Texas Progressive Alliance August 6, 2012

The Texas Progressive Alliance salutes NASA for its awesome job with the “Curiosity” landing as it brings you this week’s roundup.

Off the Kuff rounded up the Republican and Democratic primary runoff results.

BossKitty at TruthHugger was on a role this week. Always disgusted at the deliberate distractions from urgent issues by political campaigns, Candidate State of Denial: Why Can’t They Buy Rain?, Bitter Governors Screw 6 Million People out of health insurance. BossKitty mourns the passing of a past co-worker Sally Ride.

Local property tax elections are the result of state leaders shirking their duty and passing the buck to local ISD’s. WCNews at Eye on Williamson posts that The plan to defund public education continues.

Harris County Clerk Stan Stanart choked again last Tuesday night trying to count election results, and PDiddie at Brains and Eggs doesn’t believe any excuse the man makes at this point.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme wants everyone to know that Henry Cuellar is a rat.

Over at TexasKaos, lightseeker rags on about Poisonous Hypocrisy and Those Who Practice It. Rick Perry and Reagan and Palin share more they some people know.

Neil at Texas Liberal posted that the very first historical marker at the San Jacinto Battlefield Park just outside Houston–where Texas Independence was won–notes the gift of cannons from the people of Cincinnati. Full self-reliance is a myth—Most especially in Texas.

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Texas History for the Week of August 6

Famous Texas missionary dies in Mexico City

New British diplomat arrives in Texas

August 06, 1842, the new British charge d’affaires to Texas arrived at the port of Galveston. He was Charles Elliot, British knight and retired naval officer. After entering the Colonial Service, he had served in Guiana and China. He was censured for not adequately representing British mercantile interests in China during the Opium War. In 1842 he was reassigned to duties in the Republic of Texas. In this post he advocated abolition of slavery, worked for the establishment of free trade, and emphasized the importance of peace with Mexico. He became a personal friend of Sam Houston and Anson Jones, and worked with the British ambassador to Mexico for an armistice between Texas and Mexico in 1843. He was instrumental in negotiating the release of some of the prisoners from the Mier expedition. He opposed Texas annexation by the United States, and when Texans voted for annexation he was recalled. Afterward, Elliot was successively governor of Bermuda, of Trinidad, and of St. Helena. He died in England on September 9, 1875.

Feminist folk artist born in Laredo

August 06, 1902, Alice Dickerson Montemayor was born in Laredo. She had planned to study law, but after her father died she remained in Laredo to help her mother. She married Francisco Montemayor in 1927, and they had two sons. From 1934 to 1949 Alice Montemayor was a social worker in Webb County. When she began, she was denied an office key and worked under a tree. Some Caucasian clients refused to see her, and at one time she was provided a bodyguard. In 1936 Mrs. Montemayor became a charter member of the local Ladies LULAC chapter, and soon became active on the national level as well. In 1973 Mrs. Montemayor began painting gourds with vivid, multifarious hues. By 1976 she began painting with acrylics, first on tin and later on masonite. She signed her works “Mom,” then “Admonty.” Her works often depict women, nature, and the family in a characteristically Mexican fashion. In 1988 she was the subject of a presentation at the Smithsonian Institution. She died in 1989.

Oilman gives Paisano Ranch to UT

August 06, 1966, Houston oilman Ralph A. Johnston signed the deed transferring Paisano Ranch to the University of Texas. The 254-acre ranch, fourteen miles southwest of Austin, was the country retreat of J. Frank Dobie. After Dobie’s death in 1964, a group of his friends and admirers, including O’Neil Ford, Peter Hurd, J. Lon Tinkle, and John Henry Faulk, undertook to preserve Paisano as a writers’ retreat. Johnston, to whom Dobie had dedicated his last book, bought Paisano to take it off the market. A gala dinner and art auction in Houston helped raise the money to purchase the ranch from Johnston, who died two days after signing the deed over to the university. Since 1967, more than sixty native Texan writers have worked and lived at the ranch as recipients of Dobie Paisano Fellowships, awarded by the University of Texas at Austin and the Texas Institute of Letters.