The Colonial Hotel Brownsville, TX

Is that crying? In this episode. Ayden shares a story that revolves around the haunting of Room 101 at the Colonial Hotel in Brownsville, Texas, where a couple experiences terrifying supernatural events during the Charro Days festival!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:24):
Happy birthday to me. Hey girl friends, it's me Adrian
or Aiden. Either way, you are still listening to SUSTAL,
and I am still your host. Welcome to the six six,
six year anniversary of SUSTAL. Now, if you're new here,
this is the podcast of paranormal folklore from Latin American cultures.

(00:47):
And oh my god, we made it to six years.
Let me tell you how fast this just came up.
I really I don't know what to do. I you know,
last year I had that cute little cake because I
don't know, I feel like the increments of or the benchmarks, right,
So six I wasn't exactly sure, like should I do something?
Should I not? So what we decided to do, Jeff
and I was to take it all the way back

(01:10):
to where it started. And we're going to do a
story from the Valley from the nine to five six
flut on nine five six, because you know, that's where
I got my exposure, my first exposure to these stories,
that's where I grew my love of these stories. So
just to kind of put that out there, I cannot
tell you all how excited I am for six years.

(01:31):
Oh my god, how proud I am, How grateful I
am to every single one of you for listening, for
being Patreon subscribers, for engaging with me online and talking
to me and sharing your stories and letting me share
them with the world. It means so so much to me.
And I'm not going to get too deep into it
because I don't want to take up so much time

(01:53):
and cry on camera because this is a video episode.
If you are a best cool friend on Patreon, but
I gonna cry on camera or on the microphone. I
won't do that to you all and to myself. I'll
cry later out of happiness, though only tears of happiness,
because wow, six years, that's that's amazing, And I just
I don't know what else to do and what else

(02:14):
to say except thank you so much. With that being said, again,
this is a video episode. If you are a Patreon
a bestchool friend on patreon dot com, slash Sustal podcast,
then you have access to this video episode. And look,
you can see my gorgeous nail polished. It matches my
pop filter and my microphone of course. Olive in June
and also not too many updates about the show about

(02:36):
things happening, things in the future, right the future the future,
but for now, keep your eyes out on social media.
That's at Sustal podcast on any and all updates about
the show, especially about the Curious Twins Psychic and Spiritfest
twenty twenty five, which will be happening Saturday May seventeenth.
And guess what I will be there. I'm going to

(02:56):
be actually doing a presentation at five o'clock. So again,
that's Saturday, May seventeenth, at five o'clock Curious Twins Paranormal
at Victoria's Black swan In and it is featuring the
one and only Annabelle. Of course from you know her,
you love her, maybe you don't. I don't know how
she feels about you, but you're gonna have to go
and ask you yourself. They will have annabel and the

(03:17):
Warrens Museum I believe is visiting. So you can get
your tickets to that by of course visiting link tr
dot e slash Sustal, or by visiting Curious Twins dot com.
The link is in my bio of my social media's
again or Curious Twins dot com and check out their
Psychiconspirat Fest twenty twenty five. It's going to be very exciting.

(03:37):
I'm excited to be giving my presentation and thank you
to the Curious Twins for inviting me to participate. Now,
with that being said, as always, if you would like
to hear your own scary story on Sustal, you can
do so by again visiting that link tree, or by
visiting my website and submitting your story to me to
be featured on a Letters from the Beyond episode. I

(03:57):
also accept photos, videos, audio recording is anything you have,
I can share it on the show or on social media.
If you would like to support the show, you already
know the easiest and the fastest way to do it
is by engaging with the show wherever you are listening,
by liking, subscribing to it, commenting on it, leaving positive
ratings and reviews, and encouraging your girlfriends to listen to
the show as well. I mean, we aren't here for

(04:20):
six years for nothing, am I right? We've built this
wonderful network of gulfriends, this coven, this den of demons,
whatever you want to call it. I'm just so happy
to have you all here, and I want to continue
to share the magic of Sustal. With that being said,
we're gonna go ahead and jump into today's episode, which
is the story of Room one oh one at the

(04:41):
Colonial Hotel in Brownsville, Texas. Brownsville, Texas the last weekend

