The Fighting Padre of Zapata: Father Edward Bastien and the Falcon Dam Project (review)

2oo8 Book Reviews223 which "equal protection" was used to exclude Mexican-American jurors (Pp. 96-97). However, these limitations do not significantly detract from the compelling manner in which Beatriz de la Garza subtly reconstructs a past injustice while at the same time relating it to die broader historical context. A Lawfor the Lion is an instructive and engaging tale of South Texas history. Texas AafM UniversityCarlos Kevin Blanton The Fighting Padre of Zapata: Father Edward Bastien and the Falcon Dam Project. Edited by Maria F. Rollin. Southwestern Studies, no. 10. (El Paso: Texas Western Press, 2003. Pp. xxxii+265. Foreword, preface, acknowledgments, note on editorial method, maps, illustrations, epilogue, appendices, notes, bibliography . ISBN 0-87404-285-2. $18.00, paper.) Maria F. Rollin's The Fighting Padre ofZapata makes an important contribution to the historiography of South Texas; it adds to the growing documentary collection of the area's history, and it is an easy read. Rollin salvaged an old manuscript prepared by Father Edward Bastien, who led the fight to assure that American residents displaced by the Falcon Dam project were justly compensated. The dislocated Mexican residents, on the other hand, were well taken care of by their own government. Father Bastien, a French Canadian, came to Zapata in 1946 at about the same time that the United States and Mexico began to develop the Falcon Dam, which was designed to help residents of the Lower Rio Grande Valley get water when they needed it. The dam would hold water from damaging floods and release it during times of drought. Everyone, including Bastien and his parishioners at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church, supported the project and its aims. What they disagreed with, and fought against for over a decade, were the methods used by the United States government to pay for homes, businesses, and land inundated by the new lake formed by the dam. Father Bastien clashed with government bureaucrats from the International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC) over full replacement value of the properties, the right to buy back homes at "salvage value," and the requirement to clear the titles to lands that were being condemned. Father Bastien put together a formidable team to fight the IBWC, which he derisively said stood for "I beat widows and children." Locally, the Padre got help from the Zapata Chamber of Commerce and the American Legion. He even formed an uneasy alliance with George Parr's Partido Viejo, which dominated Zapata's county government. Nationally he enlisted the help of Democrats and Republicans alike, including U.S. Senators Lyndon B. Johnson and Price Daniel, Congressmen Lloyd Bentsen and Joe Kilgore, Governor Allan Shivers, and Republican National Committee memberJack Porter. Other important members of the Bastien team were newspapers such as the Laredo Times, Corpus Christi Caller, San Antonio Express, and Houston Chronicle. Bastien wrote hundreds of letters advancing the cause and as a result of his 224Southwestern Historical QuarterlyOctober efforts, hundreds of columns of newspaper print were dedicated to the issue. He compiled many of these letters and articles into a manuscript he hoped would someday be published. He called his work "The Case of Zapata: The Case of the Missing Policy Maker" and signed it with his pseudonym, I. ???, alias the Sad Zap. I ??? stood for "irate people of Zapata" and Sad Zap for "Self-Appointed Defender of Zapata." Rollin does a goodjob of editing Father Bastien's work and adds to it by publishing many important letters not in the original manuscript; these she retrieved from the Lyndon B.Johnson Library and the Sam Houston Regional Library. All in all, this book would be a good addition to collections of South Texas history. Pflugerville, TexasAlfredo E. Cardenas Golden Boy: The Harold Simmons Story. By John J. Nance. (Austin: Eakin Press, 2003. Pp.vi+322. Photographs. ISBN 1-57168-747-5. $24.95, cloth.) Deciphering the system in which one operates can make risk seem less daunting and its rewards more satisfying. Golden Boy: The Harold Simmons Story is a review of a life's work spent in educated risk taking. John Nance weaves one individual 's story ofwealth creation into a readable overview of the world of...