Lower Rio Grande Valley Curated Material
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Still more studies in Brownsville history
Milo Kearney
A historical sketch of Fort Brown / Bruce Aiken -- A brief history of Los Fresnos / James A. Keillor -- Olmito, Texas: a town of unfulfilled dreams / Tim Snyder -- Water as a magic element in the Rio Grande Valley’s history / Brian Robertson -- Brownsville’s sisters of the Incarnate Word / Rosalinda Olivares-Sosa -- Out marriage among Hispanics : Cameron County, 1870-1970 / Randy Davidson -- A history of Brownsville’s Cuban community / Michael Lopez -- A few comments on the history of Blacks in Brownsville / Cornelio Nouel -- The Brownsville Jewish community : from generation to generation / Harriet Denise Joseph -- A historical sketch of Brownsville’s Franco-Americans / Milo and Sean Kearney -- A historical sketch of Brownsville’s German-Americans / Milo and Sean Kearney -- Mr. A. E. Anderson, “The father of Valley archaeology,” and his “Indian Relic Collection” / Antonio N. Zavaleta -- The leather shields / A folktale told by Peter Gawenda -- Comparacion de leyendas de Mexico y la Frontera / Graciela P. Rosenberg -- Los corridos Sudtejanos: nuestra tradicion milenaria / Jorge Green Huie -- Retablos for patron saints’ images / Brian Robertson -- Captain Thomas M. (Mexican) Thompson / Jean L. Epperson -- Antonio Canales and the Republic of the Rio Grande, 1839-1850 / Roberto Mario Salmon -- The Rio Grande Valley and South Texas in handbooks for German immigrants of the 19th Century (What happened to paradise?) / Peter Gawenda -- “The Great Western” : the heroine of Fort Brown in fact and fiction / Joseph E. Chance -- Memorandum book / Victor Egly -- Civil War era letter / Brian Robertson -- The Brownsville protest of January 1866 / Roberto Mario Salmon -- The dishonest servant / a folktale told by Peter Gawenda -- The horse thief / a folktale told by Peter Gawenda -- Brownsville’s first permanent courthouse / Brian Robertson -- Brownsville’s wild west atmosphere in 1894 / Brian Robertson -- The St. Peter motor chapel / Brian Robertson -- Robert Runyon’s historical photographs / Brian Robertson -- The Mexican Revolution and the Bandit Wars : the Lower Rio Grande Valley in 1915 / William V. Wilkinson -- The Bloody Bandit war of 1915 / Chip Dameron -- Dr. Dutro’s recollections of the Bandit era / Brian Robertson -- Dr. McCain and the Smallpox Epidemic of 1915 / Brian Robertson -- Chattering parrots at the 1916 state fair / Brian Robertson -- Cotton and its impact on Brownsville and the Rio Grande Valley / Sondra Shands -- World War II vigilance in Brownsville / Brian Robertson -- John Hunter : local patron of learning / Milo Kearney -- Shelby J. Longoria : the entrepreneurial spirit on the Border / Anthony Knopp -- The Santa Elena Ranch Massacre (April 1989) / Vivian Kearney -- The creation of the University of Texas at Brownsville / Milo Kearney -- Demographics of spring breakers require a new approach by South Padre Island businesses / Randall L. Florey and Leigh Ann Hanby -- Tracking international commerce in Brownsville / Chris Clearman -- Christmas on the Rio Grande, a poem / Bob Rose.
