CULTURA

FRONTeras Magazine Vol. 1 No. 4 Issue Osiel Peña swept floors for Coca-Colas. He was a kid in Miguel Alemán, Tamaulipas, watching a neighborhood carpenter turn chunks of wood into chairs, tables, doorframes. The shop owner let him hang around if he kept the sawdust off the floor. Payment came in glass bottles, preferably tall and cold. Eventually, the Cokes turned into pesos. By then, Peña wasn't just sweeping anymore. He had already been primed for this. His maternal grandfa

FRONTeras Magazine Vol. 1 No. 4 Issue Olivia Saenz wrestled with a paradox that gnawed at her conscience. "Las cosas de Dios no se venden." God's things aren't for sale. The pandemic had dismantled her husband's employment, and she harbored dreams of launching a spiritual boutique. But commercializing devotion felt like desecration. But her hands ached to create.  To string together beads and craft something beautiful from wood and wire. She prayed for clarity, for permission

FRONTeras Magazine Vol. 1 No. 4 Issue Cancer treatment happens in rooms full of people. Family members rotate shifts in hospital chairs. Friends organize meal trains and fundraisers. Husbands hold hands during chemotherapy infusions. Children draw pictures taped to refrigerators. The love is real, the support invaluable, but the fight itself belongs to one person alone. No one else can endure the nausea. No one else can tolerate the radiation burning through the skin. No one

FRONTeras Magazine Vol. 1 No. 1 Issue When Lucio Moya fires up the pit, the whole neighborhood pays attention. Born and raised in Roma, Texas, Lucio isn’t just another guy with a grill—he’s the culinary mastermind behind In Your Smokin’ Face, a barbecue catering business that’s feeding the very heart of South Texas: la música. From Grupo Frontera to Intocable, Lucio is the go-to guy for smoked meat, fire salsas, and that unmistakable backyard sabor. Like many Mexican-American

2025 FRONTeras Magazine Vol. 1 No. 3 Issue Katy Méndez is not the kind of photographer who needs her name in a caption. As a studio photographer, her photos have become a fixture of local life, capturing school photos, community events, and social functions without fanfare. But what remains unnoticed is how she lends her time and labor to her community consistently, without applause. It’s because she has struggled that she recognizes struggle in others. Méndez knows what it m

2025 FRONTeras Magazine Vol. 1 No. 3 Issue The road to Las Rucias curves west through sun-seared mesquite and heat-drunk gravel, past the Rio Grande’s sluggish bend and into a stretch of land history has largely abandoned. The war, supposedly drawing to a close, stalled here in the thicket and left a final mark. In November 1863, Union General Nathaniel Banks seized Brownsville to sever the Confederacy’s access to Matamoros. The Rio Grande became a lifeline for rebel survival

2025 FRONTeras Magazine Vol. 1 No. 3 Issue In the ’80s, a birthday meant a sheet cake from H-E-B, a gallon of Kool-Aid, and a fight for the only picnic table with shade at the park. Parents sat sweating through polyester while candles melted faster than frosting. Then came the ’90s, when Peter Piper Pizza and Chuck E. Cheese promised cool air and crowd control—if you didn’t mind sharing the space with four other kids and a mechanical rat. By the 2000s, someone got smart. They

2025 FRONTeras Magazine Vol. 1 No. 3 Issue Mercy Coffee and Tea Shop sits across from the Roma Post Office, where caffeine meets conviction. Opened in February 2025 by Roma native Synthia García, the shop has become a sanctuary for locals who want more than a quick drive-thru latte. It’s Roma’s answer to corporate coffee. Located at 1735 East Grant Street, Mercy Coffee and Tea Shop offers faith, flavor, and friendliness. Synthia didn’t start with espresso shots or frothy art.

2025 FRONTeras Magazine Vol. 1 No. 4 Issue Father Roy is a busy man. Getting an interview with him was no easy feat. Finally, on a sunny afternoon, right after a funeral, he carved out forty-five minutes to spare. In his office, Alexa hums old Americana from the 1940s while his dogs stretch beneath the desk. The conversation began with one question: how does a man become a man of God? As a boy, he listened to the Oblate fathers talk about their missions. "I thought that was k

2025 FRONTeras Magazine 4th Quarter Vol. 1 No. 4 Issue Last year, I was lucky enough to be chosen as the 2024 FRONTeras Person of the Year, a title that gave me great honor. The year has come and gone, and with it comes the bittersweet moment of transition. It is now my privilege to welcome the next person who will carry this meaningful recognition into 2025. Congratulations, Father Roy Snipes. The baton is now in your deserving hands. To "pass the baton," generally speaking,

