San Antonio Current - March 4, 2026

IN LOVING MEMORY OF OUR FRIEND AND COLLEAGUE

MICHAEL ALAN VALDELAMAR

August 21, 1980 – January 22, 2026

Alifelong resident of San Antonio, Mike attended Judson ISD schools and began his career as a personal trainer before moving into marketing and advertising, most recently with the San Antonio Current.

Mike loved life and the people in it. He enjoyed karaoke, grilling, and spending weekends with family and friends. A dedicated athlete, he played soccer in high school and for many years after, sharing the field with his father, Miguel, who counted coaching and playing alongside his son among his greatest joys. He was a passionate fan of the Michigan Wolverines, San Antonio Spurs, Dallas Cowboys, Arkansas Razorbacks, as well as the Texas A&M Aggies and UTSA Roadrunners.

He cherished traveling, especially annual trips to Port A and recent visits to Las Vegas, Disney World, and Fayetteville, Arkansas, where he spent treasured time with loved ones.

A devoted son, brother, father, fiancé, uncle, nephew, cousin, and friend, Mike is survived by his beloved daughter, Mischa; his parents, Miguel and Beatriz Valdelamar; his brother, Mario (Cassey); his nieces and nephews; extended family; and his fiancée, Amanda Stark.

Mike had a gift for making everyone feel welcome with his endearing smile and contagious laugh. Deeply loved and dearly missed, his kind spirit will live on in all who knew him. May he rest in peace.

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in this issue

Auditor’s Certification:

12 The Price of

Inside the for-profit ICE detention centers near San Antonio Issue 26-05/// Mar 4 - 17, 2026

Sweet Cinema

The Opener News in Brief

Manufactured Crisis

The privatization of Texas public education is underway, and state leaders appear to have San Antonio’s NEISD in the crosshairs

TaIkin’ Bout a Revolution

Attorney representing clients in Dilley said people, not politicians, will decide when the cruelty ends

21 Calendar

Our picks of things to do powerful

Popping Off at the Library

Pop Madness convention bringing science fiction heavyweights John Scalzi and Martha Wells to San Antonio

San Antonio filmmaker Vanessa Rae Lerma turns family history into a musical

29Food Comeback Kid

Super chef Andrew Weissman makes a welcome return to fancy fare with Max’s Sister Cooking Up Conversation

Elise and John Russ of Clementine on aiming to be more than a date night restaurant

32 Music From the West Side to Ukraine

Joe ‘King’ Carrasco brings his TexMex party vibes to Ukraine for tour, fundraising efforts

Embracing ‘Zero Control’

Buttercup’s New Album Send More Yellow is a zen rallying cry against life’s miseries

On the Cover: Immigrant detention centers in the towns of Dilley and Pearsall are under fire from civil-rights advocates, who allege they’re inhumane and put inmates at risk. Both sites are run by for-profit prison companies. Cover design: Ana Paula Gutierrez.

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SELLBUY TRADE

That Rocks/That Sucks

A federal appeals court ruled last week that Texas can enforce its 2023 law banning some public drag performances. In a 2-1 decision, a three-judge panel from the notoriously conservative Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals vacated a permanent injunction that had blocked the law from taking effect over the past two years, thus sending the case back to district court for further analysis in light of recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings. The law will now take effect on March 18.

A San Antonio district judge ruled last week that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton can’t represent the state in a lawsuit designed to defund a program offering legal services to undocumented people in Bexar County. District Judge Mary Lou Alvarez said Paxton’s office lacks the necessary legal authority to sue the county over its decision to fund its Immigration Legal Services program. The AG can’t “sue counties whenever he disagrees with their discretionary funding decisions,” she added.

Plans to construct part of the border wall through Big Bend National Park and the surrounding region have sparked outrage in West Texas and statewide. The Big Bend Sentinel last month reported that landowners in the region have been approached about leasing their land for wall construction, while Marfa Public Radio reported that companies are seeking staging areas in the region. Should construction go ahead, archaeologist Dave Keller warned the Big Bend will be “scarred beyond repair.”

Tim Horton’s is coming to the Alamo City. State regulatory documents show SA’s first location of the Canadian donuts and coffee chain is set to open this summer on the far North Side in a development that currently hosts a Cheba Hut, Bourbon Street Seafood Kitchen and more. Tim Horton’s has nearly 1,000 U.S. locations in the U.S., including others in Texas.— Abe Asher

Bringing the culture war to the Texas Comptroller’s Office with Don Huffines

Assclown Alert is a column of opinion, analysis and snark.

As you read this, there’s a good chance Republican primary voters gave a green light for former Texas senator Don Huffines to run in the general election for Texas Comptroller.

(In the off chance that didn’t happen, read on and savor this as one of the rare cases where GOP primary voters actually made a reasonable decision.)

Assuming Dandy Don pulled off a W this week, it’s clear Texas Republicans have zero interest in putting a grownup in charge of the state’s checkbook. Otherwise, they would have voted for an accountant, not a clickbait machine. Not to mention a clickbait machine who campaigned on the absurd promise to “DOGE” a state budget already squeezed tighter than a bull’s ass in fly season.

It should be pretty clear from the Dallas real-estate baron’s self-funded 2022 gubernatorial bid that he’s short on ideas about actual governance and long on rhetoric about “woke” schoolroom indoctrination and accusations that then-opponent Gov. Greg Abbott — no friend to the LGBTQ+ community — “promoted transgender sexual politics to Texas youth.”

Uh, yeah, right.

For all his efforts to outflank Abbott from the right, voters handed Huffines a decisive loss — a third-place finish with just 12% of the primary vote. It was a result some hoped would send him fucking back off to play with his real-estate empire.

Instead, Huffy Baby dumped that same nutball energy into his current run for the Texas Comptroller’s Office. You know, the job that involves revenue estimates, budget projections and making sure Texas can actually pay its bills.

Somehow given the task at hand, Huffines’

TV spots haven’t centered around dollars and debt but foreign terrorists, gun rights and “WOKE DEI.” You know, whatever Fox News outage pending at the time. The diminutive developer even threw in footage of himself trudging through the woods in camouflage with a small arsenal strapped to his back to make sure we know just what a hard-on he has for firearms.

But the comptroller’s office isn’t a podcast studio for staging culture-war rants. It’s where math happens. It’s where adults make sober calculations how much money the state will bring in and whether it has enough to pursue worthwhile aims like educating its kids.

It’s hard to imagine Huffines taking any of that seriously. Instead, he seems determined to transform the office into an opportunity to grandstand and target MAGA’s perceived enemies — the same approach Attorney General Ken Paxton used to sully the rep of his respective office.

If Huffines wants to wage a never-ending culture war, there are plenty of cable networks hiring. If he wants to be comptroller, he might consider talking about spreadsheets instead of scapegoats. Texas needs a serious bean counter, not another bomb-throwing assclown. — Sanford Nowlin

YOU SAID IT!

“Even if the Republicans turn out in larger numbers on Election Day, they will not catch up with the Democrats.”

—SouthernMethodistUniversitypolitical scientistCalJillsononTexasDemocrats’skyhighprimaryturnoutnumbers.

Pride San Antonio is replacing its entire board of directors following a months-long controversy over its decision to partner with a right-wing organization during a lawsuit, the Express-News reports. In January, Pride San Antonio joined the Texas Conservative Liberty Forum to file a lawsuit aimed at preventing the city from using public funds to comply with state orders and remove its rainbow crosswalks — a decision that rankled members of the LGBTQ+ community.

A grand jury last week declined to indict the ICE agent who shot and killed San Antonio man Ruben Ray Martinez while he visited South Padre Island last March. Federal

officials said Martinez refused to follow the agent’s orders and struck him with his vehicle before the agent fired at him — an account the passenger in Martinez’s car, Joshua Orta, rejected in a statement. Orta died in a car crash in February.

Attorney General Ken Paxton last week filed a lawsuit against an out-of-state telehealth organization and a California doctor for allegedly providing abortion medication within the state of Texas in violation of state law.

In the suit, Paxton claims Aid Access and Dr. Remy Coeytaux are part of a “growing network of out-of-state abortion traffickers that deliberately target Texas residents.” — Abe Asher

news

Manufactured Crisis

The privatization of Texas public education is underway, and state leaders appear to have San Antonio’s NEISD in the crosshairs

BY MICHAEL KARLIS

Ramped up rhetoric by Gov. Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton about taking over school districts serves as a warning the Texas GOP wants a full-scale privatization of the state’s public education system, critics charge.

Democratic lawmakers and at least one teacher union president tell the Current they are thoroughly convinced such a plan is already underway. What’s more, there’s growing consensus that Texas’ school voucher program is less about giving parents more options than it is enriching the legislation’s backers.

This month, Paxton launched an investigation into San Antonio’s North East Side Independent School District (NEISD), saying he wants to determine whether district officials approved and facilitated recent student walkouts protesting the Trump administration’s immigration policies.

Tom Cummins, president of the North East AFT teachers’ union, said Paxton’s threats are both unfounded and concerning.

“As far as I know, the school district was very clear about their instructions to teachers,” Cummins told the Current. “Every policy was followed properly. The most important thing was student safety.”

Paxton’s school walkout investigation also includes Dallas ISD and Austin’s Manor ISD.

“Students are utilizing their First Amendment rights, something we should celebrate, whether it’s students with progressive ideas or students who have conservative ideas. We want our students to be curious about the world, to use their voices,” State Rep. James

Talarico, D-Austin, said during a recent campaign stop in San Antonio as part of his U.S. Senate run.

“Instead of applauding those students, our top state leaders are trying to go after them with the power of their public office, and it’s unconscionable,” Talarico, a former San Antonio school teacher, added. “Our students and our educators deserve a lot better in this state.”

Paxton’s investigations come as the Texas Education Agency (TEA) plans to take over four public school districts this year due to “low academic performance.” Those include Beaumont ISD,

Connally ISD, Lake Worth ISD and Fort Worth ISD.

San Antonio ISD, which is facing a $49 million budget deficit, is also teetering on the brink of a TEA takeover, depending on the outcome of this year’s STAAR testing.

