Somos Primos

DECEMBER 2009
120th Issue Online

Editor: Mimi Lozano ©2000-9

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

Networking 

Calendar 

  Letters to the Editor : 

[]Mimi, Thanks again for all you do.  You are one of the greatest assets that we descendants have in telling our  great story. One of these days, mainstream citizens of the U.S. will
understand the key contributions of our Spanish-Mexican ancestors in building this great place we call the U.S.A. 
Regards,  Joe Lopez
jlopez8182@satx.rr.com
 

UNITED STATES

United in our Spanish Surnames Connections
A Concept Paper  
By 
José Antonio López, Mimi Lozano, and José M. Peña

1.  Introduction.  Our objective is to initiate a historic call to unite all those with Spanish-Surnames in the United States.  While the Spanish surname identifies our lineage as historically connected to Spain, countless of us have Anglo, Irish, German, French, Italian, and many other non-Hispanic names and bloodlines.  In short, we are a very large, inclusive assembly of U.S. citizens.  As will be evident in the contents below, it is critical that we now unify under one umbrella and confront the many wrongs committed historically and currently against our group.  This document identifies present problems, their scope, the need for unity, and goals.  

2.  Problems. 

    a. Background.  Recent events have turned the once-civil discourse of illegal immigration into a nasty combative issue.  In short, it seems that all Spanish-surnamed Americans in the U.S. have become easy targets for politicians, contentious talk radio hosts, TV commentators, and vigilante groups.  Fed by ignorance or ingrained biases, they are unwilling to accept the fact that not all citizens who speak Spanish are recent arrivals.  They conveniently ignore the historical migrations of other ethnic groups into this country, including their own ancestors.  Oversimplifying the debate, they conveniently lump all Spanish-surnamed people together.  Sadly, they are encouraged by our perceived passive nature and inability to speak with one voice.                                                                                                   

    b. Political.  The Judge Sotomayor Supreme Court nomination issue, its debate in the senate hearings, and the media discussions show that most Anglo American politicians take Hispanic citizens for granted.  For instance, it was disappointing to hear two Senators from a state with significant Spanish-surnamed constituents mockingly suggest that they were not concerned about a Hispanic voter backlash if they voted against the highly qualified nominee.  Both implied that the Hispanics in their state don’t count in such things and most do not bother to vote.  That dismissive attitude is the ultimate insult to this specific group of citizens who have been deprived of their civil rights in their state for generations.  Not realizing their potential power in getting things done, this “class apart” has yet to present a coordinated front to fight common challenges.   

    c. Educational.  Similar to the political issue above, school boards and state governments for generations perceive that Spanish-surnamed citizens are below normal in intelligence and are not interested in the educational system.  For example, in Texas, where Spanish-surnamed citizens comprise nearly 40% of the population and whose ancestors gave birth to the state, the educational status quo is disgraceful.      

    d. Social Justice.  Since the 1950s, our government has invited several ethnic groups arriving from other countries with open arms, especially if they demonstrated a hatred for communism.  Sadly, only several Spanish-speaking groups have been so privileged.  Thus, feeling welcome has made their transition into mainstream U.S. society much easier.  As such, guided by helpful media coverage, the general public tends to receive these select minorities with sympathy and compassion.  In contrast, the more recent groups most of whom speak Spanish and who are seeking freedom not from communism, but from famine and poverty, are not so well received.  It is important to note that the nation’s conscience is at issue here.  The poem by Emma Lazarus at the Statue of Liberty that has welcomed millions of European immigrants does not mention communism as a reason to enter this country.  It does invite all “tired, poor, huddled masses, homeless, and wretched refuse” which more aptly describe the plight of the “illegal” immigrant.       