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Still more studies in Rio Grande Valley history
Milo Kearney, Anthony K. Knopp, and Antonio Zavaleta
Resaca, a poem / Josie Mixon -- Matamoros before the Texas Revolution : becoming Mexico’s pivitol port city on the northern frontier / Craig H. Roell -- The Great Sequoyah Mystery : a cover-up that stretched from the Cumberland Mountains to the Rio Grande Delta (and into Mexico) / Don Clifford -- Immigration to South Texas, 1850-1900 / Thomas Daniel Knight -- Cattle barons and the creation of an empire : a case study of the expansion of the Kennedy Ranch of South Texas / Elmer Sierra, William Yaworsky, and Amy Frazier -- A history of the Brownsville Police Department in the Nineteenth Century / Noel Otu -- Rio boots / Ruby Cisneros Castell -- El sexenio del general Manuel Avila Camacho en Matamoros, 1940-1946 / Rosaura Davila -- Crecimiento industrial y calidad de vida en Reynosa, Tamaulipas / Cirila Quintero Ramirez -- An experiment assessing attitudes on immigrants and immigration among U.S. college students : a comparison of students in the Rio Grande Valley to those in Northeastern Pennsylvania / Jessica Lavariega Monforti, Adama McGlynn, and Ana Belen Franco -- White pelicans at dawn / Lyon Rathbun -- The sheriffs of Cameron County / Norman Rozeff -- The origin of the Belden Trail / Anthony Knopp -- Mujeres y violencia en la frontera ‘olvidada’ / Guadalupe Correa-Cabrara -- Alienation vs. Community at Portway Baptist Church / Mimosa Stephenson -- Echoes of ancient language in Spanish of South Texas / George Green -- Contrabando por amor : shooting Mexican movies in the Rio Grande Valley / Rogelio Agrasanchez -- A rapid ethnographic assessment of Brownsville-Matamoros concerning the development of a Palo Alto National Historic Battlefield site / Antonio Zavaleta -- Recuerdo cemetery inscriptions and memorial language in Brownsville, Texas / Sheila Dooley -- The geographic distribution of ghost tales in the Rio Grande Valley / Milo Kearney and Ninfa Burgos-Kohler -- Delta lake, a poem / Josie Mixon.
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Struggle and progress in the history of Pan American University: 1927-1987
Raymond Welch
This essay chronicles the creation, growth, and expansion of the former Pan American University.
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Studies in Brownsville history
Milo Kearney
Annotated bibliography of Brownsville history / George Gause -- The Coahuiltecan legacy of South Texas / Roberto M. Salmon and Juanita Elizondo Garza -- Cihuacoatl is alive and well in Brownsville / George K. Green -- The Valley’s first settlers / told by San Juanita Vela de Lozano to Peter Gawenda -- The watermaidens / told by ‘Jefe’ in the Market Square barbershop, written down by Peter Gawenda -- The Indian maidens / told by Felipe Lozano recorded by Peter Gawenda -- Brownsville’s Santanderino strain / Milo Kearney -- Steamboats on the Lower Rio Grande in the 19th century / Robert B. Vezzetti -- The man-eaters / told by Felipe Lozano in his barbershop, written down by Peter Gawenda -- The black cat / told by Josefa Vela de Lozano, recorded by Peter Gawenda -- The three-master / told by John Garreu on Padre Island, written down by Peter Gawenda -- El perro negro / told by Felipe Lozano in his barbershop, written down by Peter Gawenda -- Desertion on the Rio Grande / Jere C. Light -- The bells of Brownsville / Henry G. Krause, Jr. -- The Espiritu Santo grant / Ruby A. Woolridge -- When the Navy was stationed at Fort Brown / Bruce Aiken -- The Twin Cities: a historical synthesis of the socio-economic interdependence of the Brownsville-Matamoros border community / Antonio N. Zavaleta -- The bagpiper / told by Felipe Lozano in his barbershop, written down by Peter Gawenda -- The devil’s rock / told by Father Dan Laning at a first communion in Mission, Texas, in May 1960, written down by Peter Gawenda -- La curandera / told by Felipe Lozano in his barbershop, written down by Peter Gawenda -- The black mare / told by John Garreau on Padre Island, written down by Peter Gawenda -- Brownsville, model city of Texas in 1879 / contributed by Peter Gawenda -- Brownsville’s public schools one century ago (1875-1905) / Peter Gawenda -- The 1891 Rio Grande Railroad robbery / Ruby A. Woolridge -- A brick-throwing ghost / a newspaper story of 1879, noted by Peter Gawenda -- El pasto de la almas / told by Felipe Lozano in his barbershop, written down by Peter Gawenda -- La abuela / told by Felipe Lozano in his barbershop, written down by Peter Gawenda -- The man with the shovel / told by “Jefe” in the Market Square barbershop, written down by Peter Gawenda -- The Brownsville Raid: a historical assessment / Wally Pierce -- Temple Beth-El, 1931-1981 / Harriet Denise Joseph -- What ever happened to the good old days? / Robert S. Lewis -- The family history of Senator Hector Uribe: a study in Mexican-American heritage / Karen E. LeFevre.
