Growing up the daughter of a restaurateur taught Nadia Turner the importance of customer service and accommodating a client’s wishes. The family’s 5,000-square-foot Ann’s Restaurant in San Juan was a popular spot for local residents and Winter Texans in celebrating birthday parties and anniversaries. Turner has stayed in the hospitality business and branched out recently into a new realm of services. SPI Luxury Beach Picnics By Nadia is a far…
Edinburg Mayor Ramiro Garza called it a need for the Rio Grande Valley to do a better job of telling its story. “Our area is talked about a lot by so many other people but ourselves,” Garza said in a recent media interview. “I think it’s time we come together as one region and talk about all our region has to offer.” Garza was a leading force along with other…
Aracely Salinas’ medical uniforms business in San Benito has done well for itself over the last five years, getting established and now hitting a marker where it needs a boost. The San Benito Economic Development Corporation is helping with that aspiration. Salinas is one of 10 participants in a Kauffman FastTrac program, an intensive seven-week course taught by UTRGV instructors at the EDC offices. It’s a nationally acclaimed program that…
In 2006, Daniel Sanchez was an aspiring student working his way through South Texas College’s emerging electrician technology program. There were only about 20 students in the program back then with eight courses and two instructors. Flash forward to the present where Sanchez today is an instructor and program coordinator with more than 100 students enrolled at the McAllen tech campus and branches in Weslaco and Rio Grande City. The…
Laurie and Robert Lozano met at a Dairy Queen in what would be the beginning of a personal relationship and one that led to the world of business. They were fellow DQ employees in Premont, a little town along U.S. Highway 281, heading north to Alice from Falfurrias. At the time, Laurie was one of the younger DQ managers in the venerable ice cream-and-hamburger restaurant chain. Years later, and now…
The grouping of trees bunched on the frontage road of Bicentennial Boulevard and Expressway 83 are just above sapling size and draw little attention from motorists buzzing by on a busy McAllen intersection. But there they are, breaking up the concrete and urban life of a growing city. They add greenery with the benefits of a sound barrier and deep roots that will absorb stormwater when heavy rains come. McAllen’s…
A view across the social media presence of the Rio Grande Valley Arts Studio reaffirms its founder’s assertion of having everything “all under one roof.” There’s a “beach dance camp” to go with galleries of colors featuring the artwork of children. There are photos of teenage girls immersed in a sewing workshop in preparing for a fashion show. Little ballerinas in another image are in poses they just took during…
Yolanda Feldstein’s two decades-long career in the technology and computing industry largely met her career aspirations. She had risen to management positions at a large San Antonio tech firm. There were no real reasons to look elsewhere for work opportunities other than the leisurely thoughts that drifted into her mind during visits to South Padre Island. The Island is where her husband Zack proposed to her. It has always been…
A supply store’s vintage red sign has been a Harrison Avenue mainstay for decades even as old retailers like Sears and classic H-E-B stores have come and gone from one of Harlingen’s long-standing thoroughfares. The white letters on a red backdrop that say “Valley Barber & Beauty Supply” had faded over the decades but they have recently received a new shine. The over 100-year-old business had seen its outdoor signage…
Jason Martinez’s career in retailing was taking off in the early 2000s as the Mercedes native returned to the Rio Grande Valley with the recent opening of a Foley’s department store at La Plaza Mall. The McAllen mall went into another gear in that era after landing a big department store from a renowned regional chain with Houston roots. It was in those years that Martinez graduated with a business…