𝐂𝐈𝐓𝐘'𝐒 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐋𝐓𝐇 𝐃𝐄𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐌𝐄𝐍𝐓 𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐌𝐎𝐓𝐄𝐒 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐋𝐓𝐇𝐘 𝐃𝐈𝐄𝐓 𝐖𝐈𝐓𝐇 𝐈𝐍𝐀𝐔𝐆𝐔𝐑𝐀𝐋 𝐒𝐈 𝐋𝐀𝐍𝐓𝐑𝐎 𝐅𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐕𝐀𝐋 𝐀𝐓 𝐁𝐑𝐎𝐖𝐍𝐒𝐕𝐈𝐋𝐋𝐄 𝐅𝐀𝐑𝐌𝐄𝐑𝐒 𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐊𝐄𝐓 𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐂𝐇 𝟐𝟏

Arturo Rodriguez
Health Department Director

Longtime director of the City of Brownsville's Health Department, Arturo Rodriguez, continues to promote a healthy diet in our city, so, it was not surprising to run into Art at Todo Natural, a popular eatery at 1100 N. Expressway, Ste A3, featuring natural, preservative-free homestyle food.

Rodriguez also mentioned the upcoming Si Lantro Festival to be held March 21 from 9AM to 12PM at the Brownsville Farmers Market.  

Rodriguez, who set a personal example himself by losing nearly 100 lbs. a few years ago, continues to consider a good, nutrititious, healthy diet as critical to the continued health of Brownsville residents.  

The inaugural Sí Lantro Festival is being held at the Brownsville Farmers Market on March 21, 2026, hosted by the City of Brownsville Department of Health, Wellness, and Animal Services. This event celebrates National Nutrition Month, focusing on healthy, fresh, and vibrant lifestyles. 

Event Highlights & Details:

• Date: Saturday, March 21, 2026.
• Location: Brownsville Farmers Market.
• Purpose: To promote healthy, fresh, and nutritious eating habits in the community.
• Get Involved: Information regarding sponsorships or volunteering can be found at the Latinx Voces website. 

Now, just a brief note about Todo Natural, an eatery that's become my favorite in recent weeks.  The food is not only preservative-free, but delicious.  A chalkboard out front announces the daily Especial, typically $11 or $12 with an entree, two sides, a drink and your choice of fideo or lentils.

𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐍 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐂𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐓𝐑𝐘 𝐌𝐎𝐑𝐏𝐇𝐒 𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐎 𝐒𝐎𝐌𝐄𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐄𝐌𝐁𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐏𝐒𝐄𝐔𝐃𝐎-𝐏𝐀𝐓𝐑𝐈𝐎𝐓𝐈𝐒𝐌

            

In attempting to explain to one of my ride-share riders, himself Hispanic, how I'd observed men in our town who embodied a complicated and often uncomfortable kind of patriotism, I referenced my late father-in-law, Manuel Perez and now-deceased school teacher, Dagoberto Barrera.  Both men had their lives shaped by migration, discipline, and an intense desire to belong. My late father-in-law was born in Mexico, yet he served thirty years in the United States military and wore that service as the core of his identity. America, to him, was something he had earned through sacrifice. But that sense of earned belonging came with a sharp edge. Despite his own origins, he routinely referred to Mexican nationals as “wetbacks,” a word loaded with contempt and distance, as if drawing a hard line between who deserved to belong and who did not. His loyalty to the United States was genuine, but it was also performative in the sense that it demanded constant reaffirmation, especially by rejecting people who reminded him too closely of where he came from.

Dagoberto Barrera reflected a strikingly similar posture. A former schoolteacher and a respected figure in his own right, he spoke disparagingly of Mexicans as people who “eat with their hands” and who, in his telling, were always ready to “rape, rob, and pillage our community.” His language was not just prejudiced; it was alarmist, framing Mexicans as an invading threat rather than as neighbors or kin. Like Manuel, Dagoberto positioned himself as a defender of order, culture, and country, even while targeting people who shared his ethnic background. Education and civic standing did not soften this outlook; if anything, they seemed to harden his belief that he had risen above others and therefore had the authority to judge them.

