BROWNSVILLE, Texas - Cameron County held its State of the County Luncheon in Harlingen last month and Precinct 2 Commissioner Joey Lopez spoke about La Esperanza Community Park’s all-inclusive renovations.

The park reopened in July 2025, with the addition of an inclusive splash pad for children. According to Lopez, the park has been utilized by several children and families that are wheelchair-bound.

“The area is well shaded,” Lopez said. “The renovations that have happened within this past year (are worth) about $2.3 million. We added a huge splash pad that was put in, we updated the walking trail and we have a butterfly garden there.”

The funding for the project was paid through the American Rescue Plan Act. Lopez said the support from the city’s park’s department helped get the park acknowledged by the state level.

“If you haven’t had a chance to come on by and take a look at it, please come on by,” Lopez said. “You’d be very impressed.”

Noble Texas Builders won an Eagle Award at the ABC South Texas 2025 Excellence in Construction Awards for the design and construction of La Esperanza Park. Rene Capistran, president of Noble, said the park has been reimagined with accessibility at its core.

“Working alongside the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, the transformation of this beloved community space includes major upgrades that make it more inclusive and welcoming for all visitors. From ADA-compliant renovations in the Community and Technology Buildings to fully accessible outdoor features, every detail was designed with comfort, safety, and usability in mind,” he said.

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MISSION, Texas - AltaCair Foundation’s top event of 2025 was its Accelerator Conference. This was the third year in a row AltaCair has held an Accelerator Conference. It was billed as the largest health summit in South Texas. During the conference, the group’s president, Dr. Rashmi Chandran, gave a series of interviews. Here is one of them.

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MCALLEN, Texas - RioPlex plans to hold meetings every month across the region to explain to communities what the group is doing to bring in more investment and better paying jobs.

Mario Reyna, RioPlex’s executive director, spoke about the group’s vision, mission statement, core values, and strategic direction at a leadership gathering, held recently at McAllen Country Club.

“We're going to have engagements every month throughout the region to tell people what it is that we're trying to do,” Reyna said. “People have to understand, the community has to understand, what it is that we're trying to do, how we're going to do things that are going to make them better.”

RioPlex is looking to bring longterm prosperity to the region, Reyna explained. The region consists of the Rio Grande Valley and northern Tamaulipas.

“We have to remember why we're doing it. We're doing this because we want to lower the poverty rate in our region, and the only way we know how to do this is by bringing better jobs, bringing more investment. That is going to create better paying jobs.”

Regional unity is key, Reyna explained.

“We want to bring everybody together, private, public, nonprofit, everybody. Everybody that has anything to do with bringing more investment to our community. That's our mission,” Reyna said.

“We cannot move forward if we're not united, and we are going to do everything we can to make sure people understand what it is that we're trying to do. We want to bring more industrial development to this area. So, we're going to be investor-focused. That's what we're trying to do, bring additional investment to the area. We want to promote the region, not internally, but externally.”

Reyna continued: “We want to work with everybody, everybody, including the economic development corporations and the Foreign Trade Zone.”

Foreign Trade Zone No. 12’s president and CEO, Mark E. Garcia, was in the audience. His group has just joined RioPlex.

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Josie Arellano es enlace para víctimas de delitos en el Departamento de Desarrollo Policial de Pharr. Arellano conversó a fondo con la presentadora del Rio Grande Guardian, Mari Regalado, para hablar sobre su trabajo. Regalado comentó que es importante que las víctimas de delitos se presenten y denuncien, sin importar su estatus legal. Añadió que el Departamento de Policía de Pharr puede ayudar.

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Josie Arellano is crime victims liaison for Pharr Police Development. Arellano sat down for an in-depth interview with Rio Grande Guardian anchor Mari Regalado to discuss her work. She said it is important for the victims of crime to come forward and report a crime, no matter what their legal status. She said Pharr Police Department can help. Here is the interview.

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PHARR, Texas - Mario Guerrero, CEO of the South Texas Builders Association, says the region’s banks are also being impacted ICE’s raids on construction sites in the Rio Grande Valley.

Guerrero called a meeting recently with U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar to discuss the economic impact the raids are having on the building industry. More than 20 construction company owners attended.

The building industry representatives said jobs are being delayed because workers, undocumented or otherwise, are not showing up at the construction sites. He said ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) officers are rounding up all the workers, whether they are undocumented or not.

“We're getting attacked from two different directions. One is interest rates. The other is the immigration crisis. They (ICE) are not making it easy for construction companies to go ahead and build these homes. It's taking longer,” Guerrero told the Rio Grande Guardian.

“People need to realize that a lot of this construction is happening off of bank loans, right? So, if a construction company is building out of a loan, now you're faced with paying higher interest, because you're not finishing your project at a certain time.

