Somos Primos

June 2008

102nd Issue online

Editor: Mimi Lozano ©2000-8

Dedicated to Hispanic Heritage and Diversity Issues
 Society of Hispanic Historical and Ancestral Research

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Dear Mimi,  
Congratulations on the publication of your 101 issue of Somos Primos!  A big thank you for giving us, Primos, an opportunity to have our voices heard.  Your contributors have submitted information that is vital in educating all of us about our history. Each issue gets better and better.  
Best wishes, always,  Lorri Frain
lorri.frain@lmco.com

Have you sent your URL to Ken Burns yet? 
Seriously, though, your website is a welcome 
contribution to the internet...and Hispanics.
Congratulations.

Francisco A. Espinoza
Agricultural Business Enhancement Center        
Bowling Green, OH  43402
espinoza.9@cfaes.osu.edu

Please permit me to subscribe to your 
enjoyable site and publications.
Rachael Moreno
Laingsburg, Michigan 48848
morenofarm@peoplepc.com  

I have just found this marvelous resource. 
Please include me in the monthly mailing list. 
Mil gracias,
Dr. Cruz C. Torres
Professor Emeriti
Texas A&M University
College Station, TX
cctorres@ag.tamu.edu

Estimada Ms. Mimi Lozano, 
Con mucho gusto veo el gran trabajo que han venido haciendo. Cosa curiosa comparto el interes de ustedes por el estudio de los ancestros.
 
Deduzco que el Lozano de ustedes proviene de Mexico, el mi madre (Lozano) de Cuba y bisabuelos de Aragon, Espana.  Yo vivo en Miami, Florida desde hace algunos anos, naci en Venezuela. 
 
Un gran saludo prima, me encanta haber hecho contacto con ustedes.  
lozanoclem@hotmail.com  

...................................

UNITED STATES

 

An Illegal Immigrant Turned Brain Surgeon -- 
With His Own Two Hands 
by Max Alexander 
from Reader's Digest



Unsure of his destiny in Mexico , Alfredo Quiñones-Hinojosa jumped the fence to illegally enter The United States. Today he saves American lives as a brain surgeon. Photographed by Chris Hartlove

https://www.rd.com/offer/rd/current/rdnavsubscribe.
jsp?trkid=rdcom_article_top

He was an illegal immigrant making a living picking tomatoes. 
Now Alfredo Quiñones-Hinojosa excels in a different field—
as a top brain surgeon

Hopping the Fence

The hot sun seared his skin as Alfredo Quiñones-Hinojosa bent in the field to pick tomatoes. It was work few Americans would do for just $155 a week, and most of his co-workers on this 10,000-acre farm in central California were, like Quiñones, illegal Mexican immigrants. It was a grim existence: He lived in a decrepit truck camper -- without the truck -- in the middle of a field.

One day the farm owner's son came by. "He looked at us like we were less than dirt," recalls Quiñones. Other workers were only too happy to be disdained by wealthy Americans who could have them deported, but not Quiñones. He carried an English dictionary in his pocket and studied it every day. He was studying to become an American.

It had been a year since Quiñones jumped the fence in Calexico. His cousin was supposed to be waiting for him on the American side. Instead he was met by the U.S. Border Patrol. Half an hour later, Quiñones was back in Mexico .

Figuring the border police would never expect the same guy to cross in the same spot on the same night, he went over the fence again. This time, his cousin was there. Quiñones hopped in his car, and the two roared off into the night toward El Centro . It was January 2, 1987, Quiñones's 19th birthday.

The oldest of Sostenes Quiñones and Flavia Hinojosa's five children, Alfredo began work at age five, pumping gas at his father's Pemex station, where the family also lived, on a dusty road 37 miles south of the border town of Mexicali. It was hard work, but Quiñones didn't mind. He also got to drive the cars now and then, perching on a stack of pillows.

By Mexican standards, the Quiñones family was almost middle-class. But in 1976 the Mexican government devalued the peso, throwing the country into turmoil. "We lost everything, just like that," Quiñones says with a snap of his fingers. "I remember going to the back of the house to find my father crying."

Sostenes turned to his brothers, who were working in the United States as migrant farmworkers. They supplied the family with sacks of potatoes and beans. Quiñones helped bring in extra money by working at a taco stand.

Still, he kept up with school. "My father kept telling me, 'You want to be like me? Just never go to school.' And I was not going to follow the same path." At age 14, Quiñones qualified for an accelerated program in Mexicali that prepared students for jobs as elementary school teachers. Each morning, he rose at 4:30 to take a bus to the school. There was no bus home in the afternoon, so he hitchhiked -- or walked -- in the blistering heat.

He graduated near the top of his class. But because his family had no political connections, he says, he was assigned a teaching job at a remote school far down the Baja peninsula. "I wasn't willing to put up with that injustice," he says.

Shortly after, he decided to leave Mexico in search of better options. He had been to America twice before, doing summer labor. So on his arrival, Quiñones headed with his cousin for the San Joaquin Valley to work in the fields. "I picked tomatoes, cauliflower, broccoli, corn, grapes."

After a year, he had saved $8,000 -- almost all of his pay. "I ate what I was picking," he says. "I wore the same pair of jeans the whole year."

When Quiñones looked up from the dirt, the best job he could see was driving the big tractors. The drivers were skilled, and they supervised crews. He was told it took ten years of fieldwork to land such a promotion, but Quiñones was soon behind the wheel of sophisticated plows and ditchdiggers. He learned how to service the engines and qualified for a temporary work permit. "I had that hunger in my gut," he says.

Livin' La Vida Loca

A few months later, Quiñones told his cousin he was going to leave the farm. His response was, "What are you talking about? If you keep working here, one day you'll be the foreman!"

"Sometimes you have to be willing to risk," Quiñones said.

He moved to Stockton and took a job in a rail yard so he could attend night school at San Joaquin Delta College , learning English. His first job, shoveling sulfur, was the worst of his life -- smelly and filthy. Once again, he scrambled to acquire new skills, this time as a welder repairing valves on tank cars. Within a year, he'd become a foreman.

With his English improving, Quiñones switched to the night shift and began full-time studies in science and math. To make ends meet, he also tutored other students.

One day, outside the school cafeteria, he met Anna Peterson, an American student. "I was fresh out of high school," she says. "Alfredo was this fascinating guy, always in a hurry. He had long, curly hair and earrings. I walked up and introduced myself. We became friends."

After graduating with an associate's degree in 1991, Quiñones was accepted to the University of California , Berkeley . He moved to a low-rent district in Oakland , getting by on a combination of scholarships, loans, a small grant and, as always, work. He became a teacher's assistant in three departments and also took a job at a men's clothing store.

Peterson stopped by the store one afternoon. The two had lost touch, but the reunion was fateful. Soon they fell in love.

Quiñones excelled in the competitive environment of Berkeley, getting straight A's in advanced classes, writing his honors thesis on the role of drug receptors in the brain and teaching calculus on the side -- not that he paid much attention to his standing. In the spring of 1993, his mentor, Hugo Mora, looked over his transcripts and told him he stood a good chance of getting into Harvard Medical School . "I thought," recalls Quiñones, "number one, this guy is very nice, and number two, he's clearly living la vida loca." Quiñones had been to a doctor only once in his life.

Then he thought some more. "My grandmother was a curandera, a town healer," he says. "I saw the respect that she had. I decided to give it a shot."

Harvard accepted him, and Quiñones moved East in the fall of 1994. Peterson followed, and they married in '96. A year later, Quiñones became a U.S. citizen. "I'm sitting there, ten years after hopping the fence, and it hits me how fast I came up."

Quiñones says he understands why people might resent him for entering the country illegally. His only excuse is that he was a brash and desperate teenager. "The last thing I was thinking was that I was going to break the law," he says. Once he arrived, Quiñones says, the United States "opened its doors to me" -- a welcome, he adds, that would be unlikely today given the heated immigration debate. He offers no solution but suggests it will not come from higher walls. "As long as there is poverty in our neighboring countries, there will continue to be this influx."

Quiñones gave the commencement address when he graduated from Harvard Medical School and continued his training, in neurosurgery, at the University of California , San Francisco . It was an exciting but daunting prospect. Could an illegal Mexican fieldworker become a brain surgeon? It didn't seem possible.

Residency turned out to be a low point in Quiñones's American journey. "Neurosurgery has been reserved for people who come from a long pedigree of medicine," he says carefully. "It's rare that you have someone like me go into this highly demanding field, where lots of patients die." He'd experienced prejudice before -- the farm owner's son who looked right through him, a former girlfriend whose mother disdained him for his nationality. "They just ignited my fire even more," he says.

He admits there were times, working 130 hours a week for $30,000 a year, when he considered quitting. "I felt what my father felt, not being able to put food on the table for my family," he says. "But I had a dream."



A grateful grandmother embraces Dr. Q after surgery on patient Maggie Bull.  
Photographed by Stephanie Kuykendal


"Are we ready to rock and roll?" Dr. Quiñones, now 40, sits on the edge of a patient's bed. It's a Friday morning at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center in Baltimore , and this will be Quiñones's second brain surgery patient of the day. The woman, who's in her 60s, has two tumors; one is in the highly sensitive part of the cortex that controls motor movements. Quiñones holds her hand and looks into her eyes. "I walk a fine line every day between good and bad outcomes, and bad outcomes can mean life or death," he tells her frankly. "Also, there is a chance that you will be paralyzed on the right side." She nods. Dr. Q, as everyone calls him, believes patients deserve both compassion and honesty. "That is the risk," he concludes. "So we're set. You and I have a date."

An hour later, in operating room five, surrounded by six attendants and an anesthesiologist, Dr. Q cuts through the woman's scalp to expose her skull. Using a whirring tool, he carves out a two-inch-wide section of bone and pops it off like a manhole cover. He carefully cuts back the dura, a leathery layer of tissue under the skull, and the brain is exposed.


Dr. Q specializes in a high-tech form of brain surgery called motor mapping, in which an electrical stimulator is used to locate sensitive areas. "Let's have complete silence, please," he says, and the room falls quiet. He touches the stimulator to the brain surface, and the woman's arm twitches -- a spot to avoid. Eventually he determines a safe path to the tumor, which he painstakingly removes, piece by piece, with an electrical forceps that cauterizes as it dissects.           The doctor conducts brain motor mapping.
                                                                      Photographed by Stephanie Kuykendal

The four-and-a-half-hour procedure goes well -- the patient comes to with no loss of motor function -- and Dr. Q is ecstatic. "Holy guacamole, that was a great day!" he says, shedding surgical garb as he heads to a meeting with the family of a man who recently suffered a massive brain hemorrhage.

Although Dr. Quiñones is a relatively young doctor, his colleagues are already impressed. "Not only is he a talented and conscientious surgeon, but he's very sensitive to the needs of patients," says Dr. Henry Brem, director of neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins. "And he's a joyous person -- full of enthusiasm and the mission to do good for the world."

It's now after seven, and Dr. Q has been working for 12 hours. Other surgeons are going home for the weekend, but he is headed for his research laboratory in downtown Baltimore . The lab is an extension of his operating room: Cancerous tissue that he removes in surgery is studied with the goal of finding new therapies. "One hope is that we can make brain cancer a bit more chronic, like diabetes, instead of a devastating lethal disease," he explains.

Dr. Q joins more than a dozen med students and residents from around the world at a table with a projector. Over Chinese food cartons, they present and discuss studies with titles like "A Functional Role for EGFR Signaling in Myelination and Remyelination." The work is serious, but after a full day of surgery, the meetings give Dr. Q a chance to unwind.

The following afternoon, many of the students show up at Dr. Q's home for a Tex-Mex cookout. The house, in a suburban subdivision, is spacious but hardly palatial; several rooms have no furniture, though toys are everywhere. The doctor's hectic schedule means little time relaxing with his three children -- Gabriella, eight, David, six, and Olivia, two -- so today he dotes on them.


                                        Quiñones-Hinojosa plays at home with his family.
                                                 Photographed by Stephanie Kuykendal


Work is never far from home. Recently, Dr. Q removed a chest tumor from Gabriella's pet hamster, Theodore. "It was very aggressive, and I wanted to give him a chance," he says.

Meanwhile, his BlackBerry chirps constantly with hospital and lab updates. Anna, 35, smiles. "I'm not one of those clingy, needy wives who have to talk to their husbands 50 times a day," she says. "I run the house completely."

Except the grill on the back porch, where Dr. Q is flipping tortillas. "I think my background allows me to interact with my patients in a more humanistic way," he says. "When they're scared, I'm one of them. I'm just lucky that patients allow me to touch their brains, their lives. When I go in, I see these incredible blood vessels. And it always brings me back to the time I used to pick those huge, beautiful tomatoes with my own hands. Now I am here, looking at the same color -- that bright red that just fills the brain with nutrition and wonder. I'm right there in the field, and I'm just doing it."

Sent by JV Martinez   jvmart@verizon.net

The American GI Forum

MESSAGE FROM YOUR FOUNDER DR. GARCIA
by his daughter 
Daisy Wanda Garcia

50 New Forum Chapters Goal for 1949, Dr. Hector P. Garcia Says: 

The establishment of 50 new chapters of the American GI Forum during 1949 is the goal of the local (and original) American GI Forum, Dr. Hector P,. Garcia, president stated this week.

Reviewing the past years activities, Dr. Garcia emphasized that veterans "should stick together and resolve to make the American GI Forum the strongest veterans organization in Texas."

Dr. Garcia whose dynamic personality and leadership has earned him the following of some 10,000 war veterans in some 12 cities, emphasized that he would continue to work toward the expansion of the Forum "despite the criticism of some elements and at time poor health."

The Forum has gained almost statewide proportions since the first chapter was organized here in April, 1948

Reporting on conditions as hw saw them in such West Texas towns as Lubbock and Big Spring, where Forums were organized last year, Dr. Garcia said.

Thre are veterans in that part of the country who do not even know there is such a thing as a service officer, who are totally ignorant of the benefits of the GI Bill of Right and what's worse those that do know do not attempt to help them!"

"Our work lies largely in those territories were such conditions exist, there is much to be done in seeing that; the lot of ALL the veterans is improved if possible."

Dr. Garcia traced the progress made by the Forum its inception. The Forum, he said, has established trade and academic schools in fifteen towns, has successfully lobbied for representation in the draft boards, has taken the initiative in the elimination of such-un-American practices as segregation of citizens of Mexican extraction.

Also, he said, the Forum has ?really started somethin" in sponsoring back-to-school drives in various sections of Texas; has taken part in civic duties and contributed ot all worthy community funds.

Another important phase of the Forum program was uncapped the first of the year when pay-your-poll tax campaigns were pushed in every town and city where Forums are established, he concluded.

He expressed satisfaction at the progress made but warned against letting up, adding that "we must constantly strive to improve the social; economic and welfare condition of the veterans and their families".

Dr. Jose Manuel de la Rosa and the Paul L. Foster School of Medicine
By Margarita Velez

“El Paso is not behind rather; El Paso is ahead of the rest of the country in regards to addressing border health needs.  We are alone out here, isolated geographically, financially, and culturally, and we get more done here than anywhere else.”    Dr. Jose Manuel de la Rosa .

Dr. Jose Manuel de la Rosa is the Founding/Regional Dean for the Paul L. Foster School of Medicine at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in El Paso .  A native of El Paso , Dr. de la Rosa attended parochial schools, and graduated from Cathedral High School and Notre Dame University .  He also graduated from Texas Tech University medical and residence schools.  

“When I first signed up for medical school; we didn’t have a whole lot of money; I wasn’t the smartest person in the world, so I didn’t have scholarships.  I signed up for the National Health Science Corps, where you can get an Army captain’s salary, a stipend to live on, and the NHSC paid for all my books and supplies, in return I had to go wherever they sent me.”   

After graduation from Texas Tech Medical School , Dr. de la Rosa interviewed in a number of places, and while in Chicago , he was asked one question, “Do you speak Romanian?”  His negative response ended the interview.  Returning in El Paso , he asked the Texas Tech Director of Admissions, “Why would they fly me across the country and ask only one question?” She said, “What are you doing in Chicago , you belong here.”  Within two months, de la Rosa was hired by Centro Medico Del Valle, a NHSC site in Fabens, Texas , a few miles east of El Paso .   

“I graduated as a fully trained physician, and they (NHSC) were going to send to me Fabens, pues que suave!”  Dr. de la Rosa says with a smile. “I did my three years in Fabens, where I would get visiting residents and medical students, and I would talk to them about the colonias, and teach them about pediatrics.”  Colonias are rural communities found in Texas , New Mexico , Arizona and California which often lack the basic necessities like running water, electricity, and paved roads.  Texas has the most colonias, with close to 3,000 located along the state’s 1,250 mile border with Mexico .    

While serving in Fabens, a group of nursing students from UTEP was brought out for a rotation.  “At that time I was serving the community in a little trailer, which the students thought that it was rather quaint.”  After working with the colonias residents, Dr. de la Rosa became a spokesman for them as they sought city water rights.  He also spoke for them in the discussion for the Texas Colonias Water Rights Bill.  

After his three year obligation with NHSC, Dr. de la Rosa stayed in Fabens and worked with a Kellogg Foundation that taught nurses, doctors, social workers, anthropologists how to work in the rural areas.  After ten years, the Kellogg funding ended, and the Centro Medico del Valle began running the clinics.  When the Centro Medico del Valle ran into financial difficulties, the clinics were taken over by UTEP and Texas Tech.  Today, Texas Tech still runs the Community Partnership Clinics.  

“I got good solid training at Texas Tech, but it didn’t prepare me for practicing on the border.  I had seen patients coming over with their medicine from Juarez, but as a clinician I had never thought that patients could get some of the prescriptions filled in Juarez for a dollar.”  The Fabens clinics stayed open late, but by the time the doctor saw a patient and gave him a prescription, the local pharmacies were closed.  Patients were used to making the trip across the border to the Mexican pharmacists, who filled it for less.   