(05:04):
of February nineteen eighty six. Every year, as winter fades
and spring peaks around the corner, Brownsville comes alive with
one of its oldest and proudest traditions, Chatto Days. Founded
in nineteen thirty eight, Chado Days is more than a festival.
It's a vibrant celebration of culture, community, and the deep

(05:28):
rooted bond between Brownsville and its sister city, Matamoros, just
across the river. For a few magical days, the city transforms.
Streets are lined with babel bigado, children dress in traditional
Mexican and Texan outfits, and families come together to share music, dance,

(05:48):
and heritage. You can hear the click of boots and
heels on the pavement as Flacuorico dancers twirl in bright colors.
The scent of roasted corn, the malih and fresh banduse
wafts through the air. The sounds of laughter and mariachi
echo through downtown. Nineteen eighty six was special. It was

(06:10):
the first year the city introduced the Sombretro festival to
Chado Days, adding even more heart and soul to the celebrations.
Live music contests and food stands filled Washington Park, making
it a new tradition that would become a staple of
the season. That weekend, people flooded into the city from

(06:32):
across the Rio Grande Valley and Northern Mexico. Motels and
hotels were filled to capacity. The joy was contagious. Jose
and Biatrice, a young couple in their mid twenties from Matamoros,
had been married for a little over a year. Jose,
quiet but curious, wore oppressed but a nupshirt and jeans,

(06:55):
and had the beginnings of a mustache. He was oddly
proud of. Was the spirited one, chatty with curly red hair,
gold hoop earrings, and a bright laugh that Hosses said
could fix any bad day. They'd both grown up going
to Chado Days, but this was the first time they
attended it together. After a full day of dancing, parades

(07:18):
and laughter, they realized they had nowhere to sleep. Every
hotel they tried was full. Every hotel but one, the
Colonial Hotel eleven forty seven East Levee Street, Originally built
in nineteen nineteen, it now stood as an aging, forgotten
building on the edge of downtown. Its facade hinted at

(07:42):
a past grandeur. Faded stonework framed the entrance, and above
the doorway a long, burnt out neon sign still read Colonial,
but now the brick exterior was weather stained, modeled with
years of rain and neglect. Cracks ran along the edges
of the structure, and several windows were dark or boarded shut.

(08:06):
They stepped into the dimly lit lobby. A lone, tired
clerk sat behind the desk, barely lifting his head. The
lobby had once been grand, marble tile floors and a
wooden staircase hinted at a time when the Colonial had
hosted important guests. Now the chandelier was dusty, some bulbs dead,

(08:28):
and the floral wallpaper was peeling at the corners. The
clerk looked up at the young couple as they walked
across the lobby, laughing with joy but visibly exhausted from
the festivities. Only one room left, the clerk muttered, Room
one O one. Josse and Beatrice didn't ask questions. They

(08:48):
were tired, and the bed was all that mattered, so
they paid and got the room key. Room one O
one greeted them with a creak of hinges and the
faintest smell something old, damn and just slightly sour, like
wet wood left to rot. The lighting was dim, provided
by a single flickering lamp on the nightstand. The wallpaper

(09:11):
was discolored and bubbled in places. The bed was made,
but the comforter had a musty weight to it. One
of the dresser drawers was crooked, and the mirror above
the sceinc had cracks spidering from the corner. They slipped
into pajamas and fell into the stiff mattress without unpacking.
Sleep came quickly, shortly after one am. Batris's eyes shot open. Jossett, stop,

(09:39):
stop what your hands on my legs? That's not funny.
Josse didn't answer, because it wasn't him. Biatri shifted, trying
to scoot away from the cold, clammy fingers, but they followed,
first brushing, then holding, then gripping. She whimpered and sat

(09:59):
up sharply. Josey, stop it, what is it? Then he
felt them too, hands grasping his legs, wrapping around his ankles,
creeping higher. They both shot out of bed, staring at
the mattress like it might rise up against them. It
wasn't me, Piatrice, it wasn't me. They yanked back the covers,

(10:21):
expecting to find something, an animal, stray, bed springs, anything,
but there was nothing, just cold sheets and they're tossed
around clothes. Jose checked under the bed. Piatrice opened the closet.
The bathroom door stood open, dark and still there's nothing here,

