Old Ramireño

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, in my own words. Way back in 1784, the King of Spain reached across an ocean and put a name on a piece of land along the Rio Grande, and that name was Don Jose Luis Ramirez. The grant was designated as Porcion 5, part of a broader colonization effort led by a man named Col.

Jose de Escandon. At the time, Ramirez was a resident of Revilla (the town now called Guerrero) in Nuevo Santander, the region now known as Tamaulipas, in Mexico. But a land grant is just paper until somebody lives on it.

So Don Jose Luis, his wife Maria Bacilia Martinez, and their children packed up, crossed the Rio Grande, and built themselves a home on their land in what is now Zapata County. Ten children. Ten.

Don Jose Luis and Maria Bacilia Martinez Ramirez raised ten children on that ground, and those families, and their descendants after them, formed the very nucleus of the community that came to be called Ramireño. Now, the land had a way of drawin' history to it whether it wanted to or not. In 1842, the men of the ill-fated Mier Expedition came marchin' through; camped right there at Ramireño on their way into Mexico.

Ill-fated is the word the marker uses, and it earns it. Then the years kept coming. During the Mexican Revolution and the border raids of 1916 and 1917, the settlement became a site of United States military activity.

A community that began with one family crossing a river had seen Spanish land grants, a doomed expedition, and the boots of soldiers on its soil. But the hardest blow wasn't a battle or a raid. It was water.

The construction of Falcon Reservoir on the Rio Grande forced the relocation of several area communities, and Ramireño was among them. In 1953, the settlement founded by Don Jose Luis Ramirez was moved to a site two miles from the original Ramirez Ranch. Two miles: close enough to remember, far enough to mourn.

And the hand-cut sandstone Ramirez Ranch Home, the structure that stood as the anchor of everything that family had built since 1784, was covered by the waters of Falcon Reservoir. The King of Spain gave that land to a family. The family gave it a name.

And the reservoir took it back without asking.

What the marker says

Old Ramireño was located on land granted to Don Jose Luis Ramirez by the King of Spain in 1784. Part of the colonization effort of Col. Jose de Escandon, Ramirez' grant was designated as Porcion 5. A resident of Revilla (now Guerrero), Nuevo Santander (now Tamaulipas) in Mexico, Don Jose Luis Ramirez, his wife Maria Bacilia Martinez, and their children moved across the Rio Grande and established a home on their land in present Zapata County. Don Jose Luis and Maria Bacilia Martinez Ramirez had ten children. Their families and descendants formed the nucleus of the community of Ramireño. The men of the ill-fated Mier Expedition of 1842 camped at Ramireño during their march to Mexico, and the settlement was also the site of United States military activity during the Mexican Revolution and border raids of 1916-17. The construction of Falcon Reservoir on the Rio Grande caused the relocation of several area communities, including Ramireño. The settlement founded by Don Jose Luis Ramirez was moved in 1953 to a site two miles from the original Ramirez Ranch. The hand-cut sandstone Ramirez Ranch Home was covered by the waters of Falcon Reservoir. (1988)