LGBTQIA+ LatinX Pride this Saturday, Food Bank RGV needs volunteers, and more stories from the Rio Grande Valley
The South Texas Equality Project is leading the effort to create a dynamic blend of queer visibility and Latinx representation as a family event for all ages.
News briefs
This is a preview of a regular news digest we're working on launching for the Rio Grande Valley on Across The Americas designed with reader suggestions. A special thanks to everyone who has shared their input so far. Let us know what you think!
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RGV Pride celebrates LGBTQIA+ LatinX pride during Hispanic Heritage Month on Saturday
The Rio Grande Valley will celebrate its LGBTQIA+ community this Saturday at the Harlingen Convention Center. Instead of taking place during national Pride Month in June, the event is scheduled during Hispanic Heritage Month, in a vibrant Día de los Muertos celebration.
The South Texas Equality Project, or STEP, a Valleywide coalition of community organizations, is leading the effort to create a dynamic blend of queer visibility and Latinx representation as a family event for all ages.
Across The Americas is the newsletter of independent journalism from the Rio Grande Valley.
“We are working hard to make this event a reflection of the beautiful culture of our border region,” Gabriel Sanchez wrote on social media earlier this week. Sanchez is part of the STEP coalition and helped organize this year’s event.
“We will have a community altar, a Coahuiltecan and Nahuatl language workshop, a drag show, a masquerade ball, workshops and panels, a session to help trans and nonbinary people update their passports and other identification documents, gender affirming haircuts, a trans closet, and a quiet/sensory space,” Sanchez wrote.
Dani Marrero Hi, who is volunteering at the event, is a community organizer and co-founder of Ruido Studios, a social justice-driven communicators' hub focused on transforming narratives in the region.
Marrero wrote an essay for the Texas Observer in June about how people in the Rio Grande Valley continue to define themselves through positive resilience, rather than through the limited stories told about them from outside the region.
“It is an undeniable fact that the LGBTQIA+ community of the Rio Grande Valley is a shining example of grit, resistance, and joy,” wrote Marrero, in response to what she said are outside narratives about “powerless one-dimensional caricatures” imposed on the Rio Grande Valley.
A handful of Pride celebrations nationwide have taken the same intersectional approach as this year’s RGV Pride, including the well-known Celebrate Orgullo in Miami, organized by Unity Coalition, a Hispanic and Indigenous LGBTQ+ advocacy group based in Florida.
For the Rio Grande Valley, as in Miami, a blend of the two traditions is not meant to be primarily novel but rather a natural reflection of the region's multifaceted heritage that has always been present.
“The truth is, we could go city by city in the Valley sharing its historic and present significance to the LGBTQIA+ community,” wrote Marrero.
“After the year that the trans community has had in Texas especially, we are centering, celebrating, and uplifting the trans community and trans and nonbinary people have been included in every step of the planning,” wrote Sanchez, referring to the event's focus on trans visibility this year.
For a full schedule of activities during RGV Pride visit steprgv.org/rgvprid
‘We cannot alleviate hunger alone’: Food Bank RGV appeals for community help as federal shutdown continues
Food Bank RGV has been putting out calls for volunteers this week as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, will no longer be available in November due to the federal government shutdown caused by a congressional budget impasse.
“As the Valley’s food bank, we are the first line of defense for those facing food insecurity in our community, but we cannot alleviate hunger alone,” the organization posted on Facebook this week, asking for food and monetary donations and for volunteers.
For Friday, Oct. 31, volunteers can check in at the organization’s front office starting at 8:30 a.m. at 724 N. Cage Blvd. in Pharr. Volunteers should dress appropriately for outdoor activity, wearing closed-toed shoes and comfortable clothing. Continue checking Food Bank RGV’s social media pages for future volunteer opportunities after Friday.
Texas Health and Human Services said it would reissue SNAP when it receives new federal guidance or when the shutdown ends. Call 211 to learn about nearby pantries and food banks in Texas. WIC is still available in November for qualifying women and children.
You can read our breakdown of the situation in Congress and the shutdown here.
Rio Grande LNG construction is ahead of schedule
NextDecade has financed and begun construction ahead of schedule on two additional liquefaction trains at its Rio Grande LNG terminal along the Port of Brownsville ship channel, expanding the project’s active buildout to the five trains originally planned. The report was first published in Pipeline & Gas Journal on Thursday.
Each “train” is an industrial unit that cools natural gas into liquid form for export.
In April, NextDecade announced plans to increase the output capacity of Rio Grande LNG by about 60% of its original goal. The company is now evaluating three additional trains that would provide the expanded capacity.
Bekah Hinojosa is the co-founder of the South Texas Environmental Justice Network, a coalition of directly impacted people of color in the Rio Grande Valley working toward environmental justice in the region.
Hinojosa said in a public statement in April that Rio Grande LNG, if completed, will be “the largest and most polluting” gas facility in the U.S., and “the biggest contributor of cancer-causing and climate change-inducing emissions in the Rio Grande Valley.”
Cameron County Judge Eddie Treviño, a local supporter of Rio Grande LNG, said in a public statement last year that “the positive economic impact this project will have in our community is generational with the increase of employment opportunities, higher wages and the introduction of supporting businesses.”
The Texas Observer reported in December that staff in Treviño’s office communicated with NextDecade representatives about drafting a supportive op-ed on the Rio Grande LNG project, which was later published under Treviño’s name in The Brownsville Herald.
Happening Now
◆ The La Feria News will close this month after 102 years in operation, citing revenue losses since the pandemic, publisher Landon Jennings told Valley Central on Thursday.
◆ Cameron County’s 40-acre Olmito Nature Park near Brownsville is nearly complete, featuring trails, fishing piers, kayak launches, picnic areas, and an RV campground, with a grand opening expected soon.
◆ Gov. Greg Abbott is facing pressure from Texas Democrats to use Texas emergency funds to prevent 3.5 million low-income Texans from losing SNAP food aid amid the federal shutdown.
About Across the Americas
Across The Americas is the newsletter of independent journalism from the Rio Grande Valley, covering the Texas-Mexico region and the deep roots its people share across the continent.
Join four-time award-winning journalist Pablo De La Rosa as he reports on the global forces shaping these regional communities today.
Pablo's voice has appeared on NPR, MSNBC, Texas Public Radio, The Border Chronicle, The Texas Standard and Lighthouse Reports documentaries. In 2022, Pablo helped launch and host the first daily Spanish-language newscast in public media for Texas, broadcasting from the Rio Grande Valley for San Antonio’s NPR member station.
