At The Lege Pg. 10

A JOURNAL OF FREE VOICES APRIL 20, 1990 • $1.50

Education and Consensus Nick Perez's Search for 76 Votes

Regionally Literate Reviews by James Hoggard, Dave Oliphant, Michael King, and Pat Ellis Taylor

La Cerveza Correcta Is Your Favorite Mexican Brewer Busting the Union?

Also: Steven Kellman Reviews John Waters's Cry Baby

+Er. lot? Wrni.akve ef, t. %..310, ,,O.l.0^ -Ali fvf-- ,.. ,_. , . , ._' MN I *kate DIALOGUE ri;1 , On the Shipley Equality

THEH TEXAS Candidate . for All I have just read your "Democratic Di- "This is justice in Texas, 375 district lemma" in the Observer and your support judges, seven black, 35 Hispanic .. " The bserver for Ann Richards. 333 "White" judges undoubtedly include Anytime the sinister hand of George an adequate (justifiable?) number of A JOURNAL OF FREE VOICES Shipley is behind a candidate, I thought it females, (50.001%), Vietnamese, Jews (but We will serve no group or party but will hew hard to was axiomatic that that person had sold not too many), pollutors, independent oil the truth as we find it and the right as we see it. We are dedicated to the whole truth, to human values most, if not at all, of their principles. men, Exxonese, Politicians, plaintiff's at- above all interests, to the rights of humankind as the The support of Hobby and Bentsen bodes torneys and assorted others. The seven foundation of democracy; we will take orders from ill for any progressive movement. black, 35 Hispanic judges are, undoubt- none but our own conscience, and never will we over- Jim Mattox still holds those principles edly, similarly representative of the con- look or misrepresent the truth to serve the interests of the powerful or cater to the ignoble in the hwnan spirit. that mean the most for the Democrats and stituency you have staked out for them and Writers are responsible for their own work, but not citizens of this state. Personally I feel it include the demographically required for anything they have not themselves written, and in would be a disaster if his defeat is (justifiable?) number of poor, illiterate, publishing them we do not necessarily imply that we achieved. His past record demonstrates he unmarried female (pregnant and/or with agree with them because this is a journal of free voices. has the philosophical capability of another child(ern), unable-to-speak-English and as- SINCE 1954 Jimmy Allred. sorted others. It is not even a first step on Publisher: Ronnie Dugger I assure you the Machiavellian hand of the road to equality of law and competent Editor: Louis Dubose Shipley bodes ill on everything that he halls of justice to mandate a judiciary of Associate Editor: Allan Freedman Copy Editor: Roxanne Bogucka touches or with whom he has any associa- 71.25 Black judges (19%), 60 Hispanic Editorial Assistant: Brett Campbell tion. Ann Richards will be no exception. judges (16%) and 243.75 White judges Editorial Interns: Eva Llorens, Stephen Merelman Pat Maloney (65%). Since most, if not all, judges (and Washington Correspondent: Mary Anne Reilly San Antonio legislators) are lawyers, the mentally- Contributing Writers: Bill Adler, Betty Brink, Warren Burnett, Jo Clifton, John Henry Faulk, disturbed, deranged segment of Texas' Terry FitzPatrick, Gregg Franzwa, Bill Helmer, Reviewing population will, undoubtedly, always be James Harrington, Amy Johnson, Michael King, adequately represented. Mary Lenz, Dana Loy, Tom McClellan, Bryce the Reviewers Milligan, Greg Moses, Debbie Nathan, Gary Pomerantz, John Schwartz, Michael Ventura, According to Sherrill, Caro wasn't hard Scott G. Baum, Jr. Lawrence Walsh enough on Lyndon Johnson in Means of Houston Editorial Advisory Board: Frances Barton, Ascent, because "no politician ever Austin; Elroy Bode, Kerrville; Chandler deserved our hatred more than Johnson." In Setting the Davidson, Houston; Dave Denison, Cambridge, (TO, 4/6/90), Bill Adler de- Mass; Bob Eckhardt, Washington, D.C.; Sissy the same issue Record Straight Farenthold, Houston; Rupert() Garcia, Austin; scribes Barry's book about Jim Wright, The John Kenneth Galbraith, Cambridge, Mass.; Ambition and the Power, as "bloated, Thank you again for the opportunity to pub- Lawrence Goodwyn, Durham, N.C.; George affected, sloppy, repetitious, sexist, and lish the story about Myles Horton and the Hendrick, Urbana, Ill.; Molly Ivins, Austin; Larry Highlander Research and Education Center L. King, Washington, D.C.; Maury Maverick, racist." Aside from that, one wonders, what Jr.. San Antonio; Willie Morris, Oxford, Miss.; was wrong with it? (TO, 3/23/90). Kaye Northcott, Austin; James Presley, Both reviewers clearly hated the subjects Please allow me a correction in the inter- Texarkana; Susan Reid, Austin; Geoffrey Rips, of the books they were reviewing, which est of history. "We Shall Overcome" was not Austin; A.R. (Babe) Schwartz, Galveston;•Fred modified from "We Shall Not Be Moved" as Schmidt, Fredericksburg; Robert Sherrill, raises the question why they were asked to Tallahassee, Fla. do the reviews they did. At least couldn't stated. At a CIO Food and Tobacco Workers' strike in 1945 in Charleston, South Carolina, Layout and Design: Lana Kaupp Sherrill have been asked to review the Contributing Photographers: Bill Albrecht, Vic Barry book and Adler the Caro book? picketers sang a song with the refrain, "We Hinterlang, Alan Pogue. Johnson did more for civil rights than Will Overcome." (Originally it was a hymn.) Contributing Artists: Eric Avery, Tom Ballenger, In 1946 two women from the union local Richard Bartholomew, Jeff Danziger, Beth any American president. And Wright did Epstein, Dan Hubig, Pat Johnson, Kevin Kreneck, more for peace in Central America than carried the song to a labor workshop at High- Michael Krone, Carlos Lowry, Ben Sargent, any politician during the Reagan years. lander Folk School (now Highlander Cen- Dan Thibodeau, Gail Woods. Shouldn't we have a little balance and ter). Then, as mentioned in the March 23 Managing Publisher: Cliff Olofson fairness about these two men from the story, Zylphia Horton and Pete Seeger modi- Subscription Manager: Stefan Wanstrom Observer? fied the song to eventually become "We Special Projects Director: Bill Simmons Walter J. Ligon Shall Overcome." In the early 1960s Guy Development Consultant: Frances Barton Kingsland Carawan helped further popularize the song, SUBSCRIPTIONS: One year 527. two years 548. three years $69. Full- time students $15 per year. Back issues $3 prepaid. Airmail, foreign, group, teaching it to others in the Civil Rights and bulk rates on request. Microfilm editions available from University Your Boss, Movement. Microfilms Intl.. 300 N. Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Ml 48106. Any current subscriber who finds the price a burden should say so at renewal time; no My Boss Best wishes on your Cinco de Mayo bene- one need forgo reading the Observer simply because of the cost. fit dinner. THE TEXAS OBSERVER (ISSN 0040-4519/UPS 541300), Tell me why I should renew my subscription Marshall Surratt ©1990, is published biweekly except for a three-week interval after the incoherent, incorrect hatchet job Frisco between issues in January and July (25 issues per year) by the Texas Observer Publishing Co., 307 West 7th Street, Austin, your boss did last year on Jim Mattox? I was Texas 78701. Telephone: (512) 477-0746. Second class postage ashamed to see you sell out to Ann Richards's Write Dialogue: paid at Austin, Texas. money man. Texas . Observer POSTMASTER: Send address changes to THE TEXAS Steve Levine OBSERVER, P.O. Box 49019, Austin, Texas 78765 , P.O. Box 49019 Austin Austin, Texas 78765 The writer is a Matto..v spokesman.

2 • APRIL 20, 1990 EDITORIALS o.b...f. ... server Education and Consensus APRIL 20, 1990 Y MARCH 22, the day the third spe- ment is agreeable to the sponsor ..."— the VOLUME 82, No. 8 B cial session of the 71st Legislature House lost its focus as members gathered in ended, 15 representatives caucused in a small groups, talked among themselves and Capitol committee room to discuss resurrect- with reporters, slipped back into offices to FEATURES ing what, to them, represented the last best eat, and waited for the inevitable. hope of an equitable education-funding bill. Gib's been talking about "the will of the Environmental Posturing A few days remained in the 30-day, single- House and turning everyone loose," one staff By Dan Carney 7 issue session. But House Speaker Gib Lewis member observed. "See what happens when had already conceded that there was not suf- you have democracy in this place." (It wasn't Corona on Strike ficient time to get a bill passed in the House, a pretty sight.) Yet immediately after CSSB31 By Leon Lazaroff 8 through a House-Senate conference commit- went down by 116-17 vote an odd coalition tee, and onto the Governor's desk. The spe- of 15 representatives met to resurrect the cial session was over. Equity Center's funding plan. As they saw it, P.C. Blues Nothing in the day's voting suggested the the House had missed an opportunity to By Roxanne Bogucka 14 House was anywhere near a consensus on an advance the funding mechanism included in education-funding bill. The two most pro- the bill into a conference committee, where DEPARTMENTS gressive voting blocs in the House, the Black enough money could be added to make it a and Mexican-American caucuses, were not good piece of legislation. The idea was (and Editorials 3 even talking to each other. remains) to get the $450 million House ver- Most members of the Black Caucus, which sion, with its strong funding principles, into Political Intelligence 1 0 is rarely as cohesive and effective as the the same room with the $1.2 billion Senate larger Mexican American Caucus, had sup- bill version, with its weak funding principles. Books and the Culture ported the funding mechanisms devised by "We were a broad-based coalition," El Sons and Brothers the Equity Center. The center, a plaintiff Paso Rep. Nick Perez said of the 15. The By Pat Ellis Taylor 16 intervenor in the Edgewood v. Kirby school- group, according to Perez, included Austin Mid-life Criticism finance suit, is an Austin-based organization Rep. Libby Linebarger; Beaumont Demo- By Michael King 17 of more than 270 low-tax-wealth school crat Mark Stiles, whose participation would Limited Growth districts. Their funding package, supported guarantee the support of a number of moder- By Dave Oliphant 18 by Austin/Hays County Democrat Libby ate Democrats and perhaps the respect of the Redemption and Self-Discovery Linebarger, was included in the House Pub- Speaker; a representative of the Black Cau- By James Hoggard 20 lic Education Committee substitute for Sen- cus; at least one representative of the Mexi- Shallow Waters ate Bill 31 (CSSB31). can American Caucus; and three Republi- By Steven G. Kellman 21 Most members of the Mexican American cans. According to Perez, the one thing on Caucus were aligned with the Mexican which all agreed was that CSSB31 was not American Legal Defense and Educational rejected because of the funding mechanism, the Governor's Task Force on Education. Fund (MALDEF), which didn't have a bill but rather, because of the amendments that By the time it had advanced to a committee on the floor but opposed the Equity Center had been approved on the floor. hearing, Houston Rep. Paul Colbert, who plan, contending that it was not strong enough. usually collaborates with Glossbrenner on MALDEF's plan, which included caps on UT TO CONVINCE the Speaker. From the education committee, was openly refer- local enrichment spending, had previously B the opening bell of the fourth special ring to H.B./S.B. 1 as "the Grusendorf bill," gone down in the Senate, where it was carried session it was obvious that Gib Lewis had suggesting that the Arlington Republican by Brownsville Senator Hector Uribe. And it had his fill of democracy. When he called the who has taken the position that wealthy dis- is generally understood that if something is House to order on April 4, Lewis advised tricts will only agree to give up some money sufficiently enlightened that it won't pass in members that he was throwing his weight in exchange for deregulation, was the force the Senate, it can't even be discussed in the behind this session's rerun — which had behind the bill that Glossbrenner was carry- House. been passed in the Senate as soon as a quo- ing. "I've said it's not a Grusendorf bill, it's With progressives divided, conservative, rum had shown up. The new bill, Lewis said, a Glossbrenner bill, Mr. Colbert," Gloss- rural Democrats and Republicans conspired would move quickly through committee and brenner responded. to burden the bill with so many amendments would be carried in the House by Public Colbert continued to refer to Grusendorf that it was certain to alienate everyone. So Education Chair Glossbrenner. as "the bill's co-author," arguing that the for most of the afternoon and evening of "Members, this is a very finely tuned bill school-finance language of the proposed law March 22, House Public Education Chair that I support," Lewis said, admonishing the was not a mandate, but only required that Ernestine Glossbrenner stood at the front House to "listen up" as Glossbrenner ex- legislators and funding-agency members mike, below the Speaker's dais, trying to plained the bill. That Glossbrenner prefaced "consider" an equity standard. The same sort keep the bill intact. As the Speaker droned on her pitch with an admission that "CSSB31 of non-mandatory language enacted in 1984, — "... the Chair recognizes Mizglossbren- had a tighter equity standard and you know according to Colbert, resulted in the current ner to speak in opposition to the amendment that I would have preferred that equity stan- inequitable distribution of the state's wealth ... will the lady yield ... no not at the moment dard," suggested that she was something less and the Edgewood decision. ... division vote ... strike the board ... record than an enthusiastic sponsor of the new bill. Of the deregulation provisions that con- vote, the clerk will ring the bell...the amend- The new bill was essentially a surrender to servative Democrats and Republicans were

THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 3

Stiles, however, claims that the Speaker will always give members a fair hearing. "He usually gets a bad rap," Stiles said of the way the press perceives Lewis. "But if you've got kAMINO 4,040, 41 „ the votes, you've got the run. You saw what , 4 „*,* ftat, — 4 happened, this bill would not have passed 4,vima s s iltat without Gib Lewis." Perez concurred: "He's ""* Ait44 `* always been a members' Speaker." " Wit 4010 "-* 4,4411* ' (And Lewis does deserve some credit. He had, it appears, prevailed on the education W41), committee chair to support a low-dollar bill that would have made his own life easier. Lewis faces a Republican opponent in Fort Worth, who will decry the Speaker as a tax- and-spend moderate, and a Governor in Dallas who has been demagoguing the tax question for what now seems like an eternity. For Lewis, the easiest road to re-election would have been paved with education Chair Gloss- brenner.) On Wednesday afternoon, Lewis gave Stiles, Linebarger, and Perei until Monday to come up with the names of 76 House members who would vote for the Equity- Center package. It was an odd team, sort of a Texas-Lege version of the Hill Street Blues ensemble. Linebarger, a former Texas Edu- LOUIS DUBOSE cation Agency employee, is regarded as a Rep. Paul Colbert knowledgeable, decent, and capable mem- ber of the House. She had focused on educa- offering in exchange for "some equity" —an and deregulation" provisions of the proposed tion and environmental affairs. Stiles is an oxymoronic proposition at best — Colbert law that anyone would offer on that particu- enforcer type who, has punched out at least said: lar day. The Speaker's Chief of Staff, Mike one Senator, earlier earned a reputation as a "This bill would allow for the waiver of the Millsap, was hovering outside the hearing House Bully, took his licks from Texas 22-to-1 class-size limitation. Now if there's room and the meeting's mission was pro Monthly, and seemed perfectly cast to stand one thing that we've done right in the last forma. Committee members and lobbyists doWn a dapper Dallas type like Kent Grusen- half-dozen years that was it. When Secretary understood all of that. After hearing (biriefly) dorf. Perez has been around for a while but Cavazos was here he commented on how our from five witnesses the committee reported has never really has settled in. But he's schools obviously were failing our children the bill out, with only San Antonio Rep. Greg amiable, probably hasn't made too many because the kids in the early grades were Luna and Universal City Rep. Alan enemies, and could sell the program to the testing out well above the kids in the higher Schoolcraft dissenting. Colbert said he would Mexican American caucus — which re- grades. He happened to have pulled out kids vote "yes" but hoped that the bill could be mained committed to MALDEF. And Paul who had been through 22-to-1 and compared amended from the floor. Colbert, who Perez described as "our techni- them with kids who've never been through cal'advisor," is probably the only member of 22-to-1 ... he was demonstrating to us the EPORTERS documented the commit- the House who truly understands the arcana fact that what we have done has worked. That R tee hearing in the Reagan Building. of education finance. He talks about PDI, our kids, as a result of the individualized at- But the real story occurred on the other side weighted-second tier, and sum cert like he tention, are now doing better. They're still of 14th St. in the Speaker's office at 2:30 the really enjoys it — a trait that probably has not doing as good as they ought to but we following afternoon, when at least three of earned him the enmity of more than a few have finally made a programmatic improve- the coalition of 15 made their pitch to Gib members of the House. ment. It is incredible to me that we are going Lewis. Nick Perez, Libby Linebarger, and It devolved upon Perez to canvass the to consider the possibility of saying that dis- Mark Stiles — not exactly the typical mem- House and for three days the guy was every- tricts don't have to follow that standard. bers' weekend duck hunt — prevailed upon where. (Lesser campaigns have put lesser "It is incredible to me that we would waive the speaker that the Equity-Center provi- members onto the right track in this cham- the requirement that districts have to serve sions had not been defeated on their merits ber.) "Are ya with me?" Perez must have certain kinds of students, that we would waive but had failed because of the number of asked at least a hundred times as he worked the requirement that they serve special edu- amendments that were loaded onto the bill. a list of potential votes. By Thursday they cation students, that we would waive the What the delegation was asking Lewis for were in the 60s and when the House re- requirement that all districts would have was precisely what had failed the first time convened on Monday, Perez, legal pads in dropout programs to discourage them [stu- around —the will of the House. hand, claimed to be just three votes shy of the dents] from dropping out, that we would After the fact, all interviewed were rather 76-vote majority required to substitute the waive due process for students before we mutually deferential. According to Perez, it Equity-Center funding principles for the kick them out onto the street ... that we was Stiles who convinced the Speaker. Stiles Governor's-Task-Force proposals in the bill would devise a mechanism by which a dis- has been on the Speaker's team in the past, scheduled to come to the floor. This time, trict could maintain its exemplary status by commands the respect of moderate House Lewis let it be known that any amendments not serving students, by encouraging them to Democrats, and like him or not, is one of a to the bill would have to be on his desk before get out onto the streets." few House members who can actually change debate began. Colbert's comments at the committee the direction of a floor debate. "Mark con- "Seventy-seven," Perez had said of his meeting were the closest thing to a bill of vinced the speaker to give us a run," Perez vote count early in the afternoon. But high particulars on the funding and "governance said noon came at 4:11 p.m, when Stiles moved to 4 • MARCH 9, 1990 substitute the Equity Center's funding prin- ciples and Kent Grusendorf took to the back mike to debate Stiles. "You've skewed the numbers, the House is fooled again!" Stiles shouted into the mike. Stiles had obtained a letter which Grusendorf had written to the Texas Education Agency, requesting that figures for the second-year funding of the Equity-Center plan be calculated into the first-year column of the printout (or "impact statement" that individual members use to calculate the effect of funding plans on their districts.) It was that sort of day for the conservative wing of the House. As a gallery filled with teachers and public school administrators pored over printouts and legislative "face books" and followed the debate, a motion to table Stiles's substi- tute amendment failed 89-55. The vote had been anticipated less than half an hour earlier when a funding amendment offered by Alan Schoolcraft was tabled by a 77-69 motion. Thotigh Lewis passed on the vote, Glossbrenner's vote against tabling the Stiles amendment was a signal that the Speaker was not averse to the House, voting its will. With the 89-vote margin, and the Speaker's realization that there was a consensus to get LOUIS DUBOSE a bill out, the conservative factions associ- Rep. Nick Perez ated with Schoolcraft, Grusendorf, and ap- propriations Chair Jim Rudd, could see the Donna Blevins, of the Equity Center. The the moderate Democrats along with him." handwriting on the vote board-- particularly Interfaith Network, a statewide organization Perez seemed pleased but he was some- when the Speaker began to vote. The vote on of grass-roots church-based activists, has been thing less than arrogant. "Listen, two weeks final passage was an overwhelming 106-37. working on education for months, anticipat- ago I didn't know a thing about school fi- "We won a couple," Houston Republican ing the special session(s). According to Blev- nance," he told a reporter. While he's not Charlie Hartland said to a small group at the ins, it was Interfaith Network members con- exactly out there talking sum cert and PDI back of the chamber. Some 30 amendments tacting their representatives that made a sig- with Paul Colbert, on education and floor had been approved, but only a few, according nificant difference. "It would never have leadership, Nick Perez has come a long way. to Colbert, really hurt. As the Observer goes happened without them," Blevins said. "It's time to send this over to the Gover- to press, the bill is being heard by a confer- A spokesperson for the Interfaith Network nor," Stiles said on the day after the bill ence committee which is not unfriendly to said that Nick Perez, (who has never been too passed the House. Assuming that the bill the equity standard in the bill. high on Interfaith's list in the past,) Libby makes it through the conference committee Who gets the credit? Other than the obvi- Linebarger, and Ernie Glossbrenner were intact, and then through the appropriations ous floor leaders and Caucus-of-15, it was largely responsible for the House passage of process, the decision will rest with Bill Cle- the Texas Interfaith Network, according to the bill. "And with Mark Stiles, who brought ments.

Bush and the Colonias

H EPATITIS A is a fairly simple disease According to an El Paso City/County Health dent Bush did not earmark any federal assis- to understand, and, at least in theory, District study, the county recorded 35 to 40 tance money for the colonias in his January easy enough to prevent. In graphic terms, the cases of hepatitis A per 100,000 residents budget recommendatioris to Congress. Dede virus is found in feces and is transmitted from 1978 to 1984. In the same period, the Spitznagel, a spokeswoman for the Office of when a hand isn't washed properly or when national average held steady at about 10 cases Management and Budget, said in the last 15 water is contaminated. The virus thrives where per 100,000. years $30 million in federal grants and loans sanitary conditions are primitive and water It is widely accepted that the increasing for water projects has been made available to goes untreated. rates of diseases — preventable diseases like colonia and other south Texas residents. This Containing hepatitis A and other prevent- hepatitis A — are directly related to the un- year, she said, $5.5 million in loans has been able diseases in a technologically advanced sanitary conditions in colonias, underdevel- available and to date only one loan applica- society shouldn't be all that complicated. oped and often unincorporated residential tion for $2.5 million has been received. The causes, poor sanitation and contami- subdivisions scattered along the Texas- "We are compassionate to their needs," nated water, are known. Government has the Mexico border. But for many who live in the Spitznagel said. "It's something that's being tools at its disposal to solve this pressing colonias, securing basic services has proved looked at right now. There are funds that are public-health problem. Sdfe water and proper an' elusive goal. available that have not been sought after." sewage disposal are the least citizens should In recent months, the Bush administration But the omission of additional colonias expect. has continued to steadfastly oppose appropri- funding was striking for a president, an Yet in 1989, El Paso County, population ating more and badly needed federal dollars "adopted" Texan, who has cultivated an image 600,000, reported 250 cases of hepatitis A. for colonia water and sewage projects. Presi- as a Grand Old Party patriot with a heart. Here

THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 5

, 4• . 0..4 hausted problems will remain. "When that money is gone, there still will be people who do not have drinking water in their house or an adequate water disposal system," he said. Efren Ornelas, epidemiology program manager at the El Paso health district, said proper water and sewage systems will help stop an increase in preventable disease. But he warned that if measures are not taken, a severe health crisis will grow worse. "It's like a time bomb," Ornelas said. Gary Mounce, an associate professor of government at the University of Texas-Pan American, Edinburg, said: "The people would probably tell you,' we could get along fine if you could get the basic things done.' I don't think they're asking for luxury items. Their demands are as American as apple pie and tamales." —A.F.

LOUIS DUBOSE Consumer Hidalgo County Colonia Alert was a president praising the "demise" of government has yet to show an equal resolve. socialisth in Eastern Europe and advocating "You mean there haven't been a 100 or HERMAN DEMOCRAT Curtis L. more foreign aid. Bush believed that the two lights taking care of this situation?" state S Seidlits, as expected (TO, 3/23/90), federal government had virtually no addi- Senator Carl Parker asked Senator Uribe on has filed a products-liability bill that could tional role to play in providing services for the Senate floor. cause a roll-back of consumer rights. some of its most impovershed residents. In "I don't think we've had half a watt," Consumer advocates are concerned. As mid-March, the Bush position struck a sensi- Uribe said. the Observer went to press, Governor Bill tive chord on the floor of the Texas Senate. Despite the position of the Bush admini- Clements had yet to open the call of the "If we can't have our own government stration, the prospect of additional federal current special session to the products-liabil- taking care of our own people in our own dollars is very much alive. On March 27, the ity issue and it remains uncertain if he will. country first ... then something is wrong U.S. House passed the Rural Economic But the fact that Seidlits has filed the bill with the leadership of this country," said Development Act of 1989. The bill included represents an important first step toward both a $60 million authorization in grants and inclusion in the call and passage. Senator Hector Uribe, a . Brownsville Demo- crat. "Many of the problems that we face loans for colonia water and sewage projects. This is not the first time business groups along the border are not created by Texas, are The $30 million in loans in the bill would have mounted an assault on consumers 'rights. not created by Texans. Many of the problems provide direct assistance .to residents. This Product-liability legislation has been consid- we face along- the border is the inability of money would be used to install indoor plumb- ered in the 70th and 71st Legislatures. Pub- Mexico to supply employment for their own ing and run sewer lines from private dwell- lic-interest lobbyists say the Seidlits bill, people." ings to public sewage systems. And much of filed April 5, is similar although not as strongly Some colonia residents are Mexican the $60 million authorization would go to worded as past bills. immigrants who came to the United States to local governments and water agencies to For example, in other versions products escape a collapsing economy in Mexico. assist in water and sewage projects. subject to approval by the Food and Drug Once they settled in the United States, many "We feel the lack of running water and Administration were exempt from liability. colonia residents were left without basic sewage collection is at the root of the [public FDA approval is no guarantee of safety. This services by developers who offered afford- health] problem," said Norma Sierra, a leg- measure would have made it more difficult to able housing to recent immigrants and shirked islative assistant to El Paso U.S. Rep. Ron prove liability for drugs and devices. the responsibility to provide proper sewage Coleman. Nonetheless, the current bill would make and water. (A 1988 Department of Human The Senate has also passeda version of the it more difficult for consumers to win dam- Services study concluded that 64.4 percent Rural Economic Development Act, but fund- ages in personal injury lawsuits. The burden of the residents in El Paso, Hidalgo, Cameron, ing for the colonias was not included in the of proof in product cases almost always rests and Willacy Counties were born in the United Senate bill. Both the House and the Senate on the consumer. And like past versions, the States.) Acccording to the DHS report, nearly versions are headed for conference commit- Seidlits bill increases that burden. For ex- half of the colonia residents in El Paso, tee, and a spokesman for Lloyd Bentsen said ample, the bill would make inadmissable in Hidalgo, Cameron, and Willacy Counties the Texas Senator supports the colonias court evidence of changes made by a manu- continue to use outhouses or cesspools. Other funding proposal in the House bill. facturer after a product is put on the market. residents in these border communities dis- "I think what he's going to do is ask the Under current law, such evidence is admiss- pose of sewage in septic tanks that are often chairman of the [Senate] ag committee [who able. Without such evidence, it is more improperly installed. will likely be a member of the conference difficult to prove that an alternative and safer Government officials have bickered over committee] to include the language of the design exists. And the Seidlits bill would whether providing basic services is a local, House bill," the Bentsen spokesman said. make it necessary to prove this relationship state, or federal responsibility. In November, It remains unclear just how much money is to win damages. state voters approved $100 million in general needed along the border. Todd Chenoweth, "It's just too hard for the claimant to get obligation bonds for colonia water projects. project director of the economically distressed that information," said Reggie James, an That measure was the first major statewide areas program at the Texas Water Develop- attorney with the Consumers Union South- commitment to the colonias. The federal ment Board, said once state money is ex- west Regional Office. —A.F.