(10:42):
Piatrice said to herself. Jose responded, I'm calling the desk.
He picked up the dusty receiver and dialed the old
rotary phone to call the front desk. Is there another room?
I think there's an animal or something here and we
can't sleep, the clerk responded, still half asleep, nada. Everything's full,

(11:04):
not just here, probably nowhere else is late Chado days
brings in so many tourists they had no choice but
to stay. So they clung to each other beneath the covers,
trying to reassure Beatrice and himself. Hossa said, let's just
try to sleep just until morning, wooly, first thing, and
find somewhere else, okay, but keep the lamp on at

(11:29):
three am. Jose awoke, drenched in sweat and terrified. His
heart pounded, but not from a nightmare. It was something else,
something in the room. The air pressed heavy on his chest.
Every instinct told him something was wrong, but he couldn't
figure out what. He turned his head, trying to shake

(11:53):
the fog of fear from his mind. The room was dark,
the bedside lamp somehow turned off while they slept. Jose
was sure there was something in that room with them.
Finally he saw it. In the corner of the room,
just beyond the bed, there was a shadow. He blinked.

(12:16):
Surely it was just passing headlights from the street outside.
The glow from the car should have made it flicker,
but it didn't. The shadow stayed. He told himself it
was nothing, just a trick of the light, a figment
of his groggy mind. But as he continued to stare
at it, the unease gnawed at him. He couldn't shake

(12:39):
the feeling that it wasn't a shadow at all, not
like any shadow he had seen before. The headlights passed again,
illuminating the room with a brief flash, yet the shadow
remained unmoved. Something about it was wrong, Josey's breathing quickened.

(13:00):
His eyes darted around the room, trying to find the
source of his fear. Was at the lamp, the faint
shifting of the curtains in the breeze, he couldn't tell.
But as the seconds dragged on, the shadow only grew
more defined. It stretched, it became taller. The shape began
to shift. It was thin, too thin, almost like a person,

(13:24):
but twisted. The figure seemed to climb higher and higher
toward the ceiling, and now jose could see it clearly,
a tall, skeletal figure, impossibly tall, stretching, elongating in ways
that shouldn't be possible. His breath caught in his throat. Piatrice,
wake up. She jolted upright, startled and bleary eyed. What

(13:48):
what is it? Jose pointed a trembling hand to the
corner of the room, there, right there. Don't you see
it yet? He squinted into the darkness, blinking, See what,
There's nothing. The corner was empty. The shadow, if it
had ever been there, was gone. Jose's voice was strained, urgent. No,

(14:12):
I swear it was there, A figure, tall like it
was watching us. It didn't move when the headlights passed.
I stared at it. It grew. Biatrice rubbed her face
with both hands. You're scaring me, Jose, because it was real.
I'm not making it up. I didn't dream it, I
was awake, I felt, I don't, I don't know like
it was standing there looking at us. Piatri shook her head,

(14:36):
her tone sharpening. Stop just stop first, the hands, now
this are you trying to scare me? Is this some
joke to you? Jose, hurt and confused, said what, no,
why would I do that? You felt the hands too, remember,
Piatri snapped, that was different. That could have been you

(14:57):
all along. But this, there's nothing there. You're just feeding
the fear. Now you're making it worse. I'm not I
wouldn't do that to you, Beatrice. I swear to God
there was something in that corner. Piatrice stood up, pacing
beside the bed, now arms crossed slightly over her chest.
She looked around the room with frustration and said, maybe

(15:19):
we shouldn't have stayed. Maybe this place is just getting
in our heads. There must be mold in the walls. Something.
The room fell silent, heavy, the kind of silence that
seems to wait for something. Else to break it. Piatrice,
calmer but still frustrated, said, Josse, do you hear that? Yeah,

(15:44):
it sounds like a baby. With a sigh, Piatrice said,
we've probably woken someone's kid with all the yelling. Josse,
half joking, half relieved, said that explains one sound in
this cursed place that he stopped midstep, her head tilting slightly.
The crying grew louder, too loud. They both turned toward

(16:09):
the far wall, where they thought the sound might be
coming from. At first they thought it might be the
room on the other side of their bathroom, but it
wasn't muffled, It wasn't behind anything. Biatriis whispered. He said,
that's not next door. The crying intensified, wet and echoing slightly,

(16:33):
now with a strange reverberation, as though bouncing off tile.
It's coming from the bathroom. They stared at the half
open door. Josse took a step toward the bathroom. Pietris
held on tightly to Josse's arm. No, no, I don't
want to look. Swallowing hard, he said, we can't just

(16:54):
ignore it. They stepped toward the door together, every inch
of their bodies. Resisting, Jossein reached out and pushed the
door fully open. Inside the tub was filled nearly to
the rim with cloudy, stagnant water floating on the surface
a small figure, pale, limp and shrieking with impossible strength.

