Valley words
The words this Valley uses for its own events, and what they actually mean. If a search sent you here looking for a flea market or a rodeo, the words below are the reason it was not quite right.
- Jamaica
- A parish fundraiser: food booths, games for the children, a raffle, and a band in the evening, held on church grounds, run by volunteers and open to anyone. Pronounced ha-MY-ka — it has nothing to do with the country. Full guide →
- Pulga
- An open-air market of rented stalls — produce, tools, clothes, plants, herbs, boots, phone cases. 'Flea market' is the dictionary answer and undersells it: a Valley pulga is a weekly institution, not a car boot sale. Full guide →
- Baile
- A dance with a live band — conjunto, norteño, cumbia, banda — in a hall, ballroom or pavilion. Couple dancing, whole families, and it runs late. Not a concert and not a club night. Full guide →
- Charreada
- Mexico's national equestrian sport, judged on form rather than time, held in a keyhole-shaped lienzo. A charreada is not a rodeo with a Spanish name — treating the two as the same is a category error. Full guide →
- Conjunto
- A genre, not an ensemble size. Accordion and bajo sexto at its centre, born on this border, and still the music a Valley dance floor knows best. Full guide →
- Quinceañera
- A girl's fifteenth birthday, marked with a Mass and a reception, and in the Valley an economy of its own — halls, DJs, photographers, bakers, dressmakers and mariachis, most of them small and booked by referral. Full guide →
- Winter Texan
- A seasonal resident, mostly retired, who spends roughly November to April in the Valley and the rest of the year north. The word people here use. 'Snowbird' is not, and it is not a compliment. Full guide →
- Raspa
- Shaved ice, sold from a cart or a stand. In most of the United States it is a snow cone; here it is a raspa, and the difference in texture is the whole point.
- Plate sale (Venta de plates)
- A fundraiser sold by the plate — barbacoa, fajita, mole — ordered ahead and picked up, usually to pay for a funeral, a medical bill, a team trip or a quinceañera. In Spanish here it is a venta de plates, not a venta de platillos.
- Chalán
- The hand-pulled ferry at Los Ebanos, the last of its kind on the Rio Grande. Everyone who has used it calls it the chalán; 'ferry' is correct and nobody says it. Full guide →
- Colonia
- An unincorporated settlement, common along this border, often outside city limits and historically underserved by water, drainage and paving. It is a legal and planning term in Texas, not a synonym for neighbourhood.