The torrential March 2025 rains that soaked the Rio Grande Valley provided local residents with a perspective of what could await them as this year’s hurricane season began on June 1. “Those heavy March rains were a wakeup call,” Edinburg Mayor Ramiro Garza said. “It was a powerful reminder that we can’t afford to be complacent.” Garza made those remarks during a recent Hurricane Preparedness Joint Regional Conference that was…
Seth Naranjo quips that Harlingen has two types of businesses all over town – car washes and gyms. He made that observation even as he and his wife, Nikki Solis Naranjo, sat inside of a gym they recently opened in the city. The Goon House on South Sunshine 77 Strip in Harlingen is located within a sprawling plaza with a call center as a next-door neighbor. The gym sits back…
Joe Vega’s family connections to Port Isabel and South Padre Island go back to the early 1900s when his great-grandfather, Jesus Vega, ran and owned a restaurant and hotel on what was then called Tarpon Beach. An old photo the parks director shares shows his forefather amongst a group of men in front of the “Restaurante, Jesus Vega,” with a balcony overhang providing shade from a summer sun. Tarpon Beach…
Mid-Valley cities for years touted their heart-of-the-region location as a selling point for economic development and an ideal place to live for commuters with jobs in every part of the Rio Grande Valley. For years there were no real numbers or data to back up the middle-of-the-Valley rationale as a winning strategy. New numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau are changing that narrative. Cities like Mercedes and Weslaco show some…
Playing the long game in scaling up a business is a cumbersome process and often met with disinterest from would-be partners. Karina Saldivar’s Amor Y Pan in Brownsville was established as a successful health lifestyle market and bakery by 2024. Her business ambitions always extended outward beyond one location to getting her products on grocery store shelves. Getting to that goal via phone calls and introductory e-mails and receiving no…
Helen Ramirez was 29 years old when she first applied for a city manager’s opening. She recalled thinking that her chances were slim of actually getting an offer for the job. Ramirez did it for the experience of formally seeking such a job. And she saw it as the beginning of honing her pitch and building confidence that such jobs were within her reach. Fast forward to 2022 and Ramirez…
Rene Jackson is a La Joya native and a nearly 30-year veteran of the U.S. Army with an expertise in logistics and the transportation of goods and products. “Ammunition and missiles,” Jackson said when asked in a television interview what materials he supervised shipping. “We would bring in all of the support sustainment stuff for the war fighters doing the actual fighting.” Jackson would rise to the rank of lieutenant…
A social media tagline for Con Ganas Mija gets to the essence of the organization and its energetic founder. “A network of women from the RGV who hustle!” Mija is a term of endearment in Spanish for a girl or daughter. Ganas can translate to “giving it your all,” or “doing your best.” Natalie Garza certainly does both and then some. In early 2024, she opened a storefront in downtown…
Downtown Edinburg has lost much of its luster with aging infrastructure and block after block of lawyers’ offices filling up what were once retail spaces. For one day at least, on May 1, downtown was buzzing again. It was the day when the new Hidalgo County Courthouse celebrated its much-delayed completion and the venerable Citrus Theater marked its rebirth with a grand reopening event. Frustrations mounted in recent years over…
The urban forests found throughout McAllen and at its wildlife sanctuary are creating new habitats to help counter dwindling butterfly populations in the region and across the country. The efforts to do so have become a citywide initiative with educational programs at the Quinta Mazatlan sanctuary and a butterfly garden at McAllen City Hall. At local schools, students gather for tree-planting events at the urban forests and develop awareness of…