THE OLD CEMETERY

Death gives meaning to life. The old city cemetery brings Brownsville's history back to life.

"When I came to Brownsville in the 1970s, the cemetery was not a place you visited after dark," recalled Jack O'Connell. "La Parra, one of Brownsville's most feared gangs during those years, ruled this turf. The city cemetery was their territory. Drinking, doing drugs and having sex were common practices on these grounds overgrown with weeds and desecrated with vandalized tombs."

In the same manner that this community has failed to appreciate the grandeur of downtown, the citizenry ignored for decades the beauty and history of the old cemetery. The dead finally inspired the living to save the departed from oblivion.

The Brownsville Historical Association has assumed responsibility for restoring the cemetery to a respectable state. It's a place a family can stroll through its manicured stretches and evocative ambience. Whitewashed walls surround the final home of Brownsville's forefathers. Some of their names adorn Brownsville's most venerable buildings: San Roman, Putegnat, Cueto and Fernandez to name a few.

"It's a Zen-like experience as you work among the tombs," continued O'Connell. "When you read about a young girl cheated of her existence after a yellow fever outbreak in the 1870s, it makes you wonder. You find yourself thinking the whole time mulling the unanswerable questions."

O'Connell offers this idea to foment more interest in one of Texas most historical and beautiful cemeteries:

"The Brownsville Herald should have a weekly obituary detailing the life of one of the permanent residents. Take Captain Sanforth Kidder who is listed in a pamphlet promoting the cemetery. Unlike Brownsville's first mayor and Cameron County's first county judge Israel Bigelow, who was Captain Kidder?

"Google, the universal mind, reveals that this Connecticut Yankee was born in the 1790s. Captaining a ship, he was arrested in Point Isabel in 1825 by Matamoros authorities who accused him of spying for the United States. He proved that he was a merchant more interested in making a buck than providing information to his government.

"Like many gringo outsiders, he fell in love with the region before it became the border. During the Mexican-American War, he served as an interpreter for General Zachery Taylor and his forces. Rather than settle in Brownsville, he remained in Matamoros until his death in the 1870s.

"The obits are my favorite section of the Herald. I find it fascinating people's lives reduced to a few paragraphs. Retelling the stories of Brownsville's first generations would make absorbing reading. As you grow older, you feel a growing kinship with the past."

"When will Brownsville citizens make the same commitment to downtown that they have made to the cemetery?" asked Tony Gray.

"Anyone amazed by the old cemetery's grandeur needs to turn that appreciation for the past to revitalizing downtown. We have too many tombstones downtown that we must restore. Our leaders must recognize that our economy will rise from the dead if downtown pulsates with life once again."