The Brownsville Beacon

By Diego Garcia III | Editor of The Brownsville Beacon Along with the BHA's recent acquisition of the Hotel El Jardin and the renovation of other buildings like the Botica Lofts, downtown is poised to become a thriving residential community in addition to a successful entertainment district. Downtown Brownsville has another historic building slated for rejuvenation as affordable housing and a much needed shopping spot. It started out its life as the First National Bank of Brownsville. The five-story red brick building has stood on the corner of East Elizabeth and 12th Streets since the Jazz Age. Most recently, its first floor was home to a Payless Shoe store. It had many lives before that, including a pharmacy, Manpower, and several other types of offices. However, after Payless shut its doors, the building stood abandoned for years; another beautiful example of early 20th century American architecture simply rotting away on another Main Street, USA. But now thanks to ...

By Diego Garcia III | Editor of The Brownsville Beacon During the late 1800's, the United States was experiencing rapid growth, industrialization, and urbanization. The county was shifting from an agrarian society to an urban society. People were leaving the arduous labor of the field for dirty, cramped unsafe factory jobs. With the birth of the modern major American city came the need for infrastructure. We needed roads and rail lines to connect these new cities. In addition, we needed raw materials to build things and the power to run those things. All across the country, mines, railroads, and manufacturing plants began popping up. The problem was some of these mines and plants were working with dangerous materials; and mines weren't always located close to major urban areas. As a result, America saw the birth of something called the company town. In order to keep workers close, and keep them relatively satisfied, companies would build their workers housing and w...

  By Diego Garcia III | Editor of The Brownsville Beacon The Texas Constitution is the second largest state constitution in the country, coming in a handful of words shy of 87,000. The Texas Open Beaches Act is a law that was passed in 1959 and amended in 1991. In 2009, the Texas Open Beaches Act was tacked on to the Texas Constitution after the public passed what was known at the time as Proposition 9. The Constitution now reads: Texas Constitution Article 1 Section 33 – Public Access to and Use of Public Beaches Subsection B: The public, individually and collectively, has an unrestricted right to use and a right of ingress to and egress from a public beach. The right granted by this subsection is dedicated as a permanent easement in favor of the public. How is it that SpaceX is able to lean on Cameron County officials to close State Highway 4, the only road leading to Boca Chica Beach, whenever Spacely Sprockets wants to test one of their flying, exploding grain silo...

By Diego Garcia III | Editor of The Brownsville Beacon How did we get here? How has this country become so disjointed, so disconnected to the point where people are just making up their own "alternative facts" as they go along? When did we become so skeptical? When did we stop believing in facts? Yet another unfortunate side effect of the three-ring circus that was the Trump presidency. Kellyanne Conway, a member of Trump's inner circle, coined the term "alternative facts" in a 2017 Meet the Press interview where she tried to justify the White House Press Secretary's exaggeration of the size of the crowd at Trump's inauguration. There's no such thing as an alternative fact. Anything other than a fact is a lie. Elementary school children are taught that. It really isn't that hard. The sky is blue. That's a scientific fact. The Earth's atmosphere contains particles that diffuse sunlight. Blue light is scattered the most because...

By Diego Garcia III | Editor of The Brownsville Beacon The Rio Grande Valley has always had an active community of collectors. People collect everything from antiques, vinyl records, video games, and license plates to militaria, firearms, sports cards, and modern and vintage toys.  Before the pandemic ground brick and mortar store shopping to a halt and people turned to the internet to find what they collect, Brownsville has always been sprinkled with independent retailers who had shops worth digging through in order to find pieces to add to your collection. And, of course, there were always places like the 77 Flea Market, indoor flea markets, and garage and yard sales. Many of these shops have come and gone, but if you go looking around town, you'll find antique shops off Palm Boulevard, vintage video game shops off Kings Highway, and a whole lot of junk shops selling collectibles of all kinds.  These local mom and pop stores are the lifeblood of the community; t...

