Daniela Capistran

Published Work

Rio Grande Guardian •

An interview with the Jesuit priest who claimed 'kangaroo courts' are operating in the RGV – Rio Grande Guardian

BROWNSVILLE, Texas – Jesuit Priest Brian Strassburger, of San Felipe de Jesus Catholic Church in Brownsville, has spoken about his work helping migrants along the US-Mexico border.


Strassburger made the headlines recently when, in a column for the Jesuit Review, he said a “kangaroo court” system was in operation in the Rio Grande Valley. He penned the column with fellow Jesuit William Critchley-Menor.


The article was titled: “What we saw during an ICE arrest and immigration court hearing:...
Rio Grande Guardian •

Bishop Flores: Help People Affected by Deportation Efforts – Rio Grande Guardian

BROWNSVILLE, Texas – Bishop of Brownsville Daniel E. Flores has asked churchgoers to help people being deported.


He gave his sermon on July 13, the Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Homily.


Flores spoke about the Mosaic Law. He also spoke about what it meant to be a Samaritan in Jesus’ time. He said someone who treats others with compassion is a Samaritan.“This is the law of God,” Flores said. “This is what it means to love a neighbor. You see and you do what you can.”


United States Im...
Rio Grande Guardian •

UTRGV School of Medicine establishes its first endowed chair in orthopedic surgery  – Rio Grande Guardian

MCALLEN, Texas – UTRGV presented the addition of its first endowed chair in orthopedic surgery for the UTRGV School of Medicine during a press conference at the Rio Bank Tower in McAllen on Tuesday.


The chair will be recognized as the Subram G. Krishnan M.D. and Sumant “Butch” Krishnan M.D. Endowed Chair for Orthopedic Surgery. Drs. Subram and Elizabeth Krishnan have endowed three other chairs at UTRGV in the past, including the endowed chair of neurosciences. President of UTRGV, Guy Bailey,...
Rio Grande Guardian •

$52 million investment coming to Mercedes – Rio Grande Guardian

MERCEDES, Texas – A $52,896,005 investment in the Shops at Mercedes has been announced by the city of Mercedes and Merit Commercial Real Estate


The Shops at Mercedes will be located at the intersection of Expressway 83 and Mile 1 ½ East. Merit Commercial Real Estate, a Rio Grande Valley and San Antonio real estate firm, is leading the project. The chief executive officer of the real estate firm, Will Collins, said the shopping center would provide new shopping variety and generate more jobs f...
Rio Grande Guardian •

Texas International Produce Association: Keep the Tomato Suspension Agreement in place – Rio Grande Guardian

MISSION, Texas – Dante Galeazzi, president and CEO of the Texas International Produce Association, has spoken about the repercussions Texas faces from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s intent to withdraw from the 2019 Tomato Suspension Agreement.


The withdrawal is slated to happen July 14.


The 2019 Tomato Suspension Agreement is a trade deal between the U.S. and Mexico that suspended an antidumping investigation in exchange for price floors and inspection requirements on Mexican tomato imp...
Rio Grande Guardian •

ERO Architects produces three videos about the new Hidalgo County Courthouse – Rio Grande Guardian

EDINBURG, Texas – ERO Architects have produced three videos about the new Hidalgo County Courthouse.


ERO were architects for the building.


Brian Godinez, CEO of ERO Architects, explained:“HDR and ERO designed the new Hidalgo County courthouse for justice and community safety. Their work on the courthouse aimed to create a modern, secure, and accessible 21st-century judicial complex. They meticulously planned for clear circulation, separating defendants from the public to ensure safety and...
Rio Grande Guardian •

Edinburg EDC has a new international development business manager  – Rio Grande Guardian

EDINBURG, Texas – Jeffrey Salcedo Cantú, the new international development business manager for the Edinburg Economic Development Corporation (EEDC), spoke about the outreach the EEDC is doing for the business market in Mexico.


Salcedo Cantú has worked for the EEDC for about two months and has previous experience working for media companies such as Televisa and KRGV-TV Channel 5 located in Weslaco. He said he also had a digital marketing company located in Reynosa, Mexico and the Rio Grande V...
Rio Grande Guardian •

South Texas Vocational Technical Institute accepting donations for Hill Country flood victims – Rio Grande Guardian

BROWNSVILLE, Tx – South Texas Vocational Technical Institute (STVT), is collecting donations for Kerr County and surrounding areas affected by the Guadalupe River flooding at each of its campuses from July 9-11.


