Poster unveiled for 73rd annual Charro Days festival

Overcast skies and rain did not stop dozens of Brownsville and Matamoros residents from gathering Wednesday for the poster unveiling of the 73rd annual Charro Days festival.

The unveiling ceremony is the signature kickoff for folkloric dances, taco-eating contests and gritos that will color downtown Brownsville later this month. This year’s poster design features two boys and a girl dancing "La Danza de los Machetes," a traditional, folkloric dance originating from Jalisco, Mexico.

For the last five years, Brownsville artist Don Breeden, who has illustrated more than a decade’s worth of posters for Charro Days, has sought to include children in his work, he said at the unveiling ceremony in downtown Brownsville.

Involving children in the activities from an early age, Breeden said will allow them to appreciate and continue the tradition. The artist received dozens of invitations from local schools when he was looking for a dance to feature on the poster.

In the end, "Egly’s (Elementary School) stood out," he said. "It really seemed to embody the spirit of Charro Days."

The school’s group, comprised of fifth-graders, performed the dance at the ceremony. The boys held cardboard machetes during the dance, representing the customary agricultural tool in Mexico and the weapon used to defend the country’s independence.

The dance is about two boys vying for the love of a fair maiden, said Egly Principal Christina Bridgewater, who remembers doing the dance herself during Charro Days as an elementary student.

Egly’s group of students has been performing the dance at school since they were second-graders, Bridgewater said.

"It is exciting. We are very humbled by being chosen," she said.

Fifth-graders Alonso Estrada, Michelle Schmidt and Sergio Armendarez were chosen as the three child models for the poster.

"It was cool, looks almost exactly like me," Estrada said of the poster.

For Estrada, Schmidt and Armendarez, Charro Days is all about fun, friends and dancing, the children said.

"I love dancing Machetes," Estrada said.