Mar/25 Lucio returns to old home for dedication - Brownsville Herald,

The (TX) - March 25, 1998

March 25, 1998 | Brownsville Herald, The (TX) | Staff Writer

By KARISA KING

T he Brownsville Herald

# State Sen. Eddie Lucio returned T uesday to the tiny apartment in

Brownsville's westside housing projects where he grew up.

Lucio spoke at a ceremony in his honor before Brownsville Housing Authority

officials unveiled a plaque marking the apartment's outside wall at 102

Bougainvillea as the place where he spent "his formative years."

Lucio and his four sisters lived in cramped conditions in the projects from

1949 to 1954, when they moved to a house three blocks away to make room for a

family that would eventually number 10 children.

He credited his parents for instilling a work ethic in their children and

stressed education as the springboard to success.

"A simple education works as the foundation that will allow (children) to

reach their goals," Lucio told a crowd of city officials and neighbors

gathered on the front lawn.

Former BHA commissioner Simon Rubinsky urged residents in public housing to

heed the example set by Lucio and others like him.

"You don't have to be born, raised and die in the projects," Rubinsky said.

BHA Board Chair Joseph T amayo called it "an all-star neighborhood," noting

that T exas Southmost College Chair Mary Rose Cardenas came from the same
housing project. It is among the BHA's approximately 1,000 federally

subsidized housing units in Brownsville.

Lucio 's sister, Beatrice Lucio Rodriguez, told a little known story about the

would-be state senator who inspired the family at the age of 5 after he was

caught in the doors of a school bus and dragged for more than a block.

"T he doctor told us he would never walk again," she said.

Paralyzed at the waist, her brother pulled himself across the apartment floor

learning how to crawl again.

"He taught us something about determination and hard work," she said. "Our

parents taught us to be proud and to be strong and to work hard."

Copyrig ht (c) 1998 The Brownsville Herald