The other war has nothing to do with Afghanistan. The other war is being viciously waged at home, both by the government and by the ever increasing number of hate groups, the latter being carefully documented by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Welcome to the Other War

For the brown community, it is a war being waged on two fronts: it is being waged against immigrants nationally, and, in Texas, using the immigrants for cover, it is being waged by Republican politicians against Mexicans generally.

Thanks to the evil blending of corporate power and the state with religious ideology, we now have hate as a quasi-national policy. And this is only the beginning.

In the event you had not noticed, the government under George W. Bush is waging a war against those most defenseless - the undocumented immigrant men, women and children who live in the shadows, in the good society's interstices, terribly fearful of being caught and deported, separated from family and job. It is a war led by the criminals Bush and and the former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales - the latter having perjured himself before the Congress - and both of whom have traduced the Constitution they made oath to defend. They were and are joined by the criminal former federal appellate judge Michael Chertoff - the very same Chertoff, who not only was complicit in the drowning of New Orleans, but who, as the head of the misnamed "Department of Homeland Security", has shifted his hatred of middle eastern immigrants to undocumented Mexicans and Central Americans.

Given the government's inhumane, and, I would argue, immoral witch-hunts disguised as raids directed at working undocumented immigrants, it is hardly surprising that hate groups are on the increase, nationally and in Texas.

Bush and Chertoff are assisted by lesser racists slopping at the public trough, as the extremist U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO), who "associates with a wide range of restrictionist, nativist, and white supremacist groups as part of his anti-immigration efforts. As sources of information, he recommends 'NumbersUSA' and the 'Federation for American Immigration Reform'. He is a frequent speaker at regional and national anti-immigration gatherings that include speakers from various vigilante and nativist groups, including such national figures as Chris Simcox, Glenn Spencer, and Barbara Coe. On Memorial Day weekend 2005, Tancredo was the keynote speaker at a Las Vegas meeting that aimed to coordinate anti-immigrant and militia operations over the summer.

Barbara Coe, leader of the 'California Coalition for Immigration Reform', told the assembly that illegal immigrants were 'illegal barbarians who are cutting off heads and appendages of blind, white, disabled gringos.'"

Add to the mix educated addledheads like Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter, both of whom have law degrees, minority racists like Michelle Malkin and their ilk, all of whom have extensive access to talk radio, print and electronic media, and the results are nothing if not pre-ordained. But that is hardly the end of it.

Add to the mix educated addledheads like Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter, both of whom have law degrees, minority racists like Michelle Malkin and their ilk, all of whom have extensive access to talk radio, print and electronic media, and the results are nothing if not pre-ordained. But that is hardly the end of it.

It has always intrigued me how it is that some people who have been educated at institutions identified with a given religion, can, in their public or professional lives, make it their lifes' work the hurling of diatribes at minorities or marginalizing them beyond all hope of integration into society. I am thinking specifically of Bill O'Rilley, a graduate of a private Catholic high school and of Marist College, and his so-called "Factor" program. The man literally spews hate and betrays, in every conceivable fashion that I can call to mind, his education and his religion. It is as if he had never heard, as a Catholic, of the Beatitudes.

In similar fashion, Chertoff, the son and grandson of Rabbis, betrays the Jewish tradition of never dehumanizing other human beings. Until people who think like Chertoff were brought into his administration by Bush, race, ethnicity and religion were not deciding factors on which policies would be based. It seems to me that the following midrash, quoted by the late Cardinal O'Connor in 1964 at a talk at Pace University, and cited by Nate Hentoff, a self-described aetheistic Jew in his book, "John Cardinal O'Connor", well makes the point:

"A little midrash [a rabbinical commentary], one of the thousands of the many beautiful midrashim

that are built on the sacred Torah. We're told God saw a group of angels dancing in heaven.

He asked why they are dancing, why do they celebrate.

They said, 'Because your children the Israelites have just safely crossed the Sea of Reeds, Dry Shadda.'

God said, 'Why are you dancing? My children the Egyptians are drowning.'"

Let me cut to the chase. I like to believe, and I admit to no substantiating data, that no more than 10 - 15% of the 30% or so of those who approve of Bush are die hard, committed and activist racists. There well may be activist racists among those who disapprove of Bush: again, with no substantiating data, I think that this would be a very small number. If this is so, 10 - 15% is bad enough. More would indeed be a calamity. Representative of this group are say, Tom Tancredo and his skinhead-vigilante friends who wave the Nazi standard. Add to these another 5% or so of Democrats who love to spout the "what part of illegal don't you understand" line, and, assuming that I'm somewhere near the mark, this leaves me with an estimated 15 - 20% base of racists and hard-right fundamentalist Christians who apparently believe that Mexicans really want to reconquer those parts of the U.S. that were once part of Mexico.

The remaining 10% or so are silly people who really believe that there is a "crisis" caused by undocumented Mexicans and that the border must be secured at all costs. These working numbers will serve my purpose, which is to call these people out, and Bush among them, in matters of immigration.

First, understand that the only "crisis" is a humanitarian one, and that is the increasing numbers of deaths in the desert or in the river. Yes, middle America, men, women and children are dying in appalling numbers, criminals all, at least in your eyes, whose only crime was to seek a job without waiting for ten or more years to be allowed to enter the country legally.

Why do they come north? If Central Americans, they come because their countries' economies are still recovering from our proxy wars, largely of the Reagan years. If from Mexico, they come because Clinton's NAFTA ruined the middle class businesses and the agricultural sector. While the U.S. still subsidizes her corporate farms, Mexico long ago stopped her subsidies as called for by NAFTA. Once marginally solvent Mexican farmers come north. They have nowhere else to go to find work. Stop acting like you didn't know we don't obey our own treaties, and for the love of all that's holy, stop playing like the undocumented are victimizing you. It's the other way around.

You created the problem, learn the hard facts of life. As you sowed, so you are reaping.

Second, understand that Bush and his cronies only want to create a permanent underclass of temorary workers with no rights. Hell, if the business lobby and the chambers of commerce had their way, workers would pay a fine for getting hurt on the job.

Third, understand that the immigration bill that died was terribly bad law, and one that made us look like a nation of Scrooges with the outlandish fees charged and to be charged, not to mention the penalties for those criminal breakers of the law.

You should really read and inform yourselves. Then maybe you would be able to stop acting like cheerleaders for a bunch of racists aided by pasty faced would-be southern good-old-pillsbury dough boys like Senators Saxby Chambliss, John Cornyn, Richard Shelby, and Lindsey Graham. Not a real man among the bunch.

Next time you politicians want to pass a law "securing" the border, a whole bunch of which is open, just declare war on Mexico. It's been too many years since the last invasion, don't you think? Seems to me that approach would be more in keeping with our history, rather than to continue letting the south fight the civil war anew, only this time using my brown brethren and sisthren as what sociologists call "conflict partners."

As my brother Xicano Power has well written, "It is interesting that a country with a slogan 'home of the free' locks up 2 million men, women, boys, and girls - most of them people of color. For the most part, these people are simply prisoners in limbo because of this nation's broken immigration policies. The only requirement for being a prisoner was to be unlucky enough to be picked up and imprisoned for being brown and looking for the American dream. Should we really be surprised? No. Not when the country's former anti-terrorist czar Tom Ridge considered undocumented migrants as a 'danger' and should be treated like terrorists, drug smugglers, or weapons of mass destruction in an official document that establishes US policy in respect to its borders, a policy derived from the accords that the Mexican government signed with the US government in Monterrey."

Finally, and speaking of reading, try to undo the damage caused by teachers and textbook authors. Look up Lies My Teacher Told Me (James W. Loewen, The New Press, New York, 1995), from which this tidbit is taken at page 118:

"From 1815 on, instead of spreading democracy, we exported the ideology of white supremacy. Gradually we sought American hegemony over Mexico, the Philippines, much of the Caribbean basin, and, indirectly, over other nations . . . We also have to admit that Adolf Hitler displayed more knowledge of how we treated Native Americans than American high schoolers who rely on their textbooks. Hitler admired our concentration camps for Indians in the west 'and often praised to his inner circle the efficiency of America's extermination - by starvation and uneven combat' - as the model for his extermination of Jews and Gypsies." (citing sources). Just substitute Mexicans for Indians, don't starve them, just jail them, break up families, and then deport their sorry butts.

And, oh yes, America, God shed His grace on thee.

Now, am I saying that the hate driven philosophy described and shown above has anything to do with destroying the oldest and most historic Mexican barrio in El Paso? Well, if you have a certain belief, as Bill Sanders does when he says that the barrio is a "pile of shit", don't you think your motives can be questioned?

Killing the Barrio

Sec. 2.92.020 of the El Paso Municipal Code provides that   ".  .  . ethical conduct is more than complying with state codes .  .  .  the standards established in this chapter are minimum standards below which no city officer or employee's conduct should fall."

O'Rourke has not limited his support for the plan to formal action as a member of City Council. He has actively shilled for the thing on his own time in public forums and meetings, and has gone to the south side on several occasions to ask cleverly misleading questions of people whose skills in English are suspect at best. Yes, at times he's taken an interpreter, County Commissioner Veronica Escobar, but that hasn't affected the questions: wouldn't you like better housing?, and so on. We call them leading questions because well, they suggest the answer.

