Wichita Falls nonprofit aims to rename highway for late Hispanic leader
WICHITA FALLS (KFDX/KJTL) — A Wichita Falls nonprofit is working to rename the Southbound US Highway 82 flyover after Ray Gonzalez Jr.
The Mexican American Veterans Association is in the process of honoring the ground-breaking leader.
The nonprofit has support from former Wichita County Judge Woody Gossom and Mayor Tim Short.
The Planning and Zoning Commission is set to hear from the group on Wednesday at 2 p.m. at the MPEC. If approved, the recommendation will head to city councilors.
Gonzalez passed away in July 2021.
The Old High and MSU graduate served in the Army in Vietnam.
He was the first Hispanic to be elected to the Wichita County Commissioners Court. Serving from 2009 to 2016. He also served on the city council and became the first-ever Hispanic mayor pro-tem.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
9 hours ago
- Yahoo
Monroe community divided over city's stance on ICE amid protests in Los Angeles
MONROE, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — Anti-ICE protests are ramping up across the country, and local leaders are taking their own stances on immigration enforcement. Monroe City Council members talked about it at their meeting Tuesday night. There was a lot of disagreement on how to move forward. 'Look at what's happening in Los Angeles,' said one man who spoke during the public comment period. 'We don't want that here.' Two Union County high schools postpone graduations due to weather concerns People who live in Monroe are divided over the city's stance on immigration and customs enforcement amid protests in California, which prompted President Trump to call in thousands of National Guardsmen and hundreds of Marines to the city. 'It's time you take responsibility for your actions,' said another man, who spoke at Tuesday's meeting. 'People are afraid and it's not just because of a Facebook post. It's because of sneaky and carefully crafted proclamations like the ones passed in May.' The Monroe City Council passed a position statement on the topic last month, with Mayor Robert Burns taking to X, saying Monroe is 'not a sanctuary city and our officers comply with ice and federal immigration laws.' He took down the post later Tuesday night. The position allegedly sparked fear in the Hispanic community, so much so, the turnout at Monroe's Latin Fest this past weekend was very low. 'The lack of attendance during the festival was purposefully because people didn't feel safe in downtown Monroe,' said one woman who spoke during public comment. At Tuesday night's meeting, Councilmember Julie Thompson heard the concerns from people and brought forward a new position statement, aiming to leave out immigration all together and focus on general public safety. 'Monroe values the safety and well-being of all of its residents,' she said. 'We are proud of our dedicated police officers and first responders who work tirelessly to protect the community. We aim to make sure that everyone in Monroe is safe and secure in our city.' The statement passed, despite the mayor's 'no' vote. But the new statement will not replace the original one, which did include immigration enforcement. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
12 hours ago
- Yahoo
There's Growing Anger Over Mexican Flags Flown At LA Protests. Here's What Everyone Is Getting Wrong.