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Studies in Brownsville & Matamoros history
Milo Kearney, Anthony K. Knopp, and Antonio Zavaleta
Jose de Escandon and the settlement of South Texas in the late Colonial Era, 1746-1821 / Harriet Denise Joseph -- La poesia de arte menor en la Cronica de Sanchez Garcia / Jorge Green Huie -- The Battle of Palo Alto: a preliminary gathering of primary sources arranged by selected holdings / Thomas B. and Marie J. Carroll -- Francisco Yturria / Lilia Garcia -- The start of Brownsville-Matamoros telephone link / Bruce Aiken -- La presidencia de Don Salvador Cardenas: Enero-Junio de 1920 / Andres F. Cuellar -- Doctor, maestro, periodista, literato Manuel Feliciano Rodriguez Brayda / Elia Garcia Cruz and Jose Luis Lopez -- Algunas mujeres destacadas de Matamoros / Rosaura Davila de Cuellar -- Margaret M. Clark, pioneer in Brownsville physical education: an oral history / Judith D. Walton -- Mexican American empowerment and local organization: the case of Valley interfaith / Jose R. Hinojosa, Norman E. Binder, J. L. Polinard and Robert D. Wrinkle -- The economic impact of the Port of Brownsville / Randall Florey -- Historic architecture in Brownsville and Matamoros / Mark Lund -- Architecture in Brownsville: the 19th Century / Stephen Fox -- A history of literature in Brownsville / Charles F. Dameron, Jr. -- Instituto Regional de Bellas Artes / Norma Garcia Lerma -- Sociedad Tamaulipeca de historia, geografia y estadistica de Matamoros / Amparo Olivares de Huerta and Javier Huerta Castaneda -- The reaper / Peter Gawenda -- The chaperon / Peter Gawenda -- Historia del Instituto Tecnologico de Matamoros / Raul Salinas Gonzalez and Carmen Mijares Fong -- A historical sketch of the Baptist church in Brownsville and Matamoros / Milo Kearney and John Kearney -- The libraries of Brownsville: a historical survey / Daniel L. Nutter -- Estudio en geneologia de Familia Salinas / Yolanda Gonzalez Zuniga -- Familia Pacheco / Maria Luisa Rojas de Pacheco -- Filomeno Garcia vs. Josiah Turner: the case of Soliseñito Banco and the elimination of bancos on the Rio Grande River / Antonio N. Zavaleta -- Teatro de la Reforma / Alfonso Gomez Arguelles.
