Havana

Havana is off U.S. Highway 83 two miles north of the Rio Grande and eighteen miles northwest of McAllen in extreme southwestern Hidalgo County. The community dates from the Spanish Texas era and is situated on a land grant made to José Matías Tijerina by Spain in 1767. Tijerina named the site for Havana, Cuba, which he had visited while traveling from Europe. A post office was first opened at the community in 1886, and by 1890 S. Cardenas was operating a general store there. The post office was moved to Sam Fordyce in 1905. A 1936 county highway map showed Havana with four dwellings, two schools, and a church. By 1986 the community comprised ten houses and a population of forty-five. The descendants of Tijerina are buried in the Havana cemetery. By 1976 a colonia in the vicinity had thirty-two dwellings and 176 inhabitants; in 1986 it had forty dwellings and an estimated population of 180. In 2000 the population was 452.