I want to thank everyone who participated in the Fourth of July Fiesta, in Corpus Christi. We had a wonderful time and got some great publicity for the Republic of Texas.

Starting on Thursday morning, Daniel Lopez and David Johnson spoke to the Corpus Christi Coffee Club to a crowd of over 100 people. Our County Judge and District attorney even came to listen. This program is broadcast several times on the public access TV here in the South Texas area and the Spanish television broadcasts all over Mexico and South America. They were also interviewd by our local ABC affiliate and KUNO Radio.

From there they went to Robstown Coffee Club where they spoke again and met a lovely young lady, Frances Aparicio, a Charro Singer and invited her to entertain us at our meeting on July 4th. Thursday night at our regular local meeting, we had the biggest crowd ever at Harvey's Barn Door. It was very exciting!

One of the things I found so interesting and exciting was that planning this event got our own local citizens excited and involved. We had more people show up for an off-week planning session than normally come to our local meetings. Everyone had a job and helped with the Fiesta. We made $50 dollars profit for our local group from selling chances on a Republic of Texas silver coin that night to add to our local treasury.

On Friday, July 4th, our Fiesta/meeting room was decorated with blue and gold paper flowers, streamers, and we had posters with the RT flag for each of the council members on the wall. It was really beautiful, and I thank all of the people who helped making the flags and flowers and decorating the room. Then we were entertained by Frances Aparicio, beautiful girl with a beautiful voice.

After the meeting, we participated in the Corpus Christi 4th of July parade!! We had 5 vehicles in the parade. It was so exciting and so much fun! In lieu of a convertible, Frank West strapped 2 folding chairs on top of his vehicle and daredevils, David Johnson and Ray Madrigal rode on top. Frances Aparicio rode with them, inside the car and Martin Simons, stood on the bumper as a safety man. Ed Brannum, drove his pick-up loaded with people, flying two beautiful full sized flags, what an awesome sight! Daniel Lopez really drew a positive response from the crowd when by calling out "Viva Tejas!" as we drove along. We got a lot of applause and thumbs up from the crowd, people even came running up the the cars asking how to get in touch with us.

Thanks to everyone who passed out literature for our local meetings on the Bayfront after the parade and on Saturday. It was just the most exciting thing! Any of you who were not able to come, I'm sorry that you missed it. Everyone who was here went home excited. We got good coverage from of ABC TV station and the newspaper. On Sunday, I got a call from the Alice Rotary Club inviting David Johnson to speak to them. YES! This is just what we want. I want to thank David, who stayed over for three more days to make that speech. Thank you, for all your efforts, here and everywhere. We need to keep the momentum going!

We have plans for a special speaker for our next meeting, so we can advertise it and get all the people who saw us on TV or in the parade to come to our local meetings. Special thanks to Ray Madrigal for all you did to make this possible. And thanks to all the council members who came, some at great personal sacrifice, especially those from the Victoria and Yoakum area who have always been there supporting this Corpus Christi group. We Love you! I know this is long, I'm truly excited. This is what I would like to see happening all over the nation of Texas. We need to be involved in or create our own special events in our local communities. I know the folks in East Texas are planning some special meetings. And we want to go up there to support them to help them grow in their local area. We want to come to your area and support you! We have to help each other and work at a grassroots level. Let's all keep the momentum going!

In Love of Liberty,

Lydia Baugh