View source for Laguna Seca, Texas

==History==
The Laguna Seca Ranch was initially established in the year 1867 by Macedonio Vela Senior and his wife Mercedes Chapa Cantu. Approximately ten years earlier, Macedonio Vela Senior fled from [[Mexico]] to escape the wave of executions associated with the [[War of Reform]]. In 1867, he purchased one square league ({{convert|4428|acre|km2|0}}) of the Santa Anita Land Grant from John and Salome Balli McAllen.

In the decade spanning 1880 to 1890, he acquired more adjacent real estate holdings to yield a ranch over {{convert|75,000|acre|km2}} in extent; during this decade he grazed cattle, horses,  and mules, and became an exporter of [[donkey]]s to [[Cuba]]. The first [[citrus]] trees in [[Hidalgo County, Texas|Hidalgo County]] were planted within the ranch property. Vela's grandson, Reynaldo Vela, discovered an [[artesian well]] which supplies a lake of approximately {{convert|5|acre|m2}} in size, which lake was historically and inexplicably called ''Dry Lake''. In the year 1975, a historical marker was placed at the ranch. In recent times family members manage the ranch holding, although it is subdivided into three tangent parcels.

In 1871, Vela's daughter, Carlota, grew the first orange trees in Hidalgo County from the seeds of a fruit given her by a traveling priest. This is now an important citrus-producing area. The ranch had grown to {{convert|80000|acre|km2}} when a school was built here in 1892. Delfina Post Office, named for another one of Vela's daughters, was opened in 1893 and a Catholic church in 1894. Laguna Seca Ranch is still owned by the Vela family. (1975)[https://web.archive.org/web/20130225022100/http://atlas.thc.state.tx.us/shell-county.htm] A historic [[cemetery]] exists on the ranch property.<ref>[http://www.cemeteries-of-tx.com/Etx/Hidalgo/Cemetery/Laguna%20Seca.htm History of Laguna Seca Historic Cemetery]</ref>