February is known for its holiday of love, Valentine’s Day, and for its celebration of Black History, but where I’m from, there’s a special celebration we have that I want to share with you all: Charro Days!
What is Charro Days?
This holiday is special to my hometown, Brownsville, Texas. A city on the border that shares a bridge straight to Matamoros, Tamaulipas. And from February 26th to the 28th, we celebrate the friendship and shared culture between our nations with parades, festivals, and music.
Named after charros, the Mexican cowboys who worked on ranches or haciendas, this celebration began in 1938 to commemorate Mexican heritage on both sides of the border. It culminates in the famous Sombrero Festival, which has food, games, and music, including concerts by Tejano and Norteño bands.
How We Celebrate
Growing up in the Valley, Charro Days was just another holiday for me. My mother would make my sister and me dress up in traditional Mexican costumes (which I honestly hated), but this was part of the celebration.
For women, this can include gorgeous embroidered clothes such as the Tehuana dress, the traditional huipil, or the more modern blusa or blouse, paired with a beautiful skirt.
Men usually wear dress shirts with a sarape or the more intricate Charro suit that you’ve probably seen mariachis or vaqueros wear with the iconic sombrero.
This holiday is so serious that we even got days off from school to attend the parade and festivities because many schools’ dance teams, bands, and estudiantinas would perform. Yours truly marched in many Charro Days parades while playing the trumpet, and I can never hear "Oye Como Va" the same ever again.
Sharing the Love
Moving out of Brownsville, I got such a whiplash when I realized that no one else had ever heard of this holiday! I couldn’t believe that the rest of our state didn’t celebrate our Southern neighbor as hard as we did.
Charro Days is special, and it’s a time for people from both sides of the border to come together and celebrate our shared culture, traditions, and friendship. I think this type of appreciation is needed now more than ever to remember that our great country is not homogeneous. It’s made up of amazing cultures and people from around the world that give it its identity.
Celebrate with us by brushing up on your Spanish with Transparent Language, opens a new window or listen to the hundreds of Latin artists we have for free through Freegal, opens a new window (including Los Tucanes de Tijuana!)
Check out the books in our system about the history of Texas and Mexico and living on the border!
Mexicans in the Making of America
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