Manuel Alvarez describes himself as a persistent sort, who once putting his mind to something is not easily deterred. Those personal attributes were put to the test when Alvarez took on the challenge of being a baker of detail-heavy Japanese cotton cheesecakes. With the help of his wife Nadia Escalante, Alvarez would “start a business out of nowhere.” Rio Grande Valley communities are dotted with pan dulce shops and long-standing…
Cassy Rodriguez had what she called “the best job ever” as a driver for pre-production Ford trucks displayed at car shows and big entertainment venues featuring stars and celebrities. The job paid well, too, but the Mission native was spending weeks at a time away from home. It was a huge sacrifice for the mother of three young children. The tours to promote a new F-150 model or a Ranger…
A walk into Quinta Mazatlan takes patrons into a visual and architectural history of McAllen. It was on this 80-acre site over eight decades ago that adventurer and writer Jason Chilton Matthews built one of the larger adobe homes in Texas. The 10,000-square-foot home stands tall today with a regal dignity overlooking an estate of lush green habitat. Quinta Mazatlan is one part an architectural wonder in how the Spanish…
Ramiro Garza’s calling cards in his successful mayoral run were advocating for a code of ethics and pledging to rid City Hall of conflicts of interest. Once in office in late 2021, Garza faced another challenge as freshly released U.S. Census figures showed Edinburg grew faster than any other city in the Rio Grande Valley. The city’s population in 2020 showed a 39 percent growth over the 2010 count. At…
There likely has never been a store quite like Southernmost Wildlife Products in the long retailing history of Elizabeth Street in downtown Brownsville. Photographs of yesteryear on Brownsville’s historic main street show the classic department stores of Sears and JCPenney. Down Elizabeth from those mainstays are blocks of locally-owned men’s and women’s clothing stores, with the five-and-dime stores nearby. Those days on Elizabeth have vanished. The downtown of today does…
Md Salman Rahman’s big idea involves artificial intelligence and systems which allow patients to upload their medical reports. Rahman envisions his product, HealthAl, training people how to use algorithms to read the reports in helping to detect diseases. It’s a brilliant concept with soaring ambitions but Rahman, a UTRGV graduate student, lacked the entrepreneurial and business experience to take such a technological-heavy product to the marketplace. Rahman’s product development got…
It’s a February afternoon that’s warm and sunny with a crispness in the air from preceding days where overnight lows hovered around freezing. Roy Landa is walking around the grounds of The Landmark on Tower. Traffic goes over the railroad tracks by the combination food truck park/restaurant on Tower Road in Alamo. Thick-trunked oak trees loom over green turf and stylish picnic tables. Under the old oaks, customers go through…
Conrad Gonzales and his crew were constructing the last of the pens that will house the hundreds of cows, pigs, sheep and a variety of other animals on exhibit at the upcoming Rio Grande Valley Livestock Show. It will be the 83rd edition of the annual spring affair in Mercedes. On a recent sun-splashed and crisp February morning, Gonzales was motoring around on a golf cart, checking on projects and…
PlainsCapital Bank has added two executives to its Harlingen banking group in bolstering commercial loan and business development services for a growing market. Charles Hervey is the banking group’s senior vice president, commercial loan officer, and Scott Allex serves as vice president, business development officer. The hires mark an expansion of PlainsCapital operations in the Harlingen market. The bank company’s regional leadership cited the experience of the two executives in…
The Texas economy has regained its jobs lost from COVID-19-related challenges and the Rio Grande Valley has largely done the same. Roberto Coronado, a senior economist with the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, made that assessment recently at the RGV Partnership Economic Outlook Luncheon in Harlingen. Joining Coronado were a roster of speakers that gave insights on banking, retailing, housing and other key economic indicators heading into the remainder of…