Breaking Ground, Volume 3, Number 2, June/July 1998 Page: 4
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Breaking Ground
Exceptional Leadership at Las Lomas Colonia
Exemplifies Outstanding Community Progress"People can be divided into three groups: those who
make things happen, those who watch things
-happen, and those who wonder what happened."
--Nicholas Murray Butler
The colonias that dot the border
region from El Paso to Brownsville
share several distressing facts of
life: a shortage of sanitary, decent housing;
inadequate infrastructure; paved roads,
safe drinking water; and wastewater
removal. In short, the demand for these
types'of services far surpasses the level of
available funding.
Over the last sever-al decades,
residents of the colonias have emerged as
effective consensus-builders among many
volunteers, nonprofits and self-help
centers, as well as county and stateTEAMWORK IN ACTION
Community leader David
Reyna works at the Starr
County Self-Help Center to
make the colonias a better
place to live.governments that are located in the border
region. The Texas Departmen,t of Housing
and Community Affairs (TDHCA)
commends these people and the
organizations who are trying to meet the
demand for life's necessities in the Texas
colonias.
People like David Reyna and Blanca
Juarez of Starr County have made it their
mission to assist the hundreds of residents
that make up the Colonia Las Lomas
located just outside Rio Grande City.
However, it's much more than a sense of
community that drives both Rafael and
Blanca-their mission will only be
complete when they have instilled the
same core values in the next generation of
leaders.
David, 23, works as'an assistant to the
director of the Starr County Self-Help
Center, one of five similar centers located
along the Texas-Mexico border.
David remembers when he was 11
years-old and his father Rafael was already
an active leader in the Colonia Las Lomas.
"He went to meetings in the evenings
after work, and he worked hard going
from house to house.for signatures to
present to the county commissioners to try
to get water for the colonia residents,"
David says. "Back then, only the rancheshad water."
Water finally reached Las Lomas, but
the demand soon exceeded the supply,
especially during the day, when the water
was most i.n demand and rarely available.
"We had to wait until about two or
three in the morning, after people went to
sleep, to fill up barrels of water for the
next day," Blanca and David recalled.
It took nearly ten years to tap water
into the colonia, and the endeavor took
the partnership of colonia leaders such as
Rafael Reyna, Blanca Juarez, County
Commissioner Eloy Garza, Elisa Beas, and
the help of both state and federal
governments.
"My dad did not have much education
and suffered from cancer, but foi 12 years
he helped make
changes in the
colonias," says
David.
David feels that
his father, a
dedicated leader,
passed the baton,
to Blanca Juarez to
help pursue
change beyond
local geographical
boundaries and
persevere with the
much-needed
community
development effort
in Las Lomas.
, Sadly, Rafael
Reyna did not live
to see his dream of getting water to LasLomas-he passed away in January 1996.
Blanca Juarez got involved and
traveled to Austin several times, once to
testify in legislative hearings to promote
the creation of a Self-Help Center in Starr
County.
"The Self-Help Center was a dream I
had where people would learn how to'
build things like cabinets and roofing; a
place that would teach people about
construction," she says. "My dream came
true."
Ken Christy, Director of the Starr
County Self-Help Center, along with the
center's staff and volunteer instructors, has
played a significant leadership role in
helping many dreams come true.
"Two houses burned in Las Lomas not
too long ago," Blanca says. "Because of the
skills that the residents have learned at the
Self-Help Center, everyone came together
and rebuilt the houses," she said.
The Self-Help Centers were created
by the 74th Texas Legislature through
SB1509. TDHCA entered into a Texas
Community Development Program
contract with affected county
governments in 1996 and provided
funding for the establishment of Self-Help
centers in Cameron/Willacy, El Paso,Hidalgo, Starr, and Webb counties. The .
centers are located within 50 miles of the
international border and help low to very
low income individuals and families.
The Centers also help individuals and
families finance, refinance, construct,
improve, or maintain a safe, suitable home
in the designated service area. Other
services include providing assistance in
obtaining loans or grants for home
construction, teaching construction skills,
operating a tool lending library for home
construction and improvements or repairs,
and providing credit and debt counseling.
The Starr County Self-Help Center
estimates that several hundred families
have benefited from the street
improvement, drainage, educational
construction classes, clean-up day projects
and other services that the center has
offered in'Colonias Las Lomas, Tier Linda
and B&E.
Jaime Morales has also noticed the
changes in the quality of his family's life.
He has moved from a home that had no
water, electricity, or sewage system to a
home with these necessary services in Las
Lomas. The Self-Help Center roofing and
cabinet building students, under the
instruction of'Pastor Roland Ouellette,
completed the roofing work for the
Morales home and also built the cabinets.
Mr. Morales also learned how to grout and
lay floor tile.
"I have been doing a different kind of
teaching from behind the pulpit;" says
Pastor Oulette. "But when you get a group
of volunteers in the hot sun to help, roof a
neighbor's home, it is impressive. We've
built a big family here at the,Self-Help
Center. People are using the tool lending
library and helping to improve their lives."
Colonia leaders and volunteers are
committed to providing valuable
information about their communities and
are also accessible to residents. As
president of Colonia Unidas, Blanca Juarez
is involved in a variety of community
projects and is kept informed about issues
in Las Lomas.
Like Rafael Reyna-who was a board
member of Colonias Unidas-Blanca
believes that community involvement and
support is critical to the success of
'community development in Las Lomas.
Both Rafael and Blanca knew Las
Lomas-the demographics, what the
residents wanted, and what they could
afford.
"I didn't know I wonld eventually betaking colonia issues to Austin," Blanca
says. 'The colonias were abandoned and
needed improvements, but the people
have united and are now being heard."
They are not only being heard; they
are also being honored. Recently,
Governor George W. Bush's Office
"Leadership in the Colonias, " continued on page 5F4
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Texas. Department of Housing and Community Affairs. Breaking Ground, Volume 3, Number 2, June/July 1998, periodical, June 1998; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1587231/m1/4/: accessed July 7, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.