By A. Daniel Bodine
desertmountaintimes.com
REDFORD, TX—For the life of me I can't understand all the hubbub about the recent WikiLeaks controversy—the disclosure of thousands of pages of diplomatic worry messages from various governments, about this or that, all strung out on a public clothes line. Whether the game is anti-imperialism or hunkering down for the next “they're coming!” wave, it just seems releasing all these documents is about as relevant as pin the tail on the donkey. No one has rights to their private frets anymore? Or to think nasty thoughts about their neighbors? As long as they don't get involved in a bedroom or barroom brawl? And hurt somebody? Or are we in the throes of a different Revolution?
Years ago a masterful schoolteacher here, whose name later would be added to the Texas Women's Hall of Fame, had another style of diplomacy, a way of uniting the divided and extracting more than a pittance of continuing civil contributions for her county and her country at the same time. Lucia “Chita” Rede Madrid started a library in her home, actually what was a combined store and service station too, and used the books to help produce good citizens.
Faced with a paucity of educational material with which to educate her students, this teacher stiffened her neck. And went directly to “the people” for her books. She lived on a road to a major national park; where folks would stop to buy gasoline. She didn't hesitate to ask. Donations! And when the books started coming in, she donated space in her home in which to store them. Invited all the kids around Redford, both sides of the border, to come in after school to read and study. And then, to make sure they learned, she donated countless hours over the years of her “free” time to read with them in the library during many long evenings, asking those questions a good teacher repeatedly asks 'til a light goes on in a student's head—all to build the library and to see that the education process worked!
To honor her achievements, in 1990 President George H. W. Bush called her to Washington and presented her with the President's Volunteer Action Award and the Ronald Reagan Award for Volunteer Excellence for all her work. For unknown hundreds of students over the years, she not only bridged the world of unenlightened ignorance but also merged two distinct worlds of cultures. And she always kept photos in her “library” of those former students who'd gone on thru the higher academic world of excellence to distinguish themselves. The proof's in the pudding! But you'd never find such diplomatic accomplishments on a WikiLeaks document! It begs the question, What're we missing?
Redford is in southern Presidio County, a tiny community located near a historic river crossing on the Rio Grande across from Mexico in rugged Far West Texas; maybe 15 miles downstream from Presidio, the only official port of entry with Mexico between El Paso upstream and Del Rio downstream—about 500 river miles. Even further downstream from Redford on the scenic River Road, of course, over in Brewster County, is the huge Big Bend National Park. It draws thousands of tourists each year.
The Presidio County seat is in Marfa, 60 miles north of Presidio thru the Chinati Mountains, located in good grassland country. Even though a smaller community than Presidio, as a ranch center, historically Marfa's been the center of commerce. At least since the railroad's westward expansion. And with commerce, so goes the location of the courthouse, is the usual rule. And where the courthouse is, historically in Texas, there, too, lies the political power.
Presidio and Redford, both on the river, admittedly, are much poorer. Presidio lies across from a much larger Ojinaga, Chih., MX, which is at the confluence of the mighty Rio Concho coming down from the Mexican Sierras. Downstream lies Redford (itself a mere half mile up river from the historic El Polvo community crossing where migrating Indians crossed back and forth between the Americas for thousands of years), and also across from the equally tiny Mexican community of Mulato.
All of these communities along here are integral to the makeup of what once was simply called La Junta de los Rios (where the rivers meet). And the farm land that stretched up and down on both sides was invaluable. Sadly, you see a lot of U.S. Border Patrol vehicles now on the U.S. side here because of the War on Drugs naturally. Salt has claimed a lot of the land, too; farming doesn't pay as well anymore. For many other reasons equally as well, of course. But the ripples of America's bad drug habit influences even here, let's just say quietly.
Besides farming, Redford for years had something else a taxing entity wanted dearly—its proximity to Big Bend Ranch, one of the largest and many would say also one of the most historical ranches in Texas. It's addition to a tax base meant a good chunk of change. And Marfa ISD, of course, with more political clout, figured out a way to get it annexed into the Marfa school district, all those miles away; and did so. And life was better for Marfa ISD. How much trickled down into Redford is in dispute, of course. But for Marfa, life was better.
Until even higher politics got involved. The ranch owner, with friends in high places, somehow got the state legislature in Austin to purchase his huge Big Bend Ranch, and turn it into a state natural area (now a state park). The biggest in Texas! And with this new exemption, of course, exit the lucrative ranch from the tax rolls of Marfa ISD and even Presidio County. Which, again, friends, was a good chunk of change. How the ranch—both coming and going—effected funding at the tiny Redford school, of course, is a matter of ad infinitum debate.
But Mrs. Madrid never hesitated in telling her side of the story though. She retired teaching in Redford in 1979--after 27 years. But not before establishing her library. Imagine the picture, if you will. Her bosses were in Marfa. How many miles away? And a dwindling number of district books (per student capita, maybe?), may or may not have been in Marfa, too. What was she to do with those cold facts? You can't educate students without books! Or a library either! What was she to do?