(17:20):
An infant. It opened its eyes to look at them,
showing that its eye sockets were bottomless deep pits. Its
tiny fists thrashed in slow motion, moving in ways an
infant shouldn't, Biatri screamed. Jose stumbled back, No, no, no, no,
what is it? What is it? That's not a baby,

(17:43):
that's something evil. We have to go, Beatris, We have
to leave now. Jossein and Biatris ran, barely grabbing their
suitcases as they fled the room, running back to the lobby.
Our fathers and hell Mary's poured from their lips the
entire way. The hotel's manager was at the desk, staring
up as she heard the running footsteps coming down the

(18:05):
hall to the lobby. What's happening, she shouted down the
hall at the young couple. Patris responded, desperately, we were
in room one oh one. That room is evil. What's
happening in there? The manager went pale and seemed to
hesitate to respond. She swallowed hard and explained, you're not
the first that room. We only sell it when everything

(18:28):
else is full there. There's been so many complaints. Jose huffed,
angry that the clerk from before didn't even warn them.
How could this happen? Why did he let us stay
in that room? The manager continued to explain. Most of
the time it happens to people who stay alone. The
clerk earlier tonight probably thought you were safe. This is

(18:49):
the first time I've ever seen it happen to a couple.
Jose and Piatrice stared back at her with shock and
anger on their faces. The manager continued, Some say part
of this block was built over a lipan apache burial ground.
The spirits give people something called ghost sickness. They don't
physically hurt you. They just make you see horrible things

(19:11):
until your mind goes mad. Jose cut off the manager.
Did you hear that crying? The evil baby in the
bathtub is still crying? The manager responded, calmly, there is
no crying. You are safe. Other people have seen the
baby too, but only the people who are alone. You
are a couple, though I think it's getting worse. The

(19:33):
spirits are getting more restless. Just then, the manager heard
the faintest cry coming from down the hallway. She turned
pale and looked away from Jose and Beatrice toward the
hallway of the hotel rooms. I think I hear it too.
I've never heard the baby before, but I hear it now.

(19:56):
Jose and Beatrice didn't wait one more second and ran
from the lobby. They drove right back to Matamoros that night. Today,
the Colonial Hotel no longer takes guests. Room one oh
one has been locked for years. No one stays there anymore,
but sometimes late at night local say they still hear crying.

(20:38):
Welcome back, cool friends, How did we do? What do
you think? Of course, this is another original story by
Jeff and myself, and I tried to put a little
bit of some voice acting in there. I haven't really
done that that much before. I don't know. Let me
know what y'all think. Are we getting the Oscar, the Emmy,
no Grammy or Tony Because I wasn't singing, but well no,
actually I sang Happy Birthday at the beginning this. This

(21:00):
episode could get me an egot anyway, we're gonna jump
into some sources that we have here. So the first
source is from Valley Central dot com. This is an
article that was published by Salvador Gastro and Elizabeth Guimez Battino.
This was posted in October of twenty twenty, so god,
I believe that's five years ago. Twenty twenty was like

(21:20):
last month, I don't know. Anyway, This says Brownsville a
place of Forgotten Secrets. And this is kind of like
a listicle of several haunted places in Brownsville, and so
of course or haunted Figures two, but the first one
on the list is the Colonial Hotel. This is a
really short entry about the Colonial Hotel and then it
goes into the other stories. So if you would like

(21:41):
to see this link again, it's Valleycentral dot com Brownsville
Places Forgotten Secrets. And the direct links to all of
these sources will be in the Susto Google doc for
Patreon subscribers. So this one says the Colonial Hotel, built
in nineteen fifteen, has had several reports of paranormal activity,
particularly in Room one oh one, where several guests have
said they've seen a dead infant, which is tragic and

