Matamoros

The Signature Sandwiches of Bocca Deli Are Fancier Than Usual

Bocca Deli sits on the cusp of change while embracing the now of this north of downtown neighborhood.

Jose Cabrera-Pastor: Swims Across Ship Channel With 98 Pounds of Pot Strapped to His Back

Maybe Jose Guadalupe Cabrera-Pastor of Matamoros, Mexico misinterpreted the meaning of "wet marijuana," which stoners sometimes call straight off the plant/not dried pot. At approximately 10 p.m. Saturday night, the 47-year-old man was detained by the United States Border Patrol for possessing 98 ... More >>

Chef Chat, Part 1: Sylvia Casares of Sylvia's Enchilada Kitchen, On Her Home Economics Degree, and Going into the Restaurant Business as a Woman in Her 40's

Sylvia's Enchilada Kitchen 6401 Woodway Drive Tel: 713-334-7295 www.sylviasenchiladakitchen.com Earlier this year, Sylvia Casares, owner of Sylvia's Enchilada Kitchen, was shot in the stomach and air-lifted to the hospital. It's not an experience that anyone would be expected to recover from ea ... More >>

Santa Muerte: Patron Saint of the Drug War

Need help killing someone? Or cementing a drug deal? This may be the saint for you.

Crystal Martinez, Alicia Martinez, and Tina Marie Trevino: Brownsville Women Accused in Beatdown, Sexual Assault of Love Rival

UPDATED AFTER THE JUMP....Two Rio Grande Valley women were jailed and a third is on the run after police accused the trio of beating and sexually assaulting a woman who "stole" one of their boyfriends. According to Valleycentral.com, the trouble started Thursday night at a nightclub in Brownsville' ... More >>

Lizmark Jr. & Octagóncito: Lucha Libre USA Hits Houston This Friday

According to my research -- which I guess began 25 years ago on the streets of the Mexican border town of Matamoros, Tamaulipas, when I was playing with "Santos" toys that my mom bought me -- Lucha Libre is awesome. What is essentially a telenovela with more punching, flying, muscles and masks rolls ... More >>

In Search of Spring Break: Then and Now

How Spring Break '89 stayed with me

Guillermo Villarreal & Leoncio Sanchez: Buying 17,000 Rounds of Ammo at Academy Stores Will Raise Eyebrows

If you live in Texas, or much of the South, you've probably heard the bouncy jingle "Academy Sports & Outdoors -- the right stuff, the right price!" This apparently holds true if you're in the market for a ton of ammunition to sneak into Mexico. Guillermo Enrique Villarreal, 37, of Brownsville, an ... More >>

Centro-Matic

Saturday Night: Maná At Toyota Center

Photos by Marco Torres​Maná Toyota Center July 2, 2011 It takes a special combination of hype and talent to sell out a concert, let alone two in a row. In recent memory, only two other artists have been booked to perform on consecutive nights at Toyota Center: Taylor Swift and Lady Gaga. Me ... More >>

More Than Just Tequila at TQLA

Photos by Troy FieldsNot quite chestnuts roasting on an open fire, but far more delicious.​I feel like TQLA -- the subject of this week's cafe review -- hasn't gotten the fairest of shakes. Yes, it's named after a beverage that most people associate with Spring Breaks spent partly in Matamoros ... More >>

Taco Palenque

DPS Tells Christmas Shoppers To Avoid Mexico, In Case You Were Considering It

Feliz Navidad, but watch out for kidnappers​Cross off all those kitschy souvenir knick-knacks you were planning on giving away for Christmas. (Do they still sell those taxidermied frogs playing saxophone?) The DPS is officially warning shoppers to avoid Mexico. Just visiting is out, too. "Me ... More >>

UT-Brownsville Using Text Message to Warn Students of Violence

UT-Brownsville: text messaging to fight the drug cartels. ​UT-Brownsville is using a new tactic to keep its students safe from violence across the border: text messaging. Students, faculty and staff at the school are being asked to enter their cell phone numbers in a university database, so whenev ... More >>

