After nearly three years of organizing, EPISO-Border Interfaith leaders from Bauman Rd celebrated a major victory Wednesday: the City of Socorro revised its “Arterial 1” proposal, renouncing its initial plan to build a major road through the heart of their neighborhood. The move would have impacted over 100 families and displaced dozens of longtime residents—many elderly and living on fixed incomes—who had spent decades building their homes.

Last Sunday, COPS/Metro packed St. Margaret Mary’s Catholic Church for its Accountability Session with 350 leaders and candidates for mayor and city council. The crowd represented over 28 institutions across San Antonio, including schools, interfaith congregations, non-profits, and community/neighborhood associations. 

COPS/Metro launched its Sign-Up, Take Charge campaign, pledging to sign up 50,000 registered voters in opposition of using tax dollars to finance Project Marvel, a multi-billion-dollar sports and entertainment district which has been planned almost entirely behind closed doors. Leaders committed to signing up 50,000 people in support of investing in people and local neighborhood infrastructure, and to delivering this constituency to the polls. 

“We are at a crossroads in our community,” said Fr. Dennis Schafer of Mission San Jose Parish. “San Antonio is the third poorest large city within the entire country.  Will we be a city, a community that seeks good for the people or wants to build playgrounds for the rich who do not live here?”

[Excerpt]

Eddie Anaya, a Catholic lawyer and lifelong resident of a colonia called Las Milpas, got involved as a young man with Valley Interfaith, an affiliate of the West/Southwest Industrial Areas Foundation, because his Mexican immigrant mother, Carmen Anaya, was one of its co-founders. When he was growing up, Anaya said Las Milpas had no water, sewers, street paving or lighting or police force.

Anaya chauffeured his mother around the state and interpreted for her at meetings with other Texas IAF affiliates as they championed 1989 state legislation that provided funding for water and wastewater infrastructure, which Anaya said stimulated other improvements in the community.

In Las Milpas, where the Catholic Church is the center of community life, Anaya said, conversations after Mass shaped a political agenda for the whole community through Valley Interfaith and backed by the Diocese of Brownsville. “ When you organize around Scripture and put it into action, that not only strengthens the community, but also makes people understand the Gospel much better,” said Anaya….

(Photo Credit: Eddie Anaya)

On March 20, 2025 the San Antonio City Council unanimously approved renaming the San Antonio Natatorium to Atanacio Garcia Natatorium, recognizing the determined COPS/Metro leader of Our Lady of Guadalupe Shrine Catholic Church who organized his community to create the city’s first Olympic-sized public pool on the West Side.

 In July, EPISO/BI leaders in Canutillo scored a major victory for sewer infrastructure, working with county commissioners and El Paso Water to dedicate 2 million dollars in ARPA funds for a sewerage project in Canutillo. Additionally, leaders from Montana Vista worked with their state legislator and EP Water to advance the second phase of their sewerage project this February. Both of these wins were decades in the making. Says EPISO/BI leader Suki Perez, "We've worked for years, knocking on doors in the heat and in the cold to get people organized."

Aprueban Servicios de Agua Potable y Alcantarillado, Telemundo48elpaso

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Everyone in San Antonio knows about flash floods—“Turn Around, Don’t Drown” signs are familiar on certain roads. But in the West Side, a neighborhood established by Mexican Americans who were restricted from more resourced neighborhoods north of downtown, floods were far more commonplace.

“I remember as kids getting pulled out of the [family] station wagon [that almost got swept away],” Mata said. “We were at the time like five or six, I think. But yeah, we didn’t know that was not normal.”

Mata says when you grow up experiencing poverty, “you accept it, normalize it, and blame yourself for it.” What seems normal at the time becomes absurd when you reflect back on it as an adult.

Mata speaks softly and with a kind of wisdom that comes from navigating barriers early in life..... 

Mata is retired from two careers—one in federal law enforcement, and another as a lietenant [sic] commander in the Navy Reserves. Nowadays, she spends a lot of her time with COPS/Metro, a community organizing coalition that gathers people from churches, schools, businesses and unions to represent the needs of families and children. Over the last year, Mata and her COPS/Metro partners have spurred the City of San Antonio to create and invest in a workforce training program designed to support people seeking higher-paying jobs.

The coalition’s first fight, all those decades ago? Demanding that the city fix the West Side’s drainage issues.

Mata’s story is coming full circle....