Dr. de la Rosa, “Little by little, I started going over to Caseta, across the border from Fabens, and getting to know the Mexican system.  I would work with a doctor who was doing his ‘servicío social’ in Caseta, down the river, and in all sorts of other places.  Once I got to know that system, I got very involved in the public health system.”   

Dr. de la Rosa says the Kellogg experience helped him to learn about border health.   “Infectious disease doesn’t recognize borders,” he says, and described how he designed an experimental curriculum in community medicine.  That curriculum became a model for national teaching efforts in cultural sensitivity, cultural awareness, and cultural competence in medicine.   

After being named Regional Dean for the School of Medicine at TTUHS Center-El Paso, Dr. de la Rosa says, “I saw the needs of the community and knew that the answer lay in bringing the school to El Paso .” He set a goal to bring a full-fledged four year medical school campus. He admits that at first his staff and others in the community expressed doubt about his plan. But, he convinced everybody, and ten years later, Dr. de la Rosa who made the dream come true, credits many people in the community for joining in the effort to make the school a reality.  He says contributions came in many forms; from the people who donated the land for the school, to the foundations and hospitals that made donations that demonstrated the community’s commitment, to the nurses who pooled their resources to endow a chair.  Paul Foster of the El Paso based Western Refinery donated fifty million dollars for the school that now bears his name.   

In February 2008, the Liaison Committee for Medicine Education, the nationally recognized authority for medical education programs that lead to M. D. degrees in the U. S. and Canada , accredited the Paul L. Foster School of Medicine.  The school will enroll the first four year class in 2009.   Already, the school boasts several endowed chairs, and Dr. de la Rosa envisions more in the future.     

In 2005, Dr. de la Rosa was appointed by President Bush to serve on the U. S. – Mexico Health Commission.  “The Commission allows me to forge alliances not only with El Paso , but all along the border, and understanding the different systems.   One of the things we’re working with now is forging relationships between universities, exchanging residents and students whether it’s Arizona – Sonora , El Paso – Ciudad. Juarez; Nuevo Leon , Tamaulipas, and UT San Antonio and Pan American.  So the Border Health Commission has been a good opportunity to really explore getting communication going.” Dr. de la Rosa is an active participant in community based research for the study on H. Pylori infection in children along the US-Mexico border. 

Dr. de la Rosa, a husband and father of six children, is an excellent role model who speaks quietly but has much to say.  When asked what advice he would give a student entering high school, he thought for a moment before responding.  “I would say ‘Read everything you can, take all the hard subjects, like Calculus, and learn to speak Spanish.’”  He says speaking Spanish helped him in treating patients in the colonias and continues to serve him in his role with the US – Mexico Border Health Commission.   

Dr. de la Rosa serves on many medical associations including the Texas Pediatric Society and the Texas Medical Association’s Council on Medical Education.  He serves on various advisory committees at the University of Texas at El Paso .  

When asked what he envisioned for the Paul Foster School of Medicine in ten years, Dr. de la Rosa’s face lit up, “We will have grown to seven or ten schools, and will become a Health Science Center in El Paso .”  With Dr. de la Rosa at the helm, there is no doubt that he will turn that vision into a reality.   

MARGARITA B. VELEZ
   El Paso, Texas  79904  
email: mbvelez@elp.rr.com 
915/637-5796       

Proprietor Brown Eyed Girl Books & More                                2001 - Present
Retired – Regional Director -  
U. S. Senator Phil Gramm 1985-2002 

Born and educated in El Paso, Margarita has been involved in many agencies and activities throughout the El Paso. 

Paso del Norte Health Foundation, Past Ch Northeast Community Prayer Breakfast  
Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church
Wells Fargo Bank Advisory Committee  
Pres. Northeast Civic Leader’s Council 
Board, Mutual Savings Association 
President, El Paso Council of PTAs 
Secretary, Crime Stoppers of El Paso, Inc.

AWARDS:
Northeast Citizen of the Year     1993
Adelante Mujer Hispana            1982
Nominated El Paso Women’s Hall of Fame  2001  

 PUBLICATIONS: 
 Border Buster
Available at browneyedgirlbooksandmore.com; Amazon.com., and Publishamerica.com
Chicken Soup for the Latino Soup  Available at browneyedgirlbooksandmore.com; Amazon.com Stories from the Barrio and Other ‘Hoods Available at browneyedgirlbooksandmore.com, Amazon.com., iuniverse.com

Special thank you to  Jose Luis Hernandez  who suggested that Dr. de la Rosa's story should be told.  When I called Margarita Velez about writing the article, she said she knew Dr. de la Rosa and would be delighted to do so.  Thanks for sharing.
JoseLuis.Hernandez@us.army.mil

 Latest census information, May 1, 2008
 

MORE PEOPLE WITH HISPANIC LAST NAMES REGISTERING TO VOTE
SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS

Why a Hispanic Veterans Museum? http://www.hispanicveteransmuseum.org/WhyHispanicVetsMuseum.asp

NATIONAL ISSUES

 POPULATION Ethnic UPDATE: 
Hispanic Link, Weekly Report, Vol 26 May 5, 2008
"Your News Source for 26 Years"

To find more family resources visit the Military Spouse Network
http://www.military.com/spousecenter/index.html  .

Camp Addresses Children's Grief
Camp Magik is a Georgia-based camp for children who suffered the loss of a parent. The camp provides around-the-clock access to counseling, including addressing post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which often accompanies grief. At Camp Magik, children enjoy traditional camp activities such as hiking and canoeing while interacting with other children who have also lost a parent. There are three sessions a year with a limit of 50 children per camp. For more information, call  (404) 790-0140 or visit the Camp Magik http://www.campmagik.org/  website.
More information and resources on PTSD
http://www.military.com/benefits/resources/ptsd-overview  .

Videos Help Children Cope with Grief 
Military pediatricians and youth professionals developed videos and DVDs to help military children understand and deal with the emotions related to a family member's deployment. The video "Military Youth Coping with Separation: When Family Members Deploy" addresses a variety of deployment-related concerns for teens. For elementary age children there is
a "Mr. Poe and Friends Discuss Reunion After Deployment" DVD. Both videos are available for online viewing on the American Academy of Pediatrics Deployment Support website
http://www.aap.org/sections/uniformedservices/deployment/videos.html .
.
They are also available for ordering, in DVD format, through Military One Source at               1-800-342-9647  or at the Military One Source
website http://www.militaryonesource.com/skins/MOS/home.aspx .

To find more family resources visit the Military Spouse Network
http://www.military.com/spousecenter/index.html  .

Lori Reynolds, Executive Director
Iowa Federation of Families for Children's Mental Health
Anamosa,  Iowa  52205
319-462-2187  Lori@iffcmh.org  www.iffcmh.org


Sent by Willis Papillion
willis35@embarqmail.com

 

MANIFEST DESTINIES: 
THE MAKING OF THE MEXICAN AMERICAN RACE
by UNM Law Professor, Laura Gomez

ACTION ITEMS

May 6th Benefit Screening of "Border" Documentary 
Raises 10K for Ramos and Compean Families to Heighten Defense

Tuesday’s event at  L.A.’s Skirball Cultural Center featured a panel discussion on possible solutions to America’s failed immigration policy with Mexico              

     (Los Angeles, May 8, 2008)  Tuesday night’s screening of the new documentary BORDER at the Skirball Cultural Center in Brentwood, raised over $10,000 for the beleaguered families of jailed U.S. Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Joseph Compean.   KFI radio personalities Ken Chiampou and John Kobylt presented the check to T.J. Bonner, President of the National Border Patrol Council, which will earmark the funds directly to the legal defense of the agents. 

     Following the screening of the film which presents a disturbing portrait of how dangerous the U.S./Mexican border has become to both U.S. and Mexican citizens, Bonner joined BORDER filmmaker Chris Burgard, Tara Setmayer, communications director for U.S. Congressman Dana Rohrabacher and Somos Primos editor and chief, Mimi Lozano for a spirited debate on the current state of the border.

     When asked by Burgard how those who advocate border security can avoid being referred to as racists (a key problem in the on-going debate on securing the border), Lozano recommended that young Hispanics need to learn their own history and how it is so intertwined with that of non-Hispanics.  “How can you separate two cultures that are so much a part of each other? Lozano asked. “Through inter-marriage and assimilation over the centuries, Hispanics are related  to every racial and ethnic group in the country.  This isn’t a United States versus Mexico issue, it’s about getting the two governments together to realize how dangerous the border has become to both countries.”  

     Also attending the sold-out event were Mr. and Mrs. Jamiel Shaw, parents of slain high  school football star Jamiel Shaw, members of the executive board of the National Border Patrol Council and representatives from a number of immigration reform organizations.

(Contact: Steven Jay Rubin at (213) 300-1896)  

 
Guy Gabaldon (right) poses in a group that includes Japanese prisoners in 1944. U.S. Marine Corps  

National Public Radio  
Filmmaker: Pacific War Hero Deserved Higher Honor by Richard Gonzales  
Listen Now [6 min 41 sec] add to playlist http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89917992&sc=emaf  

Morning Edition, April 25, 2008 · In 1944, during the bloody fighting for control of the Western Pacific island of Saipan, Marine Pvt. Guy Gabaldon single-handedly captured more than 1,000 Japanese soldiers — a feat never before accomplished in U.S. military history. His secret weapon: the diminutive Mexican American spoke Japanese. Two years after his death, a documentary questions why he wasn't awarded a Medal of Honor.

Gabaldon learned Japanese growing up among Japanese Americans in East Los Angeles during the Depression.

"My ability to speak Japanese was very limited," Gabaldon told NPR in 2000. "But it wasn't difficult to say, 'Raise your hands and come on out.' At night I'd usually go to caves — Saipan is just full of caves — and I'd get to one side of the mouth of the cave and I'd say, 'You are completely surrounded. I've got a bunch of Marines here with me behind the trees. If you don't surrender, I'll have to kill you.' And usually it worked. Not always. I'd have to throw grenades in and kill. And I'd [capture] maybe 10 or 15, 20 [Japanese soldiers] at a time and one day I got 800."

Gabaldon died in 2006 at age 80. For his war service, he received the Silver Star, which later was upgraded to the Navy Cross. Now, as the memories of his heroics fade with time, the Pentagon is considering awarding him a posthumous Medal of Honor, the nation's highest military recognition. And a Hollywood filmmaker is releasing a new documentary about the World War II hero.

America first learned about Gabaldon in 1957 when he appeared on the popular television show This Is Your Life. That appearance turned the truck driver into an instant hero and Hollywood soon came knocking on his door.

In 1960, Gabaldon's story was turned into a feature film called Hell to Eternity. The movie featured some of the most realistic combat scenes shown up until that time. But it also took certain liberties with Gabaldon's story. The 5-foot-4-inch Marine was portrayed by 6-foot-1 actor Jeffrey Hunter.

"The biggest glitch in the movie is that Guy Gabaldon is portrayed as a Caucasian living with Japanese Americans," says filmmaker Steve Rubin, who has made a documentary about Gabaldon. "That was completely inaccurate. His Hispanic heritage, his ethnicity, his whole background, was obliterated and plays no reference in the movie."

Rubin was just a kid when he saw Hell to Eternity, but the story of the Marine who spoke Japanese always stuck with him. Years later, through a series of coincidences, Rubin met the man himself.

"I get a phone call at home around 8:30 at night and lo and behold it's Guy Gabaldon calling me!" Rubin says. "And he was very apologetic and he says I'm sorry to call you so late. And I just say 'Guy!' It's like hearing from Davy Crockett! I was just blown away that I was on the telephone with one of my childhood heroes."

The two men became friends and Rubin eventually produced a documentary about Gabaldon called East L.A. Marine. One of the central questions he asks is why Gabaldon was passed over for the Medal of Honor.

The Pentagon is reviewing the cases of about 80 Hispanic and Jewish-American World War II soldiers to determine whether they should be awarded the Medal of Honor. A spokesman confirms that Gabaldon is among them.

Related NPR Stories  ·       
 Sep. 5, 2006 : Guy Gabaldon, 'Pied Piper of Saipan,' Dies at 80 
 May 29, 2000 : 'Talk of the Nation:' A Multicultural View of War

Mailing address: Defend the honor, P.O. Box 7907 Austin, TX78713

Legacy of Valor : Patriotic Photo Mural Display 

Mexican Heritage Plaza from May 16-June 16, 2008
Hispanic Medal of Honor Society
50-foot display, 15 years in development will be at the 
Mexican Heritage Plaza, 1704 Alum Rock Avenue, San Jose, California 

It's a beautiful display and has been featured in major conferences. Learn about the 41 Hispanic Medal of Honor recipients from the Civil War to the Vietnam War and the six Navy ships named after Medal of Honor recipients.  
For more information, contact HMoHS,

 President Rick Leal at GGR1031@aol.com

Defenders and Offenders 
Nominations for Defenders and Offenders of the Honor are being sought. The purpose is to find those that have been outstanding in their efforts to defend the honor of Hispanics veterans who served during WWII.  In addition,  Defend the Honor wants to  compile a list of offenders.  Ken Burns naturally will be on the top of that list. Nominations will be taken through July 4th.   

A Latino Museum in DC?
The Bill to begin the process of establishing a Latino Museum another step closer to reality.  Don't sit back.  It is a far from being done.  Be sure and contact your U.S. Senators and Assemblyman/women. 
 
Cartoon Contest
The Southern California Defend the Honor group seeks to leverage the artistic creativity of our talented cartoonists.  The goal is to educate the public at large by showcasing cartoons that address the issues raised concerning the neglect, omission, distortions, and demeaning of the contributions of Latinos in the US Military Armed Forces.  The cartoons may be sent to you editor:  mimilozano@aol.com

A book Club of our Own
Las Comadres Para Las Americas has teamed up with the ssociation of American Publishers and Borders to create a Latino book club that will meet at select Borders stores in eight states. The club will select and read an English-language book by a Latina or Latino

The 2008 selections are listed below.
June: A Handbook to Luck by Cristina Garcia (Vintage)
July: The King’s Gold by Yxta Maya Murray (HarperCollins)
August: Mexican Enough by Stephanie Elizondo Griest (Washington Square Press)
September: More Than This by Margo Candela (Fireside)
October: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz (Riverhead)
November: The Gifted Gabaldon Sisters by Lorraine Lopez (Grand Central)
December: And Their Dogs Came With Them by Helena Maria Viramontes (Washington Square Press)

List of books sent by Armando Rendon, Ph.D.  armandorendon@sbcglobal.net

BUSINESS

Google, LULAC, and the US Hispanic Chamber of Commerce 

 Axis of Global Inequality: Native and Immigrant Workers
NEWS BYTES FROM HERE AND THERE
(SECOND OF TWO PARTS)
Guest Columnist: William I. Robinson

Source: Vol 26, No. 19 HispanicLink.org May 12, 2008
Interim Editor: Charlie Erickson

EDUCATION

Spring Commencement, May 16, 2008

Sarah Marie Acuña pictured with Texas A&M University-Kingsville 
President Dr. Rumaldo Juarez and State Senator Eddie Lucio.

About Sarah Marie Acuna:
1) Just turned 22 on 7th May
2) Jr.High…Varsity volleyball…Cheerleader
3) A Gymnast from age 8 until a Freshman in HS.  8 ft. fall when she missed a bar in a  tournament in Dallas, Tx.  Received crack on her back. Pediatrician recommended that she end her gymnastic career.  She had made All State in Gymnastics League. 
4) High school…Cheerleader 4 yrs.  All American Cheerleader Jr. & Sr. year.  
5) Jr. Year…Leadership Seminar in Wash, DC & Chicago, Ill.
6) University… Cheerleader Freshman yr. Voluntarily dropped at end of season because of back sprain over the cracked back.  She also advised sponsor at the time she was from a one parent family and needed to work and concentrate on her studies. The sponsor thanked Sarah and told her if she decided to come back anytime during her college career she had a place without another tryout.
7) Jr. Year attended one summer semester at Oxford University in London, England.
8) Sr. Year…asked by University of Colorado to be a Student Counselor for  for their Leadership Seminars; also attended the Lyndon B. Johnson Politcal Science School for one session at Texas University @ Austin, Tx. Finally, the last semester of her Sr.Year attended a session at the University in the Capital City of India.  She was one of six students chosen from the Local University.|
9) May 16, 2008, Sarah Marie Acuna graduated fromTexas A & M @          Kingsville (TAMUK) with a BA Degree in Political Science. Sarah graduated SUMMA CUM LAUDE.

Sarah is a product of the Kingsville Independent School District and  the Local University.   Several Universities offered Sarah a scholarship for her Master's Degree, amongst them Texas U.@ Austin, Texas and Texas A &M @ College Station @ (Bryan, Texas).  Sarah has chosen to go to A & M For her Master's. 

Gracias Mil, Raul G. Garza  
raulgarzasr78363@hotmail.com     

Road Ahead

Claremont Graduate University
Commencement Address

May 17, 2008

      Richard Tapia, Ph.D.  

                                      

'First teachers' go to class
TERRY COLLINS, Star Tribune
612-673-1790

The single mom, who is staying in a Minneapolis shelter, was helping daughter Jamila, 13, with a science project on the endangered Hawaiian monk seal and encouraging son Kenyon, 4, to keep scribbling his name. She was doing so after a full week of classes at Century College in White Bear Lake and two parent-education classes piloted by the Minneapolis school district, one for each child.

But fatigue would have to wait. "Yeah, it's hard," said Wash , 33. "But I'm trying to make a better life for them."

Wash is determined to make good use of the Minneapolis district's six-week program for parents who want to improve their children's school performance and plan for their postsecondary education.