North East AFT’s Cummins said the sudden rush of takeovers shows the GOP-controlled state’s eagerness to dismantle public education and replace it with private schools, many more driven by profit motives than an interest in ensuring quality education for all students.

“There’s been a decades-long plan by

MGov. Greg Abbott speaks at an event promoting his school voucher plan.

the Republican Party to privatize public education in Texas, and part of that was the charter program,” Cummins said. “Any politician who voted for charter schools was voting to close neighborhood schools. Anyone who voted for vouchers is voting to close neighborhood schools. There’s no question in my mind that the takeovers are part of their plan to discredit public education.”

news

Cummins isn’t alone in that assessment.

Ginning up panic

The TEA takes over school districts when one of its campuses receives a failing, or “F” grade under the state’s academic accountability rating system for five consecutive years.

On paper, that sounds like a reasonable barometer, but State Rep. Diego Bernal, D-San Antonio, said the reality is more complicated. The likelihood of districts receiving a failing grade has steadily increased because Republicans refuse to fund public education.

“They’ve been in charge for decades now, and they’ve managed to backhand cities, counties and public universities,” Bernal told the Current. “But, somehow, they still want to blame school boards for these failures, when it’s really theirs.”

Since Abbott was first elected as governor in 2015, Texas’ per-student spending has increased from roughly $11,000 to about $15,000. Despite the increase, the state’s per-student pending is still $4,000 less than the national average. Further, Texas ranks near the bottom when it comes to public spending on education, according to the Texas State Teachers Association.

The state’s spending on public education stagnated around the same time Abbott began his full-court press to get the Texas Legislature to pass school vouchers.

Although Democrats and rural Republicans shut down that plan during the 2023 legislative session, Abbott ultimately got his wish two years later. Last year, lawmakers approved legislation allocating $10,000 vouchers to around 100,000 students.

The passage of voucher legislation came roughly a decade after the TEA also made the STAAR test — which is used to evaluate district performance — considerably more difficult.

For Bernal, the timing is no coincidence.

“What they’ve done is introduced a voucher scheme and at the same time, made the test harder and then threatened takeovers while underfunding schools,” said Bernal, a father and former San Antonio city councilman. “The takeovers signal that the district is not doing a good job and failing, and you’re going to send more kids towards vouchers.”

It’s about the money

Experts have long warned that Texas’ investment in public education will further decline due to vouchers.

The state’s public school funding is based on school enrollment. If more families sign up for the voucher program, enrollment in public campuses will decline, draining much-needed money for campuses to function, much less stay open.

The problem is especially pronounced for already underfunded rural districts, which are often miles from the nearest private school. Rural voucher opponents argue they won’t reap the supposed benefits of the program while seeing their public school systems rot on the vine.

Critics also warn that the state’s $10,000 handout isn’t enough to fund public education for poor families. However, it’s sufficient to knock down a portion of wealthier families’ annual tuition payments.

Bernal described the system as welfare for the rich.

“In the voucher scam, it is not only known but acknowledged that people who don’t need the help, who are people of means and wealth, will get it anyway,” he said. “That’s not only corruption but hypocrisy of the highest fucking order.”

State Rep. Gina Hinojosa, D-Austin, who’s running to replace Abbott, said the upshot is clear: vouchers aren’t really about expanding choice for parents.

“What is happening is districts are being taken over by the state in an effort to control all the vendor contracts, the contracts to build schools — all those things are always about the money when it comes to what Greg Abbott is doing,” Hinojosa told the Current during a recent campaign stop at San Antonio’s The Social Spot.

Among the vendors Hinojosa is referring to is New York-based tech firm Odyssey, which Texas tapped to manage its $1 billion taxpayer-funded voucher rollout.

Odyssey has ties to pro-school

MState Rep. Diego Bernal speaks at a recent campaign event for State Rep. James Talarico, who’s running for U.S. Senate.

voucher Pennsylvania billionaire Jeff Yass, who donated more than $10 million to Abbott’s campaign war chest.

While it’s easy to dismiss Abbott’s school voucher crusade as part of his culture war agenda, Bernal cautions that there’s more involved — namely money, and the children are just collateral damage.

“I always thought that kids were off the table,” Bernal said. “That the suffering or harm to kids was something that we [as state lawmakers] wouldn’t stand for, and that was something we can all agree on in terms of doing our very best and putting our best foot forward. That’s not the case at all.”

The Price of Cruelty

Inside the for-profit ICE detention centers near San Antonio

BY SANFORD NOWLIN

Although the Trump administration repeatedly claims it’s deporting the “worst of the worst” in its sweeping immigration crackdown, the numbers tell a different story.

To meet the White House goal of arresting 3,000 immigrants daily, U.S. Immigration and Customs enforcement is incarcerating people with no criminal records or those with infractions as minor as traffic tickets, according to the feds’ own records.

Multiple South Texas lockup facilities — including two notorious privately run detention sites a short drive from San Antonio — are ground zero for the “shockand-awe blitz” orchestrated by Trump advisor Stephen Miller.

Both the South Texas Family Residential Center (STFRC) in Dilley, an hour southwest of the Alamo City, and Pearsall’s South Texas ICE Processing Center (STIPC), a shorter drive in the same direction, face a growing chorus of complaints from attorneys, advocates and Democratic lawmakers.

Prisoners at the facilities — the Dilley site includes families and children as young as infants — are subjected to inhumane treatment, denied adequate food and medical care and are kept longer than allowed under federal rules, critics charge.

“We’ve seen the brutality of ICE out on the streets. We’ve seen it in Minnesota, in Minneapolis. We saw it with the killing of Renee Good and Alex Pretti,” U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro said. “But there’s also a brutality behind closed doors. Behind the walls of these prisons, and people don’t see that. That brutality is also very disturbing, and I don’t believe most Americans would support it.”

Castro, a San Antonio Democrat, undertook recent fact-finding tours of the Dilley camp after Liam Conejo Ramos, the 5-year-old Minnesota boy whose detention by ICE drew national outrage, ended up at the facility.

Since the start of the second Trump

administration, the Dilley camp, operated by private prison firm CoreCivic, and the Pearsall lockup, run by GEO Group, another for-profit prison enterprise, have operated at near capacity.

“We’re seeing companies make a lot of money off the U.S. government to then treat people like animals,” Castro said. “If nobody’s going to hold them accountable, then they’re going to try to maximize their profits for shareholders.”

Neither CoreCivic or GEO Group officials responded to the Current’s request for comment.

However, the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE and the U.S. Border Patrol, replied with a tersely worded email suggesting the media is fabricating lies about the two sites.

“Nearly every single day, my office responds to media questions on FALSE allegations about illegal alien detention centers,” the unnamed spokesperson said. “The media is clearly desperate for these allegations of inhumane conditions at this facility to be true. Here are the facts: Dilley and Pearsall meet federal detention standards and undergo regular audits and inspections. When will the media stop peddling hoaxes about illegal alien detention centers and start focusing on

American victims of illegal alien crime?”

ICE has apparently taken sufficient heat over Dilley that it now operates a page on its website titled “Debunking the mainstream media lies about South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas.”

The Dilley site is “retrofitted for families,” a statement on the page reads, adding children have access to teachers, classrooms and age-appropriate toys. Further, all new arrivals receive medical screenings within 12 hours of their arrival, and a variety of healthcare professionals are on staff to care for them, according to the statement.

“In most cases, this is the best healthcare illegal aliens have received in their entire lives,” the statement continues, adding “all of this is generously funded by the U.S. taxpayer.”

ICE’s claims are widely disputed, however.

Booming business

As of Feb. 7, more than 68,000 people were locked up in federal immigration detention nationwide, up from roughly 41,000 at the same time last year, according to the nonpartisan Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse. The largest percentage of those people are ware-

Mhoused in Texas — more than a quarter of the total.

Debunking White House claims that its anti-immigrant sweep targets murderers and rapists, nearly three in four current ICE detainees have no criminal convictions, TRAC data shows. What’s more, many of those convicted only committed minor offenses such as traffic violations. Those numbers have showered a windfall on the private prison companies facilitating the administration’s enforcement sweeps, including CoreCivic and GEO Group.

On Feb. 11, CoreCivic reported $2.2 billion in 2025 revenue, a 13% jump from the previous year. The following day, the GEO Group, reported $2.6 billion revenue, up 9% from its 2024 numbers.

“Never in our 42-year company history have we had so much activity and demand for our services as we are seeing right now,” Damon T. Hininger, CoreCivic’s then-CEO, told shareholders last May. However, the outlook from those locked up inside the companies’ San

Antonio-area detention facilities is far from rosy.

At the CoreCivic-run STFRC in Dilley, families live under conditions that, according to reporting by the Current, include “worms in food” and lights that remain on “around the clock.” Parents described children struggling to sleep, while advocates pointed to “poor medical care” and an atmosphere of prolonged confinement that’s leaving visible psychological scars.

After a recent tour of Dilley, Castro said the camp’s operators showed him medical facilities, but they were empty at the time. Prisoners told him doctors were only onsite for a portion of the day — something he confirmed with site officials — and staff regularly advise people to drink water or take Tylenol, regardless of the severity of their medical conditions.

Meanwhile, a Wired magazine report from last year documented a flurry of 9-1-1 calls coming from GEO Group’s processing center in Pearsall, ranging from suicide attempts and allegations of sexual abuse to health issues faced by pregnant inmates.

Advocates and attorneys representing people inside the Pearsall site have complained of inadequate medical care, heavily rationed and poor-quality food and systemic obstacles that prevent detained people from obtaining qualified legal counsel.

‘A race to the bottom’

“It’s a money-making machine, and these companies are making money off the most vulnerable people you can imagine,” said Dianne Garcia, the pastor of Iglesia Christiana Roca de Refugio, who organized a march from Dilley to San Antonio last weekend to protest family and child detentions.

The majority of Garcia’s parishioners are immigrants, and they have been especially hard-hit by Trump’s roundups. She knows people in both Dilley and Pearsall, and those in both sites reported that their meager resources have been squeezed as they tried to maintain their humanity inside.

