Brownsville was a sleepy, little border town in 1941, but it wasn't dusty. The population was 20,000. The Brownsville Eagles were a football power in South Texas. Downtown buildings, already historical constructions at that date, were sturdy; the streets were paved. Central Boulevard and Boca Chica marked the city's boundaries. A trip to the Vermillion was a trip to the country.
The telephone directory boasted as many Anglo names as it did Spanish names. Gringos ran both the municipality and the county. Though some suffered from racist sentiments, there was an egalitarian philosophy among the leadership. They only coveted a small piece of the pie, not the entire pie.
"Was the past better than the present or do Trump's rednecks suffer from the Eisenhower complex when WASPish values, which included lynching blacks from the nearest magnolias, evoke a longing for a simpler time and a more homogenized nation?" posed "Delta" Dave Handelman between songs at El Hueso de Fraile Thursday night.
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