STVTV is a vocational and technical training institute with campuses in Brownsville, McAllen, Weslaco, Corpus Christi, San Antonio and Arlington. 


STVT’s senior vice president of operations, Daylan Childress, said that in partnership with local campuses and residents across the reg...
Rio Grande Guardian •

Crespo: How and why we mapped out Central Mexico's automotive industry cluster – Rio Grande Guardian

MCALLEN, Tx – Elisa Crespo, president of the Metropolitan Automotive Cluster of Central Mexico, delivered a presentation for economic development organizations from across the Rio Grande Valley about the transformation of the automotive industry.


Crespo held her Spanish presentation at a meeting hosted by the Council for South Texas Progress (COSTEP) for the Rio South Texas Binational Auto Cluster Initiative at the Cambria Hotel in McAllen on Tuesday. CEO of COSTEP, Adam Gonzalez, introduced...
Rio Grande Guardian •

The Biggest Onion Statue in the World is Coming to Weslaco – Rio Grande Guardian

WESLACO, Texas – The City of Weslaco is to receive a giant statue of the Texas 1015 Sweet Onion, thanks to the Texas International Produce Association.


According to TIPA it will be the largest onion statue in the world. 


The Texas 1015 Sweet Onion was created in Weslaco by Texas A&M horticulture professor Leonard Pike in about 1985 and is known for being a sweet and large onion. It is celebrated in the Rio Grande Valley through the Texas Onion Fest, which takes place in Weslaco each year....
Rio Grande Guardian •

Founder of 'Oro Verde Matcha Bar' Speaks About How It All Began – Rio Grande Guardian

BROWNSVILLE, Texas – The 24-year-old founder of Oro Verde Matcha Bar, Jimena Chacon, spoke at the 1 Million Cups event at the E-Bridge Center on June 26 about the quick rise of her company.


Oro Verde began one Saturday morning in March when Chacon decided she would set up a matcha shop at Brownsville’s Farmers’ Market as a fun activity to do with her friend. Friends of Chacon began posting on their Instagram story about the matcha bar. Soon that morning, her shop had a line of about 100 peopl...
Rio Grande Guardian •

BCIC announces launch of a Space Accelerator Program – Rio Grande Guardian

BROWNSVILLE, Texas – The Brownsville Community Improvement Corporation (BCIC) has announced the launch of a Space Accelerator Program.


BCIC, an economic development corporation, is collaborating with the Space Foundation, a nonprofit advocate organization, to initiate a program in support of local businesses and startups in the space industry. The program will begin in August and last eight weeks. 


The BCIC has another accelerator program called StartUp Texas, founded in 2019, meant to ser...
Rio Grande Guardian •

Abrego: International soccer tournaments can bring tourism dollars to Brownsville – Rio Grande Guardian

BROWNSVILLE, Tx – This past Friday, Q7 Sports held a conference at the Brownsville Convention and Visitors Bureau announcing its International Summer Soccer Cup to be held on July 10-13.


Q7 Sports is a South Texas based sports tournament company founded in 2018. It currently holds three sports tournaments each year: the Brownsville International Soccer Summer Cup, the Brownsville Princess Cup 2025 and the McAllen International Cup 2025. However, the company’s general director, Jorge Quiroz, s...
Rio Grande Guardian •

Former El Periódico USA Editor Launches New Binational News Agency – Rio Grande Guardian

MCALLEN, Texas – The former editor and publisher of El Periódico USA has launched a new binational Spanish language media project called Debate X Media, LLC.


The plan, says Jose Luis B. Garza, is to highlight the potential and accomplishments of the Hispanic population in the Rio Grande Valley and become a binational news agency.


“We have to project the importance of this region because it’s totally different to other regions in the country,” Garza said.In an in-depth audio interview with...
Rio Grande Guardian •

Killam Development receives 'Lease of the Year' award – Rio Grande Guardian

MISSION, Texas – Killam Development has been awarded CoStar Group’s 2025 “Lease of the Year” Impact Award for a project in Mission and McAllen.


