LAS RUSIAS, TEXAS. Las Rusias (or Rucias) is a colonia at the junction of U.S. Highway 281 and Farm Road 1479, nine miles southwest of Harlingen and one mile north of the Rio Grande in southwest Cameron County. It is on the site of the battle between United States and Mexican forces that started the Mexican War,^qv a fact recounted by a marker at the site. On June 25, 1864, a skirmish was fought there between Confederate and Union forces. The community was first recognized as a colonia during the 1970s, when it had fifty-two dwellings and a church. By 1976 it had an estimated population of 341 and sixty-three dwellings. In 1992 the colonia had scattered dwellings. Rucias is Spanish for "silver grey" and is generally used to describe horses.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Colonias in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of South Texas: A Summary Report (Policy Research Project Report No. 18, Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, University of Texas at Austin, 1977). Marker Files, Texas Historical Commission, Austin.

Alicia A. Garza