Travels To South Texas | San Benito and S. Padre Island

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As I prepare to travel back to my hometown San Benito, TX and plan our vacation to S. Padre Island before heading up the coast to Rockport, TX I decided to write a little blog post to share with you all. It’s been at least 15 years since I last visited the place where I was born and grew up, San Benito, TX. I still keep in touch with some of my childhood friends from back home but it’s been a long time since I’ve seen any of them.

San Benito is located in the Rio Grande Valley just between Harlingen and Brownsville and is known as the “Resaca City” are more commonly known as “The Home of Freddy Fender”. Freddy Fender was an American Tejano, country, and rock and roll musician who is known for his 1975 hit song “Before the Next Teardrop Falls”. In 1975 while performing on the Hee Haw television show he saluted his hometown of San Benito. The population is roughly about 24,250 so it would seem quite a few more babies were born after I left as I remember it being much smaller. The town was originally named “Diaz” in honor of Mexico’s President circa 1904 but was later changed after a town site survey. The town was renamed San Benito in honor of Benjamin Hicks a pioneer rancher. The people were predominantly of Mexican ancestry and after the irrigation system was completed in 1906 the Anglo settler began to come in. The town’s football team are known as the San Benito Greyhounds with purple and gold as their team colors. I never did get a chance to play for the Greyhounds as I left my hometown before entering into High School.

S. Padre Island is a place I know all to well. Growing up our summers were filled with trips to the beach, hanging out, swimming, and cooking out on the beach. It is located in Cameron County Texas, the same county as my hometown of San Benito located probably about 30 minutes away. It is accessible through Port Isabel (home of the fighting Tarpons) through the Queen Isabella Causeway. South Padre Island is named after José Nicolás Ballí (Padre Ballí) who was a Catholic priest and settler in the area. It has survived four hurricanes, Hurricane Beulah in September 1967, Hurricane Dolly in July 2008, Hurricane Ike in September 2008, and Hurricane Alex in July 2010. One of my fondest memories of South Padre Island was going to the beach with my Grandmother and walking out on to the jetties and fishing. We would also search for sea urchins hidden in the crevices on the jetties and bring them back home. At times you can see the porpoises jumping out of the water and chasing the boats. South Padre Island is a popular tourist destination during spring break when all the college students swarm the island for some fun in the sun. You can enjoy all types of activities such as water skiing, fishing, deep sea fishing, parasailing, and more. There are plenty of restaurants and places to get some adult beverages to quench your thirst. It is rumored that my family actually owned portions of South Padre Island by being recipients of the original Spanish land grants that were given out a long, long, time ago but over the years lost their claims due to various reasons.

So as you can see I come from an area of Texas that has a lot of historical significance and is quite interesting. If you’ve ever traveled to San Benito or South Padre Island and/or have connections to that region of Texas I would love to hear your stories. Feel free to comment below.