Somos Primos

 July 2006 
Editor: Mimi Lozano
©2000-6

Dedicated to Hispanic Heritage and Diversity Issues
 

Society of Hispanic Historical and Ancestral Research
Celebrating 20th Anniversary 
1986-2006

Los Angeles's Olvera Street
Birthplace of Los Angeles featured in Pictorial History Book by Bill Estrada
in Tribute to the 225th Anniversary of the city of Los Angeles.
For more information, click. 

 

Content Areas
United States . . . 5
Anti-Spanish Legends . . . 38
Military/Law Enforcement Heroes . 41
Cuentos . . . 51
Surname. . . 73
Spanish SARs. . . 75
Orange County, CA . . . 81
Los Angeles, CA
. . . 93
California . . . 100
Northwestern US . . . 105
Southwestern US . . . 105
Black  . . . 109
Indigenous . . . 113
Sephardic . . . 117
Texas . . . 120
East of Mississippi  . . 141
East Coast
. . .150
Mexico
. . . 158
Caribbean/Cuba . . . 173
Spain . . . 177
International
. . . 181
History
. . . 183
Family History 
. . . 189
Archaeology
. . .197
Miscellaneous
. . .199
Calendar
Networking
Meetings   
SHHAR meeting 7/22/06   

END

 

 Letters to the Editor : 

I would like to thank you for an article shown in your June 2004 issue: The Autobiography of Paul Edgar Trejo. It shows a photo entitled, Descendants of Tibo (Santos) Trejo and Maria Clotilda Garner. The little girl in the lower right hand corner, Josephine, is my aunt via marriage to my uncle Lester Creekpaum. Although I knew her from the time I was a very young child, I actually knew nothing of her background. It was wonderful to read about her family history, and see the photo. She was a wonderful woman who gave me much good advice and many recipes. I miss her very much. Her second husband, my uncle Lester Creekpaum, died in 2003 and is buried beside her in Tulsa Ok. 
Many thanks, and best wishes.
Susie McJones  susiemcjones@gmail.com

§
American Indian Origin 
I’m currently writing because I took my children to a dentist and the dentist he mentioned that my children are of American Indian Origin.  He showed me  something on the back of our teeth. He said that is only on American Indians not Aztec or Mayan.  At first I thought it can’t be because I was born in San Francisco Del Oro Chihuahua Mexico. How can I find out more or what can I do?  This really interests me. My mothers last name is Bejarano Arellano or Amezcua and my fathers is Gardea Lazcano. . Thank you for you’re hard work and time.
Sincerely, Mary Delgado mdelgado_37@hotmail.com

§
Thanks for all you do with Somos Primos, we know its a lot of work for you but the information you share has an impact across the country. The February issue was great, especially in terms of highlighting key aspects of the Hispanic Federal employment issue. Please keep up the fine work and keep the faith...
Gil Sandate  gsandate@loc.gov 
Director, Office of Workforce, Library of Congress Washington, D.C.

§
Keep the newsletter coming.  I really enjoy it.   << did I use in June?
Sandie Cisneros Lamm (Lozano-Villareal)

§
Dear Mimi,
Congratulations on being named Woman of the Year for 2006!
March is Women's History Month, and you deserve the recognition, not only from your community, but also from the entire Latino Community.  Believe me, your efforts are dearly appreciated.  We all are so very proud of you, Mimi. Take care, Lorri Ruiz Frain 
lorrilocks@earthlink.net


§
Thank you for the work you do and the cartoon.
Saludos, Antonio Piña tpina@padillahomes.com
Dear Ms. Lozano ~
I am delighted to find this organization and publication. My heritage is mixed (Spanish, Italian and Lithuanian) and I find it tiresome to hear people, though fewer of us who self-identify as Latinos/Latinas/Hispanics, who try to focus on our differences rather than what unites us. Thank you for your tremendous work and scholarship.
Lee Marie Sanchez uudrelee1@att.net

§
I just went to your site. It was extremely interesting. You have done a fantastic job of trying to bring about understanding and harmony between the two races. Thank you for all your hard work!  I would like to be informed when new issues of your magazine are available, please. Thanks so much for the offer.

Sincerely, Nathleen Albright
ldsafricanamericanaffairs@adelphia.net

§
Mimi, I'm still getting e-mails about the article I wrote about my dad for Somos Primos 2004. 
This is so sweet. Mercy scarlett_mbo@yahoo.com

Mercy: Your story was very interesting and well written.  I bet my great-grandmother’s mother Silva Bautista from Jerez and Zacatecas probably knew your grandfathers family. Her husband, my great-grandfather Magdalena Duarte Moreno also had many family members in Zacatecas, Zacatecas. We all came here for the same reason: A better life for us and our children. I thank God for having such wonderful parents and grandparents.
Regards, Albert Duarte Prieto  aduarte@ksimaging.com Santa Maria, California

§

Ola Mimi, Thank you so much for posting my short story on Granny Felipa and the rest of her brothers and sisters. I have uncovered some more pictures and will forward those to you as soon as I am able. I admire all of your work which must be truly a labor of love. It makes me very proud to be a member of the Lozano Family 
oscaroke@cox.net
Oscar R Cisneros Jr.

§
To: Jaime Cader frequent submitter:
What's nice is having a hot cup of coffee and reading Somos Primos early on a Sunday...I always learn something new. And it is so interesting, and getting even better than the time before!!I'm sure Somos Primos will gain in popularity due to the internet.  I learn something new every time I read it. Somos Primos should be a teaching tool, there is something in it for everyone, everywhere.
 
Keep up the great work!!  
Purliemae Wiggins Purliemae@aol.com

 


"My parents didn't speak English.  They learned it little by little.  
They realized that education was the ticket to a better future."  
Tony Cardenas, 
Former California State Assemblyman, now a member of the Los Angeles City Council

   Somos Primos Staff:   
Mimi Lozano, Editor

Reporters/columnists:
Johanna De Soto
Lila Guzman
Granville Hough
Galal Kernahan
Alex Loya
J.V. Martinez
Armando Montes
Michael  Perez
Ángel Custodio  Rebollo
John P. Schmal
Howard Shorr

  Contributors o this issue:  
admin@genealogicalstudies.com.
eventos@genealogia.org.mx
Genealogia-Mexico@googlegroups.com 
hot_ss@yahoo.com 
lbrown@jcollinsassociates.com 
Mrremap1@aol.com 
ORDONEZ49NINER@aol.com


Selina Aguirre
Nathleen Albright
Mary Allen 
Ruben Alvarez 
Gustavo Arellano 
Armando A. Ayala, Ph.D. 
Katie Baird
Christopher Bentley 
Sylvia Bisnar
Eliud Bonilla
Eva Booher,
Mercy Bautista Olvera
Jaime Cader 
Bill Carmena
Oscar R Cisneros Jr.
Sandie Cisneros Lamm
Robin Collins
Harry W. Crosby 
Mary Delgado
Gloria DeLaTorre-Wycoff 
Johanna De Soto 
Albert Duarte Prieto 
Edna Elizondo González 
Macial Fernandez
Mario Garcia
Gloria Golden 
Bobby González
Robert Gonzalez 
Benita Gray 
Eddie Grijalva 
Lila Guzman, Ph.D.
Michael R. Hardwick 
George F. Haskins 
Lorraine Hernandez 
Paula Hinkel 
Win Holtzman
Granville Hough, Ph.D. 
Zeke Hernandez
Bernadette Inclan
John Inclan
Norma Keating
Ignacio Koblischek
Charles Lara
Alex Loya 
Micheal Lozano 
Orlando Lozano 
Rafael Antonio Manchola 
Carlos Marquez 
Susie McJones 
Cindy Mediavilla, 
Dorinda Moreno 
Paul Newfield III 
Charles Ngheim 
Yolanda Ochoa 

Rafael Ojeda
Willis Papillion
Jose M. Pena 
Addy Perez-Mau 
Debra Perez Hagstrom 
R. Perry
Alfredo I. Peña Pérez-Plazola 
Antonio PiñaClaire Prechtel-Klusken 
Mike Price
Joseph Puente
Juan Ramos, Ph.D. 
Ángel Custodio Rebollo 
Norman Rozeff
Jo Russell 
Robert Robinson
Rudi Rodriguez 
Lorri Ruiz Frain
Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez, Ph.D. 
Lynn Ruggieri 
Lee Marie Sanchez 
Richard Sanchez
Gil Sandate 
John P. Schmal 
Diane Sears
Albert Seguin 
Howard Shorr 
Frank M. Sifuentes 
Johnny Silvas 
Bob Smith 
Mira Smithwick
Bishop Jaime Soto, 
Barry Starr
Janete Vargas
Ricardo Valverde 
Purliemae Wiggins 
Arturo Ynclan 
Estella Zermeno
SHHAR Board:  Bea Armenta Dever, Steven Hernandez,  Mimi Lozano Holtzman, Pat Lozano, Yolanda Magdaleno, Henry Marquez, Yolanda Ochoa Hussey, Michael Perez, Crispin Rendon, Viola Rodriguez Sadler, John P. Schmal


United States

National issues
Hispanic One Hundred hosts John McCain at bipartisan event
Bishop Jaime Soto Invocation
Theodore Roosevelt's ideas on Immigrants & being an American in 1907
Mission of the Society of Hispanic Historical and Ancestral Research 
 
Sons Live Out a Dream, Passing the Torch to a New Generation
Study of Latino Professionals Shatters Stereotypes
Newsweeklies Rarely Cover Hispanics
A Look at History - Repatriation / Bickering Delays Illegal-Immigrant Deal 
Educator brings attention to historic period and its affect on her family

Action Item:  

Commission to investigate removal of Mex-Americans during depression
A message from an appalled observer at World War II Memorial in D.C.

Education
Ana Maria Armano, a month short of 80th birthday receives B.A.
Course helps Latinos understand kids' schools 
Website for Diversity Education
French in Maine
Most states fall short in teaching the culture of Latin America and Mexico 
A Guide to the Tool Kit for Hispanic Families
The 7 Secrets of Big Picture Thinkers by Nancy Marmolejo



Culture 
Race and Latino!
Tejano Texian 
Our Lives are better left to chance
In Search of Fatherhood 
Latino Rhythms and their influence on Classic Soul Music: 

Business
Would you believe? . . Meet the Fakers
Multi-ethnic business a piece of cake

 

National issues

Hispanic One Hundred hosts John McCain at bipartisan event, 
May 31st , Orange County, California
Keynote speaker: Senator John McCain
Invocation: Most Reverend Jaime Soto, V.G.
Auxiliary Bishop of the Diocese of Orange

Lord God, Father of all: Your spirit is over all, in all, and through all. It is your providence and grace that has brought together people of every land and race to forge one nation under your wise and watchful gaze.

Grant us a glimmer of that gleeful gaze with which you embrace the diverse fabric of humanity that is this American enterprise. Give us a taste of your delight knowing all the good that comes when brothers and sisters dwell as one.

May we never tire of doing the good. May we never weary or worry about the challenges before us. Give us the courage rooted in the spirit you once breathed upon Adam and Eve, commanding them to multiply and be fruitful.

Bless the food we are about to share. Grace with gladness our fellowship. Enlighten our conversations with your truth and guide our words by your gentle charity.

Awaken our minds with remembrance of those who walk boldly into harm's way to protect our freedoms. Stir our hearts with gratitude for their sacrifices. May we cherish what they defend and struggle here to uphold the Union made stronger by our commitment to be indivisible with liberty and freedom for all. This is our hope and this is our prayer we bring before you Father through Jesus Christ, our Lord, quien vive y reina por los siglos de los siglos. AMEN.

 


[[
Editor:
I was sitting at the table with Bishop Soto, with whom I've had the pleasure of working on several heritage events. I was very touched by his prayer and asked if I could get a copy. Bishop Soto with no hesitation, took his copy out his vest pocket and handed it to me. It gives me great pleasure to share it and know that it will read for many years to come.]] 
Bishop Soto assumed a position as Associate Director of Catholic Charities of Orange in July, 1986. In December of 1986 he assumed the directorship of the Immigration and Citizenship at Catholic Charities. He was involved with the implementation of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986.  Bishop Soto was ordained Bishop on May 31st, 2000. 
For more information on Bishop Soto, go to http://www.rcbo.org/bishop/auxbishop.htm

 


Theodore Roosevelt's ideas on Immigrants & being an AMERICAN in 1907.
Sent by Sylvia Bisnar  Biziebiz@aol.com

"In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American...There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag... 
We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language.. and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people."  . . . . . Theodore Roosevelt 1907

Mission of the Society of Hispanic Historical and Ancestral Research  

[[Editor: In answer to questions about Somos Primos by readers, below is information from our By-Laws.  Somos Primos is the voice of the Society of Hispanic Historical and Ancestral Research. We are incorporated as a 501-c3 non-profit organization.  We are unique in that all of our activities are filled by volunteers.  There is no paid staff and no dues.

Somos Primos' content is generated through the submissions of readers and current news. Every attempt is made by your editor to include the varied enlightening and uplifting philosophical positions that reflect our Hispanic/Latino heritage and diversity.]]
 

Item 2 in the Article of Incorporation: Purposes:
This corporation is a nonprofit public benefit corporation and is not organized for the private gain of any person.  It is organized under the Nonprofit Public Benefit Corporation Law for public and charitable purposes of the corporation are to increase and develop public and individual awareness of Hispanic historical and cultural contribution through educational programs, speakers, publications and assistance, etcetera.

In the Articles II: Philosophy
The concept, as a Society at large, is to research, conserve and share information on Hispanic Ancestral Heritage.  As a group the Society will assist other individuals interested in learning about their genealogical and cultural background.  Although our primary interest is in assisting the Hispanic Community in search of their heritage, we will, however, extend this service to other individuals regardless of  race, color, political, or religious beliefs.

Article III: Concepts
Based on the philosophy of the Society, we propose the following:
A. To use all means at our disposal; to implement, with discretion, the principles set forth in our
     philosophy.
B. To foster the learning, sharing, and research of Hispanic History, Genealogy, and Heraldry.
C. To promote and encourage accurate interpretation of Hispanic history and heritage for the enjoyment of the members and public at large.

For more information, please call me Mimi Lozano 714-894-8161 or write mimilozano@aol.com



Sons Live Out a Dream, Passing the Torch to a New Generation

By Steve Hymon, Times Staff Writer, May 7, 2006
Los Angeles Times, Orange County Edition 
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-council7may07,1,264511.story?
coll=la-headlines-california
Sent by Granville Hough, Ph.D.

Four couples crossed the border from Mexico with little but hope. 
Now all have children serving on L.A.'s City Council.


Ed Reyes
District 1


Tony Cardenas
District 6


Alex Padilla
District 7


Jose Huizar
District 14


With waves of marchers filling the streets around City Hall in recent weeks to protest the nation's immigration policy, the four — Cardenas, Jose Huizar, Alex Padilla and Ed Reyes — have had a unique vantage point. They are on the inside looking out, having come from families that made the leap in just two generations from poor immigrant laborers to elected leaders in the nation's second-largest city. 

These four are not the first Latinos on the council, but their families' stories are all variations on the classic American immigrant tale: the sadness of leaving one's native home entwined with the hope for a better life in a country that offers both promises and obstacles. 

The youngest, Tony Cardenas, was elected to the state Assembly in 1996 and to the Los Angeles City Council in 2003. Today, at 43, he is one of four council members whose parents grew up in Mexico and came — and are here legally — to the U.S. for work and a better life.


The Cardenas Family
Andres Cardenas married Maria Quezada in the state of Jalisco, Mexico, in 1946. Young, poor and with little in the way of a future, the newlyweds immigrated to the United States.

Andres' education went as far as the first grade, Maria's the second. He started picking crops near Stockton, later became a day laborer and eventually started his own gardening business. He and his wife settled in Pacoima, where they raised 11 children. 

The Cardenas family had a bit of good luck. Maria Cardenas was born on Catalina Island, making her an American citizen. When she was 3, her family returned to rural Temastian, in the state of Jalisco, where eventually she met Andres Cardenas.

After moving north, Tony Cardenas' father got his first job in the United States, picking crops in the fields near Stockton. Today a giant photo of him digging potatoes resides on the wall behind his son's City Hall desk, a reminder and a promise all in one.

The family settled in Pacoima in 1954 and bought a house the next year. Cardenas' father eventually began his own gardening business and didn't have to look far for help. His five sons quickly learned that weekends, holidays and summer vacations involved spending time with a shovel.

"My parents didn't speak English. They learned it little by little," Cardenas said. "They realized that education was the ticket to a better future in their own rudimentary way. They kept the house clean, kept us on the straight and narrow, and none of us ever got into trouble with the law."

Of the 11 Cardenas children, eight went to college. One son drowned in a 1971 accident. Tony Cardenas started his own realty firm and then decided to run for the Assembly, in part, he said, because no one from Pacoima had ever before made it to Sacramento. Today he represents parts of the northeast San Fernando Valley on the council. 


The Padilla Family
Padilla's father was from Puerto Vallarta, on Mexico's western coast, and his mother from the desert city of Chihuahua, not far from the Texas border. They came to the U.S. independently of each other, met at a dance in downtown Los Angeles and wed in 1967 or '68. 

To this day, Padilla isn't sure if, initially, his parents came here legally. After marrying, they returned to Mexico and applied for legal residency in the U.S., which was granted.

His father, Santos Padilla, was "master of the griddle" at several of the Du-Par's restaurants — he's still working as a cook — and his mom, Lupe Padilla, had a regular stable of homes that she cleaned. In the afternoons during the school year, the public library in Pacoima served as baby-sitter for the three Padilla children. In summer, they switched to the local pool. 

"We would swim until noon and then they would shut down the pool for an hour, and we would go to a free lunch program because we lived In a poor census tract," PadUla recalled.

In 1990, much to his own surprise, Padffla was accepted into the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He had applied to, but -not visited, the school and had never traveled east of El Paso.

Although he graduated with a degree In mechanical engineering, he returned home after college in 1994 and tell in love with the world of local politics. He said he was driven largely by that year's Proposition 187,' which called for denying illegal immigrants many social benefits but which was overturned in federal court. "

In 1999, Padilla was elected to the City Council at age 26 representing parts of the northeast Valley. Two days later, his mother became a U.S. citizen in a ceremony at the convention center, joining his .father, who had' earned his citizenship in 1998.

Padffla, now 33, is the youngest member of the council -and was three times elected its president. His next stop could be the State Senate. But he has a formidable opponent for the Democratic nomination for,, the 20th District seat in Assemblywoman ndy Montanez (D-San Femando), whose parents immigrated from Mexico in 1970 and also struggled to build a better life

The Reyes Family
Anyone who watches council meetings knows that Ed Reyes frames roost issues —from planning to policing to the price of cable television — in terms of how they will affect the poor in his mostly Latino district, west of downtown and part of northeast LA.

He is not a dour man.. But when he is asked to recount his childhood, it is clear that some of the memories nearest the surface are the hard ones. His father, Luis, was born in Denver, the son of a Mexican Immigrant who worked for U.S. railroads; At age 3, Luis Ramos Reyes. moved back to Mexico. He met his wife, Eustolia, in Mexico City and they returned north in the mid-1950s; she had to live in Tijuana for two years waiting for her papers. They had seven children; Ed Reyes was the first born in the U.S.

Reyes' parents, like their peers, received little in the way Of "formal education. In the U.S., the councilman remembers, they tried to assimilate with a certain "humbleness." .:

He has sharp memories. They include his father's hands, swollen from working to a freezer at the meatpacking plant that made Dodger .Dogs, and his mother in the kitchen of their Cypress Park home before dawn, making tortillas.

Reyes, 47, can recall being mocked for not being able to recite the alphabet In English in first grade and his father suffering a similar fate at work mocked by the foreman

"I remember my parents would make us step aside for a well-dressed white person," Reyes said. "To see all the people come out for the marches was a way of shedding that and saying we have as much rights as anyone."  Last Monday, on the day when hundreds of thousands marched in LA. In support or immigrants' rights, Reyes and hits family put on T-shirts labeled "Team Reyes" and hit the streets.

The Huizar Family
Jose Huizar was born on a ranch near the mountain town of Jerez in Zacatecas, in northern Mexico. His family lived in a three-room house with no plumbing or electricity.

'We didn't own It. We were borrowing it" Huizar said. ''People would lend out their homes, Otherwise they wouldn't be maintained, and it just kind of flowed back into the earth."

His father, Simon, Joined a U.S. government program to supply American farmers with laborers. He traveled the southwestern states picking crops, and, to the early 1970s — when Hulzar.was 3 — the family landed in Boyle Heights. Simon Hulzar found work as a machinist; His wife, Isidra, worked at a meant packing plant.

Jose Huizar hit a rough patch in middle school and was once kicked out for fighting. But he righted himself with the help of a mentor. He went on to UC Berkeley, to Princeton for graduate school and finally to UCLA's law school He won election to the Los Angeles Board of Educatio in 2001 and, last fall, captured a seat on the council to replace Antonio Villaraigosa, representing, a huge swath of east and north-west LA

Last Monday, the day of the latest marches, Huizar was stuck in a hearing on the city's budget. At lunch, he finally had his chance to wade into the crowd;

"What realty hit me about the marches is that I think about what my life would be like if I hadn't left Mexico," said Huizar, 37. "I still have some family back. there. These guys go out to work each and every day in a tough climate tending to cows, picking asparagus and peaches.  "They work hard and still live in poverty. And that could have been me."



Study of Latino Professionals Shatters Stereotypes
By Jennifer Millman © 2006 DiversityInc.com® June 16, 2006
Sent by Willis Papillion willis35@earthlink.net

Most Latino professionals are fully bilingual, work in various industries and are well integrated within American corporate culture, according to a recent survey of Latinos in the workplace. 

The Hispanic Alliance for Career Enhancement’s (HACE) latest findings may give many Americans pause. More than 500 professionals completed HACE's e-mail-administered 2006 Latinos Professional Pulse Survey http://www.hace-usa.org/news.htm. The results reveal an image of Latino
workers that confounds long-held stereotypes and addresses questions raised amidst the political fervor over immigration that has rocked the nation in recent months.

"With so much focus on the issue of immigration, many people are unaware that a significant number of college-educated Latinos are successfully working in professional positions and advancing in their careers," said Abe Tomás Hughes, HACE’s president and CEO. "This is an upwardly mobile
segment comprised of English-dominant individuals of Hispanic heritage that are, in practically all cases, citizens or legal residents authorized to work here. They represent model citizens of this country and offer a clear picture of how Latinos are increasingly contributing to the future of the
U.S." 

Diversity Inc Bookstore 
http://store.diversityinc.com/cgi-bin/commerce.exe?preadd=action&key=VINCERO001
Heritage Hispanic-American Style is a rich, entertaining cultural compendium of facts that surveys the vast Hispanic culture, from its birthplace in Spain to the lands of the new world where its language, religion, and customs greatly influence two continents. 

Twenty-seven percent of respondents work in publicly-held Fortune 1000 companies and 30 percent work in private businesses. More Latinos work in nonprofit, government or academia than whites, according to the survey. 

"You see Latino involvement across all industries and economic sectors. In the military, they have the greatest ratio of Medal of Honor recipients [of] any group, which shows both courage and dedication," said Alma Morales Riojas, president and CEO of the Washington, D.C.-based MANA, A National Latina Organization. "For those of us who are not only Latino but have dealt
in issues of equal opportunity and diversity, we know our common traits. We have no problem once we get in the workplace; the problem has been getting our foot in the door."

Survey results confirm Latinos' capacity for advancement. Of the 500-plus professionals who completed the survey, 65 percent reported receiving promotions at some time in their careers, with more than 90 percent occurring in the last five years. 

The survey also indicates that money is not the primary objective for most Latinos, as most said they seek progress over plumped-up paychecks. They consider growth potential (96 percent) and positive environment (96 percent) important/very important in future career choices. Nearly 80 percent of respondents say working for a company on The DiversityInc Top 50 Companies
for Diversity list is a factor in their career decisions. (See who's in The DiversityInc 2006 Top 50 Companies for Diversity http://www.diversityinc.com/public/21029.cfm.
 
More respondents report satisfaction with their jobs than not by a margin of nearly 2 to 1. This translates to higher retention rates that minimize disruption and contain costs often generated from high turnover. Three out of five Latino professionals have been at the same job for more than two
years, the survey shows. 

"I think it’s well documented that Latinos, whether they hail from Mexico, Puerto Rico or South America, historically have a track record of pride in their work and loyalty to their employer," said Riojas, who also chairs the Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility’s board of directors.
"Even in places where there are employment issues, Latinos are consistently more likely to see challenges as opportunities to grow and move ahead." 

By a ratio of 2 to 1, most do not have affinity groups or other forums for interaction with other Latinos at work. But this has not stopped these professionals from integrating themselves into corporate culture.

The majority of Latino professionals in the United States have been in the country for more than a generation. Nearly 90 percent are fully-or-limited bilingual, both written and spoken, and not a single respondent cited a total lack of English skills.

Almost 40 percent said speaking Spanish is not important for their current jobs, but the majority believes that may change as Latino numbers continue to rise faster than any other segment of the population. (See also Despite New Law, Spanish is Here to Stay) http://www.diversityinc.com/public/21667.cfm .

"The idea that there are Latinos in this country who are fully integrated, fully English proficient and working very diligently in high-powered professional jobs puts to rest the idea that these are 40 million of the same kind of folks," said Lisa Ramirez, director of Affiliate Member Services at the National Council of La Raza. "That's just not the case."


Newsweeklies Rarely Cover Hispanics
by Seth Sutel, June 14, 2006  news@hbinc.com  (HispanicBusiness.com)

A study commissioned by a Hispanic journalists' association has found that the three main newsweekly magazines ran very few stories about Hispanics last year, despite the growing importance of the Latino population. 

The five-month study, released Wednesday, found that only 18, or 1.2 percent, of the 1,547 stories that appeared last year in Time, Newsweek and U.S. News & World Report were predominantly about Latinos. 

Joseph Torres, deputy director of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, which commissioned the study, said the coverage of Hispanics tended to focus on immigration, despite the fact that most are born in the United States. Of the 18 stories that were mainly about Latinos, 12 focused on immigration, the study found. 

In those stories, Latinos were often portrayed as a "disruptive force" to U.S. society, Torres said. 
Torres did say that the study, which was conducted by researchers at Arizona State University, noted that both Time and Newsweek devoted cover stories to Hispanics last year, with Time listing the 25 most influential Hispanics in America and Newsweek chronicling a "Latin Power Surge" following the election of Antonio Villaraigosa as mayor of Los Angeles. 

"We praised them for that" in the study, Torres said of the twin cover stories on Hispanics. "Outside of immigration, the coverage was much better." 

"This report raises important issues," Steve Koepp, deputy managing editor of Time, said in a statement. "We welcome the feedback and are glad to see our cover story on the 25 most influential Hispanics commended for its broad representation of Hispanics in America." 

Donna Dees, a spokeswoman for U.S. News & World Report, said in a statement that the magazine's mission was "to help readers of all backgrounds make sense of the week's news events." She also noted that the report found that nearly 80 percent of the magazine's stories mentioning Latinos were not predominantly about Latinos. 



Illegal immigrant turned U.S. citizen has come a long way
By John Gittelsohn,
The Orange County Register, 06/26/06
Sent by Ricardo Valverde  RValverde@ochca.com

The smugglers who brought Vilma Palma across the border put her in a coffin-sized box concealed under a pickup truck bed. They told her to stay still and quiet until they passed the immigration checkpoint at San Clemente. The truck tires roared as Vilma, then just 9, sped blindly north to an uncertain future.

"There was a hole, and I could see my sister," Vilma recalls of the last leg of her journey 12 years ago from El Salvador. "It was too loud to talk, so I just lay there."

Vilma's entry to the United States started as a nightmare, but she turned it into an American dream.

She became a U.S. citizen last year. Now 21, she graduated from UC Irvine this month and plans to go to law school. Today, she will be honored with 13 other winners of the Merage Foundations' $20,000 American Dream Fellow award.  How did the little girl in the box find her way?

Vilma was born with little promise on Sept. 29, 1984, in Jayaque, a coffee-growing village in the foothills of southern El Salvador. When she was 7 months old, her mother, Blanca Palma, left her infant and two older daughters with their grandmother and went to seek a new life in California.

"She was a single parent with three kids," Vilma says of her mother. "That was the only way she could get enough money to live."

Blanca Palma found work in the fields of the Coachella Valley. After a 1986 immigration amnesty, she became a legal U.S. resident, and she paid consultants to help bring her daughters to California through legal channels.

"She found out years later that her attorneys never filed any papers," Vilma says.  It was an injustice Vilma cannot forget.

In 1994, Blanca Palma paid $3,000 to smuggle her daughters to California. They entered Mexico on a barge, hopped a freight train to Guadalajara and flew to Tijuana. On the moonlit night of March 11, 1994, the girls walked barefoot on a beach to bypass the U.S. border fence. They boarded a San Diego trolley and then transferred to trucks with hidden compartments.  

"The only thing in my mind was 'Let's not get caught,'" Vilma says. Once she settled into her new home, Vilma set bigger goals. Her mother would come home from the fields exhausted, beaten by the 100-degree heat, her hands and back aching from harvesting grapes or broccoli or strawberries. Vilma would massage her mother's feet.

"She would tell me to do well in school, so I didn't have to work like her," Vilma says. Her two older sisters never finished high school. "They had a lot of potential, but they didn't have the opportunity," Vilma says. Vilma created opportunities.

She started third grade in Coachella speaking only Spanish. By fifth grade, she was Student of the Year, staying after the last bell rang to study in the computer lab.

She attended Coachella Valley High, where more than a third of her freshman class dropped out, many following their parents to the fields.

Vilma followed the advice of guidance counselors. She enlisted in a string of programs - Upward Bound, AVID, COSMOS and SAGE - building a network of adult mentors and high-achieving friends.  "You need to have a drive to succeed," she says. "And people need to push you."

Vilma took honors and Advanced Placement classes, graduating with a 3.96 grade-point average. She won a full college scholarship from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The summer before her senior year, Vilma attended a math and science program at UC Irvine. The director was Melina Duarte, who also graduated from Coachella Valley High. Duarte took Vilma under her wing and persuaded her to attend UCI, becoming a surrogate sister, introducing Vilma to internships, professors and administrators.

"She was a shy little girl who seemed like she felt very out of place here," Duarte says. "Some students like her don't make it past their first year. She got a 4.0 in her first quarter."

For Vilma, the new challenge was an opportunity. People gravitated to the dark-eyed, sweet-natured young woman, offering her a hand up.

"She juggles a lot, but does it with a sense of grace and a sense of calm," says Karina Hamilton, director of SAGE, a UCI program for disadvantaged students where Vilma worked as an intern. "She has a quiet strength."

Vilma majored in criminology and interned with the Orange County public defender's office. She spent a quarter studying in Madrid.

"She searches for opportunities and takes them. She doesn't just sit and wait," Duarte says. "For her to have made it here is a big deal. To go where she's going is bigger."

Winning the Merage Foundations award in May was a big deal. Fellow winners are graduates of Harvard and Stanford. But Vilma didn't feel like she could enjoy it because she still didn't know what she was doing next year. She was wait-listed at USC, Cornell and UCLA law schools.

On June 9, Vilma's cell phone rang as she was driving to Irvine from the public defender's office. It was an admissions officer from UCLA, who asked if she still wanted to go to law school. Of course, she said yes.  "I called my mother," Vilma says. "I called everyone. Then I got home and started sending e-mails. I was so happy."

In her applications for the Merage award and law school, Vilma wrote about her goal of returning to the Coachella Valley with her law degree and starting a legal center for the people she grew up with - the people she could now so easily leave behind if she wanted.

The center's main purpose would be to help immigrants, to open America's door for more newcomers, to protect people from the kinds of scams that kept her, as a little girl in El Salvador, separated from her mother.  "So many people helped me," Vilma says. "It's time to give back."

 


A Look at History - Repatriation / Bickering Delays Illegal-Immigrant Deal 
~~ What history can tell us about anti-immigrant zeal ~~
By Cragg Hines, cragg.hines@chron.com  Houston Chronicle, April 5, 2006
Hines is a Houston Chronicle columnist based in Washington, D.C. 
Sent by Zeke Hernandez zekeher@yahoo.com
 
THE sharp-edged, vigilante tone of the current immigration debate is as old as it is regrettable.
Today's rancor sounds all too familiar to academics who mine the often-neglected field of immigration history and to politicians who are beginning to pay attention to some startling findings.

California state Sen. Joe Dunn remembers being "absolutely devastated" as he read the story of
concerted government action to force at least 400,000 Hispanics out of the United States as economic woes mounted in the Great Depression. Some historians estimate total Hispanic departures at closer to 2 million if the tally includes families, fearing deportation or further financial hardship, whose departure was nominally voluntary.

It is a sordid story that echoes from the farm fields of the Rio Grande Valley and Winter Garden of Texas to the barrios of Los Angeles and as far north as Detroit and Gary, Ind.

Most alarming, Dunn, D-Santa Ana, said, was that up to 60 percent of those forcibly stampeded across the border, some on locked trains, were U.S. citizens. So-called "repatriations," at least in those instances, were actually illegal forced removals from a homeland.

It is as shocking as the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II, except that very few people know about it.

Dunn's reading of Decade of Betrayal: Mexican Repatriation in the 1930s, by historians Francisco E. Balderrama and Raymond Rodríguez (University of New Mexico Press, revised edition 2006) led him to introduce legislation offering an apology from California for the coerced relocations.

After several attempts, and the removal of any suggestion of reparations, a bill was passed last year
by both Assembly and Senate, was signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and became law Jan. 1.

A plaque marking the apology is to be erected in Los Angeles, possibly at La Placita, a downtown park in the historic Olvera Street area, where perhaps the most notorious deportation raid took place in February 1931.

An apology and plaque are not much, but it's more than any other governmental or private entity with a hand in the sorry campaign has done.  Today, Rep. Hilda L. Solis, D-Calif., will introduce in the U.S. House a bill that could lead to a national apology.  Solis's proposal calls for appointment of a seven-member commission to investigate the deportations and report back to Congress within a year. Its members would be appointed by the president
and congressional leaders.

"The time has come," said Solis, a third-term House member from a heavily Hispanic district in eastern Los Angeles who has been interested in the mass deportations since she first learned of them in a Chicano studies program in college. She recalls seeing government records of how raids and removals were plotted.

"I was really horrified this information was not given any exposure," she recalled. "It's amazing how we're robbed of our heritage."

Solis, whose father came to the United States from Mexico in the 1940s, envisions a careful inquiry into the period, which she knows may be sensitive as it could include such questions as bank and insurance claims. But she hopes her proposal will strike a responsive chord with the Bush administration, especially its ranking Hispanic, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales.

Lack of knowledge about the mass deportations is a result of what historian Abraham Hoffman called "a kind of benign neglect."

Hoffman, author of Unwanted Mexican Americans in the Great Depression: Repatriation Pressures, 1929-1939 (University of Arizona Press, 1974) said that just as studies of blacks in American history suffered for a long time from the "Booker T. Washington and all the other Negroes" syndrome, study of Hispanics' role was classed in many minds as "Cesar Chavez and all the other Mexicans."

Even Hispanics are generally unaware of the mass deportations, said Nora Rios McMillan, a historian at San Antonio College who has written about the removals. "I had not been aware of it," said McMillan, whose family came from Mexico in the 1920s and established a grocery in Edinburg. Few historians between the Depression and the 1960s delved into the deportations, she said. McMillan's research, as well as that of others, shows many of the deportees were children, most of whom were citizens, even if their parents were not, and could not speak Spanish.

Balderama and Rodríguez write that the raids stemmed at least in part from Secretary of Labor William N. Doak's "personal vendetta to get rid of the Mexicans." His motivation, they said, "was purely political, for he was acting under President (Herbert) Hoover's orders to create a diversion to counteract organized labor's hostile attitude toward his administration. "Deportation meant jobs for real Americans," the authors said the reasoning went. Sound familiar?

Deportation: A removal from one country to another, or to a distant place, exile, banishment
Repatriation: Return or restoration to one's own country.


Educator brings attention to historic period and its affect on her family
Hispanicvista.com Week of March 27th, 2006  Sent by Howard Shorr  Howardshorr@msn.com

By Valerie Orleans March 17, 2005 Christine Valenciana, assistant professor of elementary and bilingual education, was always aware that her mother, as a child, had been forced to return to Mexico in 1935. What Valenciana didn’t realize was that her mother was just one of up to 2 million Mexican and Mexican-Americans who were deported during that era.
“I thought what happened to her and her family was an isolated incident,” she recalled. “I had no idea that this happened on a much larger scale.”

Here, Valenciana discusses her work as it relates to the mass deportation of people, many of whom were American citizens, that was systematically practiced during the Great Depression.

Q: How did you first learn that close to 2 million Mexican and Mexican-Americans were deported to Mexico in the 1930s? 
A: I was a history major at Cal State Fullerton, and one of the classes I took was a community history class. Having a Mexican background, I was interested in researching an area that had to do with Mexican-Americans. While I was trying to determine a topic, I spoke with my mother, Emilia Castaneda, about her experience as a child. That’s when I discovered that many families had been deported to Mexico in the late 1920s through the 1930s.

Even prior to this, there were “whisper” campaigns and employers were asked not to hire those suspected of being of Mexican descent. Actually, there were laws passed that “aliens” could not be hired to work. In addition, massive deportation raids were conducted throughout the country, including Orange and Los Angeles counties. An atmosphere of fear was created in the Mexican-American community.
Q: So what happened? Why were these people deported? 

A: During the Great Depression, anywhere from one to two million people were deported in an effort by the government to free up jobs for those who were considered “real Americans” and rid the county governments of “the problem.” The campaign, called the Mexican Reparation, was authorized by President Herbert Hoover. Although President Franklin Roosevelt ended federal support when he took office, many state and local governments continued with their efforts.

Estimates now indicate that approximately 60 percent of the people deported were children who were born in America and others who, while of Mexican descent, were legal citizens.
Q: How did you go about conducting your research? 

A: It was all primary research because historians hadn’t really paid much attention to it. I spoke to my mother, who referred me to some of her cousins. I made public announcements and found other interviewees. It snowballed from there. These interviews are housed in the Center for Oral and Public History. Now, I am conducting new research focused on the education and language of the children and families involved. 

Q: What was it like for those who were deported? 
A: It was traumatic, of course. For example, my mother was nine years old. She lived in Los Angeles. Her dominant language was English, although she knew rudimentary Spanish. Suddenly, she was removed from the only home she’d known, taken out of her school and away from her friends, and sent to an unfamiliar country. She didn’t understand the customs. She was forced to live outdoors. She was teased because she couldn’t speak Spanish very well. And keep in mind that she was an American citizen. 

Q: What was it like for adults? 
A: It was very difficult for them as well. Mexico also was going through a depression at that time, and it was hard for the adults to find jobs in Mexico. Returning Mexicans were unwanted. Many of these people had jobs, homes and families in the United States. They hadn’t been in Mexico for decades – they couldn’t just pick up and start again.

This act literally broke up families. For instance, some who were deported had subsequent children who were born in Mexico – that meant that some children in the same family were American citizens while others were not. As these children grew older and married, they often had children who were born in Mexico and so these children were not considered American citizens either. The effects of this unconstitutional deportation are far ranging and have ramifications even today.