(22:06):
also very scary in the shower and where guests felt
unseen hands grabbing them under the sheets and from under
the bed. So this room is just pure nightmare fuel,
speaking a nightmare fuel. So this web page that I'm on,
it has like a scrolling ad next to where I
see my view of myself on camera, and it looked

(22:28):
like there was something like the ad is literally right
next to my monitor, so it looked like something was
moving behind me, and I almost the scream. I almost
scrumped false alarm. Anyway, And mind you, I am recording
late at night. It is almost eleven wave past my bedtime.
I'm just gonna try and get through this without any

(22:49):
more nightmare fuel, like Room one oh one at the
Colonial Hotel. So they wrote in this short entry about
the Colonial Hotel, and it's very true. It's what I
was thinking when I was hearing about this story when
Jeff brought it up to me, and we're looking into it.
They said, here, it reminded us a bit of the
Shining Room two thirty seven. Right, this continues. Rumor has
it visitors went into hysterics after checking into Room one
oh one and finding a crying phantom baby floating in

(23:12):
the bathtub. The Colonial Hotel is known as one of
the ten most haunted hotels in Texas, so I wonder
there are also there's a last little note here that
says multiple suicides allegedly have taken place in Room one
oh one at the Colonial Hotel as well. So it's
giving very yes the Shining Room to thirty seven. What's
the other haunted hotel in Los Angeles? The Secoul the

(23:34):
Season Hotel. I'd like, I knew it, but it was
escaping my mind. That kind of vibe too, right, is it?
I feel like, is what's going on? But one of
the top ten haunted hotels or one of the ten
most haunted in Texas. I wonder if The board House
is considered as one of those because the board House,
if you remember that story, I've covered it on Sustal

(23:55):
and I actually spent a night there, which I said
I would never do that again, but I'm kind of
considering it. If we know of any paranormal investigators out there,
paranormal investigation teams out there that would like to go
investigate the the board House and collab with me on
the crossover episode, I would I would go again for
something like that, anything for content, right, But I wonder

(24:17):
if the board House is also on that list because
it's technically now a hotel. Thank you Valley Central for
that information. So the next source that we have here
is from a Facebook post from says Brownsville Memories is
the name of the page. Yes, Brownsville Memories. Brunzel Memories
is a place where I post old stories and photos
of Brownsville, South Padre Island. And then the description is

(24:38):
getting cut off. So Brunzel Memories on Facebook, thank you
for having this up. But there's a picture here. It
says Brownsville Before and after and it shows Traveler's Hotel
in nineteen thirties, which is I wonder if that's what
they called it before. Their second photo is from twenty eighteen.
It's called the Colonial Hotel. Fun fact, for about a
full year I worked in Brownsville. And for those of

(25:02):
you those are here from the valley, you know the
geography of the area. You know that in the valley
we build out, not up. If you're not from the valley,
we build out, not up. So what that means is
that we're all from the valley, right, It's a collection
of cities and towns, but they're so far spread apart.
A twenty minute drive with no traffic whatsoever on the

(25:26):
highway will get you very far. So again, fun fact.
I used to work in Brownsville, but where I lived,
where I was living at the time, it was an
hour commute one way, and I would make that drive
every morning to go to work and every evening to
go home. That's how big the valley is. And it's
also so beautiful, and it's got rich culture, super cool

(25:46):
history like this here. I'm going to post this picture
here because it looks really cool. It's again the second
photo from twenty eighteen. It's a photo, and the first
one it looks like an illustration. It's even got like
the old timey cars. It's the nineteen thirties right, So
it just looks really cool. But a fun detail on
this post. It's three lines. It says Travelers Hotel, Colonial Hotel,
built nineteen nineteen, expanded nineteen twenty four. And this says

(26:08):
in two thousand and two a fire destroyed the fifth floor.
The hotel was renovated, but the floor was not replaced.
So I wonder if they just kind of like they
renovated the rest of the hotel around the fifth floor
like below and above, and they just were like, whatever,
we don't need this floor. There's not much in here.
That's literally all the posts says, but there are tons
of people in the comments that are talking about it.

