In a recently released audio recording*, Brownsville City Commissioner At-Large Place A, Cesar De Leon, compares residents in his region to “taco-eaters” as he uses extensive foul language in reference to two Cameron County district attorneys of African American descent. Within the recording, released by Brownsville resident Erasmo Castro, is what is being called “a racially-charged tirade,” where De Leon refers to the district attorney’s assistants as racially motivated to incarcerate Hispanics for domestic violence.

After being confronted by The Brownsville Herald, Commissioner De Leon has publicly apologized making the following statement: “I want to apologize to the citizens of Brownsville or whoever had to listen to those tapes because there is a lot of profane language and that was a private conversation. It was never meant to be public.”

District Attorney Luis Saenz responded to De Leon’s accusations, saying he hires the “most competent prosecutors that I can find, without regard to their race,” continuing that he is disappointed to have an elected representative of Brownsville remark so negatively about his office.

*Warning: The recording linked above contains explicit and offensive language. 

 

Miriam Cepeda

Miriam Cepeda is the Rio Grande Valley Bureau Chief for Texas Scorecard. A second-generation Mexican American, she is both fluent in English and Spanish and has been influential in grassroots organizing and conservative engagement within Hispanic communities. If you don’t find her “Trumping”, you can find her saving animals, running her dog, hiking the Andes, or volunteering with the U.S. National Park Service.

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