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BROWNSVILLE, TEXAS: THE LAST STAND AGAINST CORPORATE RULE  
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Alfonso Saldana
March 5, 2025
Move to Amend
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_ Brownsville is more than a town on the border—it’s a symbol of
what happens when corporate power goes unchecked. Musk’s attempt to
privatize a community is not just a local issue; it’s a warning sign
for all of us. _

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Down at the southernmost tip of Texas, where the Rio Grande meets the
Gulf and the border is not just a line on a map but a way of life,
Brownsville is a city steeped in tradition. It’s a place where
Spanish, English, and Spanglish mix effortlessly, where family recipes
are priceless, and where the people—resilient, hardworking, deeply
tied to both sides of the border—have long known what it means to
fight for what is theirs.

Every February, Brownsville erupts in the annual celebration of Charro
Days, a festival unlike any other.

Charro Days represents everything that a billionaire-led, isolationist
vision of America stands against—community, international
cooperation, and a shared cultural heritage that transcends borders.

The city comes alive with parades, music, and the twirl of brightly
colored skirts as folklórico dancers take center stage. It’s a
reminder that the border is not a wall—it’s a meeting place, a
bridge between cultures, a declaration that Brownsville is not merely
an outpost at the edge of America but a community with a history and
future all its own.

But this year, as the festival lights flickered, another battle was
brewing—one that had nothing to do with tradition and everything to
do with power. Because just outside of town, a billionaire had set his
sights on Brownsville, and he wasn’t here to celebrate the culture.

Elon Musk came to Brownsville with grand promises. Jobs, innovation, a
high-tech future—he painted visions of a city transformed, a dusty
border town reborn as a hub of space exploration. And for a place long
neglected by state and federal investment, the offer was tempting.

BUT LIKE SO MANY CORPORATE PROMISES BEFORE IT, THE REALITY WAS
SOMETHING ELSE ENTIRELY.

The quiet Boca Chica beach, once a hidden gem for locals and nature
lovers, has been turned into a high-risk, high-damage testing ground
for Musk’s rockets. Explosions are frequent. The ground trembles
with every failed launch, rattling homes and nerves alike. Wildlife
habitats—once a point of pride for conservationists—have been
bulldozed. Millions of taxpayer dollars have been funneled into
SpaceX, yet the economic miracle Brownsville was promised never
arrived.

Jobs? Mostly temporary. Mostly dangerous. Mostly favoring imported
labor over local hires.

And now, Musk wants more than a launch site. He wants an entire town.

In what sounds like the plot of a dystopian sci-fi novel, Musk has
announced his intention to turn Boca Chica into _Starbase_, a company
town controlled by SpaceX. Texas law requires 201 residents and a
majority vote to incorporate a town. Conveniently, most of the
residents now living in Boca Chica are SpaceX employees—renting from
their employer.

The process is already moving forward. Cameron County Judge Eddie
Treviño and local officials recently reviewed the petition and found
it met the legal requirements. If the process continues, Musk will
have his own municipality—where he sets the rules, where his company
has even more control, and where local governance bends to the will of
a private empire.

But Brownsville is no stranger to resistance. And if SpaceX thought
the city would roll over, they were wrong.

During this year’s Charro Days festival, alongside the marching
bands and costumed horsemen, another group took to the streets.
Activists from the LOCAL RGV SUNRISE MOVEMENT
[[link removed]], SOUTH TEXAS ENVIRONMENTAL
JUSTICE NETWORK [[link removed]], and NUESTRA DELTA MAGICA
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spelling out _“STOP: ICE, LNG, SpaceX”_, a defiant glow against
the neon-soaked parade.

On March 1st, during the International Parade, the protests continued.
Signs demanding an end to corporate rule mixed in with the banners of
heritage and celebration. THE MESSAGE WAS CLEAR: BROWNSVILLE BELONGS
TO ITS PEOPLE, NOT TO A BILLIONAIRE’S PET PROJECT.

But the movement didn’t stop at the parade. These local activists
have mobilized in unprecedented ways:

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Sent over 10,000 LETTERS/EMAILS to Brownsville city leaders—more
than 1,500 per commissioner and mayor

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Delivered PUBLIC COMMENTS at City Commission meetings, demanding
accountability

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POSTED OVER 100 FLYERS along the Charro Days Parade route, ensuring
their message reached thousands

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DISTRIBUTED 200+ INFORMATIONAL FLYERS to parade attendees

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PROTESTED THE PRESENCE OF ICE AND SPACEX during Charro Days, ensuring
the fight against corporate control was front and center.

And THEY’RE NOT DONE YET. Sunrise RGV is launching an
impromptu PHONE BANKING EFFORT, continuing their work to pressure
Brownsville’s leadership and rally more community members to take
action.

WHY DOES THIS MATTERS?

Brownsville is more than a town on the border—it’s a symbol of
what happens when corporate power goes unchecked. Musk’s attempt to
privatize a community is not just a local issue; it’s a warning sign
for all of us. If corporations can buy towns, if billionaires can set
laws in places where they hold financial power, then democracy itself
is at risk.

Brownsville’s fight is a fight for every small town that’s been
promised prosperity and handed exploitation. It’s a fight for every
worker who’s been told they should be grateful for a job that barely
pays. It’s a fight for every community that dares to believe that
people, not corporations, should have the final say over their future.

The fight against corporate rule doesn’t stop in Brownsville. Across
the country, communities are organizing to push back against corporate
dominance, and there’s a way for local organizations, movements, and
city councils to take a stand: by endorsing the WE THE PEOPLE
AMENDMENT
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passing local resolutions in support of it.

Organizations—especially those fighting for climate justice, worker
protections, and democratic accountability—should consider formally
endorsing the amendment and integrating it into their strategic
planning. The fight against corporate rule is not separate from the
fights for environmental protection, immigrant rights, and economic
justice—it is _the_ fight that ties them all together.

📢 ENCOURAGE YOUR ORGANIZATION TO ENDORSE THE WE THE PEOPLE
AMENDMENT TODAY: Endorse Here.
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Another direct way to fight back is to introduce and pass a local
resolution supporting the amendment—just as many other communities
across the U.S. have done. These resolutions send a powerful message
that corporate control of our democracy is not welcome and that local
communities are taking a stand.

🏛️ LEARN HOW TO PASS A LOCAL RESOLUTION IN YOUR COMMUNITY: Get
Started Here [[link removed]].

Brownsville’s fight is not just about one town. It’s about what
kind of country we want to live in. One where communities make their
own decisions, or one where billionaires buy their own private
governments.

The people of Brownsville have chosen to fight. The question is—will
the rest of us join them?

_Alfonso Saldaña (he/him) is a Co-Director of Move to Amend. He
began work with the Move to Amend National as an intern, soon joining
the staff team as the Online Communications Coordinator._

_Formed in September 2009, Move to Amend is a coalition of hundreds of
organizations and hundreds of thousands of individuals committed to
social, environmental and economic justice, ending corporate rule, and
building a vibrant democracy that is genuinely accountable to the
people, not corporate interests.  We are calling for
the #WeThePeopleAmendment [[link removed]] to the
US Constitution that unequivocally states that inalienable rights
belong to human beings only, and that money is not a form of protected
free speech under the First Amendment and can be regulated in
political campaigns._

* corporate power
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* Elon Musk
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* community organizing
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* democracy
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