(26:31):
A lot of people saying that, you know, they have
family history that dates back to this hotel in its heyday. Right.
The second post that we have here, this is from
the newsroom at UTRGV, which I have been featured in
Hide the Newsroom. It's a video. It's a minute thirty
five video. So again, this direct link is in the
suit to Google docs if you want to look it up.
It's on the newsroom at utrgv's Facebook page and it

(26:55):
says second most haunted place in the RGV and a
quick description on here. I'm not going to play the video.
This is their property, so please go watch it. On
their page, it says doctor David Bowles, friend of the
pod who has been on Sustal. He was I think
one of my first guests, so thank you. Mister David
Boles an amazing writer. If you all have not checked
out his work, please do. I have several of his
books a couple of them signed. But this says doctor

(27:17):
David Bowles, assistant professor for the UTRGV Department of Literature,
This and Cultural Studies. This is posted in twenty eighteen.
I'm not sure if that's still his current position. This says,
continues the list of the most haunted places in the valley.
Here is number two. I can't remember what number one was.
I'm pretty sure I have the book that this is from.

(27:37):
It's got like a bunch of you know, haunted history
kind of places in the valley, so I will say.
In this video, essentially doctor Bowles is talking about the
some of the history of this place. Again it's allegedly
built on top of desecrated lip Bana Pacha burial grounds
that he's encouraging people to go check it out if
they are feeling brave enough. I'm not sure if you
can still get into the building. I don't believe you can,

(27:59):
but I guess at the time you still could. He's
also talking about the alleged suicides that took place either
in that room specifically or in the hotel, and also
this idea of the ghost sickness right where you are
not really physically hurt but these visions are kind of
forced on you, and so it kind of drives you
a little bit mad. Right, it's just mentally taxing. It's

(28:22):
a mental attack, a spiritual psychic attack, this idea of
ghost sickness. So again, go check out that video. The
next source that we have here, this is from actually
Texas co oppower dot com for Electric cooperative members. I
love that they have an article about ghosts on here.
This says Ghosts history and legends, visit Brownsville for haunting

(28:43):
and historical ghost tours. And this was published by Nidia
oh Dapia Guensalez in October of twenty twenty one. This
is just kind of a general story about Brownsville and
its alleged hauntings, which again, the Colonial in Brownsville is
not the only haunting alleged haunting in the city. There
are many places. I know there's a really popular cemetery.

(29:05):
Please forgive me. I cannot remember the name right now.
I'm going to look it up in a second. But
I went there kind of to check it out one
day just to see, you know, what the stories were about.
And it's a really I don't know, I feel this weird,
strange sense of comfort in cemeteries. And I know they
can be very polarizing, and there are times when I
feel like, yes, they are very kind of charged spaces
because of the energy that's there, the experiences that living

(29:27):
people have there when they're laying their loved ones to rest.
But also I feel like there's just a sense of peace.
I forgot which show or movie I heard it in,
but someone said about cemetery. They were like, there's nothing there,
It's just bodies, it just remains. There's nothing else, nothing scary,
and there's something oddly peaceful about that. I don't know.
Let me know how you feel about cemeteries in the

(29:48):
comments for this episode, But this says this article one
part mentions imagine ghosts so evil with the potential of
causing insanity to the point of suicide, again referencing that
ghost sickness. The ghosts of the Colonial Hotel in downtown
Brownsville are known to do just that. Unsettled ghosts are
believed to be the spirits of Lipana Pace, whose grave

(30:08):
site was desecrated during the construction of the building. Again,
there's that idea. Okay, I found the cemetery. I believe
it is the Las Botmas Cemetery in Brownsville. I want
to say that's the one. I just googled haunted Brownsville
Cemetery and there are several links that popped up, including
a couple of videos, so I'll probably throw those in
the susto Google docs as well, but also it'll just

(30:29):
come up with a quick Google search. So yeah, I remember,
I can't remember who I went with to that to
go check it out, but yeah, it was. I don't
know I was. That was one of those experiences in
a cemetery that I had where it felt that kind
of sense of peace. But also again it's allegedly very haunted,
so I don't know what I was feeling. Maybe my
frequencies were off and I wasn't catching what everyone else
was feeling, but there was that. So the last two

(30:51):
sources that I have here, these are about Chado Days.
So Chatter Days is a real event. It's a real
festival that happened in the Rio Grendezva, happens in Brownsville, Texas.
Chatta Days and Sonabredo Fest. But just to read a
bit more about what Chado Days is. This is from
tshaonline dot org, simply titled Chatto Days. Wow. This says

