Restoring the wild turkey population in the Rio Grande Valley has been the chief goal of Las Huellas of South Texas, but the now decade-old nonprofit organization has become a benefactor for many others. In the 10 years since it broke away from the National Turkey Federation, Las Huellas has given out close to $800,000 to nonprofit entities needing infusions of money to implement their programs. Organization that have benefited…
Many historians contend that Brownsville is the second most historic city in Texas, ranking behind only San Antonio. Facts to back up that claim abound, with the Brownsville Historical Association acting as a primary resource to discover that story. With a valuable arsenal of facts, information and buildings that open doors to the past, the association offers a look back to the original city founders, battles fought in this part…
When Noble Texas Builders unveiled its new headquarters in La Feria, scores of business leaders and elected officials showed up. Many wanted to check out the remodeled building that had been empty for a number of years. There were company employees brimming with enthusiasm. They now had one of the most modern office buildings in the Rio Grande Valley. In this small city of about 7,000 people, Texas Noble Builders…
Texas Noble Builders is a company that does more than construct large scale commercial and non-commercial projects, even though that is its bread and butter. Founded four years ago by Brownsville native Rene Capistran and several partners, TNB’s community presence certainly speaks for itself. The company logo seems to be everywhere these days, from South Padre Island where it’s building the new Cameron County Events Center and two pavilions at…
Little did Al Salazar know that a small bait and tackle stand on South Padre Island would become a multimillion-dollar enterprise that keeps growing as time goes by. Today, the family business owns and operates seven restaurants, and is about to open an eighth eatery, Josephine. Salazar, the family patriarch who wears no fancy outfits and who often advertises himself holding a beer mug, said he opened a fishing stand…
Some businesses come and go like the wind. Others not only survive but stay alive and prosper despite enduring one obstacle after another. Barbara, an upscale boutique on South Padre Island, falls in the latter category. The shop, owned by Remedios Villarreal, has been in business for nearly half a century and has been doing remarkably well after all those years. “I am still running Barbara,” she said. “It was…
The Lone Star State is the nation’s number one producer of cattle, with Nebraska and Kansas following. Texas had an estimated 12.5 million heads of cattle in 2018, according to latest statistics issued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. And beef consumption per capita is at nearly 80 pounds in the United States. With that said, the portions of meat a person consumes at a dinner or at a restaurant…
Some jobs are said to be as clean as a whistle while others sound as dirty as a pig sty. One successful Rio Grande Valley enterprise that some people might consider to fall in the latter category is recycling used cooking oil. A Los Fresnos-based company called Fatty Chem By-Products Inc. bills itself as a full-service recycler of fats and oils, with some of the byproducts having been used in…
Although the city of San Benito bills itself as the Resaca City due to the waterway that meanders through the town, there are other parts of Cameron County that boast the historic channels cut into the landscape by the Rio Grande over the centuries, among them the Brownsville, Rancho Viejo, Los Fresnos and Bayview areas. A resaca is an old river channel created by floods that carved out the Rio…
Tucked away at the end of Kenaf Road just west of Raymondville is a small farm that has commercially produced a little-known tropical delicacy for seven years. Pitaya, more commonly known as dragon fruit, is a reddish oval-shaped fruit grows from the arms of a plant of the cactus family. Largely unfamiliar to Rio Grande Valley residents, this new crop has yet to be a common ingredient in a fruit…