Long live the Cheez !!! 🧀

Erasmo Castro aka Brownsville Cheezmeh was one of the first true pioneers of social media influencers of the The Rio Grande Republic. His page which at the time was known only by his online alias of “Brownsville Cheezmeh” was a mystery as it came out of nowhere and soon it racked up thousands of online followers. People didn’t have to wait at night for the nightly news any longer and only get 3-4 minutes of local news or wait on the newspaper the following day, people could get their “cheez” on an houly basis by simply going on brownsville cheezmeh and seeing everything that was happening around the city, from lost dogs, to bad parking, ultimo taco fights, and keeping government officials honest.

For the first few years of the page, the identity of the person behind the page was shrouded in mystery.  Was the person male or female, was it a young person or an old person, what political party did they follow, maybe they were multiple people running the page, at that point in time, it was really anybody’s guess.

Eventually Facebook policy made Erasmo Castro submit his identification as his page was reported multiple times for being a “fake profile” and the page revealed his real name, none other than Erasmo Castro Dragusnotivis who at the time was living in Austin.

I had a chance to meet Erasmo Castro the first time in 2012 at Vermillion’s restaraunt in Brownsville and briefly talk about ways to better Brownsville. I was surprised with all the things he knew about the city, politicians, city government, the potential for the city, he was overall very knowledgeable and smart dude.

Later through the years, what happened between Erasmo Castro and myself is publicly known, the Cheezmeh wars, the battle of Brownsville Cheezmeh vs Nomorecheezmeh ensued for a good 3-4 years. I spent a lot time online fighting back and forth to stop him getting elected, even my wife would spite me sometimes. I eventually realized that maybe Erasmo was right in many things, he was trying to do the right thing, perhaps not always in the best of ways but he was right.
Fly Frontera
PUB Tenaska
Silvia Atkinson and BISD

list of other things that came out publicly from his page.

A controversial figure but nobody can ever say that he shied away from challenges, he ran unsuccesfully several times before getting elected into public office, and even after getting removed once in office for DWI he continued to run, and alas he won this last time and became board president of BISD ! He truly never gave up. He may have said some and done some things in his past that I never agreed with, but his unwavering love for the city of brownsville was apparent, he truly wanted a better brownsville for all it’s residents, for public officials to be transparent and for them to keep their promises on which they made their campaign upon.

It is a sad day for Brownsville, he will truly be missed, we can always honor his memory by asking our public officials to be transparent, to show us where the tax dollars are going, to allow the public to question them and for them to give us answers, that is one thing he always did.

There will only be one Brownsville Cheezmeh, nobody will ever be able to fill his shoes, for like he always said quoting the 1986 Highlander film “In the end, there can only be one.”

RIP Erasmo Castro

Que dios te tenga en su santa gloria