SAN BENITO — “Gregorio, Gregorio,” shouted Francisco Esparza, a Mexican soldier as he rushed toward the Alamo.

The defenders, including Davy Crockett played by Carlos Trevino, lay dead. Gregorio Esparza, a Tejano played by San Benito Superintendent Adrian Vega, lay lifeless nearby. They’d just fought the Mexican Army under the command of Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna played by Salomon Torres in a reenactment of the Battle of the Alamo.

The battle, which took place in the early morning hours of March 6, 1836, was reenacted yesterday at the San Benito Fairgrounds. It was part of the 9th Annual Texas Independence Day Celebration and Symposium. The celebration, which included reenactments of the Battle of Gonzalez and the Battle of San Jacinto, was presented by the Texas Heritage Independence Celebration Association, Inc.

“We are trying to give a true and accurate account of what happened,” said Jack Ayoub, who narrated the reenactments.

He said between eight and 15 Tejanos — Texans of Mexican descent — fought and died at the Alamo.

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SAN BENITO — The daughter of a conjunto pioneer will be the featured vocalist during the next 3rd Thursday Conjunto Nights at the Chicho.

Melissa Guerra will perform at the Narciso Martinez Cultural Arts Center Thursday at 6:45 p.m. There will be light refreshments and finger food available. The cost is $5 at the door.

Born in 1954 into a musical family of pioneering conjunto accordionist Ernesto Guerra, Melissa was surrounded by music at a very early age.

By the time she was 4, she already was singing and was on the road with her father, who was touring the United States as an early conjunto artist. She was in California, Illinois, Louisiana and Texas.

As a youngster, Melissa would sing with her father, and by the time she was 14, she already was performing vocals with the likes of Mazz in Alice. That’s where she would connect with Tejano Roots founder Javier Villanueva.

Throughout her life, she would find herself connected with other well recognized groups like La Mafia, Jaime de Anda y Los Chamacos, Texas Country and Los Desperados.

One of her biggest musical influences was Laura Canales, who is considered one of the best female Tejano music vocalists.

Melissa’s musical repertoire ranges from country western, rhythm and blues to Tejano and the conjunto style of her father is deeply ingrained in her soul.

In 2011, she was featured as one of the female artists for the 20th annual Narciso Martinez Cultural Arts Center Conjunto Festival, which focused on the female artists in conjunto music.

Melissa was a regular in Rio Grande City at Fort Ringgold, of the late businessman and founder of Valley Mart, Pete Diaz.

Melissa has two sons and a daughter. She makes wood benches for a living.

SAN BENITO — A San Benito woman has been arrested after law enforcement officials found cocaine in her home.

Maria De Los Angeles Juarez, 55, was arraigned yesterday on a charge of possession of a controlled substance.

Law enforcement officials were made aware of the issue after they received information from a concerned citizen regarding the sale of illegal narcotics in the El Ranchito area.

A search of the property located at 24532 Rd. 990 revealed approximately 718 grams of cocaine and two scales.

The owner of the property, Juarez, was found at the residence at the time of the search.

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LA FERIA — A La Feria man has pleaded guilty to various charges related to the sexual abuse of a child, authorities said.

Moises Martinez, Jr., 24, was sentenced to 35 years on two counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child, 20 years on one count of indecency with a child by contact and two years on one count of injury to a child, officials said.

The sentences are to run concurrently.

Officials with the Cameron County District Attorney’s Office said Martinez had daily access to the child and took advantage of their close relationship.

District Attorney Luis V. Saenz asks that, “If you have a concern about your child’s behavior, listen to your gut feeling and act on it immediately.”

“Parents need to remain vigilant and be cautious with those who have immediate access to their children,” he added.

EDINBURG — Buckled into a helicopter for the first time in her life, 6-year-old Hailey was visibly apprehensive about going up into the sky Saturday afternoon. The Girl Scout’s mother, Rosalinda Muñoz, sat diagonal from her while fellow 6-year-old scout Delilah Roscamero sat up front with the pilot.

Not two minutes into the flight, both girls were laughing and smiling out at the vast ranchlands below. At one point during the 15-minute flight, Hailey said she wanted to become a pilot herself.

That was the goal for Dianna Stanger, the woman at the helm of the shiny twin jet engine helicopter.

