Somos Primos

May 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

TACO STAND IN JAPAN

Photo Sent by: SK2(SW) Gonzalez, Robert
FISC Deployed Ship's Team LSR
Robert_Gonzalez@yoko.fisc.navy.mil SIPR Gonzalez.Robert@CNRFE.NAVY.SMIL.MIL
DSN: 243-6426 Cell: 090-9311-7249  

"Happy Cinco de Mayo"

  Letters to editor, kind congratulations for selection as a state Woman of the Year

Dearest Mimi,  
Congratulations! I'm so proud of you! Woman 
of the Year! there is no one in this world that deserves this honor more than you. You are an inspiration to all women in general, you are our rock to us Hispanics, your contribution to the Hispanic community has been enormous, we all thank you with all our hearts. Mimi, you've open our eyes and minds by reading your Somos Primos issues, we've learned so much about our culture, is a mixture of many people having a voice to give information on different topics including other cultures as well. I always look forward to the 1st of the month to read these beautiful articles. I have followed Somos Primos from the beginning when we had issues sent to our home and loved to read every single one of them. We are very proud of you!
Love, your friend always,
Mercy Bautista-Olvera scarlett_mbo@yahoo.com
 

"Those people who will not be governed by God 
will be ruled by tyrants."   William Penn 

United States

                                                 
 Cinco de Mayo
  *Special Edition*   April 5, 2006
Census Bureau Facts
Sent by Mercy Bautista Olvera scarlett_mbo@yahoo.com

May 5, 1862, marks the Mexican army’s victory over the French invaders at the Battle of Puebla. 

25.9 million Number of U.S. residents of Mexican origin in 2004. 
These residents constituted 9 percent of the nation’s total population.

16.6 million Number of people of Mexican origin who reside either in California (10.1 million) or Texas (6.5 million). People of Mexican origin make up nearly 1/3 of the residents of these 2 states.

15.7 million Number of people of Mexican descent born in the United States.

10.3 million Number of foreign-born residents from Mexico. 
About 3-in-10 foreign-born people are from Mexico.

25.3 Median age of people of Mexican descent. 
This compares with 36.2 years for the population as a whole.

622,000 Number of Mexican-Americans who are military veterans.

1.1 million Number of people of Mexican descent age 25 or higher with bachelor’s degree or more.

37% Percentage of households with a householder of Mexican origin consisting of a married-couple family with children. For all households, the corresponding percentage is 22 percent.

4.1 Average number of people in families with a householder of Mexican origin. 
This compares to an average of 3.2 people in all families.

15% Percentage of people of Mexican heritage who work in managerial, professional or related occupations.

$35,185 and 23.6% Median household income and poverty rate in 2004, respectively, for those
of Mexican heritage.

69% Percentage of people of Mexican origin in the labor force.

49% Percentage of householders of Mexican origin who own the home in which they live.

Source for statements in this section: American FactFinder. 
Figures do not include people living in group quarters.

Trade With Mexico $290.2 billion . . The value of goods traded between the United States and Mexico in 2005. Mexico is our nation’s second-leading trading partner, after Canada.
http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/www

Businesses 698,314 . .Number of firms owned by people of Mexican descent in 2002. 
Among these firms, 275,055 were in California and 234,732 in Texas.

$96.5 billion Sales and receipts for firms owned by people of Mexican origin in 2002.

Source for statements in this section:
http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/business_ownership/006577.html

Mexican Food $100.4 million Value of product shipments by the nation’s manufacturers of Mexican food specialities in 2002. http://www.census.gov/econ/census02/guide/INDRPT31.HTM

“Special Editions” of the U.S. Census Bureau’s Facts for Features are issued to provide background information for less known observances, anniversaries of historic events and other timely topics in the news.

Editor’s note: Some of the preceding data were collected from a variety of sources and may be subject to sampling variability and other sources of error. Questions or comments should be directed to the Census Bureau’s Public Information Office at (301) 763-3030; fax (301) 457-3670; or e-mail pio@census.gov  public-news-alert mailing list  public-news-alert@lists.census.gov
http://lists.census.gov/mailman/listinfo/public-news-alert

[[Editor: It is not clear if a person entering from a visa waiver countries does not leave, how he is counted when overstaying. Is is that specific year or each year of overstay?.]]  
More information:  www.uscis.gov

 

Table 3. Leading Country of Nationality of Alien Removals: 2004
Country	Number removed	Number of criminals
Total......................	202,842	88,897
Mexico.......................	148,551	68,771
Guatemala.................	8,235	1,868
Honduras...................	8,125	2,366
El Salvador................	6,342	2,698
Brazil.........................	5,859	748
Dominican Republic..	3,506	2,514
Jamaica.....................	2,243	1,635
Colombia...................	2,197	1,465
Other.........................	17,784	6,832
Source: U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Deportable Alien Control System (DACS).

In the year 1936, 141,265 aliens were naturalized as American citizens. Of this number, 
623 citizens of Mexico renounced their allegiance to the Mexican Republic to become American citizens, representing only 0.44% of the total number of naturalized citizens during that year. In contrast, the following countries made the largest contribution to persons naturalized:

1. The British Empire (42,231)
2. Germany (19,622)
3. Italy (17,781)
4. Poland (14,745)
5. The Soviet Union (3,525).

The coming of war to Europe during 1939 to 1940 led to increased immigration from European nations and it was these aliens who were most likely to seek naturalization. In 1940, the nations contributing the most naturalizations were:

1. The British Empire (59,680)
2. Italy (37,357)
3. Poland (26,964)
4. Germany (25,802)
5. Soviet Union (15,598).

By 1940, the number of Mexicans who were naturalized rose slightly to 2,669, or 1.13% of all naturalizations. In contrast, a large number of Mexicans had registered as aliens. In response to the threat of war, the United States had launched the Alien Registration Program in July of 1940. Pursuant to the Alien Registration Act of that year, every alien resident in the United States had to register at their local Post Office while aliens entering the country registered as they applied for admission. Alien Registration requirements applied to all aliens over the age of fourteen, regardless of nationality and regardless of immigration status. As of December 31, 1940, 423,519 aliens from Mexico were registered under the Alien Registration Act.

Below is a table indicating the number of Mexicans who were naturalized in each year from 
1936 to 1950. The three peak years for naturalizations were war years (1943, 1944, 1945), 
after which naturalizations of Mexican nationals decreased dramatically.

In 1950, the number of Mexicans seeking American citizenship remained relatively small, making up only 3.5% of all naturalizations. However, among all the contributing nations, Mexico was in seventh place as the native land of persons who were naturalized in that year:

1. British Empire (12,829)
2. Italy (8,301)
3. Germany (6,065)
4. Canada (5,882)
5. Poland (3,793)
6. Philippines (3,257)
7. Mexico (2,323)

During the following decade, Mexican naturalizations increased significantly. Part of this increase may have been the result of the Bracero Program, which brought many Mexicans into the country as guest workers. Some Braceros eventually became citizens. Another factor in increased naturalizations may have been the Border Patrol’s "Operation Wetback," which had commenced in June 1954. It is possible that some Mexican nationals became citizens as a means of avoiding deportation. A table illustrating the Mexican naturalizations from 1951 to 1960 follows:

By 1960, the annual number of Mexicans receiving naturalization had more than doubled from a decade earlier. In that year, the countries that contributed the most naturalized citizens to the U.S. were:

1. Germany (19,003)
2. Italy (14,560)
3. United Kingdom (11,303)
4. Canada (10,215)
5. Poland (8,021)
6. Mexico (5,913)
7. Japan (4,189)

From 1962 to 1970, the naturalization of Mexican nationals fluctuated between 5,000 and 7,000, after dropping significantly from 1961 and 1962. The following table illustrates the naturalizations of Mexicans from 1961 to 1970:

In 1970, the number of Mexicans who received naturalization was 6,195. In that year, the countries that contributed the most naturalized citizens to the U.S. were:

1. Cuba (20,888)
2. Germany (10,067)
3. Italy (7,892)
4. United Kingdom (7,549)
5. Canada (6,387)
6. Mexico (6,195)
7. Philippines (5,669)
8. Poland (3,426)
9. China and Taiwan (3,090)
10. Greece (2,906)

During the 1970s and 1980s, Mexican naturalizations began a steady increase, 
as illustrated in the following table:

The devaluation of the Mexican peso in 1982 and the Immigration Reform and Control Act Amnesty of 1986 played a significant role in the dramatic rise in Mexican naturalizations that started in 1982. At this point, there was a very noticeable shift in the countries contributing new citizens to the U.S. Fewer Europeans were arriving in the U.S. and seeking naturalization, while large numbers of immigrants from Latin America, the Caribbean, and Asia were seeking citizenship. In 1987, the countries contributing the largest numbers of immigrants were:

1. Mexico (27,807)
2. Vietnam (25,469)
3. Philippines (25,296)
4. Korea (14,233)
5. Cuba (13,818)
6. Mainland China (9,208)
7. India (8,659)
8. Soviet Union (7,276)
9. United Kingdom (7,102)
10. Jamaica (6,563)

During the 1990s, Mexican naturalizations increased even more dramatically, in large part because of the 1994 financial crisis in Mexico and the reaction to Proposition 187 in California. In addition, many of the people who were granted amnesty during the 1980s were now fulfilling their final requirements for citizenship, leading to a steep increase of naturalization petitions in 1996.

In 2000, the countries contributing the largest numbers of immigrants were: 
1.  Mexico (189,705)
2.  Vietnam (55,934)
3.  China (54,534)
4.  Philippines (46,563)
5.  India (42,198)
6.  Dominican Republic (25,176)
7.  El Salvador (24,073)
8.  Korea (23,858)
9.  Jamaica (22,567)
10. Ukraine (16,849)
11. Poland (16,405)
12. Russia (12,919)

The following table illustrates Mexican immigration in 2001, 2002 and 2003, but also provides the total number of Mexican nationals who were naturalized from 1936 to 2003. With the increased pace of naturalizations in the later decades, Mexican aliens seeking citizenship had come to represent more than one-tenth of all immigrants.

American-born Ignacio Pina, 81, returned 
to the USA after 16 years in Mexico. 

U.S. urged to apologize 
for 1930s deportations

By Dan MacMedan, 
USA TODAY 

No precise figures exist on how many of those deported in the 1930s were illegal immigrants. Since many of those harassed left on their own, and their journeys were not officially recorded, there are also no exact figures on the total number who departed. At least 345,839 people went to Mexico from 1930 to 1935, with 1931 as the peak year, says a 1936 dispatch from the U.S. Consulate General in Mexico City. "It was a racial removal program," says Mae Ngai, an immigration history expert at the University of Chicago, adding people of Mexican ancestry were targeted. However, Americans in the 1930s were "really hurting," says Otis Graham, history professor emeritus at the University of California, Santa Barbara. One in four workers were unemployed and many families hungry. Deporting illegal residents was not an "outrageous idea," Graham says. "Don't lose the context." 

A pressure campaign In the early 1900s, Mexicans poured into the USA, welcomed by U.S. factory and farm owners who needed their labor. Until entry rules tightened in 1924, they simply paid a nickel to cross the border and get visas for legal residency. 

"The vast majority were here legally, because it was so easy to enter legally," says Kevin Johnson, a law professor at the University of California, Davis. They spread out across the nation. They sharecropped in California, Texas and Louisiana, harvested sugar beets in Montana and Minnesota, laid railroad tracks in Kansas, mined coal in Utah and Oklahoma, packed meat in Chicago and assembled cars in Detroit.By 1930, the U.S. Census counted 1.42 million people of Mexican ancestry, and 805,535 of them were U.S. born, up from 700,541 in 1920. 

Change came in 1929, as the stock market and U.S. economy crashed. That year, U.S. officials tightened visa rules, reducing legal immigration from Mexico to a trickle. They also discussed what to do with those already in the USA. "The government undertook a program that coerced people to leave," says Layla Razavi, policy analyst for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF). "It was really a hostile environment." She says federal officials in the Hoover administration, like local-level officials, made no distinction between people of Mexican ancestry who were in the USA legally and those who weren't. 

"The document trail is shocking," says Dunn, whose staff spent two years researching the topic after he read the 1995 book Decade of Betrayal: Mexican Repatriation in the 1930s, by Francisco Balderrama and Raymond Rodriguez. USA TODAY reviewed hundreds of pages of documents, some provided by Dunn and MALDEF and others found at the National Archives. They cite officials saying the deportations lawfully focused on illegal immigrants while the exodus of legal residents was voluntary. Yet they suggest people of Mexican ancestry faced varying forms of harassment and intimidation:

• Raids. Officials staged well-publicized raids in public places. On Feb. 26, 1931, immigration officials suddenly closed off La Placita, a square in Los Angeles, and questioned the roughly 400 people there about their legal status. The raids "created a climate of fear and anxiety" and prompted many Mexicans to leave voluntarily, says Balderrama, professor of Chicano studies and history at California State University, Los Angeles. In a June 1931 memo to superiors, Walter Carr, Los Angeles district director of immigration, said "thousands upon thousands of Mexican aliens" have been "literally scared out of Southern California." Some of them came from hospitals and needed medical care en route to Mexico, immigrant inspector Harry Yeager wrote in a November 1932 letter. The Wickersham Commission, an 11-member panel created by President Hoover, said in a May 1931 report that immigration inspectors made "checkups" of boarding houses, restaurants and pool rooms without "warrants of any kind." Labor Secretary William Doak responded that the "checkups" occurred very rarely.