As protests broke out in downtown Los Angeles in response to ICE raids and the Trump administration's immigration policies, a number of protesters held up Mexican flags. Some brandished them with U.S. flags. Others waved only Mexican flags. In a city as diverse and Latino as LA ― approximately 48.6% of the city is Hispanic or Latino ― Mexican flags have long been a fixture at protests and celebrations: May Day marches, previous protests of ICE policies, Dodgers World Series championships parades. But for national audiences watching the protests, the sheer number of Mexican flags on display proved divisive: For every headline that read 'Mexican flag symbolizes pride in Los Angeles protests' there were at least double that criticized the flag's presence over the weekend. 'How Mexican Flag Photos Are a Gift to Donald Trump,' politics reporter Dan Gooding wrote in Newsweek, while right-leaning tabloid the New York Post deemed the footage and photos as 'the perfect propaganda footage for Trump.' By Tuesday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was alluding to the flags in his testimony to a House panel. Though he couldn't identify what legal authority President Donald Trump had to deploy the National Guard and Marines to LA, he said troops need to be called in 'if you've got millions of illegals and you don't know where they're coming from, they're waving flags from foreign countries and assaulting police officers and laws.' Even centrists and those on the left had conflicted feelings about the flags. So did Kevin M. Kruse, a history professor at Princeton University and the author of 'White Flight: Atlanta and the Making of Modern Conservatism.' 'Look, protesters can wave whatever they want, but as someone who's written about protests like this, I'd politely suggest if you're trying to dispel racist claims that you're an army from a foreign country, maybe *don't* wave a foreign country's flag as you square off against US troops?' he wrote on social media. Kruse noted that both Martin Luther King Jr. during the Civil Rights Movement and Cesar Chavez during the '1,000 Mile March' for farmworker rights in California used the American flag as a visual argument that the movement was wholly American. The post quickly went viral, with others agreeing with Kruse that what's happening now felt like a big PR blunder. Kruse was met with a wave of criticism, too: As Latino communities continue to come under attack ― with ICE and military agents in tactical gear raiding their places of work and routine immigration check-ins ― whose place is it to question their peaceful means of protest? 'If you want more American flags at protests, you are welcome to go to the protests and fly one. No one will stop you. You yourself can create that picture of tolerance and pluralism,' attorney and political pundit Will Stancil wrote on Bluesky. 'But don't sit on the sidelines and tell a community under racist assault not to assert its right to exist.' Later in the day, Kruse deleted the post, apologizing for being a little 'tone deaf.' '[I'm] still very much behind these protests and hope my worries will prove to be misplaced,' he wrote. Tone deaf is how Ian B. Bautista, a Milwaukeean of Mexican descent, saw criticism like Kruse's. For Bautista and many other Mexican Americans, the flag of Mexico is as American as apple pie ― or at least an Our Lady of Guadalupe candle. We're a melting pot, and at this point, the Mexican flag is deeply ingrained in Chicano culture ― and LA culture ― too. 'The Mexican flag is no more 'foreign' to El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles del Río de Porciúncula than the Dodgers, lowriders, the Coliseum, pupusas, Kendrick Lamar, Korean BBQ, the beach, Hollywood or the Lakers,' Bautista wrote on Bluesky, invoking LA's original Spanish name. If there is a protest involving anything even marginally concerning Mexican American or Latino rights, expect to see a Mexican flag, he told HuffPost. 'Almost 100 out of 100 times, when a Mexican-American or [Chicano] protests, it's safe to bet that the Mexican flag will be depicted in banners or signs,' said Bautista, who works for a nonprofit in the community building field. That's certainly true in Los Angeles, which was once Mexican territory. LA was a Spanish city until 1821, when Mexico gained independence from Spain, and California fell under the rule of the newly created Mexican nation. In 1848, at the end of the Mexican–American War, the region and the rest of California were purchased as part of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and became part of the United States. In the wake of that, LA has seen 'generations and generations of colonial and military violence, one that regularly targets Mexican, Black and Native people for the U.S. political desires,' said Michael Lechuga, the chair and an associate professor in the Department of Communication and Journalism at the University of New Mexico. That all-too recent history only emboldens today's Latino Angelenos to reach for the Mexican flag in times of protest. For Bautista, he's personally more inclined to wave an American and Mexican flag simultaneously when he protests or celebrates his community. He's not alone; some protesters in LA have held up flags that are half Mexican, half American in design. Still, those criticizing protesters waving exclusively Mexican flags are coming from 'a very privileged place,' Bautista said. 