For example, fearing the quality of the water and its effect on her children’s health, one of Garcia’s parishioners sought relief at Dilley’s camp commissary but was unable to afford the $30 price tag for a pallet of bottled water.

The dismal conditions inside both lockups are dictated as much by profit motives as federal policy, San Antonio

immigration attorney Jonathan Ryan told the Current last summer.

“You always have to remember that these are for-profit detention facilities,” Ryan said. “These are corporations that are profit-based, and medical care is expensive. And so even if they have the facilities to provide medical care, if they are able to offload those services to the local community, they’re going to do that because that’s more money in their pockets.”

The attorney likened the companies’ efforts to avoid spending money on detainee medical care as “to race to the bottom in terms of safety and sanity and health.”

Children behind bars

Public health experts have long warned that detention environments are uniquely harmful to children. Young people in lockup face stress, sleep disruption and elevated infectious disease risks — problems exacerbated by crowding and confinement.

Last week, a group of physicians, including experts in pediatric care, sent a joint letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem urging the immediate end to child detention.

“We are writing to you with an urgent request based on the decades of our collective medical experience — that the children currently held in immigration detention facilities be immediately released,” the letter states. “The detention of children in these facilities is causing predictable, severe, and lasting harm to their mental and physical health.”

Even though ICE said children in Dilley receive classroom instruction, advocates maintain that it only amounts to an hour a day. Also students of multiple ages are grouped together, so many skip the lessons because they’re bored and already know the material.

Lawyers representing detained families argue the kids’ treatment falls short of basic educational standards required under longstanding legal protections.

Further, they said many of the children detained in Dilley are being incarcerated for months in violation of the Flores Settlement, 1997 agreement requiring the feds to release immigrant children from detention within 20 days.

Letters and drawings smuggled out speak to the emotional toll of confinement in ways statistics can’t.

“I felt that being here was my fault and I only wanted to be on vacation like a normal family,” one child, Maria Antonia

Guerra Montoya, wrote in a letter obtained and reported on earlier this year by ProPublica.

The girl had reportedly been incarcerated for 113 days at that point after being arrested on her way to Disney World.

‘Deportation-Industrial Complex’

The moral implications are difficult to ignore. And the broader question isn’t merely about individual incidents inside South Texas detention sites but the legitimacy of outsourcing incarceration itself.

However, the White House appears deaf to that concern. As the administration strengthens its partnership with private prison companies to carry out its deportation crusade, it’s actively taken efforts to end oversight.

Shortly after Trump took office, DHS effectively eliminated the Office of the Immigration Ombudsman and the Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, both charged with investigating problems inside immigrant detention sites.

Indeed, two-thirds of ICE’s funding under Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill is earmarked for detention. That 400% increase blows past the Department of Justice’s budget request for Fiscal Year 2026 for the entire federal prison system, according to an analysis by left-leaning public policy group the Brennan Center.

Both CoreCivic and the GEO Group have responded accordingly.

CoreCivic reopened Dilley last year after the Biden administration ordered its shut

down, and the company has told ICE that it’s prepared to make as many as 30,000 additional beds available.

Since January, GEO Group has reactivated four ICE detention facilities with a total of 6,600 beds. Those locations alone are expected to rake in $240 billion in annual revenue, officials told shareholders. Indeed, the scope of the expansion stands to create a public-private monolith that will be hard to break apart, even after the Trump administration is gone, Brennan Center Senior Fellow Margy O’Herron warned in a recent essay.

“Taken together, long-term detention and surveillance contracts, rapid hiring increases for enforcement, and new monetary incentives for reprioritizing law enforcement on immigration will create a deportation-industrial complex — an enforcement machine with financial and political constituencies that will outlast this administration,” O’Herron said.

Castro suggested the misery will continue unless people demand accountability and oversight and push for a reversal of the Trump roundups.

“If [private prison companies] don’t have to have a doctor on-site 24 hours a day, and they only have to have one there eight hours a day, because that makes more money for their shareholders, then that’s what they’re going to do,” the congressman said. “They’re not going to do the right human thing, they’re going to do the right profit thing — and that’s what we see over and over again.”

TaIkin’ Bout a Revolution

Attorney representing clients in Dilley said people, not politicians, will decide when the cruelty ends

BY STEPHANIE KOITHAN

Attorney Eric Lee grabbed national media attention after a video he posted went viral, showing a spontaneous protest inside the South Texas Residential Center in Dilley.

In the clip, he described hundreds of detainees flooding the courtyard of the privately run ICE facility south of San Antonio, where Lee has clients inside. The prisoners were chanting “libertad” and “let us out,” spiritually joining in the Minneapolis anti-ICE strike the day before.

Lee represents a family of six from Colorado, who have been detained inside Dilley for 9 months. The El Gamal family was detained following a violent antisemitic attack by their estranged father, Mohamed Soliman, in Boulder, Colorado, on June 1. The family maintains that they knew nothing of the man’s plans to attack a Jewish group with a makeshift flamethrower and Molotov cocktails, injuring eight. Nonetheless, the mother, two 5-yearold twins, a 9-year-old girl, a 16-year old boy and an 18-year-old girl remain locked up at the facility.

In an interview with the Current, Lee said their ongoing detention reveals a rot within the system, which goes much deeper than Trump. And rather than waiting for democrats to save us, Lee asserts, the people must save themselves.

Do you believe your clients are being detained for an extended amount of time as political retribution? This is a punishment not for anything that the family did but for something that somebody else did. And that is how things work in police states. And the Nazis had a whole sort of legal concept for it called sippenhaft [or kin liability], which gave the state the authority to detain relatives of individuals who commit crimes. That’s what the Trump administration has done to this

family. There were White House tweets from the Groiper social media managers, and Kristi Noem made a statement basically insinuating that they were terrorists too: 5-year-old terrorists, 16-year-old terrorists, everybody’s a terrorist. And so they’ve been detained as a result of that for 9 months.

And how is that possible with the Flores settlement, which limits detention of children to 20 days maximum? Well, the Flores settlement is 40 years old. It’s inadequate to protect these people. And the government basically claims it doesn’t exist. So, it gives families a choice of either basically giving up your children and staying in detention and letting them be free or remaining together. It’s a Sophie’s choice of sorts. I mean, these 5-year-olds are not going to get released without their mom. That’s what they have decided. I can’t imagine the federal government making me as a 5-year-old, or me as a single mother of five, make that choice, and the families involved will never recover from the psychological damage, let alone the physical damage that being in these facilities causes.

You told media outlet Democracy

Now that if they get deported, they face potential death. Why is that? Well, there are some details of the asylum case that require privacy, but the White House has made them international news. They cooperated with federal authorities in the aftermath of the husband’s arrest, and so they’re going to be perceived as collaborators with the U.S. government. The husband was also a supporter of [former president of Egypt] Mohamed Morsi, whose Muslim Brotherhood was slaughtered by the El-Sisi government. They’re just very, very vulnerable. They could have gone back to Egypt. The fact that they are enduring so much hardship, so much brutal treatment in Dilley gives

you a sense of how genuinely fearful they are of being returned to Egypt. And an immigration judge hasn’t even looked at the merits of their asylum case yet. That’s the other infuriating part of this. They haven’t even had the chance to go into court and explain why they’re afraid of going home.

And the teenage daughter Habiba Solimani is separated from the rest of the family. Tell me more about her situation.

The family called and said that Habiba had been moved. She turned 18 four days after the family was detained in 2025. The government kept her with her family for this whole period. And then days after she did an interview with CBS News, she’s suddenly separated from them because she’s an 18-year-old, something which she had been for 8 months with their knowledge. So, the timing certainly leads us to the conclusion that that was retribution through speaking out. Internet was cut a couple of days after Renee Goode was murdered. I mean, this is the dangerous thing too. This is part of a separation from society that historically becomes very dangerous under conditions of mass detention. When they lose access to the news, when they lose access to information, it is a slippery slope to losing access to legal counsel, to losing access to family correspondence. And then suddenly nobody knows what is going on in these places and they have no way to communicate in any way. That’s when even worse things start happening as we’re seeing in places like [El Paso immigrant detention camp] East Montana.

On Democracy Now, you had particularly pointed criticism of presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden. And you said that it’s imperative that the movement stay 100 miles away from the Democratic Party. Can you explain that?

Well, first, because history shows that

open borders are a Koch brothers idea. You know, they’re all standing by silently when Biden and Obama are deporting people and separating families.

I want to relate that statement to the press conference where I met you, because some of the activists afterwards told me that they felt like props. Of course, operating in silos is probably not the answer either. So, what I want to know is what do you see as the path forward for the movement so you don’t totally shun elected officials to a detrimental degree, but also remain rightfully be wary of them? How do you think they can navigate that? Well, look, the Democratic Party doesn’t do anything out of the kindness of its heart. History shows that it’s only when this party is confronted with the specter of an actual revolutionary movement that it feels compelled to do something. For instance, through the New Deal period, the Civil Rights movement in the ‘60s, the codification of certain social programs — Medicare, Medicaid, etc. Historically, the Democratic Party is the party of Chinese exclusion. And the Republicans of course, were involved in this too. Democrats were the party that carried out violent pogroms against the Chinese population in Tacoma, Washington; Eureka, California; Honolulu; Seattle. This is the party of the Palmer Raids against noncitizens involved in socialist and left-wing political work. This is the

WITTE MUSEUM

Celebrate 100 years of Witte wonder! Party with us from March 7-15 with extended hours until 6 p.m. and exciting events every day.

ROLL INTO SPRING BREAK AT THE WITTE

Saturday, March 7

Step into the 1920s, the decade when the Witte first opened its doors. Watch Model Ts promenade up Broadway to the Witte, then gather on campus as vintage cars line the lawn. Enjoy live jazz in the gardens, an oldfashioned ice cream social, and classic lawn games.