Q: Were there ever any attempts to rectify this wrong? 
A: Part of the problem is that many did not realize this was part of a huge concerted effort. Now that they’re aware of it, there have been some attempts to recognize what happened. Some looked at what happened to those who were interned in Japanese camps during World War II and recognized that they were, in fact, discriminated against. It’s also important to realize that it took the Japanese community several decades to organize in response against their treatment – and they were still in this country. 

Q: What kind of attempts have been made to publicize this? 
A: One of our alumi – Bernie Enriquez, a field representative for State Sen. Joseph Dunn – was aware of the Mexican Reparation, having read my husband’s – Francisco Balderrama – book, Decade of Betrayal. He brought the book to the attention of Sen. Dunn [D-Santa Ana], who introduced a bill in 2003 asking for a removal of the statute of limitations for survivors like my mother to make claims against the state of California for, what was quite frankly, an unconstitutional deportation. 
MALDEF [Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund] filed a class action suit on behalf of the survivors. Sen. Dunn sponsored a state senate hearing in July 2003 on this unconstitutional deportation. My mother was one of the survivors who spoke. My husband was an expert historian witness.

Q: What was that like watching your mother? 
A: I had very mixed emotions. On the one hand, I was tremendously proud of her. This is a woman – in her 70s – with very little formal education, speaking before a group of powerful legislators. On the other hand, I was nervous for her and helped her prepare. But she did just fine. I asked her what she hoped to get out of all this. She said simply, “I just want people to know what happened.” 

Q: Did they get an apology? 
A: No. Both Governors Davis and Schwarzenegger refused. Apologizing is an admission of guilt and neither wanted to get involved in what they considered financial ramifications. What was very disappointing about Schwarzenegger’s response was that he indicated that those affected had had years to file civil suits. But most of those who were deported were children. They were abused, had their constitutional rights violated and were kicked out of their country. They weren’t even aware that they had constitutional rights let alone that they had been violated.  

Q: So what happens now? 
A: Sen. Dunn will re-introduce related legislation. We are doing our best to educate others about what happened so that this never happens to anyone again. People were denied their rights, sent to a foreign land and children were not allowed to finish their education.

 

 

                                                Action Items

Commission to investigate removal of Mexican Americans from US during Great Depression

Dear Friend:    This week I will introduce legislation to establish a commission to investigate the removal of Mexican Americans from the United States during the Great Depression. I am writing to seek your organization's support of this important bill and to invite you to join me in raising our nation's conscience about this dark chapter in American history.

Absent from American textbooks and curricula, as many as two million American citizens of Mexican descent were removed from the United States from 1929 through 1941 to, in the words of authorities, keep scarce jobs for "real Americans," not Mexican-Americans. Laws forbidding employment of Mexicans were accompanied by cries to "get rid of the Mexicans!" The forced deportees hailed from all areas of the country, including Illinois, Michigan, Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, New York, and California. Those forcibly relocated outside the United States included U.S. military veterans of World War I.

As my legislation notes, there has never been an official inquiry into the mass removal of Mexican-Americans during the Great Depression. Like the legislation which established a commission to study the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II, my bill would create a federal body to investigate the mass removals and to report its findings and any recommended remedies to Congress. It is important that the public and our government learn more about this troubling episode in American history which has left a lasting impact on communities and families all across the country. 

I hope I can count on a letter of support from your organization for this important legislation. Should you have any questions regarding this bill, please do not hesitate to contact me or Eleonor Velasquez of my staff at Eleonor.Velasquez@mail.house.gov or (202) 225-5464.

Thank you for your attention to this important matter. 
Sincerely, HILDA L. SOLIS, Member of Congress
Sent by Mira Smithwick, SagaCorpus@aol.com


Editor:  Thank you to Kathlyn Acuna and Paul Newfield who sent information identifying this as a Urban Legend. http://www.snopes.com/politics/military/memorial.asp.  Both of the following were part of Roosevelt's speech, but the first sentence below was used on the monument, and not the second.
No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people, in their righteous might, will win through to absolute victory.

With confidence in our armed forces, with the unbounding determination of our people, we will gain the inevitable triumph, so help us God.

 MESSAGE FROM AN APPALLED  OBSERVER:

Today I went to visit the new World War II  Memorial in Washington, DC.    I got an unexpected history lesson.  Because I'm a baby boomer, I was one of the youngest in the crowd.   Most were the age of my parents, veterans of "the greatest war," with  their families.  It was a beautiful day, and people were smiling and  happy to be there.  Hundreds of us milled around the memorial, reading  the inspiring words of Eisenhower and Truman that are engraved  there. 

On the Pacific side of the memorial, a  group of us gathered to read the words President Roosevelt used to announce the attack on Pearl Harbor:  Yesterday, December 7, 1941-- a date which will live in  infamy--the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately  attacked. 

One elderly woman read the words  aloud: "With confidence in our armed forces,  with the unbounding determination of our people, we will gain the inevitable  triumph." But as she read, she was suddenly turned  angry.  "Wait a minute," she said, "they left out the end of the quote.   They left out the most important part.  Roosevelt ended the  message with "so help us God.'"   

Her  husband said, "You are probably right.  We're not supposed to say    things like that now." "I know I'm right," she  insisted.  "I remember the speech." The two looked dismayed, shook  their heads sadly and walked away.   Listening to their conversation, I thought to myself,  "Well, it has been over 50 years.  She's probably  forgotten."  But she had not forgotten.   She was right.

I went home and pulled out the  book my book club is reading --- "Flags of  Our Fathers" by James Bradley.   It's all about the battle at Iwo Jima    I haven't gotten too far in  the book.  It's tough to read because it's a graphic description of the  WWII battles in the Pacific.   
  
But! right there  it was on page 58.  Roosevelt's speech to the nation ends in "so help  us God." 
The people who edited out that part of the  speech when they engraved it on the memorial could have fooled me.  I  was born after the war.  But they couldn't fool the people who were  there.  Roosevelt's words are engraved on their  hearts.

Now I ask: "Who Gave Them the Right to Change the Words of History?" People need to know before everyone forgets. People today are trying to change the history of America by leaving God out of it, but the truth is, God has been a part of this nation, since the beginning.  He still wants to be...and He always will  be! 

Sent by Bill Carmena  JCarm1724@aol.com  "I personally heard the speech on 8 Dec 1941  and "So help us God " was used . Why was this important historical phrase deleted ?????"

Editor:   I have received this message from many people, but no one identified themselves as Bill Carmena did, remembering the day and the speech by Roosevelt, when it was given. 

Contact your elected officials and ask them why the important historical phrase was deleted.  Surely now is the time to take a stand as a historically founded Christian nation. Perhaps Dr. James H. Billington, Librarian of Congress, assigned the task as public guardian, caretaker of the history and documents of Congress should hear from you too. An email that suppose to reach him:  bicentennial@loc.gov   

Veterans History Project Staff Contact Information
Bob Patrick, Director
(202) 707-4916   (888) 371-5848 (toll free)    (202) 252-2046
vohp@loc.gov  www.loc.gov/vets

Peter Bartis  (202) 707-4919 Senior Program Officer
Contact for Military and Veterans Organizations and Associations, Members of Congress

Anneliesa Clump Behrend  (202) 707-9822  Public Relations Specialist
Contact for Media and Press; Public Outreach and Relations 

I hope everyone will pick up the phone and make a call asking,  why were the words of Roosevelt not accurately quoted and what can be done to rectify this inaccurate historical portrayal of our President's character and leadership? . . .  Mimi



Education



Left to right, niece Alejandra Ruano, daughter -in-law, Kristi Edwards and son Paul Edwards. Photo: Sang H.Park OC Register

Ana Maria Armano, a month short of 80th birthday receives B.A.

 
http://campusapps.fullerton.edu/news
/2006/CLE_honoree.html

Born: June 11, 1926, Chicago, Illinois
B.S. degree: May 11, 2006, Fullerton, Calif.
Sent by Granville Hough

Appropriately timed to celebrate her 80th birthday next month, Ana Maria Armano has been selected to receive the Continuing Learning Experience Award at Cal State Fullerton. 

Presented by Continuing Learning Experience (CLE), the honor, along with $250, is presented each year to an older Cal State Fullerton graduate with a high G.P.A. Armano is graduating cum laude with a B.A. in anthropology and will take part in commencement ceremonies Sunday, May 28. She is looking forward to wearing her cap and gown when she crosses the stage and is recognized for completing her bachelor's degree - with her family and friends in attendance.

Born in Chicago, Armano was taken to Mexico by her parents at age 3 to live with her grandmother and uncles. She recalled evenings after dinner when she would sit on her grandmother's lap and listen to the narratives by one of her uncles about books he had read. She usually fell asleep before the end of the stories and couldn't wait until she could read the works of such literary figures as Alexandre Dumas and Victor Hugo for herself. Thus began her zest for learning, which continues to this day.

Years later, she moved back to the United States, where she married and had a son and daughter. She has three grandchildren and lives in the city of La Habra.

Armano worked in the business office of the Centinela Valley Union High School District for many years. Being bilingual, she received training to teach one evening adult business class each semester. After she retired, she began pursuing her college education. 

Following her graduation from El Camino College, she enrolled at Cal State Fullerton in 1998. She majored in anthropology because of an interest in the origins and development of man. If she hadn't studied anthropology, Armano says, she would have majored in astronomy.

"If I don't work toward my master's degree, I'd like to study speech and take gourmet cooking classes," she says. 

In addition to being active in her church and with her friends, Armano loves to read and especially enjoys the novels of American authors Ernest Hemingway and John Steinbeck, and those of the Scottish writer A. J. Cronin. 

Her commencement exercise is scheduled for 11 a.m. Sunday, May 28, in the Titan Student Union's Portola Pavilion.    http://campusapps.fullerton.edu/news/2006/CLE_honoree.html


Course helps Latinos understand kids' schools 
By Juan Esparza Loera,  (Updated Monday, December 5, 2005)
Willis Papillion,  willis35@earthlink.net 

Juan Pacheco, a 41-year-old farm supervisor in Dinuba, never went to college because he had to work in the fields to help his family. That course, he vowed, will not be repeated by his three youngest children, ages 14, 12 and 7. Three adult children never went to college.

But Pacheco faced a hurdle common in Latino households: With little understanding of the school system, how can he help his children with their homework and make sure they are taking the necessary courses to get into college?

"I think a lot of parents want to help their children, but we come from another culture. If our children wind up in college, fine. If they don't, then they come to work with us," says Pacheco about Latino expectations of education.

The answer came in a telephone call a few months ago asking him to participate in a conversational meeting (organizers don't call it a class) sponsored by the Parent Institute for Quality Education (PIQE). Once in the course, Pacheco — who reached the high school level in his native Baja
California, México — learned the basics about college-eligibility tests and how to motivate his children to go to college.

Pacheco was among 32 parents who gave up one evening a week for nine weeks to graduate last week. Now he notices 14-year-old Lilia, an aspiring lawyer, talks more openly with him about school. When she graduates from college, she will be the second in her immediate family to earn a college degree. (An uncle died six months after getting a chemical engineering degree.)

PIQE is laying groundwork to change the ugly statistics about Latinos in education: Only 22.9% of high school graduates in 2001 met the requirements for University of California or California State University admission; Latinos make up more than half of high school dropouts; and only 7.1% of
Latinos 25 and older hold a bachelor's degree or higher.

Because Latinos will represent California's majority in a couple of decades, recent studies underscore the need to change the dismal statistics if the state's future economy will have enough educated workers.

Alma R. García, director of the PIQE office in Fresno, knows the problems. The youngest of seven daughters, García worked alongside her parents in the fields as a child. Her mother thought a high school diploma would be good enough for her daughters to get a good job.

It took a migrant education counselor visiting the family's Madera home to convince García's parents that college should be an option. Her older sisters went to college; by the time García was finishing high school, college was expected.

"I'm really a believer that if we can get the first older children to go to college, they can set an example," says García. "I see parents today with the desire to get more involved in their children's education. But many are not familiar with the school system."

PIQE and other similar parent involvement programs are a start, but, as Pacheco points out, 32 PIQE participants from a high school with 1,350 Latino students doesn't cut it. 

Juan Esparza Loera is editor of Vida en el Valle, The Fresno Bee's bilingual publication. 
He can be reached at jesparza@vidaenelvalle.com  or(559) 441-6781. 
http://www.fresnobee.com/includes/zTestz/redesign/images/fbfooterlogo.gif



Website for Diversity Education
Sent by Robert Robinson  rgrbob@earthlink.net
http://www.diverseeducation.com/artman/publish/article_5971.shtml

 

 

FRENCH IN MAINE
by Pam Belluck, The New York Times, June 4, 2006
http://www.languagehat.com/archives/002396.php
Sent by Win Holtzman

A story by Pam Belluck in today's NY Times describes the changing fortunes of the French language in Maine:
Frederick Levesque was just a child in Old Town, Me., when teachers told him to become Fred Bishop, changing his name to its English translation to conceal that he was French-American.

Cleo Ouellette's school in Frenchville made her write "I will not speak French" over and over if she uttered so much as a "oui" or "non" — and rewarded students with extra recess if they ratted out French-speaking classmates.

And Howard Paradis, a teacher in Madawaska forced to reprimand French-speaking students, made the painful decision not to teach French to his own children. "I wasn't going to put my kids through that," Mr. Paradis said. "If you wanted to get ahead you had to speak English."

That was Maine in the 1950's and 1960's, and the stigma of being French-American reverberated for decades afterward. But now, le Français fait une rentrée — French is making a comeback...

You can go to the article to read about the comeback; what I want to focus on is the bad old days. I can understand the reaction against the language of the enemy during wartime, against German during both world wars for example; it's irrational and deplorable, but understandable. But why on earth were people subjecting their neighbors and their neighbors' children to that kind of harassment in the '50s and '60s? It shocks me to learn that during the very years when I was happily learning French, others of my generation were being punished for using it in a supposedly free country. If anyone can explain this to me, please do. I mean, generalized "why can't they speak English" griping is one thing; forcing people to change their name is quite another.

Incidentally, Benjamin Zimmer discusses this story in Language Log and demolishes the idea that "French-American French, derived from people who left France for Canada centuries ago, resembles the French of Louis XIV more than the modern Parisian variety."


Most states fall short in teaching the culture of Latin America and Mexico, 
Source: Cox News Service (6-7-06)
Sent by Howard Shorr howardshorr@msn.com

Despite growing ties to the southern hemisphere, two-thirds of U.S. states have weak or non-existent standards for teaching the history and culture of Latin America and Mexico, a study released Tuesday found.

The study was conducted by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a Washington-based non-profit organization dedicated to improving elementary and secondary education.

Renowned historian and foreign policy expert Walter Russell Mead, who conducted the study, said he was "aghast" at what he found. While most states didn't make a passing grade in world history instruction, his report is especially critical of a lack of effective standards for teaching the history and culture of Latin America and Mexico. He found that many states overlooked these histories while excessively focusing on modern European history.

Texas received 97 out of a possible 170 points and an overall grade of C in the study, the first to evaluate states' academic standards for teaching kindergarten through 12th grade world history. These standards are what a student is expected to know on the subject.

For Latin American and Mexican history and culture, Texas scored a 5 on a scale of zero to 10.
"As a representative for a border district, and coming from the state of Texas, a state that's history is so connected to Mexico and Latin America, I am deeply troubled that the state ranked so poorly," Rep. Ruben Hinojosa, D-Texas, chairman of the Education Task Force for the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

"Clearly, this needs to change, especially as our economy and way of life becomes more and more international.? If we do not stress the importance of world affairs and other cultures with our children, they will fall behind."?

Colorado received 81 out of a possible 170 points and an overall grade of D in the study, the first to evaluate states' academic standards for teaching kindergarten through 12th grade world history. These standards are what a student is expected to know in the subject.

For Latin American and Mexican history and culture, Georgia scored a 9 on a scale of zero to 10.
Georgia received 156 out of a possible 170 points and an overall grade of A in the study, the first to evaluate states' academic standards for teaching kindergarten through 12th grade world history. These standards are what a student is expected to know in the subject.

North Carolina received 64 out of a possible 170 points and an overall grade of F in the study, the first to evaluate states' academic standards for teaching kindergarten through 12th grade world history. These standards are what a student is expected to know in the subject.

For Latin American and Mexican history and culture, North Carolina and Ohio scored a 3 on a scale of zero to 10.  Colorado scored a 4 on a scale of zero to 10.

Ohio received 67 out of a possible 170 points and an overall grade of F in the study, the first to evaluate states' academic standards for teaching kindergarten through 12th grade world history. These standards are what a student is expected to know in the subject.

Four states — Alaska, Idaho, Missouri and Montana — received zeros for standards that give "superficial or cursory attention" to Mexico and the Western Hemisphere.

Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Nevada and Texas, which all have large Hispanic populations, were among 30 states to score between 1 and 5 for standards that cover Mexico and Latin America and have "significant gaps or shortcomings."

Fifteen other states, including other Hispanic population centers like Arizona, California and New Mexico, earned scores of 6 through 10 for having standards that "propose a coherent and thorough approach" to Latin American and Mexican history. Even so, these states do not require students to study world history.

Two states, Iowa and Rhode Island, did not receive grades because neither state has world history standards. 
Eight states received an A and 33 received a D or an F.



A Guide to the Tool Kit for Hispanic Families

This toolkit will show you what to expect from your schools, your teachers and your child, at all ages and grade levels. It will tell you how to help your child through school, what resources are available, and what you, your family and your community can do to help your child learn.
http://www.ed.gov/images/ed_c_dline.gif     

Table of Contents
1.     Title Page
http://www.ed.gov/parents/academic/involve/toolkit/part.html#p1 
http://www.ed.gov/images/spacer.gif 
2.     Letter from Secretary Spellings
http://www.ed.gov/parents/academic/involve/toolkit/part_pg2.html#p2   
http://www.ed.gov/images/spacer.gif   
3.     Letter from Adam Chavarria
http://www.ed.gov/parents/academic/involve/toolkit/part_pg3.html#p3   
http://www.ed.gov/images/spacer.gif    
4.     Using the Tool Kit-A Guide
Stage One: Preschool
http://www.ed.gov/parents/academic/involve/toolkit/part_pg4.html#p4    
http://www.ed.gov/images/spacer.gif 
5.     Help! Questions & Answers - Preschool
http://www.ed.gov/parents/academic/involve/toolkit/part_pg5.html#p5   
http://www.ed.gov/images/spacer.gif  
6.     Stage Two: Elementary School
http://www.ed.gov/parents/academic/involve/toolkit/part_pg6.html#p6    
http://www.ed.gov/images/spacer.gif  
http://www.whitehouse.gov/results/

    

 

The 7 Secrets of Big Picture Thinkers by Nancy Marmolejo

You can bring out the creative thinker in you by following these 7 success tips. Whatever direction you're headed, these strategies will help you move forward and make the most of your natural strengths and great ideas.

1. Catch your ideas: No matter how outrageous or silly, catch your ideas and revisit them from time to time. You might have a diamond in the rough that you can't yet see. Write it down, tell it to someone, draw a picture, pace the floorŠ whatever technique helps you remember and develop your ideas, use it!

2. Understand your strengths: There is an old saying that goes something like this: Just because you CAN do something doesn't mean you SHOULD.

A big challenge for creative people and entrepreneurs is concentrating your efforts on what comes easily and effortlessly. To pinpoint your strengths you can take a formal assessment, but I often ask clients to start with a simple question and jot down whatever comes to mind:  If I could devote my life to serving others- and still have the money and lifestyle I need- what would I do? How would it look?

3. Avoid overwhelm: Overwhelm can be described as either having too much on your plate or PERCEIVING what you have to be too much.

The first step to take is getting real with time management. If your time management skills are poor, then you are creating the overwhelm that is zapping your energy and focus. Next, learn how to say "No". Accepting too many responsibilities will burn you out, blur your focus, and zap your big picture thinker gifts. 

4. Listen: What do you hear people asking for? What are they NOT asking for? What are they griping about? Become a great listener in all your interactions. Ask open ended questions (ones that can't be answered with a yes or no). Keep your ear to the buzz and maybe you'll zero in on the next big thing.

5. Develop your intuition: Learn to trust your hunches and listen for inner nudges. Your next great idea may already be inside of you yearning to break free. Visionary thinkers often act on these hunches. Become best friends with your intuition and see new possibilities come to you.

6. Talk about your ideas: Create a personal board of directors: a supportive group of people who you respect, trust, and encourage you. Ask for their honest feedback, brainstorm with them, or call on them when you need help.

7. Give your mind time to wander: If you're sitting in front of a computer frustrated because a solution isn't presenting itself, then change your location. Take a walk. Get out and play. Get out and do something (anything!) other than what you SHOULD be doing. Studies show that the most creative, innovative thinkers are not slaves to the desk. They add variety to their lives and keep their minds sharp by enjoying all the gifts the world has to offer. Big picture thinkers have the natural gift to see the potential in just about anything. When you sharpen your visionary skills, you too can enjoy success and joy in all aspects of life and business.

About the author: Award winning business owner Nancy Marmolejo is dedicated to helping Latina entrepreneurs achieve maximum success by tapping into their natural strengths and great ideas. She has helped clients skyrocket their profits, high level leaders eliminate overwhelm from their lives, and established business owners fall back in love with their work. Her company, Comadre Coaching, has been featured in Latina magazine, Univisión TV, The Orange County Register, and many more online and offline outlets.

Get a free taste of Comadre Coaching by visiting www.ComadreCoaching.com for a complimentary copy of Get Creative Now! and The 7 Secrets of Big Picture Thinkers e-Course.

Information, info@comadrecoaching.com or contact  Katie Baird ktcosmos@looseends.net  i
Loose Ends, www.looseends.net, 928-445-4724  http://www.LooseEnds.net/loosespeak.html



Culture 
 

Race and Latino!
June 7th, 2006
SouthernBoyWKG73@wmconnect.com 

I am used to statements like the following: "Are you White, Black or Mexican?" "Are they White, Black, or Latino?" "Is he/she White, Black, or Latino?" etc. etc.! "He/she looks Hispanic/Latino!" The real problem with this is these and statements like these act or declare, the Mexican, Hispanic, and Latino are races and thus outside the realm of Black and White. However, I have seen White Mexicans! I have seen White/Black Hispanics! I have seen White/Black Latinos! Whether they consider themselves White/Black or not is not relevant. If you look White/Black and anthropologists who study these things consider you White/Black (Caucasoid/Negroid), then that's logically what you are! 

La Raza claims Hispanic settlements earlier than Whites, but that's a contradiction, since the Hispanics they refer to were Spaniards aka. White Europeans just like the British! Hispanic means of or relating to the Spanish culture, language, and nationality. It's not a race! Latino is more of a broad term that is better qualified to designate Latin America. Just to let you know, it was the French who coined the term Latin-America/n to distinguish themselves from Anglo-America! But I've heard the nonsense spouted off, "French peoples and cultures are not Latino, because they are White! That is such a stupid, uneducated statement to declare.

The French and the Spanish both belong to the Caucasian (White) race, but with different languages! Not only the Spanish, but the French, Portuguese, Italians, and Romanians all speak related Romanic (Italic) or Latin languages, thus making all them Latino technically speaking, yet they are all predominantly White people in each country! Even the Spanish Conquistadors considered themselves White! The Mayans, Incas, etc. considered the conquering Spaniards and Portuguese to be White describing them as "having eyes like chalk with pale faces and sandy hair and beards! A few having dark hair and eyes!" 


Oh! I love this one! "I am half White and half Latino!" How dumb! That would be like me saying "I am half White and half Anglo!" Can you see the utter nonsense of these statements? Latino is a culture or language ethnicity, not a race! Many Latinos are White especially in Cuba, Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uraguay, and Costa Rica! Many are Black also, such as in Haiti, Dominican Rep., and Brazil! Many more Latinos are a Mixed group (Puerto Ricans and Mexicans) to varying degrees branching features from near Black to near White and every shade of brown in-between! 

Roberto Clemente was a Black Puerto Rican, not Black and Puerto Rican, but a Puerto Rican who was Black! Gloria Estefan, Andy Garcia, the late Jerry Garcia, Shakira, Cameron Diaz, the Estevez/Sheen family, and Ricky Martin to name a few are all Caucasian (White) people! They physically look Caucasian and if Forensic Anthropologists studied them or their skeletons that would be their conclusions too! I get sick and tired of people treating White or Black Latinos as being neither Black nor White "because they are Latino" or they themselves, due to political propoganda, personal axes to grind, brainwashing, or whatever, declare "No, I am neither Black nor White, I am Latino!" 

I even heard Samuel L. Jackson in one of the DIE HARD movies when he was riding with Bruce Willis when they were arguing and Jackson yelled, "Do I look Puerto Rican to you?!" This being said because of the ludicrous consensus that Puerto Ricans have a single definite look! I have seen Black Puerto Ricans, the same race as Jackson, and White Puerto Ricans the same race as Willis! True, Puerto Ricans are the most Mixed Caribbeans but it still doesn't negate the fact that there is still plenty of Black one's and White ones too! 

On the same token, Latino is not a look or physical appearance or phenotype! It is a language/culture/ethnicity, nothing more or less! Just like here in America where we are all Anglos (Anglo is the equivalent of Latino/Hispano) by language/culture/ethnicity, but some Americans are White Anglos, some are Black Anglos, and some are Mixed Anglos! This scenario applies to Latinos as well! Truthfully, the whole world has only 2 main races and those are White (Caucasoid/Blancoid) which can be divided into 2 branches (Nordic and Mediterranean) and Black (Negroid)! A third race from the varying admixtures of these 2 main races is also feasible, a Mixed or Multi-race. This Multi-race would suffice for Mongoloids, most Aboriginal Americans (both North and South Americans), Pacific Islanders, etc. Asian, Indian, Latino, Hispanic, African, European, Pacific Islander, Arab, etc. are not races but rather continents, languages, areas, or misnomers! All people past, present, and future the whole world over are either Black, White, or Multiracial!  Thanks.   Billy


Dear Billy . . . .  Thank you for your very passionate burst of thoughts . . .  I will see how it might fit into an upcoming issue of Somos Primos.  I surely agree to many aspects of your conclusions.

Regards, Mimi
6/8/2006


June 8, 2006

Thanks for your reply Ms. Lozano. I must state that it was not my intention to be unpleasant in my attitude. I was merely getting to the point and stating facts, though, I come across as abrasive sometimes.

I forgot to mention a couple of other points in my previous email. Cajuns from Louisiana, aside from the obvious English language, also speak a Criole (Mixed) dialect that is by far predominantly French in origin with substantial Spanish and West African dialects as well. Thus, the Cajun dialect is, in effect, a Latin dialect. This would be inference make the Cajun people Latino as well, whether those Cajuns are White as many are, Black, or Mixed as many also are. Cajuns have predominantly French sir names, thus making them Latino, but it certainly does not describe a race in and of itself! 

My Dad's side of the family emigrated from Spain to the South (southern USA), I think soon after the War for Southern Independence, not sure exactly when. Anyhow, none of us today speak Spanish or cling to that culture. We know our European heritage but do not live by it. We are Americans, and I pride myself as being a Southerner, flying my Confederate Flag high and proud in Florida! My Dad's side has always considered themselves White and proudly so! Others see us as White and rightfully so! The concept of us being Latino or Hispanic would never be tolerated by my Dad's side of the family. 

My Mom was actually born in France and came over here to the South when she was 2. She speaks no French at all, but still holds dual citizenship. She considers herself White, and she is, as others also see her that way. She considers herself a plain ole American though she was born in France! My Mom never went around projecting herself as French to others. She doesn't  go around saying, "I'm French this and French that!" However, my Momma or Daddy's families are well within their rights and logic to call themselves Latino, but it's not even an issue. Therefore, I could also claim Latino as well, but I don't. Even if I did, I would constantly run into arguments by those saying, "you don't look latino!" or "Naw! You can't be Latino! You're White!" and other such stupid ludicrous nonsense, proving that people don't even understand the proper definition of Latino in the first place! It's not a physical look as I stated before, and it's high time that people begin to learn this! They should know it, but, common sense is lacking in most people today! 

My family is Southern Americans and good ole country people that love to hunt and fish, pick and sing bluegrass music, and general stuff associated with living in rural Dixie. What gets me is that Latinos that have been here in the USA for several generations still act as if they were Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, etc., etc.! You might hear Americans of Italian, Irish, Polish, German, Russian, and Greek, which are all incidentally mainly White, declare their ancestral pride in fairs an festivals and such. They may be more inclined to talk about their heritage than those Americans that have roots going all the way back to the Revolutionary War, but they still all consider themselves American first! Latinos, seem to put Latino (Mexican, Cuban, Puerto Rican, etc.) first. Honestly though, if you weren't born in Mexico, Cuba, or Puerto Rico, you are not Mexican, Cuban, or Puerto Rican! You may be of Mexican, Cuban, or Puerto Rican descent or ancestry, but that's not where you were born so that's not what you are! 

You are whatever country you're born in, period! If I was born in Mexico I would be a Mexican! If I was born in Greece, I would be Greek! If I was born in China, I would be Chinese, period! Likewise, if you're born in America, you're American, period! Your nationality is the nation where you were born, not where your ancestors came from! If that was true, no Americans would would be Americans, not even the "American Indians" because all humans had to originally emigrate from overseas to get here! That would apply to Mexico, the Caribbean, South America, etc., as well!

Actually, all nations on Earth came into being by people moving, migrating, invading, absorbing, and assimilating! If you want to talk ancestry and apply it to nowadays in regards to what we all are, then we might as well go back to Babel and the Ararat Mountains where Noah's Ark landed and a city was built before God fragmented the human race into languages and races and before anybody scattered abroad on the face of Earth. Technically we would all be Babylonians, or Araratians! Although this is true, it would be ridiculous to strictly go by that measure, so it is better to not do it at all. Thanks again.  Billy



Tejano Texian by Alex Loya
(Click for more information on Alex Loya)

Much confusion exists regarding the identity of those who are called "Tejanos". A Tejano today is classified as a "Mexican Texan" or a "Texan of Mexican heritage". While this classification would correctly identify the "new Tejanos"; those people from Texas whose ancestors came from Mexico beginning in the period of time just before, during and after the Mexican Revolution of 1910 through today, it is a misnomer when applied to the people who were in Texas beginning in the Spanish Colonial Period before the first Anglo-Americans came to Texas and through the Texas Revolution. Immigration from Mexico to the U.S. in the period after the Mexican War and before the Mexican Revolution of 1910 was almost non-existent and statistically insignificant.

To this effect, it is incorrect to assert that Texas during the Spanish Colonial Period was a part of Mexico which was under Spanish rule. Mexico as a modern nation did not exist but until 1821, before this time Texas was a part of Spain, a province of New Spain, and the people born in Texas were citizens of the Kingdom of Spain, not of Mexico, since the country of Mexico did not yet exist. While the flag of Spain governed Texas for 308 years (from 1513 through 1821), and for a period of 301 years (from 1520 through 1821) the flag of Spain waved over Texas uninterrupted, the flag of Mexico waved in Texas for only 14 years. This period of Mexican jurisdiction over the people of Texas, from 1821-1835, was a period of an imposed Mexican rule which the colonial Texans never wanted, imposed by the historical circumstance of having been dropped in the lap of Mexico by Spain when Mexico earned its independence from Spain. The colonial Tejanos had never wanted Mexican rule, having had established an independent republic in 1813 which looked forward to becoming part of the United States. Because Mexican rule was imposed upon the colonial Tejanos and they never wanted it, from their perspective the period of Mexican jurisdiction would be correctly identified as the period of Mexican occupation.

It is necessary, therefore, to distinguish between the "new Tejanos", those people from Texas whose ancestors came from Mexico beginning in the period of time just before, during and after the Mexican Revolution of 1910 through today, and the "colonial Tejanos" or "Tejano Texians", that is, those people who were the original pioneers of Texas who tamed the wilderness of Texas starting in the Spanish Colonial Period and up through the Texas Revolution, and to define the colonial people of Texas in a more historically accurate way that would reflect their family histories and traditions and their self identification and the history and historical data that supports them.

It is necessary to draw this distinction because the people who came from Mexico starting just before,during and after the Mexican Revolution through today are and were of a different ethnic heritage than the ones who colonized Texas during the Spanish Colonial Period, of a different history. While the majority, not all, of the people who have come from Mexico since the Mexican Revolution are and drew their identity from the mestizos (people of mixed Indian and Spaniard blood) or genizaros (Indians who lost their tribal identity and adopted Spanish names and the Spanish language, of which much of the modern day Mexican immigrant population in the U.S. consists) and had their history and identity in the history of Mexico, the majority, not all, of the people who colonized Texas in the Spanish Colonial Period were and drew their identity from the Spaniards and the criollos (full blooded Spaniards born in the New World), and had their history and identity in the history of Spain and of the United States as a consequence of the participation of Spain and its colonial provinces of Texas and Louisiana in the American Revolution. This difference caused the people of Texas, the colonial Tejanos or Tejano Texians, to identify more with the people of Louisiana, which was a Spanish colony, and of the U.S., rather than with the people of Mexico. For this reason as early as 1813 the colonial Tejanos established a government in Texas that looked forward to becoming part of the United States. As revealed by the writings of colonial Tejano Texians such as Antonio Menchaca, the Texas Revolution was first and foremost a colonial Tejano cause, the Anglo Americans simply joined the colonial Tejanos in that cause, having been invited and recruited to do so by the colonial Tejanos, the Tejano Texians.[1][2][3]

In summary, while a new Tejano is a Mexican American, Latino or Chicano generally of Indian or mixed Spanish and Indian heritage, a colonial Tejano, who can also be correctly identified as a Tejano Texian, is a descendant of those colonists who pioneered Texas as citizens of the Kingdom of Spain through the Spanish Colonial Period starting in the 1500's through the 1800's up to the Texas Revolution and who were generally of pure Spaniard blood, or hispanicized European heritage, including Frenchmen like Juan Seguin, Italian like Jose Cassiano, or Corsican like Antonio Navarro, generally of white Mediterranean race, although there was also a small number of people of mixed blood among them ranging from mulattos to mestizos[4][5][6][7] who were excluded by the Spanish law of "limpieza de sangre", purity of blood, from participating in the colonization of Northern New Spain including Texas and the American Southwest.[8][9][10][11] For these reasons a colonial Tejano, or Tejano Texian, is more accurately classified as a "Spaniard Texan" or "Spaniard Texian" or "Spaniard American" or as a "Texan of Spaniard heritage", as opposed to a "new Tejano" who is of Mexican heritage.

In direct relation to this distinction, genuinely Tejano music is related and sounds more like the folk music of Louisiana known as "Cajun" music and to the music of northern Mexico, rather than to the folk music of central and southern Mexico such as Mariachi and other Latino music. With the abundant use of the accordion, genuinely Tejano music is part of the foundation of Country Western music. The American Cowboy culture and music was born from the meeting of the Anglo-American Texians who were colonists from the American South and the original Tejano Texian pioneers and their "vaquero" or "cow man" culture.[12][13][14][15]

It should be noted that in the Spanish language, the term "tejano" is simply the term to identify an individual from Texas regardless of race or ethnic background.

It should be noted as well that during the Spanish Colonial Period of Texas, before Texas was wrested from Spain and became a part of Mexico in 1821, the colonial settlers of Northern New Spain, including Texas and the American Southwest, understood themselves to be and called themselves Spaniards[16], as opposed to the people of Central and Southern Mexico who generally understood themselves to be and called themselves mestizos or Indians or Mexicans. This is also a crucially important reason why the term "Spaniard Texan" rather than "Mexican Texan" is more correctly applied to the Tejano Texians, and to their descendants.

For bibliographical citations regarding the above article and for a more detailed history of the colonial Tejanos, or Tejano Texians, please click on the following Texas A&M University, Sons of Dewitt Colony Texas link, the citations are located through the chapters posted: http://www.tamu.edu/ccbn/dewitt/images/texforum/txforumloya.htm

[edit]

References

  1. ^ Antonio Menchaca "Memoirs" dictated to and handwritten by Charles M. Barnes, as published in the Passing Show, San Antonio, Texas June 22-July 27, 1907.
  2. ^ Jose Antonio Navarro, Commentaries of Historical Interest, San Antonio Ledger, December 12. 1857, McDonald & Matovina, p.63.
  3. ^ Alex Loya "The Continuous Presence of Italians,Frenchmen and Spaniards in Texas (Including the Participationn and Consequence of Texas and Louisiana in the American Revolution)" chapters 3 "Spaniard Americans" & 11 "The American Destiny of the Spaniard Texians".
  4. ^ The Residents of Texas, 1782-1836, The Institute of Texan Cultures, TXGen Web Project, Texas Census Reports, transcribed by Michaele Burris:
    • Census report of (San Fernando de Bexar), 9/2/1782 Residents of Texas, 1782-1836, Vol 1, pp. 39-44.
    • Census report of the Mission of San Jose de San Miguel de Aguallo. Residents of Texas, 1782-1836, Vol 1, pp. 44-46. 19/11/1790
    • Census Report of the Mission of Our Father San Francisco de la Espada. Residents of Texas, Vol 1, p. 46. 22/11/1790
    • Census report of the Juristiction of La Bahia del Espiritu Santo. Residents of Texas, 1782-1836, Vol 1, pp. 47-54. 1790
    • Year of 1790 General Census Report [Bexar] Residents of Texas, 1782-1836, Vol 1, pp. 58-74.
    • Census report of Villa of San Fernando de Austria, Capital of the Province of Texas. Residents of Texas, 1782-1836, Vol 1, pp. 75-92. December 31, 1792
    • Census report of Mission of San Antonio Valero, Dependency of the Villa of San Fernando. Residents of Texas, 1782-1836, Vol 1, pp. 93-95. December 31, 1792
  1. ^ 1784 Census of El Paso, Texas (Timmons, "The Population of El Paso Area- A Census of 1784", New Mexico Historical Review vol. LII (1977):311-316).
  2. ^ 1787 Census of El Paso (Census of the El Paso Area, 9 May, 1787" enumerated by Fray Damian Martinez and Nicolas Soler, Juarez Municipal Archives, roll 12, book 1, 1787, folios77-142).
  3. ^ Alex Loya, chapter 4 "Colonists Not Conquistadors".
  4. ^ Don Adams & Teresa A. Kendrick "Don Juan de Onate and the First Thanksgiving"
  5. ^ Robert S. Weddle & Robert H. Thonhoff, "Drama & Conflict; the Texas Saga of 1776", p.50
  6. ^ Robert McCaa, Ph.D., University of Minnesotta Department of History.
  7. ^ Alex Loya, chapter 4 "Colonists Not Conquistadors".
  8. ^ Gene Hill,"Americans All, Americanos Todos"
  9. ^ Gilbert Y Chavez’ "Cowboys-Vaqueros, Origins of the First American Cowboys"
  10. ^ Lawrence Clayton, "Vaqueros, Cowboys and Buckaroos", 2001.
  11. ^ Alex Loya, chapter 15 "The Legacy and Heritage of the Spaniard Texians".
  12. ^ Census and Inspection Report of 1787 of the Colony of Nuevo Santander performed by Dragoon Captain Jose Tienda de Cuervo, Knight of the Order of Santago, with Historical Report by Fray Vicente Santa Maria.

