History UsefulNotes / OtherCitiesInTexas

German-founded town in central Texas, roughly equidistant from Austin and San Antonio. Named after the town of Braunfels in Hesse, it was mostly a German-speaking farm town until the United States cracked down on the use of [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarI German in public in 1917.]] [[note]]Despite this, the local German paper, ''Der Neu-Bruaunfeler Zeitung'', was published until 1967.[[/note]] It later became a bedroom town for both Austin and San Antonio. ''Fim/SmallSoldiers'' was filmed and set here.

Another small city, located almost a hundred miles north-west of the DFWMetroplex. Home to "The World's Smallest Skyscraper," (the result of a technicality/loophole on the blueprints for the building) and the Hotter'N Hell Hundred, a world-famous 100-mile bicycling race taking place in the middle of the summer, when temperatures sit at above 100 degrees fahrenheit ''daily''. Wichita Falls is also the childhood home of Mia Hamm, arguably the greatest woman to ever play the sport of soccer, and definitely the greatest to play for the United States women, the music band BowlingForSoup, and Phil [=McGraw=] (aka DoctorPhil).

Texas's second-largest city as of the 2010 Census (passing Dallas), and the seventh-largest in the US, though the metropolitan area is much further down the list. It's billed as Texas's premier tourist destination — there's Six Flags Fiesta Texas, Sea World, the Riverwalk, and of course, [[RememberTheAlamo the Alamo]]. It also is — or was at one point — considered the sweatiest city in the US. Historically speaking, there's still quite a bit of Mexican influence in the town. San Antoinio also has a huge military presence - at one point it was the home of four Air Force bases (Lackland and Randolph are still active, Brooks has been closed and Kelly was absorbed into Lackland) and an army post (Fort Sam Houston). If you were in the Air Force and not an officer, you very likely started out at Lackland. Also notable for the San Antonio Spurs, who generally put up a good team year in and year out, and for being the home of Wrestling/ShawnMichaels, Creator/MichelleRodriguez, and Creator/SummerGlau, which makes it ten times more awesome. Located about eighty miles southwest of Austin, meaning that the two cities are sometimes conflated together — and between San Antonio's tourist spots and Austin's, well, [[BuffySpeak Austin-ness]], it makes life a lot easier for tourists looking to go to a lot of Texas' big attractions.

In rough west-to-east order: Mission, McAllen, Edinburg, Pharr, Weslaco, Harlingen, and Brownsville. A major agricultural center and gateway to both Spring Break mecca South Padre Island and the Mexican state of Tamaulipas. The Valley is the third largest producer of citrus fruit in America behind California and Florida. Birthplace of football coach Tom Landry, [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII Iwo Jima flag raiser]] [[SemperFi Harlon Block]], musician Freddy Fender, and [[TheOtherDarrin replacement John Connor]] Nick Stahl.

!The Rio Grande Valley

Oceanfront resort town located on a narrow island about forty miles south of Houston. It was once one of the largest cities in Texas, and one of the busiest ports on the Gulf of Mexico, until it was destroyed by a hurricane in 1900. Although the city was rebuilt, development shifted north to Houston and Southeast Texas' economy shifted from cotton to oil and the city never really recovered its former glory. It later became a Mafia controlled ViceCity from 1920 to 1957, when it lost the title to [[VivaLasVegas Las Vegas]].

Seaport city, and hometown of the [[PlaysGreatEthnics ever multiracial]] Lou Diamond Phillips (bet you didn't know he was Asian).

Home to [[Series/{{Heroes}} Claire Bennet]] and the [[FridayNightLights Permian High School Panthers]]. Their economy is driven by the oil industry, so it follows the oil booms and busts. As such, they were hit hard during the 1980s, when the easily-accessible oil started to get tapped out, but in recent years they have have had a resurgence, with new finds and drilling techniques leading to more oil production, as well as the development of natural gas and wind energy. This has produced a vastly expanding economy and an exploding population in both cities. The downside of this is that the housing market is through the roof, with individuals with high-paying jobs barely able to keep a roof over their heads. In addition, the traffic has substantially increased on roads that were not intended to handle that amount. From 2012 to 2013, traffic fatalities increased over 300%. On top of that, the region is currently in a severe drought, so more people puts additional strain on nearly depleted reservoirs.

