The reputation of the Texas Dept. of Public Safety for effective hot pursuit may not survive last week’s Great Texas House Breakout. The DPS posse could hardly be blamed for allowing the Ardmore 51 to escape to Oklahoma; the fugitives were already out of state when Speaker Tom Craddick put a call on the House and put the DPS on the case. But what about the other Dems? Houston’s Harold Dutton Jr. wandered back undisturbed and on his lonesome (muttering something about a “doctor’s appointment”). Dallas’ Helen Giddings was heroically apprehended as she climbed into her own vehicle, at her own Austin apartment, en route to a meeting — with Craddick. Kino Flores of Mission disappeared into what used to be called “bandit country” in South Texas; Brownsville’s Rene Oliveira headed west (perhaps slipping into safely Democratic New Mexico); and Fort Worth’s Glenn Lewis shrugged that he had simply stayed “in an undisclosed Austin location.” And El Paso’s Norma Chavez decamped to Llano’s Cafe del Rio, where she washed dishes under the name “Lola del Rio.” “When they call la huelga [the strike],” said Chavez, “you’ve got to go. … A biker friend said he knew some good caves to hide in,” said Chavez, “but I wasn’t about to hide in any cave.” She highly recommends the cafe to hungry Central Texans — it’s certainly more convenient, and undoubtedly more tasty, than the Ardmore Denny’s.
This article appears in May 23 • 2003.