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tejano_Texian" Categories: Articles to be merged

 

Our lives are better left to chance
By Johnny Silvas
johnny.silvas@icdbridges.org
Via Dorinda Moreno  dorindamoreno@comcast.net


My family and I recently attended a Sweet Fifteen. In Hispanic culture, it’s more traditionally known as a Quinceañera. I want to share with you some special moments I witnessed that day. 

I saw a moment during the church service; a Mom standing up and sharing some special thoughts of what she described as her strong-willed daughter. As she began to speak, her voice began to shake. She spoke with pure conviction of the bond they shared with one another. We all began to feel the true love they had for one another. If mom had only kept talking I believe all the parents, especially the moms in attendance, would have been in tears.

There was another moment, one that made me a strong believer of a daddy's love for his little girl. This moment took place at the reception.

You need to first paint a picture in your mind of how special it is for a father to dance his last dance, if you will, with his little girl. The young girl looked especially beautiful that day, almost magical in her long white dress. You could see her sparkle as she walked along to the middle of the dance floor. She was Cinderella and daddy was Prince Charming standing there holding her hand.

"The Dance" by Garth Brooks began to play and the magic began as they started to dance. As the Dad held his young daughter they looked like they were dancing on air. Her dress swayed from side to side as he held her tight. How special she must have felt to be in her daddy's arms that night. The song came to an end and it was time for daddy to let go but he couldn't. He began, first with little shakes trying hard to hold on as finally tears streamed down his face as he broke down and began to cry. It was a very special moment. Here was this giant of a man, towering over his young child, but yet with the innocence of a baby, he fought hard to hold back his tears. He held his little girl by her arms and gave her a big kiss on her forehead. He embraced her as he wiped his tears. I felt a big lump in my throat and I quickly began to share his pain. It was as if though I couldn’t turn away, as if I felt all his love as a father pour out of him. It made me sad but at the same time it made me even happier. This is what it was all about. Daddy had been there for his little girl. As Garth Brooks sang his last note I could feel dad "looking back on the times he shared" just like the song was saying. Daddy kissed her again and then his little girl turned around and he stared at her as she walked away. His little girl had now grown into a beautiful young lady. There was not a dry eye in the room.

Hug your children everyday and tell them you love them. Time stands still for no one. One day you'll be looking back happy you never missed the dance.

The Dance By Garth Brooks
Looking back on the memory of the dance we shared 'neath the stars alone.
For a moment, all the world was right, how could I have known that you'd ever say goodbye!
And now, I'm glad I didn't know the way it all would end, the way it all would go.
Our lives are better left to chance, I could have missed the pain, but I'd of had to miss the dance.
Holding you, I held everything, for a moment, wasn't I a king. But if i'd only known how the king would fall. Hey, who's to say, you know, I might have chanced it all.
And now, I'm glad I didn't know the way it all would end, the way it all would go. Our lives are better left to chance. I could have missed the pain, but I would have missed the dance!



Since its launch on 15 October 1999, IN SEARCH OF FATHERHOOD(R) has provided Men -- especially Fathers -- from all Walks of Life throughout our global village with an uncut and uncensored forum that explores a myriad of issues related to parenting from a male point of view. IN SEARCH OF FATHERHOOD(R), a quarterly international male parenting journal which has facilitated and continues to facilitate a Global Dialogue on Fatherhood is a blog! The Global Dialogue on Fatherhood is interactive! 

Is there an issue you want to discuss that relates to Fatherhood? The IN SEARCH OF FATHERHOOD(R) Blog at http://Insearchoffatherhood.blogspot.com  is the place to discuss the issues that are tugging at your heartstrings. 

The IN SEARCH OF FATHERHOOD(R) Blog at http://Insearchoffatherhood.blogspot.com
is your safe haven!

BSI International, Inc.
Post Office Box 3885
Philadelphia, PA 19146-0185
http://www.bsi-international.com
E-MAIL: bsi-international@earthlink.net
BLOG: http://Insearchoffatherhood.blogspot.com



Latino Rhythms and their influence on Classic Soul Music: 
A Black Hole? (or rather, a ‘Latino Hole’!)

It is some time in the Summer of 1964 on a blazingly hot week-end day on a street corner somewhere in Chicago. A small gaggle of young black ladies are hanging loose, checking out the passing ‘talent’ to see if any is worth more of their time and their attention is drawn to a young gentleman of Latino appearance way across the broad thoroughfare, walking along, transistor radio in hand out of which is pulsing the unmistakable rhythm of a Cha-Cha-Cha, singing and shouting, utterly absorbed in his musical transport away from the scruffy streets. The tongue is completely incomprehensible to them but they detect that something special must be going on to have that effect and he looks kind of cute, so why not swallow your natural shyness and go over to have a word with him? There's nothing to lose. After a short period of good-natured ribbing one of the number does just that.

She speaks not a word of Spanish and he just the faintest smattering of English. First she waves to him in an effort to snap him out of his waking reverie. He looks up with a start, wondering quite what is going on, but she reassures him with a still-shy, but friendly beckoning, motioning that she'd quite like to share in his musical experience. A short distance away they find a convenient alleyway where he can put down his radio and he can teach her the words of the songs he so adores so, although she has no grasp of their meaning, she can sing and shout along too. After all, it sounds hot and cool, no matter. Before long, she ‘gets the message’. It's the sound that's king. The actual meaning of the words is secondary. The sound, it gradually dawns on her, is not a million miles away from the Soul that regularly filters out of the loudspeaker of her own radio. The rhythm so familiar to her first gets to her feet and then, stage-by-stage, works its way up her whole body. "What is this I'm dancing here?", she wonders. "Why yes, it's the Monkey!" Her new acquaintance is amazed that you could think of doing anything else but the Cha-Cha-Cha to the music that is so familiar to him, but he follows her every move and finds that it does indeed fit perfectly. So, he's taught her something and the compliment has been returned. They exchange numbers and agree that they'll meet the same time the following week.

This has been a somewhat long-winded re-telling of the story told by the Chicago girl group, The Rubies, on their 1964 VeeJay disc, ‘A Spanish Boy’.

Fast-forward to the twenty-hundreds by way of The Rubies' appearance on the 1980s-released Charly R&B label compilation, ‘Rare Soul Uncovered: Volume III (In Style)’.  

Somebody on the board of those in charge of programming on the BBC takes it upon themselves to suggest reviving the hoary old format of ‘Come Dancing’, this time as a sort of celebrity/reality phone-in vote show entitled ‘Strictly Come Dancing’. As it emerges via bush telegraph that such an offering is on the way the viewing public isn't sure at first, but the combination of celebrity and barely suppressed sexual tension eventually proves an irresistible mixture and ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ becomes the unexpected British TV hit (more like TV phenomenon) of the year 2004 and the format is exported to all corners of the Earth, mostly under the title of ‘Dancing With The Stars’, or various translations thereof. 

On several Saturday evenings in the gathering gloom of a British autumn (we have ‘autumn’, not ‘fall’) the proud owner of ‘Rare Soul Uncovered: Volume III (In Style)’, in common with another ten to fifteen million viewers is in his living room in front of the box of wonders and the same realisation that struck those fictitious potential lovers forty-and-a-bit years previously occurs to him during the Latin Dance portions of the contest. It's not just a meeting of two separate cultures. It is all part of one and the same culture. The same basic rhythmic structures are all there. 

A frantic search through the said party's record collection begins to answer the question, "Is Soul really as much Latin as it is Black?" Countless incidences arise where this could be the case – much more than I could readily mention here. 

This is, as it were, the ‘case for the defence’ and also the first instalment of what could be a mini-series of items for SomosPrimos.com on the theme of this Black/Latino culture that is Soul. Everybody ‘knows’ that this crucial part of the popular culture of the twentieth century and beyond originated in the churches of Black America and rather fewer may be aware of the impact of Doo Wop. Referring back to the title of this item is there a ‘Latino Hole’ that badly needs filling? How did this hole come into existence – and perhaps more importantly, why?

Are there any readers ‘out there’ with the answer to this question?
If so, please send your answers to Christopher Bentley. 
old_soul_rebel@yahoo.co.uk

This item is © (2006) Christopher Bentley and may not be published by means of any medium by any other party without the writer's express consent.

 

Business



Orange County Register, Parade Section, June 25, 2006
Note the multi-racial family structure.

Abstract:  Multi-ethnic business a piece of cake
By Jan Norman, The Orange County Register, June 11, 2006  
http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/money/
homepage/slideshow_1176474.php?pos=1


Multi-ethnic business partners say their diverse backgrounds are no cause for conflict. 'Race is an issue only if you make it an issue,' one businessman says.
  
Finding their niche: Rena Puebla, left, and Ellie Genuardi are co-owners of Renellie International in Costa Mesa, which sells white, Asian, black and Hispanic bride and groom figures for wedding cakes.  Photo by Ana Venegas

When Rena Puebla, who is black, married Ron Kokawa, of Japanese descent, in 2000, she couldn't find multi-racial bride and groom figurines to put on top of her wedding cake.

The entrepreneurial bulb went off in Puebla's brain, and she called longtime friend Ellie Genuardi about starting a company to make multi-racial cake toppers. Renellie International in Costa Mesa now sells white, Asian, black and Hispanic bride and groom figures.

The women became friends because they had much in common, Genuardi says. Both were born in Pennsylvania. Both had owned businesses: Genuardi owned L'Unique Gift Co. gift basket retailer in Irvine; Puebla still owns Coast Concierge Services in Costa Mesa.

But until their Web site designer mentioned it, they didn't think about their partnership being a multi-racial reflection of their product line.

"We looked at each other and said, 'Oh my God! We are!' " said Genuardi, who is of Italian descent, with a laugh. "I don't look at people that way (by race). Growing up, that never came up in our household."

Multi-racial business partnerships are a natural outgrowth of Orange County's increasing ethnic diversity. Yet owners of such businesses tend to be colorblind, saying they focus instead on the same business skills and personal relationships that bind other business partnerships.

REGION OF DIVERSITY FUELS ENTREPRENEURSHIP Orange County is a rainbow of ethnicities. In 2004, according to U.S. Census estimates, 32.4 percent of the county's residents were Hispanic; 15.4 percent, Asian; 1.4 percent, black; and 2.7 percent various other ethnicities.

That data help explain the growing proportion of businesses owned by minority entrepreneurs. The Census Bureau does not track multi-ethnic firms but did find that businesses owned by Asians, blacks and Hispanics increased from 25 percent of all Orange County firms in 1997 to 28.6 percent in 2002, the latest data available. 

However, the Census Bureau only counts a business in an ethnic category if the minority owns 51 percent or more. Companies like Renellie International – a 50-50 partnership – wouldn't be counted as a black-owned business. 

Ethnicity Population* Percent Businesses* Percent
Hispanic 955,000 32 30,000 11
White 1,417,000 48 199,000+ 71
Black 40,000 1 3,600 1
Asian 453,000 15 46,000 16
Other 79,000 3 NA NA

*Numbers are rounded +includes 50-50 partnerships and firms that aren't in other categories
Source: U.S. Census Bureau

 

ANTI-SPANISH LEGENDS

Comments about Racism against Latinos, Ladera Ranch location
Raza isn't racist, changed perspective on the Latino student club MEChA

 

"Quien controla el pasado controla el futuro; 
quien controla el presente controla el pasado." 
George Orwelll



Comments about Racism against Latinos, Ladera Ranch location
From: charliengheim@hotmail.com  To: mimilozano@aol.com

To: store feedback/Corp/Kohls@KOHLS

From: Charles Ngheim   charliengheim@hotmail.com   05/14/2006

Okay, I don’t know anything about how you  hire your managers, so I will assume you don’t purposely hire racist bigots. As I walked by a large heavy set white male with a name tag that said Everett from the Ladera Ranch Store, I heard him make a  comment under his breath about a Latino
person that I found very offensive. I heard this person comment how he could not stand those dirty wetbacks. This happened between 5:00pm and 5:15 pm I believe, but don’t quote me on the time. As an Asian I have no doubts he feels the same about us also. For this reason I can’t shop at your store again, nor will any of my friends or family. How sad a world we live in when a person such as this is also in a position of power? My future wife is a Latina. This really upsets me to hear this kind of hatred. We were going to register our wedding at Kohl’s. Now you can forget it. I’m sickened at the thought of it. 


From: store.feedback@kohls.com
To: charliengheim@hotmail.com
RE: Comments about Ladera Ranch location - #0597
Date: Mon, 15 May 2006 06:12:50 -0500


Dear Mr. Ngheim:

Thank you for your comments regarding your experience at the Ladera Ranch store. I have requested that a member from the Executive Team respond to you within 72 hours.

We realize your time is valuable and appreciate the time you took to contact us. We hope that you will allow us to serve you again in the future. 

If you have any further questions, please contact us at store.feedback@kohls.com and we will be happy to assist you.

Sincerely,Thomas
Kohl's Customer Support Specialist
Kohl's Corporate Office
store.feedback@kohls.com 

 

Student club MEChA is more about culture/education than reconquista 
By Gustavo Arellano From the Los Angeles Times, Editorial Page, June 15, 2006 
Sent by Juan Ramos, Ph.D. jramos.swkr@comcast.net

THE REVOLUTION always finishes the same way: Someone claps. Then someone else. Someone else. Others join. More. Faster. More. Everyone in unison. Rhythmic. Louder. Faster. Finally, someone shrieks, "¡Qué viva la raza!" (Long live the Mexican race!). "¡Qué viva!" (May it live!), everyone screamed in response. And then we go off to continue the reconquista.

The above scene ends just about every meeting of MEChA (Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán), the high school and college club for Mexican American students that scares the bejesus out of everyone else. Frankly, I don't blame everyone else.

Starting with the name (Chicano Student Movement of Aztlán, "Aztlán" referring to the mythical Aztec homeland that prophecy held was north of Mexico and would be repopulated by descendants of the People of the Sun), continuing with slogans like Entre la raza todo; fuera de la raza, nada (Within the race, everything; outside of it, nothing) and concluding with that tribalistic clapping circle, the average MEChA meeting might look to outsiders like a gathering of brown-skinned brownshirts.

That's at least how anti-MEChA alarmists see it. For them, MEChA is what the Communist Party was for McCarthyites — a boogeyman of an organization you can use to spook citizens away from the aspirations and causes of its ex-members. The casualties include Antonio Villaraigosa in his first mayoral race, Cruz Bustamante in his unsuccessful 2003 gubernatorial run and Gil Cedillo every time he tries to get the Legislature to approve driver's licenses for illegal immigrants.

Now KABC-AM (790) is playing the MEChA card against the Academia Semillas del Pueblo, a charter school in Lincoln Heights. Because the MEChA chapter of Pasadena City College supports the school, goes KABC's reasoning, Academia Semillas del Pueblo is obviously a racist school teaching kiddies to reconquer the Southwest, one Nahuatl lesson at a time.

It doesn't help MEChA's case that Semillas del Pueblo Principal Marcos Aguilar, a former UCLA Mechista, once dismissed the importance of Brown vs. the Board of Education during an interview, adding that "the white way, the American way, the neoliberal, capitalist way of life will eventually lead to our own destruction." Or that members of Pasadena City College's MEChA chapter recently destroyed an entire run of the campus newspaper because they considered the paper's coverage of one MEChA event inadequate.

But, as in Islam, a few indige-nazis are stains sullying a noble organization. I should know. I am a Mechista. As both a member of the invading army and a proud son of Mexican-hating Orange County, I can testify that, without a doubt, MEChA is harmless.

Sure, the organization's founding documents, the Plan de Santa Barbara and the Plan Espiritual de Aztlán, call for a Chicano homeland. But few members take these hilariously dated relics of the 1960s seriously, if they even bother to read them. Little of the modern-day MEChA remains separatist, other than the occasional Che-spouting junior and a few cute mestizas with Aztec names like Citlali who sport Frida ponytails, black-frame glasses and Chuck Taylor high-tops.

MEChA's primary objectives are not secessionist but educational (get as many Latino high schoolers into the universities as possible and help them stay there) and cultural. For many Mexican American students, MEChA is their family by proxy, a support network for those of us who were the first in our families to graduate from high school, let alone college.

The open-borders philosophy expressed by many Mechistas isn't born from an irredentist ideology but from their experience of having relatives divided by borders. All that raza clatter isn't racism, it's the traditional way immigrants climb the success ladder — through solidarity and education. The loaded term itself is better understood as representing the immediate community, not as a proclamation of Mexican superiority to all other races.

Look, I get the widespread skepticism about MEChA's intentions. I myself was apprehensive about joining the club when I attended conservative Chapman University in Orange. I had heard whispers about the obsession with protests, the vitriolic speeches bashing everyone who wasn't brown, the infamous MEChA clap.

But then I actually attended a meeting. I encountered some extremist rhetoric — but it was aimed at increasing Latino enrollment on our minority-deficient campus and mentoring at-risk high school students. And it wasn't just Latinos involved in this radical clique. We had African Americans, Asians, gabachos … even a Kazakh student named Amir who proudly wore his MEChA shirt complete with the organizational logo: an eagle gripping a stick of dynamite and looming over a banner that reads "La Unión Hace la Fuerza" (Strength Through Unity). We cared about bettering the world, and MEChA allowed us to do something about it.

We protested Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas when he appeared on campus; we supported striking janitors and held events for all the major Mexican holidays. But mostly we spent our free time recruiting high school students to Chapman and holding educational carnivals for elementary niños y niñas.

Chapman administrators loved our dedication, holding us up as models of what others could aspire to. My fellow Mechistas went on to work for nonprofit organizations, consulted for the Democratic Party, became bankers and psychologists, made it in Hollywood, interned at the Cato Institute — and this Mechista went on to graduate summa cum laude from UCLA and work for a free newspaper. Not a single Mechista in our group dropped out.

Years later, I proudly call myself a Mechista. To be a Mechista is to care for those who face the same struggles you once did, to preach the gospel of education to immigrants so they can prosper and assimilate. To be a Mechista is to be American — an American with sore hands from so much clapping, that is. . . 


Gustavo Arellano is a staff writer with Orange County Weekly, where he writes the "¡Ask a Mexican!" column. A portion of this essay originally appeared in the Weekly.  
Contact the author at: GArellano@ocweekly.com
Read other essays at: http://www.ocweekly.com



 

 

MILITARY AND LAW ENFORCEMENT HEROES

It is the VETERAN,who gives us freedom
Link to Muslim cartoons that caused riots and deaths
Special DEA agent, Enrique "Kiko" S. Camarena
Medal of Honor Winner Jose M. Lopez Dies at 94
Staff Sergeant Roy Benavidez
Celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month websites
Red Skelton's Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag
Pray for our Military. . . They believe in Prayer
Lakota Tribe in North Dakota Funeral Activities and Observance
Hero Military Search 



It is the VETERAN, not the preacher, who has given us freedom of religion. 
  
It is the VETERAN, not the reporter, who has given us freedom of the press. 
  
It is the VETERAN, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech. 
  
It is the VETERAN, not the campus organizer, who has given us freedom to assemble. 
  
It is the VETERAN, not the lawyer, who has given us the right to a fair trial. 
  
It is the VETERAN, not the politician, Who has given us the right to vote. 
  
It is the VETERAN, who salutes the Flag, 

Sent by Carlos Marquez  cbmeducateteachers@hotmail.com

 


For those curious about the Muslim cartoons,
 that caused riots and deaths,
 they can be viewed at http://www.michellemalkin.com/   
Sent by navart@bellsouth.net

Senator Hiram Johnson in a 1917 speech before the US Senate said,
 "The first casualty when war comes is truth."

 


Special Agent Enrique "Kiki" S. Camarena, 1947-1985 
Source of information: DEA website
Sent by Lila Guzman, Ph.D.  lorenzo1776@yahoo.com

July 26, 1947 to March 5, 1985 Special Agent Enrique S. Camarena, of the Drug Enforcement Administration's Guadalajara, Mexico, Resident Office, was kidnapped and tortured by Mexican drug traffickers on February 7, 1985. It is believed that Special Agent Camerena's death actually occurred on February 9. His body was discovered on March 5, 1985. He was 37 years of age at the time of his death.

Special Agent Camarena joined DEA in June 1974 as an Agent with the Calexico, California District Office. He was assigned to the Fresno District Office in September 1977, and transferred to the Guadalajara Resident Office in July 1981. During his 11 years with DEA, he received two Sustained Superior Performance Awards, a Special Achievement Award and, posthumously, the Administrator's Award of Honor, the highest award granted by DEA. 

On the afternoon of his disappearance, Special Agent Camarena was en route to meet his wife for lunch. He was abducted by five assailants as he left the U.S. Consulate, one of whom identified himself as a Mexican law enforcement official. Special Agent Camarena was never seen alive again, and is believed to have been extensively tortured for two days before he died from a crushed skull. Major organized crime figures from Mexico, including Rafael Caro Quintero, Rueben Zuno Arce, Miguel Felix Gallardo, Humberto Alvarez Machain, Mario Verdugo and Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo were arrested for Enrique Camarena's torture and murder. This event had triggered Operation Leyenda, the largest homicide investigation that DEA had ever undertaken.

Prior to joining DEA, Special Agent Camarena served two years in the U.S. Marine Corps. He worked in Calexico as a fireman and then as a police investigator, and was a narcotics investigator for the Imperial County Sheriff Coroner. Special Agent Camarena was survived by his wife, Geneva and three children, Enrique, Daniel and Erik.

Special Agent Camarena's death inspired millions of people around the world to lead drug-free lives. Each October, thousands of schools, communities and state and local drug abuse prevention organizations distribute red ribbons to honor Special Agent Camarena's memory. The millions of Americans who wear these ribbons demonstrate visibly their commitment to this cause. DEA's Miami Division hosts a golf tournament each year in memory of Special Agent Camarena. Proceeds from the tournament benefit the DEA Survivors Benefit Fund.

THE ENRIQUE S. CAMARENA EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION is an all-volunteer, 501(C)(3) nonprofit, public benefit corporation dedicated to eradicating drug abuse nationwide. The focus is the nationwide promotion of anti-drug abuse programs at all levels. The Foundation's special project is to instill lasting drug abuse awareness by providing bronze busts of Special Agent Camarena to schools, libraries, and public buildings as a memorial for all the law enforcement officer's ultimate sacrifice in fighting drug abuse.

To this day, most people still remember these tragic events if not the name Kiki Camarena. By reintroducing these events through a meaningful symbol, a life size bronze bust of Special Agent Camarena, we hope to make it a representative memorial for all our nation's fallen heroes in the fight against drug abuse.

Busts are being placed in schools, libraries and public buildings to rekindle public awareness and commitment to support drug education and prevention. Schools and government building have been renamed. Recently, the Argentine government requested and received permission to name a school in that country in honor of Special Agent Camarena.

We urge you to join in this endeavor. For the stronger the support for this project that highlights the tragic events surrounding the death of Special Agent Camarena, the greater the impact that it will have in eradicating drugs throughout the United States.

Your financial support means all the more because it shows your appreciation for the ultimate sacrifices made by all law enforcement officers involved in freeing our nation from the ravages of drug abuse.

Please make checks payable to: Enrique Camarena Foundation
P.O. Box 28691  San Diego, CA 92198 

An excellent book about the kidnapping and murder of Agent Enrique 'Kiki' Camarena was recently written by retired DEA Agent James Kuykendall who was Kiki's boss in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico at the time of his abduction. Agents who participated in the investigation say the book is right on target. It is well written and to the point. The book, O PLATA O PLOMA? (Lead or Silver?) can be purchased directly from the author by sending a check ($20 for soft cover or $30 for hard cover) to: James Kuykendall, 402 St.Thomas Drive, Laredo, TX 78045. The price includes shipping and handling and Mr. Kuykendall will autograph it for you.

James Kuykendall is a member of the Camarena Foundation Advisory Board and donates much of his time to volunteer work improving anti-drug efforts by talking with groups about the problem. He and another retired agent, Fritz Villerreal, recently purchased a bust of Agent Camarena to be installed at a new courthouse in Zapata, Texas. He is also donating a portion of the profits from "O Plata O Ploma?" to the Camarena Foundation and has a website at www.silverorlead.com .

Geneva 'Mika' Camarena, Kiki's widow, has read the book, is pleased with it, and appreciates 'Jaime's' efforts. It will help you to understand the facts leading to the abduction, the ramifications of the entire incident that caused a national furor, and why we need to do more to bring the drug problem to an irreducible minimum. 
The Enrique S. Camarena Educational Foundation
A Nonprofit Public Benefit Corporation
P.O. Box 28691, San Diego, CA 92198    858-485-1356 
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/17/AR2005051701535. html?referrer=emailarticle


                                   
Medal of Honor Winner Jose M. Lopez Dies at 94
By Adam Bernstein washingtonpost.com, May 18, 2005; Page B06  
Sent by Gil Sandate gsandate@loc.gov

Jose M. Lopez, 94, a retired Army master sergeant who received the Medal of Honor for engaging in a series of "seemingly suicidal missions" during the Battle of the Bulge, died May 16 at a daughter's home in San Antonio. He had cancer.  
Jose M. Lopez, shown in January, fought at Normandy and in the Battle of the Bulge. (By Billy Calzada -- San Antonio Express-news via AP)

Jose M. Lopez, 94, a retired Army master sergeant who received the Medal of Honor for engaging in a series of "seemingly suicidal missions" during the Battle of the Bulge, died May 16 at a daughter's home in San Antonio. He had cancer.

Sgt. Lopez was born in Mexico, orphaned when he was 8 and worked in a series of subsistence jobs. A short but sinewy man, he boxed lightweight for many years in his youth. After a series of seafaring misadventures -- he once was stranded at sea for weeks on a cargo boat with nothing to eat but a cache of bananas -- he enlisted in the Army during World War II.

He landed at Normandy a day after the June 6, 1944, invasion, and a bullet smacked into his ammunition belt, grazing his hip.

"I was really very, very afraid,'' he told journalist Bill Moyers for a television special in 1990. "I wanted to cry, and we saw other people laying wounded and screaming and everything, and there's nothing you could do. We could see them groaning in the water, and we had to just keep walking.''

At dawn on Dec. 17, 1944, he and his men were outside Krinkelt, Belgium, shortly after the start of the German offensive through the Ardennes known as the Battle of the Bulge.

Lugging a heavy machine gun, Sgt. Lopez climbed into a shallow, snow-covered hole that left everything above his waist exposed. He heard the rumbling of a tank, which he figured was American; an Allied soldier a few hundreds yards away had failed to signal him of approaching danger.

When he saw the German Tiger tank come into sight and the horde of German foot soldiers around it, he thought of dozens of his men just a few hundred yards away. Aiming at the soldiers around the tank, he killed 10 of them. That prompted the Tiger tank to fire rather recklessly in his direction. It took three shell blasts to knock Sgt. Lopez over, and he suffered a concussion.

He nevertheless repositioned himself to prevent enemy soldiers from outflanking him, resetting his gun and killing 25 more Germans.

Allowing time for his comrades to retreat to a safer position, he then dashed through the dense and protective forest and avoided contact with a cascade of enemy small-arms fire. Eventually, the Americans fell back to Krinkelt and held out through the night. The Germans bypassed the town.

A few months later, Gen. James A. Van Fleet presented Sgt. Lopez with the Medal of Honor. The citation recognized the "seemingly suicidal missions in which he killed at least 100 of the enemy . . . [and which] were almost solely responsible for allowing Company K to avoid being enveloped, to withdraw successfully and to give other forces coming up in support time to build a line which repelled the enemy drive."

Jose Mendoza Lopez was born July 10, 1910. He never knew his exact birth town but was raised in Veracruz. (His Medal of Honor citation lists Mission as his birthplace.)  His father was gone; his mother said he had drowned. She died of tuberculosis.

With other relatives dead or unable to support him, Lopez made his way to Texas and settled in the Rio Grande Valley town of Mission. There, a family let him sleep in their shed and fed him.

He spent time hooking rides on freight trains, and at 17 found himself in Atlanta. Standing 5 feet 5 inches and weighing 130 pounds, he nevertheless fought and pummeled a much bigger man.

A boxing manager who witnessed the beating trained the newly named "Kid Mendoza" and saw him through 52 victories and three losses.  Sgt. Lopez once said the greatest moment of his boxing career was meeting Babe Ruth, who attended one bout in Atlanta and shook hands with the contenders before the first bell.

In 1936, he joined the U.S. Merchant Marine and held other maritime jobs. After his World War II service, he fought in Korea until a ranking officer heard that a Medal of Honor recipient was in battle. He was ordered to the rear and spent months picking up bodies and registering them for burial.

He later was a recruiter, mowed lawns and plowed snow. He was placed in charge of a motor pool and oversaw large crews of maintenance personnel. He retired in 1973.

To maintain his physique, Sgt. Lopez jogged until age 88. He also saw a trainer three times a week, a regimen that ended three month ago as his illness worsened.

His wife of 62 years, Emilia Herrera Lopez, died in February 2004. Survivors include five children, Candida "Marie" Pieratti of Mahopac, N.Y., Virginia Rogers of Ogden, Utah, Beatrice Pedraza of Lima, Peru, and John Lopez and Maggie Wickwire, both of San Antonio; 19 grandchildren; and 10 great-grandchildren.

To view the entire article, go to Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive c/o E-mail Customer Care
1515 N. Courthouse Road Arlington, VA 22201 



Staff Sergeant Roy Benavidez
Born: August 5, 1935 - Died: November 29, 1998 
http://www.psywarrior.com/benavidez.html
Sent by Bill Carmena JCarm1724@aol.com  and
             Robert Gonzalez Robert_Gonzalez@yoko.fisc.navy.mil

As the medevac chopper landed the wounded were examined one by one. Staff Sergeant Roy Benavidez could only hear what was going on around him. He had over thirty seven puncture wounds. His intestines were exposed. He could not see as his eyes were caked in blood and unable to open. Neither could he speak, his jaw broken, clubbed by a North Vietnamese rifle. But he knew what was happening, and it was the scariest moment of his life, even more so than the earlier events of the day. He lay in a body bag, bathed in his own blood. Jerry Cottingham, a friend screamed "That's Benavidez. Get a doc". When the doctor arrived he placed his hand on Roy's chest to feel for a heartbeat. He pronounced him dead. The physician shook his head. "There's nothing I can do for him." As the doctor bent over to zip up the body bag. Benavidez did the only thing he could think of to let the doctor know that he was alive. He spit in the doctor's face. The surprised doctor reversed Roy's condition from dead to "He won't make it, but we'll try". 

The 32-year-old son of a Texas sharecropper had just performed for six hours one of the most remarkable feats of the Vietnam War. Benavidez, part Yaqui Indian and part Mexican, was a seventh-grade dropout and an orphan who grew up taunted by the term "dumb Mexican." But, as Ronald Reagan noted, if the story of what he accomplished was made into a movie, no one would believe it really happened. 

Roy Benavidez's ordeal began at Loc Ninh, a Green Beret outpost near the Cambodian border. It was 1:30 p.m., May 2, 1968. A chaplain was holding a prayer service around a jeep for the sergeant and several other soldiers. Suddenly, shouts rang out from a nearby short-wave radio. "Get us out of here!" someone screamed. "For God's sake, get us out!" 

A 12-man team consisting of Sergeant First Class Leroy Wright, Staff Sergeant Lloyd "Frenchie" Mousseau, Specialist Four Brian O'Connor and nine Nung tribesmen monitoring enemy troop movements in the jungle had found itself surrounded by a North Vietnamese army battalion. With out orders, Benavidez volunteered so quickly that he didn't even bring his M-16 when he dashed for the helicopter preparing for a rescue attempt. The sole weapon he carried was a bowie knife on his belt."I'm coming with you," he told the three crew members. 

Airborne, they spotted the soldiers in a tight circle. A few hundred enemy troops surrounded them in the jungle, some within 25 yards of the Americans' position. The chopper dropped low, ran into withering fire and quickly retreated. Spotting a small clearing 75 yards away, Benavidez told the pilot, "Over there, over there." 

The helicopter reached the clearing and hovered 10 feet off the ground. Benavidez made the sign of the cross, jumped out carrying a medic bag and began running the 75 yards towards the trapped men. Almost immediately, Benavidez was hit by an AK-47 slug in his right leg. He stumbled and fell, but got back up convincing himself that he'd only snagged a thorn bush and kept running to the brush pile where Wright's men lay. An exploding hand grenade knocked him down and ripped his face with shrapnel. He shouted prayers, got up again and staggered to the men. 

Four of the soldiers were dead, the other eight wounded and pinned down in two groups. Benavidez bound their wounds, injected morphine and, ignoring NVA bullets and grenades, passed around ammunition that he had taken from several bodies and armed himself with an AK. Then Benavidez directed air strikes and called for the Huey helicopter to a landing near one group. While calling in support he was shot again in the right thigh, his second gunshot wound. He dragged the dead and wounded aboard. The chopper lifted a few feet off the ground and moved toward the second group, with Benavidez running beneath it, firing a rifle he had picked up. He spotted the body of the team leader Sergeant First Class Wright. Ordering the other soldiers to crawl toward the chopper, he retrieved a pouch dangling from the dead man's neck; in the pouch were classified papers with radio codes and call signs. As he shoved the papers into his shirt, a bullet struck his stomach and a grenade shattered his back. The helicopter, barely off the ground, suddenly crashed, its pilot shot dead. 

Coughing blood, Benavidez made his way to the Huey and pulled the wounded from the wreckage, forming a small perimeter. As he passed out ammunition taken from the dead, the air support he had earlier radioed for arrived. Jets and helicopter gunships strafed threatening enemy soldiers while Benavidez tended the wounded. "Are you hurt bad, Sarge?" one soldier asked. "Hell, no," said Benavidez, about to collapse from blood loss. "I've been hit so many times I don't give a damn no more." 

While mortar shells burst everywhere, Benavidez called in Phantoms "danger close". Enemy fire raked the perimeter. Several of the wounded were hit again, including Benavidez. By this time he had blood streaming down his face, blinding him. Still he called in air strikes, adjusting their targets by sound. Several times, pilots thought he was dead, but then his voice would come back on the radio, calling for closer strikes. Throughout the fighting, Benavidez, a devout Catholic, made the sign of the cross so many times, his arms were "were going like an airplane prop". But he never gave into fear. 

Finally, a helicopter landed. "Pray and move out," Benavidez told the men as he helped each one aboard. As he carried a seriously wounded Frenchie Mousseau over his shoulder a fallen NVA soldier stood up, swung his rifle and clubbed Benavidez in the head. Benavidez fell, rolled over and got up just as the soldier lunged forward with his bayonet. Benavidez grabbed it, slashing his right hand, and pulled his attacker toward him. With his left hand, he drew his own bowie knife and stabbed the NVA but not before the bayonet poked completely through his left forearm. As Benavidez dragged Mousseau to the chopper, he saw two more NVA materialize out of the jungle. He snatched a fallen AK-47 rifle and shot both. Benavidez made one more trip to the clearing and came back with a Vietnamese interpreter. Only then did the sergeant let the others pull him aboard the helicopter. 

Blood dripped from the door as the chopper lumbered into the air. Benavidez was holding in his intestines with his hand. Bleeding almost into unconsciousness, Benavidez lay against the badly wounded Mousseau and held his hand. Just before they landed at the Medevac hospital, "I felt his fingers dig into my palm," Benavidez recalled, "his arm twitching and jumping as if electric current was pouring through his body into mine" At Loc Ninh, Benavidez was so immobile they placed him with the dead. Even after he spit in the doctor's face and was taken from the body bag, Benavidez was considered a goner. 

Benavidez spent almost a year in hospitals to recover from his injuries. He had seven major gunshot wounds, twenty-eight shrapnel holes and both arms had been slashed by a bayonet. Benavidez had shrapnel in his head, scalp, shoulder, buttocks, feet, and legs. His right lung was destroyed. He had injuries to his mouth and back of his head from being clubbed with a rifle butt. One of the AK-47 bullets had entered his back exiting just beneath his heart. He had won the battle and lived. When told his one man battle was awesome and extraordinary, Benavidez replied: "No, that's duty."

Wright and Mousseau were each awarded the Distinguish Service Cross posthumously. Although Master Sergeant Benavidez's commander felt that he deserved the Congressional Medal of Honor for his valor in saving eight lives, he put Roy in for the Distinguished Service Cross. The process for awarding a Medal of Honor would have taken much longer, and he was sure Benavidez would die before he got it. The recommendation for the Distinguish Service Cross was rushed through approval channels and Master Sergeant Benavidez was presented the award by General William C. Westmoreland while he was recovering from his wounds at Fort Sam Houston's Hospital. 

Years later, his former commander learned that Benavidez had survived the war. The officer also learned more details of the sergeant's mission and concluded that Benavidez merited a higher honor. Years of red tape followed until finally on February 24, 1981, President Reagan told White House reporters "you are going to hear something you would not believe if it were a script." Reagan then read Roy Benavidez's Citation for the Medal of Honor. 

Benavidez however, did not regard himself as a hero.  He said of his actions. "The real heroes are the ones who gave their lives for their country, I don't like to be called a hero. I just did what I was trained to do."  

In addition to being a recipient of the Medal Of Honor, MSG Benavidez was the recipient of the Combat Infantry Badge for his Viet Nam war service, the Purple Heart Medal with 4 Oak Leaf Clusters, Viet Nam Campaign Medal with 4 Battle Stars, Viet Nam Service Medal, Air Medal, Master Parachutist Badge, Vietnamese Parachutist Badge, Republic of Viet Nam Cross of Gallantry with Palm, and other numerous decorations.

Upon retirement Master Sergeant Benavidez lived in El Campo, Texas, with his wife, Lala, and three children, Noel,Yvette and Denise. He was a member of the: Medal of Honor Society, Legion of Valor, Veterans of Foreign War, Special Operations Association, Alamo Silver Wings Airborne Association, and Special Forces Association, The 82nd Airborne Association, West Point Honorary Alumni Association, and countless other organizations. 

An elementary school in Houston, Texas is named Roy P. Benavidez. 

Master Sergeant Roy Benavidez died on November 29, 1998.  Over 1,500 people attended his funeral to say goodbye. He is buried in the shade of a live oak tree at the Fort Sam Houston National Cementary, a fitting final resting place for someone who gave so much of himself to this great nation.  In addition to his heroic actions in combat, he will also be remembered for his work with youths.  He spoke at schools and colleges and even runaway shelters. He promoted patriotism, staying-in school, encouraged continuing education, and drug free programs for students. Vision Quest, an organization known for working with problem youths, named a youth boot camp Fort Roy P. Benavidez in Uvalde, Texas after him. Master Sergeant Benavidez was further recognized by the naming of the Roy P. Benavidez Elementary School in Houston, Texas. 

In August 1999, the U.S. Army dedicated the $14 million Master Sergeant Roy P. Benavidez Special Operations Logistics Complex at Fort Bragg, NC.

