Lower Rio Grande Valley

"Rio Grande Valley" redirects here. For the river valley in New Mexico that is part of the same river, see Rio Grande Valley (New Mexico). For other uses, see Rio Grande Valley (disambiguation).
Lower Rio Grande Valley
Region
Images, from top down, left to right: Skyline of South Padre Island; McAllen Performing Arts Center; Interior of the Quinta Mazatlan; Entrance to McAllen Public Library; Cameron County Courthouse, a statue from the Brownsville Museum of Fine Arts, Resaca de la Palma Battlefield, a giraffe from the Gladys Porter Zoo, Palo Alto Battlefield National Historical Park, and the McNair House
Map of the Lower Rio Grande Valley
Map of the Lower Rio Grande Valley
Coordinates: 26°13′N 98°07′W / 26.22°N 98.12°W / 26.22; -98.12
Country
  • United States
  • Mexico
State
Principal cities
Largest cityReynosa
Area
 • Land12,620 km2 (4,872 sq mi)
Population
 • Total2,671,028
 • Metro (US)
1,291,798
 • Metro (Mexico)
1,379,230

The Lower Rio Grande Valley (Spanish: Valle del Río Grande), commonly known as the Rio Grande Valley or locally as the Valley or RGV, is a region spanning the border of Texas and Mexico located in a floodplain of the Rio Grande near its mouth.[1] The region includes the southernmost tip of South Texas and a portion of northern Tamaulipas, Mexico. It consists of the Brownsville, Harlingen, Weslaco, Donna, Pharr, McAllen, Edinburg, Mission, San Juan, and Rio Grande City metropolitan areas in the United States and the Matamoros, Río Bravo, and Reynosa metropolitan areas in Mexico.[2][3] The area is generally bilingual in English and Spanish, with a fair amount of Spanglish[4] due to the region's diverse history and transborder agglomerations.[5] It is home to some of the poorest cities in the nation, as well as many unincorporated, persistent poverty communities called colonias.[6][7] A large seasonal influx occurs of "winter Texans" — people who come down from the north for the winter and then return north before summer arrives.[8]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference :1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Weber, John, 1978- (2015). From South Texas to the nation : the exploitation of Mexican labor in the twentieth century. Chapel Hill. ISBN 9781469625256. OCLC 921988476.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  3. ^ "From the Archives of South Texas". Journal of South Texas. 33 (1): 150–152. 2019 – via EBSCO Host.
  4. ^ "Viva Spanglish!". Texas Monthly. 2001-10-01. Retrieved 2019-10-31.
  5. ^ Roell, Craig H. (2013). Matamoros and the Texas Revolution. Denton: Texas State Historical Association. ISBN 978-0876112663. OCLC 857404621.
  6. ^ Cohen 4, Jason (2013-01-21). "Rio Grande Valley Tops List of "America's Poorest Cities"". Texas Monthly. Retrieved 2022-11-18.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  7. ^ Hidalgo, Margarita (1995). "Language and ethnicity in the "taboo" region: the U.S.-Mexico border". International Journal of the Sociology of Language. 0165-2516,01652516 (114). Germany, Republic of, Germany, Republic of: Walter de Gruyter GmbH: 29–45. doi:10.1515/ijsl.
  8. ^ "What is a Winter Texan, Winter Texans lifestyle". wintertexaninfo.com. Retrieved 2019-10-31.