Soy de Duval

Enjoy your Turkey!! Hook ’em Horns!!

Duval County Commissioners declined a petition from Precinct 2 citizens to reinstate their county commissioner. Commissioner P. W. Toklas hastily tendered his resignation on Wednesday, Feb. 12, 1879. Toklas was upset by the court’s approval of warrants submitted by Sheriff E. A. Glover and quit on the spot. After some argument, the court accepted his resignation. Later that day, as the court resumed its meeting that started on Feb. 10, a group of Toklas constituents came before the court to ask that they reconsider the matter. Another argument ensued and the court voted 2-1 not to reinstate Toklas. Precinct 1 Commissioner C. K Gravis and Precinct 3 Commissioner E. N. Gray voted to keep Toklas out and Precinct 4 Commissioner E. H. Caldwell sided with Toklas.  The court had fined Toklas and County Judge James Luby $1 earlier in the meeting for being late. It was Luby’s second fine for tardiness. Reporters covering commissioners court meetings in yesteryear had to be have the endu...

In 2006, when I lived in Austin I used to take Cap Metro’s 935 Express into town to work. I usually tired to find and empty pair of seats so as not to have to interact with anyone while I wrote a novel I was working on. One day there was no place to seat where I could write so I sat next to an African American woman and we struck up a conversation. As it turned out she had been writing a book on the bus as well. Mada Plummer was her name and she published her book “Closure” later that year. This long introduction to a story that will have only an indirect connection to this blog is important because it provides a direct connection to the rest of my story. Her story is based in New Orleans, and while I have never been to New Orleans, I found an immediate connection to the story. You see, the lives of poor folk, whether black, white, or brown often are very much alike. I could relate to Mada’s experiences even though I had only known her briefly on the bus. Her childhood adventures were ...

The infamous Box 13 that gave Lyndon Johnson victory in the 1948 senatorial election. Photo provided by Tommy Molina from the “T.H. Molina Photo Collection. While serious accusations were whirling around in 1948 over allegations of voter fraud in Duval and Jim Wells Counties, the Dallas Morning News found time and space in its newspaper columns to poke fun at the situation. The News , in keeping with the times showed a total lack of sensitivity. In its Oct. 19, 1948, issue the News reported “No Joy in Seven Sisters Because Papa Returned.” The newspaper said a Texas citizen of “Mexican ancestry . . . of course his name was Pedro” was crying uncontrollably on a street corner in the town of Seven Sisters because his father, who had been dead six years, had come back to life to vote in the recent election. His inconsiderate father, Pedro told his friend Miguel, had not come to visit after casting his vote. Mark McGhee relayed the story to the News . The newspaper did not report what...

LBJ with friends in front of helicopter he used to campaign during the 1948 campaign.  From T. H. Molina Photo Collection. Former Texas Governor Coke Stevenson’s Duval County drubbing at the hands of Congressman Lyndon Johnson in 1948 did not go unnoticed by the former governor. He lashed out at the “bloc” and “machine” voting practiced by “Latin Americans” in Duval and surrounding counties. His friends at the Dallas Morning News editorial page were quick to chime in on his behalf. In a Sept. 1, 1948 editorial entitled “Stevenson ‘Slur’ At Duval County” the News took exception with Johnson’s characterization of Stevenson’s complaints as a “slur” against the electorate of Texas. Johnson noted that Stevenson had not complained the four previous elections when he had received the overwhelming support of Duval County. Moreover, he did not hear complaints from Stevenson on boxes that he carried 100 percent in the King Ranch or by margins of 8 to 1 in the ritzy River Oaks s...

San Diego native Raul “Paul” Ramirez penned the book “ El Patron & The Bootlegger” in 2011, which I had the pleasure to read recently. The book follows the life of “a trustworthy Mexican immigrant…befriended by a corrupt yet philanthropic Anglo Don from South Texas where both men find the American Dream and friendship has a price after the Don fakes his own death, leaving behind the secrets of a political and criminal dynasty that gave a predominant senator the presidency.” The story is written as fiction, and Ramirez points out “any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.” While that may be the author’s position, anyone with a rudimentary knowledge of Duval County history can easily match the fictitious characters with real persons that shaped the story of the county’s recent past. Marciano Campos, the Mexican immigrant bootlegger, arrives in the United States and as is quickly ensnared into the illicit liquor trade during prohibition. He brings to li...