Presidential pachanga draws thousands

"Buenas noches, Brownsville!" Henry Cisneros said and took the stage for what he called a "classic South Texas political rally."

Cisneros, former U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, introduced state and congressional dignitaries who joined him to speak about their pick for the Democratic presidential nomination.

"This is an exciting date for us. We are going to greet in a very short time the next president of the United States of America," State Rep. Rene Oliveira said and announced that Clinton had just crossed the Brownsville city limit sign.

"What you’re going to have to do is yell a little louder, so that she can hear you," Oliveira said and again offered his support for Clinton and her husband, whom he called "the best president we’ve ever had."

"And she’s going to be the next best president we’ve ever had," he said.

Students, voters, children and media mixed in the crowd of an estimated 5,000 supporters.

With a U.S. flag painted on her forehead and stars on her cheeks, Jevalya Smith waited anxiously a top her father’s shoulders for presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton to arrive.

“(Jevalya) didn’t believe Hillary was going to be here,” said Vonia Smith, Jevalya’s mother.

“She thought it would just be somebody in a costume.” Smith and her husband Ricardo Juarez are both students at UTB-TSC and the parents of two daughters.

Smith and Juarez lack health care as do their daughters. Because they believe Clinton offers the best health care plan the couple said they would vote for her.

“We need help,” Vonia said. “We need health care. We need this country to be competitive again.”

The crowd erupted in cheers when Mike Trujillo, statewide field director for the Clinton campaign, asked, "Is this Clinton Country?"

"Yes!" was the hearty response.

"Are we gonna give a Texas-sized winning?" he asked and received the same big ol’ "Yes!"

Trujillo and a handful of Hillary Clinton staff workers moved the crowd from their Tejano music rhythm to chants for the candidate.

Sen. Clinton had not appeared on the stage but the energy was high in the standing-room only Student Union lawn.

Rousing speeches and lively music filled the minutes while Clinton made her way down from a Hidalgo venue where she spoke at about 6 p.m.

As anticipation built for Clinton to take the stage, an El Paso veteran gripped the crowd with a riveting story of patriotism and sacrifice.

He served in the Vietnam war with his three brothers because, he said, they were ready to pay the price for freedom.

"Ask yourself why four brothers would serve in Vietnam at the same time," he challenged listeners. "It’s because my dad said you have to love this nation, serve this nation ... one day he called us together and said, ‘My sons, freedom has a price and the price of freedom is your life.’ "

"He asked us to volunteer and we answered our country’s call," he continued.

He said the candidate "knows" the plight of Hispanic and border communities like Brownsville and El Paso.

"She knows ... that our people have to stand in line begging for cheese, begging for milk, begging for butter," he said. "And you can change the course of human events because you have in your power the power to vote.

"Levantense mi gente, levantense! (Stand up)," he said to cheers.

"Show that the Hispanics in the United States have the power to change the course of human events. No longer will we be having to beg for those things, we can demand from now on. We can demand an education for our kids, insurance for our elderly, jobs for our people. You have the power!"

From a musical stage set opposite the podium where the New York senator stumped, Dulce Maria Gonzalez sang "We need a woman," to a soft pop rhythm, following a brief invocation in which God was asked to "Please protect Sen. Clinton."

Tejano icon Johnny Canales began the pre-speech warm up with a call for a "grito" from the South Texas crowd, Clinton’s target voters in the upcoming Texas primary. Canales, host of his own long-running TV show served as master of ceremonies at the event that has the feel of a political pachanga.

"We’re gonna do it estilo Brownsville, Texas, Browntown — seguro que si," Canales said.

Thousands packed the lawn outside the Student Union before Clinton appeared following her speech in Hidalgo.

"I think it is a historic moment," Ben Reyna said, observing the crowd. Reyna is special assistant of federal relations to UTB-TSC President Juliet V. Garcia.

"The students are very excited. It is really a learning experience to see our political process and participate in it."

Herald reporter Emma Perez-Trevino contributed to this report.