Appreciating the RGV

One of the strangest stories within the story of the 2020 election is that trump somehow convinced a large number of hispanics in the Rio Grande Valley that he was going to help them and thus they voted for him. Perhaps reversing this outcome and ensuring that republicans don't ever get the hispanic RGV vote again will not be that difficult. One only need to reenforce a few history lessons to the hispanic voters so that they realize how the republicans have been almost exclusively the party that has sought to either shut them out of society or force them to abandon their language and culture.

A unique characteristic of Spanish-speakers in the Rio Grande Valley is that, more than Spanish-speakers in other parts of the country, they often substitute English words in the middle of a Spanish sentence. While some appreciate the uniqueness of this spanglish, we can also wonder why they so often resort to English words when they are speaking in Spanish. Part of that may stem from a long period of history when Spanish was prohibited in public places and that is where the political history shows that the Democrats have had a much greater hand in allowing Spanish to be spoken in the USA and in Texas. Here are a few notable points to make:

1. Spanish-speakers in Texas would have fewer places to speak the Spanish language if it hadn't been for a Democrat named Dolph Briscoe, Jr who governed the state of Texas in the '70s and signed the Bilingual Education and Training Act. If it hadn't been for Governor Briscoe, hispanics would be penalized or fined for speaking Spanish in school, whereas today they're allowed to study in both English and Spanish. That wouldn't have been passed under a republican.

2. Earl Warren was Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States of America when the Hernandez v. Texas opinion was issued by the nation's highest court. Previously, Warren was a Democrat who had served as the Attorney General for the State of California and then Governor of the State of California. In Hernandez v. Texas, Chief Justice Warren ruled that the Equal Protection Clause mandated that Mexican-Americans and hispanics could not be systematically excluded from serving on a jury. Were it not for this verdict, Mexican-Americans were guaranteed to face jury trials in which all jurors were white people. Thanks to Chief Justice Warren, the Equal Protection Clause was affirmed to defend not only the rights of African Americans, but also hispanics.

3. District Judge William W. Justice was a Democrat from Athens, Texas and was appointed to the federal district court in the Eastern District of Texas by then President and Democrat Lyndon Johnson. He ordered the State of Texas to desegregate its schools in the landmark case of United States v. Texas in 1981. This decision stopped the exclusion of hispanic students from attending school with white students.

Some further reminders of history may be warranted in the next election cycle. There are more points to make than just these few--please drop a line if you'd like to see an addition. If hispanics in the Rio Grande Valley were more aware of the history of their oppression, they would realize that republicans are behind most of it. We study the uniqueness of the Spanish in the Rio Grande Valley today, but there would be no remnants of Spanish there had the republicans been allowed to decide. Once in a while a republican comes along that tries to change the party's image by speaking Spanish, as George W. Bush did. However, the racism so ingrained in the republican party eventually shuts those voices out over the long-term. Let's spread the word to the hispanic voters in the RGV so they aren't fooled again.