• Jobs withheld. Prodded by labor unions, states and private companies barred non-citizens from some jobs, Balderrama says. "We need their jobs for needy citizens," C.P. Visel of the Los Angeles Citizens Committee for Coordination of Unemployment Relief wrote in a 1931 telegram. In a March 1931 letter to Doak, Visel applauded U.S. officials for the "exodus of aliens deportable and otherwise who have been scared out of the community." Emilia Castenada, 79, recalls coming home from school in 1935 in Los Angeles and hearing her father say he was being deported because "there was no work for Mexicans." She says her father, a stonemason, was a legal resident who owned property. A U.S. citizen who spoke little Spanish, she left the USA with her brother and father, who was never allowed back. "The jobs were given to the white Americans, not the Mexicans," says Carlos DeAnda Guerra, 77, a retired furniture upholsterer in Carpinteria, Calif. He says his parents entered the USA legally in 1917 but were denied jobs. He, his mother and five U.S.-born siblings were deported in 1931, while his father, who then went into hiding, stayed to pick oranges. "The slogan has gone out over the city (Los Angeles) and is being adhered to — 'Employ no Mexican while a white man is unemployed,' " wrote George Clements, manager of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce's agriculture department, in a memo to his boss Arthur Arnoll. He said the Mexicans' legal status was not a factor: "It is a question of pigment, not a question of citizenship or right." 

• Public aid threatened. County welfare offices threatened to withhold the public aid of many Mexican-Americans, Ngai says. Memos show they also offered to pay for trips to Mexico but sometimes failed to provide adequate food. An immigration inspector reported in a November 1932 memo that no provisions were made for 78 children on a train. Their only sustenance: a few ounces of milk daily. Most of those leaving were told they could return to the USA whenever they wanted, wrote Clements in an August 1931 letter. "This is a grave mistake, because it is not the truth." He reported each was given a card that made their return impossible, because it showed they were "county charities." Even those born in the USA, he wrote, wouldn't be able to return unless they had a birth certificate or similar proof.

• Forced departures. Some of the deportees who were moved by train or car had guards to ensure they left the USA and others were sent south on a "closed-body school bus" or "Mexican gun boat," memos show. "Those who tried to say 'no' ended up in the physical deportation category," Dunn says, adding they were taken in squad cars to train stations. Mexican-Americans recall other pressure tactics. Arthur Herrada, 81, a retired Ford engineer in Huron, Ohio, says his father, who was a legal U.S. resident, was threatened with deportation if he didn't join the U.S. Army. His father enlisted. 'We weren't welcome' "It was an injustice that shouldn't have happened," says Jose Lopez, 79, a retired Ford worker in Detroit. He says his father came to the USA legally but couldn't find his papers in 1931 and was deported. To keep the family together, his mother took her six U.S.-born children to Mexico, where they often survived on one meal a day. Lopez welcomes a U.S. apology. So does Guerra, the retired upholsterer, whose voice still cracks with emotion when he talks about how deportation tore his family apart. "I'm very resentful. I don't trust the government at all," says Guerra, who later served in the U.S. military. Piña says his entire family got typhoid fever in Mexico and his father, who had worked in Utah coal mines, died of black lung disease in 1935. "My mother was left destitute, with six of us, in a country we knew nothing about," he says. They lived in the slums of Mexico City, where his formal education ended in sixth grade. "We were misfits there. We weren't welcome." "The Depression was very bad here. You can imagine how hard it was in Mexico," says Piña, who proudly notes the advanced college degrees of each of his four U.S.-raised sons. "You can't put 16 years of pure hell out of your mind." 

 
      



Sent by Co-producer of the series, Paul Espinosa  espinosa@electriciti.com

CALIFORNIA AND THE AMERICAN DREAM, a new four-part Documentary Series narrated by Academy Award-winning actress Linda Hunt, explores the dynamics of culture, community and identity in one of the world's most diverse regions. In the last 35 years, California, a state with the world's sixth-largest economy, has seen dramatic changes in social, demographic and cultural trends, which have transformed the state so much that it bears little resemblance to the Hollywood dreamscape projected in previous decades.
 
The Series premieres nationally on PBS, Thursdays, April 13-May 4, 2006 at 10 PM  (check your local listings at www.pbs.org/california ). Visit us on the web at www.californiadreamseries.org to find out more about the Series, our community outreach campaign, or purchase a DVD or VHS of the Series.

Ripe for Change (Broadcast: May 4) 

Producers: Emiko Omori and Jed Riffe
Director: Emiko Omori
 
This fascinating documentary explores the intersection of food and politics in California over the last 30 years­from the politically charged 1960s, when food and the way that it’s grown became part of the political dialogue, to the present concerns about health and diminishing resources. Ripe for Change brings to life the powerful stories of both large and small family farmers in California, who are struggling in an increasingly globalized market.


CALIFORNIA AND THE AMERICAN DREAM is a co-production of Executive Producers Paul Espinosa, Lyn Goldfarb, and Jed Riffe, and the Independent Television Service (ITVS). Executive Producer for ITVS is Sally Jo Fifer. Major funding was provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, with additional funding provided by PBS, the Ford Foundation, the Independent Television Service, Native American Public Telecommunications, the Skirball Foundation, Latino Public Broadcasting, the Center for Asian American Media, The Rockefeller Foundation and the California Council for the Humanities. Additional outreach support provided by the Federated Indians of the Graton Rancheria.

Another cultural disconnect
Santa Ana School Board member Rosemarie Avila's article, "Mexican meddling in our schools" [Orange Grove, Feb. 21], is another example of cultural disconnects. It's not just about Mexico. There are disconnects in our American society and the education culture as well. The Mexican textbooks could be considered legitimate library resources, but as class-room material, the texts could confuse students already having problems with reading, writing, social studies, math, science and critical-thinking skills.

These cultural disconnects can be very subtle in early childhood educational experiences, but; they grow to be big problems when students reach high school.

One-third of California's high school students drop out or stop out. Another large segment of high school seniors can't passive new exit exams to receive their diplomas.

Many say they are bored. Many don't understand the value of education. Many have dysfunctional families, lack parental stimulation in what education means, have religious and value system conflicts, language problems, learning disabilities, test anxieties, media distractions that easily fill the artistic and intellectual voids. Can these be fixed?

A good teacher could identify and handle some of them. But maybe a part of the answer is to get the students earlier in life, even pre-school, to make sure their minds are ready for school and the disconnects have not registered yet.

Stick to state standards
One of the reasons that the Mexican texts have slipped into some of the schools is because the principals have permitted it. I personally know of the books Rosemary Avila spoke of. The soft-cover books were made available in boxes as a resource, and I admit that I did thumb through them. Other teachers might have used them more extensively.

Did I consider using them? Only once, in second grade, when students learned about ancestry. However, as the teacher charged with educating my little students, I concluded that they would benefit the most - (get more bang for their buck, so to speak) by using the Internet as a resource instead of the Mexican texts.

In addition to learning where my second-graders or their parents were born (which is what they would have learned with the Mexican texts), the Internet helped them practice their English and improved their computer literacy/skills. The plus for me was that I was teaching according to the California state Standards, and it wasn't political.

Where is a better place for the Mexican texts? The example of the Asian community comes to mind. I believe that one of the reasons the Asian community constantly out performs the Mexican community is because its focus of attention is not on lobbying for a "handout." That community, through the Saturday classes it offers, teaches self-sufficiency. Classes include language, cultural pride and politics. 

If the Mexican government is astute enough to lobby for a "handout" then why hasn't it had the moxie and money to set up Saturday schools en masse?

If it doesn't have the money, churches should be able to provide the free space to conduct Saturday schools. Let's start with the Roman Catholic and Christian churches that service the Mexican community. Wouldn't those be good places for the Mexican text books to be placed? 

"The downside of public schools is that teaching can be political. Pressure can be enormous." 
M. Kathryn Peralta, Santa Ana

Acknowledge the generosity
It's troubling to read that school board member Rosemarie Avila wants our children to remain close-minded. Avila argues that textbooks donated to the Santa Ana Unified School District from the local Mexican consulate have the power to corrupt the minds of students, but it seems that the only person wanting to do this is Avila.

Instead of acknowledging the generosity of these donations, Avila shows true American spirit by arguing hat the history of Mexico and its government don't matter. I agree that students should learn about the U.S. government, but why does this have to come at the expense of students getting the opportunity to learn beyond one county's government or history?

Avila says she is "not arguing against teaching out students about other governmental systems," but everything she writes and stands for is aimed to limit knowledge rather than expand it, and expanding knowledge is what out educational system is for.

Ja'Nean Palanios
Huntington Beach

Duality: Camilo Lara, above who records as Mexican Institute of Sound, says he grew up with his parents' music and U.S. influences. Nortec Collective, below, has a tech-mex sound. 

The company churns out more then 300 million tortillas a year, boasts the tag line "The True Taste of the Americans."

Banks Accommodating Hispanics 

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP)  March 16, 2006 - One of Maria Carrillo's clients said thieves jumped him on payday because they knew he'd leave the check-cashing business with his pockets full of bills. 

How was he to know he could open a bank account in this country, Carrillo said, if he was still struggling to read in Spanish? Carrillo, a financial consultant whose office windows look onto a ward of this city where taquerias have replaced steel plants, knew he was just the kind of client banks want.

As the housing market slows, lenders have come to see the country's new Latino immigrants as a market with a great upside. By 2010, the disposable income of Hispanics will exceed $1.08 trillion, or 9.2 percent of total purchasing power nationwide, according to the Selig Center for Economic Growth at the University of Georgia.

Even as Congress debates immigrants' legal status, banks are tailoring their products to meet the country's newest residents where they work and live, installing ATMs in meatpacking plants and creating special mortgage packages that don't require the traditional documentation.

"If I buy a home here, I want to be 100 percent sure of what I'm buying," said Victor Cruz, a native of Toluca, Mexico, as he met with Carrillo at the Kansas City-based nonprofit El Centro, Inc., an outreach group that helps immigrants with everything from ESL classes to money matters. "Otherwise, you end up feeling like a rabbit, surrounded by foxes lying in wait."

After experiencing decades of financial crises and currency devaluations in Latin America, first-generation immigrants often prefer to carry cash than to deposit their money in the bank. Reports of predatory lending and payday muggings in the Hispanic community have prompted officials at Federal Reserve Banks across the country to encourage lenders to develop alternative means to bring Latino families into the banking system.

One-third of U.S.-born Hispanic residents and over half of all Mexican immigrants lack bank accounts, according to 2000 figures from the U.S. Census Bureau. But there's no single formula that meets the diverse needs of the Latino market. 

"The number one mistake that banks make is to translate their brochures. They think having their information on a pamphlet in Spanish will produce magical numbers for them," said Laura Castro de Cortes, a consultant at Latino Banking Solutions, based in Omaha, Neb. "For second-generation Latinos, we're gonna react like the rest of the market and say OK, who has the best price?' That's totally different from marketing for the new arrivals, whose biggest problem is that they walk around with rolls of cash." 

Many undocumented Latino immigrants shy away from mainstream lenders for fear that giving over personal identification could result in deportation. The Patriot Act requires banks to ask customers opening an account for their name, date of birth, address and a taxpayer identification number. 

Before Cruz can get a home loan, for instance, he'll need to provide Carrillo with two years of tax records and employment records, his taxpayer ID number and three credit reference letters. Carrillo isn't brokering a loan for him; she's just helping him find the deal that fits best with his income level. 

El Centro is one of the few groups to offer that kind of detailed financial education in Spanish in the Midwest. But in recent years, the number of products available to the undocumented has mushroomed. 

"In the 1960s the more visible issue was urban banks not reaching the urban poor. Now, with immigrants you've got a different demographic and you've got to understand that's part of your customer base," said Linda Schroeder, a vice president at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. "We're better off as a whole if everyone's participating in the economy."

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed by HispanicVista.com (www.hispanicvista.com) without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.)

 

Anti-Spanish Legends

The Anti-Spanish Black Legend by Luis Brandtner 
Teachers Exploring Adverse Effects of California's Missions on Indians
Students at Locke High School Working Together to Learn Their History

The Anti-Spanish Black Legend
by Luis Brandtner
lbrandtner@msn.com

PART ONE:  The Black Legend as Kitsch - An Anglo-Saxon ethno-religious ideology

"Those who fail to learn the lessons of history are destined to repeat them." -- George Santayana, American philosopher

PART ONE:  The Black Legend as Kitsch - An Anglo-Saxon ethno-religious ideology

A black legend is a negative depiction, a depiction which ignores and suppresses true facts and employs lies and half truths. The anti-Spanish Black Legend can be understood in many ways: as kitsch, as social dynamic, as (bad) history, as ideology, as belief system, as religion, as hoax, as sophistry, as pathology, as propaganda, etc., etc. 

An alter ego is 1) another self; another aspect of oneself or 2) a bosom friend; a close companion. The American Anglo-Saxon socio- and psychopathology appropriates the Spanish Empire (Spain, Spanish America, Spaniards and Spanish Americans) as alter ego going back to pre-Independence colonial times and then subsequently under ideological cover of the "American" Declaration of Independence and its Constitution for the united States of America, and after 1823 internationally under cover of the satanically-inspired Monroe Doctrine.  

Professor María DeGuzmán elaborates on the concept of the Spanish Empire as alter ego/imago to the American Anglo-Saxon Empire in her book "Spain’s Long Shadow: The Black Legend, Off-Whiteness and Anglo-American Empire". A review of her book is found at http://www.upress.umn.edu/Books/D/deguzman_spains.html.  From the introduction to her book: Figures of Spain have been central to the dominant fictions of "American" exceptionalism, revolution, manifest destiny, and birth/rebirth; to Anglo-America's articulation of its empire as anti-empire (the "good" empire that is not one); and to its fears of racial contamination and hybridity.... I use the the term "figure" to mean historical personages as well as image and rhetorical device.

