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Proposed weir provokes outcry By PAUL S. MARTINEZ THE ZAPATA TIMES
The proposal to build a lowlevel dam, known as a weir, in Laredo has galvanized Zapata County leaders. Some are already organizing support against the project, which is just in the concept stage.
Laredo leaders, some of whom have roots in Zapata, say there misinformation abounds, and that Laredo has no intention of doing anything to hurt their neighbor. Zapatans’ main concern is the weir could slow the Rio Grande’s current, leaving the sewage and heavy metals from Nuevo Laredo in Falcon Lake, said Zapata Coun-
ty Water District President Hildegardo Flores. “If you slow down the flow of a river, the pollutants below that river will become more concentrated,” Flores said. “Nuevo Laredo is spewing out raw sewage including fecal matter, detergents and
GUILLEN
industrial chemicals. “Falcon Lake will become an open sewer,” Flores added. Earlier this week, state Rep. Ryan Guillen, who represents Zapata County in the Texas House, had a meeting with county officials and
residents to talk about the project. Guillen, D-Rio Grande City, said residents at the meeting also expressed concern about how the proposed dam would affect the level of Falcon Lake. The state representative said he spoke with U.S. Congressman Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, and asked him to commission a study
at the federal level to address these two concerns. Guillen also is commissioning a study by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to address these concerns. “The people of Zapata have the right to be concerned about their
See WEIR | PAGE 10A
COLA BLANCA CONTEST
PREPPING FOR THE
BIG 1-5-0 Courtesy photo
Daniel Muñoz of Zapata took first place in the Best Zapata County Buck categorywith this buck that scored 171 5/8 in the 2007 Cola Blanca Big Buck Contest. For more information see the 2008 Cola Blanca Big Buck Contest tabloid inside today’s Zapata Times.
CofC post attracts two By PAUL S. MARTINEZ LAREDO MORNING TIMES
The Zapata County Chamber of Commerce board of directors recently interviewed two potential candidates for the position of executive director. A decision on whether to hire one of the interviewees or to continue looking should be made sometime next week. Board President Hildegardo Flores said he hopes the executive director continues to steer the chamber in the right direction. The chamber had financial problems earlier this year, but it is now current on all its debts, Flores said. In April, the chamber had to close down temporarily because
of outstanding bills. The chamber owed almost $100,000 to more than 50 vendors and four chamber employees. “I came in June and what we found was just utter neglect on the part of the (previous) board,” Flores said. “They were not attending meetings, not taking action and not following up on actions.” The previous board tried to place some of the blame on the chamber’s executive director at that time Peggy Umphres Moffett, Flores said. “Yet (the previous board) never bothered to evaluate her or to write her up if she wasn’t performing,” Flores said.
Photos by Cuate Santos | The Zapata Times
Zapata County Sesquicentennial Celebration committee members met Friday to cover matters relating to the Sesquicentennial Park dedication on Nov. 7. TOP: Fina Villarreal, left, Nellie R. Treviño and chairman Roberto Montes meet at the courthouse Friday. ABOVE: Villarreal, Montes and Treviño meet with County Commissioner 3 Joe Rathmell at the park site, 9th Avenue and U.S. 83.
Downtown park part of the sesquicentennial celebration By PAUL S. MARTINEZ LAREDO MORNING TIMES
lans for Zapata County sesquicentennial celebration are coming together, as work progresses on the downtown park that will commemorate the celebration. The celebration is scheduled for Nov. 7,
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8 and 9. Construction is continuing on the park. “We wanted to leave something physical behind after the celebration,” said Roberto Montes, one of 33 committee members working on the celebration. The park, which is being built with $30,000 from the hotel and motel tax, will
be located next to the old community center, across from the post office. While the celebration officially starts on Nov. 7, a pep rally in conjunction with Zapata High School will be held the night before to get the community in the mode for the celebration.
See BIG 150 | PAGE 13A
See COFC | PAGE 13A
A LAKE VIEW
Santander census finally counts all Indian tribes antander census finally counts all Indian tribes. When the Spanish Crown’s auditing inspector, Jose Tienda de Cuervo, set out to check things in the 23 settlements of Nuevo Santander, he and his aides recognized the Indian problem the settlers were facing. Tienda de Cuervo already had heard accounts from higher authorities in the grievances reported by the Spanish military and the clergy. The downriver situation was a contrast to what the inspectors would find at one of their last stops on the Rio Grande frontier, the Villa de San Agustin de Lare-
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do. He had some advance information attributed to the township’s founder, Tomas Sanchez. The visiting ARAMBULA inspector, dispatched to the task by the Viceroy Marques de las Amarillas, arrived at the Villa with his escribano aide armed with an entry tablet and writing tool. The archived material in the Archivo de la Nacion suggested the auditor wanted to clarify the early reports with answers to a series of questions.
First, Tienda de Cuervo found hundreds of natives at the other villas in Nuevo Santander, particularly in the downriver locations of Revilla (Guerrero Viejo) on the Mexican side of modern day Zapata. Tienda de Cuervo came to Villa de San Agustin de Laredo on July 22, 1757. Among others things, the inspector wanted to know what had become of the Indians. The inspector suspected that the only explanation for the jacales (huts) in the village was that the original settlers had to have some help to build the shacks from mud, grass and brush. Tiendas de Cuervo had learned something about dealing
with the natives from the successes of his boss, Colonel Jose de Escandon, in the interior lands of Sierra Gorda (Guanajuato). Escandon and his Spanish military had fought and won several skirmishes with the natives in the regions of the Sierra Gorda (the mining areas of Guanajuato), taking hundreds of Indians as prisoners. His success with the Indian problems in Sierra Gorda earned him promotion after promotion until he had full command of the region and its frontier. Tienda de Cuervo learned soon enough that help to the settlers would have been provided by the native Indians. It was a
sharp contrast to a report of the Marques de Altamira in which the Spanish record described the Indians of the Tamaulipas sierra as a bunch who were “barbarous and unconverted, and capable of all kinds of inhuman atrocities.” Tienda de Cuervo discovered that the Indians along the Rio Grande were a different breed — they built huts, they hunted and fished for food, and raised crops (corn). These natives were Coahuiltecan and they were not aggressive. They were nothing like the nomadic Karankawas and the warlike Lipan Apaches and Comanches who made life miserable for the settlers on both sides
of the Rio Grande frontier. The presence of Indians (Carrizo Indians) in Villa de San Agustin de Laredo confirmed for Tienda de Cuervo what he had learned from other sources prior to starting his audit inspections of the villages of Nuevo Santander. Data in the archives indicated that the Carrizo Indians were found in areas of the mouth of the modern-day Zacate Creek with the Rio Grande. The region was described as overly vegetated with bamboo plants (Carrizo) which the Indians used to build
See LAKE VIEW | PAGE 10A