The end of a decade

Wow, can it be almost 10 years ago that people were fretting about the Y2K Bug? Where were you when we rang in 2000? Well, here we are closing out that "old" decade and about to christen a new one. Do we call it twenty-ten or two thousand-ten? I like twenty-ten better. Seems like everytime you say two thousand-something the "Also Sprach Zarathustra" theme (music to "2001" movie) should be playing. Regardless, Happy New Year!

Presidio is always a nice place to be during the holidays. Being a teacher, I run into former students going back 20+ years. Hopefully the Presidio they come back to is a better place than when they left years ago. I hope so. My motto is "be a good person and leave the earth a better place than you found it."

OK, so let's take a look at our dreamworld, Presidio, and see how we fared over the past decade:

• Built a new elementary school
• Built a new middle school
• New track at the football field
• Two new clinics
• Alco, Subway, Payless Shoes, DY Store, Melrose
  
• Mariscos Las Palapas de Aldama, La Pasadita, The Enlightened Bean
  
• Street paving underway
• New community center
• Community internet
• The Resonators formed (personal plug)
  

I'm probably leaving out some really important things, but what do ya' want for nuthin'? 2010 will bring numerous positive additions to town, but I'll list them as they come online. Right now let's be thankful that things are as good as they are here, while being willing to work for things to get even better.

The challenges facing Presidio are pretty much ones which most small towns face. Fortunately we have in place outstanding local leadership at city hall, the school board, county commissioners, state rep and senator, as well as federal rep. With all these entities working together, there are going to be some important developments around town, but I'll brag on them--once again--as they occur.

I'm hoping that Presidio and Ojinaga will continue to be strong friends of one another in the coming decade. Ojinaga faces some pretty tough challenges, as they have for quite some time. In spite of difficulties face on many fronts in Ojinaga, there are numerous citizens there who have much to contribute. We should always look for ways to facilitate their efforts and work in tandem to continue making La Junta a special place.

Happy New Year! Feliz ano nuevo!

The beginning of the Christmas holidays in Presidio

Today (Saturday) we had our annual Christmas Parade in Presidio. It was pretty small, but counted with the participation of the Franco Middle School Band--all 100 of them. Good job, kids! At the parade's conclusion, the Ft. Davis State Bank (Presidio branch), hosted a community Christmas party, and it was very well done. Providing music entertainment were the Presidio Elementary Honor Choir and La Rondalla de CeTIS 98. Magical!

It's been unseasonably cold here for the past few days, with temps falling into the 20's at night and daytime highs in the 40's. We've even had snow, with the surrounding mountains really showing off what winter can be with a beautiful dusting. This will all be a fond memory come May.

Saturday afternoon thoughts

What a nice day to be in Presidio! It's the Saturday after Thanksgiving, the weather's about 69 F outside, and all is well. If there happens to be ANYBODY who reads this, you must be halfway interested in Presidio, Texas. (Hi-five!)

Other than what little you read about Presidio in the news, let me share a personal perspective on some things:

• Presidio Schools are currently in the somewhat controversial process of verifying where students and staff actually go to sleep at night. Thankfully, I think everyone can say they go to a permanent dwelling. However the issue is being raised as to whether or not a number of individuals may be residing in Ojinaga, but listing Presidio as their residence. This is a very delicate issue, but one worth staying on top of. Students who are attending our schools but reside in Ojinaga cannot have a means to for their parents to pay property taxes, i.e. generate revenue to operate the schools. It's somewhat of a dirty, thankless job to have to do this, but I agree with it. More on this as things unfurl.
• The school is also looking at a school calendar that contains four 9-week sessions with a Fall, Christmas, and Spring Break, in addition to a 7-week summer vacation. It sounds like it might be good for our students, in that they wouldn't have 11 weeks of little or no English exposure during the summer. The staff will have a chance to vote on keeping the current format or adopting the new proposal.
  