In a February 17, 2006 internet article "What Connects the Dots?" at http://www.larouchepub.com/lar/2006/3307connect_dots.html the three words, Spain, Spanish and Hispanic, appear collectively a dozen or more times, mostly in a negative non-context. These non-contextual references to Spain are prima facie evidence of an unhealthy obsession with Spain and the Spanish people. The author ignores the fact that the direct and immediate cultural roots of the 15th-century European Italian-centered Renaissance are in Spain's first Golden Age: 13th-century Spain during the convivencia reign of the two Spanish kings, Ferdinand the Saint and Alphonse the Learned, father and son, of Castile and Leon.

LaRouche is not unique in his promotion of the Black Legend Hoax and its associated sophistries. The principle ideologue of the "American" Revolution, "founding father" Benjamin Franklin, was a self-identified Hispanist (or Hispanicist) with imperial ambitions targeting New Spain (now Mexico) as early as 1767. Before Benjamin Franklin, there was Franklin's mentor, Cotton Mather of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, a publicly acknowledged Hispanist, who published the first Spanish-language books in colonial Anglo-Saxon America. An obsessive/compulsive love/hate relationship with all things Spanish has characterized "American" literature, historiography, psychology and politics ever since.

<to be continued

1 A Call to Reason
2 Spain's Aid to the American Revolution
3 Fame and Glory Turns Europe Against Spain 
4 The U.S. Expands Westward on Former Spanish Territory 
5 Spain Falls Victim to Unscrupulous Historians 
6 The True Beginnings of U.S. History
7 The Forging of a New Civilization 
8 Europe Finally Jumps on Spain. England Leads the Way. 
9 Spain and the American Gold
10 Spain and slavery 
11 On the Spanish Inquisition
12 Western Civilization Takes Root in the Americas. 
     The Spanish Missionaries and Their Labor of Love.

Conclusion

Thus, after 500 years in America, Spain finally departed both exhausted and economically bankrupt and bearing the burden of an unjust world. Historian Salvador de Madariaga was indeed right when he said that Spain bled to death in America. Her only consolation, perhaps her only recompense, was the belated realization that she had contributed like none other to the creation of a new civilization. An America without Spain? Possible. Today’s America without Spain? Impossible.

Europe, all of Europe, but especially England, France, and Holland owe a big apology to Spain for inflicting so much harm on her both in words and deeds for so long, and for conspiring to re-write history in their favor. And the United States must recognize the immense gratitude it owes to Spain, Mexico, and other Hispanic countries, for having contributed so notably to its history and to being what it is today. In the 18^th century the United States was just a little piece of land, hardly noticeable on a world map. One hundred years later it turned into a sprawling superpower commanding an entire continent, two oceans, a gulf, and a sea. Similarly, in the 17 century, Europe was a cluster of tiny kingdoms politically and economically bankrupt. A century later the winds of fortune suddenly swept across the ancient lands and turned them into mighty empires. We now know how and why it happened on both counts.

On the other hand, Hispanics here, there, everywhere, should stop whining, put their house in order and take hold of their lives, looking ahead to claiming their place in the sun which has long been waiting for them.

Military and Law Inforcement Heroes 

For Los Angeles County, Brown said, there were 132 Spanish surnames on the Vietnam death list totaling 623 -21% compared with a 1960 Latin population of less than 10%

So with little more than an elementary school education he joined the League of United Latin American Citizens, ran for City Council and became Orange County's first Hispanic mayor.

Jack was 87 when he died Jan. 28 of pneumonia. Born in Los Angeles, the oldest of 12 children, Jack grew up in Placentia during financially hard times. He left school in about sixth grade to pick crops to help his family. Some of his siblings were young when their father died, and Jack became the one they all turned to - even later, In adulthood.

At age 24 he was drafted into the Army and served three years in the Philippines. When he was discharged, he and other veterans met in an empty garage, with a single light bulb dangling from the ceiling, to discuss getting the Placentia school system de-segregated. Mexican-American children in those days were forced to attend separate, often substandard, schools.

Jack ran for the school board and lost. But his campaign message about segregation came through loud and clear.  The segregated schools began closing in the late 1940s, and Mexican-American children were allowed to attend school with white children.

Jack made his living first in a shoe store, then as a counselor for the Orange County Housing Authority. After the death of his first wife, Sarah, he married Adelaine, known in the family as Aunt Skip, in 1978.

In 1962, Jack won a seat on the Placentia City Council - a seat he would retain for the next 16 years. He served as mayor in 1968 and before he left the council in 1978, the local community center had been named after him in honor of all his contributions.

He wasn't an especially aggressive person. But he was true to his beliefs - and persistent. He was also smart. Many family photos show Jack in his black-rimmed glasses reading a newspaper on the couch or at the kitchen table. He kept abreast of what was going on in the world, the state and in his community.

An active member of LULAC, he overcame his innate shyness to lead meetings, spearhead election campaigns and even debated college professors on the issues facing Mexican-Americans. People couldn't believe he had had se little formal education.

Short, with dark complexion and sharp suits, Jack seemed to stay one step ahead of others - in dress, thought and even in cars. If most people were driving Fords, he was driving a Buick.

People looked up to Jack. He spoke Spanish and English eloquently. He offered wise counsel on everything from marital problems to city. is-sues; and worked with immigrants on obtaining resident status and citizenship. He also helped them with their income tax returns, dedicated to keeping them within the law.

His many family members, who all lived within blocks of each other, were among his strongest allies at election time, manning phones all over town to remind voters to "get out and vote, and please vote for Jack Gomez." And he looked forward every year to Thanksgiving, when the whole family - about 55 of them - gathered at his brother Joe's.

About seven years ago, Jack had a major stroke, which left him unable to talk. He whiled away the last years of his life watching sports on TV and enjoying family gatherings. And he held fast to his sense of humor.  One day, after three speech-less years, he looked at his brother Joe and announced, with a hint of a grin, "You're getting old."  It was the last time he spoke.

Born: April 15,1918, Los Angeles 
Died: Jan. 28,2006, Placentia'
Survivors: Wife, Adelaine; son, Daniel Peters; daughters, Debra, Darolyri, Donna, Dolores; brothers, Peter, Robert, Joe Jessi; sisters, Pauline, Irene; 11 grandchildren;. 16 great-grandchildren

Robert M. Martinez Sr.
Austin's most decorated officer, served in Austin for 30 years
By Monica Polanco American-Statesman Staff, November 19, 2003
Sent by Frank Sifuentes conzafos@msn.com

Martinez's proudest moment was the day his son, Robert Martinez Jr., was sworn in as an Austin police officer. The younger Martinez, known as Robbie, had fulfilled his childhood dream of following in his father's footsteps. Robbie worked in East Austin and would often stop by his father's office to talk about police work or just to chat.

"I've never seen a man so happy," said Anthony Johnson, an Austin police officer. That bond was broken in 1989, when his son was killed. Robbie, who was on duty, was driving to help another officer on a domestic violence call when another driver ran a red light.  Robbie swerved to avoid the car and slammed into a tree. He was 26. Until then, Robert and Robbie Martinez had been the only Hispanic father and son working as Austin police officers.

Saying goodbye
As he lay dying, the elder Martinez's thoughts turned to his family. Nash Martinez, whose son also died in a car accident, remembers a conversation he had with his brother. "He said, 'I'm not afraid of death. I'm a good Christian,'" Nash Martinez recalled. "'I've lived a good life. I'm anxious to see my son and Mom and Daddy and your son. I know when I die, I'm going to heaven because I've lived a good life.'"

Martinez, who refused to see some people as his illness progressed because he wanted to be remembered in good health, said his goodbyes before he died. Many visitors stopped by to reminisce. Former partner Gil was one of those visitors." I think it eased our lives for the moment and allowed us to recapture the warmth and excitement that were a big part of our time working together while at the same time, carrying him away, if by imagery alone, from his discomfort and sickness," Gil said.

"I think his legacy will always be that if you were on the wrong side of the law and he was on your trail, your days were numbered. And if you were a kid with no place to go, he was your shoes, your jacket, your place for the night and a constant suggestion to not give up and try harder."

Published in the Austin American-Statesman on 11/19/2003.
Find this article at: http://www.statesman.com/news/contentlauto/epaper/editionslwednesday/news_
f3bb42b31151215410dO.html   

Robert M. Martinez Sr. Family-Placed Obituary
Senior Police Officer Senior Police Officer, Robert M. Martinez Sr., passed away Tuesday, November 18, 2003. He was born in Austin, Texas, on December 27, 1941. Robert served the Austin Police Department with distinction in Tactical Operations, Special Crimes, Vice Squad Detail, Organized Crime, Under Cover Narcotics Agent, Homicide Task Force, Community Service in Gang and Crime Prevention, and Walking Beat. He was preceded in death by his son, Police Officer Robert Martinez Jr. (Robby T. Martinez Jr.); mother, Cleotilde Sifuentes Martinez; father, Tomas Martinez; daughter-in-law, Adela Martinez; father-in-law, Ernest A. Townes; mother-in-law, Mary Z. Townes; and brother, Tommy Martinez. He is survived by his wife of 42 years, Mary Ann Martinez; daughter, Roxanne Rodriguez; son-in-law, Daniel Rodriguez; grandchildren, Martina Madison Rodriguez and Robert Martin Rodriguez; brothers, Jessie Martinez and wife, Diana, Sam Martinez, Nash Martinez, Michael Martinez, Ben M. Sifuentes and wife, Delia, Frank Sifuentes and wife, Sara; sisters, Petra Lujan, Lupe Rosales and husband, Tomas, Carmen Shepard and husband, Charles, Janie Cardenaz and husband, Augustin and Mary Esther Ruiz and husband, George; brother-in-law, Robert Townes and wife, Stella; sister-in-law, Elaine Garrett and husband, Jack; and numerous nieces and nephews. The family will receive friends at 5:00 p.m., followed by Recitation of the Rosary at 7:00 p.m., Thursday, November 20, 2003, at Cook-Walden Funeral Home. Funeral mass will be celebrated at 10:00 a.m., Friday, November 21, 2003, at San Jose Catholic Church, 2435 Oak Crest Avenue with Reverend Tom Franks, Celebrant. Rite of Committal will follow at Austin Memorial Park Cemetery.

MEXICANS, INDIANS AND THE SONS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION

PAUL TREJO
Genealogist, Diocese of Monterey.

A couple of years ago, my son Les called all excited. He had seen a notice in a local history publication that indicated that all male descendants of the Spanish Bluecoat Manuel Butron were eligible to become members of that old and staid body called Sons of the American Revolution (SAR). I was quite skeptical, but then my son proved to be correct. The Summer, 1998, Volume 9, Number 3 issue of Somos Primos arrived, and sure enough, there on pages 18 and 19 were a list of 225 Spanish Bluecoats that manned the Spanish forts in Canada during the time period 1779-1783. These forts were located in Vancouver, and at a village called Nootka on the West side of Vancouver Island. Much later, Nootka became the town of Port Alberni, named after Pedro Alberni, the most prominent Spanish Bluecoat in California history. The justification for this SAR eligibility was that Spanish Bluecoats were fighting the British in Canada, at the same time that the American were fighting the British for their independence on the Atlantic Seaboard. Therefore, the male descendants of these Bluecoats were eligible for membership in SAR.

With the above information in hand, I approached members of the local Monterey SAR chapter to obtain the necessary forms and to inquire as to the procedures to join their group. Now most of these gentlemen were all retired naval officers, and we were all members of the same service organizations, and friends of long standing. Instead of being greeted with warm welcome, their response was lots of laughs and the comment, " You are a great pal Paul, but "We don’t let Mexicans and Indians into our organization !!" They had not yet received any official notice of this Bluecoat eligibility from the National SAR Organization, and hence were very skeptical.

With that, I promptly contacted Granville W. Hough, of the South Coast SAR Chapter.  He mailed me the proper application materials, and lineage forms. I n due time I was admitted to SAR. My National Number is 153086, and my State Number is 7052. You must join both organizations.

Shortly after I was admitted, the local chapter received word to process all applicants of eligible Bluecoat lines that applied. My navy pals were overly eager for me to join their chapter, but alas, they were "A day late, and a dollar short !!" However, since it is difficult to travel to Southern California to attend South Coast Chapter meetings, I eventually transferred to the Monterey SAR Chapter. Since that time, in my capacity as the Genealogist for the Diocese of Monterey, I have assisted several individuals to attain membership by providing Mission Records so they could prove their Spanish heritage.

A review of how this all came about is perhaps appropriate: During this 1779-1783 time period, the Spanish Crown was very concerned about the inroads made by the Russians in Alaska, at Fort Ross in Northern California, and the British in Canada. The establishment of Spanish forts in Canada was viewed as a deterrent to further encroachment of the British in Canada. The Spanish Bluecoats were the soldiers detailed to man those forts. When in California, these Bluecoats were also the main source of protection for the mission padres against the hostile Indians. Typically, a mission guard consisted of a corporal and four or five privates. All mission guards were furnished from the Escolta de Monterey (Squadron of Monterey).

The Spanish Bluecoats were members of what was originally and elite group of mounted cavalry. However, in California and Mexico, they also fought as foot soldiers. In the beginning, they were recruited mainly from the province of Catalonia, in Spain. As a group they went through several name changes, but eventually became known as the Company of Volunteers of Catalonia. Initially, most Bluecoats came from upper middle class families. The "Volunteers" were rather a snooty group, they disdaining personal armor, wore fancy breeches and blue coats, from which they derived their name, Spanish Bluecoats.

The other group of soldados on the Spanish Frontier were the "Soldados de Cuera", literally "Soldiers of Leather." They received this name because of the vests they wore to protect themselves from Indian arrows. Their vests consisted of from two to five leathers (layers) of deerskin or leather. Since soldiers of leather were recruited from the "ordinary" classes" there was always a class distinction between these two groups of fighting soldiers. This can be compared somewhat to that which exist between the Marines and Army in our own armed forces. However, the armament of these two groups was the same. Primarily it consisted of the lance and the shield, a sword and a trabuco, which is a cavalry musket. In frontier clashes with Indians, both groups fought well, and few were overpowered or captured.