When I look at these two men alongside many Hispanic Republicans in Brownsville, the parallels are hard to ignore. There is often a shared worldview that equates patriotism with policing boundaries; cultural, linguistic, and national. In this framework, love of country is proven not just by waving the flag or voting a certain way, but by distancing oneself from immigrants who are poorer, darker, newer, or less assimilated. It is a kind of pseudo-patriotism, or performative nationalism, that blends sincere affection for the United States with a deep anxiety about status and acceptance.

This pattern is not unique to Mexican Americans. Among Cuban Americans, particularly in places like Florida, patriotism often takes on a highly visible and aggressive form, rooted in fierce anti-communism and the trauma of fleeing the Castro regime. Movements like “Patria y Vida” reflect a real and emotional love for a free Cuba, but that history of exile and loss can also translate into an intense need to signal loyalty to the United States. Because Cuban Americans hold a disproportionate amount of political power relative to their numbers, this brand of nationalism is especially loud and influential, sometimes blurring the line between heartfelt conviction and strategic performance within the U.S. political system.

Mexican Americans, by contrast, are often criticized for maintaining visible ties to Mexico, flying flags, celebrating traditions, or expressing pride in a country their families may have left generations ago. What outsiders sometimes dismiss as “pocho” or divided loyalty is more accurately a form of cultural survival. For many, these expressions are not anti-American at all, but a way of asserting dignity and belonging in a society that frequently treats them as perpetual foreigners. This “outsider patriotism” exists alongside, not in opposition to, love for the United States.

Across these communities, generational differences matter. Those who fled political violence or extreme poverty often cling more tightly to rigid ideas of nationalism, while their U.S.-born children may navigate identity with more flexibility. Solidarity with family and friends back home, protest against corrupt regimes, and the simple need to feel seen all shape how patriotism is expressed.

Seen through this lens, the attitudes of Manuel Perez, Dagoberto Barrera, and many like-minded Hispanic Republicans are not just personal failings, but symptoms of a larger struggle over belonging. What looks like pseudo-patriotism from the outside is often a complicated mix of pride, fear, trauma, and a relentless desire to prove, to oneself and to others, that one truly belongs, even if that proof comes at the cost of denying humanity to people who look very much like oneself.

𝐑𝐄𝐍𝐄 𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐑𝐄𝐒 𝐒𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐄𝐒 𝐄𝐕𝐈𝐃𝐄𝐍𝐂𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐁𝐋𝐀𝐂𝐊 𝐁𝐀𝐒𝐄𝐁𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐄𝐑𝐒 𝐈𝐍 𝐁𝐑𝐎𝐖𝐍𝐒𝐕𝐈𝐋𝐋𝐄

 

𝗕𝗥𝗢𝗪𝗡𝗦𝗩𝗜𝗟𝗟𝗘 𝗧𝗥𝗨𝗠𝗣 𝗙𝗔𝗡𝗦; 𝗔𝗥𝗘 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗟𝗟𝗬 𝗡𝗢𝗧 𝗔𝗕𝗟𝗘 𝗧𝗢 𝗨𝗡𝗗𝗘𝗥𝗦𝗧𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗪𝗛𝗬 𝗣𝗨𝗘𝗥𝗧𝗢 𝗥𝗜𝗖𝗔𝗡 𝗘𝗡𝗧𝗘𝗥𝗧𝗔𝗜𝗡𝗘𝗥 𝗕𝗔𝗗 𝗕𝗨𝗡𝗡𝗬 𝗜𝗦 𝗡𝗢𝗧 𝗔 𝗕𝗜𝗚 𝗧𝗥𝗨𝗠𝗣 𝗦𝗨𝗣𝗣𝗢𝗥𝗧𝗘𝗥?

