Name: Crystal City, Texas
Address: Crystal City, TX

Crystal City: Named for Water, Famous for Spinach RoadyGoat

1907

The name conjures up quartz, gemstones, maybe a mine full of glittering rock. But Crystal City has nothing to do with crystals. It was named for water, the clear, crystal-clean artesian water that bubbled up from the springs and wells of this South Texas town. And what that water really grew wasn't gems. It was spinach. Crystal City calls itself the Spinach Capital of the World, and it backs it up with a statue of Popeye, the sailor man himself, standing proudly downtown since the late nineteen thirties. So the town that sounds like it's full of jewels is really full of leafy greens, all thanks to crystal-clear water that made the soil rich enough to feed a nation.

Big Wells, TX RoadyGoat

Big Wells, Texas. It might not be on everyone's map, but it's a place that holds onto its own. You can feel it in the air, a real sense of community woven into the landscape of ranches and farmlands stretching out toward the Neches River. At 633 feet above sea level, a bit higher than San Antonio, the land here has always been about hard work, drawing life from the earth. It's a quiet life, not chasing the spotlight. But every now and then, a spark from here catches the wider world.

17.1 mi away

Big Wells, TX RoadyGoat

Big Wells sits a little higher than you might think, a good six hundred feet above sea level, which probably helped when those first settlers dug their wells. That’s what gave the town its name, you know – Big Wells. Water is everything out here, and it’s what allowed the agriculture to take root and become the lifeblood of the place. It's no accident that the Neches River flows close by; it's kept the land fertile for generations of farmers and ranchers. Now, Big Wells isn’t a place chasing the latest trends. We’re about tradition, about the land, and about each other. Friday nights, you’ll see the whole town turn out for the high school football games. That’s where the real rivalries play out, and you feel that community spirit. Some even say a ghostly stagecoach still roams near the old stage stop, a reminder of the history that’s still very much alive here. We might be just a quiet dot on the map, but Big Wells is home, and we wouldn’t have it any other way.

17.1 mi away

Crystal City - Spinach Capital & Chicano Movement

1963

Crystal City, the 'Spinach Capital of the World,' was the birthplace of the Chicano political movement in Texas when Mexican American citizens won control of the city council in 1963.

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Andrade, Erasmo Wilivaldo

1966

Erasmo Wilivaldo Andrade, Mexican American educator and activist, son of Wilivaldo and María (Nieto) Andrade, was born on May 12, 1931, at his family’s ranch near Bruni, Texas. His siblings included José, Lupe, María, Paula, Eva, Oralia, Velia, Alicia, and Helen. He married Sally Virginia Jones of Fort Stockton, Texas, in 1971. This couple had two children, Marisa and Carlos Andrade. Erasmo Andrade grew up in San Antonio and graduated from San Antonio Vocational and Technical School (now Fox Technical High School) in 1949. As a young man he competed in long-distance track and amateur boxing. In 1950 Andrade joined the U.S. Navy and served as a machinist’s mate during the Korean War from 1951 to 1953. After an honorable discharge, he attended St. Mary's University in San Antonio, where he obtained a bachelor’s degree in international relations in 1957. He entered the San Antonio school district as a teacher at Cooper Middle School in 1958 and continued work towards a master’s in education at North Texas State College (now the University of North Texas). Andrade subsequently earned a Juris Doctor from the Thurgood Marshall School of Law at Texas Southern University in 1977. Early in his career, Andrade also taught English as a second language (ESL) at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio. His ESL teaching expanded as a civilian advisor to the Turkish Air War College and the Imperial Navy of Iran, where he taught for the U.S. Department of Defense for three years. Andrade’s activism began in the late 1950s and early 1960s, when he started joining organizations representing groups throughout Central and South Texas, including the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), the American G.I. Forum (AGIF), the Political Association of Spanish-Speaking Organizations (PASSO), Texans for the Educational Advancement of Mexican Americans (TEAMA), and Involvement of Mexican Americans in Gainful Endeavors (IMAGE). In addition, he served as executive director of the Federation for the Advancement of Mexican Americans (FAMA) from 1967 to 1970 and participated in the “War on Poverty” movement as a leading member of St. Phillip’s Community Progress in Action and the United Council for Civic Action. As a staff member of the Bishops' Committee for the Spanish Speaking , one of his major achievements was the organization of the Valley Farm Workers Assistance Committee. As chairman of this committee, Andrade supported and helped coordinate the Rio Grande Valley farm workers in the 1966 Starr County Strike . He was able to direct several food caravans to assist the farmworkers as they marched from Rio Grande City to Austin. The United Farm Workers marched for safe work conditions and a state minimum wage of $1.25. Andrade also helped fight for voter rights in the Winter Garden Region as a founding officer of the United Free Voter Registration Council in 1966. Additionally, he became the first director of federal programs for the Crystal City Independent School District. This was a significant role because there had been ongoing conflict between Anglos and Mexican Americans in the 1960s over access to local government positions and school administration in Crystal City, where Mexican Americans constituted 85 percent of the population but lacked representation in local government or school administration ( see CRYSTAL CITY REVOLTS ). From 1971 to 1973 Andrade served as executive director of the newly-created Zavala County Mental Health Outreach Program. Under his leadership, this organization established a multi-service community center that delivered youth counseling, senior service, home service, and mental health service programs to the indigent population of the county. In 1972 Andrade co-founded the Zavala County Health Association, which acquired federal funds from the Office of Economic Opportunity to establish a full-service health clinic. While in Crystal City, he also served as a local spokesman for the Raza Unida Party (RUP) and co

