Weslaco

Weslaco is a city in Hidalgo County, Texas. The population was estimated to be at 37,601 as of the 2014 United States Census. It is located at the southern tip of Texas in the Rio Grande Valley and is part of the Southern United States. It is near the Rio Grande, across the border from the Mexican city of Nuevo Progreso, Rio Bravo, Tamaulipas, and is about 59mi west of South Padre Island and the Gulf of Mexico.Weslaco derives its name from the W.E. Stewart Land Company. It was the hometown of Harlon Block, one of the Marines photographed raising the flag at Iwo Jima, and of film and television actor David Spielberg.Streets north of the railroad tracks have Spanish names, and streets south of the railroad tracks bear names in English as a consequence of a 1921 municipal ordinance which declared that land north of the tracks be reserved for Hispanic residences and businesses, and land south of the tracks be reserved for “Anglo” residences and businesses. During World War II, sandbag production reached a peak in Weslaco, and the town declared itself the "sandbagging capital of the world."