About the Author

Hi, after all of these posts I though that I would share a little bit about myself and why I have been writing about the Rio Grande Valley. I feel that it would be good for the readers to understand where I came from and what has led me to start this blog.

I was born in McAllen, Texas, a city in the Rio Grande Valley, and am of Mexican decent. My mother is a third generation American, however her family lives about as close to the border as you can get. They have live on the same street not five minutes from the border since they immigrated to America around a hundred years ago. So although my mom was America the culture that she grew up with was more Mexican then anything else. My father on the other had actually immigrated from Mexico when he was six years old with his younger brother and his single mother. Both of my parents came from rather rough circumstances but were able to make their way through college and eventually open their own business and have a son.

Throughout my childhood I came to learn a lot more about the valley and the hardships that people would face. Although my family was relatively well off, due to success of their business, it did not mean that I was blind to the struggles that many residents faced here. My father being an immigrant would tell me stories of what he had to go through so that he could get to where he was today, while my mother had a lot of family that were still currently suffering. Although when I was very young I was difficult for me to understand this, as I got older I eventually began to realize all that was going on in the place where I grew up.

Although growing up in the Rio Grande Valley is not that bad many children dream to eventually leave and move to big city, and I was no different. This desire most likely stems from the "small town" vibe that the Valley gives off to many people. Although geographically large and having a decently large population, the Rio Grande Valley still had more in common with a small town then a large urban city like New York or Houston. I'm not sure if this came from the sparse quantity of stores, restaurants, or activities that we would see on TV or if it came from the lack of buildings. But regardless many people wanted to move and experience the "big city lifestyle". I was one of this people and tried left the Valley as soon as I had the chance.

I left the Valley when I was eighteen, and moved to New York City for school. At school I learned many things about life outside of the RGV. What inspired me to start this blog however was the lack of knowledge that people had on border towns and the people that live there. In college I learned that the border was painted in relative negative lite. Whether it was the terrors of the drug war, or the increase of "illegal aliens" when people though of the border it was simply negative. Most didn't even know about the communities that were built on the border. And this is why I started this blog so that I could educate people not necessarily on the affair happening on the border, but rather on the culture and people that live there.

This I a short summary of my life and why I became interested in the sharing knowledge about the border, so I hope that I am able to accomplish what I set out to do.