Aldo Tatangelo
Encyclopedia
Aldo J. Tatangelo, Sr. was the reform mayor
of Laredo, Texas
, who served from 1978 to 1990. Tatangelo is often credited with having obtained the paving of the "streets of Laredo" (a term made famous in an old Western
song). Several major Laredo streets were being resurfaced on the very day of Tatangelo's death.
Tatangelo succeeded the scandal-plagued administration of Mayor Jose C. "Pepe" Martin, Jr. (1913–1998), who, like Martin's father before him, exerted vast powers as a south Texas political boss
and accrued vast personal wealth. In retirement, Tatangelo became perhaps Laredo's most beloved elderly statesmen. Since Tatangelo vacated City Hall, Laredo in 2006 inaugurated its third mayor, Raul G. Salinas
.(Laredo has existed since 1755 and has had more than 3 mayors!
Son Aldo Tatangelo, Jr. (April 2, 1945–May 25, 2010), of Laredo proclaimed that his father "set Laredo free and changed how people thought. He pointed the city in a new direction and wanted it to be open and prosperous." Previously, he noted, that many in Laredo were "fearful of doing the wrong thing or of getting fired if they voted for the wrong person or if they said or did the wrong thing." In this sense, "wrong" meant taking a position counter to that of the former power elite
.
Tatangelo, Jr., who was born in Providence and was a downtown Laredo merchant for many years, speaking on March 10, 2008, at his father's rosary
, continued: "My dad and Laredo had a love affair for thirty-five years. They (people of Laredo) loved him, he loved them. They broke the mold when they made Aldo. There'll never be another one. It's interesting when a man can have that kind of a feeling for a city, and the city return it."
immigrants who moved to Providence
, Rhode Island
, in 1910, with hopes of providing a better life for their children. Aldo was born in the barrio
called Federal Hill. As a youth, he was an amateur boxer
. In Laredo, he closely followed the careers of the city's best known professional boxers, the brothers Gaby
and Orlando Canizales
. In 1917, Nocolo Tatangelo established a jewelry manufacturing plant which became Standard Ring and Company. Tatangelo left high school
at the age of sixteen to work at his father's company. "This was the time of the Great Depression
, and my father needed help; so I went to work with him and enrolled at night school," Tatangelo said in a 2002 interview with his hometown newspaper
, the Laredo Morning Times
. He finished high school, studied plastic engineering, and graduated with a degree from Brighton and Stratton colleges in Rhode Island.
Tatangelo continued to work for his father until 1943, when he enlisted in the United States Navy
. He was a fireman first class in the naval supply department. That same year, Tatangelo married his beloved wife, the former Alice Natali DeLong (November 8, 1921—March 17, 2001). She was a 22-year-old employee of his father's company when they wed. The marriage lasted for fifty-seven years—until her death.
factory, Atlantic Optical Products in Providence. "I only had $380 in my pocket, but I wanted to start my own business; so I did," Tatangelo explained in the interview with Diana De La Garza of the Laredo Morning Times
on the occasion of his 89th birthday. Within two years, his company grew to 168 employees and produced an average of 5,000 sunglasses daily. Atlantic Optical was at the time the second largest manufacturer of sunglasses in the country. In 1949, Tatangelo opened a branch in Mexico City
with a Mexican associate and moved to Mexico to supervise the company. When he determined that his partner would not share the authority over the company, Tatangelo sold his part of the business.
in Cameron County
and Eagle Pass
in Maverick County
but instead chose Laredo, some 150 miles (241.4 km) south of San Antonio
and 310 miles (498.9 km) west of Houston
.
In Laredo, he established a jewelry manufacturing plant and went into business with an instructor from Laredo Community College
(then Laredo Junior College). The partnership ended, as Tatangelo established his family-owned Frontier Novelty Company. He also established a plant in Nuevo Laredo
, on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande
, to assemble jewelry and optical products. He has long been a booster of border issues. He was friendly with Nuevo Laredo mayors and a fan of the Tecolotes baseball
team there.
, but, as an independent businessman, he was more pragmatic than partisan. "I had a summer house in Zapata
(also Zapata County) and learned that they had a fire station manned by volunteers. I thought we could have that in Laredo," he told Diana De La Garza. He recruited thirty-nine volunteers, and in 1973, a fire station was built on Del Mar Boulevard across from St. Patrick's Catholic
Church.
In the middle to late 1970s, some 75 percent of Laredo's streets were still unpaved, and Tatangelo challenged the established order that permitted a low standard of achievement. Tatangelo said that Cranston, Rhode Island
, a city with which he was familiar because his last surviving sibling, Gilda T. Merolla, resides there, had at that time a population comparable to that of Laredo. Cranston had all paved streets and a $1 million budget. Laredo had a $3 million budget with miles and miles of dirt, dusty roads. Cranston also had to earmark funds for snow and ice clearance, an expense that did not apply to Laredo, with its semiarid climate.
Tatangelo attended Laredo City Council meetings and asked Mayor Martin why Laredo had so few paved streets, considering that it had three times the budget of Cranston. Martin, an ally of U.S. Senator and then U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson
, replied that Laredo was "a poor city." Tatangelo then proposed to donate $6,500 to purchase paving equipment that city employees could use. The mayor and the council rejected Tatangelo's proposal. Tatangelo persisted and, for a full year, he attended every council meeting to discuss street paving. The council eventually agreed to a paving experiment in a six-block area of the San Ignacio neighborhood.
