible persons expect of Texas. organize with Cesar Chavez's troops. who will work for the benefit of the But more important than background However, the most impressive thrust Mexican-American community. The of Willie's message, rather than being alone are the values which Willie and message is being heeded: the statehouse the others bring forward — dedication concerned solely with the dynamic of delegation from South Texas is one of electoral power, had to do with electoral to enhancing the political power and the most respected in Texas; metropoli- participation of the Mexican-American tan areas like Houston, San Antonio, and community and the many, many years James C. Harrington is Legal Director El Paso have also chosen good legisla- of the Texas Civil Liberties Union. He of effort to improve the lives of one of tors; and the caliber of the new genera- the economically poorest and culturally lives in Austin. tion of Hispanic judges in the Valley is richest peoples of Texas. ❑

8 • JULY 29, 1988 coming in and out. He was virtually holding manager called the police." "Oh," he said, congratulating him, but then asked him why court. We began to talk politics; we praised "well, I guess we'd better wait for them." he would risk alienating such an ally for our favorite heros, denounced our favorite We waited, but they never came. his program. "Facts are facts," he replied. villains, and agreed to disagree on which During this time we used to have many There are more stories and reflections I was which. Throughout it all, his spirit late-night discussions. We were both young can make about Willie Velasquez, but I seemed strong, although his body had and trying to figure out the most appropriate guess the most important thing to say is that clearly been wrecked by cancer. I remember way to express our commitment to la causa. he tried to be a force for justice. Whether him even praising his doctor, a generosity I would tell Willie about my plans for it was supporting a need for water systems, of spirit I would not have sustained at that community organizations throughout the schools, health care, or voter registration moment. He seemed to be able to talk Southwest. He would tell me how he wanted drives, Willie paid his dues. He may have sensibly about his illness, so much so that every Mexicano to read Bernal Diaz de made some errors — we were all pretty I found it hard to accept the awful prognosis Castillo's History of the Conquest of Mexico. zealous at times. But we could not under- that he had less than six months to live. I thought that would be grand, but I wasn't stand why the promise of American life was I thought maybe some of the medical quite sure how that was going to advance so slow in coming. We could not accept strategies that were being attempted just the struggle for justice. Looking back upon the low educational attainment level, the might work. our naivete in those days makes me reflect high infant mortality rates, the inadequate What was really remarkable about that on the wisdom of both our approaches. If housing, the bad streets, the high unemploy- day was Willie's humor during those painful Mexicanos wish to make significant contri- ment rates, the low paying jobs and the lousy and difficult moments. At one point in the butions to the transformation of American working conditions that poor people in conversation, we began to talk about how culture and politics, they will have to have general and Mexicanos in particular had to difficult it was to be a Mexicano in the the security that comes with confidence in live with. If there was anything that Willie 1980s. The subject got around to child their own identity and history; otherwise far understood, it was the dignity of work and rearing. One of his daughter's boyfriends too much precious energy will be spent on the importance of the family's ability to came to the door. After he left, Willie matters of little consequence. sustain itself. remarked how he felt good about the Later, it was Willie's turn to hire me. Willie loved Father Hidalgo because he situation as long as his daughter was going I went to work for him at the Mexican taught us to be proud to be Mexicanos. He out with several young men and not getting American Unity Council. He would often deeply admired the Kennedys because they serious about anyone in particular. He said, say that since I had hired him to work with taught us that to be an American meant to however, that he was going to be very severe the United Farm Workers and then he had be concerned about justice. He valued and about dress codes — no earrings allowed hired me to work for M.A.U.C., we would respected and learned from those who had for the young men. both have difficult times working together pioneered the movement for justice and "Willie," I said, chastened by my own because neither one of us knew who was dignity: Alberto Pena, Jr., Joe Bernal, experience with my 19-year-old daughter, the boss. But we somehow managed to move Dr. Ramiro Casso, Cesar Chavez, Gilbert "there is not a whole lot you can do about forward. Padilla, the late Leo J. Leo and Franklin some of these situations. You really can't I was always struck by Willie's gumption. Garcia, and many others. He was an control it." "You can't?" he inquired with During a major statewide political race, an inspiration to young Mexicanos for his mock seriousness. "No, you can't," I said. ally of his was revealed to have a less than courage, his humor, and his mostly good "Well," he laughed, "it sure is tough to heroic voting record on behalf of poor sense. His loss has deeply saddened me, but be a Mexicano these days." Afterwards, we people. When the news broke, Willie I feel enriched in having known him. I will

continued to talk politics. When I left I publicly spoke out in outrage. I remember miss him greatly. ❑ hoped that he might be O.K. The following Monday he was dead. When I heard the news, I thought back to the time when we were both young graduate students. Willie was at St. Mary's; I was at U.T.-Austin. It was a heady time. During The Organizer's Lot the 1960s the strike in Starr County at La Casita Farms generated a wave of activism among young, committed Mexicanos who BY JOSE ANGEL GUTiERREZ formed assistance committees throughout the state. I accepted the quixotic task of N JULY 11, Newsweek reported who think of ourselves as organizers know heading up the statewide boycott for the that Willie Velasquez, struggling that fringe benefits remain the fringe. When United Farm Workers. Willie was one of to live within a diminishing Willie and the other four of us teamed up O to form the Mexican American Youth the few people who I could really depend budget, had cancelled life insurance policies on. I grew to admire his heart and his guts of Southwest Voter staff members, including Organization (MAYO), the question of — in a word, his courage. his own. That was in March. Three months fringe benefits didn't even make the list. One afternoon, Willie and I made an later he died. Jose Villarreal, now a Dukakis There have not been, nor are there, well- effort to clear out scab melons from a Piggly aide, is quoted in the article saying, "That paid, well-"fringe-benefited" organizers, Wiggly food store in southwest San Antonio. was Willie. . . . The cause was every- except the big names in IAF. The Industrial When we approached the store manager thing." Areas Foundation pays their people well and with our proposal, he demanded that we I disagree. That was not Willie. That was provides excellent security and benefits. immediately leave his property and threat- the organizer in Willie. That was not the For some reason, organizers have yet to ened to call the police. We each took turns cause. That was the price to pay for the organize on their own behalf. Cesar Chavez berating the young Mexicano assistant cause. Some things don't change. All of us and his organizers remain at the bottom of manager. (I remember Willie being particu- the pile. ACORN organizers qualify for larly effective in getting the young fellow's Jose Angel Gutierrez lives in Houston where foodstamps. Independent organizers are goat by chiding him as to how he'd forgotten he is Director of the Texas Rural Legal worse off; most of us never even hear of his roots just because he had a white-collar Foundation. In 1967, Gutierrez, Willie them by name. Organizers go along with job.) Finally, Willie began to leave in Velasquez, Juan Patlan, Mario Compean, the prevailing conventional wisdom that the disgust. "Willie, - I said, "I think the store and Nacho Perez founded MAYO. economic package is not for us. The "fight," the "issue," or the "cause" is next against the Rinches, against the war, against on the list of priorities, not our well-being. Unida conferences across the state. At those Preston Smith, there was no health, acci- conferences we addressed issues of well- It is a scenario that reminds me of the hired dent, or life insurance. When your ass got gunslinger who comes at the behest of the being for our people, both economic and in trouble that was too bad. Someone else political. We forgot about ourselves. Today, spineless to rid the town of outlaws and took your place until you got out of trouble. assorted toughies. He rides in, never smiles Mario, Nacho, Juan, and I, all of us well We never stopped to plan out our lives, our into middle age, are still trying to finish or quits, gets the job done at great sacrifice educational needs, our dreams for a family college careers, find jobs with real "fringe and risk to himself, then rides out into the life. We couldn't afford it. Inevitably came benefits," and enjoy life as best we can. sunset — leaving girl, friends, admirers, and the wife, the kids, the mortgage, the college Granted that Willie and Juan both for awhile victory behind. No one, including him, stops loans, cars, and the rest of life to pay for. enjoyed a regular check and some benefits. to think of his own future. We have forever So when an organizer dies it is the Not having benefits for so long made it assumed that organizers take vows of survivors who live in hell, making the best easier to give them up again and again. poverty when they engage in social activism. of life under the circumstances. Some things We lost a good one in Willie. We will Today, not even the priests or nuns live in don't change. I remember. lose more until we treat our organizers well. poverty; it's mostly their parishioners. Willie organized for MAYO-La Raza When Willie, Juan, Mario, Nacho, and myself were out leafletting in front of the Alamo, at the cathedral, at La Casita farms Fire in the Belly