Scan to discover more spring break fun or visit wittemuseum.org/springbreak

FREE TUESDAY PRINTMAKING TAKEOVER TEXAS ON THE BIG SCREEN

Tuesday, March 10

Bexar County residents get free general admission from 3-6 p.m. Try your hand at nature-inspired watercolors and enjoy a performance by River City WInds.

FOR A LIMITED-TIME!

Save 20% on all general membership levels through the end of spring break, March 15, 2026.

Friday, March 13Saturday, March 14

Take home Witte artwork by Tinta Printing and Conceptos Collective Screen Printing. Get hands-on with pollinator activities and lawn games.

Deep in the Heart film screens at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. along with nature-inspired watercolors and lawn games throughout the day.

party that supported the National Origins Act, I mean the party of Alien Registration Act, which led to mass deportations and the internment of the Japanese. And this is the party that passed all the restrictive anti-immigration measures in the ‘90s that militarized the southern border, that built up ICE and CBP. Bernie Sanders was there in Congress this whole time. He voted for the IRA in 1996. The Obama administration comes in after the big demonstrations in 2006, promising hope and change and all of that garbage that a lot of people believed for a second. And then he carries out millions and millions of deportations, massive expansion of the powers of ICE, brings the facilities for child detention into being. But that’s the party, whatever the individual Congress members might say, that’s historic. It’s an imperialist party, it’s a capitalist party, it stinks to high hell and it doesn’t do anything to fight Trump anyway. Seven of the Senate Democrats voted for Kristi Noem, alright? They all voted for Marco Rubio,

who’s deporting Mahmoud Khalil and Momodou Taal and Rümeysa Öztürk. I mean, how much more exposed does this party have to be? And I think that the question then is what’s the other social force? And the answer to that is it’s the working class.

Are you going so far as to say don’t vote as harm reduction? Or are you saying to vote, but realize that Democrats are not going to save you?

I’m a member of the Socialist Equality Party. It publishes the World Socialist website. It’s a Trotskyist international organization. It’s not just a question of voting. It’s about what you’re doing politically. And the answer to that should be to develop a network of committees in every workplace, in every neighborhood to mobilize the power of the working class in defense of basic democratic rights and against the transformation of this country into a police-state dictatorship, which is what Trump is trying to do and which the Democrats are letting him do. And the answer is from below.

This movement has to be rooted in the neighborhoods. It has to be rooted in factories, in big warehouses, in the working class. It’s the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution, OK? It’s easy to criticize the Founding Fathers. We don’t know what they would think about trans rights. But they risked their necks for revolution against basically the same things that the Trump administration is doing to the country today. Occupying the cities, violating the Fourth Amendment rights, breaking into people’s homes, even quartering troops in hotels across the country. I mean, they said there’s a right of revolution when the government becomes violative of democratic rights. It’s the right of the people to alter or abolish it. And this is all happening 250 years ago. I think those are very important democratic, revolutionary traditions that people have to tap into and awaken from the standpoint of fighting for the building of a revolutionary movement against what’s happening in this country, against capitalism. You can’t

Munderstand where this fascist movement is coming from without understanding the unprecedented levels of social inequality in this country, the fact that a handful of billionaires control the majority of the wealth, the fact that both parties are totally compromised and bought by this. And that Trump and his so-called movement have even developed as itself a product of this whole degeneration of the American political system under the weight of immense social inequality. But that’s why we have to tap into the economic needs of workers of all national origins, races, religions, et cetera. And on the basis of such an appeal, we can build a movement that will change a lot of minds about immigration and will sweep away all the garbage from the far right.

Featured Resident Artists:

Violette Bule Houston, Texas

Mel Chin Burnsville, North Carolina Viẹ

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Selected by Guest Curator Dr. Aleesa Pitchamarn Alexander

CONTEMPORARY ART MONTH KICK-OFF

Contemporary Art Month, San Antonio’s annual, four-week celebration of the arts, gets underway at the Contemporary at Blue Star on First Friday. Artists, curators and exhibition spaces — traditional and nontraditional — are invited to share their March events on a central calendar from which the public can pick and choose their own self-guided adventure into the creative realm. For this year’s opening festivities, the Contemporary offers up two exhibitions based around the theme of community: Roman Franc’s Groups Collective and Mini Art Museum, a long-running exhibition project by Mary Cantú and Gabriela Santiago. Groups Collective makes use of the medium of photography to document people brought together by geography, common interests and identity in informal images that contest the stodginess of formal portraiture. The Mini Art Museum features small-scale works by dozens of artists. Work was often displayed in binders with magnifying glasses, encouraging an experience not common in the art world. By using this format, Cantú and Santiago obliterated the need for a stark white cube to exhibit art, providing an egalitarian platform and encouraging a spirit of intimacy and wonder. Cantú died last February at the age of 45. This exhibition is a tribute to the lasting influence she has on the San Antonio arts community. Free, 6-9 p.m., 16 Blue Star, (210) 227-6960, contemporarysa.org. — Anjali Gupta

FRI | 03.06

TURTLEISLANDQUARTET

Celebrate the centennial birthdays of two jazz icons, Miles Davis and John Coltrane, with a concert by San Francisco’s Turtle Island Quartet. The string quarter will perform Shades of Blue, its Grammy Award-winning interpretations of Davis and Coltrane’s masterpieces — original works that both honor and explore these icons’ legacies.

Led by composer and violinist David Balakrishnan, the quartet formed in 1985, integrating stylistic elements of jazz, classical, folk and Indian classical music. Turtle Island’s is a unique offering — an ever-changing tribute to jazz legends that also documents the quartet’s own creative evolution. $48.30, 8-10 p.m., Carver Community Cultural Center, 226 N. Hackberry St., (210) 207-2234, thecarver. org. — Anjali Gupta

SUN |

03.08

SPORTS SPURS VS. ROCKETS

With a likely return to the postseason in April for the Spurs, attention turns to the playoff standings where after a lengthy win streak, San Antonio remains near the top of the bracket. Untimely injuries to All-Star duo Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams have limited the defending champion Thunder, and despite recent distractions off the court, the Rockets remain within striking distance. San Antonio renews the I-10 Rivalry with Houston on Sunday night, seeking its third win vs. Kevin Durant and the Rockets this season. When the teams clashed in January, Victor Wembanyama was stellar, leading all scorers with 28 points, 16 rebounds and 5 blocks in a 111-99 victory. Wembanyama and the Spurs matched Houston’s physicality on the boards and turned up the defensive intensity in the fourth quarter to secure the comeback win. Although execution in crunch time has been a concern for the Rockets all season, expect another close contest between the in-state rivals. $85 and up, 7 p.m., Frost Bank Center, 1 Frost Bank Center, (210) 444-5140, frostbankcenter.com, Peacock, NBC, Telemundo. — M. Solis

TUE | 03.10

SPECIAL EVENT

CHANGING GEARS: THE WOMEN WHO REDEFINED WHAT A RACING

DRIVER COULD BE

Through a series of lectures at San Antonio public libraries, motorsport historian Elizabeth Blackstock highlights influential women who transformed a notorious boys club into a sport accessible to all — well, all who could afford it. Starting with a trio of pioneering French motoring celebrities of the Belle Époque — Camille du Gast, Hélène de Rothschild (Baroness Hélène van Zuylen) and Anne de Rochechouart de Mortemart, the Duchess of Uzès — Blackstock debunks the masculine mystique of race car driving by documenting how women dealt with gender-related pushback, challenged norms and forced institutions to evolve. They didn’t just make room for themselves. They set the stage for generations to come. For a complete list of lectures, visit elizabeth-blackstock.com. Free, 6-7 p.m., Pan American Branch Library, 1122 W Pyron Ave., (210) 207-9150, mysapl.org. — AG

THU

| 03.12

LITERATURE

LINDY RYAN: DOLLFACE

Award winning author, professor and short-film director Lindy Ryan will present excerpts from her latest blood-soaked opus, Dollface. Declared a “champion for women’s voices in horror” by Shelf Awareness, Ryan is currently an author-in-residence residence at Rue Morgue magazine. She also sits on the Board of Directors for the Brothers Grimm Society of North America and served on the Board of Directors for the Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA). Dollface is described as a page turner that’s appeal increases with the cumulative bodycount. The story is narrated by Jill, a horror writer who recently relocated to suburban Jersey. Instead of charming her way into the good graces of the PTA, our heroine finds herself entangled in a serial murder case that seems to be closing in on her as the “last girl standing.” Free, 6-7 p.m., Nowhere Bookshop, 5154 Broadway, (210) 640-7260, nowherebookshop.com. — AG

THU | 03.12

SPORTS SPURS VS. NUGGETS

Despite a season packed with injuries to key players, including three-time league MVP Nikola Jokic, who was sidelined for 16 games, the Denver Nuggets have proved resilient in the crowded Western Conference playoff race. Denver currently sits third in the standings behind the Spurs, and with forward Aaron Gordon expected back in the lineup, the team looks to have a healthy squad for a post-season push. When the franchises faced off back in November, Spurs sharpshooter Devin Vassell scorched the nets with 35 points, including 7 for 9 from beyond the arc, in a close 139-136 win. Vassell’s return to form after recovering from a left adductor strain has helped propel the Spurs to a thus far flawless February and their longest win streak since 2016. Vassell recently led all scorers with 28 points in San Antonio’s signature win against the Detroit Pistons. His aggressiveness on the offensive end could once again prove the difference vs. the Nuggets. $57 and up, 8 p.m., Frost Bank Center, 1 Frost Bank Center Drive, (210) 444-5140, frostbankcenter.com, Fanduel Sports Network-Southwest. — M. Solis

TUE | 03.17

SPECIAL EVENT

SIERRA CLUB ALAMO GROUP: TALES FROM ANTARCTICA

CIce Station Weddell, a drifting research station in the Antarctic Sea, was a cooperative program between the United States and Russia, covering the same area that Ernest Shackleton’s ship Endurance was crushed by pack ice and sank in 1915. The area proved useful in providing the first modern measurements of sea ice thickness, density, ocean circulation and polar ecosystems. Presenter Stephen Ackley, associate professor of research, earth and planetary sciences at UT-San Antonio, will discuss his 30-plus years of navigating this unforgiving terrain, its unique logistical anomalies and the findings of the first scientific station built on a bobbing platform of roving sea ice. Free, 6-8 p.m., William R. Sinkin Eco Centro, 1802 N. Main Ave., (210) 486-0417, sierraclub.org. — AG

Popping Off at the Library

Pop Madness convention bringing science fiction heavyweights John Scalzi and Martha Wells to San Antonio

BY KIKO MARTINEZ AND SANFORD NOWLIN

Over time, pop-culture conventions have become less about fans rubbing shoulders with sci-fi writers, comic artists and cult-favorite actors and more about star-studded celebrity autograph sessions

Hey, if someone wants to pay $100 for a photo op with a star from the latest Marvel franchise, there’s nothing wrong with that. But there’s something to be said for a con where fans can actually interact with the creators they love.