6 • APRIL 20, 1990 Clean-air Imbroglio Are Phil Gramm, George Bush, and the Texas Delegation an Environmental Hazard? BY DAN CARNEY

Washington, D.C. polluted Houston area and the Golden Tri- down strict limitations on toxic emission N THE BATTLE over the Bush-backed angle of Beaumont, Port Arthur, and Orange. controls. Originally, the Senate drafted a•ill Clean Air Bill, Lloyd Bentsen has been So it is Bentsen and the Texas delegation that would require all businesses to reduce I no ally of environmentalists. He voted whom industry and environmental groups projected cancer rates, if possible, to one in against all but one of a series of pro-environ- consider such crucial players. a million, or one in 10,000 if they can show mental amendments, a record identical to "He was not on anyone's list to switch," the higher standard is not technologically that of Phil Gramm. He voted "No" to reduc- said Zoe Schneider, a lobbyist with the U.S. achievable. ing toxic emissions from automobiles; "No" Public Interest Research Group, an environ- But under pressure from industry, a group to encouraging alternative fuels. mental and consumer advocacy and watch- of 10 senators, including Gramm, meeting But just minutes before the final floor vote dog organization. "He was considered a lost with five Bush lieutenants, all but deleted on the bill, Bentsen surprised his staunchest cause." this portion in a marathon session of closed- critics. Ten days before • that final vote, "Generally, he did vote terribly," Schnei- door compromising. The agreement weak- Bentsen had voted against a measure in the der added. "But he did do the right thing at the ened a number of other portions of the bill, bill that would have limited the Environ- last minute, probably because of Mitchell." such as limitations on auto emissions, and mental Protection Agency's right to revoke a was considered by environmentalists to be a factory's permit to legally pollute, even if the HE SENATE AND the House are major sellout. Leaders of environmental permit was based on faulty information. considering different versions of the organizations said the Senate had been pre- Despite the Texas Senator's support, the T Clean Air Bill, although both drafts pared to pass a much tougher bill. measure failed amid widespread criticism are similar. Both have sections that would Bentsen wasn't a member of the negotiat- and pressure from environmental groups. limit tailpipe emissions, encourage the use of ing team, but the Texan still played an im- Ten minutes before final passage, the amend- alternative automobile fuels, and reduce acid portant role, as evidenced by the effect of his ment resurfaced. Proponents believed they rain and urban smog. It is a section on vote switch. had rounded up the votes for a 50-50 tie and airborne toxic emissions, or harmful chemi- On the House side, the toxic, emission had Vice President Dan Quayle standing by cals released into the air by industry, that is section is stronger but still does not include to hand them a victory. But Bentsen, who had most applicable to Southeast Texas. And it is a calculation of cancer risks. The Texas voted for the amendment days before, de- this section that environmental groups say stamp is seen most on the automobile fuels cided to go the other way. To the surprise of does not go far enough. Currently, the EPA portion, where Congressmen Jack Fields, a Senate head counters, the measure failed 51- regulates and places limitations on the air- Republican from Houston, and Ralph Hall, a 49. borne emission of only seven toxic sub- Rockwall Democrat, twice teamed up to "I changed my mind," Bentsen said. "I've stances.. Depending on what is passed, the fend off amendments offered by an unlikely often joked that sometimes I would like to number could increase to 187. Companies coalition of environmental and natural-gas vote 60 percent for an issue, 40 percent would have to reduce these emissions by as interests, including Texas Land Commis- against. • In the end I decided cleaner air is much 75-90 percent, though both bills are sioner Garry Mauro and a California gas worth the cost to some of these large compa- fairly weak on enforcement and the House company. nies, and a relatively small cost at that." bill includes a loophole for "accidental emis- The Hall-Fields amendments, which Bentsen's change of heart demonstrates sions." The cost of reducing emissions could passed at the subcommittee and committee just how high the stakes have become in the run into billions of dollars, according to levels instead of tougher measures, are backed fight for cleaner air, and just how crucial industry estimates. by oil and automobile interests hoping to members of the Texas delegation are in that A few figures will demonstrate the prob- maintain status-quo regulations. fight. Even in a capital that has elevated lem. In Houston's Harris County alone, 44 If there are heroes in all of this, they are the influence-peddling to an art form, the House million pounds of toxic chemicals — defined late Mickey,Leland and a small group of out- and Senate versions of the Clean Air Bill as substances that are known to be harmful in of-state Democrats who first got toxic emis- have been the focus of an unprecedented some way to humans or animals —are spewed sions into the Clean Air Bill. When the first amount of lobbying and pressure. Both Sen- into the air each year. Nine million of these version of the Clean Air Bill was taken up in ate Majority Leader George Mitchell of Maine are known or suspected carcinogens. Life- the 1980s — unsuccessfully in part due to the and Minority Leader Bob Dole of Kansas time exposure to a Texaco plant in Port opposition of Ronald Reagan — it was con- have placed immense pressure on senators to Neches raises one's theoretical chance of sidered, a smog and acid rain bill. But Leland vote with them on key issues. Senator. Spark getting cancer to greater than one in 10, the introduced a bill to regulate toxic emissions. Matsunaga of Hawaii was wheeled out of the EPA estimates. The theoretical chance of de- Some of its provisions have made their way hospital on several occasions to cast his bal- veloping cancer near plants in Beaumont into the House bill. lot. (Mobil), Corpus Christi (American Chrome), The House is expected to begin floor debate The bill will likely have a huge impact on Port Neches (Uniroyal), and Deer Park (Shell) on its version of the bill this month and a industries in Texas, especially in the highly is greater than one in 100, and 14 other plants number of amendments are anticipated. What across Texas increase that possibility to one the House finally passes remains uncertain. in 1,000, according to EPA studies. And the final version of the bill will likely Dan Carney works for States News Service in Two Texans, George Bush and Phil depend on the results of a House-Senate

Washington, D.C. Gramm, are part1T responsible for watering conference committee. ❑

THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 7

V[■ •••,,,, Corona on Strike Labor in Crisis at a Mexican Brewery

BY LEON LAZAROFF

Mexico City become a test case for how far Mexico's known, has insured that Mexican govern- ARIO CEVALLA emerges reinvigorated corporate class can roll back ments have never had to contend with a from a clapboard shack in the workers' rights and control labor's increas- national strike, nor a major work stoppage shadow of the enormous Cev- ing political independence. since railroad workers struck in 1958. The ercaria Modelo Brewery in Mexico City. The Modelo strike marks the third promi- aging labor patriarch has been the savior of Motioning to the police guards at the nent confrontation between labor and capital more than one Mexican president. company's gates, Cevalla says, "The gov- in Mexico in the past six months. Strikes at Caught in the middle, between Velazquez ernment is against us, the union doesn't want the Cananea Mining plant and Ford Motor and the government, are workers such as us, and our bosses want to exploit us. We Co. began, like Modelo, with an impasse those at Modelo. During the severe eco- have only ourselves." over a contract detail and quickly escalated nomic crisis of the 1980s, many Mexican With almost 25 years on the job, Cevalla is into a hostile confrontation. Some Mexican rank-and-filers grew frustrated with the PRI not an untypical Modelo employee. The political observers charged that the compa- and the CTM, and supported the 1988 presi- brewery worker supports a family on about nies have looked for ways to bring on a strike dential candidacy of the Cuauhtemoc Carde- $15 per day, decent earnings in a country in hopes of forcing workers' concessions and nas. And some workers have joined a grow- where the minimum wage is $4 per day. But weeding out dissidents. ing number of unions that are independent of more than wages, Cevalla and his fellow Not surprisingly, all three companies are the CTM. Many believe Cardenas won the employees have been concerned with work- part of Mexico's export sector, an area of the election, only to be deprived of it by electoral ing conditions in the Modelo plant. Workers economy President Carlos Salinas de Gortari fraud. Since then, Cardenas's Democratic have often complained about the hazards of would like to expand. In his second year in Revolutionary Party (PRD) has become the operating the brewery's large machinery. office, Salinas is trying to develop Mexico party most identified with the independent Five years ago Cevalla himself suffered an along the lines of South Korea, Taiwan, and labor movement. injury to his hand, which to this day makes Chile. To attract foreign investors, the Har- For Modelo workers like Cevalla, Ve- working with it difficult. vard-educated economist is hoping to create lazquez is clearly not on their side. "Fidel is For nearly two months, Cevalla and 5,200 an investment image international capital no longer one of us, he is a traitor," he says. striking fellow workers have shut down can believe in. At Modelo, and from the beginning, Ve- production at Modelo, the makers of Corona "The government is telling businesses to lazquez has made no mistake about whose beer, one of Mexico's most successful ex- go ahead and do what you want," says labor side he is on. Within a few days after the ports, in hopes of forging an independent activist and writer Adolfo Aguilar Zinser. strike began, Velazquez lured about 20 work- labor movement. In a short time, the Modelo "The government wants to inspire a confi- ers away from their comrades to form a par- strike has become more than a battle over dence here and abroad that labor laws can be allel bargaining committee. A few weeks wages or working conditions, but a struggle overcome in the interest of new investors." later, Velazquez, with the help of Labor over the future of Mexican labor. Salinas's efforts to privatize state-owned Secretary Arsenio Farell, convinced a fed- "Modelo is not so much a labor issue, as it industries and drop trade and investment eral judge to rule the strike of 5,200 Modelo is a political one," says Rafael Segovia, a barriers, have dramatically changed the face workers as "non-existent." Velazquez political science professor at the Colegio de of Mexico's once-protected economy. As a claimed that since the workers were not tak- Mexico. "It is a struggle about the future of result, the attack on labor rights has become ing their orders from the CTM, they were not the Mexican working class and who will more intense. Modelo employees. Farell added that the control it." At Cananea, Ford, and Modelo, company workers were "outside the law" and should The strike began on February 15, when negotiators made it clear they want greater go back to work. At the factory's gates, Modelo company officials refused to discuss leeway to curtail wage increase, benefits, and though, there was no movement, forcing a a worker contract proposal to restore the binding contracts, as well as to hire and fire stalemate. right to retire after 30 years work, with full employees without being hampered by benefits, regardless of age. (The clause had Mexico's complex system of worker rights. N THE NIGHT after the March been included in a previous contract). The At the center of Salinas's designs is Fidel 16 court ruling, efforts to intimi- Modelo work force is filled with men who Velazquez, the powerful pro-government 0 date the strikers turned from legal started running the brewery machines when leader of the Mexican Workers Federation to extra-legal. At about 2:30 in the morning they were in their teens. Claiming it could not (CTM), the nation's largest labor union. For roughly 1,000 workers sleeping outside the withstand the retirement provision, the more than six decades, Velazquez, 90, has brewery were attacked, beaten, and robbed company refused, and walked away from the kept worker unrest in check in exchange for by the city's notorious riot police. "We've bargaining table, thus forcing the strike. a leading role for labor within the ruling always expected the violence would come," In the ensuing weeks, it has become clear Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), said Cevalla. Another worker recounted being that the flap over retirement age was but a which has governed Mexico since 1929. told by the troopers that "if you return [to the minor point in the strike. Instead, Modelo has A personification of the old-time Mexican picket line], you will die." politician, Velazquez has ruled over the In response to the attack, and the maneu- nation's laborers with a strong hand for what vers of Velazquez, Farell, and company offi- Leon Lazaroff is a freelance writer based in some say seems like an eternity. In his 49 cials, the Modelo workers joined with more Mexico City. years as CTM president, Don Fidel, as he is than 100 labor, political, and community

8 • APRIL 20, 1990

tl.''''"t?,le+,04"0.tt004.40M'

organizations, to form the United Union Front late March when Mexico City Mayor Man- way to insure the future of an independent in Defense of the Workers and the uel Camacho Solis was able to bring com- union may signal to other workers whether Constitution. It was the first concrete effort at pany officials to the bargaining table with the there is a future outside of the CTM. In Modelo to break away from the CTM and elected representatives of striking workerg. addition, the outcome of the strike may indi- Velazquez, and ultimately to challenge the With the mayor as the intermediary, the cate to foreign capital whether doing busi- government's economic plans. Modelo workers accepted a 32.5-year retire- ness in Mexico makes good sense. The United Union Front is headed by the ment clause and an agreement to hold elec- "The only question now is who will repre- Confederation of Revolutionary Workers tions for a new executive committee in six sent the workers in the plant," says Aguilar (COR), a union Segovia says is "not neces- months. The strike appeared to be over. The Zinser. "Democracy on the shop floor is bad sarily any less corrupt than the CTM." None- future of worker representation would be news for Fidel. This is where the labor theless, the Modelo workers say they are decided at a later time. movement could gain independence, if they willing to take their chances with COR in The deal, however, did not please . Ve- can do it. The big question is, can they do it?" hopes of breaking from Don Fidel. lazquez. After a meeting with Labor Secre- "The real issue here is who will represent tary Farell the CTM president declared that the workers in the plant," says Aguilar Zin- the CTM, and only the CTM, would deter- ser. "The CTM is a lost cause. The real mine the future of the Modelo executive confrontation is with Salinas." committee. Velazquez pronounced the strike As budget director under former president over and promised Modelo officials he would Miguel de la Madrid, Salinas pushed hard for supply a full stock of replacement workers a privatization of Mexico's many parastate within a week. There would be no settlement MAKING A industries. As president, Salinas has prom- without the CTM. ised the private sector an even larger role in Fearing another police attack, the striking managing the country. For some, Salinas's workers retreated from the Modelo factory DIFFERENCE decision to sell off state companies has been gates to their own union headquarters. Ex- akin to trampling on the holy ground of the ecutive Committee head German Reglin, A Citizen's Guide Mexican Revolution. Nonetheless, Mexico's replied afterward, "we have two choices, to Active Participation privatization campaign has won the acclaim either to negotiate, or wait for the repres- of the International Monetary Fund, the sion." For the time being, the negotiations in the Texas Heritage Foundation, and the Bush Admini- continue. Legislative Process stration. Whether the Modelo strikers can find a The Mexican worker, meanwhile, is find- ing out the hard way what lies ahead. On one hand, companies are eager to cut their com- paratively low labor costs even rower. On the other, the unions supposedly created to help the workers are too firmly in government control to offer the leadership and solidarity If you've missed the Southwest workers need to survive. Review in the past few years, The standoff at Modelo nearly ended in you've also missed: 171 \\ John Barth Paul Christensen Annie I I sli„ Dillard Millicent Dillon Rita Dove V Horton Foote Laura Furman Reginald Gibbons Don Graham Welcome to the Lake Wobegon Allan Gurganus Elizabeth Harris of the Far West .. . Shelby Hearon Rolando Hinojosa Edward Hirsch James Hoggard Beverly Lowry Walter McDonald UN-DUE James Merrill Howard Nemerov Naomi Shihab Nye Joyce Carol Oates WEST C. W. Smith Frederick Turner An Imaginative History of Miles Wilson ( Cowboying, Windmills, Rodeos, Brands, Pickup Don't miss it, or them, any longer. A one-day workshop Trucks, Horse-Trailing, and Much, Much More Subscribe now. sponsored by by Roland Sodowsky AESCHBACH & ASSOCIATES 151 pages, illustrated ❑ $20 /yr ❑ $40/2 yrs ❑ $50/3 yrs by Michael Krone Name $8.95 (pb) Address (with zip) Austin, April 30, 1990 "I will never again be able to read about the Old West without thinking I enclose $ (Please send For more information, call or write about Sodowsky." payment with order) AESCHBACH & ASSOCIATES Ron Tyler, Director Texas State Historical Assn. P.O. Box 3899 Southwest Review, 6410 Airline Road, Austin, Texas 78764 Southern Methodist University, Dallas, CORONA PUBLISHING COMPANY 1037 S. Alamo, San Antonio, Texas 78210 Texas 75275 (214) 373-7440 1-800-749-5092 EC Distributed by Texas Monthly Press (in Austin 444-5092)

THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 9 POLITICAL INTELLIGENCE

would have provided equal access to funds ✓ THE EDITORIAL PAGE writers at song — rather late for Colbert to join his The Dallas Morning News have never made family for a Passover Seder. for 95 percent of the state's school districts. a secret of their affection for Governor Bill Was Grusendorf convinced? "Are you still Clements. Recently, the News featured not ✓ COLBERT is one of very few members supporting that sorry piece of shit, Dianne?" only an editorial endorsement of the who genuinely understands education fi- Grusendorf asked. She was. And she insisted Governor's ill-conceived education plan but nance. When a complex but equitable fund- that it was the only proposal that delivered an op-ed piece written by the governor in ing package was voted down by the House at funds to her school district. support of the plan. Both items appeared on the end of the last special session, some on the same day. "The governor has produced a the floor suggested that members had voted ✓ READ HIS LIPS. "In the 10 years I've list of spending cuts that would allow $273 against it because only Colbert understood it been here I don't think I've ever voted for a million in funding transfers," the News con- — a charge that was not entirely correct. At tax bill," Universal City Republican Alan cluded in an April 9 editorial. "So far, hardly one point, in the course of an impromptu Schoolcraft said during floor debate on an a voice of protest has been raised." press conference outside the House doors, school funding. Yet he said that he felt so Colbert referred reporters to the Daily Floor strongly about his own substitute funding proposal that "... if it requires a tax bill, I will ✓ GRAND SALINE REP. Bill Hol- Report prepared by the House Research Or- lowell managed to inspire a few voices of ganization for an explanation of the funding support it." Schoolcraft's substitute finance protest from House Appropriations Commit- principles. All members receive copies of proposal was defeated 77-68. tee members working to implement some of the Floor Report. those funding transfers. Hollowell, a Demo- ✓ WHILE MOST of the House concen- crat, decided that the budget for probation ✓ THE CRITICAL nature of education trated on the April 9 education-funding de- officers was a little bloated. "We've got four funding became evident during the April 9 bate, Houston Reps. Brad Wright, a Repub- to five people in every county courthouse House debate. Arlington Republican Kent lican, and Ron Wilson, a Democrat, me- sitting around and doing nothing but waiting Grusendorf, in attempting to pass an amend- thodically worked their way through the to talk to a few burglars," Hollowell said. His ment that would have compensated school House, pitching a parochial amendment remark drew the immediate criticism of districts which lost part of their tax base, tried designed to restrict the board and superinten- Mauriceville Rep. Ron Lewis, who pro- to explain how such a loss might occur. It dent of the Houston Independent School tested that his brother is an adult probation could be a hurricane wiping out the district's District. The amendment, if included in a officer and doesn't spend too much time major industry. Or a place like "Glen Rose final version of the funding bill, will impose sitting around. Paul Colbert of Houston where their nuclear power plant could melt a version of "the Chicago Plan" on Houston wondered if it might not be unlikely that down," was another example of how a dis- schools. The Chicago plan establishes com- probation officers in Houston have a lot of trict might lose a hot tax item. "We'd all like munity councils for each school and provides time to sit around since their caseloads were to have a nuclear power plant in our district," the councils with some administrative pow- at times in excess of 180 per officer. And San Grusendorf said. And he meant it. ers (such as the right to veto the renewal of a Antonio Rep. Orlando Garcia protested that principal's contract at a school.) With Wright, the program could not afford to lose the ✓ A BRIEF GLIMPSE into the con- Wilson, and Houston Democrat Roman money. science of a conservative was provided when Martinez decrying the loss of community Hollowell stood his ground. "Mr. Garcia," Grusendorf caucused with a group of his control of the Houston schools and the poor he said, "we have criminals in East Texas constituents on the House floor. Grusendorf, response of the administration to the de- because the Texas Legislature has been put- one of the House Republicans who had served mands of students and teachers, the amend- ting them on parole and not in jail. There's no on the Governor's Education Task Force, ment passed, though Houston Democrats Paul sense in paying people to sit and talk to backed several incarnations of the Governor's Colbert and Debra Danburg voted against it. criminals." Hollowell's motion to reduce Task Force funding plan — the plan decried One Houston delegation member, however, funding for probation officers was defeated by Valley Interfaith as being a threat to said his vote for the measure was not that by the committee. Only Hollowell voted in public education in the region. As the second important. "It's understood that it won't favor of the cuts. special session began, Grusendorf seemed to make it past the conference committee," he have won a victory when the task-force pre- said. So many House members voted with the assurance that the measure would be ✓ HOUSTON Rep. Paul Colbert, one of scription for funding was included in the bill a small minority of Jewish members of the backed by Speaker Gib Lewis. eliminated by senators serving on the House- House, attempted to inject a bit of religious Yet as the House adjourned after a brief Senate conference committee. Even Wilson, humor into the secular process of cutting the meeting during the first week of the current who flogged the bill for most of the afternoon budget. "Let's pass those items," Weather- session, Grusendorf was approached by a and evening, admitted that it would be diffi- ford Democrat Ric Williamson said as he phalanx of school administrators and lobby- cult to get it through conference. But the bill presided over a meeting of the Appropria- ists. "We're here to tell you that we support was cheaper than a long-distance phone call tions Committee. "Passover," Colbert said your reforms," one woman said. When to Houston I.S.D. Superintendent Joan Ray- of Williamson's request to skip several items. Grusendorf asked which reforms, the woman, mond. "Pass, passover, it's all the same," William- who represents the Spring Branch school son said at the April 10 meeting. Not to district, suggested several deregulation items ✓ ONE PIECE OF BAGGAGE that Colbert, however. The night before, as hours that are high on the Republican and conser- was not included in House version of the dragged on and the House voted on amend- vative-Democrat agenda. funding bill was Waco Democrat Betty ment after amendment to the education-fund- But there was a catch. "We wish you Denton's "drug-free-zone amendment," ing bill, Colbert stood before the press gal- would go back to the funding principles that which would have increased penalties for lery and asked reporters to join him in a were in CSSB1," she asked. Committee anyone caught carrying illegal drugs in an chorus of "Let My People Go." It was not Substitute Senate Bill 1 included the funding area within "1,000 yards of the property-line until 9 p.m. that Speaker Gib Lewis heard the system designed by the Equity Center which of a public school or on a school bus." Pen-

10 • APRIL 20, 1990 alties would have ranged from 10 to 99 years and anyone who had a previous conviction under the same section of the Code of Crimi- nal procedure would be denied probation if convicted a second time. Allen Hightower, a Democrat who represents Huntsville and the Texas Department of Corrections, said he was concerned that Denton's amendment did not allow for probation or deferred adjudica- tion. "No probation?" Hightower asked from the back mike. "That's right," Denton said. "... then I'm going to say that this will cost, oh, $500 million in prison bonds," Hightower responded." Not to worry, according to Denton, who argued that to win a war you've got to spend money. "And this is the kind of bill that Bennett [Bush Drug Czar William Bennett] is asking for." The amendment was defeated but on the following day Beaumont Democrat Mark Stiles told Hightower he'd made a mistake. "I was just thinking how many prisons you could have built with that LOUIS DUBOSE amendment," Stiles told Hightower. Beaumont Rep. Mark Stiles

✓ DIGITAL MALFUNCTION? At incumbent Houston Mayor Kathy Whitmire. Post "said Republican runoff voters need to one point in the course of voting, House Political insiders in Austin describe Carville know that Yarbrough is colored." Speaker Lewis granted a request for verifica- as the mastermind of the central issue of the tion of a vote and called the roll — while the Jim Mattox campaign. It is Carville, accord- ✓ SOMETIMES A WORK of journal- red and green lights that registered members' ing to the rumor mill, who designed the ism is noteworthy for what it leaves out. In a votes remained lighted on the vote board. Mattox campaign theme — Lottery Yes, recent edition of Vanity Fail-, Nicholas Von Several representatives contended that they Income Tax No. Hoffman wrote a glowing piece on LBJ had punched voting buttons on their desks to Carville insists he didn't make the lottery biographer Robert A. Caro. The very publi- vote one way and the board showed them an issue in the campaign. Jim Mattox did. As cation of this article in this particular maga- voting another. And in the course of the an adviser, Carville has helped shape how the zine provides an interesting look at the in- verification, several votes were changed. campaign has played the lottery issue. But he creasing monopolization of media, and the "There's been a problem with the voting contends it was Mattox who first decided to chummy nature of the publishing world. machines," Lewis explained. make the lottery an issue, and that more than Vanity Fair is owned through a parent com- "For the benefit of people who are going to one adviser decided how to use it. "The pany by the Newhouse family. The •work on these machines," Comanche Demo- reports of my role in this campaign are greatly Newhouses also own Random House. Alfred crat Jim Parker told the Speaker from the exaggerated," Carville said in a telephone A. Knopf, a division of Random House, back mike, "I'd like to point out that these interview. "I work for him. I'm pulling for published Caro's Means of Ascent. Robert malfunctions seem to be tied to your voting him. I'm not the principal architect of any- Gottlieb, who is referred to in Von Hoffman's light." The Speaker, who usually passes rather thing." As for Cary ille' s reputation as a hard- article simply as Caro's editor "of eighteen than votes, voted on a number of important nosed — say, Texas Tough, or maybe Lou- years," served as president of Knopf. He is amendments during the course of the isiana Tough — political consultant, it is a now editor of The New Yorker. The New evening's debate. The statement from the reputation that he appears to relish. "I'm not Yorker is owned by the Newhouse family chair, "Show the Speaker voting aye," is quite as unpopular as cholesterol, but I'm and recently ran excerpts from Caro's book. usually good for at least a few votes from more unpopular than plaque," he said. None of these connections are mentioned in members who are reluctant to cross the most the article. powerful member of the House. ✓ TYLER SCHOOLTEACHER Grady Von Hoffman, himself, is the author of a Yarbrough, who lost in the Republican run- 1988 biography of Roy Cohn, a close associ- ✓ HIS NAME is James Carville. In the off race for land commissioner, issued a ate of the Newhouse family. It was a relation- political circles in which he travels, he is blistering attack on his opponent in the clos- ship, Von Hoffman writes in his book, "of known as the "barracuda" or the "classic ing days of the campaign. Yarbrough was inestimable value." There are over 25 refer- hired gun." Carville, who speaks with a particularly angered by his opponent Hous- ences to members of the Newhouse family in Louisiana drawl, has yet to attain the reputa- ton millionaire Wes ,Gilbreath, when the index of Von Hoffman's Citizen Cohn. tion in Texas of, say, a George Shipley, the Gilbreath ran a picture of Yarbrough on a political adviser working for Ann Richards. Gilbreath campaign mailout. Yarbrough's ✓ LOU "ENGLISH" (nickname in- But Carville is a political consultant who has photo, which ran beside a photo'of Gilbreath, cluded in his campaign literature) Zaeske is gained a reputation, nonetheless. He was made it clear which of the two candidates is back, now presenting himself as an inde- prominently featured in a March 18 article in black. "He raises suspicion of racism," pendent candidate in the race for the state the The Philadelphia Inquirer. Carville, as Yarbrough complained. He also character- Senate seat to be vacated by retiring Demo- the Inquirer put it, is "masterminding" Penn- ized Gilbreath as "a liar," who "wrongfully cratic Senator Kent Caperton. Zaeske, who sylvania Governor Bob Casey's re-election terminates employees" and is "accused of has been a high-profile leader of the Official bid this year. In Texas, Carville assisted and being sued for wanton, malicious, and English movement in Texas, is running on: Lloyd Doggett in his 1984 U.S.. Senate race willful misconduct." opposition to a state income tax, law and and more recently helped Fred Hofheinz in Gilbreath, according to an anonymous order, local control of public schools, oppo- his unsuccessful campaign last year to oust Republican source quoted in the Houston sition to abortion. fiscal responsibility, stu-

THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 1 1

• ',....-0.16•••■010,74!••04144.4.••ad••••••ft;. , •••-• •••••••••Avtoppooir .4,4;,1,9•0•1% LOUIS DUBOSE Representatives Bill Arnold, Alan Schoolcraft, and Kent Grusendorf

dent and faculty representation on boards of and more expensive Democratic version, lems, rather than make jokes about them." state colleges, jury trials for injured workers however, passed by a 265-145 vote. C.A. Freeman wrote "in support of all the filing compensation claims, election of people who have been unable to 'relax,' and judges, and, of course, English as the state's ✓ CLAYTON WILLIAMS'S fireside who have therefore found the rape experi- official language. rape gaffe quickly became a central issue and ence to be less than enjoyable," suggesting Like many conservative candidates, Za- touched a nerve in Texas voters — judging that Williams "remain in the barnyard where eske doesn't pass up the opportunity to do a by the response in the state's newspaper he so obviously belongs." little Justice-bashing, suggesting that the dialogue pages. TheAmerican-Stateman's letters page also rulings of judges such as Tyler federal Judge Williams's comparison of the weather to registered a generational difference of opin- William Wayne Justice are a contributing rape (you can't change it so "... relax and ion that day. "Give me a break!" demanded factor to the breakdown of the criminal jus- enjoy it") resulted in a flurry of letter-writing Mrs. W.C. Baker. "For the last 50 years, tice system in Texas and the erosion of tradi- to Texas newspapers. On March 29 the Clayton Williams' remark has been around. tional American values. "If Judge Justice Austin American-Statesman devoted an en- It is nothing new — most definitely tongue in was [sic] a State Judge, he would have been tire letters section to the subject. The news- cheek. The press that was in attendance must voted out of office long ago ..." We, of paper printed eight letters in all, resulting in have been the new generation, else it would course, disagree with Zaeske's criticism of a 7-1 decision, against Williams. have been old hat to them." But 15-year-old Judge Justice and here note that if Lou Suzanne Zilber, of the University of Laurie Jeroslow was "outraged." "Hearing "English" Zaeske were a bit more familiar Texas's Counseling and Mental Health Center what he said hurts my heart knowing that he with the Spanish language it would be easier wrote that Williams's remark "does have an thinks my body is a play toy ... This just for him to recognize situations in which the element of truth to it - rape is almost inevi- shows that money can't buy empathy." subjunctive tense is required in English us- table for women: one out of three women is On the same date the Houston Post gave age. raped in her lifetime, according to FBI statis- over a third of its letters section to the com- tics.""Williams says he'll be tough on crime," ment. This batch was skewed more heavily in Williams's favor, but nonetheless ran 5-3 in ✓ ONLY TWO Texas Democrats in Zilber wrote, "I wonder how tough he would Congress, Marvin Leath of Marlin and Char- be on sexual,assault offenders." favor of busting Williams's rocks. The let- les Stenholm of Stamford voted against the Veronica Henderson, a board member of ters supporting Williams blamed the press House Democratic leadership's $27 billion the Austin Rape Crisis Center, took Williams for the gaffe. Opined Mrs. C.R. Hurst: "I childcare plan. And it was Stenholm who to task for his lack of responsibility. Hender- hope the gaffe by Mr. Williams taught him a joined with Florida Republican E. Clay Shaw son wrote, criticizing the Republican's "off- lesson -- reporters have no business on a to sponsor a substitute measure backed by handed comments that trivialize violence working ranch." Writing from Sealy, Dorothy the Bush Administration. The Stenholm- against women only serve to promote misun- Lewallen commented on the relationship Shaw measure was defeated 233-197. "The derstanding and slow down efforts to eradi- between politicians and the press, asking Stenholm bill was a good bill," a White cate this social problem. As a candidate for "has anyone realized that Clayton Williams' House spokesperson said. "We want to have governor, it is the duty of Clayton Williams remark about the weather and rape would not a good childcare bill." The more ambitious to offer solutions to such widespread prob- have offended anyone if the reporter had the