    b. The illegal immigration issue has turned ugly.  Politicians, news pundits, and many others in the U.S. use it as their favorite scapegoat.   Influenced by often vitriolic attacks repeated again and again on television, a number of Hispanic men within the recent past have been viciously beaten to death because they spoke Spanish and/or because they “looked” like illegal aliens.  Hispanic women have been separated from their babies at birth, because they spoke an Indian dialect and were thus declared unfit to care for their children.  Integral families have been divided.  U.S. born children, who hardly speak Spanish, are summarily sent to other countries because their parents are deported.  Very recently, workers at a hotel in the Southwest were directed to “Anglicize” their Spanish names and to stop speaking Spanish.  The unpleasant acts occur in a part of the U.S. that was first settled by Spanish Mexican pioneers and possesses its distinct Hispanic and Indian culture.  Dozens of Hispanic drivers in Dallas, Texas, have been given citations because they didn’t speak English.  Millions of tax dollars are being paid to build a questionable wall on our southern border.  The list of examples of blatant discrimination continues to grow.  

    c. Other Factors.  The following critical issues are at the breaking point within the Hispanic community:  school dropout rates, childhood obesity, teen pregnancy, drug abuse, and gangs.   

3.  Reasons to Unite. 

    a. Ask ten Spanish-surnamed U.S. citizens today to explain their roots and you’re liable to get at least ten different responses.  The individual answer displays a deep pride in our most precious possession; our individual heritage.  The answers run the gamut.  Among the most used terms are these: Hispanic (or Hispano), Latino, Chicano, Mexican-American, Latin-American, and various other hyphenated Americans from different countries in “America”. Names include Argentinean, Bolivian, Chilean, Columbian, Cuban, Dominican, Filipino, Honduran, Panamanian, Peruvian, Puerto Rican, Salvadorian, and Venezuelan.  The list goes on.  Our racial differences are just as varied and just as complex.  These include the blending of Caucasian, Mongolian (Amerindian, Native American), Black, and Asian bloodlines.  

    b. As a group, we are descendants of people who came to this country through different paths; as the first pioneers (1600s to 1848) from Texas to California, the greatest majority having both European and indigenous blood.  Others came as immigrants from Mexico after 1848.  In fact, Spanish-surnamed U.S. citizens with a Mexico connection are by the far the largest sub-group of all.  In addition, many of those who come from the various countries in Central and South America and the Caribbean also possess the same Spanish and indigenous bloodlines as those in New Spain.  Other Hispanics (Latinos) came to this country when they married U.S. citizens.  Still, the “land of opportunity” continues to beckon those whose survival needs are so dire that they are willing to risk death to enter the country illegally looking for a better life.   

    c. Whichever way we arrived, “Spanish-surnamed Americans” are oddly enough bonded by our heritage.  We all have Spanish names, but as in the “coat of many colors”, our individual cultures are unique and our appearance differs significantly from one “Hispanic” or “Latino” to another.   As a result, the impressive tonic that runs through our veins adds yet more taste and body to the compelling soup.  While it is by nature a robust mixture, it has a certain fragile trait that tends to bring out the individuality of each group.  In a nutshell, that is what presents a dilemma to our apparently homogeneous group.  That is the reason why we are unable today to “speak with one voice” on issues of common impact to all Spanish-surnamed citizens throughout the nation.  That is why we need a united front.   

    d. Here is another sobering wake-up call.  Some Anglos in Texas are venting their anger today at illegal immigration, the Supreme Court nominee, and President Obama, the first Black President.  They join vigilante-type “Tea Parties” and stoke their paranoia by wildly screaming in coded phrases that they “want their country back” or that they want the “real” America back.  Several of these same Anglos are now inciting cessation.  Such mob mentality can easily trigger a dormant anti-Mexican hysteria from California to Texas.  Unprovoked hatred toward Spanish Mexican people in the Southwest has already been clearly demonstrated after the 1836 - 1848 era.  Reminders of the repulsive intolerance are still felt today.  That is why the majority of Spanish Americans are perennially entrapped in the lowest socio-economic, political, and educational rungs in the ladder.  It is this aspect that many other sister Hispanic groups who arrived later are unaware of.  As to seceding from the Union, Latinos have always been faithful, patriotic U.S. citizens.  They have shed too much red, white, and blue blood on the battlefield in the name of all their fellow Americans.  We are in the Union to stay!  Our only hope is that we can begin to re-educate the general public regarding the long-standing presence of Spanish-surnamed people in the U.S., especially the Southwest.  

