A Father’s Love: Francois LaBorde’s Letters

By Lizeth Elizondo

The French entrepreneur Francois LaBorde was born April 16, 1867 in Arudy, France. He arrived at Rio Grande City, Texas by steamboat up the Rio Grande in 1878. Soon after settling there, he met Eva Marks, the daughter of a French immigrant father and a mother who was born in Mexico but raised in Texas. The French connection must have been part of their initial attraction. They married on March 2, 1896 and their first daughter, Blanche, was born a year later. Francois fostered his love for French architecture in the LaBorde House, the opulent hotel he built and filled with exquisite European fixtures. His hotel still operates, and is one of the most elegant hotels in south Texas.

In the course of my research on the LaBorde House, I came across a hidden gem. Deep within the Chapa Family papers housed at The University of Texas at San Antonio, one box filled with an assortment of archival items, including legal documents, personal correspondence and photographs offer a glimpse into the LaBorde family. Among these items are four handwritten letters, exchanged between François LaBorde and his daughter Blanche. These letters reveal intimate details about their lavish lives and the unconditional love they had for each other.

Francois LaBorde died at the age of 50, of a possible suicide. Blanche was only twenty years old when tragedy struck their family, but she was fortunate to know how much her father loved her. These letters are a portal into their close father-daughter relationship as well as many social customs of the period. They reveal a warm-hearted man who is only remembered in history as the visionary of a grandiose hotel. Here’s a quick peek at the LaBordes’ exceptional life.

Fifteen-year-old Blanche, the oldest daughter of Francois LaBorde received this post card from her father with a scribble on the front image that reads “Be Happy.” The letters were written in perfect Spanish by her dashing father, a French merchant who had immigrated to Rio Grande City, Starr County Texas, around thirty years earlier. The LaBordes were an atypical family in South Texas thanks to their wealth and social status, but were, like many other families, representative of the region’s common intermarriage and multiculturalism.

LaBorde had a keen eye for business and he quickly integrated himself to the community. Around 1890, he opened a general merchandise store in Rio Grande City and also maintained a strong economic connection to his homeland. He knew the popularity of leather gloves in the European market and made a successful business of shipping primary materials (tanned goods) to French glove makers. His family also had a strong connection with San Antonio. In fact, his wife and their five children spent most of their time at 118 W. Cypress St., their San Antonio home, while LaBorde lived in a palatial Parisian style home he built for the family in 1899 in Starr County. LaBorde’s businesses kept him busy in Rio Grande City, but the family traveled back and forth between the two homes.

Blanche attended the College and Academy of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio run by the Sisters of Charity. “No pains are spared by the Sisters to mold the character of the young ladies,” explained the college’s handbook. Blanche and her classmates were instilled with “the great guiding principles of honor, rectitude, and piety.” In 1914, Blanche graduated, and from what the letters reveal, she moved to the family home in Rio Grande City soon after.

In December 1914, eighteen-year old Blanche was staying in their Rio Grande City home, while her father was in San Antonio. The letters exchanged between the two, reveal health problems as the likely reason why he was staying with his wife and other children away from Rio Grande City. His anguish over his business matters comes through as he makes requests to Blanche to deal with some urgent business. As usual, Francois wrote his letters entirely in Spanish.

Another letter however, also includes her mother’s script, which reveals that as a Texan, she was much more comfortable communicating in a mix of both English and Spanish.

Things changed for the LaBorde family after Blanche’s graduation. Although there is a one-year gap in correspondence, it can be assumed that sometime in that year (or perhaps earlier) Blanche met her dashing soul mate. On Friday, July 2, 1915, nineteen-year-old Blanche eloped with Frank Chapa, a descendant of the Canary Islanders who settled San Antonio, where he was born and raised. They informed her parents via telegram and the news baffled them. The telegram written in broken English reads,

It is likely that Eva wrote the telegram, since Francois typically communicated in Spanish. Or perhaps out of anger and shock, he managed to piece together this succinct message in English. The frustration over this rash decision could not have lasted long, since the LaBorde’s officially announced their daughter’s marriage soon after.

It is important to note that in this official wedding announcement, Francois refers to himself as Frank. He was a man who adapted his name to every occasion. In the 1910 census of Starr County, he is listed as Francisco, his business cards had the name Francois, his daughter’s wedding announcement, Frank, and people in the community of Rio Grande City knew him as “Don Pancho” (the typical Spanish nickname for Francisco). His social and business ties forced him to interact with the Spanish, English, and French speaking worlds so often, that he was comfortable transforming his personality as he saw fit. He wrote his letters to Blanche in Spanish but all of his children spoke French. In fact, Rio Grande City neighbors remembered hearing the family speak French often. In a 1982 interview, LaBorde’s youngest daughter Ernestine (only 7 years old when her father died), said she remembered her father as “a warm vital man of good spirits with a stylish mustache, a bon vivant who enjoyed luxury and travel. I always addressed him in French, the minute he walked in the house, I would say: ‘Je vous aime beaucoup’ and he loved it.” LaBorde was most comfortable communicating in either French or Spanish, his son-in-law, Frank Chapa, recalled that he spoke little English.

A letter written a year after their elopement reveals that whatever pain was caused by Blanche and Frank’s sudden marriage became a thing of the past for the family.

The hotel that Francois is referring to in this letter is actually the additions made to his family’s home to create the LaBorde House. He transformed the palatial home of the LaBorde family into an exquisite hotel that still stands today. The celebration of his accomplishment was unfortunately short lived. A few months after the official opening of the hotel, on the morning of August 11, 1917, Francois was found dead. The official death certificate reveals the cause of death was a gunshot wound in the head. It is still a mystery to this day, weather it was an accident, a business feud gone horribly wrong, or a suicide.

What is a fact is that these letters reveal the immense love LaBorde had for his daughter. One can only imagine the void left in Blanche’s life when her father died and the incredible loss and heartache over the sudden end to their correspondence.

Just as Francois was a visionary in his business endeavors, Blanche also proved to have had a keen eye for choosing a husband. They were married for 45 years and had two girls, Marie Ernestine and Beatrice. In 1960, Blanche died of pneumonia but Frank lived to be 90 years old, until his death in 1985. The name Blanche lived on in the LaBorde family. Blanche’s younger brother Leonard, named his daughter after her in 1927. The memory of Francois LaBorde also lives on in Rio Grande City. His majestic French-style hotel still draws visitors to the area thanks to his exquisite taste and French heritage, which reminds tourists and locals alike of the conglomeration of cultures that met along the Rio Grande.

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