Pioneer & Ranching

The event features traditional crafts, food, music, and dance from South Texas and Northeastern Mexico. 

Horse hair braiding, quilting, woodworking, spinning, weaving, and numerous other crafts will be featured again at this year’s event.  Joining the roster of artisans for 2013 is Argelia Arizpe Guadarrama.  Working professionally in the education field, Guadarrama is also a piñatera, someone who makes piñatas, the gaily-decorated paper constructions meant to be broken open for the treats inside. 

“Piñatas have always been part of my life since my family came to the United States to settle in Harlingen, Texas from Piedras Negras and Sabinas, Coahuila where I was born.  My mother (Maria de Jesus Arizpe) would make piñatas to sell from our home, and so we would all watch, learn, and, when old enough, eventually help out in the process.”  Guadarrama will demonstrate the process of making a piñata at the event, noting that while glue guns and more elaborate tissue paper have enhanced the craft, the traditional materials of newspaper, cardboard, and glue or starch remain the same.

Another new feature at the 2013 event is a dance performance created especially for the museum. In addition to folklorico dancing from Mexico, the dance group Conceptos Entidad Dancísta (CED), directed by Raúl and Cati Galván, will give a performance of clogging.  Clogging is a step-style dance to “old-time music” primarily brought to North America from the British Isles. Teaching the young members of the dance troupe is Jacqueline Shell, a Winter Texan who dances with Texas Country Cloggers at Bentsen Grove Resort in Mission. Shell notes that she “so excited” to pass this dance tradition across generations and across cultures.