Edcouch abolishes 76-year-old segregation law

EDCOUCH - For many residents here, history is often lost - albeit not completely forgotten.

That's what local leaders and community members all seemed to say they felt on Monday, when the city unanimously abolished a 76-year-old law that divided the city between "Spanish or Mexican" and "American" residents.

Enacted on Dec. 9, 1931, the ordinance barred any Hispanic resident from occupying "any building on the American side or portion" of Edcouch - except for servants or maids.

A virtual line was drawn along Farm to Market 1015, which roughly cuts north-to-south throuth the center of the city. Violators faced a fine of up to $100 - more than $1,400 today, when adjusted for inflation - for breaking the law.

But in a town that claimed a more than 97-percent Hispanic population in the 2000 Census, that segregation line no longer exists.

"We should have gotten rid of it a long time ago," said Place 3 Alderman Rojelio Garica. "It was there, but (people) just forgot about it."

About 50 people showed up to Sgt. Juan M. Rodriguez Pavilion - which sits in what technically was the "American side" of town - to watch the Board of Aldermen unanimously vote to abolish the segregation law.

"It was discriminatory," Mayor Jose Guzman said. "At the time, our city leaders didn't believe in equal rights."

U.S. Rep. Rubén Hinojosa, D-Mercedes, was born in Edcouch in 1940. While not at Monday's event, in a statement he recalls living with racial tension while growing up there.

"It did not matter that my parents and family were upstanding citizens of Edcouch," Hinojosa said in a statement. "It was our last name and family lineage that defined who we were and where we could live. That type of treatment stays in your mind forever."

Elniña Rangel, 20, said "it was about time" that segregation was abolished here.

"It had already been too many years," she said.

Not everyone in the audience on Monday was Hispanic.

Michael Barnes, a 23-year-old who teaches 7th and 8th grade mathematics in the Edcouch Elsa school district, came to the city after graduating from college in Minnesota and joining the "Teach For America" program.

With a wedding planned for July, he said he has no plans of leaving.

"It's good for them to be reminded of these stories from the past," Barnes said. "As one of the few Anglo residents here, I am living here proudly and indefinitely."

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Jared Taylor covers Edinburg, the Delta region and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4439.