Charro Days, also known as Charro Days Fiesta or Charro Days Festival, is a two-nation fiesta and an annual four-day pre-Lenten celebration held in

Brownsville, Texas Brownsville ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat of Cameron County, Texas, Cameron County, located on the western Gulf Coast in South Texas, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border, border with Matamoros, Tamaulipas ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

in cooperation with

Matamoros, Tamaulipas Matamoros, officially known as Heroica Matamoros, is a city in the northeastern Mexican state of Tamaulipas, and the municipal seat of the homonymous municipality. It is on the southern bank of the Rio Grande, directly across the border from Bro ...

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

. The grito—a joyous Mexican shout—opens the festivities every year. This festival is a shared heritage celebration between the two border cities of

and

. The Charro Days festivals usually have about 50,000 attendees each year. This celebration includes the Sombrero Festival as well as a parade that goes down Elizabeth St. through Historic Downtown Brownsville, TX.

History

The festival was first organized in 1937 and celebrated in 1938 by the ''Brownsville Chamber of Commerce'' to recognize Mexican culture and honor the charros, or the "dashing Mexican gentlemen cowboys." In addition, it is stated in the official webpage that the Charro Days festival was also created to bring people together during the effects of the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

. Although not proven, it is rumored that the first “unofficial” Charro Days was realized in the early to mid-1800s, when people from the city of

, and

, just across the

Rio Grande The Rio Grande ( or ) in the United States or the Río Bravo (del Norte) in Mexico (), also known as Tó Ba'áadi in Navajo language, Navajo, is one of the principal rivers (along with the Colorado River) in the Southwestern United States a ...

, came together to celebrate a cooperative cultural festival to honor the two nations. The festival went on hiatus in 1942–45 & 2021.

Traditions

The four-day festival has daily parades, food stands and music, people dancing in the street, boat races, fireworks, bull fights, and a rodeo in Brownsville and in its sister city of Matamoros.

Costumes

Costumes reflecting Mexico's tradition have been used by those who partake in the occasion. Men, for the most part, wear traditional Mexican costumes—whether it is the

charro ''Charro'', in Mexico, is historically the horseman from the countryside, the Ranchero, who lived and worked in the haciendas and performed all his tasks on horseback, working mainly as vaqueros and caporales, among other jobs. He was ren ...

costume or a

cowboy A cowboy is an animal herder who tends cattle on ranches in North America, traditionally on horseback, and often performs a multitude of other ranch-related tasks. The historic American cowboy of the late 19th century arose from the ''vaquero'' ...

one—while women wear the colorful Huipil costume. The traditional costume is often worn by adults, elders, and children on all four days to celebrate and honor borderland heroes.

Events

Mr. Amigo Association, an organization that works for the friendly relationship with Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico and Brownsville, Texas, United States and to preserve the Charro Days and Sombrero Festival celebrations, became a part of Charro Days in 1967. Sombrero Fest, a three-day ''Washington Park'' street party with food, popular rock, country and Tejano performers, was added in 1986. Moreover, it is worth mentioning that the first president of the Mr. Amigo Association was the former

president President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

, Miguel Alemán Valdés. During the creation of NAFTA agreement in 1988-1989, Congressman Solomon Ortiz presented the Mr. Amigo Association with the Mr. Amigo Review Award for the distinction of being one of the first organizations to extend friendship and mutual understanding between the

and

. The Mr. Amigo Review Award remains on exhibit at the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

as a model of bi-national friendliness between these two countries.

References

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External links