By Diego Garcia III | Editor of The Brownsville Beacon You're not going to like everything that exists in the world. That's just a fact of life. It is also something that most functioning adults cime to realize and eventually make their peace with early on in adulthood. At least, that's how members of my generation learned how to do things. So did members of previous generations. For the record, I am a member of what people like to call "Generation X." It really isn't a difficult concept to grasp. Notice I said most  functioning  adults are able to understand what I'm saying. I didn't say it's something easy for smart people to get. You don't have to be a member of MENSA to process what I'm saying. You just have to be able to function. Nobody is perfect. We're all  broken. But we do whatever we have to do to keep moving forward. Nutshell version: You play the hand you're dealt. In this life, there are going to be things...

By Diego Garcia III | Editor of The Brownsville Beacon It was established almost a century ago as The Junior College of the Lower Rio Grande Valley. Having gone through several name changes, Texas Southmost College is celebrating its 95th anniversary of serving Brownsville and the surrounding communities this year. Brownsville's junior college has gone through several trials and tribulations over the last few decades, but somehow they've managed to establish themselves as a legitimate, viable educational institution. What was once ridiculed as "Texas Almost College" has emerged as the premier two-year institution of the Rio Grande Valley and Deep South Texas. The school offers over 40 different associate's degrees and over 20 certifications. You can study anything from architecture to business. You can get your Texas peace officer's certification. And, what may be TSC's biggest draw, you can receive degrees that will help you secure employment...

By Diego Garcia III | Editor of The Brownsville Beacon With 100% of the precincts reporting, and the unofficial report being run by the Cameron County Election's Office at 7:49 PM, the 2021 runoff election for two seats on the Brownsville City Commission is all but in the books. A dismal 6.1% of all of District 3 and 4's 51,650 eligible voters went to the polls and mailed in their ballots. In the end, 3,195 people have chosen 29% of the city's representatives. People just don't vote in Brownsville, either because of apathy, ignorance, or a combination of the two, most people seem to not care who represents them in city government. Does the lack of legitimate compensation keep new candudates from seeking office? Is that why we see so many of the same names appearing on the ballot all the time? The recent passage of the term-limit amendment to the city charter will begin to see that trend change. Now that a commissioner is term limited they'll only have a...

By Diego Garcia III | Editor of The Brownsville Beacon The 25th United States Infantry was stationed in Fort Brown after fighting in the Spanish-American War and the Philippine-American War in the late 1800's. There was racial tension between the white townspeople and what the United States Army called the "United States Colored Troops."  Shortly after midnight on August 14, 1906, gunshots echoed through the streets of Downtown Brownsville. After a chilling silence filled the air, a white bartender was killed and a Hispanic police lieutenant was injured by what witnesses claimed were African-American soldiers. Spent shell casings were found littered along the streets. The shell casings appeared to come from US Army issued rifles. The town insisted the troops be removed from Brownsville at once. Although there would be an investigation, none of the troops stationed at Fort Brown would be indicted for the shooting. After an official army investigation, and base...

By Diego Garcia III | Editor of The Brownsville Beacon It really is sad how utility companies and conglomerates are allowed to operate relatively unchecked in the State of Texas. PUB is the Public Utilities Board. It is an interesting utility company for a couple of reasons. First, it is one of the only city-owned utility companies in South Texas and maybe in the entire state. And second, the PUB operates like a quasi-monopoly, controlling not only their customer's electricity, but their water and garbage and brush collection. Unless customers want to switch their electric provider to one of the smaller companies that offer electricity, or unless they fo with an alternative source of electricity like solar, you're at the mercy of the PUB. Their record is less than exemplary. Every Brownsvillian knows the joke when they see a PUB crew out working — one guy is doing the work while five others stand around and supervise. But that isn't the only issue in recent tim...

