Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2024 i Texas Highways Magazine

Growing up in San Antonio, writer Cat Cardenas heard conjunto music everywhere. “Even when I wasn’t necessarily seeking it out, it’s a genre that was always around me,” she says. Cardenas wrote “Stomp Your Feet, Clap, and Have a Good Time” (Page 62) about the Mexican American musical style. Though she’d heard it her whole life, she found the genre difficult to define for almost everyone she spoke with. “For some people, it was just as simple as ‘a group of musicians,’” Cardenas says. “For others, it came down to the specific instruments used, and others said, ‘You know it when you hear it.’” FEATURED CONTRIBUTORS SPENCER CAMPBELL The Dallas-area native visited Brownsville’s annual Charro Days festival with his wife, a Valley native, and their son. “From the food to…

READER FEEDBACK Crosstown Rivals As a Permian graduate and third-generation Odessan, I want to thank you for your well-written article capturing the spirit and excitement of this year’s OHS-Permian football game [“Tonight, It’s Personal,” July/August]. Anytime OHS wins a game against Permian, it is news that deserves to be the centerpiece story of a great magazine like your 50th anniversary edition. JIM CUNNINGHAM, DALLAS The rivalry between Port Neches-Groves and Nederland makes Odessa/Permian look like a middle school game. We are the original “Friday Night Lights.” LEANNE ST. JOHN Small Town Shout-Outs I was pleasantly surprised when I received the 50th anniversary issue of Texas Highways magazine [July/August]. One article that stood out was “Small Talk.” What excited me was my hometown of Longview being chosen. What an honor! JAY…

JUST SOUTH OF Abram sits a Mon tezuma bald cypress that’s more than 900 years old. The tree lives between the border wall—constructed on Texas soil—and the Rio Grande, which acts as a natural boundary between the United States and Mexico. In 2017, artist and musician Andres Sanchez took friend and business partner C. Díaz to see the famed arboreal specimen to scout a film project. Literally rooted in a place between worlds, that cypress is an apt symbol for what the visual artists would eventually create—the Harlingen-based ENTRE Film Center. Founded in 2021, the cooperative provides education around cinema and is building a film archive that documents the culture of regional border communities. Taking a historical view of the Rio Grande, before the river became a dividing line, Díaz explains,…

YAYA, A 5-FOOT, 73-year-old ball of energy, darts around us, flitting in and out of the room, each time entering with a pile of photographs. There’s Yaya as a 7-year-old—decades before her daughter and my wife, Ana, came along—beaming from the top of a float festooned with posies. Another photo captures her aboard a wagon honoring Costa Rica, finger firmly inserted in her nose. “Ofelia de la Garza, my godmother, put me on a float for Charro Days every year,” Yaya says. Ana and I lie in bed, having driven to Yaya’s house on South Padre Island late the night before with our 2-year-old son, Tommy, who’s watching Thomas the Train at the foot of the bed. Yaya shows us another photo: my wife at 3 in a China…

EUGENE FERNANDEZ STEPS out of his along La Posada Drive in Brownsville. A local historian and expert on the Montezuma cypress (Taxodium mucronatum), Fernandez points toward the tree line as he explains how this place—the Montezuma Cypress Preserve, adjacent to La Posada Park—is the last remaining stand of old-growth Montezuma cypress in the United States. “The Spaniards calculated there were 10,000 of these trees,” Fernandez says, referring to the population as it once stood across the Rio Grande Valley. “The reason they’re no longer here is they’re the only viable lumber tree. That’s what happens with being too beautiful. They’ll hack away at you.” We step through a curtain of foliage, and suddenly the preserve expands in all directions, an oasis of 41 hulking Montezumas up and down the dry resaca…

Remember, this music tells a story. Patricia Avila can still hear her late father, Reynaldo Avila Sr., reciting this refrain to her and her siblings. Their family road trips in the 1970s and ’80s from San Benito to Mexico were scored by songs of the conjunto greats—masters of the accordion and bajo sexto. Along the way, all seven family members piled into the crimson station wagon they called “The Big Red,” Reynaldo would press play on the tape deck and pepper them with fun facts and questions: This was the first song to use electric bass, but do you recognize the accordion player? “He would ask us about the meaning of the song, what the singer was trying to say, or just tell us trivia about the artist and what…

