Nicole Williams Quezada

Fort Worth Report • 7th May 2026

Vendors at the Long Bazaar in Northside scramble after surprise sale to Goodwill

Leticia Gandara sold artesanía Mexicana out of the same space at Long Bazaar for 28 years. 

During the week, the indoor market’s aisles are quiet. On the weekends, crowds bring the space to life.

Quinceañera dresses hang from racks beside stalls selling candy, furniture and jewelry. Barber shops are just a few doors down from a botánica. Neighbors lean across counters to talk, the way people do when they have shared a space for years.

Gandara and other vendors learned in April they have unti...

Fort Worth Report • 25th April 2026

After 9 years, a Richland Hills cat cafe’s future is uncertain

Twice a week, sisters Gail LeBreton and Meg Dickens finish their workout and make their way to The Casual Cat Cafe on Glenview Drive in Richland Hills.

The pair have held monthly memberships at the cafe for 9 years.

At The Casual Cat Cafe, customers pay an entry fee to spend time with adoptable cats that roam freely through the lounge, while a separate retail section offers packaged drinks, snacks (for the humans) and cat-themed merchandise. 

Now, after years of annual lease renewals and ren...

Fort Worth Report • 9th April 2026

How Ella Langley’s ‘Choosin’ Texas’ found its home at a storied Cowtown dance hall

A year before the phone rang, Jean Czajkowski-Desai told her daughter she had one more wish for the Stagecoach Ballroom. 

“I really want another production at the Stagecoach, one more time,” Czajkowski-Desai’s daughter, Julia Paur, recalled her mom telling her.

Then a stranger phoned the dance hall on a Friday night while Jean was at her usual post selling tickets at the front door. He wanted to film a music video. She thought it was a scam.

It wasn’t. 

Within two weeks, the 65-year-old For...

Fort Worth Report • 7th April 2026

This Fort Worth group brings the parade to you

A procession of Jeeps — led by one nicknamed Shake-n-Bake with a bright yellow happy birthday flag waving off the back — pulled into the Richland Middle School parking lot on a rainy morning. 

Drivers exchanged ducks, mementos and caught up like old friends around the lot 30 minutes before roll out. One Bronco stuck out in the lineup.

“He’s a newbie,” Christy Mort called out as the group laughed. 

They mean it kindly. One of the things that sets the group apart, its members will tell you, is...

Arlington Report • 7th April 2026

UTA students question future of Hispanic-focused office after department move

University of Texas at Arlington junior Emmanuel Hernandez thought he might be in trouble when administrators called him into a meeting in February. 

Instead, they told him the university was restructuring the Hispanic Serving Institutions Initiatives office.

“I was just shocked,” Hernandez said. 

Now Hernandez and a group of students are pushing back against UTA administrators, arguing the decision to move the office under the broader Intercultural Student Engagement Center was made without...

Fort Worth Report • 7th April 2026

Here’s which Keller ISD schools could close as enrollment declines

Keller ISD mother Katie Gillham watched over the past few months as her Facebook filled with posts and chats speculating on which schools will close in the north Fort Worth district.

The Willis Lane Elementary parent drove to an April 2 committee meeting at the Keller ISD Education Center Thursday evening and learned about a plan for the closure of all three of the district’s intermediate schools serving fifth and sixth graders and its oldest elementary within the next two years. 

“I just want...

Fort Worth Report • 26th March 2026

Record enrollment, slower growth: What is shaping Crowley ISD’s student population?

Crowley ISD set an enrollment record but the district’s demographer Brent Alexander said the story is more complicated than the headline number.

The district counted 17,098 students in October, the most in its history. Yet that record was 54 more students than last year’s enrollment.

That slowdown is happening as builders broke ground on more than 1,700 new homes in the district last year and a record 2,075 families moved in — a figure that ranks Crowley fifth among all Dallas-Fort Worth schoo...

Fort Worth Report • 10th March 2026

Arlington women open porch pantries to feed neighbors in need

Tabatha Parker sat on the front porch of her Arlington home on Halloween, as she’s done for the last two decades, handing out candy as well as boxes of oatmeal to neighbors who voiced need.

“Are you OK? Do you have enough food, with the SNAP benefits thing and all that?” Parker asked.

