GRADING LENA GUERRERO Pg. 5

A JOURNAL OF FREE VOICES OCTOBER 2, 1992 • $1.75

Buscando las Americas Looking for America DIALOGUE

Dissing Dissent whatever cow he pleases but keep that super- stition out of our public life, please. With I would like to dissent from Wayne Walther's yellow dog democrats like this, who needs • A JOURNAL OF FREE VOICES dissent (Dialogue, TO 8/21/92). We will serve no group or party but will hew hard to the repugs? First of all, if he is saying abortion is mur- Michael Hardesty, Oakland, Calif. the truth as we find it and the right as we see it. We are der, then why doesn't he want to criminalize dedicated to the whole truth, to human values above all interests, to the rights of human-kind as the foundation it? How come abortion has never been prose- of democracy: we will take orders from none but our own cuted under murder laws? It would seem the conscience, and never will we overlook or misrepresent anti-aborts don't really take their propaganda the truth to serve the interests of the powerfid or cater seriously. Patricia Lunneborg's new work, Inside Information to the ignoble in the human spirit. Writers are responsible for their own work, but not Abortion, A Positive Decision (Greenwood, In her review of Who Will Tell The People, for anything they have not themselves written, and in pub- 1992), makes the point that the best reason (TO 8/21/92) Molly Ivins says "well upwards lishing them we do not necessarily imply that we agree to have an abortion is the desire not to bear of 60 percent of the cost of health care in this with them, because this is a journal of free voices. an unwanted child. Contrary to wimpy liberal country is spent during the last month of a SINCE 1954 "defenders" of choice, abortion can be a very patient's life, when it is far too late to save positive and moral choice for women to him or her." Publisher: Ronnie Dugger make. The zygote, spermatozoa, embryo and That could be a real basis for a reform Editor: Louis Dubose fetus are not full human beings in the same of health-care distribution, if it can be shown Associate Editor: James Cullen Layout and Design: Diana Paciocco, Peter Szymczak sense as a born baby separated from its to be more factual than the anecdotes Mr. Copy Editor: Roxanne Bogucka mother's body. The anti-aborts trade on an Reagan used to manipulate the public so Mexico City Correspondent: Barbara Belejack unstated equivocation between human life, well. Please tell me where I can find docu- Editorial Interns: Jubilee Barton, Jay Brida, Paula mentation for that claim. George, Lorri J. Legge, Kate McConnico which does begin at conception, and a human Contributing Writers: Bill Adler, Betty Brink, Warren being, whose life is considered in all societies While you are at it, how about printing Burnett, Brett Campbell, Jo Clifton, Terry FitzPatrick, to start at birth. What Walther is really saying a list of names and addresses of people Gregg Franzwa, James Harrington, Bill Helmer, Ellen is that there is a "right to birth," an absurd whom voters —.not PACs -- can write to Hosmer, Steven Kellman, Michael King, Deborah with constructive suggestions on policy for Lutterbeck, Tom McClellan, Bryce Milligan, Greg Moses, concept which reduces the woman to the Debbie Nathan, Gary Pomerantz, Lawrence Walsh. status of a vassal. the Democratic party. After years of party Editorial Advisory Board: David Anderson, Austin; Secondly, its not the business of the State activism at several levels, I still can't get Frances Barton, Austin; Elroy Bode, El Paso; Chandler to promote monogamy or polygamy or absti- through to anyone who can do anything' more Davidson, Houston; Dave Denison, Cambridge, Mass; than issue a platitudinous form letter, guaran- Bob Eckhardt, Washington, D.C.; Sissy Farenthold, nence or permissiveness. I realize various Houston; Ruperto Garcia, Austin; John Kenneth Galbraith, Christian bigots are crawling out of the teeing that my suggestions will never reach' Cambridge, Mass.; Lawrence Goodwyn, Durham, N.C.; woodwork to blame the gays' behavior for our "candidate" or "representative." George Hendrick, Urbana, Ill.; Molly Ivins, Austin; AIDS, but why don't they blame smokers for I suspect that there can be no such liSt, Larry L. King, Washington, D.C.; Maury Maverick, getting cancer or overeaters for heart disease, because those people are available only to Jr., San Antonio; Willie Morris, Oxford, Miss.; Kaye Northcott, Austin; James Presley, Texarkana; Susan Reid, etc.? These deadly diseases take a much the few insiders. The rest Of us have to,make Austin; Geoffrey Rips, Austin; A.R. (Babe) Schwartz, higher toll than AIDS but you rarely hear do with the one-way connections supplied by Galveston; Fred Schmidt, Fredericksburg. calls for the State to promote a "healthy happy-talk broadcasters and, the boosterism lifestyle" or calls for cutting off funds for of the Dallas Morning News. Poetry Consultant: Thomas B. Whitbread cancer and heart research. The anti-smoking Clinton Trammell,' Sachse - Contributing Photographers: Bill Albrecht, Vic Hin- terlang, Alan Pogue. ads are a joke, they may even backfire. Contributing Artists: Michael Alexander, Eric Avery, Bottom line is it is a person's choice. Editor's Note: A spokeswoman for the Texas Tom Ballenger, Richard Bartholomew, Jeff Danziger, Third point, when are we in the atheist Health Policy Task Force said Ivins' state- Beth Epstein, Dan Hubig, Pat Johnson, Kevin Kreneck, majority going to start getting equal time? ment that upwards of 60 percent of the cost of Michael Krone, Carlos Lowry, Ben Sargent, Dan The god nuts have forced their views on health care is spent during the last month of .Thibodeau, Gail Woods, Matt Wuerker. everybody, just look at the coins in your life is consistent with testimony received by pocket or the bills or the pledge of allegiance, the task force. As for whom you can contact Managing Publisher: Cliff Olofson Subscription Manager: Stefan Wanstrom etc. Turn on the radio any Sunday morning with constructive suggestion on policy of Executive Assistant: Gail Woods ANYWHERE and the Jesus-cult comes out either major party, any voter can submit a Special Projects Director: Bill Simmons your ears. Walther is confusing organized resolution at precinct conventions after pri- Development Consultant: Frances Barton society, which we do need, with organized mary elections, but if you want to be taken religion, which we don't. He can worship seriously, organize. SUBSCRIPTIONS: One year 532. two years $59. three years $84. Full-time students $18 per year. Back issues $3 prepaid. Airmail, foreign, group, and bulk rates on request. Microfilm editions available from University Microfilms Intl., 300 N. Zech Road, Ann Arbor, MI 48106. Any current subscriber who finds the price a burden should say so at renewal time; no one need forgo reading the Observer simply because of the cost. INDEXES: The Texas Observer is indexed in Access: The Supplententaty Index to Periodicals: Texas Index and, for the years 1954 through 1981, The Texas Interested in collecting the art Observer Index. THE TEXAS OBSERVER (ISSN 00404519/LISPS 541300). entire contents copyrighted. © 1992. is published biweekly except for a three-week interval of the Texas Observer? between issues in January and July (25 issues per year) by the Texas Observer Publishing Co.. 307 West 7th Street. Austin, Texas 78701. Telephone:. (512) 477-0746. Second-class postage paid at Austin. Texas. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to THE TEXAS OBSERVER, The Texas Observer is now offering velox reproductions of 307 West 7th Street, Austin, Texas 78701. its covers for just $10. If you are interested in beginning A Member of the Association of AM. a collection, contact Stephan Wanstrom at 477-0746. Alternative Newsweeklies

2 • OCTOBER 2, 1992 EDITORIAL T HEserver TEXAS The INS in Court OCTOBER 2, 1992 McAllen calls to find the lawyer. VOLUME 84, No. 19 3 A.M. ON MARCH 12 of this year an But the INS knew. They had been served ATmmigration and Naturalization Service notice by Lisa Polumbo, Lopez's attorney, one official awakened 14-year-old Deniz Orlando month before they took the child to Houston Lopez, an undocumented immigrant the agency without counsel. And Polumbo had previously FEATURES believes is from Honduras. Lopez, who at the represented Lopez in ithmigration court on two time was in INS custody, was asleep in his bed occasions when INS trial lawyers were pre- Making Claims and at the Raymondville Juvenile Detention Center. sent, and had filed legal papers on behalf of Taking Responsibility He was taken to the Harlingen airport, where Deniz Lopez. Yet the INS, without advising her, By Molly Ivins he was told he was being flown to Houston to took the child to the Honduran Consulate in 6 speak to the. Honduran Consulate. He was not Houston. The information obtained by the The Disappearing Emperor told that the INS employee escorting him, Aaron Honduran consular officials was later intro- By James McCarty Yeager 8 Cabrera, was an agent responsible for the depor- duced as evidence against Lopez. It included, tation of minors. according to one of the attorneys requesting Free Trade and Promises In Houston, Lopez was left in an office with Judge Hinojosa to order the INS to follow its By Deborah Lutterbeck 1 0 two consular officials who questioned him. "I own rules, questions about certain types of foods. could see Mr. Cabrera just outside of the office When Lopez was found to be familiar with the where he waited and watched me," Lopez said foods of Honduras, this provided evidence that DEPARTMENTS in a deposition. When the interrogation was he was Honduran and therefore could be deported completed, one of the consular officials handed to that country. (Immigration attorneys often 3 & 5 a paper to Cabrera, who told the child: "Look refuse to divulge the nationality of their clients Editorials at this paper, with this you can go to your coun- in court proceedings, where the burden of proof Las Americas try." But Deniz Orlando Lopez did not want to lies with the government to establish that the A Nation Rebuilds go to his country. "I told him I would sign no defendant is an alien.) By Rebecca Thatcher 1 1 paper. I wanted to go back to the shelter," the The early-morning flight of Deniz Lopez, child said in the lobby outside Judge Ricardo who in court confounded even his attorneys The Children's War Hinojosa's federal courtroom. He spoke in by telling the judge that his name was Deniz By Grady Simmons and Kim Smith 13 Spanish, except when he referred to "el shelter." Perez, was not the only incident in which INS There are two stories here. One is of Deniz deportation officials violated their own rules Environmental Observer Orlando Lopez, who might be Deniz Orlando and what Judge Hinojosa described as "con- Carbon Tax and Texas Perez. And who might be 16. And who might stitutional protection and basic fairness." By Robert Bryce 15 be from Honduras. He is, according to a psy- Juan Carlos Garcia is an 13-year-old immi- chologist who evaluated him, mildly retarded. grant and a client of Proyecto Libertad, a non- Books & the Culture He is also in this country alone, as alone as he profit legal-assistance office in Harlingen. After Goodbye Columbus was when picked up by Border Patrol officers failing to convince an immigration judge that Book review Nancy Dughi 17 in Laredo. Then there's the story of a federal Garcia was "deportable," the INS continued agency that so flagrantly disobeys its own rules to bring the child into court without advising A Silenced Lamb and so cavalierly disregards the U.S. Constitution his attorney at Proyecto Libertad. During the Book review by Dave Oliphant 19 that a Reagan-appointed federal judge is com- course of the hearing held in Judge Hinojosa's Drug Money Masterpiece pelled to ask in court: "Why can't you abide federal district court, attorneys (one from the Movie review by Steven Kellman 21 by your own rules?...What do constitutional Valley, two from Washington) representing the protections mean if they are not applied?" INS struggled to explain to the judge why Political Intelligence 24 This judge knew that when INS officials Garcia's attorney was not notified when new loaded Deniz onto a plane and flew him to deportation proceedings against the child were Cover art by Sylvia Orozco Houston, they did so fully aware that he had an initiated in court on Aug. 14. attorney representing him. The INS made no Told that the agency's legal staff had notified effort to contact the attorney. Even if the INS the child's foster parents, Hinojosa became staff didn't know who the attorney was, as Judge visibly angry. "You knew [who the attorney Hinojosa said to U.S. Attorney David Ayala, was]" the judge said "Why serve the foster par- who represented the agency in court, the INS ent [who is] your employee, who is under con- legal staff knows who practices immigration tract to you? Attorneys represent these people law in the Lower Rio Grande Valley. "You've and try to enforce their legal rights." ERRATA: been here at least as long as I have," Hinojosa When government attorney Ayala responded said. "You know who these people are." In that foster parents are recruited by a private Author Paul Boller's name other words, had INS attorneys been commit- agency and not by the INS, the judge continued was incorrectly spelled in the ted to following their own rules, even if there his admonition from the bench: "That's hardly had been some uncertainty about who repre- fair for you to say you advised the parent ... September 18 issue. We regret sented this particular client (there were two oth- You pay them [the foster parent agencies]. They the error. ers in court who had been treated similarly), it are not picked by the children, not by the attor- would have required only one or two local phone ney. By you You paid for this. When the INS

THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 3 gives them a paper [ordering the child] to show up they know they are paid by the INS." The responsibility of the foster parent, said the judge, "is to take care of the welfare, not the legal rights, of these children.... Attorneys represent these people and try to enforce their legal rights." Hinojosa's lecture continued after Ayala said the agency had failed to notify Proyecto Libertad attorneys because Garcia's second deportation procedure was initiated before Lopez's attorney had served notice that she would represent him. Austin immigration attorney Barbara Hines, however, informed the judge that a "G-28, [notice of legal representation] had been mailed on August 10." After Lopez was taken to court on Aug. 14, a Proyecto Libertad staff member contacted the deputy immigration clerk in Harlingen and confirmed that on Aug. 12 at 10:40 a.m. the G-28 form had been received at the INS office. Even if paperwork proceedings on Lopez's case had begun before the notice from the child's attorney reached the INS legal office, Hines argued, the agency took the child to immi- gration court on August 14. By that time they ALAN POGUE knew who Lopez's lawyer was. Border Patrol in Hidalgo County That was not exactly correct, Ayala said. The notice from Garcia's lawyer had been step in," the judge said to the three govern- if these particularly defenseless litigants, who received, but when the new proceedings began, ment attorneys. He described the agency's fail- have access to attorneys, are so badly treated a new file was created. A clerk placed the notice ure to notify attorneys as a serious violation by the INS legal staff, what can be inferred of in the old file. It was another explanation that of procedure. "The right to be represented by the treatment of the majority of children who Hinojosa would not accept. "Now you're blam- an attorney," Hinojosa said "means nothing if are routinely deported without legal advice? ing the immigration clerks..." the judge said. you fail to notify the attorney." What does this particular sample of INS justice "Ask my clerks. I tell them that when some- The litigation of cases of unescorted child suggest about the way the agency treats those thing is lost, it's no problem for you. I take immigrant defendants is a difficult business that it does not consider defenseless? Attorneys responsibility for my clerks." raises a number of difficult questions, such as: and paralegals at Proyecto Libertad complain What is this all about? Is it misfeasance or To whom are these children released if they are that the INS holds the children in custody and malfeasance? After only two hours in court, the not declared deportable and to whom are they continues to re-open deportation proceedings rather obvious answer to that question is yes. deported if immigration judges decide to deport against them, even after immigration judges Here is a federal agency, as Judge Ricardo them? Where are they to be detained while declare that they can't be deported. Hinojosa observed in open court, that "cannot their cases are being tried? Something the judge When an appointed advocate of judicial follow its own rules." said in this McAllen courtroom raises another restraint (placed on the federal bench in 1983 The litigation of immigration is a civil affair. serious question about the INS and minors. by Ronald Reagan) uses an INS district office Therefore, those accused of illegally entering In the millions of deportation proceedings as a point of reference to admonish a trial attor- the country are not subject to the same protec- conducted, Hinojosa said, it is "funny ... four ney for a flaw in procedure in the discovery pro- tions against double jeopardy that apply to of them [with serious procedural problems] in cess — "You're as bad as they are," Hinojosa defendants in criminal cases. But, as attorney the same place and the same office." Children told Austin attorney Barbara Hines — one sus- Hines argued in court, there is a statute that guar- are, as the judge said, "the most defenseless pects that this particular INS office must be very antees litigants' right to be represented by an of all litigants." (This was an admonition to the bad, indeed. Now it seems that the judge has attorney. When the INS fails to inform defense immigration attorneys, whom the judge said suspended the sword of Damocles over the attorneys of their clients' trial dates, that right were using the children to establish certain head of the local INS office. "We don't like to is abrogated. "If you're not complying with the principles. "In the end they [the children] are get involved," Hinojosa said. "If you continue constitution and the law, the courts have to going to have to go back," Hinojosa said.) Yet to violate your own regulations and what is a minimum standard of constitutional rights, the courts are going to have to step in." The judge set a Nov. 6 deadline for the agency to resolve its differences with attorneys Hines, Lee Teran of San Antonio and Carter White of Brownsville. The office must also explain what is being done to see that employees fol- low proper procedure, comply with the Code PEOPLE of Federal Regulations, statutory law and the Make a world of difference ! U.S. Constitution. And they must address the Were proud of our employees and their contributions to your issue of re-opening, again and again, deporta- tion proceedings, often when there is no new success and ours. Call us for quality printing, binding, mailing evidence against the child. and data processing services. Get to know the people at Futura. If the INS fails to show proof that it can avoid "past egregious errors," the judge said, "this P.O. Box 17427 Austin, TX 78760-7427 court will have to enjoin you and make you fol- low your own rules." FUTUM 389-1500 More after Nov. 6. L. D. COMMUNICATIONS, INC

