Vela Building

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm gonna give it to you straight. In 1904, a man named Crisoforo Vela packed up his life at Santo Domingo Ranch out in Starr County and moved his family to Hidalgo. His wife, Florinda, de la Vega Balli by birth, came with him.

New town, new start, and Hidalgo sitting right there on the Rio Grande like it had something to prove. Six years after they arrived, Vela acquired the ferry and rowboat service connecting Hidalgo with Reynosa, Mexico across that river. Now, that crossing wasn't just a convenience.

The marker calls it an important commercial route in the early development of the Rio Grande Valley, and you better believe that river was the lifeline of everything moving through that region. Crisoforo didn't run that crossing alone, either. Two of his ten children worked right alongside him, keeping boats moving, keeping commerce flowing, keeping Hidalgo and Reynosa stitched together across the water.

They ran that river crossing for years, the Vela family did, right up until 1926, when the first bridge connecting Reynosa and Hidalgo was built. That bridge didn't erase what the Velas had done. It just meant the river had finally caught up to the need they'd been answering all along.

Crisoforo lived in this very building, this house, until his death in 1932. And here's the quiet part of the story that sticks with you. That house has remained in the family for more than fifty years.

Some things you build, and some things you simply hold onto. The Velas held on.

What the marker says

In 1904 Crisoforo Vela and his wife, Florinda (de la Vega Balli), moved to Hidalgo from Santo Domingo Ranch in Starr County. Six years later Vela acquired the ferry and rowboat service that connected Hidalgo with Reynosa, Mexico. This was an important commercial route in the early development of the Rio Grande Valley. Vela and two of his ten children operated the river crossing until 1926, when the first bridge connecting Reynosa and Hidalgo was built. Vela lived in this house, which has remained in the family for more than 50 years, until his death in 1932. (1984)