OCCUPANCE PHASES OF THE LOWER RIO GRANDE
OF TEXAS AND TAMAULIPAS
C. DANIEL DILLMAN
Northern illinois University
The sequence of settlement in the Lower Rio Grande can be viewed in the contexl of
two dissimilar cultures-Hispanic and Anglo-American-at different levels of technology that
have
occupied
the
region
contemporaneously.
Two occupance phases-pastoral
and
agricultural-are salient, the latter composed of periods based on (1) population growth of
the region's two largest cities, the twin cities of Matamoros, Tamaulipas, and Brownsville,
Texas (Fig.
1),
and (2) man's changing impress upon the landscape.
THE PASTORAL PHASE
The Pastoral Phase began in the mid-18th century with arrival of colonizing parties at
the Rio Grande from the Mexican interior. The Spanish government of Mexico initiated
colonization of the northeastern territory in 1746 to subdue nomadic Indians and to
prevent encroachments from New France. Count jose de Escandon was named conquistador
of the new province of Nuevo Santander, which extended north and south of the Rio
Grande from the Rio San Antonio to the Rio Panuco (Fig. 2). In the 18th century, Spanish
missionaries and colonists under the auspices of Escandon set up a line of towns and ranchos
along the Rio Grande. The first settlements were made, in order, at Camargo, Reynosa, and
Rancho de Dolores (Fig. 2) and with exception of Reynosa, were upstream from the delta
region.
Cattle rearing became the dominant activity in the area, and agriculture was restricted to
small subsistence plots near the river. Long isolated from larger population concentrations
to the north and to the south, the sparsely inhabited frontier became the habitat of feudal
cattle ranchos; primitive lines of communication into and within the region limited
commerce to the spasmodic movement of a few commodities of value.
The original site of Matamoros near the south bank of the Rio Grande between two
esteros or lakes, attracted a settlement nucleus in Indian times. ln l 765, the place was
known to the Spaniards as San juan de los Esteros, a name later replaced by Refugio. Al
century's end, Matamoros was an insignificant Indian congregacion; not until 1821 was it
organized
as
a village. 1
Military operations by the United States in the Mexican War were responsible for
inception of twin settlements at the Matamoras-Brownsville sites. Brownsville began as a
scattering of jacales, or huts, near the fort established by General Zachary Taylor across the
Rio Grande from a similar bastion in Matamoros.2 The original place, called Shannondale,
was erased subsequently by the shifting channel of the river. Thereafter, buildings were
brought into a grid of streets from which a larger pattern evolved (Fig.
Matamoros were the largest towns on the river prior to the Civil War. 3
3).
Brownsville and
During the Mexican War and for some years afterward, the Rio Grande was navigable
from its mouth to Rio Grande City far upstream. Extensive shipping was carried on directly
from Brownsville wharves, but nothing was done to keep the river open, leading to its
gradual abandonment. The region sank into obscurity until the U.S. Civil War.
The Civil War brought enormous, though temporary, population increase (Fig. 1) and
boom times to Mexican and Texas settlements along the lower Rio Grande which, as an
international waterway, was free of the union blockage. The Rio Grande became the only
outlet in the Confederacy for cotton exports. Brownsville became a thriving river port once
again and had a population of 25,000 (Fig.
1),
while Matamoros numbered approximately
40,000 inhabitants. The two centers temporarily were the world's greatest cotton markets.
Following the economic boom of the Civil War, the Lower Rio Grande entered an era of
somnolence and isolation. The populations of Matamoros and Brownsville plummeted;
almost eighty years were to elapse before the Civil War population figures were surpassed.
Dissimilar population trends for the remainder of the century meant that by 1900 the two
places were more nearly equal in size than at any time during their existence.
30
31
Dillman: Occupance Phases of the Lower Rio Grande
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33
The mainstay of land use in Texas-as in Tamaulipas-was livestock rearing. Agriculture
existed on a modest scale, and the variety of crops foreshadowed the future diversity of land
use that would arise with improved transportation to the outside world. Cotton, sugar cane,
vegetables, fruits, corn, and beans were raised. Commercial production of vegetables was
delayed until after 1904, but nonperishables-cotton and corn-were grown in fairly sizeable
quantities. Some cotton was exported with difficulty and corn, a dietary staple for the Latin
American population, was a subsistence crop.4
Isolation was broken for Tamaulipas late in the 19th century, some ten years before
railroads arrived on the Texas side from the north in 1904. Yet Mexico was to remain
economically backward and hamstrung by revolution for at least another generation. The
Rio Grande delta had always been distinct from areas upstream because with primitive
methods, some water could be diverted onto alluvial flatlands. In the Pastoral Phase, this
essentially meant the brush stood higher and the grass grew thicker, but cattle rearing
persisted as the focus of man's activities. This phase of sequent occupance continued on the
Mexican side until the 1930's. Meanwhile, Brownsville eclipsed Matamoros in population
growth pending subsequent economic development of Tamaulipas in the 1940's.