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Studies in Matamoros and Cameron County history
Milo Kearney, Anthony K. Knopp, and Antonio Zavaleta
The Pineda plaque / Don Clifford -- El romanticismo Hispanoamericano también floreció aqui / Jorge Green Huie -- La batalla de la Resaca de la Palma / Carlos Rosas -- Los Matamorenses fundan el casino / Andres Cuellar -- The shifting relationship between Harlingen and San Benito in the first three decades of the Twentieth century / Milo Kearney -- Reading Zane Grey in Brownsville / Mimosa Stephenson -- After the boss: Twentieth century political trends of Brownsville city government / Anthony K. Knopp -- Ethnicity and political participation in Cameron and Hidalgo counties: Mexican American voters and nonvoters / J. L. Polinard, Robert D. Winkle, and Norman E. Binder -- Poem: “Karankawas” / Marty Lewis -- E. J. Davis: traitor or idealist? / Sondra Shands with Sherry McCullough -- El General Manuel Gonzalez Flores / Clemente Rendon de la Garza -- Colonel Sam A. Robertson and his house / Henry E. Agar and Margaret E. Brown -- Biografia del General de Division Lauro Villar Ochoa / Gustavo Flores Sanchez -- Don Luis Emigdio Rendon Arias / Elia Garcia Cruz -- Ladislao Cardenas / Maria Luisa Meade -- Don Florentino Cuellar Martinez / Alma Rodriguez -- Jose Rangel Cantu: the conscience of South Texas / Carlos Larralde -- Gene McNair / Nat Flores -- Jim Mills: from West Texas famer to South Texas mayor / James W. Mills, Brent H. Mills, Susan E. Mills -- Frank Yturria: profile of a citizen / Eliana Guerrero Ramos Bennett -- Poem: “Valle Hermoso” / Manuel F. Rodriguez Brayda -- De cronistas e historiadores: apuntes para una historia conjunta / Cirila Quintero Ramirez -- Matamoros, cartago de America / Oscar Rivera Saldana -- Historia de la Sautena / Jose M. Karlis -- Colonia Diez y Ocho de Marzo / Nora E. Rios McMillan -- A selected history of fine arts in Brownsville / Nancy Escobedo Churchill -- Hispanic journalism in Brownsville, Texas / Cipriano Cardenas -- The history of the Maquiladora industry in Matamoros / Kathleen E. Owen -- An initial overview of Matamoros’ Nineteenth-Century street names / Thomas B. Carroll -- La ciudad de Matamoros en el Siglo XIX / Jaime Mendoza Martinez -- Instituto literario de San Juan / Jaime Mendoza Martinez -- Architecture in Brownsville: the 20th century / Stephen Fox -- Historic folk sainthood along the Texas-Mexico Border / Joseph Spielberg and Antonio Zavaleta -- Poem: “Playa de Matamoros” / Manuel F. Rodriguez Brayda.
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Studies in Rio Grande Valley history
Milo Kearney, Anthony K. Knopp, and Antonio Zavaleta
Historia de Valle Hermoso, Tamaulipas / por Ernesto Escribano Gómez -- How the teachers of Matamoros formed la Union Tamaulipeca / by Alma Ortiz -- The 1971 "Pharr Riot" / by Ned Wallace -- Memoirs of Brownsville politics / by Loddell Batsell -- Economic changes in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas: a bibliographic review / by David J. Mycue -- A short history of land titles in South Texas / by Joseph E. Chance -- The prehistoric peoples of the Rio Grande Delta and their connections with the cultures of Mesoamerica / by Rolando L. Garza -- Peyote: sacred sacrament of the Rio Grande Valley / by Thomas Britten -- Twin cities on a river: a reminiscence and comparison / by Anthony Knopp -- The signs of Brownsville / by Mimosa Stephenson -- Charrería en Matamoros / por Oralia Garcia -- German immigrants in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, 1850-1920: a demographic overview / by Gerhard Grytz -- A history of the Muslim community in the Rio Grande Valley / by Milo Kearney and Mark Hanson -- From old to new: the alteration, restoration, and preservation of historical Fort Brown buildings of the University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College / by Javier R. García -- Brownsville and "The Herald" in the 1940s / by Cipriano A. Cárdenas -- Brownsville's Casa Petrina / by Milo Kearney -- Recent Valley literature: the South Texas Mexican set / by René Saldaña, Jr. -- Israel B. Bigelow: from Connecticut to the Rio Grande / by Bill Young -- Menton Murray Sr. and Betty Murray of Harlingen: a legacy of public service / by John Hawthorne -- Mayor and commissioner Henry Gonzalez / by James W. Mills -- Porfirio Díaz in the Lower Rio Grande Valley during the rebellion of Tuxtepec / by John D. Kearney -- Coronel Eleuterio Reyna García: vida de un revolucionario Matamorense / por Miguel Rubiano -- Stephen Powers: master Mason, master citizen / by Douglas Collins -- The Chiltons: eighty years in the Valley / by Carl Chilton, Jr. -- From the inside out: truancy to prison on the streets of Brownsville / by Joe Garcia -- Colored death: the tragedy of black troops on the Lower Rio Grande 1864-1906 / by Antonio N. Zavaleta -- Dr. William C. Gorgas and yellow fever at Fort Brown / by Charles M. Robinson III -- José M. Lopez: un hombre valiente / by Manuel Medrano -- The clay dunes of eastern Cameron County / by Norman L. Richard.
