As you know, well you do if you've read last year's entries, I'm close to the Rio Grande River. Although Anglos tend to say 'grand', it's properly pronounced 'grand-ay'. The area's permanent population is - no surprise - largely Hispanic. With the Spanish came the priests. This ruined Oblate monastery isn't far from my winter home.
The Valley is one of the fastest growing areas in the States. Cross-border business means a slew of enterprises scattered along the river. Paradoxically, it's also got some of the highest unemployment in Texas, so you don't have to look far to find deprivation.
For all the growth, the flat farmlands mean habitations can be quite far apart and there is often a loneliness in the landscape.
Most of my time has been in large cities, so I may exaggerate the emptiness. However, even in the towns, there can be a curious, albeit photogenic, sense of abandonment, at least in the core. This is Edinburg, Texas.
To be fair to Edinburg (as in much of the Valley), you don't have to go far to find busy plazas, but the outlying malls mean a thriving town centre in the Fifties can now feel deserted. It doesn't take much imagination to imagine moviegoers crowding into Edinburg's forlorn Citrus Cinema a few decades ago.
Here's the water tower in Hidalgo, an 'All-America City' (sic). Actually, Hidalgo is a dusty, riverside town of 11,734, although I'm sure that doesn't make it any less America or American.
Mission was only founded in the early 1900s when the railroad - the impressively named St. Louis, Brownsville and Mexico Railway - arrived. This splendid theatre was built in 1912. The weekday I arrived, the little café and meat shop were closed.
In Rio Grande City, Bertha's didn’t seem very busy.
On a baking morning, I was the only visitor wandering around Roma's splendid Nineteenth Century plaza. Needless to say, Rosita's Cantina - clicking on the picture, you might just be able to see 'beer' on the wall - wasn’t offering what would have been welcome refreshment.
The San Juan Hotel was home to a well-known Texas Ranger and marshal. Tom Mayfield helped expose a World War One German plot to cause problems along the US-Mexican border. Despite having a Texas Historical Commission plaque, it is, as you can see, abandoned.
Even in downtown Brownsville, a busy place approaching two hundred thousand, this delightful old Chevrolet showroom stands empty.
One building still very much in use is Edinburg's evocative 1950s Echo Hotel.
On Fridays 'Surf and Turf' is only $12.95. Cmon down!