Texas's second-largest city as of the 2010 Census (passing Dallas), and the seventh-largest in the US, though the metropolitan area is much further down the list. It's billed as Texas's premier tourist destination — there's Six Flags Fiesta Texas, Sea World, the Riverwalk, and of course, [[RememberTheAlamo the Alamo]]. It also is — or was at one point — considered the sweatiest city in the US. Historically speaking, there's still quite a bit of Mexican influence in the town. Also notable for the San Antonio Spurs, who generally put up a good team year in and year out, and for being the home of Wrestling/ShawnMichaels, Creator/MichelleRodriguez, and Creator/SummerGlau, which makes it ten times more awesome. Located about eighty miles southwest of Austin, meaning that the two cities are sometimes conflated together — and between San Antonio's tourist spots and Austin's, well, [[BuffySpeak Austin-ness]], it makes life a lot easier for tourists looking to go to a lot of Texas' big attractions.

Texas's answer to [[DemotedToExtra Sacchin]] -- it rarely gets mentioned in fiction, probably due in part to its isolation (at least from anything American; the closest major non-Mexican city is Albuquerque). El Paso is in the Mountain Time Zone, while the rest of Texas keeps Central Time. It's a very large city that's right across the border from the even bigger [[WretchedHive Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico]], known to anybody who reads/watches the news as one of ''the'' most violent cities on earth due to all those drug cartels fighting for control of cross-border smuggling channels. For what it's worth, crime rates in El Paso itself do not seem to be too far above the norm for an American city its size; if anything, reports suggest that crime (violent crime especially) is unusually low in El Paso. In addition to its geographical isolation, it also has a noticeable lack of suburbs (Houston and Dallas/Fort Worth have a ton of suburbs, and Austin is very close to San Antonio). Wrestling/EddieGuerrero's hometown. Also home to the University of Texas at El Paso, most famous for being home to the 1966 NCAA basketball championship team (back when the school was Texas Western College) depicted in the film ''Film/GloryRoad''.

Texas is so big that back in the 1950s through the 1970s when it was nearly impossible to get a license to operate an airline at the Federal level (the major airlines already in business did not want new competitors), there were several smaller airlines which managed to make enough money to operate by serving cities within the state of Texas, which meant they did not need a federal license. One of those carriers, Southwest Airlines, expanded outside the state to the point that it now carries more domestic passengers than any other U.S. airline. California was the only other state big enough to have successful intrastate airlines.

The capital of Texas. Home of the University of Texas (or texas university to the Aggies [[note]]who refuse to even capitalize it[[/note]]), which is the state's largest in terms of enrollment, as well as a traditional powerhouse in all of the Big Three sports (American football, basketball, baseball). Austin is famous for being a notorious pocket of liberalism and counterculture in what is otherwise one of the most conservative states in the country (or as Creator/PattonOswalt put it, "a bubble of sanity", or as The People's Republic of Austin by the rest of the state) -- it's well known for all kinds of colorful characters, some of whom will run for mayor (look up the name Leslie Cochran if you're feeling brave). Organic supermarket chain Whole Foods Market is based here, as are a host of high-tech companies such as Dell, making it something of Texas's Silicon Valley - Austin and the surrounding area are sometimes referred to as "Silicon Hills". A related claim to fame is Austin's incredible live music scene, making it known as the "live music capital of the world". There are a number of famous music festivals that take place there, including South by Southwest (or simply SXSW) and the Austin City Limits festival hosted by the Creator/{{PBS}} television series, and its home to many underground rock musicians. These factors combine to give Austin a level of [[WeirdnessMagnet offbeat]] [[QuirkyTown quirkiness]] [[CulturalRebel not commonly associated]] with Texas: the residents proudly Keep Austin Weird.