Tatangelo, meanwhile, decided to run for mayor to challenge the status quo, or the so-called "Old Party" or the "patron system," by which voters defer to one or two usually elected officials in the community with the expectation that those individuals will provide personal favors when needed. The Laredo leadership claimed that citizens preferred the patron system so that major political decisions would be handled on their behalf by trusted officials. Fernando Pinon, a former Laredo Morning Times editor, wrote a book Patron Democracy, about this peculiar phenomenon. It was a Laredo version of what Mayor Richard J. Daley
established in Chicago
after 1955. He told the Laredo Morning Times: "I would go to the city council meeting, and nobody would pay attention to me. I said, 'Maybe I should be inside, instead of outside looking in.'"
"Laredo was such a closed city. There was a clique, and if you were part of it, you were O.K., but if you weren't, then things were not so good," said Tatangelo. Martin always used the excuse of poverty in Laredo, but, Tatangelo challenged him: "I thought Laredo was a rich city that could do a lot of things."
In his three terms in office, Tatangelo made many changes. He believed that Laredo was a "great city" that could prosper. Tatangelo said that his election brought change, but he could not have succeeded without the help of his fellow citizens.
In addition to the (1) street paving, Tatangelo is credited with (2) establishing a pension plan for city employees, (3) reorganizing the city street department, (4) developing a parks and recreation department, (5) creating a planning and zoning commission, and (6) promoting affordable housing for low-income families. He considered the employee pensions the most important of his contributions to public affairs.
In the spring of 1978, CBS News
reported on the surprising developments in Laredo in a half-hour prime time CBS Reports narrated by Bill Moyers
. The documentary
details many of the scandals in the Martin administration, including the looting of taxpayers through fraudulent purchase orders, particularly for vehicle batteries. A month after the election, Martin was indicted by a federal grand jury
on one count of mail fraud and was ordered to pay a $1,000 fine and $201,118 to the city in restitution
. He was sentenced to serve thirty weekends in the Webb County Jail. Critics derided the "too-lenient" sentence as having made Laredo the laughingstock of Texas.
Martin's "Old Party" -- officially the "Independent Club" -- survived for eighty-four years because of its ability to recruit former opponents. In the latter years, however, it failed to bring in younger members and could not adapt to the changing demographics
of the county. Martin told Bill Moyers that the "Old Party" had succeeded in its heyday because many Laredo voters felt too uninformed to make their own political choices in elections and preferred a "patron" to make such decisions for them.
The "Old Party" also included Laredo Independent School District Superintendent Vidal M. Treviño
, Martin's father, Sheriff
J.C. Martin, Sr. (1886–1957), District Attorney
Philip Kazen, and U.S. Representative Abraham Kazen
, who lost his House seat in the 1984 Democratic primary to Albert Bustamante
.
Tatangelo won his second and third terms under the city manager format. He was term-limited under the charter and could not seek a fourth term in 1990. Laredo mayors are restricted to two consecutive four-year terms plus up to two years of an unexpired term. They may run again after sitting out a term.
In Texas, all mayors and city council members are elected on nonpartisan ballots. The candidates, of course, may have a party label (if they voted in a party primary) or a party preference (even if they did not vote in their primary), but for purposes of election, they are listed on the municipal ballot without party designation. Other states may or may not follow the same procedure.
to challenge the Democratic nominee for Webb County judge, a largely administrative, rather than judicial, position. The Democrats chose a former Laredo Community College business instructor, Mercurio "Merc" Martinez, Jr., who had unseated incumbent Andres "Andy" Ramos in the party primary. Martinez then had no Republican
opposition, but under Texas election law, a write-in candidate can file up to forty-five days before a general election. One cannot write in any name he chooses on a Texas ballot for any office: a "write-in" candidate must be officially entered for a particular office. Rarely do candidates win by this route. (Two who did were U.S. Senator Strom Thurmond
of South Carolina
(1954), as a Democrat, and U.S. Representative Joe Skeen of New Mexico
(1980), as a Republican.)
Tatangelo, at seventy-seven, made a stronger showing as a write-in candidate than had been the norm in Laredo, but Martinez prevailed with nearly 75 percent of the vote. Martinez hence won the first of his three terms as county judge. (Martinez has since returned as a trustee for Laredo Community College.) In that campaign, Tatangelo said that he had been a Democrat since 1936, when he was still living in Rhode Island. In Texas, one is officially a "Democrat" or a "Republican," for that matter, only if he votes in his party's primary election or runoff election in the spring of even years. His party designation is good for two years—until the next primary elections. He can adopt a party label as a personal preference, but he is officially a Democrat or a Republican in Texas only by voting in his party's primary or runoff election. In that the majority of Texas voters do not usually participate in any party primary, most of the state's electorate consists of unaffiliated voters.
in Laredo reported at the time of Tatangelo's death that Tatangelo had wept when he learned of Reagan's death in 2004. Tatangelo also supported Presidents George Herbert Walker Bush and George W. Bush
. In 2004, Tatangelo gave $750 to the Republican National Committee
. Tatangelo gave $250 in 2004 to the campaign of former Republican U.S. Representative John Thune
of South Dakota
, who unseated Senate Democratic Minority Leader Tom Daschle
. And when he ran for county judge, then Webb County GOP
chairman Esther Buckley, a former member of the United States Commission on Civil Rights
, endorsed Tatangelo and urged her fellow Republicans to write in his name on the ballot. Tatangelo secured Republican support not because of party, presumably, but because many had admired his challenge to the "Old Party" establishment and his desire to modernize the city while retaining its traditional values. Another Laredo Republican, businessman and former five-term city council member Joe A. Guerra
(1934–2010), said that his friend Tatangelo was so open with the public that he would visit at his office or home with anyone, regardless of status, even without an appointment.