12 • APRIL 20, 1990

14. decency to keep his mouth shut?" Williams's Houston campaign headquarters. ally gaining sympathy for his misfortunes at Hulie Freeze pleaded for decorum in the Bill Kenyon, the Williams campaign press the hands of the press. "On Sunday [March Governor's Mansion. "There must be a place secretary, held court in his office, attempting the 25th] we had a lot of harsh phone calls," somewhere for dignity and refinement and I to perform damage control. "Clayton has he said. "By today they're running a little in can think of no better place than in high apologized, spoken with a great deal of can- our favor." office," he wrote. dor, admitted his remarks were insensitive," But Williams's remark has assumed di- But the public is not buying William's he said. Kenyon contrasted Williams's forth- mensions beyond newpaper letters and angry appeal. On Tuesday, March 27, the UT rightness with Ann Richards's behavior after phone calls. On Thursday, March 29, an chapter of the National Organization of the disclosure of her 1976 "wetbacks" re- Austin woman was raped. The rapist, accord- Women protested Claytie's rape remark at mark, when, he claimed, Richards "went into ing to police reports, ordered the victim to Williams's Austin headquarters. Another hiding for three days." "relax and enjoy it...Like Clayton Williams demonstration was reported at Clayton Kenyon claimed that Williams was actu- said, it's inevitable." ❑

East Dallas • Data Processing Printing • Typesetting • Printing Company • Mailing Full Service FUTUM COMMUNICATIONS. INC Union Printing (214) 826-2800 512-389-1500 FAX 512-389-0867 211 S. Peak • Dallas, Tx 75226 3019 Alvin DeVane, Suite 500 Austin, Texas 78741

CLASSIFIED

SERVICES PUBLICATIONS

LOW-COST MICROCOMPUTER ASSIS- CLASSIFIED RATES: Minimum ten words. One time, 50 cents per word; three HOME STUDY COURSE in economics. a TANCE. Tape to diskette conversion, times,45 cents per word; six times, 40 cents per word; 12 times, 35 cents per word; 25 10-lesson study that will throw light on statistical analysis, help with setting up times, 30 cents per word. Telephone and box numbers count as two words; abbrevia- 's baffling problems. Tuition Free— Payment must accompany order for all classified ads. special projects, custom programming, tions and zip codes as one. small charge for materials. Write: Henry needs assessment. Gary Lundquest, (512) Deadline is three weeks before cover date. Address orders and inquiries to Advertising George Institute, 121 E. 30th St., New 474-6882, 1405 West 6th, Austin, TX Director, The Texas Observer, 307 West 7th, Austin, TX 78701. (512) 477-0746. York, NY 10016. 78703.

MARY NELL MATHIS, CPA, 17 years ex- INSIDE INFORMATION. Subscribe to perience in tax, litigation support, and Texas Weekly, largest Texas political other analyses. 400 West 15th, #304, newsletter. Sam Kinch, Jr., editor. Straight, Austin, 78701, (512) 477-1040. Take a breather — Come to the moun- CASA MARIANELLA, A SHORT-TERM salty. $120 annually. P.O. Box 5306, tains! Call or write for free brochure: SHELTER IN AUSTIN for refugees from Austin, TX 78763. (512) 322-9332. (501) 446-2293, HCR 72 Box 1358, oppression in Central America, needs MERCHANDISE Parthenon, Ar 72666. volunteers for clerical tasks, tutoring, EMPLOYMENT stocking and storing food and clothing, FREEWHEEUNG BICYCLES. 2404 San and legal and medical help. Financial PRO-CHOICE ORGANIZATION seeks a ORGANIZATIONS and donations of food, Gabriel, Austin. For whatever your bi- contributions bilingual field manager to organize ac- cycle needs. clothing, and household items are wel- tivities in Southwest Texas. Electoral and LESBIAN/GAY DEMOCRATS of Texas come. Call (512) 385-5571. political work helpful. Organizational — Our Voice in the Party. Membership WATCH REPAIRS & BATTERIES. Band skills a must. Based in Austin, some repairs. 35th &Guadalupe, Austin, 452- $15, P.O. Box 190933, Dallas, 75219. travel. For more information call TARAL FIGHT POLLUTION. Get paid for it. Clean (512) 462-1661 or send resume to TEXAS TENANTS' UNION. Membership Water Action. (512) 474-0605, Austin. TARAL, 905-D West Oltorf Street, Austin, TRAVEL $18/year, $10/six months, $30 or 78704. more/sponsor. Receive handbook on BACKPACKING — MOUNTAINEER- tenants' rights, newsletter, and more. SICK OF KIWNG? Join the Amnesty In- ING — RAFTING. Outback Expedi- 5405 East Grand, Dallas, TX 75223. ternational Campaign Against the Death tions, P.O. Box 44, Terlingua, TX 79852. WANTED EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR for Penalty. Call: Austin (512) 443-7250, maternal/child health, nonprofit organi- (915) 371-2490. Houston (713) 852-7860, Dallas (214) BECOME A CARD-CARRYING MEM- zation. Requirements include: grant writ- BER of the ACLU. Membership $20. 739-8239, San Antonio (512) 680- ing experience, proven organizational, Getaway to . . . A CABIN IN THE Texas Civil Liberties Union, 1611 E. 1st, 2694. WOODS . . . your very own mountain communication, fundraising and man- Austin, 78702. hideaway! Enjoy fine country accom agement skills; preferably bilingual. modations deep in the Ozark Mts. Our JOIN AN ACTIVIST, issues oriented Application deadline April 20, 1990. Cabin is fully furnished and includes a CATHOLICS for a Free Choice — DFW Democratic women's group in the Hous- Send resume to ATM - Search Commit- screened in porch, deck, sauna, and Metroplex. Information: 3527 Oak Lawn ton-Ft. Band area - TEXAS DEMOCRATIC tee, Suite 1 A-202, 603 West 13th Street, tennis court. Ave., Ste. 156, Dallas, TX 75219. WOMEN - 713-491-8783. Austin, Texas 78701.

THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 13 P.C. Blues By Roxanne Bogucka "Always do the right thing." — Da Mayor horses they rode in on. It's not the solution I the produce section because you support the "It's always something." — Gilda Radner would wish for, but I don't think South UFW. Write letters, picket, do something African Blacks will be empowered any other that makes it known that you oppose the EGINN1NG IN the summer of 1989, way. current situation. Fight the good fight. I wrote editorials for The Daily So when a guy from Black Students' Alli- But the people around you have to realize B Texan, the student newspaper of UT, ance was chatting me up, and pointing out that your seeming absence from a fight doesn't under the name Xan Bogucka. It's a good that I was not "all the way down" on this imply that you deem the fight unworthy. name. It sounds Commie-pinko-lesbian, and apartheid thing, I just said "I like Diet Coke." One night when I was still a student at I wrote from a liberal bent, calling names and I have a confession here. Sometimes I eat A&M, I stood before a mirror and cut off all making my subjects, and occasionally my- tuna, too. of the straightened hair on my head, until I self, ridiculous. It was fun, and I acquired a Yes, I've read about the dolphins. Yes, I had a quite short, boyish Afro. I liked it. reputation for impeccable political correct- have a copy of Shopping for a Better World, When I went to class the next day, people ness. I also acquired something of a follow- and yes, I know that one can buy politically gawked, and one male classmate asked me if ing, due to the mug shots which the editor correct tuna. I like tuna, and last month, after my husband had seen it and what did he insisted on running alongside our columns. think. I finally was wearing the Afro my This was not a good thing. mother never permitted me to have. The idea that people would read my col- Six years later, I was back straightening umns and believe was a frightening one. The my hair. fact that people who had read my columns One night in July of 1989, I put my chil- had certain expectations when they met me dren to bed, got a cigarette and sat down to was . . . well, in-fucking-credible. read the frightening and explicit instructions I've met people who have questioned me on a box of Dark & Lovely Plus hair relaxer. closely on why I use the word "Black" in my After a period of nerves, I got up, went to the writing, instead of the more correct, contem- kitchen, arrayed the things I was instructed to porary phrase "African American." It's a have handy, mixed the chemicals and put generational thing, I say. My grandparents' white glop on my natural hair. Another half generation called themselves "colored," my hour, and I was in the shower, washing my parents' generation called themselves "Ne- un-nappy head. It felt strange, and I looked gro," my generation called ourselves "Black," like an alien to myself. I liked it. and now we are rightly making way for a new When I went in to the Texan offices later generation that chooses to call itself "African that week, people commented on the change American." And by the way, I have a good in my appearance, but kept walking, except friend whose white brother-in-law was born GAIL WOODS for one fellow staffer. When he asked me in Durban and is a naturalized American why I had straightened my hair I said "It's citizen. Is he an African American? And by a year of tuna-celibacy, I bought two cans of cooler." This aware, politically correct 20- the way, I know a Black man who was born Starkist chunk light, packed-in-distilled- year-old then delivered unto me an improv- and raised in Sierra Leone and is now an water tuna. I ate them. And I slept soundly the ing lecture on the richness of our common American, and in the army. Isn't he really an following night. African-American heritage; the pride we African American? No matter what you feel and how hard you should feel in our natural appearance; the I've encountered some of the faithful whose try, there's something in your home which is manner in which our race has been brain- faces fell when they observed me drinking available to you through exploitation of some washed into accepting white standards of Diet Coke. Coke is a bad thing. Coca-Cola workers, or rape of some land, or political beauty as the only valid ones; the image of deals in South Africa, where our brothers and repression of some people, somewhere. strong, proud African Americans that we sisters are oppressed. The oppression is real, Complete avoidance of such items would should project to our young people. and a real sorrow to me, and I don't make require most of us to purchase plots of land, "No," I said. "It's cooler. I live in a practi- light of it. Yet I drink Diet Coke. In fact, I hew timbers and erect our own dwellings, cally un-air-conditioned house, drive un-air- drink nothing but Diet Coke when it comes to Grow our own food and weave the fibers for conditioned cars, play the occasional game sodas. our own clothes. of tennis with my spouse, and sweat pro- I'm a zaftig, thirty-something lady, who I'm not up to this. fusely. It's cooler." doesn't like calories and doesn't like other I'm also not up for the criticism that falls This "politically correct" shit is to the diet sodas. My personal convenience has on those who don't avoid things that are curb. It entered the lexicon as a joke, a come up against a matter of conviction, and currently "hot" in the world of political rec- sardonic comment on activists so hung up on convenience has won. I have decided not to titude. Tuna, Coke, Hormel products, ciga- things that they couldn't wipe their asses fight this fight. Its not that I think apartheid rettes, furs (well, okay, I don't really want because they were worried about what Kim- is unworthy of protest; I've just come to the furs) — this year's activist badge for aware- berley-Clark might be doing to the environ- conclusion that the only solution in South ness and global-mindedness. Who knows ment. Now it's taken as a serious comment Africa will come when 14 million Black what we're going to find out next year about on a person's commitment, and that's really people fucking kill all the whites and the some product or service that we take for too bad. It's sad to see activists becoming the granted. You have to pick your fights, you punchlines of their own jokes. pick how to fight them, and then you fight the The wind blows through my hair and air Roxanne Bogucka is Copy Editor for the Ob- good fight. There's not much point in walk- circulates every which way. Fuck 'em if they server. ing virtuously past the display of grapes in can't take a. joke. I like it. ❑ 14 • APRIL 20, 1990 `Listen, my momma may have raised a mean child, but she raised no hypocrites.' —Molly Ivins, The Progressive

Molly Ivins on the Bush Administration: Molly lvins makes you laugh • • • every month "We do have some minimal standards for . citizenship. Real Texans in The Progressive. do not wear blue slacks with little green whales all over them. Real Texans do not refer to trouble as 'deep doo-doo.' George Bush has a hard time passing." The Progressive, March 1988 IT Make me

"Deep down, George Bush is shallow." laugh, Molly. The Progressive, March 1989 Send me a subscription to The Progressive for only $16.97. "While people rejoiced the world over at the end of the Cold War, the United States under George Bush seems destined to be the last Name (please print)

country in the neighborhood to be dipped for ticks." Address, Apt. The Progressive, January 1990 City

"Having upset every living person between the Rio Grande and State. Zip Tierra del Fuego by invading Panama, our only President then ❑ My payment is enclosed. proposed to settle everyone down by dispatching the ineffable Dan ❑ Bill me later. Quayle on a peace mission. To tell them all they looked like happy ❑ Charge my credit card. campers to him. Unfortunately, as one country after another elected ❑ MasterCard ❑ Visa not to receive Danny Q., his mission had to be scaled back. They

finally let him out to say hidy to the maitre d' at a Taco Bell." Acct. No. Exp. Date

The Progressive, March 1990 Cardholder's Signature Complete this form and mail to: You'll get Molly Ivins's humor and a whole lot more when you subscribe to The Progressive ... Investigative reporting ... Hardhitting editorials ... Incisive interviews ... And great 13.0. Box 421, Mt. Morris. IL 61054-0421 columnists like Molly lvins. Or call toll-free• Nationwide: 1-800-435-0715 In Illinois: 1-800-892-0753 A570CC L

THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 15 BOOKS & THE CULTURE Sons and Brothers