THET TEXAS BY MALCOLM GREENSTEIN

server 'FIRST MET Willie in the fall of 1969 whether it was for assisting the lettuce • in San Antonio where I was stationed boycott by picketing Safeway Stores, or Available at the following as a VISTA volunteer. I had recently driving neighborhood kids to the beach completed law school and was filled with in a government van, or assisting a locations: the idealism and energy that imbued Hunger in America television documen- many of us in that era. tary portraying the devastating poverty Brazos Bookstore I knew nothing of the Southwest. in San Antonio (to the embarrassment 2314 Bissonett Except for a post-law-school hitchhike, of the city fathers), Willie was outspoken Houston I had never ventured west of D.C.; I in our defense. At one point I was faced didn't know there were people in this with expulsion from VISTA, in part country who spoke Spanish as their because of my frequent unexcused Paperbacks & Mas native language. My ignorance did not departures from my project to help with 1819 Blanco Road disqualify me from VISTA service. They the formation of La Raza Unida in San Antonio designated me a community organizer Crystal City. At the subsequent public and placed me in a public housing unit hearing, both Willie and his wife, Jane, Daily News & Tobacco on the west side of San Antonio. who was also a VISTA volunteer, spoke 309-A Andrews Highway Willie was my trainer and he had no out on my behalf and against my easy task in acculturating a middle-class immediate supervisors, who were long- Midland Jewish Yankee. At one of our first time San Antonio associates of theirs. It meetings he took me to Mario's Restau- seemed to me that took some courage. The Common Market rant for my first Mexican meal. After But Willie seemed naturally inclined to 1610 San Antonio we were seated, I noticed a bowl on the stand with people who were trying to Austin table with small green pieces of some shake things up a little. He was a born unknown substance and I asked Willie hellraiser. what it was. With a straight face he I last spoke to Willie when he was Old World Bakery suggested I try it, whereupon I grabbed hospitalized at M.D. Anderson Hospital 814 W. 12th Street a teaspoon-full and blithely swallowed in Houston, a few weeks before his Austin it. My mouth exploded and I couldn't death. We recounted VISTA stories, drink enough water to put out the fire. joked about his hypothetical rejection of Willie couldn't stop laughing nor could Duarte as a hospital roommate, and made The Stoneleigh P I, when I realized what had happened. plans for me to visit Willie and his family 2926 Maple Ave. Following this introduction to South- in San Antonio. Willie then discussed his Dallas western cuisine, Willie and I became illness. He related how he had daily friends. But more important for myself performed his aerobic exercises until and the other VISTA volunteers who recently, when he unexpectedly found he Guy's News Stand worked in the barrios of San Antonio, lacked the stamina to continue his 3700 Main Street he was the one VISTA supervisor who regimen. He consulted a doctor who, he Houston consistently supported our well-inten- explained, relieved his anxiety. "I tioned (though sometimes injudicious) thought I could no longer exercise attempts to effect change. College News because I was getting old; I was glad Whenever we were attacked, either in to learn it was only because I had 1101 University the press or by our own supervisors, cancer." Lubbock We never did get to visit in San Malcolm Greenstein is a lawyer practic- Antonio. Que le vaya bien, Willie. We'll ing in Austin. miss you. ❑

1-0 • JULY 29, 1988 Willie Velasquez, 11440.14 "1-`? Mentor BY JUAN SEPULVEDA

(The following reminiscence of • Willie School. We met at a Chicano student's Velasquez fajitas would be ready. She was Velasquez is adapted from the eulogy by group meeting that you spoke at. You asked right. I was also conned into playing Risk, Juan Sepulveda at Velasquez's funeral me if I wanted to get together for brunch. a game you and your brothers played June 18. Sepulveda made his remarks in the Being the sophisticated 18-year-old from occasionally. I knew I was in trouble when form of a letter to Velasquez.) Topeka, Kansas, that I was, I asked you you told me that the Velasquez family played what brunch was. You told me it was a by its own rules. Needless to say, I had HEN I FIRST found out your concept created by rich Anglos who couldn't been in Texas for less than a few days, but cancer was terminal, I didn't decide whether to have breakfast or lunch. something just felt special; even punching W know what to do. At first, I Anyway, we got together for brunch. We on Guillermo felt good. refused to believe it. It just wasn't happen- went to a small Parisian-style cafe in You know, Willie, the reason I am boring ing. It couldn't happen! Then, I just cried Harvard Square. From the exterior, I had you with all these memories is that I feel and cried and cried. a funny feeling I wasn't going to be ordering incredibly lucky and fortunate to have lived At the same time, a relentless train of Fruit Loops. Croissants, you said, when we with you and the family. Most of us who memories and flashbacks began. It made me Walked in, is what I should try. Cross what? have worked at Southwest Voter have felt feel like I was in a complete daze. I needed Is this what they eat in Texas? Or, is it that the job was more than a 9-to-5 situation. to clear my mind so I went and shot some just for those Tejanos who teach at Harvard? You learned to carry your commitment baskets. That didn't help so I took a shower everywhere you went. For myself, it became and decided to watch TV. I put on the local an obsession, a 24-hour-a-day world view. Spanish station, and they were having a I shared moments with you and the family special on Puerto Ricans, Cubans, and We net for brunch that I wish all your friends could have Chicanos. When they got to the segment experienced. Not only did I work with you, on Chicanos, they began by interviewing and talked I ate with you, I stayed up with you to all an elderly woman from Cuero, Texas. The hours of the night talking about all the reporter asked her to describe what she was about everything mysteries of life. I laughed with you, I doing. She said that she had never held a shared with you, I waited in the mornings job outside her home; she had raised ten in the world. for you as Janie struggled to wake you up. kids and 30 grandkids, but now she was I grew to love you. out in the streets, going door-to-door Well, we talked and talked about everything registering people to vote. Why? the in the world. This was also the first of a SAT IN YOUR huge chair, listened reporter asked. Because it was crucial in number of conversations we would have that to some of your classical music and order to make sure her children and included a discussion of the Aztecs and I pondered about what the large areas grandchildren could get a fair chance in British prime ministers. What a combina- were that made me think of you. I came society. I knew what was coming next — tion! I guess that's kind of like Texas and up with at least three. "You know," she said, "su voto es su voz." croissants. First was the importance of political Two seconds later, you were on the You told me that if I ever wanted to work participation and your love for a local screen, talking from your office with that with Southwest Voter just to write you a politics orientation. The TV program I goofy old picture of Janie and the kids in letter. One year later, I did. The only mentioned earlier about the grandmother the background. It was just too much for problem was that you didn't have the money who was now pounding the streets is typical me. Watching that elderly woman speak to hire me for the summer. I was determined of the tremendous impact you had on those words with a fire in her eyes made to get to Texas, so I raised the funds and political participation. These people seemed me recall those countless times I saw that you thought that my initiative was great, brainwashed in a certain sense: get the same expression and heard those identical so you made the mistake of inviting me to streets paved, fix the sewage system, fight words as I travelled with you to different live at your home. for better schools; somehow I get the feeling parts of the Southwest. It sparked various The school year ended and now it was that I've heard these words many times emotions in me. Part of me was so proud time to go to Texas. There were a number before. But in traveling with you to different to see your influence empowering people of questions I didn't have answers for. I areas and regional planning committees, I and part of me was burning up and aching knew you had a family, but what would they saw firsthand what political scientists cannot with pain from the fact that you wouldn't be like? I'll never forget that first weekend quantify: working- and lower-class people be able to do this much longer. in Texas. My parents drove me down and who were politically astute. They did not Anyway, back to the flashbacks. I still I met the Velasquez family. Janie, Carmen, lack political sophistication. Just because remember the first time we spent time alone Cata, Guillermo, Grandma, a scraggly little they weren't necessarily ready to give up together. It was my freshman year at mutt called Foxy. We also went to your their lives for issues that didn't affect them Harvard and you were teaching a course Mom's house that weekend (on a Sunday), daily (many national issues) does not mean in Southwestern politics at the Kennedy looking forward to eating your fajitas and that they would merely sit around and allow decided not to munch on any snacks. Janie their schools or communities to be de- Juan Sepulveda is pursuing a law degree at told me that this was a bad strategy, as it stroyed. Stanford University. would be hours before the famous Willie A second important area was your vision THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 11 Viva Willie! BY RANIIRO R. CASSO

ILLIAM (WILLIE) Velasquez died poor only attests to the length and The impact and the after-shocks of W was buried in San Antonio on depth of his unwavering commitment to those achievements have already changed Saturday, June 18, 1988, but Willie will la causa. He gave it all — everything! our world and will surely endure with never really die. Because his monumental In the business world, this kind of us forever. So how can Willie possibly contribution to mankind, his opus magna, man, with his brilliance of mind, and die? Oh Death, where is thy sting? Oh his legacy to his people, to Hispanics, his guts, and determination, would have Tomb, where is thine Victory? the disenfranchised, the powerless every- become a certain multimillionaire. But For many years to come, we shall where in Southwest America, will virtu- instead he virtually took the vows of witness the Hispanic worker, the Latino ally live forever. Such was the character, poverty and chose to register minority intellectual, the professional, the farm- the brilliance, the courage, the tenacity, voters, to make democracy work, to worker emerge from the cantina, after the greatness of this man. make our country stronger, to make our having a few drinks, and yell out loud All of Willie's adult life, all of his country better. In twelve short years, he so Willie can hear: Viva la Causa! Viva strength, and all of his resources, he doubled the Hispanic voter registration Willie Velasquez, hIjos de su chingada spent on his beloved, la causa. That he from 2.5 million to 5 million, and, as madre! And they will shed a few tears a result, the number of Hispanic office- together, and they will dry their faces, holders also more than doubled from and then they'll laugh. They'll remem- Dr. Ramiro R. Casso lives in McAllen. 1500 to over 3,000. ber. ❑

