Mary Louise Cantu is a native of Edinburg, Texas. Like many other South Texans, she has family ties to Mexico. She remembers traveling as a teenager along with her mother to Reynosa to visit her grandmother who lives there. Because Mary and her mother didn’t have a vehicle, they would rely on rides and buses to get from place to place.

The trip to Reynosa is important to Mary because it connects her with her Mexican heritage. With this photo shoot, I wanted to capture memories of Mary’s experience waiting for a bus to go to Reynosa. So, we went to the same HEB store where she and her mother would board the bus. At this store, there is a bus stop that offers frequent departures to Reynosa. It’s located in south McAllen about ten miles from the border.

Mary and her mother would buy items like milk, bread, and corn tortillas at the HEB store, walk to the bus stop on 10th street and then board the bus. In Reynosa, they would be dropped off at a Seven Eleven convenience store and take a pesera (another bus) to her grandma’s house.

I asked her what she thought about the trip being of an international nature and she replied that as a kid, she never thought about it such terms. “Going to Reynosa was just something we did every other weekend and it wasn’t that big of a deal to me.” she said.