Politicians, families crowd Obama headquarters for debate

Outside of Sen. Barack Obama’s newly christened Brownsville headquarters, a group of nearly 100 hovered around a projector showing a live telecast of the his debate with Sen. Hillary Clinton in Austin. Plates of rice, beans and fajitas filled the old brick gas station on Elizabeth Street, and a cross-section of Brownsville residents -- old men in cowboy hats, small children, college students -- applauded when their candidate delivered his introductory oration.

There were families like Maria and Ana Alicia Armendariz, who, for the first time, will vote together in presidential primary. Ana Alicia, 21, missed voting in the 2004 election by several months.

“It was the most depressing thing in my life,” she said. Her mother, Maria, has been politically active for 40 years. She remembers talking politics with her father when she was a little girl and canvassing for Ronald Reagan in 1980. When the two of them started following the campaign, Obama caught their attention. “It was just a matter of finding the right person to inspire us, and that’s what’s Obama does,” Ana Alicia said.

“We thought we were going to be in the minority as Obama supporters,” Maria said, slipping into the crowd. “But it looks like we’re the majority.”

The crowd’s interest was piqued when the debate shifted to immigration-related topics. Obama spoke about the need to communicate with South Texas communities about the border fence, about the need to implement the DREAM Act, and the importance of comprehensive immigration reform. On Elizabeth Street, less than a mile from the Rio Grande, the crowd roared.

Aimee Saldivar, 17, will be eligible to vote two weeks after the primary ends. But the Hanna High School senior was as enthusiastic as any of the meeting’s other attendees. “I want to get a lot of people to vote to make up my inability to vote,” she said. Saldivar and her friend, Alyssa Padilla, 16, went to Hillary Clinton’s speech at the University of Texas Brownsville and Texas Southmost College on Wednesday. The girls went, they say, “just for the experience.” “She says the same thing over and over again,” Saldivar said. “Obama has the heart.”

Ernie Hernandez and Ernesto de Leon, both former Brownsville city commissioners, stood shoulder to shoulder during the debate. De Leon posted a homemade bumper sticker on his shirt, which read “Obama es mi gallo.” “It means ‘he’s my rooster — he’s my man.’ ”

The two said they often butted heads when it came to local politics. Their presidential preference is the first thing they’ve agreed on in a long time.

When the city’s Obama office opened on Saturday, De Leon and Hernandez were surrounded by former local politicians.

“Mayors, commissioners, and other Brownsville politicians — they were all here,” Hernandez said. “We didn’t always agree about local politics, but when it comes to Barack, we leave disagreements at the door. And if a candidate can unite Brownsville, he can unite a nation.”