TEXAS

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

Rio Grande City Mayor Gilberto Falcon has issued two public denials in response to a Facebook Reel that referenced a 2017 Starr County district court docket bearing his name, calling the allegation "fraudulent" and "fake." Falcon was elected mayor of Rio Grande City in 2024, defeating incumbent Joel Villarreal with 52 percent of the vote as part of the Independent Leadership slate. He is a licensed attorney who has practiced law in Rio Grande City for roughly 17 years, with h

Gina Hinojosa Takes the School Fight Statewide Texas school districts are closing campuses at a pace public school advocates describe as a crisis. Gina Hinojosa, the Democratic nominee for Texas governor, launched Team Texas Public Schools on Monday, a nonpartisan organizing program designed to mobilize parents, teachers, and administrators across party lines to fight school closures statewide. Hinojosa unveiled the program at Pease Elementary in Austin, a campus opened in 18

The Outgoing Commissioner and the Democrat Who Agrees With Him Sid Miller has never been mistaken for a political moderate. The three-term Texas agriculture commissioner built his career on MAGA loyalty, Trump endorsements, and a public persona that thrived on confrontation. His announcement that he would share a stage with Clayton Tucker, the Democratic nominee running to replace him, landed accordingly. The two are scheduled to appear together at a forum on June 11 at the M

The Man Who Saved Ken Paxton Just Endorsed the Guy Running Against Him Dan Cogdell knows Ken Paxton better than most people in Texas politics ever will. He sat across courtroom tables from prosecutors for nearly a decade, first when Paxton hired him in 2015 after his securities fraud indictment, and later when he served on Paxton's defense team in the 2023 impeachment trial that ended in acquittal. The securities fraud case ran nine years before prosecutors dropped the charge

Paxton's DOGE Loyalty Now Has a Cost, and Texas Cattle Are Paying It Ken Paxton has spent the last year positioning himself as the Trump administration's most reliable Texas ally. That positioning now sits alongside an active screwworm outbreak spreading through South and Central Texas ranch country. USDA has confirmed six cases of New World screwworm in Texas livestock since June 3, with confirmed infections in Zavala, La Salle, Gillespie, and Edwards counties. The Texas Ani

The Most Republican Democrat in Congress Faces the Most Democratic Republican in Texas Tano Tijerina spent a decade winning Webb County elections as a Democrat. He won in 2014, 2018, and 2022, each time under the same party banner, each time in a county that had been blue so long that the color felt geological. Then Trump carried Webb County in November 2024, and Tijerina announced on Fox & Friends that he had always been a conservative and that the Democratic Party lost him

Abbott's Closed Primary Push Would Redraw Who Gets a Voice in Texas Greg Abbott stood before thousands of delegates at the 2026 Texas Republican Party Convention in Houston on Friday and announced what the party's grassroots wing has wanted for decades. Close the Republican primary to non-Republicans. Only registered party members vote. Everyone else sits out. The statement marks a first for Abbott, who had largely avoided the fight until now. The Texas GOP sued his own Secre

Roma Remembers the Schools No One Remembers Anymore On a rainy Saturday morning in Roma, Texas, a dozen guests crowded together at the Roma Birding Center and became students again. Dora Perez Villarreal hosted "School Years Out in the Ranch," a traveling exhibition covering sixty years of Starr County educational history that exists in no archive, no curriculum, and no official record. Sponsored by the City of Roma, the event drew residents into a conversation about ranch sc

The "Blue Butterfly" at Dilley: What's Real, What Isn't, and Why It Matters The South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas, is not a place most people think about until something goes wrong. And lately, something has, though the full picture is considerably messier than social media wants it to be. Dilley is an ICE family detention facility. It has held mothers, their children, and more recently single adult women. The facility is operated by a private contractor,

Christian Zapata of Palmview High School Wins the Texas Big Squeeze State Championship Christian Zapata, a junior at La Joya Palmview High School, won the Ambassador 16-and-Up Division at the 20th Annual Texas Big Squeeze Finals on May 30 in Houston. Six competitors from across the state stood before a judging panel that evening, and Zapata walked away with the top title in his division, along with a new Hohner accordion sponsored by the company in recognition of his win. Zap

Roma, Texas does not generate institutional firsts very often. That changed when Roma High School Class of 2026 senior Audrina Reyes committed to compete on the Texas A&M University-San Antonio Jaguar Cheer Squad, becoming the first Gladiator cheerleader in the school's history to earn a collegiate cheer placement. The Rio Grande Valley has long sent its athletes, educators, and professionals into the world beyond Starr County. This particular milestone, modest by national me

I've lived in the 956 my whole life, and I can tell you with absolute certainty that stop signs here are purely decorative. They're suggestions at best, gentle recommendations from traffic engineers who clearly never consulted the locals before installing them. We see that red octagon and think, "How nice, a courtesy marker to let me know there's an intersection ahead." The rolling stop is our regional art form. It's a perfectly calibrated ballet of momentum and minimal braki

Martie Garcia Vela has been watching elections since she was 18 years old, working polling sites in the Dallas-Fort Worth area while putting herself through college. She knows the process. She knows what compliance looks like and what it does not. So when she filed a formal election complaint with the Texas Secretary of State following the March 3, 2026, General Primary Election in Starr County, she was not speaking from speculation. "I believe our free and fair elections are

Joe Lopez is back in the spotlight. The co-founder and longtime frontman of Grupo Mazz, one of the most recognizable names in Tejano music history, is now the subject of a new documentary titled The Truth, a project seven years in the making that centers his account of the criminal case that ended his career and sent him to prison for over a decade. The film premiered its teaser at a press conference in Harlingen, and the Tejano world is already paying attention. More than 70

2025 FRONTeras Magazine Vol. 1 No. 4 Issue Once a month, Girl Scout leaders pack into Jesse's Enchanted Place in Rio Grande City, and Jesse Peña feeds them while they plan how to move mountains with limited resources and unlimited opinions. Tonight, there's chicken picada on the menu. Girl Scouts of Greater South Texas spans 26 counties and connects 17,000 girls with nearly 4,000 volunteers. The Rio Grande City/Roma service unit represents seventeen troops within that sprawli

2025 FRONTeras Magazine Vol. 1 No. 2 Issue How does a daughter honor her father? By taking the foundation he built... and expanding it with her own hands. When Karina Mascorro walks into her shop each morning, she isn’t just running a business—she’s continuing a legacy that began over four decades ago. Her father, Zaragoza Vela, first opened the doors of Starr Moulding Cabinet Maker Supplies in 1984. What started as a small woodworking business in Roma, Texas, has now grown i

2025 FRONTeras Magazine Vol. 1 No. 1 Issue They are the roadies, stylists, managers, and alarm clocks—all rolled into one They don’t wear trajes. They don’t carry instruments. But they know the difference between a vihuela and a guitarra. They know the difference between a falsetto and a bravado. And just like Santa Claus, they know when you've been good and when you've been mouthing off during practice. Mariachi moms are a force. They’ll sit through every concert, every comp

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

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