4.  Projected Goals.  As a united family with common bonds, Spanish-surnamed citizens have to assume a direct role in mapping our future.  We must establish clear improvement goals, such as:   

    a. Raise the self-esteem of our youth;  

    b. Establish a clearinghouse to educate Spanish-surnamed citizens on issues that impact their lives and encourage them to vote in great numbers, regardless of political affiliation;  

    c. Motivate Spanish-surnamed students to stay in school, graduate from high school and college and become productive members of U.S. society; while not a cure-all, it’s clear that if we concentrate on educating Latino children and employing adult Latinos today, we’ll avoid future increases in crime, while at the same time reduce the jail population;  

    d. Improve the housing, health, and the civil rights of Spanish Americans citizens throughout the U.S.A,   

    e. Let the media know immediately when their articles and news stories contain errors or project negative images of Hispanics.  Let our elected representatives know that the only solution to the illegal immigration problem is immigration reform.  Above all, take every opportunity to educate others about Hispanics’ significant contributions in U.S. history.  If we don’t act, no one else is going to do it for us!   

    f. Continue to be proud of our individual roots of regional and country of origin.       

5.  Summary.  In sum, the illegal immigration has released an unwarranted attack on the Hispanic population in this country that must be confronted immediately.  While the issue is considered a “Mexican” problem, the violence is aimed directly at all citizens who “look” Mexican.  We must stop this knee-jerk reaction.  The need to educate those who are unfamiliar with the long history of Hispanics in the U.S. is obvious.      

    a. There will be those who will accuse us of being unpatriotic, but as mentioned above, the patriotism of Hispanics is beyond reproach.  We must stick together and do the right thing for the right reasons.   

    b. On the other hand, there will be those within the non-Mexican Hispanic community who believe that the rage is only directed at illegal Mexican immigrants and so there’s no reason for them to be concerned since it doesn’t affect them or their families.  They should be reminded that  Hispanic men have been attacked and murdered  because they looked Latino.  

    c. We must begin to speak with one voice.  The time to de-emphasize our regional or country-of-origin pride and reconcile our differences is now.    

    d. The task ahead will be difficult and risky.  To start, we will need to come up with a system heavily reliant on the internet and the public media to identify, process, and educate our people on those national, regional, state, or local issues that affect them.  Likewise, we must convince the general public that they can be part of the solution.  They must no longer stand idly by while violence is directed daily at their fellow citizens.     

    e. Equally important is the need to educate non-Spanish-surnamed citizens of our unique makeup.  With a united front, we will be better able to solve common problems, participate in forming shared goals, and defend ourselves from the anti-Hispanic sentiments and violence that is now being waged against all things Hispanic.  

6.  Bottom Line:  The need is urgent.  The time has come for us to join our voices, hearts, and minds together, and begin to methodically attack the growing intolerance against Hispanic citizens once and for all.  A coordinated effort by social agencies, churches, schools, business, and citizens is necessary.  A concerted media system providing timely information heavily dependent on the internet, the printed media, and radio/television is a must.  The question is how do we get there from here?  There is no time to build a new infra-structure to get the word out.  We must rely on current organizations that are already involved in seeking social justice, respect, acceptance and positive visibility for Spanish-speaking citizens.  As a minimum, we need to do the following things:  

    a. Develop a timely two-way system to clearly identify significant issues.

    b. Develop a method to clearly describe the issue (what happened and why it is important).

    c. Classify the issue (such as local, state, regional, or nationwide).

    d. Develop an equally quick way to inform the particular community so that they can respond in the most effective manner.

    e. Recommend ways that they can address the issue, such as, letter-writing and/or phone call/email campaigns to elected representatives, TV networks and stations, radio stations, newspapers, and community leaders, and

    f. Identify need to attend meetings, hearings, marches, rallies, etc, in support of or against pertinent issues affecting the national Spanish-speaking community.  

