Celebrating culture and community

Brownsville is celebrating its 86th annual Charro Days through Saturday with traditional dances, parades, a costume ball and a carnival.

Charro Days kicked off last Saturday with Baile del Sol, featuring students from the Brownsville Independent School District and live music by Tejano musician Gary Hobbs, according to the Charro Days Fiesta Facebook page.

Henry LeVrier, president of Charro Days Fiesta, encourages Brownsville residents to dress up to promote the Charro Days spirit.

“I would like to encourage everyone to dress up in the Charro Days attire during the Charro Days week and to decorate their business and home to promote the Charro Days spirit,” LeVrier said.

Charro Days was created in 1938, during the depths of the Great Depression, said Anthony Knopp, vice president of the Brownsville Historical Association and an emeritus professor of history at UTRGV.

In the hope of attracting people to Brownsville to increase revenue while also boosting local morale, businessman Kenneth Faxon got together with other local dignitaries to see what they could do. Faxon was known as the “father” of Charro Days, according to the Texas State Historical Association.

“They decided they would try to have a celebration, you know, focusing on Mexican cultural aspects,” Knopp said.

Charro Days was created to try to stimulate the economy when there “wasn’t much going on,” LeVrier said. 

“We needed to improve the spirits somehow of all the citizens, and since then, we continued to promote the spirit and we continued to involve the community to have a celebration,” he said.

Downtown merchants and political figures focused on Mexican culture in the hope of promoting the event as something unique and interesting to entice people to attend, LeVrier added.

He said organizing the event takes almost a year. 

“It’s almost a 12-month operation,” LeVrier said. “We always try to do it bigger and better. So, it’s continuous planning and planning to make sure we put the best possible fiesta on.”

He encourages everyone to check out the events.

“You will see a lot of beautiful costumes,” LeVrier said. “You will see a lot of great foods being introduced. We encourage [people to attend].”

UTRGV will get into the spirit of the celebration Wednesday with Charreada on the Brownsville campus.

The campus event will have a similar theme, according to Cristina Rodriguez, assistant director of Student Activities.

Charreada will take place from 1 to 3 p.m. Wednesday on the Student Union lawn as the primary location.

Concurrent with Charreada, the Department of Literature and Cultural Studies will host a mini-symposium from 1 to 3 p.m. in the PlainsCapital Bank El Gran Salón.

“They’re going to do some poetry readings and some historical information about Charreada and Charro Days,” Rodriguez said.

Charreada will feature many activities. 

“Student organizations will be able to fundraise,” Rodriguez said. “We have departments that will come out and have some activities going on. [The] Center [for] Student Involvement is sponsoring a petting zoo that we will be having. … We’ll have some contests going on. We’re having mariachi performances. We’re having fólklorico performances. So, yes, Wednesday from 1 to 3 p.m., we have quite a bit happening.”

 The events will be open to the campus community.

“Everything from decorations to activities, to part of the food that’s coming out is definitely trying to build the environment for students,” Rodriguez said. “Stop on by. You will definitely have a blast.”