ustxtxb_obs_1993_02_12_50_00018-00000_000.pdf

The journey goes wrong from the start. None of the white travelers will pay much attention to the frontier wisdom of a black man. Bad water begets illness. An odd scarcity of game drives the wagon train off course. The heavy cargo of whiskey slows the creaking wagons even further. Eventually, they find themselves in the midst of Comancheria just in time for the last major uprising. The wagon train is attacked at Blind Man’s Creek, a few miles northwest of Medicine Mounds where the majority of the story takes place, aside from extensive flashbacks into the characters’ lives; this is where these “pioneers” take their stand. Reynolds descriptions of Comanche torture are brutally accurate and painfully graphic, making this novel a sort of “Dancing with Wolves” in reverse. And this is where this reviewer gets a bit riled. Accurate or not, the depiction of this level of violence without considering a more complete picture of its causes seems an unconscionable lapse. Yes, the white characters here are hardly a noble lot, and their attitudes toward the Comanche are totally lacking in sympathy; yes, Reynolds does mention that some white buffalo hunters had recently broken a treaty; but he does not mention that these particular Comanche were virtually the last of their kind. They were fighting for their existence as a people. Estimates vary, but between 1840 and 1874 total Comanche population had declined by more than 80 percent. As brilliant as Franklin’s Crossing is and as ethnically conscious as it is this is not the kind of fact one underplays, even at the risk of one’s art. JOURNAL Borderblasting Senate Candidate He says that Ralph Yarborough is his model, that the y’all-come, open election to fill the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Lloyd Bentsen provides an opportunity for a populist candidate from outside of the party’s inner circles, and that he has been right for 20 years and the election of Bill Clinton proves it. Jose Angel Gutierrez, one of five cofounders of the Raza Unida Party, also said that the odds of him winning as a Democrat, or at least making the runoff between the top two contenders in the May election, are not as bad as one might think. “No one is out there other than me, that I know of,” Gutierrez said, “I mean out there campaigning, knocking on doors, getting in people’s faces to ask for their vote, calling on farmers, politicians, housewives, construction workers and newspaper editors. Touring the state.” Three weeks into a campaign that ends in early May, Gutierrez said he had already been to 10 counties and 19 cities, mostly in West Texas. “I’ve been in every Dairy Queen in about 15 cities and made every convenience store and every Mexicali restaurant. I guess I’ve covered about 7,000 miles.” If the legislator Ralph Yarborough is Gutierrez’s model, it is the campaigner Paul Wellstone the Minnesota political science professor who in 1990 rode a bus to an unlikely U.S. Senate victory that Gutierrez seems to be emulating at the moment. Accompanied by his son Adrian, Gutierrez is barnstorming the state in a van,,and says he will campaign in 180 to 190 counties before election day. Asked about the quixotic nature of a highway and shoe-leather campaign for the U.S. Senate in a state as large as Texas, Gutierrez said he also intends to run a media campaign and will not remain in the race unless he raises $400,000 by the middle of March. “I don’t plan to raise $6 million a la Jimmy Mattox or the Republicans. Gramm’s got that much in his account for the next time,” Gutierrez said. But he has already reached “minimal six figures.” “The checks are in the van, if you want to see them,” he said. Gutierrez also said that if he were not running himself, he would be promoting the campaign of former Attorney General Jim Mattox, whose voting record and record of advocacy he admires. Gutierrez criticized Gov. Ann Richards’ appointment of Railroad Commissioner Bob Krueger to the Senate as “a fix.” “It’s a disgrace to the party, and an even greater disgrace that Jim Mattox wasn’t even offered a seat at the DLC [Democratic Leadership Council] meeting, that he had to stand at the back and ask to be allowed to speak,” Gutierrez said. Gutierrez said that when questioned by opponents, as he expects to be, about his past politics, he will offer no apologies, only an explanation. “I was young and ignorant, my world was definitely one of a one-party state with deadly Texas Rangers walking the streets keeping us in line. That world was wrong and I was wrong. I did say all those terrible things in the ’70s. But I was 23, 26, 30 years old then.” What was not wrong, Gutierrez said, was La Raza Unida Party, which he co-founded. It changed the nature of the Democratic Party in Texas and altered the dynamics of the relationship of Mexican Americans and their state and national government. Gutierrez said he begins with a base of some 250,000 Hispanic voters in Texas, considering that the 1972 Raza Unida campaign of Ramsey Muniz, which he directed, got some 220,000 votes. Gutierrez insists, however, that he is not running a campaign aimed only at Spanish-surnamed voters and intends to appeal to mainstream Democrats disillusioned with appointment of Krueger who Gutierrez describes as “a Republican, who [while in Congress] cast more votes with the Republican president than he did with Carter.” A novel component of Gutierrez’s campaign will be the use of “radio stations along the border” Mexican borderbiasters to lower cost and extend the reach of his message. Gutierrez is an attorney, now practicing in Dallas. He has served on the school board in Crystal City, in South Texas, and also as County Judge for Zavala County from 1975-80. He also served as national president of the Raza Unida Party. Louis Dubose 5th Circuit Upholds Detainees’ Civil Rights The 5th Circuit, U.S. Court of Appeals, upheld the civil rights of pretrial detainees when it agreed with state District Judge Lucius Bunton of Midland that a Brewster County sheriffs deputy used excessive force toward a pretrial detainee with the intent to punish him and that the deputy did not qualify for the immunity normally granted government officials. Raul Jose Valencia had been arrested on drug charges after an undercover operation conducted by Gary D. Wiggins. On July 3, 1987, Valencia was committed to the Brewster County Jail and shortly thereafter Wiggins became acting chief deputy in charge of the jail, according to court documents. One evening about three weeks after his arrest Valencia took part in a jailhouse disturbance. Wiggins, while trying to get Valencia out of his cell, hit Valencia’s head against the jail bars and applied a choke hold, which Bunton ruled was “unreasonable and clearly excessive.” Wiggins later asserted that Valencia’s head hit the bars during an altercation. Valencia said he was taken downstairs to the drunk tank, where he was beaten. Wiggins claims he never struck Valencia, but two days later he was moved to Pecos County, where a jailer noted that he had visible injuries, including bruises on his face and scratches and cuts on his throat. Valencia filed a civil rights lawsuit that complained that Wiggins and another jailer violated his constitutional rights by using excessive force during his incarceration in the Brewster County Jail. After a trial, Bunton ruled in Valencia’s favor and ordered Wiggins to pay $2,500 damages. The 5th Circuit panel in New Orleans ruled that since Valencia was a pretrial detainee, the case involved the 14th Amendment’s protection against summary punishment, not the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition against unreasonable seizures, nor the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishments. “When, as here, the incidents of arrest have long since been completed and the pretrial detainee remains in detention, it is the Due Process Clause 18 FEBRUARY 12, 1993 1/4 ”