BY PAT ELLIS TAYLOR

HARDSCRUB moving into some of my own white-trash crime and violence. Jim, as the younger of By Lionel G. Garcia neighborhoods. the two, learns to keep quiet and try not to Arte Publico Press, 1989 As in Garcia's first books, the focus is on interfere as his brother is being beaten, a trait 300 pages, $9.00 the man of transition from lower to higher which later he will deplore in himself as ex- class, who leaves the old neighborhoods with cessive timidity and emotional repression. HERE IS a stylistic device quite popu- their high crime rates and families twisted The scenes of graphic child abuse are a lar among current short-story writers with abusive practices for suburbia and new realistic reminders of the practices of disci- T and novelists which I might describe more casual personal connections with more pline which were considered acceptable in as golemism — that is, creating a character refined abusive practices. The older versions families, regardless of class, up until the last from minimal detail and breathing a first- of this story generally centered on singular few years of growing consciousness of person narrative through it, so that the story individuals making this cultural transition children's rights and general humanitarian- becomes an extended dramatic monologue such as Horatio Alger or Cinderella. But in ism. At one point Jim's current girlfriend, a of character revelation, reading exactly as an the generations which are Garcia's literary psychologist, tells him, "You've come up autobiography might, except that it is a go- concern, maturity has come in the latter half through the maze that is Anglo-American lem speaking. Memorable literature has been of the century with the advent of mass culture lower class. Rednecks. And to top it off you created in this style, such as Ewing and mass education and equal-opportunity made it as an abused child and it's been Campbell's story of the female radio evan- financial aids, so that ever larger numbers of tough. It's tough when you have to deny your gelist Sister Love or Joseph Heller's King the population are walking through the sta- childhood." David who narrates God Knows, both ex- tions of this status ascendency, particularly But Garcia does not allow this denial to amples of how effectively golemism can be those endowed with special talents or prow- last. Instead he draws the two brothers to- used for parody. But special problems arise esses combined with a knack for adapting to gether in final confrontation when the father's when the golem is made to represent a certain new languages and new customs and forget- death brings them together again, the one in psychological reality, in other words taken to ting old childhood ties. The associated iden- his dirty second-hand clothes, the other in be a true person's confession. Carl Jung, for tity crunch and the sense of personal loss imported wool, while the wounded Richard instance, was so taken with the Molly Bloom such a transition entails is one of Garcia's reminds his educated brother of the currents soliloquy at the end of Ulysses that he de- favorite themes, first exemplified in the ag- of passion and rage which have shaped their clared it a breakthrough in the knowledge of ing baseball star Adolfo in Leaving Home, destinies. As Richard says of his sacrifices, female sexual consciousness — something then in the Houston lawyer Andy Garcia in A "I need to be heard." And so his brother tries he could agree with James Joyce on, man to Shroud in the Family. And now in Jim, son of to tell it. man. James (Little Jimmy) Jones — the most com- The golemism distracted me somewhat Perhaps it is too much to ask of literature mon name in the Anglo-Saxon lexicon — from the story being told, and I wish that

that it have any relationship to reality, except white trash-boy-turned-professor of English . Lionel Garcia had used the less presumptive that we as readers too often make this de- at The University of Texas in Austin. third-person. Like a witness to a clever mand anyway; we look for what we perceive magician's act, I began to look for the slips in as authentic voices, a search which has be- IM FIRST TELLS a long story of a dis- the illusion — do palm trees really grow, for come somewhat intensified in Texas because rupted and abusive childhood. The most instance, in front of Panhandle town court- of the large number of different cultural vivid of his memories is of a particu- houses? And would a Gypsy carnival find it neighborhoods with their own distinct sound larly disastrous trip his father once took, truly profitable to stay in the cold windy little and substance. We like to give the ethnic abandoning his family, including a daughter town of Tahoka from Thanksgiving to Christ- backgrounds of our authors as credentials for suddenly stricken with polio, in Tahoka on mas Eve? And Jim's voice did sometimes the stories they create, and when an Amado their way to Artesia, New Mexico, where the waver in a way which belied the author's Muro turns out to be a Charles Seltzer, the father had lined up illegal work with his own groping to find just the right dialect for earth quakes. So with this in mind, I turned to brother Robert, selling liquor on the Mescal- such a first-person narrator of Jim's rough Lionel Garcia's third novel with Arte Pub- ero Indian Reservation. background and emotional reticence, mov- lico Press, Hardscrub, a first-person narra- The family parallels between the father ing from naive and boyish simplicity to sol- tion of a redneck, white-trash boyhood, a and uncle, the brothers Jim and Richard, the emn prophecy to uneasy cynicism. But it is seemingly radical departure from the dust mother and her sister-in-law, are carefully generally through the second-hand voice of and breath of the Mexican-American neigh- constructed. Garcia has a fine sense of dia- reculturation that stories of the non-writing borhoods of his first two novels. In fact, logue and gesture, those delicate webbings lower class ever make literature anyway, and which illustrate the connections among these the story of this redneck family is a good one, people and how psyche and character de- powerfully told and full of true grit which velop according to family position. Jim's Lionel Garcia must have caught in the West older brother Richard takes the brunt of Texas wind, along with the rhythms of punishment from their father which scars common conversation he recreates so accu- Pat Ellis Taylor is a peripatetic poet and him both physically and psychically, scars he rately. novelist now living in Austin. carries throughout a short lifetime of petty 16 • APRIL 20, 1990 Mid-life Criticism BY MICHAEL KING

NORTH DALLAS AFTER 40 win, though it takes the last of many unbe- whom, in Gent's attempt at characterization, By Peter Gent lievable coincidences to achieve the job — it come off as flatter than Boris Badenov and New York: Villard Books, 1989 will take ,a purblind Hollywood producer Natasha Fatale. As the book opens, Elliot 386 pages, $19.95 indeed to consider this a comic property. awakens in jail, after one of many divorce- (The odd thing is, it may make a helluva court contempt citations, and in the middle of EARLY TWENTY years ago movie nonetheless — for all the wrong rea- a recurring nightmare that recapitulates the (1972), Peter Gent published a sons.) gory climax of the first book. Elliot's former N perfect little novel about football, I suppose the first thing that must be said is coach, B.A. Quilan, is now the extremely North Dallas Forty. It was strong and bitter that as a work of narrative fiction, this is a conservative governor (no doubt a tautol- as good whisky, and because it recounted the painfully bad book. Over-blown in concep- ogy) of Texas, and his former teammates vivid truth about its chosen world of profes- tion and painfully clumsy in execution, it is (those who have survived) have become, sional athletics, it inevitably told hard truths woefully implausible, both on the grand scale variously: Elliot's own incorruptible attor- about the life of its time. Gent's protagonist, of politics and the human scale of ordinary ney and confidante (John Wilson); fading Phil Elliot, became a professional football lives. Everything seems to happen at once television actor (Seth Maxwell, the former player during the '60s (as had Gent himself), and all things have too much, and too little, quarterback); Sheriff and Deputy Sheriff of and the kaleidoscopic changes of the decade connection. In Gent's conception the whole Purgatory County (Joe Bob Williams and flowed through the miniature world of sports. world, top to bottom, is a web of incompetent O.W. Meadows, former mammoth linemen); Although the book was leavened by the sort and vicious intrigue, except for a few random an AIDS-ridden and corrupt congressman of locker-room slapstick that is a staple of characters like Elliot, misfits who, for no (Alan Claridge); a corrupt banker (Andy jock novels, Gent's vision was essentially a apparent reason, seem to have stumbled into Crawford, Claridge's former lover); and a dark one; his central characters eventually the wrong landscape. The baroque plot, such selection of others, all of whom are brought lost their struggle to defeat or escape the as it is, is made from the raw stuff of pop- together (for the novel's purposes and seem- oppressive and terrible violence that con- political thrillers, but is so predictable that it ingly no other reason) by a planned team tinually threatened to overwhelm them, on is utterly without suspense. Good guys and reunion. and off the field. (The Vietnam war is never bad guys can be spotted miles away (al- far from the book's subconscious; Country though they do flip-flop at a moment's notice LLIOT'S PERSONAL story is once Joe's "Feel Like Fixin' to Die Rag" is some- with no convincing motivation), but it is hard again at the center of the novel, and as thing of a theme song.) to care about any of them, for they are all, the inelegant pun in the title suggests, A funny thing happened to North Dallas good and bad alike, made of balsa wood. As this is partly a tale about a down-on-his-luck Forty on the way to the movies. Although for the "dialogue" — nobody talks, but middle-aged ex-athlete. But in Gent's apoca- Gent himself got a co-screenwriting credit, speechifying abounds, ranging from the lyptic vision, Elliot is in fact a heroically the film as released (1979) was so comic and portentous apothegm to the stentorian decla- conscious pawn at the center of a political forgiving as to effectively undermine the ration, most of it stuck in the mouth of the whirlwind, and his troubles as a father and a social and emotional rebellion at the heart of hapless Elliot. writer are only the symptoms and clues of a the novel — its sentimental ending substi- Yet the book seems an instructive failure, sinister, Texas-sized plot, involving, among tuted a friendly game of catch for the book's if only because of Gent's morose and apoca- other things: the wholesale slaughter of ille- climactic double murder. The film, of course. lyptic vision of American life in the waning gal aliens;, gun and drug-smuggling from was also enormously successful, suggesting years of the century. In his novelistic uni- Central America; the complete corruption of perhaps that while audiences were willing to verse, the football industry is only one small all levels of government; the high-tech take- acknowledge the violence at the heart of aspect of a sinister international conspiracy, over of the economy by real estate specula- football, they still wanted the good guys to headquartered in Washington and aimed at tors in league with the Mafia; various and win. world domination. I know what you're think- competing para-military plots to seize state Gent has written a couple of other novels ing — sounds reasonable enough to me. So power; and, not incidentally, the corporate since — the forgettable Texas Celebrity why the hell won't it work as a novel? And destruction of the once-great game of foot- Turkey Trot and a more compelling work, maybe Thomas Pynchon or Don DeLillo ball ... The Franchise — but neither have been as could pull it off — indeed, they already have The list could go on, and it does — but one well-conceived nor as well-received as North — but Gent is not up to the job, not yet notes immediately that any one or two of Dallas Form. In North Dallas After 40, he anyway, and in trying to assume this gargan- these subjects could provide ample material has returned directly to the material of the tuan task, he looks more than a little like the for an average-sized novel. Gent takes them first book, with a grim vengeance. Gent writes Broncos taking on Montana at the Super all on, Nyith perhaps admirable ambition — as though he has a score to settle. perhaps Bowl. no "sports" novelist he — but can predicta- even against the unexpected popularity of The novel returns, 20 years later, to Elliot bly do little justice to any of them, for each North Dallas Forty, and certainly against the and many of his former teammates from the overburdens his book with unfulfillable comic reputation he derived from the film fictional NFL championship team, "North demands for exposition, development, de- version. Though it manages an arguably Dallas," largely based upon but never named tail, conviction. Instead he must jump from "happy" ending — I believe the good guys as the Dallas Cowboys. (Gent played for the plot to plot, scene to scene, and force into the Cowboys for five years during the '60s.) mouths of his characters (usually poor Elliot Elliot is now trying to make it as a writer, and gives the explanatory and "revelatory" doing reasonably well, but for the fact that speeches) material that should properly be everything he earns generally ends up in the discovered by the reader in the course of the Michael King is a freelance writer living in hands of his vicious ex-wife, Courtnay, and narrative, if there were conceivably enough Houston. her rapacious attorney, David Stein, both of room. THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 17 It's a daunting task, but I'll take a shot at a pose them; because they are still mad at him man, and his sense that the fate of Texas and summary. The current owners of the Dallas for things he did in the last book; because the country is largely in the hands of people football team are high-tech tycoons also their lawyer is also his ex-wife's lawyer and who are incompetent, self-seeking, and mali- involved in real-estate speculation in the paramour, the unctuous and hairy (literally) cious, to put it mildly, is an honorable convic- Texas Hill Country and drug- and gun-run- David Stein; because they hate him on gen- tion and one that I certainly cannot gainsay. ning in Central America; they control a para- eral principles; but mostly because Gent needs But a novel requires much more than deeply military apparatus run by ex-Government a narrative and moral hub around which to held convictions, or the instinctive feeling types (the models here seem to be Richard send spinning all this nefarious busy-ness. that an evil conspiracy is on the loose and is Secord and General Singlaub) who supply I will let you guess whether or not Elliot directly or indirectly behind every depress- Central American counterrevolutionaries, and and his valiant band of former players (a few ing headline in the morning paper. Usually periodically engage in the mass murder of loyal souls who have not yet been corrupted the writers pushing this childlike delusion are illegal aliens (motives shadowy, but mostly or destroyed by the Dark Side) can create a knee-jerk rightists of the Tom Clancy vari- racist and anti-Communist fervor). The for- two-minute game plan to thwart the Forces ety; to his credit, Gent's enemies are mostly mer team owner (Conrad Hunter of North of Evil. Much depends on whether Elliot in the right places — but they are all too Dallas 40) went bankrupt before he sold himself, in a chance meeting after 20 years cardboard and obvious to be convincing, them the team, not informing them they were that takes all of 15 minutes, can persuade his except as caricatures. Not surprisingly, the also buying enormous "deferred-money" former coach, now-right-wing Governor best writing in this book is virtually a supple- contracts on certain players, including for- Quilan (Gent's Tom Landry surrogate), that ment to North Dallas Forty: Elliot's bitter- mer teammates of Elliot's. (The new owners the Governor's closest, long-term political sweet memories of his first pro camp and are ruthless, but apparently they either can't associates and financial supporters are really season, his elation at athletic excellence in read or hire lawyers to read for them). The a bunch of fascist thugs in three-piece suits. action, his growing realization of the contra- new owners are framing these players on (You and I might buy it — but Landry?) The diction between his sport as art and as indus- drug charges in order to break the contracts, outcome is no more preposterous than al- try, and his near-despair as the corruption of thereby freeing up money to continue their most everything else that happens in the the game, even on the field, begins to distort nefarious plots (during bad times for Texas book and no less — and indeed, the his own youthful spirit. These passages are tycoons). Besides, they're into the Mafia for spectacle of a former football coach saving few and far between, but Gent clearly has heavy bucks, and if they don't deliver soon ... the country from a neo-fascist coup during more to say, on the spoiled art he once per- Elliot is on their trail because he's been half-time at the Giants-Cowboy game (after formed so gracefully — and in that tale is the hired to do a magazine piece (for a thinly all, the whole world is watching), just might larger story of a culture consuming itself to disguised periodical that is clearly Texas be worth the price of plowing through 300 death. There is old scar tissue all over this Monthly) on the reunion — but that too is part pages to get there. manuscript, and it is Peter Gent's own proud of the sinister plot of the bad guys: because Unfortunately, it's not, not really, and it's flesh. they have been afraid that Elliot might ex- a damn shame. Peter Gent is a very serious 0 Limited Growth BY DAVE OLIPHANT