My ancestor, Manual Butron was a Spanish Bluecoat. He served in the personal guard for Father Junipero Serra , until Serra’s death on August 27, 1784. In many of the early baptisms conducted by Serra at Monterey, Butron is listed as the sponsor. Butron also served as a cook for his unit, and as a gardener at Camel Mission. In1772, Serra left Monterey, and traveled to Mexico City. Manuel Butron remained behind at Carmel Mission. In a letter to Father Fermin Palou, then at Carmel, he wrote a postscript, " Please tell Butron that I received his letter, that I ask his prayers, that I have no time for more, and that he knows how much I miss him."

With Serra’s assistance, Military Governor Pedro Fages, in 1773 granted the first private land grant in Alta California to Manuel Butron and his Indian wife Margarita Dominguez. This was a small plot of land at the mouth of the Carmel River near the Carmel Mission. It was 140 varas in size (About 462 square feet, or a plot of about 21.5 feet by 21.5 feet.).

On his death, Serra had requested that his "Tio" be buried near him. Accordingly, on Butron’s death eight years later, he was buried on the Holy side of the sanctuary about half way to the alter. As one enters the church of the Carmel Mission, there is a memorial plaque inside the door in the floor, on the left side of the entry way. The marker states," IN MEMORY ---- MANUEL BUTRON----- DIED JANUARY 4, 1793---- CORPORAL OF THE MISSION GUARD." After Serra’s death, and until his retirement, Manual Burton is to be found in other mission guards, but most often at Mission San Juan Bautista.

SURNAME: ALMANZA/ALMANSA

Almansa o Almanza, es un mismo apellido y tiene su'' origen de un Caballero de la casa de Valderrábano, Señor de la villa de Almansa, en la provincia de León, asegurando los más veraces historiadores que este linaje está emparentadol con los soberanos de aquel Reino. Más tarde, pasaron a otrosj lugares de la Peninsula Ibérica, fundando nuevos solares en Castilla la Vieja, Andalucía y Valencia.

Don Diego de Soto y Aguilar, en su segundo tomo de "Casas solariegas", menciona a don Juan de Almansa, famoso justador, de quien se dijo: "Lanza por lanza, la de Juan de Almansa". Las armas de este apellido se organizan así: ESCUDO PARTIDO: 1o. EN PLATA, TRES BASTONES DE SABLE; 2o, EN EL MISMO CAMPO, CINCO ARMINGS DE SABLE, PUESTOS EN SOTUER. BORDURA DE GULES CON OCHO ASPAS DE ORO, Y UNA SEGUNDA BORDURA DE PLATA CON OCHO RUEDAS DE SABLE (Por Valderrabano).

Por emparentar con los Enríquez, este blasón fue modificado posteriormente. El Emperador Carlos V, por su Real Cedula expedida en Monzón el 5 de diciembre de 1533, creó Marqués de Alcañices a don Francisco Enriquez de Almansa, hijo de don Juan Enriquez y de dona Constanza de Almansa, nieto matemo del famoso Caballero don Diego de Almansa, Señor del estado de Alcañices, y tataranieto de don Gómez Pérez de Valderrábano, agraciado con dicho Señorio por don Juan II de Castilla el 8 de septiembre de 1409, poseedor también de los de Távera, Mombuey y Ayóo.

Don Carlos III, agració a don Miguel de Almansa y Uriarte, Franco, Solis y Pérez Jaramillo, con el Vizcondado del Castillo de Almansa, en 24 de julio de 1773, por haber donado a la Corona el Castillo de San Felipe de Almeria, del que era Alcaide perpetuo.

La nobleza de sangre de los Almansa, fue probada en repetidas ocasiones ante las Ordenes Militares de Santiago, Calatrava y Alcántara, y en las Salas de Hijosdalgo de las Reales Chancillerias de Valladolid y Granada, asi como ante el Ayuntamiento de la ciudad de Sevilla donde se les devolvió el impuesto de la "Blanca de la Came", como reconocimiento a , su ilustre calidad.

Don José  Mariano Almanza, nacido en Mexico en la segunda mitad del siglo XVIII, fue Consejero de Hacienda y de la Regencia en lo que duró el cautiverio de Femando VII, asi  como Consejero de Estado por la America Septentrional; fundador del Consulado en el Puerto de Veracruz, es considerado como uno de los primeros periodistas mexicanos. Antes, también desempeño los cargos de Alferez Real y Regidor de Veracruz, en 1805.

Source of information about Blasones y Apellidos by Fernando Muñoz Altea

CUENTOS

Micheal Lozano Embarks on a Journey of Self-Discovery
 "Looking for Greener Grass"
beaglelozano@hotmail.com
Part 1

The original Corps of Discovery was made up of 44 explorers who traveled by keel boat and pirogue along the course of the Missouri river. A keel boat was about 45 feet long with a cabin, a sail and a flat bottom. A pirogue was an open, long, rowboat-type craft. I would be traveling on interstate highways in my pickup truck with a bed cap. In the early 1800s land ownership of the North American continent was being disputed by Spain, Great Britain, France, Russia and the United States. When the United States acquired the vast Louisiana territory in 1803 from France, President Thomas Jefferson decided to explore and improve the new lands. The President wanted the Lewis and Clark expedition to find the source of the Missouri River, and possibly, a water route to the Pacific Ocean.

One interesting participant in the expedition was a Newfoundland dog named Seaman. His value to the explorers is well documented in many historical accounts of the journey. I would have my dog Dudley go with me. In fact, Dudley would be my only companion. My journey would be much more extensive than the original expedition. My journey would take me to all 50 states. I planned to travel from Boston to Monterrey, Mexico. I then would travel through the Southwest before heading back to New England and then to Canada and back through the Midwest to pick up the Lewis and Clark trail through the western states and on to Oregon and the Pacific Ocean. I finally would head back across the entire United States and back to Boston and the Atlantic Ocean. My expedition would be a total of 23,000 miles compared with the original Lewis and Clark total of 8,000 miles. Every explorer is prepared for their challenges by their upbringing, that is, personal values, education, leadership skills and vocational abilities. As I prepared to take on my expedition of discovery, it was important for me to take stock of the personal traits that would contribute to the successful completion of my upcoming challenge. In the spring of 2004, I felt uninspired by my career. I had been working in non-profit youth organizations for 30 years. Often, petty politics, shady fundraising and personal agendas detracted from the real mission of these organizations—and this frustrated me. I felt myself falling into a deep mistrust of organization authorities. Knowing that I was tearing myself down from the inside out, I decided to jump off this career track. I resigned my job as executive director of a recognized youth organization to find a new cause that I could believe in.

I had grown up in the 60’s and 70’s. It was a time of mistrust in our government. The Kennedy’s and Martin Luther King had been assassinated. Everyday, the disastrous Vietnam War was in the news. The Vice-President and President had resigned. Students were protesting everything from Vietnam to the exploitation of migrant farm workers. There were race riots on the streets of America’s cities. Corporate America was pumping away with little regard for our environment. As a young man, I desperately searched for an anchor in this sea of chaos and lies. Now, as an adult, I was coping with my own questions of personal direction. I was wrestling with disillusionment in my work life and the direction our country was taking. The war on terror now included pre-emptive wars. We were now in a war based on fabricated lies. Politicians constantly tried to pit one group against the other - abortion against pro-life, creative design against evolutionists, Christian right against left wing liberals, blacks against whites, everybody here legally against illegal aliens. I needed to find myself. I needed to lift myself out of the confusion and chaos of my personal life. I needed to embark on a journey of discovery to find a path that would renew and inspire me.

Felipa Lozano Villareal

December 25, 1967

Mario Garcia  sancudobaboso@hotmail.com 
      
Prejudices are everywhere. Whether in Texas or another state, or country for that matter. But my racial experiences came when I was young and the country was racially divided by Black and White. Being of Hispanic descent, I was in the gray zone and had trouble discerning what my color position was. I got along fairly well with both Black and White people but White people looked more down on you than Black.....so I hung out more with the black kids.
    
Anyway, I'm told by cousins and friends that the color lines were much more fuzzy if you lived in the Valley area of Texas than if you lived further north toward San Antonio...which is where I lived. But the experiences never quite go away either.
    
My dad fought in WWII, earned a Purple Heart, and yet when he got back to the states and Texas, could not get a GI loan because the White administrator for that area didn't think he deserved one although it was ok to die for "his" country. It brought Dad years of bitterness and hate for whites. He is 83 now but still has vivid memories of the racial injustices.  

Alfred A. Aburto Jr. aburto@sbcglobal.net
       
My Uncle, 86 years old now, will have nothing to do with Texas.      I found this out when I drove him from San Diego so that he could stay with his daughter and family in Memphis. When we left New Mexico he looked at me frowning and said "Don't stop in Texas!". I asked why and then he told me  the story of his experiences in Texas during World War II. My uncle was a parachute packer for the Army Air force during WWII. He was stationed in Memphis (where he met his first wife). He went to San Antonio Texas for boot camp I think. There he encountered racial prejudice to an extent that he hadn't seen before. He was required to stay in a separate barracks, set aside for the "Mexicans". He was angered and humiliated so badly by this experience that to this day it brings up strong emotions in him. Well, needless to say, I drove through Texas without stopping even though we almost ran out of gas. :-) . I been to Texas myself many times. I was in boot camp in San Antonio in 1960 for the US Air Force (20 years after my Uncle). My worst experience there was the heat and  humidity, not racism.  

CINCO DE MAYO LORE FROM EAST AUSTIN, TEXAS 1939-50
By Frank Sifuentes

In l939 when the Cinco de Mayo celebration was held at Zaragosa Park in East Austin, our family had been living for a year and a half at l902 East 7th, about 5 blocks from it. And there was no question about it, this was one of our premier events: Along with the 16th of September Mexico Independence Day.

It remained hard to imagine that there was any family in all the vecindades who did not know about these fiestas. Every single memory I have of the annual celebrations includes hundreds of our people, having a time of their lives.

Cinco de Mayo celebrations were three nights of festivities with something for everyone in the family. The children ran around all over the park and had the option of exploring los montes to the East at night. And of course a number of young lovers made their way in also to enjoy some privacy in their courtship. Though there was no doubt about, the girls were often escorted by chaparrones; mothers, grandmothers, tias and even older sisters.

There was a large kiosoko for a live mextex band that heavily favored music written by Augustin Lara, like Amapola, Quinto Patio, Maria Bonita aimed at melting the heart of lovers..los enamorandos, encanicados and just plain old puppy love. These songs were nothing but pure magic compositions that every real or aspiring chicano musician would internalized to remain in their hearts
for ever  - los etenal boleros, paso dobles, corridos y zapatasos  - with a certain amount of rascuachi cheek to cheek, big time body to body enjoinment, to celebrate life itself.

As time passed a goodly number of Big Band Era was infused into the sound for the sake of the young Mexican American generation,  who nevertheless could also hang with Adios Mi Chaparita No Llores Por Tu Pancho, Una Noche Serena y Oscura and the one that most impacted us: Solamente Una Vez.

Then there was the Latino compositions that include La Bamba, Mambo # 5.Cha cha has, la samba al la Rio de Enero with Donald Duck, tangos y cumbias de Colombia. Los cantante Mexicanos were among the cream of the crop who influenced singer from el Caribi, like Agustine Lara, Don Pedro Vargas..muy agradecido, muiy agradecino. Along with Pedro Infantge, Javiar Soliz. Jorge Negrete, Jose Alfredo Jiminez, Cuco Sanches, Miguel Aceves Mejia..and the high riding Trio de los Pancho who made every Mexicano of my generation become a singer. (In fact me, Johnny Candelas and Victor Sanchez became contendas', we sounded super, even without the aide of a guitar. With some beers our harmonizing, it worked like a charm, with each beer making us sound better and better!)

We were among the first to learn the lyrics of just about every song Los Panchos made popular.

Not to mention a series of songs by Hank William and Lefty Frizzle and even of Roy Rogers and Gene Autry, making San Fernando Valley his home, after going South of the Border Down Mexico way..hay, hay , hay..hay, hay hay hay.

We were enriched by music in an era love: from Mexico, California, New York and Nashvile.

But back to Cinco de Mayo Celebrations at Zaragoza Park.

We the young folks from East Austin had little knowledge of Mexican history. Yet, never lost our appetite for it's main celebrations.

It wasn't until I studied history at UCLA that I learned about the significance of Cinco de Mayo: What I learned was that it commemorated the Battle of Puebla, of May 5, l862 against the invading forces of France's government under Napoleon II, who had sent 7000 troops to take over the Mexican government, urged by  the landed rich who had resisted Benito Juarez' democratically instituted reign.

The French had the most advanced military force in the world, technologically speaking, and were supremely confident that the invasion and the conquest would be a piece of cake. They had been led to believe that the masses would even come to greet them.

On the 5th of May l862's Battle of Puebla, the ill equipped and ragged army of General Ignacio Zaragosa routed what was regarded as the most power army in the world. The victory became a hard lesson for modern armies.  The French had an arrogant disregard for the courage and patriotism of the Mexican people.  They did consider that the Mexicans had a knowledge of their own geography, and were motivated by the ideals of a democracy; seeking liberation from the rich land owners who were selling them out to the French imperialists.

Zaragosas' army killed over 2,000 French soldiers and sent the rest back to their ships, to return in defeat.

The French returned with twice as many men, and even more modern weapons the following year They took control of Mexico by establishing a monarchy headed by Maximillian and his Queen Carlota. 

Benito Juarez went into exile after vowing that his disposed constitutionally elected democracy's forces would not rest until the French left in defeat once more.

