In 1774, twelve families from Camargo and one from Reynosa moved down the Río Bravo and settled near what is now Matamoros.
Nearly 30 years earlier, the Spanish expedition planning the settlements of Nuevo Santander had surveyed the same area and concluded that its persistent flooding made it poorly suited for a town. The thirteen families knew the risks and came anyway.
Their names make the story feel considerably less distant: Ayala. Longoria. Hinojosa. Cavazos. Cantú. Garza. If you have spent any time in the RioPlex, you know these names. These names are still found on businesses, ranches, offices and more on both sides of the Rio Grande. The names of those who shaped our region.
There is an important distinction between creating value and managing it. Good managers can take what exists and multiply it, sometimes dramatically. Every successful company, institution and region eventually depends on people capable of doing exactly that. But before something can be managed, somebody has to create it.
The thirteen families had no Matamoros to manage. They had to build one.
More than 250 years later, our region finds itself at another crossroads.
For generations, we have built upon an extraordinary inheritance: international trade, agriculture, manufacturing, logistics, ports, bridges and a workforce that operates naturally across two countries. There is enormous value in continuing to improve and multiply those assets.
But look at what is beginning to happen around us.
LNG. Saronic. SpaceX.
These are not isolated curiosities on the edge of our economy. They are glimpses of something larger: advanced manufacturing, energy, aerospace, defense technology and international investment finding reasons to build here. They offer a view into a future that is becoming increasingly difficult to dismiss.
The question is no longer whether this region has potential. At RioPlex we know what is already in the pipeline. The more consequential question is: What are we going to do with it?
Will we manage the growth that reaches us, or will we create the conditions necessary for more of it? Will we wait for companies to discover us individually, or build the infrastructure, relationships, workforce and regional identity necessary to compete for them deliberately?
That is why RIOPLEX matters.
The next chapter of this region will not be written by spectators waiting to see what happens. It will be written by the people making investments now, building companies now, opening markets now and taking calculated risks on what this place can become.
The thirteen families did not know what Matamoros would become.
We have an advantage they did not, we can already see pieces of our future arriving.
They were not caretakers of a legacy. They were founders of one.
Editor’s Note: The above commentary was penned by David Martinez, operations and member services manager of RioPlex.
