When Egos Collide: The Rival Turkey Giveaway No One Asked For
Not funding.
Not infrastructure.
Not water access.
Not sewage expansion.
No - fucking turkeys, vato.
And at the center of all this ridiculousness is a 70-something-year-old community advocate named Tina Silva, a woman who has spent nearly three decades advocating for the people of Montana Vista - one of the poorest colonias in the county. She’s fought for clean water, a functioning sewage system, and basic services many people take for granted. She has a unique style and she's not everyone's cup of tea, which I can identify with.
And every year, she organizes a Thanksgiving turkey giveaway to make sure families in her community get a decent holiday meal.
You’d think the politicians who represent that community would support her, right?
Chale.
They got their feelings hurt.
Because Ms. Silva didn’t support certain candidates’ political campaigns, three elected officials decided to launch a rival turkey giveaway - same day, same community, same target population - purely out of ego.
Let me repeat that:
Three grown-ass adults, elected to serve, decided the best use of their authority was to try to out-do a grandmother in her 70’s, over turkeys.
Because apparently, public service comes second to petty revenge.
Let me be clear - had these same three elected officials genuinely wanted to feed poor people, they wouldn't be advertising their good deeds - and if they had decided to pick Agua Dulce and feed poor people tamales and Koolaide, I would've been their biggest fans.
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The Three Culprits
Sheriff Ugarte spends more time on social media than in any county facility that actually requires leadership. The man has never seen a camera or a filter he didn’t love.
And I'll say the quiet part aloud - everybody knows he was the least qualified candidate in his race. The only reason he’s sheriff now is because Congresswoman Escobar publicly backed him and put her thumb on the scale for him.
Ms. Silva saw right through that. She backed someone else - someone with actual qualifications.
So Ugarte reacted the way thin-skinned politicians do:
He decided to “show her” by holding his own turkey giveaway.
Leadership? No.
It’s insecurity dressed up as charity.
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Jackie Butler, who likes to brand herself as the hometown hero of Montana Vista (well… the nicer northern part if we’re being honest, IYKYK), didn’t even bother pretending.
I reached out to her personally. She flat out said she didn’t want to work with Ms. Silva. Claimed there was tension, she wasn't asked, and claimed she was “doing her own thing,” and then in the next sentence claimed she was “focused on the community.”
Ay-ay.
As we say in the valley: puro pedo.
If your focus is the community, you don’t divide it.
You don’t duplicate effort.
You don’t sabotage the one woman who has delivered for decades.
You collaborate.
Unless, of course, you’re more concerned with your brand than your district.
When you're a leader, you were elected to do the right thing - not the easy or convenient thing. Thats the job.
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And then there’s the crown jewel of this fiasco: State Rep. Mary Gonzalez.
She has been protected for years by the local political establishment despite her weak record, all the times she has sold out our community for her own personal benefit, and her history of voting against the interests of the very people she claims to champion.
But Ms. Silva? She’s been a loyal supporter. She opened doors for Mary Gonzalez when Mary Gonzalez moved from Planet Austin just to run for office in a district she didn’t even know because she hadn't lived in this community as an adult before she ran for office.
So when Gonzalez promised a certain number of turkeys for Ms. Silva’s event this year, Ms. Silva believed her.
Instead, Gonzalez left her hanging - publicly, visibly, stressfully - forcing a senior citizen community advocate to scramble to figure out how to feed hundreds of families while breaking out in hives.
Why?
So Gonzalez could hold her own competing turkey giveaway.
Who does that?
Who abandons an elderly woman who’s been nothing but loyal, just to boost their own event?
It’s cruel.
It’s selfish.
And it’s exactly the type of political cowardice people are sick of.
Thank God another community leader stepped up and covered the missing turkeys.
But the damage was done.
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Meanwhile, the Adults Showed Up
I went to Ms. Silva’s house on Sunday to help - well, “help” is generous because I was late and all the work was done (don’t judge, I tried). Within five minutes she pulled me aside and scolded me for something.
That’s Tina. She doesn’t care who you are or how long you’ve known her - she holds everyone accountable.
Like I said earlier - I’ve been on the wrong side of Ms Silva more times than I care to remember.
But a vato like me can appreciate a fellow hell raiser. She doesn’t care if she is liked, if she is popular, or if she is invited to fancy parties. She has a singular goal and focuses on results rather than being popular with El Paso’s upper crust.
There aren’t that many people that don’t give a shit if they step on an elected’s sensitive little toes. Other than my own mother, I don’t know of another woman like her.
Let me pull over for a quick sidebar. You see, when I went to help out Ms Silva on Sunday, there were two people there I absolutely cannot stand - a JP and her husband. I think this JP is the worst elected official to ever hold office in this community - and I’m including everyone with the last name Gandara, and everyone arrested, convicted, and did time in the public corruption scandal. I can’t find one redeeming quality about her as a candidate or a human being.
But Sunday wasn’t about me - or my ego. It was about helping make something happen for the community. I was raised right, and was taught if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.
So I didn’t. I behaved myself and focused on the event.
Because thats what adults - who actually do give a shit about the community and not themselves - do. They don’t make it about themselves and they just get through it like a decent human being.
I really wish the county commissioner that represents that community acted the same way.
Again, I kept my mouth shut because Sunday wasn’t about ego.
It was about the community.
And that’s the difference right there.
Genuine community work requires humility.
Petty political work requires insecurity.
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The Real Issue
Three elected officials decided that bruised egos mattered more than collaboration. More than unity. More than actually serving people in need.
They didn’t expand capacity.
They didn’t add value.
They didn’t increase impact.
They simply tried to overshadow an elderly community leader out of spite.
And for what?
To be culos to an old lady who has done more for Montana Vista than any of them have ever done.
This is why people hate politicians.
Not scandals.
Not ideology.
Not policy differences.
But this - the small-mindedness, the selfishness, the ego trips disguised as charity.
When you weaponize turkeys for political payback, you have officially reached the bottom of the barrel.
Montana Vista knows who their real leader is.
The one who has shown up, year after year, with or without political favor.
And spoiler alert:
It’s not the ones posing next to pallets of frozen Butterballs for social media likes.
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