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 "Deep South Texas." The Rio Grande Valley is part of this area.

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.

Most Populous Cities

City	2000 Census Population	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

Many people mistake Houston to be in South Texas, but that city is correctly classified as being in Southeast Texas or simply East Texas.

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

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 with Mexico. However, a large percentage of Tejanos and Mexicans living in South Texas have families and residency going back many generations (about 300 years in some cases) before the U.S. annexation of their lands after the Mexican American War in the 1840s. The disputed area between the Nueces River south of San Antonio and Corpus Christi, and the Rio Grande was a republic of its own not recognized by Mexico and the United States, known as the Republic of the Rio Grande from 1838 to 1847 and its capital was in Laredo, Texas.

Some good books to read about the native and non-native Latino population are Brownsville by Oscar Casares, Rio Grande Wetbacks by Carol Norquest, ...And the Earth Did Not Devour Him by Tomás Rivera, as well as other popular books, Border Towns and Poncho.

One might look at the writings of J. Frank Dobie, who was born and raised in South Texas, to begin to understand the Anglo viewpoint of the current society of the area.

Transportation

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

Major Highways

• U.S. Highway 281
• U.S. Highway 77
• U.S. Highway 83
• U.S. Highway 59
• U.S. Highway 87
• U.S. Highway 181
• Interstate 10
• Interstate 35
• Interstate 37
• Texas Highway 4
• Texas Highway 44
• Texas Highway 359
• Texas Highway 16
• Texas Highway 107
• Texas Highway 361
• Texas Highway 495
• Texas Highway 336
• Texas Highway 255

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

McAllen

• 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

Tourism

• South Padre Island
• San Antonio River Walk
• Mirador de la Flor (Selena Memorial Statue)
• Mustang Island
• The Alamo
• SeaWorld San Antonio
• King Ranch

Education

College

• Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi
• Texas A&M University-Kingsville (Texas A&I)
• Coastal Bend College
• Del Mar College
• University of Texas at Brownsville
• University of Texas–Pan American
• Texas State Technical College
• South Texas College
• Laredo Community College
• Texas A&M International University
• University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio
• University of Texas at San Antonio
• Texas A&M University-San Antonio
• Alamo Community College District
• San Antonio College
• Palo Alto College
• St. Philip's College
• Northeast Lakeview College
• Northwest Vista College
• St. Mary's University
• Our Lady of the Lake University
• University of the Incarnate Word
• Trinity University
• Wayland Baptist University
• University of Houston-Victoria
• University of Victoria

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
Corpus Christi Beach Dawgs		Continental Baseball League	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	Texas A&M International University Soccer Complex

Area Codes

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

See also

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

References