It might seem strange but one of the oldest, most historically rich, and simply useful posts in the U.S. Foreign Service is within sight of Brownsville, Texas.
Don't look too closely at what the city's Spanish name means, and please read this article in the current State Magazine:
Matamoros - Building American prosperity and protecting American citizens for two centuries.
There is so much to know about that post that the article doesn't even go into Matamoros' role in the U.S. Civil War, a time when the contraband trade flowed from north to south because Matamoros was the only port available to the Confederacy that was not blockaded by the Union Navy, or its diplomatic role vis-a-vis the Republic of Texas when the later was a separate country.
You can't miss with that post, although one does have to sympathize with junior officers who find themselves doing 'foreign' service at a place where they can swing over to the USA to get groceries or to fill up their cars.
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