People are often surprised to find a Jamaican restaurant in the middle of Texas. What surprises them even more is that Waco's Jamaican connection is older than almost anything else in town. One of the men who laid out the city in the first place was born in Jamaica.
A Jamaican at Waco's founding
Jacob de Cordova was born on June 6, 1808, in Spanish Town, Jamaica, into a Sephardic Jewish family. He grew up partly in England, learned the printing trade, and in 1834 he and his brother Joshua started a small newspaper in Kingston called The Gleaner. It went on to become Jamaica's leading newspaper, and it's still published today.
By 1839, de Cordova had moved to Texas. He built a business in Galveston and Houston and became one of the biggest land agents in the state. In 1848, a landowner named Jonas Butler hired him to lay out a town on the Brazos River. Working with surveyor George Erath, de Cordova drew up the plan for a new town named after the Waco people who had lived there. In 1850, the two men helped make Waco the county seat of McLennan County.
- 1808Jacob de Cordova born in Spanish Town, Jamaica
- 1834Co-founds The Gleaner in Kingston
- 1839Arrives in Texas
- 1848Hired to lay out a town on the Brazos: Waco
- 1850Waco becomes the county seat of McLennan County
De Cordova spent the rest of his life promoting Texas, publishing maps and guidebooks that brought thousands of settlers to the state. He died in 1868 and was later reburied in the Texas State Cemetery in Austin.
One of the men who drew Waco's first streets was born in Jamaica.
The modern journey
Most Jamaican families in the United States today trace their arrival to the decades after 1965, when changes to U.S. immigration law opened the door to many more people from the Caribbean. For a long time, most settled in New York, South Florida, and other cities along the East Coast, where Jamaican neighborhoods, churches, and restaurants grew up.
Over time, many families moved on from those first stops. Texas cities like Houston and Dallas developed their own Caribbean communities, and Central Texas drew people for jobs, schools, and military service.
Our own path to Waco
Our family followed a similar road. We came to Waco from the East Coast, and in 2016 we bought the building on Taylor Street that would become Tru Jamaica.
When we opened in 2019, we wanted a place where Jamaicans in Central Texas could get a taste of home, and where everyone else could get to know our food and culture.
Share your story
The Jamaican story in Waco is still being written. If your family has roots in Jamaica or anywhere in the Caribbean, we'd love to hear how you got here. Stop by, tell us your story, and we may feature it in a future post. Come get a taste of home — dine in, take out, or order online for pickup.