President Clinton came to San Antonio today

Saturday we drove to South San Antonio and signed up to volunteer in Ciro Rodriguez's campaign in District 23. We will be making phone calls to get out the vote, but we also got to help with crowd control for the rally on Sunday.

Best of all, we got to see President Bill Clinton speak! We were both excited to see him live and in person. Several friends drove down from Austin to see him speak as well. Rousing speeches were offered by Henry Cisneros, Congressman Charlie Gonzalez, and the candidate, Ciro Rodriguez.

President Clinton had many points in his speech, but one thing he said stood out (paraphrased): You need to vote in your own best interests. You have parents and grandparents to take care of and you want them to get the social security, medicare and prescription drug help that they deserve so that they don't have to chose between their health, and whether they can eat or not. You need to vote in your own best interest, so that you can elect someone who will take care of our military veterans and get them the equipment, training and raises they deserve. He also noted that we are a debtor nation to Mexico, which was a very interesting fact. Mexico is paying for stuff in our country, while we diss them. Interesting.

Of course, he also referred to his favorite San Antonio food, the mango ice cream at the Menger Hotel, and Mi Tierra restaurant. Yummy!

To give you an idea of the atmosphere.....The music was awesome, the band was the best I have heard in ages, with at least one member of La Tropa F (a very popular band here) and from The Maniacs. So, it was a blend of Tejano and Rock and Roll. You could cumbia, polka, waltz or jam out, depending. Something for everyone. The MC, Maclovio Perez (my favorite weatherman) was great, and he sure looked like he was having a great time. Announcements were in Spanish and English (and what I did not understand, my husband translated...I only speak fairly pidgeon Spanish, sadly). However, I am an honorary Mexican as nominated by my friends Mari and Placido. It was really hot and humid in the gym at Palo Alto College, but the crowd keep their good spirits up. The crowd included many veterans, including my friend Placido, who was awarded a bronze star in Vietnam, and my friend Larry Romo, President of Texas Democratic Veterans ( I am a member of that group). There were Korean war era veterans, and families of those currently serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. There were moms, dads, grandmas, kids of all ages, young mariachi, beautiful folkloric dancers and all the fun of the Secret Service in yellow ties watching the crowd, with other guys as well (?FBI?) with matching lapel pins.



All I can say, is GO CIRO! Good luck on Tuesday, the feast day of the Virgin of Guadalupe. Wonder why the powers that be decided to have the election on that day? Obviously, they thought that too many Mexican-Americans would not go to the polls on a day when they should be worshiping. Henry Cisneros and Ciro Rodriguez noted that one way to honor the Virgin of Guadalupe was to get out and vote on Tuesday. Let's hope!

Thanks SAAPAC!


All in all, a great time was had by all.

I apologize for the quality of the pictures. I realized that people were getting better quality pictures with their cell phones than I got with my ancient camera, so it was frustrating that I could not improve my picture of President Clinton any more than this. I think I need to replace my ancient digital camera with new technology.