A Community United

Courtesy photo from the Village in the Valley.

*CORRECTION: Pulse incorrectly spelled “Kwanzaa” from a quote by Marsha Terry. The issue has since been corrected.

The Rio Grande Valley has always been a place that is bursting with vibrant culture and diverse communities. Dr. Theresa Gatling, a physical therapist and co-pastor at the Mount Olive Worship center in McAllen, and Marsha Terry, a registered nurse by profession and life coach, are both co-founders and co-presidents of flourishing organization Village in the Valley (VIVA) that celebrate these communities. 

Friends for over 20 years, Dr. Gatling and Terry connected through the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Both served on the board in the Valley’s NAACP chapter, but the chapter slowly fell apart.  

“We felt like there was a need for the Black people here to be connected, as well as, for us to be involved in the community,” Terry said.  

Both Dr. Gatling and Terry saw the diverse communities of the RGV as an opportunity to bring people together so they created VIVA to prioritizes elevating and uniting the Black community while also connecting the various cultures of the Rio Grande Valley. “For the most part, people that are here aren’t born here. They come from somewhere else” Terry said, “So it’s interesting to know why they’re here and why they stay.” 

The initial launch for VIVA happened in November of 2019 at the now permanently closed restaurant “Infused” in McAllen. About a little over 50 people showed up to the mixer to get more information about VIVA. “We were going to be this wonderful social organization where we connected people, had parties, and you know just really got to meet one another,” Dr. Gatling said.  “There was no place for our kids to come together and have community,” Terry said. “Where can you go to see other Black kids?”  

Since their launch, VIVA achieved its 5013c status in June of 2019, which means they were approved by the Internal Revenue Service as a tax-exempt, charitable organization. They have also hosted a potluck at La Vista Park in McAllen, celebrated Martin Luther King Jr. Day and organized a viewing of the Kasi Lemmon’s film “Harriet” in conjunction with Cine De Rey for Black History month, and held a Gospel Fest at the Old Church Winery in McAllen. As VIVA was initially a social organization, over the course of the 2 years that they have been in existence, their core pillars evolved and more community engagement became a top priority.  

“Then the summer of 2020 happened and then George Floyd happened,” Terry said, “George Floyd completely changed the trajectory of Village in the Valley.”  

VIVA finds that their most important work is found in their desire to connect people and learn about other people. “As a result of that, we ended up at a couple of protests in Edinburg. We were here at a protest in Mission and we were really letting our voices be known” said Terry, “We really wanted to support the community in letting them know what our perspective was.”  

These protests highlighted how voices are impactful and carry importance, especially for the diverse communities in the RGV. “We’re just glad that we were formed, and that we’re here and we were ready,” said Dr. Gatling. Village in the Valley has always been ready to inform and are always willing to speak to anyone who have questions about culture and community. “I think a lot of people have misnomers or preconceived notions about Black people, kind of what we see on T.V or what we see in Houston or Dallas or something like that” Terry said, “We really want to be able to shed a different perspective about who we are, why we’re here.” 

Additionally, VIVA has involved themselves in the Illumination Project, which concerns itself with improving community-police relationships. They are also working together with young McAllen ISD graduates who’ve created “The Grand Narrative”, an organization that works to further the education of Black and Mexican-American history in RGV school districts starting with McAllen ISD. 

Since COVID-19 has stinted their ability to reach out into the community, they continue to passionately operate. “Most of our programming now is on Zoom,” Dr. Gatling said. Village in the Valley consistently hosted a face-to-face event called ‘First Friday” which is a meeting that happens every first Friday where people come together and get to network and meet one another in a relaxed environment. Their First Friday’s on Zoom consist of guest speakers that bring information and educate their members about culture. “Most of our speakers are locals because we want to showcase our members and the businesses that are part of organization,” Terry said.   

Some First Friday meeting’s speakers do not live in the Valley, such as Bunmi Samuel, an educator and entrepreneur out of New York who spoke about Kwanzaa. Kwanzaa is an African-American annual celebration of African culture which the members of VIVA took part in shortly after the meeting with Samuel. “We knew nothing about Kwanzaa as an organization,” said Terry, “but it is a Black celebration and we learned a lot”. Dr. Gatling and Terry are looking forward to continuing their Friday zoom meetings with the communities in the RGV. “We have a very diverse group, Filipino, and Vietnamese, the Haitian community, Nigerian… There is just a lot of different ones,” Dr. Gatling said, “And so we’re really looking to get with their calendars, find out things that they celebrate that is specific for their particular culture and learn about them.” 

Village in the Valley continues to educate the community over their Facebook page, website page and even with dabbling in Facebook lives with lots of different things for different people. Since COVID is still consistent, Dr. Gatling and Terry have found much help in social media. “We’re continuing to go on and do what we need to do,” Dr. Gatling said. Dr. Gatling and Terry hope to incorporate future face to face events such as a tasting of culturally diverse foods from the communities in the Valley. VIVA also continues to direct people to the McAllen library and STC library for their events for Black History Month this 2021 year, as they feel that they have been really successful in bringing people together. They also direct and implore individuals to visit the Callandret Black History Museum in San Benito.  “It’s the first and only Black history museum south of San Antonio,” Dr. Gatling said. 

 Co-founders and co-presidents Dr. Theresa Gatling and Marsha Terry continue to work on projects with and for the community and are always looking for helping hands. “We’re actually looking for young people to take part in our organization,” Terry said. VIVA hopes to build lasting change and continue to teach the community. “Village in the Valley is not for Black people only,” said Dr. Gatling, “It is for everybody. We want everyone to be represented.”  

For more information about Village in the Valley visit their website at villageinthevalley.org and their Facebook and Instagram pages.