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John and Ralph in El Paso soo’ The boos that engulfed Gov. John Connally in El Paso, at an important national conference on the problems of Mexican-Americans, served to underscore one of the governor’s political problems should he decide to run for a fourth term. The abiding disaffection of the state’s Latin people, who number about a sixth of the Texas population, was dramatized when President Johnson introduced the governor to the delegates, who were on hand from several states. Further driving home the point, the delegates lustily cheered Connally’s arch-rival, US Sen. Ralph Yarborough, despite the fact that the Senator had, through some mix-up, been left outside in a bus. The president of Mexico, Gustavo Diaz Ordaz, got into the spirit of things by departing from the prepared text of his speech to praise Yarborough, eliciting more cheers for the senator. Connally afterwards said he attributes “no significance at all” to the boos. Offering opposite interpretations were Pancho Medrano, a United Auto Workers official who resides in Dallas, and Dr. Clark Knowlton, head of the sociology department at the University of Texas at El Paso and a renowned expert in MexicanAmerican affairs. “I don’t think in the history of the United States there has ever been anything like this, a governor being booed when the President introduced him,” Medrano suggested. Knowlton said the booing “re;ally surprised me. Most Mexican-Americans are very courte 16 The Texas Observer GROUP SUBSCRIPTIONS Subscriptions to the Observer can be bought by groups at a cost of $3.50 a year, provided ten or more subscriptions are entered at one time and the copies can be mailed in a bundle to a single address. For individually addressed copies, if ten or more subscriptions are entered at one time the cost is just $5.00 a year. If you belong to a group that might be interested in this, perhaps you will want to take the matter up with the others. ous and seldom, if ever, do anything like that . . . I would say that Gov. Connally is the one politician who is totally persona non grata to the Mexicans. On the other hand, Yarborough is their hero,” Knowlton said. Connally’s confrontation of the Valley farm workers’ march at New Braunfels last year has scarcely been forgotten in Mexican-American communities throughout the state. And the increasing political activity in those precincts can be no comfort to the governor. V Yarborough was first described as bitter at having been kept outside the hall when he was introduced by the President, but, back in Washington, was evidently in a forgiving mood. He denied one report that a Presidential aide had been in on a “conspiracy,” by spreading the word in the Yarborough bus that none of the passengers were to go into the convention. An unconfirmed but interesting rumor heard in Austin held that the aide in question was Larry Temple, who recently left the Texas capital, where he had served as Connally’s top assistant, to go to Washington and join LBJ’s staff. V In the wake of the boos Connally staffers were maintaining that the governor has done more for the MexicanAmericans than has Yarborough. They cite the number of Latin appointees designated by the governor and various governmental programs. But all this overlooks the important symbolic values of the New Braunfels confrontation and the fact that Yarborough addressed the Capitol rally that climaxed that march, while Connally pointedly was absent. V Against this background, and the past year’s rumblings of discontent among Mexican-Americans, the recent verbal blasts offered Connally by State Sen. Joe Bernal may be seen as another gauge of the extent of the governor’s woes among Latin voters. Bernal, who has some liberal credentials, nonetheless has, until very recently, maintained very good relations with Connally and the Capitol’s ruling class. The Senator was elected with the support of the Good Government League in San Antonio, the Establishment’s organization in that city. But on Oct. 10 Bernal wrote Connally to complain that . it was “Cruel, if not stupid” to have left Mexican-Americans unrepresented on the constitutional CLASSIFIED BOOKPLATES FREE CATALOGUEMany beautiful designs. Special designing too. Address BOOKPLATES, Yellow Springs 24, Ohio. Connally answered Bernal by implying the Senator was asking for “reverse discrimination” and writing a “publicity seeking” letter. Bernal fired another letter back late in October, telling Connally “I am extremely disappointed that you should react to [my first letter] so foolishly . . . ” He accused the governor of “using” two Mexican-Americans whom Connally had selected as highway patrolmen, saying that a picture Connally had circulated during the campaign showed the governor shaking hands with the two officers. “If you can use Mexican-Americans during a campaign, why not let members of this ethnic minority share in shaping our future in government by naming at least one to such an important committee?” W’ Since Bernal’s attacks on Connally be gan last month there has developed some talk that he might jump into the lieutenant governor’s race, perhaps teaming up with Lt. Gov. Preston Smith \(who still is the only announced gubernatorial Bernal, both attended a luncheon in San Antonio not long ago. Bernal said his presence shouldn’t be interpreted as meaning that he supports Smith’s candidacy, but added that if Connally runs again he, Bernal, will “campaign all over South Texas” for Smith. Smith has expressed his own doubts about the constitutional revision commission. The Senate under his leadership declined to concur in a joint resolution this year establishing the commission; so the House setup the group on its own. Smith was given five choices as to the panel’s make-up but declined to name anybody. He holds that the commission is illegal. V Connally is likely to develop addi tional troubles with another considerable Texas minority, because of a quote attributed to him at the recent National Governors’ Conference. He is recorded by the columnists Evans and Novak as saying, with respect to the discontent of Negroes: “These people will have to wait for what they want. They will have to learn to be patient.” Evans and Novak describe Connally’s manner as saying this as stern. The quote has only lately been discovered in Texas and is being circulated avidly by liberals. V Connally is supposed to say soon what his political plans are. He has recently said, in answer to questions at a news conference, that he is worth less money than when he entered the gover nor’s office in early 1963; also, that he would not take the job as secretary of defense were it offered him. Is is period