Hondo Texas, RECALL- Rumblings Along The Tejano Line

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Hondo, Texas

RECALL- rumblings along the Tejano line

Inspect a roster of cities ranked by population and it'll be all day before you get to Hondo, Texas. Nevertheless, within its nine square miles resides the largest population in MedinaCounty. The upright planners here have arranged the almost eight thousand residents into a sensible pattern: A grid with no names. There is no

Although the Texas Hill Country hovers just a few miles to the north, Hondo is flat. People around farm almost all year long, livestock dot the landscape, and hazard the back roads. The interstate is a good fast road, except when it goes through the widely spaced towns and relaxes for a light or two- Hondo has six.

In town, they call the highway

In the forties the airbase was the largest training facility for bombardiers and navigators in the world. Those boys would still be familiar with Hondo's bypassed hub. MedinaCounty's largest newspaper, a weekly called the Hondo Anvil Herald, is published and printed here. Right next-store you will find the storefront of the Chamber, and the studio of a very passable AM Classic Country station. You might have dinner at the same Mexican restaurant the fly boys did, or catch a flick at the "Raye". You can still enjoy a root-beer float in Hondo. (As long as you're sitting in the shade)

The definition of Tejano, like Texican, is not exactly clear. Strictly speaking, it is simply Spanish for Texan. Jocular scholarship, always mindful of the value of keeping it light, describes the Tejano line as where the BBQ and Taco cultures meet.

Many readers will be familiar with this country through the work of Cormac McCarthy. The characters in his books, recently brought to life with the immensely popular "No Country for Old Men" (2005), travel along the Tejano Line too. Fictions, these books tell tales of a stark cultural division; of what happens to white boys when they cross the "border" (Or the border crosses them), but as you are absorbed by this wonderful writing, you are left unaware that in reality these journeys do not begin in an Anglo-world, but from that part of the United States that, although uniquely American, has always lain below the Tejano Line.

The same highway that bisects Hondo may also be seen as a division of something less graphic than state or national borders. While much of the United States has only lately become familiar with Spanish speaking immigrants, Texas below the line has long been dominated by the posterity of New Spain. These people are not immigrants. The Spanish were in Texas long before the English were in Virginia. In some sense, it is both the Anglos and recent Mexican immigrants, arriving later (and still coming); who, when settling onto aspects of Tejano culture, are more properly called "new". From San Antonio, from Hondo, from Uvalde, and all points south towards the Rio Grande, almost every community is predominantly Mexican-American, some overwhelmingly so.

The 2000 Census reported that Hondo, when defined by culture, is about sixty percent Hispanic. As you check the counties along the line and south towards the "BigValley", these numbers increase into, and sometimes beyond, the neighborhood of eighty percent. An inspection of this data by race will show that an area described as sixty percent Hispanic may also be eighty percent white.

This is because early Spanish-speaking settlers in the region were criollos. Drawn from northern Mexico, these people were white folks born in the New World in the manner of Washington and Jefferson. Like our founders, they formed the class that rebelled against the Old World yoke. They are the Juaristas, the Martis and Bolivars of the Spanish colonies, not the Zapatistas. These are the people that formed their own independent republic, and joined with their neighbors in the Texas Revolution. Every Hispanic, native to this area, speaks English fluently. Some don't speak Spanish very well. HondoHigh School boasts that ninety two percent of its graduating seniors go on to some sort of higher education.

On the surface, it would seem that cultural tectonics have produced a good fit. Yes, there are BBQ joints, but likely as not, they are Spanish owned. Breakfast cowboy? Forget the muffins and the bagels. Sit down with everybody else and enjoy your tacos (Not too much hot sauce). Its spring now; but come fall, when the Friday Night Lights blaze on; the kid carrying the mail for the mighty Owls might just as soon be named Garza or Villanueva, as Smith or Miller, and the crowd of one mind is lead in its cheers by short skirted pom-pom wielding smiling faced sweethearts that will answer equally to Maria or Susan..

