Thanks, NAFTA: The treaty is responsible for the Valley's latest growth spurt

Without the North American Free Trade Agreement, Ana Dellaire would likely never have moved to the Rio Grande Valley.

The Mexican-born mother of two lives in a Sharyland Plantation subdivision and stays at home caring for her infant and pre-school-aged daughters. Her husband, Jason, a Seattle-born engineer, is a logistics manager at a Reynosa maquiladora.

She is part of a vibrant community of well-to-do Mexican expatriates comfortably living in the McAllen area, drawn to the region by economic opportunities.

The tariff-ending NAFTA treaty was a driving force that shaped and built this city and attracted the increasingly international population that has migrated to the southernmost point of Texas.

Opportunity, higher education and a powerful need for skilled laborers in burgeoning industries have drawn new residents from Mexico. They have also pulled those in from other parts of the United States, South Asia, the Middle East and Philippines - all people who might otherwise never have settled in the region.

in burgeoning industries have drawn new residents from Mexico. They have also pulled those in from other parts of the United States, South Asia, the Middle East and the Philippines - all people who might otherwise never have settled in the region.

"Megalopolis"

For years starting in the mid 1990s, the McAllen area - which national studies often define as including Edinburg and Mission or Pharr - consistently ranked as one of the fastest-growing metropolitan areas in the country. In fact, Hidalgo County's population is projected to double its 2000 count by 2030.

While most of that growth will be among Hispanic and white populations, increases in groups such as Filipinos and Middle Easterners are also impacting the area's cultural diversity.

In a time when it's clear racial relations are still a hot point of debate - even taking center stage in this year's presidential campaign - the McAllen area's growing diversity is particularly relevant.

"In 1965, when I came to the Valley, there were two Hispanics on the (McAllen) school board, maybe two on the city commission," says former McAllen Economic Development Corp. president Mike Allen. "To me, that was always strange because the area is 80, 90 percent Hispanic."

It wasn't until 1997 that McAllen elected its first Hispanic mayor, Leo Montalvo.

And in that short time since, the area has evolved to a nearly unrecognizable point for both lifelong and long-time residents.

Expressway 83, rather than winding its way between cities, now races through an urban landscape between La Joya and Mercedes.
Between 1990 and 2000, the number of foreign-born Hidalgo County residents grew 60 percent faster than the overall population, which itself leapt nearly 50 percent.

Population growth spiked in 1993 and 1994 - the years NAFTA was debated, passed and implemented.

"When I was raised, McAllen was what, 36,000 people? Now, we're a megalopolis," says Sullivan City native Roel Zamora, 56. "There's no distinction between one and the other, McAllen, Edinburg, Mission, Pharr."

Hispanics' growing power

For lifelong Valley residents like Betty Bloomfield, the demographic changes are apparent at the grocery store, in her church, in the classroom and on the golf course where her husband plays.

The retired McAllen teacher said she has seen more black families attending her church, more Asian men and women in areas of new development and South Asian and Filipino children in her classroom."I think some of that is from the college and some of that is from the people who come to work in the maquila plants," she said.

NAFTA's expanded education and higher-paying jobs also sparked the gradual shift of political, economic and social power into the hands of Mexican-Americans, Allen says.

After NAFTA, local leaders began to make a concerted effort to bring home children of the Valley who, having left to find better opportunities, could now find career options at home and live near their families.

Among the initiatives was a post-Christmas job fair to attract those who were back in the Valley to visit family, said Allen.

The maquiladoras, which drew the Dellaire family to the Valley and brought some young professionals home, remain the major and thriving example of the new model for border business."NAFTA put us on the map and created a lot of open doors for both sides of the border," said Edna Taylor, a longtime real-estate broker and developer in McAllen.

The push and the pull

People make the decision to relocate their lives based more on the "push" - the undesirable aspects of their current home or region - than on the "pull" of economic opportunity, says University of Texas at Austin economist Daniel Hammermesh.

If the initial pull for Mexican nationals in the early days of NAFTA was the growing Valley economy, the push was the collapse of the peso in 1994 and 1995, he said.

"It happened around the same time," said University of Texas Pan-American economics professor Jose Pagan, who himself moved from Mexico in 1995.

The sometimes-unstable Mexican economy, that region's rapid population growth and a perceived lack of opportunity have pushed some Mexicans and Central Americans across the U.S. border. In northern Mexico, especially, unplanned growth has led both the wealthy and poor to eye the Rio Grande Valley.

"It's not only because of the pull factor, of opportunities on this side, but also because cities like Reynosa have grown so fast," Pagan said, "...that congestion, traffic and crime have pushed some people to this side."

With the area's deep Mexican-American roots and culture, the Valley is an easier move for Mexican nationals concerned about culture shock in the United States.

Economically and socially, "it's become part of both Mexico and the U.S.," Hammermesh said. "An equal foot in both worlds - that's a tremendous advantage."

Nuevo Tejanos

For Pagan, the evidence that Mexican expatriates are a powerful social force in McAllen is on every newsstand.

Publications like Social Life, which feature society photography from clubs, parties and functions, are a decidedly Mexican institution, he said.

"Those are very popular in Mexico," he said. "If you look at them, a few years back we didn't have those. But 10 years ago, I knew them on the other side (of the border)."

Those who have lived in McAllen for decades say they can even see the changes from their front doors.

"In my neighborhood, about 70 percent of the people are Mexican nationals now," Allen said. "And they have more expensive homes than I have."

Unlike the long-settled Mexican-American population that has always populated Hidalgo County, though, these Mexicans are less likely to permanently remain in the region.

For some, the Valley is a temporary stopping place to solidify immigration status or acclimate to the United States before continuing to jobs and cities further north.

So like many metropolitan areas around the country, the Valley is becoming more transient.

"I think we're going to move again. That's how it works for the company," Dellaire said of her family and current home in Sharyland Plantation.

If NAFTA had never been signed, would she be in the McAllen area at all?

"Not in my case, I don't think so," she said.

They would probably be living in Seattle, she said. Neither of them has permanent ties to the Rio Grande Valley.
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Sara Perkins covers Mission, western Hidalgo County, Starr County and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach her at (956) 683-4472.