NORMAN ROZEFF, Special to the Star
People collect many things as a hobby or as an avocation. Among them are produce labels that once identified both the packer and type of produce within the wooden crate to which the colorful labels were glued.
In the 1920s and 1930s into the 1940s this area had numerous produce packing sheds in each town. The labels from the LRGV are primarily grapefruit and orange citrus related. There are however labels for other fruit (pineapple, cantaloupe) and particularly vegetables. These include, tomatoes, cabbage, potato, spinach, sauerkraut, green beans, turnip and mustard greens, onions, and string beans.
Going from east to west here are the number of different produce labels that I have uncovered in each community: Brownsville 7; Olmito 4; Los Fresnos 2; San Benito 8; Harlingen (includes Stuart Place & Adams Garden) 26; Raymondville 4; Rio Hondo 1; La Feria 12; Santa Rosa 1; Mercedes 13; Weslaco 27; Progreso 1; Donna 39; San Juan 1; Alamo 1; Pharr 20; Elsa 2; Edinburg 17; McAllen 13; Hidalgo 1; Mission 7; and Rio Grande City 1.
The very names on the labels are indicative of the attractions sought to buyers. These include animals such as a Brahma bull, a stallion, a fox, tom cats, a longhorn, a doe, a tiger (on a White Fang Band label), an owl, cattle (on a Stampede label), a palomino and a stallion, a turtle and birds such as eagles, a macaw, a white wing dove, parrot, and a blue goose.
Cowboys or their paraphernalia are on nine labels. The citrus fruit labels usually portray the deep pink color of Valley grapefruit.
Other labels rely on catchy names such as Appetizer, America’s Pride, Alamo, First Choice, Cyclone, Magic Wand, Red Blush, Morning Judge, Dun Rite, Flying Tigers, Jack Tar, Southern Chief, Tropic Moon, Blue Ribbon, Blue Baby, Rio Bravo, Rio Royal, Rio Grande, Gold Mine, Gold Rim, Grand Prize, Grandstand, Top Stock, Gim-Me-More, SOS, Minnetonka, The Right Brand, Xtra, Cyclone, Inside Quality, Sweetenuf, Bar-None, and Better ‘N Ever.
A number promote the Texas connection. These include Tex Rio, Tex Kist, Tex Shore, Texas Topper, Texas Moon, Texcel, Texus, Tex-Glo, Texas Girl, Texas Don, Map o Tex, Donnatex, and Gold-Tex.
In the 1960s when packers switched to cardboard cartons the fanciful labels became a thing of the past.
Little is known of the artists who created the bright colorful labels. Many are thought to have been German or other European immigrants familiar with lithography and also intending to glamorize what they conceived the American experience to be. The only local artist was apparently a man from Santa Rosa. Perhaps a knowledgeable reader can point out what Valley labels for which he may have been responsible.
One of the Harlingen Downtown many murals features almost all the produce labels from entities that were once active in the city. This mural is on the Feldman’s Liquor Store on E. Van Buren Avenue.
When the wooden crates became passé a number of unused labels became surplus. Now these have become valuable to collectors who prefer their pristine condition to any that have been removed from old crates.
As with many items of the past Valley produce labels serve to remind us of what first made the area so dynamic in the first half of the 20th Century and drew settlers and developers here from afar.