Now, we all know O'Rourke's father-in-law is Bill Sanders, who has profited hugely, and now owns a significant porttion of prime downtown real estate. We all know O'Rourke's wife works for Salvador Balcorta at "La Fe", where she is treated with kid gloves. We all know Balcorta is the biggest Tio Taco in town, and that he fires any employee who dares to question the plan and has unresolved EEOC complaints pending against him. Given all this, O'Rourke hasn't fallen below the minimum standards? No wonder he didn't have to face the real thing.

Once again the people have had to suffer the antics of a corrupt politician, thanks to the City Attorney, with an assist from Michael R. Wyatt, "El Amigo de los Pobres", O'Rourke's lawyer for the occasion.

Speaking of lawyer Wyatt reminds me that at bottom, we have Ray Caballero - the man who single handedly outlawed nickels and dimes as legal tender for municipal parking meters, granting coin of the realm status only to quarters - for putting what was to become the plan in motion.

"Q. Gilberto and Jack, we're told you're among the founders of the group. Tell us how it got started. Moreno:Ray Caballero was and remains a very good friend, and Ray, when he was mayor, got me involved with Jack and Myrna Deckert to start taking a look at downtowns. And even years ago, right after Ray had just been elected, we hopped on a plane and visited several cities, just to try to get a sense of what it might mean to revitalize our Downtown. This had to be 2002. And we started taking a look at issues such as the aging of Downtown, the role downtowns play in economic development and a community's whole employment posture. Through our studies, and having lived in Denver and San Antonio and other places, I've learned that every community has a unique environment to offer. Here in El Paso today, we're in such a great position to take advantage of those inherent things that other communities can't really offer - the border environment, our multicultural population. A vibrant Downtown would do a lot to increase our chances for success.

Cardwell: Myrna called me one day and asked me to meet with her and then-Mayor Caballero. Ray was very interested in improving Downtown, if you remember. So we met and we talked about it. And I remember Gilbert was there. We started talking and we realized we we're a bunch of dummies when it comes to what makes a great Downtown. Well, I've known Bill Sanders over the years, and I asked him to come down and meet with us, and he did. Caballero went through the deal with him, and the bottom line was Bill said, 'If all you're going to do is Downtown, I don't have an interest. If you really want this project to work, we need to take a regional approach.' Also, at that time Woody Hunt had started the Leadership Research Council. And so we all joined together under Myrna's guidance. The Paso Del Norte name was recommended by a member out of Juarez; it was a much better name than what we were talking about."

I have added the emphasis, but let's repeat this anyway:  "Bill said, 'If all you're going to do is Downtown, I don't have an interest. If you really want this project to work, we need to take a regional approach.'"

And as is now well known, Sanders' vision is of a border stretching from Texas to California, including northern Mexico, New Mexico, and other portions of the sousthwestern states, which he seeks to develop largely for commercial purposes. Privately held REITS and the right of eminent domain are unreplaceable elements in his grand design.

So besides Sanders, Caballero has graced us with the continuing presence of his pals Wyatt, O'Rourke, Byrd, Veronica Escobar, and a newcomer of sorts by the name of James E. Suerken, all shills for Sander's plan. Ray, old bud, you are truly the gift that keeps on giving.

Second, Bill Sanders momentarily looked charity in the face, and almost immediately blinked. I can't help but insert a marvelous quote at this point from fellow moneybags and onwner of the national Petro truck stops, Jack Cardwell, that speaks volumes: "He (Sanders) was born here and he's trying to help El Paso. But there's a limit to how far anybody's going to be pushed and be accused of being a thief. He purposely doesn't own any land Downtown because he doesn't want to be involved in somebody saying he's doing this for money. He's not; he's doing it because he loves El Paso."

Of course, "Borderplex 201 East Main," a "limited liability corporation" dating from January 10, 2007, had yet to be born at the time Cardwell spoke. According to El Paso, Inc., this version of "Borderplex" is governed by, and only by, another version of Borderplex, this one called "Borderplex Community Trust," a real estate investment trust, dating from January 4, 2007.

It is this latter version of "Borderplex" that has bought the downtown Chase Bank Building and the Wells Frago Bank building to boot. This Borderplex is trusteed over by, among others, Bill Sanders, and yes, Jack Cardwell. If that isn't enough love for you, here's yet a bit more. Recall that the word for green in Spanish is "verde" and verde figures prominently here, it being the color of money.

There is "Verde Corporate Realty Services LLC", which surfaced in Texas on Otober 6, 2004, and which is managed by Verde Group, LLC, as its "Managing Member." And there is "Verde Realty," yet another real estate investment trust, registered in Texas on November 28, 2006, and trusteed over by C. Ronald Blankenship, Eric S. Dobkin, John P. Frazee Jr., H. Lawrence Fuller, Ray L. Hunt, Jay O. Light, Steven Roth, William D. Sanders and Eloy S. Vallina, of the legendary Mexican fanmily that earned a large portion of their blood money by exploiting the lumber in the Sierra Tarahumara of Chihuahua state, to the detriment of the indigenous people who inhabit the area.

If there is another word in the legal lexicon that is more misused than the word "trust," it has for seventy-three years escaped my notice.

And with all that love around, who can blame our local politicians and hangers-on for wanting to put some of that love on the Segundo Barrio?

Well, they might want to ponder the words of El Paso Inc. writer Mike Mrkvicka, who concluded his fine article thus:

"Though the REIT was established with the support of the El Paso City Council and though its goal of redeveloping downtown widely viewed as public spirited, terms in the lease agreement with Chase Bank leave no doubt that the Borderplex Community Trust is a private, profit-making organization comfortable with exclusionary practices that make financial sense for its tenants and unconcerned with politically correct niceties.

"According to the lease memorandum, Borderplex promises the bank that it will not rent space in the Chase Building to drug-, alcohol- or substance-abuse programs, to abortion clinics or 'to any other politically controversial use which could reasonably engender disruptive public outrage.' In addition, Borderplex will not rent to liquor stores, telemarketing services, other financial institutions or 'any governmental entity or agency providing walk-in services directly to the public.'"

Recall that Sanders had resigned from the fray as to free his son-in law Robert O'Rourke from any ethical dilemmas. Allegedly, the Mayor and his assistants had come up with a plan under which Sanders would clasp philantrophy to his bosom by donating his share of his Real Estate Investment Trust profits to charity for a period of ten years. But, given that, like murder, money will out, Sanders has of course changed his mind with a bang, once again making Mayor Cook look like a consort to Joyce Wilson, as this odd couple prances about in the Border Wonderland to the tune that Sanders pipes.

And as the plan continues to steamroller everything in its path to the benefit of Sanders' REITS, here is a brief history of the imperiled barrio these people seek to destroy and the battle that has been waged to save it.

Crónicas de El Paso

I The Barrio

If you picture downtown El Paso bisected by a line running from west to east, the line being Paisano Drive, you would arrive at a pretty accurate distribution of buildings as they define the central part of the city. The state and federal courthouses are located three blocks north of Paisano, and San Jacinto Plaza, the historic center of the city, is five blocks up in the same direction. The central banks, City Hall, and most architecturally (but not historically) significant buildings lie north. About twenty or so blocks north of Paisano lies Rim Road, which leads to Scenic Drive, the latter straddling the lower reaches of Mt. Franklin, where one can stop and look down on the city and on Mexico to the south through high powered glasses. Rim Road pretty much defines the southernmost point where Mt. Franklin (this tip end of the Rockies is best described as a tall hill or as a baby mountain, since it is somewhere in between) ends, as the mountain bisects the city from north to south.

Rim Road runs along the bluff that overlooks the central city. When El Paso was first established, the gentry preferred to live near the center of town. The bluff was not deemed to be desirable property, and the Mexican settlers were relegated to the high ground. However, it did not take long to realize that a mistake had been made; the gentry took the high ground, and the Mexicans were sent packing south of Paisano Drive, then known as Second Street. The first "Mexican" school was established in 1887 by Jaime Aoy Olies Vila, a Spaniard and converted Mormon. Aoy not only taught, but supported his students with food and clothing as well. In 1888 the El Paso School Board incorporated Aoy's school into its system, but only on a segregated basis, and it was renamed the "Mexican Preparatory School". A new "Aoy" grammar school today is located five blocks south of Paisano Drive, and but two blocks away from the Mexican border.

From the earliest days of El Paso, the "First Ward" was taken to be where the fair skinned settlers lived, and the "Second Ward" was where the Mexicans lived, and any straying beyond its borders by the latter was not suffered lightly. This, in spite of the fact that more than one of the early city fathers took to wife a Mexican heiress of a land grant or of a few hundred acres of desirable land. No fools they.