for the future of Chicano politics. I This is what you advocated and what we, possession of a quality that all leaders wish remember that pragmatic side of you which as a people, must pursue. I remember one they had and that was that you were just had to go through a period in which what of your favorite quotes on this topic, once as comfortable and accepted drinking a beer was important was just getting Brown people again drawing from our past, the Aztecs. with local organizers from Roswell, New elected. Any Brown people. This goal of It was a description of the qualities required Mexico, as you were sipping champagne quantity has been replaced, thanks to you, of those who would be elected high priest with national and international figures. This by quality. We cap no longer allow our and it held that "even if the person were never ceased to amaze me. You are, and leadership, especially those from our own poor and lowly, even if his mother and remain, a genuine man of the people. people, to go on unquestioned. We need to father were the poorest of the poor . . his Overall, Willie, you are the ultimate leader: move on to an era of Chicano statesmen. lineage was not considered . .. only his way an activist with vision. As Lawrence states, of life mattered. . . . The purity of his heart, "All men dream, but not equally. Those his good and humane heart . .. his stout who dream by night in the dusty recesses heart. . . . It was said that he had God in of their minds awake to find that it was •k.h and Associates his heart, that he was wise in the things vanity; but the dreamers of day are 1117 West 5th Street I it of God." In this statement of the past we dangerous men, they may act their dreams Austin, Texas 78703 REALTOR see a vision for our future both as a people with open eyes to make it possible." You (f) Representing all types of properties and as a nation. Willie, you were always are this latter type of dreamer. In Austin and Central Texas Interesting & unusual property a specialty. right about this; it's exactly what we need. Do you remember the last time we spoke The last and most important thing I 477-3651 face to face in Houston? You told me all learned from you, Willie, and the one thing about the grant plans and projects you had I most want out of my own life is to master — writing your book, providing for Jane an equilibrium in life just as you did. You and the kids, political consulting, and so balanced an undying commitment as a true on. I told you that I wanted to take next leader to the movement and to our people year off to help you. You said you needed with the strength and gentleness of being to think about it. Then, there was the last a son, a brother, a father, a husband, and time we spoke on the phone this past a friend. Sunday. You told me that you had been (TA1411 I You were a new type of leader — a thinking a lot about my offer and that you 1 NN) transformative leader. You committed peo- had realized that you needed me here at ple to action, you converted followers into home. A few days later, the Lord took you Listed On The National Register leaders, and you converted leaders into away. But don't worry, Willie, those things of Historic Places agents of change. You realized that previous will still get done — we're going to write leaders have created a commitment gap. that book, take care of Jane and the kids, "Go gather by the humming sea Leaders have failed to instill vision, and finish all the things you started. Some twisted, echo-harboring shell, meaning, and trust in their followers. They Life can be tough, Willie; you know that And to it all thy secrets tell" have failed to empower them. You did the better than I do. I never once, for a second, W. B. Yeats opposite. You convinced us that we could thought that I'd have to go through life be our own directors of our destiny. As Lao without you and — you know what? — I'm (512) 749-5555 Tzu wrote, "Fail to honor people, they fail not going to. That deep sense of emptiness to honor you; but of a good leader, who which felt like my heart had been ripped P.O. Box 8 talks little, when his work is done, his aim out has been replaced by a passion for life Port Aransas, TX 78373 fulfilled, they will all say, 'We did this that only you could have instilled in me. ourselves.' " Wherever I go, whatever I do, you go with

Your strongest point as a leader was the me, Willie; it's that simple. ❑

12 • JULY 29, 1988 Who Will Lead Information for Historians, SW Voter Project? Researchers, BY KATHRYN KASE Nostalgia Buffs,

San Antonio out and empower people," Olivo, a Fort & Observer Fans HE TIMING was macabre and ironic Bend County attorney, said. "There's a and was something Willie Velasquez multitude of leaders out there because of T would have appreciated had he still Willie's work." been alive. Part of the problem in naming a new Just in the door from Willie's funeral, Southwest Voter president is economic. Bound Volumes: The 1987 bound I picked up the latest Texas Monthly, which Before Willie knew he had cancer, money issues of The Texas Observer are now had arrived in the mail that day . In the State was so tight at Southwest Voter that he ready. In maroon, washable binding, Secrets section, editor Paul Burka reported cancelled his life insurance policy to spend the price is $30. Also available at $30 that Willie was seriously ill and concluded the premiums on a California voter registra- each are volumes of the Observer for that nobody at the Southwest Voter Registra- tion drive. each year since 1963. tion Education Project was sufficiently Today, the fiscal situation is not much charismatic to replace him. Given that better. Willie had long deplored Texas Monthly's "At this point, I don't think we have the coverage of Hispanic politics, he probably luxury of filling a $50,000-a-year position," Cumulative Index: The clothbound would have been bemused to see the said Bob Brischetto, executive director of cumulative edition of The Texas magazine worrying about his successor on the research institute, who added he is Observer Index covering the years the day of his funeral. "absolutely not" interested in the 1954-1970 may be obtained for $20. Among those the Monthly named as president's job. The 1971-1981 cumulative edition is potential replacements for Willie were Tony Whenever that time comes, the new $55 (clothbound) or $30 (soft bound). Bonilla of LULAC, former New Mexico president will probably be expected to make Governor Toney Anaya, and former Raza the same financial sacrifices Willie made. Unida leader Jose Angel Gutierrez. Andy An unwillingness to do that, Bonilla said, Hernandez, Southwest Voter's executive is why his brother Tony is not a candidate director, was dismissed as insufficiently for the job. Back Issues: Issues dated January 10, charismatic. Southwest Voter staffers seem to prefer 1963, to the present are available at $3 But today, more than a month after that the new president possess Willie's each. Earlier issues are out of stock, Willie's death from kidney cancer, there are unusual blend of personal humility and but photocopies of articles from issues no conclusive answers as to whether anyone professional ego, which led him to custom- dated December 13, 1954 through will be named to replace him as president arily precede his recital of Southwest December 27, 1962 will be provided of both the Southwest Voter Registration Voter's accomplishments with the pronoun at $2 per article. Education Project and its research arm, the "we." At Willie's funeral, staff members Southwest Voter Research Institute. South- privately indicated that they consider west Voter's board of directors will not meet Gutierrez's leadership style too self-centered until August 15, but board member Ruben to suit their close-knit organization. Microfilm: The complete backfile Bonilla said he is not inclined to fill the And while board members and staffers (1954-1987) is approximately $550. In- president's chair until after the November alike want the new president to have Willie's dividual years may be ordered general elections. charisma, they also speak of a president who separately. To order, or to obtain add- "I believe we should concentrate now on will regard the organization with a sense itional information, please write to mobilizing the Hispanic electorate for the of continuity. For that reason, no one has Univ. Microfilms Intl., 300 N. Zeeb November elections," Bonilla said recently. yet ruled out Hernandez — least of all Road, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106. "We should work on fulfilling that so that himself. when the new President of the United States "People haven't seen me in action," takes his oath of office, we can look forward Hernandez, a former Methodist minister to a new president of the Southwest Voter who has been with Southwest Voter since Address your order (except for microfilm) Registration Education Project and they can the beginning, said. "Anyway, this is not to the Observer Business Office. Prices in- work together as a team." about personal charisma. It is the vision that clude sales tax and postage. However, board member Dora Olivo has its charisma." ❑ favors throwing the August board meeting open to a full-fledged discussion of who will THE TEXAS OBSERVER lead Southwest Voter in Willie's absence. 2600 E. 7th St. 307 W. 7th ST. "What we want is someone who can go Austin, Texas 477-4701 AUSTIN 78701 Kathryn Kase is a second-year law student (512) 477-0746 at St. Mary's University in San Antonio and a former Capitol bureau reporter for the San Antonio Light.

THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 13 SPEECH The Hispanic Agenda

BY HENRY CISNEROS

(San Antonio Mayor Henry Cisneros spoke I take this message where I can to a Hispanic to the annual convention of the National audience, but equally to a traditional Association of Latino Elected and Appointed business audience. The fact of the matter Officials in the Alamo City June 11. The is that the question of Hispanic empower- Mayor spoke without prepared text; what ment and Hispanic opportunity and Hispanic follows is a transcript edited for length.) education and Hispanic productivity and Hispanic literacy is no longer an issue of HE THEME THAT I WANT to civil rights, is no longer a question of speak to you about is a new day that national ideals or Christian compassion, as T has arrived in the Hispanic commu- valid as all those things are. It fundamentally nity, as I see it. We've been through a period is a question of national survival. Because, in which we were described as a "sleeping how does a country compete in world giant." And people talked about the eventual markets . . . how does a county survive power of this giant when it would awaken. carrying ten or twenty million of its citizens We've been through a period when people in a permanent underclass? It cannot be; talked about the Hispanic community as the Cisneros it cannot be done; it won't work. The issue largest minority of the future, and the fastest is no longer civil rights; it's the very survival growing, and all the Madison-Avenue hype Hispanic or Asian or black. Now that's a or our country and everybody is in the same of "the decade of the Hispanic." And we've demographic wave that begins in California boat. . . . been through a period of excitement and but sweeps across the country. Why? The Hispanic numbers are there; this is self-discovery, as people acknowledge that Because we're living through a period where a growing population, but the politics of just in fact something was different than before; we're seeing a confluence of major forces. riding the crest of numbers is not going to and that's been about the last ten years. But On the one hand, the slower birth rates and serve our interests. We've got to use that it seems to me we've now arrived at the the aging of traditional populations, matched new-found responsibility, that new-found threshold of a point where the question is to the tremendous explosion of numbers, power and opportunity to help build the not whether this giant is going to awaken, inmigration and birth rates, in minority interests of the country at large. or whether it is an exciting phenomenon or populations. And it will literally change the whether the demographics are real, but an coloration, the complexion, and the politics OW WHAT ARE SOME of those acknowledgment that we now have an of many states, certainly many cities, and interests? Well, there is such a obligation to play a role of responsibility indeed the United States. N thing as a Hispanic agenda. And on the serious questions that confront this I was in Dallas some weeks ago and I it's important. . . . [The agenda includes] country — because in many places the heard a young man express his concerns opposition to the English Only movement, inheritors of progress, the inheritors of the about this issue and the role of minorities acceleration of the drive to citizenship, and great challenges that-confront not just the better than I've ever heard before. He said, the empowerment that will come in the next Hispanic people, but America and our states "We used to be second-class citizens in a administration — be it Bush or Dukakis, and our cities, are Hispanics. . . . first-class country. What we don't want is whoever is elected — to have a Hispanic In the year 2000 the state of California to become first-class citizens in a second- in the cabinet in the United States of will be 46 percent minority. Either class country." And that drives home a very America. Hispanic, Asian, or black. Forty-six percent important point. Now, as minority popula- Secondly, competitiveness for the His- of the largest state in America. In some areas tions are getting larger and we find the panic community in education and literacy. the numbers will be far greater than that. United States saddled with a massive trade Launching early childhood initiatives, work- Los Angeles County, with some eight deficit, key industries in decline, a transfor- ing on drop-out prevention, impacting million people, will be 60 percent minority, mation from manufacturing to services jobs literacy, and continuing to support the the largest Hispanic. San Francisco County that pay $7.00 an hour where a manufactur- importance and effectiveness of bilingual will be 65 percent minority, the largest ing job used to pay twelve and thirteen and education — a competitiveness agenda to Asian. Orange County, which we think of fifteen dollars an hour, somehow the issues make sure that our children are as competi- as a bastion of traditional politics . '. . will that once were our key issues — a whole tive in this tough world of unforgiving be 35 percent minority, and better than 25 series of civil rights, and empowerment and productivity requirements as any other percent Hispanic. San Diego — again we affirmative action questions — transition to population. think of that as a military center and a great fundamental economics and fundamental Employment. Employment relying not bastion of traditional politics — will be 40 survival questions. For us and for the whole only on the private sector, but also federal percent minority, the largest Hispanic. country. That's a very key message. Our jobs. Federal hiring of Hispanics is such Imperial County, 73 percent minority. goal in first-class citizenship is not to that few agencies are achieving their Fresno, 52 percent minority. San Benito become first-class citizens in a second-class objectives. Of 180 federal agencies that have County, 63 percent Hispanic. country. Our objective, our goal, our hope, goals for hiring minorities, only eight — But this is the statistic that [strikes] me is to do everything we can to continue to eight out of 180 — reach even the four more than any other: 92 percent of the build the nation as a whole. And first and percent mark where Hispanics are con- people of California will live in a county foremost in that set of responsibilities is to cerned. If the United States postal service that is over 30 percent minority, either invest in the capabilities of our own people. alone increased its number of Hispanics 14 • JULY 29, 1988 from 2.2 percent to just five percent, the the PRI. The head [in] the campaign for

