Designation needed for Rio Grande region[Plymouth Rock for Mexican-American history]

The Monitor ^ | July 12, 2009 | Jared Janes

[SwinneySwitch]

Eric Ellman called it the Plymouth Rock for Mexican-American history.

If Ellman, executive director of an organization that promotes the cultural and environmental aspects of the Rio Grande from Laredo to South Padre Island, and members of the South Texas delegation get their way, the historic Los Caminos del Rio could get another designation.

A bill filed by U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, will start a process to designate the 200-mile corridor between the cities of Laredo and Brownsville known for early colonial Spanish settlements, military conflicts and recent trade growth as a National Heritage Corridor.

The designation, which is still at least a year away, would make the Los Caminos del Rio region the first in Texas to bear the national heritage designation. It would join 49 other regions of the country — including Niagara Falls and the Blue Ridge Mountains — with the designation that is given by Congress.

The designation helps local regions create partnerships with the National Park Service to gain exposure to their communities.

It also offers up to $1 million annually for 10 years to promote cultural heritage in the region and encourage preservation of important environmental resources such as the river, said Ellman, the executive director of Los Caminos del Rio, which began in 1991 with the purpose of getting Congress to designate the region as a National Heritage Corridor.

Ellman has focused his organization's efforts on promoting outdoor sports such as kayaking on the river and bicycle trails in its irrigation ditches, but he said the designation would also allow the region to tout its historic and cultural significance to the rest of the country.

“The fact is that this is the Plymouth Rock for Mexican-American history,” Ellman said. “It’s where we got this tradition of things like fajitas to Tejano music to now kayaking on the river.”

But first, the bill has to get passed.

Cuellar’s bill, supported by U.S. Rep. Ruben Hinojosa, D-Mercedes, and U.S. Rep. Solomon Ortiz, D-Corpus Christi, authorizes the Interior Secretary to commission a study of the region within three years of the bill’s passage to determine the feasibility of designating the area as a National Heritage Corridor.

Cuellar, who testified in support of the bill before a subcommittee last week, said conducting a study on the need for the designation has the support of the U.S. National Park Service, which would be charged with protecting and developing the area.

“Whatever funding is provided will be used to develop the area,” Cuellar said. “This would be huge in the sense that it provides national exposure, protection to our area and it’s going to help with tourism.”

Hinojosa, a co-sponsor of the bill, said the study should showcase the region’s rich cultural history and its diverse ecosystems.

“This area showcases the legacy of early colonial settlements, the military conflicts that impacted Mexico, trade and agricultural significance,” he said. “It’s an area of regional and national importance that members of Congress don't know about.”

[SwinneySwitch]

Also known for it's major drug and human smuggling corridors.

[stan_sipple]

how would that border fence look ringing “plymouth rock?” (sarc)

[highnoon]

I didn’t realize that kayaking was one of the multi-cultural gifts we received from those south of the border. All the heritage I need as a TEXAN can be found in towns like Goliad, Gonzales, at San Jacinto, and the Alamo.

To use Barak’s line....WE WON!!!

[La Lydia]

This is just a way to wring even more federal tax dollars to that miserable place. It wasn’t enough that we had to pay to retro-fit the colonias with water, sewer and other infrastructure, and are still paying, not to mention all the other federal money that flows there to support northern Mexico and all of its breeding. The only federal dime that should be spent down there is to finish the damn fence and electrify it, which Laredo has entirely avoided so far, despite the narcotraficantes.

[stan_sipple]

AMERICANS made Texas what it is today. By the reasoning of those pushing this pork barrel project, Plymouth Rock should be a monument to the English thanking them for forcing pilgrims to come to America.

[SwinneySwitch]

Valle Ping!

If you want on, or off this S. Texas/Mexico ping list, please FReepMail me.

[DoughtyOne]

I've always thought of the Alamo as that regional 'Plymouth Rock'.


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The Spirit Of Allegiance says, "For those about to donate, I salute you!"  So do I.

[Joe 6-pack]

"Plymouth Rock? Guess it's OK as long as I get to shoot some pilgrims."

