San Benito

San Benito is a city in Cameron County, Texas, United States. The population was 24,250 at the 2010 census. On April 3, 2007, San Benito celebrated the 100th anniversary of its naming.The post office was named "Diaz" from April to May 1907. The San Benito Museum, Freddy Fender Museum and Conjunto Music Museum opened in the same building Nov. 17, 2007.On October 25, 1975, on the television show Hee Haw, Freddy Fender saluted his hometown of San Benito, population 15,177.San Benito is part of the Brownsville–Harlingen–Raymondville and the Matamoros–Brownsville metropolitan areas.HistorySan Benito is known as the "Resaca City". The Resaca de los Fresnos, 400ft wide, flows through the city. As indicated by its Spanish name, the resaca was a dry river bed. It is now the main canal of a large irrigation system.San Benito was at first named "Diaz" in honor of Porfirio Díaz, president of Mexico at that time. The people in the San Benito area were predominantly of Mexican ancestry. The Anglo settlers came after the completion of the first irrigation system in 1906. Prior to that time, this region was an arid, mesquite-cactus-brush covered wilderness. Irrigation water touched off the crop production magic in the railroad.