There are nine (9) Lower Rio Grande Valley Sierra Club Executive Committee seats up for election in 2019. Below are biographies of 12 candidates for these positions. After reviewing each, click here to access the ballot. Please have your Sierra Club member ID ready when you vote online.
Candidates for the 2019 Lower Rio Grande Valley Sierra Club Executive Committee
Jonathan Salinas
Jonathan has been a member of the LRGV Sierra Club Ex Com since January and has been involved in Sierra Club No Border Wall campaigns since June 2017. As a journalist, he has covered the LRGV Sierra Club’s anti-LNG campaigns as well as border wall protests. He helps lead the No Border Wall Coalition and lobbied in Washington D.C. against border funding in June.
Jonathan is a native of the area, born in McAllen and an alumni of The University of Texas — Pan American. He cares deeply about the endangered biodiversity of the Lower Rio Grande Valley currently under threat from border wall and liquified natural gas pipelines.
Bill Berg
Bill has been an active member since the spring of 2014 when the development of LNG facilities at the Port of Brownsville became a real possibility. He was a semi-active member of Sierra Club at that point.
Since then Bill has been on the steering committee of Save RGV From LNG and a regular at monthly Sierra Club meetings. In 2017 he was elected group representative to the Lone Star Sierra Club ExCom, which made him a member of the local group ExCom.
As an active member, Bill regularly attends and speaks at county meetings, meets with current and potential local politicians, gives presentations about LNG and climate change, and participates in demonstrations and rallies.
Bill's background as an engineering professor at UTB with a Ph.D. in Applied Physics/Energy Engineering with a specialty in Solar Energy brings solid scientific knowledge to the chapter leadership.
Mark Peña
As a Valley native, Mark Peña spent a lot of time outdoors hunting, fishing, hiking, and camping in is childhood. A deeper appreciation for the environment developed from gardening, an influence from his aunt. Mark Peña is a Real Estate Law and Title Insurance attorney in Edinburg. Mark is active with local governments and local and regional boards and organizations. He has created and provided a number of presentations on livability, cycling and environmental issues at various conferences, meetings, and events throughout the Valley. Additionally, Mark founded Ciclistas Urbanos, a Rio Grande Valley cycling organization dedicated to urban cycling. Ciclistas Urbanos advocates for cycling infrastructure and amenities, and is focused on cultivating a culture of cycling in the Valley. Mark has previously served as an Executive Committee member with the Lower Rio Grande Valley Sierra Club and with the Lone Star Chapter.
Mary Elizabeth Hollmann
I am Mary Elizabeth Hollmann. My handsome husband is Larry Hollmann. I have four grown children and four grandchildren. We have lived in Brownsville since 2018, when we moved here after college from the Houston area. I teach at TSTC as an instructor in the Education and Training Program. Before that I was a bilingual teacher with BISD. I enjoy gardening and being outdoors. I have been a member of Sierra club for several years. Taking care of the gift of planet Earth has always been important to me and I am glad to be part of this organization.
Josette Cruz
(No bio or photo available)
Therese Gallegos
Since retiring from teaching English (primarily composition, grammar, and linguistics) at the University of Texas at Brownsville, I’ve spent more time working on issues that have always mattered to me. As a member of the League of Women Voters, I’ve worked at voter registration drives. As a volunteer for Angry Tías & Abuelas, I make weekly trips to Matamoros, Mexico, taking supplies to asylum seekers waiting there. I volunteer with the ACLU, primarily reporting weekly court observations. In addition, I’ve fought against the border wall, a Confederate memorial, LNG plants, and a road where there should be a hike-and-bike trail. All this leave little time for what I really should be doing in retirement: reading, writing, and birding. But I believe in the Sierra Club’s mission and would like to do more for environment here in South Texas.
Rodolfo Rodriguez
Rodolfo Rodriguez is 21 years old and a graduate of Juarez-Lincoln High School. Rodolfo is interested in re-establishing a recycling program in the Alton and Mission area. Mission tried to develop a recycling program but it failed. Rodolfo would like to re-establish efforts for a recycling program and incorporate public education of how to recycle so that a recycling program can be successful.
