DOUBLE-BARRELED SHOTGUN TAKING AIM AT BROWNSVILLE

 

Two bloggers who cut their journalistic teeth at the Brownsville Herald have formed a tandem of sorts with nearly identically-named blogs.

Eduardo Paz-Martinez, who we first met as Duardo Paz-Martinez, has now put the "E" back in front of his name, where his folks thought it belonged, and now writes a new blog he's designated The McAllen Sun.

Longtime Brownsville blogger Jerry McHale, toyed with the idea of a matching set by introducing the Brownsville Sun, but has settled on the more dramatic and latino El Sol de Brownsville. 

McAllen's version of the Sun definitely sets in the west, but, maintains a constant stare at Brownsville, the more interesting, soulful town of the two, or, as Captain Bob keeps reminding us, is situated "on the border, by the sea," not the region's dusty inlands toward Eagle Pass.

Anyway, I learned as a kid that two heads are better than one.  I hope against hope Ron DeSantis hasn't banned that concept from being taught to today's young ones.

With the mild push from Eduardo and Jerry, I'm warming up to the idea of Brownsville and McAllen being twin cities, like Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Dallas and Fort Worth and, of course, my obligatory northwest reference, Pasco and Kennewick.

I was trying to explain all this to Ana a couple months ago when we headed up construction-saddled Highway 83.

"These are all individual cities we're passing," I tried to tell her as we went west from Harlingen.

"Each town has their own mayor, football team and H.E.B. Store.  They may seem to run together, but that's not the way locals see it."

Perhaps, twin blogs from the newly designated "twin cities" will clear some of this up for newer citizens and Brownsville can always use the "clicks," even coming from McAllen.

McHale explaining his new blog to Brownsville Observer Editor