Piedras Negras
— — the border city that gave the world nachos.
Not only on a wall.
“A working border city in Coahuila, opposite Eagle Pass on the Texas side. The name means black stones, for the coal that built it. The river is the line on the map; in person it is a slow brown bend with two international bridges and a long pedestrian plaza on each end. Locals will tell you, correctly, that nachos were invented here at a place called the Victory Club in 1943 by a maître d' named Ignacio Anaya. The painting holds the river light against the brick.
Piedras Negras, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Piedras Negras is a Mexican border city in the state of Coahuila, set on the right bank of the Rio Grande directly opposite Eagle Pass, Texas. The city holds about 165,000 residents and serves as the seat of Piedras Negras Municipality. Its name, Spanish for black stones, refers to the bituminous coal deposits found in the surrounding area, which drove the city's founding in 1850. Two international bridges connect Piedras Negras to Eagle Pass; the Eagle Pass–Piedras Negras International Bridge is one of the busiest commercial crossings along the Texas–Mexico border.
Piedras Negras is the birthplace of nachos. In 1943, Ignacio Anaya, a maître d' at a restaurant called the Victory Club, improvised a quick plate of fried tortilla triangles topped with shredded cheese and pickled jalapeños for a group of US military wives who had crossed over from Fort Duncan after hours. He called the dish nachos especiales after his own nickname. The city marks the dish each October with the Festival Internacional del Nacho. The original restaurant is gone; the recipe outlasted it by every available measure.
The Rio Grande, called the Río Bravo on the Mexican side, runs about 3,000 kilometres from southern Colorado to the Gulf. At Piedras Negras the river is slow and brown, broad enough for the international bridges to span in long low arcs. The city sits at roughly 220 metres above sea level on the western edge of the Tamaulipan thornscrub. Summers run hot and dry; winters are mild but occasionally swept by north winds blowing down from the Texas plains. The river is the line on the map and the line of work for the two cities that share it.