— --..:.....------number would be 13,000 jobs. .. . foreign affairs. Working on the question of :1 Business development. Preserving the just sounding out Hispanic opinion. I Small Business Administration, expanding Never have we had representatives of minority business development agencies, candidates asking . . . what is the opinion working on capital pools for start-up of of the Hispanic community in America? Of businesses and contracting. In 1986, out of the Mexican American community. What $4...,;(- -,-; $136 billion spent at the Pentagon in is the opinion of the Hispanic community •Ik_.....,-,. :." contracted services, only $4 billion went to .0_,,,v, on the question of U.S. and Panama ,... .„,....._ottw ke....• • cp4T • $Sarlor. minorities.. . . relations? What's the opinion in the Hispanic c1•1,..1.. "•4".z Housing. The creation of low-income community on getting a different perspective OT (sil. 4IFk, ,4•102 housing and ownership opportunities for 6 OW • '(PH{ on the matter of drug trafficking? What's 14) \ 1 PAS` \! . N160- oik0,11;.: Hispanics. In health: programs designed to the opinion, as they asked today, of the (Pt ' ,ok .i •10.4/ . 9rP,I. deal with teenage pregnancy. k \kr 1O$•rf :_p Hispanic American community about l'$-, And then, a dimension of national policy Nicaragua and the peace process there? that reaches beyond our borders that has As I say, that's different. But it also poses .. a Hispanic dimension. Which is the third some very real difficulties. Because the Ctilk,S1 theme that I'd like to try to develop. . . . question of how we mature to speak as major ii We're coming into maturity during a time influences and power policy brokers in the when the United States itself is changing United States, speaking for the United States akiM01-4"'NN* ' 11$ its relationships around the world. For the of America, and at the same time reflect better part of 200 years America gave its these cultural interests and heritage is a The Official Language Movement livings Yon: Texas in Translation best time and attention and talent to the tough balance to walk. The point I made I.: Atlantic alliance. And that's appropriate. at the outset is, this is no longer an ethnic .. 1* . .. The last 50 years or so the country group that can say, "We want to influence ,.. learned about the Pacific. The headlines of policy at the margins; you know, it really (Poster Size is 10" x the country taught us to be concerned about doesn't matter what stand we take, because 15") Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Taiwan, and China. in the final analysis, the decision-makers are Singapore. And the newly industrializing going to make it in the best interests of the countries now — Thailand, Malaysia, country; it's our job to stand up just for Indonesia. . . . the Hispanic community." More and more, Beyond that, the nations of Central what the Hispanic community decides is Finally! America. Ten years ago the people of this going to be U.S. policy in major ways. . . . country didn't know what Nicaragua was, The bottom line it all focuses and hinges The Texas Map you English- or El Salvador. Or Panama. Today you around is our capacity to empower and Speakers have been waiting cannot pick up the newspaper of a major develop our own resources. And that means, for. Here is the New Texas, city in the country without seeing the name more than anything else, investment in of one of those three countries on the front education. The federal government over the free of all those hard-to- page, predictably every day. And beyond next few years, whether it's Bush or pronounce place names. that, South America. Certainly in our Dukakis, has said it's going to recommit Here is Texas in English — productive lifetime Brazil will grow to a to building American education. But, the like God intended. Remem- legitimate status as a world power, at least truth is, the federal government also has a as influential as France or Great Britain is hundred-billion-dollar deficit. And the truth ber, it may be too late for today. And Venezuela and Argentina will is, that either one of them is not going to English First, but not for also grow in power and responsibility. . . . be able to suddenly reverse the pattern of And Hispanic Americans will play roles deficits and arms to put money into English Now! whether we want to or not. If we want to, education. And so a lot of our destiny is then people from our community will in our own hands. It's not going to be become ambassadors. And they will be done with federal money; it's going to be Assistant Secretaries of State for Latin done with what we can do with our own YES. SEND ME JEFF DANZIGER'S America. And they will be leaders of major hands. . . . AMENDED MAP OF TEXAS foundations. And they will be leaders of Unless we're able to deal with the reality I ENCLOSE $5 TO COVER study groups from the study institutions and of a 42 percent drop-out rate in this city PRINTING, POSTAGE, & HANDLING the finest brain trusts of America. Our — 42 percent of the youngsters in the central people, our children, some of you, will play city schools who start in the ninth grade that role. never make it out of the twelfth grade. It's And if we don't want to, well then we're unacceptable. going to have deal with it anyway. Because And this vision of our role in this country other Americans will say, where do you of first-class citizenship is going to be name stand? Where do you stand? You can't marred by that trajectory. And this vision escape the question of where you stand on of America being a first-class country itself address narcotraffico from South America or from will be marred by that trajectory. There is Mexico. You can't escape the question of no excuse and no rationalization and no where you stand on immigration. You can't amount of polite cocktail talk or dinners or city state zip escape the question of where you stand on organizational resolutions that'll solve that special trade preferences. . . . problem, [but only] each and every one of This afternoon, at four o'clock, my last us accepting it as a personal responsibility The Texas Observer, appointment was with the head of the as public officials to deal first with education 307 W. 7th, Austin, TX 78701 campaign for Carlos Salinas de Gortari, the amidst all of the other priorities that we candidate for the President of Mexico for confront as Hispanics. ❑ THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 15 POLITICAL INTELLIGENCE

V AN OBSCURE economics profes- for the Senate and not for Governor. I just V MAURY MAVERICK was one of sor by the name of John Tower was the can't see him reelected there." a few liberal activists in the state who beneficiary last time a Texan ran for the expressed reservations about Bentsen. Mav- Vice Presidency and the Senate on the same //v EVERYONE, it seems, is on the erick described him as "intelligent and ballot. Some will remember that 71 candi- Bentsen bandwagon. Dr. Ramiro Casso, capable. . .mechanically good as a Sena- dates filed for the "ya'll come" special from McAllen, described the nomination as tor." But the San Antonio Express-News election to fill Lyndon Johnson's Senate seat "very positive, a great thing for the columnist expressed concern about the in 1961. Among those interested at the Valley." "Lloyd Bentsen grew up here, he Senator's conservatism and his 1953 state- moment are: Dallas Congressman John understands our culture, he speaks fluent ment that the U.S. should use atomic Bryant, Lt. Gov. Bill Hobby, Houston Tex-Mex," Casso said. He also described weapons on North Korean cities. Congressman Mickey Leland, San Antonio Bentsen as being very sensitive to the needs Mayor Henry Cisneros, Attorney General of the economic underclass. V JOHN HENRY Faulk is also Jim Mattox, Land Commissioner Garry McAllen attorney Bob Sanchez, who in concerned about the Senator. Faulk, the Mauro, State Comptroller Bob Bullock, 1970 joined Austin attorney Dave Shapiro Austin writer and political activist, said the State Treasurer Ann Richards, former and Kountze editor Archer Fullingim to Bentsen appointment could be intended to Governor Mark White, and Agriculture found the Democratic Rebuilding Commit- head off the Hightower movement in the Commissioner Jim Hightower. tee, is also singing Bentsen's song. "We Democratic Party. Faulk called Hightower Many, according to Hightower, have only will be voting una palanca [a straight ticket] progressivism the most encouraging devel- tentatively thrown their hats in the ring. in the Valley now," Sanchez said. The 1970 opment in party politics in years. "Most of those hats have strings on them committee that he helped form urged Texas and can be pulled back," Hightower said. Democrats to vote for George Bush over V WHEN THE SENATE voted in Hats that are likely to remain in the ring Bentsen in the Senate election. Bentsen had June to permit federal courts to order the are those of Hobby. the frontrunner in a defeated then-Senator Ralph Yarborough in execution of people convicted of drug- race that doesn't yet exist; Hightower, who the Democratic primary. "At the time there related killings, Lloyd Bentsen was one of has been gearing up for a Senate race against was no Republican party," Sanchez said. 65 Senators voting yes. (Republican Phil Phil Gramm; and Mark White, who might "The idea was not to oppose Bentsen but Gramm did not vote.) have nowhere else to go. to create a two-party system. We were not The death penalty is one of several issues "I like and respect Mark," one state against Bentsen." Now we have a Republi- that Bentsen and Gov. Michael Dukakis representative said, "hut I hope that he runs can Party and Sen. Bentsen. disagree on. Bentsen has consistently fa- vored the death penalty. As George Bush regularly points out, Dukakis is against capital punishment.

