Healthy Influence Blog

My girl graciously invited me to accompany her for her appearance at the Inaugural Hauser Lecture, delivered at the University of Texas at Pan America (UTPA) this past week. Besides being the McConnell Minx, Empress of ECA, Countessa of Comm Ed, and the girl of my dreams, Melanie is also a highly regarded and wildly successful researcher and professor in the field of Communication Studies. The good folks at UTPA asked her to come down to the Rio Grande Valley and offer her thoughts on all things Communication. I held her purse.

Our hosts, Tim Mottet and Ricardo Gonzalez, toured us through South Texas including a visit to Progresso, Mexico, just across the Rio Grande river. Melanie and I do the standard border line pose here.

It was hot and windy that day, my friend. We pushed over the bridge and into Progresso moving through the friendly inspection of the Mexican authorities. (If you’ve never been to Mexico you need to get ready for young men in fatigues carrying automatic weapons. It’s part of the scene like silver jewelry, rice and beans, and hot sun. I appreciate the security, but it’s just a bit unnerving to see machine guns on parade. The young men, however, all strike me as responsible and trustworthy and almost always just a bit sad. This young man was quick to pose at Melanie’s request. Her Spanish isn’t the best, but somehow or another the men always seem to understand her.)

Progresso has a tight, bustling shopping area just over the bridge. I bought an incredible belt (not pictured here) while our hosts, Tim and Ricardo, shopped for hats.

Oddly, they decided not to make a purchase. We also bought some jewelry and other trinkets. We also ate a late lunch at Arturo’s on the main street. It an excellent restaurant with fabulous servers (older men who actually do this for a living rather than as something while getting through school), lovely decor, live music, and a great menu of very tasty food.

When we travel, we tend to live to eat and it was no different in McAllen, Texas. We ate at the Santa Fe Steakhouse (highly recommended), the restaurant at the Renaissance Marriott (recommended), Mickey D’s (double cheese!), a very nice sushi/martini bar whose name escapes me now (recommended, sorry), Espana (a highly self regarded restaurant that is wildly overpriced, but does provide incredibly cheeky service), and, our favorite, Costa Messa. Here’s Joshua, our server, bringing us a chorizo appetizer.

Joshua provided excellent service and great advice about drinks and food. The chorizo dish was a joy. It is sausage and cheese served hot and mixed with various garnishes like peppers, tomato, and onions. I’m sure it is on the hit list with the Food Police, but they haven’t gotten this far South just yet. Thank God. Here’s a picture of the Costa Messa style on serving chorizo.

Okay, that’s one of the best Marguarita’s I’ve had in my life. We had a bit of a translation problem. Joshua described it as a “Top Shelf” drink. I’m not sure if that referred to the quality of the tequila or another ingredient. But, it was a double and it was double good. Now, note the metal serving stove and the platter on top. That’s the chorizo dish. The stove was wood or charcoal fired which kept things warm and easy to mix. We really liked this place because it is such a great value. Everything about it is well done and at a good price. I’d go to McAllen just for Joshua and Costa Messa.

Oh, yeah, there was some work involved here. Tim Mottet invited Melanie to present the first lecture in the Hauser Series. Besides wearing funny hats, Tim is an ambitious, bright Communication scholar who moved to UTPA to help direct its future during a period of phenomenal growth. The Rio Grande Valley in this area is simply booming. I’d expected McAllen to be a little town and then Edinburg, the home of UTPA, to be a village. Instead, it looks like Bethesda or Overland Park or San Diego. I vividly recall Ross Perot’s infamous warning about NAFTA and that “giant sucking sound” as American jobs go to Mexico. Sure don’t look that way today. It’s a rocking place and they wanted to hear what Melanie had to say.

Melanie did her public lecture along with several other meetings with undergraduate and graduate students. We also got to meet many faculty members and had a fun reception (did you have the little quiches?) hosted again by Tim and Rick. And Tim was kind enough to let me talk with a couple of classes about consulting and leadership work. I appreciate the work that Tim Mottet did for this.

And so did Melanie.