(31:13):
it was published in nineteen seventy six, so I'm not
sure where. Maybe this was like a newspaper article and
then they added it to it says updated July fourth,
twenty seventeen. This is by Lauda Batrisia Garza and Teresa
Plomon Acosta. A beautiful picture to start with right away,
and I will be posting these, this says. Chado Days
is an annual fiesta celebrated in the city of Brownsville, Texas,

(31:34):
during the latter part of February. This festival commemorates the
Mexican heritage of the area and bonds both Mexican and
American sides of the Rio Grande. Regardless of the harsh
period of economic crisis left by the Mexican Revolution and
World War One, border cities such as Brownsville continued growing
during the early decades of the twentieth century. In nineteen
thirty seven, influenced by the Citrus Fiesta in Mission, Texas

(31:57):
and the opening of the Port of Brownsville, Brownsville is
this man Kenneth Faxon, known as the father of Chado Days,
and selected members of the Pan American Roundtable, directed the
local Chamber of Commerce to coordinate a committee to commemorate
a fiesta and pre Lenten festivity. The event was named
Chado Days in honor of the Chadros or dashing Mexican

(32:17):
gentleman cowboys. The first Chado Days celebration was held on
February twenty fourth to twenty seventh, nineteen thirty eight. The
fiesta consisted of three parades, dances, races, motor and sell boat,
a bullfight, a rodeo, a concert by the Banda de
Artieria from Mexico City, a grand ball, and a Noche
Mehiicana held in Matamoros. Paramountain Us documented the first Chado

(32:40):
Days celebration and released an approximately fifteen minute colored motion
picture that was shown throughout the valley in spring of
nineteen thirty eight. I need to find that documentary. If
I find it, it's going in the Susto Google docs
as a link. And there are again just really cool
pictures here. Wow, there's an immature from fourteen ninety two
and there's it's a man and a woman riding this

(33:01):
horse and you can see there's a building in the
background and there's people just lining the sidewalk and there's
people also sitting outside of the windows from like the
second story, watching the parade. God, it's so beautiful. To
encourage the wearing of regional costumes of Mexico, a booklet
of Patterns for Chado Days was issued in nineteen forty
nine and featured drawings of women's and men's traditional apparel

(33:22):
for Michwakan, Whaka, Yukatan, and Chiapas, as well as other
regions of the country. The China boblana dress and the
Chadro suit are among the most popular costumes worn during
Chado Days. During the early nineteen fifties, the international bridges
across the Rio Grande were open for all to cross
and partake in festivities the way it should fucking be.

(33:42):
Instead we have Elon Musk in Bronsville trying to colonize it.
And I'm trying to have a good time with this
and I don't want to go there. But listen, if
you're here, you know how I am. You know how
I feel about these things, and I'm sure you feel
the same way or similar or at least green agree
with me that it's a little sad to see how

(34:03):
this was celebrated before and where we are now as
a country, but also how the Brownsville is being affected
by a billionaire who frankly is a phony and doesn't
know what he's doing. So I'm just going to leave
that there to continue with the good vibes we will say.
The Mister Amigo Association was created by members of the
Brownsville Chamber of Commerce in the early nineteen sixties to

(34:24):
promote international relations between the United States and Mexico. A
nominee for Mister Amigo of the Year has to be
a role model for the Hispanic community by showing excellence
in their personal and professional life, and also must be
a Mexican citizen. So there's been so many winners. Among
them has been Vicente Fernandez Juangabriel, whoa these names are amazing.

(34:46):
In nineteen eighty six, the Sombeto Festival was included to
the list of main events during Chado Days to enrich
the fiesta spirit throughout this city. This three day event
takes place in Washington Park, located in historic downtown Brownsville,
and hosts different attractions including the Haavenue Eating Contest, the
Grito Contest, and the Chadro Bean Cookoff. Otto Beans. The

(35:06):
Sombretto festival presents Hispanic artists, live music, and food booths.
The last thing this says here is the Chado Days
Festival begins with a traditional Mexican grito, a celebratory cry
at the Gateway International Bridge, and with an exchange of
words and gifts by the mayors of both cities. Since
the earliest Chado Days Fiesta, the celebrations have included as
many as four parades complete with floats, Erodeo, Mariacci and

