ustxtxb_obs_1986_02_21_50_00001-00000_000.pdf

SERVER A Journal of Free Voices February 21, 1986 One Dollar PRIVATIZATION: The Next Big Lucha GEOFFREY RIPS have a feeling in my stomach that we’re getting ready for another big fight. That’s always happened in the past before a big lucha. . . . We will only get those [voter] turnouts if we trust our people enough to keep them informed. They’ll understand. They’ve understood for twelve years. They’ve understood for 30 years. They’ve understood for 50 years. They’ve understood for 100 years.” Andres Sarabia, first president of COPS, during January 11 strategy session “What is our business? Who are our customers? What will our business be if things continue the way they are? But, more important, what should our business be? And, even more important, who should our customers be? Who are the people you are here to serve? Who are the people it is in your interests to be about?” Ernesto Cortes, Jr., addressing COPS leaders during January 11 strategy session “A lot of educating took place.” COPS President Helen Ayala, on the January 30 COPS delegates convention. San Antonio /T IS JANUARY 30, but it is hot, especially hot inside the auditorium of St. Henry’s Church, just south of downtown San Antonio. It is one-half hour before the delegates congress of Communities Organized begin, and the auditorium is filled to overflowing with delegations from parishes around the city. An auxiliary room is set up with speakers to carry the auditorium proceedings, and when this room is filled, several groups of delegates waiting in the parking lot are forced to reboard their buses and return home. Inside the auditorium, El Nuevo Mariachi Infantil Guadalupano, a children’s band, following the banner of the Virgin of Guadalupe winds its way with difficulty through the traffic of the front aisle, striking up “De colores” on violins, trumpets, and a bajo sexto played by a boy smaller than the instrument he holds. As they play, the brown, black and white leaders from two San Antonio organizations affiliated with COPS through the Texas Interfaith Network, Metropolitan Congregational Alliance their seats in a section reserved for them to the side. Above the stage, where the choir from St. Gabriel is now joined by the mariachi infantil, a banner reads: ” ‘The justice of a community is measured by its treatment of the poor and powerless.’ U.S. Bishops Pastoral on the Economy.” The COPS delegates congress is a map of the forces of political power, spread out before you and broken into elemental components. And, like every other major COPS