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12-14-2015, 09:06 PM #11
The drug cartel violence was across the river on Mexican soil.
"Texas Southmost College, which owns the land, " now can't collect the rent on it.
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Once-popular golf course falls victim to controversial border wall, drug cartel battles
By Aaron Nelsen
December 13, 2015 Updated: December 14, 2015 2:43pm
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BROWNSVILLE — Robert Lucio stood in the faint glow of a recent autumn sun and lamented the decade of bad breaks that forced him to close the Fort Brown Memorial Golf Course in May.
Construction of the border fence a few years ago marooned his golf course in a virtual no man’s land, leading to a sharp drop in club membership, he said.
The storied strip of land where generations of golfers sent balls streaking down manicured lawns, and where U.S. and Mexican soldiers once exchanged cannon fire, never recovered from the negative perceptions of being wedged between the fence and Mexico.
“This place is a gem,” said Lucio, 56, choking back emotion as he gazed out on the once-lush fairways now strewn with browning palm fronds and waist-high grass gone to seed after months of neglect. “It’s hard to see it like this.”
Several years have passed since the roughly 56 miles of fence and wall were installed across the Rio Grande Valley, slicing through communities, agricultural land and wildlife refuges.
And the fierce struggle to stop it has mostly faded.
Yet the demise of Lucio’s business is seen by observers as a poignant reminder of the enduring effect the fence has had on border communities.
“I think it’s really unfortunate that the community’s recreational spaces were sacrificed for a symbolic effort to look tough on immigration,” said Denise Gilman, a professor at the University of Texas School of Law and a member of the UT Working Group on Human Rights and the Border Wall. “It takes its toll on people’s psyche.”
Laid on the ruins of Fort Brown, the 6,000-yard, 165-acre course debuted in the 1950s as a reasonably priced alternative to the Brownsville country club. It quickly became the training ground for generations of Brownsville golfers, including Lucio, and home to the Pan American Golf Association, which promoted the sport in the impoverished and predominantly Hispanic community.
Lucio took over stewardship of the course in 1987, renaming it the Fort Brown Memorial Golf Course to honor the site where Maj. Jacob Brown died in battle during the Mexican-American War. Remnants of the earthwork fort, constructed in 1846, can still be seen amid the rows of cottonwood, ash and elm trees that frame the Champion Bermuda greens.
“It was a beautiful little course,” said Bobby Prepeschall, the 58-year-old president of the PAGA. “We used to hang out there and barbecue, drink beer and scream and holler at the moon after it got dark.”
Business was robust right up to 2005, Lucio said, prompting him to extend his contract with Texas Southmost College, which owns the land, for an another 25 years. A year later, however, the government let slip details of the Secure Fence Act of 2006, revealing plans for hundreds of miles of fencing and wall across the Southwest border.
Building along the banks of the Rio Grande was deemed impractical; instead, the fence would be built just north of the river on a levee. Because of the meandering nature of the Rio Grande, some land on the U.S. side was stranded on the southern flank of the fence, caught between it and the river.
“Right away, even before the fence went up, it affected our business,” Lucio recalled. “We started having people not renewing their membership.”
Amid the frenzied effort to secure the border from the existential threat of immigrants and drug traffickers streaming across the international line, Lucio saw 40 percent of his revenue dry up within a year.
As the brother of state Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr., D-Brownsville, he was clued in to the escalating struggle between the federal government and border communities. Still, his appeals to Homeland Security Department officials proved ineffective.
Further complicating matters, drug cartels across the river engaged in a brutal war, committing shocking acts of violence even as sections of the fence were put in the ground between 2008 and 2009, hastening the decline of his business.
“It scared people,” said Gilbert Fasci, a longtime club manager.
“People would hear the news up north, and it clung to their minds.”
A sign near the tee box of the 16th hole warning golfers against hitting balls into Mexico lest they face prosecution had been meant as a tongue-in-cheek reminder of the proximity to Matamoros, Mexico.
But on one occasion, as a battle raged in Matamoros, and the sound of gunfire echoed across the golf course, the joke suddenly appeared to be on Lucio. Soon his liability insurance jumped from $2,500 to $4,500 per year, even as his financial returns dwindled.
The final blow came about a year ago in the wake of a damaging news report that conveyed drug cartel violence in Mexico as being perilously close to Fort Brown. It wasn’t long before the local high school golf teams were prohibited from practicing or playing tournaments on the course.
“We never had an incident of any kind,” Lucio said. “But we just couldn’t get people to go out there any more.”
With financial pressures mounting, Lucio finally called it quits this year. The decision barely registered a blip in the local news. A spokesman for the college said there are no immediate plans for the property.
Though traces of the bitter fight to prevent the intrusive presence of a barrier can still be seen on the occasional bumper sticker and faded yard sign, communities largely have grown accustomed to the rust-colored beams.
“The reality is the border fence is there. It’s not going away,” said Antonio Zavaleta, an instructor in the sociology and anthropology department at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley in Brownsville. “People who live here don’t even think about it any more.”
In the few short months since the course has closed, vegetation has reclaimed the land, obscuring historical markers. These days, to walk the grounds is to raise suspicion — and likely to draw the attention of the Border Patrol.
“I wanted the government to at least say that what they’re doing here hurts people,” Lucio said, facing a Border Patrol sentinel perched atop a levee in the distance. “But I guess they got exactly what they wanted: a no man’s land.”
http://www.expressnews.com/news/loca...to-6696036.php
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12-14-2015, 09:50 PM #12
Last edited by Judy; 12-14-2015 at 09:53 PM.
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08-18-2018, 10:49 PM #13NO AMNESTY
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