Martha Peña
With roots that run deep in South Texas, I am proud to call this magical place home. My family's long history started in Starr County, I was raised in Hidalgo County and now reside in Cameron County. Although each place is unique, everything is connected. Yes, I am committed to preserving and protecting our natural resources and spaces, but it's more than that. I believe this is about ensuring a cultural legacy that cannot exist without our natural spaces and resources. My small contribution includes volunteering on the LRGV Sierra Club Executive Committee. I also serve as the vice-chair of the Sierra Club Lone Star Chapter Executive Committee and as the Council of Club Leaders delegate, representing Texas to Sierra Club National. Should you entrust me with your vote, I promise to continue fighting against LNG facilities, Border Wall and the desecration of sacred spaces with love y con animo!
Victor Cavazos
(No bio or photo available)
Juan B. Mancias
Juan B. Mancias knows a lot of Carrizo/Comecrudo Tribe of Texas history being raised by grandparents that were born in 1884 and 1886. They saw many of the inhumanities that occurred in South Texas growing up Carrizo/Comecrudo. The Carrizo/Comecrudo, who prefer their linguistic moniker Esto’k Gna, are the same ones that introduced the peyote to other tribes and helped them preserve their cultural identities.
Mancias has written several articles and self-published two books. The books deal with growing up in a Native Original People of Texas Culture in Texas. Mancias has a written a screenplay that has been considered for movie, called the The Healer, healing one’s self. Sounds of Oppression is a book of Poems that deals with daily life issues growing up Native in Texas. So your Grandma is an NDN, and you don’t like controversy, is a book dealing with the Crisis of Native Identity in Texas, mostly satirical in nature. Mancias is also writing another book based on a baseball team that was coached by his father. The book deals with the discrimination toward Carrizo/Comecrudo teens in the mid and late 1960’s.
Mancias traveled to France in 2017 to speak to the Major Banks in France to divest from the Construction of LNG Export Terminal in the Rio Grande Valley. He aslo traveled to France and Korea to perform Grass Dancing, as well, in 1994. Mancias serves as the Tribal Chairman of The Carrizo/Comecrudo Tribe of Texas. Juan also serves as a member of National Guidance Board of the Native Voices Network. Mancias continues to bring attention to the banning of LNG Export Terminals and LNG Pipelines in Texas. Enbridge, Kinder Morgan, and Energy Transfer Partners have created a very volatile environment toward Climate Change that needs to be continually addressed. Mancias expounds on the constant abuse of power by the present Administration at waiving 20 laws that have affected directly the Esto’k Gna in Texas, to build a Border Wall.
Patrick Anderson
Patrick Anderson resides in Los Fresnos. He is currently a member of the Executive Committee and has served as Chair since 2016. Patrick Anderson’s efforts with the Lower Rio Grande Valley has mostly been focused on Port of Brownsville developments which has included LNG, pipelines, Big River Steel, and Jupiter MLP. Other efforts have included border wall and development proposals at Andie Bowie Park on South Padre Island. Patrick Anderson also serves on the board of Save RGV and with the Friends of Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge.
Jerry Ruiz
Jerry Ruiz was born in Brownsville. He is an elementary school teacher there. He is a founding member of Save RGV from LNG and has attended most meetings. He is outspoken about LNG and other fossil fuel industry coming to the LRGV as evidence of racism and an environmental justice issue.
He has attended Democratic State Conventions, making his feelings known there, as well as at TCEQ Air Quality Hearings for the proposed LNG companies and also for the proposed Jupiter MLP gasoline and diesel refinery proposed for the Port of Brownsville, and at County Commission meetings.
He practices what he preaches. He is assiduous about taking his classes outside as often as possible to explore the world. He does not own a car, riding his bicycle wherever he goes. He volunteers at the Bike Barn, a city sponsored bicycle repair shop to teach young people to repair bicycles.
Jerry would be a great addition to the ExCom, leading by example and strength of character.