A Short Note: This is a very public declaration of Unconditional Surrender in what are known as the "browser wars." For more reasons than I can understand, Internet Explorer does not read, in some instances, my attempts at xhtml language or style sheets correctly. But the Firefox, Opera and Netscape browsers do. I have created this page, with a little help from my friends, from scratch instead of using any of the fine templates available. This for a reason. I am old, and need to exercise the brain to fight the short (and some long) term memory loss. But pleasing Microsoft is harder than solving the NY Times Sunday crossword. Besides which, I have spent time exercising my poor brain trying to please Internet Explorer sufficient in quantity to reach 80 years. And the odds of that happening are slim indeed.
So if you want to read the thing more or less how it is meant to be read, try any of the three browsers mentioned above, preferably Firefox.They are all free. I know it is in poor form to write what I just wrote, but like I said, I am old and am not willing to wait until Microsoft or I, for that matter, clean up our act.
The National Latino Congress Comes to El Paso
The toney downtown Camino Real Hotel was the setting for this year's meeting of the National Latino Congreso. Attended by about 1,000 delegates and observers from across the country, including several El Pasoans, the Congreso opened with a plenary session on Friday, January 29, and concluded on January 31. I was privileged to attend as an observer. Among the several resolutions placed before the Congreso, according to the El Paso Times,were the following:
"Mariana Chew, an El Paso environmental engineer, successfully pushed through a resolution demanding that the administration of the $52 million Asarco cleanup project exclude anyone who had worked on behalf of the former smelter.
El Pasoan Belen Robles, former national president of the League of United Latin American Citizens, offered a resolution thanking the Obama administration for naming the new federal courthouse after the late Judge Albert Armendariz Sr., who championed the civil rights of Hispanics."
No mention was made of the following:
The Meeting
On Monday, December 16, 2009, the group responsible for the Resolution held a public meeting at the Houchen Center in El Segundo Barrio. Because the meeting had been publicized, City of El Paso employees were present. Among them were Dr. Troy Ainswoth, the Historic Sites Preservation Officer and his assistant, Tony Ponce, and Ms. Olivia T. Montalvo, a Planner in the Neighborhood Services Division Department of Community and Human Development.
It was at this meeting that the concept of El Segundo Barrio as the Ellis Island of the border was first embraced and publicized by the group.
On Monday, February 1, the City held a public meeting at the Armijo Center in El Segundo Barrio. Among those invited by Mark Weber, a Senior Planner with the Community and Human Development division of Neighborhood Services, were Daryl Fields and Gerardo Payan of the United States Department of Justice; Jose Gonzalez and Debra Kanof, Assistant United States Attorneys; David Sanchez, Texas Department of Criminal Justice; Jerry Flood, National Parks Service; Adrian E. Lopez, United States Army, and James Parker, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. One is left with a sense of wonder at the necessity of inviting so many people in law enforcement.
Mark Alvarado of the Neighborhood Services Division of the Department of Community and Human Development presided over the 13th community meeting held by the City in its attempt to convince El Segundo residents that the revitalization plan of the City, born of the ill-fated plan sponsored by the Paso del Norte Group, was in fact a good thing. As in prior meetings, residents were outnumbred by City employees and supporters from La Fe, the community health clinic headed by Salvador Balcorta who earns somewhere between $225,000 - $300,000 plus expenses for his efforts, which include summarily firing any employee who does not support the City's plan, charging more to low income residents of El Segundo known to oppose the City's plan, and denying space to service programs for area residents for the same reasons.
After a repetitive power point presentation, Alvarado opened the floor to questions. Having explained a slide showing the City improving education by "partnering with the El Pso Independent School District, the Community College, and other groups involved in education", Alvarado was repeatedly asked for specific examples by Minnie Peña - the widow of my old pal District Judge Henry Peña, both of whom lived and were raised in El Segundo - and he could provide none.
It quickly became obvious that Minnie was making him lose his temper. William Lilly, Alvarado's supervisor, came to his aid by recognizing a young man who was given the microphone when he stepped to the front. Rather than ask a question, the young man finished a lengthy speech bordering on tirade as he concluded by telling the few residents that they had no choice but to support the City's plan.
I asked both Alvarado and Lilly if they were aware that back in the day, Debbie Hamlyn had been responsible for returning tens of millions of dollars to the Federal Government that it had provided for low income housing in El Segundo Barrio rather than spend the money. They both were ignorant of the fact. Hamlyn, who heads the Quality of Life Department and who is their boss, has somehow survived after a career of some thirty plus years filled with spectacular botches. Time back, the Homeless Coalition lost considerable federal funding because Andrew Hair, one of Hamlin's people, neglected to submit an important report to HUD. She hedged on that report and was ultimately obliged to answer for it. She survived, but Hair no longer works for the city.
Currently, Debbie Hamlyn is on the committee that is developing a Regional Health Care Program for "Hispanics." Be still, my heart. And as has been described to me, among all of the women heading up this thing, there is not one Hispanic, let alone a Mexican-American or Chicano woman professional involved in this committee. Nary a token one, even with all of the female physicians and health care professionals who are qualified in El Paso in either health care and/or management. Surely that is pretty much in line with all the names in the graphic showing the names under "Management" in Hamlyn's "Quality of Life" graphic shown above.
And this in a city that is 82+% Mexican-American Latino Chicano. By any account, Hamlyn is a disaster.
Yet, in tamden with City Manager Joyce Wilson, the pair run the City and there is no accountability, since the City Council has long ago reduced itself to rubber stamp status.
