Nick Jimenez

Sunday, January 2, 2000

20th Century brought AC, oil and integration

I don't know how long it will take before I become accustomed to writing 2000 on my checks and date book. It seems strange to be living in a year that once seemed more associated with science fiction stories and futurists.
   The previous 100 years have seen some amazing changes. If had to pick some of the events and acts that most changed Corpus Christi and South Texas during that period, here's my listing:
   The development of air conditioning. If Willis Carrier had not developed the first air conditioner, life in the blazing hot summers of South Texas would be downright intolerable. That the first fully air-conditioned office building, the Milam, was constructed in San Antonio in 1921 seems to me to be no coincidence. It's not the heat, it's the humidity, we say. Heck, it's the heat AND the humidity. Anyone who's endured the worst of the South Texas Augusts before the advent of air conditioning with their miserable nights, lying on a sweat-soaked mattress waiting to catch just a few hours of sleep in the cool morning hours before the blazing sun rises again, gives thanks to Mr. Carrier.
   The 1919 hurricane caught Corpus Christi in its maw and killed hundreds. But unlike a lot of coastal Texas towns that had been hit by hurricanes in previous years, it neither disappeared nor diminished. Instead, the city pulled itself together, gathered its community forces and by sheer will made itself a greater city than ever existed before. We enjoy the manifestation of that pioneer spirit every time we walk the bayfront seawall, a project that was built before anyone would think to ask, "Well, what's in it for me.?"
   The building of the Corpus Christi Naval Air Station virtually on the eve of World War II. The base has always been the core of the military's presence in South Texas. Not only have its payrolls provided a living for thousands of South Texas families, but the base has brought thousands of former and present Navy fliers through its gates. One went on to become president. The base, and its continual stream of student pilots, has provided the link between the city and world events. Wherever there is a carrier flight group flying in harm's way in defense of the nation, a little bit of Corpus Christi is there.
   The school desegregation suit against the Corpus Christi Independent School District that began in the late 1960s forced the city to confront the fact that thousands of its children were being forced to go to substandard schools, to accept a second-rate education, and to have vast numbers give up and drop out with barely a concern about their future. Busing was no cure, but the measure of success for public education afterwards could only be in judging how all of its students fared.
   The collapse of oil prices in the '80s ended the age of petroleum in Corpus Christi that started with the discovery of the first well in the Saxet Field in 1930. The discovery was the city's bit part in the greatest boon for America, cheap energy. Cheap energy, married to the automobile, made possible the suburbs, the growth of tourism, the roadside cafe which grew into the McDonald's. Men with barely a grade school education could make fat paychecks working the oil fields of South Texas as roughnecks or mud-loggers or lease-hounds. The fortunes made with oil built the downtown skyscrapers, funded the philanthropy that built hospitals and parks, and brought a wealth of art to the city. Oil remains, but its heyday is over.
   The growth of Hispanic political power denoted in the surge of minority office-holders. Lyndon B. Johnson will have the Vietnam War by his name in history, but, in my boo, his claim to be among the greatest presidents rests on the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. George Parr, the Duke of Duval, used Hispanic political power for his own ends, but not until the demise of the poll tax and the advent of one-man,one-vote did Hispanics get to vote for their own causes.
   Well, it only took several Medal of Honor winners and a generation of Ben Garzas and Dr. Hector P. Garcias to prove that Americans came in other colors, too.
   (Nick Jimenez can be reached by phone at 886-3787 or by e-mail at jimenezn@caller.com.)
  
  

---

  © 1999 Corpus Christi Caller Times, a Scripps Howard newspaper. All rights reserved.