'Racists ― as has been proven throughout our nation's history ― will express and assert racism without reasons,' he said. 'If a 'foreign' flag ― and it's arguable that the Mexican flag is 'foreign' to Los Angeles ― sets off racists or provides optics that are not according to white-centered perceptions of what 'America' is, then so be it.' Social movements and protests have always been fundamentally visual in nature: Think of the lone man standing in front of a tank in Tiananmen Square, or the transformative role videos on social media played in the Arab Spring uprisings. 'In the U.S. today especially, we have largely moved away from political dialogues and moved toward symbol wars,' Lechuga said. While the Mexican flag has a rich history and meaning removed from current events in the U.S., Lechuga said that today it's used as a silent, visual-only response to the xenophobic and inciting rhetoric the Trump administration has used to characterize people from Mexico and those from Latin American at large: 'drug dealers,' 'criminals,' 'rapists.' 'In other words, the Mexican flag at this week's protests is a symbol of resistance,' he said. 'When 'Mexicanness' is the target of this administration, holding the object that's seen as the quickest reference to it is rebellious.' 'And maybe, at this point in history, the Mexican flag is a stand-in for all migrants and for those that support them,' he said. 'The conflation of all Latin Americans with 'Mexicanness,' for instance, is pretty common.' Leisy J. Abrego, a professor of Chicana/o and Central American Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, agrees that the Mexican flag has taken on larger symbolism in the U.S. immigration debate. 'The current president and his administration are saying in words, policies, and chaos-inducing actions that they hate immigrant communities,' she said. 'Whether they are immigrants, children or grandchildren of immigrants, the protesters are putting their bodies on the line for their own and other people's dignity.' In a moment when the highest leaders of this country want to deny them a sense of belonging, embracing the Mexican flag is not anti-American, per se, but a symbolic reminder that there's another place to belong, Abrego siad. 'The flags from Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua are just reminders that immigrants can belong in multiple places,' she told HuffPost. 'Most importantly, though, these protesters are there to protect their community visibly and make the statement proudly that immigrants are not alone.' Some have noted that it didn't seem to be much of a problem to those on the far right when Jan. 6 protesters brought their other flags to the U.S. capitol. Lechuga has thought about it, too, as the 'what flag belongs' debate has waged this week. 'In addition to several Confederate flags and original 13-star colonial U.S., there were some people on Jan. 6 waving a South Vietnamese flag and Indian flag,' he said. 'Some who believe that the far right and largely anti-communist movements associated with those flags are the reason why some protesters brought them to the riot.' As for whether the number of Mexican flags at the protests is 'perfect propaganda' for Trump, Lechuga thinks you could make the case that the president's team is adept at turning almost anything into propaganda for its agenda. 'It's easy for an outside observer of the situation to give advice to protesters, like an armchair quarterback with no skin in the game,' he said. 'But I am not sure if it's the job of the demonstrator to convince the ICE agents or Marines that they are not an angry invading mob of foreign nationals.' What flags they'll bring to the function probably isn't the top priority on the minds of most people at these protests. 'More than anything, these folks are out there trying to keep their families and friends from being illegally kidnapped by a secretive federal agency,' Lechuga said.
Yahoo
13 hours ago
- Yahoo
"We Voted For This Sh*t?!" — This Teacher's Teary Message After A School Graduation Was Disrupted By Nearby ICE Raids Is Going Viral
