Santa Maria Cemetery is a vibrant, obviously well-cared for cemetery for Hispanic residents in Pflugerville. Estbalished in 1924, Santa Maria Cenetery hearkens back to a day when schools, city neighborhoods, cemeteries, and churches were all segregated.
From the Texas Historical Commission via Find-A-Grave: (
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"The Texas Historical Commission (THC) has designated Santa Maria Cemetery in Pflugerville as a Historic Texas Cemetery.
Santa Maria was established in 1924 by a group of Mexican families who came here during the Mexican Revolution of 1910 to await the war's outcome and, meanwhile, found work on the rich farmlands.
Because burial insurance was not available to them, they organized a local chapter of the Socidad Funeraria de Agricultores Mariano Escobedo, which was created by a group of Mexicans in South Texas as a pool of resources to help families with burial expenses.
With money collected from donations & fund-raising dances, they bought one acre of land from LaRue Noton on March 13, 1924, for $100.00. San Camilo – named for Camilo Mercado, the first person buried there – was established as a recorded final resting place for those who died in this country.
The cemetery was renamed Santa Maria in 1965.
The organizers whose family names you still hear in the area include: Luis Arreola, Estanislao Cantu, Manuel Flores, Mateo Gomez, Ramon Gonzalez, Eliseo Guajardo, Jesus Guajardo, Jose Guerra, Piedad Luna, Santiago Mejia, Bernadino Mendoza, Camilo Mercado, Miguel Ochoa, Luis Perez, Fabian Ramos, Pedro Reyes, Casimiro Riojas, Antonio Salazar, Eleno Silba, Fidel Silva, Tomas Silva & others. Most were unable to return to their homes in Mexico & settled in Texas.
This same group of people established St. Elizabeth Catholic Parish, first as a mission of Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Parish in Austin, then the small church at North Railroad & Wilbarger, & now at 1520 North Railroad Avenue."