Securing the Green For Our Kids

The new Boy's & Girl's Club is the largest in the State of Texas. With a substantial check presented by State Rep. Aaron Pena at today's groundbreaking it may also be the greenest. The new 32,700 square foot complex called El Portal del Norte, will as a result of recent funding be surrounded by park and green space. The $750,000 was awarded to the Club from a legislative rider Pena inserted into the state budget during the 80th Legislative Session.

The Valley's Juneteenth

Celebration marks Juneteenth

June 14, 2008 - 6:32PM
Sean Gaffney

EDINBURG -- Faded white crosses mark weathered gravestones in what is believed to be the Rio Grande Valley's only black cemetery.

A white wooden fence surrounds the scattered burial plots here at this rather unknown, dusty place of repose, which for many years was neglected and covered with thick brush.

Today, this mostly forgotten final resting place is finally receiving the attention and veneration deserving of such hallowed ground.

The Hidalgo County Historical Commission on Saturday unveiled an official Texas historical marker at Restlawn Cemetery during the annual Juneteenth celebration marking the end of slavery in Texas.

"Today is a historical moment because people came together and worked very hard to get this historical marker," said Beverly Ashley-Fridie, a professor at the University of Texas-Pan American.

More than 50 people gathered at the relatively hidden site on Jasman Road in a far corner of Hillcrest Cemetery - just north of Schunior Road off the northbound U.S. 281 frontage road - to celebrate the recognition of Restlawn and to reflect on the end of slavery in the Lone Star State and the decades of segregation that followed.

"It's beautiful to see a mix of people here," Monroe Saulter, the president of the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said of the racially mixed crowd.

The annual ceremony at the cemetery marks Juneteenth, or June 19, 1865 - the date the Union Army reached Galveston Island and began to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation. President Lincoln had signed the decree outlawing slavery three years earlier.

"In Texas, we're big, (and) we're always a little late," Ashley-Fridie said.

Slavery was prevalent throughout the United States from the establishment of the first colonies until the passage of the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1865. The 1860 U.S. census estimated that of the total population of more than 31 million in the country, nearly 4 million were slaves.

In Texas, there were an estimated 182,566, according to the census data. In Hidalgo County there was one slave.

"The Bible tells us that Moses never got to see the holy land," said state Rep. Aaron Peña, D-Edinburg, quoting Scripture at the ceremony.

"Although these people may have not seen the promise of this country, their children are," he said of the black men and women interred at this cemetery, many of whom died before segregation was outlawed.

After the new historical marker was unveiled, the crowd joined hands and sang a bar of a protest anthem popularized during the civil rights movement of the 1960s.

"We shall overcome," they sang. "We shall overcome someday."

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Sean Gaffney covers law enforcement and general assignments for The Monitor. He can be reached at (956) 683-4434.

The Monitor Covers the Peña vs Saenz Debate

I attended the last debate before tomorrow's election at about 11 o'clock this morning. Unfortunately, it wasn't much of a debate. As The Monitor reported, Saenz was a "no-show". Some of today's delay were calls the moderator made to Eddie Saenz and Senator Hinojosa's office asking the candidate to show up. I waited for about an hour and then went ahead and finished my presentation before members of the news media.

The photo, taken by Sara Perkins, shows me interviewing the empty chair where my opponent would have been sitting if he had showed up.

Tomorrow's a pretty big day. I hope most of you show up at the polls.

Dist. 40: More Push Polling By The Saenz Campaign

We all read about the unethical push poll the Eddie Saenz campaign ran against me in October. To their credit, the Monitor newspaper denounced the tactic as unacceptable. No apologies were made despite the underhanded nature of the poll.

We are getting another series of reports that they're at it again. Apparently unsatisfied with their previous underhanded poll conducted by a Las Vegas firm and his current standing with the voters, this time the push poll seems to be conducted out of the local offices of the Eddie Saenz campaign.

From the beginning of this campaign we have asked that our opponent run a clean campaign. Our repeated requests have gone unanswered. We would call on the pillars of this community to once again denounce the unethical tactics used by Eddie Saenz. On March 4, I would ask the citizens of District 40 to once again show our overwhelming disdain for the mud-slinging and again reject Mr. Saenz at the polls.

