Company lore has it that Carroll B. “Spec” Jackson opened a store in Houston in 1962 for two reasons. One, he wanted to work for himself, and second, he didn’t want his wife, Carolynn, to have to work. Investing $7,000, he opened the first Spec’s, a wine, liquor and beer store. He opened on April Fool’s Day, which fit Spec’s personality perfectly. Spec’s son-in-law, John Rydman, now owns the company…
Pablo Pena started small with three employees, including himself, his wife and a friend. It was 1964 and the beginnings of Central Plumbing Supply in Weslaco on Kansas Avenue, just adjacent to the city’s iconic Tinaco cement water tower. Pena had worked in the plumbing supply business for a local company that closed when its business affairs weren’t properly managed. Starting his own small business, Pena knew he would do things…
Many business owners were forced to temporarily close in the spring of 2020, leading Jessica Zarate to open a shop, Beary Creative, from her home. Its name belies the fact that Beary Creative does not carry stuffed bears. “I’m a Bear,” Zarate said of being from Pharr-San Juan-Alamo. If you live in the Rio Grande Valley, you likely know Bear pride runs deep in PSJA High School graduates. “I started…
Mateo Leal saw the burgeoning growth of Rio Grande Valley cities in the early 2000s and noted a gap in how some markets were served. “How about the communities on the fringes of the Valley?” It’s a question Edward Leal recalled his father asking when the family first envisioned the hardware stores that today dot Hidalgo County. Rural areas on the outskirts of city limits were poised for growth but…
The Expressway 83 space near the Rio Grande Valley Premium Outlets will soon have a major restaurant and fueling stop development as a 12,000-square-foot travel center comes to Mercedes. Waxahachie-based Victron Energy Inc. has broken ground on the development, which will be located on the intersection of the expressway’s frontage road and Mile 2 E Road. The travel center will serve as the centerpiece of the development, which will also…
The Incredible Hulk towers over the entrance of The Comic Cave Sunrise Mall. Walk into the store and it’s a visual delight of historic comic books mixed in with newer versions along with an array of collectibles, figurines and playing cards. Stroll through the aisles and discover how superheroes like Batman, Superman and Spider-Man have changed over the years in the comic books of different eras. Go to one corner…
In family photos, she is the proud little girl, standing by her father, the skillful fisherman. Diamond Hernandez beams in the photos, helping her Dad, Rick Martinez, hold up a big catch of fish bunched up at the end of a line. “I remember my dad winning contests and getting TVs,” Hernandez said of his dad’s prize-winning fishing. “I’d think, ‘I want to do that.’” The family that fishes together…
The South Texas Chile Co. is on a dual-track mission that sets it apart from other Rio Grande Valley nurseries. The first goal is to grow all the chiles, “from jalapeno to the wild chiles like chile de monte,” as the nursery’s website states. The Raymondville nursery does offer more standard plant choices such as cucumbers and beans, but it has set out to be the chile specialty nursery of…
Driving down Jackson Street toward Commerce, parking spaces are sparse near the old intersection that’s a historic crossroads in downtown Harlingen. The MOFI Nutrition – Energy Bar has something to do with this new burst of energy near Jackson and Commerce. Walk into the business and you get a warm welcome with the music of a fitness gym beating behind the shortened wall of the MOFI’s front counter. Kaci Spikes-Kemp…
Ruben Sanchez’s man cave doesn’t feature the usual bank of big screen televisions and pool tables, with a stuffed deer head or two mounted on the walls. For Sanchez, it’s “my sanctuary,” a place to retreat within himself to take away “a lot of my demons.” He is a Purple Heart recipient and former airborne paratrooper who uses his getaway to assemble handmade fishing rods in a converted garage of…