The Second Ward was and is known to the residents as "el Segundo Barrio", and it is a thriving community with a deeply ingrained sense of ethnic pride. It is the site of the original Bowie High School ( at one time 100% Mexican-American with an occasional Black) and its fabled 1949 state championship baseball team, the members of which slept in their cars in Odessa and elsewhere, having been denied lodging while on their way to Austin. It is the seat of Sacred Heart and Saint Ignatius Churches, which were homes to their founders, the Jesuit order in El Paso. It is also home to Public Housing Projects, the earliest of which was the Alamito Projects, which dated back to the 1930s. They were recently demolished under the gentrification-based "Hope 6" project, approved by Housing Authority directors appointed by former mayor ay aballero and current mayor John Cook, over the strong objections of community people and the Church.Ambrosio GuillenTwo servicemen with roots in the barrio have been awarded the medal of honor: Silvestre Herrera , a former farmworker and member of the storied Texas 36th, the "Arrowhead Division", for his heroism in WWII, and Ambrosio Guillen, who sacrificed his life in Korea, and in whose honor "Guillen Middle School" (where he was a student), formerly the old Bowie High, was named. The Segundo Barrio is viewed by many as a sort of Ellis Island of the border. For sure it has been and continues to be the gateway for immigrants from Mexico, and passage has always been difficult.

During the year the Public Health Service assigned a new physician to the El Paso bridge and immediately upon arrival the new physician instituted an active campaign of what he termed venereal diseases. One week after he had taken charge of the local Station, he was taking up an average of fifty passports per day of local residents of El Paso claiming that such persons were afflicted with either syphilis oradenitis. He went so far as to make a statement to me that he had proofs that Mexican people or people of Mexican ancestry were afflicted with such loathsome diseases and that the average ran up to 95%, in other words, that 5% of such people were free of venereal diseases.

Annual Report, El Paso Office, July 1, 1930 to June 30, 1931.

Exact figures are not available .  .  .  The U. S. Immigration Service failed to keep an accurate record; the Mexican service did likewise. I have made a close study of Repatriates and I can honestly state that a conservative estimate can be placed at 600,000 Mexicans returning to Mexico as Repatriates or as Voluntary Returns .  .  .   I know of my own personal knowledge that the majority of California repatriates left California for two reasons: (a) That it was next to impossible for a Mexican to get a job. (b) that a free railroad ticket was offered to the Border in order that he 'might find his way to Mexico where he originally came from'. To satisfy my curiosity, I personally questioned each adult on a California special train consisting of 9 chair cars (each seat occupied by two adults and from three to five children in each seat, every available seat occupied), and I found that out of a total of 915 persons on that particular train, only 127 persons were Mexican citizens; all the rest were American citizens  .  .  .

Annual Report, El Paso Office, July 1, 1931 to June 30, 1932.

My late uncle Cleofas Calleros wrote the above in his capacity as Mexican Border Representative for the United States Catholic Welfare Conference, which is now defunct. The zeitgeist of the times was rabidly anti-Mexican in the frenzy that swept the country during the depression years, a time when it was popular to blame Mexican-American citizens for having taken "American jobs". The depression repatriations were followed by the infamous "Operation Wetback" of the Eisenhower years, and it was my uncle's best estimate that for the two years or so that the operation was active in Texas, approximately 1,800,000 were deported, and as in the deportations of 1931-32, many American citizens were among their number. In fact, it was a number of lawsuits brought by citizens, coupled with resistance from farmers and ranchers, that eventually stopped the "operation". In one celebrated case, an American citizen deportee was sent to the state of Chiapas, on the Guatemalan border.  It took him some two months to hitch-hike his way back to the border. He was reportedly awarded damages in six figures.

In between the depression repatriations and Operation Wetback, it has always been the case that an inspector at any of the bridges can take either a passport or a local crossing card from its bearer for any reason, usually because of suspicion of fraud or because the card does not belong to the bearer, etc. It is almost impossible for the bearer to recover the card, since cards are issued by the State Department, and its "discretionary" actions are not subject to review by judicial authorities. During the time that Sylvestre Reyes was chief of the El Paso Sector of the Border Patrol, the practice reached its zenith. With the introduction of "laser" cards, it has decreased, but people from Mexico with cards still cross at their peril. It is sufficient for an inspector to take a card simply because he does not like the way the bearer looks, and to subject the bearer to intense and intrusive questioning with practically no holds barred. In these times, when the former "El Paso Port of Entry" logo has been replaced by that of the vaguely Germanic "El Paso Sector - Department of Homeland Security", inspectors are not known to be kind.

A personal note. My Grandfather Ismael Calleros, a law abiding man, paid 50 cents when he crossed the border sometime back in 1895-96?. He rented a room in the Segundo Barrio, and he worked as a bottle washer in a local dairy. He sent money to Refugio, my Grandmother, who stayed with her brood of five little ones in the village of Santa Rosalia, now Villa Coronado, Chihuahua. She refused to join him until she crossed over, illegally, in 1902. I remember her telling me that $3.00 went a long way toward rent, and she didn't want to tap the savings she had to buy a house. Cleo was six years old, and he was the only survivor of the 1904 diptheria epidemic. My uncles Ismael, Luis, and my mother, Ofelia, all born after the crossing, were citizens by birth. All are dead, and at a soon to be 74, I am the oldest surviving son of both my maternal and paternal lines. I lived for the first six years of my life with my extended family in a small house on Tays Street in the barrio that my grandparents had bought. They lived in the barrio all their lives, and they died in a small tenement directly across the street from St.Ignatius.

Shortly before he died, Cleo gave me a bound volume of onionskin copies of his reports to the NCWC during his tenure as its Border Representative. At the time he gave me the book, Cleo told me never to forget where my family on both sides had come from, why they had come, what they had done, and always to look to the future. And at the time of his death, he was a Knight of the Order of St. Gregory and a Knight of the Order of Isabela la Católica, having been honored by the Vatican for his work in his church, and by the government of Spain for his writings on the history of the El Paso-Juárez area.

When my daughter Stephanie was married in 1986, she insisted on marrying in St. Ignatius Church in the barrio where my mother had been married. Will Neely, my Irish son-in-law, was such a good ole' Democrat country boy type from the north of Dallas that he didn't even know how to knot his tie, and I had to do it for him. I couldn't have asked for a better match for my daughter, and this coming August they will celebrate 20 years together. It looks like that five kids later, it might last.

In the final analysis, the barrio is or has been the home of thousands upon thousands of Mexicans and Mexican-Americans, people who have forever marked it with their living culture; for many, it is the home of the Chicano movement, of people who migrated north and west to create the Latino barrios of Los Angeles and Denver, it is the home of gifted muralists and poets, it is the home of political activists,and it the home of many of the first Chicano writers. As the saying goes, the barrio is old, it is proud, it is brave, and it is not for sale.

Nor are its memories of families like mine, and there are thousands of us. Unfortunately, many of us have indeed forgotten our roots: instead of Melitón, the name of choice is now Milton:  Jesús has become Jesse, and instead of María, Marie or plain Mary is in vogue. The politics of the now correctly named have also shifted to the right. But surely they must from time to time remember, and to doubt. Or at least, one would so hope.

II The Plan

During the immediate past Administration headed by former mayor Joe Wardy, a hugely unpopular man who was defeated in his bid for re-election, the city council hired a City Manager. The voters had authorized the change in government from the strong mayor to the city manager style in a previous election. Hired for the position was Joyce Wilson, an apparently highly qualified person with a graduate degree in urban studies (planning) from Harvard. About two years ago, the City contracted with the Paso del Norte Group, a secretive organization open to membership only through the recommendation of two active members and the payment of $1,800.00 in fees, to explore the possibilities of revitalizing downtown El Paso. Bill Sanders, the multi-billionaire owner of Verde Realty, is the driving foce behind the PDNG. Under his leadership, the PDNG contracted with SMWM, the acronym for Simon-Martin-Veque Winkelstein Moris, which bills itself as an "architecture, planning and urban-design firm" headquartered in San Francisco, to develop a plan for the said revitalizaton. The City contributed a cool $250,000 in taxpayer funds as its share of the costs. When Wilson officially started working in September, 2004, she quickly became the City's point person to the PDNG. On March 31, 2006, the PDNG unveiled its Downtown Revitalization Plan to rescue the deteriorating heart of the city.

Almost immediately, strong criticism and opposition surfaced, largely because of its secrecy and because most people had never even heard of the PDNG. The mayor was quick to defend it sight unseen, unless one is to believe the speculation that as mayor, he was given a peek or two. And, I might add, only a fool would believe otherwise. Among the mayor's perceived strengths, earned from his oppostion to Wardy's more extravagant schemes, was his ability to withstand the lure of big money. Sadly, there has never been a more spectacular sellout than the mayor's embarrassing lust for the developers' wealth, to the delight of his new age, addle headed supporters of eminent domain for private gain epitomized by council members Robert O'Rourke, Suzy Byrd, Steve and Presiliano Ortega (the latter no longer on the council) and Ann Lilly.

And as it has developed, neither Joyce Wilson nor the San Francisco planners had the slightest notion that their plan would excite such passionate opposition. They clearly didn't anticipate that the class based paternalism would so gradually and predictably sedge into the threat of cultural genocide, so to speak, given the "sanitize" the barrio rhetoric which was and is widely perceived as anti-Mexican. How could it be otherwise? Consider the history set out above. The majority of my brown brothers and sisters are not quick to trust politicians and their plans to either sanitize or save us from ourselves. To sanitize, according to the proponents of the plan, is to raze the barrio, put up modern, upscale apartments, guarantee rents by law for four years, and then let the inevitable happen; displace the people, allow a higher "class" of tenants to move in which can truly support the upscale hotels, stores and businesses that the planners envision.

