| Don't feel bad, even some Texans do not know where South Texas is. Austin, San Antonio, El Paso are NOT South Texas. The geographic triangle comprised of Corpus Christi-Laredo-Brownsville is South Texas. The Lower Rio Grande Valley is in South Texas, so is South Padre Island. South Texas shares the Rio Grande/Rio Bravo with the Mexican State of Tamaulipas. |  |
The Lower Rio Grande Valley of South Texas is home for approximately one million people of whom at least eighty-five percent are Hispanic Mexican Americans. This community has been in existence since the mid-1700s, before American independence, and is firmly rooted in a multicultural heritage that includes an indigenous Native American past, a Spanish-Mexican legacy, and a more recent U. S. influence. The Valley’s proximity to Mexico, a country with a population of some eighty million people of distinctive history and culture, creates a dynamic current of confluence.
 |
The region, commonly known as the Lower Rio Grande Valley of South Texas, is comprised of the geographic formed by Laredo, Corpus Christi, and Brownsville. For centuries this region has been the "frontier," or on the "edge" of vast migrations of people, dynamic economic and political systems, an area of conflict but also of confluence. This cultural borderlands and international border is a unique American community. History shows all great civilizations developed at such intersections of cultures.
Nonetheless, because of historical neglect, especially since U.S. admittance, this area and its residents are not adequately identified or defined. South Texas is too often confused with San Antonio or Austin, some 250 miles north of the Lower Rio Grande Valley.
This southernmost tip of Texas is among the fastest growing regions in the United States. Mild winter climate attracts a yearly increasing retiree population. Recreational activities include an Audubon sponsored "birding festival, beachfront resorts at South Padre Island, sports fishing and hunting, and open-to-the-public nature sanctuaries.
Since NAFTA, South Texas has become the gateway to the United States to and from Central American markets. Low wages and an abundant supply of labor have brought many high profile corporations to locate on both sides of the international boundary, the Rio Grande. Maquilas, manufacturing enterprises, assemble products in Mexico and cross them to Texas for market distribution.
Possibly the most distinctive feature of the region is its ethnic make-up. Since Hispanics are the largest growing ethnic group in the country, understanding the long-established Mexican American people would benefit all Americans. South Texas, once part of the Mexican State of Tamaulipas, shares a common history and culture with Mexico. The history and culture of this population offers experiences, values, traditions, which can suggest possible alternatives to living in an increasingly complex world.