Those who want to revisit that earlier era — or at least get a sampling of what it was like — may want to swing by the San Antonio Public Library’s annual Pop Madness convention on Saturday, March 7.

The free, day-long celebration at the Central Library will feature New York Times bestselling writers John Scalzi and Martha Wells, both award-winning luminaries in science fiction publishing, along with other guest authors and artists.

A Pokémon Champions Arena, escape rooms, gaming, crafts, cosplay contests and anime activities are also on the schedule.

“This year’s Pop Madness lineup is the best I’ve ever seen,” said San Antonio-based John Picacio, one of the featured artists at this year’s event. “Every literary festival and comic con in the country would be ecstatic to score a megastar author like New York Times-bestselling John Scalzi or Murderbot blockbuster Martha Wells, but they’ll both be headlining Pop Madness this year.”

The Hugo Award-winning Scalzi is best known for his Old Man’s War series about elderly Earthlings who enlist in an interstellar military to fight a series of wars across the galaxy.

He’s also a former president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America and served as creative consultant on TV series Stargate Universe.

College Station-based Wells writes both sf and fantasy and is best known for The Murderbot Diaries, a Hugo- and Nebula-winning series that follows a self-aware security android that learns more about autonomy when it gets

pulled into dangerous missions.

And, yes, Wells’ work is the source material for the Apple TV+ science fiction series Murderbot, starring Alexander Skarsgård.

Other special guests this year include authors Robert Jackson Bennett (The Divine Cities trilogy) and Celso Hurtado (The Ghost Tracks) along with artists Picacio, Kwanzaa Edwards and Irving Herrera.

“What’s great about Pop Madness is it’s a chance to meet the authors and artists who create the stories that shape our world,” added Picacio, whose award-winning work has included illustrations for the Game of Thrones and Star Trek franchises along with top New York publishers. “Instead of draining people’s wallets for overpriced celebrity photo ops like so many other big events do, Pop Madness is free admission and people can visit and talk to

their favorite authors and artists, which is such a fantastic opportunity.”

However, if you’re looking for movie stars, Pop Madness will also have that covered.

San Antonio’s own Miriam Spumpkin, who recently made her big-screen debut in the horror sequel Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, will be around to meet fans.

“My brothers knew more about [the game] than I did and were the ones who really pushed me to audition,” Pumpkin told the Current earlier this year. “They told me it was really big, and that if I got it, I would be super-duper famous.”

Free three-hour parking for Pop Madness is available in the Central Garage.

Free, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Saturday, March. 7, Central Library, 600 Soledad St, (210) 207-2500, guides. mysapl.org/popmadness.

arts

Find more arts coverage every day at sacurrent.com

Sweet Cinema

San Antonio filmmaker

Vanessa Rae Lerma turns family history into a musical

BY KIKO MARTINEZ

Filmmaker Vanessa Rae Lerma, co-owner of San Antonio’s Screenville Films, only learned a couple of years ago that her great-grandparents were professional bakers.

A baker herself, Lerma knew her love for pan dulce had to come from somewhere.

“I’ve always been drawn to baking, so to find out that it literally runs in my DNA was an a-ha moment,” Lerma, 39, told the Current during a recent interview.

Although Lerma worked in bakeries in San Antonio and New York City during college, she chose a path that led her to the cinematic rather than culinary arts.

“I’ve always wanted to open a bakery, but it’s like a dream I don’t think I would actually want to do,” she said. “I’ve done it and respect it and love the product, but I know that’s not the lifestyle I would want to live, where you have to wake up at like 1 a.m.”

Even so, Lerma found a way to combine her love for motion pictures and baked goods. She wrote and directed the new musical short SweetNess. The 16-minute film tells the story of Ines (Elizabeth Ramirez), an insecure young woman pursuing her dream of opening her own storefront bakery.

SweetNess will make its official premiere at Texas Public Radio on March 11. The screening is free to the public. RSVP for the screening at support.tpr.org/a/sweetness.

During our interview, Lerma, a graduate of Harlandale High School and Texas State University, talked about the inspiration behind SweetNess and the challenges of making a musical for the screen.

What inspired you to write Screenville’s first musical?

I went to Texas State for theater education and was a theater teacher until 2020. I’ve been directing musicals my entire career. That’s what I love to direct. I haven’t directed a musical since right before COVID. It’s the longest I’ve been without directing a musical. Musicals are where my heart is. So, I wanted to give it a shot.

What kind of high school musicals did you direct as a theater teacher?

It was a variety. We did musicals like In the Heights and Sweeney Todd. We did Bring It On: The Musical and She Loves Me – too many to name. I miss musicals so much.

Talk about your vision for the music and your collaboration with your composer, Jaime Lozano, and lyricist, David Davila. I’ve been working with David for almost 20 years, and Jaime is a composer friend of his. We were looking for a very Tejano, South Texas [sound], but also something with a musical theater-style flair to it. I told David what I was looking for. A lot of the songs come from [Ines’] innermost thoughts and feelings. David was able to bring those to life. He’s extremely poetic. Once we had the lyrics, we sent them off to Jaime. Magically, music appeared.

What were you looking for musically?

I wanted something that was cinematic but with an ode to Broadway. I’m a Broadway fan, but I know some people are not. I wanted [the film] to be something for everybody to enjoy. So, I didn’t want the music to be over the top. I wanted it to be a little more subdued but still wanted to showcase the vocals and our city. I wanted it to be very San Antonio, Tejano-specific.

Speaking of the vocals, you cast Elizabeth Ramirez in the lead role, who was featured in the HBO Max documentary Home School Musical: Class of2020. She is an absolute talent. Move over Rachel Zegler. She’s actually a former student of mine! We’ve been working together since she was 14. She just turned 24. [SweetNess] was written for her. I wanted something to showcase her vocals.

As her former theater teacher, it must feel amazing to watch her career thrive. Yes! I told her that I’m her No. 1 fan. I will do anything I can to let the world know who she is and continue to put her on a platform where people can see what she can do. Liz is another collaborator who I have a very trusting relationship with. She’s always down to do something with me. She knows I will only showcase her in her best light and let her drive. We work really well together.

What are some of the differences in directing a musical for film in comparison to a musical for the stage?

It’s very different. You know, in theory, on stage you get six weeks of practice and six weeks of rehearsal – at minimum. Everything happens in one space, and you just work around that. With [SweetNess], it was very specific. I had to think about every little action and how we could achieve it. I had to consult with my husband (cinematographer Sam Lerma) and our gaffer and ask, “Hey, is this doable?” They did a good job bringing me back to reality a bit.

Can you see yourself expanding on SweetNess later and writing it as a feature? I think it could totally be expanded. The

challenge was making a musical as a short film and getting the whole story under 20 minutes. But I think if given the opportunity, we could definitely expand it to a full-length film.

SweetNess Film Premiere

Free, 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 11, Irma & Emilio Nicolas Media Center at Texas Public Radio, 321 W Commerce St, (210) 6148977, RSVP at support.tpr.org/a/sweetness.

Comeback Kid

Super chef Andrew Weissman makes a welcome return to fancy fare with Max’s Sister

BY RON BECHTOL

He’s baaack!

I wasn’t sure I could say that after looking at esteemed San Antonio chef Andrew Weissman’s inaugural menu for Max’s Sister in Alon Town Center.

Yes, one of the city’s brightest culinary stars is allowed to play in the sandbox from time to time. The success of his Mr. Juicy, basically an upscale burger joint, reminded us of that.

But the smugly sophisticated among us couldn’t help but think back to Le Rêve, Sandbar and Il Sogno, Weissman’s early and influential efforts. Le Rêve, especially, made it seem the Alamo City was ready at last for freshly reimagined French-influenced cuisine impeccably prepared.

So, as revelatory as platonically perfect chicken fried steak and fried calamari might be, it was a surprise to see them among the debut offerings at Max’s Sister. Adding gold flakes to a risotto seemed an insincere way to add a touch of class.

Now, three months into what I hope will be a long and prosperous life, Max and his sister have matured. Yes, formally attired calamari and chicken fried steak are still there, as is a burger tricked out with pork belly and fried egg.

But so now are plates and specials such as Hudson Valley foie gras and roasted rack of Australian lamb.

Snobby as it may seem, it’s been while since I’ve had a proper foie gras. And Weissman’s is transcendent, especially accompanied by a lozenge of tangy labneh, sauteed apple and tartly complementary cider gastrique. It featured a perfectly seared exterior, still roseate interior and a lush texture worthy of quietly ecstatic moans.

I resisted licking the plate in public, but know I considered it. Know, too, if anyone’s keeping track, this definitely goes on my list of last-moments-on-earth dishes.

It’s hard to be quite so effusive about a salad, especially as inoffensive-seeming as one of baby spinach, candied pecans and red onions. And yet, when everything is in perfect balance — earthy roasted-garlic dressing, disarmingly sweet poached pear, parmesan shavings and all — a salad becomes an object lesson in, well, the essence of salad. That it was thoughtfully presented was only a plus.

I’m occasionally asked where to find the best seafood in town, and my response is usually this: Don’t go to a dedicated seafood restaurant

but rather look for the best restaurants, period. Max’s menu currently includes Sandbar-style oysters, a crisp-skinned trout and salmon.