On September 14, 2000, the U.S. Navy Secretary Richard Danzig announced that the U.S. Navy plans to name a new ship after Master Sergeant Roy P. Benavidez. The ship, scheduled to be christened next summer as the USNS Benavidez, will be the seventh in a class of large, medium speed roll-on/roll-off sealift ships.  Army Secretary Louis Caldera made these remarks on the Navy's announcement: 

"Master Sergeant Roy Benavidez was a true American hero, rising from humble origins in South Texas to become an Army legen. Wounded over 40 times as he saved the lives of eight fellow soldiers under heavy fire in Vietnam, he always said he was only doing his duty to his fellow soldiers and to the country he loved. The Navy's recognition of his selfless service is truly an appropriate tribute to Master Sgt. Benavidez's memory, and to the ideals of our nation that he epitomized." 

If you would like to read more about Master Sergeant Roy Benavidez's life, before, during and after the Vietnam War, then I recommend that you read his book co-authored with John R. Craig, "Medal of Honor - A Vietnam Warrior's Story" (Brassey's, Inc, 1995). 



Preparing for Celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month
Hispanic Congressional Medal of Honor Recipients

The following websites have compiled by Rafael Ojeda to facilitate events and programs who writes, "I hope that this will help us to celebrate the lives of all our veterans not only our decorated heroes. God Bless them all and their families.

Rafael Ojeda RSNOJEDA@aol.com

http://www.homeofheroes.com/e-books/mohE_hispanic/index.html
http://www.acolorofhonor.org/archive/hispanicveterans/index.htr
http://www.gtz-ind.com/05202005_PressRelease.html
http://www.dod.mil/special/Hispanic2001/moh_home.html
http://www.puertorico-herald.org/issues/vol3n46/Hispanic   (the letters before the 3 is vol).
http://www.medalofhonor.com  click "recent passing" of Jose C. Rodriguez Nov 1, 2005.
plus the death of other vets.
http://www.medalofhonro.com/JoseValdez.htm    A Highway in NM named after him).



Red Skelton's Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag
Originally recorded from the Red Skelton Hour, January 14, 1969
To hear him explaining his feelings about the flag and what the flag represents, go to:
http://unknownprogrammer.home.comcast.net/index.html
Sent by Eddie Grijalva grijalvaet@sbcglobal.net

I

me, an individual, a committee of one.

Pledge

dedicate all of my worldly goods to give without self-pity.

Allegiance

my love and my devotion.

To the Flag

[of the]
our standard, Old Glory, a symbol of freedom. Wherever she waves, there's respect because your loyalty has given her a dignity that shouts freedom is everybody's job.

United

that means that we have all come together.

States

[of America]
individual communities that have united into 48 great states. 48 individual communities with pride and dignity and purpose, all divided with imaginary boundaries, yet united to a common purpose, and that's love for country.

and to the Republic

For Which It Stands
Republic ... a state in which sovereign power is invested in representatives chosen by the people to govern. And government is the people and it's from the people to the leaders, not from the leaders to the people.

One Nation

One Nation ... meaning, so blessed by God.

Indivisible

incapable of being divided.

With Liberty

which is freedom, the right of power to live one's own life, without threats, fear, or some sort of retaliation.

And Justice

the principle or qualities of dealing fairly with others.

For All

For all ... which means, boys and girls, it's as much your country as it is mine.



Pray for our Military. . . They believe in Prayer
Sent by ORDONEZ49NINER

 

 

Lakota Tribe in North Dakota Funeral Activities and Observance

This is the funeral activities and observance by the Lakota Tribe in North Dakota of one of their young men, killed in Iraq. The tenderness, respect, love, and unity is very touching as the traditions of their people are shown towards, the young Marine.  http://multimedia.rockymountainnews.com/slideshow/slideshow.cfm?type=DEFAULT& ID=012006lundstrom&NUM=1  Sent by Dorinda Moreno 
 


Hero Military Search

New Project by Heaven Sent Jewelry is seeking information on Your Hero has served or is currently serving in the U.S. military.  Tell us about your HERO (Your husband, wife, grandfather, son, daughter, uncle, grandson/grand daughter, etc) 

To participate
1) Tell us about your HERO.  No more than two paragraphs
2) Email us a jpeg (less than 500K) picture (military uniform or solo to hsjewels@msn.com
3) Submissions must have: Name, Rank, and Branch of Service & Home State.
4) Email Heading should read HERO
5) Sing up for our email blast to receive information pertaining to HERO Search
 
Deadline July 21st  Results  July 28th

By entering, entrants acknowledge compliance with these official rules including all eligibility requirements. All entries/photographs become the property of Heaven Sent Jewelry.



CUENTOS

Book: Scarred by Scandal, Redeemed by Love, Gloria DeLaTorre-Wycoff
Boxed Memories, Richard Sanchez
The Day Roosevelt Died, Summer l944, Frank Sifuentes

Who is Frank Sifuentes?
Nuestra Familia Unida Podcasts 
Traveling to Ancestral Locations in Search of True History by Mary Allen 

Inspirational Stories 
Micheal Lozano Embarks on a Journey of Self-Discovery, Part 3

 


This is a story of a woman's indomitable will.   Maria arrives in Los Angeles at eighteen and soon enters into a passionate love-affair with her brother-in-law, a prominent leader in the Mexican-American community.   Pregnant and alone, she is ostracized by unforgiving relatives.  What follows are years of poverty, raising her three children in dingy one-room apartments  With admiration and pride, her eldest daughter describes the struggle and the triumph of this amazing woman, and her strength and unending love for her family.
               Ted C. Synder, Ret. Professor of Journalism and Government

This is an extraordinary account of an immigrant woman.  In her memoir, DeLaTorre-Sycoff imparts more than a tribute to her mother, Maria.  it reveals the complexity of a woman who struggles against critical odds as a single unmarried mother, worker and survivor.  This story is also a disclosure of the harsh and complex realities immigrant women negotiate in their attempt to live in disparate and often conflicting worlds.  Disruption, destitution, sexism, racism and rejection characterize Maria's life, but so do adaptation, cohesion, uncompromising love and celebration  The lessons lived and learned about survival and adaptation profoundly affect and influence her three children who become college graduates and community leaders.

This memoir is a story of acceptance and forgiveness.  There is no rancor on these pages but rather an acceptance of a life that was as much shaped by the forces of the times, as it was by the difficult personal choices and decisions made by a unique woman.  DeLaTorre-Wycoff enlightens our understanding of how women utilize their intuitive and socially interactive skills to not only survive, but to transcend their circumstances.  She conveys a ray of hope to those of us who resonate with her spirit for living, loving and transformation. 
                 Naomi Quiñónez, Ph.D. Professor, American Studies, Poet, Author
                 "Sueño de Colibri /Hummingbird Dream": "The Smoking Mirror"

Gloria DeLaTorre-Wycoff, born and raised in Los Angeles, now lives in Lake Forest, California.  After raising five children, she earned a bachelor's and master's degree.  She has received awards for her contributions as a community leader and volunteer.  Today she prides herself on being the loving matriarch of a four-generation family.

Writing about a recent June weekend, Gloria wrote: "Dear Mimi, it’s been a marvelous whirlwind of a week with my family – 3 daughters, 1 sons, grand and great-grandchildren, sister, and nieces, nephews, etc.  We celebrated my 75th and had a ball." 

 

DeLaTorre Publishing
25422 Trabuco Road, #105-538
Lake Forest, CA 92630-2797
949-768-6105
gloria@delatorrepublishing.com
www.delatorrepublishing.com
www.redeemedbylove.com


Boxed Memories by Richard Sanchez

 

I spent many hours looking through the box of faded photographs, not just once, not just today, but many times, over the years. The blue box of photographs is a treasury of memories, captured moments and black and white smiles. In the scalloped Fox and Kodak images, are moments that we left behind. It was yesteryear, so very long ago. I remember the place, and I remember.

The magic in the blue box of photographs takes me back to a wonderful time, a happy time. Our house, on Twenty-First and Fay was full with noise and laughter. We had both our parents and I never lacked a brother or sister. There were plenty of us to go around.

 

My paternal grandparents lived next door. I remember the place, but the people in the photos are so much younger than I recall. My ‘buelo Diego stands proud in one of the pictures. He stands, well dressed with his handsome young sons. Those are my uncles and my dad.

My ‘buelo Diego was a good man. From the platicas and cuentos that I have heard, he was a hard worker and was always eager to help. He helped my great grandfather bring our families to Texas. La familia settled in Edinburg where they worked and eventually bought a couple of lots to build on. At that time, Twenty-First and Fay were at the edge of town.

When I hunt my memories, I find myself up early in the morning. My sisters and I are out the door. My dad sends us out to go greet my ‘buelo, to darle los buenos dias. Like little soldiers, we walk the path from our house, across ‘buela Veva’s garden, and to our grandparents front door.

My grandparents are up very early. At seven thirty, they are up, dressed and have already had their breakfast. They sit in their living room and pray the rosary, thanking God for another blessed day. They pray the rosary in the evening too.

We approach my ‘buela Veva and greet her with a handshake and a bow. We tell her one at a time, "Buenos dias, abuelita." We then line up to greet my grandfather, ‘buelito Diego. He sits in his chair, but does not move his head. Only his eyes can follow us.

My "buelito Diego is old and he is sick. He no longer talks, he only mumbles. Sometimes, he tries to talk, but he is difficult to understand and only ‘buela can understand him. When ‘buelo Diego walks, he has to shuffle from room to room, he can no longer lift his legs to move his feet. It is as if he is paralyzed. When we shake his hand in our "Buenos dias" greeting, his hand is in a loose fist and he cannot open it. Still, we shake his hand in our greeting.

For a long time now, ‘buelo’s right hand shakes on its own. It moves up and down as if he is strumming the strings on a guitar. But there is no guitar, his hand moves on its own. ‘Buela says he shakes because he is sick.

I feel bad for my grandfather. He wants to talk and respond to our words, but only mumbles come out. Soon he tires, he whimpers, and tears began to flow from his graying eyes. I think his heart aches with love for his grandchildren. That is what my heart tells me. Sometimes, hearts can talk when people can’t. That is my ‘buelo Diego in the photographs. He was not a big man, but he had a big heart.

That is my ‘buelo Diego in the photographs. He was not a big man, but he was a good man and he had a big heart. I will remember ‘buelo Diego and I will follow in his footsteps. Some day, down the road in life, someone may say something about me; I hope they say that I too was a good man, just like my ‘buelo Diego. Then, when I can no longer talk, when I can no longer walk, I will smile and my heart will be full.

Richard Sanchez  r-osunchase@msn.com
3400 W. Hwy 490, Edinburg, Tx 78539



THE DAY ROOSEVELT DIED, Summer l944

Written by: Frank M. Sifuentes 

Those of us still above ground who were born in the l920's and early 1930's remember World War II with a profound sense of having been impacted, changed and redirected by it.

During these years, 1941-45. I sold newspapers and shined shoes, and was able to read about what was happening in the battle fields, and was able to hear lots of conversation about the war.

And like most Austinites, the movies became my favorite form of entertainment, which assured that I saw over and over the Movie-Tone reports of Lowell Thomas, with films showing details of the horrors.

Not to mention the series of movies about the war, such as Bataan with Robert Taylor and Robert Walker (who played a U.S. sailor). It added up to a global picture in which civilizations had gone berserk!

But in Austin the calm and the peace remained. And we were 'energized' and offered 'war created' opportunities. People planted victory gardens, bought liberty bonds and stamps, endured rationing of gas, sugar, nylon stockings and other items.

The schools involved us in war related activities. My sister Carmen tells Of how she won a contest selling liberty stamps in the sixth grade and of how it was a glorious moment in her life. Her prize was a ride in an Army Jeep to Bergstrom Air Base to join the fighting men in having lunch. Prior to that she was scarcely aware there was a war going on.

The Americanization of the first born of immigrant Mexicans was greatly intensified. For how could we continue having reverence for the Mexican Flag, when reverence for any flag other than the American flag was considered un-American.

When we, the students of Zavala Elementary School - every one of us Mexicanos - recited the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag and sang the Stars Spangle Banner, and American the Beautiful we did it with authenticity, and with a real sense of pride and purpose. And we did it with the sweet feeling of belonging, made more real by the super outstanding teaching of Miss Stohl, who made sure we became part of Americana.

Few elementary school students could sing Dixie, Home of the Range, Clementine, Buffalo Gal and American the Beautiful better than Miss Stohl's Zavala Elementary School music classes. It didn't matter to her in the least that most of us spoke more Spanish than English. Our English sounded just fine when we sang for her.

When reports came in of the losses of military men who were from East Austin, our Americanization seemed to have become complete. Though it was difficult to fathom that Elias Lopez, Armando Botello, And others from out part of town had given their life for their country.

Mexico, less than 200 miles away from Austin, psychologically became as far away as Japan.

What held this World War II consciousness together more than anything was the voice of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the only president my generation had ever know. He belonged to us and we belonged to him. His tears and sorrows were our tears and sorrows. 

He was guiding us skillfully and masterfully through this incredible National ordeal. And when he told us we were winning this monumental world struggle against the evils of fascism and Japanese Imperialism, we could be sure he was telling us the truth and rejoiced.

Never in our wildest dreams did we believe he would die on us.

But he did - of a cerebral hemorrhage in the summer of l944 after having been elected for an unprecedented 4th term. 

They say he died from wear and tear from the war experience which is probably true; however after watching the movie, (and reading the book) Winds of War it's possible he died from drinking too many martinis and smoking too many cigarettes.

I vividly remember the day President Roosevelt died.

I was a 13 year old who had finally become a viable pin-setter at a West Austin bowling alley which had leagues playing every evening; bowling was a rage in Austin.

It was a frightful experience for me. Having to set pins for two lanes was really difficult because they had pin-setting machines that were large, heavy and had to be slammed down so smoothly that all the pins would be left standing. If one fell, especially if it fell on the other pins, we'd have to get down on our knees and stand them up again, and very often just as the player was about to send the cannon ball down the lane as fast as he or she could.

Fanatical bowlers got real grouchy when the pins would fall on their own and delayed their gratification, as if each ball they zipped down the lane was a step closer to ending the war. And sometimes just for the fun of it one of those characters would throw the ball to see how fast we could get out of The way.

I nevertheless remember these bowling pin-setting experiences fondly.

There were some real characters, besides myself, working there. Like Jesse Soliz and Lee Mendez, who were a bit sex crazed. They enjoyed working at the bowling alley because they loved to watch 'pierna' (leg) as the women sat in shorts or forgot to cover up. And when the ones who wore dresses bowled, they showed their legs but good.

Jesse was good and fast at setting pins. He easily to care of his two alleys and would jumped over to one of mine when he saw I was lagging and catching dirty looks from the players. Once when he quickly placed the bowling ball on the groove as I was stooping to pick up pins, it accidentally fell on my head.

On the day Roosevelt died, I was working at this bowling alley, enjoying the pay of 10 cents a line, which added up by the end of the evening because each player bowled about ten games. And the players who were generous would give us a tip, especially if they had won.

We were on a break, until the next league got ready to go, when we heard on the loud speaker the news that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt had died. It was a terrible surprise, but I got another surprise I was not ready for in the least.

Just as the word came across on the speakers, I heard nothing but cheers. And one man jumped up and said with so much anger, "Good, I'm glad that son of a bitch is dead!". And there was a lot of agreement.

Obviously the bowling league for that night was made up of Republicans who were frustrated for having been out of power since l932, and were growing weary of the FDR 'dictatorship'.

However, I had no way of knowing anything about electoral politics. In l944 there probably were only about two dozen Mexican Americans in all of Austin who paid the poll tax allowing them to vote.

And why any American would be happy about the death of our great President FDR was totally beyond my comprehension.

FDR had been our President. The President of all the people. He had brought work to Mexicans, Afro American and Anglo Americans alike. He first wanted to avoid the war, then decided it was good business to arm the European powers fighting against the evil Hitler. Then he declared war on Japan, and then on Germany, changing America forever.

 


Who is Frank Sifuentes?

I've been an active writer since l966 in terms of aiming at being published in the Chicano press; and in letter to the LA TIMES editor (since 65 my letters expressing concerns over racism in all of our country's major institutions: With major focus on immigration, education, law enforcement AND Chicano life and culture.

I was one of the founders of Con Safos Magazine, La Raza Newspaper, a magazine Francisca Flores and I published called Regeneration.  We published 10 issues the first year and put it into the hands of CalState LA writers; mostly women and a couple of visual artists, including Harry Gamboa. They published 2 or 3 issues; and as students went on to their chosen career. 

In terms of published articles, I had many in La Raza Magazine clear up to the time it became a Magazine. Don't know if I told you that in those days to put a by-line was considered vanity fair and a sort of stepping stone to qualify for main media (captive press). I agreed with that. And only by-lined a couple.

There 3 or 4 other magazine I published in during the 70's and 80's; one was organized by Roberto Rodriguez called America:2000.

While I continued in a career in human services; child-abuse and domestic violence, health and community development. In fact since l966 I used my gift for writing to develop training plans; and write proposals for funding.  It is in proposal writing that I can take real pride in because my proposals brought resources into the community.

From l971 to 1973 I was Community Relations Secretary for the Southwest Region of the American Friends Service Committee. hree of the four projects I developed there ended up establishing counter institutions in the field of direct positive social action.

From l969/71 I was the founding director of Centro Joaquin Murieta de Atzlan and we recruited and sent 3000 gente chicana into colleges and universities. That Project lasted another 4 years.

After that I did a year a USC Centro Chicano as academic counselor and recruiter. We recruited more chicanos in one summer than they had enrolled from the beginning. While there I organized Festival de Flor y Canto. 

Spent three years, l975-78 as Community Activity Coordinator for 10 L.A. County Youth Opportunity Centers  

During the school year of  l980-81 I was Supervisor of Recruitment of Chicanos for Cal State Dominguez with fairly middling success. Then I worked for El Centro Community Mental Health Center 1982-85; and was fired because I joined the union; I sued and received an award of $5000 after turning down the option of being reinstated and back pay. Then I became Resource and Development Coordinator with Plaza Community Center that provides early childhood education, health and family counseling. My proposal established a permanent institution named Plaza Family Support Center. 

This brings me to my last place of employment Multicultural Area Heath Education Center where I also worked as RD&PR Coordinator. By this time I had been regularly publish articles on health and human service issues. And published about 50-60 articles. Including cultural
issues. And ended my formal career in l994. Spending full time writing and started a new serious of c/s magazines with a $2000 a year grant from CAC.

In l996 I had a serious heart attack that resulted in open heart surgery. by l997 my wife and I began a new career in Resident Managers of Section 8 senior housing. And here we are circa 2006.

In terms of social action I am happy to have remained in the background. However, I can tell the story of where I was and what I did from l967 on with thanks to God for allowing me to survive without becoming a cultural hero of any kind of substantial way. But if people want a word that can define me within the context of social movement for peace and justice. They can say, I was a link, and that much of what I linked did not remain in the records.

YA YA YA..soy frank sifuentes, Conzafos.

 

Nuestra Familia Unida 6/26/06  Two new messages in this issue. 
1. Low Riders Podcast/PabloNeruda/New Cuentos de Kiko
Posted by: "Joseph Puentes" makas@nc.rr.com makas_nc
Have a listen to the "Low Riders" poem by Jim Moreno in the Poetry 
section of the NFU podcast: http://nuestrafamiliaunida.com/podcast/poetry.html

2. HearOnEarth/EnlaHistoria 
From: Joseph Puentes

Many new Cuentos de Kiko in the Oral History area by Frank Moreno Sifuentes:
http://nuestrafamiliaunida.com/podcast/oral_history.html#kiko
===> "Las Lagrimas de Mama Grande Juanita - 1938" by Frank Moreno Sifuentes
===> "Mama Grande Lupe - Influenza" by Frank Moreno Sifuentes
===> "1915 - Mexican Immigrant" by Frank Moreno Sifuentes
===> "Immigrantes Mejicanos" by Frank Moreno Sifuentes
===> "The Day Roosevelt Died - 1944" by Frank Moreno Sifuentes
===> "With Due Respect to Erma Bombeck" by Frank Moreno Sifuentes
===> "The Black Squad - 1948" by Frank Moreno Sifuentes
===> "From Drive By Shootings to Toxic Clouds" by Frank Moreno Sifuentes
===> "My Unusual Birth - 1932" by Frank Moreno Sifuentes
===> "The Three Musketeers" by Frank Moreno Sifuentes
===> "Early School Memories - 1938" by Frank Moreno Sifuentes
===> "Chrismas Memories- 1943 - Losers Weepers Finders Keepers" by Frank Moreno Sifuentes
===> "El Lote Grande de Nuestra Vecinidad" by Frank Moreno Sifuentes
===> "Shoe Shine Boy in a White Man's Barber Shop - 1945" by Frank Moreno Sifuentes
===> "Canicas Con Stella by Starlight" by Frank Moreno Sifuentes
===> "Pedro Chaisse - Mexican Immigrant 1924" by Frank Moreno Sifuentes
===> "Canicas Con Connie Castillo - Christmas 1947" by Frank Moreno Sifuentes
===> "My Personal Resolve - Korean War Revisit" by Frank Moreno Sifuentes
===> "Halloween Night - 1944" by Frank Moreno Sifuentes
===> "It Remains Prohibited" by Pablo Neruda
===> "Japanese Love Goddess - 1951" by Frank Moreno Sifuentes
===> "La Calle Ancha Del Pasado" by Frank Moreno Sifuentes
===> "La Nieve" by Frank Moreno Sifuentes
===> "Las Cucarachas" by Frank Moreno Sifuentes
===> "Las Lindas Mujeres" by Frank Moreno Sifuentes
===> "My Testimony To The 9-11 Event" by Frank Moreno Sifuentes
===> "Puppy Love At A Distance - 1945" by Frank Moreno Sifuentes
===> "The Bean Contest" by Frank Moreno Sifuentes

There have been many new podcasts made available to the http://NuestraFamiliaUnida.com podcast project. A great collection of Oral History stories by Frank Moreno Sifuentes including his translation of the Pablo Neruda poem, "It Remains Prohibited." But two new poets (Jim Moreno and Diego Davalos) to the podcast have by far taken center stage with their poetry. Have a listen to Jim Moreno's "Lowrider" poem and Diego Davalos' "Reclamando La Linea" and "Cesar."

http://NuestraFamiliaUnida.com/podcast/poetry.html

There is still much work to be done in getting the word out to the community about the Nuestra Familia Unida podcast project. Please consider joining the planning committee for the project at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/podhi/ Any questions or comments can be directed to Joseph Puentes: NFU@JosephPuentes.com



Traveling to Ancestral Locations in Search of True History by Mary Allen

Hello! I actually returned on December 8 from Mexico City and San Felipe "Torres Mochas", Guanajuato, but I believe a large piece of my heart is still in Mexico. That trip has totally changed my life. Really. I don't really know where to begin because it was such an incredible experience. 

Much of the success of this trip I attribute to the kind help of many of you. There is Carol Turner who advised me about collecting "classic" photos, which I did. I purchased a good digital camera just before I left and gave up trying to master the manual on the plane. Luckily my new primo's son was into things electronic and taught me how to use it. Lucky me! My 80-year-old primo Enrique Guzman Romero has been into genealogy for decades and has written extensively about his town especially researching why it is called "Torres Mochas". He has a magnificent collection of photos of several generations of the Romero family. The most outstanding was his collection of wedding photos. Beautiful. I have to go back when the weather is warmer because even with four days there just was not enough time to copy all the photos I wanted and gather information.

And thanks to Victor Villarreal for warning me about traveling alone. Just before I was to leave, I broke my left foot. That really affected my plans but there was no way I would not go. But I was fortunate that Continental Airlines helped me all the way there and back and I had to do very little hobbling. I took your advise about the airport taxi in Mexico City and got the pay in advance kind. Truthfully, my impetuous nature was challenged a bit because I had to depend on others to help me because I just could not manage the cobblestones with my "boot". Sigh. And I always seemed to be on cobblestone. 

And thank you, Joseph. My first stop was to visit a 93 year old prima who asked me to come to her convent in Mexico City even though she confided to others she had no idea who I was. Imagine my chagrin when doing more looking through old photos I found one of the two of us, together. She is blind and almost deaf but she got a chuckle when I told her I had evidence that we had met in 1967 and had posed for several photographs together in San Antonio, Texas. 

Joseph had advised me to actually make a list of the questions I would pose. That was so important. I had no problem with the small tape recorder; she couldn't see it, but because I had to speak into her ear, I had to make my questions clear and brief. She was so alert and had great answers. Once she started talking she was off non stop, she remembered so much that I hardly had to coax her at all. She came up with wonderful anecdotes about her life as a young woman. She even spoke of what a wonderful pianist "Manuel" was. I took a chance and asked her if she meant the Manuel Ponce who wrote "Estrellita". That's exactly whom she meant and she was off on an anecdote about him.

We had three wonderful sessions. Then she got the flu and she was so medicated that she slept for the next three days that I was there. I regretted not being able to visit more with her but it gave me an opportunity to speak to the other Sisters in the convent and I heard great stories about their experiences during the revolution and when they were young. With them I visited a wonderful bazaar of indigenous arts and later a Pastorela at a school. I ate some interesting foods. But it was so cold. Even though I had warm clothing with me, it just wasn't enough.

Sister Beatrice drove me to the airport when I was gong to Leon, Guanajuato. She has nerves of steel. She just smiled when she heard me gasp. 

My primo and his son Oscar met me at the airport at Leon. What a blessing because our destination was another hour away...at a fast clip through some very mountainous, curvey upward climbing highway. I clung to the seat as I looked down town. It was beautiful but just so far down there and I wondered if it was really necessary to drive so fast. 

Emilie Garcia had advised me to take large photos. I took her advice and prepared a bound copy of our family photos. It was a hit. My host and primo, Enrique, seemed to like it very much. He carried it around, showing it off. Thanks, Emilie.

But the gift Enrique had for me far surpassed anything I could imagine. He teased me about my complaints that I came from " una familia muy chiquita". I followed him to his studio and watched as he reached for a long roll which he slowley unrolled across his desk. It must have measured about 7 ft. "Aqui esta tu familia "chiquita"", he smiled. I couldn't breathe! It was covered with names and photographs. I really wanted to cry. Immediately I saw my great grandfather's photo as a handsome young man. And I learned that his mother's name was Josefa Galvan.

There were so many beautiful people all down the length of the tree. There were hundreds of names. I was speechless. "Jamas puedes decir que tienes una familia chiquita!" But I wondered how I was going to get a copy of this. From the drive through the small town I seriously doubted that there was a "Kinkos". But, on the fourth day he surprised me by carefully rolling it up and giving it to me before I left for the return trip. Such generosity.

I did contribute something to him, however, that he did not expect...a branch, well, maybe a twig, on his great tree. Somehow, my grandmother Petra Romero Gonzalez, had disappeared altogether. Her brother and sister were there, but she appeared no where. He was so surprised that he got on the phone and called relatives in San Luis whom he had interviewed and who had spoken affectionately about the other two siblings but never mentioned Petra. And they still did not know about her. They insisted she did not exist but of course I had photos of her and even some documents clearly identifying her. She even lived in the area for 40 years.

I went through some very sad moments and Enrique and I were on the internet, on the phone and even made a couple of visits to interview living relatives who still remembered the family. I was crushed when they would shake their head and say they never heard of her. It really made me very upset. Petra was the child of Victor Romero Galvan's first marriage. He had many children from his second marriage and I knew that my grandmother for some reason did not like the second wife. In fact when her mother died, she was sent to live with her "madrina", but she knew the second wife, Sotera Gutierrez. Enrique and I worked an average of 5 to 8 hours a day, far into the night, searching everywhere and everything, photos, lists, calling here and there, to no avail.
Now I just want to know "why". In fact I have a list of 13 "whys". 

I don't remember who told me about dreaming about our ancestors. I did. A lot. Maybe it was because I studied the photos all four days that I was there. Over and over, looking for a familiar face in a group photo. Looking for some clue. In my dreams I could see them all, walking around, saying something to me, but I couldn't understand. It was a recurring dream and I could see their mouths move, but couldn't hear the words . I could especially see my bisabuelo, come so close to me, speak, smile and move away. I told Enrique; he just shrugged his shoulders. He saw that I was upset. So, we promised to meet when it is warmer and my foot is healed and go to San Luis Potosi where there is another primo who has a collection of family letters. We hope maybe one of them will give us some information.

When I got home, I wasted no time in moving all of Petra's material from the Romero binder to the Garana binder. They won't get her back until they let me know why they ostracized (?) ignored(?) alienated (?) her. There is a story there and I so want to know even though in knowing it may cause more hurt. My father warned me when I started this many years ago. He said to be certain you were ready to accept anything you might find out. Now I wonder if he knew something. It would be safer to just get dates and connections and not stories...but people are more than dates. And if what I learn is shocking or hurtful, I'll deal with it.

So, back to the drawing board. 

On ROMERO family tree there are the following who lived in Salinas, SLP, Aguascalientes, San Luis Potoso,SLP, Lagos de Moreno, Jalisco. The oldest names date to 1800. 

ALVARADO, AVILA, ANDRADE, ARAGON, AGUIRRE, BALERO, BLANCO, CARREON, CORTEZ, CASTANEDA, CASTILLO, CARMIN, CHAVEZ, CHENHOLLS, CAMPOS, CERVANTEX, CANALES, CASTELAZA, CORILLO, CONTRERAS, CASTRO, DE LA ROSA, DELGADO, DE ESNAURRIZAR, DELGADILLO, DEL TORO, ESQUIVEL, ESCUDERO, FLURY, FONSECA, GARCIA, GARZA, GAMA, GUEVARA, GALLARDO, GRIMALDO, HERNANDEZ, HIGUERA, IZCARENO, ISAIS, JUAREZ, KOUBICHER, LUNA, LOPEZ, LLAMAS, LICON, MARIN, MATA, MANTECA, MENDIOLA, MONTOYA, MEDINA, MUNOS, MEDELLIN, NAJERA, OWENS, OROZCO, OTERO, PINA, PEDROSA, PRIETO, PEREZ, PONCE, RIVERO, ROJAS, ROMERO, RODRIGUEZ, REGALADO, RAMOS, RUIZ, ROMAN, REBOLLEDO, ROBINSON, SALINAS, SAUSO, SNCHEZ, SAN JOSE, SALDIVAR, TREJO, UGARTE, VIDALES, VALADEZ, VELARDE, VELEZ, ZUAREZ, 


My poor primo tried so hard, but we came up with nothing. Well, when I left, I was so grateful for all and he did go to his computer, type up our twig and paste it on. I came back with many anecdotes about life in their times; Mimi Lozano suggested that I write them up and submit them to her. I may. It was Mimi who lead me to Ranchos so I am especially grateful to her.

Again, thanks to everyone for the help and encouragement. If any of the above names are of interest to anyone, I'll be happy to provide what I have.

I think I have become genealogy obsessed. Now I just can't stop. But I still did not find a thing about the GARANA side!

Mary
mary.allen3770@sbcglobal.net

PS You may not hear from me for a while, but rest assured that everyday I read everything single item with great interest and gusto. I wish you all a peaceful Christmas and a wonderful new year full of new discoveries. May your ancestors be kind and allow themselves to be found!! 12/17/2005



Inspirational Stories 
http://www.innerloca.blogspotcom/

Hi everyone, One of my friend, Nancy Marmelijo, interviews some women with inspirational stories through a pod cast. I thought this could be a great resource for the youth... It's free , perhaps it could be used to inspire the youth.  Please feel free in passing this around... it will only be effective if people hear it. I do believe that our Latina's will be inspired by hearing from Latina's in their back yard.

I'm number # 8, most of the interviews are about 30 minutes. If you have a chance, check out Dr. Nora Comstock, she is the founder of Las Comadres..an awesome organization that is one of my favorites. Dr. Ana Nogales, Nancy Marmeljo, Tanya are some members of the group. There's no fee ... wealth of information and great opportunity in meeting Latina's nation wide. 

Take care, Addy Perez-Mau
Co-founder S.H.E. www.stayhomeentrepreneur.com
Office (714) 619-4816 "Say it with Emotion"
Check out our BLOG http://heavensentjournal.blogspot.com



               Micheal Lozano Embarks on a Journey of Self-Discovery, Part 3

Texas greeted me with a bang. A severe thunderstorm blasted in as I crossed the state line into Texas on Interstate 10. I watched in horror as a car careened out of control on the other side of the highway and flipped over. I couldn’t do anything because there was so much traffic on my side. Feeling helpless, I continued on cautiously. Even Dudley looked scared. I inched along through Beaumont, Texas. The rain finally let up as I got closer to Houston.

The Spanish explored Texas’ eastern and western regions in the early sixteenth century. In 1519, Spanish Captain Alonso Alvarez de Piñeda sailed from Jamaica with four ships into the Rio Grande River. In 1540, another explorer, Francisco Vázquez de Coronado explored the Texas panhandle. Some of the missionaries that came after Coronado, began trading with the Tejas Indians. The name "Texas" was a Spanish word given the Indians which meant "friends" or "allies." The tribal names of these Texas Indians were "Hasinai" or "Assinais." The name "Texas" stuck and became the most used name for this territory.

As I approached Houston, I wanted to see where General Sam Houston won the Battle of San Jacinto to gain Independence for Texas. I took Route 225 east of Houston when I came to a 570 foot tall monument. The monument is capped by a huge Texas Lone Star. A museum sat at the base of the monument. On April 21, 1836, after a month and a half of retreating from battle, General Sam Houston stopped at this point and turned to fight. It appears that an act of providence had an effect on Houston’s decision to fight. Houston captured some Mexican couriers who had secret dispatches which revealed the strength and disposition of the Mexican forces. Houston was exactly in the right place at the right time. General Santa Anna had divided his force and only had 950 hand-picked men with him as he pushed in hot pursuit of the running Texans. Houston also knew that another 550 Mexican soldiers were coming to join Santa Anna. Houston, with 900 men, was not very concerned about this relatively small addition to Santa Anna’s force; the numbers were still comparable since Houston had the advantage of knowing the ground where the fight would be initiated. Santa Anna was expecting his second-in-command to join forces with him with an additional 2,500 men, but Houston attacked while they were too far apart to effect a link-up. While Santa Anna rested in an open field surrounded by water, Houston burned the only avenue of escape—a bridge that traversed the watery maze. In essence Houston was cutting off his own escape route if his attack did not succeed. Santa Anna did not believe that Houston would attack. So Santa Anna had his troops rest and waited for his separated army to join him. The stars were aligned perfectly for Houston. He waited until about 4:00 p.m. to launch his attack. The Mexicans were napping and unprepared when the 900 Texans rushed their camp yelling "Remember the Alamo!" They flew into a panic. Surprise was total. In 20 minutes the battle was over. The Mexicans lost 630, had 208 wounded and 730 taken prisoner. The Texans lost nine men and had 30 wounded. Houston was shot in the leg. Santa Anna was one of the captured. Houston forced Santa Anna to sign an agreement saying he would never again take up arms against Texas and would withdraw all Mexican forces from Texas. The Mexican government denounced the agreement and Santa Anna resigned his presidency. Houston had Santa Anna travel to Washington D.C. to meet with President Andrew Jackson in order to give the agreement some semblance of legitimacy. The agreement was really a chance for Santa Anna to save his life and not an agreement of formal Independence from Texas. Even though the Mexican government did not agree to Texas independence, Santa Anna’s agreement was given legitimacy because The United States, Britain, and France acknowledged their independence, and Mexico wasn’t strong enough to do anything about it. This lack of a formal agreement set the stage for the United States to go to war with Mexico nine years later.

As I looked west, I imagined seeing 773 miles of wide open country clear through to the New Mexico border. Texas is one big state. With 267,338 square miles, it is the second largest state next to Alaska. I have visited this state more than any other. I approached Houston on Interstate 10. It is the fastest growing city in the United States. Its two million people make it America’s fifth largest city. The Houston-Galveston area is the oil capital of the United States. The picture I have in my mind is of actor John Travolta playing "Bud" in "Urban Cowboy." I imagined Houston life as working at the oil refinery and drinking Lone Star beer at Gilly’s. In real life, Texans are boisterous people. You will find no other people so full of life. They love to dance, are fanatics when it comes to sports, and they love barbecue, chili, and the Mexican plate. You can go just about anywhere in the state and find a rodeo. They have college rodeos, prison rodeos, Mexican rodeos and the traditional rodeo. The rodeo in Texas is the best show in town. Everyone goes and the fans take personal interest in the cowboys. There are even groupies who follow the cowboys just as if they were rock stars. The cowboy hat is proper attire for man, woman or child.

The Houston Ship Channel is the third busiest in the nation. Its location made it ideal for trading with the world, but in 1900 the location worked against the people of this area. That year a hurricane blew through Galveston and flattened the city killing 6,000 people.

On these same shores, in 1528, the greatest odyssey of all time took place. This journey even outdid Lewis and Clark’s, but is not widely known because of its Spanish origin. Conquistador Pánfilo de Narváez left Santiago, Cuba with four ships and 400 men to establish a town on the Rio Grande River called the "Rio de Las Palmas." His fleet was blown off course in a storm and ended up on the coast of Florida. He decided to disembark with the horses and three quarters of his soldiers, and march overland to the Rio Grande while the fleet met up with him further up the coast. After looking for the men on shore for a year, the fleet gave up and sailed back to Cuba. Narváez then decided to build five barges to try to reach Mexico. They pushed off from Pensacola Bay. Before long, the five boats were lost at sea and fewer than 100 cold, naked Spaniards were washed up on the Texas shore near Galveston Island. One of these men was Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca, the ship’s treasurer. On the Island with very little food or shelter the survivors began to die one by one until there were only 15 men. They finally turned to cannibalism. Before long the Indians came upon Cabeza de Vaca and made him a slave. He was taught all the Indian ways and soon learned how they survived solely on the natural resources of the area. This tribe of Indians was known as the Karankawas. De Vaca later met a larger tribe that the Karakawas traded with, called the Coahuiltecans. They traveled as far inland as the San Antonio River. After five years alone with the Indians, de Vaca learned that there were three other Spaniards with another Indian tribe down by the coast. The three men were: Dorantes, the doctor’s son, Castillo, and Estevánico, a Black man from Morocco. The four of them decided to escape to Mexico. They headed down the Gulf Coast until they reached the Rio Grande River. After much walking, they entered the Sierra Madre Mountains in northern Mexico. They passed through the Indian villages that became the town of Cerralvo. My Grandmother, Refugio Bosque Lozano, was born in Cerralvo. They were told that the Indian tribes between Cerralvo and the coastal Spanish settlement of Panuco near present day Vera Cruz, were hostile to whites. They would be immediately killed if they were discovered. With this route to safety being so dangerous, they decided to go west to the other big ocean, the Pacific, where there were other Spanish settlements. They had no way of knowing the distance was over 2,000 miles. They moved along the mountains where present day Monterrey is located. This range naturally guided them back north until they re-crossed the Rio Grande River somewhere near Big Bend National Park at a town called Lajitas. They criss-crossed the Rio Grande River near Ojinaga, Mexico and Presidio, Texas. The party then cut across western Texas on what is known as the Shell Trail until they reached Casa Grande, the largest ancient Native American city in the Mexican borderland, between Douglas, Arizona and Chihuahua, Mexico. They traveled with the friendly Tarahumara Indians until they came out of the Sierra Madre Occidental Mountains to the Pacific plain in December of 1536. They were discovered by a Spanish scouting party and taken to their leader, Captain Lázaro de Cárdenas. They were later brought to Diego de Alcarez, the leader of the Spanish expedition. They had survived being shipwrecked nearly eight years earlier and a 2,500 mile journey. They traveled 7,000 miles total by land and sea since they left Cuba. Cabeza de Vaca is my true inspiration. There can be no greater traveler then this great survivor. He eventually made his way all the way back to Spain and wrote a best-selling book about his story. He returned to explore Paraguay in South America and tried to stop abuses of the Indians which brought him the hatred of other Spaniards who rebelled against him. He was sent back to Spain to live the rest of his life poor and humiliated.