This is a community of shared values and common manners. The city and county police reports, dutifully printed each week by the Anvil Herald, contain the usual assortment of minor crimes; including dogs, cattle, goats, and sheep that have nosed off the proper reservation. There are no muggings or stickups, no brawling or gang fights. The worst things you can do in Hondo are not reported because they simply don't happen. Nobody is ever less than polite. Folks don't ever raise their voices. You don't chirp your wheels in

Hondo. You don't play your radio loud, and God forbid, you never rush.

Yet, there are rumblings along the Tejano Line. Something is dividing this community. Something is grinding the plates together; something abrasive, something divisive, and the cracks are beginning to show.

Its mask is called politics.

Just one year ago, in May of 08, three new candidates were elected to the city council in a record turnout. For the first time, the candidates had run as a united slate. They called it "Real Change" and they have an agenda. The city council, with only five places, had a new majority:" Real Change" could now control city government for three years.

The town paper, unhappy with the result, gave this big news only minimum coverage.

Presaging the tone that was to dominate its criticism of the "Real Change" slate, William Hoover (the main writer at the Herald) downplayed the results: "While it seemed the city was being run efficiently and to the benefit of everyone with several citywide improvements underway, the majority of participating voters in Hondo sent a message reflecting a different opinion".

Just a year before that election, a new city charter had been introduced. In it were the provisions for recalling elected officials. One section describes the limitations of the recall provisions. It prohibits the removal of elected officials by recall until they have served at least six months. This past December, just about six months after the "Real Change" slate took office; a petition containing the requisite twelve percent of signatures was filed by the Committee for a Better Hondo (CBH) to recall Councilpersons Virginia Gonzalez, Luccio Torrez, and Chavel Lopez. In the eyes of the CBH and the other recall advocates, Hondo, the city they loved, was on the rocks.

The objective cause of this rift was the budget. The reason cited for recalling the recently elected majority was fiscal recklessness.

Hondo has long had Mexican Americans on the council. In fact, at one time, all the council members were Hispanic. Today, the city manager and the police chief are Latino.

The "city manager" form of government used in Hondo establishes a style of government where, traditionally, the mayor and council members provide policy advice to the City Manager, who is a professional charged with the actual running of the city. Council members are only paid a tiny honorarium, have full time jobs doing something else, and are expected to show up for a few hours every other week and ratify an agenda put forward by the full-time city employees. They function very much like a Board of Directors; expected to give advice on general strategy and direction, but leaving the details of governance to the City Manager (CEO?) and other managers.

The main issue of financial contention was the electric surcharge that accounts for over fifty percent of the budget. They don't like to call it a tax around here. It may walk like a tax, and quack like a tax, but Hondoans prefer to call it a fee. Whatever you call it, Hondo relies on it.

In the predominantly Mexican-American neighborhoods, people live on small neat plots of land in mobile homes and skid houses. These homes are lightly built, and affordable in some degree because of the lack of materials used. Foremost among these is insulation.

Just about everything around here is electric. Winter mornings demand heat, and in the other nine months AC is a must all day. On election night this May, it was ninety-two when the poll closed at seven. To be constantly running electric appliances to control climate in un-insulated homes is a very expensive proposition. For the mostly lower income constituents of the "Real Change" slate, it's a really big nickel- one that can rival rent.

When the establishment presented council with its plan to scrap a Fuel Adjustment Charge, and replace it with a two cent an hour increases in the electric rate (from about eight cents to about ten cents) the proverbial stuff hit the fan.

With minimum debate, the "Real Change" slate stuck together, agreed to eliminate the FAC but refused to accept the recommended substitute. This solidarity smacked of collusion, and infuriated the mayor, the other two council members, and the management team. Eventually, only one quarter of the proposed increase was allowed, and a budget passed with gaping shortfalls because no new revenue was raised.

