HISTORY OF Nuevo Progreso

Originally part of the vast San Salvadore del Tule land grant, the Rio Grande Valley area was first settled in the 1770’s. This land grant, one of the largest, was awarded by the King of Spain to Rosa Maria Hinojosa de Balli in the name of her son, Juan Jose Balli. By the time of her death in 1803, she owned more than 1 million acres of land in what we now know as the Rio Grande Valley. Back in those days there was nothing but cacti, mesquite trees and enough grass for goats, sheep and longhorn cattle. Her descendants eventually sold thousands of acres to a Spaniard, Don Antonio Cano, whose daughter married a direct descendant of the Hinojosa family. They never had children but adopted her sister’s daughter who married into the Saenz family and together founded Toluca Ranch in 1880. Their daughter Manuela Saenz married into the Fernandez family, who still owns the Toluca Ranch to this day and the area of Progreso and the land where the Progreso International Bridge is located.

 

But, before there was Progreso and Nuevo Progreso, there was Thayer, Texas and Rio Rico. The community was originally located north of the Rio Grande on a narrow finger of land surrounded by an S-shaped curve in the river.

According to the Guadalupe Hidalgo Treaty of 1848, the border between México and the United States is the Rio Grande from its mouth to the boundary of New México. As the Rio Grande formed the international border, the area of Rio Rico was in American territory. In July 1906, however, an irrigation company dug a cutoff to shorten the course of the river, thus bypassing the Horcón tract. As a result, the 416 acres that included Rio Rico became located south of the river. For many years that damage went unnoticed. In 1928 the B&P Bridge Company built a two-lane suspension bridge from Thayer to the little town of Rio Rico. The United States never formally relinquished title to the land and it was administered as part of México. After this town was founded in 1929 as a lure to Texans seeking drink and entertainment denied to them by Prohibition from the late 1920s to 1933, people from the U.S. paid the 10 cent bridge toll and went to the unpaved streets of Rio Rico to gamble, drink, and watch the dogs run. Al Capone was even rumored to have a connection to this little town.

 

After the 1941 flood that took out the bridge crossing to Rio Rico, Al Cain and the B&P bridge company negotiated a 99-year lease of the land from the Toluca Ranch owner to build the Progreso International Bridge.

 

When the Progreso International bridge was first opened, it was only open from 5am to midnight and had relatively low pedestrians, automobile, and commercial traffic crossings until the 1970’s. According to Maribel Hernandez, daughter of Olvido Gonzalez Morales, one of Nuevo Progreso Pioneers, there were several cantinas and bordellos on Victoria Street, this area was known as “the tolerance zone”, “they were very nice, first class, Vegas style and elegant”, says Maribel. “The ladies that worked there got a lot of money from the American visitors and some of them even married them.

 

Maribel’s Mom, Olvido was born in Salinas Hidalgo, Nuevo Leon, she arrived in Nuevo Progreso in 1960. She met her husband in Rio Bravo while working as a seamstress, her husband was a tailor and they made the suits and dresses for the workers of the cantinas and bars in Nuevo Progreso. They moved into town to better serve their clients and in 1969 she opened her first tortilla store in town,” Tortillería Progreso”, Maribel and her siblings inherit the tortillerias as they grew up,” I was 11 when I started working with my mother and I have been running the business now for 32 year's says Maribel.

 

All the land where Nuevo Progreso sits now, used to be part of the United States and part of the property of the Fernandez Family. After the Rio Grande changed its course, about 500 acres of land was transferred back to México and the whole town is now built on land that the river took back. This land became Mexican Federal government property, but some people didn’t see it that way and claimed the land as theirs, so when people and businesses started coming to the area, the new “owners” started renting the land to them.

 

There was business growth in the 50’s, a restaurant, a grocery store, a liquor store, a couple of meat markets, a fish market, and tortilla factories. In all, this area grew to include about sixty houses.

 

Dr. Jesus Aguirre was the first dentist. Under his tutelage about fifteen of today’s dentists were developed and eventually moved into their own practices.  The dental community today numbers about 280 doctors. He was a vital member of the community.

 

The Pavi Indian Market, the first curios shop, was opened by Pablo Bautista in the mid 60’s, along with a lot of shops, beauty parlors and barber shops.

 

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When Maribel’s mom, Olvido found out that those who claimed to own the land and rent it out were not the real owners of the land, she got a copy of the bi-national treaty and copies of the deeds of the lands and when the President of México, Luis Echeverría came to Reynosa on a trip, she got on the bus to Reynosa and found the way to get an audience with him to explain what was happening in Nuevo Progreso. The president became very interested in the situation and created a committee to straighten it out, after their investigation of the facts, the federal government recognized the renters as the people who deserved to own it and the land was sold to them. All the pioneers of Nuevo Progreso formed a group called the 18th of January and Olvido Morales was nominated as their president and led the town to prosperity. It was thanks to Olvido’s tenacity as a civic fighter that in 1972 by Presidential decree the federal government gave the land to the people who were occupying the land.

 

Maribel said, “Tourism started changing from night to day and people came for hand crafts and other items and the government helped us to re-locate the red zone in 1979.

 

In the late 1970’s and early 80’s, pharmacies began to open, doctors and dentists were arriving, stores opened, and the small town began to take shape in what it is today.

 

The new bridge was completed in 2003 with four lanes of traffic and broad covered walkways on each side. Bridge traffic has been very substantial over the past decade, both South and Northbound.  Since 2000, about 1.25 million pedestrians and another million cars make the Southbound crossing of the bridge each year.

 

Thousands of Texans every year regularly make the crossing for shopping trips and dental care. Leather goods, hand crafts, pottery and jewelry, all sorts of everyday items from vanilla to liquor and cigarettes to clothes and furniture. In common with other towns along the US-México border, healthcare is a booming industry here.

March 21st is Tourist Day and was started by Rafael Garcia and his wife, Leopoldo Cavazos and Mr. Castillo. That tradition started 44 years ago and now every year tourists are honored by the whole town.