WESLACO — It was a joyous occasion at the Weslaco Business, Visitor & Event Center on Tuesday, with mariachis belting out triumphant ballads while officials from Weslaco and Rio Bravo, Tamaulipas, mingled about all smiles and celebration.
There was good reason for the jubilant atmosphere — just moments before, leaders from the two cities had signed a sister city agreement with the aim of ushering in a new era of binational cooperation and prosperity.
To celebrate the agreement, Weslaco donated a firetruck to the Rio Bravo Fire Department, which has fewer than 60 firefighters to service a population of more than 130,000 people.
“We’re grateful to the fire chief and mayor, and all the people in Weslaco for this help,” Fausto Hernandez, Rio Bravo Fire Department training coordinator, said in Spanish.
“Believe me, we’re going to put it to work and it’s going to be a huge help,” he said.
Hector Joel Villegas Gonzalez, Rio Bravo’s municipal president — the town’s equivalent of a mayor — was equally grateful for the donation and said it comes just in time.
“That firetruck… is incredibly relevant and important. In these last few weeks, we’ve been fighting a seemingly infinite number of fires and we don’t have enough firefighters or equipment,” Gonzalez said in Spanish.
Rio Bravo firefighters have been fighting as many as five grass fires per day over the last few weeks — fires fueled by record-breaking high temperatures and persistent drought, Gonzalez said.
“This fire truck is going to help ameliorate that problem. And truthfully, we feel — I, as a representative of the city, but also as one of the 132,000 residents of the city of Rio Bravo — we give them all of our thanks,” he said.
The firetruck is a 2004 model year pumper truck with a 500-gallon water storage tank and 1,250 gallon-per-minute pump, explained Weslaco Fire Chief Antonio “Tony” Lopez.
The city decommissioned the nearly 20-year-old truck after purchasing a newer model and putting that apparatus into service instead, Lopez said.
While stricter regulations in the United States about how long an emergency vehicle can remain in service meant the truck would be of little further use on this side of the border, its well-maintained history means it can find new life in Mexico.
“This is a truck that’s gonna take them to the next 10 years down the line for sure,” Lopez said.
“This will be enough for (Rio Bravo) to fight structure fires, car fires and commercial fires in their city,” he added.
Gonzalez, Rio Bravo’s municipal president, was effusive with his thanks.
“We’re so thankful to (Weslaco) Mayor David Suarez and all the commissioners and all that they represent here. Truthfully, they’re giving us a great opportunity and an indispensable piece of equipment for the city of Rio Bravo, Tamaulipas,” Gonzalez said.
For his part, Suarez said the sister city partnership benefits both cities, and helps reinforce the bonds that tie the two nations together.
“We have a lot more things in common than divides us,” Suarez said.
“The Rio Grande divides us, but we have a lot more things in common — our culture, our closeness, and our heritage and our people.”
The mayor added that not many people realize just how expansive Rio Bravo is. Where Reynosa ends just across the river from Pharr, Rio Bravo begins. It then stretches eastward to encompass Nuevo Progreso.
“La Villita — what they call La Villita, Progreso — is actually part of Rio Bravo, so it really neighbors us,” Suarez said.
However, the Rio Bravo Fire Department has just 58 firefighters to cover those hundreds of square miles of ever-expanding territory.
“We continue to have certain limitations (as a department) but we adapt to keep working with what we have and to do our jobs as best we can,” said Hernandez, the Mexican fire department’s training coordinator, said.
To that end, Weslaco’s fire chief was excited about what other potential opportunities the new sister city agreement could bring, such as binational firefighter training.
“In the fire service, we talk the same language. The fires that we fight are the same heat and the same tactics that are used,” Lopez said.
“This is gonna be the first of many conversations that we’ll have with Rio Bravo fire and, hopefully, we can have them come and do some training with us,” he added, describing the newly forged connection between the two departments as a “brotherhood.”