“Out of all the pilots who are flying, only 6 percent are females,” she said. “What we’re trying to do is make sure the girls and women know that this is out there. It’s empowering; it’s a whole different skill set.”

Empowerment was something most women at the South Texas International Airport cited at the Fly It Forward event Saturday. The event ran through the whole week, ending Sunday. This year marked the first time the event occurred in Edinburg.

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SOUTH PADRE ISLAND — The city of South Padre Island plans to use its tax increment reinvestment zone funding to do some much needed quality of life improvements to infrastructure in the city.

By 2026, the TIRZ will raise about $8.2 million. Although things can quickly change, the city has three items they would like to use the money on: ADA-compliant sidewalks, general improvements to the entertainment district, and infrastructure for two ecotourism campuses, should the grant money come through.

“We don’t have anything broken out per project yet. We’re basing the future on projections we have now, and it could be that the TIRZ money isn’t needed for the ecotourism campus infrastructure if we’re not successful with the grant,” said Darla Jones, assistant city manager for South Padre Island.

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MERCEDES — Alizze Rangel’s glittery pink boots glistened from afar yesterday as the 4-year-old aspiring cowgirl sat alongside Texas Avenue in Mercedes.

That’s where, under the shade of an umbrella, Alizze took a curbside seat excitedly waiting for the annual Rio Grande Valley Livestock Show parade to commence.

“The white horses are my favorite part of the parade because they’re the prettiest,” Alizze said as the sirens from local police, constable’s and Sheriff’s units filled the air, signaling the start of the procession.

Brenda De Leon, 25, of Weslaco is Alizze’s mother and, together with the little one’s grandmother, Karmina De Leon, 43, attended this year’s parade.

“Every year we’ve been coming, since I was her age or smaller,” Brenda said, referencing her daughter’s youth when recalling how the event has become a family tradition. “I have an uncle who comes out with the horses, and every year since we were little my mom would bring us. But it’s also become a tradition of bringing her (Alizze) since she was a baby.”

As much is true for the Bocanegras, also of Weslaco, who enjoyed yesterday morning’s parade from the bed of their pickup truck.

Lino Bocanegra, 20, said, “We do it all the time. I take her because she likes it.”

He was referring to Sonia, his mother, who’s taken Lino to the event since he was only 1 month old. In fact, Sonia shared a story — much to her son’s endearing embarrassment — about how a 4-year-old Lino was once featured on the front page of The Monitor in cowboy gear.

“Ever since he was a baby,” Sonia said of her son’s involvement in stock show festivities. “He was born in February and came to his first parade in March. We never miss it. And I just like the horses and all the atmosphere. I like that everyone comes together.”

The two were accompanied by Lino’s girlfriend, Soyla Thompson, 19, who hadn’t attended a parade before yesterday.

“But I like it now,” Soyla proclaimed. “I like the horses and just spending time with him (Lino).”

Like the Bocanegras, Mercedes residents Jose Angel Martinez, 62, and wife Silvia, 60, also enjoy the family-friendly environment that the annual stock show parade creates.

“It’s the environment of the people, the people having a good time and seeing the old tractors and the horses that I really like,” Jose explained. “It’s just basically like a custom. I’ve been coming to this parade since I was born here. But I remember we used to have more floats. It was more active because all the elementary schools would participate. Maybe they don’t have time for it because education is so much more important now.”

Winter Texans also made up much of the attendance at the parade, which attracted hundreds to downtown Mercedes. Among them were the Heckmans of Jewell Junction, Iowa.

Alan, 73, and Arlyce Heckman, 78, have been coming to the Rio Grande Valley since 1985 and rarely miss the stock show.

“I enjoy the antique tractors, the music and stuff … I like just about everything,” Alan said of the event. “I think people go through an awful lot of work to put this on. It’s a really good parade. The most interesting thing to me is to look at all the neat projects and the barbecue pits the kids make at the stock show. That’s my first priority; my next priority is the entertainment and the music.”

The parade route made its way down Texas Avenue and into the stock show grounds, marking the official kickoff to week-long festivities that run through March 20. Rodeo festivities are scheduled throughout the week, beginning on Wednesday in the rodeo arena, as well as several livestock judging competitions.

WESLACO — Flooding concerns were washed away this week after a normally overwhelmed drainage system held up, for the most part, during heavy rains.