More than 400 families signed up for the Minneapolis Schools' Connecting Parents to Educational Opportunities (CPEO) program, hoping to complete the course and take advantage of an alluring incentive: If a participant's child graduates from a Minneapolis high school and is admitted to either the University of Minnesota or Minneapolis Community and Technical College (MCTC) and qualifies for federal Pell Grant funding, that child will be awarded a scholarship to cover tuition at either school.

On Week One, which started on April 14, only half of the families enrolled in the course showed up. District staffers speculated that some felt an antagonism toward school dating back to their own childhoods.

But by last week, after a flurry of phone calls by district staffers and supportive parents who'd attended the inaugural class, attendance rose at the four participating elementary schools: Andersen, Lucy Laney, Nellie Stone Johnson and Sullivan.

Steering a course for college

Class topics include how parents can interact with their children's teachers, create a positive learning environment at home and build their children's self-esteem. Parents also must map out an academic plan that steers their kids toward college.

The Minneapolis model came from the Parent Institute for Quality Education (PIQE), a 20-year-old San Diego organization that teaches parents how to be more assertive with their kids' learning.

Parents are a child's "first teachers," said David Valladolid, the institute's president. Even before enrolling their kids in preschool, parents should tell their children that they will help them reach their full academic potential, he said.

"These children see the world through their parents' eyes," Valladolid said. "You must not be cynical about their education. You must be encouraging, instill self-esteem. Tell them that college is an expectation, not an exception, a maybe, or an 'I don't think so.'"

A track record of success

More than 400,000 families in California , Arizona and Texas have completed the program since 1987, Valladolid said. That success was among the reasons Minneapolis chose the program, said Eleanor Coleman, the district's student support chief. The U and MCTC subsequently signed on as partners.

This year's pilot costs about $30,000 to operate. The district hopes to expand the program to more schools next year, pending a grant and partners to help subsidize child care, food and transportation.

After recently visiting the Minneapolis sites, Valladolid said everybody was enthusiastic.

So far, the classrooms have been abuzz. Whether facilitators are speaking English, Spanish, Hmong or Somali, the energy and subject matter are the same.

"Language should not be a barrier. We're telling them to stick it out," said Marisol Gutierrez, who teaches a class of Hispanic parents at Johnson.

"If we can get parents more involved with teachers, administration and even with each other, it strengthens the schools as a whole," said Damon Gunn, a district program coordinator. "If students don't have the help at home, then we're fighting an uphill battle."

The reinforcement she gets is why Wash goes to class at both Andersen and Johnson, where Jamila, an eighth-grader, and Kenyon, a preschooler, attend, respectively.

"I need all the support I can get," she said.

Boosting kids' self-esteem

Wash was among the more vocal participants in her class of nearly 20 parents on a recent Wednesday night at Johnson. She brought along a friend, Angela Butler, whose 11-year-old daughter is a fifth-grader at the school.

The topic: fostering self-esteem. The ebullient bunch shared strategies on how to motivate their kids and set priorities, alternating between serious dialogue and banter.

Wash said that when her daughter was teased and called "big head" because she was among the tallest and brightest in her class, she told her to say, "That's because I have a lot of knowledge and I'm going somewhere, baby!"

The class laughed and cheered.

Up next, a group exercise. Wash and Butler gave grades to "Anthony," who was profiled on paper as an underachieving third-grader who does and says little in class.

They debate. All F's? D's? They gave him a mixture, rounding out to about a 1.3 grade-point average.

Anthony has very low self-esteem, they conclude, and his parents must meet his teachers. Immediately.

"We can't write him off like that. He's too young," said Wash to applause from other parents. She smiled.

"See you next week?" facilitator Nicole Randolph later asked Wash.

"I'll be here," she said.

Article sent by David Valladolid, President & CEO
Parent Institute for Quality Education
4010 Morena Blvd., Suite 200
San Diego, CA 92117
Tel: (858) 483-4499  Fax: (858) 483-4646
Cell: (619) 884-2218
dvalladolid@piqe.org
www.piqe.org

 "Education either... is used to facilitate integration of the younger generation into the logic of the present system and bring about conformity, or it becomes the practice of freedom, the means by which men and women deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world."     --Paulo Freire

BILINGUAL EDUCATION

Book: Manufacturing hope and despair: 
the school and kin support networks of 
U.S-Mexican youth 

by Ricardo D. Stanton-Salazar

By N.C. Aizenman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 1, 2008; A02

"Hispanics have both a larger proportion of people in their child-bearing years and tend to have slightly more children," said Jeffrey S. Passel, senior demographer at the Pew Hispanic Center and co-author of a recent study predicting that the Latino population will double from 15 percent today to 30 percent by 2050.

Hispanics account for more than half of children younger than 5 in New Mexico and California, where their share of the overall state population is 44 and 36 percent, respectively. In Texas, Arizona, Nevada and Colorado, about one-third or more of children younger than 5 are Hispanic.

The figures are less dramatic but still notable in Virginia and Maryland. In both states, Hispanics account for 11 percent of children younger than 5 -- and 7 and 6 percent of the overall population, respectively.  Although the census is not scheduled to release county-level data until later in the year, statistics compiled by Washington-area school systems indicate that the number of youngsters who are Latino is even higher in the Maryland and Virginia suburbs. In Montgomery County, for instance, Hispanics make up 14 percent of residents and 22 percent of public school students. In Fairfax County, Hispanics account for 13 percent of residents and 17 percent of students.

Many researchers warn that the higher-than-average poverty rate of U.S.-born Latino children and the fact that many are raised by immigrant parents pose particular challenges to their education and integration.

"Based on what we know, many in this population may not be growing up speaking English in their homes," said Margie McHugh, co-director of the National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy at the Migration Policy Institute in Washington. In a recent study, McHugh found that 75 percent of limited-English-proficient students in Los Angeles County elementary schools were born in the United States.

Adding to the difficulties facing such children, McHugh said, is the fact that Latinos are increasingly moving to states and counties where they have not been historically concentrated.

"Because of the accountability requirements in the No Child Left Behind law, many of these states and localities have already been thinking hard about how to serve these children," she said. "But the gap between the services they have in place and what's needed is quite large."

The shifts in focus and resources that local school systems make to address the needs of growing Latino and immigrant populations can arouse concern and resentment among other residents, said Audrey Singer, a researcher with the Brookings Institution who has studied new immigrant gateway states.  "Schools are often on the frontline for debate in communities because they are on the leading edge of change," Singer said. "People who might not otherwise have an opinion take notice when the schools begin to change."

Database editor Dan Keating contributed to this report.
© 2008 The Washington Post Company
 Sent by Howard Shorr  howardshorr@msn.com  

CELEBRATING HISPANIC HERITAGE MONTH

U.S. LATINO PATRIOTS

By 
Refugio I. Rochín, Ph.D., University of California, Davis/Santa Cruz
Lionel Fernandez, Ph.D.
With the assistance of Jose Alonso Oliveros

U.S. LATINO PATRIOTS
From the American Revolution to Iraq 2003 - An Overview

By Refugio I. Rochín, Ph.D.
Lionel Fernandez, Ph.D.
With the assistance of Jose Alonso Oliveros

Abstract of a 58 page docoument that can be downloaded in its entirety: 

http://works.bepress.com/refugio_rochin/3/

This book, the first in the Julian Samora Research Institute’s E-Book Series, seeks to inform a popular audience that there have been Latino Patriots in all major wars in United States history. Thus investigators interest in the history of patriots must consider the roles that Latinos have played.

Professors Refugio Rochín and Lionel Fernández consider theirs an exploratory work, for the topic has not been investigated in great depth. Rochín and Fernández emphasize the need for additional research and the creation of more archival and oral collections that document Latino participation in war, valor, and even the term “Latino Patriot” itself.

U.S. Latino Patriots complicates our understanding of Latino identity, evident in many of the stories related in this book. The “Latino Patriots” who receive attention in this work express a particularly strong identification with the nation.

Refugio I. Rochin. "U.S. LATINO PATRIOTS " Julian Samora Research Institute - Michigan State University e-book series (2005): 1-58.  Available for free downloading at: http://works.bepress.com/refugio_rochin/3

For more on Dr. Rochin, go to: http://www.mentornet.net/Documents/Other/Bios/rrochin_bio.aspx

America celebrates Hispanic Heritage Month from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15 each year. 
To recognize the month, this article highlights Hispanic American Airmen during World War II. Hundreds of thousands of Hispanic Americans answered their nation’s call to war, leaving cherished families and communities to help ensure the freedom of future generations. In December 1941, the nation’s cadre of experienced Airmen included Elwood “Pete” Quesada, who later led the IX Fighter Command on D-Day, and Manuel Asensio, the general who later built critical airfields in the China-Burma-India Theater.

The article includes photos of three experience airmen, Elwood "Pete" Quesada, Hector Santa Anna, Harold Valderas.

Sent by Rafael Ojeda, who also sent these two websites of additional study on "Pete" Quesda.  

http://www.aerotechnews.com/Bullseye/Bullseye_100507dbl.pdf
http://www.elknet.pl/acestory/wright/wright.htm

Latino Patriots in American Military History
Patriotas Latinos en la Historia Militar Estadounidense

  Smithsonian Latino Center
http://latino.si.edu/education/latinopatriots.htm
FREE DOWNLOAD, 56 page document 

  
World’s Largest Online Military Film and Video site

http://www.realmilitaryflix.com/
Sent by Bill Carmena JCarm1724

CULTURE

 
San Ysidro Labrador 
Patron Saint of Farmers and Ranchers

"Celebrating the many blessings of our farming heritage in the South Valley"

May 15, 2008

Special thanks to Jane Moorman for the photos and their accompanying text, and also Juan Martinez, Michigan State, University for contacting Dr. Eusbio Gomez, New Mexico State University, who arranged for Jane to share the photo history 
of the occasion. 

  As the patron saint of farmers and ranchers, San Ysidro is one of the most popular saints of the American Southwest where so often a living must be wrenched out of a resisting land.  When problems arise with livestock, crops, or weather, San Ysidro is surely called upon for help.  He is also invoked for protection against bad neighbors.

Born: in 1070 to a poor Spanish family, he became a farm worker for Juan de Vargas at Madrid, remaining there all his life.  He loved to visit various churches on holidays and was often in prayer.  When neighbors complained that Ysidro was not attending to his work, his employer checked and found that an angel was driving two oxen to plow the field so that Ysidro could attend to his devotions.  He often shared what he had with the poor, including his food.

San Ysidro died on May 15, 1130, and forty years after his deaht his body was moved ot a shrine.  He was said to have appeared in a vision to King Alfonso of Castile in 1211 to show him a path to use to defeat the Moors.  His wife, who died several years after he did, is also honored as a saint, Santa Maria de la Cabeza (Maria Toribia).

The patron saint of farmers and farm workers and of Madrid, he is honored on Mary 15.  In the American Southwest on that day, his image is carried through the fields as a blessing for young crops.

Atrisco (Albuquerque), 
New Mexico

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Albuquerque, New Mexico, has not seen a drop of rain since light snow in January.  So for May 15 to be overcast and drizzling seemed to be the answer to many prayers that had been made to San Isidro, the saint to which many farmers turn for blessings in the form or rain, good crops and overflowing harvests.

Atrisco is a community within Albuquerque's borders, which has been in existence since the Spanish settlers followed the Rio Grande (river) from New Spain, now known as Mexico.

Deacon Santo Abeyta opened the ceremony.  Gene Carlos Chavez carried the Holy cross as his  father had before him.

                                                          Johnny Pino and his wife Dianne were this years'
                                                                             Madromas of the Santos.

The procession walked a long the acequia road singing with the guitars. 

Brief Story of San Isidro  
(Press release information)

Isidro’s parents were peasants, extremely poor and could not even afford to send him to school. He was taught at home to be fearful of offending God and to have great love and charity towards his neighbor and a deep appreciation for prayer, Holy Mass and Communion. He was an orphan at age ten and alone in the world Isidro got a job as a laborer in the fields, working for Don Juan de Vargas the owner of a farm near Madrid. He spent many years there, cultivating and harvesting the land. He married a farm girl who also became a saint; she is Santa María de la Cabeza which translates to St. Mary of the Head, not because this was her last name, but because her head is paraded in procession when there are long periods of drought.

Isidro awoke early in the morning and began his day by attending Holy Mass.  Many of his co-workers were envious and accused him of being absent and abandoning his work. Mr. Vargas went to observe the fields. He realized that Isidro arrived an hour later, but while Isidro was at Mass an invisible person, believe to be an angel, took his oxen and ploughed the fields diligently as though the farmer himself were doing the work.

The moors seized Madrid and its surroundings and all the faithful Catholics had to flee.   Isidro as an immigrant suffered for a long time in a place where he did not know anybody. It was very difficult to get a job and meet people who would trust him; but he knew that God had promised in Sacred Scripture, “I will never abandon you.” He trusted in God and never lack in any way.

Whatever he earned as a farmer, Isidro distributed in three parts: for the church, for the poor and for his family.  

First Place 
Traditional Folk Art Award
Archuleta, New Mexico 

   Catherine Robles Shaw   

In these times America has forgot that we were the people who settled the Southwest and deserve much more honor than is bestowed upon us. We like the Indians have suffered greatly under the American rule.

My ancestors strived to live in peace with the indigenous peoples and this is the birth of the Mestizo peoples in our land.

I hope through my artwork that America understands the richness and simplicity of our culture and its deep love of family and faith that was started before Plymouth Rock here.

It is an honor to be included in Somos Primos.

catherine robles shaw  METEPEC
www.catherineroblesshaw.com
303-258-0544

Editor: Do visit her site.  You can view Catherine in the process of producing one of her retablos

 
Cultural Arts Coalition: Dream Act

LITERATURE

A   GOOD   EXAMPLE  -  EL  BUEN  EJEMPLO

By Vicente Riva Palacio

 Translation by Ted Vincent

(This story was first published 1882 in Riva Palacio’s book of literary criticism,  
“Los Ceros,  Galeria de Contemporanos,”  in which fun was had at the expense of the pompous  in intellectual circles.)     

.....................................................................
     I am going to relate an occurrence that happened in the Southern region of our Republic that has truthful witnesses, although they do not believe it.  

    It is the case that in a certain country town there was a school teacher called 
Don Lucas, and it happened that this 
teacher had a parrot in the doorway of  his establishment, who all day was hopping around on his post while, listening to what occurred in the school, and exchanging phrases, more or less amusingly with the children.  

     One day, the parrot, annoyed with his station in life, and perhaps believing that 
he had had enough primary education, rose to fly and in less than a quarter hour he was in the nearby mountains where there was
 an abundance of parrots, parakeets,  cockatoos,  macaws, and all the grand family of birds that were candidates for orators.  

      The pain felt by Don Lucas over the ingratitude of his favorite was, as one can imagine, deep and prolonged; but as there 
is not a pain that time can not cure.  A month latter he no longer thought of the parrot.  

     One day, Don Lucas had the need to travel to the mountain in order to get to nearby villages, and arising early before 
the sun, he saddled his skinny horse,  placed a bread sandwich with a piece of cheese and a bottle of mescal in his saddlebags by his seat and without entrusting himself to God, as Don Quixote, nor to the devil as the do witches,  and choosing the freshest path to trod, he had gone but a short ways before taking a few swigs of the bottle.

     It was around ten in the morning, when passing through the thickest of the forest he began to hear from all sides great shouts  from human sounding voices that said, 
 b, a, n,  ban, b, e, n,  ben, and so successively.  Being a school teacher,  he was annoyed to hear the lettering out came with trivial capriciousness, as if by school children,  and parenthetically he thought to himself perhaps they needed a Herod for their teacher, or a Kansa,  the tyrant of India, according to the books of the Brahmans many centuries before Herod, who had suffered the same problem. As he was muttering, Don Lucas first told himself that this was an hallucination, that he had taken a little too much of the convenient mescal, or that the devil was trying to torment him; but little by little he became convinced that it was real, and that these shouts came from in the trees.  

    He felt himself twisting in circles trying to explain this mystery when suddenly an immense band of parrots crossed rapidly over his head, all of them in chorus, b, a, n, ban;  b, e, n, ben;  and flying alone among them , guiding them, was the ingrate, the parrot deserter, who said with much dignity as he passed by his surprised teacher.  

     “Don Lucas,   now I have a school.”  

    And from this point on, the parrots of the realm, marching through the century, have dispelled the shadows of obscuritanism 
and ignorance.    

     I have had the nerve to make this story
 a fable, and the moral, which, of course, ought to be in verse, is,   “We will be counting on the Lord the day our literati open a school.”  

   Es el caso, que en ese pueblo había un maestro de escuela llamádose Don Lucas, y el cual dicho maestro tenía en la puerta del establecimiento un perico que todo el día estaba dando vueltas en su estaca, oyendo lo que pasaba en la escuela y cambiando frases más o menos graciosas con los muchachos.  

  
 Una mañana, el loro, enfadado de aquella vida, o creyendo quizá que había terminado su educación primaria, levantó el vuelo y en menos de un cuarto de hora estuvo ya en la sierra inmediata y en donde abundaban los loros, los pericos, las cotorras, las guacamayas y toda esa gran familia de pájaros que son candidatos a oradores.  

    
La pena de don Lucas por la ingratitud de su favorito fue, como debe suponerse, honda y prolongada; pero como no hay dolor que el tiempo no cure, al mes no se acordaba ya del perico.  

   Un día Don Lucas tuvo necesidad de atravesar la sierra para ir a una de las poblaciones cercanas;  ensilló su caballo flaco, puso en las cantinas de la silla una torta de pan, un pedazo de queso y una botella con mezcal, y sin encomendarse a Dios como Don Quijote, ni al diablo como las brujas, echó por la vereda aprovechando la fresca para caminar, no sin tomar de cuando en cuando algunos tragos de la botella.  