I traveled down the coast of Texas straight south. The land was flat and almost treeless. There were miles and miles of rice and grain fields. I traveled through the coastal town of Matagorda. This is where the Colorado River empties into the Gulf of Mexico. There isn’t much to see here. It is a secluded beach without many facilities—only a few rental properties along the riverfront for vacationers. The reason I wanted to come here is that the famous French explorer Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, died here in an unsuccessful attempt to start a colony on what he thought was a western arm of the Mississippi River. He arrived off Matagorda Bay in January of 1685. La Salle built a fortification he called Fort Saint Louis. He only had 180 settlers by this time out of the original 300 and four ships. Pirates took one ship. One ship ran aground and sank with all their food, medicines, and tools. Another ship sailed back to France with a group of disgruntled settlers. He only had one ship left, the Belle, to continue his explorations and for safe resupply from Canada. La Salle left for extended periods of time which caused much despair. Finally, a storm sank the last ship, the "Belle." By January, 1687, there were only 37 people left alive. LaSalle took 17 men with him to seek help. His men had become so angry with his leadership that in March, five of his men ambushed and killed La Salle. Five of the men eventually made it back to Canada and then back to France but no help was sent to the remaining colonists who were killed or made slaves by the Indians. After more than 300 years, the wreck of the "Belle" was found in Matagorda Bay in 1995. A team of archaeologists from the Texas Historical Commission excavated the underwater site by building a waterproof cofferdam around the sunken ship in order to recover and preserve the artifacts of the La Salle ship.

The harsh elements of Texas weather have a way of driving people mad. I can empathize with La Salle. I remember a few times while traveling in Texas that my family and I behaved badly. The kids went crazy and my wife was ready to mutiny. As I traveled on the same road along the coast, I remembered that we stopped to camp at Goose Island State Park. My daughter was two years old. My wife decided to go for a jog. She asked me to keep an eye on the kids. I got my two children to lay down to take a nap with me. My son went to sleep but my daughter got up and decided to follow her mother down the park road. When my wife came back, she asked me where my daughter, Leigh, was. I said she was lying right next to me, but I didn’t know where she went. We searched all over for her in a panic. We finally found her walking down the road crying about a half mile away. My wife never let me forget my carelessness. I was so thankful that my baby girl was ok. Another time, my wife and I got into an argument on a lonely Texas highway and I said "Let me out of the car." She let me out and she drove off and left me in the middle of nowhere. After letting me stew for a while, she turned around to get me. Another time while letting the kids ride in the back of the truck under the camper, we thought that we would get some peace and quiet for a while. It was great to not have to hear all their whining. Listening to two- and four-year-olds bicker can sometimes get to you, especially when trapped in a confined place for days. My wife and I were having a good time just making conversation when I noticed that we were low on gas. I pulled over at the nearest gas station. When I opened up the camper to get the kids out I couldn’t believe my eyes. My daughter’s entire body from head to toe was covered with red permanent marker spots. We made quite a scene at that lonely Texas gas station as my wife yelled at my daughter and I yelled at my son, and my wife and I yelled at each other for putting the kids back there by themselves. It just shows you how fast peace, happiness and harmony can turn to utter chaos.

I came next to Corpus Christi, Texas. In this area of Texas it is immediately obvious that this area is more Tex-Mex than just Tex. The radio stations play more Tejano music than American popular music. Tejano music has been evolving over 150 years. It started with popular Mexican folk music being spiced up with German and Czech accordion tunes. I went to Germany and the Czech Republic to see for myself if there really were similarities in the music of these two separate parts of the globe. I was surprised to hear the same lively accordion tunes in Prague. The horns used the same polka rhythm. The German use of the accordion was very similar. In the early 1800s German immigrants came to Monterrey, Mexico to start beer breweries. They brought their love of German accordion music with them. They soon adapted the accordion music to the famous Mexican orchestra sound. The marriage of the two sounds stuck and grew into Tejano music. Later American fiddle music was also added. The Spanish style of music using guitar and violin music extensively was also a great addition to Tejano music. As Mexican artists learned of other world styles they were influenced by Rhythm and Blues, Rock and Roll, and Soul, but, the most influence came from the wide range and variety of popular Mexican folk music which was inspired largely by polkas, waltzes, rancheras, redovas, mambos, boleros, and other Spanish dance styles.

There are many more Mexicans living and working in Corpus Christi than Anglos. And Spanish is spoken more than English. Along with this comes some discrimination. Some people’s problem with marriage and relations between Mexicans and Anglos becomes more obvious here. There is great pride among Mexican Americans in retaining their Mexican customs. Mexican Americans are especially proud of their heroes and one of the most well known in south Texas is singer Selena. She was born Selena Quintanilla in Corpus Christi on April 16, 1971 to Abraham and Marcella Quintanilla. (Author’s note –One branch of the Lozano family descended from Mexico settler Bartoleme Quintanilla in the early 1500s) When Selena turned 9, her father realized she had real talent and started a family band with Selena as the lead singer. Her sister Suzette was the drummer and her brother, Abraham III, was the guitar player. They named the band, "Selena y Los Dinos." This was the story of a loving father and his children going from rags to riches. They started playing at local venues, traveling the back roads of South Texas to play at county fairs and festivals. By 1987, Selena was named "Female Vocalist of the Year." She was an icon among Tejano music lovers of Texas, Mexico and other places around the country where there were large Mexican populations. Selena was quickly bringing Tejano music to new heights. She was now performing to crowds of over 60,000 people in such venues as the Houston Astrodome. She married her fellow band member Chris Perez in 1992, and in 1993 she won her first Grammy award. Selena was able to successfully break through to the mainstream pop music market with several hits. Tragically on March 31, 1995, Selena was gunned down in the parking lot of the Day’s Inn Motel by a disgruntled former president of her fan club who was embezzling money. Thousands of mourners came from all parts of the United States and Mexico to pay their last respects to the young, beautiful Mexican star. People magazine put Selena on the cover of a commemorative edition, only the third such tribute in the publication’s history. A major motion picture entitled "Selena" was made about her life starring Jennifer Lopez. Today there is a museum in Corpus Christi that celebrates her life and retraces her rise to stardom. Thinking of the pain that must have overcome Abraham at losing his daughter, Selena, I thought of my own daughter. I’d like to get closer to my daughter. We were very close while she was growing up, but after she entered college, we found less time to share with each other. I hope we can find the time for each other again because life is so short. We never will have another chance to live a day that has passed by. I love her so very much.

I headed down Highway 77 through King’s Ranch, the largest Ranch in Texas. Between Kingsville and Raymondsville there is nothing but range lands for cattle. You will go 75 miles with no gas stations or towns. When I came out of this desert, I entered a Garden of Eden. All of a sudden, when I entered the Rio Grande Valley, I saw palm trees and fruit trees. There were green fields and rivers. The weather was very tropical. It was as if I had entered a new climate. The Valley is the home of my father’s family. My parents have a second home here and live part of the year in Indiana. They call these retired winter Texans, "snowbirds."

When I was deathly ill five years earlier, the one image in my mind as I went in and out of consciousness, was Padre Island in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. I could smell the salt water breeze. I could see the bright sun reflecting off the Gulf of Mexico surf. I could see and hear the seagulls as they flew down the white sandy beach. I also had a song ringing in my head. It was a song from the 1989 movie called "Midnight Cowboy." In this movie, the character played by Dustin Hoffman, had a last wish to get to a place where the sun keeps shining. The character played by Jon Voight helps him to attain his dream by traveling across America to Florida. When he finally gets to his destination, he dies. There is a song about this odyssey called "Everybody’s Talkin" sung by Nilsson. This was the song that I kept hearing in my mind while doctors frantically called a "Code Blue." Code Blue is called when a patient is slipping into critical condition and life support is needed immediately to save a life. As doctors swarmed around me giving transfusions and oxygen, I was, in my mind, on the beach at Padre Island. As the doctors were working to keep my heart beating, I was walking into the surf on the beach. The waves were hitting me in the chest and a brilliant sun was shining on me. I could hear the song’s lyrics,

"Everybody’s talking at me. I don’t hear a word they’re saying, only the echoes of my mind. I’m going to where the sun keeps shining through the falling rain. Going where the weather suits my clothes. Banking off the northeast winds, sailing on summer breeze, skipping over the ocean like a storm."

I have been to Texas more times than I can remember, but I had not been back here since that fateful day that my life began to slip away. I wanted to surprise my parents, so I had not told them that I was coming to visit. When I got to their house I was filled with emotions. I knocked on the door. I couldn’t wait to see the look on their faces. They weren’t there. My surprise didn’t seem to be working. I figured they went to the store or something and they would be right back. After waiting a couple of hours, they still had not returned. Since I had been waiting so long to get back here, I decided why wait any longer to get to the beach. So, I headed straight to the most secluded beach in the area. It is a place called Boca Chica. I drove up on the beach. There wasn’t a soul there. This beach has no facilities, stores, or lifeguards. It is one of the few places left in the country where you can see what a beach looked like hundreds of years ago. Dudley and I ran along the beach enjoying our private paradise. It was the most beautiful day I could wish for. The sun was hot and brilliant. I got my fishing gear out and did some surf fishing. After a while Dudley got too hot and retreated to the shade underneath the truck. I guess I just wanted to enjoy every minute of this long sought after day. I didn’t notice how severely the sun was burning me. After a while, I decided that it was too hot to stay any longer, so we headed back to Harlingen to see if my lost parents had returned. I then realized that I had stayed in the sun too long because I could feel the pain of a red hot sunburn.

I went back up to their house and found they still were not there. I was worried that something might be wrong and called some family members to find out, but no one knew anything. Finally, as I waited outside, a neighbor came out and asked me what I was doing there. She told me that my parents had gone to a friend’s beach house at Padre Island. I was near them, but had no idea how to find them. I knew they were both not well, so it surprised me that they were not at home. My Dad was undergoing radiation treatment for cancer. My Mother was barely able to walk after a fall. Dudley and I waited for their return. The next day my parents returned. I decided to just walk in and see surprise them. When my Mother saw me she thought I was the landscaper. I finally said, "Mom, it’s me, Mike." She said, "Mike? Mike who?" I said Mike, your son. She said, "How can you be Mike, he’s up in Boston." She thought I was a ghost or something. Finally, I went over and hugged her and she recognized me. She yelled to my Father to come out of the bedroom. She said, "Lee, you’re not going to believe this. It’s Micheal." They were so happy to see me. We had a nice time talking about my journey. I told them my plans to go to Mexico to trace our family history. 
                              My mother, Ramijia Perez Lozano


In conversations with my Father, I learned that the Mayor of San Benito, Texas, was a distant relative. My father generally doesn’t know or care too much about his family history, but I did get out of him that he remembered some family from his father’s side when he was growing up in Harlingen, Texas. My father said he had an uncle on his father’s side of the family named Augustine Gonzalez Castillo. 

Photo above of Cesar Gonzalez taken May 20, 2006 by Gabe Hernandez of the Valley Morning Star Newspaper.  

Served as Mayor of San Benito, Texas for 22 years.  San Benito is in Cameron County in the Rio Grande Valley near the Texas - Mexico border. He was Mayor from 1974 till 1988 and was reelected again in 1996 and served until 2000.  He was elected again in 2004 and served until  he retired  in 2006.  He served as President of the Mayor's Association for the State of Texas.  He was also the chairman of the Texas Municipal League Insurance Board, Chairman of the Texas Dept. of Human Resources. 


I was anxious to start on the family history part of my journey. Even though I don’t speak Spanish, it was like pulling teeth to get any help from my parents, especially in helping me to contact people who prefer to speak Spanish, or can’t speak English at all. I knew my lack of fluent Spanish would be a major obstacle, but I was not about to let anything stop me in my quest. In order to get started I figured I would start with the Mayor of San Benito since he spoke English in his capacity as Mayor. He has been Mayor for 22 years. I made an appointment with his secretary by phone. He called me back and said he remembered my father. He said that he was interested in finding out more about our family connection. When I got to his office, I found a modern building with nicely decorated professional surroundings. When the Mayor came in he was dressed in blue jeans and a cowboy shirt. He was a white haired, tall, rugged looking man about 74 years old. Mayor Cesar Elizondo Gonzalez welcomed me. We went into his office and he told me what he knew about his family history. His father, Augustine, was born about 1892 and died in 1944. He married Guadalupe Elizondo. They were in the meat market grocery store business. The family businesses were the Gonzalez Cattle company, L& B Meat Wholesalers, and the La Villita Meat Market. Both his parents were from Santa María La Floreña, Mexico. This is the same small town in Mexico that my grandparents are from. They had three children; a girl named Ida, a son named Jesus, and a third son, Augustine Jr. Augustine Jr. was the mayor’s father. The mayor’s mother, Guadalupe Elizondo, had four brothers, Jesus, Frederico, Francisco, and Filiberto. All I could tell from this conversation was that we were probably related through his mother, Guadalupe Elizondo. Even though my father called the Mayor’s father, Augustine, "his uncle," I don’t think he was an uncle. I have learned that Mexicans sometimes call older cousins "uncle." I did not know the exact relationship, but the Mayor did not know very much about his family history, either. I thanked him and told him that I would let him know if I was able to unravel the family history when I got to Mexico. I have since heard that my cousin had a stroke and has retired as Mayor. He is recovering well and is enjoying his retirement with his wife, Chelo, visiting with his four children and many grandchildren. While in Harlingen, I went to the local library which had an extensive genealogy section to find out more about the Lozanos in the area. It was here that I began to learn about how the Lozanos ended up in this part of Texas. I also began to learn about the history of Mexico in relation to the Lozano family settlement in the United States.

While at my parent’s house, I saw my uncle, Ruben Lozano. Ruben worked most of his adult life for Nabisco Company in Chicago and returned to Harlingen to retire. My dad’s oldest brother, Jesus (Jesse) who passed away, still has some children living in Texas. Two of his children, my cousins Lydia Galvan and Roberto Lozano, came to visit me. Lydia is a rental property owner. Roberto (Bobby) had much trouble with drugs and had been in and out of prison. He had found religion and was trying to get his life back together when we spoke. After getting out of prison the last time, he went to live in a trailer home that Lydia provided him while he tried to determine how to escape his demons. One day they found him unconscious in the trailer. Although he was rushed to the hospital, he never regained consciousness and died. He had fallen asleep and not turned on the air conditioner. Since the temperature was in the mid-nineties, the heat could have been responsible for his death. He was 60 years old. I remember that Bobby always enjoyed life a little bit too much. When I was a senior in high school, I took a bus trip from Hammond, Indiana with my cousin, Lupe "Junior" Lozano, to Harlingen, Texas. Our Texas cousins, Bobby and Jesse "Junior" Lozano took us to Mexico to party. I got drunk and lost my virginity with a Mexican girl that night in Mexico. I ended up vomiting my guts out on the curb in front of my grandmother’s house that night. My grandmother was angry with me after that. When I got back to Indiana, I confessed what I had done to my girlfriend, Matie Sanders, so my Mexico indiscretions ended up costing me my high school sweetheart, also.

Another cousin, José Gonzalez, who we used to call Uncle Joe because he was the same age as my father used to take us fishing at Padre Island at night. We would wade out about a half mile until we got to where the water started to get deep then we would stick poles in the sandy bottom and hang a lantern from it, and fish there all night. It was real effective and quite scary. When I was in college I went down to Texas with my buddy, Dave Pennington. We came into town without telling anybody, so none of my relatives knew we were there. We decided to hang out at the beach. That day, I told Dave that I was going to go fishing at night like my Uncle Joe had taught me. I went in the water by myself. At about ten o’clock in the evening I ran out of bait. I saw a light in the distance about a half a mile away. There were other fishermen out here. I thought that maybe I could ask if I could buy some bait from them. As I got closer I saw that there were two men. I slowly came into the illumination of their lantern and saw that one of the men looked a lot like my Uncle Jose. Then as I got closer, I was positive that it was him. I said "Tío José, I am Micheal, Lee’s son." Then I said something stupid, "Don’t you recognize me?" He didn’t because he hadn’t seen me in about fifteen years. Finally he spoke in broken English because he didn’t speak English very well and I didn’t speak Spanish. He said that he remembered a son of his cousin Lee named Micheal, but "How could you be him?" I said "I am Micheal." He then gave me a big hug. It was one of the strangest things to ever happen to me in my life. I couldn’t believe that of all the people to meet in the middle of the night out on the Laguna Madre flats of Padre Island was my childhood fishing inspiration, my Uncle Joe. I spent the rest of the night with Uncle Joe and his friend catching huge reds and trout. I thought I was in a dream. When I was a young boy, my father and his cousins José Gonzalez and Chile Escobedo used to take us fishing at Port Mansfield. I decided to revisit. One of my goals on this journey was to relive some of the favorite experiences of my past. I was looking forward to spending the day fishing at Port Mansfield. I got up two hours before sunrise and headed 40 miles to the Port. When I got there, I waded out in the bay and caught my bait. Then I set up to fish in three feet of water. I caught two nice sized fish called "reds." I don’t think there will ever be the number of fish as when we used to fish at Port Mansfield, but it is still a nice area to fish. Dudley didn’t like being left on shore, so he started to follow me out in the water. He did this for a while until he got tired then he went back to shore. After a while, he got bored waiting for me, so he decided to go back to the truck which was about a half mile away. I got nervous with him running loose because every time anyone came around, he wanted to protect the truck from what he perceived as intruders. He would do a pretty convincing pit-bull impression. After watching him do this for a while, I finally had to give up my fishing and give him some attention to settle him down. Fishing and Dudley don’t agree.

Life on the border is a tale of three social economic groups. The first is the group of my family’s heritage. We are the Mexican Americans who have been here long enough to establish ourselves both in jobs and the American culture. The second group is those who have recently come to this country and who are attached more to Mexico than to the United States. A third group is those who have fallen through the cracks in American society. These are the chronically unemployed, drug users, alcoholics and criminal elements. I met a man named Juan who lived in an abandoned refrigerator turned on its side. He was about 45 years old. He once was a professional boxer. When his common-law wife left him because of his addiction to alcohol, he just gave up on himself. He maintained that his wife put a curse on him. He now lives in a vacant lot and goes every day to the church soup kitchen. Another person I met was Teresa. She was twenty five years old and a prostitute. She became addicted to drugs when she was eighteen. Her arms and legs are pocked-marked with needle sores. She is now a heroin addict. She makes money for food and drugs by turning tricks for ten dollars a session. She has no hope for the future. She wanders the streets all night. She hangs out near convenience stores bumming cigarettes and looking for her next customer. Another person I met was Rosa. She came from Salinas, Mexico to find a better life. She was thirty three years old and had three children. She could not speak English. Rosa works as a housekeeper for a wealthy family in San Benito. She makes enough money "under the table" to keep her family afloat by subsistence standards. She sends what little money she can to her parents in Mexico. She hopes her children will grow into educated Americans with good jobs. Her chances for improving her life much are slim, but she feels she is making money honestly. She does not feel that getting paid "under the table" is dishonest. Another person is "Chile." He spoke a little English but he didn’t feel comfortable talking in English. He was born in the Rio Grande Valley. He works as a construction contractor. He has made a decent living and is considered an upper middle-class Mexican-American. Even though he doesn’t speak English very well, he hasn’t found it necessary because very little English is needed to do business in this region of Texas. His children are fully Americanized and speak English fluently. Their education and career training has prepared them well to be productive Americans. Another person is my cousin, Rolando who went to junior college to learn computer programming. He has a good job working in the computer industry. He likes everything about growing up with the good things that Americans have. He makes good money and has time to enjoy his favorite hobby of fishing. The future looks bright for Rolando.

In the Rio Grande Valley, there is a wide spectrum of economic prosperity. On one end of the scale, you have people living in the most primitive two room shacks with outdoor plumbing. At the other end of the spectrum, you have people like Joe Gavito who made millions in the tomato and chili pepper business. Joe’s grandfather was Santos Lozano, who established the first business in Harlingen in 1905. My family came to Harlingen because my paternal grandfather had a relative named Augustine who had a meat market in Harlingen. He asked my grandfather, Gustavo, to come to Harlingen to work at his market. The name Santos Lozano has long been connected prominently with the history of Harlingen, Texas. He started the first store in Harlingen. Santos’ parents brought him to Texas because of strife in Mexico. Santos was born in 1863 in San Nicolas De Los Garza, a part of Monterrey, Mexico. His parents were Felipe and Otta Lozano. In January of 1861, Benito Juárez came to power in Mexico. Mexico had been in a virtual civil war for the previous three years. It was called the "Guerra de Reforma" (the War of Reform). Both sides used a draft to forcibly swell their ranks, but in a country of eight million, there were never more than twenty-five thousand men under arms. The War of Reform was not a popular war. The great mass of the people neither approved of it nor enlisted in it. It was a war between the ruling minorities." At this time, the Catholic Church was under attack by the winning liberal side. Churches were destroyed and Bishops were expelled from the country. Mexico had forcibly divided Church and State. In 1861, President Juárez signed a moratorium on repayment of Mexico’s debts to foreign countries. In response, England, France and Spain signed an agreement that was designed to force Mexico to honor its debts. England and Spain were satisfied that Mexico would honor its debts because of their show of force, but France decided to continue its interference in Mexico in order to reestablish a foothold in North America. France knew the United States was too occupied by its own Civil War to do anything about France imposing a monarchy in Mexico. In May of 1863, the French army expeditionary force in Mexico forced Juárez out of Mexico City. He fled to the north of Mexico. Napoleon III installed the brother of the Emperor of Austria-Hapsburg, Archduke Maximilian von Hapsburg, as the Emperor of the new Monarchy of Mexico on April 10, 1864. Maximilian was executed by firing squad in 1867. Because of all the fighting that was taking place, Felipe Lozano decided to take his family into Texas. He grew up in Alice, Texas. Life in Alice centered on raising cattle and other livestock. Young Santos Lozano learned everything about rounding up cattle. Eventually he became a cattle buyer. He then started a mercantile store in Alice, Texas. In 1905 he moved to the site of a new railroad station, Harlingen, Texas, to help develop the town around the newly completed railroad. This was the new location for Santos Lozano’s general store. This was the beginning of the town that today has grown to a city with a population of 57,564.

By the time that Santos established his business in Harlingen in the early 1900s, another period of unrest was sweeping Mexico that would cause more Lozanos to cross into the United States. The Mexican Revolution started in 1910. My grandparents, Gustavo Lozano and Refugio Lozano Bosque, fled to Texas in 1915. I talked to my father’s oldest sister’s family in Fort Worth, Texas to find out what they knew about our family history. My Aunt Rosa who was about 90 years old at this time and in poor health, had passed on some of her family’s early history to her son, Samuel. My cousin, Samuel passed the oral history to me, and I researched the written history of Mexico from local book stores and libraries. In 1910, Mexican President Porfirio Díaz was celebrating the Centenary of Mexico’s Independence from Spain. He was essentially a dictator. His suppression of land rights, racial inequality, religious and political freedom were about to explode into total revolution. The leader of the revolution was a man named Francisco Madero. His top lieutenants were Pancho Villa and Pascual Orozco in the North and Emiliano Zapata in the South. By the end of November, 1910, President Porfirio Díaz was forced into exile. Francisco Madero was too lenient of a President with the old establishment and before long, he was overthrown by the military under General Victoriano Huerta. A rival, Venustiano Carranza, an elder of the revolution, decided to dispute the usurper, Huerta. Carranza was able to defeat Huerta who went into exile on July 15, 1914. The former allies started fighting with each other and became bitter enemies. The area of Mexico where my family is from is called Nuevo Leon. This area was controlled by Venustiano Carraza. Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata controlled the west and the south-central regions. The military of the Carranza government came to the ranch of my great-great grandfather, Eugenio Lozano Gonzalez, and asked him for help guiding the troops through the mountain passes in their military campaign against Pancho Villa. Eugenio ordered his son, Gustavo, to go with the government soldiers. My grandfather Gustavo was newly married to my grandmother Refugio Lozano Bosque who was six months pregnant. He left his wife with his father and went into the army as their guide. Gustavo was very unhappy that he was ordered to join the soldiers and leave his pregnant wife, but there was nothing he could do. If he refused, he would have been executed. He held a grudge against his father for many years because his father volunteered him for military service instead of going with them himself. After fighting with the Carranzistas for eight months, young Gustavo deserted and returned to the family hacienda to be with his new wife and baby. The baby had already been born when he returned. It was a girl named Rosa. This is my father’s oldest sister, Rosa. She was born in Santa María la Florena. Gustavo’s father, Eugenio, told his son that he should not have returned because the troops would come looking for him. Eugenio was very afraid that the troops would burn down his home or harm the remaining family, so he told Gustavo that he had to take his wife and child and flee to the United States. They left on horseback with only the clothes on their backs.

When Young Gustavo and his wife, Refugio, and baby Rosa got to the United States they had a hard time making a living. Gustavo went from being in a well-to-do Mexican family to being dirt poor in the U.S. In order to make a living, Gustavo took whatever job he could get. He worked on fishing boats in the Gulf at Galveston and Corpus Christi. He worked as a sharecropper in Carrizzo Springs and Bryant, Texas. He worked for the railroad in St. Louis, Missouri. While in Bryant, Texas, the family had hundreds of chickens and other farm animals that they sold for eggs and meat. They ended up back in Harlingen working at a relative’s market. During these years, he raised a family of six children. The children were Rosa (1913-Santa María, Mexico), Jesus (1918-Carrizo Springs, Texas), Eugenio (1922-Granite City, Illinois), Librado (1924-St.Louis, Missouri), Guadalupe (1926-Santa María, Mexico), and Ruben (1929-Bryant, Texas). Gustavo was not a great father. He came about it honestly. His mother died when he was four years old and he was raised by his stepmother, Ramona Garza. His stepmother mistreated him. She treated him more harshly than her own children by Gustavo’s birth father, Eugenio. One time she got so abusive that she threw young Gustavo across the room and dislodged his hipbone. Gustavo suffered from this injury for the rest of his life. While Gustavo was growing up, his father and stepmother had six children. They were Osvaldo, Quiatilda, Filomon, Domingo, Celia, and Salvador. In 1923 Eugenio died. The oldest son from the second marriage, Osvaldo, took over the ranch. Gustavo took his family and went back to the Lozano ranch in Mexico in 1926 to claim his share of the inheritance. Gustavo stayed in Mexico for one year. This is why my uncle Lupe was born in Santa María La Florenia, Mexico on December 12, 1926. By 1927, Gustavo decided not to stay in Mexico and returned to Texas. He ended up in Byrant, Texas working as a sharecropper, a person who farms someone else’s land for hire. After this, Gustavo returned to Harlingen, but his relationship with his wife, Refugio, had deteriorated. In 1932, he decided to leave his wife and children and return to the ranch in Mexico. Gustavo lived in Mexico until he died in 1955. When Gustavo died, my father Librado, my uncles Ruben, Gene, Jesse, my aunt Rosa, her husband Arturo and their son Anselmo went to the funeral in Mexico. They already had resentment against their dad for leaving their mother and them without any means of support. They had seen him only once in 23 years. So when they heard he had died, it was a family’s last offering of respect to go from Chicago to the ranch in Mexico to attend the funeral. When the family got to the ranch, they found that their father had already been buried. There was an argument over why the family buried him before the American family arrived. The relatives got drunk and an argument ensued between my father, Librado, and Osvaldo, the oldest son from the second marriage. The argument got so out of hand that Osvaldo forced the Lozanos from the United States to leave under the barrel of a gun. Because of this family feud, there was no longer any contact between Gustavo’s American family and the Lozano Mexican family.

                  Librado Lozano

I was now going back to Mexico to try to reestablish the broken link of the U.S. and Mexican Lozanos. Before going into Mexico, more than ten miles across the border, visitors must get a temporary visitors’ permit, a vehicle registration permit, and Mexican auto insurance. I had to look on the U.S. side to find an insurance company that carries this type of insurance. It costs about $150, but there is a wide difference in price at various companies. It helps to know that when getting this done at the border headquarters, bring copies of your passport, car registration, insurance, and driver’s license. The border officials don’t speak English and they tend to be impatient with Americans. So come prepared to stand in long lines and to have communication problems. After I got all this done, I was ready to start my trip into Mexico. I would be leaving Dudley with my parents because I didn’t want to take a chance of anything happening to him while in Mexico. I got so many warnings from my parents about things to watch out for in Mexico, that I began to get paranoid. When the day arrived to leave, my parents advised that I take a longer route that would keep me on the American side longer, rather than just taking the shortest route to Monterrey that would require going through more of Mexico. The reasoning was that there was less chance of something happening to me if I was on the American side for more of the journey. So I headed along the border on the American side until I got to Roma, Texas and then I turned towards Mexico.



SURNAME

 

EL APELLIDO DE LA GARZA

Desde hace mucho tiempo he intentado averiguar datos sobre este apellido, y ahora trato de ordenar la información que he ido recopilando y exponerla, para que otros mas doctos que yo en estos menesteres, completen el correspondiente trabajo.

El apellido De la Garza, aunque es bastante limitado en la Península Ibérica, esta muy extendido por México y el Sur de los Estados Unidos y también he encontrado De la Garza, en Argentina, Venezuela y otras naciones de Centroamérica.

Lo que no cabe duda es que hay tres ramas del apellido, dos en el norte de España, Guipúzcoa y Galicia y otra en el sur, ubicada en Lepe (Huelva).

La rama gallega, se sitúa en Monforte de Lemos, en la provincia de Lugo, y puede ser un apodo por alguien que tenía piernas muy largas y delgadas o una deformación del nombre García.

La otra, la de Guipúzcoa, tiene una rama en la provincia de Burgos, en un pueblo que se llama Arroyo y su significado puede ser “llama”, ya que esa es la traducción de la palabra “garza” en euskera.

Y vamos a la rama andaluza. El apellido “De la Garza”, que llegó a América pocos años después del Descubrimiento, lo llevó a aquellas tierras  Marcos Alonso de la Garza Falcón, nacido en Lepe, hijo de Marcos Alonso Falcón y Constanza de la Garza,  que según he podido averiguar eran familias judías que residían en Lepe y que se convirtieron al cristianismo antes de la expulsión  de los judíos de Castilla.

Muchos judíos conversos cuando adoptaron apellidos castellanos, los hicieron con nombres de aves y por eso encontramos que el apellido del hombre era “Falcón”, o sea “Halcón” en castellano actual y el de la mujer era “De la Garza”, nombre de un ave zancuda, de cabeza pequeña con moño largo y gris, pico prolongado y negro, que vive a orillas de ríos y pantanos.

Hay un proverbio español que curiosamente enlaza los dos apellidos y dice así: “Aunque la garza vuela alta, el halcón la mata”.

Marcos Alonso de la Garza Falcón se casó con Juana de Treviño, hija de Diego de Treviño y Beatriz de Quintanilla, se fueron a residir a Monterrey y murió en 1610.

También hubo barcos que llevaron este nombre, como una nao de 80 toneles, propiedad de Francisco García , de Palos de la Frontera, que hizo varias veces la travesía al Nuevo Mundo.

He encontrado “De la Garza”, ajusticiados por la Inquisición; militares en las milicias españolas en Argentina y otros muchos pequeños datos, que incluso han sido repetitivos, pero no me aclaraban nada.

Espero que mis modestos apuntes puedan contribuir para los muchos “De la Garza” que estudian o desean conocer mas sobre el origen de su apellido tanto en América como en España, y que entre ellos esta mi esposa, que tiene “De la Garza”, como séptimo apellido, pero ella es natural de Burgos y por lo tanto no procede de la rama andaluza, que fue la que llegó a América.

                              Ángel Custodio Rebollo Barroso custodiorebollo@terra.es

 

 

 
Spanish Sons of the American Revolution
US researchers find 18th-century British warships 
Spanish Covert Aid
Spanish Patriots of Chile
Patriots of Cuba, Query on Patriots of Cuba 
Patriots and Near-Patriots of Chile by Granville W. Hough, Ph.D.

 

US researchers find 18th-century British warships 
Introduction to article
by Richard C. LewisTue May 16, 7:48 PM ET 
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060516/ts_nm/life_ships_britain_dc&printer=
1;_ylt=A9FJqYBOkGpEHToBrgRg.3QA;_ylu=X3oDMTA3MXN1bHE0BHNlYwN0bWE-

Sent by John Inclan fromgalveston@yahoo.com

Four ships from a British fleet used during the U.S. Revolutionary War have been found off Rhode Island, and one may be the vessel 18th century explorer Captain James Cook sailed on his epic voyage to Australia, archaeologists said on Tuesday.

Researchers with the Rhode Island Marine Archaeology Project said they believe the four ships, and two others previously discovered, are part of a 13-vessel transport fleet intentionally sunk by the British in Newport Harbor in 1778 to keep French ships from landing to aid the Americans' drive for independence.

Using historical materials and sonar, the archaeologists discovered the ships in Narragansett Bay, within a mile (km) of Newport, Rhode Island's shoreline.

Divers found ballast piles about 30 feet underwater, with the ship's keel and other parts embedded in the sea floor. They also found at least one cannon, an anchor with a 16-foot (4.9-meter) shank and a cream-colored fragment of an 18th-century British ceramic teapot.

According to the team of archaeologists, one of the 13 ships in the sunken British fleet was the "Lord Sandwich," which records show was once the Endeavour, the vessel Cook used to sail the Pacific Ocean, map New Zealand and survey the eastern coast of Australia in 1768-1771.





SPANISH COVERT AID
http://www.americanrevolution.org/secret.html
Sent by Bill Carmena

The following is a translation of a Royal Order signed by Jose de Galvez, Minister of the Indies, to Luis de Unzaga, Spanish Governor of Louisiana. Written in Madrid, December 24, 1776.
Original in the Archivo Historico Nacional, Madrid, Estado, Legajo 4224. Copy and supporting documentation at Archivo General de Simancas, Spain, Estado, Legajo 4609, No. 18 - 25.
(material in parentheses added by the editor)

"The King (Carlos III) is informed regarding documents in letters numbering 181 and 184 of 7th and 30th of last (1776) September of the Americans' intentions delivered through General Charles Lee, major general and second in the American military command and commander in chief of the Southern District and through his agent Mr. (George) Gibson, reduced principally to solicit the establishment of systematic commerce with us and to inform that if in the event of the (American) seizure of Pensacola, as they are attempting, Your Majesty will be pleased to administer it (Pensacola). The answer regarding these items you (Luis de Unzaga) gave to General Lee has merited royal approval and His Majesty commands me to caution you very secretly that assisting the Americans in their project to capture Pensacola and the other English settlements on the right bank of that river (Mississippi), you inform them (the Americans) with the maximum caution and secrecy that the King (Carlos III) will be delighted that they may obtain it and that independence assured,the ceding that they (Americans) promise to Spain will be dealt with.

In order to facilitate both objectives, you (Unzaga) will be receiving through the Havana and other means that may be possible, the weapons, munitions, clothes and quinine which the English colonists (Americans) ask and the most sagacious and secretive means will be established by you in order that you may supply these secretly with the appearance of selling them to private merchants, to which objectives and corresponding secret instructions will be sent and some business person that may serve as contact.

By this same mail the corresponding secret information is given to the governor of the Havana (Diego Jose Navarro), informing him that through the monthly mail and free commerce ships that he will receive various items, weapons and other supplies that he will be sending to you without delay and that also he (Navarro) may send you then the surplus powder available in that Plaza (Havana) from the Mexico Factory and whatever muskets might be in that same Plaza in the certainty that they will be quickly replaced.

At the order of His Majesty I inform you of everything for your information and governance, with special duty that you may take advantage of the opportunities which may occasion or present for the continuation of observations respective to these important objectives in order to transmit them to His Majesty.

May God protect you many years.
Madrid, 24 of December of 1776.
                             Joseph de Galvez to the Governor of Louisiana."



Patriots of Cuba, query answered by Granville W. Hough, Ph.D.

My first query on the Patriots of Cuba was from Cuba Collectibles regarding Captain Don Rafael de Limonta. It happens that Cuba Collectibles has an authentic letter written by Capt Limonta in 1779
which they wished to sell to any interested descendant or historian. They wanted to know how I got the details of his service. I explained that I went to the nearest LDS Family History Center, looked up the call number for Legajo 7261, then ordered the appropriate roll from Salt LakeCity. Once it arrived, I looked up section XI, then went to page or number 91. There I could read Capt Limonta's record of service, probably as he recorded it himself. I extracted what I needed for proof
of his service during the Revolutionary War. All I needed was thelocation of the nearest LDS Family Center, and a little patience. This satisfied Cuban Collectibles and they put the 1779 letter on auction. However, what was of interest to me was the background material used by Cuban Collectibles on the Limonta family. Rafael was one of five brothers, sons from the second marriage of Alferéz Don Manuel Bernardo Limonta y Carmona, Spanish Army Infantry, and this information comes from Tomo VI de Historia de Familias Cubanas. The Limonta family was apparently prominent in Santiago. So I suggest to Cubanas and their descendants that the Historia de Familias Cubanas may give family details to what can be learned from the service records of the Legajos,
particularly for prominent families.

 

PATRIOTS AND NEAR-PATRIOTS OF CHILE
By Granville W. Hough

My purpose in listing Spanish soldiers and sailors of 1779-1783 is to remind their descendants that these members of the Spanish armed forces took part in a great revolution in human affairs which continues to this day. Male descendants can join the Sons of the American Revolution and honor their forefathers, even as other descendants honor their heritage by serving in the Armed Forces today. Previous issues of Somos Primos have listed Patriots of Cuba, Puerto Rico, Santo Domingo, Philippines, and other parts or borders of the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico. This month the listing will begin for Chile, one of the more remote parts of the Spanish world. In 1779, it was the southern extension of the Viceroyalty of Peru. It had only a few settlements, which were mostly self-sufficient. Nearly all the Spanish had moved south from Peru. Few came through the perilous Straits of Magellan. The native Indians had been pushed southward, but they remained strong and warlike. Spanish soldiers guarded the coast and blocked the Indians or anyone else from interfering with the Spanish monopoly on the gold, silver, and other mineral wealth of Peru and Bolivia.

The Chilean units consisted of regular Spanish units plus the militia units of settled areas. There were several hundred soldiers in all, and their key persons, about seven or eight per company, are mostly listed in three bundles (legajos) of service records, numbers 7266, 7267, and 7288, but infrequently in others. Each soldier’s record shows the year service started and the units of service up to the date the legajo was prepared, usually 1787 to 1800. There may exist in archives other legajos which list ALL the soldiers in each unit, but these have not been published. Because the published legajos are for key persons, or cadre, they are for experienced persons with some education who have served long enough to be trusted with leadership of a company. There are some exceptions, as for cadets, who might be educated young people just entering service, or for the equivalent of our "Soldier of the Month" who might be mentioned as an honor. So a Lieutenant in 1787 would likely have service of ten to twenty years, going back well before the war with England began in 1779. A cadet might be a former enlisted man of long service learning to be an officer, or he could be a fourteen year old
boy training alongside his officer father.

