Our Lady of Perpetual Help Cemetery
New Braunfels, Comal County, Texas
Marker Inscription
This historic cemetery was established by Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church to meet the needs of the growing Mexican American New Braunfels population that increased in the late 1880s through the 1900s. In 1926, the church organized and, in 1931, the parish purchased land adjacent to Hidalgo Cemetery. The cemetery was enlarged and fenced in 1961. The majority of burials are from the 1930s to the 1970s; however, the oldest headstone is from 1891, as the land was used for burials prior to the establishment of the cemetery. Many servicemen are buried here along with business owners, farmers, grocers, housewives and laborers. Other burials include Francisca Chapa Sanchez (1872-1951), a well-known midwife in the area, Ruben Chapa (1924-2018), the first Hispanic quarterback at New Braunfels High School, and Gregorio Coronado (1920-1978), the first Hispanic attorney in New Braunfels. Tombstones are written in Spanish and English and are made from a variety of materials, including concrete, fieldstone, limestone and wood. Mosaic tiles, ceramic photographs and grave decorations such as conch shells and marbles pressed into concrete are present and reflect old and new Hispanic traditions and their strong Catholic faith. Frequently, miniature shrines decorate the graves with mementos representing the deceased. The settlement of Mexican Americans in New Braunfels had a significant impact on the industrialization and economy of the area, as well as on art, music, culture and sports. Our Lady of Perpetual Help Cemetery is a reflection of the migration, history and lasting culture of the New Braunfels Mexican American community. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2018
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
As New Braunfels's Mexican American population grew from the 1880s onward, Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church established this cemetery to serve a community of servicemen, farmers, grocers, laborers, and homemakers. Organized in 1926 and expanded across the mid-twentieth century, the grounds hold burials reaching back to an 1891 headstone, among them a beloved midwife, the high school's first Hispanic quarterback, and the town's first Hispanic attorney. Tombstones written in Spanish and English, decorated with mosaic tiles, conch shells, ceramic photographs, and miniature shrines, blend old and new Hispanic Catholic traditions. The cemetery is a living record of the migration and culture that reshaped New Braunfels.
Why it matters
The cemetery preserves the distinct funerary art and faith traditions of a Mexican American community that helped build New Braunfels's economy and culture. It stands as testimony to how Hispanic migration and heritage became woven into the fabric of a historically German Texas town.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
By the time this cemetery took shape, New Braunfels was already a well-known German town. Founded in the 1840s by German immigrants who came to the Texas Hill Country in search of land and a fresh start, it kept its Old World language, churches, and customs for generations. But a town is never finished, and by the late 1880s a second community was putting down roots here alongside the first.
That community was Mexican American. Across these decades, families moved into central Texas towns like New Braunfels to work the farms, the shops, and the growing industries of a region on the rise. Comal County needed hands and skill, and the newcomers supplied both, settling in and raising children who would call this place home.
A cemetery is one of the surest signs that a people mean to stay. When Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church set aside ground to bury its own, it was answering a plain human need and making a quiet declaration at the same time: this community had a past worth honoring and a future worth planting.
People & events
The church organized in 1926, and in 1931 the parish bought land next to the older Hidalgo Cemetery. The grounds were enlarged and fenced in 1961. Yet the story here runs deeper than those tidy dates suggest. The oldest headstone reaches back to 1891, decades before the cemetery was formally established, because families were already laying their loved ones to rest on this land.
Most of the people buried here were ordinary in the best sense of the word: servicemen, farmers, grocers, laborers, business owners, and homemakers who built their lives one day at a time. A few names on the marker capture how much ordinary lives can add up to. Francisca Chapa Sanchez, born in 1872, was a midwife known across the area, which means she was present at the very beginning of countless local stories, cradling babies into a changing world.
Others marked firsts that a whole community felt. Ruben Chapa, born in 1924, became the first Hispanic quarterback at New Braunfels High School, taking the field in a role that everyone in town could see. Gregorio Coronado, born in 1920, became New Braunfels's first Hispanic attorney, opening a door in the courthouse and the professions. Together they trace a path from arrival, to belonging, to leadership.
Its place in the American story
The American story is often told as a story of arrival, and this small cemetery holds a chapter of it. The country was built and rebuilt by communities who came, worked, worshipped, and slowly wove themselves into places that had been shaped by someone else first. Here, that weaving happened in a town with deep German roots, and the result is a richer, more layered American town than either community would have made alone.
The firsts recorded here echo a larger national rhythm. In town after town across the twentieth century, families who had started as laborers and newcomers watched their children step onto ball fields, into schoolrooms, and behind lawyers' desks. Those milestones, repeated a thousand times over, are how a nation's promise slowly becomes real for the people living in it.
Just as important is what the graves themselves preserve. Folk traditions and faith, expressed in stone and tile and shell, are a form of cultural memory that written histories often miss. This is where the ordinary texture of an American community survives, in the hands that decorated a grave rather than the pens that wrote a textbook.
If you visit
Walk slowly, and read with your eyes as much as your mind. The tombstones speak in both Spanish and English, and the materials themselves tell a story: concrete, fieldstone, limestone, and even wood, chosen by families with what they had and what they loved.
Look for the small, tender details that make this place unlike a manicured memorial park. Mosaic tiles catch the light. Ceramic photographs let you meet a face. Conch shells and marbles pressed into concrete, and miniature shrines set with mementos, turn each grave into a personal offering. These are living traditions, blending old customs with new, and they reward a visitor who lingers.
On a Hill Country road trip better known for German bakeries and dance halls, this cemetery is a quiet, essential counterpoint. Pair it with a stop in New Braunfels proper and you will see the fuller truth of the town: two communities, one home. Come respectfully, keep your voice low, and let the artistry of grief and remembrance do its work on you.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · Francisca Chapa Sanchez
- · Ruben Chapa
- · Gregorio Coronado
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Panteón Hidalgo (Hidalgo Cemetery)
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