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Sugar in Rio Grande Valley : the sugar bowl of America
C.H. Swallow & Co.
Promotional brochure for investing in sugar plantations in the Lower Rio Grande Valley.
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Supplementary studies in Rio Grande Valley history
Milo Kearney, Anthony K. Knopp, Antonio Zavaleta, and Thomas Daniel Knight
Corrupted, a poem / Tom Emrick -- Primal Matamoros : ancient refuge among the Estuaries of the Rio Bravo / Craig H. Roell -- U.S.-Mexico relations during the establishment of the American Consulate in Matamoros : 1826-1842 / Melisa C. Galvan -- Captain King’s Cotton : the Civil War blockade-running adventures of Richard King and Mifflin Kenedy / Walter E. Wilson -- The sad saga of John V. Singer / Norman Rozeff -- Ulster and the Texas-Mexico Border : John McAllen and his family / Thomas Daniel Knight -- Joseph Kleiber and his letter press book / Anthony K. Knopp and Alma Ortiz Knopp -- Jose Agustin Quintero y Woodville : Confederate Special Agent / Jim Mills -- The Putegnat Family and J. P. Putegnat’s escape from a Yankee prison / Tara Putegnat -- Putting the pieces together : the rhetoric of oral tradition in the Twentieth-Century Rio Grande Valley / Monica Reyes and Andy Najera -- President Emeritus Miguel A. Nevarez and the transformation of South Texas / Rolando Avila -- The history of Baseball in Brownsville / Manuel Gutierrez -- Reynosa’s Iglesia Evangélica Esmirna and Pentecolism in Latin American / J. Steven Rice -- Spanish-speaking institutions and language assimilation in the Rio Grande Valley / Alexandre Couture Gagnon and Carlos Daniel Gutierrez Mannix -- English/Spanish flip/flop greetings in South Texas / Scott J. Bird -- Crimen organizado y migración clandestina en Tamaulipas / Oscar Misael Hernandez-Hernandez -- The drug cartel and drug-related violence in Matamoros / Daniel Perales -- An assessment and an explanation of the recent violence in Tamaulipas, Mexico / Arturo Zarate Ruiz -- The Border Wall, a poem / Tom Emrick.
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The beautiful valley of the lower Rio Grande
Missouri Pacific Railroad Company
Hand-colored promotional "booklet produced by the Gulf Coast Lines, a part of the Missouri Pacific System, has for its purpose an effort to acquaint those who have never seen the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas. Figuratively, this booklet will take the visitor on a trip through the Valley between dawn and sunset, with fleeting glimpses at all sections of the Valley."
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The Cantú Family: a porción of Edinburg
University of Texas--Pan American. Community Historical Archaeology Project with Schools Program (CHAPS), Margaret E. Dorsey, Janarae Alaniz, Roland Silva, and Roseann Bacha-Garza
The Cantú family settled in Edinburg, Texas, in the early 1920s and have since developed a thriving produce and trucking business providing crops to markets in the Rio Grande Valley, Houston, and even up further north to the Midwestern states area. This report is the culmination of approximately 24 months of research, fieldwork, and revisions conducted beginning in the Fall of 2012 from a class of undergraduate and graduate students at the University of Texas-Pan American titled “Rediscovering the Rio Grande Valley” under the direction of a multidisciplinary faculty of anthropologists, archaeologists, biologists, geographers, geologists, and historians. This is the story of one of the many Mexican American farming families that settled in the Rio Grande region after escaping Mexico’s Revolution (1910-1920).
