Reprint from the Progress Times - September 5, 2008
©Progress Times 2008 - All Rights Reserved

 

SISTER CITY VISIT
City delegation helps school children

 

By Kathy Olivarez

The smiles on the faces of the school children as they received backpacks from Mission Mayor Norberto Salinas and his helpers were reward enough for those who made the trip to Salinas Victoria, one of Mission’s Sister Cities. The throngs of parents lining the outside of the fence watching the occasion said it was a big event for the community.

Wednesday, August 27, seven people from Mission including Mayor Beto Salinas and his wife, Yvonne, Pat and Virginia Townsend Sr., Jesse and Aida Lerma from the city staff, and Kathy Olivarez, Progress Times reporter, made a visit to this Sister City to give out school supplies to the children in the elementary. They were accompanied by Robert and Bea Salinas of Edinburg. He is a past president of the International Good Neighbor Council.

The road leading to the Mexican town of Salinas Victoria is marked by an arched sign proclaiming its name. It is located near Monterrey on the highway leading to Laredo. Immediately after turning in toward the town, the road crosses the Salinas River. The road is low and when the river floods it is impossible to get in or out of the town.

The city is laid out in typical Spanish fashion with the church on one side of a plaza and the city offices on the other. The plaza has a red-tile roof on its bandstand in the center. Sidewalks lined with white concrete and wrought iron benches line the perimeter and lead to the bandstand from all four corners. Tall evergreen, palm and mesquite trees shade the sidewalks. Each is painted white half way to the leaves to protect against insects.

Salinas Victoria has many small mom and pop style businesses housed in box-like buildings in colors of coral, purple, blue, yellow and pink. The main business in the city is a grain mill, where corn from surrounding farms is ground. For many years this was the main source of income. It was once on the outside of town but today, the growing 50,000 resident city has surrounded the mill.

Today, Monterrey is growing toward the city and many international businesses, such as Wal-Mart, are building warehouses in the area. This industrial development is where most of the people moving into the community are working. They have moved into empty houses and built new shacks of tin or cardboard to shelter their families.

The school is a new school, built several years ago through the efforts of Mission Mayor Beto Salinas who has contacts with officials from the Nuevo Leon state government. It resembles one of the old Mission elementary schools. The walls are concrete block, painted white with green trim. Blocks of windows run across the top for air circulation. The furnishings are sparse and there are few blackboards for the teachers to use. But it is a definite step above the old school, which was in a low spot, had a tin roof, and flooded every time it rained.

The new school is built on a hill overlooking the Salinas River Valley. On the day of the visit, one could see lush green fields leading to the river from the edge of the children’s playground. The lush greenery is deceiving. Those who have made the trip before say the land is usually quite arid. Salinas Victoria has benefited from the same unusual summer rains the Valley has received and has thick grass where there is normally none.

Because of the large school population, there are actually two schools that are completely separate and have separate names. The first meets from 8 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. while the second school starts at 1 p.m. The afternoon school is named Norberto Salinas Elementary, honoring the efforts of Mission’s mayor in working with Nuevo Leon officials to get the new building.

The effort to get a new school for the children began when Virginia Townsend went to Mission Mayor Beto Salinas and asked him if he could do anything to help the people of Salinas Victoria. As a high school student in Pharr, Townsend had a Spanish teacher, Maria Lerma, who believed in total emersion. She took her students to Monterrey, Mexico where for five days they could speak no English. They were required to get around Monterrey and visit sights speaking only in Spanish.

“That is where my love of the Mexican culture began,” said Townsend. The teacher later married a Mexican policeman and lived in Monterrey. But when he retired, they moved to his hometown of Salinas Victoria. There the teacher started the town’s first library and did what she could to help the schools. She earned the title Doña Maria from the people of Salinas Victoria.

Several years ago, Townsend met the teacher again. Doña Maria told her of the dire needs of the children, whose parents could not even afford to buy paper and pencils for their children. The teacher took Townsend to see the school and asked if there was any way she could help.

