Hector "Tito" Palacios

---

Personal Information

Hector "Tito" Palacios is a native of the Rio Grande Valley. Tito, as he is more commonly known, has dedicated years of his personal time in local community service and has become an active participant in the Hispanic Community for most of his entire life.

Mr. Palacios is happily married to Berta Palacios, and has three children, Jay (Elisa) Palacios, Melissa (Dave) Huffman, and Maricela (Albert) Benitez and two grandchildren, Avery D. Venitez, 13 and Cody Huffman, 11. His wife, Berta, is the Administrator for Elementary Education at the Pharr-San Juan-Alamo (PSJA) Independent School District.
Following his graduation from the PSJA school system, Commissioner Palacios became involved in youth baseball. For over fifteen (15) years, he served as a coach and then ultimately succeeded, with the support of his peers, by being selected as League President of the Pharr Baseball League.

Throughout his public service career, Tito has expressed awareness and devotion in efforts to improve the “quality of life” for the Hispanic Community. He has long held the belief that people do not want a hand out as a way to improve their economic standing, but rather he has insisted that people would rather prefer a hand up.

His service on the San Juan Lions Club, the Pharr Jaycees, as well as his years of service as Mayor of San Juan, Board Trustee for the PSJA Independent School District and currently, as County Commissioner for Hidalgo County Precinct 2, exemplifies his willingness and his commitment of his time, talent, and efforts to work toward improving every aspect of our area’s quality of life.

Commissioner Palacios has served on the Board of Directors for the Amigos Del Valle organization. He was recognized as a true leader by his appointment, by former Texas State Governor Mark White, to the Rio Grande Regional Review Committee. Commissioner Palacios has also served as a member of the Board of Directors for Region One Education Service Center and for nearly 28 years, he was employed by the Texas Department of Human Services.

Mr. Palacios played a major role in the movement in Hidalgo County to provide clean, safe drinking water to hundreds of impoverished neighborhoods known in our area as colonias. He was also instrumental in obtaining much needed sanitary sewer connections to numerous colonias in his county precinct.

He has spearheaded the efforts toward the establishment of a major recreational park on the north side of the City of San Juan, working closely with that community’s leaders, local residents, and other partners to insure the availability of outdoor recreational opportunities.

Mr. Palacios has also worked hard to create partnerships with Texas A&M University’s Colonia Initiative Program, the Hidalgo County Head Start Program, Hidalgo County’s Women, Infant and Children’s Program, and local associations that have led to the foundation of a multi-purpose community resource center at the North San Juan Park.

Each year, Mr. Palacios commits and provides substantial funding to the Boys and Girls Club of Pharr, San Juan and Alamo, from the Hidalgo County’s Urban County Precinct 2 Program allocation.

His philosophy of forming solid, working relationships with public and private entities have earned success in achieving goal-oriented initiative in the community as well as the respect of this peers.

His unwillingness to take credit for much of the progress he helped initiate for Hispanics in our area, speaks highly of his character in as much as he is working to promote and improve the our area’s standard of living with little regard for his own personal gain.

Commissioner Palacios was recently honored by the University of Texas Pan-American as a 2001 recipient of the Notable Valley Hispanics Award.