The history of the Rio Grande Valley goes back hundreds of years and some say there are spots that are haunted to this day.

Along the river in Roma, the stone bluffs have seen generations come and go. Downtown has been like this for much of the city's 250-year history.

"Like, you feel like you're cut off from the rest of the world, even though the main road is just about a block away," Starr County Historical Commission Rodolfo C. Salinas said.

Salinas says generations have passed, but the church tower overlooking Roma still remains.

"What that tower has had to witness through all those years," Salinas said.

Sometimes in Roma, you may catch a fleeting glimpse.

They say one of the people who inhabited these streets was a young woman named Isabel Salinas. She was devoted to the church and asked to join the convent.

"They've always had a cadre of very devoted women. The church there," Salinas said.

One day, she looked over a wall and met a man named Daniel Garza; they fell in love.

Isabel left the convent, and they planned to get married. But Daniel had plans far away, he volunteered to fight overseas in the Spanish Civil War. He died in 1937 in the battle of Jarama.

Local author Dr. David Bowles, who wrote about the tale, says Isabel couldn't handle Daniel's death. She put on her wedding dress and wandered the streets of Roma calling Daniel's name.

They say she ran barefoot, caught Pneumonia and died in her angst and that now, you can still see and hear the fleeting signs of her in this oldest part of Roma.

"So I imagine it would be by association, you would assume that that's where the ghost stories would be," Salinas said.

They say the wedding dress she wore is still tattered.

"I've heard stories of La Llorona variation of it, I've never heard that one," Salinas said.

If you're in downtown Roma and you feel a presence, what you choose to believe is up to you. Under the church tower, lives have been lived, lovers have met and generations have come and gone.