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Crystal City, TX

1937

Crystal City, the county seat of Zavala County, is at the intersection of U.S. Highway 83, Farm roads 393, 16, 1433, 65, and 582, and the Missouri Pacific Railroad, one mile north of the Dimmit county line in south central Zavala County. Two land developers, Carl F. Groos and E. J. Buckingham, developed the town in the early 1900s. In 1905 they purchased the 10,000-acre Cross S Ranch, sold off most of the land as farms, and platted the townsite of Crystal City, named for the clear artesian water of the area. The town received a post office in 1908, the same year the Crystal City and Uvalde Railway provided the first rail service to the community and the first school building was erected. Crystal City was incorporated in 1910, when it had an estimated 530 inhabitants, and by 1914 the community had a bank, three general stores, and the weekly Chronicle . In 1928 the county voted to make Crystal City the county seat, and that same year the community added a city manager to its mayor-council government. As soon as the railroad reached Crystal City, the community became a major shipping point for winter vegetables. At first onions were the major crop, but by the 1930s the city developed a reputation as the "Spinach Capital of the World." In 1936 the first annual spinach festival was held, and the following year a statue of the cartoon character Popeye , that mighty consumer of spinach, was erected across from the city hall. Carrots, tomatoes, peppers, and other vegetables were also marketed, and a vegetable cannery was opened in 1932. Under the stimulus of agricultural growth the population rose from an estimated 800 in 1920 to 6,609 in 1930, then fell slightly to 6,529 in 1940. The majority of residents in the 1930s were Mexican or Mexican-American migrant laborers who followed a seasonal cycle of spinach in the winter, onions in the spring, and beet or cotton work in the summer and fall. A government report of 1941 estimated that 97 percent of the 5,500 Mexican Americans living in Crystal City at that time were migrant laborers. Making Crystal City their home base, most of these workers lived in slum conditions with poor services and limited educational opportunities. During World War II an alien internment camp was built on the site of a prewar labor camp on the edge of town. Japanese , German, and other immigrants were relocated to the camp from all over the country, and a sizable group of Japanese nationals caught by the war in the United States or in a number of South American countries were also interned at the camp. After the camp closed in 1948, the area was converted to low-rent housing, and the schools built there became part of the Crystal City ISD. In 1945 the California Packing Corporation, later the Del Monte Corporation, built an extensive canning plant just northwest of Crystal City. Since that time it has been the largest single employer in the area. The company added a can-manufacturing plant in 1958 and expanded its Crystal City facilities several times in the 1970s and 1980s. The employment opportunities offered by Del Monte helped increase the population of the community to 7,195 in 1950 and 9,101, a probable all-time high for Crystal City, in 1960. The 1960s were a period of dramatic political change for the town. In spite of the fact that Mexican Americans had formed 80 percent or more of the city's population since the 1930s, the Anglo minority had kept a tight hold on city government and school administration. Frustration over several controversial attempts at urban renewal in the late 1950s and over continuing educational discrimination led to the increasing politicization of Crystal City's Hispanics. In 1963 and much more successfully in 1969, Crystal City Mexican Americans sought to gain control of key city and school-board positions in the " Crystal City Revolts ." Among the important outgrowths of this political movement was the formation of the Raza Unida party in 1970, which soon assumed statewide i

