Rancher Jorge Alberto Uribe of Lytle, and formerly of San Ygnacio, passed away November 10.
He was born May 27, 1939 in San Ygnacio, the son of Derly Uribe and Laurentina Martinez Uribe. He is survived by his beloved wife of 60 years, Irma Canales Uribe; daughters Leticia Hudson (Peter); Laura Center (Oscar); and Roxi U. Vela-Cuellar (Carlos); and grandchildren Kevin Hudson, Laurentina Roberts (Jaelin), Georgia Hudson, Kristin Center (Alex Wilkins), Juliana Center, Nina Vela-Cuellar, Maya Vela-Cuellar, and Danica Vela-Cuellar. He is also survived by siblings Alma U. Perez and Omar Uribe.
He was preceded in death by his parents; granddaughter Maegan Center; and brothers, Joel Uribe, Luis Angel Uribe, and Rene Uribe.
A graduate of Holding Institute, Jorge attended Laredo Junior College and served in the United States Navy. Upon retiring from the Tex-Mex Railway in 1994, he and Irma returned to the full time endeavor of ranching in San Ygnacio and living at San Jorge Ranch, where, inspired by his love of a landscape storied by legacy, he raised beautiful herds of registered Brangus.
To the delight of his children, grandchildren, and many friends, San Jorge Ranch was a teeming habitat for South Texas wildlife and for the cattle, goats, chickens, hogs, and geese in his care.
For many years, Irma and Jorge hosted a field trip for all Zapata ISD kinder students who traveled by bus to San Jorge Ranch for a memorable experience of ranch life in real time, as well as lessons in the labor of ranching and its equipment, culture, livestock, the value of water, wildlife, and regional history dating back to the native Coahuiltecans.
Jorge Uribe welcoming ZCISD students to San Jorge Ranch.
ZCISD teacher Irma Uribe with her kindergarten students.
Tía Viqui Uribe identifies ranch machinery for students.
The daylong adventure included watching a farrier at the work of shoeing a horse, a guided hike about the life-giving flora of the landscape, a moment inside a miniature tepee covered with deer hides, the wonder of the large avian pen of many different chicken breeds, and up-close looks at cattle in the pens and goats grazing in a small grassy pasture.
Jorge Uribe fashioned this child-sized tepee from the hides of deer and an elk.
There was music. Jorge’s brother, Joel, a prolific writer, story-teller, and guitarist, sitting on an old buckboard, engaged the children in song.
Joel Uribe engaged students with a sing-along.
And there was also a visit to a simple, beautiful cabin built of native mesquite logs hand-hewn uniformly to fit between the uprights that held them in place to form the walls of the structure. A thin quantity of wet concrete chinked the logs of each panel. Everything about the cabin was either native or repurposed and recycled materials, save for the stovepipe from the wood burning stove. Wooden light poles formed the four supporting corner posts of the re-purposed metal-roofed cabin which featured a wooden floor of thick timbers.
The cabin at Camp David.
Not far from the cabin was a set of stairs that led to an elevated landing from which began a suspended cable bridge over a shallow lake. A duplicate staired landing at the other end of the lake allowed for a descent back to ground level.
Jorge named the cabin and the bridge “Camp David” in honor of his friend David Cardwell, part of the leña brigade for the annual Mary Help of Christians barbecue fundraisers of the past.
Of his dear friend Jorge, Cardwell said, “His support and deep love for his family will forever be remembered. His morals, values, work ethic, friendship, deep religious belief and his bigger than life enthusiasm will no doubt be a huge part of his everlasting legacy.”
The cabin and the bridge, as well as how Jorge built his corrals, provided ample clues to his creative ability to engineer something he had imagined, something that upon completion elicited in him delight and satisfaction.
Most ranches have “material piles,” places where random things accrue with the idea that someday they might have a use. On our ranch I often looked askance at a spool of very thick braided steel cable, a left-behind material from a high-line project. Knowing well I would never fathom a use for something that massive, when Jorge Uribe asked what I had in mind for its use, I answered, “Nothing. Do you want it?”
It was incorporated into the suspension bridge.
I’ve always thought of Jorge as an imagineer – one whom a dictionary defines as possessed of the skills to implement creative ideas into practical form.
He was that and more – kind, thoughtful, generous, a gifted story teller, and very much at home on a landscape that inspired him.
San Jorge Ranch and our ranch, the Santa María, face each other across the narrow blacktop that ends in Aguilares. Most ranchers in the area do not live on their ranches, but I was fortunate to have known Irma and Jorge Uribe as good neighbors just across the way and down a couple of dusty roads.
– María Eugenia Guerra