Before listing the actual units, we might recall that Chileans were among the first immigrants to California after the Gold Rush began. Many settled in California, as they found the climate to be similar to that of Chile. Even today, we consume Chilean fruits and vegetables in the off seasons of California. So many California natives find their ancestry goes back to the Gold Rush, then to Chile. Their forefathers may have been in the following units:

Asamblea de Caballeria of Chile, years 1791-1793, 1795, 1797-1800, legajo 7267.
Cuerpo de Dragones of Chile, years 1787, 1789-1795, 1798, 1800, legajo 7266.
Cuerpo de Dragones de la Frontera of Chile, years 1796, 1797, 1800, legajo 7266.
Batallón de Infantería of Chile, years 1787, 1789, 1791, 1792, 1796, legajo 7267.
Batallón de Infantería de la Concepción of Chile, years 1793, 1794, legajo 7266.

Batallón de Infantería de la Plaza de Valdivia, years 1787, 1791, 1793, 1796, 1797, 1799, 1800, legajo 7266.
Batallón de la Plaza de Valdivia, years 1787, 1792, and 1796, legajo 7267.
Batallón Fijo de Infantería of Valdivia, year 1794, legajo 7267.
Milicias de Caballeria de Principe, Arregladas y Disciplinadas, year 1797, legajo 7267.
Milicias Disciplinadas de Princesa, year 1797, legajo 7267.
Milicia Compañía de Dragones de Reina, years, 1792, 1798, and 1800, legajo 7267.

The following units were in territory not considered to be part of Chile at the time but later obtained after Chile became independent:
Dragones Regimiento de Milicias Provinciales Disciplinadas of Arica, years 1795, 1796, 1800, legajos 7288 and others.
Compañías Veteranas de Infantería & Dragones of Chiloe, years 1794, 1798, and 1800, legajos 7288 and others.
Partida de Asamblea de Infantería of Chiloe, years 1794, 1798, legajos 7288 and others.

All individuals listed in the reference: Catalogo XXII del Archivo de Simancas: Secretaria de Guerra (Siglo XVIII), "Hojas de Servicios de América," Valladolid, 1958. (The individual’s record will show starting date of service, and any wartime or combat service.)

Juan José Aguirre. Sargento, Asamblea de Cab. Del Reino de Chile, 1800, legajo 7267:V:169.
Luís Alava. Gobernador, Politico y Militar de Valparaiso, Lt Col de Inf., 1793, legajo 7266:I:143.
Hermenegildo Alba. Cadet, Milicias Provinciales Disciplinadas de Infanteria de Castro Choloe, 1800, legajo 7288:IX:109.
Esteban Albarracin. Sargento 1st Cl, Bn Inf de Valdivia, 1800, Legajo 7267:II:85.
Luis Albarracin. Lt, Milicias Disciplinadas, Dragones de Arica, 1800, legajo 7288:II:29.
Juan Alcala del Olmo. Ayudante Mayor, Regimiento Provincial Cab. del Principe, legajo 7276:XII:42.
Juan Augustín Alcalde. Alférez, Milicias de Cab del Principe, legajo 7267:XII:526.
José de Alcazar. Capt, Bn de Inf de Chile, 1800, legajo 7267:I:8.
Pedro Andrés de Alcazar. Capt, Dragones de la Frontera de Chile, 1800, legajo 7267:IV:124.
Juan de Aldama. Alférez, Regt. Provincial de Dragones de la Reina, 1800, legajo 7276:XV:35.
Bautist Alderete. SubLt, Milicias Provinciales Disciplinadas de Inf de Castro, Chiloe, 1800, Legajo 7288:IX:66.
Luis Alvarado. SubLt, Milicias Provinciales Disciplinadas de Inf de Castro, Chiloe, 1800, legajo 7288:IX:78.
Marcello Alvarado. Sgt, Milicias Provinciales Disciplinadas de Inf de Castro hiloe, 1800, legajo 7288:IX:46.
Angel Alvarez. Sgt, Asamblea de Cab del Reino de Chile, 1800. Legajo 7267:V:170.
Eusebio Alvarez. Capt, Milicias Provinciales Disciplinadas de Inf de Castro, Chiloe, 1800, legajo 7288:IX:28.
Francisco Alvarez. Cadet, Milicias Provinciales Disciplinadas de Inf de Castro, Chiloe, 1800, legajo 7288:IX:108.
Francisco Javier Alvarez. SubLt, Milicias Provinciales Disciplinadas de Inf de Castro, Chiloe, 1800, legajo 7288:IX:70.
Ignacio Alvarez. Capt, Milicias Provinciales Disciplinadas de Castro, Chiloe, 1800, legajo 7288:IX:12.
Juan Alvarez. SubLt de Bandera, Milicias Provinciales Disciplinadas de Inf de Castro, Chiloe, 1800, legajo 7288:IX:77.
Juan Alvarez. Lt, Milicias Provinciales Disciplinadas de Inf de Castro, Chiloe, 1800, legajo 7288:IX:41.
Manuel Alvarez. Lt, Dragones de la Frontera de Chile, 1800, legajo 7267:IV:117.
Pedro José Alvarez. Cadet, Gragones de la Frontera de Chile, 1800, legajo 7267:IV:145.
Tadeo Alvarez. Cadet, Bn Inf de Chile, 1800, legajo 7267:I:44.
Domingo Alvarez-Ramirez. Sgt Major, Bn de Inf de Chile, 1787, legajo 7266:VI:785.
Camilo Alvarez-Rubio. Cadet, Bn de Inf de Chile, 1789, legajo 7266:V:616.
Fernando Amador. Lt Col, Dragones de la Frontera de Chile, 1800, legajo 7267:IV:105.
Gerardo Ampuero. Sgt 1st Cl, Comp. Inf Disciplinada de San Carlos de Guapilacuy, Chiloe, 1800, ldgajo 7288:VIII:4.
Basilio Andrade. Capt, Esquadron Milicias Disciplinadas de Cab de Castro, Chiloe, 1800, legajo 7288:X:3.
José Bernardo Andrade. Lt Col, Milicias Provinciales Disciplinadas de Inf de Castro, Chiloe, 1800, legajo 7288:IX:2.
Pedro Andrade. Sgt, Comp Veteranas de la dotación de Chiloe, 1800, legajo 7288:XI:9.
Rafael Anguita. Sgt, Dragones de la Frontera de Chile, 1800, legajo 7267:IV:135.
Augustin Angulo. Sgt, Dragones de Milicias Disciplinadas de Arica. Legajo 7286:II:50.
Andrés de Angulo. Capt, Bn de Inf de Chile, 1797, legajo 7267:XI:442.
Cayetano Angulo. Sgt, Dragones del Reino de Chile, 1794, Legajo 7269:XXV:1030.
Prudencio Ansotegui. Sgt, Partida de Asamblea de Inf de la dotación de Chiloe, 1798, legajo 7286:XVI:3.
José Antonio Apestiguia. Lt, Dragones de la Reina, 1800, legajo 7276:XV:29.
Tomás Ignacio Apestiguia. Lt, Dragones de la Reina, 1796, legajo 7273:I:20.
Nicolás Arechavala. Alférez, Cab. de Principe, 1800, legajo 7276:XII:30.
Francisco Arenas. Lt, Comp. Veteranas de la dotación de Chiloe, 1800, legajo 7288:XI:6.
Alonso Arias. Lt, Asamblea de Cab. del Reino de Chile, 1791, legajo 7266:III:374.
José de Arias. Alférez, Micias Disciplinadas Dragones de Arica, 1800, legajo 7288:II:41.
Juan Arias. Cadet, Bn Inf de Chile, 1800, legajo 7267:I:46.
Bernardo Aroca. Sgt, Asamblea de Cab del Reino de Chile, 1800, legajo 7267:V:166.
Francisco Artaso. Capt, Bn de Inf de Chile, 1797, legajo 7267:XI:443.
Marcelo Arteaga. Capt, Bn de Inf de Valdivia, 1797, legajo 7267:XIII:534.
José María Artiga. Alfaréz, Dragones de la Frontera de Chile, 1800, legajo 7269:IV:128.
Juan José Arredonda. Sgt, Milicias Disciplinadas Dragones de Arica, 1800, legajo 7288:II:52.
Tiburcio Arredondo. Sgt, Milicias Disciplinadas Dragones de Arica, 1800, legajo 7288:II:53.
Mariano Arrinaga. Sgt, Partida de Asamble de inf de la dotación deChiloe, 1798, legajo 7286:XVI:2.
Pablo Asenjo. Lt, Bn Inf de Valdivia, 1792, legajo 7266:II:234. This may be the same person who was Ayudante Mayor, Bn Inf de Valdivia, 1800, legajo 7267:II:62.
Santiago Asenjo. Cadet, Bn Inf de Valdivia, 1800, legajo 7267:II:95.
Marcelo Asenjo. SubLt, Comp. sueltas de Inf del partido de Carelmapu, Chiloe, 1800, legajo 7288:XIII:8.
Fermin Avendaño. Sgt, Inf Provincial Milicias Disciplinadas de Castro, Chiloe, 1800, legajo 7288:IX:103.
José Antonio Avendaño. Sgt, Comp. Dragones de la Reina, 1800, legajo 7267:III:102.
José Avila. Lt, Bn Inf de Valdivia, 1787, legajo 7266:VI:741.
Manuel Ayecovido de Osuna. SubLt, Bn Inf de Valdivia, 1800, legajo 7267:II:76.

Alberto Baeza. Sgt, Bn Inf de Chile, 1800, legajo 7267:I:35.
Diego Baeza. Cadet, Bn Inf de Chile, 1800, legajo 7267:I:52.
José Baeza. Capt, Bn Inf de Chile, 1793, legajo 7266:I:91.
César Balbiani. Lt Col, Comp. Veteranas de la dotación de Chiloe, 1800, legajo 7288:XI:15.
Matias Baluarte. Ayudante Mayor, Milicias Disciplinadas Dragones de Arica, 1800, legajo 7288:II:25.
Juan Antonio Baraona. Sgt, Asamblea de Cab. del Reino de Chile, 1800, legajo 7267:V:165.
Modesto Barria. Sgt, Milicias Provinciales Disciplinadas de Inf de Castro, Chiloe, 1800, legajo 7288:IX:93.
Venancio Barria. Sgt, Milicias Disciplinadas de Inf de Castro, Chiloe, 1800, legajo 7288:IX:94.
Francisco Barrientos. Sgt, Escuadron Milicias Disciplinadas de Cab. de Castro, Chiloe, 1800, legajo 7288:X:8.
Alonso Barriga. Lt, Bn de Inf de Chile, 1792, legajo 7266:II:273.
Pedro Rafael Barril. Cadet, Bn Inf Valdivia, 1800, legajo 7267:II:91.
Valeriano Barril. Sgt, Bn Inf Valdivia, 1797, legajo 7267:XIII:550.
Pedro Barrios. Lt, Milicias Disciplinadas Dragones de Arica, 1795, legajo 7285:XI:31.
Alejandro Barrios y Liendo. Capt, Milicias Disciplinadas Dragones de Arica, 1800, Legajo 7288:II:8.
Pedro Barrios y Liendo. Lt, Milicias Disciplinadas, Dragones de Arica, 1800, legajo 7288:II:22.
Rafael Gambino Barrios y Liendo. Capt, Milicias Disciplinadas, Dragones de Arica, 1800, legajo 7288:II:9.
Manuel Barrios y Machin. Cadete, Milicias Disciplinadas, Dragones de Arica, 1800, legajo 7288:II:70.
Antonio Barrios y Nieto. Lt, Dragones Milicias Disciplinadas, Dragones de Arica, 1800, legajo 7288:II:26.
Francisco Barrios y Nieto. Capt, Milicias Disciplinadas, Dragones de Arica, 1800, legajo 7288:II:13.
Pedro Barrios y Nieto. Alférez, Milicias Disciplinadas Dragones de Arica, 1800, legajo 7288:II:44.
Nicolás Barrios y Rejas. Lt Col, Milicias Disciplinadas de Arica, 1800, legajo 7288:II:2.
Manuel Basabe. Lt, Bn de Inf de Chile, 1800, legajo 7267:I:24.
Antonio Bascuñan. Alférez, Militias Cab. de la Princesa, 1797, legajo 7267:XXVII:663.
Francisco Bascuñan. Cadet, Dragones de la Fronters de Chile, 1800, legajo 7267:IV:141.
Miguel Bascuñan. Alférez, Milicias Cab. de la Princesa, 1797, legajo 7267:XVII:667.
Ignacio Bazan. Capt, Bn Inf Valdivia, 1800, legajo 7267:II:66.
Lorenzo Becerra. Lt, Milicias Provinciales Disciplinadas de Inf de Castro, Chiloe, 1800, legajo 7288:IX:37.
José Gregorio Belaunde. Alférez, Milicias Disciplinadas Dragones de Arica, 1800, legajo 7288:II:46.
Manuel Vicente Belaunde. Capt, Milicias Disciplinadas Dragones de Arica, 1800, legajo 7288:II:10.
Pedro Ramón Belaunde. Cadet, Milicias Disciiplinadas Dragones de Arica, 1800, legajo 7288:II:67.
José María Benavente. Cadet, Dragones de la Frontera de Chile, 1800, legajo 7267:IV:146.
Juan Miguel de Benavente. Capt, Dragones de la Frontera de Chile, 1800, legajo 7267:IV:112.
Pedro José Benavente. Capt, Dragones de la Frontera de Chile, 1800, Legajo 7267:IV:108.
Nicolás Bertiz y Cordoba. Alférez, Milicias Disciplinadas Dragones de Arica, 1800, legajo 7288:II:33.
Tomás Bertiz y Cordoba. Lt, Milicias Disciplinadas Dragones de Arica, 1800, legajo 7288:II:33.
Antonio Bocardo. Capt, Bn de Inf de Chile, 1787, legajo 7266:VI:789.
Juan Bontes. Sgt, Escuadrón Milicias Disciplinadas de Cab. de Castro, Chiloe, 1800, legajo 7288:X:10.
Bautista Borjes. SubLt, Milicias Provinciales de Inf de Castro, Chiloe, 1800, legajo 7288:IX:73.
Ignacio Borjes. SubLt de Granaderos, Milicias Provinciales Disciplinadas de Inf de Castro, Chiloe, 1800, legajo 7288:IX:12.
Marcelo Borjes. Capt, Milicias Disciplinadas de Inf de Castro, Chiloe, 1800, legajo 7288:IX:12.
Ventura Borjes. Lt de Granaderos, Milicias Provinciales Disciplinadas de Inf de Castro, Chiloe, 1800, legajo 7288:IX:50.
José Antonio Botarro. SubLt, Bn Inf de Chile, 1800, legajo 7267:I:26.
José María Botarro. Ayudante Mayor, Asamblea Cab. Reino de Chile, 1800, legajo 7267:V:152.
Juan de Dios Britos. SubLt, Inf de Valdivia, 1800, legajo 7267:II:81.
Feliciano Buendia. Sgt, Bn Inf de Valdivia, 1789, legajo 7266:V:651.
Felipe Bueno. Cadet, Bn Inf de Valdivia, 1799, legajo 7267:VII:265.
Francisco Buenrrostro. Sgt, Bn Inf de Valdivia, 1800, legajo 7267:II:87.
Manuel Bulnes. Capt, Bn de Inf de Chile, 1800, legajo 7267:I:14.
Juan Bustios. Porta-guion, Milicias Disciplinadas Dragones de Arica, 1800, legajo 7288:II:37.

Questions about any of the above or about the Sons of the American Revolution may be addressed to gwhough@oakapple.net (to be continued)

 

 

ORANGE COUNTY, CA

July 22: Genetics, DNA and Genealogy by Norma Keating, R.N. 
Comments on DNA from Yolanda Ochoa 
Kaiser to request DNA samples from 2 Million adults
DNA diet plan, Kit tests for genetic cues to aid in healthier eatingScientists Find A DNA Change That Accounts For White Skin
Welsh and Irish Celts genetic blood-brothers of Basques

DNA forces El Salvador to face past

DNA reunites Salvadoran families
Canales, Garcia and Salinas Family Trees
Santa Ana planners to present downtown recommendations

July 20: First shovel celebration for Grijalva Gymnsium/Sports Center 
July 20: Hispanic Business World Inaugural Reception 
National Archive Center may go to Great Park
The LATINO OC 100 2005-2006 Yearbook being Produced


Genetics, Migration and Family Lines
Learn how human genetics can help you find and prove your family lines.

by Norma Keating, R.N. 

July 22, 2006 

674 S. Yorba, 
Orange LDS Meeting House 
Park in the back, Everyone welcome, FREE, Come and enjoy
Refreshments following the meeting.
Meeting schedule:  

1-2 p.m.: Beginners, one-on-one assistance. Meet at the Family History Center located at the back of the building, on the north end.  (Please call so we can reserve a computer for you in the FHC. Call: 714-894-8161).  The remainder of the meeting will be on the South end of the bldg.

2-4: p.m.: Program, announcements, speaker, sharing and introductions of attendees
4-5: p.m.: Refreshments and Networking by regional areas of interest facilitated by SHHAR Board members:  Cris Rendon will facilitate a Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, Tamaulipas, Mexico networking group. Pat Lozano a Jalisco group. Michael Perez expertise is New Mexico.  Yolanda Ochoa in Chihuahua and Sonora. What ever your research interest, our Board can help.   

Norma Keating
An active genealogist for 32 years and professional researcher for 12 years, Norma Storrs Keating, RN, BSN, is the owner of Your Family Connection.

Norma has a BS in Nursing from Indiana University and maintains her RN license in New Jersey and California, taking 30 units of continuing education every two years and reviewing literature to keep abreast of the rapid changes in the medical/ genetics field. She also holds a Certificate in North American Research from Brigham Young University.

Norma teaches genealogy classes for the Yorba Linda, California Parks & Recreation Department and speaks at genealogy conferences and meetings across the United States. Currently, she is the President of the North Orange County California Genealogical Society, volunteer coordinator for the genealogy booth at the Orange County Fair and a member of the Association of Professional Genealogists.

Norma will touch on how genealogists are using DNA as a tool to track and prove family lines and relationships. DNA is used for genetic linking, one-name studies and tracing movements of peoples around the globe. She will explain what DNA is and how it can help you solve a "brick-wall" problem. Using a case study, she will illustrate how to establish and run a surname study of your own.

For more on Norma and to contact her directly:
Norma Storrs Keating, Your Family Connection
4653 Avenida Rio Del Oro, Yorba Linda, CA 92886-3013
Office: 714-970-7040 FAX: 714-970-6573
http://www.yourfamilyconnection.com
norma@yourfamilyconnection.com
normakeating@earthlink.net

 
Comments from Yolanda Ochoa 
[[Yolanda is web mistress for SHHAR's resources and links, she shared the following:]]

Family Tree DNA - this site is listed on our SHHAR Links.  Sephardim.com uses them and they are considered to be very reputable.  Gary Felix has a project called the DNA of the Conquistadores of which I am a part of. 

On the DNA - It takes around 3 months to get the Y-DNA process completed.  They put the DNA through all these marker tests.  The more markers that you request for tests 12, 24, 32, the more money it costs.  It is a difficult process to try and make heads or tails of.  My Y-DNA line shows that we are Haplogroup R1b.  This is the most common Haplogroup for people from Europe. 
On my DNA report there was a lot of Celtic, German, Scottish, English,Welsh DNA that showed.  Our Y-DNA has had at least one 99.9% percent match with at least 3 people.  One of these people has traced his family tree to Chihuahua Mexico and also New Mexico.  He is still working on his Genealogy to see where we have our common ancestor.  Another guy comes from a Portuguese background and English background.  Another recent match also is English. It's interesting but I still do not understand everything because it is very complex.  

Family Tree DNA does have a message forum where you can discuss your DNA results.  Their experts are also very available to answer any questions.

I took the Mitochondrial tests as well (Female DNA).  It showed that my mother's ancestors were 54% Native American, 43% European and 10% Sub-Saharan African.  I may be off by some percentages.  

Kaiser to request DNA samples from 2 Million adults
http://www.bizjournals.com/eastbay/stories/2006/06/05/daily25.html
East Bay Business Times - by Chris Rauber

Kaiser Permanente is making plans to ask for DNA samples from up to 2 million adult enrollees in Northern California, possibly as early as this year, according to a spokesman for its Research Institute in Oakland. 

Kevin McCormack, the spokesman for Kaiser's research institute, confirmed a June 7 report in the Wall Street Journal that said Oakland-based Kaiser "is developing plans" to request DNA samples from "up to" 2 million adult members. McCormack said Kaiser will request samples from all adult members in Northern California, but will only obtain samples "from as many as are willing to take part." 

Its goal is to help identify genetic and environmental factors "that affect a person's risk of developing a disease," McCormack said. The timing is uncertain at this point. "Hopefully, this year," he said. "It's a matter of planning, developing and getting things together." 

Kaiser has more than 8.5 million enrollees nationwide, more than three-quarters of them in California. More than 3.2 million of Kaiser's enrollees reside in Northern California. 

Other health care organizations around the nation are undertaking similar research efforts, as they attempt to build on data created by the Human Genome Project and later studies, the Journal reported. Research along similar lines is being pursued at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Northwestern University, and the National Institutes for Health. 


Abstract: DNA diet plan, Kit tests for genetic cues to aid in healthier eatingAP via Orange County Registers
Nutrigenomics:  It's an emerging field of nutrition science that suggests the best diet to help you with healthy living won't be found in a fad or best seller, but in something a bit more intimate – your DNA.

Just as your DNA predisposes you to particular eye and hair colors, it also influences how your body processes nutrients, your chances of developing particular health conditions and how one affects the other.

In other words, having gene variation XYZ instead of ABC not only might make you more or less likely to get heart disease, but also better or less able to process the antioxidants that could help manage or prevent the condition.

The test looked at five things – how well my body utilizes antioxidants, how well it deals with inflammation, and the presence of gene variations that raise homocysteine levels (a risk factor for heart problems), influence cholesterol levels and affect blood flow.

It didn't look good. Of 12 variations that could increase my risk, I had seven. The booklet even included a depressing chart showing "optimal health" and "action required" in opposite corners. My "you are here" dot was nowhere near optimal health.

 

Scientists Find A DNA Change That Accounts For White Skin
By Rick Weiss, Washington Post Staff Writer, December 16, 2005; A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/15/AR2005121501728_pf.html
Sent by Dr. Armando A. Ayala   DrChili@webtv.net

Scientists said yesterday that they have discovered a tiny genetic mutation that largely explains the first appearance of white skin in humans tens of thousands of years ago, a finding that helps solve one of biology's most enduring mysteries and illuminates one of humanity's greatest sources of strife.

The work suggests that the skin-whitening mutation occurred by chance in a single individual after the first human exodus from Africa, when all people were brown-skinned. That person's offspring apparently thrived as humans moved northward into what is now Europe, helping to give rise to the lightest of the world's races.

Leaders of the study, at Penn State University, warned against interpreting the finding as a discovery of "the race gene." Race is a vaguely defined biological, social and political concept, they noted, and skin color is only part of what race is -- and is not.

In fact, several scientists said, the new work shows just how small a biological difference is reflected by skin color. The newly found mutation involves a change of just one letter of DNA code out of the 3.1 billion letters in the human genome -- the complete instructions for making a human being.

"It's a major finding in a very sensitive area," said Stephen Oppenheimer, an expert in anthropological genetics at Oxford University, who was not involved in the work. "Almost all the differences used to differentiate populations from around the world really are skin deep."

The work raises a raft of new questions -- not least of which is why white skin caught on so thoroughly in northern climes once it arose. Some scientists suggest that lighter skin offered a strong survival advantage for people who migrated out of Africa by boosting their levels of bone-strengthening vitamin D; others have posited that its novelty and showiness simply made it more attractive to those seeking mates.

The work also reveals for the first time that Asians owe their relatively light skin to different mutations. That means that light skin arose independently at least twice in human evolution, in each case affecting populations with the facial and other traits that today are commonly regarded as the hallmarks of Caucasian and Asian races.

Several sociologists and others said they feared that such revelations might wrongly overshadow the prevailing finding of genetics over the past 10 years: that the number of DNA differences between races is tiny compared with the range of genetic diversity found within any single racial group.

Even study leader Keith Cheng said he was at first uncomfortable talking about the new work, fearing that the finding of such a clear genetic difference between people of African and European ancestries might reawaken discredited assertions of other purported inborn differences between races -- the most long-standing and inflammatory of those being intelligence.

"I think human beings are extremely insecure and look to visual cues of sameness to feel better, and people will do bad things to people who look different," Cheng said.

The discovery, described in today's issue of the journal Science, was an unexpected outgrowth of studies Cheng and his colleagues were conducting on inch-long zebra fish, which are popular research tools for geneticists and developmental biologists. Having identified a gene that, when mutated, interferes with its ability to make its characteristic black stripes, the team scanned human DNA databases to see if a similar gene resides in people.

To their surprise, they found virtually identical pigment-building genes in humans, chickens, dogs, cows and many others species, an indication of its biological value.

They got a bigger surprise when they looked in a new database comparing the genomes of four of the world's major racial groups. That showed that whites with northern and western European ancestry have a mutated version of the gene.

Skin color is a reflection of the amount and distribution of the pigment melanin, which in humans protects against damaging ultraviolet rays but in other species is also used for camouflage or other purposes. The mutation that deprives zebra fish of their stripes blocks the creation of a protein whose job is to move charged atoms across cell membranes, an obscure process that is crucial to the accumulation of melanin inside cells.

Humans of European descent, Cheng's team found, bear a slightly different mutation that hobbles the same protein with similar effect. The defect does not affect melanin deposition in other parts of the body, including the hair and eyes, whose tints are under the control of other genes.

A few genes have previously been associated with human pigment disorders -- most notably those that, when mutated, lead to albinism, an extreme form of pigment loss. But the newly found glitch is the first found to play a role in the formation of "normal" white skin. The Penn State team calculates that the gene, known as slc24a5, is responsible for about one-third of the pigment loss that made black skin white. A few other as-yet-unidentified mutated genes apparently account for the rest.

Although precise dating is impossible, several scientists speculated on the basis of its spread and variation that the mutation arose between 20,000 and 50,000 years ago. That would be consistent with research showing that a wave of ancestral humans migrated northward and eastward out of Africa about 50,000 years ago.

Unlike most mutations, this one quickly overwhelmed its ancestral version, at least in Europe, suggesting it had a real benefit. Many scientists suspect that benefit has to do with vitamin D, made in the body with the help of sunlight and critical to proper bone development.

Sun intensity is great enough in equatorial regions that the vitamin can still be made in dark-skinned people despite the ultraviolet shielding effects of melanin. In the north, where sunlight is less intense and cold weather demands that more clothing be worn, melanin's ultraviolet shielding became a liability, the thinking goes. Today that solar requirement is largely irrelevant because many foods are supplemented with vitamin D.

Some scientists said they suspect that white skin's rapid rise to genetic dominance may also be the product of "sexual selection," a phenomenon of evolutionary biology in which almost any new and showy trait in a healthy individual can become highly prized by those seeking mates, perhaps because it provides evidence of genetic innovativeness.

Cheng and co-worker Victor A. Canfield said their discovery could have practical spinoffs. A gene so crucial to the buildup of melanin in the skin might be a good target for new drugs against melanoma, for example, a cancer of melanin cells in which slc24a5 works overtime.

But they and others agreed that, for better or worse, the finding's most immediate impact may be an escalating debate about the meaning of race.

Recent revelations that all people are more than 99.9 percent genetically identical has proved that race has almost no biological validity. Yet geneticists' claims that race is a phony construct have not rung true to many nonscientists -- and understandably so, said Vivian Ota Wang of the National Human Genome Research Institute in Bethesda.

"You may tell people that race isn't real and doesn't matter, but they can't catch a cab," Ota Wang said. "So unless we take that into account it makes us sound crazy." 
© 2005 The Washington Post Company



The Welsh and Irish Celts have been found to be the genetic blood-brothers of Basques, scientists have revealed. The gene patterns of the three races passed down through the male line are all "strikingly similar", researchers concluded. 

Basques can trace their roots back to the Stone Age and are one of Europe's most distinct people, fiercely proud of their ancestry and traditions. The research adds to previous studies which have suggested a possible link between the Celts and Basques, dating back tens of thousands of years. "The project started with our trying to assess whether the Vikings made an important genetic contribution to the population of Orkney," Professor David Goldstein of University College London (UCL) told BBC News. 

'Statistically indistinguishable' 
He and his colleagues looked at Y-chromosomes, passed from father to son, of Celtic and Norwegian populations. They found them to be quite different. "But we also noticed that there's something quite striking about the Celtic populations, and that is that there's not a lot of genetic variation on the Y-chromosome," he said. To try to work out where the Celtic population originally came from, the team from UCL, the University of Oxford and the University of California at Davis also looked at Basques. "On the Y-chromosome the Celtic populations turn out to be statistically indistinguishable from the Basques," Professor Goldstein said. 

Pre-farming Europe 
The comparison was made because Basques are thought by most experts to be very similar to the people who lived in Europe before the advent of farming. We conclude that these populations are reflecting pre-farming Europe," he said. Professor Goldstein's team looked at the genetic profiles of 88 individuals from Anglesey, North Wales, 146 from Ireland with Irish Gaelic surnames, and 50 Basques. 

"
We know of no other study that provides direct evidence of a close relationship in the paternal heritage of the Basque- and the Celtic-speaking populations of Britain," the team write in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 

Viking TV But it is still unclear whether the link is specific to the Celts and the Basques, or whether they are both simply the closest surviving relatives of the early population of Europe. What is clear is that the Neolithic Celts took women from outside their community. When the scientists looked at female genetic patterns as well, they found evidence of genetic material from northern Europe. This influence helped even out some of the genetic differences between the Celts and their Northern European neighbors. The work was carried out in connection with a BBC television program on the Vikings. 


DNA forces El Salvador to face past
By Nathaniel Hoffman, Contra Costa Times,  6/14/06  
Sent by Jaime Cader  jmcader@yahoo.com

With help from UC Berkeley's Human Rights Center and the California Department of Justice DNA lab in Richmond, Perez Navarrete and his group in El Salvador hope to identify more children who were taken from their families by force during the civil war that engulfed the country in the 1980s and '90s.

Photo by Gregory Urquiaga/Times

Angela Fillingim, who was adopted from El Salvador, lived in Berkeley and now attends UC Davis.

DNA reunites Salvadoran families
Berkeley project helps children stolen or adopted during Central American nation's 12-yr civil war.
By Michelle Locke, AP via San Union-Tribune, June 15, 2006
Sent by Jaime Cader  jmcader@yahoo.com


BERKELEY – Angela Fillingim grew up knowing she had been adopted as a baby during El Salvador's civil war. But it wasn't until she took a high school Spanish class that she really began wondering about her past. Was she an orphan? Was there a family she had never met living far away? 

The answers for Fillingim and others searching for lost relatives may lie in a new DNA database developed by the California Justice Department and the University of California, Berkeley, Human Rights Center to reunite the shattered families of El Salvador. 

“It's just a new experience to think, 'Well, OK, I have another family, I have another mother,” Fillingim said Thursday. “I need to meet them, not only for myself but also for them, and to embark on this other part of my life.” 

Hundreds of children disappeared in El Salvador during the country's 1980-92 civil war, some stolen, some voluntarily put up for adoption. 

The DNA Reunification Project was started by Human Rights Center Director Eric Stover and the Rev. Jon Cortina, co-founder of the Salvadoran missing children's group Asociacion Pro-Busqueda de Niñas y Niños Desaparecidos. 

Stover, who started the project when he was working with Boston-based Physicians for Human Rights, brought the work to Berkeley. Scientists at a nearby state crime lab agreed to help. 

The database contains DNA from parents who are looking for long-lost children. Next month, it will be turned over to Pro-Busqueda, and workers will concentrate on trying to collect DNA from children adopted by families all over the world, a difficult and delicate task. 

The database effort is one of a number of initiatives developed over the last decade as new technology has revolutionized identification techniques. 

“There is software out there to compare large numbers of reference individuals to large numbers of known individuals,” said Moses S. Schanfield, chair of the forensic sciences department at George Washington University. Schanfield worked in Croatia identifying remains of war victims. A DNA database was also created to identify victims of the Sept. 11 attacks in New York. 

So far, there have been more than 700 requests from families in El Salvador whose children are missing. Of those, 158 families have been reunited, though not necessarily through DNA, Stover said. 

Not knowing what happened leaves families in “a limbo world of somewhere between hope and denial,” he said. “The simple fact of seeing their child coming towards them and knowing that they really did survive is extremely important.” 

Pro-Busqueda workers following a paper trail have located a woman they believe is Fillingim's mother; DNA results are pending. Fillingim, a 21-year-old student studying sociology at UC Davis, said it appears her mother voluntarily put her up for adoption. 

Fillingim's parents supported her search and her father, Jerry Fillingim who spoke at the news conference, said news that Angela's birth mother is alive and wants to meet her was “really a very moving thing for us.” 

For Fillingim, who hopes to visit her mother and teenage brother in El Salvador when she has a break from her studies next spring, getting the answers to her questions is both exciting and a “little bit scary.” 

“I realize that I can't change the past,” she said. “But I can be grateful for all the opportunities that I have now.” 


Canales, Garcia and Salinas Family Trees
Sent by Mario Garcia  sancudobaboso@hotmail.com

Folks, I've submitted the family trees to the LDS in Salt Lake City for safe keeping. They are the largest depository of family records in the world. The three files were submitted today(1-20-06) so it may take a few days for the LDS to get the data transferred to their website at familysearch.org.

I wanted to keep the files safe and I felt that the LDS Family Center was better than on my rickety old hard drive or on CDs or floppies here at home.

The three files were on the following ancestors and their descendants:
Pablo Garcia - my ggrandfather
Jose Miguel Salinas - my ggggrandfather
Crespin Canales - my gggrandfather

I'm also in the process of getting a web page for each the family ancestors above but with pictures, stories, and possibly audio and video included. We'll see how that goes. If you have any stories that you want to pass on about your parents, grandparents, or just stories that would a little insight into the lives of your family, please email them to me and I'll include them in the family tree webpages for all to read.

I have already received one or two Word documents from one of the Canales family members so don't be shy and honor your ancestors. I know of one cousin that has poems that her father wrote....what a treasure we have in our families. Please share them so we can better understand where we come from and who our ancestors were. They definitely were more than just a name 
on a tombstone or in a document.  

Mario Garcia  sancudobaboso@hotmail.com

QUESTION: 20 Jan 2006 
Dear Mario. . . good thinking . . . I have Salinas in San Antonio and I will be looking forward to getting into the LDS records.  Are your lines in Northern Mexico, South Texas?? Thanks, Mimi

Yes Mimi, my line is along the border and in South Texas. I have a James Salinas who is also looking for his roots. He is from San Antonio as well and he has been looking for a long time. His Salinas Lineage goes back to 1835 or so in the SA area. He is also tied to OUR Salinas male clan thru the YDNA results he just got back last year. So he and our Salinas are BLOOD!

I have also added the same Salinas and Canales files to the Rootsweb.com database.
http://wc.rootsweb.com/~salinas  If I can be of any help, please let me know. Mario

Friday, 20 Jan 2006 

Hi Mario . . . what a great story to share: DNA tying to a real historical person . . My Salinas goes back to Josepha Salinas married to Jose Ignacio Candelario Arocha one of the Canary Islanders that entered San Antonio in 1731) Jose Ignacio parents were Simon Arocha (cattle rancher) and Maria Ignacia Urrutia (also Canary Islander descendant). Josepha was the daughter of Jose Salinas and Espiciaca Rodriguez. Jose Salinas was the son of Francisco de Salinas and Margarita Menchaca. We must all be primos!!!!

Thank you for your invitation to ask questions . . . What did the YDNA show up in terms of ethnic/racial background? Did it show indigenous and Sephardic lines? How about black lines?
This is all so fascinating . . . God bless, Mimi


Friday, 20 Jan 2006

Dear Mimi . . .  we are all in one way or another tied to the Mother Continent of Africa since that is where the Adam and Eve of wEwEHomo Sapiens began according to the DNA results being done. But from that branch, other branches or Haplogroups splintered off as humans migrated out of Africa and to the European and Asian Continents.

The male ancestors that passed on their YDNA genetic material to their male offspring and eventually to the male Salinas' of today were of the I1c or Nordic Haplogroup. These ancient males spawned from the Balkans and Norway area thousands of years ago and then their seed continued on, migrating thru the lands and across oceans until they landed on the shores of the Americas and their descendants are now living among us. It is so fascinating and yet somewhat incredible at the same time, isn't it?

The mtDNA carried by the females is more ancient than the YDNA material carried by the males. The mtDNA is more like the original mtDNA carried by the first Eve in Africa thousands and  thousands of years ago. This female genetic material does not mutate as often as the male DNA and therefore has less changes to it. Did you know that if you unraveled the DNA helix in each of your cells, it would reach from earth to the moon. Extraordinary. It has taken super computers several years to finally map the human genome.

As mentioned before per our email conversation with you and Robert Tarin several months ago, the female mtDNA projects are not being pursued as vigilantly as the YDNA projects....maybe because the male reseachers are more interested in finding out where they come from....I don't know. But the YDNA data collected from the Mexico project seems to indicate a European origin of those being tested. There is an indication of Jewish ancestry by some of the males being tested but not as high as being found in conclaves in parts of Europe and the Middle East. It stands to reason that you would find Jewish ancestry in the due to the Spanish Inquisition in the 1500s, but I just don't know how many Jewish families actually made it to the Americas. I'm sure there is a Paper somewhere out that has the answer.

I can't remember, off hand, what the African Haplogroup is so I can't comment on that but I did see a documentary done on several black women who originated out of the Caribbean Islands. The women were all of black ancestry and they all had their DNA tested. Not all of them lived on the 
islands. Some lived in England. Anyway, the mtDNA tests showed that some of those women's ancestors came from an island on the West Coast of Africa.They knew that from the previous DNA samples done by other independent research labs from samples taken from all over the world.

One woman actually went to the island and met up with women that had the same bloodline as she. The tribe was called the Bubi Tribe(?) of West Africa. This woman was able to bond somewhat with the African women but she and they were too far apart economically, socially, and education wise to make the bond binding. But it was a good story and this woman left with a much better appreciation for herself and where her roots came from.   Mario


Santa Ana planners to present downtown recommendations
The ideas stem from residents' suggestions for the area.
By Amy Taxin,
The Orange County Register Thursday, June 22, 2006
Sent by Ricardo Valverde

SANTA ANA — City planners will share recommendations with the public for a new plan for downtown, the Civic Center and the corridor surrounding Santa Ana Boulevard. The recommendations stem from a design session held last month to gauge residents’ opinions about what they envision for the area – which also includes the train depot and the Logan and Lacy neighborhoods. Planners will make the presentation at the following meetings, which are open to the public. Meetings up ahead:

  • Historic Resources Commission- July 6, 4:30 pm, 20 Civic Center Plaza, confer rm 1600 
  • Redevelopment and Housing- July 18, 3:30 p.m., 20 Civic Center Plaza, Council Chambers.
  • Downtown Merchants- July 19, 7:30 a.m., 20 Civic Center Plaza, conference room 1600.
  • Board of Recreation and Parks - July 26, 5:30 p.m., 888 W. Santa Ana Blvd., 2nd floor 

Information: www.santa-ana.org/pba/planning/Renaissance_Specific_Plan.asp or 714-667-2700.

