Long Awaited Article is Here!

As many know management of the past, and now Karen, has been battling Gene Diaz over a variety of reasons. Recently he was interviewed by a local reporter, as was Karen, giving their sides of the argument. Here is the article, from South Texas Nation, July-Sept, 2008. It is a free advertising newspaper handout.

Nudist Vietnam Veteran Gene Diaz's preference for wearing his birthday suit 365 days a year at Edinburg's Sandpiper nudist resort is being threatened. Gene, a Mexican-American, is in the minority of nudists with skin that's darker than white at Sandpipers. In fact, he's the only Hispanic male who lives there, one of three Hispanic's in the club's 300 or so members.

Gene has sued Sandpipers before for racial discrimination, and secured the right to remain a resident. But management's attempts to evict him continue. Sandpipers' new owner, Karen Willis, says that race isn't a factor in her attempts to evict him. Gene refuses to adhere to new rules meant to improve the park's cosmetic appearances and safety, she said.

"I'm in the process of cleaning up a 20-year-old-park from levels that were not right." Willis explained in an interview with South Texas Nation.

"People are cleaning up their units, removing garbage...but as soon as I say something (to Gene), he says I am picking on him because he is Hispanic...He's just one of those people who doesn't get along. There's always someone who doesn't fit in, for some reason.

His Own Private Idaho

It's not simply Gene's skin color that sets him apart at Sandpiper. Most residents sport dream RV's, sprawling testaments to America's big highway days, driven often by retired nudists who span the country visiting nudist RV parks in cross country nudist vacations. Other trailers seem almost permanent, like miniature model homes with picket fences and paved driveways...small shrubs groomed tidily along walkways.


Gene's lot is a peasant's abode by comparison. His space, about 15 yards wide and long, is dense with vegetation...orange trees, fig, avocado, and other fruit bearing trees that help keep Gene fed and alive. And the shade from his trees is essential. On a fixed U.S. Veteran's disability check of about $600 a month, Gene guards his pennies. His trailer has no air conditioning. He's rather sweat it out in the Rio Grande Valley's hot summers, consoled by the shade of his fruit trees, than pay the price for an electrically-cooled dwelling, he said.

He spends most of his time on a rustic porch, painted brightly like barrio homes.

His trailer is painted, too...pink, yellow and green. It used to be the color of the Mexican flag but Gene was required to re-paint the trailer as part of an earlier settlement that allowed him to remain at Sandpiper. There is a broken down motorcycle on Gene's porch. A tenuous shelf balancing motor oil, a weed-whacker, and other house and garden paraphernalia. In effect, Gene's trailer is the rattiest trailer in the park. Like Willis said, there is always someone who doesn't fit in. At Sandpipers, that someone is Gene.

Find A Penny

"Can you believe I bought it for $300?" Gene brags about his 1998 Ford LTD that pulls to the left and whose electric windows don't roll down.

He navigates the LTD, also with no air conditioning, through Sandpipers 22 acres of clothing optional resort space...which, except for the occasional roaming nudist, seems like a typical gated trailer park. And overweight Anglo, love handles resting against his thighs, cruises past Gene in a golf cart. There is no golf course here, but residents use carts for easy access to the swimming pool, tennis courts or shuffle-board facility. Now, at the start of the summer, the park is almost empty. But come September, October for sure, the park will filled with hundreds of nudist winter Texans. And they'll all be white.

Still, though Sandpipers, and the nudist business throughout the U.S., caters to a predominately Anglo clientele, ethnic minorities are a growing demographic.

"It's obvious. You can see the change in parks, in trade magazines...everywhere that there is nudism," explained a Hispanic female member of Sandpipers who spoke with STN on the condition of anonymity. In her 40's and born in Starr county, she said that she suffered no discrimination as a Hispanic nudist at Sandpipers or other nudist venues. Willis agrees that ethnic minorities are a growing nudist demographic, a statement that is proven by existing research.

Willis in fact argues that she is embracing this fact, recently approving residence for a Mexican couple from Monterrey. Her attempts to remove Gene stem from his failure to meet park requirements, she said, new rules that she put in place last year after she bought the park.

The park will no longer allow cats to roam free, Willis said. Not coincidentally, Gen has cats that roam. With no air conditioning, he leaves his trailer door open, allowing his cats to come and go as they please. The park will no longer allow porches, Willis said. With no air conditioning, the use of a porch is vital for Gene.

Playing The Race Card

Gene said that Willis' new rules are directed at him.

Feeling the victim, Gene has complained to the authorities against Sandpipers on numerous occasions...for operating the kitchen without the proper health inspections, and for new construction without permits. Most of all, when Willis last year sent out a memo ordering Gene to secure his cats, Gene complained to the U.S. Dept. of Housing. A Vietnam-era Veteran with mental health issues, Gene's doctor has suggested that he live with cats. Gene's argument held it's ground, and the Dept. of Housing decided that Gene should be able to keep the cats.

Now, with an eviction notice in hand, Gene said he thinks Willis is retaliating against him for using his legal right to file complaints.

"She trying to make it impossible for me to remain here. I need my cats. They help me emotionally," Gene said.

In eviction papers handed to Gene in June, Willis list Gene's lack of trailer insurance as the reason. But Gene has lived at Sandpipers for 17 years without trailer insurance. At best, his old trailer is worth several hundred dollars. Insurance doesn't make sense for him, he said. The yearly fee would cost as much or more than his trailer's value.

Attorney Linley Boone from Weslaco's Texas Rio Grande Legal Aide, a non-profit law firm serving the economically disadvantaged, said that Gene can stay put at least until his case is heard by a Justice of the Peace.

Boone, however, explained that Gene is willing to pay for trailer insurance.

At this point, though, the second time that Gene has sought counsel against Sandpipers, and after Gene's filling numerous complaints with government entities, Willis said it's too little, too late.

She said that she , too, has consulted attorneys, who have advise her that she has the legal right to evict Gene for failing to conform to lease requirements. This case is heading for a court room battle, Willis said. And she's confident that she'll win.

As a nudist in the Rio Grande Valley, there aren't many options for Gene. Though there is another nudist trailer park north of Weslaco, that park is filled. Unlike many nudists whose way of life is intertwined with travel...visiting nudist resorts, nudist beaches, and public nudist sites that dot the U.S., Gene's income makes such a bare-skinned wanderlust impossible.

Gene said he was born a nudist. But with eviction papers in hand, and a landlord willing to fight the case in court, this U.S. Veteran, the only male Hispanic nudist resort member in the region, maybe forced to pick himself up by his bootstraps, and slip on some pants and a shirt while he's at it.

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