This research guide provides general information related to the history of colonias in our region. The purpose of this research guides is to offer students historical context though access to primary source materials available from the UTRGV University Library Special Collections & Archives as well as highlighting relevant secondary (books) and external (websites) resources.
Colonias are economically distressed areas that often lack the most basic necessities, such as drinkable water, sewer systems, paved roads, and safe, sanitary housing. While colonias are found all across the state of Texas, the majority are found in counties that border Mexico.
In the 1950s, small lots were sold at low prices, often with high interest rates to low-income individuals as Contracts for Deeds. These lots often lacked infrastructure and access to publicly provided utilities like electricity, water and wastewater. The Texas legislature began taking action in the late 1980s - 1990s, as awareness of the unsanitary living conditions in these economically distressed areas grew due in part to the actions of elected officials like Kika de la Garza, Alex Moreno, and Ruben Hinojosa.
As a result, Texas counties were required to follow certain guidelines before providing water and sewer funding to colonias and a department was created at the state level to oversee colonias. Between 2005 and 2007, the state legislature adopted the Colonia Classification System, created a progress-tracking system of state funded colonia improvement projects, and approved additional funding for improvements.
Collection contains articles, clippings, flyers, brochures, maps, and other ephemera collected by the Library Special Collections on topics concerning the Lower Rio Grande Valley Collection pertaining to the geographic region of southern Texas and northeastern Mexico. Many of these materials are protected by U.S. Copyright Law.
The collection mainly consists of expenditure reports for houses and lots in Colonia Esperanza and Subdivision #1 in Elsa.
The Congressional Papers of Eligio "Kika" de la Garza consist of approximately 425 linear feet of materials dating from 1965 - 1996. The bulk of the papers date from 1965-1980 and 1989-1996. The papers were created during Kika de la Garza's time as an elected official in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1965 - 1996, representing the 15th Congressional District in South Texas.
The Congressional Papers of Rubén Hinojosa consists of 291 linear feet of materials dating from 1997 - 2016. The papers were created during Rubén Hinojosa's time as an elected official in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1997 - 2016, representing the 15th Congressional District in South Texas. The collection consists of legislative material as well as casework of local projects and issues.
El Cuhamil was the official newspaper of the Texas Farm Workers' Union "La Voz del campesino de Texas" published in Spanish and English.
Selected newsletters and news releases from the Kika de la Garza Congressional Papers. Kika de la Garza served as Congressman for the 15th Congressional District of Texas from 1965-1996. This digitization project was funded by a grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission.
Search or browse this issue of The Pan American [newspaper] and others online via Scholarworks: https://scholarworks.utrgv.edu/panamerican
The Pan American was the primary student newspaper of the University of Texas—Pan American. The last issue was published on July 16, 2015.
Search or browse this issue of the official newsletter of UTB/TSC, Orange & White, or other issues online: https://scholarworks.utrgv.edu/utborangeandwhite
Rio Bravo: A Journal of the Borderlands is an interdisciplinary, peer-reviewed publication of the Mexican American Studies Center at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. The journal publishes scholarly and creative works about Mexican descent communities in both South Texas and nationally. The journal promotes debate, dialogue, awareness, and insight into the U.S.-Mexico border experience. ISSN 1067-0149
See more of the geographic distributions of colonias along the border, including Cameron and Hidalgo counties, Texas: Parcher, Jean & Humberson, Delbert. (2009). Using GIS to Assess Priorities of Infrastructure and Health Needs of Colonias along the United States-Mexico Border. Journal of Latin American Geography. 8. 129-148. 10.1353/lag.0.0023.
The research guides compiled by UTRGV staff and students are intended to assist patrons who are embarking upon new research endeavors. Our goal is to expand their knowledge of the types of resources available on a given topic, including books, archival materials, and websites. In so doing, our compilers have taken care to include collections, digital items, and resources that may be accessed not only through UTRGV but also via other institutions, repositories, and websites.
We wholeheartedly respect the research interests of others. Therefore, please contact us if you wish to submit a resource for consideration, or if you have a question about or an issue with a specific cited resource.