   
 Serian las diez de la mañana, cuando atravesando por lo más espeso de la selva, empezó a oír por todas partes en grandes gritos, voces como humanas que decían, b, a, n, ban; b, e, n, ben, y así sucesivamente:  como maestro de escuela, fastidiado estaba de oír deletrear y de tratar con muchachos, entre paréntesis, me figuro que los maestros deben tener por patrón a Herodes, aquel que degolló tantos chicos, o a Kansa, aquel tirano de la India que, según cuentan los libros de los Brahamas muchos siglos antes de Herodes, había también tenido el mismo inofensivo capricho.  Pues como iba diciendo don Lucas creyó al principio que aquello era un  alucinación, que había  tomando un poco más de mezcal del que convenía, o que el diablo trataba de martirizarle; pero poco a poco se fue convenciendo de que real y efectivamente aquellos gritos partían de los árboles.  

Loco se volvía tratando de explicarse ese misterio, hasta que repentinamente una inmensa bandaba de loros cruzó sobre su cabeza repitiendo todos en coro: b, a, n,  ban; b, e, n, ben, y detrás de ellos solo, y como cuidándoles, el ingrato, el desertor perico, que con mucha gravedad dijo al pasar junto al asombrado preceptor:  

   “Don Lucas, ya tengo escuela.”  

   Desde ese época los loros de aquella comarca, adelantándose a su siglo han visto disiparse las sombras del oscurantismo y la ignorancia.  

   Yo he tenido ganas de hacer de este cuento una fabulilla, y la moraleja, que por supuesto debe ser en verso, ha de decir: “Dios nos tenga de su mano, el día en que muchos de nuestros literatos abran escuela.”

Luna Plena - Full Moon

 Celestial Prayer-Wheel -  Celeste Rueda de Oración

Enrique Torres Cabral

|

El Gomezpaletino Enríque Torres Cabral
en sus horas de insomnio le da rienda suelta la creatividad

EL SIGLO DE DURANGO: www.elsiglodedurango.com.mx
Por Gerardo Gómez Cano 
Foto: Jorge Valenzuela

El poema más reciente que escribió surgió, como siempre, en una eterna noche de insomnio. Desde 1970 Enrique Torres Cabral comenzó a padecer ese mal que, si bien le ha robado horas de sueño, le ha regalado el mismo lapso de creatividad paraque su mano plasme, siempre en rima, situaciones que han ido cambiando según la etapa de lavida en la que se ha encontrado.

Acontecimientos históricos de México, el amor, la mujer, situaciones sociales y la justicia, son sólo algunas de las cosas quehan llegado a inspirar algomezpalatino. Sin embargo, desde hace dos décadas el crear poemas dedicados a personas que ha conocido en la calle, en el trabajo en cualquier otro lugar, es algo que realiza con facilidad y mayor entusiasmo.  

REFLEJA SU ENTORNO

Por eso, durante esta entrevista, al preguntarle si era entonces un poeta urbano él descubrió que ese término era el que mejor podría definirlo: "Fíjese que no se me había ocurrido, pero sí, eso soy, soy un poeta urbano", expresó.  

El 23 de diciembre de 2003 fue el último día en que la inspiración visitó a Enrique Torres Cabral sin previo aviso. Aún no sabe qué día se colará de nuevo por la ventana. "El poema lo empecé a las tres de la mañana y lo acabé a las ocho; le saqué 200 copias fotostáticas y tanto el día 24 como el 25 me dediqué a repartirlo en los cafés para que toda la gente pudiera verlo", señaló.  

Es que aunque suena un poco extraño, publicarlos en un libro no es su prioridad, sino compartir lo que generalmente de viva voz no se atreve a decir "porque soy muy vergonzoso".  

"Ese poema en verso se lo dediqué a Maclovio Nevárez, un licenciado que tiene como principal característica su gusto por el deporte; destaqué su filosofía en la vida, los consejos que da respecto a cuidar el cuerpo, hacer ejercicio y cuidar el medio ambiente", explicó.  

ESCRITOS EN LA RED

El poeta se inspira en situaciones de personas que no son siempre acreedoras a puestos muy importantes, pero que forman parte de Durango y, sobre todo, de su vida y recuerdos. "Hace mucho escribí sobre Vicente Salazar, un señor que era intendente del Edificio Central de la Universidad Juárez, que saludaba a los visitantes".  

El personaje de otra de sus creaciones fue "Juanón", quien fuera dueño de un restaurante que estaba a un lado de Catedral, "él nos daba de comer gratis a los estudiantes, porque era muy rico, pero cuando quebró su negocio muchos nos olvidamos de él", recordó Torres Cabral.  

El escritor, quien labora como vocal secretario del Instituto Federal Electoral (IFE), de manera constante escribe poesía, cuentos, ensayos, entre otras cosas más, pero "no me interesa registrarlos, yo siempre digo que son de todos", aseveró. Desde junio de 2002 tiene la posibilidad de compartir su trabajo a través de una página de Internet que le diseñó su primo Salvador Cabral Valdes, la cual es: www.portalpoetico-torres.galeon.com  

"Me da gusto que gente de todo el mundo ingrese a la página para leer mi trabajos que, incluso, pueden imprimir; entra gente de diferentes partes de México, Estados Unidos, Argentina, Francia y de muchos países más", dijo mientras revisaba la página un tanto sorprendido.  

La retroalimentación por parte de los visitantes es algo que, según sus palabras, le agrada, ya que se da cuenta de lo que opina la gente de su manera de escribir.  

PLASMA RECUERDOS

Enrique Torres Cabral manifesto que solamente ha publicado un libro, cuyo título es "Recuerdos de Gómez Palacio y otros Poemas" y que fue distribuido en 1991. La idea surgió luego que José Rebollo Acosta, quien era Presidente Municipal de Gómez Palacio, su ciudad natal, vino a Durango para preguntarle si tenía poemas referents a ese lugar.  

Torres Cabral detalló: "Le comenté que había realizado algunos que hablaban de varias personas de la calle que eran conocidas allá y que yo recordaba como parte de lo que viví en mi niñez. Le mencionéa una limosnera en específico a “la loquita del barrio (llamada Teresa 'La Loca') y él se acordó de ellos, pues también los conoció,”aseguró.  

Debido a que eran personajes urbanos que reflejaban una importante época de la sociedad gomezpalatina, Rebollo Acostale pidió sus creaciones y las publicó con mucha aceptación.  

El poeta y escritor señaló que además de la poesía en verso elabora los haikus, poemas realizados con una técnica japonesa que, según definió, consta de tres renglones, el primero y tercero de cinco sílabas y el segundo de siete. El objetivo es incluir un mensaje bello y conciso, principalmente dedicado a la naturaleza. El poeta ha realizado alrededor de 500 que tratan varios temas.  

El poeta urbano afirmó queentre sus planes se encuentra publicar un ensayo corto acerca de la obra "El Ser y la Nada" de Jean Paul Sartre, para tratar de explicar con un lenguaje más sencillo su contenido. Dijo que esperó a concluirlo a finales de 2004, y salío en el 2005, cuando se cumplieron 100 años del natalicio de dicho autor francés.  

Torres Cabral, quien durante 18 años impartió en la Facultad de Derecho la cátedra de Filosofía del Derecho -labor que abandonó para trabajar en el IFE-, también disfruta pintar retratos, tanto en óleo como con lápices de colores, "he hecho como 100 de los primeros y 300 de los otros a personas que conozco; yo no se los vendo, se los regalo", manifestó.          

TERESA LA LOCA.                               

              Teresa                 
              Tere la loca,       
                         te recuerdo:                                                                        Como eras de geniosa.      
                         Chaparrilla. 
                         Renegada.                                                
       De cabellera canosa.
       Loca de Gómez Palacio.                                       
            Década marabillosa 
            la de los años cincuenta.
                "Loca, 
                 loquilla, 
                 mugrosa",

 cómo te gritan los niños,               Teresa,Tere la loca,

 y tú, 
 cámo les contestas, 
 cámo contestas rabiosa, 
 te levantas el vestido 
 y les enseñas tus cosas 
 y muchas malas razones 
 les arrojas con tu boca.

 Cómo te gritan los niños: 
 "Teresa, Tere la loca, 
 la loca tiene una troca, 
 pero no la maneja , 
 porque está loca":

 Teresa, Tere la loca, 
 te recuerdo 
 y me recuerdo, 
 tú de viejilla geniosa,

 y yo de niño que grita: 
"Teresa, 
 Tere la loca."

Julio Cajitas

Cara de niño viejito
un curpito que se aguita,
un canto de gemido,
un sonido de cajita,
unos saltoes dientitos,
unas tétricas risitas
y el baile de unos piececitos:
es Julio,Julio Cajitas.  

ANTI-SPANISH LEGENDS

First published in the early 1970s, Tree of Hate is Philip Powell's exploration of "the Black Legend"-  the popular myth that colonial Spain and her military and religious agents were brutal and unrelenting in their conquest of the Americas.

"Powell seeks not merely to trace the origins of what he calls Hispanophobia but to analyze its impact on American education, textbooks, religion, and especially foreign policy.  The evidence easily demonstrates that English-speaking scholars and diplomats speak with  biased tongue . . .  Too many critcs of Spain, to use Powells's central theme, have merely erected a "Tree of Hate" out of ignorance or to justify their own prejudices and activities.  Powell's book deserves careful reading" - Journal of American History.

Phillip Wayne Powell was professor of history at the University of California, Santa Barbara from 1948 to 1981. He was founding member and first chair of the UCSB Department of History.  Robert Himmerich y Valencia was profesor of history at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, and editor of the New Mexico Historical Review.  He is author of The Encomenderos of New Spain, 1521-1555.  

Paperback 978-0-8263-4576-9  $26.95 ($29.50 Cdn)
University of New Mexico Press     800-249-7737   www.unmpress.com

On May 30th, 2008, a Tree of Hate Committee met in Albuquerque. Co-chaired by Dr. Henry J. Casso and Dr. Tomas Chavez the goal was to discuss specific strategies to give visibility to the presence of persistent and lingering Anti-Hispanic attitudes.  The following are some notes from Dr. Casso visionary  in the effort.  

"A small committee will convene seven advisors who will help identify the fifteen individuals who will assemble in the fall to write given papers on assigned topics which will be the basis for a national symposium here in Albuquerque.  The outcome of which will go into a publication which the UNM Press has agreed to publish.  We are asking selected presenters to provide a current Bibliography, identify areas for minor and major areas of further research in the objective to et Masters and Doctoral students writing thesis and dissertation in these areas, thus, increase the body of knowledge.  

We are getting the Cervantes Institutes to search their world-wide Centers toward developing a Bibliography on the Black Legend. I have observed Cairo, Egypt has one of the most extensive works on this topic.  Find this interesting.  Hopefully this will be available for the Symposium participants.  

The group of seven will help us identify six university sites where we propose to have follow-up symposium such as Rendon’s group at UC Berkeley.  One is proposed for Madrid and the University of Guadalajara.  

I tried contacting the authors of the decade of Betrayal, left messages, with no success.  I see this as a classic application of results with roots in the Tree of Hate.  I want also to know if they are doing research on other areas besides the California concentration on the topic. "

Sent by Dr. Henry J. Casso
Project Uplift
Witness to Heritage Co-Creator

 

The American Experiment of Democracy and the Vanishing White Man

Chantlaca@aol.com
 wrote: The Anomaly of Histories, 
5/11/08

When the Adivasi, Indigenous Peoples of the Indian subcontinent, relate their experiences under the colonizing regimes that have swept their homelands, even references to Alexander the Great are preceded by the invasions of the Aryans and the introduction of the "white" concept of human cultural identity and superiority as the determinant for the caste systems that continue to plague the cultural landscape of India even after five thousand years.

To fast forward to the current dialogue on race and institutionalized racism in US society that is intensified by the presidential campaigns, everyday we see and HEAR echoes of the memes of caste that are reinforced every time the phrase "white people" or "white" is used to describe the European American populations of the United States.  That perpetuation of a caste based society would be completely antithetical to the precepts of the "American Experiment of Democracy," yet remain embedded in the vernacular of public and private discourse regarding social relationships has roots in the Indo-European histories, but is codified in the US Civil Rights statutes as follows:

United States Code
TITLE 42, CHAPTER 21, SUBCHAPTER I, § 1981.
Equal rights under the law

(a) Statement of equal rights

All persons within the jurisdiction of the United States shall have the same right in every State and Territory to make and enforce contracts, to sue, be parties, give evidence, and to the full and equal benefit of all laws and proceedings for the security of persons and property as is enjoyed by white citizens, and shall be subject to like punishment, pains, penalties, taxes, licenses, and exactions of every kind, and to no other.

The term WHITE CITIZEN is contextualized further by the language of the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution which states:

Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside.

Thus the connection is made institutionally and culturally via the jurisprudence of the Master's Narrative, between concepts of white citizen and WHITE PERSON, establishing legal personality within the US social construct as a function of relationship to the dominant "white" power structures of rights and obligations.  The anomaly being the Nican Tlacah Indigenous Peoples who supercede the US jurisdiction as sovereign confederations of nations holding treaty relationships with the US and other government states of the world.

Proposal:

The historical moment of transformation which is evident nationally and globally, provides the opportunity to suggest a clarification in terms:

Specifically, TO EXCHANGE use of the term "WHITE", "white citizen", and "white person" with the term European-American in the public discourse on race and racism.  If the term "Black" can be correlated with African-American, why cannot the same principle apply for the "whites"?

What prevents us from clarifying one of the terms of the social discourse involved in the experiment in American Democracy and let's see what happens.  After all, the first victims of racism are the racists themselves, for what have they done to their own families and innocent children to produce such a culturally twisted and dehumanized constituency such as "white people" generation after generation?

Shall we collectively continue the experiment in democracy in this hemisphere, without perpetuating the institutionalizing of a continental affirmative action program of racism and superiority for one sector of society, the descendants of the European colonizers of the 15th century?


Tupac Enrique Acosta

_{Sent by Dorinda Moreno}  
fuerzamundial@gmail.com

MILITARY AND LAW ENFORCEMENT HEROES

Latinos/Latinas 
– Ultimate – 
Sacrifice

 Part V

By

Mercy Bautista-Olvera

In the coming months this series “Latinos/Latinas Ultimate Sacrifice” will present the stories and contributions of heroes who have sacrificed their lives for United States . The reason for me to be interested in writing about Hispanics, who lost their lives in Wars, I want to be one of their voices. We do appreciate their sacrifice. It is my sincere belief and commitment, that these heroes are never forgotten. Take time to look at their faces, read their histories, and keep their spirit alive…  

Army Spc. Aleina Ramirez Gonzalez 33, of Hormigueros, Puerto Rico., died on April 15, 2005     when a mortar struck her forward operating base in Tikrit , Iraq . Ramirez Gonzalez was assigned to the 3rd Brigade Troop Battalion, 3rd Infantry Division, Fort Stewart , Georgia . Aleina Ramirez Gonzalez grew up watching her father serve in the military from Vietnam to two tours in Iraq during the first Gulf War.” She was a brave one because it was the third time she went to Iraq ," said her father, William Ramirez. Aleina Ramirez Gonzalez was born in the southwestern Puerto Rico town of Guayanilla, spent 14 years in the National Guard and joined up for active duty. Her father said she hoped to retire from military service after 20 years and become eligible for a pension.

Marine Cpl. Ramona M. Valdez, 20,  of The Bronx, N.Y.; died  June 23, 2005 when a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device detonated near her convoy vehicle in Fallujah, Iraq. Valdez was assigned to Headquarters Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C. Ramona M. Valdez was born in the Dominican Republic . Her mother raised her in Bronx , NY . Following graduation from Jane Addams High School when she was 15, Ramona attended community college. In 2002 she enlisted in the Marine Corps and was married. She was working as a (E-4) communication specialist assigned to Headquarters Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C. Ramona, eight months from the end of her four-year tour, deployed to Iraq in March. She had talked her mother into moving away from the Bronx and in March her family moved to Reading , PA --a home Ramona never got to see. Ramona had already filled out application forms to become a highway patrol officer in Pennsylvania upon her discharge from the Marines. When she was killed, she was four days short of her 21st birthday.

Marine Corps Pfc. Eric A. Ayon 26, of Arleta , Calif. , died April 9, 2004 by hostile fire in Anbar Province , Iraq . He was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Pendleton , Calif.

As a young kid, Eric played with G.I. Joe action figures and dreamed of becoming a Marine to fight for his country. Eric married his high school sweetheart Angie. The couple had been married for eight years and had a son. He sent a birthday card to his 7- year old son Joshua, before his death, the day his family mourned his death. Eric’s friends and family remembered him as a devoted father who also gave back to his community. Eric worked as a youth counselor helping kids keep away from drugs and gangs before joining the Army.  “He loved being able to help and touch a lot of people. He was a wonderful father with such big heart. All the kids loved him,” his wife said. Marine Corps Pfc. Eric A. Ayon enjoyed Mexican music as well, he took his favorite music to Iraq , and he listened to it on his spare time.

Army Staff Sgt. Victor A. Rosales-Lomeli 29, of Westminster , Calif. , died on April 13, 2004 when an improvised explosive device exploded near his escort vehicle in Iraq .  Rosales-Lomeli was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 2nd Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division, Vilseck , Germany .

Victor Rosales and his wife, Sgt. Sandra Rosales, both served in Iraq while relatives cared for their infant son, Victor Gabriel. "He was proud to be a soldier, I am proud to be a soldier,” his wife said.