Guerrero continued: “So, now we have banks that are extremely, extremely worried, because now they're seeing delays in the projects. It is taking so long that they're afraid that construction companies are going to start defaulting on loans.”

Asked if his comment about banks being worried was purely anecdotal, Guerrero said: “No, this is coming directly from presidents and vice presidents of these banks. They're extremely worried. You have to understand that the cycle, the wheel, is not moving. And if the wheel is not moving, that's an economic issue that we are facing. And it's not moving because people are afraid to work. Both illegal and American citizens are afraid to work because they (ICE) are taking everybody.”

Guerrero said he hopes house prices in the Valley do not start to rise because housing projects are being stalled.

The members of the South Texas Builders Association that were present for the meeting with Cuellar, which was held at Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen in Pharr, said they would take up the congressman’s offer to go to Washington for a meeting with officials with the Department of Homeland Security.

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BROWNSVILLE, Texas - Former state Sen. Eddie Lucioo, Jr., has not been able to give away as many turkeys to the less fortunate this year, in part because federal funding to the food banks has been cut.

Normally, Lucio would purchase the turkeys at a competitive price from local food banks and distribute them to those in need in Cameron, Willacy, and Hidalgo counties. This year, however, the 25th year he has been doing it, he has had to pay for them from the large distributors at the normal price.

And so, he has had to shrink the program to just giving away 400 turkeys and all within Cameron County alone.

In an interview with Ron Whitlock Reports, Lucio explained how his Thanksgiving Turkey Day first started.

“This is the 25th annual giveaway. We started off with with 10 or 20 turkeys and they mostly to the ladies that kind of hung around my campaign. Those that were really interested in community development. They were activists. And I told Brenda, my dear assistant who has actually worked for me for 36 years, to go out and buy some turkeys to give them.

“And it started like that. But we continued to make it bigger and bigger until it got to hundreds of families that we were able to help.”

Back then Lucio had campaign contributions to draw on to purchase the turkeys. But when he retired in 2023, the campaign contributions, naturally, dried up.

“Back in the day I had money that was contributed to me, and I was glad to share it with the less fortunate that needed our help and support. But after January of 2023 I was no longer in public public service. But, fortunately, I still had some anonymous donors that that wanted to help, one in particular that I care not to mention. I said I would not divulge his name because he wanted to keep it private.”

Lucio said he gave away one thousand turkeys last year. This year, he has had to shrink it to 400.

“These big, multi-billion dollar corporations, they don’t give you any discounts. They're there to make money. That’s the name of the game for them. I don't want to be too critical but when it comes to helping the less fortunate and those that that need help, I think all of us should dig in a little bit and share a little bit of the wealth and share a little bit of our resources so that they, too, can have a sit down dinner with with their families, and enjoy the day and thank God for all the blessings.”

Lucio said he is particularly disappointed he could give out turkeys in Willacy and Hidalgo counties, as in previous years.

“I used to do the three counties because I had enough turkeys. Hidalgo, Willacy and Cameron. But this year, there are very few turkeys, 600 less. It means I couldn't cross the county line to Hidalgo and Willacy, and it hurts me. It pains my heart not to be able to help because of lack of funds and the lack of resources that we need.”

Lucio says he has a plan to arrest the slide, to give away more turkeys next year.

“I have a plan. I want to make sure we have the funds necessary. So I'm going to do a big (golf) tournament and call it a Turkey Tournament. Sometime in May or June of next year. And then build on that from personal contributions from anybody that wants to give to a worthy cause like ours.”

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MCALLEN, Texas - Ralph Garcia, interim chief operating officer for McAllen Economic Development Corporation, has given a brief update on the various projects the group is working on.

“Right now, the EDC is working with about 25 active projects. This represents a total of about three million square feet of space. Estimated jobs are about 8,000 and the economic impact of that is roughly about $5 billion dollars,” Garcia said a quarterly stakeholders meeting.

“Primarily, our companies are coming from France, Sweden, Mexico, the US and Japan. Those are the activities that we're seeing right now.”

Garcia said McAllen EDC has secured two new leads during the current quarter, along with 23 existing prospects.

"We also continue to work on state leads. Most of what we're seeing coming through, the focus is on manufacturing and, of course, distribution and logistics. Those are projects that we continue to work with.”

Garcia said the MEDC team working on active projects includes Susie Flores in McAllen and Rafael Angel Ortiz Salazar in Reynosa.

“And, of course, we continue to do BRE (business retention and expansion) visits with a lot of our existing business, both in McAllen and Reynosa. We find that most of the leads that we're generating right now are through a BRE visit, where we're learning of current projects that companies are looking at.”

Garcia said quite a few of those expansion projects involve South America.

“We’re trying to leverage those projects, to look at Texas as an alternative option. One of the advantages that we have is our low cost, so that helps us. But, we're always trying to get in front of those projects, versus them leaving the area completely.”

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