IMPORTANT POINTS:  Whatever approach we use, it must be with the goal of building respect for the history and contributions of our Spanish-surnamed ancestors.  We should each (l) become actively involved in our local community, and (2) do everything in our power to help eliminate the ignorance, suspicion and distrust that many have of all things Hispanic.    

RECOMMENDATION: That all who read this paper will commit themselves to influence any organization to which they belong, increasing their group’s understanding of the constant and continual contributions of Spanish-surnamed citizens and non-citizens to the welfare of the U.S.  

JOSE ANTONIO LOPEZ                     MIMI LOZANO                       JOSE M. PENA  

Short Bios (José Antonio López)

Mr. José Antonio (Joe) López was born and raised in Laredo, Texas. USAF Veteran. Served over 37 years in military/Federal Service. When he retired on January 1, 2000, he held a senior civilian management position at the U.S. Air Education/Training Command, Randolph AFB, TX.  

He is a direct descendant of Don Javier Uribe, one of the earliest families that settled in what is now South Texas in 1750. He is married to the former Cordelia Jean “Cordy” Dancause of Laredo.  He and his wife reside in Universal City, TX.  They have one daughter, Brenda Jo.   Mr. López has college degrees from Laredo Jr. College and Southwest Texas State University, San Marcos, TX.  He earned a Master’s Degree in Education.

He is the author of two books:  “The Last Knight (Don Bernardo Gutierrez de Lara Uribe, A Texas Hero)”, and “Nights of Wailing, Days of Pain (Life in 1920s South Texas)”.  He presently conducts presentations throughout South Texas to teach students about the Spanish Mexican roots of Texas.  His hobbies are many; they include writing, jogging, and gardening.  He volunteers in his community.  (www.tejanosunidos.org  )

oOo

Short Bio (Mimi Lozano)

Ms. Mimi Lozano was born in San Antonio, Texas.  Her family moved to California where she spent her formative years and received her education.  She received a bachelor’s degree in science and a Masters in Public and Recreation Administration from UCLA.  She is married to Win Holtzman.  They reside in California and have two married children: a son, Aury (M.D.), and daughter Tawn (Esq.) and six grandchildren.

She earned her California Teaching certification, (K-12). Using puppetry as the media, she produced/directed/mounted Hispanic folktales puppet plays as a teaching tool. She earned Spanish, special ESL and bilingual training certification, and was an Oral Language Specialist on three federal projects.

She co-founded the Society of Hispanic Historical and Ancestral Research (SHHAR) in Orange County, CA, a recognized non-profit, all-volunteer organization whose purpose is helping Hispanics and Latinos research their family history.  From 1990 to 2000, Lozano served as the newsletter editor of Somos Primos for the organization. 
January 2000, Somos Primos went on online as a monthly publication dedicated to Hispanic heritage.  In 1995, Lozano was asked to serve on the US Senate Task Force on Hispanic Affairs, actively serving until 2003.  She was also named California’s 68th Assembly District’s 2006 Woman of the Year.   She is a member of LULAC.

Ms. Lozano helped form the Hispanic Heritage Committee of Orange County.  In 1999, she became a member of the Pepperdine University's Hispanic Council of Orange County.  In 2005, she helped organize a Hispanic heritage conference at the National Archives and Records Administration in Washington, DC and on the same year, was on the U.S. Army planning committee for the Pentagon’s celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month.  (www.somosprimos.com ). 

oOo

Short Bio (José M. Peña)

Mr. José M. (Chema) Peña was born and raised in Laredo, Texas.  USAF Veteran.  As a Foreign Service Officer with the U.S. Agency for International Development, Peña was the first Mexican American to be Deputy Regional Inspector General and Acting Regional Inspector General and served in many world-wide assignments.  After he retired, he worked as an International Financial Consultant in several Latin American and Middle Eastern countries.  He also served as a Health Project Director in Guatemala; Consultant with the Organization of American States; specialist in internal auditing, programmatic, and financial studies, evaluate analysis, systems studies and special reviews.  He is a graduate of the University of Texas.  He holds two professional certificates and many awards. 

