The earliest burial grounds in Laredo were known as Camposantos by Spanish settlers, and the first was probably at San Agustín Church. In 1892, after the city council declared the cemeteries then in use full, Laredo dedicated four blocks for a burial ground, with half conveyed to the local bishop for the Catholic Church. The original plan included a Jewish section and a potters field for indigent citizens, while large private plots were reserved for church groups such as the Ladies' Guild of Christ Episcopal Church and for fraternal, civic, and labor organizations including Mutualistas, Mexican American benevolent groups important to the Mexican labor movement in the United States. A deadly smallpox epidemic in 1898-1899 brought daily burials of small children and closed public places such as churches and schools. In 1926, bodies from an earlier city cemetery on Scott Street were reinterred here and at the Catholic Calvary Cemetery. By the 1930s, African American and infants sections had been added, and through the 1950s Laredo citizens observed Día de los Muertos, or All Soul's Day, with food offerings, eating, and cemetery decoration. A veterans section was added in 1974, and the cemetery continued to grow throughout the 20th century. Its grave decoration and funerary art reflect Mexican American traditions, and despite little formal shrubbery or landscaping, elaborate floral displays express the city's ethnic and religious diversity.