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El Azteca is one of the oldest and most intact residential neighborhoods in 
El Azteca's earliest inhabitants were descendants of Spanish colonists who began settlement efforts along the lower Rio Grande in the mid-18th century. Later, immigrants from the Mexico contributed to the growth of the community and provided much of the labor for the newly arrived international railroad in 1881. By the turn of the 20th century, El Azteca was a thriving community of homes and small businesses populated almost exclusively by Mexican and Mexican-American residents.
El Azteca is significant as a diverse, multi-layered cultural landscape. The neighborhood took its name from El Azteca Theatre which opened in 1922 as the ''Teatro Nacional'', a venue for theatrical and vaudeville performances. In the 1930s, when moving pictures supplanted live theater in popularity, it became known as El Azteca movie house and showed Spanish language films. A second theater, the Iturbide Theater, operated nearby and it was known as the “Home of Spanish Vaudeville.” The neighborhood was also the home of noted residents of Mexican origin who migrated escaping the Mexican Revolution.
File:ElAztecaMural.jpg, Mural on 20 Iturbide Street Building.
File:ElAztecaVernacularHouse.jpg, Sandstone building, one of the oldest structures in the neighborhood.
Laredo, Texas
Laredo ( ; ) is a city in and the county seat of Webb County, Texas, United States, on the north bank of the Rio Grande in South Texas, across from Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, Mexico. Laredo has the distinction of flying seven flags (the flag of t ...
, with buildings dating from the 1870s representing nearly every major architectural type and style that has appeared on the border since that time.
Location
Neighborhood east ofDowntown Laredo
Downtown Laredo is the second main business district in Laredo, Texas. Downtown Laredo is the starting point for Interstate Highway 35 and State Highway 359. It is home to all of Laredo's high-rise buildings. Laredo's and Webb County's main ...
, Roughly bounded by Interstate 35
Interstate 35 (I-35) is a major Interstate Highway in the central United States. As with most primary Interstates that end in a five, it is a major cross-country, north–south route. It stretches from Laredo, Texas, near the Mexican border ...
, Matamoros Street (U.S. Highway 83
U.S. Route 83 (US 83) is a major north–south United States Numbered Highway that extends in the central United States. Only four other north–south routes are longer: US 1, US 41, US 59, and US 87, while US ...
), Zacate Creek
Zacate Creek is inside Laredo, Texas city limits and runs southwest for 10 miles until it connects to the Rio Grande. Zacate Creek has several ditches leading to it. The terrain surrounding the creek is mostly clay. The vegetation surrounding the ...
, and the Rio Grande
The Rio Grande ( and ), known in Mexico as the Río Bravo del Norte or simply the Río Bravo, is one of the principal rivers (along with the Colorado River) in the southwestern United States and in northern Mexico.
The length of the Rio G ...
.
History
El Azteca's earliest inhabitants were descendants of Spanish colonists who began settlement efforts along the lower Rio Grande in the mid-18th century. Later, immigrants from the Mexico contributed to the growth of the community and provided much of the labor for the newly arrived international railroad in 1881. By the turn of the 20th century, El Azteca was a thriving community of homes and small businesses populated almost exclusively by Mexican and Mexican-American residents.
El Azteca is significant as a diverse, multi-layered cultural landscape. The neighborhood took its name from El Azteca Theatre which opened in 1922 as the ''Teatro Nacional'', a venue for theatrical and vaudeville performances. In the 1930s, when moving pictures supplanted live theater in popularity, it became known as El Azteca movie house and showed Spanish language films. A second theater, the Iturbide Theater, operated nearby and it was known as the “Home of Spanish Vaudeville.” The neighborhood was also the home of noted residents of Mexican origin who migrated escaping the Mexican Revolution.
Recognition
Designated as a National Register Historic District in 2003, El Azteca is distinctive for its setting, layout and landscape features. The neighborhood is situated on a high bluff overlooking the Rio Grande which not only forms its southern boundary, but designates the international boundary between the United States and Mexico. Zacate Creek, a steep-walled creek that, in earlier times, provided fresh water to its inhabitants and livestock, defines its eastern boundary. Zacate Creek was the site for one of the last battles of the Civil War, theBattle of Laredo
The Battle of Laredo was fought during the American Civil War. Laredo, Texas was a main route to export cotton to Mexico on behalf of the Confederate States. On March 18, 1864, Major Alfred F. Holt led a Union force from Brownsville, Texas, to de ...
, in 1865. The first electric streetcar line built west of the Mississippi River passed through the neighborhood and crossed Zacate Creek via the Iturbide Street Bridge. The bridge and streetcar connected both the neighborhood and city of Laredo to the newly developing commercial and residential sections of the city that began growing to the east of the creek.
Cut off from the historic center of Laredo by Interstate 35 in the late 1970s, Barrio Azteca has retained much of its historic fabric. The neighborhood maintains a sufficient concentration of historic properties, some of which are rare, even extraordinary, examples of domestic and commercial vernacular architecture found only in the borderlands region of South Texas.
See also
*Downtown Laredo
Downtown Laredo is the second main business district in Laredo, Texas. Downtown Laredo is the starting point for Interstate Highway 35 and State Highway 359. It is home to all of Laredo's high-rise buildings. Laredo's and Webb County's main ...
*National Register of Historic Places listings in Webb County, Texas
This is a list of the National Register of Historic Places listings in Webb County, Texas.
This is intended to be a complete list of properties and districts listed on the National Register of Historic Places in Webb County, Texas. There are fiv ...
References
External links
{{Laredo, Texas Neighborhoods in Laredo, Texas National Register of Historic Places in Webb County, Texas