San Agustín Plaza

Laredo began in 1755 as a ranch, founded by Tomás Sánchez de la Barrera y Garza with the permission of José de Escandón. It was the last town Escandón planted in Nuevo Santander, and it grew on Carrizo land. By 1789 the settlement counted 708 people, 110 of them Carrizo, living under the Spanish ranching order that was already pushing the older hunting bands aside.

The plaza was the town's center from the start, and the old parish church of San Agustín still stands on its edge, with the house later called the capitol of the Republic of the Rio Grande close by. The surrounding blocks are the San Agustín de Laredo Historic District, listed on the National Register in 1973, with 1865 and 1872 among its marked years. The square has seen violence, too. In April 1886 a shootout between the Botas and Guaraches factions broke out on the plaza, and recent historians put the dead at 25 to 40.

Now it is a quiet place of brick paths, benches and shade trees around a columned bandstand, with a statue of Saint Augustine put up by public subscription in 1969 and another of General Ignacio Zaragoza. Plan a short stop and then cross to the cathedral and the museum. The plaza is free to enter and easy to walk.