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I have stood in the middle of Gateway Bridge, called the New Bridge in Brownsville even though it was constructed decades ago, and looked down into the roiling, brown waters of the Rio Grande on the tail end of its 2000-mile trip from its crystalline source in Colorado. I have added to the poisonous and polluted waters by vomiting over the rail after many nights of partying in days of yore in Matamoros. 

(Those days are over, not only because I am an elderly gentleman in COVID's crosshairs, but the cartels' drug trade and accompanying violence have undermined Brownsville citizens' confidence in their safety venturing across the river.)  

Is there a river that has claimed and still claims more lives than the Rio Bravo as the Mexicans call it?

In 1520 the conquistador Diego de Camargo and his crew sailed west from the mouth of the river emptying into the Gulf of Mexico. They had to flee for their lives when a Coahuiltecan tribe ambushed them. The Spanish lost many men and all their horses. It would be years before they returned. They were looking for gold and Brownsville has never been that pot at the end of the rainbow. This confrontation may have been the first armed encounter between Europeans and the indigenous people on present day mainland U.S. territory. 

In the early 1750s Juan de Escandon established a string of towns culminating in Reynosa, Camargo, Mier and Guerrero on the southside of the river and Laredo on the northside. He is called the father of the Rio Grande Valley. In the early 1780s Matamoros came into existence.

In 1845 Texas joined the United States. A dispute arose between the American and Mexican governments. The Americans insisted that the border between the two nations was the Rio Grande while the Mexicans countered that it was the Nueces River near Corpus Christi. The differences of opinion resulted in the Mexican-American War.

Victories at Palo Alto and Resaca de la Guerra under General Zachery Taylor in May of 1846 led to the establishment of Brownsville in 1848. Fort Brown, directly across the river from Matamoros and named after a major killed in action during the conflict, looked over the new town.

In 1859 Juan Cortina, a Robin Hood in the eyes of his people and a bandit in the eyes of the white Americans who ruled Brownsville under founder Charles Stillman and his two partners Richard King and Miflin Kenedy, the latter two creating huge cattle ranches in the South Texas brush country, shot up downtown. He doesn't receive the notoriety that Pancho Villa did when the latter attacked Columbus, New Mexico from Mexico in the early 1900s as Cortina did more than a half century earlier.

The Civil War ensued from 1861 to 1865 and most the populace was sympathetic to the Confederacy. Those who sided with the Union sought refuge in Matamoros. In the spring of 1865, after Robert E. Lee had surrendered to U.S. Grant at Appomattox, the Confederates defeated the Union east of Brownsville in the Battle of Palmito Hill, which is considered the last battle of the Civil War.

Throughout the rest of the century Brownsville and its 5000 inhabitants lived in obscurity, cattle rustlers and yellow fever the biggest challenges of that period. Brownsville found itself connected to the rest of the country when the railroad arrived in 1904. Tracks laid the foundation for the creation of Harlingen, Weslaco, McAllen and dozens of other cities as agriculture flourished in the Valley where promoters recruited Mid-Western farmers with the sales pitch that the RGV had three growing seasons.

In 1906 Brownsville became both nationally and internationally infamous when African-American soldiers at Fort Brown, frustrated and angry by the racism displayed by the locals, allegedly left their barracks under the cover of night and started rampaging through downtown. Though their guilt was never proven, they were dishonorably discharged from the military during Teddy Roosevelt's presidency.

From 1910 to 1920 Mexico was in turmoil. The revolution spilled over into the Valley. The Zimmermann Telegram that proposed an alliance between Germany and Mexico during WWI had the entire border on edge. There was gunfire between both nations and the government sent thousands of troops to safeguard South Texas.

Between the two wars Brownsville was little more than a sleepy border town where Anglos ruled and Mexican-Americans accepted their role as second-class citizens. The few African-Americans who resided here adhered to Jim Crow laws. 

As more Mexican-Americans completed their college educations, they began to ascend politically in the 1950s. With a population that is nearing 250,000, Mexican-Americans comprise 95% of this demographic and their political power is immense.

With a low crime rate, Brownsville can best be described as a mellow city with its many meandering resacas and palm trees standing like sentinels. While the farmers don't raise the quantity of crops as in the past, the Chamber of Commerce will tell you that it's a good place to raise kids. Among the inhabitants who don't know the meaning of the word cold and buy jackets that last them 20 years, there is a general consensus that Brownsville is conducive to promoting good family values. 

I have lived here for 45 years and I have no complaints. My three sons share the same opinion. Brownsville has not only been good to me, but it has been good to a lot of people. Not even our corrupt and mean-spirited politics can divide us. Once the results of the election are recorded, we move on to our normal lives. There's another election looming in the near future to divert us.