 

Grijalva Park, July 20, 2006, at 5:00 PM.
The first shovel celebration of the 4 million dollar Gymnsium/sports Center to be held. The Grijalva Center is named after the Early California  historical figure, Juan Pablo Grijalva.  
Sent by Eddie Grijalva  grijalvaet@sbcglobal.net

National Archive Center may go to Great Park, 
By Jeff Rowe, The Orange County Register, June 7, 2006

Documents would move from the regional repository in Laguna Niguel. Securing the National Archives for the Great Park is an opportunity to create "one huge history program," . Great Park Corp. chief executive Wally Kreutzen Kreutzen said. Some nationally historic documents such as the Emancipation Proclamation could be made available as part of a rotating exhibit, he said. Such exhibits would help lure repeat visitors to the park, Kreutzen said.

In the Great Park, the National Archives would get a more central, publicly accessible location among a planned family of museums where it could step up its educational programming and attract meetings and seminars.

Perhaps the biggest hurdle to getting the National Archives to move to the Great Park is in Washington. Great Park Corp. chief executive Wally Kreutzen said he hopes funds for the move and the new building will be included in the federal budget for fiscal year 2008.

Great Park officials and National Archives executives are eager for an agreement; the memo is the first in a series of steps to bring the archives to the Great Park. "It would be a prestigious institution to have as an anchor," said Ken Smith, the New York-based architect whose team is designing the 1,347-acre public portion of the Great Park.
CONTACT US: 949-553-2914 or jrowe@ocregister.com



The LATINO OC 100 2005-2006 Yearbook and website is now being produced. A picture and a bio for each of the selectees will be inserted into the publication. 2006 of the Yearbooks will be printed. They will be distributed to elementary, intermediate, high schools as well as colleges and universities in Orange County with high percentages of minority students and drop out rates. Distribution will also include Community Centers, Boys & Girls Clubs, Girls Inc., and the Probation Department and Juvenile Halls. Copies will also be distributed to public libraries in Orange County as part of their reference sections. Yearbooks autographed by selectees at the Yearbook signing party will also be given to the Library of Congress, California State Archives Library, Orange County historical societies and organizations for their collections. 

Space Available Latino serving organizations will also be listed as a reference directory. The LATINO OC 100 Yearbook will also be transferred to a Web Page as a link from Stay Connected OC. Links, if available will be added to the bios of Selectees to their e-mail addresses or web sites. 

Only 16 ads that fill 10 pages will be available in this inaugural LATINO OC 100 Yearbook. It will be debut at the exclusive Yearbook Signing Party to take place in August. 

Platinum $2,000 *Only 6 pages will be available in this historic publication *Full page ad in year book 8"x10" *10 tickets and recognition at the exclusive LATINO OC 100 Yearbook signing party *10 tickets to LATINO OC 100 Night on the July 23 Fullerton Flyers Baseball Game and VIP reception *100 copies of yearbook for corporate and community distribution *Banner ad and link on Web Site 

Gold $1,000 *Only 3 pages, a total of 6 ads will be available in this historic publication *Half page ad in year book 4"x5" *6 tickets and recognition at the exclusive LATINO OC 100 Yearbook signing party *6 tickets to LATINO OC 100 Night on the July 23 Fullerton Flyers Baseball Game and VIP reception *50 copies of yearbook for corporate and community distribution *Half Banner ad and link on Web Site 
Silver $ 500 *Only 1 page, a total of 4 ads will be available in this historic publication *Quarter page ad in year book 2"x2 1/2" *4 tickets and recognition at the exclusive LATINO OC 100 Yearbook signing party *4 tickets to LATINO OC 100 Night on the July 23 *Fullerton Flyers Baseball Game and VIP reception *25 copies of yearbook for corporate and community distribution *Quarter Banner ad and link on Web Site 

Contact Information



Ruben Alvarez and Macial Fernandez
phone: 714-331-3095


LOS ANGELES, CA

July 4th: Descendants of  Los Pobladores at Olvera St.
July 7-11: National Council of La Raza National Conference, Premier of
                    East L.A. Marine, the Untold True Story of Guy Gabaldon
July 7-9: Cesar E. Chavez y  Bernardo de Galvez
July 10th:
 Book signing by Dr. Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez
New Book: Images of American Series: Los Angeles's Olvera Street
Database of all the missions and Los Angeles Plaza Church 
Naturalization Index Published for Los Angeles County
Reginaldo Francisco del Valle: UCLA's Forgotten Forefather
Health Net is open for business in East Los Angeles!  
July 27th: Where the Leaders Meet National Latina Business Women Assn
August 4: Promoting a Positive Image
Nov 10-12: 2nd Annual Los Angeles International Tamale Festival 
My Hot Tamale website

 

July 4th: Descendants of Los Pobladores of Olvera St. 
Members of the Los Pobladores 200 will be at Olvera Street on July 4, 2006, with displays, family histories and information on the early families of Spanish California and the changes under Mexico and the ties with the US since 1846. Sent by Bob Smith Regriffith6828@aol.com

July 7-11: National Council of La Raza National Conference 

Achieving the American Dream in a New Century
Realizando el Sueño Americano en el Nuevo Siglo

The NCLR Annual Conference serves as a catalyst for new thought and progress for over 23,000 community organization leaders and activists, elected officials, members of the corporate and academic communities, senior citizens, and youth. The Conference will be held at the Los Angeles Convention Center, West Hall at 1201 S Figueroa St, Los Angeles, 90015.

West coast premier of  East L.A. Marine, the Untold True Story of Guy Gabaldon to be held on Saturday. For up to date information, go to: http://www.nclr.org/section/events/conference/

Dr. Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez, El Paso book signing, A Legacy Greater than Words.  This book took us over a year to compile and we spent over $45,000 on staff alone, plus another $11,000 on printing costs (UT Press is distributing).  Dr. Rivas-Rodriguez will have a book signing in Los Angeles July 10th at a location restaurant to be named. 

"We'll be at the NCLR conference, distributing information about our project, from the Medal of Honor exhibit, on July 8, 9 and 10th, so please find us there. For more information about scheduled book signings, or to have me come to your city, please contact Kathryn Gonzalez, interim project manager at (512) 471-1924.  We don't travel- money, but are delighted to help sponsors consider creative ways to get us in your community to sell books and make presentations..."  
thanks,  Maggie

 



Images of American Series: Los Angeles's Olvera Street
Birthplace of Los Angeles Featured in Pictorial History Book by Arcadia Publishing
New Book Celebrates Olvera Street's History  

As the City of Los Angeles approaches its 225th Anniversary this year, it is only appropriate to pay tribute to the city's birthplace. Over 200 black and white vintage photos, many never before seen of the birthplace of Los Angeles. The text and photo features all of Olvera Street's favorite pastimes, important faces, the Golden Years, and more.

About the Author: 
William D. Estrada is a native of Los Angeles and curator or history at El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historical Monument. He is a social and cultural historian, and received his bachelor of arts, master of arts, and doctor of philosophy degrees in history at UCLA. He has researched and curated several exhibitions and has directed numerous public history programs that examine the rich history and diverse cultural heritage of Los Angeles, especially the experiences of the Mexican American community. From 1981 to 1989, he served as assistant dean of students at Occidental College in Los Angeles, and he has taught United States History, California History, Los Angeles History, and Chicano/a Studies at California State University, Long Beach and Northridge, East Los Angeles College, Santa Monica College, and Occidental College. He is the author of several publications; most recently are two essays in the Oxford Encyclopedia of Latinos and Latinas in the United States (2005). His forthcoming book The Los Angeles Plaza: acred and Contested Space will be published in 2007 by the University of Texas Press.

Los Angeles's Olvera Street $19.99, 128 pages/softcover, Arcadia Publisher is now Available at area bookstores, independent retailers, and on-line bookstores, retailers, or through Arcadia Publishing at www.arcadiapublishing.com  or (888)-313-2665 Price: 

About Arcadia Publishing: Arcadia Publishing was launched in Dover, New Hampshire, in 1993 as a small publisher of local history. The first ten titles in what would become the Images of America series were published in the summer of 1994.

Since the company was established, it has blended a visionary management approach with the innovative application of state-of-the-art technology to create high-quality historical publications. Arcadia has become the largest publisher of regional history books in North America, and with offices in Charleston, San Francisco, Chicago, and Portsmouth, the company has successfully established an extensive publishing program of more than 3,000 titles.

Arcadia is best known for its popular Images of America series, which chronicles the history of communities from Bangor, Maine to Manhattan Beach, California. With more than 200 vintage black-and-white photographs, each title celebrates a town or region, bringing to life the people, places, and events that defined the community. Arcadia also publishes other series, including Campus History, Images of Sports, and Postcard History, as well as transportation, military, and corporate histories.

About the Images of America Series: Since its inception in 1993, the Images of America series has preserved and shared the history of hundreds of individual communities throughout the country. Each title records a town's or city's unique story through more than two hundred historic images. Due to the popularity of this series, it has expanded over time to include worthy local and regional historical topics including the examination and celebration of transportation, industry, architecture, ethnic groups and more.

Our mission is to make history accessible and meaningful through the publication of books on the heritage of America's people and places. Have we done a book on your town? Visit www.arcadiapublishing.com

Lynn Ruggieri, Publicity Manager 843.853.2070 x 363 lruggieri@arcadiapublishing.com
420 Wando Park Blvd., Mount Pleasant, SC 29464 o Telephone: 843-853-2070 Facsimile: 843-853-0044 o www.arcadiapublishing.com



Database of all the missions and Los Angeles Plaza Church 
http://www.neh.gov/grants/guidelines/refmaterialsamples/huntington.pdf  
This is a database of all the missions and Los Angeles Plaza Church baptisms, marriages, and burials. Per Steven W. Hackel, Associate Professor of History at Oregon State University. This is really exciting for researchers of early California ancestors.
Good luck, Lorraine Frain lorrilocks@earthlink.net



Naturalization Index Published for Los Angeles County
Sent by Lorraine Hernandez Lmherdz@msn.com  

The Southern California Genealogical Society has announced the publication of a new three-volume series: The Naturalization Index of the Superior Court for Los Angeles County, California 1852-1915.  Quoting from the society's announcement: The index includes mention of every naturalization transaction (Declaration of Intent, Final Papers, denials, etc.) that occurred in Los Angeles County Superior court. The index includes more than 40,000 entries, with close to 27,000 unique names and more than 350 countries or combinations of countries or origin, i.e., Hungary-Canada-Great Britain. The three volumes are available for purchase separately or as a three-volume set. The publication can be ordered through the SCGS website shopping cart at www.scgsgenealogy.com/catalog..

This series is the first tangible output of SCGS's 1890 Project. The goal of the 1890 Project is to account for all of the individuals -- fathers, mothers, children, lodgers, residents and visitors -- who would have been enumerated on the 1890 U.S. census for Los Angeles County. This project is a legacy for all future genealogists and historians of the Los Angeles area. Read more about the 1890 Project at http://www.scgsgenealogy.com/1890project.htm 

The Southern California Genealogical Society, founded in 1964, is headquartered in Burbank and staffed entirely by volunteers. The society's 30,000-volume library, considered one of the finest genealogy research libraries west of the Mississippi, is open to the public free of charge. SCGS publishes a respected quarterly journal and a newsletter for its members; provides numerous lectures and seminars for all levels of researchers; sponsors a number of special interest groups; and hosts the yearly Genealogy Jamboree, which attracts visitors from all over the United States. The 38th Annual Genealogy Jamboree will be held June 8-10, 2007.

For more information: Southern California Genealogical Society
417 Irving Drive, Burbank, CA 91504
818-843-7247  scgs@scgsgenealogy.com  www.scgsgenealogy.com

Reginaldo Francisco del Valle: UCLA's Forgotten Forefather
Sent by John P. Schmal
March 30, 2006, Contact: Lauren Bartlett ( lbartlett@support.ucla.edu
Phone: 310-206-1458  http://newsroom.ucla.edu/page.asp?RelNum=6924


When UCLA reflects back on its historical roots, recent research shows that the founder of its predecessor institution, the Los Angeles State Normal School, was Latino.

Reginaldo Francisco del Valle, who served as both a state Assemblyman and state senator, was the force behind the creation of the normal school, which is the predecessor institution of UCLA, according to the paper, "Reginaldo Francisco del Valle: UCLA's Forgotten Forefather," produced by the UCLA Center for the Study of Latino Health and Culture and published by Southern California Quarterly.

"When UCLA celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2019, homage should be paid to Reginaldo Francisco del Valle," said David Hayes-Bautista, lead author and center director. "The normal school provided the institutional platform from which the UCLA campus grew and developed. In past celebrations, including the 1930 dedication of UCLA, Del Valle was not recognized, and it
is important that he is given his due."

Hayes-Bautista praised Del Valle's focus as a state legislator. "Del Valle spent years in the Legislature to secure establishment, funding and winning of independent governance for the Los Angeles State Normal School," Hayes-Bautista said. "It is commendable for a legislator to be so
dedicated to such an important cause and succeed."

The creation of the Los Angeles Normal School with autonomous governance was a struggle for Del Valle involving several bills over a number of years. He first introduced a bill in the 1880 legislative session, but was unable to win approval as five other cities introduced competing legislation to establish a normal school in one of those areas. In the 1881 session, Del Valle successfully introduced and negotiated the passage of the bill that then-Gov. George C. Perkins signed into law to establish the branch state normal school.

In subsequent years, Del Valle's initiative ensured sufficient funding for construction and operation of the school. Del Valle developed a legislative scheme in 1885 to allow those in Los Angeles to make their own decisions, rather than have decisions made by people at the normal school in San Jose.
His first attempt at passage was not successful. He retired after the 1886 session, and in the following year, his legislative scheme finally was enacted, carried by Assemblyman John Brierly.

"Del Valle should be considered the intellectual author of the bill carried by Assemblyman Brierly," Hayes-Bautista said. "Del Valle was the one who developed the legislative scheme to achieve this goal via extensively amending 12 sections of the Political Code and repealing the 13th."

The normal school provided the only access to publicly financed post-secondary education in the southern region, but was limited by being only a teacher's training college. As the population in Southern California grew after 1886, with Los Angeles County surpassing San Francisco County in
population by 1910, public pressure grew on the University of California to establish a campus in the southern part of the state.

To accommodate a growing student body, the normal school moved to a larger site on Vermont Avenue in 1914 — now the site of Los Angeles City College — but demand for education continued to grow. An agreement was reached in 1919 in which legislation abolished the state normal school, and in its place at the Vermont Avenue site, a southern branch of the University of
California was established.

"Del Valle would not have felt disappointment at the dissolution of his hard-fought legislative victories because they provided the platform upon which the Regents built UCLA, which grew in ability and prestige to rival its sister campus at Berkeley," Hayes-Bautista said.

Merry Ovnick, editor of the Southern California Quarterly, which published the paper, said, "The journal's focus is the history of Southern California, the state as a whole and the American West. This paper is a valuable contribution to our readers' understanding of the past. Equally important, it corrects a long-standing oversight by acknowledging Del Valle's role in bringing a state-supported institution of higher learning to Southern California."

Five hundred reprints of the article were made possible by Health Net of California. "We are proud to support the publication of a paper that sheds light on the important accomplishments and contributions Latinos have made to the state of California," said Ana Andrade, vice president of Latino programs for Health Net of California.

About the UCLA Center for the Study of Latino Health and Culture 
Since 1992 the UCLA Center for the Study of Latino Health and Culture has been a resource for cutting-edge research, education and public information about Latinos, their health and their role in California. Under the leadership of Hayes-Bautista, the center, part of the David Geffen School
of Medicine at UCLA, has been the lead institution to explode myths and stereotypes about Latinos in California society, provide reliable data on Latino health, emphasize the positive contributions of Latinos to the state's economy and society, and inform the public about the important emerging Latino medical market.

About UCLA

California's largest university, UCLA enrolls approximately 38,000 students per year and offers degrees from the UCLA College of Letters and Science and 11 professional schools in dozens of varied disciplines. UCLA consistently ranks among the top five universities and colleges nationwide
in total research-and-development spending, receiving more than $820 million a year in
 competitively awarded federal and state grants and contracts. For every $1 state taxpayers invest in UCLA, the university generates almost $9 in economic activity, resulting in an annual $6 billion
economic impact on the Greater Los Angeles region. The university's health care network treats 450,000 patients per year. UCLA employs more than 27,000 faculty and staff, has more than 321,000 living alumni and has been home to five Nobel Prize recipients.

 

Health Net is open for business in East Los Angeles!

Mexican Consul General Ruben Beltran and East Los Angeles residents joined Health Net of California (HNCA) on Wednesday, June 7, to celebrate the grand opening of a first-of-its-kind community enrollment and customer service center. The store, located at 5055 Whittier Boulevard in the heart of East Los Angeles, is focused on reaching the more than 2 million uninsured in Southern California – half of which are Latinos.
“We believe it is important to reach out to underserved populations where they shop, work and socialize,” said Stephen Lynch, president of HNCA. “This new store provides a venue where our customers have access to vital information regarding health care.”
According to research conducted for Health Net by UCLA and ProfMex, a nonprofit research organization, two of the main reasons Latinos remain uninsured are because they don’t know how to purchase health insurance and they don’t know why they need a health plan. The community store is staffed by counselors who provide one-on-one service in English and Spanish and help consumers select a health plan that best suits their needs. It will offer educational programs, health and wellness information and enrollment services to the local community.
The store is part of the Salud con Health Net initiative, a comprehensive effort to develop products and services that meet the unique needs of the Latino community. Included in the initiative are Health Net’s Latino-focused products, including Mexi-Plan, the first individual cross-border health plan, developed in conjunction with the Mexican Consulate.
 
"We believe it is important to find solutions to close the Latino health care gap in California," said Ana Andrade, vice president of Latino Programs. "Given that Latinos account for more than half of the uninsured population in California, it is critical that we increase awareness and understanding of the vital role health plans play in improving health care access, quality and health status."
 
"It's a good day for Health Net," Stephen Lynch told the participants. "This store is a way for us to come out of the corporate office and work together in the community. Through this store, we can educate people about the coverage available to them and their options. We want to find a way to bring the uninsured into the main stream of how medical care is delivered. Congratulations to Ana Andrade, Maria Lugo and everyone who made this effort a reality."


July 27, 2006, "Where the Leaders Meet"
Time: 6:00-9:30pm

Complimentary Invite, but RSVP by July 20th-1-877-734-7206 ext 707
On behalf of National Latina Business Women Association board of directors in collaboration with local chapters in California co-hosted by Board of Governors of the University Club of Pasadena, NAHREP-LA Board of Directors. Please join us to a mixer evening "Where the Leaders Meet" for power networking and business opportunities. Food and drink and for those aficionados Cigars. 
University Club of Pasadena, 175 North Oakland Avenue
Pasadena, California 91101-1713   (626) 793-5157 fax (626) 793-1784


August 4, 2006: Promoting Positive Images of the Latino Community!
Hispaniclifestyle.com

Mark your calendars and make your reservation to attend the 10th Annual Business Expo and Conference on Friday, August 4, 2006 at the Ontario Airport Hilton, Ontario, California. What makes this event different from other business expo’s, is the Annual recognition of the regions Top Latino Owned Businesses. In 2005 attendees had the opportunity to network with Latino owned businesses that generated over 1.7 billion dollars in annual revenues while employing thousands in Southern California.

Hispanic Lifestyle’s trademark event features; A Presentation on the state of Latino owned businesses, A panel discussion on the impact of Latino marketing in the age of immigration, walkouts and boycotts, and the Annual Recognition of the Regions Latinos owned businesses. The topic of our Keynote address will be Latino businesses and their Impact on creating National Policies.

The all day event offers sponsorship and exhibitor opportunities you can download the sponsorship application For more information, call 951.940.9099 or send your e-mail request toEvents@Hispaniclifestyle.com or check out the link and or download the sponsorship application at http://hispaniclifestyle.com/HispanicLifestyle/BizExpo_06.html or call 951.940.9099




2nd Annual Los Angeles International Tamale Festival and Carnival 
November 10, 11, and 12, 2006 
Location to be announced.  http://www.eastlosangeles.net/tamalefestival/

The 1st Annual Los Angeles International Tamale Festival was visited by approximating 40,000+ people! In many interviews that we conducted people said that it’s was a great idea to have this festival here and that they would be back next year! We at East Los Angeles Net also conducted a Best Tamale Contest which was held on Saturday an almost all of our tamale vendors participated and the winners of the contest displayed there trophies that weekend. Let’s not forget the Tamale Eating Contest it was held on Sunday, 10 people participated in this contest and Justin of Irvine, Ca he was named the winner for eating 10 “TAMALES” within the time frame allowed. The tamales where donated by the vendors. 

Tamale Man of EL Sereno he made the biggest tamale Los Angeles has ever seen! Did he break the record for the biggest tamale? There were many types of tamale that weekend and over 40 live musical groups at the event which made this a great place to be at with family & friends. 

We published the “Tamale Times” newspaper which included a entertainment lineup & schedule for the event, articles from Tamale Man, Molly’s Tamales and John Rivera Sedlar from the Tamale Museum.  Join us at this year at the festival it will be the festival you will remember for a long time! Stop by and say hi to George and staff from www.EastLosAngeles.Net. For Vendor or Sponsorship information (323) 318-4553 (cell) George or visit http://www.eastlosangeles.net/tamalefestival


My Hot Tamale
http://www.sonofthesouth.net/tamales/  
"your source for everything Tamale" 
Website for how-to with recipes, equipment needed, etc .plus links to other sites. Sent by Johanna De Soto

About our Tamale Recipe

I grew up on a ranch in West Texas.  There was a Hispanic family that lived and worked on the Ranch.  The mother was a lady named Goya, and she cooked like you could not believe.  Since that time, I have traveled all over the world, and have eaten in the World's finest five star restaurants, but I can honestly say that I have never had food that came close to the stuff that came out of Goya's tiny little kitchen in the small little cinder block house on a remote ranch in West Texas.  Goya died in 1998, but luckily she shared her recipe with me, and taught me how to make tamales.  This site is dedicated to Goya's memory, and her most delicious Tamales. As time goes on, I plan to add more of Goya's Mexican Food recipes to this site.  Sent by Johanna De Soto

Julie Kiser, Regional Sales Manager
Arcadia Publishing
420 Wando Park Blvd.
Mt. Pleasant, SC 29464
phone: 843-853-2070 ext. 161
facsimile: 843-853-0044

 

CALIFORNIA

Discovering the Painted Caves of Baja California
The Bear Flag Revolt
California Stories, a New Approach to Strengthening Communities
Sources at your fingertips. . .
Historical LA Times Newspaper database
Plan would open Prop. 40 funds to missions
Gringo Gazette North - Northern Baja's English Voice
Our Talmantes-Farias Picnic day
California Roll Call
Mission San Miguel Arcangel Landmark Plaque

 

Discovering the Painted Caves of Baja California:
http://www.innerexplorations.com/catsimple/dis.htm

A Visit with Harry W. Crosby - Baja California DVD Collection: Three movies: The Hidden Magic of Baja, 22 Minutes
Expedition to the Guaycura Nation in the Californias, 11 minutes. 
Discovering the Painted Caves of Baja California: with Harry Crosby. 37 Minutes, DVD, $25 
How to Order http://www.innerexplorations.com/home/list.htm
Sent by Johanna De Soto 
 
Harry Crosby is one of the great modern explorers of Baja California. He spent months on muleback in its rugged mountainous interior discovering and recording its ancient cave art, and he became fascinated with the daily lives and the history of the current inhabitants of those sierras, some of whom are the descendants of the soldiers who accompanied the first Jesuit missionaries to Baja California two hundred years ago. He documented these adventures in books like Last of the Californios, The Cave Paintings of Baja California, and Antigua California, and here he introduces us to this other Baja California.

Format: The interview is interspersed with beautiful scenes of cave paintings and rancho life in the Sierra de San Francisco. Find out about Harry Crosby's new novel, "Portrait of Paloma," at www.harrywcrosby.com.  Although this work, uncharacteristically, is not based in Baja California, it was inspired by a misadventure in the mountains of the peninsula during one very strange night in the Arroyo de Valladares, not far from the site of the old Misión de San Pedro Mártir. Oddly, the story revealed there takes place largely in Spain, England, and Santa Fe, New Mexico

The Bear Flag Revolt
Extract: Of illegal immigration and bloodshed -- in 1846 
Celebrated killings highlight dubious path to statehood 
by Rebecca Solnit, San Francisco Chronicle, June 25, 2006 
Sent by Dorinda Moreno dorindamoreno@comcast.net
and  hot_ss@yahoo.com

. . . . . But the Bear Flag Revolt wasn't epic or heroic, just a strange squabble that melded into the Mexican-American war. It began when a number of Yankee settlers near Sutter Buttes in the Central Valley, inflamed by rumors that a small army of Mexicans was coming to drive out the illegal aliens -- the Americans -- decided to jump the gun and seize the place. They set out in the second week of June, recruiting as they went, so that about 30 of them stole into Sonoma's plaza at dawn on the 14th. 

There, the illegal aliens stormed Vallejo's home and took him hostage. Some wore buckskin pants, some coyote-fur hats, some had no shoes. One account describes them as "a marauding band of horse thieves, trappers and runaway sailors." Vallejo was a man of culture, a rancher and a reluctant governor, not averse to being annexed by the United States but not inclined to become a prisoner or a second-class citizen. It was his open immigration policy that had created the problem in the first place. They raised a flag with a bear so badly drawn that some of the Mexicans thought it was a pig; a better version of it is still the California flag, though the grizzly on it became extinct 84 years ago. The ironies pile high. 

Capt. John Charles Fremont, who had entered California illegally with a band of scouts and soldiers, egged on the revolt and then joined it, stealing horses, commandeering supplies and pretty much doing anything he liked. That morning of June 28, he and his chief scout Kit Carson were near the shores of San Rafael when the de Haro twins rowed their uncle across so that he could, by some accounts, visit his son in Sonoma. Carson asked Fremont what to do about these unarmed Californios. 

Fremont waved his hand and said, "I have got no room for prisoners." So Carson, from 50 yards away, shot them. As one history relates it, "Ramon was killed as soon as he reached the shore. Francisco then threw himself on his brother's body. Next, a command rang out: 'Kill the other son of a bitch!' It was obeyed immediately." When the uncle asked why the boys had been killed, he was shot down, too. Berryessa's son Antonio ran into a Yankee wearing his father's serape -- the bodies had been stripped of their clothing and left where they lay -- and asked Fremont to order its return to him. Fremont refused, so Berryessa paid the thief $25 for the garment. 

The son remained bitter for the rest of his days. The father of the twins is said to have died of grief. California became part of the United States. Carson shot more people in cold blood soon afterward, near what is now Las Vegas. Later he became a popular frontier hero, the subject of many laudatory and partly fictitious books. Fremont's star rose. He became the 1856 presidential candidate for the new Republican Party. He ran on an antislavery platform, but old scandals, including commanding the murder of Berryessa and the de Haros, surfaced. San Francisco surveyor Jasper O'Farrell testified against him in the only first-hand account of the murder, and Fremont failed to carry the state of California. Several more Berryessa men were murdered by Yankees after the war, and the family lost its vast holdings of Bay Area land. 

There are far more deaths that history neglects to mention, including the deaths of those crossing the line drawn in the sand after the Mexican-American war. It's all a reminder of the arbitrariness of borders and the color of justice. 

But the picture remains of those three men on the shores of San Rafael. I grew up one town over, told that history had happened elsewhere, back in those days when everything before the Gold Rush was glossed over. I wish that someone would put up a monument to these three victims, maybe as statues on the shore or maybe as a mural in what is now the barrio in that town, the Canal District near what may have been the murder site. Or in the center of the city, on Fourth Street, whose only claim to fame now is that some of the cruising scenes of George Lucas' "American Graffiti" were shot there. 

Much happened in California 160 years ago, and it has everything to do with what is happening now on the border created then and with the status of Latinos who are often treated as invaders, even when for many of them the story is, "We didn't cross the border; the border crossed us." 

Rebecca Solnit is the author of "Hope in the Dark: Untold Histories, Wild Possibilities" and "River of Shadows: Eadweard Muybridge and the Technological Wild West." Contact us at insight@sfchronicle.com


California Stories 2004-2005

"A NEW APPROACH TO STRENGTHENING COMMUNITIES"
An independent study find that California Stories projects promote a sense of community.  Download the lasest report on California Stories and discover how our projects are making a difference in California    www.californiastories.org
California Council for the Humanities, 312 Sutter St., Suite 601, San Francisco, CA 94108


Sources at your fingertips. . .

Original research in narrow areas of focus are theses and dissertations. They can be through  Proquest Information and Learning by clicking on http://il.proquest.com
California Libraries Catalog can be accessed throughout the state, at http://www.calcat.org
Source:  Cindy Mediavilla, cmediavi@ucla.edu


Historical LA Times Newspaper database
Sent by Paula Hinkel phinkel@pacbell.net

The Historical LA Times newspaper database is available online at the SCGS Library in Burbank. Unfortunately, due to restrictions placed by the owners  of the content, The Tribune Companies, we are unable to make this database available for use from home. However, our SCGS members are welcome to comet o the Library and use the database at no charge.

The first publications to be generated by the 1890 Committee have just been released. The Naturalization Index of the Superior Court for Los Angeles County, California includes every "naturalization transaction" with each alien that occurred in this court only. The index includes more than 40,000entries, with close to 27,000 unique names and more than 350 countries or combinations of countries or origin, i.e., Hungary-Canada-Great Britain. Compiled by the 1890 Committee of the Southern California Genealogical Society. Softbound. The three volumes are available for purchase individually or as a set and can be ordered through the SCGS website
shopping cart www.scgsgenealogy.com/catalog


Abstract:  Plan would open Prop. 40 funds to missions
California's constitution now keeps money from religious-linked historical sites  by Michael Coronado and Heather Ignatin 
The Orange County Register , Monday, June 5, 2006 

Mission San Juan Capistrano request for $500,000 in Prop. 40 money was turned down this year.  Photo by Chas Metivier


Background: The California Clean Water, Clean Air, Safe Neighborhood Parks, and Coastal Protection Act, known as Proposition 40, provides $2.6 billion to conserve natural resources, to acquire and improve state and local parks, and to preserve historical and cultural resources. Voters approved the bond measure in 2002. 

SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO – Backers of California's missions are seeking a change in the state constitution that would allow public money to support historic landmarks with religious affiliations. 

The constitutional amendment is in the Senate Judiciary Committee, and voters could be asked to decide on the proposal as early as November. 

Currently, historic landmarks in California that are connected to a religious entity have been refused money from Proposition 40, a $2.6 billion bond measure passed in 2002. 

Mission San Juan Capistrano had a $500,000 request rejected this year as work continues on a three-year, $1.5 million restoration of Serra Chapel, where Father Junipero Serra celebrated Mass in 1783. 


Gringo Gazette North - Northern Baja's English Voice
http://www.gringogazettenorth.com/2.htm Sent by Johanna De Soto
[[This is a fascinating collections of topics and articles touching on the border events, businesses]]


Our Talmantes-Farias Picnic day
Seal Beach, California, 2006

"L to R Marisa Materna my niece, Me, my daughter  Sharon, My brother Ron Materna, my John, my Two great grandchildren, Kira and Nico Clark, Sharon's is Grandma from her son Dan. The other cutie in the back is a Cline married to Nancy.  Thanks, Eva

For information of the 2007 reunion, please contact EvaBooher@aol.com

  

The day was Saturday June 3, 06, it was a lovely day for a gathering. We had a change in plans, seems they had two parties scheduled in the same place? Making the mistake, they offered us the Club house, at the last minute, which I thought would be better than out in the hot sun?  Without extra charge for the Air Conditioned Club House. We set up all the tables and pictures and sign on the wall and T-shirts displayed by 11 o'clock we were ready. My daughter Sharon and my brother Ron and his daughter Marisa, with my two Great Grandaughters helping, the change was not too bad. Then to find a Bar B-Q, as the barbecues were at the Picnic area. We found a big one and put it on the porch and got it ready to light.
 
They started coming in slowly, with all there lawn chairs which now, they did not need? No time to call them, they were all set up to camp outside. They Registered and got their T-shirts, had their pictures taken and we went along just fine for a while. The dessert table looked Yummy! After the crowd grew they seemed to settle out side. It was a beautiful day? How though would I try and share some family stories, pictures, or welcome speech, or Bob Smith give his short talk he had planned?  Not unless they all came inside, they were hard to herd, everyone was having so much fun we few inside entertained our selves.
 
I did get them inside once, to get a count. We had about 80, coming and going. It was interesting to hear them introduce themselves as we tried to take a count. We had some good laughs. It was fun meeting new cousins and some were with the family for the first time and others had not seen each other in 6 years. Others had seen the article in the SHHAR and called me. They had not known where their family was? Another couple,newly weds, came because their cousin in St Thomas in the Virgin Isles had told them about the reunion. You never know just how many there are out there yet?
 
The eldest person there, was Margaret Talamantes Lamorie Cruz, she was 95. The furthest they came was from was Pennsylvania.  We had a drawing for a Family Tree Book, that was won by Mrs. Gilbert Talamantes, of Mar Vista , CA. Now, everyone wants one. So we did wet their interest some, in Genealogy I hope. I just wish we could have joined together more closely to get to know each other. Sharing our selves as a whole and not in groups? Maybe next time we will?
 
Eva Booher, Santa Monica, CA  evabooher@aol.com


California Roll Call

Ron is the coordinator for San Francisco, San Mateo, and Santa Clara Counties genealogy/history websites. He also is manager of the CA-Spanish website, query board, and mailing list. -) 
Visit the California Spanish Genealogy website http://www.sfgenealogy.com/spanish/
Ron@sfgenealogy.com

The purpose of the Roll Call is to let everyone know who you are and what you are working on. You never know, someone may just may have the information (or just got it recently) that you need! Or, you might have info that someone else needs.

So, PLEASE respond to either (1) or (2):
(1) If you have pre-1849 California-Spanish families: Surnames being researched: [list as many as you wish] Geographical Areas: [what parts of California are your families from?] Brickwall: [list one brickwall from your research that you would love help with]
(2) If you aren't related to the early Spanish families: What's your interest in California-Spanish Genealogy?


Mission San Miguel Arcangel Landmark Plaque
National Historic Landmark Plaque Dedicated was on held on June 15
Special guest was the Secretary of the Interior. Music provided by the New World Baroque Orchestra and Chorus directed by John Warren.
Sent by Benita Gray GRAY850@aol.com       


NORTHWESTERN UNITED STATES

Save the date: October 14
Family History Library 9TH Annual Hispanic Family History Conference 
Co-hosts, BYU Center for Family History & Genealogy and Legado Latino

 

 

SOUTHWESTERN UNITED STATES

The Presidio Line by Michael R. Hardwick
Resources of New Mexico State University
Index to Manifests of Permanent & Statistical Alien Arrivals at El Paso, TX



The Presidio Line
by Michael R. Hardwick

In the latter half of the eighteenth century frontier conditions in northern New Spain had deteriorated to such an extent as a result of Indian depredations, management of presidios etc., that the Spanish crown found it necessary to order an examination of the entire frontier with the view of relocating presidios and making whatever other adjustments might be necessary to prevent further abandonment of the frontier settlements. The Marques de Rubi was given the assignment of investigating this problem.  He began his investigation in 1766. Royal engineers Nicolas de La Fora
and Joseph de Urrutia assisted Rubi by drawing plans of presidios and drafting maps of the area traversed.

As a result of the Rubi recommendations, a new line of defense was established, uniform fortification plans were prescribed, and numerous changes were made in regulations governing military personnel. The new line of fortifications was to be composed of some fifteen presidios situated at about 40 league (or 120 mile) intervals extending from the Gulf of California on the west to the Gulf of Mexico on the east along what is now approximately the northern boundary of Mexico. The order implementing the realignment of the Presidios of the Frontier Line was published in 1772: REGLAMENTO e instrucción para los presidios que se han de formar EN LA LINEA DE FRONTERA de la Nueva España.

Hugo O'Conor was named to the post of Commander-Inspector of the military forces of the frontier provinces and took over the command on 17 February 1772. Between 1773 and 1775, O'Conor succeeded in relocating 12 presidios that had to be moved and added two others. Detachments of
troops were ordered to be stationed at San Antiono de Bejar and Arroyo del Cibolo in Texas. These however were not considered to be Presidios of the Frontier Line. (pp 7-8, Spanish Presidios of the Late Eighteenth Century in Northern New Spain, Rex E. Gerald, Museum of New Mexico
Research Records No. 7, Santa Fe, 1968).

Presidios of the Frontier Line (from west to east): 

Santa Gertrudis del Altar
, founded 1755 with 30 soldiers from the presidio of Sinaloa. Presidio was designed to restrain the Seris, Pimas and Papagos.

Tubac, founded 1753 following the Pima uprising of 1751. The garrison was moved to Tucson in 1777.

Terrenate, founded 1742 southwest of Huachuca mountains Sonora. Late in 1775 Santa Cruz de Terrenate was relocated near what is now Fairbank Arizona. Apache Indian attacks forced relocation of the of the presidio again in 1780 to a site near the arroyo of Las Nutrias.

Fronteras, originally founded in 1692. It was located for a while to the north in the San Berardino Valley, possibly in Arizona. Later in 1780 it was moved south by Teodoro de Croix.

Janos, founded 1690.

San Buenaventura, founded in 1776 by troops from Guajoquilla.

El Paso del Norte, founded as a result of the Revolt of 1680 in upper New Mexico. Spaniards moved downriver (southward) and founded presidio at the site of present Juarez, Chihuahua. Presidio was constructed in 1683. In 1773, because the town of El Paso was well populated and could defend itself, the presidio was moved southward to Carrizal.

Guajoquilla, erected in 1752 on orders from the Viceroy Revilla Gigedo. Later known as San Eleazario.

Julimes, located in 1777 at the former site of the presidio of La Junta at the confluence of the Conchos and Del Norte (Rio Grande) rivers.

Cerro Gordo
, founded after 1772 as part of the new frontier defense.

San Saba, San Saba-Aguaverde was founded in the new presidial line after 1772.

Santa Rosa del Sacrament, now Ciudad Melcho Muzquiz, Coahuila. It was moved north after 1772.

Monclova, founded in 1674. The villa or town of Monclova was the capital of Coahuila in 1780. At that time the presidio was located to the east nearer the Rio Grande.

San Juan Bautista, found in 1699.

La Bahia del Espiritu Santo, founded in 1772 as the last and easternmost presidio of the line. The original site was where Fort St. Louis stood on Matagorda Bay. It was moved in 1726 to the Guadalupe River and later removed to the north bank of the San Antonio River at the site of the
present town of Goliad, Texas.

San Antonio de Bejar, founded May 5, 1718 was not considered a presidio of the line, but it was defended by a detachment according to the regulations of 1772.

