Composer Federico Chavez-Blanco, who is a native of Mexico and San Antonio resident, has written music for telenovelas such as “Azul Tequila” and “Señora,” and on a number of films and documentaries. He was commissioned to compose the music for this year’s San Antonio Tricentennial celebrations, and said scoring music for movies or TV depends on what the music director or music supervisor envisions for the program.

This week on Fronteras: Black women are dying either before or after childbirth in higher numbers than the rest of the Texas population. The small South Texas city of Pharr is connecting homes with free broadband internet in an effort to close the digital divide (8:33). Local composer Federico Chavez-Blanco has been commissioned to write music for San Antonio’s Tricentennial celebration (14:15).

This week on Fronteras:

This week on Fronteras: Texas lawmakers are making efforts to reverse maternal mortality rates, which are the worst in the U.S., including allowing Medicaid-covered mental health screenings. South Texas college students are getting help from Washington in gaining access to STEM opportunities (9:14). Latina Hollywood composer and Texas native Germaine Franco talks about staying true to Mexican influences when orchestrating music for “Coco” (11:59).

Today on Fronteras, we look at:

Today on Fronteras, we look at: The evolution of immigration law since 9/11. An undocumented immigrant crossing the border for the first time is not committing a criminal violation (1:46). Maternal mortality is on the decline across most of the U.S., except in Texas. What can the Lone Star State learn from California’s success? (11:45)

This week on Fronteras:

This week on Fronteras: We continue our conversation with Francisco Cantú, former Border Patrol agent and author of “The Line Becomes a River: Dispatches from the Border.” The book recounts Cantú’s time patrolling the deserts of Arizona, New Mexico and Texas, where he encountered drug smugglers, as well as immigrants looking for better lives in the U.S. In part two of our interview: Cantu recounts his time living and working in El Paso. The stresses of the job are revealed in nightmares (3:07 ).

This week on Fronteras:

This week on Fronteras: A conversation with Francisco Cantú, former Border Patrol agent and author of “The Line Becomes a River: Dispatches from the Border.” He begins by talking about becoming an agent in 2008 and what he witnessed in the harsh Arizona desert. Cantú also discusses the inspiration behind the title “The Line Becomes a River” (3:35) , and why he felt he needed to join the Border Patrol to understand immigration issues (6:30) . From his first days as a field agent in the Tucson (11