Dolores

NUESTRA SEÑORA DE LOS DOLORES HACIENDA . Ruins in Zapata County, twelve miles north of San Ygnacio, mark the site of a ranch settlement that was part of the plan of the Spanish colonial government to settle a region between the Nueces River in the north and Tampico in the south. In 1750 the Hacienda de Nuestra Señora de los Dolores was founded by a grant of land from the crown of Spain to José Vázquez Borrego , a wealthy rancher from Coahuila, who had previously extended his livestock operation to the north bank of the Rio Grande. This settlement, at the junction of Dolores Creek and the Rio Grande, is considered to be the first Spanish colonial venture on the north bank of the Rio Grande. This Dolores, however, is not to be confused with a mining community of the same name north of Laredo in Webb County, nor with a village called Nueva Dolores located just two miles up river from the ruins in question. The name Hacienda Dolores dates to 1757, when the settlement was so labeled by José Tienda de Cuervo on his inspection tour of the newly founded settlements that were part of the colonizing program of José de Escandón . However, given the fact that Dolores was the headquarters for an outpost ranching operation and that the owner, Vázquez Borrego, lived at his Hacienda de San Juan del Álamo in Coahuila, it might more properly be called Rancho Dolores.