For those wishing a better understanding of what is going on at our border I would offer a piece I penned some time ago concerning the history of the area in which I now live. Both the piece and the area are somewhat unique but I think it emblematic of what has happened all along our southern most border in America.
IT'S ABOUT LEODORO …
… The average citizen of Edwards County is likely not familiar with the name Leodoro Martinez but he has been a political player of some significance in South Texas politics for the last 4 decades. Mr. Martinez is currently the Executive Director of the Middle Rio Grande Development Council. This is only one of several non-profit corporations he is the leader of at the moment. Indeed, when one researches Mr. Martinez it doesn't take long to discover that, as of late, he has made a living feeding at the public trough by either creating and/or managing many various non-profits that consume taxpayer dollars but this doesn't begin to cover the extent of his political influence and activities in this area over the years.
Mr. Martinez first rose to political prominence in the 70's as a member of the La Raza Unida movement that saw a group of Hispanic activists in the South Texas area (primarily Cotulla in La Salle County, Crystal City in Zavala County and Carrizo Springs in Dimmit County) attempt to create a third political party in Texas whose primary concern was to address a perceived lack of political representation on the part of the Democratic Party that claimed them. Although this movement died within a decade of its birth it created the opportunity for several like minded individuals to develop relationships that would last for many years after most of them returned to the Democratic Party. After being elected School Board member, City Councilman, Mayor and County Judge in La Salle County, Mr. Martinez would later go on to turn his attention to the area Council of Government created at that time and that would become the economic glue that would help hold together the South Texas Democratic political machine for many years to come.
The 70's and 80's saw Mr. Martinez and others rise to power by taking advantage of an explosion of government programs designed to address perceived societal inequity be it based on race, gender, sexual orientation, income or whatever other subdivision of the human race that could be pointed to as being in need of government help at that time. The vast majority of these programs were created and funded by our federal government (using money borrowed in our name of course) as a result of the effort that began in the mid 60's during President Johnson's administration known as, “The Great Society”. This effort resulted in a series of legislation that brought us Medicare, Medicaid, COGs, Economic Development Corporations, HUD Housing, Food Stamps and an untold number of other such programs that came to be referred to collectively as “The Welfare State” by its detractors.
One facet of this program saw numerous legal advocacy groups spring up, one of which would play a pivotal role in our community. In 1974 the Legal Services Corporation was created by our national Congress and charged with the mission of being a legal advocate for the underprivileged. The LSC then funded other non-profits in the several states to carry out its mandate. The Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid non-profit corporation was created to carry out the LSC's mission in South Texas. As some of you may recall it was the TRLA that found two people willing to be named as plaintiff's in a civil suit that forced the Rocksprings ISD to go from an “At Large” voting procedure that saw the two or three top vote getters winning seats on the School Board each year to a “Single Member District” system in which Edwards County was carved into districts, each of which elected it's own representative to the School Board.
The main complaint brought forward in this suit was that the existing electoral system effectively left our Hispanic population unrepresented on the School Board and said Board was indeed made up entirely of white males at the time the suit was brought … which leads me to think that women had just as good a grounds to bring suit as anyone else. Perhaps the thought of trying to gerrymander a school district in a manner that would guaranty feminine representation on our School Board was daunting enough to make the racial angle seem like the more attractive pursuit to the TRLA lawyers charged with the mission to address the needs of the underprivileged in our county at that time. In any event, not satisfied to simply carve out districts that would insure almost all of their residents were Hispanic and thereby insure that their representatives would be Hispanic also, the TRLA successfully argued that the RISD should also be one of three school districts in the state that allows people who don't live in a given district to represent it. The practical effect of this decision now finds three people who all live in the same District (that would be the Ramirez brothers and James Palacio in District 6 which is made up of the Northern half of 2 ½ streets in Rocksprings) serving on our School Board and thereby controlling it for the whole county.