V NARY a newspaper in the state had a discouraging word to say about Bentsen's selection for the V-P slot. The Austin Atnerican-Statesman and the Dallas Times Herald, generally the state's most liberal edit pages, gave the Bentsen move approving nods. Most editorials were along the lines of the one in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, which said the Bentsen selection "certifies Texas' national importance." But how was Bentsen being perceived beyond our provincial boundaries? The isn't much good if you can't read it. Our Capital Times, in the liberal bastion of Madison, Wisconsin, said Bentsen production department is packed with "represents some of the worst aspects of contemporary politics" and that his selection experience in getting your ideas on paper. "embodies the politics of money." The From design to full service computer Madison daily saw Dukakis's move as embracing "the politics of the past instead typesetting, we can put the power of the of charting a bold new course for the pen to work for you. Call us at 442-7836. future." Of course, they're just jealous. ❑

AUSTIN, TEXAS FOR LIBERAL PORTIONS 1714 S. Congress 442-7836 AT CONSERVATIVE PRICES Data Processing • Typesetting • Printing • Mailing * REMEMBER SCHOLZ GARDEN * * 1607 San Jacinto * 477.4171 *

16 • JULY 29, 1988 (Advertisement)

A Public Service Message from the American Income Life Insurance Co.—Waco, Texas—Bernard Rapoport, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer

Democracy Vs. Freedom

BY RALPH L. LYNN to follow Japan's example. Japan may be the only nation in which a ruling class deliberately abandoned traditional society to imitate the Democracy is of mysterious origin; to master it, a people Western world. The Japanese ruling class began where must almost be born to the system. all of the underdeveloped countries must begin — with Historians find it easier to discover what happened than economics. Instead of spending the nation's wealth to why it happened. Few developments are planned; most just import the Western goods they desired, the ruling class happen to happen. Yet, one must make a guess as to why transformed the Japanese economic system in order to democracy developed in England. And one must comment produce in Japan the desired Western goods. on the experiences of other people who have aspired to it. Please note: If Japan is today democratic at all, it is not because anybody planned it. Also: more than one hundred A beginning probl6m is that most speakers use years have elapsed since the reforms began. In what other democracy and freedom interchangeably. country has the necessary local leadership for moderniza- Freedom, for much of the non-Western world, has had tion appeared? to mean — primarily and paradoxically — freedom from Let us make no mistake: democracy cannot work where control of the Western "freedom-loving" democracies. This there is mass poverty. The reason is simple: any slightest was the case in Vietnam where the United States sought economic dislocation brings immediate social chaos. The to enable the French to retain power and then fought to masses are immediately starving, the small ruling class maintain our own hegemony. cannot collect taxes, and the minuscule "middle class" is Freedom for the people of Afghanistan and some other crushed between the masses on the bottom and the ruling unfortunate people means — primarily but not paradoxically class on top. Hungry and frightened people do not engage — freedom from Russian control. in rational debate and rational actions. Therefore: democ- In any case, it is only after attaining freedom from foreign racy is impossible in Nicaragua and Afghanistan, to name control that nations can even begin to move toward two places in the news, unless and until they can -- over democracy and the Bill of Rights kinds of freedom — even generations — raise the national income level so that all if there is leadership in that direction. classes have some margin of safety. Democracy, in the sense that we in the United States Despite the fact that nearly all of the Latin American enjoy it, seems to have had its beginning in England. But countries adopted American-style constitutions more than its development was totally unplanned and entailed a hundred years ago, nearly all have remained right-wing centuries of struggle of the poor against the rich with the dictatorships. result that all of the poor attained the right to vote and Obviously a long time must elapse after a beginning has hold office only in the current century. been made, the outcome of which might be democracy, It is important to note that most of the English people before the people of a nation can establish and begin to enjoyed most of the Bill of Rights kinds of freedom long accept the complicated, sophisticated machinery of democ- before they entered upon democracy. racy. Here are three of the underpinnings of democracy. Perhaps democracy began in England primarily because 1. A nearly universally accepted court and police system their island position gave the English freedom from foreign must be maintained to prevent a powerful minority or a invasion. There is more to this than meets the careless powerful majority from denying freedom to the powerless. eye. 2. Sacrosanct bodies of jurists must be established whose First, this freedom from foreign invasion gave the English definitions of the law are almost universally accepted. Even time to debate any and all questions; and it is only after now in the United States our superior courts are often time-consuming debate that meaningful vote counting can unpopular because they demand that we behave more justly begin. Second, this freedom from invasion relieved the than we would really like. English of the necessity of maintaining a large standing 3. The highly sophisticated concept of the government's army. Our Founding Fathers understood, if we now do not, "loyal opposition" must be accepted. I would like to ask that an army powerful enough to defend the nation against here if Nixon understood this idea. This idea is probably foreign dangers is itself a danger to domestic freedoms. impossible without security from foreign invasion and from How about the currently democratic nations outside the economic want. United Kingdom? The United States, Canada, and other Note to the reader: If you do not cringe when President English-speaking nations inherited at least the impetus Reagan talks glibly about democracy and freedom in toward democracy; • we were almost born into it. Few Nicaragua and Afghanistan, one of two things is true: either European nations have learned to manage the democratic I am totally mistaken or you have not understood. system very well.. IL] Among non-Western nations, Japan is almost if not quite Ralph L. Lynn is Professor Emeritus of History, Baylor unique; the poor, underdeveloped nations would do well University.

THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 17 BOOKS & THE CULTURE America and Her Children

BY LOUIS DUBOSE

RACHEL AND HER CHILDREN shelters in New York, 40,000 believed to results in the cynicism of knowing a great By Jonathan Kozol be unsheltered citywide; in the nation, from deal more than one can ever tell. If Kozol New York: Crown Publishers, 1988 two to four million homeless, depending on doesn't tell all, he tells a great deal. And it seems that he is convinced, that he knows, 261 pages, $16.95 whose estimate the reader chooses to accept. From the federal government, there is the that once the essentials of the material You know, if I listen to him long enough, manipulation of numbers that serves to presented are understood the reader will not I would be convinced that we're in an diminish the nature of the crisis: a Housing only understand, but this understanding will economic downturn, and that people are and Urban Development study released in result in the proper behavior. Appendices homeless, and people are going without food 1984 set the nationwide figure at somewhere here include a list of groups that accept tax- and medical attention, and that we've got between 250,000 and 350,000 — the sort deductible contributions, policy suggestions to do something about the unemployed. of commitment to mendacity that has for short- and long-term solutions, and —Ronald Reagan become the signature mark of the Reagan speculation on homelessness in the year Presidency. The HUD numbers were so 2000. Jonathan Kozol is an optimist. I don't believe that there is anyone in this obviously distorted that the study was He is not, and does not pretend to be, country going hungry simply by reason of immediately discredited. While HUD a policy intellectual. What is so powerful about Kozol's book is his Dickensian denial. . . . estimators had determined on a given night —Ronald Reagan in New York there were 12,000 homeless description of life in New York's emergency people, on the night cited more than 16,000 assistance units (EAUs) and welfare hotels. Can you get the government to know that homeless registered in shelters. And Kozol's first ride up the elevator and into the Hotel Martinique is a descent into a we exist? estimates made by shelter operators in 21 —A single mother of three cities in 1986 totaled 230,000 people, Kafkaesque world where homeless families living in a New York shelter though the sample excluded Chicago, San spend years crowded into nine-by-twelve Francisco, Houston, Cleveland, Atlanta, rooms, hiding hotplates from city NE HUNDRED SIXTY-FIVE Pittsburgh, St. Paul, San Diego, Detroit, inspectors, scrambling downstairs to line up pages into Rachel and Her and all of the nation's middle-sized and small for single sheets of toilet paper, cleaning Children, Jonathan Kozol finally cities. San Antonio Congressman Henry B. up flooded bathrooms, negotiating their O Gonzalez, according to Kozol, described the ways through desk clerks and guards, and gets around to indicting Ronald Reagan, declaring him partly responsible for creation HUD study as "intentionally deceptive." trying to protect their children from of the new underclass of dispossessed, for Yet it is important because it illustrates the predatory drug dealers working the halls. the disintegration of families, for the strategy by which the current administration Consider one mother's circumstances in a suffering of a generation of children who attacks the problem of homelessness — that room at the Martinique: have known no homes other than the streets is, as the President has done, to deny that . . . The crumbling plaster in the or New York's welfare hotels, for the deaths it exists. Kozol warns that there is a danger Martinique Hotel is covered with sweet- of infants who have "failed to thrive," and in even engaging in a numbers debate: "Any tasting chips that children eat or chew as of children who have been discharged from search for the 'right number' carries the it flakes off the walls. Infants may be paralyzed or undergo convulsions. Some post-operative care onto the streets or into assumption that we may at last arrive at an acceptable number. There is no acceptable grow blind. The consequences may be emergency shelters. Other than the temporary or long lasting. They may occasional confusion of the verbs "bring" number. Whether the number is one million or four million, or the administration's appear at once or not for several years. and "take," Kozol's overly deliberate This, then, is her first concern; but there approach to the President is about the only estimate of less than a million, there are too many homeless people in America." are others. The bathroom plumbing has flaw in his personal investigation into overflowed and left a pool of sewage on homelessness in America. Rachel and Her Jonathan Kozol, who previously wrote the floor. A radiator valve is broken. It Children is both a Dickensian study of the Illiterate America, is a former public school releases a spray of scalding steam at the everyday existence of homeless families teacher. That his approach to his subject eye level of a child. The crib provided by struggling to hold their lives together in New is more pedagogical than journalistic is no the hotel appears to be unstable. . . . The York's welfare hotels and a passionate and surprise. And it is precisely this pedagogical beds in the room are dangerous too. They convincing argument that all of this need approach that is Kozol's greatest strength. are made of metal frames with unprotected not be. Slow and expository, anecdote after corners; the mattresses do not fit the Kozol begins with a description of the anecdote, in a dozen lessons, Kozol frames. At one corner or another, metal average homeless family — a parent with considers the circumstances of a half dozen is exposed. .. . two or three children, the average child six families assigned to New York's welfare The room is lighted by fluorescent tubes years old, the average parent, 27. Then hotels. One senses that he could never come fixed high above us on the ceiling. They some discussion of the size of the homeless to terms with the column-inch restraints of cast a stark light on four walls of greenish population: 28,000 homeless in emergency journalism — a limitation that generally paint smeared with some sort of sludge that