Arroyo del Cibolo, founded in 1771 as a detachment site. Presidio was deactivated in 1782 at orders of Teodoro de Croix, (pp.94,95, Lancers for the King, Brinckerhoff amd Faulk, Phoenix, 1965).


Resources of New Mexico State University
http://lib.nmsu.edu/books.shtml

Find Books with the online:
NMSU Library Catalog
WorldCat -- catalogs for libraries worldwide
NetLibrary EBooks -- electronic books
LIBDEX: Library Web-based Catalogs 

Regional library catalogs can be searched:
Dona Ana Branch Community College Library
New Mexico State University at Alamogordo
University of Texas/El Paso (UTEP) Library
University of New Mexico (UNM) Library
Thomas Branigan Memorial Library of Las Cruces 

New Mexico State University Library | Box 30006, Dept. 3475 | Las Cruces, NM 88003-8006 | (505) 646-2932 ©2006 NMSU Board of Regents - Legal Information 




Index to Manifests of Permanent & Statistical Alien Arrivals at El Paso, TX
The National Archives and Records Administration announces the completion of A3396, Index to Manifests of Permanent and Statistical Alien Arrivals at El Paso, Texas, July 1924-July 1952  (19 rolls). RG 85. 16mm.

A3396 has been placed in the National Archives Building Robert M. Warner Research Center in cabinet 31A / 2, and it is being provided to NARA Regional Archives at Anchorage, Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, Fort Worth, Kansas City, Laguna Niguel, Pittsfield, San Francisco, and Seattle.
  
The National Archives and Records Administration announces the completion of A3431, Nonstatistical Manifests of Temporary Alien Arrivals at Laredo, Texas, July 1908-February 1912  (3 rolls). RG 85. 16mm.

A3431 has been placed in the National Archives Building Robert M. Warner Research Center in cabinet 31A / 1, and it is being provided to NARA Regional Archives at Anchorage, Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, Fort Worth, Kansas City, Laguna Niguel, Pittsfield, San Francisco, and Seattle.
  
Descriptive material is on all rolls of the microfilm publication.  A3431 is indexed by A3379, Nonstatistical Manifests Statistical Index Cards of Aliens Arriving at Laredo, Texas, May 1903-November 1929 ( 112 rolls), which has been available since 2005.

Descriptive material is on all rolls of the microfilm publication. 
Sent by CLAIRE PRECHTEL-KLUSKENS  claire.kluskens@nara.gov
microfilm projects archivist Archives I Research Support Branch (NWCC1) 202-357-5353

 

BLACK

African Roots Stretch Deep into Mexico
Mexico as a haven for fugitive slaves



AFRICAN ROOTS STRETCH DEEP INTO MEXICO 
By Roberto Rodriguez and Patrisia Gonzales
© 1996 Chronicle Features Reproduced in Mexico Connect with Permission.
Please visit the LatinoLink http://www.latinolink.com/pages
http://www.mexconnect.com/mex_/feature/ethnic/bv/spec0303.html
 
3 March 1996 -- In Mexico, various Indian peoples still play ancient instruments. And their songs and dances -- which tell of uprisings against their masters -- pay tribute to their ancestors. 

These Mexicans play African "hand pianos" and perform "the dance of the black people." Mexican "corridos" -- or song-stories -- tell of slave uprisings. And the marimbas of Mexico, as well as those of Central America and Ecuador, all have their origins in Africa. All are examples of the still thriving African legacy in Mexico. 

Since 1492, the history of the Americas has been forged by three cultures: indigenous, European, and African - the third root of the Americas, according to the late University of Veracruz professor, Gonzalo Aguirre Beltrán, who was considered Mexico's foremost expert on the African influence on Mexican culture. 

The early African presence in the Americas is normally associated with the slave trade in the United States, the Caribbean, Brazil, Central America, Colombia and Peru. Not generally taught in history textbooks is that Mexico was also a key port of entry for slave ships and consequently had a large African population. 

In fact, during the colonial era, there were more Africans than Europeans in Mexico, according to Aguirre Beltrán's pioneering 1946 book, "The Black Population in Mexico." And he said they didn't disappear, but in fact took part in forging the great racial mixture that is today Mexico. 

"Because of race mixture, much of the African presence is no longer discernible except in a few places such as Veracruz and the Costa Chica in Guerrero and Oaxaca," wrote Aguirre Beltrán. 

In Mexico, many of the Africans that entered came to what are now the states of Yucatan, Michoacan, Tlaxcala, Mexico, Chiapas, Veracruz, Guerrero and Oaxaca. Contrary to popular thought, they did not remain in the south but migrated throughout the whole of Mexico, where they were employed in occupations such as mining, the textile industry, ranching, fishing and agriculture. Blacks in Mexico weren't simply slaves. Many were explorers and cofounders of settlements as far north as Los Angeles and other parts of what is today the Southwest United States. 

Prior to independence from Spain, there were numerous slave rebellions throughout the Americas, including in Mexico. The first documented slave rebellion in Mexico occurred in 1537; this was followed by the establishment of various runaway slave settlements called "palenques." Some rebellions were in alliance with Indians and mestizos even as far north as Chihuahua. In 1608, Spaniards negotiated the establishment of a free black community with Yagna, a runaway rebel slave. Today, that community in Veracruz bears its founder's name. 

The principal guerrilla fighters for Mexican independence from Spain were Indians, mestizos and mulattos. One of the primary leaders of the independence movement, José María Morelos y Pavón, was mulatto, or of African ancestry, as was Vicente Guerrero, Mexico's second president, who officially abolished slavery in 1822. Slavery was actually not done away with until 1829. 

Of note, Aguirre Beltrán's research was not well-received in Mexico, says Gabriel Moedano Navarro, director of ethnohistory at the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico. By 1946, the psyche of the Mexican nation as a mixture of Indian and Spanish blood was well-formed. 

Also hidden from history is Mexico's role as a sanctuary to African American slaves during the 19th century. Unknown to even most historians, descendants of these slaves still live in Mexico. 

In the summer of 1850, the Mascogos, composed of runaway slaves and free blacks from Florida, along with Seminoles and Kikapus, fled south from the United States, to the Mexican border state of Coahuila. Accompanying the Seminoles were also 'Black Seminoles' -- slaves who had been freed by the tribe after battles against white settlers in Florida. 

The three groups eventually settled the town of El Nacimiento, Coahuila, where many of their descendants remain, including some of our distant relatives. 

The African presence in Mexico is not so much denied as it is obscured. Aguirre Beltrán's work has brought to light something most Mexicans and Mexican Americans have historically been unaware of -- that they, like other Latinos, have not only Indian and Spanish blood, but African blood as well. 

In times of racial discord between Latinos and African Americans, this historical confluence of cultures should serve as a reminder that both communities share common ancestors. In fact, if we probe far enough, we're all related. 

Latino Spectrum is a nationally syndicated column, distributed by Chronicle Features.
Rodriguez/Gonzales can be reached at XColumn@AOL.COM. 
Sent by Bill Carmena  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afro-Mexican



Mexico as a haven for fugitive slaves
Source: Mexico welcomed fugitive slaves and African American job-seekers by Ron Wilkins
Sent by Dorinda Moreno dorindamoreno@comcast.net

From the very beginning of his Texas colonization scheme, a determined Stephen Austin sought to have Mexican officials acquiesce to the settlement of slave-owning whites into the territory. It was generally acknowledged that the people and government of Mexico abhorred slavery and were determined to prohibit its practice within the Mexican republic. 

Beginning in 1822, at least 20,000 Anglos, many with their slave property, settled into Texas. Jared Groce, one of the first of Stephen Austin's Texas settlers that year, arrived with 90 enslaved Africans. 

The Mexican Federal Law of July 13, 1824, clearly favored and promoted the emancipation of slaves. Mexico had even stipulated that it was prepared to compensate North American owners of fugitive slaves. Determined instead to have things their way, Anglos began to press for an extradition treaty which would require Mexico to return fugitive slaves.

From 1825 until the end of the Civil War in 1865, Mexican authorities continuously thwarted attempts by slave-holding Texas settlers to conclude fugitive slave extradition treaties between the two parties. During this period of extremely tense relations between the two governments, Mexico consistently repudiated and forbade the institution of slavery in its territory, while U.S. officials and Texas slave-owners continuously sought ways to circumvent Mexican law. The Mexican authorities thwarted repeated attempts by slave-holding Texas settlers to conclude fugitive slave extradition treaties between the two parties.

In 1826 the Committee of Foreign Relations of the Mexican Chamber of Deputies refused to compromise on the issue of fugitive slaves and defended the right of enslaved Africans to liberate themselves. Mexican government officials cited "the inalienable right which the Author of nature has conceded to him (meaning enslaved persons)." Congress member Erasmo Seguin from Texas commented that the Congress was "resolved to decree the perpetual extinction in the Republic of commerce and traffic in slaves and that their introduction into our territory should not be permitted under any pretext".

Again in October 1828, the Mexican Senate rejected 14 articles of a newly-proposed treaty and harshly criticized Article 33, stating "it would be most extraordinary that in a treaty between two free republics slavery should be encouraged by obliging ours to deliver up fugitive slaves to their merciless and barbarous masters of North America".

Reporting on the growing number of Anglo settlers in Texas, Mexican Gen. Teran reported, "Most of them have slaves, and these slaves are beginning to learn the favorable intent of Mexican law to their unfortunate condition and are becoming restless under their yokes …" Gen. Teran went on to describe the cruelty meted out by masters to restless slaves: "They extract their teeth, set on the dogs to tear them in pieces, the most lenient being he who but flogs his slaves until they are flayed."

On Sept. 15, 1829, AfroMexican President Vicente Guerrero signed a decree banning slavery in the Mexican Republic. Yielding to appeals from panicked settlers and Mexican collaborators who saw Mexico benefiting economically from the Anglo presence, Guerrero exempted Texas from the prohibition on the introduction of slaves into the republic, on Dec. 2. Several months later, the Mexican government severely restricted Anglo immigration and banned the introduction of slaves into the republic. 

Undeterred, the Anglos succeeded in negotiating a new treaty with Mexico in 1831, which included Article 34, which called for pursuit and reclamation of fugitive slaves. After considerable wrangling between the Mexican Chamber of Deputies and Senate, Article 34 was removed from the treaty. Also, by 1831 it became apparent through debate within the Mexican Senate that the government's welcoming of fugitive slaves was not completely altruistic. 

Some Mexican officials, fearful of U.S. military intervention, had begun to see it as wise to encourage the development of runaway slave colonies along the Northern border as a way to lessen the threat posed by the U.S. As historian Rosalie Schwartz put it, many Mexican officials "reasoned these fugitives, choosing between liberty under the Mexican government and bondage in the United States, would fight to protect their Mexican freedom more vigorously than any mercenaries." As the interests of Mexican officials and U.S. abolitionists coincided during the early 1830s, a modest number of former slaves established themselves in Texas and fared well during the period. 

In 1836, after the fall of the Alamo and its slave-owning or pro-slavery leaders, such as William Travis, Jim Bowie and Davy Crockett, Mexican forces were defeated and an independent Texas was eventually annexed by the United States. However, before the expulsion of Mexican forces from Texas, Brig. Gen. Jose Urrea evicted scores of illegally-settled plantation owners, liberated slaves and, in many instances, granted them on-the-spot titles to the land they had worked. 

Oddly enough, many Black people call for "40 acres and a mule" - a reference to Union Gen. Sherman's Special Field Order 15 and Gen. Howard's Circular 13, which made some land available to former slaves. But what one never hears are references to Mexican Gen. Jose Urrea and the land titles that he and his men granted to former Texas slaves following the defeat of the Alamo, a generation before the Civil War. 

Even after the loss of Texas, Mexican officials refused to formally acknowledge Texas independence on the grounds that it "would be equivalent to the sanction and recognition of slavery." After Texas independence, the slave population mushroomed, and the number of runaways across the South Texas-North Mexico border increased. In 1842, Mexico's Constitutional Congress reasserted the nation's commitment to fugitive slaves. In 1847, 38,753 slaves and 102,961 whites were listed in the first official Texas census. In 1850, in a new treaty accord with the United States, Mexico again refused to provide for the return of fugitive slaves

The slave institution in Texas was continuously undermined by defiant Tejanos (Mexicans in Texas), who took great risks and invested enormous resources toward facilitating the escape of enslaved Africans. The Texas to Mexico routes to freedom constituted major unacknowledged extensions of the "Underground Railroad." Tejanos were variously accused of "tampering with slave property," "consorting with Blacks" and stirring up among the slave population "a spirit of insubordination."

Plantation owners in Central Texas adopted various resolutions aimed at preventing Mexicans from aiding the slave population. Whites in Guadalupe County prohibited Mexican "peons" from entering the county and anyone from conducting business or interacting with enslaved persons without authorization from the owners. 

Bexar County whites suggested that "Mexican strangers entering from San Antonio register at the mayor's office and give an account of themselves and their business." Delegates to a convention in Gonzales resolved that "counties should organize vigilance committees to prosecute persons tampering with slaves" and that all citizens and slaveholders were to endeavor to prevent Mexicans from communicating with Blacks. 

Whites in Austin decreed that "all transient Mexicans should be warned to leave within 10 days, that all remaining should be forcibly expelled unless their good character and good behavior were substantiated by responsible American citizens" and that "Mexicans should no longer be employed and their presence in the area should be discouraged." In Matagorda County, all Mexicans were driven out under the bogus claim that they were wandering, indigent sub-humans who "have no fixed domicile but hang around the plantations, taking the likeliest negro girls for wives … they often steal horses, and these girls too, and endeavor to run them to Mexico".

By the year 1855, the estimates were that as many as 4,000 to 5,000 formerly enslaved Africans had escaped to Mexico. Slaveholders became so alarmed at this trend that they requested and received approximately one fifth of the standing U.S. Army which was deployed along the Texas-Mexico border in a vain effort to stem the flow of runaways. 

Defiant Mexicans stood their ground, refused to return runaways, and continued supporting slave uprisings and providing assistance to escaping slaves. In the words of Felix Haywood, a Texas slave, whose experience is recalled in "The Slave Narratives of Texas, "Sometimes someone would come along and try to get us to run up north and be free. We used to laugh at that. There was no reason to run up north. All we had to do was walk, but walk south, and we'd be free as soon as we crossed the Rio Grande".

What a difference a border made

1857 was a year whose profound irony made it one of the most interesting. 1857 was the year that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against Dred Scott, an enslaved African who had sued for his freedom, on the grounds that his owner had forfeited any claim to him after taking him into a free state. Ironically, 1857 was the same year that the Mexican Congress adopted Article 13, declaring that an enslaved person was free the moment he set foot on Mexican soil.


INDIGENOUS

Indigenous Identity in the Mexican Census:
Peruvian land 
Urban Indians in Ciudad Juarez
Learn an Indigenous Language
MANA hosts W.O.M.B. Grandmothers Gathering.
Native American selection of  Ancestry books
 

Indigenous Identity in the Mexican Census:
http://www.indigenouspeople.net/CENSUSSTORY.htm
Sent by John Schmal 


Peruvian land 
La Paz, Bolivia. President Evo Morales launched a sweeping land overhaul Saturday giving about 9,600 square miles of state-owned land to poor Indians.  Morales marked the start of his "agrarian revolution" just weeks after nationalizing Bolivia's natural gas industry. OCRegister, 6-5-06 


Urban Indians in Ciudad Juarez
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/indigenous_peoples_literature/message/18638?l=1
Sent by Dorinda Moreno dorindamoreno@comcast.net

Uprooted from the land, more and more indigenous Mexicans are finding homes in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua. New figuresfrom Mexico's National Institute of Statistics, Geography and Informatics (INEGI) report that approximately 14,606 people from dozens of indigenous groups call the border
city home. Drawn from the INEGI's 2005 population andhousing census, the new population count represents a 74percent increase over 2000's census figures. ConsideringCiudad Juarez's floating population, however, the indigenous population registered by the INEGI is likely an undercount. According to the INEGI, 42 indigenous languagesare spoken in Ciudad Juarez, including Chinateca, Nahuatl,Tarahumara, Mixtec, Zapotec, Popoluca, Huave, Huichol,Tzotzil (Mayan), and numerous others.

Many of Ciudad Juarez's residents hail from hard-pressed rural zones where the land is not producing and jobs arefew and far between. "Over there money and grains are missing," said Ciribina Rosa, an indigenous Raramuri(Tarahumara) who sells herbs in downtown Ciudad Juarez. "There is no corn to eat."

Working the streets and international bridges as vendors or beggars, or toiling away as day laborers, noticeable numbers of indigenous people began arriving to Ciudad Juarez more than 40 years ago. The largest ethnic group, Mazahuas from Mexico state, number about 4,000 people, according to Carlyn James, the local coordinator of the Tarahumara State Coordinator. "(Indigenous people) probably come with the idea of later crossing to the United States to work," James said.

Setting down roots in Ciudad Juarez, indigenous groups have established distinctive neighborhoods. For instance, many Raramuris live in three neighborhoods scattered through out the city and its outskirts, while Mixtecos from southern Oaxaca state inhabit the Anapra colonia near the New Mexico border. In the Raramuri colonias, bilingual schools help teach the children Spanish. According to James, the Raramuris best preserve their language and cultural traditions in the hustle and bustle of a busy border city that's also heavily influenced by US culture.

Among the indigenous population, men still predominate with 55 percent of the population. Some government officials are concerned about the special problems facing women. A new program sponsored by the federal Commission for the Prevention and Elimination of Violence Against Women in Ciudad Juarez seeks to train indigenous women as promotersagainst domestic violence in their communities.

"(Indigenous women) live in a triple vulnerability, because they are women, indigenous and poor," contends Pablo Navarrete, the commission's Ciudad Juarez director.

South of Ciudad Juarez, urban Indians are gaining in population in the state capital of Chihuahua City too.According to the 2005 INEGI census, the number ofindigenous people residing in Chihuahua City increased from 6,823 in 2000 to 9,330 in 2005. Numbering 5,090 persons, the Raramuris constituted the largest ethnic group in Chihuahua City last year. Statewide, Chihuahua's indigenous
population rose from 103,057 persons in 2000 to 136,661 in 2005. The leap is attributed to population increases in Chihuahua's two largest ethnic groups, the Raramuris and the Tepehuans, as well as migration from Mexican states outside Chihuahua.

Sources: 
El Diario de Juarez, May 30, 2006. Article by Rocio Gallegos. 
Norte, May 27, 2006. Article by Sonia Aguilar.

Frontera NorteSur (FNS): on-line, U.S.-Mexico border news
Center for Latin American and Border Studies, 
New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, New Mexico



Learn an Indigenous Language
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NativeAmericanLanguageandPodcastCenter/

...if you want to learn an Indigenous Language or can help to teach a Language...please join and help this group to literally spread the word...make podcasts for use by others...share links and language sources...practice your native tongue...it is very important as when a people lose their language...all else is lost forever in short time...and then we have no rights to anything...
Mike Price



MANA hosts W.O.M.B. Grandmothers Gathering.
Sent by Debra Perez Hagstrom  thyme2be@yahoo.com

In an experiential learning environment hosted by MANA de Orange County, California traditional knowledge was shared as a way to gather and empower one another.

Seven Blossoms (Siete Azares) Tea and Pan de Maize were offered as a beginning meal.
Food is one of the most basic ways to help us remember our heritage, express our ethnicity and share as community.

The presentation was opened by Gloria DeLaTorre Wycoff, with an acknowledgment of our Ancestors from the Four Directions. We welcomed and greeted each other in a circle. Gathering in a circle is an important tradition, it is a form of equality, and everyone in a circle is equal.
Nellie Caudillo Kaniski graciously read Prietita and the Ghost Woman/Prietita Y La Llorona by Gloria Anzaldua.

This story conveys the authors respect for las curanderas, the traditional healers of her people. While writing this book the author studied her Chicana/Mexicana culture and also found a powerful, positive side, the female part of all of us. 

Herbal and Plant knowledge taught by Indigenous Grandmothers/Elders was shared by Valerie Cardenas Dobesh. The colorful presentation of herbs and plants such as Ruda/Rue, Manzanilla/Chamomile, Lavender, Mint and many other plants were wonderful to see, smell and taste. Manzanilla has been used for hundreds of years to assist with pink eye. It can also be made into a tea to help with relaxation. Mint tea assists and calms an upset stomach. 

The group as a whole began to remember herbs and plants that their Grandmothers, Mothers and family members used.

Also prepared and served by Debra Perez Hagstrom was Nopal Salad along with Tortillas de Maize. 

Indigenous Elders and Grandmothers have been gathering to share and pass on cultural Traditional knowledge with Women of all generations. The Grandmothers are here to assist us in remembering who we are, and to use our heart connections to nurture and support each other as we come back together as family.

One such gathering will take place in August 29th –September 1st 2006 on Catalina Island, “A gathering of Grandmother Wisdom-Keepers” from the Four Directions will be meeting and celebrating cultural awakening was shared by Debra Perez Hagstrom. Wisdom of Mother Beauty (WOMB) along with Morning Star Foundation will be hosting this event in California. We are fortunate to have this opportunity to listen, learn and be inspired by these Traditional Indigenous Grandmothers. For more information you can email her at thyme2be@yahoo.com. This quote was shared by Gloria:

‘We inherit from our ancestors gifts so often taken for granted. …Each of us contains within… this inheritance of soul. We are links between the ages, containing past and present expectations, sacred memories and future promise.’ 
Edward Sellner

*Our ancestors gathered and sat in a circle around a fire, everyone had access to the fire and to each other. Nopal, maize and agave have been staple food, instrumental in enabling human settlement and cultural development of the Chichimeca groups. (Uto-Aztecan linguistic family) In Mesoamerica Maize is its lifeblood. The creation myths of Mesoamerica told that creation has been improved at each step, but also its beings, plants and foods, so that present day humans, "Maize People," were the best possible creature, and maize the best possible food.

Nopal, Nopales or Nopalitas has been used as a medicine and a source of nourishment, since prehistoric times, and was traded by various indigenous/ethnic groups in Mexico and other parts of tropical America. http://maize.agron.iastate.edu/maizearticle.html Knishinsky, Ran. Prickly Pear Cactus Medicine: Treaments for Diabetes, Cholesterol, and the Immune System. Vermont: Inner Traditions Medicinal Use Of The Latin Food Staple Nopales: The Prickly Pear Cactus By Miguel Angel Gutierrez



Native American selection of  Ancestry books
( limited quantities, prices varied) Newsletter4@ancestorstuff.com Newsletter #239

GEORGIA: CHEROKEE RATION BOOKS 
Item #114-GN-0235 Retail: $38.50 SAVE $7.70 AncestorStuff Price: $30.80

MISSISSIPPI: CHOCTAW OF MISSISSIPPI 1929-1932 (Bowen) 
Item #114-GN-0201 Retail: $35.00 SAVE $7.00 AncestorStuff Price: $28.00

MISSISSIPPI: MISSISSIPPI CHOCTAW INDIAN CENSUS (With Births, Deaths and Marriages 1933-1939) (Bowen) 
Item #114-GN-0202 Retail: $33.00 SAVE $6.60 AncestorStuff Price: $26.40

NATIVE AMERICAN: 1832 - COUNTRY FOR INDIANS WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI 
Item #114-GN-0121 Retail: $6.50 SAVE $1.30 AncestorStuff Price: $5.20

NATIVE AMERICAN: 1832 CREEK CENSUS (Douthat) 
Item #114-GN-0108 Retail: $22.50 SAVE $4.50 AncestorStuff Price: $18.00

NATIVE AMERICAN: 1901-1907 SENECA, EASTERN SHAWNEE, MIAMI, MODOC, OTTAWA, PEORIA, QUAPAW &WYANDOTTE INDIANS 
Item #114-GN-0218 Retail: $35.00 SAVE $7.00 AncestorStuff Price: $28.00

NATIVE AMERICAN: 1932 NAVAJO CENSUS 
Item #114-GN-0204 Retail: $20.00 SAVE $4.00 AncestorStuff Price: $16.00

NATIVE AMERICAN: 1932 STANDING ROCK SIOUX CENSUS 
Item #114-GN-0161 Retail: $30.00 SAVE $6.00 AncestorStuff Price: $24.00

NATIVE AMERICAN: BIRTH AND DEATH RECORDS FOR NATIVE AMERICAN TRIBES: CHIPPEWA - Turtle Mountain Reservation 1924-1932 
Item #114-GN-0157 Retail: $22.50 SAVE $4.50 AncestorStuff Price: $18.00

NATIVE AMERICAN: BIRTH AND DEATH RECORDS FOR NATIVE AMERICAN TRIBES: KIOWA, COMANCHE, APACHE, FORT SILL APACHE, WICHITA, CADDO and DELAWARE INDIANS 1924-1932 
Item #114-GN-0160 Retail: $28.50 SAVE $5.70 AncestorStuff Price: $22.80

NATIVE AMERICAN: BIRTH AND DEATH RECORDS FOR NATIVE AMERICAN TRIBES: OGLALA SIOUX - Pine Ridge Reservation; 1924-1933 
Item #114-GN-0156 Retail: $35.00 SAVE $7.00 AncestorStuff Price: $28.00

NATIVE AMERICAN: BIRTH AND DEATH RECORDS FOR NATIVE AMERICAN TRIBES: STANDING ROCK SIOUX 1924-1932 
Item #114-GN-0159 Retail: $28.50 SAVE $5.70 AncestorStuff Price: $22.80

NATIVE AMERICAN: BIRTH AND DEATH RECORDS FOR NATIVE AMERICAN TRIBES: WESTERN NAVAJO RESERVATION - Navajo, Hopi and Paiute 1925-1933 
Item #114-GN-0158 Retail: $15.00 SAVE $3.00 AncestorStuff Price: $12.00

NATIVE AMERICAN: CHEROKEE CITIZENSHIP DOCKET BOOK: 1880-1884 &1887-1889 (Bowen) 
Item #114-GN-0205 Retail: $48.50 SAVE $9.70 AncestorStuff Price: $38.80

NATIVE AMERICAN: CHEROKEE DESCENDANTS. Volume I; Cherokees East of the Mississippi River (Bowen) 
Item #114-GN-0162 Retail: $16.50 SAVE $3.30 AncestorStuff Price: $13.20

NATIVE AMERICAN: CHEROKEE DESCENDANTS. Volume II; Cherokees West of the Mississippi River - "A" - "M" (Bowen) 
Item #114-GN-0172 Retail: $45.00 SAVE $9.00 AncestorStuff Price: $36.00

NATIVE AMERICAN: CHEROKEE DESCENDANTS. Volume III; Cherokees West of the Mississippi River - "N" - "Z" (Bowen) 
Item #114-GN-0173 Retail: $40.00 SAVE $8.00 AncestorStuff Price: $32.00

NATIVE AMERICAN: CHEROKEE DESCENDANTS. Volume IV; General Index of Eastern and Western Cherokee January 5, 1910. Part I; "A" - "M" (Bowen) 
Item #114-GN-0174A Retail: $55.00 SAVE $11.00 AncestorStuff Price: $44.00

NATIVE AMERICAN: CHEROKEE DESCENDANTS. Volume IV; General Index of Eastern and Western Cherokee January 5, 1910. Part II; "N" - "Z" (Bowen) 
Item #114-GN-0174B Retail: $35.00 SAVE $7.00 AncestorStuff Price: $28.00

NATIVE AMERICAN: COLONEL RETURN JONATHAN MEIGS - Day Book #2 (Douthat) 
Item #114-TN0851 Retail: $20.00 SAVE $4.00 AncestorStuff Price: $16.00



SEPHARDIC

Albert Gallegos: Remnants of Crypto-Jews Among Hispanic Americans
Sephardic Research Website

 

Albert Gallegos
from Remnants of Crypto-Jews Among Hispanic Americans
By: Gloria Golden ©2005

 
I discovered information about my heritage after having traveled to Spain eleven times, meeting people and asking questions. Visiting friends in Granada, Spain, I was told that the name Gutierrez is Jewish. My friend, whose last name is Gutierrez, informed me that he is Jewish. Another family name on the maternal side of the family is Salas, a Jewish name. Although not proven, I have been told that Gallegos is a Jewish name. I found this out from a tour guide in Sevilla, Spain. He said Gallegos is a Jewish name from northern Spain.

Growing up, I never thought of it. Nothing gave me any inclination that we were Jewish. My grandparents and parents said, "Your heritage is Spanish." They were adamant about remembering our heritage. They probably didn't know if we were Jewish. The family was very Catholic, and a church was built on our property. They buried the family under the church, which was their own cemetery, or immediately right outside the church. There is a tombstone in the family cemetery on the property with the name Trujillo that has a Star of David on it. It is an old sandstone one, and it's hand carved.

The family blessed the children by placing their hands on their heads and making the sign of the cross. Blessings were given on special occasions, if you were leaving, going on a trip, getting married, or having a birthday.

In the old days, when Grandfather died, Grandmother wore black. They lit candles on the year anniversary of the deceased back then. Handfuls of dirt were thrown on the coffin as it was lowered into the grave. There were flowers as well.

We didn't believe in circumcision. There weren't many icons in our home and the family was not secretive. My grandmothers were Gonzales and Padilla. They prayed at altars set in their bedroom and prayed in Spanish. They prayed the rosary. They didn't pray in church because we lived about forty or fifty miles from the church. The priest would come to the area once a month.

There weren't many people where we lived. Mostly everyone is related to one another.
When I went on a trip to northern Spain, I was told by people we visited, that the Spanish we were speaking was old Castilian Spanish. We still speak that Spanish and the people of northern New Mexico primarily do so as well.

Nobody avoided church in our family. There weren't any Penitentes on Father's side. In my family, on Mother's side, my aunts were married to Penitentes.

Education was very important in our family. It was important going back to my grandparents, great-grandparents, and great-great-grandparents.

The Gallegos family came with Cortez and entered the New World through Cuba. They stayed there awhile before coming to Mexico, Mexico City, and then north. It's documented that most of Cortez's people came through Cuba. Those who came with Cortez were military people. I don't definitely know if anyone is Jewish.

On Father's side, on some occasions, cousins married cousins. This didn't happen too often and stopped around 1910. Marriages were generally arranged for the purpose of keeping status and wealth within the family. The family wanted us to marry within our own. This didn't happen on Mother's side.

We ate empanaditas, which contained meat and raisins, during Christmas. Quelites were eaten during their season of growth which was in the spring.

Our family attends church. As I grew up, I learned at home to believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and Earth. I learned that when I was a little kid. We believed in the teachings of the Catholic Church. We weren't religious growing up and attended mass once a month. The Gallegos grandparents read the Old Testament. It doesn't feel important that I find out if I'm Jewish. I'm interested in genealogy and interested in the truth. I'm not emotional about it.



Sephardic Research Website
http://www.sephardim.org

A good site for ongoing research information on Spanish and Portuguese Jewish lines, such as the following three items:

December 6, 2005 The following was written in Ian Randle's Spring / Summer Catalogue regarding a recent publication:

The Island of One People---An Account of the History of the Jews of Jamaica, by Marilyn Delevante & Tony Alberga:

" The expulsion of Jews from Spain under penalty of death in 1492 and the journeys of 'discovery' of Christopher Columbus triggered the settlement of Jews in the 'New World' .

This recently published book recounts the considerable political, ecconomic, and cultural strides
of the Jewish population from the period of Spanish occupation to the acheivements of the Jewish Community in 2004. The book traces the Island's Jewish population from their origins in Iberia, Spain in the Middle Ages, to their settlement in Jamaica in the 15th Century. It also explores many notable Jewish families and their rise to occupy positions in the upper echelons of Jamaican Society."
ISBN # 976-637-212-8 Hardback. Ths book is available from the web site www.jewsofjamaica.com 


February 4, 2004  On the recommendation of Dorothy Kew,a link is being added to Patricia Jackson's subscription web site, Jamaican Family Search, www.jamaicanfamilysearch.com. Patricia's site has a great deal of information about Jewish records, including transcriptions of the Jewish cemetery at Falmouth which she did herself a year ago while in Jamaica, plus records of both the Sephardic and Ashkenazi congregations, birth and death records of the Amalgamated congregations, and a few records from the Montego Bay synagogue.  It's worth the subscription which is quite reasonable.


Spanish and Portuguese Jewish Liturgical Music

The Spanish and Portuguese Jewish community is distinguished by an ancient liturgical tradition and unique synagogue architecture. The music for this liturgy was published at Bevis Marks in the first half of the 19th century by the Haham David A. DeSola, and later by Rev. Moses Gaster in his edition of the Spanish and Portuguese siddur. These traditions are found in Amsterdam (the Esnoga), London (Bevis Marks), Jamaica, the Virgin Islands, Curacao, Barbados, New York (Shearith Israel), and Philadephia (Mikve Israel). At long last I have been able to translate a number of music files which I had transcribed some ten years ago into sound files. These files represent some of the Spanish and Portuguese liturgical music tradition, including Torah and Haftarah trope. Many pieces are in 4-part harmony which is represented here by the piano to keep the file size small. In time I will update this area to correct errors, and add new music.



TEXAS 

August 31-September 3 :  27th Hispanic Genealogy & History Conference
Bexar Genealogy
July 8, 
Meeting, Texas declares September as Tejano Heritage Month 
Dedication of TX State Historical Marker of Don Rafael Antonio Manchola
July 11th: Austin's 1st Latino Book & Art Festival 
Pulido123.com
October 13-15: Elizondo Reunion
Archaeologists unearth bones at French settlement in Texas
Treaties signed by the Republic of Texas 
October 29: Juan Nepomuceno Seguin Event
Book: Inherit the Dust from the Four Winds of Revilla
South Texas Archives
Lozano Building Holds Many Memories and Stories
Book, Chapter 10:
Continuous Presence of Italians and Spaniards in Texas as Early as 1520, Including the Participation and Consequence of Texas and Louisiana in the American Revolution by Alex Loya
Wills/Testaments from Tamaulipas and Nuevo Leon, Mexico Inventory
Escudos de Cantabria por María del Carmen González Echegaray

 


27th ANNUAL TEXAS CONFERENCE

ON HISPANIC GENEALOGY & HISTORY

Aug 31 - Sep 3, 2006

Corpus Christi , Texas
Latest information on State Conference 
http://www.freewebs.com/sagacorpus/

 





Bexar Genealogy
http://bexargenealogy.com/ Sent by Arturo Ynclan  AYnclan@edd.ca.gov

Welcome, This site is dedicated to genealogy research of the early families that settled in and around La Villa de Béxar, which has become the city of San Antonio in Bexar County, Texas.  For an explanation of where the name originated see : The Name Béxar.

Our heritage comes from the brave and adventurous men and women who where not only part of the founding of San Antonio de Béxar and the Villa of San Fernando but who fought for Texas Independence in 1836.

As this site evolves, hopefully more and more of San Antonio's history and early people will come to light. I hope you find this web site helpful with your knowledge of San Antonio's history as well as its early settlers.  Hopefully, this will allow you to add to your own family history.

I have utilized many different internet sources to provide the historical background used by this site, however, the genealogical information is from my own database which consist of more than 19,000 individuals.  I have taken as much care as possible to ensure the accuracy of the information used on this web site but should be used for informational purposes only.

Thank you and enjoy!  Steve Gibson
If you would like to see if you tie into my database or would like to add your family line or if you have questions or comments on this web site, email me at:  webmaster@bexargenealogy.com
  


State of Texas declares September as Tejano Heritage Month 
Texas Tejano.com and the Alamo Legacy & Missions Association (ALMA) cordially invite you to join us beginning at 10:00am on Saturday, July 8, 2006 in the Auditorium at the Main Branch of the San Antonio Public Library (600 Soledad) to learn about the upcoming Tejano Heritage Month Celebrations!

The State of Texas has officially declared the month of September as Tejano Heritage Month. Festivities include an exciting and festive Texas Tejano Breakfast that will serve as the kickoff on the grounds of the State Capitol in Austin! This will start two months worth of celebrations, symposiums and lectures, film screenings and exhibit displays, ceremonies at the Alamo, the University of Texas at San Antonio and San Fernando Cathedral, a student program of awards and a fun-filled concluding Tejano Fiesta at Casa Navarro.

Refreshments will be served and Texas Tejano.com will be unveiling its Calendar of Events for this year’s festivities! Also, Texas Tejano.com will be unveiling the plans for two of our very exciting upcoming projects: the Recuerdos de mi Familia y Tejas Oral History Project and the Tejano History Online project.

We are also inviting the individuals, organizations and sponsors involved in making this very exciting celebration happen so that they might share their ideas and goals. We want to open the floor up and allow everyone to briefly explain what their group/organization is currently planning or are involved in. If you or your organization would like to learn more or want to participate in some manner, we invite you all to attend.

For more information, please contact Texas Tejano.com at (210) 673-3584 or visit us online at www.TexasTejano.com. We look forward to seeing and hearing from you all soon and thank you for helping us make Tejano Heritage Month an event to remember!

Viva Tejano Texas!
Rudi Rodriguez  President/Founder, Texas Tejanos
Charles Lara, President ALMA




Greater Austin Hispanic Chamber of Commerce  
1st Latino Art & Book Festival
Tuesday July 11th,  5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
Information: contact Selina Aguirre
saguirre@hispanicaustin.com

2800 S. IH 35, Ste. 260
Austin, Texas 78704
tel: 512.476.7502
fax: 512.476.6417 
Featured Authors and Artists
Dan Castro
Ileana Isern
Miguel Vargas
Mirta Toledo
Peter Ortiz
and more!!
"This is a great website for Texas Family genealogy". .  Arturo Ynclan  AYnclan@edd.ca.gov

Pulido123.com

amily Tree Charts in .pdf format
Alfonso Nuñez de Hinojosa
Antonio Canales
Antonio Guerra Canamar
Aparicio Peña
Bartolome Gonzalez
Ferdinand V
Gaspar Garcia
Ignacio Villarreal
Jose Antonio Escobar
Jose Canales
Jose de la Garza
Juan Goraz Leal
Juan Ignacio Vera
Juan Saens de Pontecilla
Lorenzo Guajardo
Marcos Alonso
Miguel Ramirez
Vicente Navarro

Family Tree Charts in .pdf format
from Adam to King Ferdinand
Adam
Priam
Antenor II
Dagobert
Othon-Guillaume de Macon

 
Web Pages I Have Created

CJ's Emporium

Duval Real Estate
El Mesteño Magazine
Falfurrias Jersey Baseball

Falfurrias Jersey Baseball 
mirror site

Heritage Museum - Falfurrias
Jim Wells County Historical Commission
La Mota Ranch - Nature Retreat
Linda Escobar - La Tejana
 Little Sister from Laredo, Texas
Los Arroyos del Rio
Oasis Swimming Pools
Premont Cowboy Varsity Baseball
Rebecca Pulido's Homepage
Sound Express DJ Service

South Texas Heritage Trail

South Texas Metal Art

St. Theresa's Catholic Church

Tex-Mex Oldies Radio 24/7

webmaster


Elizondo Reunion` October 13-15, 2006
Sent by Edna  Yolanda Elizondo González ednayelizondo@yahoo.com.mx

Hola Mimi.
Saludos a los Primos Bexareños. Dile a los Primos que la reunión de los Elizondo va bien al parecer ya tenemos un Auditorio en la Macroplaza de