Having grown up with wild salmon, I’m usually disappointed in its pale farm-raised imitation and try to avoid it. But when it’s beautifully blistered and “wild-caught” King, salmon is a thing of beauty. Weissman’s preparation was a flaky beauty indeed, and its serving with “melted” leeks spoke eloquently of both earth and sea.

If I tend to avoid salmon, when expertly cooked — which is to say not too much — I’m rarely disappointed with lamb. Max’s Australian roasted rack, offered as a special along with deftly and crisply fried pommes Anna, only reconfirmed my prejudices.

Unlike overt plate licking, don’t hesitate to get down with these bones, as some of the best stuff is found in there. Getting to it requires picking them up and gnawing — an act that does leave the fingers blissfully greasy. (More licking.)

That also means grease finds its way onto the stemless wine glasses Max’s offered even with wines priced over $100 per bottle. Sorry, but no. Chosen from a thoughtfully composed list, the lightly peppery Domaine Sarrazin Cotes d’Or pinot noir that was such a perfect bridge be-

MAX’S SISTER

tween salmon and lamb would have been even happier with proper stemware.

Yes, I know: picky.

I couldn’t have been more pleased with desserts, though. The same Pacific Northwest upbringing that established a kinship with wild salmon did the same with blueberries, and I’ll put my pie up against anyone’s. Except maybe Andrew’s.

The wait for a fresh one to come out of the oven was well worth it. Max’s was really all about the berries — that and a perfectly flaky crust. The addition of vanilla-bean ice cream was the equivalent of icing on the cake.

Which we also had in the form of frosted chocolate buttermilk cake with a puddle of passionfruit sauce. As good as this was — and it was good indeed — I’ll take the pie any day.

A brief conversation with Weissman at meal’s end revealed that the menu is still an evolutionary object as he responds not only to guests but to his own creative urges.

Look for more “interesting things” to come — including his justly famed “torchon” of foie gras. The first of them to come was marinating in cognac as we spoke. Maybe I’ll put that on the last meal list as well.

Fried calamari need not apply.

10003NWMilitaryHighway,Suite21255,(210)383-8416,instagram/maxssistersa

Hours: 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Friday-Saturday

Main course food prices: $26-$62, depending on specials Max’s Sister is super chef Andrew Weissman’s long-awaited return to elegant cooking— though that’s not what he told his wife. Simple, casual, he said. And indeed, there were burgers, fried calamari and even chicken fried steak — a vestige of his Mr. Juicy Burger joint — on the initial menu. Those remain, but the menu has morphed to include the likes of foie gras, rack of Australian lamb and Platonic blueberry pie. The wine list could use more by the glass, but it’s also sophisticated. Service is smoothly professional. And reservations are definitely recommended.

food Cooking Up Conversation

Elise and John Russ of Clementine on aiming to be more than a date night restaurant

BY KAT STINSON

John and Elise Russ opened Clementine, a Castle Hills staple, in 2018 and drew almost immediate praise for their creative-yet-approachable dishes and focus on fresh, seasonal ingredients.

Both of the married partners have earned James Beard Award nominations for their work, with John being a two-time nominee in the Best Chef: Texas category and Elise earning a Best Pastry Chef or Baker nomination.

We caught up with the Russes to talk about their approach to food and their efforts to make Clementine a gathering place that’s not just reserved for special occasions.

What drew you to cooking and baking?

Elise: I always loved baking with my mom when I was little, but I was afraid to make it my career because I didn’t want to lose that joy. I originally thought I’d become a psychologist. But in high school, I did an internship at a local bakery and completely fell in love. I realized I could do this every single day and not get sick of it. That’s when I decided to go to pastry school.

I went to Johnson & Wales University and earned a bachelor’s degree in pastry arts. We did everything — breads, chocolates, plated desserts, cakes. Even now at Clementine, even if I’m mostly focused on plated desserts, I pull from all those skills. It’s nice to have that foundation.

Your desserts are incredibly thoughtful, especially for diners with dietary restrictions. How do you approach that?

Elise: I’m vegetarian, so I understand what it feels like to go somewhere and not be able to eat anything. We work really hard to make sure guests with allergies or restrictions don’t feel like they’re getting an afterthought.

When we build menus, we intentionally include options that are naturally gluten-free

or easy to make dairy-free. I never want to just remove components from a dessert and call it a day. It should feel complete and thoughtful — just like everything else.

Your menus shift frequently. How does that process work?

John: Seasonality drives everything. In South Texas, seasons are unpredictable. We might have yellow wax beans for two weeks — or two and a half months. It just depends on the weather and what’s actually good. We change the menu based on availability and quality. If something isn’t meeting our standards, we won’t use it. Some dishes stick around longer, but we stay flexible. That’s part of the fun.

Elise: I bring back certain things when ingredients are ready. I’ll put kumquat donuts on when kumquats are perfect, and as soon as they’re gone, they’re gone. Same with Texas strawberries for shortcake. We don’t force it.

You added more events and programming recently. What inspired that?

John: Twenty-twenty-four was a tough year. We realized we needed to diversify our revenue streams and rethink our programming. But instead of just doing more of the same, we asked: What would actually be fun?

Some events are revenue-driven. Others are just for joy — for us, our staff and our guests. The salons, for example, are usually things Elise or I are really excited about cooking — in the moment. It’s off-menu, communal and a little adventurous.

Elise: We also started hosting things like our cake-slice swap — inspired by the cake picnic idea. People bring a cake, hang out and eat cake together. It’s free. It’s community-building. Those events keep people engaged with us beyond just dinner reservations.

Clementine has become known as a “date night” restaurant. How do you feel about that?

John: Saturday nights are date night for us. We get a babysitter, we work the line together, and that’s our time. So, in that sense, I love it.

But I wish people didn’t feel like they needed a special occasion to come in. Yes, we’re more expensive than some places — but that’s because of the ingredients and the staff who make it all happen. We want to pay our team well and create sustainability for everyone here.

I’d love for Clementine to be the place you say, “Let’s just go to dinner,” not “It’s our anniversary, so we have to go somewhere special.”

Elise: That said, it is really meaningful that people trust us with their special occasions. We see a lot of birthdays and anniversaries on Saturdays, and being part of that celebration is really special.

What’s the best way for diners to experience Clementine?

Elise: Sit at the kitchen bar. It overlooks the line, and it’s like dinner and a show. You can see everything happening. It sparks conversation.

John: And do the “Feed Me.” It eliminates decision fatigue. There’s no FOMO staring at a menu all night. You get to focus on the people you’re with, and we get to cook what we’re excited about. It’s a trust exercise — and that’s the fun of it.

QUICK BITES

Books you’re reading right now:

What impact do you hope to have on San Antonio’s dining community?

Elise: Education is huge for us. We teach our staff how to break down whole fish — that’s becoming a lost art. If we don’t teach those skills, who will?

And with guests, it’s about expanding comfort zones. Sometimes John describes a dish and I think it sounds wild — and then it’s incredible. That sense of discovery is what we want to share.

John: Sustainability matters. Our mission is that Clementine is sustainable not just for ownership, but for everyone who works here. That means paying people as well as we can and creating an environment where creativity is encouraged and credited. You have to be the change you want to see in this industry.

Elise: I love a good romance novel. I read every night to unwind. My life is chaotic — I don’t want heavy or thought-provoking before bed.

John: TheBloodlandsbyTimothySnyder,TheIllegalsbyShaunWalker,OnMeat byJeremyFox.

Go-to drink after a long day:

John: No set go-to at night. But in the morning? A well-brewed cup of Wild Gift coffee.

Elise: Dark aged rum with ice and soda water.

Local spots you love:

Elise: La Fonda on Main is my favorite Friday afternoon spot with my mom friends. We also love Tlahco Mexican Kitchen for Sunday takeout.

John: We spend a lot of time at Bilia Eatery. Elise and her dad love Magpie. And we took our management team to Max & Louie’s New York Diner for a holiday celebration — it was fantastic.

From the West Side to Ukraine

Joe ‘King’ Carrasco brings his Tex-Mex party vibes to Ukraine for tour, fundraising efforts

BY BILL BAIRD

Joe “King” Carrasco, known for a sound that fused party-ready Tex-Mex with garage rock and new wave, has ridden a wild 50year career.

The Texas-bred singer-songwriter leveraged a recording with San Antonio musical legends at the city’s now-defunct Zaz Studios into rock ’n’ roll cult status, becoming a hot touring commodity and singing a duet with Michael Jackson. He even appeared in multiple movies and TV shows and relocated to Nicaragua at one point to live with the Sandinistas. But his most recent endeavor might be his most impressive — and risky — yet.

Carrasco staged a rock ’n’ roll tour across war-torn Ukraine last year, raising money for emergency vehicles in the wake of the country’s devastating invasion by Russian forces. The life-ordeath situation lent an intensity to the shows, he told the Current.

“Ukraine is like Texas, man,” Carrasco said. “It’s like Austin back in 1980 at Club Foot. It’s crazy but it’s fun. Playing there is so much fun, because they need it. They’re excited and they’re not jaded.”

Together with Hartewick Circus, a group of 20-something rockers from the UK, Carrasco embarked his Ukrainian tour last June, becoming the first foreign rock band to do road dates there since the Russians invaded in early 2022. By night, the entourage packed in eight dates at clubs in L’viv, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Ternopil’, Vinnytsia, and Kyiv. During the day, they played in hospitals and schools.

“We want people to be aware World War III is here,” Carrasco said. “The Ukrainians, they’re defending Europe.

The Russians are evil, man. I’ve seen what they’ve done — been to the cemeteries, been to the funerals.

Major publications in Europe have written about Carrasco’s tour, including an extensive feature in The Guardian, but back home, it’s largely been greeted with radio silence. In large part, Ukraine’s struggle has been pushed out of the headlines by the war in Gaza, ICE raids and President Trump’s increasingly outlandish antics.

