Skip to main content

The Guadalupe: R. Bret Ruiz Resigns and the Board Must Go Too

I heard tonight from very reliable sources that tomorrow, April 4th, the city's newspaper, the San Antonio Express-News,will report that the Guadalupe's Cultural Center MBA-President, R. Bret Ruiz, is resigning, effective April 18th of this year. The SAEN will report the party line, that he's moving on to better things, that they accepted his resignation...and other b,,,..,,t.

Here's what happened. The Guadalupe has been in serious debt for a long time, thanks to the corporate ambitions of past directors, most notably Maria Elena Torralba-Alonso, and the corporate rubber-stamp board she selected. Some people say the Guadalupe is in hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt, and I'm being careful.

So long story short: The Board hasn't had a clue for a long time, and they're responsible for getting the Guadalupe into this mess of debt, and for the mass firings of women, most notably la Mary Jessie Garza, who was interim director. Instead they hired a director/president just like them. Turns out the Guadalupe doesn't have the money to put on the Conjunto Festival this year.

As I said before, the whole board needs to get the chancliada. Are you listening, Councilwoman Patti Radle? It's time for the community to take over the board, and start over. Tell us the truth about the debt, and next time, let's not get carried away by corporate dollars and real estate.

The Guadalupe is supposed to serve the community. Not the Board, not Budweiser, not Bret Ruiz.

Let's give the Board a Chancliada, and let's not make this mistake again.

(For more stories on the Guadalupe, see my past blogs. Sorry, I need help in reconfiguring the links...)

Monday, June 19, 2006

Guadalupe in Crisis: Machismo and the Ten Women of Lady Lupe







Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mary Alice, wife of Henry Cisneros, finds her voice in San Antonio as women battle for Free Speech in the Streets

She's a delicate bird of a woman, petite and beautifully apparelled. I know her husband, and she looks up to her supremely intelligent, charismatic, but scared of the status-quo husband. I suspect that she became a San Antonio councilwoman as a result of his lanky shadow. No matter. Yesterday, la Mary Alice stood up to the Man along with Councilwoman Lourdes Galvan and voted on the side of the Constitution and women's rights as one of two women on the San Antonio City Council who recognizes that anti-war or anti-immigrant protestors should be able to march on the streets without having to pay thousands of dollars for the privilege. While the city-wide Fiesta! bacchanal takes over the streets for weeks. With a vote of 9-2, the San Antonio City Council overwhelmingly voted to pass a new "Parade" Ordinance yesterday despite the organized protest of free speech advocates - mostly women - who believe that the City Council is violating the First Amendment of its citiz...
Post a Comment
Read more
Today is Tuesday, May 3rd, and so much has happened.  A brain tumor.  More yoga and walking.  A little less combat.  Weight dropping.  Spirit rising.  Back in the city, where I belong.  Looking for good photos to give you, organizing my crazy files.  And a new President!  So much to say, more than beating up on him -- that will only take us so far.  Time to hit the streets, challenge the fears that he represents.  Don't be afraid, no tengan miedo.  If I survived a massive brain tumor -- big as a grapefruit -- we can survive and transcend this. More tomorrow.  One day a week from now on. 
2 comments
Read more

A battered woman from San Antonio loses her reporting job

Gina Galaviz , 43, KSAT-TV's I-love-the-police reporter, "has been fired" from the television station , according to the San Antonio Express-News, and I'm quoting verbatim here from Jeanne Jakle's byline, "after she was charged with assault following a fight with her boyfriend," Ronald Aguillen, 46. Ok, so we in San Antonio know about the time in 2004 when Gina filed charges against another boyfriend, the former SWAT cop, who was a councilman at-the-time, Ron Segovia . There were allegations of an apple being thrown at her nalgas, which humiliated her, and that he also pointed a gun at her. It was not the first time, she told me. Tough-guy Segovia got off - I think he had three attorneys representing him if I remember correctly, and in this city, like too many, the cops are in bed with the grand jury - they need and depend on each other, and this grand jury decided there "wasn't enough evidence to pursue a criminal case against him." Seg...
3 comments
Read more