[Photo Credit: Echoes]

Someone Like Virginia, Echoes [pdf]

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About 1 million Texans don’t have home access to broadband, a state report found last summer.

The pandemic made Texas’ already gaping digital divide much more challenging, which had lawmakers pledging to close that gap. Gov. Greg Abbott named expanding broadband access one of his priority items at the beginning of session, and last week two omnibus bills gained traction when they each were unanimously voted out of their House and Senate committees.

About 15% of households in metropolitan areas don’t have access to broadband data plans, he said, and the problem can’t just be solved with infrastructure. Families also struggle with affordability and gaps in digital literacy.

It’s important to include “regular people” in the discussion process for these plans, said Josephine López Paul, the lead organizer for Dallas Area Interfaith, a coalition of congregations, schools and nonprofits. López Paul, who helps organize advocates around issues in their Dallas County communities, has noticed that many are still grappling with the same internet challenges as they were at the start of the pandemic.

“They need to do some bottom-up listening and not just assume they have a plan that’s going to work with people,” López Paul said. “They can put broadband structures in areas and if people don’t know that it’s there or that they need it … it’s just going to be a wasted effort.”

In recent hearings that drew overwhelmingly positive feedback from nonprofit advocates, school leaders and internet service providers, one lawmaker emphasized the bills aren’t a foolproof solution on their own.

[Photo Credit: Lola Gomez/DMN Staff Photographer]

Broadband Bills Gaining Traction, Dallas Morning News [pdf]

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Crews have improved a curve off FM 1560 and Riggs Road that drivers called dangerous and deadly with the hope of fewer crashes in the area.

In late 2018 improvements were made to the area to create better traffic flow. However, cement barriers created a new problem for drivers.

Last year, more than 200 people packed the parish hall at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church and voiced their concerns to Texas Department of Transportation officials.

Lucia Hernandez attended the meeting and recalled being hit by a driver when she pulled out onto FM 1560. She blamed the cement barrier and said it created a blind spot.

However, more than a year later, the barrier has come down, and in its place is a new guard rail.

Catherine McCoy, the COPS-Metro Alliance leader, said the spot was dangerous to drivers, especially with the growth in the area.

She and others gathered at the former problem curve Wednesday afternoon to celebrate the changes.

“People should have a right to know that when they’re on the road that these roads are safe, that the engineers have designed it in a safe way,” McCoy said.

[Photo Credit: KSAT]

Drivers Happy With Changes Made to 'Dangerous' Curve in Helotes, KSAT [pdf]

COPS/Metro Urges TxDOT to Address "Deadly Curve" Near Church and School, West / Southwest IAF

Community Group and Parishioners Celebrate Changes at Controversial Intersection in Helotes, San Antonio-Express News [pdf]

On a cloudy November day, EPISO/Border Interfaith celebrated the initiation of a $13 Million project that will provide 816 Montana Vista residents with water and wastewater services in a colonia far east of El Paso.  El Paso Water Utilities publicly recognized the organization for its leadership in ensuring that residents have access to these essential services.

For years, Montana Vista felt like a forgotten community due to poverty, isolation and a lack of relationships with elected officials.  Residents appealed to their then-priest at San Juan Diego Catholic for support in getting much needed basic streets, parks and wastewater services.  A longtime leader and co-chair of EPISO, Father Ed Roden-Lucero and EPISO organizers worked with resident leaders, guiding them in their efforts to seek essential infrastructure.

Part of those efforts included community education about the Economically Distressed Areas Program, a program created in 1989 by EPISO/Border Interfaith and sister Texas IAF organizations to address lack of infrastructure in the colonias.  That same year, EPISO/BI and Texas IAF organizations got out the vote to amend the Texas Constitution to provide the Texas Water Development Board $200 million dollars to issue grants and loans to install water and wastewater infrastructure in colonias and economically distressed areas.  Since 1989, over $1 Billion dollars have been invested in colonias and economically distressed areas across Texas.

Change is coming to Montana Vista.  In January, a long-fought for (and separately funded) road extension was newly opened, with four lanes, bike routes, sidewalks, lighting, and landscaping.   Now, to community acclaim, El Paso Water is breaking ground for Phase 1 of its water and wastewater project -- scheduled for completion within 18 months.   

El Paso Water Recognition of EPISO/Border Interfaith [video]

Inician Obra de Agua y Drenaje en Montana Vista, Telemundo [pdf]

Montana Vista Road Extension Breaks Ground, EPISO