Tatangelo was also committed to cutting county spending and lowering property tax rates, issues that attracted Republican support. Homeowners, however, found that even when the county cut the ad valorem tax rates, their property taxes continued to climb because the Webb County Appraisal District in Laredo routinely increases the valuation of their properties on an annual basis. The district points out that state law requires the higher evaluations each year. Then it is up to the taxing bodies to set the actual tax rates per $100 of assessed value.
Tatangelo had three children, the late Aldo, Jr., of Laredo, Linda T. (husband Jerry) McKinney of Fort Worth
, and Robert (wife Elva) Tatangelo of Grapevine
, Texas, and five grandchildren. He had two brothers and a sister who predeceased him, Guido and Leo Tatangelo and Eva T. Grenieri. He said that he has been pleased with his long life "as a whole. . . . There were more things that I would have liked to do, but, hey, you can't get everything you want, right?" He was Roman Catholic.
Tatangelo left his public papers with Texas A&M International University
in Laredo. In 2000, he gave $25,000 to establish an endowed scholarship at the university for promising students in the fields of political science
and public administration
. Recipients, who must come from either Webb County or Nuevo Laredo are known as "Tatangelo Scholars."
Tatangelo also supported Laredo Community College. He occasionally met with honors students in their class in Texas government. He offered the students words of wisdom and lessons on municipal government, and the students usually warmed to him as they might with a caring grandfather.
Tatangelo is honored with the "Aldo Tatangelo Parkway," a shaded green space
in downtown Laredo near San Agustin Cathedral that provides a slight respite from the city's legendary summer heat, which can reach 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43 °C). His admirers often speak of him as the man who brought Laredo into the twentieth century, even when the 21st century was just two decades away. Tatangelo opposed the building of the Laredo Entertainment Center
on the Bob Bullock
Expressway, named for a former Texas lieutenant governor
and comptroller
. Tatangelo maintained that such a mammoth structure, if constructed, should have been located downtown to revitalize the central city.
Son Robert James Tatangelo (born ca. 1951) said that his father was "always . . . honest and straight forward with people, and that's what people counted on. I think he really did make a difference."
Daughter Linda T. McKinney remembered her father for his equal treatment of people: "It didn't matter where you came from. If you were from the barrio or if you were a multi-millionaire he would treat you the same. He accepted everybody. . . . There was no social/economic division . . . "
Elmer Buckley (1933–2009), Tatangelo's former special assistant during the first term as mayor and the husband of Esther Buckley, recalled that Tatangelo ordered all municipal financial records be brought to City Hall because under the Martin administration they had been stored at a private residence. Buckley said that many mistakenly questioned Tatangelo's motives: "Very few people really understood him or his motives. They were always looking for a secondary motive or for something other than what he wasn't saying, but Aldo didn't have ulterior motives, none whatsoever." Buckley said that Tatangelo's management style was not that of "micromanager" but of a "task manager" who did not "tolerate laziness".
Andy Ramos, a member of the City Council when Tatangelo became mayor and later the Webb County administrative judge, recalled how Tatangelo "wanted everything done today. . . . He was always asking the city council for support in getting projects done as fast as we could with the money we had available. He was very compassionate, and his heart was with the people of Laredo, especially those who were economically disadvantaged."
On March 25, 2008, the Laredo City Council voted to name City Hall after Tatangelo. The exact name was not selected. At least one council member, Juan Ramirez, proposed that a new building, perhaps a yet unconstructed downtown convention center bear Tatangelo's name. Ramirez said that even with the formal name change most people would still refer to City Hall as "City Hall".
Mayor
In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....
of Laredo, Texas
Laredo, Texas
Laredo is the county seat of Webb County, Texas, United States, located on the north bank of the Rio Grande in South Texas, across from Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, Mexico. According to the 2010 census, the city population was 236,091 making it the 3rd largest on the United States-Mexican border,...
, who served from 1978 to 1990. Tatangelo is often credited with having obtained the paving of the "streets of Laredo" (a term made famous in an old Western
Western (genre)
The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...
song). Several major Laredo streets were being resurfaced on the very day of Tatangelo's death.
Tatangelo succeeded the scandal-plagued administration of Mayor Jose C. "Pepe" Martin, Jr. (1913–1998), who, like Martin's father before him, exerted vast powers as a south Texas political boss
Political boss
A boss, in politics, is a person who wields the power over a particular political region or constituency. Bosses may dictate voting patterns, control appointments, and wield considerable influence in other political processes. They do not necessarily hold public office themselves...
and accrued vast personal wealth. In retirement, Tatangelo became perhaps Laredo's most beloved elderly statesmen. Since Tatangelo vacated City Hall, Laredo in 2006 inaugurated its third mayor, Raul G. Salinas
Raul G. Salinas
Raúl González Salinas is a private security consultant, a businessman, and a retired Federal Bureau of Investigation agent who was first elected mayor of Laredo, Texas, on June 17, 2006...
.(Laredo has existed since 1755 and has had more than 3 mayors!
