by Jack Moffitt
Greetings Locavores!
Are you shivering from this global warming yet? We are! But the bounty of the efforts makes it all worthwhile. Last weekend brought freezing weather to the Valley, even before the start of winter. Vendors straggled in after battling to save crops the night before, and customers bundled up to buy despite [...]

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The Brownsville Society for the Performing Arts (BSPA)
The 13th Annual Brownsville Latin Jazz Festival
October 8 to 11, 2009
Various Locations in Brownsville Texas
The Brownsville Society for the Performing Arts (BSPA) announced its 13th Annual Browns­ville Latin Jazz Festival, scheduled to take place this coming October 8 to 11, 2009 in Brownsville, Texas. For complete schedules, artist [...]

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From Mark Clark
Opening Reception: Thursday, 01 October, 6:00 p.m.
Chris Leonardski: ‘Depression Proof CommOddities Deliberately Designed for that Sweet, Lazy Life’
Paintings / Ceramics
Free Admission
Show runs through 24 October
Noche de Pena: Sunday, 04 October, 7:30 p.m.

Benito de la VillaMoreno – Techno Sitar
Joey Tamayo – Singer, songwriter
Ensamble La Misiøn – International music, art song
Suggested [...]

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From Barry Horn, Director
The Brownsville Museum of Fine Art is the result of the dedication and inspiration of eight artists who gathered together almost 75 years ago in Brownsville to develop their artistic talents and to provide educational and exhibition opportunities. These eight women would marvel at their legacy.

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An Announcement
The Art of Personal Adornment
Fashion by Carmen Rion
Mexican fashion designer, Carmen Rión, will present her international fashions to a red carpet crowd on Thursday, August 13 at 5:30 p.m.
Rion’s use of Mexico’s traditional embroidery in contemporary fashion has created a cottage industry for the talented artesanas of southern Mexico. Her design style blends [...]

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An announcement
Brownsville native Oscar Casares will launch his new novel, Amigoland, at the Brownsville Museum of Fine Art on August 6 at 5:30 p.m.
The event will feature a reception followed by a book reading and signing.
Amigoland recently received a “starred review” from Publisher’s Weekly, which called it “a winning novel.” The novel was described as [...]

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By Steve Trenfield
Valedictory address delivered June 1, 2009 at Sams Stadium, Brownsville, Texas for the 2009 graduating class of Lopez High School
I’d like to start off by saying thank you to some of the people who have helped me get where I am today. To Ms. Ascott and Mr. Simons, for loving their jobs more [...]

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By Jack Moffitt
Bell Rings at 8a.m., last sale at noon!
Last Market Until October
This is it. It is time to concede to the blistering sun. It all works out. We can spend some time improving our soils, our farms and fix those things that have been getting put off until market closes. It kind of feels [...]

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By Jack Moffitt
Editor’s note: This is Mr. Moffitt’s essay from last week’s Farmers Market Report (June 20th), which didn’t get up as I was in a place without Internet service. My apologies to both my reader’s and Mr. Moffitt for the omission.
In a backhanded way, someone makes your food choices for you. They do it [...]

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By Jack Moffitt
Bell Rings at 8a.m., last sale at noon!
What Have we Done?
Thirty-three weeks ago we began setting up the awnings and tables that make the familiar sight-picture we now all know as the Brownsville Farmers Market. Three weeks to go and the season will close. Thousands of lettuces from California were displaced and didn’t [...]

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A comment
Congratulations to Melissa Zamora and Rose Gowen, newly elected members of Brownsville’s city commission. We appreciate the strengths you’ve shown through the election cycles and wish you well in your new positions. We also look forward to your efforts to improve the city’s business and to a healthier atmosphere at city council meetings.
-Stan Raines

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By Jack Moffitt
Bell Rings at 8a.m., last sale at noon!
Vitamin pills– good? bad?
I like to listen to Dr. Dean Edell, the talk radio doctor. The guy seems like he is giving an honest opinion when he talks, and he keeps his game interesting by stirring controversies like the vitamin pill controversy. He relies on [...]

