Rio Grande

What's in a Name?

River Battle on the Rio Grande: The Aftermath, On Video

The Texas Department of Public Safety has released this snippet of raw video from the maybe-not-so-epic shootout on the Rio Grande yesterday. It shows the drug-filled inflatable raft, but the best shot is four U.S. boats, proudly and meacingly facing towards Mexico. Take that, drug cartels! Meanwh ... More >>

River Monster, East Texas Style

Dallas Trinity TrailsThat's one big alligator gar.​It might look like a mere minnow to Jeremy Wade, the stolidly bonkers host of Animal Planet's River Monsters, but to the rest of us, the giant alligator gar that Cleveland's Joseph Williams caught appears to be nothing short of a behemoth from ... More >>

Seis Ways to Celebrate Cinco de Mayo

hispanicallyspeakingnews.comWow. I think I just felt my liver twitch. ​While many view Cinco de Mayo as a Mexican holiday, the United States was very much involved in the events that took place on May 5, 1862 in Puebla, Mexico. American Union soldiers fought side by side with the Mexican army ... More >>

Last Night: Becoming Kinky At The Mucky Duck

Photos by Jason WolterJesse Dayton​Becoming Kinky: The World According To Kinky Friedman McGonigel's Mucky Duck March 28, 2011 Check out our a slideshow from the play's opening night. What a smooth, hilarious thing the opening and world premiere of Becoming Kinky: The World According To Kink ... More >>

The Five Weirdest Baby Names from the Most Popular Names of 2010

You're kid won't turn out like this.​The list of the top 100 baby names of 2010 is out and it is filled with many names you would expect. There are Biblical names like John and Luke and James. There are pop culture names like Bella and Zachary. There are even names that help you to rhyme your ... More >>

Mario Montalban-Ramirez: Houston Murderer, Deported to Mexico, Found Passed Out Near Minnesota Bus Stop

That ain't the Rio Grande​If a dude was convicted of murder -- in hardboiled, law-and-order Texas, then deported to Mexico, you probably would think you've seen the last of him. Not when the dude in question is the hard-partying Mario Montalban-Ramirez, however. Convicted of murder in Housto ... More >>

State Rep. Debbie Riddle's Pre-Filed Bills: A Sampling

Debbie Riddle's got a full plate​Monday was the first day to pre-file bills for the upcoming session of the Texas Legislature, and Tomball State Rep. Debbie Riddle famously camped out to get first crack at things. She filed nine bills. Not all of them deal with the Brown Menace attacking the ... More >>

Illegal Immigration: What Bikini Babes Have To Say About It

But those damn aliens can't read English!!!​ The controversy over immigration into America has been discussed ad nauseam on TV, op-ed columns and books, but it is perhaps best dealt with via the medium of bikini-babe posters.At least that's the thinking of one Alan Sessarego, of Gettysburg, PA. Se ... More >>

Keaton Prescott: Live From Tropical Storm Alex

​Rocks Off was not happy to wake up Monday morning and find out that we would have to begin each day this week by tracking another potentially home-wrecking storm. Tropical Storm Alex is expected to cross through the southern part of the Gulf of Mexico and hit somewhere near the mouth of the Rio G ... More >>

Sergio Guereca: Watch Out, America -- Parents Of Kid Shot On Mexican Side Of Border Have Hired A Houston Personal-Injury Attorney

What? A lawsuit coming from a controversial, well-publicized event?​The June 7 shooting of 15-year-old Sergio Adrian Hernandez Guereca near El Paso became an internet sensation and has provoked demonstations against the U.S. Border Patrol.But the feds have no idea what's hit them yet: The parents ... More >>

Special Summer Edicion

South Bayou: Where And When Houston Artists Are Playing In Austin This Week

​Monday afternoon, when Rocks Off was scouring our email, MySpace, Facebook and various other Web sites for the following information, this thought occurred to us more than once: "Why are we wasting our time telling Houstonians where to go see people during SXSW who they can see practically anytim ... More >>

Lone Star Scorecard: All Robert Earl Keen Edition

​ There are a lot of songs about Texas out there, and Rocks Off wouldn't be doing our duty if we sent you off into the world without properly informing you about their veracity. That's what the Lone Star Scorecard is for, and if it keeps even one of you from making an embarrassing Texas-based faux ... More >>

A Musical Guide to Post-Secession Texas: Houston and "Brazoria"

The final installment of our Five States of Texas project brings it all back home, to the new state of Brazoria, encompassing all of Southeast Texas from the Brazos Valley to Sabine Pass. ​Patron Saint: Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown. A master of rock and roll, country, Cajun/Creole, blues and jazz, n ... More >>

“Louisiana’s Most Wanted: Charles Barbier and Hunter Roth”

Web exclusive!

Clorox in the Rio Grande

A VERY SPECIAL PANDEMIC EDITION

For Cinco de Mayo: Five Non-Mexican Mexicans In The Movies

Cinco de Mayo is a day for Americans of Mexican descent to commemorate their rich history and heritage while at the same time trying to ignore the legions of mouth-breathing Chron commenters clamoring for their deportation. And if being blamed for the H1N1 (don't call it swine) flu outbreak wasn't ... More >>

Nevada Barr

Web exclusive!

Sideshow Tramps/Three Fantastic Equipment Stolen

Has The Legendary Chupacabra Been Found?

Swimming In Denim and Eating Ice Cream

Americans Recording Mexican Songs

The Bueno, the Bad and the Muy Ugly

North and South, Red and Brown, Girls and Guns

Mexican Problems and the Iberian Peninsula

Special Spanish Edición

Border Fence May Destroy Wildlife Habitat

U.S. Fish and Wildlife services spent $80 million to reclaim wildlife habitat in South Texas. Now Homeland Security is ready to wipe that out.

What the Ice Ages Couldn’t Finish Off, the Feds May

Doug Supernaw

Former country superstar. Now starring in a courtroom near you.

Shorthanded

Foreign pickers aren't getting through the post-9/11 barricades to harvest U.S. crops

Online Fun

You, too, can patrol our borders

Why do Mexicans swim with their clothes on?

The Mexican replies

Un-American Dream

Goal! follows an immigrant's pursuit of a European fantasy

At the Ready

The Minutemen have come to Texas

Kitchen Kitsch

There's a reason why Franco Mondini-Ruiz is so hot right now

Capsule Reviews

Our critics weigh in on local theater

The Dirty Thirty

The worst songs of all time from Texas

McKay Brothers

McKay Brothers (Texas Archipelago Records)

Best Quote

Dave Hickey

Jennifer Fitts

Friday, August 15

Letters

End of the Bend?

Jetports and elite resorts may do what border bandits, blistering heat and harsh desert life couldn't: rob Big Bend of its rugged beauty.

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?

The Blazers

Puro Blazers (Rounder)

Child Trek

The devastation of Hurricane Mitch propelled thousands across our southern border in search of new lives in America. And those were just the kids.

Night & Day

January 14 - 20, 1999

Trench Warfare

There's a hole carved out of the earth 32 feet deep, 210 feet wide, and 400 feet long near the Texas-Mexico border.

Letters

Postmarked Texas

Joe Ely sends a sad, beautiful Letter to Laredo

The Little Mexican Tramp

Cantinflas kicks off the MFA's series of classic Mexican films

Geronimo: An American Legend