Son Aldo Tatangelo, Jr. (April 2, 1945–May 25, 2010), of Laredo proclaimed that his father "set Laredo free and changed how people thought. He pointed the city in a new direction and wanted it to be open and prosperous." Previously, he noted, that many in Laredo were "fearful of doing the wrong thing or of getting fired if they voted for the wrong person or if they said or did the wrong thing." In this sense, "wrong" meant taking a position counter to that of the former power elite
Elite
Elite refers to an exceptional or privileged group that wields considerable power within its sphere of influence...
.
Tatangelo, Jr., who was born in Providence and was a downtown Laredo merchant for many years, speaking on March 10, 2008, at his father's rosary
Rosary
The rosary or "garland of roses" is a traditional Catholic devotion. The term denotes the prayer beads used to count the series of prayers that make up the rosary...
, continued: "My dad and Laredo had a love affair for thirty-five years. They (people of Laredo) loved him, he loved them. They broke the mold when they made Aldo. There'll never be another one. It's interesting when a man can have that kind of a feeling for a city, and the city return it."
Early years, education, military
Tatangelo was the second of five children born to Nocolo and Bettina Tatangelo, ItalianItalian people
The Italian people are an ethnic group that share a common Italian culture, ancestry and speak the Italian language as a mother tongue. Within Italy, Italians are defined by citizenship, regardless of ancestry or country of residence , and are distinguished from people...
immigrants who moved to Providence
Providence, Rhode Island
Providence is the capital and most populous city of Rhode Island and was one of the first cities established in the United States. Located in Providence County, it is the third largest city in the New England region...
, Rhode Island
Rhode Island
The state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, more commonly referred to as Rhode Island , is a state in the New England region of the United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area...
, in 1910, with hopes of providing a better life for their children. Aldo was born in the barrio
Barrio
Barrio is a Spanish word meaning district or neighborhood.-Usage:In its formal usage in English, barrios are generally considered cohesive places, sharing, for example, a church and traditions such as feast days...
called Federal Hill. As a youth, he was an amateur boxer
Boxing
Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...
. In Laredo, he closely followed the careers of the city's best known professional boxers, the brothers Gaby
Gaby Canizales
Jose 'Gaby' Canizales is a retired American boxer who won world championships in the bantamweight division. -Pro career:Canizales turned pro in 1979 and in 1983 challenged Jeff Chandler for the World Boxing Association bantamweight title but lost a decision. In 1986 he landed a shot at Richie...
and Orlando Canizales
Orlando Canizales
Orlando Canizales is an American boxer who won the International Boxing Federation bantamweight title and defended it a record sixteen consecutive times.-Boxing career:...
. In 1917, Nocolo Tatangelo established a jewelry manufacturing plant which became Standard Ring and Company. Tatangelo left high school
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
at the age of sixteen to work at his father's company. "This was the time of the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
, and my father needed help; so I went to work with him and enrolled at night school," Tatangelo said in a 2002 interview with his hometown newspaper
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
, the Laredo Morning Times
Laredo Morning Times
The Laredo Morning Times is a daily newspaper publication based in Laredo, Texas, USA. It is owned by the Hearst Corporation.The Laredo Morning Times was founded on June 14, 1881 as "the Laredo Weekly," a four-page newspaper published by James Saunders Penn. Two years later, the paper became a...
. He finished high school, studied plastic engineering, and graduated with a degree from Brighton and Stratton colleges in Rhode Island.
Tatangelo continued to work for his father until 1943, when he enlisted in the United States Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
. He was a fireman first class in the naval supply department. That same year, Tatangelo married his beloved wife, the former Alice Natali DeLong (November 8, 1921—March 17, 2001). She was a 22-year-old employee of his father's company when they wed. The marriage lasted for fifty-seven years—until her death.
Manufacturing sunglasses
After his military service ended in 1945, Tatangelo established his own sunglassesSunglasses
Sunglasses or sun glasses are a form of protective eyewear designed primarily to prevent bright sunlight and high-energy visible light from damaging or discomforting the eyes. They can sometimes also function as a visual aid, as variously termed spectacles or glasses exist, featuring lenses that...
factory, Atlantic Optical Products in Providence. "I only had $380 in my pocket, but I wanted to start my own business; so I did," Tatangelo explained in the interview with Diana De La Garza of the Laredo Morning Times
Laredo Morning Times
The Laredo Morning Times is a daily newspaper publication based in Laredo, Texas, USA. It is owned by the Hearst Corporation.The Laredo Morning Times was founded on June 14, 1881 as "the Laredo Weekly," a four-page newspaper published by James Saunders Penn. Two years later, the paper became a...
on the occasion of his 89th birthday. Within two years, his company grew to 168 employees and produced an average of 5,000 sunglasses daily. Atlantic Optical was at the time the second largest manufacturer of sunglasses in the country. In 1949, Tatangelo opened a branch in Mexico City
Mexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...
with a Mexican associate and moved to Mexico to supervise the company. When he determined that his partner would not share the authority over the company, Tatangelo sold his part of the business.
