This story comes from NPR’s Next Generation Radio project:
Monica Sosa smiled as she stood on the shoreline of Boca Chica beach one August afternoon, keeping a watchful eye on her 7-year-old daughter, Remi, who was playing in the gentle waves with her cousin, Lola.
With her feet grounded on the wet sand, the Brownsville native reminisced about what her childhood was like – how safe and free she felt growing up right by the Gulf Coast.
“It is somewhere that I grew up going, somewhere that my mother grew up going,” Sosa, 35, said. “And somewhere that I know many of us share similar stories in terms of just being able to connect with the land and the water, a place of joy in my memory book, and a place of infinite beauty.”
For her, Boca Chica is more than a beach. It is a place of safety and freedom; for her, it is home. While she watched her daughter wade through the water, she remembered why she’s so passionate about preserving the beach’s history.
Her love for the beach pushed her to act on her desire to preserve its beauty, and for the last three years, Sosa has contributed to creating a regional archive that collects pictures and videos people have taken through the years along Boca Chica beach. Sosa calls the archive Boca Chica, Corazón Grande.
The community archival project is dedicated to being a safe place to store and preserve memorabilia of Boca Chica. Sosa said this is not only important for Brownsville natives, but it’s also an effort to protect the beloved beach’s culture.
Read the full story at NextGenRadio.
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