UT-Brownsville Back To Normal: No Drug-War Gunshots Today (So Far)

UT-Brownsville -- Close to the border​Life is apparently back to normal today at UT-Brownsville.Normal, that is, for a school that canceled classes over the weekend in response to Friday's loud and deadly gun battle in Matamoros, Mexico, less than half a mile from the campus.College police near th ... More >>

Asylum Denied

Unlike refugees from other troubled countries, only a fraction of Mexicans seeking U.S. asylum are accepted – no matter how horrible their wounds or their stories.

The Crucifixion of Juarez

On the front line of the U.S. war on drugs, a Mexican city bleeds to death.

June Trial Set For Brownsville Murder of Barry Horn, '70s Houston's Answer To Truman Capote

Photo courtesy Nueces County SOErnesto Martinez​A June trial date has been set for the suspect in the Brownsville murder of Barry Horn, a former Channel 13 TV news personality who was at the time of his death the executive director of the Brownsville Museum of Fine Art.The 59-year-old Horn, once ... More >>

"Weird" and Proud, Preemo Understands the Meaning of "Hustle Town"

​ We think "Weird Al" Yankovic screwed it up for everybody. There aren't lots of times you can use the word "weird" in a good way. That's one of those words we need to take back, on the real, because when you put "weird" into the right context it can be a positive thing - a differentiator from th ... More >>

Border Patrol Amps It Up This Weekend

Historic Huaraches in Stafford

A taco stand yields an awesome breakfast and the solution to a Mexican food mystery

A Blast From Calexico's Past Blasts Into Space

Cinco de Mayo Mexican Menu: Baby Goat on a Stick or Ballpark Nachos?

Over the Weekend: Cinco de Mayo, Club 2610, Zeppelin Video Lounge, Doyle Bramhall and Roger Waters

Places Like Los Dos Amigos Are Disappearing On Washington

Pistolera

Immigration: Cubans Enter U.S. at Texas-Mexico Border

Music Deaths

The Greil Marcus Rock Death Meter returns

Mexican-American Culture

SPECIAL CANADIAN EDITION

Tears of a Klown

A fight over signs gets nasty

Lost in Translation

Would-be Hispanic homeowners find out they don't own as much as they thought they did

Just Say No Más

In which we examine Cancuntry music

Where Carnitas Meet Foie Gras

Cultures collide at Washington and Asbury, with wonderfully tasty results

Best Place to Pretend You're in the Hill Country

Visitors' Guide

Get Bowled over by the best of the real Bayou City

Best Spanish-Language Radio Station

KEYH/850 AM

Sex It Up

Spring turns the media's thoughts to racy women

Arsenic and Old Lace

Mark Flood gets pretty, and Vik Muniz reproduces

Crystal Frontier

Calexico crosses borders in mind and body with its Sonoran sounds

The Bored Patrol

Border Patrol agents in South Texas contend they are getting paid to stay put as illegal immigrants go around them. Is this how the much-hyped crackdown along the Rio Grande is supposed to work?

Rejection Slips

The INS defends our borders and deports immigrant criminals. Sometimes, though, in its zeal, it tosses out perfectly law-abiding, hardworking people too.

The Authenticity Myth

The Mex-Mex issue

Conspiracy Theory

Arms dealer-turned-gadfly Al Johnson thinks everyone's out to get him. He's right

East End Transit

Why have bus lines to Mexico bloomed all across the East End? Maybe because it's a family affair.

Pain for the Prosecution

Assistant district attorney Kristen Pain sent criminals to jail -- and then went to jail herself.

Losing Track

Juvenile Probation has gotten out-of-touch with the INS ... and some young criminals it's supposed to supervise

The Poison Connection

A "gas leak" in a Matamoros chemical plant wafts a poison and paper cloud toward a corporate office in Houston