220

Dr. Julieta "La Santissima Putissima" Garcia as an educator was the biggest con job thrusted upon the people of Brownsville as part of the Third World Capitol of the United States' sad story. The McAllen Monitor is presently crowning her the Mother Teresa of the Rio Grande Valley. The comparison is the opposite of reality. She did not give to the poor. She took from the poor.

She became president at Texas Southmost College (TSC) after a bloodless coup eliminated Albert Besteiro, her predecessor. As one of the conspirators against Besteiro, she emerged in the wake of much inside fighting as his successor. She is no different than many BISD teachers who are unfit for the classroom. They attain their Master's and begin their ascent of the administrative ladder. They don't love students. They love themselves and devote their lives to worshipping their egos.

She credits Mary Rose "Miss Piggy" Cardenas with much of her success. The Cardenas clan have been considered one of Brownsville's most despised families since the last century. There is nothing that "Miss Piggy" and her husband "Blackie" wouldn't do to collect more power and accumulate more dollars. As Mexican-Americans, they have wrung their own people for millions. These are Garcia's heroes.

Garcia and Cardenas take credit for bringing the University of Texas, but this deed was cut on the backs of TSC taxpayers. The richest university was in Brownsville in name only. The people were paying for an empty title. When Garcia was unsuccessful in passing an expensive bond issue to build a Mexican Mecca to herself, she presented a smaller bond, hired politiqueras and the measure passed. To make up for the difference between her failed one and successful bond, she imposed new fees on the poorest students in the country to raise millions in order to continue with her building spree.

As president of UT/Brownsville and TSC, she did everything within her power to enhance UTB at TSC's expense. She wanted to destroy TSC--as its president--and create one university. She failed. The voters rose in protest and elected a TSC board majority that saved the junior college in spite of her arduous efforts to counter the movement.

What is the legacy of this myth that has turned to mierda? She was terminated as TSC's president and Brownsville lost UTB. These days she is the UT System's favorite coconut. When the university needs a Mexican-American to tour throughout the state or the nation to tout its diversity, they parade this hypocrite before hypnotic crowds suckers for propaganda.

"Garcia took our community for a ride," says a former Brownsville Herald editor. "She became the Wicked Witch of the South who wanted to build her own Oz over which she would reign with unbridled authority into perpetuity. But it didn't happen as the silent majority rallied against her and the establishment to rescue TSC from her evil designs.

She reaped what she sowed," continued the same journalist. "From being a somebody, she is now a nobody. TSC has risen from the ashes while UTB is little more than a pile of dust. The BISD named a school after her in order to curry favor with this scalawag. If the new board has any sense of history, they would rename the middle school after Dr. Tony Zavaleta. Behind the scenes Dr. Zavaleta helped save TSC after Julieta did everything within her power to destroy one of the most respected and historical junior colleges in the state that served as a path to success for many Brownsville residents."

We don't know if our good friend and former colleague "Delta" Dave Handelman is endeavoring to defend Garcia when he says that she was the "first female Latina to become a president of a major university," but we would like to point out two other firsts that she would hope the historians would conveniently forget.

La Julieta was the first Latina to nearly destroy a junior college (TSC) and the first Latina to actually destroy a university (UTB), "Delta." You and I were coaches and teachers in the trenches. We loved education and we proudly served the BISD and our community.

La Julieta can never say that. Her attempt to destroy TSC was an unpardonable sin. She was nothing more than a coconut who served her white masters on the UT Board of Regents.

La Julieta took millions of dollars from her own people and then attempted to rob them of an affordable and accessible higher-ed with her failed attempt to erase TSC from the face of the earth but keeping the taxing entity so she could milk Brownsville for millions more to subsidize the UT System, the richest educational institution in Texas.

La Julieta will have her propagandists just like Robert E. Lee and his traitors who will continue to deceive us with their false narratives, but the truth will prevail and the perpetrators of lies will come toppling down from their pedestals.