By the l940's the Battle of Puebla was thought of  as ancient history; however it remained as a rallying force against imperialism:  It was a way of announcing that the Mexican nation would not be defeated by a foreign government. And each succeeding Mexican government exploited it's significance to instill patriotism.

At Zaragosa Park the city would host dignitaries of the Partido Revolucionaria Institucionalizado (PRI) from a sister city in Mexico, who along with Austin's leading Mexican American citizens and the Mayor, and the oratory was full of passionate love for La Patria. With shouts of VIVA MEXICO &VIVA EL GENERAL IGNACIO ZARAGOAS..AND MOST OF ALL
VIVA BENITO JUAREZ.

This ceremony aroused nostalgia in those who had immigrated to the U.S. during the earlier part of the 20th Century. For those of us born and educated in the American English-only public schools, we could hardly wait for all the shouting to be over and for the band to start playing again.

If I dug deeply and focus on mining memories from the 12 years me and my family and friends who attended the Cinco de Mayo celebrations at Zaragosa Park, I might be able to fully recreate the three evenings from the 3rd of May to the 5th.

I can say for sure that everyone of them attracted a huge crowd that included all members of the families; from babies to the older generations.

There was a large dance floor made of concrete about 50 feet long and 20 feet wide, where in my book the real celebration took place.

I had become a dancing 'fool' by age 15 after great lessons from my sister Carmen and her girl friends; and the sweethearts of East Austin who were kind enough not to reject a sorry- looking
in-the-early-teens kid who had enough nerve to go up to them and ask them for a dance.

Wonderful memories I owe to Berta and Gloria Castillo, Chata Castro some who named have faded from my ancient mind.  

Of course from age 7 to age 18 I had gone through many stages.

At age ll for example, Victor Sanchez, Luis Lopez and I (The Three Muscateers) hung around the booths selling cold drinks, hot dogs and tacos and watched the mini parades, in which young women walked in the direction of the West around the dance area, while the young men walked toward the East, until as the evening progressed, they slowly paired off.

I remember about the age of 16 I had considered myself as 'viable' in this enchanting tradition. I wish I could really do justice in describing the dynamics of it. 

The idea was to catch glimpses of the girls, first without them looking at you. As each turn increased the boys and he girls had gotten an idea of which boy they might be interested in getting to know.

It was a social happening that depended mostly on the eyes. First a casual uninterested look, then a interested but non-committal look, until the look communicated: me gustas.

How could I ever forget the time Irma Saldivar cast her love light brown eyes my way with one of the worlds most beautiful smiles. KAPOW!

Canicas: from puppy love to mature man and women love - on the 5th of May.

Of course it never was all that easy. It all depended on whether they came with a chaperone. There was even a special place for them on the edge of the South part of the dance from that had especial chairs for them.

And all I can say is they didn't miss a thing. Plus there was a very limited number of smiles coming from that direction.

Irma Saldivar was a classic Mexican American. She was rich in Mexican culture and a modern American girl. The truth is we had a feeling of love from the time we were in the 4th grade in Zavala Elementary School.

However by the time she reached her early teens her family had moved to South Austin. And she was not about to run up to me and say, Hi, Frank,  remember me from the 4th grade. It was an entirely new ball game.

However, as luck would have it Irma's heart was destined Roberto Castillo from the Valley of Texas. For the distance to South Austin was great and I had fallen madly in love with Tina la Divina when I turned 16.

Part 1 of a 3 part story. 

ORANGE COUNTY, CA

May 27: SHHAR Quarterly Meeting:  20th anniversary, 3 special speakers
Spanish Cruce Horse and the early southwest 
SHHAR/SomosPrimos Speaker's Bureau. . are you looking for speakers?

The Staples NLBWA-OC Latina Center's Ribbon Cutting
Play: The "Mexican OC" performances scheduled in May
LULAC, 56th Annual District Convention 
LULAC, CA Resolution supports H.R. 2134 Commission  
Human Relations Events  
Chicano Artist: Malaquias Montoya Art Exhibit,  until May 12
Cypress St. School last of 15 "Mexican School" buildings in OC < click

SHHAR Quarterly Meeting 
May 27, 2-4 p.m.  
Everyone welcome
FREE
Refreshments following the meeting.

In Celebration of the 20th year of the founding of SHHAR, 
a very special, informative and enjoyable meeting has been planned.
We are proud to Host:

"Understanding the Early Southwest Spanish/Mexican Lifestyle"

Cris Metz
Getty Scholar
Douglas Westfall
www.SpecialBooks.com
Barry Starr and Robin Collins, Ph.D.
Heritage Discovery Center

Barry Starr and Dr. Robin Collins are expanding their Heritage Museum Center, located in Madrea, California. Their sharing will emphasize the important role that the Spanish horses played in the development of the Southwest, with a special focus on California's history.  www.HeritageDiscoveryCenter.com

" THE SPANISH CRUCE HORSE AKA SBBA Registry: "Wilbur-Cruce"

Evaluation of the Spanish Cruce Horse By D.P. Sponenberg, DVM, PhD, Assoc Professor, pathology and Genetics, Technical Panel Chair, American Rare Breeds Conservancy, Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine.

The Cruce horses are one of a very small handful (five would be very optimistic estimate) of strains of horses derived from Spanish colonial days that persist as purely (or as nearly as can be determined) Spanish to the present day. Most other strains have long been absorbed into the Quarter Horse breed (with draft and Thoroughbred influence) or have undergone extinction. They are the only known "rancher" strain of pure Spanish horses that persist in the southwest. The Cruce horses are of great interest because they are a nonferal strain. The only other strains of Spanish horses that persist to this day are the feral strains in certain isolated areas (Kiger and Cerbat BLM herds currently, although examples of pure horses of other populations now extinct or contaminated are present in owned, managed herds), and the Choctaw Cherokee strains, which originated in the Southwest. To this very short list can be added the Belsky and Romero/McKinely strains, but neither of these can claim the historic isolation that the Cruce horses have had, and both are of somewhat doubtful purity as to Spanish ancestry. The Cruce horses, as a nonferal strain, are therefore ultimately truly unique.

Visual examination of the Cruce herd also conclusively substantiates that the herd’s history is very likely accurate. The horses are remarkably uniform, and of a very pronounced Spanish phenotype. In some instances this is an extremely Spanish typed, such as is rare in other Spanish strains persisting in North America. This type is illustrated in paintings of Spanish horses during the colonial period, and it was a pleasant though great surprise to see it persisting to this day. The horses varied over a very narrow range from this extreme type to a more moderate type that is more common in other North American strains and Iberian strains today.

The need to conserve this herd is great, since they do represent an extremely unique genetic resource. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations has become interested in rare breed conservation over the last fifteen years, and their interest in horses is limited to those breeds that are uninfluenced by the Arabian and the Thoroughbred. The reason they have limited their interest and energy to horses without such influence in the incredible scarcity of such populations worldwide. The Cruce horses fit in this category very securely, and are therefore of great interest and importance not only in North American, but also in the worldwide efforts to conserve genetically unique populations of livestock.

The American Minor Breed Conversancy is very interested in this population. It must be emphasized that this interest if very great in the case of the Cruce horses, and very limited with regard to most other horse types. For example, the AMBC has no interest in the conservation of western feral populations except for the few (two) of purely Spanish phenotype. The Cruce population is a most significant discovery of a type of horse thought to be gone forever.''

Please call Robin Collins at 559-868-8681, or visit our web site under the Equine section at www.heritagediscoverycenter.com  Or send your tax-deductible donation to: The Heritage Discovery Center  40222 Millstream Lane, Madera, CA 93638

SHHAR/SomosPrimos Speaker's Bureau

SHHAR Board is Increasing  its community outreach ith their new Power Point Projector. Viola Rodriguez Sadler is coordinating this activity. Please contact her directly to request a presentation for your group, school, library, agency, special event, breakfast, luncheon or dinner social or business meetings.
vrsadler@aol.com

In addition to How-To Start Family History Research, Board members will also speaks on:

Viola Sadler
1. Using Archives in Mexico
2. Death Records can be Gold

Mimi Lozano
1. Celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month, Why and How?
2. What is SomosPrimos.com and how can it help me
3. Guy Gabaldon, WW II Hero
4.  Networking, the key to success
5.  Black-Latino Connection
6. World Wide Web and Family History Research

Michael Perez
1.  Hispanics in the American Revolutionary War
2.  The Hispanic Army That Saved America
3.  Forgotten Hispanic Army of the American Revolutionary War
4.  Bernardo de Galvez, General of the American Revolution
5.  The Black Legend and Hispanic Politics
6.  New Hispanic members of the Sons & Daughters of the American Revolution
7.  The Founding of Spanish North America
8.  Hispanic Cowboys
  
John P. Schmal
1. Hispanics in Defense of America (1991-2006) 
2. Researching in Indigenous Mexico 
3. The Roads We Took to America (Mexican Railroads 1920s)
4. Indigenous Peoples of Nueva Galicia: Spectacular Diversity 
5.  Trends in Mexican Immigration and Naturalization 

The play is based on collected research and oral histories of Mexican Americans of Orange County. Read by the Cast of The Mexican OC. Collaboratively Written by: Cristina Nava, Apolonio Morales, Elizabeth Sekeresh, Heather Enriquez, and Sara Guerrero, who is the project director.  

Guerrero writes: "Few people in Orange County have knowledge of the history, positive contribution, struggles for social justice of Mexican communities. The rich stories of triumph and survival of our ancestors wait to be told to a new generation of Mexican Americans, Mexican immigrant communities, and the other populations residing in the county."

Ricardo Valverde  RValverde@ochca.com 

LULAC Orange County District #1 held its 56th Annual District Convention
Held Saturday April 22 2006, 
ABRAZAR Community & Educational Center  
7101 Wyoming St.
Westminster, CA, 92683

One of the fun aspects for me was to learn from Margie Aguirre, Resolutions Committee Chair, how to write and submit a resolution.  At the meeting, I was helped to prepare and was able to submit the following, which was passed and will proceed to the state and national level for approval. 


LULAC RESOULUTION TO SUPPORT H.R. 2134 a bill to establish the Commission to study the potential creation of a National Museum of the American Latino community. 

Whereas, the story of the Hispanic contribution to the formation and development of the United States has not be told . 

Whereas, an increasing number of Hispanic/Latinos continues to contribute to a growth in  the demographics of our nation; 

Whereas, our nation’s heritage has not appropriately included the history of this Hispanic population.

Whereas,  a museum that displays artifacts and a great amount of historical evidence of the contributions of Hispanics should be established, for the purpose of educating the general public about the important role and participation of Latinos in American society, both of the past and as it evolves in the future.  

Whereas, H.R. 2134 has been sponsored by and supported by  Congressman Xavier Becerra (D-CA) and Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), and Mr. Michael Soukup, Associate Director for Natural Resource Stewardship and Science at the National Park Service; Senators Hatch, Martinez, Menendez and Salazar who have introduced similar legislation in the Senate,

Therefore be it resolved, that LULAC support and promote H.R. 2134 for the establishment of a National Museum of the American Latino community. 

Submitted by Mimi Lozano to the Westminster LULAC Council #3017, with the approval of:
Lupe Fisher, Nora Barrajas, Gloria Reyes, Cris Villaseñor

LOS ANGELES - A free public lecture by Samuel Regalado, author of Viva Baseball was given at California State University, Los Angeles on April 23rd.  The talk to coincide with "Mexican- American Baseball in Los Angeles: From the Barrios to the Big Leagues," an exhibit on display at Cal State L.A.'s John F. Kennedy Memorial Library through June 9.

During the 1950s and '60s in the Mexican-American communities, baseball was, among other things, a way of connecting to American society, said Regalado. "Baseball was the common American language everyone understood," he said.

In the 1981, "Fernandomania" accompanied Valenzuela's meteoric first season with the Los Angeles Dodgers, and it illuminated the depth of baseball's meaning to the Latin community, said Regalado, a professor of history at California State University, Stanislaus. Valenzuela's rookie season - and the response to it - served as a "wake-up call" for the mainstream media and scholars who had overlooked the significance of the Latin players to baseball's heritage, he said.

Regalado signed copies of his book, which is subtitled, "Latin Major Leaguers and Their Special Hunger."  The Library's ongoing exhibit, a joint effort by The Baseball Reliquary and a Cal State L.A. class in oral history, includes displays about Valenzuela, legendary teams of East Los Angeles and the Inland Empire, the siting of Dodger Stadium in Chavez Ravine, Hall-of-Fame Spanish-language Dodger broadcaster Jaime Jarrin and other topics.

Parking information or directions to campus:  http://www.calstatela.edu/univ/maps/cslamap.htm

Working for California since 1947: The 175-acre hilltop campus of California State University, Los Angeles is at the heart of a major metropolitan city, just five miles from Los Angeles' civic and cultural center. More than 20,000 students and 185,000 alumni-with a wide variety of interests, ages and backgrounds--reflect the city's dynamic mix of populations. Six colleges offer nationally recognized science, arts, business, criminal justice, engineering, nursing, education and humanities programs, among others, led by an award-winning faculty. www.calstatela.edu.

El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historical Monument 
Undergraduate Multicultural Summer Internship
Deadline for Application: 5:00 P.M., May 16,2006 
125 Paseo de la Plaza, Suite 400
Los Angeles, CA 90012
(213) 485-8437

Duration: June 19 to August 25,2006 Hours Per Week: 40 hours (8 hours each day) 
Stipend: $3,500 for a 10-week period* 

Interns will receive training in the conservation, care, and accessioning of artifacts and archival materials and collections management. Interns also will participate in ongoing community-oriented projects and activities, such as the Oral History Project and historical research. The Getty Grant Program will host the interns at four events which will be held at various cultural sites during the grant period.

