The Brownsville Beacon

I am not going to put a byline on this post. This really isn't an editorial. It's a personal message to those of you who have decided to visit the Beacon and made it a part of your regular blog reading. First, thank you very much for deciding to stop by. I know I don't have a very large readership, and maybe that'll change, but I just wanted to extend my gratitude to those of you who stop by to read the meandering thoughts that come tumbling out of my head. I know the holiday season is very quickly ramping up. Soon, you'll surround yourself with loved ones, friends, and family. You'll huddle around the TV during Thanksgiving and either cheer, or jeer, the Cowboys. Then soon you'll start seeing Christmas lights and trees popping up all over town. You'll surround yourself with those same loved ones and enjoy yourselves as you get ready to say goodbye to 2019 and hello to 2020. To say 2019 has been a rough year is an understatement. Those of you who ...

By Diego Garcia III | Editor of The Brownsville Beacon This past Thursday, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission gave the go-ahead to three companies wanting to build liquefied natural gas (LNG) plants at the Port of Brownsville. The Brownsville Herald and El Rrun Rrun both broke the story in yesterday's edition of their respective outlets. The three companies gearing up to build their pipeline transfer plants are Texas LNG, Anova LNG, and Rio Grande LNG (whose parent company is NextDecade Corporation). The Port is pleased with the FERC decision, as this opens the door for the companies to move their plans forward. If everything goes according to plan, this means three multi-billion dollar plants will bring thousands of jobs to the region. As far as economic development is concerned, this is a big leap forward for Brownsville, for the Port of Brownsville, and for the entire Rio Grande Valley.  For those who see this as a positive thing for the Valley, we can only hope th...

By Diego Garcia III | Editor of The Brownsville Beacon I like television and I love movies. I have half a dozen streaming services along with regular cable. I like watching shows that I've watched before. Among my favorites are The West Wing , NYPD Blue , and Sons of Anarchy . One of my favorite movies is The Godfather . That led me to rediscover the HBO show The Sopranos . In the show, Tony Soprano is the boss of a northern New Jersey organized crime family. His "day job" is being an administrator of a waste management company. He controls unions, construction, and garbage collecting in his territory. He has a monopoly over the region. It is a monopoly very similar to the one our local utility company has. In addition to the stranglehold the Brownsville Public Utility Board has over us, they also have a unique distinction — they are the only utility company in the Rio Grande Valley to be owned by the city. In addition to electrical power, it is also important to reme...

By Diego Garcia III | Editor of The Brownsville Beacon For the handful of you who have read through my blog, I don't need to repeat myself. You know what I think about SpaceX, and for those of you who don't frequent my blog, you can scroll through and find my other article on the swindling pseudo-explorers.  Now, in addition to lying to Brownsville by failing to deliver on their promises of several high-paying jobs for Brownsvillians, the company suffered a catastrophic failure of one of their MK-1 rocket ship prototypes at their Boca Chica site. Clouds of chemicals shot high into the sky as the rocket broke apart. I will not pretend to play rocket scientist, nor will I plagiarize other articles that have been written. If you want a more journalistic breakdown, I welcome you to visit The Brownsville Herald's site for a professionally written article. If you want a way better written article, I welcome you to visit Juan Montoya's El Rrun Rrun for an article that ex...

By Diego Garcia III | Editor of The Brownsville Beacon This nation's education system is broken. You've heard that thousands of times from thousands of talking heads on television and in the print media. Schools are crumbling, extracurricular programs keep getting cut because of lack of funding, and scores and graduation rates keep getting lower and lower. All of this has caused alternative education institutions to pop up all around the country offering a different (and supposedly) better approach to teaching children.  There are several reasons why our education system is failing, but they all seem to center around one main factor — education is no longer an institution for learning and teaching — education has become a business, and a big business at that. When you speak to someone who is in a position of authority in any educational capacity, you will often times hear them say the same thing over and over again. Talk to a big boss in education and inevitably you'll ...

By Diego Garcia III | Editor of The Brownsville Beacon Before 2008, the only mobile food trucks seen across the country were usually parked outside a construction site. Food trucks were rarely seen outside areas that served hordes of hungry laborers looking for an alternative to whatever had been packed in their aluminum lunch pail. Over the last ten years, food trucks have been popping up all over the United States. Texas is no exception to the food truck phenomenon. Major urban areas like Austin, Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio have several food trucks offering everything from burgers and barbecue to Asian cuisine and vegan fare. The Rio Grande Valley has not been left behind. Over the last few years, several food trucks have begun serving in McAllen, Harlingen, and Brownsville. Food trucks offer those wanting to open up a restaurant a low-cost alternative. Traditional brick and mortar restaurants often times come with huge startup costs. Operating a food truck allows chefs the ...

By Diego Garcia III | Editor of The Brownsville Beacon I used to be a pretty decent cartoonist when I was younger. I don't really know why I never really tried doing anything with that professionally. I used to draw the editorial cartoons for my school newspaper, and I have a couple of comic book inking credits to my name. I've also done some amateur graphic design, drawing some logos for some local businesses.  When I was younger, I won a couple of art contests and one person who is very active in local politics once thought I would become the next Anton. I don't know what happened. I guess life gets in the way. Soon, the Beacon will be running some original political/editorial cartoons. I hope you will enjoy them. Keep an eye out for the cartoons. 

