Sombrero Fest Getting Bigger and Bigger

By J. Noel Espinoza/RioGrandeInfo.com

Every year for the past decade, Rodrigo Garcia always tries to get to downtown Brownsville as early as possible to watch along Elizabeth Street the Grand International Parade, a binational event sponsored by Charro Days Fiesta and Fiestas Mexicanas, the festival organized at the same time by the city of Matamoros.

“I enjoy it a lot and my kids love it,” Rodriguez said on Saturday while talking to his family between Elizabeth and 7^th streets. “I make sure we get here early because finding parking is pretty hard sometimes. My favorites are the charros (cowboys) riding their horses. Some do pretty amazing tricks. It’s a great bi-cultural experience.”

According to Charro Days Fiesta organizers, the celebration has been going on since 1938, which commemorates the unity of bi-national cultures and traditions of Mexico and the United States along the border between Brownsville and Matamoros.

Other popular events during Charro Days include Charro Days dances, costumes, and an illuminated parade during night time and Mr. Amigo, usually a famous or not too famous Mexican artist or personality.

The fiesta also includes Sombrero Festival, an offshoot celebration started in 1986, which brings popular conjunto bands at Washington Park, a few blocks from where the Charro Days festivities take place. This festival has events for both children and adults including Kids Punching Bag, a Ladder Ball Game, and Bean Bag Toss for the kids. With an average attendance of 50,000 people, organizers said Sombrero Festival enhances the spirit of Charro Days and now is considered the largest event in Cameron County.

Within the Sombrero Festival, also known as Sombrero Fest, every year adults participate in the popular Frijolympics, a cook-off to decide who makes the best “Charro Beans,” or “Frijoles Charros,” in Spanish.

“We love to compete because every year we gather here with family and friends,” said Luis Garza, a Frijolympics competitor who brings his Grupo Beanazzo together for the past nine years. “We won second place for the best charro beans in 2016 and in 2017 we won first place for “showmanship” or for having the most ornaments, being the most wild with more taste.”

The couple Ramon and Alice Castillo has been participating in the Frijolympics contest for the past 32 years. The Castillos’ group Enquipinado even has its own website.

“I won first place in 2010 and since then nothing,” Castillo said. “We are here to enjoy ourselves. The secret (for charro beans) is to put the cilantro at the last moment.”

Omar Hernandez, who was cooking chicken for the Grupo Beanazzo, said he will continue coming to Sombrero Fest every year.

“I can’t miss this,” Hernandez said. “These are my family, my friends.”

Although Saturday’s International Grand Parade was the grand finale of the week-long fiestas, Charro Days Carnival continues at the TSC/ITEC Campus, formerly known as Amigoland Mall through March 10.