Public facilities director Pete Garcia Jr. credited the regular maintenance of inlets and drainage ditches in Weslaco for what he termed a quick water recession, not to mention the use of a trailer-mounted Gator pump that pump as much as 5,000 gallons of water per minute.

“It’s clean, all the city ditches are clean,” Garcia said after as many as 2 inches of rain drenched the area. “It’s when you hit the county that’s where you have a concern, of course.”

Within city limits, however, Garcia said that flooding in the vicinities of Pike and Illinois Avenue, as well as around Huisache and North Missouri, receded after no more than an hour on Wednesday, when Weslaco experienced more rainfall.

“It drained pretty fast,” he added.

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Thanks largely to the efforts of a three-man nonprofit organization calling itself “Friends of RGV Reef,” an unprecedented project to boost fish populations along the Texas Gulf coast and provide an innovative model for artificial reef building worldwide is becoming a reality.

And they want your clean concrete.

Although the RGV Reef is envisioned as a large-scale, multi-year project, Gary Glick, president of the organization, said he wants local anglers to have plenty of red snapper to catch this summer in state waters.

The federal red snapper season is only 10 days long and typically starts June 1. Texas allows red snapper fishing year round, though the scarcity of habitat and the abundance of people trying to catch them make red snapper hard to find in state waters, Glick said.

As such, he wants to start laying rip-rap offshore as soon as possible. When complete, the RGV Reef will be a combination of low, medium and high-relief structures. Low-profile reef — basically chunks of concrete on the sea floor — makes for prime red snapper nursery habitat, he said.

No other artificial reef in Texas waters contains low-relief material, so they’re no good for raising baby red snapper, Glick said. The RGV Reef will test the effectiveness of low-profile reef, which provides the “hidey holes” baby fish need to survive, he said.

“I wanted someplace for people to fish after June 10,” Glick said. “That’s why I’m in such a rush. Now is the time for concrete.”

Glick’s brother Bob, who owns a sporting goods store in Pharr, is secretary/treasurer of the group. The brothers have been fishing the Gulf and the Rio Grande Valley their whole lives. Rounding out Friends is vice president Daniel Bryant, an onshore/offshore construction contractor based in Brownsville. He’s the one to talk to about donating concrete rip-rap.

“I want people in Brownsville to understand that instead of taking rip-rap to the dump they can take it to us,” Glick said. “We’re accredited by the IRS as a nonprofit charity and I can write donation receipts. Either Friends of RGV Reef or Texas Parks and Wildlife will carry that material out there and make fish houses out of it.”

The Port of Brownsville is providing space to store the reef material, he said. The first load of concrete delivered to the site came from Erasmo Lopez and L&G Transport Services.

Although Glick and his brother founded the organization, the project would have gone nowhere without the enthusiastic support of many stakeholders, he said. The first reef meeting, which took place on Feb. 7, was a gathering of those stakeholders.

The meeting included port director and CEO Eduardo Campirano; Richard Kline, associate professor of biology at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, whose research helped inspire the low-relief component; and Joe Vega, mayor of Port Isabel and director of Cameron County Parks.

The meeting also included John Blaha, assistant director of the Coastal Conservation Association of Texas; a representative from South Padre Island charter boat captains’ association; and Dale Shively, head of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s artificial reef program.

“(Shively) is the guy who gets the thing nobody can get, and that is the reef permit,” Glick said.

The permit has to be cleared through the Texas Historical Commission and THC’s Archeology Division, the U.S. Coast Guard district office in New Orleans, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and “the people who own the bottom, the Texas General Land Office,” he said.

“When (Shively) speaks we roll over like an old yellow dog,” Glick said. “He said this was the best stakeholder support that he’d ever seen at a preliminary meeting.”

The RGV Reef plan calls for material to be distributed over 1,600 acres in 65 to 75 feet of water, 7.4 nautical miles offshore and 13 nautical miles north of South Padre Island. It will be much larger than any artificial reef in Texas waters, all of which combined only total 4,000 acres.

The first items that will actually be sunk — made possible by private fund-raising, including $50,000 from the Texas International Fishing Tournament — are a shrimp boat and a tug boat that have been thoroughly cleaned, Glick said.

“We’re going to restore lost or damaged habitat and we’re going to make a great place to fish, which has economic development benefits,” he said.

Since the current along the Texas coast sweeps to the north, the site of the RGV Reef means anglers all along the coast will reap the benefits — not just many more red snapper but other game fish as well, Glick said.