Zuniga's Letter

The following letter was issued by Manuel Zuniga, three days after his Place 5 loss to Bill Spelman:

[An open letter to the Hispanic community of Austin, Texas]

Dear Friends,

Having lost to Bill Spelman in the May 31 run-off, I cannot sit back and allow my silence to be compared to Eric Mitchell's outrage, and be used as an example of "losing with dignity." My anger is no less than his, and it compels me to write this letter.

I am so proud of our Hispanic community; it brings tears to my eyes. The place five race was exemplary in terms of Hispanic voter participation.

My two Hispanic opponents and I each received approximately one-third of the Hispanic votes in the general election. After I advanced to the run-off, my commitment to the community was subjected to very strong scrutiny, and only then was overwhelming Hispanic support offered.

Most of the blame for the loss is mine to bear. I did not deliver a victory and I offer no excuse. However, we need to be aware that there are others who let us down.

Gus Garcia is also to blame. He has been taking bows for a month for winning in a seat that is not a designated Hispanic seat, but what he actually did was abandon the place on the council we could count on. True, Gus is only a worker bee in the environmentalist machine, but if he had asked, they would have stayed on the sidelines for the fight for our seat.

To add insult to injury, Gus, at the request of his puppeteers, says that East Austin is not ready for single-member districts. Who is not ready to be heard? Minorities were denied their voice on Saturday. They will continue to be ignored.

Finally, I point the finger at the power-hungry, racist, liberal enviro-political machine. They talked one of my Hispanic opponents into running against me while lying to her about the support they never intended to give.

Although they continuously pat themselves on the back and tell each other how open minded and caring they are, the extreme environmentalists really believe that the only good Mexican is a poor Mexican. They will only accept a Mexican who is their Mexican.

What they did to Black and Brown Austin is inexcusable.

I call on all Austinites of color to remember how we were manipulated on May 31. If we fail to punish them two years from now, we will only have ourselves to blame.

Manuel Zuniga