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BROWNSVILLE, May 2009-The Brownsville Heritage Complex, in historic downtown Brownsville, invites the public to the launch of the 1st Sunday Music and Merienda Series, a musical lecture program presented by Joe and Rosa Perez of Rumbo al’Anacua on Sunday, June 7, 2009 at 2 p.m. The event is free for BHA members and $2 for [...]

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By Jack Moffitt
Bell Rings at 8a.m., last sale at noon!
Healthcare Crisis or self-care crises ?
It would seem logical to conclude that the people-feeding arrangement in the U.S. is failing. Is the failure inherent in the mass production process? Is the failure endemic in a sedentary culture evolved in the glow of electronic devices? [...]

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Jack Moffitt
Bell Rings at 8a.m., last sale at noon!
Food Futures
I read a great book last winter – The Worst Hard Times, by Timothy Egan. It was a very timely reminder of the Great Depression. President Bush had just announced the economic catastrophe we are working through, and President Obama was coming to office. Until I [...]

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Reading and Book Signing
Saturday, 16 May, 7:00 p.m.
Brenda Nettles Riojas will read from her new book
of poetry, ” La Primera Voz Que Oi”
Free Admission
Noche de Peña XIV
Sunday, 17 May, 7:30 p.m.
Music: Irma Guadarrama, sings original compositions
Bree Stevens, with J Tamayo and C Harris
Ensamble la Misiøn, the Foncerrados, art song
Suggested donation: $5 includes refreshments
Children’s [...]

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From Virginia Gause
The Brownsville Heritage Complex, in historic downtown Brownsville, invites the public to Songs of the Border Brick Culture, a multimedia musical program presented by Joe and Rosa Perez of Rumbo al’Anacua on Saturday, May 9, 2009 at 6:00 p.m. The event is free to the public and is held in honor of National [...]

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A comment
It was interesting to read mayor Pat Ahumada’s defense of his one man disaster declaration in Monday’s paper and so kind of the Herald to print it up.
Of course, it may be that the Herald is short on participants for its opinion page–some while back, the scene of healthy if slow debate but lately [...]

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Free education! Free digitization!
LOWER RIO GRANDE VALLEY, Texas – The Texas Archive of the Moving Image (TAMI) brings its new statewide traveling educational program, the Texas Film Round-Up, to the Cine El Ray in McAllen on Friday, May 15th from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m., the Historic Brownsville Museum in Brownsville on Saturday, May 16th [...]

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from Virginia Gause
Poetry Month in the Valley will conclude with the first official book signing in the United States for La Primera Voz Que Oí (The First Voice I Heard), a collection of Spanish poems by Brownsville native Brenda Nettles Riojas, is scheduled at 1:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 30 at the Arnulfo L. Oliveira [...]

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Video by Edgar Clinton, Jr.

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from Gene’s Notebook
…and the man in the Lopez Four line speaks of the puente George Washington in Spanish, so I cut into his conversation and say, “My grandparents used to live near the George Washington Bridge in New York City after they moved from a poorer section up to the bridge.”
He listens. And I ask [...]

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A Thank You

Realizing that I have a certain prejudice, but my feeling was and is that last night’s celebration of NYBT’s first year as a literary rag was a screaming success. The parting comments were all positive and there is a strong possibility that, if we make it through another year, we’ll have another. My [...]

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by Gene Novogrodsky
Hardly the bunny and egg people. Hardly the backyard grillers. Hardly the cars backed up to beaches, bridges, restaurants. Four people on the road.
Three first. A woman and two men stand next to their two thousand-dollar touring bikes, saddle bags heavy. They just came down to the border, getting an SUV lift from [...]

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A comment
I’ve been trying to get some information on a tax protest that’s supposed to come to fruition at Noon, April 15th at the Federal Courthouse, according to the KURV afternoon shock jock Colonel Ray (last name unposted on KURV’s Web site). Of course, there’s the problem–the source, this repeater in the Great Right Wing [...]

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