While back in Texas, Carrasco continued raising funds for more vehicles. Since Russian drones have repeatedly targeted emergency vehicles, he’s helping the country buy mini-vans less likely to trigger a Russian attack. His tour and fundraising also helped raise money to assist homeless and injured dogs — another of Carrasco’s passions.

“Our goal is to raise money to buy vehicles for the front, cars to take the wounded back to the medics,” Carrasco said. “Each car saves 40 lives. Last tour, we brought two cars, so we saved 80 0 lives.”

‘I go where the energy is’

Beyond the sensation of doing good, Carrasco was buoyed by the enthusiasm of the crowds.

“It’s mostly women because the men are out on the front,” he said. “The first show, you knew you were in a war zone, because in the middle of the show, a guy auctioned off a 50-caliber machine gun belt, like Pancho Villa. You’re playing and the place is intense, but the people are dancing.”

Ukrainians are determined to party like there’s no tomorrow, Carrasco said, because they know there might not be. Tex-Mex music also was quite the novelty in a Ukrainian war zone.

“Like tequila in Mexico, they drink a lot of vodka,” he added.

Naturally, touring was difficult in a war zone.

For one, Carrasco and the band had to use burner phones, since Russian intelligence can trace normal cell signals and use them to target bombs to the area the communication is coming from.

In a world of cynical marketing and phony rebellion, it’s heartening to see a musician actually risk their life to make

a difference. It’s about as punk rock as it gets.

“It’s a circuit, 10 or 15 places to play — a tour!” Carrasco said. “Folks are dancing, and it’s nice to see that energy. I’m not getting it here. It’s more subdued. Over there, it’s like back to the ’80s — it’s more intense. ... I go where the energy is.”

San Antonio Connection

Like so much in Carrasco’s life, the Ukraine tour happened because he was willing to follow the energy — wherever it led. That same go-with-the-flow approach landed Carrasco at Zaz Studios on West Commerce Street in 1976 to record with the crème de la crème of San Antonio musicians.

Born Joe Teutsch in the tiny town of Dumas, Carrasco moved to San Francisco as a teen, then returned to Texas, still trying to dial in his sound as a musician and songwriter. Then, in 1973, after catching San Antonio icon Doug Sahm perform at Austin’s Soap Creek Saloon, Carrasco found his musical North Star. Like Sahm, Carrasco was exploring a high-energy coupling of Tex-Mex with

rock ’n’ roll.

“Doug was the coolest thing that ever walked into Austin,” Carrasco recalled. “There was either the Willie Nelson thing or the Rusty Weir thing, but Doug Sahm had soul. That cool San Antonio thing. That’s where I was at, because I was playing Tex-Mex.”

Carrasco was performing with Shorty y Los Corvettes at the time — Tejano icons in their own right — but he was looking to strike on his own. After teaming up with the late Speedy Sparks, Carrasco connected with a cadre of San Antonio musicians, including the drummers Richard “Eh Eh” Elizondo and Ernie Durawa.

Both Sparks and Durawa later went on to perform as backing musicians for the Texas Tornados, the supergroup that included Sahm.

“Richard was the striptease drummer of San Antonio,” Carrasco said. “He was the Penguin — he had four fingers, and he’d say, ‘Gimme four.’ And Ernie, well, he was a pro, like a rock ’n’ roll pro. And all of a sudden, it was a real band.”

At Durawa’s urging, Carrasco booked a recording date at Zaz. At the time, the studio offered a special deal: $250 to record a single and press the vinyl on a machine in the garage.

“There was a garage with a dirt floor,” Carrasco said. “All these pressers making albums, 20 or 30 of ’em, on this dirt floor … . I’d never seen how a record was made.”

After convening at Zaz and rehearsing at nearby Chano’s Dugout Restaurant, Elizondo and Durawa began calling in the best SA players, including Augie Meyers, Charlie McBurney and Rocky Morales.

“It took 27 cases of beer, a lot of weed and

those guys were eating bennies, you know, benzedrine,” Carrasco said. “And we had a single!”

At Elizondo’s urging, Carrasco named the band El Molino — and a legend was was born.

The album would go on to become an essential document of San Antonio’s West Side Sound. Meyers put out the release through his Texas Re-Cord label, and it came out on Big Beat/Chiswick in England. Elvis Costello was an early supporter.

“They released it, and Elvis Costello had a radio show and started playing it,” Carrasco said. “He was starting to get big, so that’s how I got on the radar.”

If El Molino put Carrasco on the radar, it was his next band — Joe King Carrasco and the Crowns — that put him through the stratosphere — at least for a while. The band had a surprise hit with the song “Party Weekend,” and next came MTV videos, a major label record deal, worldwide touring and decades of Tex-Mex rock ’n’ roll.

Carrasco may not be packing the same venues he used to, but he’s still cranking out the Tex-Mex sound he’d captured so long ago on West Commerce Street.

Life-or-death intensity

Fast-forward nearly 50 years, and Carrasco, now in his early 70s, still thrives on an energy that’s pure rock ’n’ roll. In part, he’s getting it by playing adjacent to Ukrainian battlefields.

The life-or-death intensity is exhilarating.

“I don’t do this to get rich or be a pop star,” Carrasco said. “I gave up on that. That’s what we’re doing: saving dogs and saving lives in Ukraine. Fighting Russians. It’s strange —

something I never thought I’d do. But I’ve seen what the Russians do. Every night at 9 o’clock, the whole country has a moment of silence. And every morning a funeral. So intense.”

Carrasco also maintains an intensity outside his affinity for Ukraine. He maintains a busy touring schedule with frequent stops across Texas, France and Mexico. He may have fallen off the national radar, but his music is still vital and vibrant — a blast of puro SA garage-rock energy.

The performer also released a recently unearthed recording of his band at its ultimate peak: Danceteria Deluxe, a snapshot captured in New York City in 1980. It’s a timeless document of pure party music, serving up an intoxicating mix of early B-52s, the Sir Douglas Quintet and ? and the Mysterians.

As of his last correspondence with the Current, Carrasco was holed up in the mountains above Puerto Vallarta, where he owns a bar. The recent cartel violence left him without electricity, he explained in a text message:

“Hey Bill-been kinda crazy round here in Jalisco — no electricity yesterday — no internet — bridges blocked-burnin oxoxo stores — total lockdown everywhere — people staying inside no traffic — we are staying in the mountains — keeping our heads down — for now — will keep u posted ”

More evidence that for all his commitment to good times, Carrasco remains a fearless rock ’n’ roll legend.

Those wishing to donate to Carrasco’s campaign to buy emergency vehicles for Ukraine can do so at missionaidforukraine.co.uk or at one of his shows.

music

Find more music coverage every day at sacurrent.com

music

Embracing ‘Zero Control’

Buttercup’s New Album

Send MoreYellow is a zen rallying cry against life’s miseries

BY JAMES COURTNEY

Apopular yarn about Vincent Van Gogh comprises the heart of Buttercup’s 18-song new album Send More Yellow, which the band will celebrate with an album Friday, March 6, show.

That tale about the Dutch late-impressionist painter also supplies the release’s title.

In a later-life fit of obsession, inspiration and depression, the famously troubled artist wrote feverish letters to his family, begging them to “send more yellow” paint. He was madly desirous to lose himself in ever more sunflowers and grain fields, or so the story goes.

In the hands of the beloved San Antonio band, frequently and aptly described as a life-affirming art-rock project, “send more yellow” becomes a kind of embrace of how much we need each other, how much it aches to be so in love with such a flawed world and how much power art gives us to endlessly remake ourselves.

With this album, the band’s 10th since its founding nearly 25 years ago, Buttercup has achieved a difficult combination. It’s delivered its most cohesive recorded statement, both musically and conceptually, and also offered up at least two or three of its absolute best songs to date.

The group’s three core members, Joe Reyes, odie., and ringleader Erik Sanden, have only gotten better at inhabiting Buttercup.

At a recent listening party for the album, bassist odie., responding to a question about the secret to Buttercup’s fruitful collaboration, summed things up in a sagely manner.

“We’re like the Spurs,” he said, “because nobody cares who takes the shot

and we all love each other.”

The album opener, “Angel Dust,” sets the tone by establishing joy in the face of adversity, not as a defense mechanism but as a core value.

The chorus on the disco-esque track echoes a criticism familiar to musicians who speak out on social issues, “shut up and sing,” but in context the phrase becomes an empowering exhortation to be your full self as an act of defiance. It’s the most danceable song in Buttercup’s catalog by far.

The second track, “Uncle John,” delves into Send More Yellow’s most common theme: loss. Written for singer-guitarist Sanden’s late uncle, the song is a folk-rock rollick with lyrics that dwell on the ways in which the spirit can linger through death.

When Sanden sings of a heart that “ain’t full yet,” he reminds himself and the listener that loss is never an excuse to shy away from love. As in other moments on this album, joy and pain exist together easily here — and in a way that posits them not as opposing forces but as both a part of something much grander than duality.

Another standout, “Texas Sun, Furious Sun,” saunters along, sitting sonically somewhere between R&B

and a hypnagogic flavor of punk, taking aim at the climate crisis and those who drive it before turning introspective and, once again, offering a kind of mantra: “We must focus on what matters, we must check what’s in our hearts.”

“Please Send Help,” a sad folk-pop song Sanden wrote for odie. in a moment of profound crisis, returns to the theme of loss. This one carries a more despondent edge, but it’s still twinged with the belief that the love of other humans can carry us through.

“I felt so hurt for my friend, but so powerless to really do anything but be there,” Sanden told the Current of the song’s inspiration.

For its first ever recoded cover, Buttercup offers up a slow and somehow sensual take on the Dead Kennedys’ classic “Let’s Lynch the Landlord,” a song that deepens the album’s preoccupation with the path to a better world.

“We don’t usually get political,” Sanden told the listening party when discussing the cover, “but it just seems like the right time for this song.”

“Think of the billionaires,” guitarist Reyes smirked, shaking his head.

Other album standouts include “Coliseum,” a gorgeous, patient tune

with motorik-nodding percussion that ponders permanence from the perspective of instant gratification, and “What a Mess,” a striking and dramatic song that lurches and lingers and leers lovingly at life lived large and loose. The meaning’s in the mess, it seems to posit.