• The City of Presidio has been very fortunate as of late in receiving an enormous amount of money for infrastructure. Now it's time to think about parks for our kids. The time is right.
• The international bridge has been the scene of about 94 deportations of illegal immigrants per day since November 1st. So far the U.S. Border Patrol has not seen a rise in apprehensions, but only time will tell. Ojinaga is not big enough to absorb a large number of these individuals, and public safety could be compromised if there were a substantial number of deportees left to their own devices there. Again, we'll see.

A new stinky place for Presidio

The City of Presidio just received notification that the Obama administration's stimulus funds--to the tune of $12 million dollars--have been awarded to construct a new sewage treatment facility. Originally the city had planned to the fund the facility using a combination of grants and local funding, so the savings are enormous. The millions we would have spent on this project might now be possibly be considered for other needs, still many.

Typically the city receives approximately $250,000 in grants per year for community development. That normally goes toward water, sewer or streets (Oh, and we were the fortunate recipients of a $5 million dollar street paving grant, too.). So instead of inching along to provide basic services, Presidio vaulted--finally--into the 21st century.

Come on, Presidio. It's a parade for cryin' out loud!

Probably the most underwhelming community events in our town are our parades. Unlike Marfa and Alpine where the local populace turns out to enthusiastically support their various parades, you'd think that a Presidio parade was a processional to an I.R.S. audit. Our parades have just about everything you'd find in such an event: a marching band, floats, hot rods, politicians, etc. That is not where the problem lies. The problem is that many of our townspeople don't show the slightest inclination to joining in on the fun of what a parade is.

Imagine giving a pep talk to a 12 year-old about carrying a 26" bass drum a mile and a half down Main Street. Oh, and he'll need to play it non-stop, too. Outside of the encouragement of the band director and a bargain brand soda waiting at the end, that's about all a typical Presidio band kid gets out of helping out in a parade. Yeah, there'll be a few random souls whooping it up along the way, but for the most part people just stand there and stare expressionless. Weird.

I think the underlying problem in this situation is that we lack ownership in this town. So many of us either still count Ojinaga as our home town, or we haven't decided that Presidio is worth rooting for--win, lose, or draw. We are not yet a true community. We all happen to live in the same village, but the esprit de corps is absent. We all love to cheer the local baseball champs, but forget about cheering on the local team that has no chance at the playoffs. We all want to be a part of the fervor when times are great, but what about the lean times?

I guess you have to keep trying...

Viva Presidio!

Presidio Arts Festival 2009 was awesome! See you in '10!

Jesus Hernandez performs with Muela de Juicio.





Paisano Dancers from Terlingua School.

Rondalla de CeTIS 98.

Vamonos a Guajira

Hey so now members of Congress are seriously talking about introducing legislation to lift the travel restrictions to Cuba? All right! Now we're talking!

My previous post dealt with lifting the embargo, but now there's a good chance I won't have to sneak over to Cuba to visit. The times, they are a changin'. It would almost be like adding a new island to the earth, because practically none of us have ever been there. How I would love to hang out in Havana and just soak up everything.

By the way the title of this post comes from some lyrics from a Santana tune.

An end to the Cuban embargo?

The US Congress is apparently getting ready to loosen the (ludicrous) embargo that has been in place against Cuba since the early 1960's. Once upon a time, when communism, was on the march, the US put into place an almost total embargo against Cuba due to Fidel Castro's assuming power of the island nation. Castro definitely is no saint, but the Cuban people have borne the brunt of this embargo over the years. It's time for the embargo to end.

Cuba is economically poor; it's people are, in so many other ways, very rich. Out of necessity, they are resourceful and are quite resilient. From my perspective, their culture is extraordinary, and I would guess many people share this opinion. Cuba is also an interesting land--one that I must visit during my lifetime.

President Obama, let's bring to a close this strange chapter in our nation's history and make some new friends in Cuba.