EDINBURG, Texas - Hidalgo City Council member Jorge Augusto Contreras says Dicker Road will become the Nolana Avenue of the south.
Contreras made this bold prediction in answer to a question from the Rio Grande Guardian International News Service at the 6th Annual International Conference on Border Studies. Contreras was one of the panelists.
“Dicker Road is about to become the Nolana of the south. Commissioner Eddie Cantu, Precinct 2, just opened it up from being a two-lane to a five-lane road. It is the only corridor south of US 83 that crosses the cities of Mission, McAllen, Hidalgo, Pharr, San Juan and Alamo,” Contreras said.
“So, businesses need to start looking at Dicker Road because that is where the development is going to happen.”
The 6th Annual Conference on Border Studies was co-hosted by UT-Rio Grande Valley and the Universidad Autónoma de Tamaulipas. The theme of the conference was “Transborderism: Reimagining Social Space.” Speakers from 15 countries and more than 30 national and international academic institutions participated.
Most of Contreras’ remarks at the conference focused on arts and culture, not infrastructure. He was invited to be a panelist because he is an arts educator and runs a music studio in Hidalgo. In response to a Guardian question, Contreras said he would like to see more promotion for his city’s historic downtown. He noted that Hidalgo used to be the county seat for Hidalgo County and possesses eight listed buildings from that period.
During his remarks, Contreras threw a question back at the audience. He asked if anyone knows the No. 1 music group in the world right now. Veronica De La Garza, director of governmental relations for UTRGV, was first with the answer: Grupo Frontera of Edinburg.
Some of his fellow panelists did not know this. Contreras pointed out that Grupo Frontera have hit the big time over the past year our so and have won multiple Latin Grammy awards.
In a later interview with the Guardian, Contreras said he knew a couple of the group’s members before they became famous. He said that a couple of years ago the City of Hidalgo booked Grupo Frontera to play a 4th of July festival and paid them $7,000. Now, he said, they can command hundreds of thousands of dollars to play in stadiums and arenas. “It is incredible,” Contreras said.
Contreras pointed out that Grupo Frontera have hd great success when teaming up with multiple Grammy Award-winning composer Edgar Barrera, who was born in McAllen and grew up in Miguel Aleman.
“Let me tell you why all this matters,” Contreras said. “Because they are speaking of the culture of the Valley. Their music is the Valley’s music. It is Tex-Mex, Mexican, Conjunto, Norteño, Tejano, Cumbia music, all mixed together and then combined with Urbano. Urbano is a genre that has a little bit of reggae, a little bit of hip hop, a little bit of pop music. So, they are playing Norteno Urbano. It is a combination of all of it.”
Asked what the band’s success says about talent in the Valley, Contreras said: “It says we have a lot to say, that we have a lot to share with the world. It says that our culture goes beyond what it used to be. Like one of the panelists said, we’ve been labeled as an in-between region, a no-man's land. Not Mexican and not U.S. You're not Mexican enough for Mexicans. You're not American enough for Americans. That is what we used to hear as Mexican Americans. But now, through culture and arts and through music and groups like Frontera, we are showing the world that we do have a lot to say, and that we do have an identity and that we do have something to share with the world.”
Here is a video recording of Contreras’ opening remarks at the 6th Annual International Conference on Border Studies:
https://youtu.be/DUUjjV9B_Sw
