THE SHORT MEMORY OF MANY MEXICAN-BORN AMERICANS

 

I'm at some loss to explain the late Dagoberto Barrera, a Mexican-born American, an educator, a super patriot, but a man with zero compassion or tolerance for those who, like him, came to the U.S. from Mexico.

With a voice like a foghorn, Barrera would open city commission meetings or any other public meeting with a wall-shaking recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance.

Dapper to a fault, always with matching shirt and tie, perfectly pressed trousers and shined shoes, the 5'5" dynamo would address city and county meetings, rejecting the microphone, instead using his natural voice to shame, chide and exhort the audience to reject any government "handouts," work with their own two hands, and, like him, love America more than life itself.

As a retired BISD teacher, many of the local politicians had been his students and Dagoberto never let them forget it.

City Commissioner Rick Longoria, a former student of Barrera's, would take the scolding and respond with respect.

To City Commissioner Edward Camarillo, Barrera would say publicly:  "You need to lose weight.  You're too fat."

The commissioner took the insult without comment.

But, it was Mexicans, his own people, for whom Barrera had the most apparent disdain.

Although himself from Mexico, he now viewed his former people just across the river as "not of our culture.  They eat with their fingers, their heads bobbing up and down at the table like ducks."

Although we all laughed, it was sad to witness such ignorance, especially from a retired school teacher who influenced many in his life.

Years ago, we took our grandson to a fast food chain with an indoor playground and heard a commotion.

"Take your necking outside! This is a place to eat.  Go outside with your necking!"

Those insulting shouts were being hurled by the diminuitive, elderly man in white shirt, tie and hat, seated next to us, yes, Dagoberto Barrera, to a teen couple, holding hands and peering into each other's eyes near the drink dispenser.

Working my way up to the front counter, I asked the two 15 year olds if they knew the man shouting at them.  They simply shrugged their shoulders, but the girl asked for his name.

"It's Dagoberto Barrera.  He's a crazy guy, an ex-Marine, a retired school teacher, but a total dumbass.  Don't let him bother you!"

Barrera was categorically opposed to food "handouts, making that clear in a long letter to the Brownsville Herald with harsh words for Rep. Ruben Herrera.

We share some excerpts:

"He says 200,000 hungry children would be kicked out of the school lunch program.  That Democrat is wrong, period.

I've witnessed many of these "poor" students throw this food in the trashcan because they did not like it or were not hungry. Thus waste, I would say.

These 40% of Hinojosa's are not malnourished.  Instead, many are obese."

"Many of these "poor" have handheld personal computers, yet they are on welfare, in public housing, have fancy jeans, new clothing and drive home in cars.  Most of their parents are illegal or resident aliens."

"These people need to look for a job! But why should they__Their bellies are full with welfare and no physical work, only to receive a monthly allowance from taxpayers."

Carlos Cascos, in his role as our county's leading Republican, would typically have to deal with Dagoberto at seminars on "the border crisis" and Republican events.

Dagoberto was always going to speak, but Cascos would introduce him, saying: "Don't scare everyone!"

Despite the warning, Dag would warn of the pending Mexican invasion to "rape and pillage."

Sometimes, Cascos would just interrupt Barrera's diatribe with "OK, whatever!" and move the meeting on to other topics.

Now, Barrera was not unique in this putdown of his former countrymen.

My former father-in-law, Manuel Perez, long deceased, held similar views.

Despite swimming the river himself in 1940 to marry my former mother-in-law, he not only referred to Mexican Nationals as "wet backs," but derided other groups as "gooks, Japs, chinks.

Mr. Perez, who spent 30 years in the U.S. Army, then about a dozen in the Border Patrol, would confide in me that he reserved his respect for only one group, the "English," a word he used to describe Americans like me who spoke English.

I could cite other examples of the same, but it's just a difficult-to-understand phenomenon for me, how so many former Mexican Nationals, show such disdain for their former country and countrymen.

My only rationale is that it somehow legitimizes their standing as a true American, or as a super patriot like Dagoberto Barrera.