LA TIA POLITICA

The 2026 midterms are still months away, yet Washington is already behaving like it's the night before Election Day. The consultants are consulting. The pollsters are polling. The fundraising emails are multiplying faster than mosquitoes after a South Texas rain. And governing? Well... they'll circle back to that after the campaign. House Republicans are pushing an early government funding vote, a move that supporters call strategic and critics call political theater. The tru

There are political books that tell readers something new, and then there are political books that simply confirm what many Americans have been screaming at their televisions for the better part of a decade. Regime Change by journalists Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan belongs firmly in the second category. For anyone who has spent the last several years asking, “Wait… this is really happening?” This book arrives carrying enough receipts to wallpaper the entire kitchen. Draw

Somewhere along the way, America stopped arguing over whether pineapple belongs on pizza and graduated to something far more absurd. Now we're fighting over cookies. Not whether they're soft or crunchy. Not chocolate chip versus oatmeal raisin. Political cookies. Welcome to 2026! The latest confection to spark national outrage comes courtesy of Hive Bakery in Flower Mound, Texas, where owner Haley Popp has once again found herself in the middle of America's never-ending cultu

The Long Line Of Women Who Refused Silence There is a saying heard in many Latino homes: "Si quieres que algo se haga bien, dáselo a una mujer." If you want something done right, give it to a woman. It is usually said half-jokingly while preparing tamales, organizing a fundraiser, planning a quinceañera, balancing the household budget, caring for aging parents, and somehow still finding time to remind everyone to call their grandmother. But history suggests there is more trut

History, Politics, and the Power of the Eraser In Texas, education is never just about education. Ay no, mijo, it’s about power, money, values, and who gets to hold the red pen over history before kids even learn how to spell it. Right now, public schools across the state are less like quiet learning spaces and more like family cookouts where everyone showed up ready to argue. You’ve got lawmakers debating vouchers, school boards side-eyeing curriculum changes, and teachers j

What Happens When the Powerful Stop Playing by the Rules A quote often attributed to Bob Marley warns: “You’ll never find justice in a world where criminals make the laws.” For many Americans, that sentence no longer sounds dramatic. It sounds familiar. Across the country, people are living through a growing distrust of institutions that once carried unquestioned authority. In communities large and small, people have always understood that justice often moves differently for

Who Gets the Benefit of the Doubt When Political Language Gets Ugly Jimmy Kimmel’s monologue this week didn’t just answer a call for his firing, it sharpened a broader debate about free speech and the uneven standards used to judge it in American politics. The controversy began with a joke. During a mock White House Correspondents’ Dinner segment, Kimmel described Melania Trump as having “a glow like an expectant widow,” a line delivered in the long-standing tradition of poli

Does Your Vote Arrive Late… or Right on Time? Look, m’ija, if you thought voting was already complicated, now imagine that even when your ballot arrives is being debated at the highest court in the country. This week, the nine justices of the Supreme Court spent more than two hours arguing over something that sounds simple but isn’t: can mail-in ballots be counted if they arrive after Election Day, as long as they were sent on time? Let's break it down. The fight started over

2026 FRONTeras Magazine 1st Quarter Issue There is a condition quietly spreading across parts of Latino America, particularly along the border and anywhere a lifted truck, a badge, or an oil rig can be seen from space. Doctors call it Big Man Syndrome. Symptoms include chronic chest-thumping, extreme sensitivity to perceived disrespect, an allergy to nuance, and the belief that owning a gun, a truck, or a federal uniform somehow transforms centuries of discrimination into a s

If you live in or around Roma or Rio Grande City, chances are you've complained about a road after a heavy rain, wondered why drainage hasn't been fixed in a colonia, or noticed county crews working on one stretch of pavement but not another. What many residents don't realize is that those decisions don't come from Austin—or even from City Hall. They come from the Starr County Commissioners Court. The Commissioners Court is the real engine of county government. It's where dec

Scrolling through our social media feeds, we’ve all seen those repetitive reminders: “Register to vote.” “Check your registration status.” “Make sure your voice counts.” They appear so often that after a while, they almost blur into the digital background noise. Most of us scroll past, assuming our registration is fine—that because we voted last time, everything must still be in order. But the other day, I decided to click one of those links. And what happened next was a wake

Picture South Texas politics as your favorite telenovela, unfolding across the ranchos of Rio Grande City, the bustling streets of McAllen, and the colonias from Roma to Brownsville. The general election in November? That’s the dramatic season finale everyone tunes in for. But the primary election is the crucial “casting episode”—the one where we, the viewers in every colonia corner, decide which characters even make it to that finale. The dramatic series of Doña Política La

We must declare: Enough! We are done asking for permission to exist. For too long, being brown in America has been treated like a condition to be cured — something to defend, to prove, to justify. We are told that borders protect, that agents serve, that violence keeps peace. But what kind of peace strips mothers from children and terrorizes citizens born under the same flag it claims to defend? For generations, brown bodies in America have navigated a gauntlet of suspicion,

Some of you have never known politics without the push notification. You wake up, grab your phone, and before your first sip of coffee, five strangers have explained “the end of democracy” in a 30‑second vertical video shot in their car. Around 70% of young people got info about the 2020 election through social media, and a lot of you weren’t just scrolling—you were posting, organizing, stitching, duetting, and dropping hot takes with yesterday’s eyeliner still on. TikTok, In

Welcome to Texas, where brisket is sacred, cattle are legendary, and state lawmakers have identified the gravest threat to civilization: watermelon-flavored hemp gummies. The legislature moved faster against peach rings than it ever has for failing schools or collapsing hospitals, treating candy-coated CBD like a national emergency. This is how politics works in 2025. A resident can legally stockpile enough firearms to outfit a small militia, but sell a hemp chew in a bag wit

Simple question: If the state can afford billion-dollar tax cuts for corporations, why can’t it afford to pay its fair share for our kids’ education? Simple question, demands a simple answer—you would think. Let’s talk taxes. Texas’ school finance system wasn’t built to last. The “Robin Hood” plan, born out of a Texas Supreme Court ruling in 1993, was a desperate bipartisan fix, not a visionary one. Lawmakers were under court order to end an unconstitutional gap between rich

Let’s get something straight, Starr County — nobody gives you power. You have to take it. For years, people have said South Texas is “changing.” They say Starr County “flipped red,” as if we suddenly decided that the politicians who’ve ignored us for decades finally earned our trust. But before anyone buys that story, let’s look at who’s really been running this state — and why we’re still fighting for the basics our families deserve. The county may have turned red, but the m

Picture this: it’s November, election night. The TV flickers in the living room. Someone mutters, “There they go again, ruining the country.” The tacos are still warm, the cafecito is cooling, and everyone shakes their heads like it’s a bad novela we’ve seen too many times. But here’s the ugly truth, tío: a lot of this mess isn’t only the fault of corrupt politicians or greedy billionaires. It belongs to the millions of Americans—millions of Texans—who simply did not vote. Th