AUSTIN, Jan. 15 - It’s always difficult to write about Martin Luther King, Jr., around the time of the holiday dedicated to him, because the expectation is that it should be something laudatory – and, of course, invoking his famous “I Have a Dream” speech.

EDINBURG, Jan. 15 - Dr. Martin Luther King, perhaps, was the most eloquent speaker of the last half of the twentieth century. Few men in our nation’s history have been as eloquent.

EAGLE PASS, Jan. 15 - The message in the bishops’ letter referenced in my first article is also strikingly similar to one I learned in catechism school at a young age and appropriate to revisit today.

DALLAS, Jan. 8 - State Rep. Roberto Alonzo represents the Oak Cliff part of Dallas in the Texas House. His family roots are along the South Texas border, having been born and raised in a migrant farmworker family in Crystal City.

EAGLE PASS, Jan. 5 - This article is the second of a three part series on immigration by the son of an immigrant, whose father benefited from the bracero program of the 1950s.

EAGLE PASS, Jan. 2 - This article is the first of a three part series being written at the implied request of the Latino bishops of the United States.

EDINBURG, Jan. 1, 2012 - Borrowing from Dickens, the Christmas Holidays are the happiest of times and the saddest of times.

EDINBURG, Dec. 25 - If there is no fair way to draw district lines, how can the current redistricting problem with the Texas Legislature be solved easily and fairly?

EDINBURG, Dec. 18 - Some problems do not go away with time; they just come back to haunt us with ever increasing vengeance--that is until people finally wake up and decide there must be a better way.

BROWNSVILLE, Dec. 18 - Pánfilo Narváez left Spain on June 12, 1526, for the voyage to the New World. On board the five vessels were 600 men, also on board, and serving as treasurer for the expedition was Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca.

EDINBURG, Dec. 2 - Touting long and padded resumes in law enforcement, candidates for Hidalgo County Sheriff in 2012 have pledged a commitment to improving the quality of life on the border.

BROWNSVILLE, Oct. 16 - As a lapsed Baptist I fondly recall the old time tent revivals that used to suddenly appear in vacant lots in the dusty towns of west Texas: Bovina, Earth, Littlefield, Sunset, Muleshoe or Shallow Water.

BROWNSVILLE, Oct. 9 - The Texas Rio Grande Valley has the potential to be the nexus for the resurgence of economic and social transformation in this trans-border region.

BROWNSVILLE, Oct. 2 - William Edward Burghardt Du Bois, the American civil rights activist and leader said that, “to be a poor man is hard, but to be a poor race in a land of dollars is the very bottom of hardships.”

EDINBURG, Sept. 18 - In the year 1519, Hernán Cortés and his soldiers, after having first arrived in the Port of Veracruz, traveled into mainland México and immediately heard of the vast richness of the Aztecs, and in particularly its Emperor Moctezuma.

SAN ANTONIO, Sept. 12: The seeds of the Tejano Monument in Austin will soon grow to fruition. What seemed an impossible dream is now a reality.

EDINBURG, Sept. 4 - Weep for the civility of times past. Think of what you were taught in kindergarten: play nicely; share your toys; clean up your own mess.

EDINBURG, Aug. 28 - It is the best of times. It is the worst of times.