SAN BENITO:...More Of That Silly Historical Crap...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

SAN BENITO, Texas | Hey, we're hip. Run around the Rio Grande Valley and be told everything is "historic" - even plain ol' downtown streets.

This from waz zappenin' San Benito: [ Picture with San Benito Mayor Ricardo "Rick" Guerra during Market Days on Historic Robertson Street. ]

The mayor is the one in the flowing yellow shirt and faddish tennis shoes in the photo above.

What's historic about Robertson Street? Nothing much, other than that it's been downtown since they laid it down. No, we're not being mean. Just factual, you might say. But we get it: everything can be "historic" in the Valley if we just say so. Weird, but true.

Just because a street or building is old does NOT make it "historic".

Hey, listen up: Something significant and memorable has to be associated with whatever is designated as "historic". We couldn't find any references to Robertson Street reaching that threshold. It's there, like most city and town streets, being used and sort of maintained by local government. Who is it named after - the western actor Dale Robertson? As my old pal Melissa Zamora might about here: "Quien sobby?"

It's just an odd quirk pretty much full-across the RGV.

McAllen has its Cine El Rey on boozy 17th Street. It's been right there seemingly forever. Is it "historic"? Not really. Simply being kept in use and still the scene of popular events does NOT make it "historic". It's nice that someone has decided not to bulldoze it, 'cause the facade is actually cool in its border architectural simplicity.

Harlingen has Las Cazuelas Restaurant (see photo below), a favorite of mine when in Cardinal Country. Its exterior is old and has not exactly been touched-up, but is it "historic"? I say, NO.

Historic for any Valley building would be if some major celebrity, like a president, dropped in and said or did something extraordinary, like if President Franklin D. Roosevelt had made his declaration of war against Japan ahead of World War II, say, at El Jardin Hotel in Brownsville.

Nothing like that has ever happened anywhere in the magic valley.

You could almost hear it, had it happened:

"Oye, Juan, que es eso - infami?"

"Ees how the date will live, ese"

Yeah.

Folks in the RGV should be a bit more conservative when declaring anything "historic," as, well, it does diminish that which actually is...

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