Texas's answer to [[DemotedToExtra Sacchin]] -- it rarely gets mentioned in fiction, probably due in part to its isolation (at least from anything American; the closest major non-Mexican city is Albuquerque). El Paso is in the Mountain Time Zone, while the rest of Texas keeps Central Time. It's a very large city that's right across the border from the even bigger [[WretchedHive Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico]], known to anybody who reads/watches the news as one of ''the'' most violent cities on earth due to all those drug cartels fighting for control of cross-border smuggling channels. For what it's worth, crime rates in El Paso itself do not seem to be too far above the norm for an American city its size (if anything, reports suggest that crime- violent crime especially- is unusually low in El Paso). In addition to its geographical isolation, it also has a noticeable lack of suburbs (Houston and Dallas/Fort Worth have a ton of suburbs, and Austin is very close to San Antonio). Wrestling/EddieGuerrero's hometown. Also home to the University of Texas at El Paso, most famous for being home to the 1966 NCAA basketball championship team (back when the school was Texas Western College) depicted in the film ''Film/GloryRoad''.

Oceanfront resort town located on a narrow island about forty miles south of Houston. It was once one of the largest cities in Texas, and one of the busiest ports on the Gulf of Mexico, but it was destroyed by a hurricane in 1900. Although the city was rebuilt, development shifted north to Houston and Southeast Texas' economy shifted from cotton to oil and the city never really recovered its former glory. It later became a Mafia controlled ViceCity from 1920 to 1957, when it lost the title to [[VivaLasVegas Las Vegas]].

German-founded town in central Texas, roughly equidistant from Austin and San Antonio. Named after the town of Braunfels in Hesse, it was mostly a German-speaking farm town until the United States cracked down on the use of [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarI German in public in 1917.]] [[note]] Despite this, the local German paper, ''Der Neu-Bruaunfeler Zeitung'', was published until 1967.[[/note]] It later became a bedroom town for both Austin and San Antonio. SmallSoldiers was filmed and set here.

Home to [[Series/{{Heroes}} Claire Bennet]] and the [[FridayNightLights Permian High School Panthers]]. Their economy is driven by the oil industry, so it follows the oil booms and busts. As such, they were hit hard during the 1980s but in recent years have had a resurgence with new finds and drilling techniques leading to more oil production, a vastly expanding economy, and an exploding population in both cities. The downside of this is that the housing market is through the roof, with individuals with high paying jobs barely able to keep a roof over their heads. In addition, the traffic has substantially increased on roads that were not intended to handle that amount. From 2012 to 2013, traffic fatalities increased over 300%. IN addition, the region is currently in a severe drought, so more people puts additional strain on nearly depleted reservoirs.

A small city located in the middle of the "Texas Triangle" between [[UsefulNotes/DFWMetroplex Dallas]], UsefulNotes/{{Houston}} and San Antonio/Austin. Home to Baylor University. In 1953, it got destroyed by the eleventh-deadliest tornado in US history (with a death toll of 114[[note]]Another Texas town, Goliad, suffered the same death toll from a tornado in 1902, tying it with the Waco tornado as the eleventh-deadliest tornado in US history.[[/note]]), which stalled its economic growth while cities of similar size like Austin boomed. Forty years later, it was doomed to have its name forever associated with a bunch of doomsday {{cult}}ists who got into an armed standoff with the ATF and FBI at their compound right outside the city, making the word "Waco" a rallying cry for {{Right Wing Militia Fanatic}}s for years. [[TheWoobie Poor town.]] Also, regardless of one's views on the man, GeorgeWBush's "ranch", the "Western White House", is located a couple dozen miles outside the city. On the positive side, Creator/SteveMartin's from here.

The capital of Texas. Home of the University of Texas (or texas university to the Aggies [[note]]who refuse to even capitalize it[[/note]]), which is the state's largest in terms of enrollment, as well as a traditional powerhouse in all of the Big Three sports (American football, basketball, baseball). Austin is famous for being a notorious pocket of liberalism and counterculture in what is otherwise one of the most conservative states in the country (or as Creator/PattonOswalt put it, "a bubble of sanity") -- it's well known for all kinds of colorful characters, some of whom will run for mayor (look up the name Leslie Cochran if you're feeling brave). Organic supermarket chain Whole Foods Market is based here, as are a host of high-tech companies such as Dell, making it something of Texas's Silicon Valley - Austin and the surrounding area are sometimes referred to as "Silicon Hills". A related claim to fame is Austin's incredible live music scene, making it known as the "live music capital of the world". There are a number of famous music festivals that take place there, including South by Southwest (or simply SXSW) and the Austin City Limits festival hosted by the Creator/{{PBS}} television series, and its home to many underground rock musicians. These factors combine to give Austin a level of [[WeirdnessMagnet offbeat]] [[QuirkyTown quirkiness]] [[CulturalRebel not commonly associated]] with Texas: the residents proudly Keep Austin Weird.