4 • OCTOBER 2, 1992

- r. Making the Grade

OW WE KNOW that Lena Guerrero generally have found Guerrero to be an ally, claiming she was a migrant worker when her Nflunked six courses at the University of in a bind when it comes to criticizing the lapses family occasionally would decamp from their Texas in Austin. Six days after she was informed on her résumé. home in Mission to work the cornfields near she had not been graduated from the university, Public Citizen's Tom Smith, said Guerrero Dimmit during the summer, although I per- Guerrero, the Chair of the Texas Railroad is credited with promoting alternative energy sonally find that criticism pecksniffian. Commission, released a transcript that showed planning and invited environmental activists to Her failure to obtain the degree she had her 19 credit hours short of the 120 credit hours participate, although the steering committee claimed in her résumé is an embarrassment to that were required for a baccalaureate degree ended up dominated by academic and industry Guerrero as well as to Gov. Richards, who when she left the school in December 1979. representatives. appointed her to the Railroad Commission. It In releasing copies of her transcript, which The question of integrity will make a dif- frustrates her supporters who knew her as a pro- showed her to be a C-plus student, Guerrero ference in the race, Smith said. "There is a ques- gressive legislator and as an advocate of tough effectively pleaded nolo contendere to charges tion of honesty and accuracy, so it's going to be ethical standards in government. And it doesn't that she pumped up her résumé with claims hard for her to be trusted in the future," he said. do any good for women and Mexican Americans that she was a Phi Beta Kappa graduate. "I made On the other hand, he said, "She was a pretty in Texas politics. But, the critics notwithstand- a mistake," she admitted at a Sept. 16 Capitol good legislator and she's been a pretty good ing, her fate should be determined by the vot- news conference packed with supporters. "I commissioner ... She's more of a visionary than ing public, not opposition research operatives apologize. I take full responsibility for every- any commissioner in recent history," and she is who struck gold in what should have been a thing that has happened. I was wrong and today certainly more sympathetic to consumer inter- standard background check. I'm going to tell you just how wrong I was." ests than Williamson could be expected to be. Voters deserve a choice for the Railroad With her decision, announced Sept. 24 in a In 1989, after her last full legislative session, Commission and Guerrero's lapse — however House Chambers packed with supporters, to Public Citizen graded her "A" in five of six cat- serious — is only one of many factors that should resign her office but continue the race, she effec- egories, giving her a "B" in pocketbook issues. go into making that choice. —J. C. tively changed her plea to "guilty" on the charge "She'd be with us 80 percent of the way, which that she misled the state with her résumé claims, is about twice as much as most others," he said. but she asked the voters to forgive her. Melinda Taylor, an Austin attorney for the Bland Ambition When questioned Sept. 10 by Dallas Morning Audubon Society on oil and gas issues, said News reporter Christy Hoppe, Guerrero insisted Guerrero has helped push oilfield cleanup mea- If ambition is a grievous fault, then grievously she was a UT graduate. The next day, Guerrero sures, including a well-plugging program, but is Lena Guerrero answering for it. To win her said she had checked with the university and was she disappointed environmentalists when she first legislative race, she revised her personal his- "devastated" to learn she had not received a joined the industry in arguing that federal inter- tory. We thought we were electing a scholar and degree. She tried to make light of the story, but vention was not needed in management of oil instead elected an ambitious woman who proved instead she became the butt of jokes; when the and gas waste. "We were hoping she would to be a good legislator, perhaps best remembered controversy failed to die over the next few days, acknowledge that real change wouldn't come in the House for her fight against the Farm Bureau she was forced to release her college transcript, about until the federal government becomes and Othal Brand when they set their sights on which cast doubt on her claim that she had been involved," TaylOr said. "But at least she's will- Jim Hightower's Department of Agriculture. unaware that she had failed to graduate. ing to acknowledge the problem." Or perhaps in committee meetings, where Barry Williamson, the Republican nominee, Williamson, on the other hand, "has made Guerrero fought off the religious right's attempt accused Guerrero of living a lie, calling her "a speeches promising the oil industry that as soon to limit women's right to abortion. fraud, devoid of honesty and integrity," even as he's elected all these burdensome regulations And it is unlikely that Ann Richards would after she released her transcript. He demanded will 'be peeled back," she said. be Governor were it not for Guerrero's skill as that she quit the commission and concede the Suzy Woodford, executive director of the parliamentary floor tactician who denied election to him. Guerrero struck back gamely, Common Cause of Texas, said some of the Attorney General Jim Mattox two critical accusing Williamson of incompetence as an group's officers were disappointed in Guerrero's endorsements — from the Mexican American administrator in the Interior Department, where actions. "There's no way that we can pass laws Democrats and the AFL-CIO — early in the new reports indicate he may have embellished to prevent candidates from overstating their cre- 1988 Democratic primary campaign. It might his own record in public service. She also sug- dentials, but such behavior undermines public be that Guerrero's finest five minutes occurred gested that he represented a potential conflict confidence in the electoral process," Woodford four years ago, when she stood down -Jim of interest, with the holdings of his wife and said, adding, "I don't think you can really sep- Mattox, frente a frente, in the lobby of the his father-in-law in the oil and gas industry. arate personal ethics from officeholder ethics." Hershey Hotel in Corpus Christi. Mattox Guerrero's appointment, which was the first But she also blamed the Karl Rove, a consul- demanded that Guerrero go along with amend- announced by Ann Richards after her November tant for the Williamson campaign, who admit- ing the MAD convention rules. Guerrero didn't 1990, election as Governor, unsettled some of ted to reporters that he withheld the informa- blink. Mattox lost the endorsement. the "good old boys" in the oil and gas and trans- tion to inflict maximum damage to the That the Governor recognizes that she owes portation industries who are accustomed to Democratic campaign in the campaign's final a considerable debt to Guerrero is evident. At treating the Railroad Commission as their pri- stretch. "It is clear that partisan political inter- Guerrero's Sept. 16 press conference, Guerrero vate reserve. Guerrero has accommodated the ests were placed above the best interests of the was flanked by Richard's press secretary, Bill regulated industries enough to raise hundreds voters," Woodford said. Cryer, and deputy press secretaries Margaret of thousands of dollars from them, but she also So Guerrero erred when she claimed she had Justus and Joe Holley. has worked to build consensus on touchy and a degree from UT. She should have known bet- Voters, however, get stiffed. And for that, complex issues and she has included public- ter. She also is responsible for the claim in her Guerrero is to blame. Barry Williamson is clearly interest and environmental-protection groups legislative bio that she was a member of Phi not qualified to serve. Perhaps Guerrero is not. that too often in the past have been left out of Beta Kappa when, as a student of the College Now she's national news and if Bush narrowly the commission's activities. of Communication, she was not even eligible carries Texas, deservedly or not, Guerrero will That leaves public-interest advocates, who for the society. You may even upbraid her for get her share of blame. —L.D. THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 5

.00.1£11,1. Re, ■••■11.0, <.` ■fra•ti.. r z . Making Claims and Taking Responsibility

BY MOLLY IVINS Austin claimed he fought in World War II, when OOOOOEW, LENA! What a he had only gone as a congressional mess. One can find any number observer. Ronald Reagan regularly of excuses for the various claims claimed any number of dotty things, that have been made by and for Texas including that he had helped liberate con- Railroad Commissioner Lena Guerrero, centration camps. I suppose Patrick but ultimately, her claim that she believed Buchanan would say that's an example she was a graduate of the University of of the dread moral relativism, but then, Texas is simply not credible. True, lots I've never felt inclined to take moral of people who go to UT never attend grad- advice from Buchanan, who has made a uation ceremonies in cap and gown with career out of being as nasty as possible. proud family in attendance — they go In the larger scheme of things, of straight to work, leave town, whatever. course, it makes no difference whether On the other hand, when you have grad- Lena Guerrero is a college graduate or a uated, the school sends you a diploma. few hours short. It doesn't change the kind There is no disgrace attached to not of job she's done as Railroad Com- being a college graduate; there is to lying missioner, which is excellent. It doesn't about it. I suppose resume inflation is one change what might usefully be done to of the curses of our time; someone did revive the energy industry in this state. a study not long ago showing it was com- It doesn't change whether or not trucking mon as dirt. But in politics, when the in this state needs to be de-regulated and, stuff hits the fan, the only thing to do is if so, how. It doesn't change any of the come clean. Ask Richard Nixon, Bill important decisions she will make in the Clinton and a cast of thousands. (On the future. But it is a shame. other hand, if you want to ask George Meanwhile, on matters electoral that Bush what he knew about Iran-contra do matter, we've been subjected to some again, try it.) I acquit Guerrero of ever particularly pin-headed discussion of the having claimed to be from a poor migrant environment lately. George Bush was family, etc. I have heard her speak at out in the Northwest to do a little spotted- least 50 times over the years, often with owl bashing and claim that "two-thirds of her mother in attendance, and all she this country's old-growth forest is fed- ever says is that she worked in the fields erally protected." It is enough to make as a kid, which she did, in the summers. VIC HINTER LANG one gag. The problem, friends, is that So do lots of kids. That doesn't make Lena Guerrero at the AFL-CIO Convention there is almost no old-growth forest left them migrant workers. in this country. I have nothing against tree Richard Hamner, Guerrero's longtime ing speeches as "a native Texan." That will hap- farms and think East Texas is a dandy partner at Bravo Communication, says he is the pen if you have an accent. Actually, I was born place to raise pine trees we can sell to Japan, culprit who wrote the campaign bio seven or in Monterey, Calif., and didn't move here until hopefully for exorbitant sums. But why in the eight years ago that claims Guerrero was in I was 4, but I have never bothered to correct the name of God would we cut down what little Phi Beta Kappa and makes it appear that she introducer. On the other hand, no one ever remains of our old growth forests to make paper was a migrant worker (though it does note that introduced me as a member of Phi Beta Kappa. for the Japanese? she and her brothers and sisters worked only I think the Republicans are justified in say- The little old growth' forest that is still being in the summers). Lena Guerrero is the fifth of ing, "If you take the credit, you take the respon- cut will be gone in a few years—and I do mean nine children. Her father who managed a lum- sibility." a very few, especially if the Forest Service ber yard, died of cancer when she was 11, and That Guerrero has not claimed to be a col- continues to subsidize logging by paying for her mother went to work in the school cafete- lege graduate on important documents, for the roads. Meantime, anyone who has been in ria in Mission. I'd say she came up the hard way. example, on the filing form for her nomina- the West lately will tell you we can continue There are assumptions that get made and tion to Railroad Commissioner, just makes her to rake in cash from the Japanese indefinitely repeated about people without their coopera- claim that she thought she was a graduate even by leaving the forests untouched: Japanese tion: I have heard myself introduced before giv- thinner. tourists are crawling all over what's left of our Having parsed all that sorry hash, the next natural treasures, flooding the national parks, question is, should it make any difference? spending good tourist dollars to see Yellowstone Molly Ivins, a former Observer editor, is a Bill Clements always claimed to have started and Glacier and everything else that remotely columnist for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, as "an oilfield roughneck," despite the fact resembles a pristine wilderness. Forget the spot- in which this originally appeared. that he grew up in Highland Park and went to ted owl, could we please just show a little sense Copyright] 992 Creators Syndicate Inc. Southern Methodist University. Lyndon Johnson about money here? ❑

6 • OCTOBER 2, 1992

, t1 ,P • We*: • A public service message from the American Income Life Insurance Co. — Waco, Texas — Bernard Rapoport, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer. (Advertisement)

