One Rio Grande Valley car dealer whose name is today emblazoned across the region got his start in a modest-sized store selling Buicks just blocks south of the courthouse in Edinburg. Bert Ogden sold cars as a side business before opening his first dealership in the 1960s. He would purchase used cars from upstate Texas sources, restore them to running condition, and then sell them in the Valley. The downtown…
Carmen Garza describes she and her daughters as antique collectors who “love the hunt” and they have plenty of spaces to fill at their shop in downtown Harlingen. Jackson Street Antiques on the corner of Jackson and Commerce streets is one of the anchors of the specialty niche that downtown Harlingen has developed over the years. The collection of antique stores and like-minded businesses have given the downtown area an…
Edinburg’s mayor describes 2024 as marking the “end of an incredible three-year run.” From 2021-2024, the Rio Grande Valley’s fastest-growing city surpassed the 100,000 population mark and today stands at about 106,000 residents. Mayor Ramiro Garza Jr. described Edinburg as “a city on the move” during a recent state of the city speech at the new Arts, Culture & Events Center. The mayor’s speech included an elaborate and well-structured video…
Joseph Mayers by training is an auto technician who also has a flair for style and design as part of his skill set. All of those skills and others would be called upon in his early 30s when he became visually impaired due to an ongoing medical condition. Today, Mayers says, he is legally blind and is not able to see clearly past 20 feet without magnification. The adversity he…
StartUp Texas launched in 2019 as a means to provide local entrepreneurs with modest amounts of capital while providing insights on how to scale up their businesses. The event coincided with the opening of the 36,000-square-foot eBridge Center in downtown Brownsville, which houses the Brownsville Community Improvement Corporation. StartUp Texas is the creation of BCIC and is styled after similar events in other metro areas in the state and country.…
Rodrigo Cadena started his business life in the United States with a single pastry and cake shop in Mission. As the CEO of Los Pastelas Caseros de Gaby’s, his goal from inception was to scale up with more locations in the Rio Grande Valley. The cake shop company has its roots in Mexico, where it has three locations in the Reynosa area. Cadena aimed for similar successes in the U.S.…
The open-air labs of the automotive technology program at Texas State Technical College feature lifts, computerized equipment, tools and students huddled around their instructors as they troubleshoot and diagnose scenarios. Rosendo Rodriguez is one of the auto tech instructors at the TSTC campus in Harlingen. On a recent sunny morning, he pointed out what the different groups of students were doing. One instructor was going over a large engine placed…
Elma Chavez was in the midst of a busy work day and reflecting on the one before as a self-described “one-man show” at the Raymondville Chamber of Commerce. It has been about two years since Chavez was called back from the private sector to revive a chamber that had lay dormant since 2020. She knew what she had to do. A previous tenure as executive director of the Raymondville Chamber…
La Pale’s store on International Boulevard in Brownsville is a vibrant ice cream shop featuring Mexican-style desserts. A big whiteboard in Daisy Alcazar’s back office at La Pale Frozen Bar in Brownsville tells the story of a small business making the leap to something much bigger. “HEB COUNTDOWN 48 DAYS TILL PICKUP,” is written in big blue letters. The message was written in late 2024 before the first delivery truck…
The local library as cornerstones for books in the classic sense and e-books in the digital age are reinventing themselves to remain vibrant forces in their communities. McAllen boasts the largest single-floor library in the country, the McAllen Main Library. Here, events are plentiful throughout the year and include art shows and digital literacy courses. This month, the library is hosting AARP tax volunteers to help local residents file their…