In many ways, “Zero Control,” the final track, is a distillation of the whole effort. Anchored by ambling, samba-flavored percussion and gentle guitar, the song looks again at real moments of loss from the life of the band.

Here, Sanden emerges from his encounter with powerlessness and the indifferent universe with a changed perspective. And, when he repeatedly sings “I have zero control,” the delicate beauty, the imperfect pride in his voice is enough to induce tears. It becomes a mantra for liberation, not a complaint.

Sanden said the song was partially inspired by the experience of performing at the bedside of late great San Antonio artist Katie Pell as she prepared for her transition beyond.

“I had the thought that maybe all the years of trying to make music were just so I could play those songs for Katie,” he said.

critics’ picks

Gogol Bordello

Wednesday, March 4

Julie Doiron, Little Mazarn

Canadian songwriter Julie Doiron, sings deeply affecting indie-folk with heavier tinges and thought-provoking lyrics. She’s also carved out an impressive career in underground and indie music, fronting Eric’s Trip, the first Canadian band to be signed to Sub Pop, before launching a solo career overflowing with gorgeous albums. She’s also collaborated with Phil Elverum (Mount Eerie, Microphones), Okkervil River and more. Opener Little Mazarn also could be classified as “folk,” but the Austin group’s magic transcends simple genres, weaving an intoxicating stillness and space. $40, 8 p.m., Paper Tiger, 2410 N. St. Mary’s St., papertigersatx.com. — Bill Baird

North Mississippi All Stars

North Mississippi All Stars have been cranking out real-deal Southern Blues for decades now. Founded by Luther and Cody Dickinson — sons of legendary Memphis producer Jim Dickinson — the band has topped the Billboard charts, been nominated for Grammies, and collaborated with some of the biggest names in the game: Lucinda Williams, the Black Crowes and more. $41, 8 p.m., Sam’s Burger Joint, 330 E. Grayson St., (210) 223-

2830, samsburgerjoint.com. — BB

Thursday, March 5

Pat Metheny and Side-Eye

Pat Metheny is a guitar monster, just one that largely shreds in the jazz idiom instead of rock. Some fans may be drawn to his more intense straight-jazz soloing, others his journeys into abstraction and yet others into his lyrical and accessible work that draws from funk, pop and world music. (And we’re not even mentioning Metheny’s classical music dalliances here.)

This is, after all, a guy who’s won 20 Grammy Awards in 12 different categories. Should be interesting what the maestro has in mind for his SA gig with Side-Eye, a group comprised of some of NYC’s finest jazz up-and-comers. $76, 7:30 p.m., Charline McCombs Empire Theatre, 226 N St. Mary’s St., (210) 226-5700, majesticempire.com. — Sanford Nowlin

Friday, March 6

Lucero, Otis Gibbs

Memphis-based alt-country outfit Lucero has been grinding it out for nearly 30 years, so stands to reason it’s got some albums celebrating special anniversaries. Namely, the band will celebrate the 20th birthday of the album Nobody’s Darlings with a complete run-

Aztec Theatre, 104 N. St. Mary’s St., (210) 8124355, theaztectheatre.com. — DC

Saturday, March 7

Moonchild, Brittney Carter

An eclectic mix of jazz, R&B and electronica form the foundation of LA-based trio Moonchild, which bonded while on lead singer Amber Navran’s 2011 solo tour. All three studied jazz at USC, and their debut album Be Free drew high praise from soulful stalwarts Stevie Wonder and Jill Scott. Moonchild’s newest album, Waves, was released just a week prior to the show and even boasts a guest appearance by Scott. $48.19-$189.50 8 p.m., Charline McCombs Empire Theatre, 226 N St. Mary’s St., (210) 226-5700, majesticempire.com. — DC

Thursday, March 12-Sunday, March 15

Tejano Music Awards Fan Fair

through. Best known for a Southern-inspired take on alt-rock with punk and soul influences, it’s a good bet Lucero will bring the heat. $33.43-$44.68, 8 p.m., Stable Hall, 307 Pearl Parkway, stablehall.com. — Danny Cervantes

Solya, Tele Novella

Just when you think the music scene feels overrun by middle-aged grumps, here comes 19-year Solya, plying impressively produced, sultry indie-folk from far West Texas. Opener Tele Novella is a great match, offering smart songwriting and exquisite arrangements. $24, 7 p.m., Paper Tiger, 2410 N. St. Mary’s St., papertigersatx.com. — BB

2hollis, Rommulas

The gauzy electronica-drenched hip-hop of 2hollis straddles the line between substance and style. The Chicago native’s lyrics emerge from a cloud of synths and beats that would feel at home in a future Tron movie. Which makes sense considering 2hollis got his big break when his 2023 single “Poster Boy” was included on a popular video game soundtrack. Also worth a mention, he may have inherited his love of off-kilter beats from his father, John Herndon, the drummer for post-rock band Tortoise. Sold out, 8 p.m.,

This free festival offers an outdoor, family-friendly vibe and celebrates South Texas regional music, from conjunto and Tejano to cumbias and everything in between. More than 175 artists will perform over four days, including headliners Jay Perez, La Fiebre and Siggno, so check the lineup to find your favorites — or seek out some unknowns who could soon top your list. The gathering brings in tens of thousands of Tejano fans from across the country, so buckle up. Free, 4 p.m. Thursday and noon Friday-Sunday, Hemisfair, 630 E. Nueva St., tejanomusicawards.com. — BB

Friday, March 13

Gogol Bordello

“Gypsy-punk” purveyors Gogol Bordello’s high-energy sound draws on Romani and Ukrainian music fused with power chords, humor, cabaret touches and loads of NYC attitude. Led by larger-than-life frontman Eugene Hütz, yes, this band can rock it live, all while bringing plenty of fiddle and accordion into the mix. They recently collaborated with rock royalty Bernard Sumner (New Order) and Steve Albini (RIP). $35, 8 p.m., Paper Tiger, 2410 N. St. Mary’s St., papertigersatx.com. — BB

Saturday, March 14

Badflower, Olive Vox, Point North, AnDy Darling

Los Angeles hard rock outfit Badflower, the headliner of this four-band touring bill, made their 2019 major label debut with OK I’m Sick, which hit big thanks to the song “Ghost.” Last year, the group which specializes in post-grunge anthems built around dark lyrical themes, claimed the alt-rock charts with “Detroit” thanks to its catchy grooves. $48.00-$70.80, 7 p.m., Aztec Theatre, 104 N. St. Mary’s St., (210) 812-4355, theaztectheatre.com. — DC

“OK, OK”--you’ll see them twice. by Matt Jones

© 2026 Matt Jones

Across 1. Words after “give” or “lend”

6. Beginning of an idea

10. Octagonal sign

14. Use crayons

15. Buttery substitute

16. Zanesville’s state

17. Dance with a lot of moving parts?

19. Part of a telescope

20. And others, in a footnote

21. “Sure thing”

23. 1970s-’80s sketch comedy show with Catherine O’Hara

25. “No seats” letters

26. “Drugs are bad” ad, e.g.

29. “Gymnopedies” composer Satie

31. Video chats, in the 2010s

36. Play opener

38. One of the Inner Hebrides

40. Before the kids’ bedtime, say

41. Investigated further

44. Sharpened

45. Nearly nonexistent

46. “Food & Liquor II: The Great American Rap Album Pt.

1” rapper ___ Fiasco

47. Takes without asking

49. Letters before Q, often

51. ___ Moines, Iowa

52. Not feeling so great

54. Funny reaction

56. Place for knock-knocks

61. Discuss again

65. District 66. Korean simmered rice cake

68. Puzzle’s central focus?

69. URL-starting letters

70. Patch or pipe material

71. District

72. Flue powder

73. “Please?”

Down

1. Dull pain

2. Owl sound

3. ___-Seltzer

4. Caroler’s tunes

5. Frozen CO2, familiarly

6. Nonspecific semiliquid

7. City northeast of Reno

8. Stinks up the joint

9. White House Press Secretary and PBS journalist Bill

10. No longer in stock

11. One of the TV Huxtables

12. Pen noise

13. Prepare for pics

18. “Speed 2: Cruise Control” star Jason

22. One who teams oxen

24. Renaissance string instruments

26. Walkways

27. Hightail it

28. Make amends

30. Grassy spot at Dallas’s Dealey Plaza

32. Southern collective?

33. Beaming

34. Run off for romance

35. Stand-up comic Wanda

37. Store whose Djungelskog toy was adopted by a Japanese monkey in a viral video

EMPLOYMENT

39. Heave ___ of relief

42. Wing it

43. Set sail

48. They’re sorted by two or three toes per foot

50. Broadcaster of “University Challenge” and “Ludwig”

53. Powerball, essentially

55. Now, in Nueva York

56. Esperanza Spalding’s genre

57. Cookie that for some reason has a cookies & cream variety

58. Acute

59. Simplify

60. High-fat, low-carb diet

62. Similar (to)

63. Misrepresent, as data

64. Put on the staff

67. Make a decision

Answers on page 27.

Technical Product Manager II–Rackspace US, Inc. - San Antonio, TX. Lead BI&data science prjt conception->launch, align w/ customer objectives, budget, tech req. Req’d: Bach deg in CS, IT, Biz or rel tech fld + 4y OR MS in CS, IT, Biz or rel tech fld + 2y exp w/softw dvlpmt/ tech project mngt & 1+ product dev life cycle & Agile/Scrum methd. Plus any exp w/host platforms, data model, ML & biz analytics; BI & data science sys; mnge project backlog in JIRA; agile softw dev methd, user story writ, acceptance criteria def, tech doc&oversee test phases: A/B testing, SIT&UAT, Feature/epic prioritization, backlog groom, report progress, team velocity, build dashboard; SDLC, product complc; familiar w/cert: SAFe, ITIL, Agile, DevOps, Tableau, AWS. Telecommuting allowed. Send resume to careersapplication@ rackspace.com with Ref. # 56488