AN INTERNATIONAL PARADE

CHARRO DAYS

Charro Days~a "two-nation fiesta" held over 70 years in Brownsville, Texas.  This border town and it's sister city Matamoras, MX celebrate together for days. It all started to boost the spirit of the communities during the Great Depression. 
The international parade was held today. It was 3 hours of music, various kinds of bands, gymnasts, colorful floats, dignitaries, dancing horses, marching bands, food stands, laughter, dancers, people walking on stilts, judges, police on bikes, clapping and that feeling of inner happiness you get when the world is "right."

The sheriffs on bikes were patrolling the streets continually during the parade. The Chief of Police was on a segway, and there were police cars scattered throughout the parade.

The crowd was immense!
We have been to many parades, but this one was immeasurable! We walked the entire route, before it started~just because. 

We stopped now and then to talk to people and get their view of the festivities. Found out that the city council building is 80 years old and still in good shape and standing majestic in the center of town.

The parade is called an International Parade ~ after the 3 hours of celebration in Brownsville the parade continued over the border and joined their parade.
We talked about going over to Matamoras, to enjoy the parade on the other side of the border, but came to our senses and decided not to. Recently there has been unimaginable violence in Mexico. The border towns involved in much of it. Talking to, Head of Security, of the City buildings, we knew we made the right choice. He was telling us that many of the bands and other entries were not going over to Matamoras, due to the violence associated with the border towns.
So sad for the two towns~~the point of the parade being a union of culture, history and togetherness. 
What needs to be done to stop the violence?

                  CLEAN UP ~~ AFTER SUCH AN EVENT

The Lions set out chairs and charged $3.00 to sit on one. We didn't know this until some people left and gave us their tickets to sit on their chairs. I continued to stand to get pictures! 
The system after the crowd dispersed was amazing. The chairs were folded down, the truck came by to pick them up, the police led the street cleaners -12 of them down the street, utilities took down the wiring for the speaker system and the street cleaners and washers came through a second time. 

The "behind the scenes" workers had downtown clean in no time!