The new guys balanced the budget by cannibalizing existing resources. This "fat" within the established budget consisted chiefly of Certificates of Obligation- monies borrowed with previous council approval for specific purposes. In this case, the purpose was to fund expansion of government buildings. "Real Change" also left some vacant payroll spots go unfilled, paid off some equipment, and in general, argued that government had grown too bloated. In any case, it was more important to give relief in the form of lower electric rates than expanding government infrastructure. When asked what they would do when this borrowed money ran out, the new majority replied that you would simply have to wait and see!

To the establishment, now out in the open as the Citizens For a Better Hondo, this was particularly galling. Almost speechless with incredulity, they could not understand how anyone would fail to recognize that the policy of paying day to day bills with borrowed money was a recipe for certain disaster. This was an emergency, and a Recall the only solution.

Here then, we have a picture that doesn't correlate well with what we usually imagine the typical political tug-of-war to be. The "labor backed" community activists, claiming to speak for the lower income and presumably disadvantaged Hispanic segments of society, are cutting taxes and asserting that the size of government is a problem, while the incumbents, mostly Anglo and presumably conservative, insists that in order for Hondo to be progressive, larger government and higher fees are unavoidable. This sets the traditional Democratic/Republican squabble on its ear.

From December through the Recall vote on May 9^th, the battle raged every second Monday, before excited partisan crowds of around thirty-five at council meetings; where the squabble became increasingly petty and personal, and weekly before a larger audience in the town paper.

Like many small towns, Hondo only has only one dedicated source of news. The radio station plays canned country music most of the time, and has no news department. On Sunday, some of the wall to wall radio ministers say something about the growing division in town, but they don't present facts or take sides. There are no nearby bigger towns with television stations. San Antonio is only an hour away, but its TV doesn't cover Hondo. On-line chatter is minimal. The little I could find was devoted almost exclusively to kids debating how cute that new guy or gal in town was.

The Hondo Anvil Herald, published weekly in quarto, is in many ways a very good paper. High School sports, community events, agriculture and local government are covered in great detail. Articles, especially on public meetings, are generally accurate and surprisingly detailed. The paper is now in its one hundred and twenty third year.

Editorials and columns run the gamut from a rustic small town point of view that gently extols the values of clean living, to boiler-plate neo-con fuming from Mr. Berger, the publisher. Barack Hussain Obama is the president here. Every week, both Senator Cornyn and Senator Hutchinson each get a quarter page to explain how they are waging the good fight in the Senate. The local congressman, a Democrat, gets no regular space. Until the "Real Change" campaign, this editorial viewpoint didn't seem to influence the journalism. Since then, a bias in the news coverage has emerged which clearly favors the Citizens For A Better Hondo, and the Recall. While the stories continue to be professionally written and accurate, they are uniformly designed to show the "Real Change" council members as being bone-headed, while the Recall advocates are portrayed as being just plain sensible. The absence of balanced reporting by the only news source has not gone unnoticed in Hondo. Many Hispanics dismiss the Herald as an Anglo paper. Even some whites that I talked to, some of whom supported the recall, regretted the role the paper has played in polarizing, rather than reconciling, the community. In any event, having the Hondo Anvil Herald in its corner greatly amplified the position and cause of the CBH.

While the budget is the objective issue, bias is the subjective dominating the discussion now; in particular, that kind of bias known as racism. Responsible citizens everywhere know this to be a delicate subject. It is inflammatory. This is no less true in the South, in Texas, or along the Tejano line in Hondo. It should be handled gently, with kid gloves, like nitro or any other explosive. Few subjects have the potential to hide the truth or to leave permanent scars as racism does. Still, both sides have been throwing around the "R" word pretty freely in Hondo.

During the early voting, I visited with those manning the Vote No headquarters in a vacant lot on

What about now? If segregation had ended in the nineteen sixties, was racism still a strong determinant in Hondo society?

One of the younger guys at the "NO" lot talked about neo-colonialism. It had, in his mind, replaced overt racism. An older gentlemen, who was driving the sweetest slate blue absolutely original regular cab Chevrolet pickup that he had bought used thirty nine years ago, explained the situation in more down to earth terms. After stating, unequivocally, that the truck was not for sale, he gave me his take on the question of racism.

