The Directors and Staff at the Rio Grande Guardian would like to wish a Season’s Greetings to all of its loyal readers and sponsors.
It is the season to count one’s blessings and there have been a lot for this publication. The most obvious and immediate one is our new-look website. It has been a longtime coming and one that many of our readers and sponsors have been requesting for quite some time. Thank you for your patience. Suffice to say, if we could have gotten to this point sooner we would have.
We have received lots of congratulatory messages about the new website. We are happy too. It is user-friendly and has a sharp, crisp, clean and tidy look to it. Best of all, in our opinion, there is a dedicated URL address for every story, which was not the case before. This means readers will no longer find that stories have had to be moved to another part of the site due to space constraints and they will no longer have to hunt for old stories in the archives. It was time for a new, modern, content management system and it is finally here.
We would like to say a very big thank you to Richard, Rafi and Sam at TransWorld Resource International for taking care of our web design and upgrade needs since we started in 2005. You guys put us on the map. Thank You!
There are a lot of people to thank for the new website and we would like to take this opportunity to do so.
We have to start with the wonderfully talented Alex Garrido for designing and creating the site. The seeds of our collaboration with Alex and his team started a few years back when he gave a class for small businesses at UT-Pan American about optimizing one’s online presence. We know we were not the only business to benefit from that inspiring class. Spa La Posada did also as a click here will show. Alex designed Spa’s new website.
Alex has been tremendously patient as he has waited for us to learn how to operate the new website and we thank him for that, his incredible creativity and his analytical mind. There is more to come from Alex in the coming weeks and months as he revamps our presence on all of our social media platforms. He wants to take us to new heights and we are delighted to have him on board.
There are many other people to thank also, starting with Nadezhda Garza, my trusted assistant who has given tremendous editorial and administrative service since 2007. We could not have done this without her. I would like to thank also our great writers and photographers, Blanca Zumaya, Salvador Aquino, Bill Rovira, Claudia Perez Rivas, Lino Garcia, Jose ‘Joe’ Lopez, Esmeralda Torres, Gary Mounce and Baltazar Acevedo. A shout out too to our past writers and photographers: Joey Gomez, Apol Sandoval, Maggie Morato, Jesse Bertron, Maria Gonzalez, Julian Aguilar, Michelle Angel, and, of course, the late, great, Arturo ‘Treto’ Garza.
We must also give a big cheer to those behind-the-scenes helpers and friends who have given us so much of their time, wisdom and encouragement. They include Ron Rogers and Jose Medrano at the START Center, Juanita Valdez Cox and Martha Sanchez at LUPE, Lourdes Flores and Ramona Casas at Project ARISE, Placido Salazar and Jose Maria Vasquez at the American GI Forum, Maria Sanchez and Eddie Anaya at Valley Interfaith, Blas Castañeda, Salomon Torres, George Baker, Patricia Fogerty, Rene Ramirez, Ramiro Canales, David Parnell, James Hudson, and Jim Moore and Rod Taylor at Big Bend Strategies.
We would also like to thank our sponsors for their generous contributions. Without them we could not bring to our readers the news and insight we do. They include David Guerra and Dora Brown at IBC Bank, Israel Rocha and Dr. Carlos Cardenas at Doctors Hospital at Renaissance, Nick Consiglio at Texas Regional Bank, Fred Sandoval and Sergio Contreras at the City of Pharr, Alex Meade and Daniel Silva at Mission EDC, Hernan Gonzalez and Alicia Aguilar at Mercedes EDC, Raudel Garza and Lyle Garza at Harlingen EDC, Joey Trevino and Vanessa Barrios at Weslaco EDC, Gus Garcia and Nelda Ramirez at Edinburg EDC, Salomon Torres and Norma Rodriguez at San Benito EDC, and Ken Jones and Terri Salinas at the Lower Rio Grande Valley Development Council.
For those we have missed, I apologize profusely. Here’s to you all, a hearty Season’s Greetings.
Steve Taylor
Editor
Rio Grande Guardian