GROWING UP IN Durango, Mexico, Nadia Casaperalta recalls feasting on the fruit of the prickly pear cactus, known as tuna, until she was bloated from the seeds. Despite any digestive distress caused by her enthusiastic overconsumption, the culinary educator at South Texas College in McAllen says, “It’s honestly one of my favorite memories, even though I’d get scolded every time.” Now based in Elsa, Casaperalta’s career has been influenced by those childhood trips to her relatives’ farm in Los Lirios, and the wild edible treasures to be found there. She would harvest nopales and mulberries, and drink aguamiel—the sap of the Mexican maguey plant. But come summer it was all about the tuna, which her family would both pick themselves and purchase from local roadside vendors. “Prickly pears grow everywhere…

1 Abilene Convention & Visitors Bureau 2 Addison, Texas 3 Andrews Chamber of Commerce & Convention & Visitors Bureau 4 Art Museum of South Texas 5 Austin Zoo 6 Bandera County Convention & Visitors Bureau 7 Bastrop County Tourism 8 Blanco Chamber of Commerce & Tourism Bureau 9 Brady/McCulloch County Visitors Center 10 Briscoe Western Art Museum 11 Cameron Park Zoo 12 City of Alvin 13 City of Buda Department of Tourism 14 City of Denison 15 City of Grand Prairie 16 City of Harlingen Convention & Visitors Bureau 17 City of Huntsville 18 City of Kyle 19 City of Port Isabel 20 City of Portland 21 Cleburne Chamber of Commerce 22 Clifton Chamber of Commerce 23 Clute Convention & Visitors Bureau 24 Copperas Cove Chamber of Commerce 25 Corsicana…

Roadside Oddity: Bobz World Travelers on their way to South Padre Island via State Highway 100 encounter larger-than-life sculptures of a coral reef, dinosaurs, conch shells, and a volcano, with a King Kong-esque gorilla looming in the background. This is Bobz World—an amusement park and souvenir shop in Los Fresnos dreamed up by Robert Harris, one of the top seashell purveyors in the world. The Toughest Tortoise in Texas Residents of Mission have rescued Spike many times over the years. But no one was sure if the African spurred tortoise could be saved after he suffered third-degree burns when a fire broke out at his home inside the National Butterfly Center in 2020. This summer, Spike is expected to receive a prosthetic shell that is the first of its kind.…

NOT SURE WHERE to start your journey through the Rio Grande Valley? Try following the Texas Tropical Trail, part of the Texas Historical Commission’s heritage program. The trail offers a list of museums, historical sites, and attractions that capture the region’s history and culture. In San Juan, the Gelman Stained Glass Museum stuns with striking displays of nearly 200 stained-glass windows from the 19th and 20th centuries. Just a block away is the Basilica of Our Lady of San Juan del Valle. Designated a national shrine in 1998, it holds services for up to 1,800 people and rents on-site lodging. In Brownsville, visit the famous Gladys Porter Zoo or the Palmito Ranch Battlefield State Historic Site, where the final land battle of the Civil War was fought. Follow the trail from…

ON THE FIRST FRIDAY OF EVERY MONTH, local vendors, artists, and musicians set up shop around Brownsville’s historic Market Square, engaging in a centuries-long tradition. Built in 1850, just two years after the border city was founded, the recently renovated Spanish Colonial Revival building once served as an open-air market for Brownsville’s earliest residents. The surrounding downtown buildings—built in a style that marries New Orleans flourishes and Mexican architecture held together by Rio Grande mud—were once the city’s hub. But in the late 20th century, downtown began to fade. Today, a crop of Brownsville natives is revitalizing the area. For nearly a decade, the city has been working to restore the town’s buildings, open new businesses, and bring awareness to an area that had long been forgotten. “We really have…

VINYL COLLECTORS accustomed to dusty, sweaty crate digging are in for a surprise at Pharr Out Records. A cheery interior mural featuring citrus trees, monarch butterflies, and a music-loving giant named Melódico greets visitors and hints at a different experience. Opened last year in Pharr’s historic downtown, in the Rio Grande Valley, Pharr Out is already a destination for a variety of genres and eras. The owners—married couples Isaac and Jade Herrera and Zach and Rebecca Myers—provide an interactive record store experience. They’re as happy to engage aficionados in esoteric conversations about underrated musicians and regional labels as they are introducing neophytes to the influential regional Mexican American music they specialize in. “Folks who are just starting out—or if you’re a collector who’s not extremely savvy in Tejano music—they really…