I had questioned Luccio and the boys about the pro-recall attack ads appearing weekly in the paper. Kay Heyen's name was on the snarkiest attack ads which appeared every week in the Herald. Her husband runs Heyen Realty, where both the mayor and one incumbent councilman hang their real-estate licenses; they have both been active in politics here, and are among the chief advocates of the Recall.

Mr. No Sell Chevy said "I knew Bob Heyen when he was a little kid. We grew up together. He was a racist then, has always been a racist, and is still a racist today". Councilmen Torrez explained to me that the charges of fiscal irresponsibility were just a sham. He said "it all began on day one". He believed that the "good ole boy network" was never going to allow a politically conscious coalition of Mexican-Americans to dominate the city council. One way or another, they were going to start a recall about something. In his public statement defending his actions he claims the intent of the CBH was "to disrupt city council meetings by being contemptuous and disrespectful knowing they were going to try for a recall." He accuses William Hoover, the Herald writer, as being an active participant in this conspiracy. "These allegations have been written about extensively by William Hoover, a supporter of the recall, and biased reporter for the Hondo Anvil Herald, giving a distorted view of our decisions."

Councilmember Virginia Gonzalez' defense was more succinct. She said "I take my responsibilities seriously and I want nothing but the best for Hondo and the community my children will grow up in."

The third targeted council member, and the one considered the ringleader by the Recall supporters, is Chavel Lopez. His roots in community activism go way back. His father, T.A. Lopez, a respected member of the community for whom a small park has been named, was also an activist, going back to the days of Cesar Chavez. Even the most strident critics of Councilmember Lopez respect the family lineage. One told me he thought the Lopez family might go back five generations in this area, perhaps all the way to the original land grants.

Chavel's day job is as a labor organizer for the Southwest Workers Union. Its website describes a dedication to improving the living standards of low income residents in San Antonio, with an emphasis on the Mexican-American community. They wish to oppose racism, improve wages and working conditions, and oppose the disproportionate dumping of industrial contaminants in poor communities.

It is a subsidiary of the Center Por La Justicia (CPLJ) and has two "local" affiliates, including the Hondo Empowerment Committee. Its estimated membership is about twenty five hundred.

Not only does the word "union" rub people the wrong way, more so in these parts than in other regions, the very idea of an "outside" organization agitating in Hondo sets a lot of teeth on edge. In the minds of many, the "outside agitator" is an agency that only makes the problems of racism worse. In fact, some would argue, outside agitation is happy to make racism worse. For those people, no charge of fiscal irresponsibility is necessary: It is enough to know that someone is an out of town labor organizer.

It was alleged that Chavel Lopez's activities as a labor organizer represented a conflict of interest and were a violation of ethical standards. These charges were made publicly at a City Council meeting held on March 14^th in a presentation by Mr. Wade Smith; citizen, nine months after Chavel was elected, and three months after the recall petition was filed.

The argument goes like this: Texas law defines non-profits as business entities, the SWU receives income from grants, these grants are partly based on the activities of the organization in Hondo vis-a-vis Mr. Lopez, and this constitutes a beneficial interest to Mr. Lopez since he is paid through that grant money. This is an unusual interpretation of conflict of interest since the neither the CPLJ nor the SWU has any direct business with the City of Hondo.

I walked into Wade Smith's insurance office barely a week before the final election day.

The local scuttlebutt was that the Recall was succeeding in the early voting, but that it was close. The wisdom on

With this formula in mind, Wade was cautiously optimistic. Not only that, he was very gracious, in the Hondo manner, sharing his time with a stranger who had simply walked in with no appointment. He is an earnest young man. Like many supporting the CBH and Recall, he was stung by the charges of racism, and went to some pains to explain emphatically that he was not a racist. While he allowed "there is racism" in Hondo, he felt it "goes both ways". He explained that in a predominantly Mexican-American community the success of his business depended on getting along with everyone.

