The Brownsville Beacon

By Diego Garcia III | Editor of The Brownsville Beacon Charro Days looked very different 80 years ago. There was no Sombrero Festival, no Mr. Amigo, the parades followed different routes, and there were some very different events. The "pre-fiesta" started with a ball, a dance, and a fashion show at the Capitol Theater. There was no parade on Thursday. There was a promenade set up where people could walk and see some of the costumes on display. There was a "Grand Kermesse," which seems to be a large street party similar to what a church carnival might be, an art exhibit, and a Grand Ball in the patio of the Hotel El Jardin. Friday saw the Grand Kermesse continue, another ball, and the first of three parades; the Grand Fiesta Parade. There was also an International Rodeo. Another art exhibit and a junior ball were also part of the festivities. Saturday saw day two of the International Rodeo. Friday also had a double dose of parades; the Children's Pa...

By Diego Garcia III | Editor of The Brownsville Beacon A Sovereign Citizen, sometimes called a SovCit, and the Sovereign Citizen Movement is something that has been sweeping the nation in recent years. According to Wikipedia: The sovereign citizen movement is a loose grouping of American and Commonwealth litigants, commentators, tax protesters, and financial-scheme promoters. Self-described "sovereign citizens" see themselves as answerable only to their particular interpretation of the common law and as not subject to any government statutes or proceedings. In the United States, they do not recognize U.S. currency and maintain that they are "free of any legal constraints." They especially reject most forms of taxation as illegitimate. Participants in the movement argue this concept in opposition to the idea of "federal citizens," who, they say, have unknowingly forfeited their rights by accepting some aspect of federal law. To make a long story short,...

The Brownsville Beacon does not mince words when it comes to charter schools. We believe calling these organizations schools is a stretch and calling them public schools is laughable. They often times operate under a veil of secrecy and confidentiality. Where traditional public schools are subject to information requests by the citizenry, charter schools do not. These charter schools receive state funding and operate with minimal oversight. They operate private entities within the companies that secure private donations and funds. If these schools are to continue receiving public funds, they should be held to the same accountability standards, rules, and regulations as traditional public schools are. Jacob Carpenter is a writer for the Houston Chronicle . His article follows below. After backlash over $2M luxury jet, IDEA charter schools to stop spending $400K on Spurs tickets Several weeks after IDEA Public Schools nixed plans to spend millions of dollars on a charter jet ...

By Diego Garcia III | Editor of The Brownsville Beacon Before Brownsville's slogan was "on the border, by the sea," it was "crossroads of the hemisphere."  Patch showing Brownsville's old logo Before Brownsville's logo was the bell tower at Market Square flanked by palm trees, it was a compass rose with crossed golf clubs, palm trees, a meandering waterway, and the Gateway International Bridge in each of the quadrants. It is in this vintage logo where city leaders found inspiration in naming their three day festival showcasing Brownsville's film, music, food, politics, and art. A few weeks ago, a cryptic City of Brownsville Facebook post showed a simple logo of interlocking triangles and a parallelogram with the word "CROSSROADS." Yesterday, the city held a press conference where they unveiled what Crossroads is. Crossroads is going to be a three-day festival during Charro Days Fiesta week. According to an article writt...

By Diego Garcia III | Editor of The Brownsville Beacon There are those who are planning a new vision for Brownsville and the Lower Rio Grande Valley. Rails-to-Trails Conservancy is a nonprofit organization that specializes in converting old rail lines into multi-use trails in an effort to promote a healthier lifestyle to the community. They have set their sights on South Texas. They plan to link the cities of Brownsville, Harlingen, Combes, Los Fresnos, Los Indios, Port Isabel, San Benito, South Padre Island, and the towns of Laguna Vista and Rancho Viejo with a 428 mile long network of trails. They will be an amalgam of multi-use, cycling, and paddling trails.  Rails-to-Trails have identified six major starting points to their plan. They have labeled these as "catalyst projects," designed to kick-start the entire venture. Among the catalyst projects is the "Battlefield Extension Segment." Its plan is exactly what it sounds like — extending Brownsville...

By Diego Garcia III | Editor of The Brownsville Beacon Erasmo Castro was spotted picking up a candidate packet at the Texas Southmost College District Office on Wednesday. It appears as if Castro, in addition to running for the District 38 State Representative office will be seeking election to the Texas Southmost College board of trustees. It is unclear what position he will be seeking. His first hurdle as the Republican candidate for District 38 will be the upcoming March primary. However, it shouldn't be too difficult a hurdle to clear since he is running unopposed.  Currently up for election in the May 2 election are Places 1, 2, and 4. The trustee office is a six-year term. Adela Garza is currently the Place 1 Trustee, Art Rendon is the Place 2 trustee, and Delia Saenz is the Place 4 trustee. The $64,000 question begs to be asked: Can Castro even run for, and hold, two elected offices at the same time? Yes, he can. According to the Texas Secretary of State's El...