The capital of Texas. Home of the University of Texas (or texas university to the Aggies [[note]]who refuse to even capitalize it[[/note]]), which is the state's largest in terms of enrollment, as well as a traditional powerhouse in all of the Big Three sports (American football, basketball, baseball). Austin is famous for being a notorious pocket of liberalism and counterculture in what is otherwise one of the most conservative states in the country (or as PattonOswalt put it, "a bubble of sanity") -- it's well known for all kinds of colorful characters, some of whom will run for mayor (look up the name Leslie Cochran if you're feeling brave). Organic supermarket chain Whole Foods Market is based here, as are a host of high-tech companies such as Dell, making it something of Texas's Silicon Valley - Austin and the surrounding area are sometimes referred to as "Silicon Hills". A related claim to fame is Austin's incredible live music scene, making it known as the "live music capital of the world". There are a number of famous music festivals that take place there, including South by Southwest (or simply SXSW) and the Austin City Limits festival hosted by the Creator/{{PBS}} television series, and its home to many underground rock musicians. These factors combine to give Austin a level of [[WeirdnessMagnet offbeat]] [[QuirkyTown quirkiness]] [[CulturalRebel not commonly associated]] with Texas: the residents proudly Keep Austin Weird.

German-founded town in central Texas, roughly equidistant from Austin and San Antonio. Named after the town of Braunfels in Hesse, it was mostly a German-speaking farm town until the United States cracked down on the use of [[WorldWarI German in public in 1917.]] [[note]] Despite this, the local German paper, ''Der Neu-Bruaunfeler Zeitung'', was published until 1967.[[/note]] It later became a bedroom town for both Austin and San Antonio. SmallSoldiers was filmed and set here.

Texas's second-largest city as of the 2010 Census (passing Dallas), and the seventh-largest in the US, though the metropolitan area is much further down the list. It's billed as Texas's premier tourist destination — there's Six Flags Fiesta Texas, Sea World, the Riverwalk, and of course, [[RememberTheAlamo the Alamo]]. It also is — or was at one point — considered the sweatiest city in the US. Historically speaking, there's still quite a bit of Mexican influence in the town. Also notable for the San Antonio Spurs, who generally put up a good team year in and year out, and for being the home of Wrestling/ShawnMichaels, MichelleRodriguez, and SummerGlau, which makes it ten times more awesome. Located about eighty miles southwest of Austin, meaning that the two cities are sometimes conflated together — and between San Antonio's tourist spots and Austin's, well, [[BuffySpeak Austin-ness]], it makes life a lot easier for tourists looking to go to a lot of Texas' big attractions.

A small city located in the middle of the "Texas Triangle" between [[UsefulNotes/DFWMetroplex Dallas]], UsefulNotes/{{Houston}} and San Antonio/Austin. Home to Baylor University. In 1953, it got destroyed by the eleventh-deadliest tornado in US history (with a death toll of 114[[note]]Another Texas town, Goliad, suffered the same death toll from a tornado in 1902, tying it with the Waco tornado as the eleventh-deadliest tornado in US history.[[/note]]), which stalled its economic growth while cities of similar size like Austin boomed. Forty years later, it was doomed to have its name forever associated with a bunch of doomsday {{cult}}ists who got into an armed standoff with the ATF and FBI at their compound right outside the city, making the word "Waco" a rallying cry for {{Right Wing Militia Fanatic}}s for years. [[TheWoobie Poor town.]] Also, regardless of one's views on the man, GeorgeWBush's "ranch", the "Western White House", is located a couple dozen miles outside the city. On the positive side, SteveMartin's from here.

!Odessa
Home to [[Series/{{Heroes}} Claire Bennet]] and the [[FridayNightLights Permian High School Panthers]]. Its economy is driven by the oil industry, and it started going into decline once the oil started running out, although Texas's booming wind power industry offers hope for a turnaround. It's actually a smaller city than nearby Midland, although nobody outside of Texas seems to notice that, and even most people in Texas consider them to be basically the same place.

