10/15/2026
Barrio Azteca Historic District comprises some of the oldest parts of Laredo, with buildings surviving from the 1870s.
The district is formed of two neighborhoods: El Ranchero and El Azteca, the latter named after a theater that operated here in the 1920s. The area’s initial development took place much earlier, in the mid-1700s. Ranchers on the outskirts of the villa of Laredo, founded in 1755, built jacales, simple thatched-roof dwellings constructed of vertical poles with mesquite limbs stacked horizontally between them.
Subsequent 19th-century development took the form of buildings with variations on a linear plan, constructed with locally quarried stone plastered with stucco. Stone banquetas (walkways) line the street edge of the buildings, which tend to have flat roofs with stone canales for drainage.
In the 1880s, local brick supplanted stone as a construction material; many fine examples of domestic, commercial, and institutional brick buildings remain.
At the turn of the 20th century, Barrio Azteca was essentially a self-contained community within Laredo. Flourishing businesses included bakeries, groceries, cantinas, tortillerias, molinas (corn grinding mills), meat shops, physicians’ offices, and craftspeople. All catered to the almost exclusively Hispanic residents of the district.
In Barrio Azteca, there is a unique melding of Mexican and American cultural influences found only in a relatively small area along the Lower Rio Grande Valley. Few communities in the region retain their historic character and integrity to such a high degree.
📸: The “Colores de Mi Barrio” mural at the corner of Iturbide St. and San Pablo Ave. was painted in 2004 by student artists. The building houses the Azteca Economic Development and Preservation Corporation. Courtesy the Lyda Hill Texas Collection of Photographs in Carol M. Highsmith's America Project, The Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.