The breadth of the "Plan" is astonishing, as is its genesis. It was conceived in secret, presented as a done deal, and in a series of lies, damned lies and makeup masquerading as final revisions, mostly issuing from the mouth of mayor John Cook and his allies on the council, it was adopted by the City as its plan and not the plan of the PDNG. It is a plan not only to revitalize downtown El Paso, which had suddenly and initially been expanded to encompass 172 acres including the Segundo Barrio, but also to destroy a vibrant community, which, as stated above, has never been a part of downtown. It is a plan to further enrich already wealthy real estate developers by trampling over those least able to defend themselves, for the barrio these days is populated in the main by women and children. Through the use of eminent domain, the City will take over private property in the barrio and transfer it over to a privately held Real Estate Investment Trust or Trusts which will then implement the plan. Make no mistake about it. These REITs are profit driven, and their obligations are to their shareholders, and in today's greed-fueled world, profits, and not people, will be the bottom line.The City has enthusiastically embraced the obscene holding of the hugely unpopular Supreme Court decision allowing the taking of property and in effect privatizing eminent domain.

In truth, the PDNG plan was and continues to be the plan of the Group, notwithstanding the fact that the City has adopted and given it a new name: it is now officially "The Plan for El Paso". To sell the plan, the City, joined by representative "presenters" from SMWM, held a series of "public" meetings where about 180 members of the public - genrally the capacity of the venues - could comment on the plan. I went to the first one in central El Paso, and when I failed to indicate any organization I belonged to or to furnish my telephone number while registering, I was questioned at length. A satisfactory compromise was reached when I put "citizen" in the space reserved for "organization", although I refused to share my phone number, even though it is in the book. For approximately one hour and a half, a power point presentation was made by Evan Rose, an architect and apparent salesman with SMWM. It could not have been more boring nor could it have been received with less enthusiasm. The bulk of the questions and comments which followed were obviously anti-plan.

I asked what's going to happen to the residents; can they afford to live in the new apartments? Why yes, said Sandra Sánchez Almanzán of the local Fannie Mae office, a staunch supporter of the plan. By law, she said, the rents are frozen at their current level for four years.And what is going to happen to the tenants after four years if they couldn't pay higher rents, for you know rents would go up as sure as God made little green apples? Well, what happens to tenants everywhere. Evictions? Yes, but what's the problem? They can move to other public housing. But they're already tearing down the Alamito projects in order to replace then with duplexes, mixed-income tenants and a lesser number of apartments. Many people there will be displaced also. Well, that's not part of our plan, and it's not our problem, say the politicians and the plan's cheerleaders.

The presentation was repeated on the west side (including the upper valley, conservative), the northeast side (mostly trashy conservative), and on the eastside (yuppie Anglos and conservative Mexican-Americans). Only on the west and eastside were questions and comments slightly favorable to the plan. The question remains why no presentations were ever given on the southside (heavily Mexican-American) or in the "Mission" valley (formerly the "lower" valley, renamed to remove any stigma, real or apparent, felt by the occupants of the lower bunk, so to speak), also heavily Mexican-American.

Finally, on Monday, June 26, at a special meeting of the City Council held in the theatre at the El Paso Civic Center, the thing began to come together, but not as the politicians had planned. There were protests inside and outside the theatre. I stayed ouside.

Beginning at 5:30 or so in the afternoon, opponents began to gather. Many representatives of the Korean business community, the downtown business people who oppose the plan, property owners, residents of the barrio, the farmworkers "Sin Fronteras" people, and assorted activists - perhaps 130 people, including children, began a circular walk on the esplanade in front of the theatre. They all carried picket signs, either their own or those supplied by the business people. At about 6:15 or so, one of the marchers - a young active high school student from Bowie High - came running up to me and told me that the police were going to arrest the people.

I had been sitting on a lawn chair, as it was not one of my better days. I walked toward a couple of policemen, one wearing the equivalent of a colonel's eagles on his lapels and the other a sergeant. I introduced myself as a retired lawyer, telling them that what I was going to say was not legal advice, but fact: and that was simply that this was a First Amendment issue and - at which point I was told by the colonel that they were not there to talk, that unless the people went to the sidewalk we would all be arrested. I started in again and was cut off, the sergeant type this time almost yelling as he told me that they were not there to talk to me but to arrest me and the others if we didn't leave. I told him to do what they had to do and to be sure to call a bunch of paddy wagons, because there were quite a number of people including children. I stood there for a bit and nothing else happened.

Then, as I walked away, one of them hollered hey! and I turned and yelled that if they wanted to talk to me, to come to me, and I sat down. A bit later I was to tell the police that they were exposing themselves to a lawsuit in which they could not, with what they had been told in front of witnesses, claim the defense of good faith qualified immunity. I was told that lawsuits came with the territory. I answered that they wouldn't enjoy being cross-examined by me in a federal court, and that given my physical condition, if anything happened to me, my young daughters would collect damages. They moved off, and things cooled a bit.

Robert O'Rourke, the councilman universally viewed as the leader of the city-council supporters of the plan was spotted by the media when he arrived, and he was immediately surrounded by media people and kept from entering the theatre. While he was being interviewed, the protesters surrounded him also and were quite loud in their pointed remarks. After a bit, he entered the building, as did most of the protesters. The police left the esplanade. About 10 or so of us, mostly people from "Sin Fronteras", the farmworkers' organization, remained outside. We were sitting around and chatting. A Korean lady and her kid were in the group, but were keeping pretty much to themselves. At about 7 p.m. or so, three other policemen came up and told us we had to move over to the sidewalk, some distance away. I told them that the public meeting made the esplanade a public forum, repeated the thing about lawsuits, and surprisingly, they said they were only following orders. They were adamant, and a communal decision was made to the effect that we had made our point and since there were no more people outside, we would move to the sidewalk, but I held back, trying to get the police people to talk to a higher authority.

Finally one of them said that his orders came from the top, but wouldn't say whether the mayor or the chief gave the order. Bless the Korean lady, she started saying "show me the paper, sir, show the, the paper, sir". I thought she meant an arrest warrant. She also kept saying that she had a right to sit there and to wait for her husband, who was in the theatre. The police person doing most of the talking finally lost it, and in answer to her kid's assertion that he had rights, almost shouted that "you have no rights, you have no rights here at all" - an incredible statement under any circumstances, but even more so when made to an obvious immigrant. I told the kid to calm down and that I would remain as their witness because they had one hell of a lawsuit.

I then noticed state Sen. Shapleigh exit the theatre, or so I thought, and I asked an elderly farm worker lady to please see if it was him, and she went and it was - but by now he was speaking to someone or another. He listened to her, though, and came over right away and gave the police a pretty decent free speech First Amendment lecture. I thought I heard him mention the magic words "public forum". It is amazing how Mayor Cook, who has sworn to defend the Constitution, does exactly the opposite by using the police to forbid consitutionally protected activity. Truly a champion hypocrite.Shapleigh greeted me, and I told him to tell his good friend the mayor to get his butt in gear (in less kinder terms). Ever the politician, he began shaking hands with the rest of our group.

I congratulated the Korean lady and her kid, and one of them, I think the lady, made a comment to the effect that the cops were too young to have ever fired a rifle in defense of freedom. I asked the kid if he went to high school in El Paso, and he told me he was a student at Texas Tech in Lubbock. I found out later that the lady was the mother of Richard Kim, who studies medicine and is active in opposition to the plan, that the kid was his brother, and that the "paper" his mom wanted was the alleged order telling the cops to remove them from the esplanade.

Inside the theatre, the politicians were apparently spreading the urban gospel in the psychobabble of the times."It is a physical plan. Although a reflection of social and economic values, the plan is fundamentally a guide to the physical development of the city. It is the translation of values into a scheme that describes how, when and where to build, rebuild or preserve the City."

The above quotes appear in a publicity flyer distributed by the City. Well, of course, it is a physical plan. Eminent domain is not a metaphysical construct.

The "values" are obviously those of uber free-market driven capitalists of the Bush variety and real estate developers, guided by a toney San Francisco firm that simply didn't know how to deal with a statistically large Mexican-American community which it marginized by its total exclusion from the planning process. A close Anglo friend of mine, on being shown a membership list of the PDNG obtained through the Freedom of Information Act said to me, "good God, Och, if you put half of the lawyers, developers, accountants and millionaires listed here together in one room, these sharks would be at each others' throats in a New York minute."

Things may be going to hell in a handbasket but hey! Things are looking good! These are exciting times!, gushes Suzy Byrd, a councilwoman hell bent on saving the Mexicans from themselves. Are you ready, El Paso?! Are you ready to move forward?!, the plan's supporters shout.

III Who Are These People?

I say "these people" to underscore the fact that when I used the term in questioning the membership of the PDNG, I was accused of racism by a quick-to-grasp-things as they really are supporter of the group. First, there is Sanders, aptly described as "perhaps the most powerful landlord in the country. He presides over an incredibly complex ring of REITs with a combined market cap of $8.6 billion, and he has stakes worth about $2 billion in scores of other REITs." He is, as stated above and beyond question, the driving force behind thePDNG, and a man whose fortunes have only increased with the passage of time. Then there is his son-in-law, Robert O'Rourke, a first term city councilman. O'Rourke was born to money and learned Spanish at the knee of the family maid, or so the story goes. Another story has it that there is tainted blood in the family background.

