The 150,000 visitors who streamed into the Holiday Village Brownsville to celebrate the Christmas season meant more than enjoying the merriment of December. It reaffirmed again just how far the renovation of Dean Porter Park has come over the last two decades and the rise of the Mitte Cultural District in Brownsville. The park and district are intertwined in being located next to each other. The whole area where Ringgold…
The roughly 300 irrigation pipes found by roadsides and canals throughout McAllen predate the city’s rapid growth and industrialization of recent decades. McAllen’s founding (like the rest of the Rio Grande Valley) has its roots in agriculture. The network of pipes played a key role in controlling and directing the flow of river water to area farmland. Much of the latter are no longer there but the pipes remain. They…
The City of Mission comes into a new year with expectations of having commercial trucks crossing a nearby international bridge by the end of 2024. The Anzalduas International Bridge is located just south of Mission. It is going through a revamping as the necessary facilities are constructed that will allow for the inspection and processing of commercial truck traffic. When completed in the fourth quarter of 2024, the city’s economic…
The International Museum of Art & Science is partnering with the UTRGV Community Historical Archeology Project with Schools to host its traveling exhibition “Ancient Landscapes of South Texas: Hiding in Plain Sight” beginning Jan. 6. The exhibition explores 50 million years of geological history and 15,000 years of cultural history in South Texas. Residents and visitors of the Rio Grande Valley may step over millions of years of history that…
Samuel Arguelles had excellent role models and grew up witnessing the importance of higher education. Unfortunately, that provides no guarantee. “I am a second-generation college student; however, I lost my parents at a very young age and have been trying so hard to make them proud,” Arguellas said. His parents passed away from different forms of cancer, his dad while working on a PhD and his mom while working on…
The City of Pharr invites the community to join it in ringing in the New Year at its second annual Ball Drop Celebration. The event promises a night of music, festivities, food and a spectacular countdown to 2024. Ball Drop 2024 takes place on Dec. 31 at Downtown Park (118 S. Cage Blvd.) starting at 8:30 p.m. until Midnight. Admission to this event is free. The Spazmatics take center stage…
To protect lives and aid those in need was the pledge made by 20 new South Texas College graduates as they celebrated their completion of STC’s Fire Academy during a recent ceremony at the Regional Center for Public Safety Excellence in Pharr. “Firefighting is a brotherhood, and much like them, our success relies on working together as a region. As a college, we collaborate closely with agencies across the Rio…
Representatives of Texas State Technical College’s Harlingen campus gathered for a groundbreaking ceremony on Dec. 7 for two new facilities and renovation of one existing building. The new additions will provide space for two programs new to the campus: Diesel Equipment Technology, and Plumbing and Pipefitting Technology. The Automotive Technology and Diesel Equipment Technology programs will share nearly 50,000 square feet in one building. In addition, the Electrical Lineworker and Management…
In response to an ongoing shortage of health care professionals in the Rio Grande Valley, 80 industry representatives and school districts recently gathered at South Texas College to discuss how to support and encourage students to pursue careers in the medical field. Currently, health care is a field that occupies more than 25 percent of the region’s total employment. As the first institution in the nation to offer a registered…
To address a nationwide teacher shortage and encourage more students to consider the profession, South Texas College and Teach Us Texas have joined forces by signing a Memorandum of Understanding to facilitate a pathway into the company’s alternative teaching certification program. The partnership will allow STC students pursuing an associate degree in Teaching or a Substitute Teacher & Teacher Assistant continuing education certificate a seamless transition into the program. “Our…