By Diego Garcia III | Editor of The Brownsville Beacon I absolutely love World War II movies. If you made me list my top 5 favorite WWII movies, I'd have to say: 5. Sink the Bismark 4. Patton 3. Tora, Tora, Tora 2. In Harm's Way Number one made its cinematic debut 45 years ago. Midway was released in 1976 and featured an all-star cast including Charlton Heston, Hal Holbrook, Robert Wagner, James Coburn, Tom Selleck, Cliff Robertson, a cameo by Robert Mitchum, and Henry Fonda as Admiral Chester W. Nimitz. The movie is a mixture of fact and fiction and revolves around the pivotal battle in the Pacific that helped turn the tide against the Imperial Japanese Navy in early June of 1942. Thanks to the codebreakers who were able to crack and interpret Japanese radio transmissions, Nimitz was able to position the US Pacific Fleet between the Japanese and the Hawaiian islands. The battle took place in the waters just off Midway island. It was the first time in history a nav...

By Diego Garcia III | Editor of The Brownsville Beacon A local official has finally done something other than sing the praises of Elon Musk and SpaceX.  It was about time. The Brownsville Herald's Laura Martinez reported on a letter Cameron County District Attorney Luis V. Saenz sent to SpaceX representatives addressing their disregard for state law. Saenz sent investigators out to Boca Chica after receiving a letter from Save RGV, an organization dedicated to the environmental protection of Deep South Texas. The letter alleges SpaceX is ignoring state law; closing roads and State Highway 4 more times than they originally agreed to under a memorandum of understanding between the renegade space company, Cameron County, and the General Land Office. The investigators were stopped and detained by a SpaceX stormtrooper — an armed private security guard. They were told the road they were on was closed and the members of the DA's team had to find their way back to Highway...

Publisher's Note: I thought I'd try my hand at a work of fiction rather than a blog post or an editorial. They say life imitates art. Sometimes art can imitate life. For your consideration, a short story set in the fictional town of Frontera, Texas. Frontera, Texas, is a small town where everyone knows everyone else. You didn't dare say a bad thing about anybody while having your coffee for fear of the subject of your conversation's cousin sitting at the table next to you at Maria's Cafe.  Frontera had come a long way. From being a site of a Mexican-American War battlefield, to a town where Texas Rangers kept a rusty old six-shooter in their saddle bag to plant on an unarmed Mexican they had shot, to town where bandits shot up downtown during a drunken night of partying, Frontera had managed to move forward. Over the generations, Frontera had kept changing. The bandidos  and murderers had traded in their guns for fountain pens. Instead of demanding the p...

By Diego Garcia III | Editor of The Brownsville Beacon Texas is a red state. I know I've caught some flak for saying that in the past. I went on a local Facebook talk show once and said Texas has historically been a red state. I didn't properly explain myself. The conversation was about recent political trends, and if I would have had the time to prepare a script, I probably would have said that going back four decades, with a few exceptions, Texas has gone red (it was a live, unscripted show, and I apologize for not making myself clear). That being cleared up, Texas is  a red state. For better or for worse, Texas has voted for the Republican candidate for president every time since 1980, and with the exception of Mark White and Ann Richards, Texas has had a Republican governor since Reagan was elected president. Greg Abbott has been Governor ever since Rick Perry had a stranglehold on the big chair in the capitol building in Austin. Perry took over after George W....

The painting above is titled "The Annexation of Texas to the Union,” Donald M. Yena, Texas State Library and Archives Commission Publisher's Note: If you were a Customs and Border Protection agent at an immigration checkpoint and you asked me if I was a US citizen, I'd have to bite my tongue and just say yes instead of saying what I really want to say — "No, sir. I'm a TEXAN." A beer company put out an ad campaign called "Real Men of Genius," and one of their ads was about a guy they called "Mr. Way Too Proud of Texas." That's me. I am proud to be an American, but I'm way prouder of being a Texan. The Texas Historical Commission's social media page wrote up a post on the bittersweet day when the Lone Star Flag came down in front of the Republic of Texas' capitol and Old Glory went up. To celebrate Flag Day, I reprint their post below. The Texas Historical Commission writes: Flag Day, June 14, commemorates the fl...