Choosing Laredo as his home
Tatangelo's mother died in 1963, and he decided to move his family from Mexico back to the United States. "I had always felt like a foreigner in Mexico. I liked the city, but I didn't think it was a place for my children to grow up in," Tatangelo told the Laredo Morning Times. Tatangelo sought a border city to establish businesses on both sides of the Rio Grande. He considered BrownsvilleBrownsville, Texas
Brownsville is a city in the southernmost tip of the state of Texas, in the United States. It is located on the northern bank of the Rio Grande, directly north and across the border from Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico. Brownsville is the 16th largest city in the state of Texas with a population of...
in Cameron County
Cameron County, Texas
Cameron County is the southernmost county located in the U.S. state of Texas. In 2010, its population was 406,220. Its county seat is Brownsville. Cameron was founded in 1848...
and Eagle Pass
Eagle Pass, Texas
Eagle Pass is a city in and the county seat of Maverick County The population was 27,183 as of the 2010 census.Eagle Pass borders the city of Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico, which is to the southwest and across the Rio Grande. The Eagle Pass-Piedras Negras Metropolitan Area is one of six...
in Maverick County
Maverick County, Texas
Maverick County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. In 2000, its population was 47,297. Its county seat is Eagle Pass. Maverick County is named for Samuel Maverick, cattleman and state legislator....
but instead chose Laredo, some 150 miles (241.4 km) south of San Antonio
San Antonio, Texas
San Antonio is the seventh-largest city in the United States of America and the second-largest city within the state of Texas, with a population of 1.33 million. Located in the American Southwest and the south–central part of Texas, the city serves as the seat of Bexar County. In 2011,...
and 310 miles (498.9 km) west of Houston
Houston, Texas
Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ...
.
In Laredo, he established a jewelry manufacturing plant and went into business with an instructor from Laredo Community College
Laredo Community College
The Laredo Community College, or LCC, was established as Laredo Junior College on September 28, 1947, by the Laredo Independent School District in Laredo, the seat of Webb County in south Texas...
(then Laredo Junior College). The partnership ended, as Tatangelo established his family-owned Frontier Novelty Company. He also established a plant in Nuevo Laredo
Nuevo Laredo
Nuevo Laredo is a city located in the Municipality of Nuevo Laredo in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas. The city lies on the banks of the Río Grande, across from the United States city of Laredo, Texas. The 2010 census population of the city was 373,725. Nuevo Laredo is part of the Laredo-Nuevo...
, on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande
Rio Grande
The Rio Grande is a river that flows from southwestern Colorado in the United States to the Gulf of Mexico. Along the way it forms part of the Mexico – United States border. Its length varies as its course changes...
, to assemble jewelry and optical products. He has long been a booster of border issues. He was friendly with Nuevo Laredo mayors and a fan of the Tecolotes baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
team there.
Interest in local politics
After several years in Laredo, Tatangelo became active in local politics. He considered himself a DemocratDemocratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
, but, as an independent businessman, he was more pragmatic than partisan. "I had a summer house in Zapata
Zapata, Texas
As of the census of 2010, there were 5,089 people, 4,328 households, and 1,265 families residing in the CDP. The population density was 629.9 people per square mile . There were 2,239 housing units at an average density of 290.4 per square mile...
(also Zapata County) and learned that they had a fire station manned by volunteers. I thought we could have that in Laredo," he told Diana De La Garza. He recruited thirty-nine volunteers, and in 1973, a fire station was built on Del Mar Boulevard across from St. Patrick's Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
Church.
In the middle to late 1970s, some 75 percent of Laredo's streets were still unpaved, and Tatangelo challenged the established order that permitted a low standard of achievement. Tatangelo said that Cranston, Rhode Island
Cranston, Rhode Island
Cranston, once known as Pawtuxet, is a city in Providence County, Rhode Island, United States. With a population of 80,387 at the 2010 census, it is the third largest city in the state. The center of population of Rhode Island is located in Cranston...
, a city with which he was familiar because his last surviving sibling, Gilda T. Merolla, resides there, had at that time a population comparable to that of Laredo. Cranston had all paved streets and a $1 million budget. Laredo had a $3 million budget with miles and miles of dirt, dusty roads. Cranston also had to earmark funds for snow and ice clearance, an expense that did not apply to Laredo, with its semiarid climate.
Tatangelo attended Laredo City Council meetings and asked Mayor Martin why Laredo had so few paved streets, considering that it had three times the budget of Cranston. Martin, an ally of U.S. Senator and then U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon Baines Johnson , often referred to as LBJ, was the 36th President of the United States after his service as the 37th Vice President of the United States...
, replied that Laredo was "a poor city." Tatangelo then proposed to donate $6,500 to purchase paving equipment that city employees could use. The mayor and the council rejected Tatangelo's proposal. Tatangelo persisted and, for a full year, he attended every council meeting to discuss street paving. The council eventually agreed to a paving experiment in a six-block area of the San Ignacio neighborhood.
Tatangelo, meanwhile, decided to run for mayor to challenge the status quo, or the so-called "Old Party" or the "patron system," by which voters defer to one or two usually elected officials in the community with the expectation that those individuals will provide personal favors when needed. The Laredo leadership claimed that citizens preferred the patron system so that major political decisions would be handled on their behalf by trusted officials. Fernando Pinon, a former Laredo Morning Times editor, wrote a book Patron Democracy, about this peculiar phenomenon. It was a Laredo version of what Mayor Richard J. Daley
Richard J. Daley
Richard Joseph Daley served for 21 years as the mayor and undisputed Democratic boss of Chicago and is considered by historians to be the "last of the big city bosses." He played a major role in the history of the Democratic Party, especially with his support of John F...
established in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
after 1955. He told the Laredo Morning Times: "I would go to the city council meeting, and nobody would pay attention to me. I said, 'Maybe I should be inside, instead of outside looking in.'"
"Laredo was such a closed city. There was a clique, and if you were part of it, you were O.K., but if you weren't, then things were not so good," said Tatangelo. Martin always used the excuse of poverty in Laredo, but, Tatangelo challenged him: "I thought Laredo was a rich city that could do a lot of things."