He is married to his wife, Pauline, and they had four children:  Jose M, IV, Jerry, Linda (now deceased), and Melissa.  For the last several years, Mr. Peña has devoted his life to teaching others about the fascinating beginnings of Texas history.   He is the author of the book, “Inherit the Dust from the Four Winds of Revilla”.  The book offers an insightful look at the 250-year historical perspective on the ancient city of Guerrero Viejo on the Lower Rio Grande, its people, and detailed discussion of land grants. (Email:  jmpena@aol.com )

 .                                                                                                   6

8719 Iliad                                                                                                                         Universal City, TX , 78148        
November 23, 2009

Dear Sirs, Mmes

By way of introduction, I am José Antonio López.  I retired as a federal employee in 2000 having served a total of over thirty-seven years of military and federal service.  As others within our Spanish-surnamed community in the U.S., I am concerned about the current negative U.S. media attention directed at Hispanics.  Together with the key assistance of Ms. Mimi Lozano, Editor of the Internet Periodical, Somos Primos, and Mr. José M. Peña, a Retired Foreign Services Officer, we have developed a concept paper (Encl 1).  It addresses and discusses issues of vital importance to all U.S. Spanish-surnamed citizens.  It also recommends specific actions that are needed immediately to avoid those issues from causing further damage.   

The need for unity is urgent.  These days, one cannot pick up a newspaper, tune in to the radio, or watch a television news program without bearing witness to the incessant negative reporting.  The sometimes bitter attacks against illegal immigrants have spilled over to all Hispanics in the country.  The situation seems to be worsening.  While such attacks may not be an orchestrated effort, the perceived passive reaction from the Hispanic (Latino) community to these assaults may be encouraging the blitz against our people.  Somehow, we need to energize interest within the community and defend ourselves.  An educated public is a strong public.   

While the three of us realize that achieving unity among the many diverse Spanish-affiliated groups will be difficult, we are steadfast in our belief that it can and must be done.  That is the purpose of our paper.   

To get the word out, we are asking a number of nationally-known organizations to help alert and inform the Spanish-speaking people that they serve.  That is the reason that you are getting a copy of this letter.  A maximum effort to reach every Spanish-surnamed household in the country is our goal.              

 In closing, we believe our paper makes a strong case for unity in these troubled times for the Spanish-surnamed U.S. community.  Regardless of our individual diversity, a strong union will make us into a true family.  Hopefully, you will help us make that possible.  If you have any questions, my phone number is AC 210.945.2503.  My email address is TejanoLearning@gmail.com .  

                                                                                    Very Respectfully,  

                                                                                    JOSE ANTONIO LOPEZ

2 Enclosures  
1.  Concept Paper, United in our Spanish Surnames Connections  
2.  Short Bios

This fruitful collaboration of three Tejanos, started with me congratulating Joe Lopez on his wonderful website at http://www.tejanosunidos.org  which I applauded in the November issue.  The contact started a series of emails between the three of us, which finally jelled into the concept paper of United in our Spanish Surnames Connections. 

I hope the New Year, the new decade, will bring about the national unity of those that carry a Spanish surname in their personal and family heritage.  Please share the paper with any organization that you belong to, family groups, historical and genealogical societies.

We Hispanics with Southwest heritage have been so successful at assimilation, that we've become invisible.  Let us make ourselves known, by our own words and deeds.  Let us make it clear that we are proud Americans.

     Creating Mexican American Identities:

Multiple Voices, Shared Dreams  

The West Chicago City Museum with the aid of two grants, one from the History Channel and one from the Illinois Humanities Council has produced a traveling exhibit, Creating Mexican American Identities: Multiple Voices, Shared Dreams.   

