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…
Michael Menchaca was less than a year into running and owning his own night clinic and navigating the maze of health insurance requirements and documentation when a thought came to him on his daily commute home from Harlingen to Weslaco. “I thought, ‘there has to be a better way,’” he recalled. “Why can’t healthcare be like gym membership?” Menchaca describes it as an “overnight” change. The young nurse practitioner went…
In the mid-1990s, Carlos Rodriguez found himself back in his native Mexico. He had an industrial engineering degree in hand, but with an economy in tatters, he found no real jobs in his field. “I had no job, no car, no nothing, but a lot of enthusiasm to start a new adventure,” he recalled. Rodriguez had just returned from Canada. Here he took intensive English classes in Vancouver to bolster…
The San Benito residents living south of Expressway 77/83 will soon have something they have never had -– a comprehensive park. What is currently being called Southside Park is nearing completion. The six-acre project is the first phase of what is hoped to be a 12-acre park. The first half of the project will have plenty for residents to enjoy. It will include a splash pad, walking/jogging trail, two soccer…
Debby Rektorik has a signature saying when it comes to describing the lengthy list of activities that are celebrating her hometown’s birthday in 2019. “You’re only 100 once,” she will say. Weslaco began on Dec. 8, 1919 when the W.E. Steward Land Company invited one and all to buy property lots that were put up for sale. Prices ranged from $50 to $400 per lot. For the next two days,…
Texas State Guard Lt. Col. Richard Male performs a patient screening in Mission during last year’s Operation Lone Star.Operation Lone Star makes its return to South Texas the week of July 22 as the state oversees an emergency preparedness exercise. The event features an array of health services offered for free at six locations. Five of those locations are in the Rio Grande Valley. The sixth location is in Laredo.…