Townsend then contacted Mission’s mayor and asked if he could help them get a new school for the children. She knew he had good relations with many Mexican officials and had worked together with them to solve the problems of the border. Although it took several years, his contacts with Mexican officials paid off in a big way, and now the children of Colonia Mission (renamed for the City of Mission) have a new school. Colonia Mission has about 2,000 families.

When Mayor Helio Trevino of Salinas Victoria arrived a simple ceremony was held thanking Mission for sending school supplies. Reyna Judith Quiroz Pena spoke for the student body. Afterwards Mission Mayor Beto Salinas passed out backpacks filled with supplies to the eagerly awaiting children. The backpacks had three spiral notebooks, a package of notebook paper, a ruler, three pencils, and a pen in each one. The children were delighted to see the supplies as many had nothing.

Aida Lerma, City of Mission Public Relations director, said the funds used had not come from city money. Instead, private barbecues had been held as fundraisers where guests were told to bring their checkbooks to help fund the supplies.

Maria Reyna Sandoval, a mother with two children in school, said it was good that the City of Mission made this goodwill effort each year because many children in the colonia come from families that could not even afford to buy pencils and paper for their children.

The main road leading into the colonia that runs in front of the school has now been paved and guttered. It, too, has been named in honor of Mission’s mayor: Avenida Norberto Salinas. The group attended the official unveiling of the sign and dedication of the street, between giving out backpacks to the children in the morning and afternoon sessions.

After the unveiling ceremony, the Progress Times was taken on a tour of the colonia by the City Secretary of Salinas Victoria, Rebecca Lozano. While the main street is now paved, there are many gravel roads leading to homes high on a hill. Where the pavement ends, the roads are filled with holes. The road runs by small homes, built of wood and tin. Old electric lines were everywhere including one lying in the street. Lozano said that as a result of the work being started in the colonia, the government had started replacing many of the old electric lines.

Lozano said many people now living in Salinas Victoria came from San Luis Potosi where they were starving for lack of work. When they come they look for empty homes and move in as squatters. When they cannot find shelter, they build their own out of whatever is available. The average income of those who live in this poor housing is $80 pesos or $8 per week. Still, because there is no work elsewhere in Mexico people pour into the community all the time from San Luis Potosi, Chiapas and Veracruz. Up to 98 percent of Salinas Victoria’s residents have come from other cities.

“Many of the companies coming into Mexico are now being required by the government to provide housing for their worker,” Lozano said. Homes range from 10 foot by 10 foot squares to slightly larger units depending on the pay grade of the individual and the number of children in the family. They have water and electricity and provide basic shelter for the families.

Lozano explained a little about how the Mexican system of government works. When a man is elected mayor, it is for a three-year term. His wife is given the title of First Lady of the city. With that title comes responsibility. She is in charge of the DIF or Desarrollo Integral de la Familia. It includes education and social services for the community while her husband is mayor. Lozano said that most First Ladies hire a staff to oversee the work for them but the final responsibility is hers while her husband is in office. If a woman is elected mayor, her sister or another family member takes over the First Lady responsibilities.

Lozano explained that much of the land around Salinas Victoria is used for ranching and the cabrito (goat) raised there is the best in the world. She said that a local rancher had competed in a contest held in Madrid, Spain 12 years ago to determine where the best cabrito meat was found. At the end of the competition, Salinas Victoria was proclaimed to raise the best cabrito in the world.

The first group listened to stories of the second distribution where little first graders, who were confused by his speaking Spanish, asked Pat Townsend Sr. “Are you a Gringo?” After admitting that he was some children then climbed into his lap to hug him and thank him for their new supplies.

Virginia Townsend said, “I know that many people criticize the fact that school supplies are given to Sister Cities in Mexico when there is need on our side of the border. But the need is so much greater here. Some of these people have nothing.” Mrs. Townsend feels the Sister City program is one way to create goodwill with Mexico.

Since President Eisenhower started the program in the 1950’s, Mission has had seven Sister Cities. Currently there are five active cities including Salinas Victoria, Allende, Escobedo, Puerto Vallarta, and San Fernando. Representatives of the city will return to Salinas Victoria in November for the mayor’s informe, which is similar to the state-of-the-union speech the president must make each year. With the new school and a newly paved street in Colonia Mission, he has much to report.