In any event, when he stood for office he initially billed himself as Robert (Beto) O'Rourke. Beto is the diminutive of either Roberto or Alberto in Spanish. One is grateful he didn't do the full routine and refer to himself as Betito. Having won office, he dropped the Robert and began calling himself Beto O'Rourke, possibly hoping to appeal more to the residents of the barrio, which he represents. It didn't much help in the barrio, for no politician in my memory has been so roundly despised by his barrio constituents and in such a short time as is O'Rourke.

He strongly insists that he has no conflict of interest in the matter, even though he is married to Sanders's daughter. Indeed, Sanders resigned his membership in the PDNG, giving as his reason his belief that this would silence any criticism about any conflict of interest on O'Rourke's part. Of course, the criticism has only grown. In addition, O'Rourke's wife also happens to work for Sal Balcorta at La Fe Clinic. Balcorta is one of the big name Mexican-Americans who work in the barrio. Some of the more clever types in the barrio have it that O'Rourke has counselled with Tom DeLay on the ethics problem. People here tend to know that when they purchase a rabbit for the pot, if they are not careful, they can wind up getting a skinned cat instead.

Susannah Mississipi Byrd, known as Suzy, is also a first term councilwoman and an avid supporter of the plan. She is given to hyperbole and is known for weeping almost at the drop of a hat when her support for the plan is questioned. She has been heard to state that the plan must, really must be implemented, for we will never have another opportunity like this one for the next fifty years.When questioned about the impact it will have on the lives of thousands in the barrio, she has quickly and airily dismissed any such concerns, having stated time and again and as noted above that one is not to worry, for "these are exciting times! Change is painful, but we are going to move ahead! These are exciting times!" Interestingly, Suzy's father, Bobby Byrd, has established a successful publishing house in El Paso, Cinco Puntos Press.

I have purchased a number of books there, books by Sub-Comandante Marcos of Zapatista fame, Paco Ignacio Taibo II, and several other Latino authors. "Cinco Puntos" is known as a premier publisher of brown literature, history and criticism. Given Suzy's publicly stated admiration for and the need to keep the "rascuache" (earthy, down home) elements of the southside culture of El Paso, I am flummoxed by her willingness to fling the barrio culture, rascuache elements and all, out the window. And given the fact that the family business has prospered on the back of brown literature, so to speak, I am doubly flummoxed. I worked and voted for her, and she is my representative. I have learned my lesson, and will not repeat that particular mistake twice.

Steve Ortega is a young lawyer, having recently passed the bar, and therefore has no experience as a lawyer. He has not yet learned that the law follows the facts. He won his first term by 20 or so votes, and immediately incurred the wrath of his constituents by announcing his backing for the extension of a street in the Mission Valley which would obliterate about 50 private middle class residences through the use of eminent domain. He did a flip-flop when the matter came up for a vote; now he has hitched his star to the O'Rourke-Byrd eminent domain express, and he too is widely mistrusted. Sources tell me that the City will soon bring up the street extension again, and that this time, Ortega will follow his marching orders. Should this be the case, it will only confirm my belief that the genetic pool of Mexican-American lawyers with backbone has truly been severely diminished. He will, almost to a certainty, insure that his constituents will send him packing and he will have to take a whack at practicing the law. He comes on rather as a boy among men.

The remaining two supporters are first-termer Ann Lilly, who while not as vocal in her support for the plan, is solidly behind the developers. Her silence has kept her from drawing the crticism that O'Rourke, Byrd and Steve Ortega have. Presiliano "Presi" Ortega, a stalwart of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and a career politician diminutive both in stature and of vision, lusts to be mayor. Sensing the palpable hatred for any sort of eminent domain procedure, either of the first or last resort variety, he tried to do a Solomonic cut-the-baby-in-two by authoring the silly one year moratorium of the monster. Instead of saving face, he lost what little he had left. Worse still, "Presi" recently extolled the merits of eminent domain when interviewed by the local right-wing outlet of ABC-TV in El Paso, KVIA. Speaking of the Chamizal settlement, Ortega claimed that this was a classic use of eminent domain for public good. Of course, the Chamizal settlement was entered into under international treaties and Mexico was obligated to pay for the loss of American property. Shifting to safer ground, Ortega then wondered out loud whether the Interstate Freeway would have been built without eminent domain. Again mixing apples and aguacates, he totally ignored the fact that no REITs were involved, and that the taking of property was for a manifestly obvious public purpose. He is mercifully term limited, cannot stand for re-election, and has probably self-destructed as regards his mayoral ambitions.

John Cook, the mayor, is a quixotic figure who won a runoff election as a dark horse and unseated Joe Wardy. He has shown an admirable ability to speak out of both sides of his mouth at the same time, if you admire that sort of thing. Truth to tell, the last election made clear that the voters were fed up with the cronyism and corruption of the Wardy administration. Six of the council members are serving their first term as is the mayor. Prior to the last election, Cook had been a long time councilman representing the northeast side of town. He was a sane voice more often than not in a corrupt administration which, among other things, featured Wardy's attempt to pack the board of the Housing Authority with extreme right wing people, until the 8th Court of Appeals stopped him in his tracks. It is not a stretch to suggest that all the newcomers, given their campaign rhetoric, were viewed as progressive people, and it is not a stretch to say that initially the new administration enjoyed wide support, although the media, as usual, were uniformly worried that change was in the air. And, it surely was, but not as the media feared.

The first sign that the people had been handed a cat instead of a rabbit came when Cook appointed David Escobar, one of Wardy's appointees, back to the Housing Authority board. Escobar is nothing if not a member of the extreme right wing of the Republican party, and one who is not particularly well received by more moderate people within his own party. Of course, Cook was widely and rightfully criticized. In due time, he answered his critics by stating that he, like Lincoln, preferred to keep his enemies near to him.

The obvious reply was that well, he is no Lincoln, and that Escobar, his enemy or no, is beyond question the enemy of the people, as he was shortly to show. Then, two recent events clearly illustrated that Cook's grasp of modern events, large and small, is exquisitely bizarre and beyond, but far beyond, the pale.

At a rally in the downtown plaza held to commemorate Cesar Chavez, Cook stunned the 6,000 or so people gathered there by proclaiming that we were there "to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. and Cesar Chavez," prompting an elderly male behind me to mutter, "what the hell is this fool talking about?" and earning me a jab in the ribs from his wife, who immediately apologized in Spanish for her poor aim. I grinned and told her that her husband was as quick of foot in dodging her jab as he was quick of mind, and that he was not alone. Mexican-Americans do not yet have the ability of the Black community to have responded to such an assertion, were the tables to be turned, with hoots of derision. Hoots would have been in order.

To any dimwitted readers who might see any kind of anti-Black prejudice in these remarks, let me refer you to one of my favorite magazines. The second event, more modest in scale, took place when a group of parents turned out to celebrate the upgrading of the kid's section of a neighborhood park, done by the parents, without any help from the city.  The mayor showed up, spoke, eulogized the City as an entity that truly cares for its people, unleashed his guitar and proceeded to sing "This Land is Your Land" to the puzzlement of the attendees.

Among the citizen supporters of the plan is a group that recently surfaced and is self named "Somos El Paso", or, "We are El Paso." Near the time that the plan was unveiled the group held a rally at the downtown plaza. The event had received prior wide publicity in the media. Approximately 150 people showed up, about thirty of which were opponents of the plan. It was a rally cut from the mold of a pep rally at the high school level held the night before the big game. The emcee was a stocky lady who introduced herself as Elisa Velasquez, her shrill voice made shriller still by the microphone, who pranced around Mick Jaegger-like yelling, "are you ready, El Paso!? Louder! Let me hear you! Are you ready!? Are you ready to move forward!?" and such.

Her supporters were ringed around the plaza attending several tables where T-shirts with "Somos El Paso" printed on the front were being handed out. They had petitions to be signed. They had those clever sun shades that are like a gimmee cap without a top. They had come prepared, and plainly there was money behind them. Cook spoke and was roundly booed by the opposition. Having been previously quoted widely in the media to the effect that El Pasoans would be surprised by the number of people who would turn out in support of the plan, one can in fairness hardly blame him for having appeared surprised at being booed.

Several young Mexican-Americans, showing the same kind of boundless energy as Ms. Velasquez, also spoke. One young man, a student at UTEP, was truly excited, yelling at the opposition to "do some research, learn, get educated!" causing considerable mirth among the Ph.D type professors who were there from UTEP, a couple of lawyers, and business people who oppose the plan. One of the opponents of the plan came up to me and told me she had overheard a couple of the young people speaking, and that the "Abundant Living Faith Center", where the two worshiped, was in fact backing the rally, according to what she had heard. I made my way near to the speakers' area, and personally heard two young Mexican-American kids, either high school or college types, talking about the support the Abundant Living Faith Center had given, and how they would like to get some of the opponents involved in the Abundant community.