Victor was born in Mexico City , the family moved to California ; he performed Mexican dances at local events as a boy. He joined the Army in 1995. He was known as a tough infantryman with a twinkle in his eyes, both warm and professional with other soldiers. "I only regret that he won't be around to teach me more," one of his close friends said at a goodbye ceremony in Iraq . At the ceremony, roll call was conducted, a sergeant calling out the name of Rosales three times, only to be echoed by silence.     

Marine Staff Sgt. Jorge A. Molinabautista 37, of Rialto , Calif. , died  by May 23, 2004 by hostile fire in Unbar province, Iraq. Molinabautista was assigned to 1st Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, 1st Marine Division, 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Pendleton , Jorge was born in Chihuahua , Mexico , He wanted from childhood to become a Marine, said his sister, Connie "He believed in what he was doing," she said. "He was so proud. He's a hero." His wife, Dina, and three boys survive Molinabautista. The Defense Department said. He served in the Marines for 13 years, and trained others as a drill sergeant at Camp Pendleton , where he was based. He was an infantry unit leader for the 1st Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force. He had asked the Marines to change his last name from Molina to Molinabautista to honor his mother and the military accommodated his request. At the burial, a Marine gently murmured his condolences on bended knee as he handed Molina Bautista's wife, Dina Molina, a folded American flag in memory of her husband. The fallen Marine's younger brother, Air Force Sgt. Ismael Paez, offered comforting words and an identical flag to Molina Bautista's mother, Maria Bautista.

  Molina Bautista's oldest son, 12-year-old Jorge, suddenly stood up and approached the microphone. Dressed in camouflage khaki pants, shirt and hat, Jorge seemed so much older than his years as he uttered the words:"Because of these two beautiful children (his brothers, Joey, 7, and Carlos, 4) I am going to be strong and do what my dad would want me to do," he said. He then walked over to his father's coffin, grabbed a handle and helped Molina Bautista's fellow Marines carry his father’s casket, and  the fallen comrade to his grave.  

Marine Cpl. Rafael Reynosa Suarez, 28 of Santa Ana , Calif , died May 29, 2004 from hostile fire in Al Anbar Province, Iraq. Rafael immigrated to the United States from Mexico as a child to join family who had settled here. He graduated in 1994 from Santa Ana Valley High school in Orange County . A standout soccer player, he went on to play at Santa Ana College and on military teams. Rafael often said the hardships and sacrifices that came with military life would pay off for their family. A family member stated, "He just wanted to have a better future. 

Marine Lance Cpl. Benjamin R. Gonzalez, 23 of El Monte , Calif. , died on May 29, 2004. He was assign to 2^nd Battalion, 4^th Marine Regiment, 1^st Marine Division, from Camp Pendleton , Calif. He died in an explosion while providing security in the Al Anbar Province in Iraq . After an eight-month tour in Iraq , during which he encountered heavy combat, Cpl. Gonzalez came home to El Monte in September. In April, Gonzalez was re-deployed to Iraq , but with a different battalion. A month later, he was killed. The funeral procession for the El Monte resident attracted hundreds of mourners, including Marines from Gonzalez’s former battalion regimen, El Monte city Officials and members of law enforcement. Cpl. Gonzalez was laid to rest at Riverside National Cemetery in California . "This is a nightmare for us that we want to wake up from. We cannot believe it still," said Benjamin Gonzalez, the slain Marine’s father. "We are proud of what he did. It was his dream to serve this country and he died doing it." After the burial U.S. Rep. Hilda Solis, presented his parents a U.S. Flag.  

Marine Lance Cpl. Manuel A. Ceniceros, 23 of Santa Ana , Calif , died June 26, 2004 as the result of enemy action in Anbar Province , Iraq . Manuel was assigned to Regimental Combat Team 1 Headquarters Company, 1^st Marine Division from Camp Pendleton , Calif. The 23-year-old had served four years as a Marine. He had seen combat in Afghanistan . He would come home fallen in love and gotten married, still he re-enlisted. He joined the Marines in January 2000 and distinguished himself as a rifleman. Manuel Ceniceros was an only child, lost his father when he was sixteen, and shy as a teenager; the military boosted his confidence and served as a second family after his father died. Ceniceros said to his wife, "It’s the best thing you can be in the military." He would say, "We’re not there to push papers. We’re actually there to help and fight." Looking ahead, he thought of settling down in Santa Ana , California , where he was born, starting a family and working for the police department.

Marine Cpl. Roberto Abad, 22, of Bell Gardens , Calif. , died Aug. 6, 2004 as the result of enemy action in An Najaf Province , Iraq . Born in Los Angeles , Abad attended Garfield Elementary School and graduated from Bell Garden High School . He first joined the Marines on Sept 18, 2000. Prior to his redeployment to Iraq , he decided it was time to father a child. "He wanted to have a child in case he never came back," said his father, Robert Abad. "We’re going to be able to have a memory of him now." Although proud of his service, he looked to the future and planned to attend college and become a firefighter. The oldest of seven children, he joined the Marines just after high school and participated in the first U.S. invasion of Iraq . "I looked up to him my whole life," said Abad’s brother Diego, who also enlisted, "He would tell me to never give up on anything you believe in."  

Marine Corps Pfc. Geoffrey Perez, 24 of Los Angeles , died Aug. 15, 2004 of injuries suffered due to enemy action in Al Anbar Province, Iraq. Pfc. Perez was assigned to 3^rd Battalion, 1^st Marine Regiment, from Camp Pendleton , Calif. Blanca Riaheta de Perez said her son was upbeat and aspired to become an actor. "He wanted to make movies and be like Jean-Claude Van Damme." He was also a "party person," said his sister Lidia, "the kind of person whose cheery demeanor could light up a room."

Special thanks to Alan Lessig, Director of Photography, for the website, “Military   Times, Honor the Fallen” (www.militarycity.com) for granting permission to reproduce photos for this article.

http://www.behindthebadge.net/bloodstripes/memory/mem_m.html

Hispanic Military Heroes

                  with non-Hispanic surnames

                            (continued, Part 2)

                 Commodore Uriah Phillips Levy

                        By: Tony (The Marine) Santiago

                                 Commodore Uriah Phillips Levy
 

Commodore Uriah Phillips Levy (1792-1862), a Sephardic Jew of Hispanic descent born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was the great grandson of Dr. Samuel Nunez a Spaniard.  A  Sephardi,  is a Jew originating in the Iberian Peninsula (modern Portugal and Spain), including the descendants of those subject to expulsion from Spain by order of the Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella (as codified in the Alhambra decree of 1492).  

Levy was assigned as assistant Sailing master on the ship Argus, which interdicted English ships in the English Channel during the War of 1812. The ship confiscated more than twenty vessels, but itself was captured. Levy and the crew were taken prisoner until the end of the war. Upon his return to the United States, Levy was placed in charge of the 74-gun ship Franklin and in 1817 was elevated to the rank of Lieutenant. In 1855, Levy was promoted to the rank of Commodore, in recognition of his superior abilities, making him one of the Navy's highest-ranking officers and the first Sephardic Jew of Hispanic descent to reach the rank the rank. Prior to the American Civil War, the highest rank in the U.S. Navy was Commodore. Levy  ended the Navy's practice of flogging, and prevailed against the antisemitic bigotry he faced among his fellow naval officers.  

Brigadier General Rudolph William Riefkohl  

                    By: Tony (The Marine) Santiago  

Brigadier General Rudolph William Riefkohl (born c. 1885), was the first Puerto Rican to receive a "tombstone promotion" to Brigadier General after his death which technically makes him the first Hispanic general in the United States Army.  

                                       Early years  

Born and raised in the town of Maunabo, Puerto Rico,  Riefkohl was the oldest of five siblings born to Luis Riefkohl and Julia Jaimieson. His other siblings were  Frederick Louis, Helen, Emily and Luise Riefkohl.  Riefkohl's younger brother was Rear Admiral Frederick Lois Riefkohl, an officer in the United States Navy who was the first Puerto Rican to graduate from the United States Naval Academy and the first to be awarded the Navy Cross for his actions in World War I.  

                                    Military career  

In 1905, Riefkohl earned a degree in Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) before joining the United States Army. According to the United States War Department, on April 1, 1918, Riefkohl served as Captain of Coastal Artillery at the Letterman Army Medical Center in Presidio of San Francisco, in California.  

In June 1919, Col. Harry L. Gilchrist was informed to assist Poland in coping with its typhus epidemic. He emphasized the necessity of having trained personnel to deal with the emergency and to instruct the Poles with the use of the equipment being purchased. General John J. Pershing had decided that organizational matters should be handled by General William Durward Conner, who in turn instructed Lieutenant Colonel Frank E. Estes, of the Army Service Corps, to mount the expedition.  

Etses then dispatched Riefkohl, who was then a Major, and Captain Pumhrey to Brest, France where they were instructed to assemble a new command. The Army Service Corps at Brest was organized into two separate units and later reorganized into a battalion commanded by Riefkohl. Riefkohl's battalion was successful in its mission and played an instrumental role helping the Poles overcome their epidemic. 

Riefkohl was among the Army officers who attended and graduated form the third course of the Army Industrial College which was held from February 2, 1925 to June 30, 1925  

Rudolph W. Riefkohl retired as a Colonel in the United States Army Corps of Engineers. Upon his death he received a "tombstone promotion" which was once was the custom of the military.  The  posthumous promotion technically makes Riefkohl the first Hispanic general in the United States Army.  

                                        Further reading  

The American Polish Typhus Relief Expedition, 1919-1921 By Alfred E. Cornebise, Published 1982, University of Delaware Press, ISBN 0874132169

Brigadier General  Mihiel Gilormini

                   By: Tony (The Marine) Santiago

                                Brigadier General Mihiel "Mike" Gilormini  

Brigadier General Mihiel "Mike" Gilormini (August 3, 1918 – January 29, 1988) born in Yauco, Puerto Rico, was a United States Air Force officer who served in the Royal Air Force and in the United States Army Air Corps during World War II. He was the recipient of the Silver Star Medal, the Air Medal with four clusters and the Distinguished Flying Cross 5 times. He was also the founder of the Puerto Rico Air National Guard.  

                                         Early years

Gilormini (born Mihiel Gilormini Pacheco), was raised in Yauco, which is located in the southwestern region of the island. In the early 1940s, he moved to San Diego, California where he took private flying lessons earning his pilot's license in 1941. On November 23, 1941, he enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force with the rank of sergeant /Pilot.  

                                        World War II

                                                   P-47 Thunderbolt
                                        Type of aircraft flown by Gilormini
 

Upon the outbreak of World War II, Gilormini offered his services to the Royal Air Force and served with them until November 30, 1942, when he joined the United States Army Air Corps with the rank of second lieutenant. In October 1942, he was assigned to the 346th Fighter Squadron and flew the P-39 interceptor. In March 1943, he was transferred to the 345th Fighter Squadron of the 350th Fighter Group in North Africa and Italy, to replace pilot losses. He stayed with the 345th "Devil Hawks" and flew a P-47 Thunderbolt until February 1945. During the war he was promoted to captain and flew a total of 200 combat missions over England, North Africa, Corsica and Italy. On May 19, 1943, Gilormini was involved in an aircraft accident when his P-39 went down over Maison Blanche, Algiers.  

In an interview, Colonel Earl Miller, a former buddy and roommate of Gilormini, recalled the following:  

"Gilormini was the commander of "A" Flight while I was commander of "C" Flight. We sometimes flew together. In fact, our last combat mission was attacking the airfield at Milano. I led the attack. The flak was real heavy. The 88 shells were bursting all around and also hitting a high bank (we were flying real low) to my right. Mike said, "Dutch, you better bail out, you are on fire!" Followed immediately with, "Don't bail out, it's another guy." Unfortunately, my wingman crashed and was killed."  

Gilormini and Miller flew their last flight in Italy together giving air cover for General George C. Marshall's visit to their group at Pisa. They both returned to the United States on the same ship. Gilormini was awarded a Silver Star Medal and five Distinguished Flying Crosses. The Distinguished Flying Cross is a medal awarded to any officer or enlisted member of the United States armed forces who distinguishes himself or herself in combat in support of operations by "heroism" or extraordinary achievement while participating in an aerial flight.

                                  Post World War II  

After the war he continued to serve in the Army Air Corps. In 1947, he was reassigned to the newly formed United States Air Force and named base commander to the 198th Tactical Fighter Squadron in Puerto Rico. On November 23, 1947, the Puerto Rico Air National Guard came into existence as a result of the efforts led by Lieutenant-Colonel Jose Muñiz, Colonel Alberto Nido and Colonel Mihiel Gilormini. Gilormini was promoted to brigadier-general and served as commander until his retirement in 1975.

 On January 29, 1988, Brigadier-General Mihiel "Mike" Gilormini died in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and was buried with full military honors in Puerto Rico National Cemetery located in Bayamón, Puerto Rico[5]

Awards and decorations
Among Gilormini's awards and decorations were the following:

Awards:
Silver Star Medal
Distinguished Flying Cross (5 times)
Purple Heart Medal
Air Medal with four clusters
European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal
American Campaign Medal
National Defense Service Medal

Badges:
Badge of the Royal Canadian Air Force
Badge of the Royal Air Force
WW II Army Air Force Pilot Badge
US Air Force Pilot badge  

Next month I will continue with the more stories of our “Hispanic Military Heroes with non-Hispanic surnames.” Until then, “Que Dios los Bendiga“.

HALF MYSTERY SOLVED BY LONG DISTANCE FRIENDS

 By

Richard G. Santos

richardgsantos@yahoo.com  

                    Zavala County Sentinel – 14-15 May 2008    
         

We begin this week's column by directing your attention to the accompanying photo. It is obviously of religious services being held in front of a WW II bomber. Because the ladies in uniform on the right are of olive complexion, I thought the photo was taken in the Pacific Theatre of Operations and most likely on one of the Philippine Islands. However, Ernesto Berrones who gave me the photo says his father served in the African Theatre of Operation. Luis Berrones served as a waist gunner on a B-24 Liberator. That means the WAFS were not Philippine but could have been Hispanic or sporting a suntan. Another problem is that to me the plane looks like a B-17. It should be noted both planes had four engines but only two are seen in the photo. However, on close inspection we note a two engine plane taking off o the far left side of the photo. So, was the photo taken stateside where the crews trained on B-17s or smaller two engine planes? Or, did airman Berrones start in a B-17 and later transferred to a B-24 while in Africa? 

Like most veterans, the late Luis Berrones did not like to speak about his wartime experiences. We do know that the Army Air Corps in Africa had double duty in bombing Italian and Eastern European targets as well as transporting personnel, munitions and equipment. We may never know the answer to the questions raised by the photo. However, regardless of where the photo was taken, it is important to note the Dilley, Texas native and long time resident served honorably during World War II in the U. S. Army Air Corps and kept this and other photo as reminders. We thank his son Ernesto for sharing it. Incidentally, Neto fondly remembers his father being fiercely proud of having served in WW II and dragging his kids to all military air shows in San Antonio. 

 Read the happy networking results in Santos' May 14-15 column.  

                I emailed last week’s column to Juan Marinez in Michigan for him to ask his internet network to help identify the airplane in question. It did not take long for Miguel Hernandez to solve the mystery. As he pointed out, the bomber seems to be a B-25 Mitchell. The plane is famous for many reasons but especially for being the plane used by General Doolittle on his raid of Tokyo, Japan. It should also be noted that it served in all World War II Theatres of Operations and was used by many countries for over twenty years thereafter.  

                Named after General Billy Mitchell, the B-25 Mitchell had two Wright, 1700 H.P. engines. It featured a wingspan of 67 feet four inches, was 52 feet 11 inches long, 16 feet 4 inches high and weighed 35,000 pounds empty. Added weight included the eighteen 50 caliber machine guns and 4,000 pounds of bombs. Its range was 1,350 miles at 244 mph and ceiling was 24,200 feet. It was manufactured by North American Aviation Company. Of the 10,000 built, there are 164 still in existence today.  

                Miguel Hernandez is a graduate student in Michigan earning his Master’s Degree. His thesis is titled “American Foreign Legion; Puerto Ricans in America’s Defense.” He is also a re-enactor and a 16 year U. S. Army and New York Army National Guard veteran. Following military service, he worked for the Department of Justice in the Community Relations Service and Drug Enforcement Agency.  

                Juan Marinez, meanwhile, with Zavala County family roots, called with a certain excitement to his voice. He correctly noted the religious services were Catholic, apparently Palm Sunday and as a former altar boy was able to identify items used in Mass. Once I lightened the photo all three agreed that the ladies in uniform were olive skinned Hispanics and not Filipinas or sun tanned WAFS as previously guessed. In fact, we also agreed that it was interesting that all personnel seemed to be black-haired (Hispanic ?) Catholics. He was so excited with the photo that I authorized him to distribute it via the internet to military as well as Hispanic organizations and collections honoring the service personnel of World War II.  

                One final observation, it matters not if the photo might have been a memento for the personnel or a public relations photo-op for the Army Air Corps. The fact remains it captured World War II (1) Air Corps personnel (men and women) at religious services, (2) Hispanics by their bomber hearing Mass, and/or Catholics and non Catholic Christians at Palm Sunday services. It is and will remain an important and treasured photograph to be shared and never forgotten. To the WW II unknown/unidentified personnel in the photo, muchisimas gracias damas y caballeros.  

