Poncho Nevarez and Justin have been friends for a decade. Poncho was elected as a State Representative in 2013. Since then, he worked his way up into powerful positions. In 2019, he ran into trouble with drugs, got clean, chose not to run again, and joins us to talk about his journey into the dark and back. His honesty is refreshing.

Transcript:

[music]

Justin Hill: Hello, and Bienvenido, San Antonio. Welcome to The Alamo Hour. Discussing the people, places, and passion that make our city. My name is Justin Hill, a local attorney, a proud San Antonioan, and keeper of chickens and bees. On The Alamo Hour, you'll get to hear from the people that make San Antonio great and unique, and the best-kept secret in Texas. We're glad that you're here. All right. Welcome to the Alamo hour. Today's guest is Poncho Nevarez. Poncho is a current state rep of district 74?

Poncho Nevarez: Yes.

Justin: Covering Eagle Pass all the way out through Big Bend. I think it's one of, if not the biggest political district in the contiguous US.

Poncho: In the world. [chuckles]

Justin: Well, probably not. He's an injury attorney. He's a musician. He's a rancher. He has a Watusi or three, maybe, a father, husband, friend. Admittedly, and he just wrote a big article about it, we'll talk about some, an alcoholic and an addict. When he's not running for reelection, he is working on an album, apparently, which we're going to talk about a little bit as well. Poncho, thanks for being here.

Poncho: Thank you for having me. I couldn't help but catch in the promo you were talking about, "This is about San Antonioans, for San Antonioans," and I would ask-- I spent a good part of my adult life in San Antonio for law school, and then because of my law practice, so if they'll claim me, [chuckles] I'd say I'm somewhat from San Antonio.

Justin: So, you're co-opting me here. It's a show about San Antonio, but there's a lot of people that have some interaction or have lived here in the past that they have something to add about our city as well.

Poncho: Well, it's like Eagle Pass, I'd say. It doesn't matter where you go. There's some connection to Eagle Pass. You could be standing outside the pyramids of Giza [chuckles] and there's somebody from Eagle Pass there. I think the same thing applies with San Antonio. It's the same thing.

Justin: Well, good. You've got something to add. When I met you, you had a home here yet, an office here. I think you still practice law here on occasion.

Poncho: Yes. I think that was back in maybe 2005 or 2006 a bit.

Justin: Well, you went to law school here, and then you and I would have met around 2007, 2008, and then we worked on that case through '11 probably.

Poncho: I graduated from law school '99 and then I was away. I was here in Eagle Pass for a few years and then I moved back and then Miguel Chapa and I were partnered up and we're in San Antonio. That was back in 2005 when Miguel and I got together. He'll deny this, but we put that firm together at a Hooters.

[laughter]

Justin: I'm not surprised by this.

Poncho: True story. We were going to go to Vegas, that night, I think. It was me, Jason Hoelscher and Miguel, we were going to go to Vegas and we were killing some time and that's where we formed the firm.

Justin: Well, I do a top 10. It's just a general number of questions. Sometimes it's 3, sometimes it's 10 with all of my guests to give some sort of flavor and background on who you are. The first one was, "Talk to us about your time in San Antonio." We've already knocked that one out. The next thing I want to ask you is what are some of your favorite places in San Antonio that people maybe don't know about? We talk about hidden gems in the city.

Poncho: I liked the McNay, the museum a whole bunch. I really do. I lived in that neighborhood, different parts of Alamo Heights through my last two years of law school. Then it was the first home that I bought over off of North New Braunfels. I really enjoyed the McNay. There's a cafe there, two Twin Sisters. I really like South Florida Street. To me, Latin America starts in downtown San Antonio. That's where Latin America begins. So I have an affinity for that. I love the Mission Trail. It's great. I can go on and on, but those are places that I-- I love the Alamo man. That's just one of those places that I'll never not want to go to or experience. It's just one of those places.

Justin: The Missions are like that with me. The first time I went, I'd lived here four years and thought, "How did it take me so long to get there?" What does prone to brawling mean?

[laughter]

Poncho: I don't know. When I read that, one, I'd forgotten they said that about me and it reminded me of a speech that Dr. Evil gives in the first Austin Powers that he said his dad was prone to buggery.

Justin: Yes, that's right. That's right. I forgot about that. For background, Texas Monthly did a little bit on Poncho and they said, of many adjectives, that he was prone to brawling and I didn't know what that meant.

Poncho: Well, I don't know. [inaudible 00:05:17] I think maybe the session before, or two sessions before, they had likened me to Sam Houston and I'm starting to think, not the good parts. [chuckles] Not the good side of Houston.

Justin: Well, maybe you'll have an 80-foot marble statue made of you at some point. [crosstalk]

Poncho: [unintelligible 00:05:34] 

Justin: Right. [chuckles] One time I was in DC and I got a tour of the Capitol and I learned all these neat, weird tidbits about the Capitol. Do you have any of those about Austin Capitol that people might not know about?