Parker, 52, worried that her neighbors were without food during fall’s government shutdown that froze Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits for millions of Americans. Tarrant County has the fourth hi...

Fort Worth Report • 10th March 2026

Made in Peru, taught in Texas: South American dance finds a home in North Texas

The thumping percussion of cajón criollo punctuates Sarah Helfers’ voice, echoing through a Fort Worth dance studio on a Friday night. 

Jesús Monteverde and Marcelo Avendaño, a traditional Peruvian box-shaped wood drum positioned between their knees, use their hands to strike the front panels in the staccato beats of festejo, a high-energy dance with African roots. 

Dancers follow Helfers’ lead, practicing the footwork and hip movements that make the Afro-Peruvian dance come alive.

This is A...

Fort Worth Report • 21st February 2026

McNair program at TCU opens doors for first-generation scholars

Each time Sharon Arthur sits through Ph.D. interviews she makes the same observation.

She is the only Black woman in the room. 

“I’ve heard that the higher you go up, the less you see of yourself,” Arthur said.

Arthur graduated from Texas Christian University with a bachelor’s in psychology and now works as a clinical assistant while applying to graduate programs. The isolation Arthur describes drives the mission of TCU’s Ronald E. McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement Program, a federally fu...

Austin Vida • 12th November 2025

How Austin's Sister Cities Keep Latin America Close to Home

Through music, food, and cultural exchange, Austin’s sister city connections bring Lima, Peru and Saltillo, Mexico a little closer to home.The sixth floor of Austin’s Central Library pulsed with the hypnotic rhythm of Andean pan flutes as dancers in bright, layered skirts spun across the floor. For two days, the library transformed into a celebration of Peruvian culture and a reminder that Austin’s ties to Latin America run deeper than geography.


“Perú Unveiled,” held this fall during Hispani...

Austin Vida • 22nd October 2025

What's Happening to Central Texas Spanish-Speaking Students When They Reach High School?

Despite strong early academic promise, a 2025 report reveals they face systemic barriers that significantly hinder their path to post-secondary education. Find out how Austinites are working for solutions. A key 2025 Central Texas Hispanic status report revealed a striking contrast in the educational outcomes of students from Spanish-speaking families learning in English and Spanish. These emergent bilingual students demonstrate stronger kindergarten readiness than their English-only speaking p...

Hilltop Views • 11th September 2025

St. Edward’s University remains committed to mission despite loss of Hispanic-Serving Institution funding

The U.S Department of Education announced Wednesday that it will eliminate $350 million in federal grants to Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs), ending discretionary funding at St. Edward’s University, where more than half of the undergraduate population is Hispanic.
The move impacts 615 Hispanic-Serving Institutions nationwide as well as other minority serving institutions (MSI), including those serving large numbers of Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian students, Asian students and grants for...

Austin Vida • 19th June 2025

A Walk Through Austin's Chicano Labor History

Historical Preservation Austin hike traces the Economy Furniture Strike landmarks, where stories of resistance fight to survive amid luxury apartments and gentrification.A modest house on Austin’s east side quietly preserves the legacy of what is widely considered Texas’s longest labor dispute. Inside, Mike Ruiz displays treasures that most Austinites have never seen—original footage of Mexican American workers on picket lines, artifacts from a three-year strike, and even a ziplock bag of sawdus...

Hilltop Views • 15th March 2025

‘La raza siempre ayuda a la raza’: St. Edward’s University responds to shifting immigration enforcement on campus

Uncertainty became the new normal with shifts in federal policy regarding Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on college campuses beginning in February.
“It feels like we have to be these perfect citizens and make sure that we don’t do anything wrong because something can just happen,” an undocumented St. Edward’s student said. Hilltop Views has granted the student anonymity to protect their privacy. 
The student, a Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipient, described a new r...

Austin Vida • 4th February 2025

Community Mobilizes Amid Austin ICE Arrests

As ICE activity in Austin spreads fear throughout immigrant communities, local groups respond with the power of information.A week after President Donald Trump’s inauguration, over 700 community members filled Santa Barbara Catholic Church in East Austin in search of information and clarity about recent immigration targeting efforts. The “Conoce tus Derechos” forum, organized by CAMINA ATX brought together immigration attorneys, civil lawyers, and community advocates.


“Mientras otro siembra e...