People across the Rio Grande Valley came out in full force 22 years ago to support Monica Montanaro, a senior at McAllen Memorial High School. Monica was fighting osteosarcoma (bone cancer). A group of Monica’s classmates became known as Monica’s Angels when they worked with Rosemary Treviño, a local angel-pin designer, to create a “Monica” angel. People lined up on Dec. 18, 1998, Monica’s 18th birthday, for the first Monica’s…
Before there was a University Drive and UTRGV, there was Harriman Drive and Pan American College in Edinburg. Harriman was where Al Martin started Martin Farm & Ranch Supply in 1955. There’s an old photo of Al in a hat looking at his products through a store window with a long sign above him touting “Feed, Seed, Fertilizer, Insecticides.” “Daddy has us working all the time,” said Doug Martin of…
Mariana Linaldi-Rodriguez makes weekly runs to the Valley International Airport in Harlingen to pick up flowers. If she can’t get there, her husband Rodrigo does, or maybe an employee of their Southern Roots Flower Market makes the run for them. Flowers are coming in from Ecuador via Miami. They need to be fresh and ready to fill up the marketplace room at the Rodriguez’s floral business in McAllen. It’s not…
The Weslaco Chamber of Commerce has kicked off its Love Local campaign through Nov. 27. The weekly drawing will reward those supporting Weslaco businesses by making purchases of at least $20. In order to be eligible for drawings, customers must send the chamber a photo of their receipt(s) through Facebook messenger. The more people shop, the more entries they receive. Customers may also receive extra entries by uploading a picture…
Juan Rosales started out small, buying used books, figurines and old music albums. He called it “Just Trying To Make A Buck” back then in 2012, declining his wife’s suggestion of “Juan’s Junk” for his nascent surplus business. “I bought a few Just Trying To Make A Buck things and I got hooked,” said Rosales, a retired manager of the cigarette distribution business. He then began attending government and school auctions. His…
Hometown pharmacies in Mercedes mean featuring orange-and-white themes and a community’s love for high school football. At Mid-Valley Pharmacy, a Mercedes Tiger football helmet sits up high on a main counter. Around the corner at Coach’s Pharmacy on Texas Avenue, the pharmacist is a former football coach. He also wears something orange to work every day. The down-home connections are especially pertinent these days. Customers throughout the Mid-Valley depend on…
Texas wineries and distilleries are facing a crisis. As Texas continues to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic, tasting rooms at hundreds of wineries and distilleries remain closed. This limits consumer access, negatively affects sales, impacts jobs and reduces tax revenue for local and state governments. Gov. Greg Abbott’s Executive Order closing bars had the consequence of forcing Texas winery and distillery tasting rooms to close. Industry leaders recently announced the launch…
Karla Ugarte and Juan Palma were coming off nine solid months of new business success when they reached for more in opening their second Keto Sweets & Treats. The husband-and-wife team were building from solid ground with the customer and revenue gains from their Alamo bakery along Expressway 77/83. Moving into the bigger McAllen market with a location near the always busy intersection of 10th Street and Trenton Road was…
Patrick Alvarez walks into big-box stores and their rows of school supplies and his trained teacher eye makes an astute observation. “A lot of the inventory doesn’t move,” said Alvarez, a social studies teacher at a Brownsville charter school. “It’s not what teachers really need.” The dollar stores offer discounts on inexpensive items like glitter and markers, but what about the more specific supplies and decorations teachers commonly need to…
Sandy Pena is at one of her store counters, entering inventory to soon be featured on her website. It’s early June and in downtown Weslaco the temperatures already feel like mid-August. Inside Lionel’s Western Wear & Boutique, Pena is upbeat and feeling the new possibilities in the midst of a pandemic. “I’m not depressed or dejected at all,” Pena said. “I’m optimistic about retail. I think there’s still a place…