There has never been a written history of Mexican immigration to West Chicago , so oral history was gathered, providing a framework for producing that account.  In addition, with photographs that were loaned or donated and research by the City Museum staff an immigrant story emerged.  The story begins with Mexican railroad workers and families in the colonias of boxcar camps on the west side of town and extends to present day Mexican Americans with leadership roles in the community.   

Although the exhibit tells a local immigrant story, it is one of great national significance, touching on issues such as the rights and dignity of workers, as seen in the 1962 strike of Campbell Soup Company’s mushroom farm workers. The importance of faith and family, social justice, the preservation and celebration of culture, and the importance of the oral tradition in a culture that is not dependent on the written word are all evident in the exhibit.  

By packaging this history in a traveling format, the Museum hopes to share the community's story of diversity with other communities to expand cultural understanding. Viewers are invited to rethink issues of immigration, identity formation and the ways local history is presented.  

This is a highly relevant subject for study and presentation to the broadest audience as Mexicans in DuPage County and Illinois make up the largest immigrant ethnic group, and Latinos in the United States are the fastest growing ethnic population.  

Creating Mexican American Identities: Multiple Voices, Shared Dreams is currently on display at the West Chicago City Museum until the end of February 2010, and will tour DuPage County , Chicagoland and other venues that find it of interest. Please contact Sally DeFauw at 630.231.3376 or sdefauw@westchicago.org for more info rmation or if you are interested in hosting the exhibit.  The Museum is located at 132 Main Street in West Chicago .

A DAUGHTER’S PERSPECTIVE

By Daisy Wanda Garcia

My father and mother, taken in the 1940s
Hector P. Garcia and Wanda F. Garcia 

FOREWORD:

Christmas is the end of the year.  Moreover, it is during this most holy of celebrations that we assess where we are now by reviewing the accomplishments of the past year.  One of my dreams is to publish these articles about my father and family in a book.  Since January 2007 until now, I have written one article each month for Somos Primos about my father, Dr. Hector P. Garcia.  The articles total 40 in numbers.  When the articles are ready to become a book, I believe that inspiration will guide me and the right people and opportunities will present themselves to help in this effort.  I wish all of the Somos Primos readers many blessings this season. 

Recently, a friend inquired about the private family life of the Hector and Wanda Garcia family.  She wanted to know about my parents through my eyes.  After much reflection, this is my belief.  To me our family life was like any middle class family.  The truth is that my family was my only frame of reference and I have no other comparison.  

Going to church on Sundays, Catholic schools, education and studying were part of the realities of the Garcia family life. Holidays were important to us and we created our own family rituals appropriate to each holiday.  We enjoyed joining our extended family, my aunt, Dr. Cleo and the uncles and aunts to celebrate the holidays as well.  For fifty years, we celebrated the holidays with family and friends in Corpus Christi, Texas. 

While my father was alive, I was fortunate to be in the company of men like LBJ, Ralph Yarborough, Lloyd Bentsen Jr., and Bill Clinton.  Also, I was propelled in the front seat of the Hispanic Civil Rights movement because of my father.  I met the giants of the movement Vicente Jimenez, Cris Aldrete, Gus Garcia, Dr. George I. Sanchez and Bob Sanchez. These men met with my father at our house on Ohio Street discussing strategy. School desegregation, school testing, organizing AGIF chapters were daily topics of conversation at our house.  I thought all this activity was what the average person experienced.   

I was fortunate to arrive on the scene early just after the end of WWII. I like to refer to myself as the first born of the Garcia family instead of the eldest.  Perhaps it is a bit of vanity on my part.  I was born in Naples Italy. My earliest memories of Italy were of a loving grandmother Aida great aunt Michelina and my mother’s siblings, Peppino, Manrico and Ruggero, surrounding me.     

They spent much time pointing to the light fixture and calling it “la fiamma”, the flame, to entertain me. The military transported the war brides in ships to the USA in the 1940’s.  So, Mama and I crossed the ocean together - destination, USA.  I have vague memories of the voyage from Italy to the USA.  I remember the nurses in their uniforms standing along the side of the ships cabin.  I was confused and lonely after being the center of attention in my grandmother’s house. 