 

Tuesday, September 30, 2025

𝗕𝗥𝗢𝗪𝗡𝗦𝗩𝗜𝗟𝗟𝗘 𝗧𝗥𝗨𝗠𝗣 𝗙𝗔𝗡𝗦; 𝗔𝗥𝗘 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗟𝗟𝗬 𝗡𝗢𝗧 𝗔𝗕𝗟𝗘 𝗧𝗢 𝗨𝗡𝗗𝗘𝗥𝗦𝗧𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗪𝗛𝗬 𝗣𝗨𝗘𝗥𝗧𝗢 𝗥𝗜𝗖𝗔𝗡 𝗘𝗡𝗧𝗘𝗥𝗧𝗔𝗜𝗡𝗘𝗥 𝗕𝗔𝗗 𝗕𝗨𝗡𝗡𝗬 𝗜𝗦 𝗡𝗢𝗧 𝗔 𝗕𝗜𝗚 𝗧𝗥𝗨𝗠𝗣 𝗦𝗨𝗣𝗣𝗢𝗥𝗧𝗘𝗥?

                                                                     

Moments ago, I read a Facebook post of someone stating they will not be watching this year's Super Bowl because Puerto Rican entertainer Bad Bunny is set to perform at halftime.  Of course, that person has an absolute right to boycott that football game and to publicly state the reason.

A commentator I'm not familiar with, Benny Johnson, is also of that mindset, describing Bad Bunny as an "anti-ICE activist" and a "massive Trump hater," clearly stating that he, also, will not be watching the Super Bowl February 8, again, clearly his right.

The backlash is part of a larger clash between Trump-aligned conservatives and Puerto Rican cultural and political figures, one that stretches back years to the fallout from Hurricane Maria, when Trump claimed that Puerto Rican officials were exaggerating the death toll and, cavalierly and disrespectfully, tossed paper towels at a relief center. In case you've been living with partisan blinders on the last decade, Donald Trump is not particularly fond of darker-skinned folk, claiming they either eat cats and dogs or falsify death tolls.

When Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico in 2017, Donald Trump’s handling of the crisis left a deep and lasting mark. Nearly 3,000 lives were ultimately lost, yet Trump repeatedly questioned the official death toll, claiming political opponents had inflated the numbers to make him “look as bad as possible.” Instead of uniting the nation in support, as most Presidents do in a crisis, he lashed out at Puerto Rican leaders, including San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz, calling her guilty of “poor leadership” and suggesting Puerto Ricans expected “everything to be done for them.” Investigations later found that Trump administration officials deliberately slowed and obstructed the release of Congressionally approved aid, compounding the island’s struggles.

The one moment in particular that came to symbolize Trump’s attitude: during a visit to Puerto Rico, was his casual tossing of paper towel rolls into a crowd of storm victims at the Calvary Chapel in Guaynabo. Many saw the gesture as mocking and profoundly out of touch with the gravity of the suffering around him. Reports that he privately suggested “divesting” from Puerto Rico or even trading the island for Greenland only deepened feelings that he regarded the territory as expendable rather than part of the American family.

Those wounds have not healed. In recent years, Trump’s rhetoric has continued to alienate Puerto Ricans. At a 2024 rally in New York City, a comedian’s joke describing Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage” was met with outrage, and Trump was criticized for not condemning the remarks directly. Even as he boasted about providing more aid to Puerto Rico than any president before him, many remembered his earlier dismissive attitude. His decision in early 2025 to make English the official language for all federal business added another layer of unease, with some Puerto Ricans worried about the erosion of their cultural identity. To many, the Republican Party’s removal of language about Puerto Rican self-determination from its platform suggested that the island’s status was being sidelined rather than respected.

In this context, Bad Bunny’s outspoken criticism of Trump resonates with large parts of Puerto Rico’s population, but also ensures he remains a target for Trump’s most loyal supporters. For conservatives, boycotting the Super Bowl over his performance is a symbolic rejection of what they see as anti-Trump, anti-American sentiment. For Puerto Ricans, however, the broader story is about years of feeling dismissed and disparaged by a president who questioned the scale of their tragedy, threw paper towels into a crowd of survivors, and at times suggested they were a burden to be cast aside. The friction over the halftime show, then, is just one visible expression of the deeper divide between Trump’s movement and the island he once considered trading away.