Despite this, he staunchly defended the charges he had brought against Councilmember Lopez. He said, because he feared his charges might create negative publicity for Hondo, he had sat on his "evidence" for months while agonizing over whether or not to make his case in public. In the end, he had decided that the threat to Hondo was so severe; he had no choice but to accuse Chavel Lopez.

To Mr. Smith, and those that share this opinion, it is clear that Mr. Lopez "has conflicts all up and down the line". In fact, to Mr. Smith, the entire edifice comprising the CPLJ and the SWU is a straightforward hustle. In shuttling dues and grants from one shell organization to another, the principals can skim the income into their own pockets. In this view, racism is deliberately cultivated in the cause of organizing. He spoke of "La Raza" and the "NuestroVos Campaign" as examples of Hispanic racism. By supporting the Recall, Mr. Smith believes he is standing up for the town he loves, where he works, lives and raises his family, against narrow interests that don't really care about Hondo but rather are using it, and scape-goating its citizens to further a much broader, corrupt and sinister agenda.

While I have no doubt about Mr. Smith's sincerity, promised documentation he claimed to possess supporting these charges was not forthcoming. As of this date, I am not aware that these complaints have resulted in any formal charges being brought by any agency against Mr. Lopez or any of the organizations he is affiliated with. My attempts to contact Mr. Lopez and the SWU have also gone unanswered. For the record, Mr. Lopez has adopted a lofty attitude, dismissing the charges as a spurious witch-hunt and utterly groundless, being nothing more than an attempt to abridge his "Right of Free Speech".

Not everybody is Hondo is so wound up. Indeed, as I investigated the situation, and would walk up on anyone and everyone to inquire of his or her view of the recall; and once the early voting had commenced, to inquire if they had voted; I found not only some apathy but a surprising degree of ignorance. About half the citizens, particularly the young, had no idea at all that a recall was taking place. At Easter Dinner, where I was a visitor enjoying local hospitality, I was astonished to find myself explaining to the dozen or so locals what the Recall was all about.

Beyond this healthy distance that many Americans have placed between themselves and politics, I also discovered that the issue of race was not as black and white as the "Real Change" supporters would have you believe.

Several prominent Hispanics in the community have spoken out against "Real Change" and in support of the recall. They assert that they have lived in Hondo all their lives and that while everyone knows that racism has always been a problem, it isn't the big deal that some claim. Some have been vilified for their efforts.

"Porky" Ytarte had his business, the Pearl Bar, vandalized, just as Kay and Bob Heyen did. Mexican-Americans siding with the recall have been publicly accused of being turncoats; racial and cultural traitors. At a council meeting, Isabelle Luna, citizen, speaking against the Recall said "us Raza should stick together, not stab each other in the back"""I am loyal to my Raza". I have learned a new word: Coconut. Like the epithet from the black Civil Rights Movement "Oreo"; which meant black on the outside but white on the inside, "Coconut" means brown on the outside. This "coconut" argument asserts that the good ole boy network, which denies being anti-Mexican, is really only comfortable with some Latinos because they aren't real Hispanics. Sure, they agree, there were no problems with the Mexican-Americans before; but that is because they were simply a rubber stamp for Anglo interests. Now that real Hispanics have emerged, we can see clearly how racist the establishment really is. Thus, racial solidarity is overtly advocated as the best method of countering covert Anglo racism.

Likewise, not all the "Anglos" support the Recall. They agree that its time to let some fresh air in on the good ole boy network and become more sensitive to the Hispanic population. Clyde Haak, a lawyer, ran against an incumbent on the council favoring the Recall. He is against it, and has argued that the actions of the "Real Change" majority were fiscally responsible. Adopting an independent posture, he regrets that things have gotten so out of hand, blaming the CBH for fanning racism in Hondo. He agrees that biased reporting by the Herald has contributed to the charged atmosphere, and worked to prevent reconciliation and understanding.

