Two island residents are running for statewide office. Running for U.S House District 34, after being held by Filemon Vela (D) since 2013, is South Padre Island resident Juana Cantú-Cabrera.
Cabrera was born on a U.S Army base in Ft. Huachuca, Arizona, and frequently moved due to her father being in the service. Cantú-Cabrera obtained the following degrees, Associate in Nursing, Bachelor of Science in Nursing, Woman's Health Nurse Practitioner, Post Master's in Adult Health, Southern Gerontological Nursing Certification Program, and a Doctor of Nursing Practice with Forensic Nursing Specialty. Multiple Nursing roles and six degrees later, Cantú-Cabrera is currently a Forensic Nurse Consultant and Educator for the City of Palmhurst and a Nurse Practitioner for STG International ICE Detention Center in Bayview.
Having spent most of her life in Mercedes, Texas, the Valley is home to Cantú-Cabrera. Focusing on women's health and teaching at the University of Texas Pan American in Edinburg, she became a sexual assault nurse examiner on the side. "The focus really for me was child abuse. It was adult domestic violence, but it revolved around child abuse, because that's where the problem was."
Children then became her responsibility as a sexual assault nurse examiner. It was important for a child not to be re-traumatized during the process. The result was Estrella's House. Cantú-Cabrera helped create Estrella's House to focus on the healing process and be a haven for abused children. After many years of focusing on women's health, Cantú-Cabrera's outlook changed after noticing Estrella's House saw many boys. "From '94 –'00, we evolved Estrella's house, because we had so many boys."
"That was the road that chose me," said Cantú-Cabrera, which led her to pursue her Doctorate degree in Nursing. Shortly after, at a conference in Washington D.C, Cantú-Cabrera spoke with a vendor from the U.S Public Health Service and was told of an opening in the Valley. She applied that night. Since then, Cantú-Cabrera moved to the island in 2010 and officially found her forever home in 2017.
Used to working nonstop, the tireless effort is a daily routine for Cantú-Cabrera. "I worked full time at the university. For two and a half years, I worked all day every day."
The straw that broke the camel's back for Cantú-Cabrera was a Virginia case about a father who was arrested and jailed as a domestic terrorist threat after an outburst he had at a school board meeting over his daughter's alleged sexual assault in a school bathroom. "Then the FBI sent news releases to schools giving them a list of how they can charge parents. 'If the parents do this, if the parents do that, if they call too much, if you feel like you're being harassed, you can charge them with domestic terrorism.'"
She experienced with her 90-year-old parents how tricky hospitals got in 2021. One hospital only would admit her father if she could stay with him. Then, the hospital admitted him and told her and her family to leave. "Then they told me that I don't have power of attorney over my father." Later she was able to stay only because the head supervisor was a previous student of hers. That gave her father a chance that many others do not have. "Baby boomers could potentially find themselves in this situation in about seven years."
Because of her work at the Detention Center in Bayview, Cantú-Cabrera also plans to focus on Immigration Reforms. "I want to secure the border. I work at the detention center, so I know what's happening. I know the health issues that we have. We brought so many people in this summer."
Feeling responsible for the future, Cantú-Cabrera encourages locals who want to run to, "Just do it." When she was a city council member for Palmhurst, she mentioned that there was no police department. "I wanted to have a police department in the community. I won't just sit there and twiddle my thumbs. I want my kids to see that I'm doing something about it. My husband knows I'm going to do something about it. Now they have a Police Department. It takes a vision, it takes an idea, and then you follow through. Just like with Estrella's house."
In her free time, Cantú-Cabrera enjoys photography and being on the beach to help cope with bearing the weight of working with abused children and the tragedies they face. She also recently started journaling, calling it very therapeutic. Her favorite book is “How Not to Die,” by Gene Stone and Michael Greger.