                Changing topics, last week I sat in absolute silence watching Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio burn to a shell. I lament the loss of the 100 year plus buildings not only for their historical value, but for very personal reasons as well. I started my teaching career at OLLU when I was the same age or younger than my students. The six years I served as Director of Ethnic Studies and taught history and anthropology at OLLU left heartwarming memories of a full range of students and experiences. The male and female students of the Winter Garden Area and especially Eagle Pass, Laredo, Brackettville, Pearsall, Charlotte and smaller towns were a joy due to their sense of humor and determination to earn a university education against all odds. The street-wise older types from San Antonio and night students who worked hard during the day and still managed to squeeze night classes to earn degrees were determined to improve their personal finances and careers for their families. The same was true for the older widowed, divorced or independent wives and mothers who struggled juggling child rearing, jobs, household chores and male dominant obstacles. Of course, I also remember the students who did not graduate and later (1) robbed a bank, (2) got arrested for criminal activities (3) voluntarily removed as sheriff for questionable activities, and even those who after graduating got elected to the City Councils, State Legislature, joined the military, FBI and/or DEA. Many established their own businesses, became attorneys, teachers, principals and CEOs of different businesses and organizations in Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and elsewhere. I will not lie by saying I remember them all, but I certainly remember those who stood out and above the crowd for one reason or another. Some, like “the space cadet from Eagle Pass’ and the “bato loco del barrio” who is now a CEO in Tucson and his best friend, a recently retired Hallandale ISD principal have remained friends and in contact. Others I read about or run into now and then and always it is a pleasure to learn who well they have succeeded since I last harassed them in class. It took years for them to discover the reason I harassed them and gave them a rough time was to get them to expand their minds, goals and make full use of their abilities.  

                So I sat in silence keeping an eye on the balcony which served as the private get-away to my office. Many were the times I alone or with a group of students made use of the balcony to solve problems or deal with sensitive issues faced by the students. I saw one of the steeples fall in flames but for selfish reasons, I particularly felt pangs when I saw my former office and private balcony engulfed in flames and black smoke. Only the memories remain today but they are good, heartfelt memories. I am sure not only my former OLLU students but anyone who ever attended the school laments the loss of such an historic, architecturally unique, educational institution. I also could not help but remember that “catholic” means universal and remembering my students from all walks of life, from all ethnic/racial ancestry I can personally attest OLLU at my time as Director of Ethic Studies and instructor was and hopefully still is, and will remain, a universal educational institution of higher learning.  

                This week I am cutting my column short to allow the paper the space needed to include the photo of the B-25. So again I thanks Juan Marinez, Miguel Hernandez, and all my former students from OLLU, Trinity U, School of Aero Space Medicine and not to be forgotten, SWTCC. To quote comedian Bob Hope’s famous hit, “Thanks For the memories”.

Sent by Juan Marinez 

  Norman D. Cota, Major General, US Army, WWII

DISTINGUISHED SERVICE CROSS (DSC)
Rank: Brigadier General (Brigadier)
Unit: Assistant Division Commander 29th Infantry Division "Blue and Gray" U.S. Army
Action: The President of the United States takes pleasure in presenting the Distinguished Service Cross to Norman D. Cota (0-5284), Brigadier General, U.S. Army, for extraordinary heroism in connection with military operations against an armed enemy while serving as Assistant Division Commander, 29th Infantry Division, in action against enemy forces on 6 June 1944, at Normandy, France. General Cota landed on the beach shortly after the first assault wave of troops had landed.

Source: ElMensajeVol.27, June 2008, Editor, Robert Smith

Introduction to article: US in Focus, Immigrants in the US Armed Forces
By Jeanne Batalova, Ph.D.
Migration Policy Institute, 2008

Source: Migration Information Source: Fresh Thought, Authoritative Data, Global Reach
More data on the subject: http://www.migrationinformation.org/USfocus/display.cfm?ID=683

According to data from the Department of Defense, more than 65,000 immigrants (non-US citizens and naturalized citizens) were serving on active duty in the US Armed Forces as of February 2008. Since September 2001, US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has naturalized more than 37,250 foreign-born members of the US Armed Forces and granted posthumous citizenship to 111 service members.

The current presence of immigrants in the military has a number of historical precedents. According to USCIS, the foreign born composed half of all military recruits by the 1840s and 20 percent of the 1.5 million service members in the Union Army during the Civil War.

Naturalized citizens, lawful permanent residents, and certain nationals of three countries in free association with the United States — the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, and Palau — are eligible for military service. In addition, Congress can deem other foreign-born individuals as eligible to serve if the secretary of a specific military branch "determines that such enlistment is vital to the national interest."

This Spotlight focuses on the statistics and policy changes regarding the foreign born in the army, navy, marines and air force. The data come from the Department of Defense (as of February 2008) and from USCIS (as of April 2008) unless otherwise noted.

Note: In this Spotlight, the terms "immigrant" and "foreign born" are used interchangeably and refer to members of the US military who are either naturalized citizens or noncitizens.

Click on the bullet points below for more information:

Statistics on Immigrant Service Members on Active Duty

• Approximately 65,000 immigrants serve in the armed forces.
• More than two-thirds of the foreign born serving in the armed forces are naturalized citizens.
• The foreign born represent approximately 5 percent of all active-duty personnel.
• Of all military branches, the navy has the highest number of foreign-born personnel.
• Approximately 8 percent of those serving in the navy are foreign born.
• Over 11,000 foreign-born women are serving in the armed forces.
• The top two countries of origin for foreign-born military personnel are the Philippines and Mexico.
• Latin America and the Caribbean accounted for the largest percentage of the foreign born, followed closely by Asia.
• As of February 2008, there were 359 service members born in Western Asia and 826 born in south-central Asia.
• Nearly 11 percent of those serving in the armed forces are of Hispanic origin.

Citizenship and the Armed Forces

• A July 2002 executive order made noncitizen members of the armed forces eligible for expedited US citizenship.
• More than 37,250 immigrant service members have become US citizens since September 2001.
• USCIS has granted posthumous citizenship to 111 military personnel killed in the line of duty since September 2001.
• The 2004 policy changes have allowed USCIS to hold naturalization ceremonies at US military bases around the world.

Sent by Rafael Ojeda (Tacoma, WA) and Juan Marinez (Lansing, Michigan)

Latinos Claim Larger Share of U.S. Military Personnel - Population Reference
Bureau http://www.prb.org/Articles/2007/HispanicsUSMilitary.aspx

 by Mady Wechsler Segal and David R. Segal

(October 2007) More than 35 million Americans identify as Hispanic, making them the country's largest ethnic minority. However, Latinos have been underrepresented in the all-volunteer armed forces, especially among officers. This is beginning to change, as increasing numbers of Hispanics enter the military. Moreover, despite the traditionally masculine culture of the military and of Hispanics, the Hispanic share of military women has been increasing faster than the Hispanic share of military men.¹

The past 20 years have witnessed dramatic increases in the percentage of Latinos (of both sexes) among active duty enlisted personnel (see Figure 1).

Figure 1
Hispanics in the U.S. Civilian Labor Force and Military Services, 1997 to 2004

Note: Percent of men and women ages 18-44.
Source: Department of Defense, Population Representation in the Military Services, Fiscal Year 2004.

The increase in Latinos in the military has not quite kept pace with their rise among 18-to-44-year-olds in the civilian labor force. Latinos made up 16 percent of the civilian labor force in 2004, but less than 10 percent of enlisted personnel and 13 percent in September 2006.² However, the civilian figure includes those who do not meet military requirements for enlistment, including education and immigration status. Until recently, enlistment required a high school degree. Almost all (99 percent) of enlisted personnel in Fiscal Year (FY) 2001 (Oct. 1 to Sept. 30) had either a high school degree or the equivalent, such as a General Education Development (GED) certificate. Also, until recently, immigrants had to be citizens or legal permanent residents to enlist. Under these qualifications, Latinos actually have been overrepresented among enlisted personnel. In FY 2001, Latinos made up 8.2 percent of the qualified civilian work force and 9.5 percent of enlisted service members.³

Sent by Rafael Ojeda (Tacoma, WA) and Juan Marinez (Lansing, Michigan)

Information for Members of the Military and Their Families

This section of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) website contains immigration-related information and links to resources geared specifically for members of the military and their families. USCIS is working with the Department of Defense to ensure the military community has accurate and up-to-date information about immigration services and benefits.  
 

Military Help Line

USCIS has established a toll-free military help line, 1-877-CIS-4MIL (1-877-247-4645), exclusively for members of the military and their families.  USCIS customer service specialists are available to answer calls Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. (CST), excluding federal holidays.  After-hours callers will receive an email address that they can use to contact USCIS for assistance.  Callers will receive assistance with immigration-related information, such as:

·        Tracking their application for naturalization (Form N-400);

·        Notifying USCIS of a new mailing address or duty station;

·        Checking the status of an application or petition;

·        Bringing a spouse, fiancé(e) or adopted child to the United States;

·        Obtaining posthumous citizenship for a deceased member of the Armed Services; and

·        Submitting an application for expedited processing.

Service members and their families stationed in the United States or overseas may access the help line using the toll-free number, through their base telephone operator or using the Defense Switched Network (DSN).  Operators will ask members of the general public to call our main customer service line: 1-800-375-5283.

If you are a member of the U.S. Armed Forces and are interested in becoming a U.S. citizen, you may be eligible to apply for citizenship under special provisions provided for in the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). Generally, service in the U.S. Armed Forces means service in one of the following branches:

·        Army,

·        Navy,

·        Marine Corps,

·        Air Force,

·        Coast Guard,

·        Certain Reserve components of the National Guard, and

·        Selected Reserve of the Ready Reserve

Recent changes in the relevant sections of the INA (Sections 328 and 329) make it easier for qualified military personnel to become U.S. citizens if they choose to file a naturalization application.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has created a streamlined process specifically for military personnel serving in active-duty status or have recently been discharged.

This brochure provides you with some basic information about the laws that govern citizenship for military personnel and the process you should follow to begin your journey to citizenship.

Do You Qualify?

There are general requirements and qualifications that must be met in order for you to become a U.S. citizen. These include:

Demonstrating that you have good moral character
Demonstrating knowledge of the English language
Demonstrating knowledge of U.S. government and history (“civics”), and
Demonstrating attachment to the United States by taking an oath of allegiance to the U.S. Constitution.
As a member of the military there are other naturalization requirements that you may be excepted from, including the required residency and physical presence in the United States. These exceptions are outlined in Sections 328 and 329 of the INA.

Section 328, INA

This section applies to all members currently serving in the U.S. Armed Forces or those who have already been discharged from service.

·        Have you served honorably for a total of one or more years?

·        Are you a lawful permanent resident?

·        Will you be filing your application for naturalization while still in service or within six months of being discharged?

Section 329, INA

This section applies to members of the U.S. Armed Forces who currently serve or have served in active-duty status during authorized periods of conflict as outlined in the INA (WWI; September 1, 1939-December 31, 1946; June 25, 1950-July1, 1955; and February 28, 1961-October 5, 1978) or any additional period designated by the President in an Executive Order.*

* Recently, the President signed an Executive Order identifying September 11, 2001 and after as an authorized period of conflict.

·    Have you served honorably in the U.S. Armed Forces during an authorized period of conflict?

·    After enlistment, were you lawfully admitted as a permanent resident of the United States, OR at the time of enlistment, reenlistment, or induction were you physically present in the United States or qualifying territory?

Changes on October 1, 2004

Recent legislation has called for additional benefits to members of the military. These benefits will go into effect on October 1, 2004.

·        No fees will be charged when you file for naturalization.

·        The naturalization process will be made available overseas to members of the Armed Forces at U.S. embassies, consulates, and where practical, military installations abroad.

If You Qualify…

Every military installation should have a designated point-of-contact to handle your application and certify your Request for Certification of Military or Naval Service (N-426). You should inquire through your chain of command to find out who this person is, so they can help you with your application packet.

Your point-of-contact will send your N-400, G325B, and certified N-426 to:

The Nebraska Service Center
PO Box 87426
Lincoln, NE 68501-7426

The Service Center will review your application and perform the necessary security checks. Then, they will send it to the district office closest to your location. If you have a preference as to where you would like to be interviewed, you can provide that information in a cover letter attached to your naturalization packet. The district office will set a date to interview you and test your knowledge of English and Civics. If granted, USCIS will inform you of the date you can take your oath of allegiance.

Forms you will need to complete and submit:

·        N-400, Application for Naturalization

·        N-426, Request for Certification of Military or Naval Service (This form requires certification by the military prior to submission to USCIS)

·        G-325B, Biographic Information

Forms and Handbooks

To get these forms, you can call the USCIS Form Line at: 1-800-870-3676 to request the “Military Packet” and obtain a copy of the handbook, “A Guide to Naturalization”

Spouses of U.S. Citizens Deployed Abroad

If you are married to a U.S. citizen who is a member of the U.S. Armed Forces and your citizen spouse is or will be deployed abroad by the Armed Forces for one year, you may be eligible for expedited naturalization under section 319(b) of the INA. For more information, please refer to the USCIS handbook, "A Guide to Naturalization" (page 22).

Posthumous Benefits

The INA allows for the awarding of posthumous citizenship to active-duty military personnel who die while serving in the Armed Forces. In addition, surviving family members seeking immigration benefits are given special consideration. To learn more, contact your military point-of-contact or the local district USCIS office.

http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.5af9bb95919f35e66f6
14176543f6d1a/?vgnextoid=92f596981298d010VgnVCM
10000048f3d6a1RCRD&vgnextchannel=0a9ab58f71e14110VgnVCM
1000004718190aRCRD

PATRIOTS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION

N.Y. Revolutionary War Encampment Faces Development

By Sarah Amtower | Online Only | May 5, 2008 
Preservation Magazine

http://www.preservationnation.org/magazine/2008/todays-news/ny-revolutionary-war-
encampm.html

But the town, Dutchess County, and local preservation groups plan to meet next month to consider passing a building moratorium to prevent any construction on the last acres of the Fishkill Supply Depot and Encampment, located across the street from an empty mall.

"Hopefully in this meeting with the town we can accomplish something," says Dutchess County Legislator Alison MacAvery.

Modeled after a Roman encampment, the Fishkill Supply Depot functioned as the main supply camp for the Continental Army throughout most of the war. Visited by George Washington, the Marquis de Lafayette, and other important figures, the depot was a rallying and assembling point. In addition to extensive barracks, a prison, a hospital, and a powder magazine, a cemetery also existed on the site. Today, the buildings are gone, and the exact location of the cemetery, where hundreds of soldiers are buried, is unknown.

The depot was central to the Continental Army's success, says Rich Goring, state archaeologist and regional historic preservation supervisor.

"Its strategic significance is linked to the strategic significance of the Hudson River," Goring says.  "Communication across the river was critically important for both sides."

Two private developers currently own the depot site, but a local group called Fishkill Historical Focus is working with the town to preserve at least eight crucial acres. At a meeting next month, city and county officials and community preservationists will discuss a preservation plan.

"It is a tremendous legacy for a town to have, and many towns dream to have such an important history," says Mara Farrell, co-founder of Fishkill Historical Focus. "It's a remarkable story, and it's an untold story."

 SPANISH PATRIOTS OF PERU 
DURING THE AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY WAR 
(Names beginning with Garibay to Hac) 
PART 8

Compiled by Granville Hough, Ph.D.

Mariano Garibay.  Sgt, Mil Urbanas de Inf de Huancavelica, 1800.  Leg 7288:XVI:26.

Antonio de la Garma.  Lt, Mil Prov Urbanas Inf de Huanta, 1800.  Leg 7288:XVIII:16.

Cayetano de la Garma.  Capt, Mil prov Urbanas Inf de Huanta, 1800.  Leg 7288:XVIII:3.

Martin Garmendia.  Capt, Agregado Inf del Real Asiente de Paucartambo, 1798.  Leg 7286:XIX:5.

Eugenio Garro.  Sgt, Mil Inf española de San Juan de la Frontera de Chachapoyas, 1792.  Leg 7284:VI:32.

André Gastañaduy.  SubLt, Mil Prov Urbanas de Inf de San Antonio de Cajamarca, 1797.  Leg 7287:III:24.

Juan José Gastañaga.  Sgt Mayor, Mil Prov Discip Cab de Cuzco, 1792.  Leg 7284:XVII:2.

Manuel Gastea.  Sgt, Mil Prov urbanas Inf de Urubamba, 1797.  Seg 7287:XXXVIII:43.

Manuel Gatica.  Lt, Mil Prov Urbanas de Dragones de Chota, 1797.  Leg 7287:XIII:19.

Francisco Javier Gavidia.  Capt, Comp Cab de Milicias del partido de Santa, 1799.  Leg 7286:XXIII:3.

José Gayangos.  Capt de Granaderos, grad de Lt Col, Inf Real de Lima, 1800.  Leg 7288:XXII:6.

Juan Gayoso.  Capt, Mil Prov Urbanas Dragones de Chota.  1797.  Leg 7287:XIII:5.

Mariano Gaztelu.  Sgt, Mil Prov Urbanas Inf de Huanta, 1800.  Leg 7288:XVIII:55.

Agustín Gil.  SubLt, Mil Urbanas Inf San Antonio de Cajamarca, 1797.  Leg 7287:III:19.

José Antonio Gil.  SubLt, Mil Urbanas, Inf de Huancavelica, 1800.  Leg 7288:XVI:17.

Pedro Pablo Gil.  Lt de Granaderos, Mil Discip Dragones de Arica, 1800.  Leg 7288:II:33.

Pedro José Gil y Montes Lt, Mil Discip Dragones de Arica, 1800, Leg 7288:II:21.

Ramón Gil del Valle.  Capt grad, Comp sueltas Cab Morenos de Lima, 1790.  Leg 7283:X:1.

Francisco Gilgonio.  Alf, Mil Urbanas Dragones de palma, partido de Jauja, 1800.  Leg 7288:XXI:19.

José Ginester.  Lt, Mil Discip Cab de los Valles de Palpa y nasca, 1795.  Leg 7285:XX:12.

Luis Giron.  SubLt de Granaderos, Mil Prov urbanas de Inf Cajamarca, 1797.  Leg 7287:IV:16.