Election as mayor, 1978
In November 1977, Martin, under investigation for wrongdoing in office, announced that he would not seek a seventh term as mayor in the municipal elections set for April 1978. Tatangelo entered the six-candidate nonpartisan race with confidence. (All Texas mayors and city council members are elected without party labels on the ballot.) He visited 10,100 homes and lost 25 pounds in the campaign. Tatangelo easily won the election, which, according to Tatangelo, represented "a new beginning . . . a new administration, with new ideas, new things to do. The rest, as you know, is history."In his three terms in office, Tatangelo made many changes. He believed that Laredo was a "great city" that could prosper. Tatangelo said that his election brought change, but he could not have succeeded without the help of his fellow citizens.
In addition to the (1) street paving, Tatangelo is credited with (2) establishing a pension plan for city employees, (3) reorganizing the city street department, (4) developing a parks and recreation department, (5) creating a planning and zoning commission, and (6) promoting affordable housing for low-income families. He considered the employee pensions the most important of his contributions to public affairs.
In the spring of 1978, CBS News
CBS News
CBS News is the news division of American television and radio network CBS. The current chairman is Jeff Fager who is also the executive producer of 60 Minutes, while the current president of CBS News is David Rhodes. CBS News' flagship program is the CBS Evening News, hosted by the network's main...
reported on the surprising developments in Laredo in a half-hour prime time CBS Reports narrated by Bill Moyers
Bill Moyers
Bill Moyers is an American journalist and public commentator. He served as White House Press Secretary in the United States President Lyndon B. Johnson Administration from 1965 to 1967. He worked as a news commentator on television for ten years. Moyers has had an extensive involvement with public...
. The documentary
Documentary
A documentary is a creative work of non-fiction, including:* Documentary film, including television* Radio documentary* Documentary photographyRelated terms include:...
details many of the scandals in the Martin administration, including the looting of taxpayers through fraudulent purchase orders, particularly for vehicle batteries. A month after the election, Martin was indicted by a federal grand jury
Grand jury
A grand jury is a type of jury that determines whether a criminal indictment will issue. Currently, only the United States retains grand juries, although some other common law jurisdictions formerly employed them, and most other jurisdictions employ some other type of preliminary hearing...
on one count of mail fraud and was ordered to pay a $1,000 fine and $201,118 to the city in restitution
Restitution
The law of restitution is the law of gains-based recovery. It is to be contrasted with the law of compensation, which is the law of loss-based recovery. Obligations to make restitution and obligations to pay compensation are each a type of legal response to events in the real world. When a court...
. He was sentenced to serve thirty weekends in the Webb County Jail. Critics derided the "too-lenient" sentence as having made Laredo the laughingstock of Texas.
A change in city charters
When Tatangelo was elected, he was the "executive" to the "legislative" council. In 1979, as a result of the Martin scandals, which some attributed to weaknesses in the strong mayoral form of government that had existed in Laredo for more than eighty years, the city council authorized a new city charter, which established a city manager. The change in government took effect with the municipal elections held in the spring of 1982. A citizens panel, including a college government instructor, Arturo Nava, drafted the charter. While similar to charters in other cities, it was uniquely adapted to Laredo's needs. The charter provided for a professional manager to be appointed by the 8-member city council. The manager acts as the day-to-day "executive" authority, but he is managed by the council. The elected mayor can break a tie vote on the council, but his role is more limited under the city manager system than it was under the mayor-council format. The mayor may be mainly a "ribbon-cutter," or he may attempt to lead the council toward his own goals. Recall of the mayor and council is permitted under the Laredo charter.Martin's "Old Party" -- officially the "Independent Club" -- survived for eighty-four years because of its ability to recruit former opponents. In the latter years, however, it failed to bring in younger members and could not adapt to the changing demographics
Demographics
Demographics are the most recent statistical characteristics of a population. These types of data are used widely in sociology , public policy, and marketing. Commonly examined demographics include gender, race, age, disabilities, mobility, home ownership, employment status, and even location...
of the county. Martin told Bill Moyers that the "Old Party" had succeeded in its heyday because many Laredo voters felt too uninformed to make their own political choices in elections and preferred a "patron" to make such decisions for them.
The "Old Party" also included Laredo Independent School District Superintendent Vidal M. Treviño
Vidal M. Treviño
Vidal Manuel Treviño was a longtime educator and a Democratic political powerhouse in Laredo, Texas, who served as the Laredo Independent School District superintendent between 1973 and 1995...
, Martin's father, Sheriff
Sheriff
A sheriff is in principle a legal official with responsibility for a county. In practice, the specific combination of legal, political, and ceremonial duties of a sheriff varies greatly from country to country....
J.C. Martin, Sr. (1886–1957), District Attorney
District attorney
In many jurisdictions in the United States, a District Attorney is an elected or appointed government official who represents the government in the prosecution of criminal offenses. The district attorney is the highest officeholder in the jurisdiction's legal department and supervises a staff of...
Philip Kazen, and U.S. Representative Abraham Kazen
Abraham Kazen
Abraham Kazen, Jr., usually known as Chick Kazen was a U.S. Representative from Texas from 1967 to 1985.- Education :...
, who lost his House seat in the 1984 Democratic primary to Albert Bustamante
Albert Bustamante
Albert Garza Bustamante is a former member of the United States House of Representatives from Texas. A Democrat, he was a prominent Hispanic member of the House....
.
