The Los Fresnos Volunteer Fire Department is celebrating its 75th anniversary of serving southern Cameron County and one constant has defined it through the years. The department is manned by volunteer firefighters. It is, in fact, an all-volunteer force, the only one of its kind in the Rio Grande Valley. The department is unique in another way as well in that it is not part of a city government. The…
A stately and historic home on Missouri Avenue in Mercedes needed work after years of neglect. Beyond its then-rough exterior, Dr. Barbara Baggerly-Hinojosa and her husband, C.A., saw great potential. Baggerly-Hinojosa was looking for a corporate office for her Leadership Empowerment Group. Hinojosa, a Mercedes native, encouraged his wife to look at the city as a Mid-Valley hub to grow her business. They would settle on 805 S. Missouri –…
Dec. 17 is National Wreaths Across America Day, a national event to remember, honor and teach about our nation’s veterans with the laying of wreaths at more than 3,400 cemeteries throughout the United States. This year, National Wreaths Across America Day will lay wreaths throughout the Valley. Wreath sponsorships and volunteer opportunities are still available. Participating groups/locations are Old City Cemetery in Brownsville, Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Cemetery in…
The Mercedes Chamber of Commerce presents the annual Lighted Christmas Parade on Dec. 9 with the theme “A Sweet Christmas on Candy Cane Lane.” The parade begins at 7 p.m. on Sixth Street and will travel north on Texas Avenue into the Rio Grande Valley Livestock Show Grounds. Contact the Mercedes Chamber of Commerce for information.
The Mercedes Police Department hosts a toy drive on Dec. 16 while the Mercedes Chamber presents a Christmas movie to the public. The event takes place at H-E-B Park (Mercedes Civic Center) from 5-10 p.m.
The Mercedes Chamber of Commerce hosts a Winter Texan Welcome Back Reception on Dec. 7 at the Youth Center at the Rio Grande Valley Livestock Show Grounds. Winter Texans are invited to attend and enjoy refreshments and entertainment to welcome them back to the Valley and Mercedes.
The City of Mercedes/Mercedes Chamber of Commerce presents The Christmas Tree Lighting/Little Nashville on Nov. 18. The evening includes food, crafts, music and festive fun with Santa Claus.
Farming and ranching history and heritage runs deep in Mercedes. The city was founded in 1909 by a land company which built some of the first canals in the Rio Grande Valley to irrigate farm fields and attract agricultural interests from the Midwest. The Rio Grande Valley Livestock Show would find its home in Mercedes in the late 1930s and continues running strong to the present. The Farm Fest this…
Mercedes was one of the first Rio Grande Valley cities established between Brownsville and the Starr County communities of Roma and Rio Grande City. There was the American Rio Grande Land & Irrigation Company setting up operations in what would become Mercedes in 1909. The land company and its investors brought one of the first east-west railroad extensions from Brownsville to Mercedes and into the heart of what would become…
Cindy Avalos got through a challenging 2020 that as a restaurant manager meant overseeing thin staff doing the work of many as her industry struggled to survive with pick up and delivery orders. For Avalos, it was a continuation of a career working in restaurants that started in her childhood in Harlingen, helping her parents with a Mexican food restaurant. “I have it in my bones,” she said of working…