The last principal I interviewed was Vance Tomey. Like his brother, he runs a real-estate office. He is as proud of his family lineage as Chavel Lopez. The "Vans" have been prominent in this part of Texas for a long time. Like Wade Smith, he is an earnest young man. He takes great pride in his self image as an independent thinker unmoved by prejudice. He is a civil libertarian.

He pinches his skin and says "I can't help it if I'm white", indicating that except for the happenstance of having white skin, his positions on council reflect only his love of Hondo, and all its people. He resents being accused of being a racist. He grew up after segregation, and has no consciousness of overt racism.

Like Wade Smith, but even more so, he is remarkably open and eager to talk to a complete stranger. He has nothing to hide. We wander into discussions of gun control, and the role of government in society. Because he sees himself as morally upright, free of prejudice, and politically independent, he sees no reason to lighten up. Why should he?

At council meetings he is visibly pained. Being a councilmember "used to be more fun". Saying he was mindful of the earthquake a Recall might produce, and noting that he hadn't initially supported the recall; once it had become a certainty, he had felt duty bound to take a stand

Despite these doubts, he's certain that if the Recall fails the consequences will be cataclysmic. In his opinion, "you will be seeing an exodus out of town". The professional city manager, Mr. Herrera, will be dismissed; to be replaced by a compliant stooge willing to play ball with the SWU. The Chief of Police, Mr. Martinez, will go too. This will facilitate the Mexican drug cartels, already using Hondo as a trans-shipping point. With this nightmare dogging his mind, Vance was having trouble sleeping at night.

I ask Vance Tomey why more wasn't done to head off confrontation; why if race was not an issue, council members (Friendly neighbors) could not settle the objective issues in a less dramatic fashion. He says he tried, but that sunshine laws prohibit more than two elected officials getting together, except in public. Communications between the elected civic leaders are restricted to the formalisms allowed by the council agenda.

Election Day was on a Saturday. In the morning, I cruised the town on my way to the dump. There were nine people on line to vote in the Council Chambers. A heavy turnout! Seven seemed to be Hispanic; but since everybody was light-skinned I couldn't be sure. Although stanchions proclaiming a no politicking zone around the single polling site had been dutifully displayed, the area was chockablock full with the many pickups and flatbed trailers of Hondo being put to good use as billboards and rally points. Oddly, only the "Real Change" trailer was manned. Luccio Torrez and his supporters waved warmly as I walked past. The pro-recall units were empty, relying on placards to bear mute testimony to the urgency of voting "yes". Despite the fact that the polls had already been open for two hours, the vacant lot that served as "No" HQ only had a few sleepy hands just beginning to erect the shelters that would presumably host the expected celebration. There wasn't even any music.

In the afternoon, I checked the voting again. There was a still a line. Luccio and company were still smiling and the crowd at "NO" HQ was growing, and actually getting some work done. Having been assured that the local custom was to place the results on the windows of the polling place the night of the vote, and that was expected to be around nine o'clock, I went home, excited by democracy at work.

At eight o'clock there was a large crowd at the "NO" lot milling about quietly. When I pulled up outside the poll, the lights were just going out. All the trailers were abandoned, the placards and slogans were now yesterday's tomatoes, soon to be trash. A few souls lingered in front of the window, digesting the result. Citizens trickled by, checked the tally, and left without comment.

Sometimes, God Bless Them, the voters confound all the pundits. Sometimes, they voice an opinion that nobody expected, that nobody even thought possible.

In what the Anvil-Herald had artfully described as "Total Recall", all the incumbent council members had been defeated. This included the "Real Change" coalition of Virginia Gonzalez, Luccio Torrez, and Chavel Lopez. The Recall had succeeded and they had been removed from office. It also included the two incumbents supporting the Recall. One, J Gruber, lost by just two votes to an opponent of the Recall, a twenty-three year old student named Michael Sanchez. Vance Tomey lost by thirty eight votes to another critic of the Recall- Clyde Haak.