Poncho: Yes. There is, one, it's a fantastic place and if you haven't been there when we get past all this madness, you should because it's just great. I want to say by just a little bit, it's taller than the US Capitol, which is by design. Then I was told my first session that my desk had been Sam Johnson's desk which had been Lyndon B Johnson's dad. I was told that Lyndon B Johnson would play at his father's feet at the desk. I don't believe that to be true.

Justin: Cool story.

Poncho: I thought so. One of the other things too is the original. During the session, the original battle flag from San Jacinto is exhibited behind the speaker's dais. Only during the session as the original battle flag there, which is pretty damn cool. It's just one of those neat places. I remember my first session, I would look up at the place and think about, one, all the characters that had been in there and then two, just the amount of history. The conversations, all kinds of stuff. It can't help but affect you in a good way, I think.

Justin: How can a normal Joe like me go get a good tour of the Capitol?

Poncho: I got four more months there. I can give you one. [chuckles]

Justin: Do you just contact your Congressman or your state rep?

Poncho: That's exactly right. That's probably the best way is to go. You can get a tour and the tour guides are phenomenal. I used to sneak away on Sundays when stuff would get really heavy and follow the tours. I learned a lot following the tours but your state representative's office should be able to guide you on a pretty good tour.

Justin: I asked Ina this when she was on the show a couple of weeks back, any unlikely friendships in Austin that you formed?

Poncho: Wow. You'd be surprised. I got along really good with a lot of these guys that you would think publicly, I wouldn't have any business with them. Guys like Briscoe Cain.

Justin: Oh, that was going to be the name because her, I did Stickland and she said they actually were really good friends.

Poncho: Sometimes we'd get into it. Especially Briscoe, I could really relate a lot to him because he was trying so hard all the time and he's a really smart guy. He's got this [unintelligible 00:08:26] that I don't understand but I guess he looks at me the same way.

Justin: He looks very young.

Poncho: He's pretty wise when he's not. [chuckles]

Justin: Was Rinaldi the one that you butted heads with?

Poncho: In hindsight, one of the things that you do as a recovering alcoholic and addict is you try to make amends where you can. I probably only got an apology for getting physical with him because you should never do that. Although I say that, I'd probably do it again. [chuckles]

Justin: Well, now I know what prone to brawling means.

Poncho: There you go. In all seriousness, I think there was something about him, he just wasn't a very happy guy. Unless he was taking lunch money away from school children. He just wasn't happy.

Justin: [chuckles] Is he still there?

Poncho: No. He lost. I hope he's doing well. I really do. I don't wish the guy any ill.

Justin: You've got a new album coming out. We'll talk about it a little bit but who would you compare the sound to?

Poncho: I hope it sounds like T. Rex and The Sweet had a love child with Jason Isbell and Bryan Adams, but I know it doesn't. I started thinking about when I started writing songs, some of the artists that influence me, and I grew up listening to a lot of rock and roll in the '70s. I wanted it to sound rough and it does. There's something really grainy about it. I can't describe it, it's really mean where it needs to be mean. It's a rock record. Somebody was asking me like, "What kind of music is it?" I don't know. It's fast sometimes, it's slow sometimes, it's loud, it's [unintelligible 00:10:29] and it's rough. I take credit for all of that shit.

Justin: Is there a release date?

Poncho: I'm trying to pin myself down but I'm avoiding that because-- I may have told you this last week when we were texting back and forth, is that we're finishing up most of the vocal work this week so it should be in a form for us to be able to start mixing it next week. I can't wait because I'm already hearing some of the stuff that we've been doing as we finished each track. There was one song that I had some doubts about and I just went back and I reworked it and I'm a lot happier about it.

I resisted the urge to allow myself to be married to certain things and saying, "This is the way it's got to be because it's got to be." I allowed myself to be guided by what I call a really talented producer and musician too because he's helped me musically on the record too. It's worked because I'd been reading this biography of Tom Petty, and he made a point in stressing about how you can change everything up until the last minute. I'm very indecisive about a lot of things but it allows for a lot of flexibility. I think that long answer to your short question is I don't know when the release date is.

Justin: It's not the longest answer I've gotten before. What is your current lineup of animals at your home menagerie? You bought a house that had almost essentially a zoo in it, you kept some of them. What do you have now? Do you still have a kookaburra?

Poncho: The kookaburra was eaten by a [unintelligible 00:12:14]

Justin: [laughs] Is that true?

Poncho: True. There was one lone feather in an orange tree that survived the attack and then a very traumatized waka maya that, because of the trauma of surviving the attack ,pulls the breast-- He died an untimely death, I think he committed suicide. He would pull his breast feathers out and I can only surmise that he had survivor's guilt. I hate to diagnose--

Justin: No, go for it.

Poncho: I think he had PTSD, dude and he had some depression. I really believe that he ended his life untimely. I had a vet that came by to help me with some other animals, I went to high school with her. I asked her, I said, "Dahlia, what do you think?" "She needs a bird psychologist." I'm like, "Huh?"