[Liberty Valance]

I lived on that border for 25 years. We affectionately called it the DMZ. What's wrong with calling it what it is ...the Rio Grande Valley? AKA the Magic Valley AKA El Valle de Tejas. Before men with the vision of what it could be came and irrigated it, it was called Wild Horse Desert.

[Graybeard58]

All the heritage I need as a TEXAN can be found in towns like Goliad, Gonzales, at San Jacinto, and the Alamo.

To use Barak’s line....WE WON!!!

The Alamo too?

[sergeantdave]

“The designation helps local regions create partnerships with the National Park Service to gain exposure to their communities.”

Ha! Ha!

Get ready to pay out millions in attorney fees defending your property, suckers. The only “exposure” you’ll get are liens, lawsuits and illegal demands on your property from the goosestepping bureaucrats who will change rules at secret meetings and not tell you. The NPS is nothing more than the progeny of Hitler’s fascist Teutonic nature worship cult.

[Liberty Valance]

[Cacique]

bfl

[DaGman]

"Also known for it's major drug and human smuggling corridors."

Be that as it may today, the establishment of missions and the colonization of Texas by settlers coming across that river and much later from areas of the US led the way eventually to what became one of the most historic battles in world history, the Battle Of San Jacinto. The Battle of San Jacinto opened up what is now the entire western United States to colonization and settlement. So the area along the Rio Grande is a very significant and historic area not only in the US, but for world history.

[SwinneySwitch]

“It’s an area of regional and national importance that members of Congress don’t know about.”

LOL!

[SwinneySwitch]

banned for life?

[wildbill]

Actually all the settlements of the first Spanish settlers in the Rio Grande Valley under the direction of Escandon were on the south side of the river. There were several good reasons.
1. the river provided a barrier of sorts to the Indians on the other side.
2. It was so much easier to supply the small towns and settlements from central Mexico if they were on the south side of the river.

So there were very few buildings on the north side of the river.

The north side was used for extensive cattle and horse raising on the open range. Because of the lack of water going north, the animals were fairly well tied tothe river for survival.

[Ole Okie]

I had kinfolks living there in the 30’s and 40’s. It’s always been the Rio Grande Valley, and that’s a splendid designation.

Plymouth Rock?

[AuntB]

Hit this poll! Pass it around, please! I don’t post on FreeRepublic anymore.

A bipartisan blueprint for immigration reform
The U.S. needs to create a system that responds to labor market needs, provides more effective enforcement and offers a fair way to deal with those living here illegally.
By Jeb Bush, Thomas F. McLarty III and Edward Alden
July 13, 2009
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-bush13-2009jul13,0,2327231.story

Our immigration system has been broken for too long, and the costs of that failure are growing. Getting immigration policy right is fundamental to our national interests — our economic vitality, our diplomacy and our national security.

In the report of the bipartisan Council on Foreign Relations’ Independent Task Force on U.S. Immigration Policy released last week, we lay out what is at stake for the United States. President Obama has made it clear that reform is one of his top priorities, and that is an encouraging and welcome signal.(snip)...
CFR...BUSH’s, more of the same GOP Globalist sell outs!!!!

Do you agree with the authors’ immigration proposal?

50.4 %
50%
Yes, we need reform now.
49.6 %
50%
No, we shouldn’t provide illegal immigrants with a pathway to legality.

828 total responses

[Brucifer]

La Fronteria!

[donmeaker]

It would look like the border of an Indian Reservation, as seen from the inside.

That is the point: If you can’t, or won’t defend your borders, they you get what happened to the Indians.

A word to the wise is sufficient.

[donmeaker]

The Alamo is where Santa Anna won a battle and lost a war. Goliad is where he captured 300, and murdered them. There was no alternative to fighting after that.

Hurrah for the “Yellow Rose” who delayed him long enough that Sam Houston could catch up and prepare his attack.

[donmeaker]

Mexico always claimed that the Nueces was the Rio Grande, and hence wants to call the Rio Grande something else. That “dispute” over the actual border was the cause of the Mexican American War.

[Cacique]

No, bump for later :-)

[Liberty Valance]

La Fronteria!



La Frontera si!