NEW GROWTH: the earlier collections, this too provides it Jackson, Catherine Agrella, Elizabeth For- Contemporary Short Stories with another justification for publication so sythe Hailey, and Rick Bass, seriously flawed, by Texas Writers soon after the Graham and Terry books. misconceived, or simply sub-standard fare. Edited by Lyman Grant Unfortunately, however, too much of the As for the writers who elicited praise when San Antonio: Corona Publishing Co., 1989 writing in New Growth proves a great disap- they appeared in the Graham and Terry col- 262 pages, $10.95 pointment. Even for those writers who were lections, their stories in New Growth may already collected by Graham and Terry — well illustrate Grant's thesis by incorporat- T HAS ONLY been three years since Peter LaSalle, Beverly Lowry, Naomi Shihab ing more contemporary concerns and depic- two comprehensive anthologies of Texas Nye, Carolyn Osborn, Roland Sodowsky, tions, rather than the stock-in-trade cowboy short stories appeared from the Univer- Pat Ellis Taylor, and Thomas Zigal — their or "Texas" fixtures the editor would eschew. I Yet treatments of the homeless in Zigal's sity of Texas Press and Still Point Press: Don stories in the Grant anthology do not repre- Graham's South by Southwest and Marshall sent any advance in their work from South by "Recent Developments" and of Sudden In- Terry's Prize Stories, respectively. Never- Southwest or Prize Stories. This comparison fant Death Syndrome and loss of children in theless, it is welcome to have a progress was inevitable, given that the three collec- Lowry's "What Love Can Do" have not report on the state of Texas short fiction, tions were all published within three years, made satisfying fiction out of these "new" especially because New Growth, a collection but also because Grant himself recalls the materials. In the case of both Zigal and Lowry, edited by Lyman Grant for Corona Press, is Graham and Terry anthologies in his intro- their present offerings simply do not measure restricted to stories written in the past five duction, asserting that his own collection up to their stories on similar themes, "Or- years that had not been published previously "creates a new category by attempting to phans of the West" and "So Far from the in book form. Also, since Grant's editorial capture only the present moment in a diverse Road, So Long Until Morning," two power- stance for the most recent anthology of "con- state." ful pieces collected in the two earlier antholo- temporary short stories by Texas writers" Although I have no quarrel with Lyman gies. On the other hand, some of the new differs (at least in theory) from that of each of Grant's idea for New Growth, and even ap- voices included in Grant's collection — in plaud his efforts, I still find many of the particular those of Ewing Campbell, James stories, particularly among the newcomers Hannah, Jim Sanderson, Rogelia R. Gomez, Dave Oliphant is a poet living in Austin. like Clay Reynolds, Reginald Gibbons, Guida and Shelby Hearon — contribute stories that 18 • APRIL 20, 1990 do in fact introduce approaches, conflicts, or room showers than in some damn trumpet and ride in a motorcycle parade through linguistic performances that are largely not section." the streets of Toledo. to be found in Graham or Terry. Many of the stories either read like scripts New Growth opens with Carolyn Osborn's for TV sitcoms (Jackson's "The Evil Eye" The story is sheer fun, both as a touching "Cowboy Movies," which seems to belie could easily serve as another inane episode satire and as prose fiction that uses language Grant's view that "the old Texas is almost of Taxi) or they frame life in Texas as nothing in an exciting and surprising fashion. It is gone." As the last sentence in Osborn's story more than a movie re-run. Peter LaSalle's particularly encouraging to see the success of declares, "You can't really lose cowboys." "Catholicism at the End of . the Century" a writer like Campbell, who has persevered, Essentially, this version of cowboy life is an characterizes his Austin setting in these terms: self-publishing his experimental novels on attempt — a la Crevecoeur's 18th-century "the stock flirty blather that to be the Corpus Christi, and then proving the worth of "What Is an American?" — to define the true Gross National Product of thisthis hip new city, his writing in the best little magazines in the nature of this mythic figure. Of course, un- the city that is the capital of this hip new country. like Crevecoeur's subject, the cowboy is not Texas." To give La Salle his due, he does Although James Hannah's "Friends of a new man, nor a transplant exactly, and he is effectively evoke the city's Lake Travis scene Beccari" is a compelling piece of writing, not precisely taking root and flourishing. but he seems bent on reducing his own de- also reminiscent of Joseph Conrad's "Heart Nonetheless, he is still alive, both back at the scription to the level of "any B-Western." By of Darkness" in its study of "black, cruel ranch and on the silver screen. The problem way of contrast we have, of course, Harvard ideas coming from a tall, graceful man in a for Osborn is that the latter doesn't record ("back then in that other world of 1967 or mellifluous voice," ultimately the story lacks him authentically, but then the author's nar- 1968") and "somewhere sane like Ohio." Conrad's depth of perception, his way of rator, a Kentuckian by way of London, tends LaSalle's disillusioned narrator also trashes making of us identify with and also be re- herself to view cowboy life through books Fort Worth: Goodman "once confided in his pelled by thoughts "we've all thought but and movies: "Rafe, I'm not your lead. Find slow Texan drawl that, being a Jew in Fort known to hide if we can't extinguish them yourself a real actress. I suggest Emmaline. Worth was so absurd, the situation was one entirely." Set in Houston, what appears to be She can play the gutsy western woman with step short of the kids in his high school College Station, and Tegucigalpa, Hondu- a golden heart. Have you ever seen her dressed picketing his house as an extracurricular ras, Hannah's story is also disappointing in for bed? She's a combination Barbara activity." The state in general comes in for its choice of an epistolary frame for the Stanwyck-Mae West." blanket condemnation in this typical put- telling of an incident that involves the The plot involves the making of a movie down: "maybe too neat, like everything else correspondent's brother, as told to an ideal- based on the everyday life of the Texas here in the Sun Belt." Equally irritating is the istic mentor on whom the narrator places the cowboy, thus the need to convince the Ken- narrator's tendency to overuse the word blame for his awakening to his brother's neo- tuckian to play the heroine's part, but even "thing": "at the thing," "on the thing," "the Nazi racism. This letter-writing device weak- so, the narrator sees the "real" cowpeople in red spear-shaped thing," "he likes things," ens the impact of the confrontation between terms of movie stars. Elsewhere the narrator "scuff marks on the thing," or varied a bit, "as the brothers and denies the addressee his part manages to work in a typically insider's good as anything else to keep going on," in as a central character in the drama. piece of information right out of the tradition reference to red wine that enables him to Perhaps the most consistent and impres- established by Owen Wister's The Virgin- become "like Thoreau" and believe "he can sive handling of point of view and of narra- ian: "'Mountain oysters' is a term I'm not do anything." This from an author who has tive language is found in Rogelio R. Gomez's supposed to know, so I play dumb and sup- been a sometime instructor at Harvard and "The Way It Is," the gripping story of two press a desire to shout, 'Balls!'" John Wayne whose narrator was an English major in those boyhood acquaintances who meet after one naturally puts in a cameo appearance as a hallowed halls. has been to Vietnam and the other has suf- contrast between the fake filmic cowboys fered from not being a part of that infamous and those who did "a dirty, repetitious work, WRITER who shows a greater war. Gomez's narrator, the non-combatant, the kind never shown in movies." awareness of and an ability to take summarizes the conflict as one of "guilt A advantage of developments in world against accusation." It is also one of cultural NOTHER STORY that dwells on fiction is Ewing Campbell, whose "Sister and class differences, for the narrator is half a stereotypical Texas scene is Clay Love" is rightly singled out by Lyman Grant Anglo and middle class, whereas the veteran A Reynolds's "A Better Class of as "a pitch-perfect rendition of a contempo- is a Chicano from a disadvantaged and pov- People." The twist in this critique of the rary oral tradition." Using border radio as a erty-stricken background. The writing is Texas redneck is defined by Osborn when tour-de-force means of reviewing a born- convincing, there is not the gratuitous com- she alludes to the long line of strangers in again Christian's salvation at the hands of a mentary included in so many of the stories in western fiction: "That's the worst thing to be football coach, Campbell carries the reader New Growth, and the individual sentences go in this part of the country. Foreigners are along on an apocalyptic ride from the Mid- directly to the quick of the relationship. different, therefore unpredictable, therefore west through Arkansas and on to Alpine, Gomez's treatment of this subject is a new untrustworthy. Don't turn your back on a where "the gutters ran dark and iridescent and vital contribution to Texas letters. stranger. Maybe he doesn't know the rules." with crickets as the bus pulled in." Here the While other stories contain qualities worth Reynolds's Earl and Virgil — typed Texas coach, of all people, "started the slow proc- noting, it is the work of Campbell, Hannah, characters from their names on — find an end ess of raising me out of my degradation and and Gomez that truly adds "new growth" to to their era of bully rule when a college boy disease," but then: the store of Texas literature, both in the outsider floors Earl in a bar scene that per- introduction of fresh material and in the petuates every cliché Grant seemingly wished who could resist? He had the gift of per- linguistic features of such fiction. Those to avoid. The narrator's language itself is suasive public speaking and was in great stories by writers who have done better work telling evidence: "mad as a jug full of red demand during the off season and win- that is included in the Graham and Terry an- ants," "cow flop stomped out of him," "the ter banquet tour for his table manners thologies, or in their own collections of short pee waddle beat out of him," "madder'n a and after-dinner speeches in which he fictiort deserve to be read by those interested scalded dog," "a scared little ol' puppy dog," performed sleight-of-hand tricks and in their ongoing contributions to the state's "you could've heard a bee fart." Perhaps the stage hypnosis to the delight of all and literary coffers. Above all, Lyman Grant's only slightly interesting example of Rey- ' the betterment of some who, shamed by New Growth presents important new voices nolds actually contradicting a stereotype is their unconscious revelations, repented at the same time that it fuels the necessary when his narrator "guessed there'd be likely and led lives of exemplary behavior, debate over, and definition of, tradition and more opportunity for queerdom in the locker often joining the Shriners to wear a fez innovation in Texas writing. ❑ THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 19

..,e-fr.www.otoreeot• low , louwarOw- rte., Redemption and Self-Discovery

BY JAMES HOGGARD

THE SOUNDS OF RESCUE, two men's present circumstances, the rhythms the process of self-discovery. As a result, the THE SIGNS OF HOPE of the pilot's past in northwest Texas, and an people back home in Wonder Springs are as By Robert Flynn angry projection into the future wherein vivid as the ocean around the island and the Fort Worth: TCU Press, 1989 Wallace intends to correct his own errors and plants and creatures on it. 274 pages, $11.95 redress those of others. In that last concern, The island setting itself is a device that Flynn evokes a sensibility that works past a allows Flynn to efficiently sustain the inte- ERSATILE IN range of subject desire for revenge into a harmonization of rior textures of his comman-man protago- matter and style, novelist and play- the primitive and civilized parts of self. The nist. The circumstances of his isolation force V wright Robert Flynn combines former had seemed barbaric, the latter paltry. the heretofore unreflective Wallace in on edge-of-life adventure with a jolting medita- The reverse was also true, the character comes himself, back into the past, then out into the tional narrative in his third novel, The Sounds to realize. Touched by the redemptive power possibilities of the future. One's attitudes, Of Rescue, The Signs Of Hope, recently of inclusiveness, Wallace is finally able to Flynn suggests, are as important as the events reprinted by TCU Press in its Texas Tradi- cry out with a transcendent sense of joy: which stir them. In his reveries, for instance, tion Series. Rightly called "moving and in- "Come Great God with lightning in your Wallace sometimes repeats incidents he has tellectually provocative" by the New York wings." Like Job, he learns through suffering mentioned before; but his interpretations and Times Book Review when it was first pub- that there are poSsibilities of connection far responses to them vary. He is flexible, even lished in 1970, the novel is larger in scope more important than urges for pleasure or sufficiently courageous of spirit to make the than many other contemporary fictions be- escape from pain. necessary adjustments in himself. There is cause Flynn is able to work it into a genuine really no one else around to change, and even vision of experience. UT IS THAT CRY, one wonders, at one key point Kee Yop seems to be a hal- The central character and narrator is an the product of an authentic new lucinatory illusion Wallace has projected onto American pilot in World War II whose plane B understanding of self and world, or his own loneliness. crashes while on a mission near a small is it a sign of hysteria masked as ecstasy? And Writing with a consistently high level of island in the Pacific. He's pulled from the if one decides the novelist's attitude is am- energy, Flynn reveals a relatively inarticu- water by a primitive naked man whose ori- biguous on the point, does that mean that, late man developing precision and eloquence. gins are never revealed. Almost alone in his like many of his contemporaries (and their The character gradually comes to realize that efforts, the progress-oriented American, Gre- fathers and mothers in the art), Flynn has his own limitations — ill-preparedness and a gory Wallace, struggles to find workable given us a chronicle infused with mixed defensive tendency toward cruelty — have methods of communication with his near- messages? To answer that one needs to con- shipwrecked earlier chances for love and silent, seemingly insouciant brother-in-dis- sider the layering in the novel. Just as there friendship. He first blames the limits of his aster, Kee Yop. What sounds like another are several points of focus, there are several own background — spineless father, foolish odd avatar of the lost-on-a-desert-island nar- styles used in the narrative. Military techni- mother, uptight girlfriend, and his own home rative quickly turns into a layered story whose cian that he is in part, Wallace makes short- town with its pitifully narrow ranges of narrative pace is rapid. hand lists of things he needs to do and notes concern. Then, assuming responsibility for Within his central character from the be- additional survival equipment pilots need to the disappointing rhythms of his own life, he ginning, Flynn weaves together three com- be issued in the future. In this his language is becomes truly unusual: an existential figure plementary concerns: the privation of the clipped and prosaic — but also directed with a genuine capacity for joy. toward concerns outside himself. Twenty years old now, The Sounds Of But within the protagonist is also a medi- Rescue, The Signs Of Hope, does not seem James Hoggard lives in Wichita Falls. tative character who writes letters home and, dated. The voice of the work is sinewy and its like Candide (whom he sometimes re- narrative drive is fast. It surrounds its reader, sembles), is able to admit his own limits: "I drives through him, providing for a rediscov- am unable to think of better circumstances ery of how moving the theme of redemption than I now have. If I must be on an unknown, can be when it's presented as it is here: as a ANDERSON & COMPANY uncharted island then this must be the best quest for truth that the character has to grow COFFEE possible one." Notions like that, however, into if he's going to do more than rationalize TEA SPICES fade quickly. Dominant in the character's his own past. TWO) JEFFERSON SQUARE attitude is an unstoppable desire to connect Among Flynn's other works are the prize- AUSTIN, TEXAS 7W731 with points outside self. He is too aggressive winning Wanderer Springs, North To Yes- 512 453-1533 in attitude, too American in fact, to remain terday, and a collection of stories titled Sea- Send me your list. comfortable with notions of "being." sonal Rain. The San Antonio author also Name Its parts working in tension, the novel wrote the script for the Dallas Theater Center's thoroughly describes the power of relation- internationally celebrated production of Street ship. Flynn does not leave his character trying William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying. That was to adjust to alienation and fragmentation. some 25 years ago; the play is another work City Zip Rather, memory becomes the major part of that needs revival. ❑ 20 • APRIL 20, 1990