THE AGRICULTURAL PHASE-TEXAS
The Early Period
(1904-1918)
In the latter part of the 19th century, Europeans and American southerners came to the
Texas Lower Rio Grande to conduct mercantile operations and to settle on cheap land.5
Some
of this
group experimented with new crops-sugar cane, tobacco, and citrus.
Speculators from the United States North began to arrive in the region and acquired large
tracts of land. When rail transportation northward was established by the St. Louis,
Brownsville, and Mexico Company (later replaced by the Missouri Pacific) in 1904, a new
phase was ushered into Texas-but not into Tamaulipas. The present imprint of urbanism
north of the river is related directly to technology operative in this formative stage of the
settlement pattern.6 Only Elsa, Port Isabel, and Brownsville had origins dissociated with the
coming of rails (Fig. 4).
In the early years of pioneer settlement (1904-1918), rail connection to the north made
the area less remote, and the opportunity to irrigate fertile deltaic soils was recognized. By
1910, land investment companies had been formed and massive projects were initiated to
clear, irrigate, and transform the landscape into an agricultural oasis. Prospective settlers, or
"home-seekers," were recruited by promotional schemes, particularly from the Midwest. 7
Not all home-seekers remained, but the number of farms climbed steadily.
Between Brownsville and San Benito, a large acreage was planted in sugar cane.
However, the distance to markets forced operations to succumb to competition from
Louisiana sugar districts. Once citrus and truck crops became commercially important, cane
production ceased. The unreliability of the railroad, bandit incursions from across the Rio
Grande, and difficulty in finding a marketable crop added to uncertainties of permanent
settlement until after World War I.
The Post-World War I Period
(1918-1929)
Settlers in greater numbers came to the area following the war, bringing with them new
ideas for crops and markets and assuring the demise of sugar cane. Since World War I,
winter truck crops, cotton, and citrus have occupied the best agricultural lands; cattle
ranches were pushed inland by the spread of irrigated agriculture and were removed to areas
beyond the irrigation ditches and to the wet coastal prairies.8
Railroad and highway connections were improved and by the end of the period,
concentration of the cwp
triumvirate-truck, cotton, citrus-in specific districts was
recognizable. The west (around Mission-McAllen) was dominated by citrus; the southeast
(around San Benito-Brownsville) was planted mainly in winter truck and summer cotton. A
transitional area focused on Weslaco with land devoted about equally to truck, cotton, and
citrus.
To
the north
concentrated
9
(around
Raymondville-Lyford)
truck
crops and
cotton
were
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The Stagnation Period
35
(1930-1940)
The depression years or the 1930's were a time or stagnation in Brownsville's population
growth. However, the number arid value of fruit and vegetable shipments from the Lower
Rio Grande grew throughout the decade as produce moved northward by rail. Tracks of the
Southern Pacific were laid southward through Hidalgo County to McAllen. Another line was
extended from Edinburg east to Santa Rosa, thence southeast to Brownsville, the terminal
point for the two rail lines serving the area. Of greater economic importance was the
opening of Port Brownsville in 1936, which provided cheap water transportation via a
deep-sea outlet (Fig. 4). Growth of Port Brownsville was allied closely with expansion of
cotton cultivation on both sides of the river. Port facilities served a hinterland, not only in
Texas and Tamaulipas but in a large part of northern Mexico.1
0
The long-time dependence
upon Brownsville as a funnel for commodities destined for or leaving the Mexican Lower
Rio Grande and much of northern Mexico was strengthened.
The Modern Boom Period
(1940-1960)
Brownsville more than doubled its population to 48,000 during these two decades of
prosperity,
due
partly
to
the
extremely
close
economic
interdependence
with
the
Matamoros Cotton Region and to the growing size and importance of Matamoros. Yet, the
Mexican center was unable to furnish its residents with adequate retail and other services or
with their main source of wage income, both of which they were forced to seek across the
border.
