Texas: Hidalgo County
Despite the Rio Grande’s unmistakable capacity to both give and strip away life, there is yet a more formidable power in Hidalgo County, Texas, and it flows from within. It is a mighty current of resilience, propelling you toward more than fields and dollars, toward another semester of English classes, toward finally earning your GED, toward the purpose and passion that God has placed inside of you, toward a new opportunity to grow, to thrive and to find home once again.
This series in the “Resilient Rural America” project is part of the BNG Storytelling Projects Initiative. Has the United States forgotten its countryside? What strength and resilience may yet be stirring outside our city limits? In “Resilient Rural America,” we attempt to answer these questions when we visit these unique communities to examine the singular nature of poverty in rural America and tell the stories of development among its courageous and resilient people.
This series is written by Blake Tommey. Photos are by Lesley-Ann Hix Tommey. Videos and audio are by Blake and Lesley-Ann Tommey.
She is here to love this country, not be a burden. She just needs an opportunity for a better life.
What can we learn about poverty from those who work along the Texas-Mexico border?
Hidalgo County, Texas: A Mighty Current
Photo Gallery: Hidalgo County Texas
Video: Diann Berry on Education
Video: Diann Berry on Literacy Center Success Story
Video: Lupita Marquez
Video: Eloy Mendiola
Video: Aracely Salazar
This series includes:
Along the Texas-Mexico border, overcoming poverty requires spiritual liberation – Where opportunity for education and employment abounds, the fight against poverty remains spiritual, rooted in the heart.
A Mexican immigrant’s harrowing rise from poverty in Hidalgo County, Texas – Like so many of the families with whom she shared a field, a song, a smile, she is here to love this country, to work hard, to help her family thrive and to find peace.
Hidalgo County, Texas: A Mighty Current – Listen to the stories of the more than 268,000 in Hidalgo County living below their federal poverty threshold and you will learn that the Rio Grande waters are rarely hospitable to newcomers, most of whom must take on the slow, agonizing work of rebuilding life from scratch on the other side.
View the photo gallery and watch our videos with Diann Berry (on education) (on Literacy Center Success Story), Lupita Marquez, Eloy Mendiola, and Aracely Salazar to see for yourself. Or listen to our audio with Eloy Mendiola (coming soon).
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Seed money to launch our Storytelling Projects initiative and our initial series of projects has been provided through generous grants from the Christ Is Our Salvation Foundation and the Eula Mae and John Baugh Foundation. For information about underwriting opportunities for Storytelling Projects, contact David Wilkinson, BNG’s executive director and publisher, at [email protected] or 336.865.2688.