Out of Control By Bernard Rapoport

The headlines in the Waco Tribune-Herald of Monday, that when we talk about the good ol' days, we will really June 8, read thusly: "Stories of Players Out of Control mean it! That is the saddest commentary that one can — Group: Lottery Too Tempting." It relates story after contemplate for mankind. story of families who have been the victims of one of The recent talk shows with the presidential candidates their members succumbing to the sickness of gambling. were revealing. So many of the callers represented spe- Another line bears repeating, "Gambling Anonymous cial interest groups such as senior citizens, veterans, members, many of whom came to Texas to avoid gam- business, labor but concomitantly did not give any bling, say the stories prove the lottery isn't just a harm- thought to the finiteness of the national pie. Each seemed less game. It can be a dangerous temptation." to want without concern for the whole. William Greider This brings to mind these poignant words of John in his book Who Will Tell the People said, "The American Dryden when he said, "When I consider life, 'tis all a movement cannot be about accumulating more wealth cheat; Yet, fooled with hope, men favor the deceit; or weapons or territory; the facts will not allow it." The Trust on, and think tomorrow will repay. Tomorrow's continued existence of this democracy depends not falser than the former day." on cosmetic approaches, such as a lottery, but on demo- We all lay claim to having read the Bible and the cratically determining if there is a need and if the deci- story of Adam and Eve. It reveals that to which all of sion is "yes," the funds for meeting it should be collected us succumb and some more than others, to wit, temp- (taxes) among all of us on one of democracies most tation. The cynical skeptics perceive they are sitting sacred tenets: ability to pay. on a throne and proudly proclaim, "If you have char- I don't mean to be mordant about elected officials. I acter, you wouldn't succumb!" think they have a very tough challenge, but there is great Temptation comes into play when we are not will- talent among this group. Most of them are very good ing to face reality. In my particular instance, I love people—they really are— and I know hundreds and hun- sweets. Having had a heart attack, control of weight dreds of them and have had wonderful relationships is very important. My wise wife handled the problem in with so many. Yet, I get lugubrious when I think about the only way that a candyoholic, like myself, can be this situation where monies were needed for educat- restrained — there are no sweets in the house — ing Texas youngsters and the best answer we could nothing to tempt me. come up with was the lottery. That is the easy way. Three As we mature, we now readily understand that alco- quarters of a century of living has taught me one thing holism, gambling, etc. are sicknesses just as is can- — when one is seriously concerned with building a cer or heart trouble or you name it. When you want, life, there must be a foundation. That is the toughest someone must pay. It may be you or may be some- part. If we want something to last, that must be the begin- one else or unhappily future generations. There is always ning. a payment to be made. We are probably the most spoiled We have become almost rootless. Where is the generation in the history of mankind. We have gotten bedrock on which we can continue to build this great away with murder, if you please. We have wanted, we country of ours so it can begin to approach its potential. have gotten and future generations will do the paying, America starts with the most essential of all ingredi- this whether we are talking about economics and the ents—good people. I suppose we can liken people to environment or just a good old-fashioned something a beautiful flower — it has to have the right soil and called friendship or loyalty. We are missing a lot because the proper amount of water if it is to grow. So it is with we are substituting things. It is as if we are in a state us — we must have the kind of leadership that recog- of tactility. If we can't feel or touch it, we don't want it. nizes people are temptable but that leaders are to inspire We lead the politicians; i.e. we lead the leaders. They its denizens to the kind of society that will minimize have relegated themselves to the point where they this human instinct. Those who are entrusted with the sense they must give us everything we demand and power to represent and are going to once and for all say never even begin to consider who will have to come to to our constituency, "If you want it, you must pay." Until the payment counter. we exhibit a willingness to delineate between kind- There is some very painful paying that will be done. ness and weakness, the rhetoric wilt be like so much We are already able to feel it and for the first time, we hissing in the wind. Each day that passes, the oppor- sense that perhaps our children's future will not be as tunities we had yesterday are becoming increasingly rewarding as ours. Yes, ruefully we might even conclude evanescent.

THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 7 The Disappearing Emperor

BY JAMES MCCARTY YEAGER OU CAN SEE the mantle of authority slipping off the shoulders of George yBush these days. Every time he tries to With George Bush, it has shrug off the economy, or the Constitution's inconvenient provisions for legislative inter- ference in Presidential plans, it slides a little become obvious that more. What is more astonishing than the President's wholly inevitable loss of compo- "the clothes have no sure is that you can see Bill Clinton visibly beginning to shoulder the burden of leadership. emperor." He has Gov. Clinton is practicing being President on a daily basis, and starting to look better at it than the office's disdainful titular occupant. little interest in President Bush has two modes: frantic and bored, which he evidently mistakes for "ener- government, except gized" and "calm." Boredom has sufficed for most of his term, but, to his evident chagrin, no longer does so. Now he's frantic, and sur- as a backdrop for prised that the public is not noticeably reassured by it. Meanwhile, Clinton proceeds methodi- his travels, and cally and cheerfully to propound the limited amounts of change the Democrats have been little awareness able to agree upon; and, desperate as is the nation's plight, so little almost seems like enough. of American life, Clinton has learned how to turn aside the opposition's barbs. He doeS not employ the sneer except as which nowadays seems so much the natural expression of Bush and Quayle that you won- der how they ever found time for self-righ- presented in teousness. Instead, Clinton ripostes always with a light remark, varied occasionally with dis- focus groups. mayed disbelief at the depths of deceit his oppo- nents are evidently determined not only to plumb but to extend. Clinton seems to be earning the Presidency the old-fashioned way: by providing the elec- torate with some notion of how he would gov- ern, a task clearly beyond his opponent's attain- ments or desires. Although his early September education policy speech in the Washington, D.C., suburb of Rockville, Md., was over- shadowed by the media frenzy over his draft record, Clinton spoke with emotion and con- viction about the need for combining the struc- ture of the GI Bill with the service ethic of the Peace Corps as a means of financing post-high school education for a larger proportion of the population. Speaking at a county junior college that despite being funded by the state's richest county, has undergone $4 million in budget cut- backs over the last two years, Clinton pushed education, including job retraining, as the

James McCarty Yeager, who lived in Houston when George Bush was a pro-choice Republican congressman, now edits Minority Business Report in Bethesda, Maryland. GAIL WOODS

8 • OCTOBER 2, 1992 recently neglected answer to economic pro- As the first President to have been against the ery from inflated wartime spending. This agenda ductivity. He lashed the Bush administration for war in Vietnam, perhaps Clinton can assist the will seem completely overwhelming to the the worst economic record since the Depression, process whereby the nation finally gets around, Republican-dominated hinterlands media and noted that the Bush tax plan would hurt the a quarter- or half-century late, to healing pro- quite daringly thoroughgoing to ,their right- middle class, and finished by charging that the cesses it should long ago have completed. wing Democratic brethren in the national media. U.S. under the Republicans has become under- The mandate for the Clinton first term will It will remain a starting point to those who, educated, underinvested, underorganized, and be to carry out the Democratic Party platform like so many Texas Observer readers, relent- underled. of 1948: racial healing, national health, universal lessly continue to demand the systemic changes While Clinton prepares a little more each day education, improved housing and nutrition, which nearly five decades of conservative dom- to lead America, Bush continues to sniff and taxation of those who have benefitted most ination of political life have so successfully wince his way through campaign appearances from America and widespread economic recov- delayed. ❑ indistinguishable from the aimless wanderings of the doomed baggage-train of an overthrown emperor. The more ex-Secretary of State Jim Baker controls the Bush campaign, the more we An Invitation: see Bush adopt the daily dissimulations char- acteristic of the desk-bound espiocrat, in whom Rethinking the Quincentennial disingenuousness — permanent and irre- Austin deemable — is not so much a professional defor- he Quincentennial of Columbus' arrival in the Americas has inspired a number of alternative commemorative events mation as it is a prerequisite. Baker's well- T to be held in Texas this fall. known preference for an absolutely content-free In Austin, for example, the arts group, La Perla, and the Committee for Reconciliation With Indigenous Peoples campaign is again being exercised, with the draft are organizing events for the month of October, which will include art shows, films and readings by creative writers. standing in, (so far) somewhat less successfully, The University of Texas at Austin will alsohost a major event in honor of the Quincentennial, October 29 to November for Willie Horton. 1. The conference is entitled "Reclaiming New Worlds" and is billed as "A Multicultural Commemoration of the The Bush campaign that 1992 most resem- Quincentennial." bles is not 1988, which was really just a left- The conference is being organized primarily by U T's Comparative Literature Program and its Department of over Reagan campaign with a different B-actor English. The English Department has earned a reputation in the national media as well as in academic circles for at the helm, but instead 1970. In the 1970 Texas being a leader in the development of a multicultural curriculum. According to organizers, the purpose of the confer- Senate race, Bush hired a bunch of Republican ence is to transform the potentially Eurocentric worldwide observance of the 500-year anniversary of Columbus' voy- theorists who taught him how to run against age into an opportunity for both the UT community and residents of the Austin area to familiarize themselves with incumbent liberal Democratic Sen. Ralph non-European cultures of the Western Hemisphere. The focus will be on the contributions that indigenous people, Yarborough. His calculations were upset by a especially those from the Americas and Africa, have made to the history of what is called the New World. In addition Valley banking and insurance heir, one Lloyd to challenging the official history of the New World, conference organizers Dope to get us to rethink what it means to Bentsen, who outspent Yarborough and ran write history. Prof. Dolora Wojciehowski, a scholar of the English Renaissance, describes the Quincentennial as an the nastiest commercials seen on television for excellent opportunity to reflect upon history and its inventors. The goal of "Reclaiming New Worlds," she adds, "is not two decades until Lee Atwater came along. to arrive at a definitive American history, itself a Utopian fantasy, but rather to recover pieces of history, perspectives Bush never readjusted his sights and ran as if generally consigned to oblivion or to the margin of mainstream accounts of European contact with the indigenous peo- ples of the Americas" Bentsen were a liberal. Historiography is necessarily subjective; thus the aim is not to establish consensus, but to provoke discussion and Again, fate seems to have crossed Bush up. debate on topics of great significance to everyone. Although the devastating consequences of European contact will be His consultants and handlers were all ready an inevitable subject of discussion, the focus of the conference will be on the continued endurance and future possibil- for the Democrats to nominate New York Gov. ities for indigenous cultures, rather than on their demise. Nostalgia over the fate of native peoples is a dangerous sen- Mario Cuomo, whose liberalism does not sur- timent to indulge. If you think about the success of movies like Dances With Wolves or The Last of the Mohicans, you vive close scrutiny of his gubernatorial record see that it's easy enough for U.S. audiences to shed a tear or two over injustices that happened 100 years ago and but whose capacity for being caricatured was feel good — about how sensitive and enlightened they are. But the real challenge — politically, ethically, and intel- tailor-made for misleading Republican com- lectually speaking — is to think about the status of native peoples today, to recognize injustice that exists in the pre- mercials. Cuomo didn't even run; no big-city sent and to do something about it. Conference organizers hope to meet this challenge through a four-day series of Eastern liberal did (Paul Tsongas is neither speeches, panels, films, and cultural events, beginning at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 29 with an opening address by Howard big-city nor liberal.) But the Bush campaign Zinn, an historian from Boston University, who will talk about "Columbus, the Indians and Human Progress: 1492- is still fixated on Eastern liberalism as the enemy, 1992." Other keynote speakers include an American Indian Movement spokesman, Ward Churchill, who will address the and has a correspondingly difficult time forc- subject of native rights activism and introduce a first-run film entitled Incident at Oglala. Popular historian Kirkpatrick ing Clinton into the mold they have so lov- Sale will talk about revisionary Columbus scholarship. Chicano writer and lesbian activist Cherre Moraga will discuss ingly built for him. the significance of the Quincentennial for women of color and the chair of Temple University's African-American The New York Times' estimable Anna Studies Program, Molefi Asante, will take on the topic of multiculturalism. Beginning on Oct. 30 there will also be Quindlen has presciently remarked that, under more than a dozen panels and workshops on which speakers from U.T. and across the Americas will speak to a variety Bush, "the clothes have no emperor." He has of issues, including: New World Ecology, African slavery, travel narratives, sexuality and gender, indigenous movements little interest in government, except as a back- and the role of official and folk religions in the New World colonialist enterprise. drop for his travels, and little awareness of The focus will be primarily on the U.S., Latin America and Canada, but several panelists will address other sites of European contact such as the Middle East, India and Africa. The public will also be able to take advantage of a free American life, except as presented in focus Quincentennial fi(m series, beginning on Oct. 30, entitled "Cross Cultural Contacts." In addition to the film, Incident at groups. The series of dispiritingly mean-mouthed Oglala, the series includes The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez, a film directed by Robert Young and starring Edward James campaigns Bush has run seem, mercifully, to Dimas which will show in the Student Union Theater at 4 p.m. on Oct. 31. The film, based on U.T. Professor Americo be about to end, not with a whimper but with Paredes' groundbreaking work on the cultural history of Mexican-American culture in south Texas, reconstructs the flight a languid insult. of alleged Mexican bandit Gregorio Cortez from the Texas Rangers following a fatal exchange of gunfire stemming from Despite being the last gasp of the economi- a linguistic misunderstanding over a horse. cally conservative wing of the Democratic party, Immediately afterwards, Harvard University Professor Doris Sommerwill discuss the cross-cultural viewing experi- a President Clinton may rise above his back- ence of the film. The series also includes a collection of short films and videos, ranging from ethnographic classics ground, and in the process develop a form of about indigenous peoples in the Americas, to a documentary about the Black Panthers, to a fictional representation of capitalism with a human face. Perhaps he will undocumented Latino immigrants in California. All of the short films and videos will be introduced by scholars and not rise as far above his antecedents as Roosevelt filmmakers who will facilitate question, and, answer periods after each showing. The conference and all related events and Truman did — but he might try to get at are free and open to the public. Most activities will be held in the Flown Academic Center on the U T Austin campus. For least as far beyond them as Kennedy and more information contact the Comparative literature Program, (512) 471-1925. — Lora Romero Johnson and Carter tried to get beyond theirs.

THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 9 Free Trade and Promises

BY DEBORAH LWITERBECK Washington, D.C. with Mexico and this year it is expected to show Baucus said, the Administration merely offered UCH IS PROMISED by the North about a $6 billion surplus. NAFTA will pre- rhetoric that dismissed those concerned with the American Free Trade Agreement: It sumably expected to build on this trend. But how environment as "protectionists in environmen- Mwould, according to its proponents, cre- much can it do? talist's clothing." ate jobs, exponentially, expand consumer buy- The most recent trade figures show our trade They are not the only ones dressing up. The ing power and arm this part of the world for the balance with most of the world getting worse Administration too has a new look — that of a impending economic combat with the European rather than better. In July, the trade gap swelled friend to workers. Now comes Sen. Lloyd Community. For Texas, the removal of trade bar- to $7.82 billion, the largest it has been in about Bentsen, D-Texas. "The Administration an- riers with Mexico holds the promise of a pub- two years. The deficit from January until July nounced a new worker adjustment program, but lic works Spindletop to handle the increase in stands at $43.43 billion. There is, of course, the provided absolutely no way to pay for it," the commercial traffic in South Texas. Even those argument that things would be even worse but Senate Finance Committee Chairman said. 'That's whose jobs are expected to move south of the for the President's trade strategy, but there are like showing us the house without telling us about border — our friends, the "displaced workers" only so many times that you can go to that well. the mortgage. It makes for great election-year — would be solaced by a stipend of $3,000 per In addition to promoting growth, the free trade politics, but I think the American people see person, designed to help them acquire employ- agreement is supposed to be a social equalizer through that. And it's a cruel joke on those work- able skills. — at least according to a Pontiff, as quoted by ers who will be hurt by NAFTA, who deserve a NAFTA is designed to create a new Walt Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa. Citing the words serious response from their government." Whitman America, ringing with the song, "I of Pope Paul VI, Grassley said, "The rule of The Administration responds that the $10 hear America Shopping." The music would free trade taken by itself is no longer able to gov- billion in worker adjustment funds could be sound sweetest in Texas, which is expected to ern international relations; freedom of trade is financed from the $68 billion in spending cuts reap benefits as one of the main ports of entry fair only if it is subject to the demands of social the President has proposed. If only that $68 bil- for the potential $6 trillion market, if only those justice." The senator's own verdict is that, "It lion had not already been spent, and spent again. detractors in the chorus, with predictions of lost seems to me that not only social justice, but But that does not mean there are no other jobs, lower wages and, more pollution, would also the issue of the environment has been cov- options. There are cross border fees, something get in tune. ered in all our discussions ... I think they might not welcomed by the President and probably not On its grandest scale the agreement is sup- not satisfy everybody but I have to say at the very endorsed along the borders. But there is the argu- posed to provide North America with the mus- least [trade representative Hills] ... listened to ment that those who stand to gain the most from cle needed to compete in a global market. This our concerns and tried to deal with them, and NAFTA should help pay the way — which brings is the crucial question for Sen. Bill Bradley, D- hopefully has." us to the border region. N.J., who, at a recent hearing of the Senate In fact, many critics find NAFTA lacking in Texas could be the largest single beneficiary Finance Committee, asked: "Does this agree- the human rights arena. "Torture by the police of NAFTA. This is not news to Gov. Ann ment enhance our ability to compete in an increas- is an endemic problem in Mexico," said Sen. Richards. Just after the agreement was announced ingly competitive world with the growing strength D. Patrick Moynihan, D-N.Y., citing Americas Richards released a statement: "This agree- of Japan and Germany and the distant gallop- Watch and other human rights monitors. "Even ment should mean jobs for our citizens and pros- ing hoofs of China in the background? Will this the State Department recognizes this as so. perity for our industry if we are bold enough to agreement give us a better chance to compete Disappearances and the murder of journalists are take advantage of the opportunities the agree- in that world economy?" It is not too surpris- still routine," he said. But that has not been ment gives us. We will push the federal gov- ing that United State Trade Representative Carla addressed in the Free Trade Agreement. emment to recognize the job training needs along Hills, who oversaw the negotiations, is a believer. Others question just how effective NAFTA the border and South Texas. Texans have never Here is what she had to say: "The successful is on the issues it does address — such as the envi- been shy about seizing opportunities given them. conclusion of the NAFTA is an historic achieve- ronment. In this area, many environmentalists I look forward to vigorously pursuing those ment for U.S. trade policy, which, over the past think the U.S. and Mexico aimed for the lowest opportunities for the people of this state and four years, has contributed significantly to our common denominator. "That's just wrong," said especially our border region." nation's economic growth. Far more foreign mar- Hills. "Mexico's 1988 environmental law is pat- But just what Texas will get and who will kets are open today to U.S. firms than 45 months terned after ours, and is stricter in some cases. pay for it is not clear. Estimates on how much ago. As a result, last year the United States President Salinas has made enforcement a pri- it will cost to build infrastructure, such as roads became the world's Number 1 exporter with a ority, shutting down over 1,000 polluting firms and bridges, in Texas to support the anticipated record $422 billion in exports." It gets better, she in the past few years. And the NAFTA itself, and increase in trade have ranged from $2 billion said. "The surge in exporting has generated almost our parallel cooperative activities, will help ease to $6 billion. Cathy Bonner, the executive direc- $120 billion in added output for America's com- congestion at the border and generate new tor of the Texas Department of Commerce, panies and farms, and has supported 1 million resources to clean up the environment," she said. recently told the Texas Advisory Council, a new jobs. In short, the President's trade strategy But environment-minded Sen. Max Baucus, group of Texans doing business in Mexico, that is paying off," she said. You would think we were D-Mont., said the agreement looked like yet about $2 billion in public works investment will winning the trade war. We are not. another missed opportunity. "If we would have be needed by the end of the decade for the Texas- Mexico is a bright spot on the trade front. In pressed for a dispute settlement procedure to Mexico border alone. 1987, the United States posted a $6 billion deficit require high environmental standards backed up The Border Trade Alliance, established in 1986 by meaningful sanctions — as our trading part- when NAFTA was still a gleam in the eye of bor- ners had proposed — this agreement could have der boosters, has estimated that there is about $1.9 Deborah Lutterbeck is a financial writer based been an historic step forward for both free trade billion of work to be done in Texas alone, out in New York. and environmental protection," he said. Instead, Continued on pg. 22

10 • OCTOBER 2, 1992 LAS AMERICAS A Nation Rebuilds

BY REBECCA THATCHER

San Salvador T COULD HAVE BEEN Managua in 1980. Musicians from the Revolutionary Army I of the People — which controlled much of the northern province of Morazan during the 12-year war — were playing in a San Salvador nightclub packed with rebel sympathizers and internationalists. There were shouts of "Viva el FMLN" between ballads recalling the heroes of the war. As the night ended and one Salvadoran leftist headed for his car he said, "Last year we never could have done something like this, they would have thfown a bomb in and killed everyone." Others, like Guadalupe Palacios, see the coun- try's changes seen in the handwriting on the wall. Palacios, a sales clerk, said she was shocked when FMLN organizers spent an after- noon painting the wall of the school across the street from her house in a San Salvador neigh- borhood. Gone are the days of the quickly spray- painted slogan. In Palacios' neighborhood, guer- rilla artists spent the whole afternoon writing, "JOIN THE FMLN. A NEW PARTY ... FOR Graffiti: "Everyone demand compliance with the accords. " REBECCA THATCHER A NEW NATION," in neat, carefully lined, Yet despite the often rancorous nature of the 3-foot high block letters. "Before the police tion." They say they do not want to disarm until they are sure that peace accord provisions call- political debate, there is peace on the streets, patrolled here," she said, obviously a little wor- ing for democratization and land distribution even if it, is not necessarily "a just peace." At an ried. "They came and freely painted and nobody are at least starting to be implemented. "Here informal garbage dump in one of San Salvador's said anything." El Salvador has reached what the comman- the concrete problem is resolving the causes many poor neighborhoods. Jose Campos, a 31- of the war: (the lack of) work, food, housing and year-old worker, was tearing the rotted, stained der of the Faribundo Marti National Liberation the violence," said Dimas Roja, a subcommander covering off an old mattress, to take home the Front (FMLN) recently called an "armed peace." in the Guazapa region. "If we resolve this, then still usable box spring. For him, peace has meant It's fractured and cantankerous, but it stum- what do we need arms for?" that the military will not forcibly recruit his son bles along. The war of bombs and bullets has The government, in turn, has accused the at the age of 15. "The majority of the children stopped, but the war of words continues. suffered the consequences of the war," he said. Under the original peace agreement, the FMLN of submitting a "laughable" arms inven- tory to the United Nations and failing to allow "Perhaps now they will be able to develop dif- FMLN was supposed to be fully demobilized for the return of elected mayors and judges to ferently." by Oct. 31. But there have been numerous delays Some of the fundamental economic issues as both sides accuse each other of violating FMLN areas. It seems fair to say that the FMLN has mod- that led to the war — poverty and the need for the accords. Several times, high U.N. officials erated its thinking. If an interview with the land reform — have yet to be addressed. But have been brought in to mediate a new "calen- spokesman for the armed forces, Lt. Col. FMLN cadres are negotiating, teaching, orga- dar" for the peace process. The FMLN has Baltazar Lopez Hernandez, is any measure, nizing, recruiting and partying in the political accused the government of failing in its promise the same can not be said for the military. I asked space opened up by the peace accords. They are to help demobilized combatants return to civil- trying to transform themselves from a clan- ian life. And the creation of a new police Hernandez abOut Ghali's "negotiated revolu- destine politico-military organization into a polit- academy, which will train officers for the yet- tion" phrase. Lopez called it an "irresponsi- ble" term. "This is not a revolution. This is a ical party with the interests of the poor at its to-be-created National Civilian Police, has been process of pacification, because they have tried core. delayed. When the FMLN reached a peace agreement FMLN leaders hope to hold the Salvadoran to make a revolution and the only thing that stopped them was the armed forces." Earlier, with the ARENA government of El Salvador government to the words of United Nations the former pilot had proudly shown me an award last January, some were disappointed. They Secretary General Boutros Boutros Ghali, who from the World Anti-Communist League, a thought it was unfortunate that a rebel move- called the peace accords a "negotiated revolu- shadowy right-wing organization that claims ment which had shown tenacity, courage and Iran-Contra defendant John Singlaub as one organizational ability in the face of an intran- Rebecca Thatcher is a reporter for the of its most prestigious members. sigent and murderous government would settle Brownsville Herald

THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 11 for so little: a written promise from that same roofs and none has running water. But the res- has been committed over the next five years. government to democratize, reduce the size of idents of Santa Marta have worked together to Roja, the Guazapa region subcommander, its army and redistribute the land if possible. As build a few community buildings, such as a day said the United States now has an obligation one wounded FMLN veteran said , "We wanted care center and a clinic. And a banner that reads, to make up for all the money it spent destroy- a state of workers and peasants. We didn't want "Long live Santa Marta, an example of those ing El Salvador. The Guazapa Volcano, where to negotiate with anybody, not the petty bour- who fight for peace and justice," hangs across Roja works, is an hour's drive from San geoisie and certainly not the oligarchy." a street in the center of town. Salvador, yet the guerrillas controlled the area But times changed, and the war dragged on One of the FMLN's 15 military bases lie during most of the war, earning the volcano and the two sides met in Mexico on Jan. 16 to near Santa Marta. Ram6n Sanchez, the cap- fame as "the arrow in the heart of the enemy." sign the 95-page peace agreement. During a tain of the base, is a short, friendly man who has But the people on the mountain paid a price three-week visit to El Salvador in August, been with the guerrillas since the war began for their resistance and the bombed-out church, FMLN people told me they were struggling to in the late 1970s. Sanchez is a member of a local with grass growing from its last few remain- force the government to comply with the peace commission charged with negotiating, for ing bricks is typical of the war-ravaged land- accords. But they also said they were almost campesinos who farmed the land during the war, scape. "They sent thousands and thousands to lucky not to have come to power. Today's uni- the purchase of agricultural properties in rebel- bomb half the world," Roja said. "What before polar geopolitics, an almost certain blockade held areas. The peace accords call for the gov- was spent in war, should be spent in help, not from the United States and the critical state of ernment to buy the land and provide it to peas- to revive the dead, but to build roads and the Salvadoran economy would have made it ants and ex-combatants. Six months after the houses." difficult for a revolutionary government. "If we peace accords were signed, there has been lit- The problem with U.S. aid, however, is that had triumphed through the armed struggle, we tle progress, Sanchez said during an interview it will be transmitted through the U.S. Agency would be screwed right now," said one FMLN in a makeshift classroom on the guerrilla base. for International Development, which has long organizer in a poor barrio north of San Salvador. "We have not been able to negotiate even a been a key part of the counter-insurgency pro- In El. Salvador the war was fought mostly little bit of land," he said. "The question of ject in El Salvador. in the countryside where discontented peasants land is crucial for the peasant ... the war arose According to several observers, AID's reluc- filled the ranks of the FMLN. It was the par- from that." tance to work for true reconciliation was clearly ents, children and relatives of these who, to One day in August, Sanchez spoke at a com- demonstrated in an electricity project for Santa escape the bombing, fled to refugee camps in munity meeting in Santa Marta, mentioning that Marta. In what was widely seen as a peace-mak- Honduras in the early 1980s. Santa Marta, a the government is considering a $2,409 price ing gesture, former U.S. Ambassador William community in northern El Salvador, was one of for family-sized land parcels. Although cheap Walker met for the first time with guerrilla the towns founded by openly pro-FMLN by U.S. standards, it's easily five times the commanders in Santa Marta last year. During refugees who began returning from the average annual income of Santa Marta residents. a meeting with Santa Marta's community lead- Honduran camps in 1987. Today about 3,000 The slow progress has left some in Santa Marta ers, Walker pledged help with improving local people live there. It is a community that grew anxious. roads and bringing electricity to the area. In a without so much as mail service from the gov- Maria Eugenia Gamez is a 54-year-old leader subsequent meeting, U.S. officials promised to ernment. The people support themselves by of the women in the community. She's always bring eleqtricity to Santa Marta. growing corn on the surrounding land and sell- supported the guerrillas and many of her chil- A year later, new electricity cables have ing eggs, chickens and pigs in nearby towns. dren were combatants. One was killed in the reached the community but none of the houses Houses in Santa Marta have mud walls and tin 1989 offensive and another one, a daughter in is legally connected. The government elec- her early 20s who had worked with the guer- tricity company has said that every family rillas as a health promoter, died earlier this year must pay the equivalent of $100 to have the This is Texas today. A state full of — apparently she was facing an unintended electricity connected. People in Santa Marta Sunbelt boosters, strident anti-union- pregnancy and took an overdose of malaria feel tricked. "Nobody here earns anything, we ists, oil and as companies, nuclear pills to provoke an abortion. "Did we fight all just live by agriculture ... If we had known about the requirements we wouldn't have asked weapons and power plants, political those years for that — so that our grandchildren would be indebted?" Gamez asked as she cooked for electricity, maybe for housing or some other hucksters, underpaid workers and toxic over a wood stove. "If there is no solution to development work," said community leader wastes, to mention a few. this land problem we will continue to be poor." Bartolome Enriquez Otero. While she was worried about whether the One Salvadoran who worked to arrange BUT DO NOT DESPAIR! government will fulfill the peace accords, Walker's visit described the electrification pro- ject as a conspiracy to punish the people of i,„,,, - T HE TEXAS whether it's the question of land or death squads, Gamez said she is looking forward to partici- Santa Marta for first siding with the guerrillas 1 I ti pating in a literacy campaign organized by the , and then having the gall to ask the ambassador server FMLN. While negotiations with the govern- for help. "It's not just the electricity. It's the ment continue on questions of fulfillment of the symbol that this had of peace, of reconciliation. TO SUBSCRIBE: peace accords, the FMLN continues with its pro- I think this has been a way of ridiculing the peo- jects. The organization has sent university stu- ple, not letting them achieve anything through dents from San Salvador to the countryside to their own leadership," he said. AID is work- Name help with a nationwide literacy project, and in ing throughout the country without regard to Santa Marta, peasants gathered to sign up for the politics, one officiarat the U.S. embassy said: Address program eagerly discussed the prospect of finally "We understand the importance of getting every- learning to read and write. Eduardo, a univer- body back to work immediately ... We deal City sity student teaching in Santa Marta, said he had equally with all of the communities. We have been happy to spend a semester working in the AID officers all over the country, including State Zip literacy program. "It's quite good. There's a some of the most conflictive areas." lot of closeness with the people," he said. Carlos Amaya, a community leader who met ❑ $32 enclosed for a one-year subscription. But for most programs, funds remain scarce. with AID officials about the project, said AID Almost $6 billion in military and economic officials are worried about doing anything that ❑ Bill me for $32. aid was spent by the United States in an effort might help the FMLN in the 1994 elections. to prop up a series of elected governments dur- "The people of AID have never been comfort- 307 West 7th, Austin, TX 78701 ing the 12-year war. U.S. spending on recon- able with the project ... For AID, the war has struction has been less generous; $250 million not ended." ❑