Qualifications: Internships are available to currently enrolled undergraduates who are members of underrepresented groups in professions related to museums and the visual arts. Candidates are welcome from all areas of undergraduate study and are not required to have demonstrated a previous commitment to museum studies or the visual arts. All applicants must 1) have completed at least one semester of college by June 2006; 2) not be graduating before December 2006; 3) be a resident of or attend college in Los Angeles County; and 4) demonstrate the ability to communicate, effectively, both orally and in writing. Computer literacy is strongly desired.

To apply: send a letter of interest, a resume of qualifications and two letters of recommendation to the address below. Electronic submissions are also accepted. 

Picnic, 11 am to 4 pm at the Chevron Park in el Segundo. Bring your own picnic lunch and a desert to share. No beer and wine is allowed, nor class objects.  Please sign in at the registration table when you first arrive.  For more information, contact Eva Booher. 310-451-3216

Eva Booher  evabooher@aol.com (Granddaughter of Juan Farias, son of Tomasa Talamantes and Jose Farias, Great great great- Granddaughter of Felipe)

1425- 11th St. #16, 
Santa Monica, CA  

CALIFORNIA

 
March 21st, I received an email from Dr. Victor Walsh concerning the Casa de Bandini, requesting a letter of support for their project. I gladly sent a letter and spoken further to Dr. Walsh on the situation. You can support Hispanic history swiftly and inexpensively by sending a letter to Susan Hildredth, attention Dr. Walsh. Letters do make a difference. The State of California wants to hear from you.
   
Dr. Walsh writes:  This year the San Diego Coast District of California State Parks submitted a $1.8 million grant to the California Cultural and Historical Endowment to restore the Casa de Bandini in Old Town San Diego State Historic Park to its heyday of operation in the 1870s as the Cosmopolitan Hotel. The Endowment’s Board, which is composed of representatives from the state legislature and state government, values applications that have strong community support—in a word, projects that promise to benefit the public. Part of the review process involves making a presentation before the Board. State Parks will probably make its presentation early next month. 

I am writing now asking interested readers to write letters of support in behalf of the Casa de Bandini restoration project. 

You can address your letter to Susan Hildreth, State Librarian, 
California Cultural and Historical Endowment, 
900 N Street, Sacramento 
CA 95814 and forward it to my attention. 
We will submit it with our packet of materials at our presentation. 

Thank you ever so much for your interest in and support of this worthwhile endeavor. 
Dr. Victor Walsh California State Parks 
4477 Pacific Highway San Diego, 
CA 92110 (619) 688-3618
 vwalsh@parks.ca.gov 

What follows is a brief history of this historic building during the Mexican and U.S. transition periods in the 19th century.   

The Casa de Bandini is one of the most historically significant buildings in Southern California. Currently it is listed as California Historical Landmark (#72, 1932) and as a contributor to the park on the National Register of Historic Places (1971). 

Don Juan Bandini, the Peruvian-born son of a master seaman and trader, built this one-story casa grande adobe off the plaza in 1829-1831. Married to Dolores Estudillo and, after her death, Refugio Argüello, the daughters of two influential Spanish Californio families, Bandini carved out an illustrious career as a politician, civic leader, and rancher. He allied his large family with influential American immigrants and initially welcomed American statehood. 

His American sons-in-law included Colonel Cave Couts, a prominent San Diego rancher, and Abel Stearns, the wealthy Los Angeles trader and cattle baron. Richard Henry Dana, the seaman turned writer who met Bandini in 1836, described him as …accomplished and proud, and without any office or occupation, to lead the life of most young men of the better families – dissolute and extravagant when the means were at hand. He had a slight and elegant figure, moved gracefully, and waltzed beautifully, spoke the best of Castilian, with a pleasant and refined voice and accent, and had throughout the bearing of a man of high birth and figure. 

The Casa de Bandini was the hub of San Diego social and political life. The rooms had thick adobe walls, ceilings of heavy muslin, and deep-set windows with shutters. A superb dancer, Bandini frequently held parties and fiestas in his large front parlor room. Measuring 33 feet long by 16 feet wide, it was the only room in the house that had a pine floor, which had been well worn by years of dancing. By the late 1840s, the room had a huge Yankee clock case, several English fox hunting paintings, a picture of George Washington, and an American flag according to U.S.A. Major S. P. Heintzelman. 

While living in this house, Bandini hatched numerous plots against Mexican rule, including the uprising against Governor Manuel Victoria in 1831 and revolt against Governor Juan Bautista Alvarado in 1836-1837. Commodore Robert F. Stockton used the house as his headquarters during the U.S. occupation of San Diego in 1846. "Don Juan Bandini and family received the Commodore elegantly at their mansion and entertained him sumptuously," recalled district judge Benjamin Hayes. 

The Don’s daughters reportedly made the first American flag to fly over the Old Town plaza out of their petticoats and dresses. Bandini himself returned to Old Town in 1847 under U.S. military escort. Initially optimistic, he became increasingly disillusioned about American rule. He decried the anarchy unloosed by the epic gold rush when thousands of American and foreign-born miners poured into the frontier state. 

He attacked the Land Act of 1851, astutely arguing that the law, by allowing U.S. claimants to challenge Mexican land grants in U.S. courts, would bankrupt cash-poor rancheros and force them to turn over their properties to American attorneys and other creditors. "Our inheritance will be turned to strangers -- our houses to aliens," he wrote in 1855 in the Southern Californian, a Spanish-English newspaper based in Los Angeles. 

In these uncertain times, gambling and business debts, including a disastrous investment in the Gila Hotel in San Diego, forced him to sell or mortgage parts of his property, including the Casa de Bandini. In 1869, ten years after Bandini’s death, his son-in-law Stearns sold the house, by then a near ruin, to Albert L. Seeley, who restored and converted the old adobe into an L-shaped Greek-Revival styled commercial building. Seeley renovated the old adobe and added a wood-framed second story and balconies. The second-story balcony featured turned wooden columns and was enclosed with turned baluster railings. The tile roof was replaced with a wood shingle hipped roof. 

The Cosmopolitan Hotel, as it was called, served as a post office and station for Seeley's stage line between San Diego and Los Angeles until 1887. "The new hotel…," according to the San Diego Union in 1869, "is truly an elegant building. Its broad verandas above and below extending on three sides of the whole building give the place a comfortable southern air." The Cosmopolitan continued to operate as a hotel and headquarters of Seeley’s San Diego-Los Angeles stage line into the 1880s. 

The coming of the railroad siphoned off business and in 1888 an ailing Seeley sold the property. In the years that followed, the historic building operated as an olive packing plant, lodging house, tourist motel, and restaurant. California State Parks acquired the property in 1968 A succession of renovations unfortunately seriously altered the building’s original design and layout.

In 1930, Bandini's grandson, Cave J. Couts, Jr., enamored with the then popular southern Steamboat Revival architectural style, stuccoed the entire building, including the wooden columns. The first-floor porch was plastered and trimmed with a balastrade railing of "cast stone" (or concrete). Decorative white lath screens embellished the tops of the porch and balcony on all sides. In the early 1950s the new owner Frank Cardwell remodeled the building into an upscale tourist motel. The stuccoed columns, decorative wrought iron work, and ceramic and stone tile gave the motel façade a quasi-Spanish colonial appearance. The interior courtyard was decorated with lush tropical plants like palms, banana trees, birds of paradise, and succulents. 

During 1978-1980, Diane Powers, the State Park concessionaire, further altered the rear courtyard and interior spaces on the first floor. The building took on the image of a luxurious Spanish colonial hacienda that in no way resembled either Juan Bandini’s original home or the Cosmopolitan Hotel of Alfred Seeley. The building retains considerable historic integrity in spite of these alterations. Most of the interior adobe walls, for instance, on the first floor remain intact, although in a somewhat altered condition. Other important features, dating back to the building’s heyday as a hotel, that are readably visible include the tongue-and-groove wainscoting in the dining areas on the first floor, the stairway banister in the entrance area, the window seats in the west wing on the first floor, and many of the doors, window sashes and cornices on the second-floor balcony. 

The Casa de Bandini is a priceless historical resource. Originally built in 1829, its history spans 175 years. It was the hub of social and political activities in Old Town San Diego during Mexican rule. It served as the headquarters of Commodore Robert F. Stockton during U.S. military occupation in 1846. After the Civil War, it became one of Southern California’s most important hotel-stage stops. Over the many years, in spite of many alterations, the grand old building retains a most distinctive architectural character. There are few historic buildings remaining in the state that rival its scale as representative of a nineteenth-century commercial building that combined Mexican adobe and American wood-framing construction techniques. And its design—a Mexican era adobe on the ground floor and a wood-frame American addition on the second—is perhaps an apt symbol of Old Town San Diego’s history during the nineteenth century. 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I wrote to the Mayor and sent Lorri and email,  4/18/2006 

Hi Lorri . . .  Have you gotten in touch with the Office of Historical Preservation in Washington D.C..  ?  It appears that you need some help.  Have you contacted the State Parks System.  They are concerned with historic sites being lost to builders. I wrote a letter to the city of Santa Cruz, as requested. Could you go to the university and see if you could encourage some students to go to the city council meetings?  Best of luck,  Mimi  

Dear Mimi,
Thank you for your response and support for Branciforte.
Ed Silveira is the founder, or one of the early founders of the Preservation Society for Villa de Branciforte.  Ed has been in contact with many officials in Santa Cruz County as well as with state officials.  It seems that there are so many obstacles to overcome for historic preservation.  That is why we are seeking as much public support as we can get.  
Thank you so much, and take care, Lorri




Cypress Street School is the last of 15 "Mexican School" buildings in Orange County.  

On May 7th, I spent an informative afternoon with Judge Rick Aguirre, author/publisher Doug Westfall, and Pasty M. Fletcher, Community Liaison, Historical Preservation Office, Government of the District of Columbia.  We were given a wonderful tour by Doug Westfall of the historical homes in the city of Orange.  Of particular interest to all of us was the last of the 15 Orange County public schools which were segregated to include only Mexican  students in the 1930s.. Cypress Street School was part of the Orange School District in County. It is still standing, but fenced.  Although Cypress was an elementary school, children stayed through 10th grade. Cypress Street School sits on land which now belonging to Chapman University.  

Patsy Fletcher emphasized throughout the afternoon how very important community interest and involvement is in the preservation of historical sites.  She said, the government looks to support -  
When the community really care?  
Do we care about our history?

 
From left, Judge Fredrick Aguirre, Patsy M. Fletcher, Doug Westfall
Cypress Elementary School, last of 15 Segregated Schools in Orange County

If you are interested in helping to identify Cypress Street School as a historic site, please send me
an email.  Yolanda Alvarez, the first president of the Orange County Mexican American Historical Society has begun to gather information on how to achieve that end. mimilozano@aol.com

Sal Camarillo wrote: Ramona. It's the name of more than a dozen streets in the Inland Valley. Schools, venues and a city bare her name. But Ramona is so much more than a name. She embodies the spirit of strong, passionate women of Mexican descent who lived, loved and died struggling to settle the Inland Valley. 

May performance dates remaining, May 6, 7, 13; gates opens at 1 p.m. pre-show activities begin at 1:30; show  4 p.m.Where: The Ramona Bowl Amphitheater, 27400 Ramona Bowl Road, Hemet
Information: (800) 645-4465, www.ramonabowl.com

More than 400 community volunteers participate to again tell the story of Ramona in "The Ramona Pageant."  "It's part of our area's heritage," said Janine Mundwiler, general manager of the pageant. "It's a love story set in the 1800s that is still relevant today. It's about tolerance and compassion. Its wisdom shows that prejudice never pays off." The pageant, performed at the picturesque Ramona Bowl, is historical fiction based on the book, "Ramona," written by Helen Hunt Jackson in 1884. Jackson's story tells of the American encroachment into Mexican and Native American lands and entwines folklore and legend with the valley's rich history. The title character, Ramona, is from the proud and wealthy Moreno family. She falls in love with Alessandro, a noble, but poor, Native American. Ramona is forbidden to see Alessandro, but the star-crossed lovers cannot be kept apart. The staging area is built into the hillside. Galloping horses, colorful dresses, lively music and heartwarming characters bring this tragic, yet poignant story to life. Both Mexican and Native American cultures are spotlighted as the story is woven. The pageant's attendance has tapered off since its record draw of 40,000 in the 1970s. In the last several seasons, the crowds have been holding steady at around 10,000. Low, but not too bad for six performances at a community theater." 

(With all kinds of expertise in the world, there must be a niche for "Website Reviewing." Here's what an example of that specialty might look like, sent by Galal Kernahan.)

'HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS: Publications on how the California Department of Education was established in the state." http//www.cde.ca.gov/nr/re/hd 

Three months ago, this website listed 50 items. All but ten were marked 'Coming Soon."

None seemed to refer to how public education started in California much less the California Department of Education or Office of the State Superintendent of Public Instruction.

One of the documents (still posted under the "Lists" category) is a 1932 University of Iowa Librarianship Master's Degree thesis titled A Study of the Materials for the History of Public Elementary Education in California 1850 to 1930.

It must have been as mind-numbingly useful 74 years ago as it is today. Ruth Fleming, the M.A. candidate, may have enjoyed a long and useful career helping serious scholars and shushing the talkative. At least, she didn't have cellphones to deal with.

By last April this year, not only had this website's listings multiplied but so had actual postings. Now there are a few that actually feature the original designers of California public education.

Some of their thoughts on the subject culled from Colton Hall Convention Proceedings appear at the following posting: Ooley, Patricia, Report of the Debates in the Convention of California on the Formation of the State Constitution in September and October 1859 by J. Ross Browne.

"1859" is an error. Browne was in a heap of trouble by then.

