Laredo veterans, under auspices of the Juan Francisco Farías Veterans Museum Association, will commemorate the life of Laredo founder Don Tomás Sánchez in San Agustín Plaza on Saturday, January 25. The celebration, which is open to the public, begins at 9 a.m.
Capt. Tomás Sánchez de la Barrera y Garza founded Laredo on May 15, 1755, establishing for the Spanish Crown the last of six settlements in Nuevo Santander.
Sánchez, who also founded Nuevo Laredo, selected the site for Laredo for its proximity to the Paso de los Indios river crossing, the life-giving waters of the Río Grande, and the abundance of grasslands for cattle grazing.
The year 2020 marks the 265th anniversary of the founding of Laredo, now the largest inland port in the United States.
Hector Farías, a descendant of Don Tomás Sánchez, has coordinated the event with a committee of Laredoans and the support of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the Marine Corps League, the American Legion, the Laredo Veterans Coalition, and associations of the Veterans of the Korean, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan wars, the Gold Star Mothers and spouses, and the MIA Association.
Among those who have detailed plans for the event with Farias are Richard Geissler, Richard Rossell, Adolfo (Popo) Gonzalez, Humberto Treviño, Cordelia Casso, Diana Farias, and Frank Staggs.
The event will begin with the singing of the Star Spangled Banner by Isabella Farías and the Mexican National Anthem by Cristina Catalina Garcia. Rev. Mike Barrera, a U.S. Army Vietnam combat veteran, will deliver the invocation and then introduce Gold Star Mothers and spouses and the MIA Assosciation.
U.S. Army veteran Adolfo Gonzalez and U.S. Army Iraq veteran Lupita Perez will present the USMC South Marine Corps Drill Team Color Guard.
Webb County Veterans Service Officer David Garza, a U.S. Army combat veteran in Afghanistan, will offer introductory remarks.
Much venerated U.S. Army World War II combat veteran John Valls will lead attendees in the Pledge of Allegiance.
Interim co-City Manager Robert Eads, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, will introduce honored guests to the event.
Cordelia Casso Flores and U.S. Navy veteran Javier B. Santos will introduce descendants of Don Tomás Sánchez.
Sylvia Reash, president of the Villa San Agustin de Laredo Genealogical Society, Daughters of the American Revolution, and the Webb County Historical Commission, will introduce historian and author Dr. Jerry Thompson, TAMIU Professor Emeritus and Pulitzer Prize nominee. She will also introduce historian Dr. Manuel Ceballos Ramirez of Nuevo Laredo, university professor and director of the Juan E. Richer Historical Archive.
U.S. Army Vietnam-era veterans Humberto Treviño and Richard Geissler will introduce Laredo Mayor Pete Saenz and Nuevo Laredo Mayor Enrique Rivas Cuellar.
U.S. Marine Corps veteran Dr. Hector Farias will introduce sculptor Armando Hinojosa who will unveil the maquette of the statue of Don Tomás Sánchez that he has has created.
Other honored guests include Marceline Sánchez Lewis, accompanied by Thomás Dario Sánchez; Olga Perez García, representing her mother, the late Olga Farías Guerrero; and Celita Borchers, representing her mother, the late Nieves Mogas Pappas..
In 1938, Marceline Sánchez Lewis, Olga Farías Guerrero, and Nieves Mogas Pappas — all descendants of Don Tomás Sánchez — unveiled a monument in San Agustín Plaza (Martin Plaza) recognizing the City’s founder. The red granite monument was given to the City of Laredo by the State of Texas.
Miss Olga Farias, Miss Marceline Esther Sanchez, and Miss Nieves Mogas — descendants of Laredo founder Don Tomás Sanchez — unveiled the monument to the founders of Laredo at a 1938 dedication ceremony in Martin Plaza (San Agustín Plaza). The monument was given to the City of Laredo by the State of Texas.
Children in attendance who are descendants of Don Tomás Sánchez will lay yellow roses upon what is believed to be the final and unbefitting resting place of the founder’s remains, which lie below a thick, un-marked slab of concrete at the foot of the steps to the old St. Augustine School building that faces the Plaza.
The morning honoring the City’s founder culminates with a performance by the Martin High School mariachi.
SIDEBAR
By George Farias
Juan Francisco Farias was the son of José Andres Farias who came to Laredo, Texas in the late 1700s, as a member of the Third Flying Cavalry Company of New Santander, to command the military garrison there. Juan Francisco became the Secretary of the Republic of the Rio Grande and later was mayor of Laredo in 1861, at the start of the Civil War. He was the progenitor of many family members in Northern Mexico and Texas. Juan Francisco was an associate of Evaristo Madero, the grandfather of Mexican President Francisco I. Madero. After his first wife died, Evaristo married Manuela (Manuelita), Juan Francisco’s youngest daughter, at Laredo’s San Agustin Church on January 1, 1872.
(San Antonio, TX 2010, Borderlands Press 1st Ed., Reprint, 8&1/2 x 11, 10 Pgs., SPB.)
I am proud to bea Laredo’s