Tatangelo won his second and third terms under the city manager format. He was term-limited under the charter and could not seek a fourth term in 1990. Laredo mayors are restricted to two consecutive four-year terms plus up to two years of an unexpired term. They may run again after sitting out a term.
In Texas, all mayors and city council members are elected on nonpartisan ballots. The candidates, of course, may have a party label (if they voted in a party primary) or a party preference (even if they did not vote in their primary), but for purposes of election, they are listed on the municipal ballot without party designation. Other states may or may not follow the same procedure.
Running for county judge
After Tatangelo left the office of mayor in 1990, he launched a write-in campaign in the November general electionGeneral election
In a parliamentary political system, a general election is an election in which all or most members of a given political body are chosen. The term is usually used to refer to elections held for a nation's primary legislative body, as distinguished from by-elections and local elections.The term...
to challenge the Democratic nominee for Webb County judge, a largely administrative, rather than judicial, position. The Democrats chose a former Laredo Community College business instructor, Mercurio "Merc" Martinez, Jr., who had unseated incumbent Andres "Andy" Ramos in the party primary. Martinez then had no Republican
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
opposition, but under Texas election law, a write-in candidate can file up to forty-five days before a general election. One cannot write in any name he chooses on a Texas ballot for any office: a "write-in" candidate must be officially entered for a particular office. Rarely do candidates win by this route. (Two who did were U.S. Senator Strom Thurmond
Strom Thurmond
James Strom Thurmond was an American politician who served as a United States Senator. He also ran for the Presidency of the United States in 1948 as the segregationist States Rights Democratic Party candidate, receiving 2.4% of the popular vote and 39 electoral votes...
of South Carolina
South Carolina
South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...
(1954), as a Democrat, and U.S. Representative Joe Skeen of New Mexico
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
(1980), as a Republican.)
Tatangelo, at seventy-seven, made a stronger showing as a write-in candidate than had been the norm in Laredo, but Martinez prevailed with nearly 75 percent of the vote. Martinez hence won the first of his three terms as county judge. (Martinez has since returned as a trustee for Laredo Community College.) In that campaign, Tatangelo said that he had been a Democrat since 1936, when he was still living in Rhode Island. In Texas, one is officially a "Democrat" or a "Republican," for that matter, only if he votes in his party's primary election or runoff election in the spring of even years. His party designation is good for two years—until the next primary elections. He can adopt a party label as a personal preference, but he is officially a Democrat or a Republican in Texas only by voting in his party's primary or runoff election. In that the majority of Texas voters do not usually participate in any party primary, most of the state's electorate consists of unaffiliated voters.
Tatangelo's Republican activities
Presumably, Tatangelo meant that he had voted in Democratic primaries when he called himself a "Democrat." Records reveal, however, that Tatangelo has often supported and hosted Republican candidates, including the late President Ronald W. Reagan, with whom he once had a 45-minute audience. KGNS-TVKGNS-TV
KGNS-TV is the NBC television affiliate for Laredo, Texas as well as surrounding areas in both Texas and Mexico. The station is owned by SagamoreHill Broadcasting. KGNS also operates digital subchannels offering Telemundo and KTXW , both also available on Time Warner Cable channels 25 and 19,...
in Laredo reported at the time of Tatangelo's death that Tatangelo had wept when he learned of Reagan's death in 2004. Tatangelo also supported Presidents George Herbert Walker Bush and George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
. In 2004, Tatangelo gave $750 to the Republican National Committee
Republican National Committee
The Republican National Committee is an American political committee that provides national leadership for the Republican Party of the United States. It is responsible for developing and promoting the Republican political platform, as well as coordinating fundraising and election strategy. It is...
. Tatangelo gave $250 in 2004 to the campaign of former Republican U.S. Representative John Thune
John Thune
John Randolph Thune is the junior U.S. Senator from South Dakota and a member of the Republican Party. He previously served as a U.S. Representative for .-Early Life, Education:...
of South Dakota
South Dakota
South Dakota is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux American Indian tribes. Once a part of Dakota Territory, South Dakota became a state on November 2, 1889. The state has an area of and an estimated population of just over...
, who unseated Senate Democratic Minority Leader Tom Daschle
Tom Daschle
Thomas Andrew "Tom" Daschle is a former U.S. Senator from South Dakota and former U.S. Senate Majority Leader. He is a member of the Democratic Party....
. And when he ran for county judge, then Webb County GOP
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
chairman Esther Buckley, a former member of the United States Commission on Civil Rights
United States Commission on Civil Rights
The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights is historically a bipartisan, independent commission of the U.S. federal government charged with the responsibility for investigating, reporting on, and making recommendations concerning civil rights issues that face the nation.-Commissioners:The Commission is...
, endorsed Tatangelo and urged her fellow Republicans to write in his name on the ballot. Tatangelo secured Republican support not because of party, presumably, but because many had admired his challenge to the "Old Party" establishment and his desire to modernize the city while retaining its traditional values. Another Laredo Republican, businessman and former five-term city council member Joe A. Guerra
Joe A. Guerra
Jose Antonio Guerra, Sr., known as Joe A. Guerra , was a businessman and a Republican political activist in the heavily Democratic city of Laredo, Texas...
(1934–2010), said that his friend Tatangelo was so open with the public that he would visit at his office or home with anyone, regardless of status, even without an appointment.
Tatangelo was also committed to cutting county spending and lowering property tax rates, issues that attracted Republican support. Homeowners, however, found that even when the county cut the ad valorem tax rates, their property taxes continued to climb because the Webb County Appraisal District in Laredo routinely increases the valuation of their properties on an annual basis. The district points out that state law requires the higher evaluations each year. Then it is up to the taxing bodies to set the actual tax rates per $100 of assessed value.