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The centennial celebration of the organization of Hidalgo County in Texas, December 7-13, 1952 Official Program
Hidalgo County Centennial Corp. and Times Pub. Co.
Black and white booklet promoting the centennial of Hidalgo County.
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The Ghosts of Mier: Violence in a Mexican Frontier Community during the Nineteenth Century
Jamie Starling
On April 23, 1852, Ramona de la Peña became a widow for the second time when she buried Eusebio García at the Inmaculada Concepción Parish of Ciudad Mier, Tamaulipas. The priest who conducted the burial, Father José Luis Gonzaga García, had ministered to her family over the previous thirteen years and baptized five of the couple’s children. He christened their youngest, Gregorio, about a year earlier. On the day of the burial, the priest wrote a sacramental record that described Eusebio García’s death “in the hands of the Americans” (en manos de los americanos). He was one of eight Mexicans who died in a conflict that swept across adjacent areas of Texas in the early months of 1852 and among the over two hundred killings recorded in Mier between the Mexican War of Independence (1810–1821) and the French Intervention (1862–1867).
Mier and its neighboring towns date to the foundation of the Nuevo Santander colony under José de Escandón from 1749 to 1767. Over the following century, other frontiers overlapped with that of Spanish- Mexican colonists in the region. Plains Indians such as the Comanche, Lipan Apache, and Kiowa raided Mier’s surrounding ranches, especially after Mexican independence in 1821. At the same time, Anglo settlers and African American slaves reached Texas, and by the 1840s, American expansionists set their sights on Mier and its surroundings. The lower Rio Grande became a multifaceted contact zone that simultaneously witnessed lucrative trade, cultural exchange, intermarriage, and harrowing acts of brutality. The records of the Immaculate Conception Parish of Mier contain many accounts that attest to the contact and conflict that marked this frontier.
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The Glory Days of Valley Football
Gregory Selber
This is a recording of Gregory Selber's presentation "The Glory Days of Valley Football". This video was recorded at the Smithsonian Institute's traveling exhibition "Hometown Teams: How Sports Shaped America" opening reception held on July 26, 2018. The reception was hosted by UTRGV Special Collections and University Archives.
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The Grapefruit Special vol.1 no.3
Julia Cameron Montgomery
A short booklet dedicated to the Golden Grapefruit of the Rio Grande Valley. The booklet describes how the Valley is a great place for agriculture. It also addresses other areas such as fishing and hunting, and women's activities.
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The Legacy of the Underground Railroad in Texas - The Webber and Jackson Families of Hidalgo County
The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. Community Historical Archaeology Project with Schools Program (CHAPS)
While most of the pathways of the Underground Railroad to lead north into Canada, there was also movement along pathways through Texas and into Mexico. Lured by the fact that slavery was abolished in Mexico, enslaved peoples were able to achieve freedom by traversing Texas, slipping over the Rio Grande, and settling in colonies throughout northern Mexico. As Mexico had abolished slavery, the path to freedom for many African Americans was through Texas. With the re-enactment of the Fugitive Slave Act, the Dred Scott Decision, and anti-miscegenation laws, families of mixed races felt the crescendo of animosity and hate throughout the southern states. This film tells the unique story of two bi-racial families, the Webbers and the Jacksons, who migrated to the newly established natural and international border and established their identity through immediate assimilation into Tejano culture. The unique characters within these mixed race families sought a new beginning as frontier pioneers along the natural border known as the Rio Grande. Both families were led by white men, John Webber and Nathaniel Jackson, and their strong, determined, and brave African American wives, Silvia Hector Webber and Matilda Hicks Jackson respectively. The willingness of these families to help those in need speaks largely to the current regional cultural legacy of helping others. These families displayed a strong commitment to underserved populations because they were welcoming and willing to assist others. Their participation in what we refer to as Underground Railroad-like activity is what puts these families on the national and international map. Today's descendants of the Jackson and Webber families have been instrumental to this research. We would like to thank each and every one of them who have assisted in this process along the way.
