BROWNSVILLE'S HISTORY FAR SURPASSES TEXAS'

By Juan Montoya

I do not know for what unholy reason the Brownsville Visitors and Convention Bureau board of directors over at the Pale Pyramid chose the slogan "With a History as Big As Texas."

The area where Brownsville was incorporated, in fact, has a history that far surpasses Texas, which came into existence only in 1836 and was only admitted into the Union in 1845.
If any place deserves the adjective “historic” it has to be the area now covered by what is known as Cameron County, of which Brownsville is the county seat.
Artifacts of human habitation in this area date back to more than 10,000 years , with some native burial sites at the Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge dated back to more than 7,000 years ago.
Those sites contained artifacts such as flint arrowheads that could only be obtained hundred of miles away in Central and West Texas, and pieces of green jade that could only have come from Central America, indicating a brisk trade dating back to before the first European explorers set foot on the American continent in 1492.
The Indians (to use a generic, if erroneous, description of the natives) hunted a wide variety of animals, fished, gathered berries, fruits, roots, and used mountain laurel and peyote for their rituals and ceremonies.
On June 2, 1519,Antonio Alvarez de Pineda became the first European sail up a river he named Las Palmas, where he spent over 40 days repairing his ships. The Las Palmas was most likely the Rio Grande. It is more than likely that the "Palmas" he referred to were Sabal Palms, the only palm truly native to the region.
 While here, Pineda sent an exploring party  some 16 miles up the river. In this exploratory effort the Spaniards counted 40 rancherías or encampments of Indians—a quantity that is relatively substantial for such a short distance.
In other words, native life was thriving for thousands of years before the Europeans arrived.
The first Spanish explorers arrived in the seventeenth century. In August 1638 a group under Jacinto García de Sepulveda crossed the Rio Grande near Mier and marched down the north bank of the river as far as the site of present Brownsville.
In 1687 Alonso De León, sent by the Spanish crown to find the French outpost of Fort St. Louis, crossed the Rio Grande and headed north. Then, in 1747, Miguel de la Garza Falcón explored the north bank of the Rio Grande from Eagle Pass to Boca Chica
In 1765 the community of San Juan de los Esteros (now Matamoros) was established south of the Rio Grande. In 1781 Spanish authorities granted fifty-nine leagues of land lying on the north bank of the river (including all of the site of Brownsville) to José Salvador de la Garza, who established a ranch (now the town of Rancho Viejo) about sixteen miles northwest of the site.
This was the first ranching settlement in Cameron County, and upon which the City of Brownsville was built. His daughter, Doña Estefana Cavazos De Goseascochea de Cortina, would become one of the largest land owners in South Texas. Her settlement of Santa Rita would become the first county seat.
On April 18, 1789, a priest, Nicolas Ballí was granted the San Salvador del Tule area (which included South Padre Island).
Now, remember, Texas wouldn't come into existence until the Republic was declared in 1836, and would not be annexed by the U.S. until 1845. So how can the Brownsville area be said to have a history "as big as Texas?" Native and Spanish settlement far predates the relatively recent creation of the state.