South Texas is a region of the U.S. state of Texas that lies roughly south of, or beginning at, San Antonio. The southern and western boundary is the Rio Grande River, and to the east it is the Gulf of Mexico. The population of this region is about 3.7 million. The southern portion of this region is often referred to as the Rio Grande Valley. The eastern portion along the Gulf of Mexico is also referred to as the Coastal Bend.

Contents 1 Boundaries 2 Most populous cities 3 Counties 4 Multicultural influences 5 Transportation 5.1 Air Travel 5.2 Major Highways 5.2.1 Interstate Highways 5.2.2 United States Routes 5.2.3 Texas State Highways 5.3 International Bridges 6 Tourism 7 Education 7.1 Colleges 7.2 Universities 7.2.1 Public universities 7.2.2 Private universities 8 Sports 9 Area codes 10 See also 11 References

[edit] Boundaries

There is no defined northern boundary, although it is believed to be at the city of San Antonio and from an east to west line extending from the Rio Grande near Maverick County to the Gulf of Mexico, but turning southeast at or near Lavaca County, and continuing towards the Gulf of Mexico to separate it from East Texas and Southeast Texas. The Rio Grande serves as the western and southern boundaries and separates Texas from Mexico. The eastern portion of South Texas is bordered by the Gulf of Mexico.

[edit] Most populous cities

City	2000 Census Population[1]	County
San Antonio	1,144,646	Bexar County
Corpus Christi	277,454	Nueces County
Laredo	176,576	Webb County
Brownsville	139,722	Cameron County
McAllen	106,414	Hidalgo County
Victoria	60,603	Victoria County
Harlingen	57,564	Cameron County
Edinburg	48,465	Hidalgo County
Pharr	46,660	Hidalgo County
Mission	45,408	Hidalgo County
Weslaco	26,935	Hidalgo County
San Juan	26,229	Hidalgo County
Kingsville	25,575	Kleberg County
San Benito	23,444	Cameron County
Eagle Pass	22,413	Maverick County
Alice	19,010	Jim Wells County

Some people consider Houston to be in South Texas for several reasons. Numerous businesses in the Houston region contain 'South Texas' in their titles.^[2] The South Texas College of Law is located in downtown Houston. The United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas includes the Houston division. And like South Texas, the city has a large Hispanic population. However, Houston is most accurately classified as being within Southeast Texas, a subregion of East Texas.

[edit] Counties

Cameron Hidalgo Starr Willacy Kenedy Brooks Jim Hogg Zapata Webb Duval

Jim Wells Nueces San Patricio Aransas Live Oak McMullen Zavala Goliad La Salle Atascosa

Dimmit Frio Maverick Refugio Bee Karnes Victoria Kleberg Calhoun Bexar

Uvalde Lavaca Kinney DeWitt Jackson Wharton Matagorda Wilson Gonzales Guadalupe Medina

• note:Counties listed after Calhoun County are those depicted in light red in the counties picture to the right
• note 2:Bolded counties are those with at least 200,000 in population

[edit] Multicultural influences

South Texas is well-known for a strong Hispanic, primarily Mexican American and Tejano (the Spanish term for Texan) influence, due to its proximity to Mexico. However, a large percentage of Tejanos [Tejas was a province of Spain] and Mexicans living in South Texas are descended from the Spanish/Sephardic Jewish-Converso settlers of New Mexico [Onate Expedition, 1598]. These families have resided in North America for hundreds of years. This migration occurred and has been ongoing since the late 1500s in New Mexico and the early 1700s in South Texas. The long-disputed U.S. annexation of South Texas and the land grabbing of the Spanish Land Grants is a sore point among those descended from the Spanish colonial settlers. After the Mexican American War, Mexicans/Tejanos were persona non grata in Texas and at times were killed or driven from their ancestral lands. (Library of Congress, Microfiche 7906177, also google a related article "Our Secret Heritage"). The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in the 1840s, failed to secure land belonging to the Hispanic settlers. The disputed area is between the Nueces River south of San Antonio and Corpus Christi, and the King Ranch and the Rio Grande River. Not recognized by Mexico nor the United States, The Republic of the Rio Grande was established in 1838. It's capital was Laredo, Texas until 1847.

