Palo Alto Battlefield NHS hosted its third annual memorial illumination at the Resaca de la Palma Battlefield in Brownsville, Texas, on November 3rd. The annual event involves the placement and lighting of 8,000 luminaries, one representing each U.S. or Mexican soldier to fight in the first battles of the war between their two nations. The event is timed to coincide with Veterans Day in the U.S. and Day of the Dead in Mexico.
This year’s activities included living history programs and a memorial ceremony, followed by the lighting of the luminaries. The event was an international affair, co-sponsored by the Brownsville (Texas) Community Foundation and the Fundación Comunitaria de Msatamoros (Mexico), with assistance from Post 43 of the American Legion.
In addition to those sponsors, the event relied on almost 200 volunteers, who helped place the luminaria, and an additional 100 who assisted with the lighting of candles at sunset. The event attracted at least 500 visitors to the battlefield site and hundreds more who observed the scene as they passed by on an adjacent roadway.
Palo Alto Battlefield preserves the site of the May 8, 1846 battle of Palo Alto – the scene of the first major clash of the war between the United States and Mexico. The park also works with partners to preserve and interpret Resaca de la Palma and Fort Brown, the scenes of additional fighting in the first campaign of that war.
