The mood inside the Jeannette Johnson Memorial Hall at Casa Del Valle in Alamo is jubilant every Friday morning.
The music blares as square dancers twist and turn, clap and stomp to the rhythm of the music. Every now and then, on command, they will let out jubilant “woos.”
From the stage of the dance hall, Joe Saltel leads the dancers in song, delivering calls in between verses of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Born On the Bayou.”
“Swing her silly, boy!” he calls out.
The dancers move enthusiastically, many with big smiles on their faces and they swing and step to the music. Others look much more serious. For them, square dancing is serious business.
“They’re just at a good level,” Saltel said. “They can go anywhere and dance Plus.”
Saltel has been a square dance caller since he was 8-years-old in California. He now resides in Pharr since moving there from California in 2001.
“My grandparents, they graduated from square dancing in 1959,” Saltel said. “My grandfather started doing this, calling but not traveling so much. I just like the people. I love the social part and I love the music. I love teaching people how to move smoothly on the floor. That’s my life.”
Each square is made up of eight people, or four couples. There are numerous levels to square dancing, including Mainstream, Plus, Advanced, C1, C2, C3A, C3B and C4. The group that gathers at Casa del Valle Active Senior Community on Friday mornings are Plus dancers, meaning that they know roughly 100 calls.
The dancers gather every Friday at 10 a.m. and strut their stuff for an hour or so. It’s just one of the many activities that seasonal locals partake in during the winter months. For Winter Texans, the Rio Grande Valley continues to be a tropical respite.
“We came over from Galveston and wanted to see what the dancing was like in the Rio Grande Valley,” Georgine Woolcock said. “We came back in 2015, and we haven’t left since.”
Georgine and her husband Ron spend six months living in their mobile home at Casa del Valle, and the rest of their year at their home in Olympia, Washington. The couple have been cueing and teaching square dancing in the Valley since 2015.
They set up shop at a table near the entrance of the dance hall to collect the entry fees and hand out cue cards to the dancers. While the number of participants isn’t what it used to be pre-pandemic, they said that things are slowly getting back to the way things were.
“We still came down,” Ron said. “We came down all the time. We were unable to do any dancing because the ballrooms shut down. The parks themselves shut them down. I think every year we have a tendency to lose some people because of health, but we get new people that come through.”
“Things are looking up,” he added, citing the gradually growing number of square dancing participants since 2020.
Warren Messer of Mount Pleasant, Iowa has been visiting the Valley for nearly 30 years. He has been square dancing for over 40 years, something that keeps him healthy.
“You got to move to improve,” Messer said. “I’ve had four bypasses, acid reflux, high blood pressure. I’m the best guinea pig the University of Iowa’s got.”
Saltel acknowledged the toll the pandemic had on the winter visitors in the area, but he said that the numbers are slowly returning to where they were before the pandemic.
“We’re probably up 10% more all around,” he said. “That’s a good thing. People got really nervous and scared just like everywhere in the world about being around people socially. Square dancing is a close activity. You’re within a couple of feet of everybody at all times.”
“We love it here,” he continued. “Even if we weren’t dancing or I wasn’t calling, we would probably still be here.”
Winter Texans contribute much to the region during their six months here. According to a study conducted by Welcome Home RGV, they contributed more than $1.9 billion to the local economy last year. That same study estimated that there were nearly 53,000 Winter Texan households in the Valley.
“I like the people, the prices, the weather, and not necessarily in that order,” Georgine quipped.
“When we first came to the Rio Grande Valley, I could just feel a difference in the people,” Ron added. “They were much friendlier, much happier, much more approachable down here. That was all the things that were so wonderful that we liked.”
With the risk of COVID-19 still prominent throughout the country, and national scrutiny placed on the area with regard to immigration and politics, the visitors remain undeterred.
Billy Jordan and his wife Veronica travel from Mount Vernon, which is located roughly 600 miles northeast of the Valley. He said that the square dancing and the warm weather are what keep them coming back to the region.
“The draw is still here,” Billy said. “I don’t know how to get more people coming down here again, but square dancing should be a part of it.”
For local leaders, Winter Texans remain a crucial part of not only the local economy, but also provide immeasurable contributions to other industries.
“I’ve been an accountant, service in the medical community, businesses; I can tell you that our sales and service between October to March increase tremendously because of the influx of winter visitors — certainly in the healthcare industry, the restaurant industry,” Hidalgo County Judge Richard F. Cortez said. “They contribute greatly. They volunteer in the hospitals. They volunteer in different organizations because they have time. They have time on their hands. I think we’re very lucky to have our winter visitors here with us.”
When the song finishes, the dancers join hands.
“Give yourselves a big round of applause,” Saltel said.
The dancers swing their hands inward and bow once, saying in unison, “Thank you,” before bowing again and saying, “You’re welcome.”
“It’s good to be back,” Georgine said.
A full itinerary of activities and events can be found by visiting www.welcomehomergv.com. A complete schedule for Joe Saltel’s dances can be found at www.joesaltel.com.
To see more, view Brownsville Herald photojournalist Denise Cathey’s full photo gallery here:
Photo Gallery: Winter Texans are returning to the Valley to dance
