The Rio Grande Valley of the post-World War II era was still new and open for possibilities. The four-county region as it is known today was less than 50 years old in its collective identity. Two young architects – Alan Taniguchi and John York — came to the Valley in that era, the late 1940s to early 1950s. They would then leave their imprint on the region over the next…
J.J. Serrano Jr. can look out his office windows and see his alma mater across the way on Panther Drive. “It’s crazy,” said Serrano, the facilities leader of H-E-B’s Weslaco Retail Support Center on 1100 Panther Drive. “That’s my high school over there.” Weslaco High School is in his front view, but behind Serrano’s office is a cavernous 408,000-square-foot distribution and transportation center. It serves as the nerve center for…
A partnership between the Weslaco Economic Development Corp. and South Texas College is leading to better trained workforces for warehousing, distribution and manufacturing companies in both the Mid-Valley and surrounding areas. A $100,000 STC grant is one component of the EDC’s partnership with the college and its Institution for Advanced Manufacturing. The training provided by the grant is initially focusing on occupational health and safety. The first round of training…
A drive into town for Jose Platon Ortega usually meant a stop at the bank. For Ortega there was only one bank – the First National Bank of Mercedes. He was greeted there by friendly tellers, with one in particular knowing his account number by memory. “Veinticinco, cuarenta dos, diecinueve,’” said Saul Ortega, Jose’s son, who grew up knowing his Dad’s account number of 254219. Jose Platon Ortega was a…
The decades of political sparring among Rio Grande Valley cities in competing for federal and state funds – and recognition – has long been a source of anguish as to why local leaders could not put aside individual wishes for the greater good. “We’re a unique area in that we don’t have one city that overwhelms all the others in the region,” said Ron Garza, the executive director of the…
Lilia Castillo Jones was coming off a 30-plus year career in the newspaper industry where she reached the highest levels of management. It was a work that had subsequently run its course. The Dallas native first came to the Rio Grande Valley in 2012 to become publisher of the Valley Morning Star in Harlingen. She would eventually go from that post to become the president of the El Paso Times. That…
Belinda Knoblach took a three-decade-long break between high school and college. When deciding to return for further education she turned to South Texas College – and discovered a unique scholarship program. As a Mission resident, Knoblach was eligible to receive scholarship funds at STC specifically for students from Mission. Since its inception in 2013, the Mission EDA Scholarship Fund has disbursed more than $700,000 to 400-plus STC students from Mission.…
The 250-acre Estero Llano Grande State Park in Weslaco is at the heart of the network of nine World Birding Centers in the Rio Grande Valley. It is a popular birding destination for not only local residents, but for birders from around the nation. They all come to the park to view and document more than 300 species of birds at Estero Llano. The park’s infrastructure and facilities recently received…
Mission earned All-America City recognition for the first time in its history on the same weekend that it lost a local hero, police Cpl. Jose Luis “Speedy” Espericueta. The weekend of June 22-23 was a joyous one. City leaders were in Denver to compete for and eventually gain the All-America recognition. Earning the award came after months of preparation to go with the years of work that went into the…
Rob Neagle was on his way to becoming a journalist before he took a job delivering pizzas. That’s when he made a discovery. “I found out that I love the hospitality industry,” he said. The delivery job while making his way through college – where he was at one time the sports editor of the University of Texas-Pan American newspaper – introduced Neagle to Pizza Hut. He would go on to…