AS A CHILD, Edgar Barrera stumbled A onto his future career in the liner notes of his father’s favorite records and CDs. Thumbing through an extensive collection of Tejano, norteño, and cumbia classics, he realized someone was responsible for bringing these songs to life. “I still have a very vivid image of looking at the track lists and realizing all of the songs had been written by somebody,” he says. “I’d look at people’s names in the credits and think, ‘Hopefully someday that’ll be me.’” Today, the 34-year-old Roma native is one of Latin music’s most sought-after songwriters and producers. He’s won 21 Latin Grammy Awards, and he earned a Grammy in 2024 for Songwriter of the Year, Non-Classical. He’s collaborated with global superstars including Madonna, Ariana Grande, and Shakira,…

in the beginning there were orange blossomsin the beginning there were towering palm treesin the beginning there was the heavy morning dewand the screams and songs of urracas and cenzontlesgolondrinas and ruiseñores chachalacas and palomas everything here is loved by a sun bright like a burning candleby the wind convinced ferocity is the only way to show passionby the blue sky stretching everywhere so immense so immensethe horizons hardly seem able to contain it and the volcanic sunsetsthreaten to spill over and then the nights so sweet so dark all stars this is the earth i think of when i think of what earth smells likei say tierra mojada and mean only one place in the worldif i am made of earth this is the earth i am made ofrio…

CORRIDO This narrative ballad touches on a variety of subjects, from corruption and crime to working class struggles and heartbreak. RANCHERA Originating in rural areas, this Mexican version of country music touches on love, life, and national pride. It’s known for its use of the “grito”—a Mexican war cry. BOLERO Originally from Cuba, the Mexican bolero added trumpets, violins, and requinto guitar to sweeping emotional ballads, creating a style that became a staple in the 1940s and ’50s. NORTEÑO Defined by its geography, norteño utilizes accordion and bajo sexto like conjunto but places emphasis on vocal performances. It blends Mexican corridos and rancheras with German, Polish, and Czech polkas. TEJANO Once a reference for music created by Texas-Mexican artists, modern Tejano took shape in the 1970s and ’80s when the…

Subtropical jungles filled with the calls of migratory birds and brilliant flashes of butterfly wings. Thornscrub patrolled by indigo snakes and ocelots. Gulf Coast marshes where seabirds wheel and alligators scull beneath the boardwalks. In a state that prizes its slices of wilderness, the Rio Grande Valley stands supreme. The region sits at the crossroads of continent-spanning flyways and North American and Latin American faunas providing a patchwork of ecosystems and the winding border river that binds them all. It is also an ecosystem under threat from the vast forces of agricultural and real estate development. “When I began working here in 2016, we had 5% left of our native thornscrub,” says Stephanie Lopez, interim executive director of the National Butterfly Center in Mission. “These areas have been destroyed, cleared…

WHEN I WAS 10 years old—after living in Indiana my whole life—my parents moved us back to their home state of Texas. To celebrate, our extended family took us to The Round-Up Restaurant in Pharr, widely considered the fanciest Mexican eatery in the Rio Grande Valley at the time. I joined everyone around a cramped table, but menus never arrived and our order wasn’t taken. My uncle simply held up three fingers, and a besuited waiter soon appeared with a triple-sized platter of sizzling fajitas stacked high on a bed of chips, beans, and cheese. “Welcome home!” my family shouted in unison, before lancing fajita meat with forks and shoveling handfuls of cheesecovered tortilla chips onto plates. This was my introduction to a niche RGV specialty: the botana. Though the…

A QUOTE IN THIS ISSUE from Grammy-winning producer and Roma native Edgar Barrera aptly sums up the pull the Rio Grande Valley has on its residents: “There’s glue in the cement here.” Senior editor Danielle Lopez, who grew up in McAllen, can attest to this phenomenon. Though she’s lived in Austin for more than a decade now, she returns to the Valley every couple of months to visit family and friends and get a dose of that RGV magic. “There’s this idea of when you’re Valley, you’re Valley,” she says. “There’s pride to the identity.” That pride and deep sense of community is a through line in this special RGV edition, marking the first time we’ve devoted an entire issue to the region that is often underrepresented in the media.…

