City Cemetery

Duane's take

The official marker tells it this way, and I'm just passin' it along. Now, before Laredo had paved roads worth mentioning, before it had much of anything you'd call modern, it had a place to bury its dead. The Spanish settlers who built this city had a word for those early burial grounds — camposantos.

Saints' Fields. And the first one in Laredo was probably right there at San Agustín Church, which tells you something about how close together life and death were kept in those days. For a long time, that system held.

But cities grow, and the dead accumulate, and in 1892 the Laredo City Council made it official: the cemeteries then in use were full. So the city dedicated four blocks for a new burial ground. Half of that land was conveyed to the local bishop for use of the Catholic church.

The original plan carved out a Jewish section, and a potter's field for indigent citizens who had nothing to leave behind but a name — and sometimes not even that. Large private plots went to local church groups, like the Ladies' Guild of Christ Episcopal Church. And here's something worth sitting with: plots were also set aside for fraternal, civic, and labor organizations — including the Mutualistas.

Mexican American benevolent groups, the marker calls them, essential to the Mexican labor movement in the United States. In a cemetery, even in death, community held its ground. Then came 1898.

A smallpox epidemic swept through Laredo and it did not let go until 1899. Small children were being buried daily. Public places — churches, schools — were forced to close.

The city that had just built itself a new cemetery found itself filling it faster than anyone had bargained for. There's no way to dress that up, so I won't try. The cemetery kept evolving after that, the way living places do.

In 1926, bodies from an earlier city cemetery on Scott Street were reinterred here and at the Catholic Calvary Cemetery. By the 1930s, an African American section and an infants section had been added. A veterans section followed in 1974.

The cemetery continued to grow throughout the twentieth century, absorbing Laredo's history one burial at a time. And through the 1950s, Laredo citizens honored the Mexican custom of Día de los Muertos — Day of the Dead, also known as All Souls' Day — with the eating and offering of food and the decoration of graves. That tradition left its mark on the place in ways you can still see.

The grave decoration and funerary art reflect Mexican American traditions. There's no formal shrubbery, no manicured landscaping — but what's there instead are highly elaborate floral displays, vivid and deliberate, an argument in color that the people buried here were loved. The Laredo City Cemetery, the marker says, is a chronicle of the city's ethnic and religious diversity.

Saints' Fields to city cemetery, camposanto to chronicle — Laredo's whole story is in that ground.

What the marker says

The earliest burial grounds in Laredo were known as camposantos (Saints' Fields) by Spanish settlers. Laredo's first camposanto was probably the one at San Agust��n Church. In 1892 the Laredo City Council decreed that the cemeteries then in use were full. The city dedicated four blocks for a burial ground, and half was conveyed to the local bishop for use of the Catholic church. The original plan included a Jewish section and a potters field for indigent citizens. Large private plots were set aside for local church groups, such as the Ladies' Guild of Christ Episcopal Church, and for fraternal, civic and labor organizations including Mutualistas, Mexican American benevolent groups essential to the Mexican labor movement in the United States. A deadly smallpox epidemic in 1898-1899 caused the daily burials of small children and the closure of public places such as churches and schools. In 1926, bodies from an earlier city cemetery on Scott Street were reinterred here and at the Catholic Calvary Cemetery. By the 1930s, an African American section and an infants section had been added. Through the 1950s Laredo citizens honored the Mexican custom of Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), also known as All Souls' Day, with the eating and offering of food and cemetery decoration. A veterans section was added in 1974. The cemetery continued to grow throughout the 20th century. Grave decoration and funerary art reflect Mexican American traditions. The lack of formal shrubbery and landscaping is offset by highly elaborate floral displays. The Laredo City Cemetery is a chronicle of the city's ethnic and religious diversity. (2000)