By Diego Garcia III | Editor of The Brownsville Beacon I have often heard this said: Drunk people and children always tell the truth. This is one of the biggest lies ever told. There is a Facebook group called RGV: Truth & Justice. This page seems to be a social justice/political activist/community watchdog page that focuses on issues in Hidalgo County and the western part of the Rio Grande Valley. The page has over 27,000 followers. The page covers all kinds of stories, from things happening in Hidalgo County public schools, to Hidalgo County politics, and everything in between. Yesterday, the page published a story about a bus driver for the Edinburg Consolidated Independent School District. The story said the bus driver was refusing to let six middle school children off the bus; he did not want to drop the students off at their homes. The story goes on to say a parent saw the driver drop off the majority of the children who were riding the bus. However, he kept eight ...

By Diego Garcia III | Editor of The Brownsville Beacon Fernando Del Valle, staff writer for "The Dying Daily (apologies to Jerry McHale)" known as The Brownsville Herald , reported the local CBS affiliate, KGBT-TV Channel 4, was sold to Nexstar Media Group. Nexstar owns the local NBC affiliate, KVEO-TV. Let that sink in for a minute. One company now controls 50% of the local channels in the Rio Grande Valley. Our local stations break down like this: The NBC and CBS affiliate are now owned by Nexstar Media Group. The ABS affiliate, KRGV-TV is owned by the Manship family of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and is operated under their Mobile Video Tapes, Inc. name, and the local Fox affiliate is owned by Entravision Communications based out of Santa Monica, California. Entravision's siser company is Univision. The Rio Grande Valley feed of Fox is shared with the Laredo area, as well. Nexstar Media Group is the largest television station owning company in the United States, owni...

By Diego Garcia III | Editor of The Brownsville Beacon "We fight. Fight with our families. Fight with our business associates. Sometimes we fight with our friends. If God were here, we'd probably fight with him, too." That's a line actor Kevin Pollak delivers when referring to two best friends become enemies in the movie War Dogs , but it's a fitting line to describe all of society today. We love arguing. We love insults. We love drama. We love negativity. We feed off it. We thrive on misery and hatred. We don't watch auto racing to see who wins, we watch to see who wrecks. We don't watch the news to see what good has happened in the world, we watch to see the natural disasters and explosions and the collapse of politicians and famous people. Society has become a dark, twisted, cynical version of what it once was. You don't agree with me? You don't share the same political, or religious, or cultural beliefs I do? Well, society now says I hav...

By Diego Garcia III | Editor of The Brownsville Beacon Are we witnessing a change in voter apathy in Cameron County? For years, Deep South Texas has been notorious for abysmally low voter turnout. In a city of over 180,000 people, being able to string together a few thousand votes has usually been enough to get you elected to office.  That trend appears to be slowly changing. Voter turnout has been on the rise over the last few election cycles. Obviously numbers are higher in presidential election years, but 2018 saw an increase in voter participation in a non-presidential election cycle. In 2014, 21% of registered voters participated in the election. 2018 saw that number jump to 39%.  2018 also saw the number of registered voters in Cameron County jump to over 203,000, up almost six thousand from two years before. We've seen an increase in both registered voters and the percentage of those registered voters actually casting their vote. There seem to be several diffe...

By Diego Garcia III | Editor of The Brownsville Beacon This past Friday, the Beacon published an article detailing a brouhaha that was brewing around this year's annual Charro Days celebration. According to stories being circulated on local social media pages, the Brownsville Independent School District informed the local charter schools they would not be allowed to participate in this year's Children's Parade. Other posts detailed how other private schools were still allowed to participate, but if they wanted to appear in a parade, the charter schools would have to march in Friday's Illuminated Night Parade or Saturday's Grand International Parade. The story was confirmed the following day, as the Brownsville Blogosphere and The Brownsville Herald printed stories confirming our story; and press releases put out by the district, Jubilee Academy, and Charro Days, Inc. did the same. Reaction was swift, and the community was clearly divided on the issue. There ...

By Diego Garcia III | Editor of The Brownsville Beacon There is a story making the rounds on local social media pages. No, I'm not talking about who will be appointed to the BISD school board to replace a recently resigned board member — we'll find out who that is soon enough. I'm talking about a battle brewing over who is going to get to perform in the upcoming Charro Days parades.  Charro Days parades have historically been divided into three days and have three distinct designations. Thursday's parade is the Children's Parade (and on this year's Charro Days event calendar listed as the BISD Children's Charro Days Parade), Friday's parade is the Illuminated Night Parade, and Saturday's parade is the Grand International Parade. The Brownsville Independent School District is the 19th largest school district by enrollment in the State of Texas. The district has 57 schools. Because of the number of schools, the district has to rotate what schools...