CULTURA

FRONTeras Magazine Vol. 1 No. 2 Issue At just twelve years old, Dagoberto Rios III plays with more than talent-he plays with vision. People call him Daguito, but there's nothing childlike about what he does with an accordion in his hands. He didn't grow into music. He was born into it. On his father's side, his grandfather, José V. Rodríguez of Huatempo-a small community in the municipio of Ciudad Mier-played the accordion with soul and instinct. On his mother's side, Alejand

FRONTeras Magazine Vol. 1 No. 2 Issue

Seventy-Five Reasons to Believe You walk in through the front door to a table full of pastries, charcuterie boxes, hot coffee, and personalized cookies. Everything looks welcoming, intentional. Off to one side, a room buzzes softly as scholarship recipients get their makeup done. Another space holds racks of clothes—outfits that each student brought for their photo session. In the main room, a professional photographer waits, lights adjusted, lens focused, as scholarship reci

FRONTeras Magazine 2025 Vol.1 No.1 Issue Before the balloon arches and neon signs. Before the Instagram-worthy backdrops and glittering marquee letters. Before you could only rent a prop by booking an entire salon, Brenda Elicerio knew that setup wasn't practical. With a tape measure in one hand and a dream in the other, she launched her own event prop rental business. La Madrina officially launched in 2018. Exactly one month later, the first gig came in: someone needed props

FRONTeras Magazine 2025 Vol.1 No.1 Issue

As Texas braces for arctic weather to blanket the entire state, Texans prepare with bottled water, shelf-stable food, and fuel for their generators. Seemingly, Latino families prepare for the cold weather with comfort food like arroz con leche, hot chocolate, conchas and marranitos, but winter wouldn't be winter without the iconic San Marcos. A what? A San Marcos is a blanket, not to exaggerate or be biased, that rivals your abuelita's warm embrace. A San Marcos is a family v

That person calling you an idiot in the comments section might not even be a person. Cybersecurity firm Imperva dropped a bombshell in its 2025 report: for the first time in a decade, automated bots surpassed human activity, accounting for fifty-one percent of all web traffic in 2024. Machines now outnumber humans online. Bad bots alone comprise thirty-seven percent of all internet traffic, reaching their highest level since tracking began in 2013. These aren't just spam acco

You know the one. The flowered nightgown your abuela wore, long enough to sweep the floor, high-necked, long-sleeved, probably with tiny pockets that held nothing but lint and power. It wasn't pretty. It wasn't sexy. And somehow, it was everything. And those batas got results. The vata doesn’t seduce—it commands. It’s a uniform for women who build lives, raise hell, and don’t try to impress no one. Cuenta la leyenda que with one single vata, a woman could secure ten kids, a p

The Academy of Tejano Music announced its sixth annual Premios Tejano Mundial ceremony will take place February 5, 2026, at San Antonio's Shrine Auditorium. The red carpet will showcase a lineup of Tejano stars competing for honors across six categories, along with lifetime achievement awards and performances from established and emerging artists. The performer roster includes Conjunto Cats, Los Arcos Hermanos Peña, Elijah Ezequiel, Bianca Ruiz, Luis AG, and Los Heartbreakers

TikTok discovered Japanese cheesecake. The original version embodied restraint: one cup of light yogurt, four Biscoff cookies submerged until soft. Two ingredients. Total damage? Maybe 200 calories. A civilized afternoon snack that respected both taste buds and metabolic reality. Then America got involved. The trend metastasized into something unrecognizable. Suddenly, the algorithm filled with videos of people layering strawberry puree, extra cookies, whipped cream, chocolat

The Rio Grande Valley has built its reputation on many things. Following trends with religious devotion ranks high on that list. The Dubai chocolate. The matcha lattes. Those have passed. Welcome to the Biscoff craze. You can see it everywhere: Biscoff conchas, Biscoff tres leches cake, Biscoff coffee, Somewhere between pumpkin spice season and the great oat milk revolution, Biscoff cookies infiltrated the RGV's consciousness like a paletero's bell on a Sunday afternoon. You

Block Walking "Good afternoon," she greeted the man. "My name is Letty Garza-Galvan. I am running for Starr County Judge." Simple. Humble. To the point. The man took a sticker and a concha from the candidate. He politely nodded his head as she explained her platform. Political campaigns have become lazy. Somewhere between crafting the perfect Instagram story and tracking TikTok analytics, candidates forgot that voters exist in three dimensions. They have doors. Those doors ca

In the tight-knit communities of the Rio Grande Valley, where familias stick together through floods, freezes, and the endless uncertainties of border life, the idea of someone exploiting foster children for profit strikes at the heart of our deepest values. Abuelas sharing tamales across fences, primos playing lotería late into the night—these are the bonds that define us. Yet, this betrayal isn't imported from distant cities; it's unfolding right here in the Valley, conceal

Congressman Vicente Gonzalez delivered an impassioned defense of immigrant construction workers during a January 21 hearing, emphasizing their indispensable role in America's housing market. The next day, he voted to fund the very agency responsible for deporting them. The contradiction speaks volumes about the performative nature of border district representation. "We have to be honest about that because while we talk about immigrants, 30% of construction workers in this cou

At Dr. Daria Milton’s clinics, care starts with the staff—not just the patients. On Friday morning, the phones go quiet. Calls are transferred, screens light up, and 47 employees across four South Texas offices—Rio Grande City, Escobares, Zapata, and the posh Pediatric Care Center Corporate Office—log into Zoom for an in-house training. Lili Ojeda, the Administrative Director, is what happens when you mix tough love with just a sprinkle of casual Friday. She has a pleasant BR

The internet exploded when Taylor Swift and Blake Lively's private text messages surfaced in court documents, but everyone focused on the wrong scandal. Forget Justin Baldoni. The real revelation is watching two best friends navigate the brutal reality that sometimes your ride-or-die is also kind of a nightmare, and you love her anyway. Blake Lively accused Baldoni of sexual harassment during filming of "It Ends With Us" and claimed he orchestrated a smear campaign. Baldoni c

Rome - Valentino Clemente Ludovico Garavani, legendary Italian fashion designer, has peacefully passed at the age of 93. Garavani opened a fashion house on Via Condotti in Italy. Known by the V logo, Valentino served as the creative director and influencer of the house from 1959 until around 2008. "Valentino Red" became a symbol of the fashion icon. His love for the color seemingly stemmed from the opera Carmen, a Spanish bel canto, that filled a stage with impressive red cos

Martin Luther King Jr. made history at thirty-five when he became the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. The Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded him the 1964 prize "for his non-violent struggle for civil rights for the Afro-American population." He was the twelfth American to receive it and only the second African American. His response to the honor revealed everything about his priorities. He immediately announced plans to donate the entire $54,123 prize to advancing

Jill Stein is a doctor who abandoned her medical practice to run for president. The Harvard-educated physician became the Green Party's presidential candidate in 2012, 2016, and most recently in 2024. She positions herself as the answer for progressives exhausted by Democratic incrementalism and Republican extremism, championing Medicare for All, student debt cancellation, and opposition to military interventionism. Her pitch appeals to voters convinced both major parties hav

ICE is here. The inevitable is happening here in Starr County and all across the Rio Grande Valley. Social media is filled with photos of people being detained. There is impotence. There is anger. There is fear. And sadness. That suffocating feeling in the air has a name: anomie. South Texas is a border region. The people who live here know immigration enforcement. But this is different. Now people are being detained at gas stations, at stores, at churches. Now filming an arr