Tony. Benavides. Mayor Tony Benavides. With all due respect to the many Hispanic Latino leaders in the Mid-Michigan area, there was no one like him. And I am certain, there will never be anyone like him again. He was born with a servant’s heart. How many of us in his lifetime, felt like we had hope if we could just reach out to him? How many of us, just knew that Tony, could find a way to lighten our load? And if he didn’t have the answer, then he would get back to you with a resource or two. Add in his wife Carmen, and they together have been a power couple for the ages.
To so many of us, he was a leader because he was one of us. My earliest memory of Tony was in the kitchen at Cristo Rey on Ballard in the early 70’s. I was probably about 7-8 years old. He had to make the coffee and seen me waiting next to the kitchen door. He apparently knew who my parents were, but I only knew him as the “Director”. He was making the coffee and decided to show me how to make it. While I was getting the pot ready listening to his instructions, he decided to sweep. Confused, I asked him “aren’t you the Director here”? He smiled and said “yes”. I had to ask him, “do you have to do all this too?” He laughed and simply said “leaders serve, good leaders serve”. Outside of my family, he offered the first impression for me of what community service looked like.
At the age of 31, he applied and gained the Director position of Cristo Rey Community Center which had evolved from Cristo Rey Church. His love for the Hispanic Latino community included 33 years of leading the Center which used to be a Hispanic Center that offered programs such as counseling, medical services, job placement, youth programs, a Senior Citizens program that engaged an older population with meals and Mexican bingo, parenting classes just to name a few. He had once stated “I went there with the idea of being there three years and it ended up being thirty-three years”. The Center was a haven for Hispanic Latinos and anyone else who needed anything.
Over the last 10 years since I started Cafecito Caliente, my Benavides name has often led to conversation about Tony and Carmen and the impact they made on people’s lives. Tony and Carmen have continued over the years to quietly advocate for others. When Cristo Rey Community Center began to lose its identity as a Hispanic Center not to mention the financial problems that plagued it, he went to the Bishop of the Diocese of Lansing and offered to return to the Director position with no pay. I have no doubt in my mind had the Bishop allowed that to happen, Lansing today would still have a Hispanic Center like so many other cities in the State of Michigan.
Tony’s love for the City of Lansing, for its people, was endless. Besides his time as Mayor from 2003 to 2006, he spent 22 years on the City Council with a few of those as City Council President. From the fields of Stockbridge to Schimdt Brothers grocery store (later known as L & L Shop Rite) to Mayor of Lansing.
Yes, he really was one of us and leaves a legacy of serving others no matter who you are or even what time it is. As I look back, I have to believe that he always took his role in the community as one who could change lives so, that was his job.
The community lost one of the best to ever serve this area. My thoughts and prayers are with Carmen and the rest of Benavides family during this time and may you all take comfort in knowing, yes his name is in the Book of Life as he hears the words: “Well done my good and faithful servant”.
