Christina Vasquez in her 15-plus years of being a school counselor believed in getting out of the office. “Be visible, be out there,” Vasquez said, recalling how she greeted students in school hallways. “I always felt that it was important to be out there and to have that visibility with the kids.” Vasquez was initially a teacher before settling into working as a counselor for students at every grade level…
South Padre Island with its soothing feel and leisurely coastal vibe is as good a place as any to start over again. It has been that and more for two massage therapists who came to the Island years ago after divorces required them to start anew. Pippa Brooks tells of coming to South Padre in 2008 with nothing. Fellow therapist Mina Amesquita recalls getting to SPI “with $60 in my…
Kimberly Avila had a college degree in hand, a bachelors in cognitive psychology, and worked in law offices and as a car sales manager among a variety of jobs tried. Nothing in those employment fields, or others she could think of, felt or sounded fulfilling. Avila then decided to go way outside of her comfort zone and venture into something her parents warned had little chance of being successful. Avila…
McAllen International Airport partner carrier Aeromar has ceased its operations after 35 years of uninterrupted flights in Mexico, the United States and Cuba. Aeromar’s partnership with McAllen International Airport served 199,358 passengers and operated 6,982 flights to and from McAllen from 2009 to 2023. Their partnership was mutually beneficial as McAllen International Airport’s commercial airline traffic grew into one of the ten busiest airports in Texas. In 2022, McAllen International…
The sales tax allocation for the City of McAllen for February is $10.6 million, up 7.94 percent from last year’s revenue generated in retail sales for the same month of December (2022 versus 2021), when McAllen collected a record $9.8 million in sales tax revenue. “Sales tax revenue is not only a boost for economic development for our community, but also, helps to provide property tax relief to McAllen taxpayers,…
The City of McAllen Fire Department is looking for a few good public servants with interests in becoming McAllen firefighters. “The McAllen Fire Department is a workforce of men and women dedicated to keep the residents of our community safe,” said Interim McAllen Fire Chief Juan Gloria. “A firefighter is a first responder and rescuer extensively trained in firefighting, primarily to extinguish hazardous fires that threaten life, property, and the environment as…
“I Have a Dream” is, of course, the iconic 1963 speech of Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. For San Juan resident Carlos Pena, this phrase also expressed why he enrolled at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. Pena, whose major is mechanical engineering, has a dream of working at Tesla as part of its design team. Tesla knows how to capture potential employees’ attention, even on its website: “Using…
Throughout 2022, more than 15.2 million tons of diverse cargo moved through the Port of Brownsville, according to unaudited cargo volume reports. This forecast represents a 10.2 percent increase from the 13.8 million tons of cargo in 2021, a new record for the Port of Brownsville. The workforce at the port has streamlined operations to move essential commodities such as break bulk like steel, aluminum and liquid bulk petroleum products.…
In 2022, McAllen International Airport welcomed 875,899 passengers, exceeding the prior year’s all-time high. As one of the top ten busiest airports in Texas, McAllen International Airport’s commercial airline traffic has steadily grown. In 2022, McAllen International Airport led the region with 45 percent of the RGV’s commercial air service market share. The airport’s leading market share fostered new opportunities for travelers in 2022, starting with becoming the South Texas…
The Lighthouse Boutique Hotel is “coastal but subtle.” It’s a description of the Port Isabel hotel as given by one of its owners, Ana Martha Diaz. The two-story, 8,000-square-foot building sits across the street from an 1850s-era lighthouse, providing a name and sense of place for the specialty hotel. It stands on the land that was the site of a military depot built during the U.S.-Mexican War of the mid-19th…