Batos, Bolillos, Pochos, and Pelados
by
A classic account of life on the Texas-Mexico border, Batos, Bolillos, Pochos, and Pelados offers the fullest portrait currently available of the people of the South Texas/Northern Mexico borderlands. First published in 1999, the book is now extensively revised and updated throughout to cover developments since 2000, including undocumented immigration, the drug wars, race relations, growing social inequality, and the socioeconomic gap between Latinos and the rest of American society--issues of vital and continuing national importance. An outgrowth of the Borderlife Research Project conducted at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, Batos, Bolillos, Pochos, and Pelados uses the voices of several hundred Valley residents, collected by embedded student researchers and backed by the findings of sociological surveys, to describe the lives of migrant farmworkers, colonia residents, undocumented domestic servants, maquiladora workers, and Mexican street children. Likewise, it explores social, racial, and ethnic relations in South Texas among groups such as Latinos, Mexican immigrants, wealthy Mexican visitors, Anglo residents or tourists, and Asian and African American residents of South Texas. With this firsthand material and an explanatory focus that utilizes and applies social-science theoretical concepts, the book thoroughly addresses the future composition and integration of Latinos into the society and culture of the United States.
The colonias factbook : a survey of living conditions in rural areas of South Texas and West Texas border counties
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The Texas Department of Human Services (OHS) conducted a needs assessment in the colonias (substandard rural subdivisions) of the Lower Rio Grande Valley and El Paso County from February through April of 1988.
The assessment's purpose was to gather information about the colonias and colonia residents for use in planning for future need for OHS resources.
A secondary purpose was to provide information to groups both inside and outside OHS for the development of plans to address the colonias' problems.
Survey results indicate that colonias are rural and unincorporated subdivisions characterized by substandard housing, inadequate plumbing and sewage disposal systems, and inadequate access to clean water. They are highly concentrated poverty pockets that are physically and legally isolated from neighboring cities.
Colonias in the lower Rio Grande Valley of south Texas : a summary report
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A Report by The Lower Rio Grande Valley Policy Research Project The Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs The University of Texas at Austin 1977
The Informal and Underground Economy of the South Texas Border
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Much has been debated about the presence of undocumented workers along the South Texas border, but these debates often overlook the more complete dimension: the region's longstanding, undocumented economies as a whole. Borderlands commerce that evades government scrutiny can be categorized into informal economies (the unreported exchange of legal goods and services) or underground economies (criminal economic activities that, obviously, occur without government oversight). Examining long-term study, observation, and participation in the border region, with the assistance of hundreds of locally embedded informants, The Informal and Underground Economy of the South Texas Border presents unique insights into the causes and ramifications of these economic channels. The third volume in UT-Pan American's Borderlife Project, this eye-opening investigation draws on vivid ethnographic interviews, bolstered by decades of supplemental data, to reveal a culture where divided loyalties, paired with a lack of access to protection under the law and other forms of state-sponsored recourse, have given rise to social spectra that often defy stereotypes. A cornerstone of the authors' findings is that these economic activities increase when citizens perceive the state's intervention as illegitimate, whether in the form of fees, taxes, or regulation. From living conditions in the impoverished colonias to President Felipe Calderón's futile attempts to eradicate police corruption in Mexico, this book is a riveting portrait of benefit versus risk in the wake of a "no-man's-land" legacy.
Crisis on the Rio Grande
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With the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) looming large and imminent, this book explores the socio-economic fabric of the U.S.-Mexico border region as a measure of NAFTA's future. It presents the social and economic history of the Lower Rio Grande Valley on the Texas-Mexico border.
Informality and the City
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This book advances the agenda of informality as a transnational phenomenon, recognizing that contemporary urban and regional challenges need to be addressed at both local and global levels. This project may be considered a call for action. Its urgency derives from the impact of the pandemic combined with the effects of climate change in informal settlements around the world. While the notion of "the informal" is usually associated with the analysis and interventions in informal settlements, this book expands the concept of informality to acknowledge its interdisciplinary parameters. The book is geographically organized into five sections. The first part provides a conceptual overview of the notion of "the informal," serving as an introduction and reflection on the subject. The following sections are dedicated to the principal regions of the Global South--Latin America, US-Mexico Borderlands, Asia, and Africa--while considering the interconnections and correspondences between urbanism in the Global South and the Global North. This book offers a critical introduction to groundbreaking theories and design practices of informality in the built environment. It provides essential reading for scholars, professionals, and students in urban studies, architecture, city planning, urban geography, sociology, anthropology, cultural studies, economics, and the arts. As a critical survey of informality, the book examines history, theory, and production across a range of informal practices and phenomena in urbanism, architecture, activism, and participatory design. Authored by a diverse and international cohort of leading educators, theorists, and practitioners, 45 chapters refine and expand the discourse surrounding informal cities.
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