Sixto Garza Jr. joined the U.S. Army four days after graduating from Edinburg High School in 1982. Like many youngsters reaching adulthood, Garza knew he wanted to do something beyond the confines of his hometown. He just didn’t know what or where. “I didn’t really have a sense of direction,” Garza said. “The military gave me that structure. It gave me a career.” He would become immersed and trained to…
Cristina Solis Wilson’s 26 years in the military have imbued her with the values of the U.S. Army and ones that serve as the foundations of coaching business owners to success. Purpose, motivation and direction are the principles learned in a military life that have seen her rise to the ranks of being a command sergeant major and representing the pinnacle of enlisted ranks in the Army. Only a small…
David Carter grew up a Kansas kid experiencing some of the more extreme weather fluctuations seen in the United States. There are severe winter storms and blizzards to go with severe thunderstorms over the Midwest plains. Then there are the tornadoes. Kansas averages over 80 tornadoes a year and the big storms of the state became immortalized in “The Wizard of Oz.” “I grew up in southwest Kansas and I…
Daniel Villarreal’s exit from the U.S. Army came in 2006 and he knew the next mission ahead. He wanted to train dogs for law enforcement and detection work and to help fellow veterans who need service dogs. Villarreal had received an introduction to the world of dogs and how they are trained before enlisting in the Army. He was eager to do that work full time in his post-military life…
Nayelli Valdemar was ebullient on a sun-splashed September morning in looking out the windows of her newly expanded business. Valdemar’s Funky Flower Shop in Mercedes enjoyed a chamber of commerce ribbon cutting in mid-September to commemorate a doubling of the square footage of her business. The new floor space of Funky Flower at 400 square feet may not register much excitement at the H-E-B stores where she once worked. It…
Photographs of the early days of Jackson Street Market Days depict an event trying to get its footing in Harlingen. It’s 2001. What few booths and vendors that show up at the street festival’s inception space out along a city block in downtown Harlingen. A now long-gone Lack’s furniture store serves as the primary backdrop. There were doubts back then that Market Days would stick in Harlingen. “My husband said,…
Lou Castro creates what his TXQ Rubs call “Texas love” in the kitchen of a north Brownsville home nestled by a resaca. Castro’s kitchen serves as a laboratory for the mix of spices, powders and ingredients that make up his growing collection of rubs for meats, vegetables and Mexican pastas. The TXQ Rubs are now on the shelves of hundreds of H-E-B stores, meat markets and specialty shops across Texas.…
April Castaneda is a multitasker as are many city administrators in smaller communities. She is the new executive director of the Donna Economic Development Corporation while also serving as the de facto manager of the local chamber. The latter had been inactive and the former was close to it before Castaneda recently made the move from the Weslaco Economic Development Corporation to lead a similar organization in Donna. For Castaneda,…
The last week of a nearly 40-year career in agricultural research and education was wrapping up in late August for Ruben Saldana. “It feels awkward and a little emotional,” he said in his Weslaco office where he served as the administrator for Texas AgriLife Research & Extension, District 12. Saldana provided leadership for a district that covers nearly all counties south of San Antonio as well as managing the AgriLife…
Jeremy Smith’s family-owned business demonstrated a steely resolve in getting through double catastrophes over the last five years – and coming out of both revived and refreshed. “Two things – the pandemic and the fire – and you learn to take what the market gives you,” Smith said of COVID-19 and a 2022 New Year’s Day fire that destroyed Matt’s Building Materials flagship store in Pharr. “You never let a…