MISSION — Members of La Unión del Pueblo Entero gathered with residents of Pradera Subdivision on Dec. 1 to celebrate the lighting of a rural neighborhood that had long been in the dark.
For 25 years, the community has been in the dark once the sun set, that is until Marisela Hernandez and other community members organized and shed light on the long-standing issue.
“We’re really happy because light is so important not only for us, but for our kids and our grandkids,” Hernandez said standing in the glow of one of the newly installed light poles near the end of her driveway on Pradera Street.
“We didn’t have light. The colonia was dark and dangerous,” she continued, adding that she hoped the new lights would help make the area safer.
Javier Rodriguez said that the darkness of the rural community posed a danger to local residents, particularly young children.
“There’s a great need for those who don’t have public lighting because you can’t see anything in the dark,” Rodriguez said. “Because of the children and the cars that drive fast. You can’t see anything.”
Marco Antonio Lopez, a community organizer for LUPE, was also on-hand to help the family celebrate Thursday. He said that the lights are but a small victory, illuminating the way for other needs to be addressed in the Pradera Subdivision and other colonias throughout the Rio Grande Valley.
“Today we’re celebrating the fact that this community got together and organized for the public light, and they finally got lit up last week,” Lopez said. “We’re celebrating the fact that all their strife, all their struggle that they had since 2020 when organizing, they finally accomplished this awesome task.”
Lopez said that he was invited to meet with Hernandez, who let him know about the numerous issues needing attention in the coming years. The main priority in those meetings was public lighting.
“We organize around house meetings, and the community members play a huge role in that because without them we can’t do anything,” Lopez explained. “A lot of the times they are the ones that are struggling, so everything has to be done by them. We are just kind of supporters and guides so they can accomplish any task that they’d like or anything that they’d like to challenge that would benefit their neighborhoods.”
Through community organization, Hernandez and her neighbors applied for the public lighting and submitted a petition agreeing to pay a sum, which would amount to $18 to $20 per house for the light consumption in a year.
In total, eight lights were erected in the area, including five on Pradera Street and three on La Homa Road — to the benefit of around 34 homes in the colonia.
“Hopefully all these families see that when they get together, they can accomplish a lot of things if they work together,” Lopez said.
While the neighborhood celebrated their victory, Lopez said that there is more work and community organizing to be done to meet the needs of those living in the colonia. The community hopes to address the need for drainage in the area.
Tackling that issue remains in the works.
“You gotta celebrate the victories because they’re short, whenever they come, and they take a long time,” Lopez said. “Like I was telling you, it was three years of work. They accomplished a really awesome task which is actually paving the road for other colonias with infrastructure.”
