{"id":3485,"date":"2024-05-30T14:42:59","date_gmt":"2024-05-30T14:42:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/brownsvillecic.com\/?p=3485"},"modified":"2025-07-25T19:43:30","modified_gmt":"2025-07-25T19:43:30","slug":"gamez-i-promised-not-to-throw-grenades-but-rio-grande-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brownsvillecic.com\/es\/gamez-i-promised-not-to-throw-grenades-but-rio-grande-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"G\u00e1mez: I promised not to throw grenades, but\u2026 (Rio Grande Guardian)"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article was originally published by Rio Grande Guardian<\/a><\/p>\n

BROWNSVILLE, Texas \u2013 State Rep. Erin Elizabeth G\u00e1mez felt she had no choice but to bring politics into the conversation during a panel discussion at RGV StartUp Week.<\/p>\n

The weeklong event, held at the eBridge Center for Business & Commercialization, was designed to foster and celebrate entrepreneurship and innovation, as well as help startup businesses in the Rio Grande Valley.<\/p>\n

It was co-hosted by the Brownsville Community Improvement Corporation and UT-Rio Grande Valley\u2019s Entrepreneurship and Commercialization Center.<\/p>\n

Rep. G\u00e1mez, D-Brownsville, participated in a panel discussion titled \u201cShaping Tomorrow\u2019s Leaders.\u201d She was joined on the stage by Harlingen Mayor Norma Sepulveda, Daniella Lopez Valdez, executive director of the Mitte Cultural District and vice president of Brownsville ISD board of trustees, and Ron Garza, associate vice president of workforce and economic development at UTRGV.<\/p>\n

\u201cI promised not to throw grenades, but I have to talk about two potentially sensitive subjects,\u201d G\u00e1mez said. She proceeded to criticize the level of funding public education receives in Texas and the increased militarization of the Texas-Mexico border.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we talk about entrepreneurship, we cannot just expect it to flourish and happen without watering the grass, so to speak. Addressing some basic infrastructure,\u201d G\u00e1mez said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we do not address the fact that Texas is 42nd in funding public education\u2026 if we don\u2019t address that issue, we cannot expect entrepreneurship to continue to flourish.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we want to try to convince our peers to move back home, they\u2019re not going to do it if we don\u2019t have an A-rated school system down here. When we want to convince large businesses to move down here, to move their workers and employees down here, and to invest down here, they\u2019re not going to want to do it if we don\u2019t have a top tier A-rated school system.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fortunately, G\u00e1mez said, Brownsville does have an A-rated school system.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are fighting tooth and nail for every dime that we have gotten (for public education) in the past two years. We cannot talk about one without the other. Whether we went to a private school like me or to a public school, it does not matter. We are all in this together and we have to focus and care about the effort, or lack thereof of, and the attention that we\u2019re putting into our public education. And that\u2019s something that we\u2019re going to continue to all fight for in the future and in the next biennium.\u201d<\/p>\n

G\u00e1mez then discussed the increased militarization of the border region.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an issue that is unique to a certain sliver of Texas, i.e., the border, and \u2013 in particular \u2013 Brownsville, South Texas. We cannot expect families to move down if we are fostering a conversation of chaos at the border.\u201d<\/p>\n

G\u00e1mez said StartUp Week was being held in a beautiful building in downtown Brownsville. \u201cSome of us could throw a baseball across the border right now. That\u2019s how close we are. If we don\u2019t talk about reality versus Instagram, we\u2019re going to shoot ourselves in the foot.\u201d<\/p>\n

G\u00e1mez said it was incumbent on all border residents to \u201ccorrect that narrative.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cThere is no (political) party in the House right now that supports lawlessness or open borders. That is false. There is no party right now that supports de-funding the police or not supporting our law enforcement. That is false.\u201d<\/p>\n

G\u00e1mez said law enforcement personnel deserve the community\u2019s support.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to do everything that we have to do to protect and defend our borders and to correct the narrative that there\u2019s any sort of lawlessness down here. And, in particular, that means by funding and supporting law enforcement. We cannot talk about fostering entrepreneurship without protecting and supporting and defending those that protect and defend us.\u201d<\/p>\n

G\u00e1mez continued:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we talk about entrepreneurship, we cannot foster a narrative that supports a military presence in front of our universities. That\u2019s my job. That\u2019s what I do in Austin. I talk about, hey, if you\u2019re not going to put it in downtown Dallas, don\u2019t you dare put it in downtown Brownsville.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we talk about fostering entrepreneurship, we have to say, hold on. If you haven\u2019t been here, speak slowly. Because you don\u2019t know. That\u2019s our job. And that\u2019s what we do as elected officials, is tell them, we are not all the same. So, when we talk about policies, hold on, do not pass something, do not do something that is going to destroy the loving, incredible environment that you\u2019ve created in downtown Brownsville.\u201d<\/p>\n

G\u00e1mez later took to social media to say how pleased she was to have participated in RGV StartUp Week.<\/p>\n

\u201cThrilled to have been part of RGV Start Up Week\u2019s \u201cShaping Tomorrow\u2019s Leaders\u201d panel. Had an amazing discussion with esteemed panelists Daniella Lopez Valdez, vice president of the Brownsville ISD Board; Norma Sepulveda, mayor of Harlingen; and Ron Garza, associate vice president for Workforce and Economic Development at UTRGV.<\/p>\n

\u201cBig thanks to Skylar Howell for moderating! We delved into fostering leadership skills, promoting diversity, and tackling today\u2019s challenges.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was great to see so many passionate individuals coming together to celebrate and build on the big things we are doing in the RGV.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This article was originally published by Rio Grande Guardian BROWNSVILLE, Texas \u2013 State Rep. Erin Elizabeth G\u00e1mez felt she had no choice but to bring politics into the conversation during a panel discussion at RGV StartUp Week. The weeklong event, held at the eBridge Center for Business & Commercialization, was designed to foster and celebrate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3486,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[89,48,90,77],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community-development","category-economic-development","category-entrepreneurship","category-rgv-startup-week"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brownsvillecic.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brownsvillecic.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brownsvillecic.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brownsvillecic.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brownsvillecic.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/brownsvillecic.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3485\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brownsvillecic.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brownsvillecic.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brownsvillecic.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brownsvillecic.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}