Posted on 04/20/2006 8:54:11 AM PDT by Dubya
BROWNSVILLE — When Tony Garza left a promising career in statewide politics to become U.S. ambassador to Mexico, military conflicts abroad and homeland security fears at home drowned out most of the debate over illegal immigrants and drug violence.
But now, border security and immigration are the hottest political buzzwords in America. Brazen violence plagues once-quiet border towns. And Garza, the son of a Brownsville gas station owner, finds himself right in the middle of it — as a top diplomat, husband of a Mexican beer heiress and, possibly, a future candidate for Texas governor or U.S. senator.
In a recent interview with the Star-Telegram, Garza said he’d like to stay in his current job as long as President Bush wants him to stay. But he also made it clear that he is coming back someday, perhaps to run for public office again.
“I’ll be back in Texas. I love it. It’s home,” said Garza, a Republican. “I’ve got a wife that looks forward to living in Texas.”
Ambassador to Mexico is not on the traditional route to high state office in Texas, but Garza hasn’t always taken the conventional road. As a young graduate of Southern Methodist University law school, Garza shook up South Texas politics when he became the first Republican elected county judge in heavily Democratic Cameron County in 1988. And after becoming the first Hispanic Republican elected statewide in 1998, Garza took the unusual and controversial step of calling for tougher protections against oil spills while on the Texas Railroad Commission, a panel known for cozy ties to the oil and gas industry it oversees.
Garza hasn’t been a shy ambassador to Mexico, either. His sometimes blunt talk about raging drug cartel violence and illegal immigration at the border have not always endeared him to the Mexican government. In January, federal ministers went on national television to angrily denounce a U.S. State Department alert and a Garza letter warning about rampant violence and kidnapping in border cities, where warring cartels have carried out spectacular ambush-style attacks, often in broad daylight.
Garza also publicly chided Mexican political leaders for their heated rhetoric about border security proposals in the U.S. Congress, including the addition of more physical barriers. He called comparisons of the barriers to the Berlin Wall “intellectually dishonest” and “personally offensive.”
“There is no human right to enter another country in violation of its laws,” Garza said this year. “Perhaps a greater effort by other governments to discourage their citizens from crossings would help.” Several weeks later, in an interview with the Star-Telegram, Garza said he knew “criticism was going to rain down” on him in Mexico City for some of the comments he’d made. But he said protecting American citizens is his primary focus and he noted that people who live along the border, on both sides, were “very appreciative of the fact that somebody was focusing on the reality of their communities.”
It’s a reality, a changing one, that Garza has seen firsthand.
When he was growing up in Brownsville, the border was more state of mind than physical barrier. Children crossed the bridge to play sports and to get their hair cut, and immigrants could often be seen swimming the Rio Grande to and from work. Today the river is a modern cesspool, fences and bright lights mark the divide, and human smuggling has morphed into a multimillion-dollar industry.
“Heck, I remember riding my bike to pickup games in Matamoros and thinking nothing of it,” Garza said. “It’s still a great place and home to me, but the pace is faster, more aggressive. You won’t see bikes on the bridge or folks you know walking around the plaza after a meal. People are more careful, and should be.”
The Hollywood Barbershop in Matamoros, where Garza got haircuts when he was a kid, closed five months ago due to lack of business, said barber Luciano Gomez Hernandez. “The tourists don’t come anymore” because of drug-related violence along the border, he said.
A fluent Spanish speaker, Garza deepened his ties to Mexico last year when he married Maria Asuncion Aramburuzabala, vice chairwoman of Grupo Modelo, maker of Corona beer. She was recently named one of the 100 most powerful women in the world by Forbes Magazine.
The ambassador offered no timetable for his return to Texas, nor any indication about which office he might seek. His name has been thrown around in Austin as a possibility for the 2010 governor’s race, or perhaps U.S. senator if a vacancy opens up. But Garza did say that won’t leave the Republican Party to run for office as an independent, the strategy Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn adopted in her bid against Gov. Rick Perry this year. “I’m a Republican,” Garza said. “That will always be the jersey I wear.”
Jon Taylor, a political scientist at St. Thomas University in Houston, said Garza could be a strong statewide candidate as Hispanics — who tend to favor Democrats — continue to see their clout grow in the Texas electorate.
“You’re looking at a guy that could be very attractive to the GOP,” Taylor said. “He could be the guy that ... saves the Republican governorship in 2010.” But he said Garza, named ambassador to Mexico in 2002, would first have to substantially increase his visibility and name recognition in Texas.
Garza, who will deliver the commencement speech next month at his alma mater, the University of Texas at Austin, said he’s not focused on state politics right now. In the meantime, he said the perspective he’s gained south of the border could help on this side someday.
“The insights from where I have been able to sit for the last couple of years have been very helpful and I hope beneficial to me, and perhaps someday to the state,” Garza said. “But that’s a long way off.” IN THE KNOW Tony Garza
Born: July 7, 1959
Hometown: Brownsville
Education: Bachelor of arts, University of Texas at Austin, 1980; Southern Methodist University School of Law, 1983
Politics: First Republican elected county judge in Cameron County, 1988; appointed Texas secretary of state by Gov. George W. Bush, 1995; first Republican Hispanic elected statewide, as Texas Railroad commissioner, 1998; appointed ambassador to Mexico, 2002
Family: Married to Mexican beer heiress Maria Asuncion Aramburuzabala
“Comparisons of proposals to alter our border policies to the Berlin Wall are not only disingenuous and intellectually dishonest, they are personally offensive to me. The Berlin Wall was built to keep people trapped inside. ... Does anyone honestly remember waves of people climbing over the Berlin Wall heading east?” — Tony Garza, U.S. ambassador to Mexico Jay Root, (512) 476-4294 jroot@star-telegram.com
This guy is loving life.
Everything I've heard about him sounds good. It wouldn't be a bad idea to have a Hispanic spokesman explain the difference between Spanish-America citizens and Mexican illegals.
I believe it is absolutely necessary to get some prominent Americans of Hispanic origin on our side on this issue, to deprive the Democrats of a very dangerous political tool.
I like his straight talk. We need to do something to protect our borders. It will be interesting to see if he continues to support border protection.
Since there was a bridge there, why didn't the "immigrants" walk across instead of swimming to work?
I am more worried how we will defend against them, when they out number legals.
A man who marries the wealthiest woman in Mexico is not a pure Texan...he is wedded to interests inherently in conflict with U.S. interests at this time. As I mentioned in another post, re-assign Garza to an ambassadorship in a country where he does not have this conflict of interest.
We would not put up with this arrangement in any other hostile country. Why do so with Mexico?
It's not necessarily a crime to be married to the richest woman in Mexico. I don't know him well enough to know if he can be trusted, but I like what I've heard him say. His comments on the border wall and the Berlin Wall are a lot gutsier and funnier than your average diplomat would come out with.
I'm not concerned with what he says. I'm concerned with what he does.
1. Bush, who is pro-open borders and pro-amnesty, picked this guy. That in and of itself makes Garza inherently suspect.
2. It is not a crime to be married to the richest woman in Mexico...but do you think Garza is going to have greater loyalty to a job he doesn't need or to the woman he sleeps with? She's part of the elite...and for the elite to survive, they need their country's poorest to come to the U.S., work, and send bucks back to prop up the economy.
Make Garza the Ambassador to Spain or another country.
Read Post 2. Got to love this guy Tony Garza, our next Governor of Texas 2010.
How can we forget Tony Garza. :-)
oops, mistyped ... that's post #3
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