[edit] Transportation

[edit] Air Travel

• San Antonio International Airport
• Corpus Christi International Airport
• Laredo International Airport
• Valley International Airport
• Victoria Regional Airport
• McAllen-Miller International Airport
• Brownsville/South Padre Island International Airport
• Alice International Airport
• South Texas International Airport at Edinburg
• Aransas County Airport^[3]
• Kleberg County Airport
• Duval-Freer Airport

[edit] Major Highways

[edit] Interstate Highways

• Interstate 10
• Interstate 35
• Interstate 37

[edit] United States Routes

• U.S. Highway 59
• U.S. Highway 77
• U.S. Highway 83
• U.S. Highway 87
• U.S. Highway 181
• U.S. Highway 281

[edit] Texas State Highways

• Texas Highway 4
• Texas Highway 16
• Texas Highway 44
• Texas Highway 107
• Texas Highway 255
• Texas Highway 336
• Texas Highway 359
• Texas Highway 361
• Texas Highway 495
• Texas Highway 141
• Texas Highway 285

[edit] International Bridges

Laredo

• Gateway to the Americas International Bridge
• Juarez-Lincoln International Bridge
• Texas-Mexican Railway International Bridge
• World Trade International Bridge
• Colombia-Solidarity International Bridge

Eagle Pass

• Eagle Pass-Piedras Negras International Bridge
• Camino Real International Bridge
• Union Pacific International Railroad Bridge

Brownsville

• Brownsville & Matamoros International Bridge
• Veteran's International Bridge
• Gateway International Bridge

Los Indios

• Free Trade International Bridge

Falcon Hights

• Lake Falcon Dam International Crossing

Hidalgo

• McAllen-Hidalgo-Reynosa International Bridge

Pharr

• Pharr-Reynosa International Bridge

Progreso

• Progreso-Nuevo Progreso International Bridge

Rio Grande City

• Rio Grande City-Camargo International Bridge

Roma

• Roma-Ciudad Miguel Alemán International Bridge

[edit] Tourism

San Antonio

• The Alamo
• SeaWorld San Antonio
• Six Flags Fiesta Texas
• San Antonio River Walk
• San Antonio Zoo
• San Antonio Museum of Art
• San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo

Corpus Christi

• Mirador de la Flor (Selena Memorial Statue)
• Texas State Aquarium
• USS Lexington Museum Ship
• Mustang Island & Mustang Island State Park
• Padre Island National Seashore near Corpus Christi
• Bayfest

Laredo

• San Agustin de Laredo Historic District
• Republic of the Rio Grande Capitol Building Museum
• Washington's Birthday Celebration festivities during January and February

Rio Grande Valley

• South Padre Island on Gulf Coast east of Brownsville
• Gladys Porter Zoo in Brownsville

Other

• King Ranch near Kingsville
• Aransas National Wildlife Refuge

San Antonio river walk	South Padre Island	Mirador de la Flor	SeaWorld San Antonio
The Alamo	Corpus Christi	San Agustin Cathedral in Laredo's San Agustin de Laredo Historic District	Republic of the Rio Grande Capitol building is located in Laredo

[edit] Education

[edit] Colleges

• Alamo Community College District
  • San Antonio College
  • Palo Alto College
  • St. Philip's College
  • Northeast Lakeview College
  • Northwest Vista College
• Coastal Bend College
  • Alice Campus
  • Main Campus (Beeville)
  • Kingsville Campus
  • Pleasanton Campus
• Del Mar College
• Laredo Community College
  • Laredo Community College South Campus
• South Texas College
  • Main Campus, McAllen
  • Tech Campus, McAllen
  • Nursing and Allied Health Campus, McAllen
  • Mid-Valley Campus, Weslaco
  • Starr County Campus, Rio Grande City
• Texas State Technical College

[edit] Universities

[edit] Public universities

• Texas A&M International University (Laredo)
• Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi
• Texas A&M University–Kingsville (Texas A&I)
• Texas A&M University-San Antonio
• University of Houston–Victoria
• University of Texas at Brownsville
• University of Texas–Pan American
• University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio
• University of Texas at San Antonio

[edit] Private universities

• Our Lady of the Lake University
• St. Mary's University
• University of the Incarnate Word
• Trinity University
• Wayland Baptist University

[edit] Sports

The only major professional sports teams in South Texas are the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA and the San Antonio Silver Stars in the WNBA.

