Is San Benito next in line to eat our lunch?

"Hey baby, que paso?" with your lunch?

By now, you might have heard the term "McAllen is eating our lunch". It's an all-too-familiar refrain heard in the context of Laredo's competition with towns in the lower Rio Grande Valley. Well, it now appears that other towns in the "Valley" might take the same approach and simply start "piling on" the Gateway City. Case in point: San Benito, Texas.

From The McAllen Monitor

SAN BENITO — Chinese businessmen and film producers will travel to San Benito as a result of city officials’ trip to China last month, City Manager Manuel Lara said Tuesday.

In a meeting, Lara made a presentation to city commissioners on his trip with Mayor Joe Hernandez to an international conference in Shenzhen, a major port city just north of Hong Kong.

Lara said a group of Chinese businessmen with U.S. investments will travel to San Benito as part of its visit to Texas in about two weeks. The group will consider bringing business to San Benito, Houston or Dallas, Lara said.

Chinese film producers will visit San Benito from April 23 to 25 after visiting a Houston film festival, Lara said. “We made some excellent contacts,” he said.

Lara said he helped introduce Chinese vacation resort officials to the Rio Grande Valley.
“They were very interested,” he said. “They had never ever considered moving to South Padre Island.”
Lara said he tried to sell the Chinese on the region’s agriculture. “We opened up their eyes to the products our farmers would be able to market,” Lara said.