Many of the efforts of the “Great Society” programs had a much more profound effect on South Texas than the efforts of the TRLA. Perhaps the single most important event to effect the South Texas political landscape was actually a change in the health care sector. The Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act, passed in 1986 by a Republican Congress under Ronald Reagan, stipulated that all hospitals are required to give emergency care to and stabilize anyone who comes in, regardless of immigration status. Anyone born in the U.S. automatically becomes a U.S. Citizen regardless of the citizenship status of their mother who shows up at the E.R. in labor and so this new law became a part of a set of circumstances that saw an explosion in the Hispanic population of the U.S. in general and it's southern border states in particular. As, at the time, most Hispanics were voting Democratic, this act of a Republican President and Congress served to strengthen the Democratic Party's hold on our Southern border. This is only one of several instances in which, whether deliberately or accidentally, this Country's two parties have taken turns strengthening each others position at the national level while leaving their party faithful shaking their heads at the local and regional levels. This phenomenon no doubt played some part in the emergence of the Tea Party movement some time later led by those insisting on the primacy of the U.S. Constitution who also felt unserviced by the Republican Party that claimed them.
As time passed more and more Hispanics have begun to gravitate to the Republican Party here in South Texas. Whether spurred on by the thought of not wanting to leave their children's, children's, children burdened with the debt incurred to fund the programs created as the result of implementing the ideals of “The Great Society”, or looking for an alternative to a party that failed to serve their needs, or simply voting for someone whose character they approved of; many became a part of the movement that saw Texas move from being a blue state (read here Democratic) to being a red state (read here Republican). This transition is not yet complete and this process is creating no small amount of friction as political boundaries are being redrawn to reflect this new reality ... much to the displeasure of some who have profited from the old arrangements. This friction has manifested itself in our County in several ways, one of which finds Mr. Leodoro Martinez and the COG he leads injecting themselves into our political scene by embracing our school superintendent, Mr. David Velky, and one of our City Councilmen and County Democratic Party Chairman, Mr. Andrew Barnaby, as non-voting members of the COG Mr. Martinez oversees despite the fact that Edwards County is no longer a member of said COG … which brings us back to the subject of Mr. Martinez and the intentions of him and his friends.
My first encounter with Mr. Martinez was indirect and had nothing to do with politics … or so I thought at the time. Having been asked to help our new County Judge in transitioning into office I was charged with the responsibility of understanding and communicating with the COG we were then a member of and that Mr. Martinez leads … said COG being the MRGDC. This led me to make contact with Mr. Martinez' chief of staff, Jose Alcala, via email. Our relationship was cordial up until the point I asked for the employment records of two of the ladies employed at our nutrition center through one of the programs the MRGDC administered (the Area Agency on Aging) who had been shorted two hours pay each day for years. At this point Mr. Alcala quit responding to my emails. His boss, Mr. Martinez, showed up at our next Commissioner's Court meeting and referenced my request by telling the Court that the MRGDC didn't keep such records. Though I don't doubt this is true it is unfortunate in that they are required by law to keep these records for two years in case they are audited. Before leaving the subject of audits it should be noted that the MRGDC received failing grades on their last two for a lack of internal controls.
This series of events led me to have some concern about the actions and intentions of Mr. Martinez and the Cog he oversees and this concern in turn led me to do the research necessary to craft this article. As of the writing of this article the MRGDC has lost 40% of their funding for various reasons, some of which have been discussed here, and more such cuts would appear to be on the horizon. This might explain why Leodoro and his chief of staff have begun to cast about for more fertile ground. Their most recent endeavors find them trying to find some way to cash in on the Eagle Ford Shale oil and gas boom now occurring in several of the counties that are a part of the COG that Leodoro has set astride of for so many years. Those wishing to explore this subject further might wish to visit the websites of some of his more recent non-profit endeavors:
www.eaglefordshale.org,
www.fosristx.org,
http://nalcab.org/BorderSummit2012/Get/Speakers are good starting points for those so inclined.
It is unfortunate that so many who set out to benefit others are so quickly corrupted by the money offered up by our State and Federal Governments to champion causes that, though occasionally in need of a champion, are maybe better left championed by someone who will attend to the matter simply because it is the right thing to do for the benefit of those near and dear to them. Such folks are more likely to hang on to their integrity long enough to affect positive change without the need for money borrowed in the name of our unborn children. I would suggest that a champion bought with money is merely a mercenary and when the money is gone they will be also.
