Dina Arévalo

Texas

Reporter at The Monitor (McAllen, TX)

Tejana. Baylor alum. Award-winning professional question asker in the Rio Grande Valley #RGV working @mySA. I punch above my weight. DM for Signal.

Articles

Grupo Frontera fans pack beloved South Texas pulga for music video

4 days ago | mysanantonio.com | Dina Arévalo

Grupo Frontera, the norteño band from the Rio Grande Valley that has had a meteoric rise to fame after going viral on TikTok and via collabs with Latin music superstars like Bad Bunny, brought it back to their roots this weekend by shooting a music video for their latest single in a very unusual place — the Alamo Pulga.
Beloved South Texas beach named best in the state again

5 days ago | mysanantonio.com | Dina Arévalo

Isla Blanca Park was named the top surfside spot in a readers’ choice 10Best poll conducted by USA Today earlier this month. It was the only beach in the Rio Grande Valley to make the list, which saw four other spots go to Corpus Christi and two more to the Galveston area. Back in the 956, Boca Chica Beach, which placed third last year and has been made famous by its proximity to Starbase, Texas, dropped off the 2025 Top 10 list entirely. But Isla Blanca is truly a gem among Texas beaches.
Agents zip-tie kids in new immigration crackdown in Texas

1 week ago | mysanantonio.com | Dina Arévalo

The incident was captured on video by an immigration attorney, who then shared the footage with attendees of an immigration law conference being held this week at the Grand Hyatt San Antonio Riverwalk Hotel by the Catholic Legal Immigration Network Inc., or CLINIC.
South Texas cracks into top of Texas Monthly's best barbecue list

1 week ago | mysanantonio.com | Dina Arévalo

But keep an eye on the barbecue eateries that are putting deep South Texas on the map. On the same list of Texas Monthly's top 50 barbecue joints, a couple of Rio Grande Valley spots make an appearance, including a relative newcomer that cracked the top 5. GW’s BBQ, located at 107 N. Nebraska Ave. in San Juan, was No. 5 on the magazine's tasty radar in just the seventh “top 50” list the magazine has produced since 1996.
Meet the cross-country travelers visiting Texas' 'Gateway to Mars'

1 week ago | mysanantonio.com | Dina Arévalo

Bill and Marybeth Clune stood in the shade of a popup canopy, their eyes trained southward toward the haze-blurred horizon where two narrow towers protruded from an otherwise flat landscape. Less than half an hour to liftoff, a white cloud of vapor rose like puffs of cotton from the base of one of the towers.
South Texas hotel with Fidel Castro history to transform into 'tech campus'

1 week ago | mysanantonio.com | Dina Arévalo

The fate of the much-beloved Echo Hotel in Edinburg in the Rio Grande Valley is becoming more clear after news that an Austin tech company looking to expand its South Texas footprint purchased it last month. At the same time, the major property deal has sparked interest from local historical preservationists.
Starship blasts off during 9th test flight from Starbase

1 week ago | mysanantonio.com | Dina Arévalo

A group of retirees who now call the Rio Grande Valley home. A couple who drove for three days straight from Buffalo, New York, and hundreds of others descended upon South Padre Island on a sweltering May afternoon to watch what many characterized as “history" — the ninth test flight of SpaceX's Starship/Super Heavy. Neither Starship nor the Super Heavy booster that launched it into space survived the ninth test flight.
Multiple scandals have rocked South Texas schools this month

1 week ago | mysanantonio.com | Dina Arévalo

The past few weeks have been marred by safety concerns and legal headaches for several school districts across South Texas. From students bringing guns to campus to several top administrative shakeups to educators under arrest to budget woes changing what some school districts will look like next fall, the last few weeks of the school year have been anything but quiet.
Portillo's Hot Dogs to open new South Texas location

2 weeks ago | mysanantonio.com | Dina Arévalo

Chicago’s most beloved street food chain is coming to the Rio Grande Valley and bringing its classic Windy City hotdogs with it. Portillo’s will come to South McAllen by the end of the year, according to Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR) records. But, the store won’t open in time for Valley residents to get their hands — or their chompers — on The Leo, the limited-time Italian beef sandwich created in honor of Pope Leo XIV that’s only available through the end of this month.
FAA gives SpaceX clearance for 9th Starship test flight

2 weeks ago | mysanantonio.com | Dina Arévalo

The Federal Aviation Administration has just given Elon Musk’s SpaceX the green light to carry out its ninth flight test of the Starship/Super Heavy combo at the company’s Starbase launch facility in South Texas. The launch, which was originally slated to occur as early as yesterday, Wednesday, May 21, was put on hold after the FAA reminded the public that it was still investigating the explosion that had ended the eighth test flight of Starship after launch on March 6.