Lou Castro creates what his TXQ Rubs call “Texas love” in the kitchen of a north Brownsville home nestled by a resaca. Castro’s kitchen serves as a laboratory for the mix of spices, powders and ingredients that make up his growing collection of rubs for meats, vegetables and Mexican pastas. The TXQ Rubs are now on the shelves of hundreds of H-E-B stores, meat markets and specialty shops across Texas.…
The last week of a nearly 40-year career in agricultural research and education was wrapping up in late August for Ruben Saldana. “It feels awkward and a little emotional,” he said in his Weslaco office where he served as the administrator for Texas AgriLife Research & Extension, District 12. Saldana provided leadership for a district that covers nearly all counties south of San Antonio as well as managing the AgriLife…
Bob Mills and his oldest son cut through two ribbons in late August and officially brought a Bob Mills Furniture store to the Rio Grande Valley market. The company’s 12th store in its chain is located in San Juan and is the first one south of San Antonio. The Oklahoma City-based company now has nine stores in Texas. It represents a significant addition among the Valley’s furniture store offerings with…
Jeremy Smith’s family-owned business demonstrated a steely resolve in getting through double catastrophes over the last five years – and coming out of both revived and refreshed. “Two things – the pandemic and the fire – and you learn to take what the market gives you,” Smith said of COVID-19 and a 2022 New Year’s Day fire that destroyed Matt’s Building Materials flagship store in Pharr. “You never let a…
Plumbing and Pipefitting, a program new to Texas State Technical College’s Harlingen campus, recently welcomed its first cohort of students as the fall semester got underway. Among those students are Ricardo Cantu, David Martinez and Fernando Ochoa. Cantu, of Lyford, is pursuing a Plumbing and Pipefitting – Tradesman certificate of completion. He said his goal is to mirror the skill and expertise demonstrated by his instructors. “I want to learn…
This month, the Port of Brownsville will join the American Trucking Associations in celebrating National Truck Driver Appreciation Week, which runs from Sept. 14-20. According to the American Trucking Associations, truck drivers safely transport more than 11 billion tons of goods and products every year, which accounts for nearly 73 percent of America’s total annual freight. Eighty percent of U.S. communities depend solely on trucking to deliver goods. In 2024…
Texas State Technical College is starting a new school year with the opening of an 84,000-square-foot Transportation Technologies Center on the western end of the Harlingen campus. The new building opens up to big spaces on the major halves of the facility. The west side of the facility will be the work and training space for students in the diesel technology field that specializes in repair and maintenance of large…
Youthful Weslaco entrepreneur Juan San Miguel knew it would take a fierce determination when seeking to start his own business. “I had to do my best to make it impossible to say no,” he said, recalling the days of needing startup capital. San Miguel’s ambition was to own and run his own gym. Sitting behind his desk, he smiles and recounts how he went from the framework of an idea…
Dr. Roberto Alejandro Cruz moved to the Rio Grande Valley in the summer of 2020 and a few months later developed a vision for a comprehensive multiple sclerosis center at DHR Health. Five years later, the DHR Health Neuroscience Institute in McAllen received an official designation that makes it the only center of its kind south of San Antonio. Cruz is the center director of a medical facility that earned…
Kylie Sikes was making her way to the Rio Grande Valley and travelling down U.S. Highway 77 through King Ranch country. “You go through so many miles of open country and then all of a sudden you see this big mix of cities in the Valley,” she said. Sikes is the director of youth programs for the Junior Beefmaster Breeders Breeders Association. The destination in mid-July was the Rio Grande…