District 40: Saenz Lies About Another Endorsement

Eddie Saenz has been caught once again trying to deceive the public. In an advertisement which ran in the Monitor on Sunday, February 10th, Eddie Saenz falsely claimed the endorsement of Edcouch City Council member Maria de la Cruz. After seeing the advertisement Mrs. de la Cruz expressed concern to me that she had not authorized her name to be used in an endorsement. Today she delivered to me a letter issued to our local newspaper expressing her belief that Eddie Saenz had deceived her and the newspaper.


This marks the third time that it has been proven that the Eddie Saenz campaign has lied to the public. Last month, Saenz falsely claimed that he had received the endorsement of the Sullivan City Mayor. The news magazine was forced to correct their initial story after it was determined that Saenz was falsely claiming an endorsement.

Last November in a story in the Edinburg Review Eddie Saenz lied about my vote on a legislative pension increase. I voted against it and he falsley claimed in the newspaper that I voted for it. The newspaper printed a retraction.

Today Edcouch City Council member Maria de la Cruz is the third dirty trick played on the press by my opponent. With 24 days left in this campaign it is not likely to be the last.

The Rio Grande Guardian Covers Clinton Visit To The Valley

MISSION, February 9 - Hillary Clinton looks set to hold a rally at the University of Texas-Pan American on Wednesday evening as she seeks to solidify her strong ties to the Rio Grande Valley by attracting more students and young people.

Details were being finalized by Hidalgo County and Starr County elected officials and key Democratic Party insiders at a meeting in Mission on Saturday afternoon. The group also agreed to open up a Valley campaign headquarters for Clinton in Pharr. The building is situated at 1210 Expressway 83 West in Pharr. It will open for business on Monday.

“We are very excited about Hillary Clinton’s visit to the Valley. She has strong ties to the region, going back many years and we expect a great turnout for the rally,” said state Rep. Aaron Peña, D-Edinburg, the Clinton campaign’s outreach director in the Valley.

Peña said no other events have been confirmed at this stage because the Valley’s Democratic leadership wants to give the advance planning team, led by Garry Mauro, Clinton’s Texas campaign manager, as much flexibility as possible. The advance team is wrapping up its work in other competitive states, Peña said.

In addition to Peña, other elected officials at the Mission meeting included state Sen. Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa, D-McAllen, and state Reps. Kino Flores, D-Palmview, Veronica Gonzales, D-McAllen, Armando “Mando” Martinez, D-Weslaco, and Ryan Guillen, D-Rio Grande City.

Among the Democratic Party insiders present at the meeting were McAllen banker and developer Alonzo Cantu, IBC banker David Guerra, Hidalgo County Democratic Party Chair Juan Maldonado, Texas Democratic Party Treasurer Victor Garza, La Joya Mayor Billy Leo, former Hidalgo County Judge Ramon Garcia, and Sandra Rodriguez, a Texas House District 36 candidate.

Peña said one of the key points addressed at the meeting was the need to make sure Democratic activists at the precinct level were mobilized for Clinton.

“Even though polls show that many South Texans support Hillary, the real battle often starts at the precinct conventions the moment the polls close,” Peña said. “Whoever is best organized between the two candidates has the best chance of success in securing delegates at the county convention, then the state convention, and then the national convention. It’s all about the number of delegates.”

Some analysts believe that U.S. Sen. Barak Obama, D-Illinois, Clinton's rival for the Democratic nomination, is better organized at the precinct level.

“Definitely, one of the key points made at today’s meeting was that we have to educate people on the delegate selection process, which begins with the precinct conventions. These rules are not well known, except by a handful of party insiders,” Peña said.

Ester Salinas, a Democratic Party activist from Mission, is hoping that Clinton will make a campaign swing through the contaminated Mission Superfund site because as a U.S. senator she has championed efforts to make big polluters pay for toxic clean-ups. “We want to tell our story because we believe Hillary will understand. We think she will help,” Salinas said.

Writen by Steve Taylor of the online political magazine the Rio Grande Guardian.