(35:29):
Marine Bach concerts, and ballet float folklodogo performances by school students,
which I'm not sure if I've said this before. I
used to be a folklodo go dancer. I don't know
if anybody knows that. I'm gonna try really hard. I'm
going to see if my mom can get me a
picture before this episode goes up so I can post
it with the social post for this in my little
folk Clodogo get up. Because listen, I was good at
it too. I loved it, and I wish I had

(35:53):
continued it because I think folk Goodoo is such a
super cool dance. I see like professionals universities with their
folklodogo programs and it's it looks so cool, so a
fun fact. If you didn't know, now you know, I'm
going to try and get a picture of of that
in the social post for this episode and ballet Folklodorico
performances by school students. Two principal street dances, the Notche
Mehiicana and the Vile del Sol, are both held in

(36:14):
the city of Brownsville. A Chado Days fiest organization oversees
the extensive program and the twenty tens of celebration spanned
a week or more of various events. Wow. And the
very last entry that I have here, this is a
good old Wikipedia, good old Wikipedia entry, and honestly, this
is just reiterating everything that was in this last link.

(36:35):
It says. Chatto Days, also known as Chatto Days Fiesta
or Chatter Days Festival, is a two nation fiesta and
an annual four day pre lent and celebration held in Brownsville,
Texas in cooperation with Matamoos Stamolipas. The Grito, a Joyous
Mexican shower opens the festivities every year. This festival is
a shared heritage celebration between the two border cities of Brownsville,
Texas and Matamoros Stamo, Alipas. The Chado Days festivals usually

(36:57):
have about fifty thousand attendees each year. This celebration includes
a Sombredo festival as well as a parade that goes
down Elizabeth Street through historic downtown Bronswelle, Texas, which is
where I worked. I worked in downtown Bronswelle on Elizabeth Street.
This continues. The festival was first organized again nineteen thirty seven,
celebrated in nineteen thirty eight by the Bronzel Chamber of
Commerce to recognize Mexican culture and honor the chadles or

(37:19):
again the dashing Mexican gentleman cowboys, which is how I
would love to be described one day. Oh, this is
an interesting tidbit here that is not in the previous one,
it says. In addition, it is stated in the official
web page that the Chadow Days festival was also created
to bring people together during the effects of the Great Depression.
Although not proven, it is rumored that the first unofficial

(37:39):
Chatto Days was realized in the early to mid eighteen
hundreds when people from the city of Bronsville, Texas and
Matamoros Damlipas just across the Grande in Mexico came together
to celebrate a cooperative cultural festival to honor the two nations.
This says the festival did go on hiatus in nineteen
forty two to nineteen forty five and for twenty twenty one,
which I believe was twenty twenty one. The shutdown was

(38:02):
that the COVID shutdown time is not real to me anymore.
This is wild, so wow. And then it says more
about mister Amigo, about the you know, the get ups
that people wear, some of the events that they have
that goes on at Chadow Days and Sombdato Festival. If
you're ever in Brownswell Textus during Chatter Days, if you
have the opportunity, please go check it out. And those
are all the sources that we have for you today.

(38:37):
Welcome back, wel friends, Thank you so much for listening
to this episode. Thank you for tuning in to the
year six six sixth episode. It's literally to this day,
the day that this episode is coming out for everyone
not Patreon, it comes out a day early and ad
free for all Patrons subscribers regardless of tear, but on
the official published date for everybody else who's listening for

(38:58):
free this is the sick your anniversary of Sustal one
more time. I am so grateful, I'm so and now
I feel like I'm gonna cry for real. I'm so proud.
It's been six years. And I said this about year five.
I said it felt like it went by so fast,
But it also feels like it's been so long. I've
learned so much. I've grown so much, not only as

(39:20):
I'm going to cry enough for real as a creator,
but this show has made me grow as a person.
And it's an experience that I hope to continue for many,
many years. And I hope to continue to grow it
and make it bigger and better, and to do more
for you all, and to share more of this show
with so many more people. It's six years. It's a
long time, but I feel like things may just be starting.

(39:44):
I don't know. I am far from done. Thank you
all so much. I'm gonna go before I really lose it.
Please follow at Sustal podcast on all social media platforms
for any and all updates on the show. I love
you all. Take care of yourselves and not the Answerstess Bye,

(40:08):
get it your run, get it your rud