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