A man by the name of Salcido who stated that he had worked with the State Department's Agency for International Development for thirteen years in Peru spoke, claiming that it was time to move the people away from the filth they lived in, that the Housing Authority was moving forward to clean up the mess, and that people were happy with the work being done. One was left to wonder, at the end of his talk, what remedies he had inflicted on the hapless people of Peru. It is a given that he has continued to hurt, not help, the residents of the Alamito projects since his arrival at the helm of the Housing Authority last February a year ago, not to mention the fact that his comments about "filth" reveal a stunning lack of knowledge about the conditions in the barrio. (Note: since this was written, Salcido has been fired by the Housing Authority, which bought out his contract. Apparently, his arrogance knew no bounds, but was sufficient in quantity to get him hired as the head of the Paso del Norte Group, replacing the beleaguered Myrna Deckert.) By the time the rally broke up, the ethnic tensions were palpable.

The sudden emergence of "Somos El Paso" and their obvious access to money piqued my curiosity, and I did a bit of basic research. The statements in the group's web site are punctuated with an ! after every sentence, which calmed my sense of having overstated Ms. Velasquez's prancing about at the rally. According to the County Clerk's assumed name records, she is the sole owner of the "Somos El Paso" web page. Ms.Velasquez's site is hosted by Varay Systems. "Ghost Light Creative" is listed as the designer. There is no "Ghost Light Creative" to be found in the assumed name records, although Ms. Velasquez claims to be a successful "graphics artist" and entrepreneur. If you Google the GLC name, you are directed to a web page that simply says "under construction." "Ghost Light" is also hosted by Varay. At this companion site, you can view some of Ms. Velasquez's supporters having a bit of creative class, fun if you scroll all the way down on the right hand side. And the young founder of Varay Systems is not beyond having his own space on, of course, My Space. His choice of heroes is telling: a corrupt politician and two men who have defined the "greed factor" in the corporate world, where corporations fail to pay their fair share of taxes, but happily slurp up every bit of corporate welfare they can get. Also telling is D.R. "Dee" Margo's presence on Varay's "Executive Team" as Chairman.

Margo is widely credited with having led the far right Republican opposition to Pat Haggerty in the latter's re-election bid to the State House as the west side's representative. Although I am put off by his thuggish approach to politics, I recognize that Haggerty has moderate instincts, and from time to time he works with Democrats for the greater good of the County. This is what drives the right wing nuts. Margo and his wife are friends of the Bushes and of Karl Rove, who long ago wrote the book on filth as politics in Texas. Margo will face Eliot Shapleigh in the November election, and there is little reason to believe that he will be our next state senator.(Note: he got whupped, rather handily, and this time around is running for a seat in the Texas House, having dethroned Haggerty).

The "Abundant Living Faith Center" burst on the El Paso scene some years ago when Charles Nieman, a UTEP student in his early 20s, "accepted a call from God" to minister to the folk. Today his is a multi-million dollar operation which claims to have 12,000 active congregants and about 7,500 who attend weekly services. I have two friends who formerly attended services at the non-denominational ALFC. Both left when they became convinced that the emphasis was on "abundant living" and not on "abundant faith". Both agree that the motivational, upbeat-manic approach to financial success in business with selected Bible verses used to justify the "taking" of one's rewards put out by God for the well, "taking", made of Jesus a tie-wearing Republican more concerned with business than with the poor.

ALFC is of a piece with the mega-churches blossoming in the south and mid-west, where the emphasis is not on the two great commandments or even the beatitudes, but on an easy going form of faux Christianity that is long on wealth, comfortable living, and short on any theology other than quoting Bible verses.

Then there are our "tio-tacos", a term known to those who have done any kind of social work with the needy in the barrio. As the Black community suffered with its "uncle toms", so we suffer with our tio-tacos, or sell outs. Our current prime example is "Sal" Balcorta, the head of Centro de Salud Familiar La Fe, or simply "La Fe". Balcorta is a social worker who is gifted at gaming the system. Invited early on to join the Paso del Norte Group, he not only joined but was named to the inner circle which moved the plan forward in the utmost secrecy (except for probable tips to the mayor) until it was unveiled. He runs La Fe like a plantation with a complaisant board which to date has rewarded him with astronomical raises. In 2003, Balcorta was paid $104,046. In 2004 his salary was raised to a magnanimous $219,340 and he had an expense account of $9,000. Reportedly, he received about $250,000 in 2005, and God knows what he was paid the last two years. His salary is not important to me other than to show that there are those who will sell their people short when money is made available.

Not surprisingly, Estela Reyes, a self styled "Chicana", a La Fe shill for the plan and former reporter who honed her craft in San Antonio and who works for Balcorta, has been spreading ugly lies to the effect that Carmen Felix, a long time and respected south side activist, was threatening to turn people in to the immigration authorities if they didn't support her recent recall effort against O'Rourke.

I have been told by a person who works at La Fe that Reyes has bragged that she is a friend of Debbie Nathan (a former El Paso Times reporter turned writer who has been published in some of the better magazines), and has shared with Nathan her lies regarding Carmen's alleged threats, whatever that may be taken to mean. I am satisfied that my source is correct, and the information is correct as well. On the other hand, one of Balcorta's young thuggish types, Araín Carrera, has continually intimidated people, telling them that if they signed a petition to recall O'Rourke and were not registered to vote that he would insure that they would be turned over to the authorities. He was seen and heard doing so at the recent Sacred Heart's day celebration at Sacred Heart Church until he was forced to stop. Less surprisingly, and what many of the barrio people do not know (apart from the increases in Balcorta's salary) is that O'Rourke's wife works for La Fe. Nor do they know that La Fe is purchasing property left and right, some parcels being located in the so called "demolition zone." Does anyone smell a foul odor here?

My old friend Pete Duarte used to run La Fe Clinic in the barrio. He did such good work he wound up as CEO of Thomason County Hospital where he continued with his people-friendly approach to medicine until he retired. The current CEO follows the modern practice of turning over indigent patients who can't pay their bill to collection agencies, notwithstanding the fact that Thomason is the county hospital. Pete is of the barrio, and nowhere does he better show it than in this observation:

• "If I was running a social service agency in South El Paso today the last thing I would do is to try to use the people that I was serving to further the Paso Del Norte plan. When I was the director at Thomason Hospital, the bankers, the financial people, the lawyers and the downtown movers and shakers would invite me to go play golf. I would tell them I'm not a golfer and they would tell me, 'That's where we do a lot of our business - on the golf course.' I said, I don't conduct my business that way. As a public servant, I'm not going to support something that harms the people".

Pete, of course, was speaking of Balcorta and those like him. When you work with the poor and disadvantaged, you will learn one of either two things. You will learn to love and respect the people you work for, or you will learn to use them as stepping stones for your own personal political and financial ambitions. And if you chose the latter course of action, you will be remembered as having enlisted in the ranks of those who will be judged as being responsible for dividing El Paso as it has seldom been divided in the past, and for selling out the people who most need help.

Although the above and what follows is written by me as an individual and not as a member of any organized opposition, I have in fact, until recently, been active in a group of people united in opposition to the plan. Academics, artists, clergy, community activists, professionals, poets and barrio people have joined in opposition - and have been called "losers", "fools", "naysayers" and "bobos" by supporters of the plan. The group is named the "Paso del Sur Group," for obvious reasons. When O'Rourke questioned our preference for calling him Robert instead of Beto, he claimed that the only reason we were doing so was because he was Irish. So much for the tainted blood. He also claimed that he was 100% El Pasoan, whatever that may mean. Sen. Shapleigh has gone over the top by castigating Carmen Felix, reminding her in a letter that "recalls and racial slurs" serve only to divide us.

Carmen Felix and Carlos Marentes are long time friends who have spent their lives in the service of the poor. My friendship with Carmen dates back to the late 60s, which is about the length of time that she has been working through her non-profit organization to revitalize the barrio. She has been the driving force behind the construction of environmentally friendly apartments in the barrio. Her group has purchased and has refurbished tenements, bringing them up to code.

Laboring on behalf of a different constituency, Carlos Marentes has done yeoman work for the farmworkers, crowned by the construction, in the mid 90s, of a center where they can gather instead of sleeping on the sidewalks while waiting to be transported to the fields. In the early 80s, I stood with him and the farmworkers when the police tried to break up a demonstration, which lasted most of the night, by using German Shepherds as we stood with arms linked. The police blinked first.

Yet, Sen. Shapleigh, O'Rourke and Byrd can and do invite people like Carmen and Carlos to "come to the table" and work for the people, all with a straight face - leaving one to wonder, yet again, what the hell are these flawed politicians talking about? Don't they know any local history? Can't they see beyond their own selfish, political motives? Morally, they don't begin to measure up to the standards set by people like Carmen and Carlos.

As for me, I've been labelled a racist, both in fact and by inference, for referring to a Gringo by his God given name - Robert, instead of Beto O'Rourke. To hell with that, buster. While Shapleigh has shown remarkably little concern for those affected by the plan, given that he is its stalwart supporter, he is all atwitter over the divisions which are becoming apparent in the Democratic party. They are there, and they are real. I will not be voting for Shapleigh next time around, nor will several of my high powered politically active friends. Nor could I ever vote for a man like Margo. Given that there is little reason to believe that Margo could come close to winning, it wouldn't pain me to see a marked decrease in Shapleigh's Mexican-American support.

I was picked to write him a letter inviting to join our group and to stand with the people. He never deigned to answer. However, after meeting in his office with Carmen Felix, Alicia Chacón (former El Paso County Judge and community leader), and other opponents of the plan, he did send a letter to Carmen. The letter misstated the results of the meeting, invited Carmen to "roll up her sleeves", to participate in a diagloue on his terms, and reminded her that "Racial slurs and recalls can only divide us".