CHAIN HOTELS ARE as ubiquitous in the Rio Grande Valley as palm trees. Whether looking for a historic stay or a birder’s paradise, travelers seeking lodging with unique character may have to search a bit, but it’s well worth the effort. At Alpaquita Ranch, one of the RGV’s more recent novelties, guests are greeted by friendly, free-roaming alpacas adorned with bows and bandannas. Located in Monte Alto, Alpaquita offers two cabins: the Casa Suri and Casa Huacaya. Both provide a modern, alpa cathemed resting spot complete with outdoor porch swings and plenty of space to feed the animals. The furry creatures come to say hi as soon as they hear the rattle of food containers from the front porch. Open since 2019, the 10-acre working ranch is the first alpaca…

Home is where the palm trees greet me like old friends. Their towering silhouettes in the distance come into focus as I make my way south on US 281, signaling my arrival in a land unlike anywhere else in Texas: the Rio Grande Valley. Everything’s a little different here. Though the days are hotter, an evening breeze atones for the sun’s brutality. With no mountains, hills, or skyscrapers in sight, the land seems to go on forever. Proximity to the coast turns everything a little sticky, but in a way that makes me nostalgic for bike rides along the canal behind the duplex where I grew up. It’s as if the Valley exists in an endless state of summer. Even when it’s supposed to be cold, it never really is. Such…

DESPITE ITS PROXIMITY to Mexico, the Rio Grande Valley isn’t known for chiles en nogada. The fabled and emblematic red, white, and green dish is a seasonal delicacy, mostly eaten in restaurants in Mexico during September to celebrate the country’s 1810 independence from Spain. So, when Alfredo and Roxanna Treviño first offered it in 2021 at their Weslaco restaurant, Nana’s Taqueria, few customers or staff members had even heard of chiles in walnut sauce. “Some of the ingredients I’d never come across before,” says Aneth Salaya, one of the cooks first tasked with making the chile relleno-like dish that originated in Puebla, Mexico, over 200 years ago. “But once you start tasting the plate and seeing the bigger picture, it’s an overwhelming feeling.” Besides the breadth of novel new ingredients,…

1/Always obtain permission before foraging on private property. Note that foraging is prohibited in city, state, and national parks, but it is legal to harvest above-ground plant parts from roadsides. 2/If you’re foraging, bring tongs, a pocketknife, and gloves. If you’d prefer to purchase the fruit, it can be found at H-E-B, Latino markets, and flea markets like Pulga de Alamo in the RGV. 3/Don’t overharvest from a single plant, as it can affect its ability to reproduce, depleting an essential food source for wildlife. 4/All tuna are covered in tiny spines called glochids. Remove by charring the fruit or cutting the top and bottom off each oblong sphere. Holding it between gloved thumb and forefinger, make a shallow vertical cut with a paring knife, and roll the skin off.…

BIG BEND COUNTRY ALPINE Trappings of Texas Sept. 12-14 More than 50 artists display their work at the nation’s longest-running annual exhibit and sale of premier Western art and custom cowboy gear. Museum of the Big Bend, 400 N. Harrison St. 432-837-8143; museumofthebigbend.com EL PASO Tom Lea and Contemporaries Sept. 4-Jan. 26 The story of El Paso’s creative community is told through works by one of the most prolific Southwestern artists of the 20th century, along with several of his peers. El Paso Museum of Art, 1 Arts Festival Plaza. 915-533-0048; epma.art FORT STOCKTON Barrio Fest Sept. 13-15 Celebrate Hispanic culture with kids activities, educational exhibits, historical tours, food and craft vendors, and live music. Fort Stockton Community Theatre, 102 S. Nelson St. 432-299-1220; fscommunitytheatre.org MIDLAND Tall City Blues…

FOLLOW THE FRUIT to the southern tip of Texas. This is the state’s produce aisle, where 86,000 acres of sandy, arable soil are dedicated to producing fruits and vegetables. Rio Grande Valley farmers specialize in growing citrus, most notably the Texas red grapefruit, which was named the official state fruit in 1993. The Valley has long been a hub for agritourism; this scene from 1979, captured by Texas Highways photographer Jack Lewis, shows a miniature locomotive chugging through the narrow passages between fruit trees at the Live Steam Museum in Alamo. Carfuls of riders live their zest life as they pass bumper crops of grapefruit, oranges, and tangerines. The now-defunct museum once boasted the “largest juice bar in Texas” and catered to Winter Texans who returned to the Valley each…