By Diego Garcia III | Editor of The Brownsville Beacon Space Exploration Technologies Corporation. You know it as SpaceX. In 2012, word started spreading that the private space company was looking to build a privately owned launch facility. The company currently uses three government-owned launch sites — one in California and the other two in Florida. People in Cameron County were excited because the word around the campfire was Brownsville was in the running to have this private launch facility built in our very own backyard. The local politicians began dreaming of all the revenue a space rocket launch facility would bring to the area.  SpaceX said hundreds of jobs would be created for people living in one of the poorest communities in the United States. These wouldn't be minimum wage jobs, mind you. These were high paying, big ticket, 75,000+ dollar a year jobs that Brownsvillians would have a shot at. Partnerships between local educational institutions were talked about. Eng...

By Diego Garcia III | Editor of The Brownsville Beacon Recently, Jim Barton, Editor of The Brownsville Observer , one of Brownsville's more established blogs, accompanied his wife and a friend to a meeting of the Cameron County Democratic Women. The meeting was held at Rudy's BBQ. When Barton and company arrived at the meeting, and Barton introduced himself as the editor of the Observer , the person leading the meeting informed Barton men weren't usually allowed, or welcome, at their meetings. The group further explained they only throw their support behind female candidates.  Since publishing his original article, the Cameron County Democratic Women have said what Barton printed was "a lie." In a follow-up article, Jared Hockema, the Cameron County Democratic Chair sent a message to Barton. The message said the Cameron County Democratic Women was not an official group attached to the Cameron County Democratic Party, nor were they affiliated with the Texas Dem...

By Diego Garcia III | Editor of The Brownsville Beacon Brownsville needs a real local newspaper. The Brownsville Herald is not printed in Brownsville. The Brownsville Herald is staffed by writers from The Valley Morning Star and the Monitor . There are a handful of reporters in Brownsville, but many of the articles printed in the Herald have bylines from Valley Morning Star or Monitor reporters. The Brownsville Herald used to be printed in Brownsville. I clearly remember seeing reams of newsprint being wheeled in to the warehouse where the printing presses ran. I remember seeing newspaper delivery trucks lined up to receive their copies of the Herald to be distributed to all points of the city.  I remember walking in to the newspaper offices to drop off samples of my political cartoons when I had hoped to succeed Anton as the editorial cartoonist. I remember the office being abuzz with reporters typing away at their desks and phones ringing — it looked like a rea...

By Diego Garcia III | Editor of The Brownsville Beacon With Veterans Day upon us, and with all the controversy surrounding the renaming of East Fronton Street after Harry McNair's family, I figured I'd present someone who should have something named after him here in town. If you've ever gone to the Brownsville Public Library, you've passed by Veteran's Park. In Veteran's Park, there's a statue of a World War II soldier holding a machine gun locked, loaded, and ready for battle.  The soldier that statue memorializes is Sergeant José Mendoza López. López was born in Mexico and eventually made his way to Brownsville where he would gain notoriety as a boxer. While in Australia for a boxing match, he joined the Merchant Marines. He was drafted upon his return to Brownsville in 1942.  On December 17, 1944, Sergeant López would commit an unbelievably selfless act of bravery which would lead to his earning the Medal of Honor, the country's highest a...

Here are a couple of photographs of the Fort Brown National Cemetery. These are from the Robert Runyon Collection housed at the University of Texas at Austin's Briscoe Center for American History. Workers exhuming the remains for their move to Louisiana

By Diego Garcia III | Editor of The Brownsville Beacon If you end up being a regular visitor of this blog, you'll eventually find out my fascination with all things Amigoland and Amigoland Mall. Among my other strange personality quirks, I am fascinated with urban exploration, abandoned buildings, and ghost towns.  When you were growing up in Brownsville in the 70s, 80s, and 90s, you were either an Amigoland Mall kid, or a Sunrise Mall kid. I was the former. This is a write-up I submitted to deadmalls.com — a website dedicated to abandoned, dead, and dying malls across the country.  Editor's Note: I am aware the University of Texas no longer has control of the building. When UTB-TSC split, Texas Southmost College has control of the building now. Keep in mind this article was posted over eight years ago. Posted April 24, 2011 (user submitted) Ground was broken at the future site of the Amigoland Mall in July 14, 1972. It was a Melvin Simon & Associates prope...

By Diego Garcia III | Editor of The Brownsville Beacon The reboots just keep on coming. Last night, the Beacon's entertainment staff spent an evening at the movies. We decided to take in Roland Emmerich's new WWII epic blockbuster Midway . It was touted as a reboot of the 1976 film starring Henry Fonda, Charlton Heston, and James Coburn. Calling it a reboot is a stretch. I suppose if we broaden the definition to mean movies that are made based on a subject that has already been covered, sure, this is a reboot. A more accurate description would be a movie that incorporates way too many parts of one of the most critical and pivotal moments in US history that is mashed together and cut to fit the current American attention span. That said, I don't think that would all fit on the promotional material.  Roland Emmerich is the master of disaster movies, and that's exactly what this movie is — a disaster. It tries too hard. The original Midway begins with the Doolittle R...