Go figure.

Until the replacement election in July, although the Recall had succeeded, the City Council would now be run by just two members, both of whom had sided with "Real Change" and opposed the CBH. The recall proponents had won, and now they would have no voice at all.

It was another record turnout. Due to Clinton vs. Obama and Obama vs. McCain, registration had increased from around thirty-three hundred to over four thousand. Luccio Torrez, for example, had received more votes in defeat than he had in victory a year earlier. Then, he had won with 842 to the incumbents 607, while a third candidate had taken 181. Saturday, he lost with 1038. Polarization doesn't always work out as planned.

In none of the four contests was the margin of victory more than forty-five votes.

At the special Council Meeting on the following Tuesday, where the usual thirty five gathered (plus one police Sergeant), the results were certified and the special election in July formally recognized. Unable to vote, former councilmember Chavel Lopez was allowed a point of personal privilege, although Mayor Danner grumbled it wasn't on the agenda.

Mr. Lopez stated that, in his opinion, the election was illegal and should be voided. He said provisional ballots were not provided in some cases, previous voters had been mysteriously purged from the rolls, that election officials had been unfriendly to Hispanics, that the ballot had been improperly worded in English and incorrectly translated into Spanish.

The voters had been asked to recall three council-members en masse, rather than individually. While not a criminal court, a Recall is a trial of sorts. That each "defendant" could not be judged on his or her individual merits had struck many as rather odd. Although each member was assigned a district, everyone in town gets to vote for every candidate in what are called "at large" seats. If only twelve percent of registered voters can force a recall, and then each district is subject to citywide polling, how can any diverse or local opinion; Anglo, Hispanic or otherwise, survive this process? A particular representative may have overwhelming support in his or her neighborhood, but still be removed from office by the voters from the other parts of town.

Mr. Lopez concluded on those points. This election, which had attracted Federal monitors, had violated his basic rights. Ominously, he stated that the election did not comply with the famous "section five" of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Then the meeting adjourned. One wag noted the whole thing had only lasted twelve minutes. Unless there is Federal or State intervention (Lawsuits seem inevitable), chances are we are going to see an encore presentation when they have the do-over scheduled for July. As for Vance Tomey, he was chipper in defeat, embracing his release from the whole mess, and eager to "get back to life".

While Vance Tomey may be liberated, local perceptions remain distorted by distrust and suspicion. Rather than seeing each other as neighbors united in their concerns for a better Hondo, and willing to make personal sacrifices in that cause, each side has allowed hysterical images to demonize their view of the other. Is this any different than the situation at the state, national or global level?

Yes, this is just a small town- but so is Wasilla, Alaska. A former councilmember and mayor from Wasilla was recently a candidate for Vice-President of the United States. Sarah Palin is likely to be a strong contender for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012, while Rudy Giuliani, Big Time 9/11 Mayor, will only be a face in the crowd at the convention. In a society as polarized as ours, we may ask what qualities political actors will be applauded for as they perform on the national stage, while we must understand that they learn their craft in the minors, at the local level.

Of the two states that have dominated politics in the United States since the Second World War, both lie west of the Mississippi. One of those is Texas. Widespread misconceptions exist regarding Texas. Despite its national reputation as a conservative bulwark, as "Red" as any state, Texas is already where the rest of the country is going- a majority minority community. The legislature has the barest Republican majority: 76 to 74. If the Democrats can win just two more seats, this "Red" state could go "Blue" awfully fast. Where will the votes come from? The pressure is on. To what ends will politicians go for those two seats? We have seen the record turnouts in Hondo.

On the national level, we have also seen a campaign based on "Change". While some support and applaud what they see as a return to practical problem solving after years of ideological incompetence; and trumpet the historical elevation of a colored man to the nation's highest office, in the euphoria of victory some sobering statistics have been subsumed. For millions, and we cannot dispute the legitimacy of their feelings, Mr. Obama's recent election represents a victory over a dark past, and the hope that our future will be less enslaved by this twisted legacy. This jubilation, and these hopes, ignore what represents one of the most racially polarized elections in American history.

