12/10/2025
🌅 Before hotels and tourism… there was Baja and Ballí
In the early 1800s, the island belonged to Padre José Nicolás Ballí, a Mexican priest and rancher.
He and his nephew worked the land, raised cattle, and built chapels along the coast.
When Padre Ballí passed away, his rights and responsibilities went to his extended family:
👉 The Cavazos family.
For decades, they lived, worked, and cared for the island long before it became a tourist destination.
⚖️ Then everything changed
When Texas shifted from Mexican rule to U.S. control, landowners had to prove their titles all over again — now under a completely new system.
The Cavazos heirs spent years in courtrooms, facing:
new legal standards
costly documentation requirements
disputes over surveys and boundaries
One by one, pieces of the island slipped away through long court battles, sales, and claims.
It wasn’t quick.
It wasn’t simple.
It was a slow, exhausting process that stretched across generations.
🏖️ And the island transformed
In the decades that followed, developers arrived.
Tourism exploded.
South Padre Island became the destination we know today — full of hotels, boardwalks, and ocean views.
But the family who once lived there?
Their story rarely makes it into the brochures.
✨ A Hidden Chapter of Texas History
The Cavazos and Ballí families are still documented in Texas archives, historical markers, and National Park Service records — but their story isn’t widely told.
And yet, every person who steps onto Padre Island today is walking on land once shaped, worked, and cared for by Mexican families who lived there long before the vacation crowds.
🇲🇽🏝 A reminder:
History doesn’t disappear — sometimes it just isn’t taught.