“That drive was the most difficult for me,” she told me flatly once, paraphrasing her from an early 1990 interview I remember doing in her home library after President Bush had given her the awards. “...to drive all the way up there, and for them to tell me I couldn't take this book, or that book...”
It made an even longer, agonizing drive back home, to say the least. What's a teacher to do without books, for cryin' out loud!? You talk about a dilemma! But teachers of yesteryear! You grew up with the stories, didn't you, dear reader? What did they do, huh? What not enough now are still doing unfortunately. They rose to the occasion! Met the frontier challenges. And Mrs. Madrid, bless her heart, stood right up there with the best of them. Maybe even a little higher, many of her former students would argue no doubt.
Jefferson Morgenthaler, a lawyer and corporate communications consultant in Boerne, TX, has written an excellent book about La Junta de los Rios called The River Has Never Divided Us.(University of Texas Press; 355 pp, 42 photos, 8 maps). In it he describes Mrs. Madrid's effort to educate the children around the Redford area by putting together the library, indeed work that was recognized by the two medals from President George H. W. Bush in April, 1980. By the mid-80s, Morgenthaler states she had collected 20,000 volumes.
Perhaps more poignant are the words by her son, Enrique Jr., reported in the internet genealogy blog Prima Elisa by a distant relative, Denise Chavez, now an artist in California. In a story entitled “My Desert Flower,” she wrote, “He told of his mother's weekly trips to Marfa...to check out sorely needed books for her school. She collected Sears & Roebuck catalogs that served as valuable teaching aids. The catalogs' contents opened up vistas not seen before in this remote frontier. The children learned math, copied pictures, and learned about faraway places. After she retired, Chita continued her quest for books. Pleas for donations went out to every passerby and tourist who stopped at the Madrid Store. Boxes donated by a local milkman went up as shelves. As news of the project spread, Chita happily spent all her time (in retirement) cataloging and installing the Dewey Decimal System (in her library).”
Extraordinary, yes. Why news of that kind of diplomacy can't be substituted for some of the notable WikeLeaks overly publicized tidbits is beyond me. Throughout the world, it makes governing much more efficient; for society, raises far fewer hackles. And Life is both better and more peaceful. But instead many of us have to live in perpetual states of anxiety. Either the sky is falling or someone is coming to get us!
Practically every news outfit around the world now (including the many small regional or localized ones who've arisen in recent years with an internet presence) has conspicuously put out page after page of these released diplomatic documents, as though the future of civilization itself was at stake. West Texas Weekly, which is striving to be a greater voice in the Big Bend now, for instance, came out with its internet version several weeks ago. “Wikileaks: Secret/Confidential Diplomatic Cables Concerning Mexico,” the headlines read. And then it proceeded to tell the reader why.
“As citizens inhabiting the border with Mexico, we have a duty to stay informed about both governments: theirs and ours. The following diplomatic cables about Mexico were classified Secret and Confidential. They were leaked to WikiLeaks, a site dedicated to providing information and important news to the public. By providing access to you, I am not condoning or condemning the person who revealed this information. Rather, I want you to be informed. To quote the New York Times: '[these] documents serve an important public interest, illuminating the goals, successes, compromises and frustrations of American diplomacy in a way that other accounts cannot match.'”
It's just a shame that in things that really matter more to most readers who're in the thick of surviving Life, the kind of diplomatic works like Mrs. Madrid's (and don't think the really large media outlets couldn't find scores of them, if they weren't too preoccupied with coming up with “news”) always fly under the radar; don't meet the criteria of what's needed to be judged news. Call it the sad state of our civic state. For whatever it's worth. And this from someone who spent years while younger as a professional journalist, too (desertmountaintimes.com).
Without going into such events as the recent tragedy in Tuscon, it's simply noteworthy to say the past two years have been extremely politically charged. Now with government deficits seemingly out of sight, the economy in terrible straits and no end in sight, the word revolution has become such a buzzword you might even look for it in an upcoming Superbowl ad. World news events of the last few days have been prominent with the overthrow of the government in North African country of Tunisia, for instance. Some are putting it at the feet of WikiLeaks and social media's almost instant spread of information, too.
Don't want to stir the water none here, but there's a big difference between overthrowing a dictatorial government in Tunisia and overthrowing a democracy in the U.S. Hee, hee, ours appears to be coming down fast enough all on its own, if the last election is any indication. Democracy may be the best means to organized revolution man's ever put together. But the slow swirl of Change, indeed, is happening all around us. Imperialism and corporate greed clearly are in the process of being checkmated, it would appear. Life's gonna get better!
But this is all the result of decades of anti-hedonism and environmental fighting by many millions of people the world over. Whether or not social media arriving on the scene in the last few years—and most recently, WikiLeaks—has been an accelerant or not in this process is open to debate. But why foam at the mouth or spend more and more time nervously looking for a shelter somewhere because of it.
Personally I prefer to look for a shade and tell a few stories like those of a Mrs. Madrid somewhere. They show me not only what men and women of this great country have done, but what they can do. And leaves me with the good taste and vision of a better Tomorrow on my brow. That's something to write home about!
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