Pedro Givaja.  Sgt, Mil Prov Urbanas Inf de Urubamba, 1797.  Leg 7287:XXXVIII:40.

Agustín Goche.  Ayudante Mayor, Mil Discip Cab Arnero de Chancay, 1800.  Leg 7288:III:11.

Juan Manuel Gochi.  Cadet, Inf Real de Lima, 1800.  Leg 7288:XXII:119.

Vicente Godinez.  Alf, Mil Discip Cab Trujillo, Perú, 1797.  Leg 7287:XXXVI:17.

Blas Godoy.  Sgt, Mil Discip Cab Arnero de Chancay, 1796.  Leg 7286:III:26.

Gervasio Godoy.  Sgt, Mil Prov Urbanas Cab de Huamalies, 1800.  Leg 7288:XVII:23.

Pedro Godoy.  SubLt, Mil Prov Discip de Inf de Castro, Chiloe, 1800.  Leg 7288:IX:59.

Ignacio Goicoechea.  Cadet, Mil Prov Urbanas Dragones de Clendin, partido de Cajamarca, 1792.  Leg 7284:XV:42.

Andrés Gomero.  Lt, Mil Prov urbanas inf de Huánuco, 1796.  Leg 7286:V:18.

Agustín Gomez.  Sgt, Mil Discip de Inf de Castro, Chiloe, 1800.  Leg 7288:IX:107.

Bernardo Gomez.  Capt, Comp sueltas de Inf del partido de Carelmapu, Chiloe, 1800.  Leg 7288:XIII:3.

Felipe Gomez.  Lt, Mil prov Discip Inf de Arequipa, 1792.  Leg 7284:III:34.

Francisco Gomez.  Sgt, Mil Prov Discip de Cab del Valle de Chincha, 1797.  Leg 7287:XII:38.

Francisco Gomez.  SubLt, Comp Veteranos de la dotación de Chiloe, 1798.  Leg 7286:XV:9.

Francisco Gomez.  Capt, grad Lt Col, Inf Real de Lima, 1800.  Leg 7288:XXII:;7.

Francisco Antonio Gomez.  SubLt, Mil Prov Discip Inf de Arequipa, 1800.  Leg 7288:I:56.

José Gomez.  Lt, Mil de Dragones Prov de las Fronteras de Tarma.  1797.  Leg 7287:XXXV:13.

Juan Antonio Gomez.  Sgt, Mil Prov Discip de Inf de Castro, Chiloe, 1800.  Leg 7288:IX:81.

Juan Ignacio Gomez.  SubLt de Bandera, Mil Prov Discip de Inf de Castro, Chiloe, 1800.  Leg 7288:IX:79.

Juan Ventura Gomez.  SubLt, Mil Prov Discip de Inf de Castro, Chiloe, 1800.  Leg 7288:IX:63.

León Gomez.  SubLt, 34d Comp, Mil Urbanas Inf Moyobamba, 1797.  Leg 7287:XXIX:20.

Luis Gomez.  Lt de Granaderos Mil Prov Urbanas Inf de Huánuco, 1796.  Leg 7286:V:16.

Manuel León Gomez.  SubLt, Mil Prov Urbanas de Inf de San Antonio de Cajamarca, 1797.  Leg 7287:III:28.

Martin Gomez.  Alf, Mil de Dragones prov de las Fronteras de Tarma, 1800.  Leg 7288:XXIX:25.

Modesto Gomez.  Lt de Granaderos, Mil Prov Discip de Inf de Castro, Chiloe, 1800.  Leg 7288:IX:49.

Pascual Gomez.  Sgt, Mil Prov Urbanas Dragones de Huambos, Partido de Cajamarca, 1797.  Leg 7287:XVII:31.

Pedro Gomez.  Sgt, Mil Prov Discip de Dragones de Caraveli, 1796.  Leg 7287:VIII:41.

Santiago Gomez.  SubLt, Mil Discip de Cab de Castro, Chiloe, 1800.  Leg 7288:X:6.

Sebestián Gomez.  Ayudante Mayor, Mil de Cab Partido de Santa, 1799.  Leg 7286:XXIII:11.

Tomás Gomez.  Lt, 3rd Comp Mil Urbanas Inf Moyobamba, 1797.  Leg 7287:XXIX:11.

Pedro José Gomez de Celis.  Sgt Mayor, Mil Discip Cab Ferreñafe, 1797.  Leg 7287:XIV:3.

Mateo Gomez Gonzales.  Sgt Mayor, Mil Dragones Prov de las fronteras de Tarma, 1800. Leg 7288:XXIX:4.

Manuel Gomez Guevara.  Capt, Mil Discip Cab Ferreñafe, 1797.  Leg 7287:XIV:10.

Fausto Gomez Miro y Lara.  Capt, Mil Discip Dragones del Puerto de Tumbez, Piura, 1795.  Leg 7285:XXIII:10.

Ambrosio Gomez Trigoso.  Capt, Mil Urbanas Inf de Húamanga, 1797.  Leg 7286:IV:11.

José Gomez Trigoso.  Cadet, Mil Discip Cab de los valles de Palpa y Nasca, 1797.  Leg 7287:XXXI:re.

Julián Gomez Trigoso.  Capt, Mil Discip Cab de los valles de Palpa y Nasca, 1797.  Leg 7287:XXXI;6.

Santiago Gomez Trigoso.  Lt Col, Mil Urbanas Inf Moyobamba, 1797.  Leg 7287:XXIX:2.

Agustín Gonzalez.  Sgt, Mil Prov Urbanas Dragones de Huambos, Partido de Cajamarca, 1792.  Leg 7284:XIV:33.

Agustín Gonzalez.  Lt, Mil de Pardos de Lima, 1792.  Leg 7284:XII:3.

Alejo Gonzalez.  Sgt, Mil Prov Urbanas Inf de Abancay, 1793.  Leg 7284:II:32.

Carlos Gonzalez.  Comandante, Mil Urbanas de Dragones de Palma, Partido de Jauja, 1800.  Leg 7288:XXI:3.

Cipriano Gonzalez.  Capt, Mil Discip Cab de Camaná, 1798.  Leg 7286:XIV:8.

Cristobal Gonzalez.  Lt Col, Mil Urbanas Cab San Pablo de Chalaquez, 1798.  Leg 7287:XI:2.

Dionisio Gonzalez.  Alf, Mil Prov Urbanas de Dragones de Chota, 1797.  Leg 7287:XIII:31.

Domingo Gonzalez.  Sgt, Mil Prov Urbanas Dragones de Huambos, partido de Cajamarca, 1797.  Leg 7287:XVII:27.

Domingo Gonzalez.  Capt, Mil prov de Dragones de Chota, 1797.  Leg 7287:XIII:7.

Eugenio Gonzalez.  Lt, Mil Discip Cab de Camaná, 1798.  Leg 7286:XIV:13.

Felipe Gonzalez.  Lt, Comp sueltas de Inf del partido de Carelmapu, Chiloe, 1800.  Leg 7288:XIII:6.

Felipe Gonzalez.  Alf, Mil Cab del partido de Santa, 1792.  Leg 7284:XXIII:14.

José Gonzalez.  Capt, Mil Discip Dragones de Lima, 1788.  Leg 7283:III:36.

José Gonzalez.  Lt, Mil Prov Urbanas de Cab de Huanta, 1798.  Leg 7286:XVII:12.

José Ricardo Gonzalez.  Alf, Mil Discip Cab de los Valles de Palpa y Nasca, 1797.  Leg 7287:XXXI:22.

Juan Gonzalez.  Lt, Mil Discip Dragones de Lima, 1788.  Leg 7283:III:41.

Juan José Gonzalez.  Lt, Mil Urbanas Inf de Huamanga, 1800.  Leg 7288:XV:12.

Manuel Gonzalez.  Portaguión, Mil Discip Dragones de Lima, 1790.  Leg 7283:IX:67.

Manuel Gonzalez.  Lt, Inf Real de Lima, 1800.  Leg 7288:XXII:47.

Manuel Gonzalez.  Col, Inf, Real de Lima, 1800.  Leg 7288:XXII:1.

Mariano Gonzalez.  SubLt, Mil Prov Urbanas Inf de Abancay, 1793.  Leg 7284:II:61.

Mateo Eustaquio Gonzalez.  Alf, Mil Prov Discip Cab de Cuzco, 1797.  Leg 7287:X:23.   

Juan Gonzalez de Santayana y Rosas.  SubLt, Mil Discip de Inf de Cuzco, 1800.  Leg 7288:XXIV:30.

Alonzo Gonzalez del Vale, Marqués de Campo Ameno.  Sgt Mayor, mil Discip de Cab de Ica, 1800.  Leg 7288:XX:2.

Juan Gonzalez Villagra.  Capitan, Inf del Real Asiento de Parcartambo, 1796.  Leg 7286:XIX:11.

Manuel Gonzalez Viscardo.  Capt, Comandante Milicias Discip de Cab de Camaná, 1798.  Leg 7286:XIV:3.

Manuel Gorbea.  Capt, Mil Discip Cab de Arnero de Chancay. 1800.  Leg 7288:III:9.

Agustín Gordillo.  Sgt, Mil Discip Cab del Reino de Ferreñafe, 1797.  Leg 7287:XIV:44.

Ignacio Gornes.  Cadet, Mil Discip Cab de los Valles de palpa y Nasca, 1797.  Leg 7287:XXXI:42.

Pedro Gornes.  Capt, Mil Discip Cab de los Valles de Palpa y Nasca, 1797.  Leg 7287:XXI:7.

Diego Gorostizaga.  SubLt, Mil Discip Inf Española de Lima, 1790.  Leg 7283:VII:37.

Juan Goyeneche.  Sgt Mayor, Mil prov Discip Inf de Arequipa, 1800.  Leg 7288:I:2.

Juan Mariano Goyeneche.  Cadet, Mil Prov Discip Inf de Arequipa, 1800.  Leg 7288:I:95.

Manuel Goyeneche.  Lt, Mil Prov Urbanas Inf de Huanta, 1800.  Leg 7288:XBIII:24.

Juan Antonio Grados.  Cadet, Mil Discip Cab de los Valles de Palpa y Nasca, 1797.  Leg 7287:XXXI:44.

Lorenzo Grados.  Lt, Mil Prov Discip de Dragones de Caraveli, 1797  Leg 7287:VIII:14.

Pedro Grados.  Alf, Mil Prov Discip de Dragones de Caraveli, 1796.  Leg 7287:VIII:22.

Pedro Antonio Grados.  Lt, Mil Prov Discip de Dragones de Caraveli, 1796.  Leg 7287:VIII:11.

Pedro José Grados.  Lt, Mil Prov Discip Dragones de Caraveli, 1797.  Leg 7287:VIII:16 bis.

José Granados.  Alf Mil Discip Cab Arnero de Chancay, 1800.  Leg 7288:III:22.

Esteban de la Granda.  Lt, Mil Discip Cab de Camaná, 1798.  Leg 7286:XIV:12.

Diego Grimaldos.  Sgt, Mil Discip Cab de Arequipa, 1792.  Leg 7284:XIII:43.

Carlos Garreti.  Lt, Mil de Pardos Libres de Lima, 1800.  Leg 7288:XXV:4.

Ramón Guemes.  Sgt, Mil Prov Urbanas de Inf de Calca, 1797.  Leg 7287:V:22.

Hermenegildo Guerra.  Lt, Mil Discip Cab Arnero de Chancay, 1800.  Leg 7288:III:12.

Jorge Guerra.  Sgt, Mil Urbanas de Inf de Huancavelica, 1800.  Leg 7288:16:18.

Manuel Guerra.  Sgt, Inf Real de Lima, 1800.  Leg 7288:XXII:97.

Pablo Guerra.  Lt, Mil Urbanas de Dragones de Palma, Partido de Jauja, 1800.  Leg 7288:XXI:14. 

Pablo Guerra.  Lt, Mil Discip Cab Arnero de Chancay, 1800.  Leg 7288:III:15.

Estaquio Guerrero.  Cadet, Mil Prov Urbanas de Dragones de Chota, 1797.  Leg 7287:XIII:52.

Remigio Guerrero.  Cadet, Mil Prov Urbanas de Dragones de Chota, 1797.  Leg 7287:XIII:51.

Manuel Guerrero de Luna.  Lt, Mil Prov Urbanas de Dragones de Chota, 1797.  Leg 7287:XIII:22.

Fulgencio Guerrero y Vazquez.  Lt, Mil Discip de Cab de Ica, 1800.  Leg 7288:XX:20.

Zénon Guerrero Vazquez.  Cadet, Mil Discip Cab de Ica, 1800.  Leg 7288:XX:42.

Domingo Guevara.  Cadet, Mil Discip de Blancos de Barcelona, Prov de Cumaná, 1799.  Leg 7295:VII:75.

Francisco Guevara.  Cadet, 3rd Comp Inf Mil de Blancos de la Isla de la Margarita, 1800.  Leg 7295:XIII:12.

Juan Santos Guevara.  Alf, Momp Mil Discip de Cab del Reino de Ferreñafe, 1797.  Leg 7287:XIV:33.

Luis Fermin Guevara.  Alf, Mil Prov Urbanas Dragones de Huambos, Partido de Cajamarca, 1792.  Leg 7284:XIV:26.

Pedro Guevara.  Cadet, Comp Vet de Inf de la Isla de la Margarita, 1798.  Leg 7295:XIII:30.

Pedro Lorenzo de Guevara.  Capt, Mil Reglada de Vol Blancos, Valenia, Caracas, 1799.  Leg 7295:VIII:13.

Rafael Guevara.  Cadet, 1st Comp, Inf Mil de Blancos de la Isla de la Margarita, 1800.  Leg 7295:XIII:10.

Santiago Guevara.  Sgt, Comp Mil Discip Cab del Reino de Ferreñafe, 1797.  Leg 7287:XIV:39.

Teodoro Guevara.  Sgt, Mil Prov Urbanas de Dragones de Chota, 1797.  Leg 7287:XIII:45.

José Vicente Guevara Astudillo.  Cadet, Mil Discip de Blancos de Barcelona, Prov de Cumaná, 1799.  Leg 7295:VII:74.

Santos Guillen.  Sgt de la Comp de los Tongas, Mil Prov Discip Cab de Arequipa, 1797.  Leg 7287:II:53.

Tomás Guillen.  Lt, Mil Prov Urbanas Cap de Huanta, 1798.  Leg 7286:XVII:15.

Tomás Guillen de Mendoza.  Cadet, Mil Prov Urbanas de Cab de Huanta, 1794.  Leg 7285:III:39.

Juan Guisla.  Capt, Mil Discip Cab de los Valles de Palpa y nasca, 1797.  Leg 7287:XXXI:11.

Juan de Guisla y Larrea.  Col, Mil Discip Inf Española de Lima, 1800.  Leg 7288:XXIII:3.

José Manuel Gustini.  Sgt, Mil Pardos Libres de Lima, 1800.  Leg 7288:XXV:13.

José Gutierrez.  Sgt, Mil Prov Discip Inf de Qrequipa, 1800.  Leg 7288:I:62.

Liberato Gutierrez.  Capt, Comp sueltas Mil Discip Cab de Calbuco, Chiloe, 1800.  Leg 7288:VI:1.

Manuel Gutierrez.  Sgt, Inf Real de Lima, 1794.  Leg 7285:IX:97.

Manuel Gutierrez.  Lt, Mil Urbanas Inf de Huamanga, 1797.  Leg 7286:IV:18.

Marcos Gutierrez.  Capt de Granaderos, Mil Pardos Libres de Lima, 1796.  Leg 7286:XII:19.

Pedro Gutierrez.  Sgt, Mil Prov Discip Cab de Cuzco, 1792.  Leg 7284:XVII:51.

Prudencio Gutierrez.  Alf, Mil Urbanas de Dragones de Pallma, partido de Jauja, 1800.  Leg 7288:XXI:20.

Tomás Gutierrez.  Lt, Comp Mil Discip Cab del Reino de Ferreñafe, 1797.  Leg 7287:XIV:19.

Raimundo Gutierrez de Otero.  Lt Col, Mil Prov Discip Cab de Qrequipa, 1797.  Leg 7287:II:5.

Juan Antonio Gutierrea de Prio.  Ayudante Mayor, Mil Prov urbanas de Dragones de Chota, 1793.  Leg 7284:XXVI:3.

Bartolomé Gutierrea de Siguenza.  Lt Col, Mil Prov Urbanas Dragones de Quispicanchi, Cuzco, 1798.  Leg 7286:XX:2.

Angel Guzman.  Capt, Mil Españolas Cab de Luya y Chillaos, Prov de Chachapoya, 1792.  Leg 7284:XX:7.

Domingo Guzman.  Sgt, Mil Discip Dragones de Amotape, Piura, 1795.  Leg 7285:XXIII:21.

Eulalio Guzman.  Lt, Comp Mil Discip Cab del Reino de Ferreñafe, 1797.  Leg 7287:XIV:22.

Luis Guzman.  Sgt, Inf Real de Lima, 1800.  Leg 7288:XXII:101.

José Guzman y Medina.  Lt de Granaderos, Mil Prov Urbanas Inf de Urubamba, 1797.  Leg 7287:XXXVIII:18.

Laureano Guzman Portocarrero.  Sgt Mayor, Mil Urbanas Inf Moyobamba, 1791.  Leg 7287:XXIX:3.

(to be continued.)

SURNAMES

 Guerra, de la Guerra Family Crest and Name History

Family Crest and Name History. Guerra, de la Guerra Family Crest and Name History: Recorded in many spellings including Guerre, Guierre, Laguerre (French), Guerra, Guerrero, de la Guerra (Spanish), Guerreiro (Portugese), Guerri (Italian), Guerriero (Sicillian), and Warr or Warre (English), the name derives from the word ‘guerre’, meaning ‘war’.

