Lico Reyes
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Frederick B. "Lico" Reyes was born on April 4, 1946 in Canatlan Durango, Mexico, and became a citizen of the United States on December 14, 1965. He has lived in Texas for over 40 years in a perpetual state of promotion as a celebrity. Under the name of Lico Reyes he has appeared in movies, commercials and a variety of political campaigns, his most recent being a bid to get elected to the U.S. House of Representatives as the candidate of the Democratic Party in Texas District 26.
During his campaign he advanced the idea of working with Mexico to develop Mexico's oil and gas resources with US technology and financial support. This would help bring down the cost of fuel , increase the economy in both countries and serve to decrease illegal immigration to the US. Reyes spoke of this on national TV and to US Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta at the NASCO conference in north Texas on April 30, 2004. It is believed that Mexico has the 5th largest untapped natural resources and is also the 5th oil and gas producer in the world. NASCO/Mineta NORTH AMERICA’S SUPERHIGHWAY COALITION TRANSPORTATION FORUM / FORT WORTH, TX
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[edit] Brief biography
Lico Reyes has become well known in Texas as a colorful character who has appeared in motion pictures, television commercials, public campaigns and a variety of entertainment venues primarily as an impressionist or character. Lico is recognized as the first portable party Disk Jockey (DJ) in the USA. PARTIES PORTABLE
With his leadership, civil rights investigative skills and the assistance of the US Department of Justice (Community Relations Service) Texas’ TEA’s dropout rates were successfully challenged and $85,000,000.00 was awarded to Texas schools in 2000. His investigations also lead to, historically since the Voting Rights ACT, having hundreds of interpreters placed at voting polls throughout Texas under US DOJ Voting Rights Section oversight during the 2004 general elections. (For more on Lico Reyes see www.LicoReyes.com Lico Reyes.)
[edit] Early life
After arriving in the USA he began to study for the JesuitRoman Catholic priesthood but switched from seminary training to study agricultural engineering. He graduated from the University of Texas at Arlington, with a degree in Mathematics and double minors in Civil Engineering and Computer Programming. Lico Reyes then continued his education by enrolling in Senior Reserved Officer's Training Corps (ROTC) from which he also became a graduate. But Vietnam was over when he graduated and his, as well as many other's, services were not needed as a Second Lieutenant. He joined the Texas State Guard; served several years and received an honorable discharge as Company Commander, Captain (O-3) from the 105th MP Battalion, First Defense Group, Company C. His next move was to enroll in a four years class in the performing arts as an actor.
[edit] Acting and political careers
Serving as an interpreter for the Dallas county courts he has also spent many years in a variety of other public entities including the FAA[Federal Aviation Administration] as a computer technician and the Texas Highways Department as a civil engineer in training. However, Lico Reyes is best known for his colorful role as "Father Vito" in which he has hosted a variety of different television programs and live events and he has also become known as an effective ISSUES candidate in campaigns for public office since 1993. According the Editorial Board of the Fort Worth Star Telegram (Knight Ridder Corp.) Sunday April 13, 2003 (p. BB) "... Reyes ... with an eclectic variety of issues that frequently adopted as City policy …" Also, Dr. Alan Saxe, Professor of Political Science in the book " Politics of ARLINGTON TEXAS - An Era of Continuity and Growth " says of Lico Reyes (Text Book in the Political Science Department of the University of Texas at Arlington) "... never afraid of tackling controversial issues ... well educated, serious political observer ... Lico Reyes could be described as one of those colorful, engaging indispensable political characters that every city in America needs."
However, Lico Reyes had more success when he set his sights upon the US Congress as the Democratic Party candidate for Texas District 26. While he only managed to get 323 votes (2% of the vote) in his last bid for the office of Mayor of Arlingon (the winner received 9396 votes), he did manage a more respectable return in his bid for the US Congress: The winner was a Republican with 66% of the vote (180,295 votes); Lico Reyes on the Democratic ticket received 33% of the vote (89,705 votes), while the Libertarian candidate received only 1% of the vote (4,200 votes) with a fourth independent candidate trailing far behind all of them. It should also be noted that the Incumbent winner outspent Lico Reyes ten times ($689,422) on his campaign bid to get reelected. And it is laudable that Mr. Reyes received about 1,100 more votes than his closest fellow Democrat Hon. Martin Frost, running in another district, who spent millions on his respective campaign. Making Mr. Reyes the TOP VOTE ‘getter’ of all challengers to congressional incumbents in North Texas.
[edit] Entertainer
The unique and newsworthy factor about Lico Reyes is that he claims to have done priest comedy long before a character known as Father Guido Sarducci appeared on NBC’s Saturday Night Live television show. His version is called "Father Vito" and no matter what Lico Reyes attempts to do it is the character of Father Vito who seems to be always present, whether he is dressed as a Roman Catholic priest, or not.
- While Lico Reyes was campaigning for the US Congress in Gainesville, Texas, the local paper noted that he began his campaign stop with a prayer and ended with a song:
- Linda Goetsch of Gainesville said she was once a third party voter, having voted for Ralph Nader in the 2000 election, but has voted Democratic this year because she said third party candidates tend to spoil major party elections, though they do "force centrist candidates to address issues. He (Reyes) certainly represents many of the issues that I believe in," she said. To close, Reyes said he wanted to end the meeting as an old-fashioned church revival meeting. He passed out copies of song he and his campaign treasurer Andrea Elliott co-authored titled "Bye Bye Bush" to the tune of "Bye Bye Love" made popular by the Everly Brothers.
Lico Reyes also appeared in the Orion film Pancho Barnes shown on the ABC-TV network; in the Universal movie Problem Child and in the television show Walker, Texas Ranger. He has also appeared in many industrial films, television commercials and stage productions.