Arb”, 10.4it.10•Aeireffe.,,,.. Shallow Waters A Less Than Divine Effort

BY STEVEN G. KELLMAN

CRY-BABY statement elicits an easy laugh. But is it It offers a case of adolescent rebellion, when Directed by John Waters because we recognize the risible inappropri- a single package would suffice. An effort to THE COOK, THE THIEF, HIS WIFE ateness of Ramona's manly ideal? Or is it a return to those leaden years when Commies AND HER LOVER snicker of complicity, our collaboration with and hormones were the national enemies and Directed by Peter Greenaway an insurgency against oppressive standards "juvenile delinquency" was the great domes- I LOVE YOU TO DEATH of maturity, suppleness, and intelligence? tic honor, Cry-Baby is less genuinely delin- Directed by Lawrence Kasdan Cry-Baby is a classic comedy in its project quent than it is juvenile. of demolishing pretentiousness and sending T IS hard to know what to make of Cry- Goodie Two-Shoes off walking, barefoot. Its RITISH DIRECTOR Peter Greena- Baby, John Waters's 11th film, because Margaret Dumont is Allison's priggish grand- way is more effective at unnerving I it is never entirely clear what the perpe- mother (Polly Bergen), a socialite who runs B his audiences because he is more trator of Pink Flamingos, Mondo Trasho, the RSVP Charm School and propagates the meticulous at plotting his effects. His fastidi- and Polyester has made out of the genre of Four B's: Beauty, Brains, Breeding, and ous attention to color combinations in frames teenage-rebel film. A climactic game of Bounty. She is flabbergasted by the uncouth, that are constructed like tableaux intensifies chicken in speeding cars recalls Rebel With- raucous, and grotesque company that Alli- the revulsion. The Draughtsman's Contract, out a Cause, but, like a flustered Chrysler son insists on keeping. Yet the Drapes are an the title of his 1982 film, might double as a dealer, one has trouble determining just why inversion of the Squares, as self-righteous in description of Greenaway's screenplays — it is being recalled now. Is this mockery, ven- their stuffed brassieres as the others are in blueprints for a staircase into the abyss. eration, or simply a premise that developed a their stuffed shirts. Rebellion has ossified Though he called his 1987 feature Belly of an mindlessness of its own? into snarls, tattoos, and scarlet lipstick. Architect, Greenaway has the imagination of Set in Baltimore in 1954, Cry-Baby is the Waters has been the Drape of American one, and, in his latest release, The Cook, the musical love story of two teenagers from narrative filmmakers, the Pedro Almodovar Thief, His Wife and Her Lover, he redesigns vastly different social worlds. Allison Ver- of Maryland. Before Hairspray, his 1988 his own arch style. Greenaway, whose last non-Williams (Amy Locane) is a beautiful, breakthrough to commercial success, he has feature was called Drowning By Numbers, is wealthy "square," and Wade "Cry-Baby" made even David Lynch look square. But the algebraist of contemporary filmmakers, Walker (Johnny Depp) is a "drape," a defiant audiences in our plastic culture have learned and it is mathematical justice that his newest prole who rides a motorcycle and sings rock to tolerate almost any offense but ennui, and offering is rated X. 'n' roll. Both are orphans. Allison lost her it is harder to be shocked by Waters's freak In the opening scene of The Cook, the parents when the separate planes they boarded shows than bored by them. Because of the Thief, His Wife and Her- Lover, a man is --- to minimize family risk — crashed simul- exasperating. tendency of open societies to seized in the street and smeared with excre- taneously, while Cry-Baby's father was The assimilate their antagonists, he has become a ment. No one can renege on a debt to Albert Alphabet Bomber, a notorious killer exe- rebel without claws. Speca (Michael Gabon) and expect to get cuted, along with his wife, in the electric Divine is dead, and Cry-Baby lacks any away clean. Most of the film is set within his chair. "I'm so tired of being good," says transvestism. But it does feature a particu- restaurant, a dining room that is as posh and Allison shortly before dumping her stuffy larly unsavory scene of communal French elegant as Albert is crude and vile. Night boyfriend Baldwin (Stephen Mailer) and kissing. As the camera closes in on soggy after night, Albert holds court at one of the taking up with Cry-Baby, whose facial trade- tongue kneading soggy tongue, Allison, tables, slobbering over his exquisite food, mark is a single teardrop frozen above his reverting to squaredom, asks Cry-Baby: "I bad-mouthing staff and guests, and abusing cheek. Allison unleashes her pony tail, dons won't get mononucleosis, will I?" The 1990 his wife Georgina (Helen Mirren). When a skin-tight sweaters and embraces badness, or viewer will think of AIDS and how, if this is woman says something that upsets him, Albert at least Cry-Baby, who in fact is not nearly as a joke, its taste is egregious. So, too, is the impales her cheek with a fork. Not since bad as misunderstood or as the film. "Drapes woman who is wheeled into a courtroom in Marco Ferreri depicted a group of wealthy are people too," declares Allison solemnly. an iron lung, railing at injustice and puffing men gorging themselves to death in La "They just look different." Such remarks on a cigarette. But, for all its loathsome Grande Bouffe (1977) has a film used inges- have to pass for profundity, but I wish that caricatures, Cry-Baby does not so much of- tion so well as an index to character and the profundity would pass for itself. fend as annoy. Much of its attraction is in the cosmos. "Milton, you're everything a man should oddity of its casting — Patty Hearst, looking A stranger at a nearby table catches the eye be — young, tough, and stupid," coos Ra- almost as photogenic as Natasha Richardson and the fancy of Georgina, and the two slip mona, Cry-Baby's rough and raffish grand- playing Patty Hearst, is a doltishly saccha- away frequently for silent sexual trysts in a mother, to his leather-jacketed friend. Milton rine mother, and her husband is played by restroom or the kitchen. When Albert, who is is, indeed, young, tough, and stupid, and the David Nelson, in an effective facsimile of his as possessive toward his wife as he is toward late father Ozzie. The film features more than the butchered carcasses hanging in his pan- 35 songs, most written during the early 1950s, try, discovers Georgina's infidelity, he does and most deserve the oblivion from which more than hurl feces in the face of the offend- Steven G. Kellman is professor of compara- Waters retrieved them. Cry-Baby is the ers. Georgina's brilliantly conceived and tive literature at The University of Texas at clownish story of disaffected youth, but it is handsomely executed act of revenge against San Antonio. likely to leave audiences largely unaffected. Albert is the movie's piece de resistance, a THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 21

•-•••• - <,• .4.011Ft : SOCIAL CAUSE CALENDAR

LESBIANS SPEAKING opment, grants, registrar, archives, library, OUT IN THE '90s or curatorial. The program is open to under- Lesbian Information San Antonio (LISA) graduate candidates enrolled in four-year and Ellas, a statewide network of Latina OBSERVANCES degree programs. For more information, lesbians, have announced registration call Lisa Ottman at (713) 526-1361. dates for the Third Annual Texas Lesbian April 21, 1921 • Police fire on striking Conference. Preconference registration miners in Butte, Montana. THE NEXT WAVE is $40 after April 15 and until May 10. April 22, 1526 • First slave revolt in an IN AUSTIN Registration at the conference May 18 to American settlement. The Third Wave International Women's 20 at San Antonio's Menger Hotel is $45 April 24, 1971 • 500,000 demonstrate in Film and Video Festival, a four-day event and based on availability. The conference Washington, D.C. against the war in Viet- featuring a provocative programming mix will include speakers Leti Gomez, a chair nam. of feature films, documentaries, shorts, of LLEGO, a national Latina lesbian April 27, 1825 • Boston carpenters strike and videos, will be held April 19 to 22 at group, Joan Nestle, curator of the Lesbian for 10-hour day. the Dohie Theater in Austin. The 1990 fes- Herstory Archives in New York City, and April 30, 1977 • 1,415 arrested in occupa- tival will feature works by Latina women, Ivy Young of the National Lesbian Gay tion of Seabrook Nuclear power plant. along with its customary programming of Task Force in Washington, D.C. In addi- May 1, 1830 • Mary Harris "Mother" the best and most recent work by contem- tion to workshops, the conference will Jones born. porary women media artists. For more in- also offer a lesbian film festival and a gala May 2, 1911 • First workmen's compen- formation, call (512) 323-2386. dance with live entertainment. Scholar- sation law enacted, in Wisconsin. ships for women of color and low-income May 3, 1971 • 14,000 arrested in protest WALKER EVANS women are available. Low-cost housing against the Vietnam war. IN FORT WORTH and childcare are also available upon May 3, 1981 • 100,000 demonstrate against Of Time and Place: Walker Evans and inquiry. For a registration form with de- U.S. intervention in El Salvador. William Christenberry will be on display tails of conference costs contact the Texas at the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth Lesbian Conference, P.O. Box 12327, from April 27 to June 24. Juxtaposing San Antonio, Texas 78212. For more photographs taken over a 50-year period to Handle," on April 26. All conferences information, call (512) 828-1761. by Evans and Christenberry, this exhibit will be held at the Dallas Civic Garden explores the common ground these artists Center in Fair Park. Cost is $25 per con- shared in their studies of Hale County, TISH HINOJOSA AND ference and includes breakfast, lunch, and Alabama. Admission is free. The museum LA PENA materials. For information, write: Earth is closed on Mondays. The museum is San Antonio/Austin singer/songwriter Fair Texas, 3630 Harry Hines Blvd., Dal- open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday to Tish Hinojosa will perform at a May 18 las, Texas 75219-3296, or call (214) 522- Saturday and on Sundays from 1 to 5 p.m. anniversary celebration for La Pena, the 9650. Austin people's arts and culture organiza- For further information, call (817) 738- tion. The event will be held at Chances, 1933. 900 Red River, in Austin. For informa- INTERNSHIP IN tion, call 477-6007. HOUSTON PEACE FESTIVAL The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, is of- The 4th annual Austin Peace Festival will fering internships to minority students. happen May 12 at Waterloo Park from 11 DALLAS EARTH FAIR Three interns will be selected and each a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is a non-perish- Earth Fair Texas will include exhibitions, will receive a stipend of $2,000. The in- able food item which will be donated to the concerts, children's activities, games, pa- ternships begin June 4 and continue for Capital Area Food Bank. Live music will rades, and conferences on two topics: "By 10 weeks. Each full-time intern will work be featured, as will children's events, en- The Beautiful Sea, Coastal Concerns as under the guidance of experienced profes- tertainers, storytellers, speakers, and edu- Seen from the Inland Perspective" on sionals in one of the following depart- cators. For more information, call Larry April 24 and "Global Warming: Too Hot ments: public relations, education, devel- Evans at (512) 452-2701.

gross finale certain to leave an acrid taste in no one here seems disturbed by the lack of a (William Hurt) and Marlon (Keanu Reeves), any viewer's mouth. black face. Rosalie plans lethal revenge against her er- Adapted from a true story, I Love You to Joey has not been doing the right thing, rant spouse. Death, like the equally unsubtle She-Devil, is according to what he tells his priest at confes- I Love You to Death might have been an also a tale of marital betrayal and revenge, sion. He has cheated on his wife Rosalie exploration of the fine line between eros and but the new Lawrence Kasdan film is much (Tracey Ullman) seven times with five differ- homicide, a gloss on crime statistics that more palatable and forgettable. Another res- ent women during the past two weeks. Is suggest we have less to fear from brutal taurant here serves as a stage, in this case there a secret to his tomato sauce? Sweet strangers than from unhinged intimates. But Joey's Pizza in Tacoma, Washington. Its Rosalie is oblivious to her husband's athletic it settles for the facile farce of bungled at- owner, Joey Boca (Kevin Kline), belongs to indiscretions. "Joey will never run around on tempts to do Joey in. Bats, bombs, poisons, Hollywood's favorite ethnic group and boasts me," she insists to Devo (River Phoenix), the and bullets fail to do more than slow Joey that: "America is an Italian country"— It was young man who pines for her. When Rosalie down. The efforts of the would-be execu- discovered by one Italian and named after learns the truth about Joey, she is crushed, but tioners are as maladroit as Kasdan's pacing, another." The walls of Joey's Pizza are deco- only momentarily. With the help of Devo, her and I Love You to Death sputters near death rated with portraits of Frank. Sinatra, Jesus, assertive Yugoslavian mother Nadja (Joan long before a chastened Joey is reconciled John Paul H, Mary, and John F. Kennedy, but Plowright), and two junkies named Harlan with his loving wife. ❑ 22 • APRIL 20, 1990

• ALAN POGUE

John Henry Faulk 1913 - 1990 THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 23

A Benefit Dinner For lopin. THEserver TEXAS

_ Saturday, May 5 Austin — Cinco de Mayo, 1990 To Honor and Celebrate the Life of John Henry Faulk and To Present the Second Annual Mrs. Frankie Randolph Social Justice Award to Ernesto Cortes, Jr., and the Organizers of the Texas Industrial Areas Foundation

Reception for Sponsors and Supporters ($100 and up Dinner Tickets) with Studs Terkel, Lawrence Goodwyn, Ernesto Cortes, Jr., Molly Ivins, Jim Hightower, Ralph Yarborough, and a Musical Tribute by Jerry Jeff Walker The Hyatt Regency Hotel, 6:00 p.m.

Social Hour for Loyal Friends ($35 Dinner Tickets) Music by Tish Hinojosa Cash-Bar Refreshments Palmer Auditorium, 6:00 p.m.

Benefit Dinner and Formal Program Palmer Auditorium, 7:30 p.m.

Steering Committee

The Honorable Gonzalo Barrientos • Herschel Bernard • The Honorable John Bryant • Billie Carr • 'Liz Carpenter • Chris Dixie • The Honorable Bob Eckhardt • The Honorable Sissy Farenthold • James K. and Lucy Galbraith • John Kenneth Galbraith • The Honorable Ernestine Glossbrenner • The Most Reverend Charles V. Grahmann, D.D. • The Honorable Lena Guerrero • Joe Gunn • Walter Hall • Commissioner Jim Hightower • The Honorable Barbara Jordan • Norman Lear • Maury Maverick, Jr. • The Honorable Alex Moreno •Bob and Claudette Mullen • Otto Mullinat • The Honorable Jesse Oliver • J. R. Parten • Cactus Pryor • Ricardo Romo • The Honorable Carlos Truan • The Honorable Hector Uribe • Jerry Jeff Walker • The Honorable Craig Washington • Wendy Watriss • Kirk Watson • The Honorable Ralph Yarborough • Bernard Rapoport, Chairperson

The Texas Observer • 307 West 7th • Austin, Texas 78701 • (512) 477-0746

,

24 • APRIL 20, 1990