Anabell Cardona was 15-years plus into managing clinics and doctors’ offices in Weslaco and McAllen. It was then she figured the time was right, in her mid-30s, to make a career breakthrough. Cardona recalls having no fear in 2001 as she sat in front of a banker and faced a business loan with six figures in it. She was ready to purchase Valley Grande Institute of Weslaco. “Where do I…
Ali Garza of Ali Art & Co. is setting up a display of what she calls “kinetic art” as the first group of onlookers and possible customers stroll over to take a look during Harlingen Art Night. “Anything we can do to get our name out there is good,” said the Brownsville resident. “Events like one this allow us to express what we have to offer.” The last Friday of…
Look at the list of upcoming 2020 winter and spring showings of the Camille Playhouse. Now in its 56th season, you will see the Brownsville arts organization is not only enduring but thriving as well. There’s Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” as part of Camille’s young actor’s company in early May. Before that production is Neil Simon’s “Lost In Yonkers,” running this month. It’s all part of a legacy of creativity and art…
The UT Health RGV/Knapp Family Health Center in Mercedes sits across the street from a high school for medical professions. For Dr. Miguel Tello, the proximity of the health center he oversees to the South Texas ISD High School of Medical Professions is more than symbolic. It points to the range of possibilities now available to Rio Grande Valley youth. “The whole cycle” is how Tello puts it in noting…
The Rio Grande Valley with its estimated population surging above 1.4 million is reflecting its new urban realities via Valley Metro. The regional bus system is adding transportation hubs and new routes with each passing year. Later this month, Valley Metro will open a new hub in Edinburg between City Hall and the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. The new hub will come off a year where Valley Metro…
Brownsville’s public market and town hall went up as the city got its start in 1850. Butchers and other vendors moved in a year later. The city’s central square would go through various rebuilds. It would survive hurricanes as well as other calamities through the ages with a city that grew up around it. The last half of the 20th century saw what came to be known as Market Square…
Joe Bowling grew up a Midwest kid listening to his heroes. It was the voices of legendary baseball broadcasters Jack Buck and Harry Carey that carried into Bowling’s home in southeast Missouri. He was a baseball-crazed kid following his beloved St. Louis Cardinals. “It got into my blood,” Bowling said of his love for sports and broadcasting. Those influences play out today as Bowling calls Rio Grande Valley sporting events…
It’s mid afternoon at Pieology in Edinburg. The lunch rush has thinned out, yet the build-your-own pizza restaurant is still busy with mostly Millennial-aged customers. Come back the next day in the noon hour. It will likely be employees from the nearby hospital and medical offices on Trenton Road who are enjoying their break and lunch at Pieology. In the evening hours, families with young children often push the tables…
The 2020 U.S. Census will go out to a nation that’s more technologically wired than ever. Census Bureau officials expect the nation’s official population count to be the first of its kind. A solid majority of respondents will do so online. “The fact we’ve moved beyond paper only makes us more relevant to the American people,” said Timothy Olson, the associate director of field operations for the U.S. Census Bureau. …
Black Friday was coming and Shannon Farrell knew what it would be like on the day after Thanksgiving. “They won’t let their employees leave,” Farrell said of store managers at the Rio Grande Valley Premium Outlets in Mercedes. “The stores will be full, the workers will be busy, and we’ll be there to feed them.” Shannon’s Sweets is itself located at the outlets and has become a go-to place for…