Irrigated acreage continued to expand, chiefly as a result of the building of Falcon Dam
upstream. In the 1950's, a noticeable shift from citrus cultivation to increased planting of
cotton and vegetables took place, relegating citrus to tertiary importance. The cumulative
effect of economic and environmental handicaps promoted a downward trend for citrus,
whose diminution would be more evident after 1960.
Vessel traffic and tonnage mounted at Port Brownsville as cotton, ores, and petroleum
products passed through the facility. For a time, the port again ranked as the leading
cotton-shipping point in the United States. Although large amounts of Texas cotton left the
docks, more than half of the fiber was from the Matamoros Cotton Region. 1
1
Contributing
greatly to port growth was the extension to it in 1949 of the Intracoastal Waterway, giving
direct access to the Mississippi Basin and to the Great Lakes.
THE AGRICULTURAL PHASE- TA!VIAULIPAS
The Pre-Commercial Period
(1930-1940)
Development of a commercial agricultural economy in the Tamaulipas Lower Rio
Grande was hindered by distance from the Mexican core region and by tariff restrictions
excluding nearby United States markets.1
2
But the reappearance of national stability after
the Revolution and improved public health methods paved the way for an upsurge in
population growth for Matamoros.
A monocultural emphasis on cotton existed at the commercial level, but the expense of
pumping water onto the natural levee usually made dry farming necessary.13 Ubiquitous
fields of maize and beans maintained their historic position as principal subsistence crops,
with grazing continuing to occupy the largest land area.
The Early Commercial Period
(1940-1953)
Cotton proved a profitable product for the region as economic development became
rapid between the early 1940's and the early '50's. Heavy demand and highly remunerative
prices for the fiber in world markets after World War II encouraged expansion of the
cultivated acreage and prompted the Mexican government to undertake new irrigation
projects. Thousands of workers poured into the area seeking employment, not only in the
enlarging cotton industry but also in great interrelated public works of dam, canal, and
highway construction.1 4
During this period, Matamoros assumed its place as the industrial, commercial, and
financial hub of the Tamaulipas Lower Rio Grande. The number of inhabitants increased
36
The California Geographer: XII
at an accelerated rate (191 percent) and by 1950 stood at about 46,000. Ever-higher
amounts of cotton were trans-shipped across the Rio Grande to Brownsville for overseas
consignment via that city's deep -sea port.
The Modern Boom Period
(1954-1960)
This period merits its designation on the basis of population increase, and more
significantly, because of the transformation of the rural landscape by irrigation. In the
decade of the 1950's, population growth slowed slightly, although the percentage change
for Matamoros was still l 03 percent, to about 93,000 persons. Basically, population
increases during the Agricultural Phase can be attributed to expansion of cotton farming.
A truly dependable water supply was not obtained until completion upstream of Falcon
Dam in 1954. Construction of the dam was the initial stage in harnessing the erratic flow of
the Rio Grande, thus permitting a steady supply to commercial crops on both sides of its
lower reaches. When major irrigation schemes began full-scale operation, sweeping changes
were wrought in the distribution of cultivated acreage and removal of the scrub vegetation.
Canals ultimately extended irrigation beyond Matamoros toward the Gulf of Mexico.
OVERVIEW
The Agricultural Phase began on both sides of the Rio Grande with appearance of a
commercial economy dependent on markets outside the region. Agricultural development
has occurred chiefly in this century, with the processes of change initiated approximately
twenty-five years earlier in Texas than in Tamaulipas (beginning in 1904 and 1930,
respectively). The stimulus to agriculture afforded by the 1904 arrival of the first railroad in
the Texas counties was furthered by construction of a system of hard-surfaced highways
started in 1921.
Several rail branch lines were built in 1926 and ten years later, the
Southern
reached
Pacific
the
Texas
communities
coincident with opening of water
transportation facilities at Brownsville.
Attending the appearance of railroads was the origin and growth of urban centers that
form the present dispersed city north of the Rio Grande.1 5 Cycles of boom-and-bust afflicted
Texas for a considerable time. Floods, crop failures, backwash violence from the drawn-out
Mexican Revolution, and latent Anglo-Latin antagonisms frightened away some of the pop­
ulation. Nevertheless, markets were found for the commercial crops of cotton, truck, and
citrus produced in the huge riverine garden. The towns grew and the brush, under the hand
of man, retreated inland from the river.