Texas is so big that back in the 1950s through the 1970s when it was nearly impossible to get a license to operate an airline at the Federal level (the major airlines already in business did not want new competitors), there were several smaller airlines which managed to make enough money to operate by serving cities within the state of Texas, which meant they did not need a federal license. California was the only other state big enough to have successful intrastate airlines.

[[SmallReferencePools The second-largest city in the Texas Panhandle, and the largest city between Oklahoma City and Albuquerque]]. The center of Texas' massive beef industry, and home to the largest reserve of helium in the world, wrestler [[Wrestling/TerryFunk Terry Funk]], and actress [[Series/TheAddamsFamily Carolyn Jones]].

Texas's answer to [[DemotedToExtra Sacchin]] -- it rarely gets mentioned in fiction, probably due in part to its isolation (at least from anything American; the closest major non-Mexican city is Albuquerque). El Paso is in the Mountain Time Zone, while the rest of Texas keeps Central Time. It's a very large city that's right across the border from the even bigger [[WretchedHive Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico]], known to anybody who reads/watches the news as one of ''the'' most violent cities on earth due to all those drug cartels fighting for control of cross-border smuggling channels. For what it's worth, crime rates in El Paso itself do not seem to be too far above the norm for an American city its size (if anything, reports suggest that crime- violent crime especially- is unusually low in El Paso). In addition to its geographical isolation, it also has a noticeable lack of suburbs (Houston and Dallas/Fort Worth have a ton of suburbs, and Austin is very close to San Antonio). EddieGuerrero's hometown.

Texas's second-largest city as of the 2010 Census (passing Dallas), and the seventh-largest in the US, though the metropolitan area is much further down the list. It's billed as Texas's premier tourist destination -- there's Six Flags Fiesta Texas, Sea World, the Riverwalk, and of course, [[RememberTheAlamo the Alamo]]. It also is -- or was at one point -- considered the sweatiest city in the US. Historically speaking, there's still quite a bit of Mexican influence in the town. Also notable for the San Antonio Spurs, who generally put up a good team year in and year out, and for being the home of ShawnMichaels, MichelleRodriguez, and SummerGlau, which makes it ten times more awesome. Located about eighty miles southwest of Austin, meaning that the two cities are sometimes conflated together -- and between San Antonio's tourist spots and Austin's, well, [[BuffySpeak Austin-ness]], it makes life a lot easier for tourists looking to go to a lot of Texas' big attractions.

A small city located in the middle of the "Texas Triangle" between [[UsefulNotes/DFWMetroplex Dallas]], UsefulNotes/{{Houston}} and San Antonio/Austin. In 1953, it got destroyed by the eleventh-deadliest tornado in US history (with a death toll of 114[[note]]Another Texas town, Goliad, suffered the same death toll from a tornado in 1902, tying it with the Waco tornado as the eleventh-deadliest tornado in US history.[[/note]]), which stalled its economic growth while cities of similar size like Austin boomed. Forty years later, it was doomed to have its name forever associated with a bunch of doomsday {{cult}}ists who got into an armed standoff with the ATF and FBI at their compound right outside the city, making the word "Waco" a rallying cry for {{Right Wing Militia Fanatic}}s for years. [[TheWoobie Poor town.]] Also, regardless of one's views on the man, GeorgeWBush's "ranch", the "Western White House", is located a couple dozen miles outside the city. On the positive side, SteveMartin's from here.

[[SmallReferencePools The second-largest city in the Texas Panhandle, and the largest city between Oklahoma City and Albuquerque]]. The center of Texas' massive beef industry, and home to the largest reserve of helium in the world, wrestler Terry Funk, and actress [[Series/TheAddamsFamily Carolyn Jones]].

The largest city in the Texas Panhandle, and also the largest city in an extremely flat, barren stretch of land called the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Llano_Estacado Llano Estacado]], or 'Palisade Plains'. Home to Texas Tech University. Also home to a very large prarie dog town.

