Desiree Rios

Making tamales, 2025. It starts with honoring tradition. Then after every olla is filled, someone yells “break time!” By the weekend, we’ll still be eating tamales… This year looked and felt very different after losing my cousin, Mikey. His absence is deeply felt, but so is his love. Grateful for the memories we shared and the ones will continue to make as a family.

Dress rehearsals for Prestonwood Baptist Church’s Gift of Christmas for @texasmonthly . “The costumes are the GOC’s least extravagant feature. The show—Prestonwood has clarified that the ticketed event (seats start at $20.95) is not a church service— takes place on a three-hundred-foot stage with three walls of LED screens as a backdrop. There are lasers, pyrotechnics, confetti cannons, and trapezing elves. Particularly since videos of flying performers went viral on TikTok in 2022 and 2023, the excesses of the show have drawn criticism from those who view the cost of GOC, which is funded by ticket sales, as money that could be better spent in a season of giving. The melding of the biblical and secular aspects of Christmas—at one point Santa soars in on his own wire—have also ruffled some devout feathers.” Written by @lonlozzin

Mexico City in November

Despite heavy rain, protesters turned out for the “No Kings” demonstration in Dallas on Saturday. For @nytimes

“Agonizing Choices Confront Undocumented Immigrants Needing Aid After Floods” Leo, a 14-year-old undocumented immigrant, severely lacerated his left hand after he fell while searching the banks of the Guadalupe River with volunteers days following the deadly Central Texas floods on July 4. “They are going to take him away,” his mother, Gabriela, 42, recalled thinking, as doctors wheeled her son away. Immigrant rights groups and religious volunteers worry undocumented residents in Central Texas, such as Leo and his family, are not getting what they need amid immigration crackdowns that have pressed a large migrant community underground. Overcoming their fears, the family eventually sought medical help, deciding that Leo’s health was worth the potential risk of deportation. In December 1984, Teresa Salas, 70, and her daughter, Gloria Peña, 53, were living in the Hill Country, without legal authorization, when a flash flood hit. Ms. Peña narrowly escaped, but her father and Ms. Salas’s husband, Juan Manuel Barraza, along with Ms. Peña’s sisters and Ms. Salas’s daughters, Beatriz and Erica, then just 3 and 2 years old, were found dead after the family’s vehicle was swept away. Ms. Salas and Ms. Peña, who became legal residents under an immigration amnesty program by President Ronald Reagan, say they remember the trauma that others are reliving now. “I understand their fear, because I was in their shoes,” Ms. Salas said. “All we can do is offer a lending hand. They don’t have a lot of places where they feel safe, and just like everybody else here they need help.” By Edgar Sandoval. Contributed reporting and photographed for @nytimes . Always a pleasure working alongside @edjsandoval , who brought this story to light. Thank you so much @jennifermosbrucker for your guidance and support. Truly, truly grateful to the families who trusted us with sharing their deeply personal experiences.

Gathered in a half circle, eight young equestrians atop multicolored horses bowed their heads for a prayer led by their coach, Heidi Ramirez. They prayed for many things, including their own safety, given that the synchronized routine they perform while riding sidesaddle in layered embroidered dresses, though beautiful, is both challenging and potentially dangerous. They are Dinastía Charra, a team of escaramuzas from Alvarado who perform intricate competitive riding to music. It’s traditionally the only all-female event in the Mexican equestrian sport known as charrería. Rooted in the Mexican Revolution, it holds profound significance especially now as debates over immigration and U.S.-Mexico relations are increasingly fraught. For these first-generation Mexican-American women, being an escaramuza—donning the attire and performing every slide, gallop, twist, turn, and punto shout—transcends geographical and political borders, offering a space for cultural expression that is both deeply personal and collectively a way to celebrate their cross-cultural identity. I can’t thank this incredibly talented team and their families enough for their time, trust and generosity over the past year. This personal project grew into a genuine bond and a deep respect for this sport and the powerful women who honor their heritage and its traditions through it. Read more in the May/June issue of @texasobserver . A huge thank you to @ivanflr for your words of encouragement and edit.

In our magazine, photojournalist Desiree Rios introduces us to "Dinastía Charra, a team of escaramuzas from Alvarado who perform intricate competitive riding to music. It’s traditionally the only all-female event in the Mexican equestrian sport known as charrería." See the whole story and all of Desiree's stunning photos on our website.

Demonstrators gather outside the Texas Capitol during the “No Kings” protest in Austin, Texas. The protest, part of a coordinated nationwide day of action, was held in opposition to the Trump administration’s policies and coincided with the military parade in Washington and the president’s 79th birthday. For @nytimes

Hundreds of protesters marched through downtown San Antonio condemning immigration enforcement operations on Wednesday evening. For @nytimes

The Trump administration’s budget cuts have reduced funding for food banks and school nutrition initiatives. At the North Texas Food Bank, President Trisha Cunningham is dealing with the impact of these cuts, including how to cope without the roughly $9 million expected from the Local Food Purchase Assistance program in the coming months. For @bloomberg

“How Texas Officials Invited the Rigging of the State Lottery” Texas lottery executives blessed a scheme that ensured one player would win a $95 million jackpot in 2023. As the unsavory details have come out — storefronts posing as retailers spitting out lottery tickets, texts between ticket printers and a former drug smuggler, a winner hiding behind a Delaware-based shell company — the escapade underscored a pervasive sense in Texas, and in America, that just about everything is rigged. “They deceived players,” said Dawn Nettles, a longtime lottery player who publishes a website on the Texas lottery. These revelations have led to multiple state investigations and an abrupt resignation of the executive director of the Texas State Lottery last Monday. By David Goodman. For @nytimes

Bluebonnets in Ennis, TX for @washingtonpost