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Santino Zertuche

ENGL 1301-

Dr. Sharity Nelson

21 September 2023

A Genre Analysis

The Republic of the Rio Grande Laredo Texas Museum uses this booklet “Laredo

Legacies”, to inform all of the people who are interested in the past of Laredo and to get people

interested in their museum exhibit. The Museum utilizes this booklet to reach and inform the

interested citizens about the different occurrences, stories, important dates, wars, and important

people which are fundamental to Laredo’s past.

In the booklet “Laredo Legacies: A Tribute to Our Past and a Legacy for Our Future” the

museum uses two languages, Spanish and English. They do this to reach a much larger audience

and so that it can be read and comprehended by the citizens of Laredo. The museum chose to use

Spanish and English as the two languages because they know that Laredo is known for its high

Hispanic proportion, meaning Spanish is mostly spoken here. Making their booklet bilingual was

the smartest thing they could have done because it made their audience larger, and they made it

more suitable for Laredo. The usage of these two languages made their audience Spanish,

English, and Bilingual speakers. In the booklet they include many images with small descriptions

or captions that come in both languages so everyone can understand what the images portray.

Under an image of an important signature on a document the description reads “Signature of

Tomas Sanchez” in English, and “Firma de Tomas Sanchez” in Spanish. The subtitles shown
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throughout the booklet also come in both languages, such as “La Fundación de Nuevo Santander

y Laredo” and “Early Industries”.

Subheadings is another text feature the museum added to this booklet to help the readers

better understand what they are reading. Having these subheadings does not only make it more

organized but it also makes it more engaging, helping their readers to not lose interest as quickly.

What these mini headlines or text do is they break all the text up into smaller paragraphs to make

everything easier to find. In the paragraphs where the writing is Spanish the subtitles are also in

Spanish, making it easier to be located by people who want to read in Spanish. In the paragraph

“War on the Rio Grande” they speak about how the Rio Grande was declared a boundary and

about its part in the war. If someone was reading this booklet to learn about the war for a

homework assignment for example, the subtitle would help them locate the information they

need faster.

Many different images such as photographs, maps, and drawings are show in the booklet.

To help their readers they added small descriptions to almost all these images. Image descriptions

are written captions that explain and describe the essential meaning and information the image is

trying to convey. Many times, when we view images we don’t fully understand what it is trying

to get across, this is where image descriptions step in. There is a very vague image in page six of

this booklet, which shows giant clouds of smoke coming from a pile of debris on a field. The

description under this image reads, “Burning of Nuevo Laredo, 1914” after reading this the

readers will now understand what the image is showing and why it is important to the booklet. If

this image didn’t have a description, it would be pointless and confusing because many people

would not know what the importance of it is. Even though all of the images don’t have

descriptions, the ones that needed them the most have them.
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The main goal of the booklet “Laredo Legacies” written by the Museum of Laredo Rio

Grande is not only to get people to know of their museum exhibit they have, but to help people

who are interested in learning about Laredo’s history get informed rightfully. The many different

text features they use in this booklet such as image descriptions, subtitles, and the usage of two

languages furthermore prove my point when I say that they are trying to inform people of

important things that have occurred in Laredo. The booklet’s tittle doesn’t only talk about the

past is also says a legacy for our future meaning this information will also help our future

generations understand what happened in the past. This booklet may also be used by the readers

for informational studies on an assignment or for work they are doing in Laredo. By making this

booklet the Museum is helping the community and informing all of the people in it about their

city’s past, they are giving back to the community.