12 • OCTOBER 2, 1992 The Children's War

BY GRADY SIMMONS AND KIM SMITH

You know —we've had to imagine the war here, and we have imagined that it was being fought by aging men like ourselves. We had forgotten that wars were fought by babies. When I saw those freshly shaved faces, it was a shock. "My God, my God;" I said to myself, "it's the Children's Crusade." —Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., Slaughterhouse-Five

Managua he streets of this most unlikely of national capitals and vacation spots are a stark Treminder of Vonnegut's words. There are no old soldiers here, no aging military cur- mudgeons bellied up to a VFW bar. Managua is a city of children and men and women barely out of their childhood. Veterans of the War of Resistance — both Contra and Sandinista ..tenisx,kMYi — are alarmingly young, and many of these ;'• former child-warriors, who should be in class- 00646**Vk'... rooms or on the sandlot, patrol the. streets in AMMINgagenWSV:WO* . • wheelchairs or hustle pedestrians and motorists

to sell them what they don't need or exchange GRADY SIMMONS Nicaraguan cordobas for dollars. Street scene, Managua Forty-seven percent of the population of In Managua, a city of 1.3 million which is development group, has worked in Nicaragua Nicaragua is below the age of 15 and the aver- more a sprawl of huts than a national capital, for the past eight years. According to Jeffrey, age age becomes lower and lower as 17,000 children are locked in a daily street fight theory and practice in financing education Nicaraguan women now bear an average 5.8 for survival. They labor at almost every major here are far apart. "Because of economic con- children during a lifetime. One in five of these intersection, plying their various and menial ditions, parents are being asked to pay an enroll- children stays out of school to supplement the trades — hawking newspapers, selling fruit ment fee and a monthly fee for their kids to family income. These children spend most of and slices of homemade cake, pushing lot- go to school," Jeffrey said. "But in theory, their days in the streets. At the current growth tery tickets and leaning over the hoods of idled they're not supposed to have to pay the fees rate, Nicaragua's population will double in 21 autos to wash windshields for a tip — or noth- if they can't afford them. But since teachers' years and the country's already dwindling ing. salaries are drawn directly from the fees that resources are expected to decline drastically Of Managua's 17,000 "street" children families are asked to pay, teachers don't get as more demands are made on them. Seventy which does not necessarily mean homeless paid if fees aren't paid, and if teachers aren't percent of Nicaraguan families cannot earn or orphaned — many work the major inter- paid, there are no teachers. So it works out that basic survival needs, and an estimated 60 per- section at Plaza Espana. Mostly boys, they hus- school is neither free nor compulsory." Jeffrey cent of the labor force is jobless. tle motorists and anyone who walks through said that he is not as hopeful about the coun- Bullets no longer are flying, but the war the intersection. Some, we learned, attend try as he was before the election. continues, not only for disenfranchised vet- school when they aren't supplementing fam- Pedro Orlando Castafieda Martinez, a 28- erans .but also for children just now coming ily income at the Plaza. Many spend all their year-old disabled and disenfranchised of age, children who were not old enough or days on the street. A handful of boys, recog- Sandinista veteran, is a father whose daugh- big enough to carry a weapon in the decade- nizing us as gringo tourists, asked for English ter will be a victim of the educational crunch. long U.S.-backed Contra war against the lessons. We returned to the park after the Castafieda, who was 15 when the Sandinistas Sandinista government. evening windshield-washing rush hour where overthrew the Somoza dictatorship in 1979, The 1990 national elections that deposed the the boys, mostly grade school and junior high graduated from high school with a government Sandinistas and put Violeta Chamorro in power age, seemed genuinely interested in practicing scholarship but can see no way to send his in Nicaragua stopped not only the shooting, English. The oldest of the group wanted to prac- three-year-old daughter, Angelica, to school. but also progress on the country's educational, tice saying: "I am a foreign student from Castafreda, whp blames the United States for health and economic problems. Life here has Nicaragua." The 20 percent of school-age chil- his battle wounds and poverty and can tell his not improved, it has become far more difficult. dren who do not attend school, residents say, story only with tearful eyes, said enrollment work the streets because of they can't afford and monthly fees for his daughter's school- school and they need to work to support them- ing are beyond his reach. "It costs 50 cordobas Grady Simmons is the police reporter for The selves and their families. Free and compulsory ($10' U.S.) to enroll a child in school and 20 Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. Kim Smith teaches education seems to have disappeared under cordobas ($4 U.S.) monthly," Castafieda said. Spanish and English at Panhandle State U.S.-sponsored democratization here. "If I had been killed, no one would have helped University in Goodwell, Okla. Simmons and Paul Jeffrey, a journalist and in-house pub- my child. I get 100 cordobas ($20 U.S.) a month Smith traveled through Managua in July. licist for a Nicaraguan evangelical aid and from the government for being disabled, and THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 13

w41,..t.te•••• t they don't give me work because I'm disabled. of sewage-filled Lake Managua, into which did what appears to be common practice I sell gum and candy on the street. I am just effluent from the top of the hill flows. Unlike throughout the city — we shared a meal with trying to survive." sewage from the hill, which flows through street kids. We had stopped at an outdoor cafe Castarieda said he took bullets for a revo- municipal pipes, raw sewage from Castaiieda' s in the park at Plaza Espana at quitting time one lution that has betrayed him. His brother was barrio flows on top of the ground into the lake. evening when a wave of children from the killed in the conflict, and a friend lost both legs The scene of raw sewage flowing in the streets intersection descended on the cafe patrons, in the war. Castafieda wants a wheelchair for is common in the capital. offering up scratch-and-lose lottery tickets and his friend and said he appealed to former Beside one wall in the Castaiieda family's waiting to see if the buyers uncovered winning Sandinista President Daniel Ortega for help for tiny house stands a single folding cot about combinations. The youthful sellers stick around needy veterans. But Ortega, Castafieda said, three feet off the floor. Along another wall stand to beg the ticket if it turned out to be a win- has taken good care of himself and has noth- boxes that serve both as storage and a coun- ner. ing to offer the veterans and their families. tertop; a kerosene-burning hot plate stands Other kids simply held out their hands. Two Ortega, head of the Frente Sandinista de ready to do the family's cooking. Lying atop of them were determined to pry us loose from Liberacion Nacional, makes his home inside boxes on another wall is a blue-bound New some money and we gave up on our half-hearted the hilltop FSLN headquarters compound in Testament. Picture pages — several of near- dismissal tactics and shared a pizza with them. an exclusive section of Managua, where armed naked women — clipped from magazines dec- With the promise of food, the two 10-year- military guards watch the walls that cover orate the walls. Machismo is alive and well olds hushed their clamor and pounced onto a almost a city block. The murals on the walls in Managua. In the windowless hut, lit only by . single chair at the table. . The streets have been around Ortega's house depict idealized images sunlight streaming through the open door, almost as unkind to them as the revolution was of Nicaraguan children at play — images you Castarieda pulled off his shirt and showed a to Orlando Castafieda. One showed a recent won't see on the streets of Managua. scar from a bullet wound to his shoulder and gouged-out wound in his leg — a casualty suf- The Castafieda family lives in a 40-square- pointed to another that marks his knee. fered in a day's work at the Plaza Espana cross- foot shack of pink corrugated tin on the edge Midway through our stay in Managua, we roads. His friend carried a hideous scar on his arm left over from injuries in a fire. They sur- vive and they cope,' albeit poorly. As poorly as Managuans are coping now, many say they expect more difficult times ahead as campesinos, giving up the struggle in the The War Continues countryside against Recontras (Contras still in arms), Recompas (Sandinistas still in arms) and tight credit for seed and fertilizer, migrate in Washington to the city hoping to find jobs and services. But jobs and services are only slightly more plen- S. Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., has led where except in Washington, whose leaders tiful in the city than in the country, and most %I the resistance against appropriation helped put her in power to begin with. new city dwellers become squatters, taking of aid to the fledgling democracy in So who wields the real power in Managua? over buildings gutted by the 1972 earthquake Nicaragua. Helms, the ranking Republican Those with money. As reported by Dan and even erecting cardboard partitions in the on the Senate Foreign Relations Dougan in Mesoamerica, a digest of Central abandoned 19th century cathedral downtown. Committee, is holding up the $116 million American news published in Costa Rica, As the population grows, job opportunities aid package in hopes of purging Violeta Chamorro bowed to Washington's demands diminish and crime rises. Chamorro' s coalition government of rem- by replacing a dozen high-level police offi- Managuans are becoming ever more fear- nants of Sandinista rule. Helms' stand cials, although she replaced the police com- ful as violent crime increases. According to against the aid comes at a crucial junc- mander with another Sandinista, but she police, crime in the second quarter had ture for the government in Managua, as it appointed former Contra Ronald Avils as increased by 15 percent over the first quarter tries to establish a democratic system under Vice Minister of the Interior, which super- in Managua; the police chief attributed the rise the weight of recovery from civil war and vises the police. in crime to a lack of patrol cars, fuel, paper natural disaster. That may not be enough to pry the $1 and typewriter ribbons. On July 9, two "The withholding of aid threatens to desta- million from Helm's grasp. At least' $50 machete-wielding men, apparently taking bilize an amazing reconciliation process million is expected to be appropriated, in advantage of the police department's short on the behalf of the Chamorro government," October, but the rest probably will be con- supplies of paper and typewriter ribbons, broke said Michael Conroy, an economics pro- ditioned on further concessions. In the mean- into the home of an 80-year-old Managua man fessor at the University of Texas in Austin. time, Nicaragua's nascent democratic gov- and decapitated him to steal his money — That Chamorro is still in power in a coun- ernment is saddled with debt and is in no worth about 80 U.S. cents. The police chief try with an unemployment rate of 58 percent financial position to help its people who were may be mistaken in his guess as to what causes in one of the most unstable regions on Earth devastated by an earthquake and massive a rise in crime, and police department statis- is a testament to her power to heal some tidal waves. Its immediate future is left in tics probably don't speak to the source of the incredibly deep wounds, he said. Her deci- the hands of the Senate and the U.S. State crime. In the final analysis, it might not mat- sion to keep Humberto Ortega, brother of Department, which will have a great deal to ter what the police can or cannot do. Managua's former President Daniel Ortega, as Defense do with whether the government of what is three daily newspapers carry accounts every Minister and other Sandinista officials in left of Nicaragua will be autonomous or day of what residents say is a rising level of charge of the police and judicial systems has U.S.-controlled. violence, and Managuans now warn visitors helped to stabilize her government every- — Jay Brida that they are not safe on the streets of their city — day or night. There is an ominous perception here that if the government doesn't recover from its apparent paralysis and confront the issues of Send a Friend the Texas Observer power and property ownership, if it doesn't find a way to protect, feed, clothe and educate Contact Stephan Wanstrom at 477-0746, or its growing legions of children, Nicaragua not write 701 West 7th St., Austin, TX 78701. only is abusing the children,. it is forfeiting its future.

14 • OCTOBER 2, 1992 ENVIRONMENTAL OBSERVER Carbon Tax and Texas

BY ROBERT BRYCE

Austin the U.S. Gross National Product $45 billion by the new State of Texas Energy Planning Process, N HIS, BEST-SELLING BOOK,Sen. Al the year 2000, a drop of 0.6 percent. The .CBO which is being headed by Railroad Commissioner Gore, the Democratic Vice-Presidential can- also estimated that the price of oil and natural Lena Guerrero, is to stabilize or increase the I didate, recommends a tax on carbon-based gas would rise by half and the cost of coal would state's energy revenues. Increasing the demand fuels as a way to reduce carbon dioxide emis- increase by 256 percent. A gallon of gasoline for natural gas is a key aspect of this plan. Because sions and save energy. Now he is under attack would rise by about 30 cents. gas produces less carbon dioxide than fuel oil by Republicans, whose national chairman, Rich Another study by the Institute for International or coal, it would be taxed at a lower rate. Thus Bond, among others, has called Gore an "inter- Economics pegged the carbon tax at $40 per ton. electrical producers and transportation execu- national environmental extremist." The study by economist William Cline sug- tives will have an economic incentive to switch Over the past 18 months, Finland, Holland and gests that a carbon tax is needed to avoid global to natural gas. Texas produces more gas than any Sweden have adopted similar carbon taxes. The warming. Cline predicts that the U.S. GNP will other state. In 1991, Texas produced 5.5 trillion idea was discussed extensively at the Earth decline by 6 to 20 percent over a 300-year period cubic feet of gas — 25.5 percent of total U.S pro- Summit in Rio de Janeiro. The European because of rising temperatures on the surface duction. At current rates of consumption, Texas Community has been discussing how to imple- of the earth. Cline, like Gore, recommends that has enough gas to last over 100 years. ment the tax for all the countries in the Common proceeds from the carbon tax be used to reduce Bob Armstrong, Ann Richards' adviser on Market. Belgium, France, Germany and Denmark tropical deforestation, and increase efficiency in energy issues and a member of STEPP, agrees all favor a carbon tax. In May, the Institute for the developing world. that a carbon tax could help spur demand for International Economics concluded that the car- Although the CBO study shows that the car- Texas gas. "It's worth looking at," said bon tax would be a long-term benefit for the U.S. bon tax won't ruin the American economy, it Armstrong, who said the carbon ,tax proposal economy. In June, former chairman of the Federal would have an immediate effect on electric rates. hasn't gotten very far in Texas because few Reserve Board, Paul Volcker, endorsed the tax. Fifty-five percent of all electricity in Texas is people are pushing the idea. The idea behind the carbon tax is simple: Add generated by burning coal. And because coal Aside from the benefits to Texas from a surcharge to any fuel product containing car- contains more carbon than oil or natural gas, it increased natural gas consumption, the carbon bon (i.e. coal, oil, natural gas) and use the funds will be taxed more heavily than the other fuels. tax would promote efficiency. Energy efficiency to increase energy efficiency and pay for envi- Some projections estimate that utility bills would programs are good for the economy and the envi- ronmental cleanup. Increased efficiency would jump an average of 25 percent if carbon were ronment. Compact fluorescent light bulbs, reduce the amount of carbon dioxide emissions taxed at $100 per ton. energy-efficient refrigerators and the like decrease in the atmosphere, thus averting further poten- Texas currently burns more coal — 89 mil- demands on power plants which in turn have tial global warming. lion tons last year — than any other state in the to burn less carbon-based fuels. The result is less In his book, Earth in the Balance, Gore writes, country. Increased taxes on coal could induce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The industrial "There is an economic rule of thumb: Whatever utility companies to switch to natural gas for sector would be stimulated by increased demand we tax, we tend to get less of; whatever we sub- power generation. for more energy-efficient products. sidize, we tend to get more of. Currently, we tax But don't expect the carbon tax to get much A tax on carbon would help bring U.S. gaso- work and we subsidize the depletion of natural support from Texas oil producers. "The carbon line prices into line with other nations around the resources and both policies have contributed to tax is just a new way to tax production and con- world. Despite the high cost of defending Kuwait unemployment and the waste of natural resources. sumption of energy," says Julian Martin of Texas and Saudi Arabia — an estimated $60 billion for What if we lowered the tax on work and simul- Independent Producers and Royalty Owners the Gulf War with as many as 250,000 lives taneously raised it on the burning of fossil fuels?" Association (TIPRO). "With the energy indus- lost — Americans enjoy some of the lowest (Gore wants to use carbon tax revenues to try in the straits it's in, we can't be supportive of fuel prices in the world. The British now pay increase efficiency and promote green tech- a tax of that sort. But we can be for a tax on about $4 per gallon of gasoline. By 1990, the nologies in the developing countries of the world.) imported oil." Martin says that TIPRO and other U.S. had the lowest gas prices since 1918, when The implementation and amount of the tax are groups want a tax on imported oil to help prop measured in real terms. key questions. Several studies have been done up the ailing Texas oil industry, which is in the Theoretically, an increase in American fuel which recommend an assessment of $40 per midst of one of the worst drilling slumps in two prices will reduce consumption. And Americans ton of carbon. In 1990, the U.S. Congressional decades. are gluttonous consumers of energy. Although Budget Office released a study which assumed Less oil production hurts the state in several America accounts for only 5 percent of the world the tax will be levied at $11 per ton. It would then ways: Fewer jobs for drilling and other produc- population, we use about 25 percent of all the rise over 10 years until it reaches a maximum tion activities and less wellhead tax revenue world's energy. Reducing energy consumption of $110 per ton of carbon. At that level, the for the state. In 1989, the state collected just over will not only help our environment, it will help government could raise $120 billion in annual $1 billion — about 5 percent of the state's total our balance of trade. Pete Emerson, an economist revenue. budget — in taxes on oil and natural gas. with the Environmental Defense Fund in Austin, The CBO determined that the tax would reduce Declining state energy production has reduced says that while much political hay is made of our the amount of money the state is collecting from trade deficit with Japan, our biggest import com- wellhead taxes on energy. modity is oil. Robert Bryce is an Austin-based freelance writer But the carbon tax could spur demand for "We import $20 billion worth of cars from on environmental issues. natural gas from Texas. One of the purposes of Continued on pg. 23

THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 15

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for The Progressive magazine. Account no., expiration When you subscribe at $18 a Signature year-50% off the cover price Mail this form to: you'll receive your free copy of Molly's bestselling book: 'Molly lvins Can't Say That, Can She?' 409 East Main Street, Madison, WI 53703 A5TOII 16 • OCTOBER 2, 1992 BOOKS & THE CULTURE Goodbye Columbus

BY NANCY DUGHI WITHOUT DISCOVERY: A Native Response to Columbus. Edited by Ray Gonzalez Seattle: Broken Moon Press. 233 pages. $14.95.

AFTER AZTLAN: Latino Poets of the Nineties. Edited by Ray Gonzalez Doston David R. Godine. 203 pages. $14.95/paper $22.95 hardback

F THE TITLE WITHOUT DISCOVERY doesn't give you a hint of the contents of I the book, consider some of the titles of the collected pieces and their authors' resumes: — "For Some, It's a Time of Mourning" by Wendy Rose, coordinator of Native American Studies at Fresno City College. — "The Columbus Quincentennial Is Nothing to Celebrate" by Robert Allen Warrior, Native American activist in Minneapolis. — "We Have No Reason to Celebrate an Invasion," interview with Susan Shown Harjo by Barbara Miner. Harjo is director of a Washington D.C. organization founded to pro- vide an indigenous people's response to the Quincentennial. — "Confounding and Surpassing the Legacy of Columbus" by Victoria Lena Manyarrows, artist, writer and activist among Native Americans in the San Francisco area.

ut the protest evident in these titles is not as belligerent as it sounds. As Gonzalez B writes in his preface: "Five hundred years have passed and these writers know it. Five hundred years of native and foreign languages have already created voices of mixed cultures, the true sound of the Americas, as its artists and writers mark history with honest visions of what it means to be cit- izens of the Americas, not American citizens." Many of the writers the anthologist has cho- sen discuss what that mixed culture really is; they try to identify the words and the races and the creeds which have made them personally and collectively what they are. Ed Chavez of New Mexico tells of his own search for ancestors who might have been FRANK W. HARRIS III mar- to New Mexico. These wandering Jews denied today's Hispanic and Native American culture ronos, pork-eating Jews who fled from the their Sephardic origins in order to save them- is expressed throughout the book, as words Spanish Inquisition to Mexico and then north selves and only recently their descendants are like coyote, mixed Hispanic/Anglo, indio puro beginning to explore their genesis. Chavez says sangre, mestizo and especially Chicano are that mestizos are going through that same self- dissected and defined. In "An Open Letter to Nancy Dughi is a freelance writer living in discovery. Chicana — On the Power and Politics of San Antonio. This urge to be honest about the source of Origins," Hernandez, who once lived in Austin

THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 17 but now lives in California and was a leader which are unique to their experience as minori- "The sun was slow in arriving that morning. of the Chicano movement of the '70s, has ties in the United States. This does not restrict Those of us who bore witness saw it rise in the written an especially powerful piece about them to "ethnic" subjects but in such a col- new sky, motionless, but it no longer gave enough light. Now, after many years, our eyes these terms. lection, where they are identified as "Latino" The most compelling work in the book, how- writers, we look to them for definitions of the have grown accustomed to the dark." ever, is the short fiction of New Mexico poet Latino culture. Gonzalez writes in his introduction to this Alicia Gaspar de Alba. In her "Cimarrona," a The economy of poetry is what challenges collection that, because of its women writers, runaway slave and a young convent school girl both writer and reader. Every line is an idea Latino literature is finding a larger reader- are captured by Dutch pirates in the Caribbean. condensed for the reader to expand in his own ship. Half of this book's pages are rightfully The girl goes mad as she sees her friend raped, mind. This happens in the best of these pieces. devoted to women poets who, for the most beaten and killed. The story is doubly horri- In Francisco Alarcon's "In a Neighborhood part, demonstrate that they are, as Gonzalez fying because it so easily could be true. And in Los Angeles," claims, more rounded and less political than it is an indictment, not just of the Europeans the men. And, as the Latina novelists did, these poets are pushing into the mainstream, ahead who enslaved the Indians, but of all men who my grandma treat women as property. of the men. Gerald Vizenor, instructor at the University wore moons Pat Mora, for example, in gentle, universal of California at Berkeley, offers a fantasy, on her dress language speaks of her mother, describes the thrill a poor woman has when she first learns "Moccasin Games," about an Indian nation Mexico's mountains which might have risen after the arrival of to write her name, tells of one family's ritu- Columbus. Vizenor's story casts both desert als, lists the folk art she loves — themes and emotions that have no cultural borders. Other Columbus and Jesus Christ as Mayan. This bit ocean of mischief detracts from the picture of an women who handle the form of modern poetry Indian nation so powerful today that it can in her eyes... with mastery and even experiment with it are tax the United States and charge it for the cost the prize-winning Alma Luz Villanueva and of pollution. It is a fascinating "what-if," some- And in Martin Espada's "Federico's Ghost": Alicia Gaspar De Alba, both of whom have .. The story is that whole families of fruit what weakened by verbosity. books coming out this year and can be con- Personal stories, in the context of the pickers still crept between the furrows of the sidered truly "poets of the '90s." Quincentennial, make interesting reading, too. field at dusk, when for reasons of whiskey or Gonzalez's work on these two anthologies Ray Young Bear, a poet and teacher in Iowa, whatever the cropduster plane sprayed any- is a continuation of what has become his avo- tells of his efforts to explain the reality of being way, floating a pesticide drizzle over the pick- cation: that of monitoring and compiling col- an Indian to students and strangers. And in her ers who threshed like dark birds on a glisten- lections of today's Latino and Native American account of a time spent in Peru as a student, ing white net, except for Federico ... writers. As Literature Director of the Roberta Fernandez, assistant editor of Arte Alarcon, in his first six lines, forces the reader Guadalupe Cultural Center in San Antonio and to feel the pathos of exile while Espada, in poetry editor of The Bloomsbury Review, he Pi%lice, Press in Houston, shares her divided sense of solidarity and separation from/with one paragraph, compels the reader to share the stays in contact with poets and minority writ- the Indians of South America. hunger, fear and scorn that immigrant workers ers throughout the country. The conferences In sum, the collection reveals an alterna- experienced. An entire novel would be needed he organizes at the Guadalupe Center pro- tive to the idea of hailing Columbus as a great to tell how "Jorge the Church Janitor Finally vide a speaking and teaching forum for many man, a discoverer or a benefactor, or of con- Quits," a story which Espada covers-in 30 very of these writers and much of their best work necting the year 1492 with the advent of civi- short lines. And a dozen documentaries could often finds its way into the Guadalupe Review, scarcely reveal all that Demetria Martinez's which Gonzalez edits and publishes for the lization in the Americas. Though there are no works by the Native two-page "Prologue" and "Nativity" shows center. (A second edition will be appearing American writers from the national bestseller about the way Salvadoran women are living this fall.) lists, as for example, Louise Erdtrich or Thomas today. Gonzalez does his own work — his poetry, Momaday, Gonzalez has managed, to gather In Gonzalez's "The Sustenance": he says modestly, at home — away from his contributions from writers nationally accepted office at the center where he works alone at as cultural spokespeople for Hispanics and Campesinos bend in the 115 degree heat, a desk surrounded by stacks of review copies, scripts and correspondence. Such homework Native Americans. Their views on the sub- dig the holes of history, ject of the "discovery" of America are worth includes, besides his own poetry, another listening to and Gonzalez has done us a service disappear without a trace anthology of poetry for the University of North by putting them together under one cover. Texas Press, an anthology of essays for the when the family comes north to build University of New Mexico and an anthology ztlan was the name given in the '70s to the great desert railroads, of interviews for the University of Arizona. the ideal state that Latins dreamed of my grandparents, Julia y Bonifacio, His own work-in-progress, which should when political and social change first appear in 1993, is a book of essays about grow- A married at fourteen to escape ing up in El Paso, a city that found its way into brought Latinos, African Americans and Native After Aztlan: Americans together. After Aztlan, Latino Poets la revolucion for Arizona railroad camps, Ray Gonzalez's dedication of "This book is for Oscar Zeta Acosta, Pablo of the Nineties remembers that place: "... a where Yaquis laid the tracks, North American continent free of foreign con- Neruda, Ruben Salazar, Julia Canales, and for quest and domination, a land where native special teams walking ahead of the line El Paso, which refuses to erode in the dust of people could flourish and shape their own cul- to clean the Sonora desert • the desert." All of Gonzalez's anthologies, like the two ture and literature...." of great, five:foot rattlesnakes, Those who envisioned Aztlan have since reviewed above, are available in trade book- gained political and social power; artists among dozens of them slowing the railroad .. . stores. But his publishers, who know that his them are assimilating, some moving into the selections are based on an encyclopedic knowl- mainstream. The work of poets, however, The poet here develops a sense of history edge of current writing and that his editing is whether they are revolutionaries or recluses, and place and character that a novelist would meticulous, count on large sales in university remains the same: To challenge a reader to look envy. Only Benjamin Saenz, in his "Creation. bookstores, where the books are offered as anew at some object, person or idea. Though Trinity Site, New Mexico, 5:30 A.M. July 16th, supplements to courses in Latino literature. Aztlan is no longer their subject, Latino poets 1945," surpasses Gonzalez in the evocation They also should be of special interest to continue to write of objects, people and places of a particular moment in history: Texans. ❑

18 • OCTOBER 2, 1992 A Silenced Lamb

BY DAVE OLIPHANT n 1960 Alfred A. Knopf Inc. published John Graves' Goodbye to a River, a classic Texas I work of meditation on a passing way of life— a common theme in Texas letters. In 1992 Knopf has published—so far as I am aware—its first collection of poetry by a native Texan: Stan Rice's Singing Yet: New and Selected Poems, a harrowing chronicle of the effects of a sin- gle passing away—a death in the family. Another beautifully designed and printed Knopf edition, Rice's book features on the dust jacket a full- color reproduction of a painting by the poet: possibly a symbolic depiction of death raping innocence. This vivid and disturbing piece of art seems to relate directly to the central section of Rice's collection, "Some Lamb" (1975), which is in two parts subtitled "During" and "After" and concerns the death of the poet's daughter from leukemia. An excruciating, mov- ing and even heroic series of poems, this sec- tion of Rice's book presents a situation and its impact on the poet that may be characterized by a phrase from the collection's final section of "New Work" (1983-1990): "I take the nursery rhyme into the slaughter house." In many ways the poems from "Some Lamb" (with its epi- graph from William Blake's "Infant Sorrow" out of the Songs of Experience) pervade and permeate the rest of this powerful book, one of the most important collections of poetry ever STAN RICE published by a Texan. / grieving and smiling." Despite the tragedy at But certainly even such sinister humor is the Born in Dallas in 1942, Stan Rice was for the heart of Rice's book, it contains writing that exception, for Singing Yet is the agonizing equiv- many years at San Francisco State University can bring smiles as well as grief, for this col- alent of "the bust of my dead daughter in mar- as a professor and assistant director of The Poetry lection ultimately celebrates the fact that the ble" that is being carved by the poet's father- Center. One of Rice's poems from the 1960s poet is "singing yet." in-law in movement 7 of the "Texas Suite." first appeared in the outstanding anthology, A lighthearted piece like "The Skyjacker" Many of the book's central images and motifs Quickly Aging Here (1969), and was then enti- is told in the voice of a cowboy movie star: "I are introduced in "Elegy," the first poem in the tled "On the Murder of Martin Luther King" but am carrying a pillow into the cockpit on which collection. Written during the daughter's illness, is included in Singing Yet as "Whiteboy." is embroidered / I am Tex Ritter. Howdy. / A this piece is a very private acknowledgment that Section 3 of this piece recalls a practice from calm falls over the cockpit. / The co-pilot takes the speaker's pain cannot be escaped but it is earlier years when, as the original subtitle has off his extra ears and I tell them, / Relax. ... That also an effort to face death through offering it, "The Young Texan returns to the Texas State this is not Eldridge Cleaver / This is Tex Ritter "Detail by detail / the living creatures." Fair and sees the source of his racism sitting talkin / and ... We are going to Havana forever!" Throughout Rice's book there are wondrous in a glass cage over a tank of water." The object More representative of the book's black humor poems on animals — cows, cats, birds, a "tragic of this particular sideshow "attraction" was to is "The Allnight Hamburger Stand in the rabbit," a "goofy gold, ever hungering" dog who dunk the "nigger"_ and "pay him back for his Dangerous Neighborhood"from Rice's "Texas complicates the poet's life ("I can't move with sensual blackness," but he keeps "staring at you Suite": you. / I can't bear the guilt of getting rid of through the glass tank / like an animal that you The Murder Burger you"), and, in one very significant case, a dying can't kill." Section 2 of this poem was proba- is served right here. goldfish. In this last poem of the same title, Rice contrasts an oriental philosophy that sees death bly written before Rice's daughter was diag- You need not wait nosed with leukemia, but it too, like the poems "as a continuity" with his daughter's goldfish on her condition and its devastating effects on at the gate of Heaven resisting it "like crazy." The poet seems torn the poet and his wife, is about children, in this for unleavened death. between these two views, faced as he is with the case "suave children black and brown" whose You can he a goner expected death of his own daughter. Much of bodies are "full of echoes, / scary as Death in on this very corner. the tension in the book comes from Rice's con- the ivy standing /knee-deep in the green ivy, / Mayonnaisse, onions, dominance of flesh. stant struggle with two opposing sides, two incompatible philosophies pulling him apart. In beating on the mouths of bottles with their palms, If you wish to eat it "Elegy," enigmatic lines only hint at pain or pro- You must feed it. vide frequently a type of existential consola- "Vail come back." tion: "If I bleed I must exist / Only hanging hogs Dave Oliphant is a poet and lives in Austin. "You bet." get kissed." Since the daughter's disease is one

THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 19 arrives at a new understanding of his relation- that often attacks the blood, death and blood are ing death of the daughter by seeking to recount everywhere in "Elegy" and the penultimate the experience as it happens. Although later ship with his wife: "To die of fear of reveal- movement of the poem, number 20, concludes in "Time in Tool" the poet will confess that ing yourself / to the person who loves you is with one of many references in the book to "it is not clear when autobiographical data should murder." In the "Body of Work" section the poet has survived the "wreckage of remem- savage sacrifice. In a passage written some 20 be suppressed," in the earlier "The 29th Month" years ago, Rice evokes the recent Los Angeles the speaker declares "I want to make it be in bering . . . Burying the never-to-beforgotten bone" and is now "Singing along with the wreck- riots, ritualistic sacrifice and his own sense of words, because / to get the poem right / is to ing ball." Here he recovers "Tenderness" in the personal ruin: have another baby / while the real one dies." In another poem from Part I of "Some Lamb," poem of that title: "To learn not to hate the original tenderness / that rendered you help- And Durer gasped on first seeing Inca sun entitled "Trying to Feel It," the speaker again attempts to endure the experience through writ- less." At this point the poet seems to return to six foot wide gasped silver moon ... ing: "So I write this. So I / Try to give birth. Me, his childhood and to rediscover the thrill of sex- perceiving all men / a man." In poem after poem, the poet peers ual difference in "What Happened in the had Craft & Giant Heart & who is savagery? unflinchingly into the jaws of his daughter's Hallway." And even though he can still expe- death, as in a piece named after her, "Michele rience a death wish, as in "The Fishing," the Lost, final movement of his "Texas Suite"— my friends, they took the metaphors literally, Fair," which elaborates the imagery of death feeding on the young girl, even as it concerns lost how "Naked Knowing" is "the Substance Beast" Again I ache to slide from my body. in ramshackle moonlight kicking meat that "keeps check on me / To see that I have fed The lures lie naked in the tackle box. the bus pulls up they stand in its headlights it me / Just as policemen like to see / A proper I envy them. Above me the [electric] tower the 7-Eleven manager cries out MUCH show of humility in those they rule." The most horrifying vision of innocence eaten is in "The to which I am MUCH MUCH Last Supper," with its image of a child like a tied my business is ruined ... ketchup, all the watermelon dropped on concrete by the "crusher is "singing." I slip over the edge of the boat ketchup broken of children," the "Baby-eater." into the cold water and wait Along with such oppressive but artful pieces ... they didn't want for one of the gods to take me by the hair to eat anything they just wanted to have in Part I, there are, among others, two magnif- icently uplifting poems that even as they reg- and pull my body off me like a nightgown everything... ister the horror of the loss record a visionary This same allusion to human sacrifice is coming to grips with life and death: "Only two —in "Madness: Fullgrown" he can announce: employed by Rice in "Time in Tool," one of the choices / To stress: go on, or give in." In "Madness . . . we "Testimonial" the occasion of death has height- most impressive single poems in the collection. have been, we have done. I What you have given In this piece from the "New Work" section, Rice ened the poet's senses, as it always does, and makes an oblique allusion to savagery while he the poem manages to capture the paradoxical is what I've and his parents are in a Dallas shopping mall: nature of this desolating yet maturing experi- outgrown." "The beauty and safety of the Mall is our fore- ence: "My capacity for belief increased / As my fathers' gift. . . . The sun is setting but we are number of beliefs diminished ... I care so much There are so many profound and finely con- immune. / We / go down into / manpower, / I don't care any more." The poet discovers that structed poems in Singing Yet (like the humor, debt. We look at shirts. / We buy shirts. "Nothing mattered therefore / But the ambiva- Whitmanesque "America the Beautiful" in This is the moment / the flint knife digs out / lence of accurate / Illusions: art." For Rice the which the poet pledges allegiance "this time the jumping heart of the sacrifice / slave. Then function of his own art is to employ verbal to the vivification of our lost Body Politic, / we sit calmly on the lip of the planter, / ful- charms as a magic ritual of exorcism. And yet nerves and follicles and arteries / ablaze in the filled." The scene here is reminiscent of some- what is involved in the four sections of "Inc anto" suaveness of night") that it is impossible to time Texas poet Leon Stokesbury's "Day — which begins with an allusion to Blake's cover even a fourth of this collection, which Begins at Governor's Square Mall," which may dichotomy of lamb/tyger ("Time / hath made runs to 226 pages. The sound and sense of even also suggest how shopping in the artificial con- off with the last lamb left"; "Which tyger shall a shorter piece like "How Keep Dark and Pattern fines of a mall has become a savaging form of eat the reflection?")—is that the poet brings Off" cannot be appreciated unless the com- escapism. Rice's use of the mall, however, is about a wedding of "Clarity & Vividness, both plete poem is reproduced. For me one of the more resonant in that it recalls the book's many miracles," by simultaneously describing the most amazing pieces remains "Time in Tool," references to sacrifice, all deriving from the death scene in all its overwhelming detail and a more prosy narrative—than Rice's tighter poet's own personal attachment to an inno- by asserting that "If I'm to go on / the terms lyrics—that builds cumulatively through 11 cent victim. of the slaughter must be known," that such pages of "the most mundane things" to ask Other images and motifs central to "Elegy" "cannibalism" of a precise art's clarity is nec- several crucial questions, such as "How is it and to Rice's later poetry concern eating: of essary for there to be "No more death." possible to know when to stop remembering flesh, by shadows, "a white moth" by a frog, Ultimately the poet believes that "To write things?" Something of an urban version of Rice's "the gypsy's dream" consumed by the lion in this right is to cope with the corpse." more nursery-rhyme-like pieces, with their often the Rousseau painting. Lamentation and blood- The second part of "Some Lamb" deals with grim reminders of the cruelties visited on the letting, "filthy grave" and "much morgue" are "After," which engenders repeated and painful innocent, "Time in Tool" defines to some degree motifs that combine with details from life that, remembrance, drunkenness, guilt, loss of mar- its own masterful achievement: according to an old Japanese, cannot be ignored, ital love ("Her thighs are tight. / My cock's no "Though the tone wanders I the intent is in order for "godly sperm" to leap "from silk- cure"), insomnia, and, in the next section ("Body song. I Sometimes of Work"), near madness, as the couple "Now worm." Again, a type of existentialism enters it may sound like the cowboy song of a the poem: "No joy is merely a handhold on in disquiet / . . . slowly, slowly thrive / On something less. / What it squeezes, it is." what [their] luggage closed upon and ate." child." As a volume of selected poems from a major Squeezing, bleeding, meat, eating, cannibalism However, even in these poems the poet is Singing Yet stands as a and death are image-motifs around which Rice's "singing yet," as the last line of "Singing Death" publisher, Stan Rice's monument to the truth of the poet's own life poems revolve, creating in a kaleidoscopic tech- affirms. And in "Anne's Curls" the poet over- andwritings as proclaimed in the first four lines nique the heart-rending grief at the loss of a comes his guilt feelings —"Maybe / if I'd sought of this compelling book: "All life / has song. loved one but also achieving a deeply felt phi- out a better doctor in Houston / Mouse would've Tho the ear be sad / still it sings songs. / Men losophy for survival. lived longer. / Like you wanted to. Every / A number of the poems confront the impend- death's a murder. A million maybes"—and cannot be so gone." ❑

20 • OCTOBER 2, 1992 Drug-Money Masterpiece

BY STEVEN G. KELLMAN

EL MARIACHI lings — he is the third of 10 children — that Directed by Robert Rodriguez Rodriguez hopes can be the basis for a TV sit- com. The short itself already has aired on PBS. 1 ALWAYS WANTED to be a mari- Rodriguez is a bit embarrassed by all the Au achi," says the dark, handsome acclaim for his initial feature film. "If I had stranger who strides into the saloon, known anyone was going to see it, I would steps up to the bar and asks for soda pop. A have put more into it," he said. His original inten- violent but cheery tale of mistaken identities, El tion was to make a few quick pieces for the Mariachi deftly subverts the conventions of Spanish video market in order to earn enough macho action cinema. Like the wandering musi- money to finance more ambitious cinema. "All cian, a narco-thug also dresses in black and I wanted was to double our investment." totes a guitar case, except that his conceals the El Mariachi never did make it to the Spanish instruments of his own felonious trade—lethal video market. Columbia provided English sub- weapons. Confusion between killer and strum- titles and blew up the original print into a 35 mer propels the plot, a lively medley of melody, millimeter version that it is expected to release romance and murder. At its world premiere, Sept. for theatrical distribution this fall. Rodriguez 4 at the 19th Annual Telluride Film Festival, would just as soon reshoot the film, in English. Cuban novelist and critic G. Cabrera Infante He conceived El Mariachi as the first install- introduced El Mariachi as "a small masterpiece." ment of a trilogy and is uncomfortable with the Anyone who comes to Telluride, high in prospect that the sequels in "the first all-Latino Colorado's majestic San Juan mountains, for trilogy" could be much more polished than the the waters is mistaken, especially during Labor original. Day weekend. The old mining town doubles its Like the Coen brothers' stunning debut withwith population for the annual marathon of about 30 Blood Simple, El Mariachi announces an orig- new films. This year brought eye-opening offer- inal talent. Rodriguez attributes some of the ings by Werner Herzog, Ric Bums, Abel Ferraro, film ' s, brash pizazz to the fact that "I had made Quentin Tarantino, Agnieszka Holland, Nikita it for practice only. I made it with much greater Mikhailkov, Kenneth Branagh, Kevin Rafferty, freedom not thinking that anyone would see it." Tiana Thi Thanh Nga, Jean-Claude Lauzon © COLUMBIA PICTURES INDUSTRIES After its success at Telluride, it was scheduled and others. But El Mariachi, a first feature made Robert Rodriguez to be seen also at the Toronto and Sundance for a mere $7,000, was the prodigy of the fes- Film Festivals. tival. Popular demand forced four additional his cholesterol and raising his capital was Peter Will success spoil Robert Rodriguez? Though screenings: Marquardt, whom Rodriguez recruited to play flown to Hollywood and treated regally, he Robert Rodriguez has always wanted to be Moco, the gringo drug lord in El Mariachi. intends to stay in Austin. "You can't get an orig- a filmmaker, at least since the days when his The Mariachi himself is played by Carlo inal idea in L.A. I hated it there. It's distracting. family used to file into the Olmos Theater, a Gallardo, an old classmate from St. Anthony It's nice just to go there, do your work and repertory cinema in San Antonio since demol- High School who also helped write and produce then go home. It's all about the work. To get ished and replaced by an office building. Born the film. To make El Mariachi, in 14 days, soft is the worst thing you can do." The young in San Antonio 23 years ago, Rodriguez directed with no second takes, they went to Gallardo's director's nose remains hard about Hollywood, El Mariachi. After local high school, Rodriguez home town of Acutia, Coahuila In addition to and he has no illusions about its dedication to moved to Austin to attend the University of directing, co-writing and co-producing the film, art. "It's all a matter of money. If you can prove Texas. He still lives in Austin and is still enrolled Rodriguez handled the camera, sound and edit- that your kind of movies will make money, at UT, though contractual obligations to ing. His multiple functions were less a matter Hollywood will make a lot more of them." Columbia (the studio, not the university) make of control, he explained, than a desire to learn The kind of movies made until now hav graduation more remote. everything he could about making a movie. "I tended either to ignore or to demean Latinos. How could anyone possibly make a movie for wanted to enroll myself in my own film school, El Mariachi does perpetuate ethnic stereotypes a mere $7,000? Columbia Pictures was so eager for $7,000." of drug lords and violent hombres, but it also to find out that they signed Rodriguez to a lucra- The money moved to larger magnitudes when , spoofs them, and it features an unusually tive two-movie deal. "I used my own money," International Creative Management, Holly- assertive woman, played by Consuelo Gomez. answers Rodriguez, sharing his thoughts with wood's most powerful agency, discovered As a Latino director, Rodriguez is conscious of The Texas Observer during his triumph in Rodriguez and chose to represent him. a special responsibility, not to beg for a piece Colorado. To come up with the cash, meager Rodriguez created a comic strip, Los. of the media pie but to enrich the total recipe: as it was, for El Mariachi, Rodriguez spent 30 Hooligans, that ran for three years in the UT "The question is not: What can Hollywood do days at Pharmaco, a drug research facility in campus newspaper, the Daily Texan. But lack- for us? It is: What can we do for Hollywood?" Austin. He was paid to take an experimental drug luster grades barred him from the university's Yet Rodriguez refuses to limit himself or designed to reduce cholesterol. Also lowering film program. However, when the shorts he stub- his audience to the Bijou's ethnic balcony. "I bornly made on his own won prizes at a dozen want to make movies for the masses. I consider festivals, he was eventually allowed to study myself a citizen of the world. I want to make Steven G. Kellman teaches comparative liter- film. His first semester's project was Bedhead, movies where everyone identifies with the char- ature at the University of Texas at San Antonio. an Hispanic family drama starring his own sib- acters because they are human."

THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 21

411.4.■••■■■-, Continued from pg. 10 the resources necessary to address the problem. focused on, he said. of a $5.7 billion total price tag along the border In addition, it will stimulate the economic growth Hills plays clown the threat of jobs moving with Mexico. Joe Escamilla, Chairman of the necessary to support infrastructure development." south. "If wages were the only factor, many BTA, wrote in February, "Free trade attracts Those federal pledges have not been forthcom- less-developed countries would be economic national attention to the issues and will provide ing yet, but that has not stopped some local politi- superpowers," she said, citing business produc- cians from coming up with ideas of their own. tivity, availability of capital, interest rates, qual- There is talk that some of the revenue gener- ity of infrastructure and education of the work ated from border towns like Laredo could be kept force. "Based on all factors, on average, U.S. 44 •'''N'il. S ea in Texas to help pay for building projects, rather workers remain at least five times more pro- ,,,-,a,•ger ductive than their Mexican counterparts." .0 Horse than being sent to Washington as part of the • general revenue fund. The Port of Laredo col- Granting that cheap wages are not the sole cri- • 'Inn lects an estimated $180 million, but only $6 terion used by businesses deciding where to •, million to $7 million makes its way back to the locate a plant, Cook said taking away tariffs 0 Kitchenettes-Cable TV region. While some citizens hope that more and improving transportation make it easier to OA • iir Pool rA money will be kept in the state, "it has only move factories and jobs to Mexico. Just how 9. va beside the Gulf of Mexico ./ik been talk," noted David Molina, a professor many of the estimated 400,000 union jobs in on Mustang Island '40 with the University of North Texas who helped Texas would disappear is not clear. The in a statewide study of NAFTA. Administration concedes workers will be dis- 4,1° Available for private parties lel • ilf% placed, but it estimates a net gain of 150,000 jobs. 4k Unique European Charm t comes as no surprise that organized labor (That is less than the number of jobs that were & Atmosphere 0 opposes NAFTA — even in Texas. Despite lost last month alone.) Special Low Spring & Summer Rates .0, I the talk that Texas would gets dispropor- Clearly there will be a lot more talk before any Pets Welcome fir tionate number of jobs, the state also can expect agreement is signed. In fact, even if things move losses as manufacturers and food producers move along quickly, nothing will happen until next 1423 11th Street 1 south, said Christopher Cook, a spokesman for summer. In the meantime, there will be much the Texas AFL-CIO. pondering about what it will bring. And of course 0 Port Aransas, TX 78373 1 "It will help Fortune 100 companies, which there will be the inevitable questions about what call (512) 749-5221 will move to Mexico to exploit cheap labor, would happen without an agreement. According then export goods back to the U.S., enabling to trade representative Hills, "I think historians for Reservations „,1 those companies to raise their profit margins would turn around a decade from now if we oriric without raising prices," Cook said. Texas agri- miss the opportunity and really shake their heads ...,,ammIA A ipliNk ig407* and wonder what we were about." Others say WO Ir 11.1001. 40 culture would not be immune to the ill effects of the agreement — although that has not been better them than us. ❑

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22 • OCTOBER 2, 1992 PEROTSCOPE

✓ UP PEROTSCOPE. After a two - and- he took his leave, Molly Ivins, in a July 9 col- telling him: "This world is full of lions and tigers a-half-month sabbatical, during which he pub- umn for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, con- and rabbits. And you're a rabbit." lished a book, United We Stand: How We Can fessed that she has had some fun playing with ✓ Responding to a question about Take Back Our Country, H. Ross Perot has Perot — his short stature, his Chihuahua-like his pro-choice position on abortion on CNN's returned to the Presidential race — sort of. voice and other physical characteristics that have "Live with Larry King," Perot said humans Perot is expected to appear as an independent nothing to do with his qualifications for the should be more discerning in conceiving chil- candidate on the ballots of all 50 states and he Presidency — but she pointed out that he has dren: "We're not rabbits," he said. On another has been edging the door back open on his can- some other failings besides his Bad Haircut. King show, he said Americans too often don't didacy as an alternative to Bush and Clinton — Among them: "Perot lies," he's "seriously into act like they own the county. "We act like white if his volunteers still want him. paranoid, right-wing conspiracies," he "spies rabbits that get programmed by messages com- on people," he's "been a bully and a quitter" ing out of Washington." In March, he told the ✓ In a Dallas Morning News state- and "it's a damned lousy idea to vote for any- National Press Club what it would take to make wide survey of 1,027 registered Texas voters one who's paying for his . own campaign." He him run: "If ordinary people in 50 states went from Aug. 30 to Sept. 3, 42 percent said they also wants a line-item veto of appropriations out on the streets on their own initiative, not would support Bill Clinton, 40 percent sup- and thinks it's "fine" to chop up the Constitution programmed, not orchestrated like rabbits the ported Bush and Perot got 2 percent. But when to take away Congress' power to levy taxes, she way we try to do everything now ..." asked for whom they would vote if Perot were noted.. "Let's see, that would give him war, ✓ Perot admires eagles and tigers. still actively seeking the Presidency, 30 per- peace, taxes, spending. Can anyone think of At EDS, his motto was: "Eagles don't flock, you cent opted for Perot, 30 percent for Bush and anything else he'd need to be our first dictator?" find them one by one," while he characterized 29 percent for Clinton. A recent nationwide a hard-charging employee as a "tiger's tiger." poll for the Washington Post and ABC News ✓ Tony Freemantle of the Houston He called Republican operatives "hungry bears" found that 16 percent of those most likely to explored Perot's use of animal imagery and dismissed as "animal crackers" reports that vote said they planned to vote for Perot if his Freemantle wrote: "In Perot's world, there's noth- he authorized a series of private investigations name appeared on the ballot. ing worse than being a rabbit. They're either of Bush. He charged that the Republican. Party cowardly, or they breed too freely, or they're lived in "fairyland," and dismissed the contro- ✓ When last we saw the Dallas bil- easily led." The Washington Post reported that versy as "Mickey Mouse tossed salad." lionaire who would be President, shortly before Perot once insulted then:Vice President Bush by Welcome back, Ross. We missed you.

Continued from pg. 15 Continued from pg. 24 "mysterious and occult" to understand. "By Japan each year. We spend $50 billion on for the future," the Chronicle quoted Al oozing deeper into this murky mess with wild imported oil," Emerson said. Emerson said half Ballinger, data manager with the Center for conspiracy charges, the UFOs can't be far of all the oil we consume comes from foreign Public Policy at the University of Houston. behind," Richelieu wrote. Meanwhile, the Sierra lands. And that percentage is rising. If domestic "Hell, with the occupations you have there, we Club lawsuit seeking federal intervention is demand for petroleum products is reduced, should just turn them out in the eighth grade." set for trial before U.S. District Judge Lucius America's balance of trade will improve. In Bunton of Midland on Oct. 26, which may turn addition, Emerson believes it will strengthen the ✓ WATER RIGHTS AND WRONGS. up the pressure for the Legislature to act. sagging dollar in overseas markets because fewer West Texas farmers may have relaxed the grip dollars will be owed to foreign banks. on their guns after state District Judge Peter ✓ CHECK CLEARS. U.S. Rep. Craig When former Fed chairman Volcker recently Lowry of Austin restored the traditional rights Washington, D-Houston, was among nine Texans endorsed the carbon tax, his words were remark- of landowners to pump as much water as they cleared of wrongdoing in the House check-bounc- ably similar to those used by Gore: "If you want can from the Edwards Aquifer, but the war of ing scandal, but Dan Carney of the Houston to increase taxes, use the tax that will have the words continues. The Texas Water Commission Post reports Washington neither wants nor needs least impact on savings, tend to restrain con- had declared the Edwards an underground river, vindication from the Bush Administration. "I sumption, make more room for investment and making it subject to regulation, rather than an don't need him to clear me ... He couldn't find therefore encourage growth." He continued, aquifer, which is not free-flowing. Farmers the criminal law with both hands in a wet paper "Some kind of tax on carbon emissions...has an protested that the state had no right to limit bag," Washington said of special counsel environmental impact which is favorable so pumping of water without compensation and Malcolm Wilkey, a former federal judge. you raise some revenues and get an environ- one threatened to shoot anyone who tried to put mental job done." a meter on his well. Ag Commissioner Rick ✓ OCTOBER SURPRISE? Another The last time America heard about reducing Perry welcomed the court decision and charged Democratic congressman under investigation is energy consumption was when Jimmy Carter that TWC Chair John Hall had engaged in a con- Albert Bustamante of San Antonio who com- was in the White House. When Ronald Reagan spiracy with federal authorities, who threatened plains that the FBI and the U.S. Justice became president, the solar panels were taken to step in with their own regulations to protect Department have been combing through his off the White House roof, and energy issues were species endangered by the lower water levels. affairs for more than three years. Federal agents ignored. Lately, the Bush Administration's only Atty. Gen. Dan Morales also is fighting attempts appear to be focusing on his wife's work as a energy strategy has been to assure that the air by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to take real estate adviser for San Antonio businessman conditioner in the emir's palace in Kuwait City over management of the aquifer, which is the Morris Jaffey, as well as her role as a lawyer. is working properly. source of water for 1.5 million people in South Bustamante, who is seeking a fifth term in Clearly, the carbon tax will not be easy to Central Texas. David Anthony Richelieu of Congress, is worried about "an October sur- implement. There are many issues about the tax the San Antonio Express-News noted that the prise," a grand jury indictment timed to help his that must be resolved. But to say the carbon traditional right of unlimited pumping stems Republican opponent, Henry Bonilla, accord- tax is the idea of an "extremist" ignores the from a 1904 Texas Supreme Court finding that ing to Bruce Davidson of the San Antonio reality of the modern world. ❑ the movement of underground water was too Express-News. ❑

THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 23 Postmaster: If undeliverable, send Form 3579 to The Texas Observer, 307 W. 7th St., Austin, Texas 78701

POLITICAL INTELLIGENCE

suicide ... That's not family values. That's fatal After Garry had sidelined Mosbacher. According to ✓ YELLOW DOGS BARK. values," she said. "I hope my father and my Mauro, George Shipley, Jack Martin and other McNeely, Rove claims he was wrongly con- brother understand that the party that they're Democratic pols huddled in Austin with Gov. victed; he said he talked with Novak, but the working with could mean that I could lose my Bill Clinton's campaign strategist, James columnist already had the story when he called. job, other people could lose their jobs just Carville, recently, Mauro emerged with a warn- because they're lesbian and gay and that's scary." ing for Republicans: "Bush had better hang on ✓ RIGHT WING & A PRAYER. "George Bush is not a leader, never has been a leader and to his hat. We're ahead in the polls, and we ✓ MUD WRESTLING. Republican hopes intend to stay there." The poll Mauro referred never will be a leader." Thus spake former Gov. to unseat veteran Sen. Chet Brooks, D-Pasadena, to, published the first week of September in John B. Connally, a recovering bankrupt encountered some turbulence when it was dis- the Dallas Morning News, showed the president Republican, to the Los Angeles Times' Jack closed that the GOP nominee, Jerry Patterson, locked in a dead heat with Clinton in a state Nelson during the Republican convention in might run afoul of the state constitutional pro- which a few months ago looked like a lock for Houston. Connally's putdowns might be dis- vision that bars from the Legislature any per- the incumbent. Gov . Ann Richards had let it missed as sour grapes, but August funding lev- son holding a "lucrative" state or federal office. be known that she would only make a serious els reported to the Federal Election Commission Quorum Report, an Austin newsletter, reported effort to work on behalf of the Clinton-Gore showed the GOP failing to keep up with the that Patterson's position on the board of a campaign if their campaign organization was Democrats for the first time in decades as sup- Southeast Harris municipal utility district, for willing to spend the money and time to make port of the incumbent President has trailed off which he was paid a modest per diem, made him a difference in Texas, and the investment seems from the contributing class of society. Such a ineligible for the race, but Patterson said the to be paying off. Confident Democratic officials turn was predicted in July by Allen Drury, author Texas Supreme Court decision that reinstated in East Texas, which is expected to be a cru- of Advise and Consent, who was invited to the Jeff Wentworth to the ballot in Senate District cial battleground, say the Presidential cam- annual gathering of tycoons at Bohemian Grove 26 gives Patterson confidence that he could paign is meshing smoothly with state and con- in California. Drury told friends upon his return withstand court challenges to his candidacy. gressional campaigns there, unlike the to Washington that the talk among the pluto- State GOP Executive Director Karen Hughes self-destroying campaign conducted by Michael crats was of how to reach accommodations with said as far as the party is concerned, Patterson Dukakis four years ago. Gov. Bill Clinton. Evidently the monied wing is a valid candidate. A spokesman for the of the GOP already had started to write off Bush Secretary of State said the Attorney General Character before the Democratic convention and mid- ✓ ELEPHANT STAMPEDE. would decide if the matter is raised. Brooks said attacks haven't seemed to work against Clinton, September movements to the Clinton standard he has not raised the issue, but he is confident who continues to lead nationwide polls despite by such formerly stalwart Republicans as John he could win anyway in a district that, with the Republican criticism of his decision 23 years Sculley of Apple Computer and the former addition of Clear Lake and parts of Brazoria ago to avoid the Vietnam War. VP Dan Quayle, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral County, is rated marginally Republican. The who proudly shuffled papers in Indiana during William Crowe, signal that Bush is being aban- Supreme Court on Sept. 16, following up on the Southeast Asia conflict, had to sit through doned by the GOP's military-industrial branch its earlier verbal order, decided on a 7-2 vote a scolding for his criticism of America's best- to the tender, and deserved, mercies of the social that Wentworth's term on the Texas State known "single mom," TV's fictional Murphy right wingers. University Board of Regents ended when he Brown, and the Bush-Quayle campaign is back- resigned in 1988 to run for a House seat. Robert ing off from the "family values" theme. The ✓ HOMOPHOBIA HITS HOME. Mosbacher's daughter, Diane, first made the atmosphere is gloomy at the White House, where ✓ HIGH-TECH CLEANING UP. Rhetoric the retrieval of Jim Baker as Chief of Staff has papers when she and the then-Commerce may put the future of Texas in high tech indus- failed to turn around the campaign; his reported Secretary from Houston gave commencement try, but the Texas Employment Commission insistence that all campaign initiatives come speeches at neighboring colleges in California. predicts that the biggest job opportunities in the through his office has created a logjam. Diane, a psychiatrist in San Francisco, said she next decade will be among janitors and maids, Frustrated White House aides are said to be had compared speeches with her father: "He followed by secretaries and general office clerks. touching up their résumés. (Let's hope their tran- would have used mine, but he's not a lesbian. L.M. Sixel of the Houston Chronicle reported scripts match their claims.) I would have used his, but I am not a that other fast-growing occupations include National Republican officials, alarmed at Republican." In a profile in the Washington Post, registered nurses, retail salespeople, managers, the Texas tailspin, reportedly have brought in she criticized the homophobia rampant in the truck drivers, child care workers, secondary relief for Rob Mosbacher Jr., head of the coor- GOP, which her father promotes as chief fund- school teachers and waiters, as the shift toward dinated Victory '92 campaign. Dave McNeely raiser for Bush's re-election and her brother, the service-based sector continues and compa-

of the Austin American-Statesman reports that Rob Jr., as head of the coordinated Republican nies move manufacturing , jobs to other nations Mosbacher retaliated by dropping Karl Rove Victory '92 campaign. "I think they really don't in search of cheaper labor. "We keep hearing from the campaign, believing that the direct mail know — I hope they don't — that this affects what we need is a well-educated work force expert was the source of a recent Evans and people in the street, that people can get beat Novak column reporting that Sen. Phil Gramm up, people can get killed, teenagers can commit Continued on pg. 23

24 • OCTOBER 2, 1992