Us?

Shamefully, and in as cheap a politically inept trick as I've seen, he sent copies of the letter to Cook, the County Judge, and to our Republican lite congressperson, Sylvestre Reyes. Shapleigh and Reyes had recently been involved in an intra party fight in which Shapleigh had correctly and publicly castigated Reyes for straying from the fold and for having voted for demonstrably bad Republican bills.

But beyond all that, why am I and others so angry at Shapleigh? I guess because, popular as he is with Mexican-Americans, when invited to stand with the people, he chose to stand with the PDNG and to castigate us, by extension, of dealing in "racial slurs," a noxious and baseless charge. And yes, because he and O'Rourke have publicly injected race, or better said, ethnicity, into the equation. His friendship with Byrd and O'Rourke has been cemented and solidified, and has trumped the interests of the segundo barrio people. Truly, money does follow money, and class stands with class.

Adios, Shapleigh. Ya déjanos en paz, porque ya sabemos de que estás hecho.

In a long discussion I recently had with an Anglo conservative friend who is an academician, we both reached the conclusion that paternalism based on class inevitably degrades into a species of cultural racism, which is a coded version of ethnic racism. I know of no better illustration for this than to quote one of the stated purposes behind the plan, and that is the felt need to "sanitize" the barrio, to "better" the conditions of the residents.

Sanders's bald declaration that the barrio is "a pile of shit" is widely known. And how to sanitize it? By razing it. By then building modern apartments to replace what has been razed, and in the bargain, to displace the Mexican-American community.

It is a fiction of the worst kind to believe that Sanders has no interest in the PDNG now that he has resigned from the Group, supposedly to spare his son-in-law any ethical problems. Sanders continues to be the PDNG's guiding force. He recently met with a couple of Korean people to explore the possibilities of letting them develop 12 acres or so in the barrio to create a "little Seoul" type development which the mayor favors. The mayor has sent a letter to the proponents invitimg them to set up a REIT for the purpose. I don't believe for a moment that the politician and the real estate baron are working in good faith; obviously they know they are playing with an explosive and exquisitely divisive wedge issue, as a "Little Seoul" in the barrio would clearly turn out to be.

One could reasonably inquire: why are billions of dollars not wealth enough? The answer would have to be, because the "greed is good" philosophy is alive and well in our border city. Like envy, greed knows no satisfaction. In my world, if telling barrio residents that implementing the plan and destroying the barrio "for their own good" as has been stated time and again isn't paternalism disguised as class and ethnic racism, then I haven't learned one damned thing in my long life on the border. My mentor, the late west Texas trial lawyer Warren Burnett, was right when he told me I lived in one of the most racist cities in Texas and that it was high time that I opened my eyes to the fact. As usual, my old friend was right on the money.

What stands as the unvarnished truth is that the current administration is hell-bent on its mission to raze the barrio; no matter its public announcements and silly resolutions, as when it recently tried to tell people that the Segundo Barrio had been removed from the Plan - a bald faced lie, as it turned out - and as when it made emiment domain the weapon of last resort through a piously worded resolution. Well, as Homer Simpson would say, d'oh! isn't it always the weapon of last resort? It's relatively simple. When big money talks, politicians listen. As David Romo, an opponent of the plan has written:

Yet in El Paso, the major player behind the Paso Del Norte plan, William Sanders, thinks the heart of the Segundo Barrio is mostly a lot of junk that should be swept away to make room for 'big-box' retail stores and parking lots. 'Look at that,' Sanders recently told downtown businessman Enoch Kimmelman as he pointed out the Segundo Barrio from his Chase Manhattan offices. 'That's a pile of shit down there. I would be ashamed to have a business there. It should all be razed. All of it.' According to local architect Geoffrey Wright, Sanders expressed similar sentiments to him as well. 'There isn't a single historical building inside the redevelopment zone,' the multibillionaire landlord asserted. 'Our consultants have already checked. We can't save a building just because Pancho Villa had a couple of drinks there.'

Romo has credentials. He has written a popular history of the Mexican Revolution, Ringside Seat to a Revolution,published by Cinco Puntos Press. His primary interest is in preserving the barrio's many historic sites, many of which are of importance to both Texas and Mexico.

Numbered among the opposition to the Plan is the Diocese of El Paso, which, through the Bishop of El Paso, joined by prominent priests, recently and eloquently addressed the problems posed by the plan. In a letter sent to the politicians, the Diocese pointed out several flaws, both in the design and the proposed execution of the plan. Some of the more salient ones are:

5. In the midst of the anti-immigrant sentiment by many in the U.S., the residents of South El Paso face yet another obstacle in the re-vitalization plan proposed by Paso del Norte Group. This plan, if implemented, would displace numerous area residents, as well as small businesses. The fact that the proposed low-cost housing will be subsidized only for four years predictably will force those lower income residents to move to another area of the city after the subsidy is over. Where? The poor from Mexico typically prefer closeness to downtown and to Ciudad Juárez. The inevitable result of the present plan will be less affordable housing opportunities for the poor, especially the poor immigrant in the South El Paso area. We reject a plan that diminishes the number of low-cost housing units.

6. The plan of paying an owner "market value" as opposed to a real "replacement value" will leave those affected in a very difficult situation if they plan to continue their business elsewhere and were forced out of their present location by eminent domain. The same with housing. Those who own a home will be paid very little according to "market value". What are they to do if they who are typically poor and many elderly need to buy a new home elsewhere? Compensation based on market value for an area such as the Segundo Barrio will be unjust in many cases.

7. The proposed use of "eminent domain" to force downtown, Segundo Barrio and Union Plaza land owners into a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT), managed by a select, few individuals, negates the possibility of cooperation by a present property owner (and the tenant), from improving their property,if the free, legal choice of the owner is in conflict with the plan and its goals. If a landlord desires to cooperate and improve the building for low-cost housing, it appears that he/she would have to sell if his/her building is not in-line with the present plan. Eminent Domain should only be used for the "common good" of the community as in the building of a public hospital, fire station, public school, etc.; not for exclusively personal or corporate profit.

8. We have very serious concerns with the Real Estate Investment Trust approach to re-vitalization. A Real Estate Investment Trust is a business entity which exists to maximize cash flow of the real property in the Trust in order to maximize profit. Decisions by a REIT are made by the Officers of the Trust and are made to accomplish its maximization-of-profit goal for the benefit of the investors in the Trust. Therefore, a REIT appears to not be accountable to the community or to the City government, other than to abide by applicable laws and regulations. The City government, on the other hand, is accountable to the community and its citizens. Moreover, decisions by the City government are based on considerations of different factors such as: quality of life; respect for culture; historic preservation; betterment opportunities for its citizens, such as low-income housing, job training, small-business opportunities and growth, development of industries, maintaining infrastructure, etc.

9. Taking advantage of the immigrant occurs in our South El Paso community, in particular by apartment owners who maintain their rental property in substandard conditions. This unjust practice of renting inadequate housing has gone-on for years without any effective intervention by City Inspectors or Officials. Any plan for a South El Paso re-vitalization must NOT diminish the number of units of affordable, low-income housing. Instead, if the Segundo Barrio and the Union Plaza District are to be included in a downtown re-development plan, their residential character MUST be maintained and improvement of the quality of housing and an increase in the number of units of available, affordable housing for low-income persons in those two residential communities should be adopted AS A GOAL OF THE RE-DEVELOPMENT PLAN. The City should also adopt an effective, aggressive plan that demands apartment owners to maintain their units according to acceptable standards and codes. The City presently has the power and mechanism to force negligent landlords to improve sub-standard housing, i.e., by the "Municipal Regulation of Housing and Other Structures", Loc. Gov't Code 214.003; Receiver. Landlords should relate to their tenants in a way that is just and non-threatening.

10. Also, the Paso del Norte Group's membership of 300 plus, was kept secret until very recently. The list of members was available from the City through the Freedom of Information Act. Why were the names of the members withheld from public knowledge if the Paso del Norte Group's plan received public funding?

11. If maximizing profit and land value is the driving force of the plan, there is a threat of major chain stores, i.e., Walmart or Home Depot being able to purchase land from the REIT and moving into the Segundo Barrio-downtown area. Although the residents of the Segundo Barrio may benefit from Walmart's lower prices, we are aware of the certain elimination of area small businesses - many existing for many years and part of the tradition of the neighborhood -- attempting to compete. We oppose the establishment of these mega-stores which would also destroy the unique cultural and historical character of the Segundo Barrio as well as small businesses.

12. As Church, we want to stand in solidarity with the poor, with the immigrant, with the marginalized, with the rejected one. There is a long history of neglect and discrimination with regards to the Segundo Barrio. We are not opposed to progress, economic development, improvement and construction of buildings. We are opposed to any plan that disregards and displaces the poor, that ignores the plight of the immigrant, that divides the community, that perpetuates injustice and inadequate housing, that diminishes low-cost housing; one that seeks to enrich a select group.

