PSST. MEESTER...DO YOU WANT TO BE MY SISTER(S)?

"We’ve been sister cities for 150 years, I don’t see a reason for that to change. It’s our culture, it’s our people and it’s just such a great thing to see and celebrate Mexican Independence,” he said. “Just to serve as a reminder that we’ve always been really one culture, one city. I think especially in times we’re living in now, it’s important to remember that we grew up together, we’ve been together for generations and that nothing really should change.” Mayor Juan "Trey" Mendez

Special to El Rrun-Rrun

Whoa now, Wilbur!

What sister cities are we talking abut? Is it Brownsville and Matamoros?

Isn't there a plaque in the middle of the river on the Gateway Bridge dating back to the days of former Matamoros Mayor Tomas Yarrington that proclaims that already?

On Oct. 24, 1995, United Nations Day, a Sister City plaque was unveiled at the Gateway International Bridge. A City ceremony followed at the Jacob Brown Civic Center. On hand were the usual suspects: Tamaulipas Gov. Manuel Cavazos Lerma joined Matamoros Yarrington and Brownsville Mayor Henry Gonzalez and State Sen. Eddie Lucio to renew the spirit of friendship between the two border cities.

That resolution was passed earlier that month by a unanimous city commission made up of Mayor Henry Gonzalez and commissioners Jackie Lockett, Ernie Hernandez, Pete Benvides and John Wood who voted on a resolution to bind Brownsville to Matamoros as sister cities.

There was one signed between Tony Martinez and then-Matamoros mayor Leticia Salazar on August 2015.

And then there was the time when Brownsville took on another sister city, this time the port city of Altamira, Tamps., also by Martinez, in June 2016.

But we're sorry to say that we can find no documentation that the two burgs were proclaimed sister cities way back 150 years ago, as Mendez stated.

Not that there has been any shortage of sister cities declared by the City of Brownsville through resolutions. Even Mazatlan has been bandied about as a potential sister city.

There are resolutions for more exotic locales than the one the commission passed on Matamoros.

There are resolutions on:

1. Lin An, China July 31, 2001,

2. San Miguel de Allende, Mexico Jan. 20,

3. Santa Catarina, Mexico,

4.Villa Capri, Italy,

5. Nuevo Leon, NL, Mexico,

6. Santiago, NL, Mexico,

7. Huejutla De Reyes, Hidalgo, MX ,

8. Sept. 08, 2009, Tampico, MX May 20, 2011, and

9. Saltillo, Coahuila, MX April 2011, which the city commission never got around to present.

What relationship Brownsville Brownsville has with, say Huejutla De Reyes, Hidalgo, or Lin An, China, is left up to your imagination.

But what makes the second bonding (and the current one with Mendez) with our sister city directly across the Rio Grande seem like like the in-breeding attributed to the hill people on the southern states is that we've already done it once or twice and then we went and proclaimed it again this Sept. 16,

Now, why on earth would you want to have two sisters with the same name? Next year, that original relationship  (of 1995) will be 24 years old, making her a consenting adult.

The resolution to "re-establish" our sister city designation with Matamoros is done every year at Charro Days when dignitaries from both cities meet at the Gateway Bridge and go through the ceremonies.

So next time you hear someone bad-mouthing Mata, remember, she's your sister.