Team	Sport	League	Venue
San Antonio Spurs	Basketball	NBA	AT&T Center
San Antonio Silver Stars		WNBA
Rio Grande Valley Vipers		NBA D-League	Dodge Arena
Corpus Christi Sharks	Arena Football	AF2	American Bank Center
Rio Grande Valley Dorados			Dodge Arena
Corpus Christi Hammerheads		IFL	Central Pavilion Arena
Corpus Christi Hooks	Baseball	Texas League	Whataburger Field
San Antonio Missions			Nelson W. Wolff Municipal Stadium
Laredo Broncos		United Baseball League	Veterans Field
Coastal Bend Thunder			Fairgrounds Field
San Antonio Rampage	Ice hockey	American Hockey League	AT&T Center
Corpus Christi IceRays		Central Hockey League	American Bank Center
Laredo Bucks			Laredo Entertainment Center
Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees			Dodge Arena
Laredo Heat	Soccer	PDL	TAMIU Soccer Complex
Rio Grande Valley Bravos FC			Valley View High School Stadium

[edit] Area codes

• 210 - San Antonio
• 361 - Corpus Christi, Alice, Victoria, Kingsville, Rockport
• 956 - Laredo, Brownsville, McAllen
• 830 - Eagle Pass, San Antonio
• 979 - only the southern half of this area is in South Texas

[edit] See also

• List of geographical regions in Texas
• List of Texas regions

v • d • e   State of Texas Austin (capital) Topics Architecture | Climate | Culture | Demographics | Economy | Education | Geography | Government | History | Languages | Literature | Politics | Sports | Texans | Transportation | Symbols | Visitor Attractions Regions Ark‑La‑Tex | Big Bend | Blackland Prairies | Brazos Valley | Central Texas | Coastal Bend | Cross Timbers | Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex | Deep East Texas | East Texas | Edwards Plateau | Galveston Bay | Golden Triangle | Greater Houston | Hill Country | Llano Estacado | Longview–Marshall | Northeast Texas | North Texas | Osage Plains | Panhandle | Permian Basin | Piney Woods | Rio Grande Valley | Southeast Texas | South Plains | South Texas | West Texas Metropolitan areas Abilene | Amarillo | Austin–Round Rock | Beaumont–Port Arthur | Brownsville–Harlingen | College Station–Bryan | Corpus Christi | Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington | El Paso | Houston–Sugar Land–Baytown | Killeen–Temple–Fort Hood | Laredo | Longview | Lubbock | McAllen–Edinburg–Mission | Midland | Odessa | San Angelo | San Antonio | Sherman–Denison | Texarkana | Tyler | Victoria | Waco | Wichita Falls Counties See: Table of Texas counties  or List

v • d • e Sports teams based in South Texas Baseball TL: Corpus Christi Hooks • San Antonio Missions, ULB: Coastal Bend Thunder • Edinburg Coyotes • Harlingen WhiteWings • Laredo Broncos, Basketball NBA: San Antonio Spurs, WNBA: San Antonio Silver Stars, D-League: Rio Grande Valley Vipers, ABA: Texas Fuel, UBL: San Antonio Soul Football af2: Rio Grande Valley Dorados, IFL: Corpus Christi Hammerheads Hockey AHL: San Antonio Rampage, CHL: Corpus Christi IceRays • Laredo Bucks • Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees Soccer PDL: Laredo Heat • Rio Grande Valley Bravos College athletics (NCAA Division I) Texas A&M-Corpus Christi • Texas-Pan American • Texas-San Antonio (UTSA) • Texas State

[edit] References