HOUSE THAT ROSE DIDN'T BUILD GETS HISTORICAL MARKER

By Juan Montoya
This year, Brownsville historical places submitted for a historical plaque from the Texas Historical Commission have run the gamut of local history.

The historical folks over at Texas Southmost College (Milo Kearny, Tony Zavaleta, and Tony Knopp) have submitted an application to commemorate the days whne the Buffalo Soldiers were stationed at Ft. Brown from 1846 to the beginning of the 20th Century.

The descendants of the many families associated with the Espiritu Santo Grant dating back to 1789 also sumbitted their application and will have a plaque on the so-called Vera-De Leon Strip that goes from the Rio Grande River along Carmen Road to U.S. 77 (I-69).

And City of Brownsville Commissioner Rose Gowen wanted – and the Texas Historical Commission has approved – a historical plaque for...her home.

Was it built in the 1800s? The early 1900s perhaps? Maybe at the turn of the Century?

No, it was actually built – although not by her or her family – in 1961. Since the plaques are limited to structures with historical significance that are more than 50 years old, this one – already on the National Registry for historical sites – barely squeaked through with 56 years.

And what is the historical significance of the Garcia House? According to the 26-page narrative accompanying the National Registry application, it was the single-family domestic dwelling of Estela Cueto and Martín Enrique García, and is of Southern Colonial style domestic architecture.

Of course, this can be said of a whole lot of homes in Brownsville, and in fact, there are many of much older than this one. But the narative relies on teh house's "Ethnic Heritage" qualities. It states that it meets that criteria because it demonstrates how the South Texas cattle rancher and Brownsville civic leader and businessman, Martín E. García, and his wife, Estela Cueto García, contributed to the perpetuation of a social identity through domestic architecture that affiliated them with other elite South Texas ranching families, several of whom were also of Mexican descent.

But that's not all. The houses' association with the Mexican-American ranching "elite" makes it a noteworthy example of Brownsville homes where the Good People lived. In fact, some of the artifacts in the house, the narrative continues, came from the homes of the likes of Frank Yturria and other notables here.

The García House incorporates material salvaged from the house that M. E. García’s maternal grandparents, Felicitas Treviño-Domínguez and Francisco Yturria-Navarro, built in Brownsville about 1854, the narrative states.

There's more.

"Especially associated with this period was the construction of houses for the Valley’s Anglo-American elite, often employing Regional American house types, such as the California Monterrey suburban house type, to continue to suggest through architecture a connection to the border’s Hispanic heritage."

In other words, the home deserves a historical plaque because Good People live there and Good People still live there today. Well, she is a Zavaletta (with two Ts or one?, we forget) after all.