A supply store’s vintage red sign has been a Harrison Avenue mainstay for decades even as old retailers like Sears and classic H-E-B stores have come and gone from one of Harlingen’s long-standing thoroughfares. The white letters on a red backdrop that say “Valley Barber & Beauty Supply” had faded over the decades but they have recently received a new shine. The over 100-year-old business had seen its outdoor signage…
Jason Martinez’s career in retailing was taking off in the early 2000s as the Mercedes native returned to the Rio Grande Valley with the recent opening of a Foley’s department store at La Plaza Mall. The McAllen mall went into another gear in that era after landing a big department store from a renowned regional chain with Houston roots. It was in those years that Martinez graduated with a business…
William Steele imagined a better way of communication beyond the chatter and noise of social media that vents anger but leads nowhere when it comes to solutions and collaboration. He began to form the outlines of a civic media platform that could link citizens to their elected officials in discussing and analyzing issues. Steele’s wishes soared with ambition and with an idealism he wanted to apply to a new kind…
Reynaldo Avila was nothing if persistent and so was his cause to find a proper home for a vast collection of conjunto music memorabilia. Avila toiled for over two decades to locate a permanent home for the Conjunto Music Hall of Fame & Museum. In the 2010s, the museum was shoehorned into a 650-square-foot space in a San Benito city-owned building shared with other historical collections. Avila was promised that…
The first launch of SpaceX’s Starship off Boca Chica Beach was spectacular even as it fell short of its goals and ultimately blew to pieces over the Gulf of Mexico. Some of the debris from the sky and launch pad would fall and settle over Port Isabel, causing consternation there to go with stern words from the Federal Aviation Administration. The agency said it would review safety and public health…
The chief executive officer of a major San Antonio development company referred to Weslaco in late 2021 as a “community that has been underserved.” Craig Garansuay offered that description during a Weslaco City Hall meeting as local leaders were making their pitch to business interests gathered to learn more about the community. Weslaco at the time was seeing its first signs of new retail and housing construction growth coming out…
From bean to bar, there can be no rushing the in-between at Hidalgo’s Mozna Chocolate factory. Rosario Matulewicz and her team work meticulously at their craft in what was once a meat market. Today, large sacks of cacao beans from around the world stand near a grinder that whirls around the clock. It’s a days-long process. The beans will soon form into a thick batter-like substance to temper and mold…
There was always one skill Ryan Henry had in his back pocket as he saw his journalism fade like a setting sun in one of his paintings. The Rio Grande Valley-area newspapers that Henry so capably served for over two decades have clearly seen their better days. There was no lessening of his own interests and commitment to newspapering, but Henry grew tired of years-long struggles as an editor in…
Ramiro Aleman picked up on a key element missing in San Benito when he was recently named executive director of the city’s economic development corporation. “There was no presence of UTRGV in San Benito,” Aleman recalled thinking when starting his new job last fall. “How can we change that?” On March 30, Aleman and his board welcomed UTRGV’s Office of Workforce and Economic Development to San Benito. The start of…
The view from the levee separating the 200-acre Llano Grande Resort from its 18-hole golf course is worthy of stopping for a moment to take in. It’s the expanse of what’s essentially a small town within Mercedes’ city limits. The resort has over 1,100 spaces where its 2,000-plus residents reside in homes, cottages, apartments, mobile homes and RVs. Llano Grande recently celebrated its 50th anniversary in Mercedes and is nestled…