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Múzquiz, Virginia Aguirre

1963

Virginia Múzquiz, political activist and community organizer, was born in the South Texas town of Nordheim on December 13, 1925, to Anita Vega and Juan Aguirre. She participated in two successful efforts by Mexican Americans in Crystal City, Texas, to wrest control of local political offices from conservative Anglos. Múzquiz also ran for state office in 1964 and worked for the rights of women through Ciudadanos Unidos, a community-based organization from Crystal City. Estranged from her father at a young age, Múzquiz and her seven siblings were raised primarily by her mother, a migrant farm worker, and traveled with her mother following seasonal agricultural work throughout Texas when she was young. When she was old enough, she too became a farm laborer and traveled with her family to farms as far away as Virginia and Wyoming. Because of this, Múzquiz received only intermittent schooling and spoke little English until she was older. In 1943 Múzquiz married Encarnacion García and gave birth to a daughter, Luz Elena García, in 1944. At that time Virginia was diagnosed with tuberculosis and was quarantined at the State Tuberculosis Sanatorium in Sanatorium, Texas, near San Angelo. She contracted the disease as a child; however, her illness had gone undiagnosed due to her family’s limited access to healthcare, a common problem that faced many migrant farm workers. She and her husband divorced soon after, and she returned to her family in La Pryor, Texas. For the next five years Múzquiz was in and out of hospitals and had to have a lung surgically removed due to her condition. At the age of twenty-two years, she moved to Crystal City with her sisters to find work and soon married Jesús Múzquiz de la Garza, a successful local businessman. Twenty-five years her senior, her husband had been born to a prominent family in the town of Melchor Múzquiz in Coahuila, Mexico. He came to the United States in 1914 as a teenager to continue his formal education in San Antonio, Texas, and to escape the violence of the Mexican Revolution . Within a year of marriage, Virginia and Jesús had a daughter named Elda Lina. Another child died in infancy. After her pregnancy, she was once again interred for tuberculosis, this time in Mission, Texas. While there, with her husband’s encouragement, she learned English through the Hemphill Correspondence School. Virginia Múzquiz was well-known in Crystal City. In the segregated town, her husband owned the only hotel for Mexican guests, as well as a restaurant and regional coin-operated pianola business. She became a public notary, did bookkeeping for her husband, and attended a segregated Methodist church in town. She also served as a community translator for her friends and neighbors by advising them on official government, school, and business activities, and advocating on their behalf. Múzquiz’s political activity increased as Crystal City became a key center of political activism for Mexican civil rights during the early 1960s in Texas ( see CRYSTAL CITY REVOLTS ). In 1960 Tejanos and Mexican immigrants comprised 85 percent of Crystal City’s population; yet, Anglos dominated local government because various factors, including the poll tax, effectively disfranchised much of the local population. In 1963 the Political Association of Spanish-Speaking Organizations (PASSO), a coalition of civil and worker rights groups, helped spearhead registration and voter drives and held rallies for Los Cinco Candidatos, a slate of five Mexican-American candidates to challenge the local Anglo political establishment. Múzquiz joined the local movement in 1963 first by attending rallies with her husband and daughter, then by speaking publicly on behalf of the candidates. She also worked as a poll watcher. The effort paid off. The slate of five won every seat. The following year, Múzquiz ran for state representative of the Sixty-seventh District of Dimmit, Zavala, Medina, and Uvalde counties, making her one of the first Latin

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Zavala County

1863

In 1832 land grant of Mexico to John Charles Beales. Lake Espantosa was campsite on road from Mexico to San Antonio. County created from Uvalde and Maverick, 1858. During the Civil War, especially in 1863-1864, was crossed by Cotton Road to Eagle Pass, entry point of Confederate goods. Including guns, powder, medicines. Organized 1884. Named in honor of Lorenzo de Zavala (1788-1836), signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence; first vice president to serve Republic of Texas. Original county seat was Batesville. Since 1927 it has been Crystal City. (1965)

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Dimmit County Courthouse

1883

Named for one of the framers of the Texas Declaration of Independence, Dimmit County was created from four other counties in 1858. The county was formally organized in 1880, and Carrizo Springs was chosen as the county seat. On November 12, 1883, the county commissioners court chose noted architect Alfred Giles to design a permanent courthouse for Dimmit County. Later that month, on November 26, the court reversed its decision and selected J. C. Breeding & Sons of San Antonio to act as both architects and builders. Probably working from Giles' initial plans, they erected a structure which featured a double gallery porch. The building's cubical form and Italianate detailing resemble Giles' designs for other Texas courthouses erected about the same time. By the 1920s, the thriving Dimmit County needed a larger government facility. The commissioners court called in Henry T. Phelps to design an expansion. At Phelps' instruction, the San Antonio Construction Company demolished the north second story wall, removing exterior rock from the lower north and south walls and adding new, longer wings on each end. As was his custom, Phelps worked along a Classical Revival plan, requiring a symmetrical façade. He relocated the main entrance to the west side of the building, highlighting it with four massive columns and a recessed porch. The 19th century windows were widened, and Phelps changed the Second Empire roofline to an elaborate cornice. The architectural character of the Dimmit County Courthouse was transformed from a simplified Italianate style of the late 1880s to the restrained Classicism popular in the 1920s. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark-2000

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Crystal City, Texas

Music in Crystal City

Songs About Crystal City

Artists From Crystal City

Rivers & Roads in Song near Crystal City

History of Crystal City

Crystal City: Named for Water, Famous for Spinach RoadyGoat

Big Wells, TX RoadyGoat

Big Wells, TX RoadyGoat

Crystal City - Spinach Capital & Chicano Movement

Andrade, Erasmo Wilivaldo

Crystal City, TX

Múzquiz, Virginia Aguirre

Zavala County

Dimmit County Courthouse

Things to Do in Crystal City

Everything Near Crystal City