el valle

[Juventino Manzano]

I have noticed a few of us are from the Rio Grande Valley. . . The Valley has to be one of the most unique places--a location in the Borderlands-- a place where things are so melded yet not... The river collides... and the Valley is still in an between-- a netherland between the U.S. and Mexico-- but rich with its own culture-- the hybrid the halfs the wholes even the tongue is tangled together...

[Josie Mixon]

I am from Mission but I live in San Antonio now. My family is still there living on the same block by the Guadalupe church and my brothers and son live in Edinburg. I was just there last weekend. I will be there in October to read my poetry at the candlelight vigil honoring victims of domestic violence. I am a survivor of domestic violence and sexual abuse and the majority of my poetry is focused on these issues. I have a book called Reflections of My Battered Life and a second one coming out in either October or November called Of Flesh and Bone I am Woman, Surviving Abuse. I have many poems written about the valley about the way life used to be there at least while I was growing up. I miss the open fields and irrigation days when we didn't know any better and ran out to play in the water. It was as brown as we were.

[Juventino Manzano]

I grew up in Mission-- Sharyland, to be precise-- between McAllen and Mission of of 495. we used to play in the grapefruit orchards that are now all gone. my father was born in San Juan-- son of a mojado couple a las piscas heavy with him... They were kicked out when he was born. We returned there in 1978 so we could be near his parents, mis abuelos in Monterrey. Graduatd highschool and joined the Navy... lived there again... finally away... again. but funny thing, I have a friend from high school who had been living in Boulder; Eva, and she is returning to live in the Valley-- when I asked her about it she said "I'm going home."
Josie Mixon said:

I am from Mission but I live in San Antonio now. My family is still there living on the same block by the Guadalupe church and my brothers and son live in Edinburg. I was just there last weekend. I will be there in October to read my poetry at the candlelight vigil honoring victims of domestic violence. I am a survivor of domestic violence and sexual abuse and the majority of my poetry is focused on these issues. I have a book called Reflections of My Battered Life and a second one coming out in either October or November called Of Flesh and Bone I am Woman, Surviving Abuse. I have many poems written about the valley about the way life used to be there at least while I was growing up. I miss the open fields and irrigation days when we didn't know any better and ran out to play in the water. It was as brown as we were.

[Monica Manzano]

I grew up in Uvalde, Texas technically it's not 'the valley, people call it that. It's the Edwards Plateau. I live in Austin. My 'Tata', my father lives in San Antonio. My sister and some of the rest of the cousins still live within 1 block of Sacred Heart Catholic Church. It's an old neighborhood full of old habits such as making the sign of the Cross when you drive by the church. I was adopted and I hold a lot of grief from being called 'guera' and other things that weren't so nice. Professionally I'm a teacher, but I don't teach in a school, I unschool my chidren. Around 2000 we struggled with the local school district, they were discriminating against my son. They denied him 'due process'. So I took him out and we've unschooled for the past 8 years.
I've written blogs and stories, poetry is new to me. Perhaps I'll find a home in poetry, perhaps I'll tinker and model for my son. Manzano is my married name, Aguilera is my maiden name. No relation to Juventino, at least not that I know. My huband's family is from D.F. and lived in S.A. for idk 30 years or so.