The letter is signed by Most Rev. Armando X. Ochoa, Bishop, Catholic Diocese of El Paso, Rev. John Stowe, O.F.M., Vicar General and Moderator of the Curia, Diocese of El Paso, and Fr. Rafael Garcia, S.J, Pastor, Sacred Heart Chu rch.

Sacred Heart Church is said to be safe, as is the gym which was formerly up for grabs. But that's not the point. As the pastor, Fr. Garcia, has tartly put it, the church isn't a building. Displace the people, and you destroy the church. Reportedly, ultra-conservative Catholics have been trying to set up a meeting with the Bishop to disuade him from the position he has taken. But the bishop is on solid ground, both as regards the social teachings of the Catholic Church and the recent publications regarding its justice for immigrants campaign. Although it is most difficult to see how the Diocese could or would backtrack in its opposition, Myrna Deckert, the current CEO of the PDNG, goes around blithely stating that the Bishop has been consulted, and that everything is hunky-dory.

But unfortunately, everything is not hunky-dory. The demolition of the barrio is an accomplished fact. About 300 people have already been displaced. As was pointed out prior to demilition, the buildings themselves were in good shape, needing only plumbing and re-wiring work. Worse yet, the people were in the main moved to other dangerous, sub-standard ublic housing. It bears mention that in post-Katrina New Orleans, much the same thing is taking place. Everyone knows that HUD under the Bush Administration has been transformed into an agency where the well-being of those needing public housing is at the bottom of the list of priorities. And no one seems to be able to stop the move toward so-called mixed income housing, which will effectively place poor people out on the street.

What HUD is doing here is part of a national policy to destroy public housing and replace it with this euphemism of mixed-income housing, which, translated for the people who live there, means they take conventional public housing, destroy it and then allow a relatively small percentage of the people who used to live there to come back, but it is a great bonanza for developers, for real estate people, for banks, for construction groups and the like.

HUD AWARDS EL PASO HOUSING AUTHORITY $20 MILLION TO REVITALIZE AGING PUBLIC HOUSING

WASHINGTON

The U.S. Department of Housing Urban Development today awarded a $20 million HOPE VI Revitalization grant to the Housing Authority of the City of El Paso (HACEP). The funding will be used to revitalize the public housing units at the Alamito Apartments and create a new mixed-income community.

The grant will replace 349 aging public housing units with 256 new public housing units, 55 affordable rental units and 148 homeownership units. The redevelopment plan also includes renovating the existing Alamito Community Center. HACEP will provide housing services for residents, including job training and placement and maintain the independent living status for its elderly residents.

The marked decrease in public housing units fairly leaps out at you. All is not peaches and cream, as is shown in the minutes of an El Paso Housing Authority meeting held on August 17, 2005, three months after the 20 million dollar grant had been announced.

Jose Geronimo Melendez-Astorga, Priest at San Ignacio de Loyola, said the elderly population of Alamito is very concerned with the demolition and relocation plans as explained to them. They would like for the Housing Authority to use the funds to remodel existing units including the A/C, drainage, plumbing, etc. They would also like for the agency to finish the work at Salazar before starting with the work at Alamito.

Jose Manuel Escobedo, organizer with ACORN Community Organization, said Father Geronimo approached them to help with residents concerns and relocation. In their opinion, it is urgent to finish the work at the Salazar community so that the people can stay close to the neighborhood where they have lived for many years.

Notwithstanding the above comments and as noted earlier, about three hundred people, many of them elderly, and women and children, were moved from the Alamito projects to the Salazar public housing venue. Only thing is, the Salazar apartments are being cleaned of asbestos, and the new residents were placed right next to a place where radioactive materials were found to have been stored as junk. A minor scandal simmered on the public stove and eventually fizzled, as is the custom when poor Mexican-Americns are involved. No one an state definitely where the poor, displaced people will finally wind up, many of them victims to the mixed-income mania of the gentrifying driven social engineers.

Truly, the sad and almost criminal thing about the destruction of the Alamito projects is that they were built at a time before the invention of sheet rock and brick veneer. They are rock solid, and given the type of maintenance suggested by the priest and Mr. Escobedo, they would have stood for another 70+ years. But no, Cook and most of his appointees to the Housing Authority Board headed the rush to demolish buildings and displace people.

Sadder still, the plan designed by SMWM and sponsored by Bill Sanders and his satrap politicians - for surely, he owns them - instead of being based on a people friendly plan to enforce the building code, to truly upgrade living and business conditions in the barrio, is instead based on Prof. Richard Florida's often goofy vision of upscale, trendy mixed-use neighborhoos which allegedly define the city of the future.

Not infrequently, these - (his) - less-than-analytical musings descend into self-indulgent forms of amateur microsociology and crass celebrations of hipster embourgeoisement. By implication, the choices made by Richard and his Creative Class, which right down to the selection of kitchen utensils and hairstyles are minutely documented in the book, are validated because they are being made by the Chosen Ones.

'The person who cuts my hair', Florida informs us, 'is a very creative stylist . . . and drives a new BMW. The woman who cleans my house is a gem (who will) suggest ideas for redecorating; she takes on these things in an entrepreneurial manner. Her husband drives a Porsche'".

Using hairdressers and maids as prototypes of the creative class would seem to be a slim reed indeed on which to hang a theory of urban renewal. But that is the least of it. The substantive criticism may be said to focus largely on two things. First, Florida's vision is based on the dot.com boom of the 90s, before the boom went bust, which inspired his "creative class" as the engine for development. While the book is long on theory, cities which have embraced Florida's seriously flawed vision have not fared as well as they would care to admit:

But a far more serious "indeed, fatal" objection to Florida's theories is that the economics behind them don't work. Although Florida's book bristles with charts and statistics showing how he constructed his various indexes and where cities rank on them, the professor, incredibly, doesn't provide any data demonstrating that his creative cities actually have vibrant economies that perform well over time. A look at even the most simple economic indicators, in fact, shows that, far from being economic powerhouses, many of Florida's favored cities are chronic underperformers.

Exhibit A is the most fundamental economic measure, job growth. The professor's creative "index", a composite of his other indexes lists San Francisco, Austin, Houston, and San Diego among the top ten. His bottom ten include New Orleans, Las Vegas, Memphis, and Oklahoma City, which he says are "stuck in paradigms of old economic development" and are losing their "economic dynamism" to his winners. So you'd expect his winners to be big job producers. Yet since 1993, cities that score the best on Florida's analysis have actually grown no faster than the overall U.S. jobs economy, increasing their employment base by only slightly more than 17 percent. Florida's indexes, in fact, are such poor predictors of economic performance that his top cities haven't even outperformed his bottom ones. Led by big percentage gains in Las Vegas (the fastest-growing local economy in the nation) as well as in Oklahoma City and Memphis, Florida's ten least creative cities turn out to be jobs powerhouses, adding more than 19 percent to their job totals since 1993 - faster growth even than the national economy

Second, and worse, his vision admittedly depends on a permanent underclass of low-paying service jobs to make life liveable for the new crop of yuppies, who would theoretically move into modern housing next to upscale bistros, where they could order gourmet pizza and sip latte deep into the night while listening to new wave music.

At various points, Florida concedes that the crowding of creatives into gentrifying neighborhoods might create inflationary housing-market pressures, that not only run the risk of eroding the diversity that the Class craves but, worse still, could smother the fragile ecology of creativity itself. He reminds his readers that they depend on an army of service workers trapped in 'low-end jobs that pay poorly because they are not creative jobs', while pointing soberly to the fact that most creative places tend also to exhibit the most extensive forms of socio-economic inequality. Ultimately, though, since it is the creatives' destiny to inherit the earth, it is they who must figure out how to solve these problems, in their own time and in their own way, as part of what Florida characterizes as their 'growing up'.

This permanent underclass of workers are the people Robert O'Rourke refers to, without saying it, when he brags that the plan will result in 9,000 - that's right, 9,000 - new jobs. But when pushed for specifics, he will not look you in the eye, nor will he answer your question beyond offering fairly incoherent mumbling about opponents being against the future and for the status quo.

Indeed, it is patent that the fool knows about and is comfortable with creating a permanent underclass of cheap, Mexican labor. Just what we need: more hotel workers, more pizza cooks and delivery people, more parking valet servants, all while waiting for O'Rourke to grow up as he and his enjoy the family billions.

The irony here is far too exquisite to escape comment: beyond question, it is the proponents of this fatally flawed plan who favor the status quo. Any one with a minimal sense of history in El Paso knows that the status quo is and has been that the wealth is largely controlled by Gringos, and that the Mexicans have always provided the factory workers, the maids, the gardeners, the laborers and construction workers, the farmworkers and the unskilled fetch-its. But then, we tend to know when we are offered a skinned cat instead of the plump bunny for the pot.

There is a prase in Nichols' delightful Milagro Beanfield War that has long stayed with me. The phrase - "Divided we stumble, united we stumble - pretty much describes our opposition to the plan. We we are not !like! !somos El Paso!. We are the people, the Church, the community, those whose first home was in the barrio and those who still live there, and yes, the sprits of our dead - and those who value freedom and culture. We do stumble, but when we tell you that "the barrio is not for sale", be warned that - We. Mean. It.

Ultimately, people will push back.

"El Plan" courtesy of Francisco Delgado, artist.

All barrio images are by Micaela Ochoa, taken at her first effort with a film (as opposed to digital) 35mm camera.