New Years Celebration: 31 Years Strong!

Join our family and staff at Opera Teatro Bar tonight as we celebrate the arrival of 2013. It promises to be an exciting 31st year for Mata-Garcia Architects and we plan to start it off with a bang. Join us!

Manuel Benavidez Jr. Housing Complex

12.27.12  article in The Monitor regarding Mata-Garcia Architects recent project for the Housing Authority of Starr County.           
Starr County Housing Authority Dedicates New Federally Funded Complex             

RIO GRANDE CITY — Photographs of 4-foot-high waters flooding a neighborhood line the hallway of the new headquarters for the Housing Authority of Starr County in Rio Grande City. The pictures of a July 2007 downpour and the subsequent flash flood that ruined much of the Housing Authority's complex of apartments on Circle Drive are reminders of a trying time that ultimately led to a happy ending. “It dumped about 22 inches of rain within a four-hour period,” said Elmo Moreno, the executive director of the Housing Authority. “The people lost everything. We lost everything.”

The flash flood is what did the complex in. The flood waters were strong enough to move refrigerators and stoves from one side of an apartment to the other. The city condemned the 34-unit housing complex and the residents were left to find somewhere else to live. The silver lining came about a year later. After much prodding from the Housing Authority of Starr County, the federal government promised $5.2 million to build a new complex. Before the flood, the Housing Authority had been trying for years to get money to build better housing because the units flooded every year. “It was an uphill battle; we got the same thing every time: ‘no money, no money, no money,’” Moreno said.

Earlier this month, the Housing Authority had the official dedication ceremony for the 34-unit, gated, 10-acre complex, naming it after someone who had fought the “uphill battle” until funding was secured. Manuel Benavidez Jr., the former president of the board of the Housing Authority, “wouldn’t take ‘no’ for an answer,” Moreno said. Even when he was going through chemotherapy treatments, Benavidez would travel to San Antonio to meet with representatives from U.S. Housing and Urban Development. “He was never letting up, and in the end, it paid off,” Moreno said.

Benavidez lost his battle with cancer in 2009, but his legacy will live on in the Manuel Benavidez Jr. Housing Complex on Charco Blanco Road. “I think our family is always amazed at the kind of gratitude the community has shown for his efforts, but more importantly we're just really happy (that) things he saw as ways to help the community have become a reality,” said Benavidez’s daughter, Rose Benavidez, who is now on the Housing Authority board and runs the Starr County Industrial Foundation.

Residents in the complex have to meet financial requirements to live there and pay rent on a sliding scale based on income, Moreno said. The apartments include hook-ups for driers and washers and are more spacious than the ones at the previous complex. More than 200 people applied to live in the 34 units. Residents moved into the new apartments in April.

Annais Gonzalez, a technician at a dialysis clinic, said the apartment allowed her to move out of her mother’s house after a divorce. She lives in a two-bedroom apartment with her 5-year-old daughter. “It’s awesome,” she said of the complex. “It’s perfect, very private. Everyone is super friendly around.” The complex is gated and security also roams the property, Moreno said. “We feel very safe, which is great,” Gonzalez said. Moreno said residents express pride in the community, many by decorating the inside and outside of the building and also participating in neighborhood events. Jesus Mireles has covered the walls of his one-bedroom apartment with photos of his children and grandchildren. Mireles, who is on disability and cannot work, said his family enjoys visiting on the weekends. “It’s a very nice place,” he said.

Gail Burkhardt covers Mission, western Hidalgo County, Starr County and general assignments for The Monitor. She can be reached at gburkhardt@themonitor.com and (956) 683-4462.

Holiday Gathering With Family, Friends, Clients!

Come join us for our annual Christmas Street Party at the corner of Texas Boulevard and 5th Street. We will have plenty of food, drink and blankets! The Weslaco Christmas Parade starts at 6:00 p.m. and should be at our intersection by 6:30 p.m.; afterwards we will walk over to Weslaco City Hall to enjoy the Weslaco High School Jazz Band and the Dean Canty Orchestra. Add another unforgettable night to our string of community events!

WHS Music Halls Update

Detail of lobby ceililing, taken by William Collins, at the Weslaco High School Music Halls project. The general contractor is working to complete the punch list by the end of the month.

Texas Southmost College Architecture Program

Hector Rene Garcia, Mata-Garcia Architects Principal, (left in photo) was among the jurors for the final semester project (five weeks) of Architectural Design Studio I - an urban infill project in downtown Harlingen.  The work presented was innovative, well-researched and demonstrated a promising future for the students and the program. Thank  you to Dr. Murad Abusalim, Assistant Professor; Erick D. Diaz, Assistant Master Technical Instructor and Christopher R. Collins, Assistant Master Technical Instructor, for the invitation to take part in this exciting review session. A few of the students' work is shown below.

Coff- Art Project: Coffee House & Art Gallery

                                                          Coff - Art House Project 

                                                 Coff-Art: Coffee House & Art Gallery

Fine Arts School & Auditorium

                                                     Fine Arts School & Auditorium

Urban Village Project - Mixed-use Development

Urban Village Project

Urban Village Project

Starr County Housing Authority Dedication

A moving ceremony today at the dedication of the Starr County Housing Authority's - Manuel Benavidez, Jr. Housing Complex in Rio Grande City. Tributes to the visionary Benavidez were given by local, state and national dignitaries. Mata-Garcia Architects was honored to have been a part of this important and exciting project.

A former migrant farm worker, Manuel Benavidez, Jr. (1952 - 2009) was driven by his personal trials and experiences to improve the quality of life for his community by providing access to higher education and enhancing local services. Benavidez graduated from Rio Grande City High School and then went on to get a bachelor's degree in bilingual education from Pan American University in 1986. After beginning his career as and educator Benavidez was named Transportation Director for RGCCISD in 1994 and maintained that position for the rest of his professional life.

Benavidez began his advocacy of education by facilitating presentations and taking an active leadership role in local, state and national Migrant Council Conferences. In 1993 Texas Governor Ann Richards appointed him as a founding member of South Texas Community College (now South Texas College) Board of Trustees to represent Starr County. He was elected in May 2000 and re-elected to this position in May of 2006.

Two of Benavidez' visions have become a reality, bringing a state-of-the-art rural technology center for the residents of Starr County and the construction of a new public housing complex - both structures that now bear his name.

Benavidez had a long tenure as an active participant in local and state public education and community service. He served on the board of Workforce Solutions, as President of the Association of Texas Professional Educators in Rio Grande City, as Area V Director for the Texas Association of Pupil Transportation, as President for the South Texas Association for Pupil Transportation and as Board Chair of the Starr County Housing Authority. He also served as the past Chair of the Starr County Democratic Party.  Most importantly, Benavidez was a loving husband, caring father and indulging grandfather.

Speaking at the ceremony were: Rose Benavidez, M.P.A. (daughter), President of the Starr County Industrial Foundation; Hon. Eloy Vera, Starr County Judge; Rodolfo C. Salinas, Deacon - Sacred Heart of Jesus Church, Escobares, Texas; Juan Garcia, Board Chair of the Housing Authority of Starr County; Hon. Ruben Villarreal, Mayor of Rio Grande City; David G. Pohler, Public Housing Division Director for Housing and Urban Development, San Antonio, Texas; and a representative of Hon. Henry Cuellar, U.S. Congressman.

WHS Music Halls: All Lit Up!

Detail: Nighttime View of Music Halls along Panther Drive.

The project is nearing completion with punch-list items being 

worked-on during the Christmas Holidays.