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

Known as the “Meadowlark of the Border,” Lydia Mendoza’s powerful voice and skill on the 12-string guitar catapulted the Houston native to fame in the 1930s and ’40s. Her recordings with Narciso Martínez, Tony de la Rosa, and Gilberto López played a

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 o

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 r

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 agains

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

A group of juvenile alligators, called a congregation, mugs for the camera at the South Padre Island Birding and Nature Center. A 56-year-old alligator named Big Padre, who is 12 feet, 6 inches long and weighs about 800 pounds, also resides at the no

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 ed

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 R

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 18

Salt New American Table 210 N. Main St., McAllen. saltnewamericantable.com Ana Liz Taqueria 215 N. Conway Ave., Mission. facebook.com/analiztaqueria El Sancho Tex Mex BBQ 1625 N. Conway Ave., Mission. facebook.com/elsanchobbq La Especial Bakery 114 W

This narrative ballad touches on a variety of subjects, from corruption and crime to working class struggles and heartbreak. Originating in rural areas, this Mexican version of country music touches on love, life, and national pride. It’s known for i

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, a

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 C

Inside, the thick brick walls cool the interior, but the retired Canadian and Midwestern snowbirds around me are alight with the warmth of smoky, mezcal-like spirits. Attired in safari outfits and dangling cameras, these Winter Texans have arrived fr

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, ar

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 Sept. 4-Jan. 2

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

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 l

TIM SMITH is as much a fixture in the Rio Growing up in the bitter winters of Indiana, Smith never imagined he would become the most trusted weatherman in South Texas. After graduating from Indiana University with a degree in broad cast journalism, h

2012 S. International Blvd., Progreso Lakes BEHIND THE GRAND doors of El Disco Super Center in Progreso Lakes, south of Weslaco, is an explosion of color. The walls of the 20,000-square-foot shop are covered in Mexican Talavera ceramics and paintings

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)

402 W. Robertson St., San Benito. 956-245-5005 Open Thu-Sat 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Display items include accordions of the genre’s icons, artist performance outfits, and Freddy Fender memorabilia in an exhibit room dedicated entirely to the Tejano icon. Ther

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 Texa

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