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

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