Leo Vasquez, the Harris County Tax Assessor Collector, was another person who lost in the Republican primary to an Anglo with no name recognition and who did minimal campaigning. He compared his situation to Victor Carrillo but I have to take issue with that. To begin with Vasquez had already upset the more conservative fringe of his party by settling a lawsuit with Democrats over voter registration. Come on Leo, you knew they would expect you to fight against a Democrat no matter what it was the Democrat wanted. If a Democrat stood on one side of an issue you would be expected to stand on the other side, period, no compromise, no thinking, no being rational. Read More »
Victor Carrillo recently learned how welcomed he was in the Republican party. He had previously been appointed to the Railroad Commission here in Texas by Governor Perry. He was the chairman of the three member panel. On Tuesday, Mr. Carrillo was defeated in the Republican primary. Republicans are madly scrambling around trying to explain the reason for his loss, other than what it really was, but it doesn’t exactly take a mental giant to figure it out.
First lets look at what the position does. It sounds obscure but it actually has huge responsibilities and power since it is the regulatory board for such things as oil, gas, natural gas, surface mining, pipelines and quite a bit more. So what qualifications did Victor Carrillo have? Well, he’d been a councilman, a judge, an attorney, and had been a petroleum geophysicist. Wow! Impressive resume! His opponent must have really been something to take him out. Read More »
February 23, 2010 – 6:55 pm
I understand there’s a lot of anger and fear regarding our economic situation right now and that a lot of people may be looking for a new group to join that they feel will ‘fix’ the problems. The main group that has emerged has been the Tea Party. Before any Hispanic decides to become a member of this group I would recommend they take a step back and observe the party dynamics themselves rather than just getting swept up in the anger.
To begin with look at the crowds that attend the Tea Party rallies. Notice the racial make up of the groups. That in itself is a major indicator of who is welcomed. People tend to go where they feel accepted and stay away from where they don’t. So who feels accepted at those rallies? Read More »
February 17, 2010 – 1:33 am
In Texas we have a grocery store chain known as H.E.B. They are probably the main chain here. Recently I’ve noticed an aisle in their stores that is dedicated to grooming products for males. This targeted marketing strategy was the idea of the Proctor & Gamble Co. and was implemented in San Antonio, Boerne and Schertz, which are just a few minutes driving time from each other.
As I’m sure you all know statistics on who buys what, when and how often, has been honed to a fine art. Sometimes I think the big companies can tell us more about ourselves than we ever knew. So what drove Proctor & Gamble to approach H.E.B with their idea? The large LATINO population in this area! Apparently we Latinos spend more on grooming products than any other demographic. Proctor & Gamble, being the smart business that they are, saw where the money was and specifically targeted us for their test run. Read More »
November 10, 2009 – 2:19 am
Congratulations Felix Gutierrez, Jr. for winning the Marconi Young Scholar Award! The Marconi Society was established in 1974 by the daughter of Gublielmo Marconi, winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics, 1909. It is a non-profit organization that recognizes and honors leading figures in telecommunications. According to Robert Lucky, chairman of the Marconi Society, “Marconi Society Young Scholars have demonstrated extraordinary early promise and already have made an impact in their fields of research.” Read More »
November 10, 2009 – 12:45 am
Know them by their deeds.
Keith Bardwell was a Justice of the Peace in Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana. He rates special mention in my Bigotry Abounds section for his refusal to marry an interracial couple. His response when questioned was that he did it for the children they might possibly have. He said both groups have problems accepting the child and that the child suffers so he will not put them through it.
Now I have to seriously wonder what Mr. Bardwell would have done if Ms. Humphrey had said for him not to worry because she was sterile (or her husband to be was) and they could not have children? Would he have married them? Call me a cynic but I seriously doubt it. Where does he draw the line? Would he marry a white person of European decent to a white person with a Hispanic ethnicity? Again, I seriously doubt it. Keith Bardwell we know your ilk and call you out as the racist that you are.
Resigning from the position was the wisest thing he could have done even though he probably only did it because he knew he was going to be fired.
November 4, 2009 – 3:30 am
Well I just published an article on the stupidity of allowing police officers to decide if someone speaks English sufficiently, and the abuses that can come with this law, when a police department comes to light for abusing it. Why, Why, WHY does it always have to be Texas!?! The latest embarrassment to my home state comes via the Dallas Police Department.
On October 2nd, Ernestina Mondragon was pulled over for an illegal U-turn. Her daughter had missed her bus to school. Ernestina grabbed her keys then they rushed out the door. Unfortunately, in her haste, she violated a traffic code. Officer Gary Bromley, who happened to be a rookie, so much so that he was still under supervision, pulled her over. Officer Gary Bromley gave Mrs. Mondragon a ticket because he felt she didn’t speak sufficient English. When Mrs. Mondragon went to court the personnel there were puzzled by the ticket. It was eventually discovered that 37 tickets had been issued to individuals for the same charge over a three year period. Read More »
November 4, 2009 – 1:49 am
Company Rated:
Orbitz is a company that helps people with their vacation plans. You can book hotel rooms, book air flights and rent cars. They have rather silly commercials but that’s the way they chose to promote their company, whatever. I did, however, see a commercial by Orbitz focusing on their price guarantee. A couple was going to get a refund because someone had booked the same room for less money. The name of the couple? The HERNANDEZES! Alright Orbitz! Granted, the man that represents Orbitz acts like he’s having problems pluralizing a noun that ends with a “z” when he greets the Hernandezes, zes, zes. But again, they aim for the silly in their commercials. That aside they were still willing to include Hispanics when so many others are terrified of showing any consideration for us for fear that the lunatic fringe will translate that into a pro-illegal immigrant stance. Thank you Orbitz.
September 20, 2009 – 10:44 pm
I read an article several months back on one of the online news sites that disturbed me somewhat. Apparently there is a federal regulation that says people with a commercial driver’s license have to speak English at a sufficient level to communicate with the police. I don’t have a problem with this. The article went on to discuss how the original rule was going to get tougher with new rules implemented by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.
I don’t know much about the trucking business but I do know something about law enforcement and about small town politics and finances. The article interviewed a Hispanic trucker that had a rudimentary knowledge of English, enough to understand and respond to an Alabama officer that had pulled him over and yet he received a ticket for not being able to speak English well enough. The trucker was stopped in a random inspection and had no previous violations. Read More »
September 8, 2009 – 1:26 am
On July 12th of 2008, Luis Ramirez, an illegal immigrant, was beaten to death by a group of Anglo high school football players. This horrendous attack occurred in the small town of Shenandoah, Pennsylvania, population 5000. Six football players beat and kicked a man to the point where he was lying on the ground shaking and foaming at the mouth, all the while calling out slurs about his ethnicity. When they were done one of them turned to Ramirez’s friend and told her to tell her Mexican friends to get out of Shenandoah, “or you’re going to be laying next to him.” That comment was overheard and reported to the police by a retired Philadelphia police officer. Read More »
Feed Readers
