ustxtxb_obs_1967_05_12_50_00009-00000_000.pdf

Gonzales would have been a rent, a tear that might never have been repaired.” Not once does the Review editorial mention race. Does it have to? The situation at the city of Mathis baffles me. There the working man actually seems to be benefiting from the municipal government, which, most notably, enacted a $1.25 minimum wage that went into effect this month. The MexicanAmerican-controlled Action Party retained power this year after first winning in 1965. At Crystal City the forces that won power in 1963 are back in control again. Or so it seemed after last month’s elections. The . Cornejo political regime, backed by the Political Assn. of SpanishSpeaking Organizations and the Teamsters union, placed three candidates on the council and seemed destined to control. But one of the three, Moses Falcon, voted with the two councilmen of the opposition party at the first meeting after the elections and helped elect one of the opposition, Paulino R. Mata, as mayor. Mata, in turn, nominated Falcon for mayor pro tern. So perhaps the Anglo and middleclass Latino coalition has managed to hold on to power in Crystal City. The left-handed zeroes will not be missed in South Texas politics, but i t remains to be seen what effect their successors will have in improving the lot o the state’s Mexican-Americans. 0 May 12, 1967 9 Since 1806 The Place in Austin GOOD FOOD GOOD BEER 1607 San Jacinto GR 7-4171 44. AMERICAN INCOME LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY OF INDIANA Underwriters of the American Income Labor Disability Policy We’ll “BUG” Your Printing . . From the front door thru delivery we’reUnion: Contracts with OPEIU No. 298, ITU Local No. 138, PPAU Local No. 143, Bookbinders Local No. 18, and of course the Ropters, Rushers and Expediters Local No. 1 FUTURA PRESS Hickory 2-8682 Hickory 2-2426. 1714 SOUTH CONGRESS AVENUE P.O. BOX 3485 AUSTIN, TEXAS just 30 years ago. I saw the left-handed zero in operation during his days of glory when I lived in Brownsville. A Mexican-American who was no zero, Juan N. Fernandez, ran the town then, and ran it absolutely, though he stayed in the background and let four Anglos and a zero handle the council’s affairs. Hernandez considered himself a Spaniard, not a Mexican-American. In those days any Latino who owned two automobiles and lived in a two-story house was a Spaniard and bitterly resented being called a “Mexican.” Fernandez died and finally, in 1943, I think it was, came the first break that I know of in all South Texas. The people of Brownsville, 90% Latin, elected three men who had Spanish surnames to the council. The custom that you dare not have more than two Spanish names on a five-man board was busted. And the zeroes, those flunkies who usually did nothing in the world but hang around street corners keeping voters in line, were no longer a part of the show. Oh, there were Latino-controlled boards at Laredo and Rio Grande City and Zapata in those days, but those cities were and still are Mexican-American oriented to a greater degree than are other South Texas towns culturally, linguistically, and in every other way. After that Brownsville election of some 25 years ago an era had started to fade. AS THE OBSERVER noted making some progress in local elections. An editorial written by Jim Mathis, the editor of the Edinburg Review, on the day after the Review’s choice for mayor, Noe Gonzalez, was narrowly defeated by Lloyd Hawkins’ ought to be read by all those interested in the rise of the MexicanAmericans in Texas to something more nearly approaching equality. Mathis wrote in part: “There is in Edinburg and in this county an ever-growing sentiment of independent voters who will not accept dictation nor be bought . . . even the economic royalty political control that has lain over this Rio Grande Valley like a smothering blanket is developing holes and leaks . . . no matter how much money is poured into the holes in an effort to seal them. “Edinburg under Mayor Al Ramirez was a hole in the blanket. Edinburg under Noe Executive Offices: P.O. Box 208 Waco, Texas Bernard Rapoport, President