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The Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas
Missouri Pacific Railroad Company
This booklet contains advertisement for the Rio Grande Valley that highlights the various commercial, agricultural, and recreational prospects available. It chronicles the impact of the railroad's arrival and how it stimulated progress in areas such as irrigation, fishing, hunting, beaches, lodging, cities, residences, farming, and crops like cotton. Additionally, it touches on the importance of religion and high-quality education, and the expansion of the railroad network to enhance accessibility.
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The Lure of the Rio Grande
Brownsville Chamber of Commerce
An early (1927) silent film production heralding the attractions of life in the Lower Rio Grande Valley. This production served the purpose of attracting potential investors and boosting the local economy in Brownsville, Texas and the Lower Rio Grande Valley. "Foreword: Like Ponce de Leon and La Sale of old, like Jason and the Golden Fleece - ,mankind still takes the trail to find the Rainbow's End and the land of the ideal. (...) now, thousands of winter-weary northerners and Chicagoans in particular, are (...) to the new mecca of the southland, the extreme southern tip of the United States where Uncle Sam meets Mexico - the Valley of the Rio Grande. "
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“The Most Turbulent and Most Traumatic Years in Recent Mexican-American History”: Police Violence and the Civil Rights Struggle in 1970s Texas
Brent M. S. Campney
This study builds upon a flurry of scholarship focused on racist (primarily mob) violence against Mexican Americans—indeed, persons of Mexican descent broadly—in the American Southwest since 1848. Some scholars have examined the history of mob violence, particularly lynching, against persons of Mexican descent from 1848 to 1928 in California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado. Although these southwestern states [End Page 34] had their share of such violence, historians William D. Carrigan and Clive Webb concluded that Texas was singular: Anglo Texans “were almost universally regarded as possessing the greatest animosity toward Mexicans.” Others have focused on mob and police violence. They have addressed in detail the massacre of ethnic Mexicans in the lower Rio Grande Valley in 1915 by mobs and Texas Rangers. In chronicling this massacre, they have provided an important service: identifying the centrality of police violence in Mexican American history. Until this essay, however, scholars have not addressed comprehensively racist violence or local police violence against Mexican Americans in the Southwest generally or in Texas particularly in the period since the Great Depression.
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The Rio Grande Valley in the time of the pandemic: community responses to COVID-19
The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. Community Historical Archaeology Project with Schools Program (CHAPS), Selena Alvarado, Luis Barreda, David Cantu, Melinda Ann Cantu, Melanie Castro, Colleen A. DeGuzman, Jose L. Garcia III, Fatima Garza, Valeria Garza, and Roseann Bacha-Garza
The research for this report was conducted as a result of an interdisciplinary course of Anthropology and History at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley during the Fall semester of 2020. During the pandemic, we shifted from conducting this course through group projects and students instead produced individual primary source research. This occurred simultaneously as students and the rest of the populace sought to make sense of their experiences in the very changed framework of the COVID-19 world. The effort epitomizes the importance of recording history in real time, especially within a region that was as so negatively impacted by the coronavirus as the Rio Grande Valley of Texas was in the Summer of 2020.
Accompanying presentation: https://youtu.be/SOrorZvu46o
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The treasure land of the lower Rio Grande
Baker Bros. Engravers
Black and white promotional booklet describing the Lower Rio Grande Valley. It covers everything that the Lower Rio Grande Valley has to offer, and how it was growing in all sectors.
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Treasures of the Rio Grande delta
John Bax and Gorgas Science Foundation, Inc.
John Bax provides cinematography for an exhaustive study of the Lower Rio Grande Valley.