Texas's answer to [[DemotedToExtra Sacchin]] -- it rarely gets mentioned in fiction, probably due in part to its isolation (at least from anything American; the closest major non-Mexican city is Albuquerque). It's a very large city that's right across the border from the even bigger [[WretchedHive Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico]], known to anybody who reads/watches the news as one of ''the'' most violent cities on earth due to all those drug cartels fighting for control of cross-border smuggling channels. For what it's worth, crime rates in El Paso itself do not seem to be too far above the norm for an American city its size (if anything, reports suggest that crime- violent crime especially- is unusually low in El Paso). In addition to its geographical isolation, it also has a noticeable lack of suburbs (Houston and Dallas/Fort Worth have a ton of suburbs, and Austin is very close to San Antonio). EddieGuerrero's hometown.

Oceanfront resort town located on a narrow island about forty miles south of Houston. It was once one of the largest cities in Texas, and one of the busiest ports on the Gulf of Mexico, but it was destroyed by a hurricane in 1900. Although the city was rebuilt, development shifted north to Houston and it never really recovered its former glory. It later became a Mafia controlled ViceCity from 1920 to 1957, when it lost the title to [[VivaLasVegas Las Vegas]].

The capital of Texas. Home of the University of Texas (or Texas University to the Aggies), which is the state's largest in terms of enrollment, as well as a traditional powerhouse in all of the Big Three sports (American football, basketball, baseball). Austin is famous for being a notorious pocket of liberalism and counterculture in what is otherwise one of the most conservative states in the country (or as PattonOswalt put it, "a bubble of sanity") -- it's well known for all kinds of colorful characters, some of whom will run for mayor (look up the name Leslie Cochran if you're feeling brave). Organic supermarket chain Whole Foods Market is based here, as are a host of high-tech companies such as Dell, making it something of Texas's Silicon Valley - Austin and the surrounding area are sometimes referred to as "Silicon Hills". A related claim to fame is Austin's incredible live music scene, making it known as the "live music capital of the world". There are a number of famous music festivals that take place there, including South by Southwest (or simply SXSW) and the Austin City Limits festival hosted by the Creator/{{PBS}} television series, and its home to many underground rock musicians. These factors combine to give Austin a level of [[WeirdnessMagnet offbeat]] [[QuirkyTown quirkiness]] [[CulturalRebel not commonly associated]] with Texas.

The capital of Texas. Home of the University of Texas (or Texas University to the Aggies), which is the state's largest in terms of enrollment, as well as a traditional powerhouse in all of the Big Three sports (American football, basketball, baseball). Austin is famous for being a notorious pocket of liberalism and counterculture in what is otherwise one of the most conservative states in the country (or as PattonOswalt put it, "a bubble of sanity") -- it's well known for all kinds of colorful characters, some of whom will run for mayor (look up the name Leslie Cochran if you're feeling brave). Organic supermarket chain Whole Foods Market is based here, as are a host of high-tech companies such as Dell, making it something of Texas's Silicon Valley - Austin and the surrounding area are sometimes referred to as "Silicon Hills". A related claim to fame is Austin's incredible live music scene, making it known as the "live music capital of the world". There are a number of famous music festivals that take place there, including South by Southwest (or simply SXSW) and the Austin City Limits festival hosted by the Creator/{{PBS}} television series, and its home to many underground rock musicians. These factors combine to give Austin a level of offbeat quirkiness not commonly associated with Texas.

Seaport city, and hometown of the ever multiracial Lou Diamond Phillips (bet you didn't know he was Asian).

Oceanfront resort town located on a narrow island about forty miles south of Houston. It was once one of the largest cities in Texas, and one of the busiest ports on the Gulf of Mexico, but it was destroyed by a hurricane in 1900. Although the city was rebuilt, development shifted north to Houston and it never really recovered its former glory. It later became a Mafia controlled ViceCity from 1920 to 1957.

Texas's answer to [[DemotedToExtra Sacchin]] -- it rarely gets mentioned in fiction, probably due in part to its isolation (at least from anything American; the closest major non-Mexican city is Albuquerque). It's a very large city that's right across the border from the even bigger [[WretchedHive Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico]], known to anybody who reads/watches the news as one of ''the'' most violent cities on earth due to all those drug cartels fighting for control of cross-border smuggling channels. For what it's worth, crime rates in El Paso itself do not seem to be too far above the norm for an American city its size. In addition to its geographical isolation, it also has a noticeable lack of suburbs (Houston and Dallas/Fort Worth have a ton of suburbs, and Austin is very close to San Antonio). EddieGuerrero's hometown.