An
east-west
traverse
from Brownsville and Matamoros, following each of three
river-paralleling roads, reveals differences in man's transformation of the natural landscape
in creating an agricultural oasis and antecedent cultural patterns as well. The northernmost
route - U.S. 83 and U.S. 77 (Fig. 4) - leads through thriving Anglo communities such as San
Benito, Harlingen, Weslaco, and McAllen, and past the intensively tended, wide, green fields
and citrus orchards they serve. Local manufacturing, while oriented to the agricultural
scene, nonetheless exhibits growing diversity with petroleum and natural gas, petrochemical,
clothing, and electronics industries, in addition to seafood processing and packaging plants.
The agricultural landscape is dotted with machinery using chemical fertilizers and protective
insecticides to induce continuous productivity. The Texas portion of the Lower Rio Grande
has been changed by man from a brush wilderness to a nearly year-round food factory.
Between the string of Anglo cities and the river (Fig. 4) is U.S. 281, formerly the Old
Military Highway. Traveling this road, one is reminded that the Rio Grande country is a
buffer zone where overlapping and blending of cultures occur. The cultural milieu of this
route is Mexican, for it was settled by them prior to the arrival of Anglos. The prosperity of
the gringo communities is noted, but there, too, are little tan towns with cactus fences
surrounding bare yards shaded by retamas and brightened by oleanders. Ancient Mexican
churches and fortress-ranches recall the cattle raising era now long past.
Across the river, Tamaulipas, though connected to the Mexican core region, remained a
remote frontier and did not receive government attention or increase substantially in
37
Dillman: Occupance Phases of the Lower Rio Grande
population until the 1930's. In contrast to the Texas counties, railroad linkage to the
nation's
heart
failed to provide the
vital stimulus for regional transformation. The
municipios in Tamaulipas could offer nothing to the dense clusters of people to the south
which could not be obtained from places less distant. The pace of development quickened
during the early commercial period in the 1940's, however, spurred by the burgeoning
demand for cotton abroad. Extension and elaboration of irrigation facilities from the 'SO's
onward made the Matamoros Region Mexico's premier cotton district in the modern boom
period.
On the Tamaulipas side (Fig. 4), the Matamoros-Reynosa road passes irrigated tracts
planted predominantly in cotton, but there the monte or thorn bush vegetation is more
conspicuous. One fails to observe the magnitude of agricultural diversity and mechanization
or the prosperity seen in Texas. The frontier aspect of the countryside and lower living
standard bespeak considerable lag in development compared to Texas. Even so, sharp
contrasts in economic growth exist in the Tamaulipas borderland. Natural gas and petroleum
installations
near Reynosa,
manufacturing and transportation facilities at Rio Bravo,
manufacturing plants in the Matamoros industrial zone, new hard-surfaced highways, and
expansion of irrigation structures signal significant changes taking place. These changes,
however, are sponsored chiefly by the Mexican federal government and, for the most part,
have been quickly superimposed on the original character of the region.
The
processes
ultimately
self-contained pastoralism
to
responsible for transforming
the
area
from provincial,
monocultural, commercial agriculture were those which
provided a dependable supply of irrigation water for cotton and a deep-sea outlet, Port
Brownsville, giving the fiber access to world markets.
REFERENCES
1 Frank C. Pierce, A Brief History of the Lower Rio Grande (Menasha, Wisconsin, 1917), pp. 137-38.
2Paul Horgan, Great River: The Rio Grande in North American History (New York: Rinehart & Co.,
1954), p 662.
3Horgan, op. cit., pp. 788-91.
4]. Lee Stambaugh and Lillian J. Stambaugh , The Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas (San Antonio:
The Naylor Co., 1954), p. 233.
5William Madsen, Mexican-Americans of South Texas (New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston,
1964), p. 5.
6lan Burton, "A Restatement of the Dispersed City Hypothesis," Annals, AAG, Vol. 53 (1963),
p. 286.
7 C. Daniel Dillman, "The Functions of Brownsville, Texas, and Matamoros, Tamaulipas: Twin Cities
of the Lower Rio Grande," unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of M ichigan (1968), p. 78.
8 Ibid., p. 79.
9 Ibid., p. 81.
1 0Ibid.
1 1
Ibid., p. 83.
1 2Charles A. Timm , The International Boundary Commission: United States and Mexico, University of
Texas Publication No. 4134 (1941), p. 211.
1 3Dillman, op. cit., p. 85.
14lbid., p. 86.
1 5 Burton, op. cit., pp. 285-88.
.