ICE raids have intensified across Los Angeles since Friday, June 6, with multiple businesses targeted and workers detained at various locations throughout the city. Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images In response to the heightened federal activity, anti-ICE protests have erupted across LA. Tensions have only grown since then, as Trump ordered 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 Marines to the city — escalating fear among residents, especially within the undocumented community, who is estimated to make up roughly 10% of the population in the nation's second-largest city. Advertisement For Mr. Howie, a youth educator, paraprofessional, and behavior interventionist in Los Angeles, ICE's nearby presence impacted his school day, forcing his school into lockdown and allegedly disrupting a nearby elementary school's graduation. In a tearful, emotionally raw video that's since been viewed over 16 million times — more than the entire population of LA County — Mr. Howie documented his reaction to the unfolding events. @justsayuhatebasketball / Via "I can't handle this, y'all," he began, wiping tears from his eyes. "This is crazy, I didn't think this was about to affect me like this." Mr. Howie recounted how an elementary school nearby was in the middle of its graduation ceremony when word spread that ICE was in the area. "They were having their graduation and there's helicopters in the sky," he said, holding back tears. "Most of these schools are predominantly Hispanic." Soon after, he said, his own school went into lockdown. He said, "Our school goes on lockdown. Our principal, you know, tells us it's a drill, but we know it's not a drill... We got like a soft lockdown." Panic quickly spread, he said, as he heard from a coworker that some parents ran from the ceremony out of fear of being detained. "You know, parents had to run out because they don't have papers, and they had to leave their kids because the kids do," Mr. Howie continued, sniffling. Related: "Honestly Speechless At How Evil This Is": 26 Brutal, Brutal, Brutal Political Tweets Of The Week Advertisement "What type of shit is this, yo?" Mr. Howie asked, visibly upset. "And then kids are freaking grabbing teachers and crying on their leg because they don't know if they're about to see their parents when they get home." "What the fuck is this? And we voted for this shit?" he continued. "Fifteen people just got picked up on Wilshire at the Home Depot on Wilshire, man. Oh, my God. This is not right. This is not right, yo." While the school district later clarified that no ICE activity occurred at the elementary school graduation ceremony itself, agents were reportedly nearby — close enough to incite widespread fear. That day, 45 people were arrested in ICE raids in Los Angeles, including the nearly two dozen people at the Home Depot just a three-minute drive from the school. The confusion was enough to spark panic, and Mr. Howie's emotional video that followed. LAUREN PUENTE / Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images Related: AOC's Viral Response About A Potential Presidential Run Has Everyone Watching, And I'm Honestly Living For It Advertisement "This was just my raw, emotional reaction to the information given to me," Mr. Howie told BuzzFeed. "My school went on a 'soft lockdown' drill when they heard the news." He added that this wasn't the first time such fears have disrupted the school day this year. "We hear helicopters, and our guard goes up to make sure we protect our kids while also not startling them too much when we are not imminently in danger," he said. "While it did not happen at my school, I just fear for these kids because it certainly could." RONALDO SCHEMIDT / AFP via Getty Images As a paraprofessional, he explained how ICE's presence only adds more strain to an already high-stress job. "I'm already there to guide, provide, and protect them every day," he said. "Today, for example, I went to school and my kid wasn't there, so I had to leave because I'm a 1-on-1. So if he's not there, I'm not there. I was told his parents were too afraid to bring him because of what's going on." "Teachers are saying things like, 'I have papers and even I was afraid to come,'" he added. "This is all happening to people [whom] I have so much compassion for. This is a human thing." Mario Tama / Getty Images On social media, hundreds of thousands of people sent love to Mr. Howie and the communities impacted by the nearby raids. "Empathy is not something everyone has. Thank you for sharing," one top comment read. "Time to stand together and protect our communities," another wrote. "I can't imagine what these poor children are going through. This breaks my heart," another wrote. On X (formerly Twitter), one post summed it up: "an elementary school having to go on lockdown because the government of the country they lived in is a perceived threat, this is so fucking evil." As the video continues to spread, Mr. Howie said he hopes people understand the heart of the issue. "All I care about is the kids. This isn't political for me. It's personal. I see the faces of these kids every day and want them to know that I'm always going to show up for them," he told BuzzFeed. "This isn't about the 'legalities' for me. I just understand and can empathize with what it's like for an 8-year-old to go to school one morning and then never see their parent(s) again." "I will always show up for them," he said. And finally, he had one last reminder: "We're all human and all got here the exact same way." Advertisement Also in In the News: JD Vance Shared The Most Bizarre Tweet Of Him Serving "Food" As Donald Trump's Housewife Also in In the News: A NSFW Float Depicting Donald Trump's "MAGA" Penis Was Just Paraded Around Germany, And It' Also in In the News: This Senator's Clap Back Fully Gagged An MSNBC Anchor, And The Clip Is Going Viral