Longoria: Why we named Judge Cortez field marshal of the War on Poverty in Hidalgo County

EDINBURG, Texas – Jaime R. Longoria, director of Hidalgo County’s Community Service Agency, has explained why Hidalgo County Judge Richard Cortez has been named Field Marshal of the county’s War on Poverty. 

When Cortez made the fight against poverty his No. 1 issue, back in 2019, the poverty rate in Hidalgo County was 29.5 percent. It has since dropped to 27.1 percent. 

“This is five years later, a 2.4 percent difference. That’s 19,000 persons less in poverty today. That is 6,000 households out of poverty today. In those five short years,” Longoria said.

Longoria made his remarks at a banquet held to celebrate the CSA’s Access to Success program. The event was held Dec. 12 at Monza Social Event Center in Edinburg.

Here are some of Longoria’s remarks from the podium at a banquet held to celebrate the agency’s Access to Success Program:

Story continued:

Cortez could not be present to accept the award because he was out of town on business. So, Longoria presented the award jointly on Cortez’s behalf to Hilda Salinas, who assists Cortez in the Hidalgo County Judge’s Office, and Mario Reyna, coordinator for the Hidalgo County Prosperity Task Force. The task force was set up by Judge Cortez to tackle poverty. 

From the podium, Longoria pointed out that although Hidalgo County’s Community Service Agency was started in the 1970s it has its roots in President Johnson’s War on Poverty initiative of the 1960s.

“The War on Poverty was declared 60 years ago in 1964. Sixty years ago, LBJ came up with this idea of taking federal money and moving it to the local level and allowing the local communities to spend the money the way they saw fit and develop programs for people that were living in poverty, to make decisions about how best to address poverty,” Longoria said.

Longoria said that is what Hidalgo County does every day.

“We have local control of these two million dollars to assist families. Part of the money is for emergency services, families that are in (a) domestic violence (situation) or lose their house to a fire or something like that. Part of the money actually goes to running this particular program.”

Longoria paid tribute to President Johnson. 

“So back in ’64 this whole idea of bringing federal money to a local level was kind of novel. It was new. And so, the community action agencies were formed to administer these dollars. We are the direct descendants of LBJ’s war on poverty.”

A president may declare war on poverty but at the waterfront, a nation still needs people to wage that war, Longoria said.

“We need people to plan for it. We need people to be visionaries, to motivate, to direct and to defend the water. We need leaders dedicated to winning the war,” Longoria said.

“We need to have someone, a champion, who says we can win this war. Even 60 years later, we need to be reminded that the war is important to fight.”

That person in Hidalgo County has been Judge Cortez, Longoria said. At every table at the banquet was a copy of an op-ed Cortez wrote in 2019. The op-ed was titled: “We Must Reduce Poverty.”

Longoria read two paragraphs from Cortez’s op-ed.

“If Hidalgo County residents are to enjoy future economic growth and prosperity, we must reduce our poverty rate. The poverty rate in Hidalgo County is published at 29.5 percent,” Cortez said in the op-ed. 

Another passage from the op-ed stated: “Slowly we can transform the cycle of poverty to a cycle of prosperity where increased economic opportunity draws increased investment, which creates more economic opportunity.”

The post Longoria: Why we named Judge Cortez field marshal of the War on Poverty in Hidalgo County appeared first on Rio Grande Guardian.