By Juan Montoya
Well, seems like we'll see no end to the goings on after the silent march held on Memorial Day at Veterans Park on Central Blvd.
![]()
Things were going along swimmingly and Mariano "Bean" Ayala was MCing, as he usually does in these events.
As he recognized local luminaries present, he noticed that Tiny Barrientes was in the crowd and Ayala thought he would honor him as the founder of the march many years ago.
Bean, the cheerleader of all things Brownsville that he is, invited Barrientes to the mike so he could say "something' on such a solemn occasion.
The last thing one would think Barrientes would say would be some sort of joke. Well, to the surprise of those at the ceremony, he flippantly came to the mike and said "something," that's right, the word "something."
People just stood astounded that he was the only one laughing at his own joke. Many veterans there were aghast that Barrientes had chosen this solemn occasion to make a funny. After all, this holiday is a little different than Veterans Day when we honor all vets who served. There's a place there for humor in uniform and many vets recall their days in the services, sad and happy times as well.
Memorial Day is very different and Tiny knows that. After all, to his credit he came up with the idea of the silent march, which is commendable. Many people present – vets or not – did not appreciate the little humor (very little) that he displayed at the ceremony to honor our fallen vets.
Well, seems like we'll see no end to the goings on after the silent march held on Memorial Day at Veterans Park on Central Blvd.
Things were going along swimmingly and Mariano "Bean" Ayala was MCing, as he usually does in these events.As he recognized local luminaries present, he noticed that Tiny Barrientes was in the crowd and Ayala thought he would honor him as the founder of the march many years ago.
Bean, the cheerleader of all things Brownsville that he is, invited Barrientes to the mike so he could say "something' on such a solemn occasion.
The last thing one would think Barrientes would say would be some sort of joke. Well, to the surprise of those at the ceremony, he flippantly came to the mike and said "something," that's right, the word "something."
People just stood astounded that he was the only one laughing at his own joke. Many veterans there were aghast that Barrientes had chosen this solemn occasion to make a funny. After all, this holiday is a little different than Veterans Day when we honor all vets who served. There's a place there for humor in uniform and many vets recall their days in the services, sad and happy times as well.
Memorial Day is very different and Tiny knows that. After all, to his credit he came up with the idea of the silent march, which is commendable. Many people present – vets or not – did not appreciate the little humor (very little) that he displayed at the ceremony to honor our fallen vets.