18 • JULY 29, 1988 drains from someone's toilet on the floor a state that offers almost no support to With a woman he calls Holly, Kozol above. There is an infant girl, two boys people living at the margin, also is home reconstructs the short life of her third child, with dark and hollowed eyes. to a large and growing homeless population. an infant named Benjamin. Evicted from the A Dallas Morning News series on the All of this might make some sense were Martinique for a rules violation — her homeless, published in 1986, speculated that husband, who was not an authorized guest, this place a temporary shelter, a place to as many as 15,000 in Dallas lived in and get families off the street and then perhaps was caught sleeping in her room — the out of a dozen shelters, funded mostly by family of four found themselves on the into some permanent housing. But for many the United Fund. And in Houston, the in New York, this is permanent housing. streets caring for an infant recently homeless population is said to be as high discharged from the hospital. A viral And it still might make some sense — as 25,000. particularly in the terms of the public infection had left the child partially blind, Who are these people? Some, of course, brain-damaged, and hydrocephalic. Almost morality of the Age of Reagan — if these are the hard-core poor — unemployed and facilities were provided to the city of New all of the child's seven months, Kozol unemployable. But many are family explains, were spent in Beth Israel Hospital, York at a cost that might justify housing breadwinners used to surviving on the a family in such conditions. But neither is the Hotel Martinique, and the Mayfair Hotel minimum wage, the working poor that (from which they also were evicted because this the case. For a room for a homeless former University of Texas sociologist family in the Hotel Martinique, the city of the husband again was caught in the room David Snow describes as "only one case without authorization). New York pays from $65 to $75 a night. of the flu away from the streets." (Kozol's The fact that the city pays $21,800 a year The infant's final day out of the hospital work supports Snow's argument that the was spent in an emergency assistance unit to house families in hotels owned by private homeless population is not comprised of owners who contribute large sums to elected where the family had waited days for deinstitutionalized mentally ill.) permanent shelter: "They say in the paper officials is a powerful argument against any Annie Harrington is one resident of the effort to privatize social services. Even New that he died there on the floor. That isn't Hotel Martinique. "In four years," she tells true. I lay him in the carriage." York Mayor Ed Koch described such hotels Kozol, "we've been in and out of the hotels. as "fleabags" and "hellholes," demanding Here for ten months. It seems like ten that the city no longer house families in such OW IS IT that a critically ill infant years." Her husband, since being was left dying in a city-funded places. The statement was made, however, discharged from the army, has held a series in 1971, while Koch served in Congress; H shelter? Kozol is cautious in his of part-time jobs. With her three children, assessment of the situation: as Mayor he sees things differently. and her husband who works part time at a hospital and is attending "computer I do not believe that the probity of the OR THOSE of us in Texas who classes," she resides in one room. The health officials should be called in question. smugly observe that no such abuse dream that she describes to Kozol, her Holly speaks with obvious affection of her F of public funds occurs here, we are, dream of an apartment, is a pathos-filled, doctor. It is unimaginable that any of those of course, correct. There are no public real-life version of Audrey's campy who came in contact with the child wished monies to fuel the furnace of corruption. "Somewhere That's Green" from the him ill or that the officials consciously A 1986 survey, conducted by the National musical comedy, Little Shop of Horrors: released him to the street. Hospitals all over Coalition for the Homeless, described "The boys, they had to share a room. I the United States, faced with hundreds of Houston and Miami as the only major cities painted that room blue; there was a spread thousands of unsheltered people and with in the country were no local funds are spent over the bed that Doby slept in. It had millions of the very, very poor, do the best on the homeless. The low-spenders' point football pictures on it. My kitchen had a they can, and sometimes do so quite of reference, against which these two were phone, a stove, refrigerator, toaster, all of heroically. The issue is not medical or measured, was Dallas where only $79,000 bureaucratic mishap in Manhattan. It is those nice things. . . . The neighbors liked destitution. in local funds are dedicated to assist the me. And the landlord liked me too. He said homeless. we could use the backyard, so we bought But there is, it seems, no method to the Can Ronald Reagan be blamed for all of a grill to barbecue outside on summer this? Yes, though here I concede that the madness by which the nation's largest city nights. Then I woke up." provides for those who would otherwise terms of the reviewer's indictment are Another resident, a former maintenance harsher than those of the author. Kozol cites make their homes on the streets. The state worker in a Manhattan high-rise whose wife a New Republic of New York provides a maximum of $270 summary of budget cuts one day suddenly abandoned him and their made under Ronald Reagan's direction per month for families on welfare to pay three children, Kozol calls Mr. Allesandro. between 1980 and 1984: rent. Yet there are no houses or apartments Allesandro's domestic responsibilities, arid • Housing assistance — $1.8 billion that rent for less than $350, and $400 to late arrivals at work, resulted in reduction • $500 is closer to the going rate for low- AFDC — $4.8 billion to part-time status and the inability to pay • Child nutrition — $5.2 billion rent housing. Thirteen dollars is provided his rent. Evicted, and caring for three • to each family every two weeks to provide Food stamps — $6.8 billion children, he turned to one of the city's At the time that Kozol was writing, he for transportation to search for apartments emergency assistance units: "So I'm in this observes, the President was proposing a that will never be found. And each month, place with about 200 cots packed side by bi caseworkers repeat the ritual of reviewing Ilion-dollar cut in food stamps and in child- side. Men and women, children," he says, n utrition funds for 1987. And for the record, the documented attempts of their clients' "all together. No dividers. There's no it should be noted that it was the apartment search. Single parents can hardly curtains and no screens. I have to dress my A work — if they can find work. The drug dministration of Ronald Reagan that kids with people watching. When my girls in sisted on counting residents' welfare dealers, pimps, and petty criminals who go to the toilet I can't take them and they're pa stake out the streets and alleys around the yments, made directly to hotel owners, scared to go alone. A lot of women there as part of indigent families' incomes. For apartments are a constant threat to are frantic. So I stand outside the door." th unsupervised children. So for many e Allesandros, a family of four, this After leaving the emergency shelter, "t ightening of eligibility requirements" families, once they are caught in the system Allesandro and his children are placed in m there is no exit. eant, in 1986, the reduction of a food the Martinique. By day, Allesandro looks st amp allocation from $145 per month to And though the argument has been made for work, all the while afraid that he will $3 3 per month. that New York's policies encourage find a job only to lose it: "I'd be back there "Even if one American child is forced homelessness, they are not the cause. Texas, with the children in the barracks." to go to bed hungry at night," Ronald

THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 19

Reagan has been quoted as saying, "that big budget cuts required by the Gramm- is a national tragedy." "Now you're hearing Rudman-Hollings deficit reduction act, by all kinds of horror stories," Ronald Reagan no coincidence, do not come until 1989, the said on another occasion, "about people that year that Ronald Reagan leaves office. Independent. are going to be thrown out in the snow to Better to sit this one out, leaving President hunger and [to] die of cold and so forth. George Bush to deal with the fiscal crisis Free-Wheeling. . . . We haven't cut a single budget." on the horizon. Then in 1992 . . . Kozol sees it differently and accuses this I tried this argument out on Dallas Times Informative. President of "terrorizing women with the Herald columnist Molly Ivins. It is an fear of hunger." Nor does Kozol forgive argument that we can no longer afford, Ivins Reagan's "complacent ignorance" (more insisted. For the poor, four more years of T HE TEXAS likely pernicious mendacity) as it is borne a Republican administration will mean out in the quotes previously cited. And the "unimaginable suffering, for some, death. editors of the New England Journal of Kozol's book supports Ivins's argument. server Medicine take Ronald Reagan to task for It also includes a brief public policy agenda his Administration's "relentless efforts" to in the form of an appendix, is informative, reduce health services for "low-income well-written, and, after all, optimistic. persons who are aged, blind, disabled, or Democrats and others who genuinely care members of families with dependent about social services should buy this book children." and read it. Then vote, early and often, for ANDERSON & COMPANY Recently, policy intellectuals, and writers Michael Dukakis. ❑ COFFEE such as Hunter Thompson, have made the TEA SPICES argument that the Presidency of the United TW() JEFFERSON SQUARE States is not something that the Democrats Observer Bequests AUSTIN, TEXAS 78131 really should be going after in 1988. The Austin attorney Vivian Mahlab has 512 453-1533 agreed to consult with those interested Send me your list. in including the Observer in their Name A OW & COFFEE HOUSE estate planning. For further informa- Serving Austin's University & tion, contact Vivian Mahlab,•attorney- Street Capitol Communities Monday — Friday 7:30 am - 7:00 pm at-law, P.C., at 1301 Nueces, Austin, •City Zip 105 W. 20th Street 479-6109 Texas 78701, or call 512/477-9400. behind Perry Castaneda Library

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Our outstanding lunches Austin iconoclasm. have been an Austin must for eleven years. Our international For seven years now, the Austin Chronicle has been keeping grocery features food and wine tabs on the social and political kaleidoscope that is Texas' from around . the world. Come capital city. From the South Texas Nuclear Project to see us at our new home. Greater Tuna, from the war between the developers and the environmentalists to the battles for arts funding, from Bill Oommori Clements to the Butthole Surfers, the Chronicle covers it all. MFNIKET Available free at over 350 locations throughout the central Texas area, or by 1610 San Antonio subscription ($25 bulk mail, $40 first class) from PO Box 49066, Austin 78765. Austin, Tex. 78701 472-1900 Editorial: (512) 473-8995 Advertising: (512) 473-8200 Hours: 7am — 7pm Mon. to Fri. and 8am — 4pm on Sat

20 • JULY 29, 1988 SOCIAL CAUSE CALENDAR

SUMMER READINGS IN SAN ANTONIO For more information on either of OBSERVANCES these cultural happenings, contact Sandra Cisneros, poet and short fiction July 29, 1970 • Grape growers sign writer, will read from her recent work Women & Their Work, 1501 West 5th contract with United Farm Workers, Street, Austin, 78703, (512) 477-1064. at the Guadalupe Theater on July 30 at ending boycott. 2 p.m. Cisneros is the author of two July 30, 1857 • Thorstein Veblen, author books of poetry, most recently KAZUO KADONAGA My of The Theory of the Leisure Class, born. IN CORPUS CHRISTI Wicked, Wicked Ways (Third Woman August 1, 1946 • Atomic Energy Press, 1986). The House on Mango The Art Museum of South Texas will Commission established. sponsor the exhibit, "Kazuo Kadonaga: Street (Arte Publico Press, 1983) won August 3, 1981 • 11,500 air traffic a Before Columbus American Book Wood / Paper / Bamboo / Silk," from controllers strike and are fired by August 19 through Award in 1985 and she was a 1985 October 2, in Corpus President Reagan. Christi. The exhibit includes 50 works recipient of the Dobie Paisano August 6, 1945 • United States drops Fellowship. The reading is free and open of sculpture by the Japanese artist from A-bomb on Hiroshima. the wood, paper, bamboo, and silk to the public. For more information August 7, 1964 • Congress passes Gulf contact the Guadalupe Cultural Arts series. Kadonaga's sculptures evoke the of Tonkin resolution giving President organization and serenity of a Japanese Center, 1300 Guadalupe, San Antonio, Johnson power to wage war in Indochina. 78207, (512) 271-3151. rock garden and blur the Western August 9, 1974 • President Nixon distinction between art and craft by the resigns Presidency. reliance on natural materials and August 11, 1828 • First labor party in processes. Throughout the course of the PALESTINIAN FILM U.S. formed in Philadelphia. SNOWING exhibit, workshops and performances "Wedding in Galilee," the critically will be offered at the museum featuring acclaimed film by Palestinian filmmaker traditional Japanese activities and arts. In addition, an evening of Japanese films Michael Khleifi, will be shown on PANTEX PEACE CAMP July 31, August 2, and August 4 at the is planned. For more information, call Undoing racism is the subject of the fifth Lin Nelson-Mayson at (512) 884-3844. Guadalupe Theater in San Antonio. Shot annual Pantex Peace Camp at the Peace on the West Bank, the film vividly Farm near Amarillo, sponsored by Red reveals the clash between two cultures PARENTAL SUPPORT River Peace Network. The Camp will IN AUSTIN as conflicts arise between the Israeli begin Friday evening August 5 and run governor and a Palestinian village elder All single parents are invited to attend through Sunday, August 7 at noon. the Single Parent Support Group at the planning a grand wedding for his son. Activities will include international and The Mukhtar wants the wedding to Austin Women's Center, 1700 South local speakers who will address the Lamar, Suite 203, Austin, 78704. The extend past the curfew but to gain subject of how to undo racism. Sunday permission the governor and his soldiers group meets the first, third, and fifth morning events at the East Gate of the Tuesday evening of every month from must be invited. Screenings are at 3 p.m. Pantex Plant will include a Catholic on the 31st, and then at 7 p.m. on 7 to 8:30 p.m. There is no charge and Mass, a ceremony for reweaving the web childcare is provided. For more August 2 and 4. In Arabic with English of life, and a nonviolent action against subtitles. For more information call (512) information, call Laura Gonzalez at (512) nuclear weapons. For more information 447-9666. 271-3151. call the Peace Farm at (806) 335-1715. FOR VICTIMS OF AIDS AUGUST DRAMA AND ART IN AUSTIN TEXAS FOLKLIFE FESTIVAL IN AUSTIN The 17th Annual Texas Folklife Festival, AIDS Services of Austin (ASA) collects Women & Their Work, Inc., will food, dry goods, cleaning supplies, and sponsored by the University of Texas sponsor an exhibit by San Antonio Institute of Texan Cultures, will be held other useful items for people with AIDS. sculptor and installation artist Suzanne To donate items or cash call ASA at (512) in San Antonio from August 4 to Paquette opening August 7. August 11 and 458-3505. The Festival is a celebration continuing until September 18. Paquette of the state's rich history and colorful will exhibit new work including an heritage which features the music, food, KEEP UP architectural brick sculpture and carved ON SANCTUARY NEWS dances, crafts, and customs of Texas's wood panels. There will be an opening many ethnic and cultural groups. The For $5 you can keep up on sanctuary reception from 6 to 8 p.m. on August 11. movement news nationally — subscribe festival will be held on the 15-acre Women & Their Work in August also grounds surrounding the Institute of to National Sanctuary Newsletter by joins Aqua Fest 1988 in presenting Back Texan Cultures at Durango Boulevard sending $5 to Terri English, 8419 to School, a collaborative play by Meri Highway 973, Austin, 78719. and Bowie Street on HemisFair Plaza in Houtchens Kitchens and Sydney downtown San Antonio. Tickets are $5 Brammer. Back to School features the for adults, $1 for children ages six to LATIN DRAWINGS experiences and concerns of five women IN AUSTIN twelve, and free for children under six. who have returned to college. There will Discounts are available on advance "Recent Latin American Drawings from be two performances, August 5 and 6 the Barbara Duncan Collection" will be purchases of tickets. For more beginning at 8 p.m. at the Live Oak on exhibit through information contact Texas Folklife August 14 at the Theater, 311 Nueces, Austin. Tickets are Archer M. Huntington Art Gallery in Festival, P.O. Box 1225, San Antonio, $5 and $6 available in advance or at the 78294, (512) 226-7651. Austin. For more information call door. (512) 471-7324.

THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 21 AFTERWORD Sabat's Fifteen Minutes of Fame

