2017 0125 Downtown Brownsville Revival snippets

 The Besteiro building on the corner of E Adams and 11th was built in 1911 awaits future rehabilitation.  The roof has already been repaired and it will be scheduled for clean-up work in back area where tar was caked-on backside but just look at the spaciousness of it.  This building has a lot of potential for use in downtown's development as an entertainment district.

 The Putegnat Building which was originally a drugstore built in the early 1900s is undergoing restoration by Balli Management Group, LLC

Pedro shows a refurbished door which was salvaged using new wood.  The outer frame was probably made using local Montezuma Bald Cypress trees of which a few can still be found growing along Brownsville resaca waterway systems.

 These beautifully fashioned door-knob handles and locks will be reused for door.

 A random bag-lady interested in what I was doing standing in the middle of the street was nice enough to inform me that the Stegman building will be done in six months so maybe she is correct?

Inside the Laureles Ranch house which sits in Linear Park we viewed a space where a door was filled in with white painted wood pieces with vertical crevices wood-filled and rough sanded to join surface which will be painted to blend in with outer colors and simulate the tri-color surrounding boards. 

Here the paint mixer uses various flat oil-based colors mixed with a recipe of other hues to match new paint to old.   This is just a test mixing for what will involve several layers of mixed-to-max colors which will eventually cover white areas to blend with blue patina and hopefully make filled-in door space unnoticeable.

We may be returning to some of these locations for future postings - progress reports.  Let us know if you have any story ideas or would like your rehabilitated historic property to be photographed so we can share your story with readers of this blog.

2017 Women's March on Washington: Women of the Rio Grande Valley stood in solidarity with their national sisters from Matamoros at Liner Park

photos by Javier R. Garcia

Thanks to the Janet Evans modeling agency for sending us this model for our cover photo

 I was there to take photos of this historic event

 They kiss to piss off haters because light drives out darkness and love trumps hate

 The march began from Linear Park to E Washington Park and back

 Joe & Rosa Perez Rumbo al Anacua

 Loretta and the Arabians singing "We shall not be moved."

Guest speaker and anti-LNG champion for Sierra Club Environmental Activists, Stefanie Herweck 

 Highly respected investigative journalist Emma Perez-Trevino 

 Martha Sanchez de La Union del Pueblo Entero

 Not just a face in the crowd:  Elizabeth Hutchinson is originally from New Jersey but marched for Martin Luther King and Cesar Chavez and was present during Melon Strike of 1966 here in RGV

 Teresa Saldivar helped organize the March on Washington from Linear Park

 Mary Helen Flores through Citizens Against Voter Abuse (C.A.V.A.) has effectively crippled the politiquera system which has reigned throughout the RGV for the past 50 years or so.  

 Flores & Saldivar:  Daughters of Freedom 

 Scott Nichol and Stefani Herweck switch gears from anti-LNG stance to anti-border wall stance

I apologize for the poor quality of photos.  Somebody (me actually) messed up the settings on my camera and all the photos were coming out too bright.  

Diana on the left with her grand-kids.

There may have been 800 to well-over 1,000 people there 

2017 Inaugurate Resistance at Linear Park

Nansi Guevara organized the peaceful march

According to Kaila Contreras of the Brownsville Herald "members of Movimiento Del Valle Por Los Derechos Humanos, the American Civil Liberties Union" gathered outside the U.S. Federal Courthouse on E Harrison St.

Juan Fidencio Treviño (pictured on right) stated that "the main goal of this morning's rally was to send a message that our local representatives will be held accountable for their actions.  We aim to:  1) defend the rights of the people targeted by Trump's campaign rhetoric and the harm that his administration may bring, 2) ensure that they resist the policies that may bring harm to our border communities, AND  3) end the system of compradrismo that has certain representatives working toward their own self-interests rather than the well-being of the citizens."

A familiar face at anti-LNG marches.  He might be with the Lower Rio Grande Valley Sierra Club.  If  you know any names of people here please let us know.

Alfredo Cuadros of KVEO News-23 interviews one of the activists (looks like Yolanda Garza-Birdwell)

Praying outside of courthouse.  There were no police present or other threatening around while  demonstrators marched outside.