Justin: [laughs] That's a thing, or a joke?

Poncho: I guess. I did my best but look, two sick people together can not help each other so I was [crosstalk]

Justin: That's a good point. Do you still have the watusi?

Poncho: Yes. I moved him out to what we affectionately call the bigger ranch that we got, about 500 acres. I moved them out there and they're doing real well. I've got another herd of about 50 [unintelligible 00:13:41]cattle that we got on there. They've got a better chance out there. We still have fallow deer, the axix deer, I've got Dorpers now too. Those Dorpers are something else, bro. You can put them in a parking lot-

Justin: What's a Dorper?

Poncho: It's a sheep. They're lambs, so you put them in a parking lot, they'll eat rocks, they'll eat anything. One of them ate half of my catcher's mittens which is pretty sad.

Justin: Why did it have it?

Poncho: I was playing catch with my son, I set it down and when I looked at it again it had eaten it.

Justin: Any other animals in the cages?

Poncho: We have a parrot that is-- The kookaburra was really good at mimicking voices, not necessarily the words, but the sound of your voice and the cadence. So you'd say something, he'd say it right back to you in a few minutes almost the way you said it. It was obviously nonsense, but also what you were saying was probably nonsense anyway. The reason I believe the bird learned that is because we leave the radio on, so he was always constantly mimicking whoever the DJ was.

Justin: If you take this too far, I'm going to start wondering how bad your addiction got in those time periods. Now your kookaburra is talking to you and--

Poncho: I didn't talk back to it.

[laughter]

Justin: All right. So you were city councilperson at one point, you were state-

Poncho: School board.

Justin: School board, state rep, are those the only two elected positions you had other than class president or whatever?

Poncho: That's it.

Justin: Have you been to any Fiesta events?

Poncho: It's been a long time, I think the last one I went to was in 2019. We went to the IBC parade. We were at the IBC bank building for the river parade. That's always nice, Fiesta is such a great time.

Justin: I love it, I'm a huge advocate of it. I want to talk to you about the legislature. The last thing I want to ask you in our top 10 is what has been the most important piece of advice that you have been given in your path to recovery?

Poncho: There's been a lot, but if I had to pick one, it's, "Live in the present," that's the biggest one. Live in the present. One of the things that overwhelms people that are sane or that are not suffering with this disease, is living too far in the past or futurizing everything. A lot of times people will mistake, "The guy's nostalgic," or if you futurize things, "He likes to plan ahead or he's thinking several moves ahead." You can do that without living in the past and without losing what you're doing today. That living in the present applies to a lot of things, I just keep things in front of me that I need to keep in front of me.

It's not that I don't think about my future, I think about it and I hope I have one and that it's healthy but my future won't matter if I don't do the things today that I need to do that are important to me and that make me happy. I'm not talking about indulge some petty notion of happiness that I have, I'm talking about happy. It was always there for me, I just lost it. The further I got along in my disease, the further I got along in feeding my dark angels or the worst part of my angels, I lost sight of that. Winning wasn't something to be happy about, I was relieved. Losing was gut-wrenching and I don't feel like that anymore, I don't feel like that today.

Justin: Good. I want to talk more about that but I want to talk about something. You wrote a big essay that was just released and a bunch of people on Twitter passing it around, but some of the things that stuck out with me were about your frustration in working in the legislature. Just for a little bit of background, you're in your third term?

Poncho: No, this is my fourth term.

Justin: Last session you were given some really big committee chairs, you were appointed to some really powerful committees. What have been your roles in the legislature and how has it progressed?

Poncho: Just like anybody else, you start at the bottom and I was fortunate in my second session, worked my way up from there and speaker Straus was good enough to see something in me and give me an opportunity on some good committees. That carried over to the last session that he was a speaker which was my third. This is my fourth and what will now be my final session. Speaker Bonnen was good enough to give me that responsibility.

Up until that point, I've been vice-chair of that committee for two sessions going in. So it seemed logical that I would get the chair, but nothing's ever logical in the legislature, but I got it. I think I wrote in the essay that I'd become a more influential figure. I think I had, but the amount of pressure that one feels to be able to deliver some things, especially when you're in the minority party, you have to dodge 141 days of stated and undercurrent opposition to just about everything you do.

I just wasn't enjoying myself. The process was so frustrating to me, so dehumanizing in terms of what you can do, the pandering you have to do sometimes to get it done. '

Frankly, I'll say this. I felt that way. The process is what it is. I can't sit there and say, "These people are to blame for it." I'm the one that allowed myself to feel that way. I let it overwhelm me. The truth is for most of us, if we're being honest about the process as we were there, there's a lot bad about it. That's just unavoidable. If you can keep yourself sane and healthy and readjust your attitudes about a lot of things on a continuous basis, then you're going to be okay. I just couldn't anymore. A lot of...