McAllen, TX is a bit of an anomaly. In a red state, this town of 129,000 just across the Rio Grande from Reynosa, Mexico, typically votes Democrat. It is the 20th largest city in Texas, but has the 12th largest retail sales in the state, largely due to shoppers from Reynosa, with its population of close to a million. In the city’s school district, six of its seven commissioners have clearly Hispanic surnames, which may have created the cultural climate that led to this disturbing incident: In September 2011, Brenda Brindson, a 15-year old Texas high-school sophomore, was thrown out of her third-year Spanish class and given an F because she refused to stand and recite the Mexican Pledge of Allegiance as part of a class assignment. Continue reading →