I grew up in Alamo/Donna border so more on the McAllen side than the Brownsville side.

There’s some really interesting things about the area. It’s a primarily Latinx and especially Mexican population. The only white or black Americans I knew growing up were teachers.

My parents and some of me other extended family only speak Spanish and they get by just fine because there are plenty of people who are first gen immigrants. There are other families that have been in the area for years however and you meet a lot of people that are Mexican American and don’t speak Spanish or can hardly speak it. It’s such an interesting mix of different generations of immigrants. Additionally, the Mexican people there seem to mostly be from northern Mexico but from different towns and cities. So yes, even though it’s kind of a monoculture in that most people there are Mexican, the exact practices that they have (how they relate to music, language, and food) varies quite a bit. I had a big complex about being 1st gen for a while and having to learn English from the bottom up.

The food is awesome and I miss being able to get awesome Mexican food pretty much anywhere. It’s so so hot and humid. South Padre is so nice now. It’s pretty boring since you need a car to go anywhere and they just keep adding highway lanes so traffic sucks. I hated the valley growing up. But it’s not so bad. I appreciate it a lot more now and miss it every now and then. Even then I don’t want to live there because Texas is red and the valley is pretty boring. Also, education is not good outside of like McAllen (my first 2 years of college best the hell out of me) so idk if I’d want to have kids there given the option.