Balli Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll pass it along just as it stands. Way down in Hidalgo County, there's a patch of ground that holds more history than most folks ever stop to notice. It's called the Balli Cemetery, and the story of how it got there reaches back a long, long way.

It starts with a man named Juan Jose Hinojosa, born in 1700, died in 1789. Now, here's a thing worth sitting with: the land grant that included this very site was awarded to him posthumously, in 1790. The man never lived to see the papers signed.

That land passed through the family, generation by generation, until it came to Antonio Balli Cavazos, born in 1813. He was Hinojosa's great-grandson, and he was the first of the line to actually put down roots here. In 1839, he gave the place a name: the Balli San Antonio Del Esterito Ranch.

And on that ranch, he established the family cemetery. The earliest marked grave belongs to Atilano Pina, who died in 1874. He was the husband of Francisca Natividad Balli Rubalcaba.

Then, in 1887, Antonio Balli Cavazos himself was laid to rest there, alongside his wife Manuela Rubalacaba. The last person buried in that cemetery was Apolonio Balli Salazar, in 1956. When you walk that ground today, you'll find seventeen marked graves, and at least sixteen more that have no marker at all.

Thirty-three souls, give or take, in a quiet piece of earth. What surrounds that cemetery now is mostly silence, because the graveyard is all that remains of a seven-thousand-acre cattle ranch that dominated this part of the valley for a hundred and twenty years. The ranch is gone.

The cemetery endures. That tends to be the way of things.

What the marker says

Juan Jose Hinojosa (1700-1789) was granted land including this site posthumously in 1790. His great-grandson Antonio Balli Cavazos (1813-1887), was the first to live on the land, which he named the Balli San Antonio Del Esterito Ranch in 1839. He established the family cemetery. The earliest marked grave is that of Atilano Pina (d. 1874), the husband of Francisca Natividad Balli Rubalcaba. Antonio Balli Cavazos was laid to rest with his wife Manuela Rubalacaba in 1887. The last burial was that of Apolonio Balli Salazar in 1956. There are seventeen marked and at least sixteen unmarked graves in the Balli Cemetery. The graveyard is all that remains of a 7,000 acre cattle ranch that dominated this part of the valley for 120 years. (1998)