2026 FRONTeras Magazine 1st Quarter - Vol. 2 No. 1 Issue Somewhere between the Instagram engagement announcements and courthouse weddings, Mexican-American culture has buried one of its most elaborate courtship rituals without a trace of its meaning. In Mexico and in some parts of Latin America, la pedida de mano, a formal request for a woman's hand in marriage, once required men to gather courage, family members, and occasionally a notary to draft letters attesting to moral

2026 FRONTeras Magazine 1st Quarter - Vol. 2 No. 1 Issue Zulma Piceno's cookie business exists because her daughter, Valeria, refused to eat birthday cake like a normal child. That's it. That's the origin story. While other kids demolished sheet cakes at parties, Valeria preferred cookies. So Zulma, like any mother trying to make birthdays work, started baking cookies instead. An easy solution turned into an accidental venture. The actual first order happened in 2018 when Zul

2026 FRONTeras Magazine 1st Quarter - Vol. 2 No.1 Issue Most business partnerships begin in boardrooms or coffee shops. Hilda Briseño and Leticia Sánchez met at las maquinitas in 2014, bonding over slot machines instead of spreadsheets. Letty was already a veteran vendor by then. The Nuevo Laredo native sold fruit, empanadas, and dulces enchilados before moving into perfumes and purses at local markets. Hilda was new to Laredo. The Edinburg High School Class of 1983 graduate

2026 FRONTeras Magazine 1st Quarter Issue Revival Coffee began with a name before it had a following. When the shop opened on April 21, 2023, the word Revival was not a marketing hook or aesthetic choice but a declaration, rooted in faith and reinforced daily through restraint, consistency, and an unwillingness to rush what was still taking shape. Owned by Marisol and Jimmy Bruce, the shop offers specialty drinks within a welcoming atmosphere shaped by a faith-based mission.

2026 FRONTeras Magazine 1st Quarter Issue Bolero 3 did not form in a garage with ambition or matching outfits. They formed the way most things in Roma, Texas, form. Around family. Around memory. Around the appreciation for music that is not in fashion anymore. The trio emerged from the Lozano household, where Boy Lozano performs alongside his wife, Isabel Lozano, and their son, Carlos Gabriel Lozano, known as Gabey. It is a family group in the truest sense. Music moves throug

2026 FRONTeras Magazine 1st Quarter Issue Elodia "Lolita" Briones never imagined her life as something to be narrated. Her days have accumulated quietly, shaped by labor and obligation, while building a life she's proud of. Before anyone knew her food, they knew her personality. A woman of God with short hair, her chest always covered by a delantal, who raised three children inside a rhythm defined by responsibility. Lolita came from General Zuazua, in the northeastern Mexica

At some point, usually somewhere between a sink full of dishes and a boy being praised for "helping" his mother, we taught our sons a quiet lie. We told them that cooking and cleaning were favors. Optional. Charitable. Something you do when a woman is busy, tired, or unavailable. We wrapped basic survival skills in politeness and called it good parenting. And then we acted surprised when grown men didn't know how to feed themselves, keep a home, or understand why their partne

2026 FRONTeras Magazine 1st Quarter Issue With the Keurig brewing, Baldemar "Balde" Garza is offered flavored coffee. Starbucks Cinnamon Dolce. Cinnabon Cinnamon Roll. He chooses classic medium roast without hesitation. Garza drinks black coffee. No sugar. No cream. That kind of confidence is a welcome mat for an incredible life. His mother crossed the Rio Grande undocumented from Michoacán, moving through Camargo, Tamaulipas, before reaching El Brazil. There was no plan wait

2025 FRONTeras Magazine Vol. 1 No. 2 Issue The mighty Rio Grande — or Rio Bravo, as it's called by those who've witnessed its fury - has long shaped life along the border. Flowing from the Rocky Mountains to the Gulf of Mexico, this river has been a source of life, danger, and division. But it also buried a history few remember. In the name of progress, entire towns disappeared beneath the waters of Falcon Lake. Families were uprooted, century-old homes abandoned, and a way o

2025 FRONTeras Magazine Vol. 1 No. 2 Issue It always starts with something everybody wants-something other people have. And suddenly, it becomes something everybody has. Right now, it's Dubai chocolate. You've seen it. That glossy, thick chocolate being poured like hot tar over pancakes, cookies, strawberries, conchas, tres leches cake, brownies, you name it, it's been done. The streets are flooded with it. Every café, home baker, and Instagram hustler is selling it. Dubai ch