A Symbolic Border Town Turns Sweet Sixteen
The Texas-Tamaulipas Border News, August 29, 2005

El Cenizo turns 16 today. A Texas border town of almost 7,000 people located near the sister cities of Laredo and Nuevo Laredo, El Cenizo was first settled in the early 1980s by people who purchased small plots of land lacking basic services. In some ways the poster child for border colonias, El Cenizo took a leap forward when it incorporated as a municipality on August 29, 1989. Raul Reyes, the 22-year-old mayor of El Cenizo, recalled moving to the colonia as a small child. 'I remember not wanting to live here because all you could see is dirt, dirt everywhere,' said Mayor Reyes. 'We had no light, no restrooms, no running water, and no insulation inside our home. It was a struggle.'

On Friday, August 26, Reyes and other residents of El Cenizo celebrated the town's incorporation with a prayer service, mariachi music, dancing, cake, and refreshments. 'We have high hopes and big dreams for this city,' Mayor Reyes said.

A young place with a young population, El Cenizo evolved over the years from a semi-rural colonia where residents kept farm animals to a struggling, small town. Early residents remember sharing the land with deer, rabbits, javelinas, foxes, and wandering cattle. Now more urbanized, with its share of urban problems like gangs, El Cenizo is architecturally characterized by a mixture of self-built homes and trailers. Different community initiatives over the years concentrated on landing housing and utility, fire, ambulance, bus, and library services.

Surviving under the radar screen, El Cenizo was catapulted into the national spotlight in 1999. A resolution by the town council that municipal officials should use the predominant language of the community's residents, Spanish, in conducting official business, drew immediate media attention- much of it negative. The shock jocks of the nationally-syndicated Mike and Don radio show dialed up El Cenizo Mayor Flora Barton and proceeded to insult her live on the air. 'If you people cannot understand my language, they should get on their burros and go back to Mexico,' snapped one of the program hosts.

Once forgotten, little El Cenizo was transformed into a symbol of mounting national conflicts overdemographic changes, cultural identity, racism, and immigration. While El Cenizo today has faded from the headlines, the town's residents and officials look to the future. Current city plans call for paving more streets, installing sidewalks and speed bumps, constructing senior citizen housing, and building the first El Cenizo fire station.

'I have been in office for about 9 months and we are planning great things for El Cenizo,' Mayor Reyes saidat his town's birthday celebration.