Tatangelo in retirement
In 1998, Tatangelo had open-heart surgery. "I still have many ideas, but physically the doctors don't want me to get too involved. I miss . . . being able to sit down and trying to figure out problems. . . . " he told the Laredo Morning Times.Tatangelo had three children, the late Aldo, Jr., of Laredo, Linda T. (husband Jerry) McKinney of Fort Worth
Fort Worth, Texas
Fort Worth is the 16th-largest city in the United States of America and the fifth-largest city in the state of Texas. Located in North Central Texas, just southeast of the Texas Panhandle, the city is a cultural gateway into the American West and covers nearly in Tarrant, Parker, Denton, and...
, and Robert (wife Elva) Tatangelo of Grapevine
Grapevine, Texas
Grapevine is a city in northeast Tarrant County, Texas, United States located within the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area. As of the 2010 census the city population was 46,334. The city's moniker is derived from the native grapes prevalent in the area. In recent years several wineries have...
, Texas, and five grandchildren. He had two brothers and a sister who predeceased him, Guido and Leo Tatangelo and Eva T. Grenieri. He said that he has been pleased with his long life "as a whole. . . . There were more things that I would have liked to do, but, hey, you can't get everything you want, right?" He was Roman Catholic.
Tatangelo left his public papers with Texas A&M International University
Texas A&M International University
Texas A&M International University, often referred to as TAMIU, is a public, co-educational, state-supported university located in Laredo, Texas...
in Laredo. In 2000, he gave $25,000 to establish an endowed scholarship at the university for promising students in the fields of political science
Political science
Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...
and public administration
Public administration
Public Administration houses the implementation of government policy and an academic discipline that studies this implementation and that prepares civil servants for this work. As a "field of inquiry with a diverse scope" its "fundamental goal.....
. Recipients, who must come from either Webb County or Nuevo Laredo are known as "Tatangelo Scholars."
Tatangelo also supported Laredo Community College. He occasionally met with honors students in their class in Texas government. He offered the students words of wisdom and lessons on municipal government, and the students usually warmed to him as they might with a caring grandfather.
Open space reserve
Open space reserve, open space preserve, and open space reservation, are planning and conservation ethics terms used to describe areas of protected or conserved land or water on which development is indefinitely set aside...
in downtown Laredo near San Agustin Cathedral that provides a slight respite from the city's legendary summer heat, which can reach 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43 °C). His admirers often speak of him as the man who brought Laredo into the twentieth century, even when the 21st century was just two decades away. Tatangelo opposed the building of the Laredo Entertainment Center
Laredo Entertainment Center
The Laredo Energy Arena is a multi-purpose arena, in Laredo, Texas. It is home to the Laredo Bucks ice hockey team and the Laredo Rattlesnakes indoor football team...
on the Bob Bullock
Bob Bullock
Robert Douglas Bullock, known as Bob Bullock , was a Democratic politician from Texas, whose career spanned four decades. His service culminated in his term as Lieutenant Governor of Texas from January 15, 1991–January 19, 1999 during the terms of Governors Ann Richards and George W...
Expressway, named for a former Texas lieutenant governor
Lieutenant governor
A lieutenant governor or lieutenant-governor is a high officer of state, whose precise role and rank vary by jurisdiction, but is often the deputy or lieutenant to or ranking under a governor — a "second-in-command"...
and comptroller
Comptroller
A comptroller is a management level position responsible for supervising the quality of accounting and financial reporting of an organization.In British government, the Comptroller General or Comptroller and Auditor General is in most countries the external auditor of the budget execution of the...
. Tatangelo maintained that such a mammoth structure, if constructed, should have been located downtown to revitalize the central city.
Tatangelo eulogized
Tatangelo died in Laredo. Services were held on March 11, 2008, at Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church. Interment followed at the family plot in the Calvary Catholic Cemetery in Laredo. Two years later Aldo Tatangelo, Jr., was interred beside his parents.Daughter Linda T. McKinney remembered her father for his equal treatment of people: "It didn't matter where you came from. If you were from the barrio or if you were a multi-millionaire he would treat you the same. He accepted everybody. . . . There was no social/economic division . . . "
Elmer Buckley (1933–2009), Tatangelo's former special assistant during the first term as mayor and the husband of Esther Buckley, recalled that Tatangelo ordered all municipal financial records be brought to City Hall because under the Martin administration they had been stored at a private residence. Buckley said that many mistakenly questioned Tatangelo's motives: "Very few people really understood him or his motives. They were always looking for a secondary motive or for something other than what he wasn't saying, but Aldo didn't have ulterior motives, none whatsoever." Buckley said that Tatangelo's management style was not that of "micromanager" but of a "task manager" who did not "tolerate laziness".
Andy Ramos, a member of the City Council when Tatangelo became mayor and later the Webb County administrative judge, recalled how Tatangelo "wanted everything done today. . . . He was always asking the city council for support in getting projects done as fast as we could with the money we had available. He was very compassionate, and his heart was with the people of Laredo, especially those who were economically disadvantaged."
On March 25, 2008, the Laredo City Council voted to name City Hall after Tatangelo. The exact name was not selected. At least one council member, Juan Ramirez, proposed that a new building, perhaps a yet unconstructed downtown convention center bear Tatangelo's name. Ramirez said that even with the formal name change most people would still refer to City Hall as "City Hall".