Donna vicinity, Hidalgo County
Juan Jose Hinojosa (1700-1789) was granted land including this site posthumously in 1790. His great-grandson Antonio Balli Cavazos (1813-1887), was the first to live on the land, which he named the Balli San Antonio Del Esterito Ranch in 1839. He established the family cemetery. The earliest marked grave is that of Atilano Pina (d. 1874), the husband of Francisca Natividad Balli Rubalcaba. Antonio Balli Cavazos was laid to rest with his wife Manuela Rubalacaba in 1887. The last burial was that of Apolonio Balli Salazar in 1956. There are seventeen marked and at least sixteen unmarked graves in the Balli Cemetery. The graveyard is all that remains of a 7,000 acre cattle ranch that dominated this part of the valley for 120 years. (1998)