Being an educator is a noble profession. And what is even nobler is the fact that every single one of us, at one time or another, will have the opportunity to serve as an educator. I vividly recall several years ago driving my son and his best friend through Austin on the way to San Marcos on I35. As we approached the Colorado River crossing, my son’s friend saw an exit sign and asked “Why did they name a street after a boxer?”
That question provided me the opportunity to be somewhat of an educator, to talk about the distinction between Julio César Chávez, a multiple time world champion boxer in three different weight divisions, and one of my all-time heroes, Cesar Chavez, one of the founders of the United Farm Workers labor union and the man behind the mid-1960s grape boycott, which I should admit, I supported enthusiastically. In fact, to this day, 55 years after the initiation of the boycott, I refuse to shop at a Kroger’s grocery store because it was the only major grocery chain that steadfastly refused to honor the boycott. Yes, one of my many faults is that I can hold a grudge for a very long time.
Back when I was attending the University of Texas in Austin, what is now Cesar Chavez Boulevard in Austin was called First Street, just like Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard was 19th Street. Think about what might have happened if Austin city leaders back in the day came to the conclusion that they should honor the heroic efforts of Cesar Chavez by renaming First Street Grape Street. For one thing, I sincerely doubt my son’s friend would have asked me why Austin named a street after a popular fruit, which, of course, would have denied me the opportunity to act, if only briefly, as an educator.
The Kyle City Council, on the other hand, did, in fact, pull a Grape Street out of the hat last night when they voted 7-0 to rename Rebel Drive Fajita Drive.
For those who don’t know the background on this, in September of 1969, Austin meat market manager Sonny Falcon, operated the very first commercial fajita taco concession during a Dies y Seis celebration here in Kyle. That’s not to say the fajita was invented here. It’s not even accurate to say the very first fajita was concocted and served here. All that’s true is the Kyle was where the first fajita was sold. Falcon’s fajita, in fact, bore little resemblance to the dish we know today. It was actually Otilla Garza, who, after being served queso flameado on a cast iron plate during a visit to Acapulco, came up the idea of serving fajitas on a sizzling plate at his Round-Up restaurant in Pharr, Texas.
Which brings me back to the council’s missed opportunity for education in the street renaming. In conversations I had with city leaders on this subject during the last couple of weeks, I endorsed renaming the street Sonny Falcon Drive, because I firmly believed, and I still believe, the more intellectually inclined residents of and visitors to Kyle would ask when they saw the street signs “Who is Sonny Falcon” than will ask “What’s a fajita?” In fact Mayor Travis Mitchell, in his introduction to this agenda item, said it was time to honor “a true hero to the City of Kyle, Mr. Sonny Falcon,” and then proceeded to make sure the city failed to honor him and instead chose to memorialize something Falcon commercialized.
I actually cheered watching this at home when council member Michael Tobias said he liked the idea of renaming the street after Falcon as a way of honoring “the diversity we have here in Kyle, honoring the Hispanic culture and community that we have here in Kyle and the family that I’ve known for many years.”
Council member Robert Rizo interjected that Kyle already has a Falcon Street, located off Center Street across from Wallace Middle School. But that’s a faulty argument because there’s a huge difference between a Falcon Street, that could conceivably be named after a bird, and a Sonny Falcon Drive that’s pronounced as though his last name ended with the letter “e.” How many people have wondered aloud or even quietly “Why is that street named Falcon Street?”
Austin and other cities renamed streets after the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Cesar Chavez because they had the wisdom to realize it's important to celebrate and honor the person who altered society, not simply the alteration. It's troubling to realize that noble ideal is nowhere to be found here.
If the city was truly dedicated to the concept of honoring Kyle’s relationship to the Fajita, why didn’t city leaders attempt to market Kyle as “The Center of the Fajita Universe” instead of the “Pie Capital of Texas,” a distinction that also draws attention to a commercial enterprise, albeit one that makes the best freaking non-cream pies I ever tasted?
To me, Fajita Street is an excellent name for a restaurant located on a Sonny Falcon Drive.
There’s also questions about how the city went about renaming this street. The normal procedure for this type of action is for the city to notify everyone with an address on that street to collect their opinions on the renaming. For a commercial enterprise — and according to last night’s meeting there are 14 such enterprises located on Rebel Drive — a name change can be an expensive proposition, considering the money they may have invested just in stationary, business cards, invoices — all the various items and marketing tools that may have to be scrapped because of the name change. It also means changing bank records, notifying utility buyers, completing change-of-address cards, contacting on-line shopping providers, all as a result of an action for which those affected had no voice in the decision-making process. According to the debate last night, these business owners and the residents of Rebel Drive will actually be notified of this as a fait accompli. The city confirmed that today when it issued a news release on the name change that said "The City will send a certified letter to all affected business owners, property owners and current residents. Post office box holders along this roadway will be notified with a letter distributed by the postmaster." Council member Tracy Scheel said last night this fact bothered her, but apparently, like Tobias, it didn’t bother her enough to do anything about it. Anyone can have pangs of conscience, but leaders follow up those pangs with action.
One also has to wonder whether this action was the result of the council attempting to “do the right thing” or was it merely opportunism, tokenism? It’s worth speculating whether this subject would have even come to the attention of this council had not the name George Floyd been seared into the nation’s consciousness. Here’s one way we can discern the council’s motivation: Does this street renaming become a one-off event, simply a copycat reaction to Hays High School dumping the Rebel as the school’s mascot, or does the council “do the right thing” and authorize a comprehensive audit of the city’s streets to determine how many others, if any, have origins in the Confederacy and then begin the process of changing all those names?
“Over time, I think the name change will be accepted in the community,” Mayor Mitchell said last night. That’s absolutely true, for no other reason than “over time” the community won’t even be aware the street name was ever changed. What is sad is that, unlike a name such as Sonny Falcon Drive, this new name will simply be taken at face value, just like Falcon Street is today.
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