BY DEBBIE NATHAN DHS was the subject of State Senate NYONE WHO HAS spent time in hearings where County Attorney Joe Lucas Mexico has seen its handicapped. described five instances of DHS neglect, The poor ones, at least, are A including three children who died during the impossible to miss — the lame and the halt spend even more time on the streets past year and a half after shoddy casework failed to remove them from their eventually scrabbling a living than do their "normal" fatally abusive homes. underemployed countrymen. Mexico is Then there is El Paso DHS involvement teeming with blindmen led by seeing-eye in yet another boogyman tale: the children; harelips with holes in their faces; Noble/Dove daycare child sex- abuse case. the legless with their "prostheses" that It seems that back in 1985 child protection double as wheelbarrows. workers did the same kind of amateurish, And there are deafmutes. Once, in a little leading, and suggestive interviewing of tiny town near Acapulco, I ran across the village kids that social workers had done in goatherd. He was a young man, California's notorious McMartin case. heartthrobbingly handsome, intelligent, and McMartin was so botched that the Los awesomely, chillingly, speechless. He Angeles district attorney threw out the would strain to speak, utter nothing but charges against most of the defendants. In grunts, and the town children would giggle. El Paso, two women, Michelle Noble and The kids told me he was trying to say he Gayle Dove, were convicted despite wide- wanted to marry the gringa and go to the spread suspicions that they had been falsely United States. They burst into peals of laughter and the deafmute smiled weakly, accused. Dove is still appealing her case, understanding nothing of the joke. He asked GAIL WOODS but Noble was acquitted after a retrial earlier this year. A juror said the DHS interviews me for a cigarette, showing me the "sign with the preschool students were so language" he'd invented during a life disgustingly leading that perhaps a grand Alas, the Mexican without schooling. For jury should investigate why the case had brand whose name means "wings," he "Sabat" became Fiesta brand, he ever ended up in court. flapped his arms. For the What's this got to do with Sabat, you're danced around an invisible Mexican hat. a character in a asking? Just hush and listen! — or I'll tell - The children quaked with mirth, and you popular American Llorona to rip off your stereo. could tell this goatherd knew their mockery La Now, forget about DHS for a moment would be the most attention he'd ever get. myth. and consider Ciudad Juarez. One dark, cold "Sabat," the mystery boy who made big Saturday night last November, a young news last month, would have been just woman, Guadalupe de la Vega, was driving another Mexican deafmute had he not near the international bridge when she managed to reach the North American people who pick apart postmodern myths spotted a little boy wandering around. De border and invent a sign for the Marlboro looking for postmodern truths. Even though this deafmute kid really existed, the way la Vega is the daughter of a prominent, well- Man. For a while, the media thought they'd to-do Juarez couple who do quite a bit of come upon an American — or at least a he was fictionalized fits him right into the genre. So gather 'round with your 7-11 Big business and socializing in El Paso and white boy — lost in the wilds of Mexico. farther north. Their daughter has an What a story! It was supposed to be very Gulps, those of you lookin' to hear some American education and speaks excellent romantic. Sun Belt lore, and I'll tell you the real story In fact, it was about as romantic as those of Sabat. . . . English. For people like her, the U.S.- Mexico border is little more than a squiggle "did you hear about that woman who put on a map or a pesky traffic line at the bridge. her poodle in the microwave?" or T ALL kind of started, they say, with some Texas Department of Human So de la Vega found this kid one night. "razorblades in the Halloween candy" He was cute and fairskinned and freckled rumors that periodically wag tongues in the Services (DHS) child protection work- I and couldn't talk or hear. He kept pointing supermarket lines of the Late Imperium. ers who were desperate for favorable towards the airport, but when they got there, Such urban folktales are taken seriously by publicity. God knows, DHS could use some good PR — across the state, the agency is no one knew him. De la Vega took the boy under fire for failing to protect children — to her parents' house and named him Debbie Nathan is a freelance writer living because of woefully inadequate funding, "Sabat." He stayed with her family three weeks; then she put him in the local in El Paso. incompetency, or both. In late May, El Paso

22 • JULY 29, 1988 orphanage of the federal government's kids in El Paso already that they don't help," presented the quads with four plastic Integrated Family Development (DIF) Barnes said. agency. She used to take him home on bathtubs and an equal number of cotton After a while,' even the local media started undershirts. As for the El Paso media, it weekends, and after awhile she started catching on to the scam. Times reporter thinking. Sabat knew how to play electronic took days before it bothered reporting the Rodriguez saw Sabat using gestures typical quads' birth. One baby later died, possibly games, enjoyed breakdancing, and preferred of Mexiscan kids, not Americans. One doctor hamburgers over tacos. De la Vega, who from lack of access to high-tech medical noted that he had a TB vaccination, which care. The mother still owes on the street- is certainly in a geographic and social Americans almost never get. Another corner doctor's bill. position to appreciate Mexico's invasion by pointed out that Sabat knew no formal sign transnational junk culture, had apparently So if you're a poor kid in Mexico and language and had apparently never been to you need attention, what can you do? Spin developed some kind of amnesia. She school — which would be almost unheard certainly had not acquired a copy of tall tales and hope they hook a someone on Video of for even the poorest U.S. child. the other side. In a colonia across the river Night in Katmandu. In any event, she Still, there was this need to use Sabat as from here, some children last month swore decided that Sabat must be a gringo. She some sort of Rorschach inkblot. "What if they saw the Virgin Mary. And last fall, and the DIF orphanage people contacted El his parents didn't want anyone to know he kids in a town near Chihuahua City declared Paso's DHS people and posed the theory. existed? What if they hid him? What if his that they regularly socialize with a group DHS assigned the boy a caseworker, and father was an American drug trafficker in of friendly creatures from Mars. Both you've probably already heard much of the Mexico?" Guadalupe de la Vega asked me. stories excited the interest of the Mexican rest. All of a sudden, the news was full On the day she posed those questions, press; both proved just a tad tasteless for of "Sabat May Be American Survivor of the El Paso Times had already located the El Paso media. But Sabat was perfect. Mexico Plane Crash" headlines. The media, Sabat's family in Tampico, a Gulf Coast Of course, it's not just Mexican minors from People Magazine and the National town where the street urchins breakdance, who cater to Americans. The conservative Enquirer to CNN and "Good Morning eat MexDonaldburgers, and play video PAN (National Action Party) is masterful America," trekked down to the border, and games. Sabat's indigent mother is separated, at courting U.S. reporters, editors, and the world was served copy about Sabat has four other kids, and works long hours conservative politicos by sending English- drawing pictures of planes with dead people in a bar. She is hard pressed to care for speaking, American-suited emissaries over lying around them that were supposed to the boy, and he runs away a lot. Last year the border and even to Washington to speak represent his parents and sister. he hitched a ride to his dad's, in Monterrey. at every venue from university forums to Meanwhile, just in case he was missing From there, he apparently thumbed rides right-wing think tank luncheons. Even the but not orphaned, the FBI started tracking to the border. He wanted to go back to his ruling party, PRI, is learning how to out- down milk-carton leads pouring in from home, though. It's right next to the Tampico Sabat the PAN: last year it hired an Illinois, Los Angeles, Oklahoma, Canada, airport. American public relations firm to package London, Australia, even France. The Now that the true story, in all its presidential candidate Carlos Salinas de French connection, the most romantic and humdrum drabness, is out, the hoopla is Gortari and market him to the American therefore most heralded, fizzled out after over. The orphanage put Sabat, whose real media. the supposedly missing garcon was found name is Chuy, on a Mexican bus and sent We have our own part in the Sabat myth. playing in his yard in East El Paso. It was him back to Tampico. Chuy chugged off For us, the story is more an updating of back to square one for the feds. with an American-donated hearing aid, Tarzan: a rehashing of Imperialism's obses- DHS held a big press conference, and, amidst speculation that his poverty-stricken sion with "civilized" man's proper role in as El Paso Times reporter Berta Rodriguez mother may manage to educate him only later wrote, "put Sabat through his paces." the "jungle." In the fairytale of the pre- by giving him up to some rich family — World War II Empire, Africa is filled with Rodriguez, who covered daycare teacher Mexican or American. comic, childlike natives; Tarzan is a virile, Noble's sex abuse retrial, told me the little muscular adult. With Sabat, we've reached boy was desperately eager to perform and O WHAT'S THE deconstructionist the age of revolutionary decolonization. to please his caretakers. She said the DHS moral of this myth? First, that if Africa is now Latin America, and with shindig disgusted her — caseworkers badg- S everyone had known right off that Castro and the Sandinistas running around, ered Sabat to draw plane crash pictures, and Sabat was Mexican, you can bet you'd never Mexico is no longer an entity we and the it was a DHS worker and de la Vega, not have heard of him. Mexico's neglect of its Rulers are supposed to pat benignly on the Sabat, who had first drawn such scenes. poor kids can possibly be explained by the head. And what of Tarzan? That big hunk Another caseworker, Cindy Herskowitz, country's economic bankruptcy — as for the of a white guy has shrunk. Now he's a mere does not know sign language. No matter Global Village, there's no question that it child — weak, mute, deaf to the geopolitical — she made a show of gesticulating with wouldn't have given a damn about Chuy whisperings going on right in front of him Sabat, then told reporters the boy was telling if he hadn't sported those gringo freckles. — lost in the Third World. Won't somebody her he felt "dizzy" after the plane crash. Here are some other border kid stories please find out where he belongs and get Assistant El Paso County Attorney Ken to prove my point: Last year, a middle-class him out of there? Barnes, who prosecutes juvenile sex El Paso woman who had been pumped full offenders, later said Herskowitz recently A good myth, reflecting anxiety-ridden of fertility drugs gave birth to quadruplets. truths. What's wrong with the Sabat story sent him an affidavit describing how a three- At 24 weeks or so of gestation, they were year-old girl used anatomically correct dolls is that, to spin it, flesh-and-blood children hardly babies — previable fetuses is a more were exploited. In an age when kiddie porn to describe how a boy had sexually assaulted accurate description. Nevertheless, the El her. But Barnes saw a videotape of the DHS is banned, there's something really sick Paso media spent gobs of print and airtime about adults victimizing, for their own interview, and he says it was Herskowitz swooning over them until all expired in who was playing with the dolls, not the perverse agendas, everyone from Sabat to several hours, after running up tens of Tawana Brawley. I can imagine the next child. He was so angry that he sent a thousands of dollars in neonatal intensive project: Sabat's mother raising his special- complaint to DHS at the regional level. "I care bills. A few months later, a dirt-poor wouldn't even trust DHS to report a date ed tuition by offering him as a poster boy Juarez waitress walked into a street corner to the highest bidder. Who will it be? PAN? accurately," Barnes said. He added that a clinic, • and with virtually no previous PRI? The Gannett Corporation? For the lot of people around the courthouse were medical care, bore four full-term babies. To cynical about the Sabat story — "as though answer, keep your eyes glued to the honor this miracle, the head of DIF (who magazine rack by the checkout line at Mexico and DHS don't have enough street is also the wife of the Juarez mayor) Safeway.

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