Father Joaquin Zermeño

By PAUL BINZ
The Valley Catholic

SAN ISIDRO — A world away from the bustling urban centers of Hidalgo County lie the two most sprawling parishes in the Diocese of Brownsville. St. Isidore Parish in San Isidro covers almost all of northern Starr County, while that of Immaculate Conception in McCook takes in a broad L-shaped tract in northern Hidalgo County from that community all the way to Linn, San Manuel and beyond. San Manuel is home to a third church, the mission church of St. Anne.

The main route to San Isidro is west along FM 1017 from I-69C/U.S. 281 at San Manuel. All this is ranch country, punctuated with names like Santa Anita, Los Novillos, Santa Esmeralda, Capadonna, Escondido, and San Vicente. The monte is thick with mesquite and tall grass, and cattle grazing in the brush seemingly outnumber people.

Father Joaquin Zermeño oversees the Church’s mission across this vast territory.

Father Zermeño was ordained in 2011 and was first assigned to St. John the Baptist Parish. But his next post beginning six years ago proved a stark contrast to San Juan and his hometown of Brownsville.

“When I first started, one of the biggest things I had to get used to was the silence,” Father Zermeño said. “It is very quiet. You hear the wind. You hear the soft noises are there – the birds, the crickets. The little animals that are around the area that you have to learn to identify what they are because you can suddenly hear them.”

“It’s (even) quieter in McCook than here,” he said from his office in San Isidro. “Here every now and then you hear the traffic along the highway; it’s one of the main routes to Hebbronville. But in McCook, there’s not even that.”

“Sometimes you have to slow down at dusk and dawn because that’s when the critters come out. The wild pigs, the javelinas, the deer, the coyotes … I had to learn to be patient and just take my time on the farm roads after dark.”

The ranch country is snake country, too — home to the occasional rattler.

“In San Manuel, we’ve killed three in the two years I’ve had that church,” Father Zermeño said. “I’ve seen them out on the ranches when I’ve gone to visit people. … we see them a little ways off and just give them their distance.”

Not all the local serpents are hostile, though.

“We have the blue indigo over in McCook,” he said. “They eat rattlesnakes. We’ve had one living somewhere on the grounds at Immaculate Conception since I’ve been the priest out here, and it keeps us free of rodents and rattlesnakes.”

Life here provides Father Zermeño with some unique opportunities for ministry.

“Last year I went out to join (a) rancher who invited me to go out there hunting. The first time we were looking for does, and only bucks came out. Then when we went looking for bucks, only the does came out. … We just shrugged it off and said well, it just wasn’t meant to be.

“But it is a nice way to meet with some of my ranchers and some of my farmers that we are able to be out in the deer blind and we can just have a quiet conversation, very much in whispers the whole time because we’re waiting for wildlife to come out,” he said. “And while we’re standing there with our rifles waiting for something to come out that we can shoot, we also get to talk about whatever is going on in their lives.

“Ministry in a deer blind is very nice. They get to share what they’re feeling and talk about it in a setting that normally they would not get. They’re not the type who would really look forward to coming into the office to come visit with a priest. So I get to go out there and spend time with them.”

The three communities are similar, but definitely not identical, Father Zermeño said.

“They do share the farming-ranching traits,” he said. “They have their own personalities. They’re each unique.”

Father Zermeño manages this huge domain by organizing, dividing and conquering — the faithful have their needs; each of the three churches has Mass on specific days; travel and appointments fall into line.

“Most of it is based on when somebody makes an appointment with me. If somebody wants to meet with me at any particular church, I will just make sure that I will have most of my appointments for that time there,” he said. “I also have my Mass schedule where I try to make sure that I am at the church where the Mass is going to take place for the day, at that location, and when possible I will schedule things for those places.”

“I do try to work around I have to be there at the times of the Masses at each location. … But other than that, it’s what the people need.”

Most of the people live on the historic ranches, each of which has little cemeteries where their ancestors are likely to be interred. At times Father Zermeño is called on to preside over a funeral at one.

From 281 along 1017 to San Isidro, “there are probably about 50 cemeteries in that stretch,” he said. “You see a handful along the road that are visible, but for every visible one, there’s quite a few that are just beyond the brush line.”

Not every occasion is sad, of course, as he also might be called upon to bless a new house or give counsel.

The rural life requires certain adjustments for supplies and necessities. The closest big store is the Walmart on the freeway in Edinburg. Or at times he may visit an H-E-B in Mission or Rio Grande City.

“You plan your visits to the grocery store when you have other errands in town and you have to take advantage of a trip to take care of all business, which is why I don’t mind when people ask me to go and do the staff Mass or help with confessions (in San Juan) because then I have it scheduled to be in town for something and then I can go by the grocery store before or after,” Father Zermeño said.

“Grocery shopping has to be planned out because growing up in town … if we thought of something we needed or if we forgot something, we could turn around and go back easily. Out here, if you forgot it, it wasn’t important.”

Story by The Valley Catholic