The front gates of the Yturria ranches along U.S. Highway 77 represent a contiguous network of brush lands with a history that dates back to the pre-Civil War era. The patriarch of the Yturria ranchlands is Francisco Yturria, a close business associate of Charles Stillman and who would become known as Richard King’s banker. The former is considered one of Brownsville’s founders and the latter became a rancher of legendary…
The welding industry is a growing field as it experiences a strong demand that is driven by big infrastructure projects and increasing manufacturing needs. Retirements in an aging workforce are creating a need for younger replacements as one industry estimate says there are over 82,000 jobs to be filled annually in the field. It remains a male-dominated industry but some shifts are being seen. The percentage of women welders has…
The head football coach of a brand-new college football team had a blank slate as his UTRGV Vaqueros kicked off their football season in late August 2025. Travis Bush had been through this before as an assistant coach when UT-San Antonio launched its first football season in 2011. Now Bush was the head man of a new football venture further south in Edinburg. “Coming in there weren’t too many expectations,”…
There were three things that Steven Aguilar was sure of when he graduated from Donna High School in 2014. One, he was going to college out of the area. Aguilar was also certain that he would never return to the Rio Grande Valley to live permanently nor go into the family business of pest control services. The Texas A&M graduate was ultimately but happily proven wrong on all counts. In…
The city of boots has refreshed its look with paint and repairs that are making it shine anew. The City of Mercedes over the last 13 years has highlighted the city’s western heritage with 30 boots – each standing six feet tall – that are placed on street corners and major intersections. The boots bear the names of colleges and universities in Texas and the United States. The city’s big…
Michael Zapata made his way through college engineering curriculum and earned a degree before realizing he yearned for something else. Majoring in mechanical engineering, the UT-Rio Grande Valley graduate desired a work life beyond the confines of an office-oriented job. The Brownsville native tried working in restaurants and then did outside sales work in Houston before returning home with a clear goal in mind. “I wanted to own my own…
SpaceX with its Starbase on Boca Chica Beach is transforming the Brownsville economy and is bringing in a slew of outside investors and companies into the area. The buzz of Brownsville becoming a space city has made some local residents wonder when the opportunities others are seeking will come their way. “We’ve heard it plenty of times from the public,” said Nathan Burkhart, the vice president of entrepreneurship and innovations…
Alexis Wooderson takes a look up a 40-foot tower that Brownsville’s Camp RIO calls its Treehouse and begins to unpack what it can do. “It can seem like a puzzle,” said Wooderson, who manages the camp’s new ropes course that runs through the tower. “It looks like a daunting course, but once you’re up there, you can feel how secure it is.” With the help of a nearly $600,000 grant,…
The Ebony Hills Golf Course and the adjoining Echo Hotel were signature pieces for decades on Edinburg’s landscape as the city established itself during its earliest years. The golf course was opened in 1927 as a municipal property before being privately owned and today is again a public golf course. The Echo opened about three decades later as a showpiece two-story hotel. Community leaders developed the Echo as a city…
Going from active military service with its intensity of duties to normal civilian life can be jarring. “It’s a radical overnight change,” said Javier Cardenas, a VA certifying official at South Texas College in McAllen. “It has the potential to be catastrophic.” Cardenas would know. The McAllen native joined the Marines two weeks after graduating from high school. He would serve four years in the Marines and admits to feeling…