Born in Beggars Bush near Dublin, Ireland, February 11, 1821,
he cheerfully bore the lifelong curse of honesty. After he did an excellent job tracking the discussions that led to Our Original State Charter, he became a confidential agent for the Feds.

Those were Gold Rush Days, and he was a jaunty killjoy. He spotted graft, corruption and payoffs from the San Francisco Mint to the Customs House and back.

This is how he explained his predicament: If you ever aspire to official honors, let my fate be a warning to you. I did exactly what I was instructed to do which is exactly what I was not wanted to do,

By 1859, he was about as welcome in a U.S. Government office in California as a skunk at a picnic. He got sick on a San Francisco ferry and died December 9, 1875.

The correct date of the 1849 California Constitutional Convention was. . .mmmmm, let's see. . .1849?

Our rating of the California Department of Education History Documents Website: "D-minus" (up from an "F" in January).

GALAL KERNAHAN  galal@lworld.net

Facts about WorldCat:
" More than 61 million bibliographic records are in WorldCat
" More than 1 billion copies of titles held by libraries are listed in WorldCat

A full description on how to search in Yahoo and Google is described on this OCLC site How the Open WorldCat program works:  http://www.oclc.org/worldcat/open/how/default.htm

Look at some cool ways to use WorldCat and Calcat. This file requires Word PowerPoint software to run:

Steven W. Hackel, Associate Professor of history at Oregon State University spoke at the CMSA Conference on the Early California Population Project. This is a database of mission and Los Angeles Plaza Church baptisms, marriages, and burials. 

In the fall of 1998, Steve Hackel explained the need for such a project to Robert C. Ritchie, Director of research at the Huntington Library. Ritchie asked for funding from the Huntington Library, the Haynes Foundation, the Mead Foundation, the Murphy Foundation, and a grant from the California State Library with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Randall T. Milliken, John R. Johnson, Steven W. Hackel, and Scott J.

Edmondson created the database. There are more than 160 fields. The records are entered as transcriptions, not translations or interpretations. Abbreviated names are spelled out. Knowledge of Spanish is necessary; nothing will be translated into English

Data entry has been completed. There are 103,000 baptisms, 27,000 marriages, and 69,000 burials. These are baptisms, marriages, and burials of everyone-Indians and Gente de Razón. No confirmations. There are plans later to add the confirmations, padrones, and military lists.
Here's the good part. The database will be online in June 2006 on the Huntington's Web site. It is searchable and there will be no charge to use it. There will be a conference at the Huntington September 29-30, 2006.

In my opinion, this is the most accurate and best way to research the sacramental registers of the California missions. I can't imagine why anyone who is researching the mission records would ever want to look at anything transcribed and translated by Thomas Workman Temple II or compiled by Dorothy Mutnick and Marie Northrop again. 

The Heritage Discovery Center, Madera, California 

The horses looked as if they had just walked out of the Past"

In 1519, Hernando Cortez landed in Vera Cruz, Mexico, with ten stallions and six mares. These Spanish horses would become the foundation of the great Mission and Rancho herds of the New World. The superior quality and versatility of these Spanish horses made them sought after by Royal Stud farms throughout the world. This is the race that became the ancestor to all indigenous breeds of the Americas.

In 1885, Dr Ruben Wilbur purchased 26 horses from Father Francisco Kino's historic Rancho Delores in Sonora, Mexico, to stock his homestead ranch near Arivaca, Arizona. Through three successive family generations, spanning more than 120 years, the Wilbur--Cruce Spanish horses were kept in genetic isolation on the ranch.  "The Spanish Colonial Cruce horses are a most significant discovery of a type of horse thought to be gone forever"

In 1990, the riparian portion of the Wilbur-Cruce ranch was sold to the Nature Conservancy. Due to the horse's genetic importance, Dr. Wilbur's granddaughter, Eva-Antonia Wilbur-Cruce, donated the direct descendants of the original herd to the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy. The Conservancy confirmed that these horses were pure and direct descendants of the original Spanish horses brought to the New World.

The ALBC asked Robin Collins, then President of the California Hooved Animal Humane Society, and noted animal behaviorist and horse trainer, to administrate and oversee the preservation of the largest portion of the remaining breeding stock. Ms. Collins continues to sustain, nurture, and preserve the rare genetics of these endangered Spanish horses through the Heritage Discovery Center, a California, 501-(c)3 non-profit organization.

"The life of the Spanish horse, for the past 3,000 years, has been bound up with the history of civilization"  These horses link us intrinsically with a heritage we all share. Your help is needed to continue to perpetuate this rare and precious living legacy. With your contribution and support, you have the opportunity to actively help preserve this integral part of America's history. 


Please call Robin Collins at 559-868-8681, or visit our web site under the Equine section at www.heritagediscoverycenter.com  Or send your tax-deductible donation to: The Heritage Discovery Center 40222 Millstream Lane, Madera, CA 93638

NORTHWESTERN UNITED STATES

Sent by Lorraine Hernandez  Lmherdz@msn.com  http://rzamor1.livejournal.com/2006/03/18/

SOUTHWESTERN UNITED STATES

Most materials are in Spanish. Note: Documents are described in: Twitchell, Ralph Emerson. The Spanish Archives of New Mexico Volume I. The Arthur H. Clark Co., 1914.

Organization:  Collection is organized in five series:

• I. Spanish Archives of New Mexico (arranged by Twitchell number)
• II. Grants to Pueblo Indians
• III. Bound documents
• IV. Vigil index
• V. Surveyor General and Court of Private Land Claims records.

Collection Summary:
Title: Spanish Archives of New Mexico I, 1685-1912
Collection Number: 1972-002
Size: 65 linear feet + 63 rolls
Repository:  New Mexico State Records Center and Archives

BLACK

Recognizing the need for support systems for black youth, Moore in 1991 volunteered to help set up and teach at Saturday Academy programs.  The classes for kids and their parents focus on black history and culture.  Orange County has two academies.

Now he working with a parents groups to establish programs in Riverside and San Bernardino counties.  Those academies will include a strong college-prep component and train parents to run their own nonprofit organizations focused on getting kids to college, he said.

"We're just trying to get black folks to teach themselves and make sure education is valued as much as we value other pursuits."

Known for speaking her mind, Pala tribal elder Eva Linton Rehner ultimately lost a legal battle that took her to the U.S. Supreme Court. But she will be remembered for standing up, as an American Indian, to the powerful state of California. 

Thirty years ago, as the proprietor of a tiny general store at Pala, Mrs. Rehner filed a lawsuit in federal court, arguing that Indian merchants should not be subject to state licensing to sell alcohol on reservation lands. 

An initial ruling for the state was reversed by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. However, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1983 that states have authority to regulate reservation liquor sales, despite tribes' sovereign status as governments of their own.  Mrs. Rehner didn't set out to become a crusader. “She wasn't a so-called activist, jumping up and down,” said her son, Ted Linton of Pala. “If something bothered her, she'd let somebody know.” 

Mrs. Rehner, who at 95 was the oldest member of the Pala Indian band, died of natural causes Thursday in an Escondido nursing home. “She was very well known” on the reservation, said Pala tribal Chairman Robert Smith. “Everybody knew her, and she knew everybody.” 

Mrs. Rehner was born on the Santa Ysabel Reservation near Lake Henshaw, the daughter of a Cupeño Indian father and a mother who was Luiseño and Diegueño Indian. Although she spent her early childhood at Santa Ysabel, Mrs. Rehner maintained her enrollment in her father's tribe at Pala. 

Like many Indians of her generation, Mrs. Rehner was sent at age 12 to the Sherman Indian School, a boarding school in Riverside. There, she learned English for the first time. After graduation, she went to Los Angeles to work as a nanny, her son said. 

She met her late husband, Robert Rehner, in Long Beach, where he was stationed in the Navy. They were married at Pala's Roman Catholic mission in 1935 and made a home on the North County reservation. 

While her husband re-enlisted and served in World War II, Mrs. Rehner stayed at Pala, working in the fields picking chili peppers, her late husband told The San Diego Union in January 1988. The couple opened their small store in 1959 after he left the Navy. 

The Rehners' store was the smaller of two on the reservation, but it had one competitive advantage: It was open Sundays, when the larger one wasn't. “I used to go over to her store every Sunday,” said Smith, the Pala chairman. 

The store closed in 1988, shortly after Robert Rehner's death. The 24-by-24-foot building now serves as a family storage shed. “Instead of a garage, we have an old store where we put all our junk in,” Linton said. 

Linton, a retired sheriff's deputy, was Mrs. Rehner's only child. She also is survived by four grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. 

Archaeologists are expected to begin searching thousands of acres on the Middle Peninsula this summer for Indian artifacts, marking one of the biggest investigations of its kind in Virginia history.

The area to be explored is the future site of a reservoir approved for construction last year, a project that has drawn fierce opposition from three Indian tribes.  

The tribes also are upset about the archaeological dig, which will focus on 6,000 acres of forests and fields. "Let the poor people rest, let the artifacts rest," said Warren Cook, assistant chief of the Pamunkey Indian Tribe.

The Pamunkey, Mattaponi and Upper Mattaponi tribes have refused to sign an agreement with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which governs the archaeological project.  

But their opposition is largely symbolic. Under federal law, Newport News must locate archaeological resources under threat from the reservoir and protect them or mitigate their loss.

"We've felt all along that you cannot mitigate this sort of problem," said Upper Mattaponi Chief Ken Adams. "We've been here ... 10,000 years and (Newport News) has been here 400 years and they want us to mitigate? That's impossible."

The Mattaponi and Pamunkey reservations are within three miles of the reservoir site and the Upper Mattaponi tribe owns acreage about 8 miles away.  "This is not like digging up Aztec remains in Mexico," said David Bailey, a lawyer representing the Mattaponi in its fight against the reservoir. "The tribe is literally 2 miles away, so it's very sensitive."

Newport News proposed the 1,500-acre reservoir several years ago and offered the tribes $1.5 million in compensation, which they rejected. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers approved the reservoir last year.

The tribes contend the reservoir will violate a 17th-century peace treaty that protects their right to hunt and fish.  Newport News has a state permit to divert up to 75 million gallons of river water a day into the reservoir, which the Mattaponi fear will hurt the local shad population. The city is studying the shad migration to determine safe times to pump the water.

The archaeological investigation could last for several years. Researchers hope it will give them a clearer picture of the evolution of Indian culture in Virginia, said Chris Stevenson, of the Virginia Department of Historic Resources.

Archaeologists who surveyed the site of the proposed reservoir in 1996 found — but did not excavate — 112 camp sites. Artifacts revealed Indians had lived in the area for 8,000 years.

"There's going to be some really exciting stuff," said Tim Thompson, the corps' Norfolk District archaeologist.   Information from: Richmond Times-Dispatch, http://www.timesdispatch.com

Tracing Your Indigenous Roots in México
By John P. Schmal
 
Copyright © 2006 by John P. Schmal. All Rights Reserved.

SEPHARDIC

Carlos Maximiliano Casaus

My father selected me as "The Rememberer" to pass on the oral history of his family. All my information is from my father. Great-Grandmother wouldn't talk about it. Father's family has been in New Mexico since 1635.

Pedro de las Casas came to the New World with Columbus on his second voyage. Columbus was friendly with de las Casas. He offered to bring him to America, and they settled here. Why would my forefathers be friendly with Columbus? They were probably the same people or were related. They came to Santo Domingo, at that time called Isabela. Why did they come? They were convinced by the discovery of a new land, and they came for a better life. He came with his family.

There were three brothers Casaus who were originally from France. The brothers volunteered their services to the King of Spain in order to get rid of the Moors. The Moors were defeated and sent from Spain to Africa. Two of the brothers died in the war. One survived the war and was given a title. The name was changed from Casaus to de las Casas. Casas was a titled name. Pedro's grandson married the daughter of Moctezuma. I did not know, at this time, if there was a Jewish history from Spain in the family. My ancestors lived in the southern part of Mexico and had lots of property. The area is now called the state of Chiapas in Mexico. Centuries later, an Indian became president of Mexico. He didn't want Jews or Spaniards in Mexico. Our people decided to escape the killing that would be done by the president of Mexico. They were given one year to depart, and so they came in the 1600s, before 1635, to New Mexico. In the meantime, the name was changed back to Casaus.

When I was a child, I found out from Carlos, my father, that we had Jewish blood. Father told me that Great-Grandmother Teresa Sena, his grandmother, has Jewish blood from her Grandfather Peresh. I was told that Peresh is a Jewish name from Spain. Father said Peresh was a Marrano. There are no written records of this information. Peresh was a grandfather on her father's side. Peresh had a cart with two horses and sold spices to Mexicans before 1840. He was a lonely man. He or his children changed the name to Perez because of wanting to be Mexican and hiding their Jewish origin. The name Peresh had a Jewish connotation in Spain. We don't know where Peresh came from, except that he was a Jew and called a Marrano. Peresh married a Spanish woman with Spanish ancestry. On Great-Grandmother Sena's maternal side, her mother's last name was Terrazas.

Teresa Sena and Great-Grandfather Carlos Casaus raised me in my early years. I was the first great-grandson. There I learned Spanish with the Mexicans and the Indians. My father spoke English because he wanted his children to be Americans.

When it stormed, Great-Grandmother Sena lit a candle to kneeled, and prayed to be spared from the dangerous storm and lightning. She would tell me, "Carlitos, go under my bed and bring out the box." The box was about twenty-four by thirty inches. She would take out a seven-candle menorah and light the candles. We all had to kneel down and pray to the menorah. I asked, "What are we praying to and why do you light seven candles?" She said, "We are praying to the seven Catholic sacraments." I responded, "Grandma, you have all saints and religious objects on walls. Why do you keep religious objects under the bed?" She answered, "because my mother told me to." Why would she hide it? She was very secretive. I recognized that Great-Grandma's brother had red hair. Father explained, "That's because they're Jewish."