Tuesday, October 14, 2025

𝗠𝗬 𝗕𝗥𝗢𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗥𝗦 𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗦𝗜𝗦𝗧𝗘𝗥𝗦 𝗜𝗡 𝗠𝗔𝗚𝗔𝗟𝗔𝗡𝗗; 𝗧𝗥𝗬 𝗧𝗢 𝗕𝗘 𝗠𝗢𝗥𝗘 𝗖𝗢𝗠𝗣𝗔𝗦𝗦𝗜𝗢𝗡𝗔𝗧𝗘, 𝗠𝗢𝗥𝗘 𝗨𝗡𝗗𝗘𝗥𝗦𝗧𝗔𝗡𝗗𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗜𝗡𝗦𝗜𝗚𝗛𝗧𝗙𝗨𝗟 𝗧𝗛𝗔𝗡 𝗬𝗢𝗨𝗥 𝗙𝗘𝗔𝗥𝗟𝗘𝗦𝗦 𝗟𝗘𝗔𝗗𝗘𝗥

                                     

As a 77 year old uncool white guy, I'm not into the music of Puerto Rican recording and performing artist Bad Bunny.  Still, I'm not amused by the abject silliness of my MAGA brethren offering resistance to his pending performance at the 2026 Super Bowl.

Boys and girls of Trumpland, Bad Bunny is an American citizen if that's your worry, although I suspect it's not.  You're simply reflecting the sentiments of your paper-towel tossing Lord and Savior, Donald J. Trump, a man who totally disrespected part of our country, Puerto Rico, then tried to childishly "trade" it for Greenland.

Put on your independent thinking caps, my MAGA friends, and quit being fooled, duped and tricked by a cult leader while trudging in the footsteps of someone of the ilk of Jim Jones, David Koresh and the Reverend Sun Myung Moon.

Besides, the following non-citizens have already performed at the Super Bowl's halftime show and you never said a damn thing!  

• Shakira: Colombia
• Rihanna: Barbados
• The Weeknd: Canada
• Paul McCartney: United Kingdom
• The Rolling Stones: United Kingdom
• U2: Ireland
• Sting: United Kingdom
• Coldplay: United Kingdom
• Shania Twain: Canada
• J. Balvin: Colombia
• The Who: United Kingdom
• Phil Collins: United Kingdom

Monday, October 28, 2024

𝗧𝗥𝗨𝗠𝗣 𝗥𝗔𝗟𝗟𝗬 𝗖𝗢𝗠𝗜𝗖 𝗖𝗔𝗟𝗟𝗦 𝗣𝗨𝗘𝗥𝗧𝗢 𝗥𝗜𝗖𝗢 "𝗔 𝗙𝗟𝗢𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗜𝗦𝗟𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗢𝗙 𝗚𝗔𝗥𝗕𝗔𝗚𝗘 𝗜𝗡 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗠𝗜𝗗𝗗𝗟𝗘 𝗢𝗙 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗢𝗖𝗘𝗔𝗡"

Donald Trump keeps telling America exactly who he is and the Puerto Rican community in the United States, some 6.2M, is listening.

At a campaign rally in New York's legendary Madison Square Garden, comedian John Hinchcliffe joked about an "island of floating garbage in the middle of the ocean we call Puerto Rico."

Before that racist quip, the Trump rally comedian had this to say:  "Latinos love making babies.  They do. . . They come inside and there's no pulling out, just like they did to our country."

For those who think Trump himself doesn't view all Hispanics as inferior, don't forget his statement as he rode down the gold escalator in Trump Tower in 2015 to announce his candidacy for President, referring to "Mexican Nationals" as "rapists" and "criminals."

The pushback was swift from noted entertainers in the Hispanic community from Puerto Rico, with Bad Bunny, Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony issuing statements condemning the remarks from the Trump rally while endorsing Kamala Harris for President.

What Trump seems not to understand is that residents of Puerto Rico are U.S. citizens, paying taxes to our treasury.

Trump's ignorance and racism was on full display when 2017's Hurricane Maria devasted the island, and U.S. citizens found themselves without food, electricity or clean water while Trump repeatedly blocked aid from being sent to the country.