Killam, a South Texas real estate company founded in 1920, won the award for bringing GDB International, a recycling company, into Mission, through the signing of a 64,539 square feet lease in the Sharyland Business Park in the Greater McAllen area.


“The lease of this space to GDB International is an example that companies offering environmental a...
Rio Grande Guardian •

UPDATED: Boys & Girls Club of McAllen CEO voices concerns over proposed federal budget cuts – Rio Grande Guardian

MCALLEN, Texas – The chief executive officer of the Boys & Girls Club of McAllen says her group is facing severe funding cuts from the federal government.


The Boys & Girls Club is a nonprofit program that provides services to promote the development for the youth of McAllen with after school programs. 


Dalinda Gonzalez-Alcantar is the group’s CEO. During a recent Hidalgo County Prosperity Task Force webinar, Gonzalez-Alcantar said the One Big Beautiful Bill Act would impact after-school fu...
Rio Grande Guardian •

Viagran: People do not understand how much is happening in South Texas – Rio Grande Guardian

Not enough people know what is happening in South Texas when it comes to innovation, emerging technologies, says the president and CEO of the South Texas Business Partnership.


Rebecca Viagran’s group hosted the 2025 South Texas Summit at the Hilton San Antonio Brooks Hotel and Spa on June 9. At the conclusion of the summit, Viagran gave the Rio Grande Guardian International News Service an exclusive interview.


STBP, previously known as the South San Antonio Chamber, changed its focus in 20...
Rio Grande Guardian •

Arjona: ICE raids are causing patients to skip health fairs – Rio Grande Guardian

WESLACO, Texas – Unidos Contra la Diabetes’ collective impact director, Moises Arjona, Jr., has discussed the Rio Grande Valley’s health clinic concerns after recent U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids.


Arjona gave an update during a recent Hidalgo County Prosperity Task Force webinar on Tuesday. Here is an audio recording of what he said on the webinar:


Unidos Contra la Diabetes is a collective impact initiative working to prevent and reduce and type two diabetes in the Valley...
Rio Grande Guardian •

Villalobos: I’m gonna start ruffling feathers over the ICE raids in the RGV – Rio Grande Guardian

SAN ANTONIO, Texas – The South Texas Business Partnership held its South Texas Summit on June 9 at the Embassy Suites-Brooks in San Antonio.


One of the panels featured four South Texas mayors: Ron Nirenberg of San Antonio, John Cowen, Jr., of Brownsville, Norma Sepulveda of Harlingen, and McAllen Mayor Javier Villalobos. The latter two chose to discuss the recent U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement deportations in the Rio Grande Valley.


According to FoxRGV, there has been confirmation...
Rio Grande Guardian •

Legislature provides $30 million to preserve and restore Corpus Christi’s famous Ritz Theatre – Rio Grande Guardian

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – The Ritz Theatre was awarded a $30 million grant for the preservation of the theatre from the Texas Preservation Trust Fund according to a press release released by the theatre on June 3.


The Ritz Theatre is a 1,300 seat theatre from 1929 that served the Corpus Christi community until it was shut down in 1989. The theatre was the first “talking” movie theatre and vaudeville house in South Texas. It showed movies until 1972, then it was rehabilitated into a music hall....
Rio Grande Guardian •

Pimentel to speak at 2025 Bread for the World summit – Rio Grande Guardian

BROWNSVILLE, Texas – Bread for the World, a national Christian organization focused on advocating for the reduction of world hunger, holds an annual Advocacy Summit with six attendants from the Rio Grande Valley on Monday.


The Advocacy Summit will be located in Washington D.C. and held from June 9-11. The summit includes training to speak with members of congress and the last day. The Rio Grande Valley will have Sister Norma Pimentel attending the summit for her first year and she will also b...
Rio Grande Guardian •

Schwarz: The electricity capacity of the RGV will soon receive a big boost – Rio Grande Guardian

MCALLEN, Texas – The Council for South Texas Economic Progress (COSTEP) held a panel June 3 in Mcallen at the Hilton Hotel DoubleTree Suites to discuss the South Texas electric grid with local utility stakeholders and economic-development professionals.


Hunt Utility Services, the parent company of Sharyland Utilities, had its director of transmission planning, Bradley Schwarz, speak at the meeting to inform officials on the future of South Texas’ transmission projects. Schwarz showed pictures...
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