And Then I Asked the Question -
Having savored the nods of agreement from several old ladies when I commented that barrio residents could not trust anything done by Hamlyn given her history, I told Lilly that late Sunday, I had received a call from a young lady friend employee of the city, and the information she gave me when I asked her to meet me personally was disturbing.
At the same time, I handed him a copy of our Resolution as passed by the National Latino Congreso. While he was looking at it, I asked him if it was true that the personnel from the historic preservation department had been ordered not to involve themselves with historic sites in the barrio as these were too politically charged. With a straight face he smoothly said no, and that he seriously doubted that such a thing was possible. He said that in fact, if this was true, then the City would not have scheduled an appearance before the Historic Landmark Commission of the El Paso County for Wednesday, at 4 p.m., at the second floor of City Hall.
He then went went into a long monologue about a historic district costing millions, that Federal agents would be breathing down people's necks, and that they would even dictate the size of nails people would have to use for repairs. A man told him that this was patently absurd, that yes, there were guidelines, but that his information was plain wrong.
Having found out about the Wednesday meeting, having heard a remarkable example of a reply about the historic district designed to scare people, and bearing in mind a clergyman's observation about a prior City meeting to the effect that "Mark Alvarado showed his short fuse again . . . Bill Lilly, too, has a short fuse. They don't like negative criticism of that sacred plan of theirs. And no matter what they have said needed fixing, they keep serving up the same tired old plan" - my companion and I left.
My daughter accompanied me to the County Historic Landmark Commission meeting on Wednesday. We showed up at the appointed time. Shortly, Alvarado entered, we shook hands, and then Lilly came in. He too came over, saw the ND logo on my hoodie, told me he lived some few miles from South Bend, and asked me what we college kids used to do on the weekends. I told him we would drive 15 miles or so across the border to Niles, Michigan, which we had found to be more convivial than South Bend. He agreed, and we briefly discussed the state of discrimination in Indiana, which, we agreed, was and is dismal.
The Commission pesonnel entered, and the chairman called for public comment on matters not on the agenda. When my quick witted daughter jabbed me in the ribs, I went to the podium, asked permission to speak, identified myself, and told the Commissioners about our group, 
that what we were doing was a matter of public record, spoke to the history of El Segundo Barrio, the culture of its people, the contributions made by the first to join first to die youth - Marcelino Serna, the Audie Murphy of WWI, Sylvestre Herrera, Medal of Honor, WW2, a former farmworker from the barrio who moved to Arizona, and Ambrosio (Mocho) Guillen, Bowie High School pal of Paul Moreno, both of whom fought side by side in Korea, with Mocho being posthumously decorated with the Medal of Honor. Shamefully, I neglected to include Marcos Armijo, posthumously decorated with the nation's second highest honor, the Distinguished Service Cross for his actions in WWI.
I told the Commissioners that we felt the barrio deserved the honor of being recognized as the third leg of the tripod of immigration to this country: Ellis Island for Euroepan immigrants, Angel Island, for Asian immigrants, both of which are on the National Register, and El Segundo Barrio, for Mexican immigrants who have contributed so much to their adopted country.
I concluded by sharing with the Commissioners the words of an old WW2 friend, who has told me, in tears, that El Segundo Barrio deserves to be right up there with Ellis Island and Angel Island because we have paid for it with our blood and with our lives, given when we were young and when we answered - here! - when our county called.
As I left the podium, one of the Commissioners said "we applaud your efforts."
The old Alamo School in the barrio, an on again off again candidate for demolition by the EPISD, and which we are fighting to save, was next on the agenda.
Dr. Troy Ainsworth, Historic Preservation Officer of the City, spoke to the necessity of preserving the school and how the EPISD had not replied to his inquiries regarding inspecting the school. He told the Commission, however, that he and his assistant were directed weeks ago not to actively support historic designations of buildings in the Segundo Barrio, since the issue was politically charged.
He stated that although there is an item on the agenda regarding the Segundo Barrio Neighborhood Revitalization Strategy plan developed by the Department of Community Development, which includes a goal to identify historically significant buildings, the City's historic preservation staff was not included in the preparation of that document.
He went on to say that although he was in a difficult position, he could still assist people in their efforts to preserve such buildings in Segundo Barrio through forthright efforts when working with City staff. But, he said, he could not be pro-active in such assistance.
He also felt, he said, that the public was free to express its concerns about the potential fate of both Alamo School and the Segundo Barrio to EPISD officials and City officials.
The members of the Commision were obviously stunned. One member stated "oh yes, we hear you."
I asked permission to speak, and I reminded the Commissioners about the unnecessary razing of the Alamito Public Housing Projects, built in the 1930s, the removal of hundreds of longtime residents - the classic definition of gentrification - the classic old brick buildings replaced with modern architectural atrocities. I reminded them of the unnecessary destruction of the old Aoy school, monument to its founder Olives Aoy, the great hearted Mormon who embraced the Mexican children, and who agreed to have his school named the "Mexican Preparatory School" so he could obtain funding from the racist school board back in the day. I offered the assistance of our group to the Commission's efforts to inspect the school. It was not necessary.
Led by an enthusiastic woman member, the Commission voted unanimously to begin the process of naming Alamo School an historic building.
A stunning response both to the City and the EPISD.
And because we speak for our culture, nuestra gente and the blood of our veterans, we holler out loud and clear,
¡Sí se puede!
About
Jesus B Ochoa
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