Local dignitaries honored by South Texas Civil Rights Project

Commitment to the Community:
Local dignitaries honored by South Texas Civil Rights Project

06/18/2006

By Sabrina Hamilton
Monitor Staff Writer

McAllen Francisco Guajardo did not need an award to justify his work in the local community.

As a University of Texas-Pan American professor and co-founder of the Llano Grande Center for Research and Development at Edcouch-Elsa High School, his work has been about civic-minded young people.

Guajardo received the Dr. Hector P. Garcia Human Rights Award last Wednesday. The South Texas Civil Rights Project honored recipients for their individual dedication and work during their Noche de Fiesta: Celebrating Commitment to the Community reception and ceremony at the McAllen Chamber of Commerce.

Garcia is best known for his founding of the American GI Forum, a Mexican-American civil rights organization. KRGV NewsChannel 5s Rick Diaz and Rebecca Flores of the United Farm Workers were also honored.

The Llano Grande Center works to increase educational opportunities for young individuals. Guajardo grew up in the Edcouch-Elsa area and returned to teach. He calls the Rio Grande Valley a unique place.

People (in the Valley) dont just care; they care in a cultural way, they care that you have a family and that you come from a community that cares, he said.

I was raised and grew to appreciate community and people in the community as having an innate richness and God-given strengths to be developed, celebrated and utilized as a degree of power, Guajardo said.

Abner Burnett, the civil rights projects director, called Diaz a prominent local Latino journalist and an obvious choice as an honoree. Diaz said he has enjoyed working on his news program Con Mi Gente, which allowed him to meet an array of people across the Valley, go into their homes and tell their stories.

His 40 years of work at KRGV ranged from working as a night photographer while still in college to anchoring the six oclock news. He received the Commitment to the Community Award.

When Flores was a child working on the farms, she did not fully realize what injustices were occurring or what could be done about them. In college, she learned about the work of Cesar Chavez and vowed to work with the United Farm Workers. She went on to serve with the UFW in California and South Texas for 30 years and was a Texas state director of the UFW.

Flores received the Emma Tenayuca Community Action Award. She accepted her award in honor of women who came before her, like Tenayuca who joined a labor movement when she was only 16.

In the 1970s she, along with several other groups, defeated the campaign to sell McAllen General Hospital, which was the only hospital in the area at the time taking low-income patients, Flores said.

The STCRP works on a variety of local issues including rights for the disabled, labor issues and the rights of low-income individuals, Burnett said.

On a day-to-day basis we are assisting undocumented women in abusive relationships that are afraid to leave their husbands because of the threat of deportation, Burnett said. We deal with this every day. Its a major issue.

The event also served as a fund-raiser for the organization. The STCRP depends on grants, donations and fund-raising to finance their work.