San Ygnacio

Menil-exhibited and -collected artist Michael Tracy took up the cause of San Ygnacio in 1978, when he moved to this historic community in Zapata County, on the banks of the Rio Grande. Tracy founded The River Pierce Foundation in 1990 to encourage artists to create in this remote village (population less than 700) on the border. Thanks to his efforts, the last standing collection of ranch vernacular architecture from the Spanish-Colonial era has been saved, and the Treviño-Uribe Rancho bears a National Historic Landmark designation.