While the island rocked from the devastating storm, Donald Trump discounted FEMA's death toll figures and publicly fought with San Juan Mayor Carmen Cruz Soto over what support the island needed.

It wasn't until just before the 2020 election that Trump finally released a $13B aid package for the island.

U.S. citizens of Puerto Rico will not forget Trump's suggestion of trading Puerto Rico for Greenland or his cavalier, sarcastic tossing of paper towel rolls at citizens lacking clean water and electricity. 

Trump's racist mishandling of the Hurricane Maria recovery, in itself, demonstrates his absolute unfitness to hold public office. 

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𝐃𝐎𝐄𝐒 𝐆𝐄𝐓𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐎𝐋𝐃 𝐀𝐔𝐓𝐎𝐌𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐘 𝐌𝐀𝐊𝐄 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐎𝐁𝐒𝐎𝐋𝐄𝐓𝐄?

    

Crisscrossing the town today in my new job driving Uber and Lyft, it occurred to me that an old person can easily become obsolete, not just pas·sé, but actually unuseful, a word just one notch kinder than "useless."

As a very smart little boy in the 50's things came too easily and I found I could mostly just coast, a modus operandi also nurtured by an inherited religious belief system that mostly just waited on the Almighty to make everything perfect and just.

Of course, consumers were programmed to believe most things eventually become obsolete. The 50's brought us planned obsolescence, intentionally making things that would become obsolete so folks would gravitate toward and purchase the newest and latest.

The '56 Chevy was a perfectly good car with straightforward lines, but lacked the fins and the chrome of the '57, the tail lights of the '58 and finally the gaude of the monstros '59.  The postwar world of that era believed in creating demand by fostering dissatisfaction, something called "planned obsolescense," the basis of which is making something obsolete or simply made not to last.

I remember looking quizzically at the home of Ed Beckley, a Boeing engineer, who lived behind our church in Renton, Washington, with a 40's car in his carport he maintained perfectly, never "upgrading," bucking the country's economic system.  Beckley simply chose not to play the game.

Today, it came to me that old age can become unplanned obsolescence unless one puts forth a little effort to adjust.  Maybe grandpa can't write code like his grandsons, but what's his excuse for not becoming adept with the iphone or laptop, not simply being too mentally lazy to try?

𝐀𝐌𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐂𝐀𝐍𝐒 𝐏𝐎𝐒𝐓 "𝐖𝐀𝐑𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐒𝐈𝐆𝐍𝐒" 𝐀𝐓 𝐌𝐄𝐗𝐈𝐂𝐎'𝐒 𝐁𝐀𝐆𝐃𝐀𝐃 𝐁𝐄𝐀𝐂𝐇 𝐄𝐀𝐒𝐓 𝐎𝐅 𝐌𝐀𝐓𝐀𝐌𝐎𝐑𝐎𝐒

In what could be a prank or some misguided political exercise, a group of "young Americans" were observed posting six signs on Mexico's Bagdad Beach east of Matamoros after crossing the Rio Grande by boat.  The Mexican Navy (SEMAR) , not appreciating the "invasion" of American civilians, removed the signs.

"American authorities can't come to Mexico and invade, right?" asked Mexican Congresswoman Elvia Eguia Castillo.

Eguia stated that the incident demonstrated the need for increased surveillance on both sides of the border so that "this doesn't happen again."

𝗖𝗔𝗠𝗘𝗥𝗢𝗡 𝗖𝗢𝗨𝗡𝗧𝗬 𝗦𝗛𝗘𝗥𝗜𝗙𝗙 𝗗𝗘𝗣𝗨𝗧𝗜𝗘𝗦 𝗔𝗦𝗦𝗢𝗖𝗜𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡 𝗣𝗥𝗘𝗦𝗜𝗗𝗘𝗡𝗧 𝗛𝗜𝗧𝗦 𝗨𝗡𝗔𝗧𝗧𝗘𝗡𝗗𝗘𝗗 𝗩𝗘𝗛𝗜𝗖𝗟𝗘 𝗪𝗛𝗜𝗟𝗘 "𝗢𝗡 𝗗𝗨𝗧𝗬"

 

Hugo Dante Salinas Jr.