Long known as the River of Destiny, the Rio Grande has been the focus of both conflict and peace between Mexico and the United States. Although rich in history, the river’s delta also supports a rich legacy of natural history. Twisting and turning from the Chihuahuan Woodlands to the Gulf of Mexico, the last 250 miles of this great river form a rich delta, a transition zone between the semiarid tropics and the temperate north. Since 1900, most of the delta’s native vegetation has been lost, but many small islands of endangered habitat survive at the edge of farms and cities. These islands harbor an incredible number of endangered or threatened species. Some are known only from the delta or reach their northern limits here.
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Volume 01 – En palabras de nuestra gente
Manuel F. Medrano, Antonio Medrano, Oliver Brenner, and Narcisco Martinez
Antonia Medrano from Brownsville, Oliver Brenner from Port Isabel and Narciso Martinez from La Paloma speak about their lives, the 1933 hurricane and the importance of a formal education.
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Yearbook of the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas and Northern Mexico, 1961
Mabel Collier Eppright and Gladys Collier Hooper
A Welcome from the Governor of Texas / Price Daniel -- "The Valley-A Metropolitan Area," / Jack H. Drake -- Highlights of 1960-Facts, Figures and Events -- Letters to the Editors -- Did You Know? Unusual Facts in the Valley -- "Agriculture," / Stanley B. Crockett -- "Marrs Early Orange," / Mabel C. Eppright -- Agriculture-Citrus, Vegetables, Cotton -- Let's Go to Mexico -- Fascinating Phases of Valley Life -- "Valley Variety," / Bill Watts -- "Cotton," / W. R. Cowley -- "Cotton's Problems in a Changing Agricultural Economy," / R. D. Lewis.
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Yet more studies in Rio Grande Valley history
Milo Kearney, Anthony K. Knopp, Antonio Zavaleta, and Thomas Daniel Knight
Frontera, a poem / Elvira Ardalani -- Strasbourg, Alsace, and Brownsville, Texas : ideal sister cities / Milo Kearney -- La concepción de la identidad fronteriza en Jovita Gonzalez y Adela Sloss de Vento / Laura Garza -- Cuando se fundo Matamoros? / Andres F. Cuellar -- The formation and early development of the Llano Grande / Maria Vallejo -- Doño Rosa Maria Hinojosa de Balli and her family : a lower Rio Grande Valley family in an Atlantic perspective / Thomas Daniel Knight -- Clarksville : a forgotten community on the Rio Grande / Jim Mills -- The last battle of the Civil War / Norman Rozeff -- The Spanish Influenza epidemic in Brownsville, Texas, and Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico / Jorge Hernandez -- El Puerto de Brownsville newspaper: the voice of the Mexican-American Community / Cipriano Cardenas -- McAllen’s key contribution to the U.S. Cuban history / Oscar Sordo -- La amenaza de la Encefalitis y una visita presidencia a Matamoros en 1971 / Rosaura Alicia Davila -- Oscar Casares, frontera writer : a little more hope, a little less fear / Manuel Medrano -- Immigrant child, a poem / James Brandenburg -- Undocumented immigrants narratives : a view from the banks of the Lower Rio Grande / John A. Cook -- The tragedy of unaccompanied child immigrants to the U.S.-Mexico border 2014 / Antonio Noe Zavaleta Reid and Mitchell A. Kaplan -- Young, wild, and free : narratives de jóvenes migrantes Mexicanos detenidos en el Valle de Texas / Oscar Misael Hernandez-Hernandez -- The recent violence in Matamoros : are we living next to a war zone? / Anonymous -- The humorous side of Brownsville Police work / Ruben Garcia and Anthony Knopp -- Bilingual college education at UTB : improvement student success in the Rio Grande Valley / Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera and Oralia de los Reyes -- The deaf community of Brownsville : site of controversy over language and identity / Mimosa Stephenson -- Antepasados, a poem / Janie Alonso.