Seemingly the surname was originally a nickname, which described either a soldier who had returned home from the wars, or a belligerent person. The word as “Guerre,” was introduced into England by the Normans after the Conquest of 1066 AD, by Norman the Conqueror, but it is by no means clear as to how the surname spread to Italy and the Spanish Peninsula, as it does not appear to have a Latin base. Medieval nicknames were given for a variety of reasons including personal appearance, physical peculiarities, or moral characteristics. This gave rise to some very unusual surnames, many of which were obscene and crude! Examples of the name recordings taken from various countries include John Warre of Lincoln, England, in 1468; Jan Guerre, at Bornville, Meurthe-et-Moselle, France, on August 7th 1575; Magdalena Ortiz Guerra, at Nazar, Navarra, Spain, on October 19th, 1586, and Bartolome Guerro, at San Sebastian, Spain, on September 28th, 1613, when he married Ana de Ortega. An interesting recording is that of Maria Josefa Guerra-Noriega, at Santa Barbara, Alta California on July 2nd, 1826.

Captain-Don Jose Antonio Julian de la Guerra y Noriega 
Born: March 6, 1770, Novales in Santander, Spain
Baptized: March 1770, Santander, Spain (España)
Died: February 11, 1858, Santa Barbara, California
Buried: February 12, 1858, Mission Santa Barbara
Married: May 16, 1804, Mission Santa Barbara, California
Spouse: Maria Antonia Juliana Carrillo
Born: March 15, 1786, Mission San Gabriel
Baptized: March 17, Mission San Gabriel, California
Died: December 27, 1843, Santa Barbara, California
Buried: December 28, 1843, Mission Santa Barbara

Captain Jose Antonio Julian de la Guerra y Noriega was born on March 6, 1770, a native of the Pueblo de Novales en las Montana de Santander, Spain. The legitimate son of Don Juan Jose de la Guerra Y Ceballos (who died in 1820) and of Dona Maria Teresa de Noriega (who died 1815). He married the daughter of Lieutenant (Don) Jose Raymundo (Raimundo) Carrillo of the Presidio of Santa Barbara and Dona Tomasa Lugo in 1803, in the Santa Barbara Mission, Alta California by Father Esteban Tapis where her family worshiped (the record indicates the number 56 in the register). His ancestors were montaneses or mountaineers, blue-eyed and golden-haired because their region had never been penetrated by the Moors. His great-grandson, Father Joseph A. Thompson O.F.M., said that Don Jose was to play a unique and important role in the mission history of California. He was an exemplary Catholic, irreproachable caballero, and a gallant officer in the forces of Spain.

On March 16, 1822, De la Guerra represented Santa Barbara at a junta held in Monterey by Governor Pablo Sola, at which time California pledged allegiance to General Augustine Iturbide, breaking free of the rule of Spain. Under Mexican rule, the government was empowered to give large grants of ranch land to worthy recipients. Captain de la Guerra got first choice of ranchos in the Santa Barbara and San Buenaventura region under his command. Thus becoming the sole owner of Rancho Los Alamos, 48,803 acres; Rancho Corral de Quatin north of Los Olivos, California, a ranch of 13,322 acres; the two ranches in the Cuyama Valley totaling more than 71,000 acres; the Rancho San Julian, 48,221 acres lying west of Gaviota Pass; and in modern Ventura County, the Rancho Las Posas, with 26,623 acres; Rancho El Conejo with 48,671 acres; Rancho Santa Paula y Saticoy (by purchase) with 17,773 acres; and the Ranchos El Simi and El Tapo, Los Angeles County, California, totaling 113,009 acres.

On May 10, 1827, the Mexican Congress decreed that no person of Spanish birth should hold any public, civil, or military office. That on December 20, 1827, the Mexican politicians, who certainly had not at heart the welfare of the people ordered Captain de la Guerra to surrender his office of military commander of the Presidio of Santa Barbara (because he was a Spaniard by birth), he along with other Spaniards under the age of 60, were ordered to leave California. That was unless they had married a Mexican wife and had taken the oath of allegiance to Mexico. In 1828, he turned over his command of the presidio to Lieutenant Romualdo Pacheco. Lt. Pacheco, who on December 31, 1828, reported that the military jurisdiction of Santa Barbara comprised the presidio and the missions with their ranchos. 

These missions included the Mission Santa Barbara (Ranchos de San Marcos and de Dos Pueblos), Mission Santa Ynez (Santa Ines)(Rancho de Calaguaza),
Mission Purisima Concepcion and San Buenventura, (Rancho de Santa Paula), and Mission San Fernando (Ranchos de Cahuenga and de San Francisco) and the Presidio of Santa Barbara (with Ranchos del Refugio, de San Julian and El Conejo), California.

In 1842, four years before the American take-over of California under Commodore Stockton and Lieutenant Colonel Fremont, Jose de la Guerra resigned from the military after almost 52 years of service. For the remaining 16 years of his life, he lived in peaceful retirement at his Santa Barbara casa grande facing the plaza, which was loved by both the Mexicans and Americans alike.

Source: ElMensajeVol.27, June 2008, Editor, Robert Smith

CUENTOS

TOMAS SAENZ GONZALEZ

Life Story
|

ORANGE COUNTY, CA

Photo by Sheila Recio

ORANGE COUNTY CELEBRATES LAW DAY WITH GENERAL SALINAS

Superior Court of California, County of Orange
M E M O

Date: May 29, 2008

To: All Superior Court Judicial Officers
From: Nancy Wieben Stock, Presiding Judge
Subject: Court Tour Program Needs Volunteer Docents

Culture Clash and the Sadler Family

From left: Herbert Sigüenza, me, Viola Sadler, Chuck Sadler, Charles Sadler, Ric Salinas and Richard Montoya.
 

 
SHHAR May 24th  Quarterly Meeting 
Honored John Inclan and John Schmal

LOS ANGELES, CA

African Presence in Mexico Exhibit

­­Padre Glyn Jemmott, a leading advocate for the Afro Mexican community, will speak on Sunday, June 1st at 2:00 p.m. at the California African American Museum in their Gallery Area.  Padre Glyn will discuss his work of 25 years with the Afro Mexicans of the Costa Chica and its new immigrants in the Los Angeles/Pasadena area and how both groups cope with marginalization and economic and societal challenges.  This will be a unique opportunity for all who attend as a closing event to the exhibit African Presence in Mexico. 

This is a day filled with lots of activities, such as entertainment, and hands-on mask making, craft exhibits and food vendors.

Admission to the Museum, located in Exposition Park, is free.  Parking is available nearby at Figueroa and 39th Street for $6.  For further information visit www.caamuseum.org or call 213.744.2132

Sent by Alva Moore Stevens  astevens@library.ucla.edu

On behalf of Latinos in Information Sciences and Technology Association Los Angeles Technology Council, we would like to invite you to join us for our LISTA Technology Trends Breakfast Series in Los Angeles California.  

On Wednesday, June 11th 2008, the Los Angeles Technology Council of Latinos in Information Sciences and Technology Association (LISTA), in collaboration with Microsoft’s Vida Digital Latina will be hosting our Technology Trends Breakfast Series. 

The Breakfast Series will feature some of today’s most dynamic technology and business leaders who will share their insights to the future of Latinos in technology and the trends we need to be aware of in order to prosper in this technological society we live in today. LISTA bring together Latino Technology Professionals, government officials and business leaders from Los Angeles to have an open discussion on how we can move our community to the next level.  

Keynote Speakers:  
Jose Luis Rodriguez, National Chair of Latinos in Information Sciences and Technology Association
Jose Marquez, National CEO of Latinos in Information Sciences and Technology Association.
Andres Moreno, CEO Open English, President of LISTA Los Angeles Tech Council
Jose Pineiro, Microsoft, Director
David Contreras, IBM Tech Specialist, LISTA National Board of Director Regional Vice President
Juan Ulloa, Microsoft Tech Guy

There is no cost to attend the event, which includes the opportunity to interface with corporations looking for minority suppliers, a one -year membership in the San Francisco Tech Council, gifts and opportunity to win Microsoft gifts at a raffle conducted at the end of the event. 
The attendees will be treated to a continental breakfast during registration and will have the opportunity to network. 

        Ventura Adult Continuing Education Tech Development Center 
5200 Valentine Road, Ventura, California 93003
8:30am - 10:30am
Click Here: Register Today

This year we are celebrating our “First Tour of the Technology Trends Breakfast series sponsored by Microsoft Windows Vista. The Technology Trends Breakfast was launched in 2006, the Series has attracted over 5,000 Latino/a business owners, corporate and government officials who have benefited from the ½ day series in the Northeast, now we bringing it to Los Angeles. The series was created as a unique forum for the Latino community to gain the knowledge needed for them to deploy technology in their own businesses, and life or take their existing business to the next level.  

 
Pechanga Scholarship Award Program

We will be featuring Diana Jimenez, Mexican opera singer and mother of Salma Hayek performing romanticos from my father's era as well as Harp performances from the Orange County Therapeutic Arts Center playing music from Veracruz and Chiapas as well as other cultural entertainment.

We will include my father telling his wonderful stories, special guests speaking of their experiences and influence of my father in their lives and typical Mexican food from Oaxaca, Yucatan and other states.

The event will raise funds for the Dionicio Morales documentary,(we want to make sure my father's story and work is not forgotten & is taught to the new generations) and for the pride in heritage projects of the new foundation.

Sponsorships opportunities are available as well as ads for the tribute program book. 
Please contact me for more information.  I look forward to hearing from you.

Magdalena Morales, President
Dionicio Morales Foundation
"Pride in Heritage Project"
(323) 988-0151
(323) 908-4097 fax

CALIFORNIA

For Northern California Patriots, Don't Miss this Opportunity of Seeing

The Legacy of Valor
May 16- June 16th 

Mexican Heritage Plaza 
1704 Alum Rock Ave.
San Jose, California

Be sure and stop by, you'll never know who might also be viewing the display.  

The exhibit, "The Legacy of Valor," is being presented and displayed for the First Time at MEXICAN HERITAGE PLAZA located at 1704 Alum Rock Avenue, San Jose, CA. The exhit has been extending to June 16, 2008. This traveling  exhibition measures 8 ft. tall by 50 ft. long.   

The Legacy of Valor is an exhibit depicting a photo mural display presented in 4-segments: 

1. First display is of the 41 HISPANIC MEDAL OF HONOR RECIPIENTS from Civil War to Vietnam War. 

2.  Second display is entitled: " RETURN WITH HONOR "the Story of Commander Everett Alvarez, Jr. the First American Pilot shot down over North Vietnam was captured and survived and spent  8 years 7mos. as POW. 

3.  Third display is entitled:  'JUSTICE FOR MY PEOPLE" the Story of true legend 'Dr. Hector P. Garcia first civil rights activist, founder of the American G.I. Forum and in 1994 President Ronald Reagan presented Dr. Garcia at White House Ceremony the highest civilian award the "PRESIDENTIAL MEDAL OF FREEDOM". 

4.  Fourth display: Are Six separate photo murals of NAVY SHIPS named after HIspanic Medal of Honor winners...the;  USS: GARCIA, USNS: BENAVIDEZ, USS: VALDEZ, USNS: MARTINEZ, USNS:VALDEZ, USS:GONZALES

Stop the Hijack of a National Park

by Boyd De Lario

Congress’s founding legislation of the Presidio Trust states in its introductory findings that, "as part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, the Presidio’s significant natural, historic, scenic, cultural, and recreational resources must be managed in a manner which is consistent with sound principles of land use planning and management, and which protects the Presidio from development and uses which would destroy the scenic beauty and historic and natural character of the area and cultural and recreational resources."

In this act, the Presidio Trust was established as a non-profit federal corporation with great authority and the requirement that it become independent of annual federal appropriations by fiscal year 2013. Only Congress has authority over the Trust.

Deals like building the Lucas Arts Industrial Light and Magic facility on the former site of Letterman Hospital have apparently created enough income to sustain operating costs at current levels and meet the goal of self sustainability by 2013 set by Congress. However funds for any further restoration projects are very limited.

Now the Presidio Trust is proposing changes to plans and construction guidelines to allow multiple new constructions in the Main Post Area in the National Historic Landmark District (NHLD). Many believe the Presidio Trust is approaching this problem with desperation, little imagination, and forgetfulness of its mission.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Sierra Club, the Presidio Historical Association, 50 San Francisco neighborhood associations, and other organizations have opposed the multiple new construction developments in the NHLD. In spite of very creditable opposition, including from within the National Parks, the Presidio Trust seems bent on placing a massive art museum/gallery in the head of the Main Parade Ground, enlarging the historic theater next to it by 18,000 sq. ft, closing in the Main Parade Ground with new 3-story hotel construction on the east side, and other projects, some unknown. Critics believe this will destroy the historic and cultural landscape.

The Presidio Trust has rushed the public hearings and approval process on these issues, although no one has seen final plans for these developments. Many so-called plans such as the hotel are just ideas with few or no design documents. However the Presidio Trust has already selected a hotel developer.

A Supplemental Environmental Impact Study (SEIS) is scheduled for release on June 1, 2008. Meanwhile, the Presidio Trust and Donald Fisher, the ex-Board of Directors member and multi-millionaire founder of Gap and Old Navy Stores are lobbying energetically to have his proposed art museum accepted in the heart of the NHLD. The SEIS is being drafted by Presidio Trust staff and its contents will most probably be unknown until its release.

This is a National Park, part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. This park should celebrate the 230 years of history associated with the Spanish, Mexican, and US military presence there. The Presidio Historical Association, after years of proposing a history center, made a formal submission to the Presidio Trust to compete with the art gallery proposal. The PHA’s proposal was rejected for lack of a ready $80 million dollars such as Donald Fisher will provide to house his art collection.

The Presidio Historical Association’s idea was for a history center with electronic media and other methods of continually changing and updating exhibits. Their belief is that the San Francisco Presidio should be used to interpret the history of the western United States and the involvement of our country in the Pacific Ocean countries. This center could be a hub for historical and cultural tourism in the area. Additional museums for the Indian tribes of California, the founding of the Presidio by the Anza Party in 1776, Buffalo soldiers, Civil War in the West, World War I and II, and Korean conflict, as well as cultural museums for the nations of the Pacific would enhance this experience.

It is not too early to make our Congress aware that the Presidio Trust is violating OUR trust. Please write your local Congressman now and object to the misuse of this historic and scenic National Park by local private interests and the Presidio Trust.

If you have the energy, copy any letter you send to Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senator Barbara Boxer, and Senator Diane Feinstein, all of whom helped make the SF Presidio a National Park and who should be very concerned that it is being hijacked for local interests. Most importantly, let Executive Director Craig Middleton of the Presidio Trust know that you have complained. His street address is PO Box 29052, 34 Graham Street, San Francisco, CA 94129

We will need to respond to the SEIS after June 1, 2008. Since the Presidio Trust is rushing this process, there may not be time to ask for responses to the SEIS in a further article. Please check further at the Presidio Historical Association’s Website at http://www.presidioassociation.org for further developments. If you would like to know what the Presidio Trust says, but not necessarily what it does, try http://www.presidio.gov.

LAND SHE LOVED LOSES NOTED NATIVE DAUGHTER
Los Angeles Times, Dec 9, 1912

Visit the California-Spanish website at
http://www.sfgenealogy.com/spanish

 New Website for California Researchers

Alfred Moch (Ed Cota) has setup another website for members and guest to view information and events as related to the Los Pobladores 200, this is in addition to the official Los Pobladores 200 website that has been setup by Marie G. Moreno www.lospobladores.org  and infolospobladores@charter.net  and www.elmensaje@yahoogroups.com. 

Members can access all three websites for information and links to additional organizations related to California and other historical organizations.

 Know Who You Are Before They Tell You*  

Front row:Yolanda Aranda (entertainer), Susan Alcaraz-Pitts, Lorri Ruiz-Frain, Joanne Hoffman, Ernie Miramontes, Benjamin Reynolds, Evangeline Alcaraz, Christine Alcaraz-Coleman, Magdaline Castillo-Reynolds. Back row: Katie Halsted, Alex John Salas, Craig Coleman, Margaret Reynolds, Nik Angel, Alexandria Angel.  

The Juana Briones house which she had built more than 160 years ago, faces Old Adobe Road in Palo Alto.  Today, this old, rundown treasure of an adobe is still standing; however it is in jeoparding of being demolished. Another court hearing is scheduled for June 5, 2008, in San Jose regarding its fate.
 
My family and I lived and worked in the Silicon Valley for 30 years when at last we discovered our Briones y Tapia roots.  I joined the Los Californianos Organization early in the 1990s and now was seriously searching for my antepasados. Soon after joining the organization and with the support and assistance of the members and genealogist, I learned of my Californio heritage and family history. As Briones descendants, my family and I were honored by being invited by the members of the Women's Heritage Museum of San Francisco and BANELA (Bay Area Network of Latinas) to participate in placing a marker in honor of Juana Briones de Miranda in Washington Square Park in San Francisco on October 5, 1997. A few years later, we were informed about the Juana Briones House in Palo Alto and so I became involved in the campaign to help Save the Juana Briones House.
 
As a result of researching and discovering our roots, my family and I have met many primos over a period of less than twenty years. This has been a surreal and fulfilling experience for me, as my dear Mother is into her 90th year of life and finally has an awareness of her self-identity.  Best wishes to everyone in search of their ancestors.

Lorraine Ruiz Frain
lorrilocks@sbcglobal.net

*Dicho - An Old Saying,  Author may be unknown  

NORTHWESTERN UNITED STATES

Ceremony to dedicate historic landmark in Neah Bay
New park marks site of state’s first European settlement, honors veterans

Below is the press release for the ceremony held
May 17th, on the Makah Indian reservation