Africans-Americans were racially inspired, and voted as a single mind. In the south, this was offset by an almost equal rejection of Obama by white males. In some regions of the United States, polarization of the electorate by race has risen to alarming proportions.

Perhaps being "old news" explains the lack of attention to these deepening divisions. Maybe we would prefer to accentuate the positive and keep our fingers crossed.

Or, perhaps because Afro-Americans are rapidly becoming the "other minority", the spotlights wish to illuminate a new story. There are now more Hispanics than Afro-Americans, and the edge is growing larger. Traditionally, they have been underrepresented in elections, and on a national level, closely divided between Moderns and Traditionals. Suddenly, in the recent Democratic victory, Hispanics voted two-to-one against McCain. This statistic is perhaps the most alarming for Republicans, and is often misunderstood as simply a reaction to McCain's sellout on immigration rather than the emergence of a new racial imperative.

In nearby San Antonio, generally considered the capitol of Tejano culture, where boosters never miss a chance to remind you that the AlamoCity is the seventh largest in the USA, they also had a citywide election on May 9^th. From a population of over 1.3 million, only ninety thousand votes were cast (Twelve percent). This disgraceful turnout not only throws water on claims to being a "big time" city rather than a big sleepy town, but contrasts sharply with the over fifty percent turnout in the neighboring county's biggest town- Hondo. Race was not an issue in the San Antonio election. Like they say, sex sells.

Racial polarization enhances voter turnout. While the civic minded may applaud any increase in participation, some questions, even alarm, may be raised by the techniques which achieve that result.

When people who have grown up together in a tight knit community, who work and shop at the same stores, that went to the same schools and played together on the same teams and are invariably polite and considerate of one another; suddenly accuse one another of the most despicable motivations, we see clearly that the cultural outcropping along the Tejano line is not as singular as one might have supposed.

Certainly, short-sighted politicking has amplified the problem, but did politics create these rifts, or did it simply provide a seismic release for the gradual buildup of stress and strain hidden below the surface?

Is this just an aftershock; a lingering tremor from the cultural earthquakes that shook America just a single lifetime ago? Perhaps the great plates are just settling back together again- the rumblings just an echo from the past.

Or, is what is happening here a foreshock, a precursor of the "big one"? Will well meaning, but hot headed, citizens allow themselves to be organized by politicians into opposing camps defined by race? Political leadership here failed to prevent an argument over an electric rate from turning into a racial tug of war. Whether this was avoidable at all, due to indifference, or actually cultivated; calmer minds must wonder if other pols can be found here and elsewhere that have both the skills and the wisdom to reject appeals to bias; and if not, what other segment of society will provide that enlightened leadership?

As the hissy-fit that had its epicenter in council chambers broadened into a Recall process, construction workers moved onto the highway that divided Hondo. TxDot, with a budget dwarfing the sums hotly debated a block away, was making some less than urgent repairs between the six lights. They had jobs to do, and the paving over of social divisions wasn't one of them. What was included was the removal of the sign.

The sign was little Hondo's only claim to fame. Like most such signs, it had begun by saying "Welcome". Then it proclaimed with an unusual authority: "This is God's Country". Finally, it admonished "Please Don't Drive Through it Like Hell".

Maybe, as they wonder at what has happened here in this corner of "God's Country", and wonder from where the leadership will come from to make things right again, maybe they should consider putting the sign back up. Perhaps the "Yes" and "No" advocates could take suggestions from the good citizens as to where to put it.

It's good advice; advice that might be equally applied to rash minds everywhere, not just to motorists traveling along the Tejano Line. It "recalls" similar advice given a long time ago to another little town; guidance that explains what comes of being careless of one another. It's from the Epistle of Paul to the Galatians.

"Be not deceived. Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap".

swantosez@gmail.com