Mom's Family: My mother said that her Great-Grandfather Gallegos was a Spaniard and came from Galicia. He committed a crime in Galicia. He worked in a slaughterhouse, found a wife, and left for America. He was afraid of being caught for the crime. They knew they were coming to America and landed in New Orleans. They probably came around 1775, directly from Spain. Mother's father was a Gallegos. Mother's mother was a Sandoval. Mother was Isabel Gallegos, and she married Casaus. Her forefathers came from Spain and were blond and blue-eyed. We didn't know if they were Jewish. Grandma Sandoval's great-grandfather was the man for whom Sandoval County in New Mexico was named. We don't claim other Sandovals as relatives, but some do exist. Sandovals are Mom's relatives. Grandma Sandoval married Isidore Gallegos. As for biblical names, there was a relative with the name Moises.

We buried the dead the next day. I asked why and was told the body would deteriorate very fast. We placed coins on the eyes of the deceased to keep them closed. After burial, they would sit one or two days, and people would come with food. I avoided funerals but didn't know why.

After a time, all relatives would go to the priest and pay him a certain sum of money to say a prayer in favor of the dead person. He would mention the name of the deceased. This was done on the one-year anniversary of a person's death. An ad would be placed in the obituary column of a newspaper on the one-year anniversary of a loved-one's death for a few years. The purpose of this was to remind relatives and people known to the deceased of his death. You can still see these ads in newspapers.

Mother's brothers were very intelligent, and I have always felt (in my family) that intelligence was tied up with being Jewish. The family owned land, and we had workers (Mexicans and Indians) who called me "The Mexican Jew." We did light bonfires before Christmas. I don't know why.

We used a special knife to slaughter animals. We would cut the throat of a lamb and drain the blood into a cup until it was filled. We would also twirl a chicken until it was decapitated. We salted some meat (beef).

After birth, the woman would stay in the house for a long time. She was not allowed to bathe, uncover herself, or change clothes. About eight days after the birth of a boy, a prayer was said in Spanish.

We were told that our Spanish was archaic, Ladino. My Grandfather Casaus said that I spoke Ladino. Mother's mother spoke Ladino. We actually shifted between Mexican Spanish and Ladino. Ladino was from Mother's family.

We avoided pork. Dad never had a pig on the ranch, but he had lambs, hens, and turkeys. We were told that the reason for not having pigs was that the pigs were fed scrap, and they were dirty.

We were wealthy and owned houses. Before Yom Kippur, we went to our house in the mountains. It had forested land. We went in the summertime for a three- or four-day trip. This was a short time before the High Holy Days. We had picnics in the mountains and said prayers before and after the food was eaten. Mom didn't know why we did it. If she did, she didn't mention it. The term High Holy Days was not known to me until after I joined the army.

During Holy Week (March), before Passover, we ate capirotada. We also had round crackers, for the unleavened bread, which were eaten with pudding. Passover, the name, became known to me later on. I started realizing that we had more Jewish ancestry than we knew.

After Christ's return from the dead (Easter Day), we would use noisemakers and go around the outside of the church, twirling them, around and around. We would also attend church. This was when I was young. Empanadas were eaten at this time. They were filled with a meat and fruit mixture. Source: Remnants of Crypto-Jews Among Hispanic Americans by Gloria Golden ©2005

Souls are not generic. The Jewish soul, like the soul of every nation, has its own specific properties, some of which are compassion, altruism, and shame (the source of Jewish guilt!). The Talmud goes so far as to say that if you see a Jew devoid of compassion, you can legitimately doubt that he's a Jewish soul. One of the properties of the Jewish soul is that it cannot bond with any other type of soul. This is why intermarriage is ultimately a denial of one's essence. Marriage is a union of souls, not just bodies and hearts. A Jewish soul cannot unite with a non-Jewish soul any more than a helium atom can bond with any other atom. Not because helium is clannish or racist or snobbish -- or any worse than a hydrogen atom, but because chemical inertness is simply one of its essential properties.

THE COVENANT Assimilation means forfeiting one's own unique Jewish identity and adopting the behavior and values of non-Jews, whether Catholic or communist, Protestant or secular humanist. According to the Torah, God's design for the Jewish people is to be separate, discrete, "a nation that will dwell in solitude and not be reckoned among the nations." (Numbers 23:9)Jews are bidden to be "a light unto the nations." (Isaiah 42:6) A light stands separate from that which it illuminates. The Divine charge to the Jewish people is to "be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation." (Ex. 19:1) This is a mission from which we cannot resign because it is embedded in the Covenant between God and the nation of Israel. The Covenant, which God introduced in His promises to the Patriarchs, which was accepted by the entire Jewish nation at Sinai (where all Jewish souls were present), and which was renewed on two other occasions in Jewish history, stipulates the following:

On God's side, He promised: 
That the Jewish people will never cease to exist (Gen.17:7). 
That He will never totally abandon the Jewish people (Lev. 26:44). 
That the Jewish people will inherent the Land of Israel (Gen.12:7; Gen.15:18). 

On Israel's side, we promised: That we will be faithful to God and keep His Torah (Ex.24:7). Unlike most covenants, this one is unconditional. Even if Israel reneges on its obligation, God, in the merit of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs, will never annul His Covenant with us.In her recent book, 

The New Anti-Semitism, feminist author Phyllis Chesler writes: My heart is broken by the cunning and purposeful silence of progressives and academics on the subject of anti-Semitism and terrorism. I write "silence" to be kind. What I'm really talking about is the betrayal of the Jews... by western intellectuals, some of whom are also Jews themselves. Perhaps like me they do not want to give up the larger world in order to retain their religious, racial, and cultural identities as Jews. After all, who willingly wants to wear the yellow star?

Ms. Chesler is not oblivious to the Covenantal mission of the Jews. A few pages later she describes the Jewish people as "an eternal translator between realms: God's messenger." However, her aversion to "the yellow star," combined with her attraction to "the larger world," define the twin forces that have always drawn some Jews (in smaller or larger numbers) into the black hole of assimilation. Since assimilation is antithetical to God's design for the Jewish people, what can God do to keep His promise that the Jews will never become extinct? A cornerstone of Jewish monotheism is the insistence that everything -- everything -- comes from God, the one and only source. At the same time, He has given human beings free choice in the moral realm. Humans may not be able to choose what happens to them, but they are always choosing between right and wrong, good and evil. So, what if all the Jews in any given generation choose to assimilate into extinction? 

That's where anti-Semitism comes in. Anti-Semitism is the Divine equivalent of the parent of a diabetic child locking the cookie jar. A Jew in 15th century Spain or 20th century Germany or 21st century America may want to blend in with the surrounding society, but anti-Semitism is a sealed door, strong and black as iron, which keeps him out -- and separate. Anti-Semitism keeps the Jewish people from dissipating into oblivion. The ubiquitous effort to trace the source of anti-Semitism to the Jews remaining different and aloof -- implying that assimilation cures anti-Semitism -- is an inversion of the truth. Assimilation is not the antidote to anti-Semitism; anti-Semitism is the Divine antidote to assimilation.

THE SPANISH INQUISITION The Spanish Expulsion is a case in point. The Expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492, after five centuries of Spanish Jews' flourishing -- professionally, politically, and economically -- was the greatest catastrophe in European Jewish history prior to the Holocaust. As Rabbi Berel Wein described the Expulsion: "The disaster that befell the wealthiest, most sophisticated and stable section of world Jewry plunged the Jewish people everywhere into a state of depression." The common understanding of the Expulsion is that Catholic antipathy toward the Jews in Spain grew until, in April, 1492, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella proclaimed the Edict of Expulsion: Jews had the choice to convert, leave, or be burned at the stake. Thus started the Inquisition.

The true story of Spanish Jewry is quite different. In 1391, a full century before the Expulsion, anti-Jewish violence erupted. The response of large numbers of Jews, including some of the leaders of Spanish Jewry, was to convert to Catholicism. ("After all, who willingly wants to wear the yellow star?") In the course of the next fifty years, more than half of Spain's Jews converted, many of them continuing to secretly practice Jewish rites. As historian Maurice Kriegel writes of the pre-Expulsion period:

The combination of intimidation with the promise of integration [into Spanish society] was indeed difficult to resist. Members of the Jewish intellectual elite, inclined to a certain philosophical indifference towards the external manifestations of religion, could thus justify their acceptance of baptism... Thus, by the mid-15th century, New Christians outnumbered those who continued to profess Judaism despite persecution and temptation.

Both the Inquisition and the Expulsion were meant to solve not the Jewish problem, but the problem of the assimilationists, the conversos, who were suspected of secretly adhering to their former religion. According to Paul Johnson's History of the Jews, all of the 700 people (some sources put the figure as high as 2,000) burned by the Inquisition between 1481 and 1489 were conversos. As Johnson writes: "A marrano was thus much more unpopular than a practicing Jew because he was an interloper in trade and craft, an economic threat; and, since he was probably a secret Jew, he was a hypocrite and a hidden subversive too." (p.224)The goal of the Expulsion was to eliminate the influence of practicing Jews on the conversos. Again to quote Kriegel: "So long as there was a large and active Jewish community on Spanish soil, they [the Spanish inquisitors] said, all the Inquisition's attempts to deter and punish Judaizing Christians would be of no avail." The conversos were the catalyst that led to the Expulsion, historically and spiritually. The Expulsion obliterated the Jews in Spain, but saved Spanish (Sephardic) Jewry. Of the 200,000 overt Jews in Spain in 1492, 150,000 chose to leave. They set up new communities in North Africa, Turkey, Holland, and Palestine. These communities became thriving, creative, energetic centers of Jewish life. The mystic community of Safed in the 16th century, for example, was wholly comprised of descendents of Spanish exiles. 

What would have happened to those 150,000 Jews if they had been allowed to remain in Spain, a land where waves of conversion had already claimed most Jews, including rabbis and community leaders? This is not to say that all the persecution Jews have suffered during our 2,000-year-long exile is the result of assimilation. Suffering can be caused, at times, by many kinds of spiritual lapses, beyond the ability of human beings to discern. The Talmud explicitly states that the destruction of the Second Temple and the concomitant exile, considered the central tragedy of Jewish history, was caused by unwarranted hatred among Jews. (A cautionary statement for our times as well.) The concept that God engineers anti-Semitism to ensure the survival of the Jewish people does not mean that anti-Semites are exonerated from the evil they perpetrate. Anti-Semites, like everyone else, have free choice to choose between good and evil, and they bear the responsibility for their choices. However, as the Midrash states, "God has many bears and lions." If not Arab terrorists, there are always some European leaders, academics, assorted anti-Zionists...

GLOWING IN THE DARK  I was recently walking home with my son in Jerusalem's Jewish Quarter long after the darkness of night had driven most tourists back to their hotels. Just past the falafel shop, we were detoured by a sign which promised: 3D ART. By the side of the pedestrian walkway, we saw a table sporting a picture of a Jerusalem cityscape propped up on a wooden box. In the box was a special kind of fluorescent light which made the white paint in the picture glow in the dark, creating a three-dimensional effect. "How do you do it?" my son asked the young artist. "I have special glow-in-the-dark paint," he replied. The artist told us that he had just, two months before, made aliyah from South Africa. I could see that he needed a sale, but we had no money, and the young locals sitting around tables by the falafel shop were clearly not art patrons. I opened my mouth to advise him: If you want to sell pictures, you should really set up here during the day, when the tourists are out in full force. They're your natural clientele. But before I uttered a word, I realized that these pictures could not be displayed to advantage in daytime. In the light, the special effect would be lost. The particular beauty of these pictures shows up only in the dark. 

Anti-Semitism is an encircling darkness. When Jews view "Kill the Jews" signs at American peace rallies or read a respected academic in the New York Review of Books opining that the Jewish state has no right to exist, we feel fear in the pit of our stomachs. As Ms. Chesler so graphically expresses the dread we all feel: "'Tis a season of blood that's upon us. I knew it from the moment the two Israeli reservists were lynched in Ramallah in the fall of 2000... I wept because I understood that Jewish history was, once more, repeating itself. How foolish I'd been to think that we had finally escaped it."The Jewish soul, however, is coated with a special glow-in-the-dark paint. The darkness is not our foil, but our challenge, our opportunity to shine. The purpose of life is to dance in the dark.* Only in the dark does the greatness of a soul manifest. And what of the light? It's there to show us where the stairs are, so we can learn to navigate them. But the soul's true test is when the lights go out. Jews must not be intimidated by the venom, the hatred, the calumnies of our enemies. Being popular is not a Jewish value. Being true to God's Covenant is.

TEXAS 

Fronteras Fall 2005 Vol. 14 No. 2
The Importance of Improving Texas History Education
By Richard Francaviglia

In 2004, approximately 725,000 students in grades K-12 took Texas history — a subject that has become increasingly politicized in the acrimonious partisan battle over education. To help educators and decision-makers learn more about Texas history education, LJT Arlington conducted a year-long study chat resulted in a report. The study helped us answer a general question: How important is Texas History? By tracking a typical student through his or her exposure to Texas history classes, we verified claims that learning Texas history serves two important purposes. In addition to broadening students' knowledge about, and appreciation of, the state's past, Texas history also provides students: (1) a foundation for learning about other subjects such as geography and political science, and (2) assistance in developing the critical thinking skills so essential for informed citizenship.

We began by defining Texas history and observing discrepancies between popular history and the historical record. Although the popular slogan that "Six Flags" have flown over the state is true, it is also very simplistic. Whereas those six flags do represent major political powers — namely Spain, prance, Mexico, the Republic of Texas, the United States of America, and the Confederate States of America — they exclude the Native Americans who lived here for at least ten thousand years. So, too, the emphasis on political powers also tends t