Mama and I arrived in Corpus Christi, Texas to find my father in a hospital room. We arrived in a strange culture.   Papa had experienced a bad bout of kidney disease.  Mama and I lived with Papa’s brother J.A. Garcia Eventually, Papa was released from the hospital.  We moved out of uncle J.A.’s house to an apartment on Agnes Street owned by the Lozano family.  Henry and Rosita Lozano, Carmen Lozano, Tina, and Celso Guzman, the Leo Durans became our family’s first friends in Corpus Christi. Mama and I spent the evenings on the fire escape at the apartment waiting for Papa to return home.  It was at this apartment house the Lozano family befriended us.  Maxwell Dunne, owner of an ambulance service kept referring patients to Papa. Papa also worked with the VA treating veterans.   This is how Papa built up his medical practice and learned how the VA denied the veteran’s their benefits.  Papa did not have a car so he rode the bus.  At times, he would take me on the bus.  Later Papa bought a Frazier, so he took me on house calls.  This was my first exposure to poverty.  I saw families crammed into small one-room shacks.  Papa would treat them, waive his fees and give them the medicines. 

Time passed. The Garcia family moved into a house located at 634 Ohio Street. We welcomed a brother Hector Garcia Jr. into the fold.   Henry and his wife Rosita kept me while Mama recuperated in the hospital. I was two years old and happy to have a brother to boss around. We socialized with the Lozano and Guzman families. Carmen Lozano was Mama’s best friend. Mama enjoyed preparing dinners for her friends in her new house.   Later Papa’s sister Cleo and then brother Xico lived with us.  By then, Mama made friends and entertained them with canasta parties at her house.  Papa entertained his friends with poker parties at home and at his office. Among the culprits were Paul Montemayor, Dr Xico Garcia, and Henry Lozano.  

Hector and Wanda at their new home at 634 Ohio St., Corpus Christi, Texas 

Dinner party, Left to right, Carmen Lozano, Wanda F. Garcia, Mrs. Gabe Lozano, Matriarch of the Lozano family, Rosita Lozano and Henry Lozano, Dr. Hector P. Garcia.  Taken in the late 1940s.

One evening, we heard a knock on our front door.  Mama opened the door and was confronted by several men. 

They claimed to be plain-clothes men. They wanted to know where Papa was.  Mama said she did not know.  Apparently, I felt threaten by the men because I said, “Are you going to hurt my father?”  One answered no, they just wanted to know where he was. The second they left, Mama phoned Papa and warned him they were on their way to his office.  If anything further resulted from the police harassment, I did not know. 

Papa enjoyed traveling to Mexico on vacations.  Papa would pack us in his car and we would drive south to Mexico. By now, he had upgraded to a Mercury automobile, one of those white and orange models. We would drive to a resort called Taninul in Ciudad Valles, Mexico.  I remember how long the trips were; the mountains so tall that clouds covered their tips. Sometimes we drove through the clouds that rested on the road.  During that era, roads went up the mountains instead of through them. One evening on one of our trips, Papa came across an accident. A car had slammed into the side of the mountain. He stopped the car and went to assist the occupants.  There was a man and woman.  The woman was hurt. I remember seeing blood on her arms and she was groaning in pain.  We drove to the nearest town with a hospital.  Papa went in to treat the woman while Mama and I waited in the car for what seemed a long time.  After Papa emerged from the hospital, his comment was that they had few medical supplies in the hospital.  Eventually the mountain trips took their toll on the Mercury, because it malfunctioned while we were on the mountains.  Papa burned out the motor trying to negotiate the mountains and get us to safety.   

We vacationed in Taninul for many years.  Later after my sister Cecilia was born, she joined my parents and my brother and me on the trips. I saw much of Mexico during our trips and meet my Mexican relatives. Years later, Papa traveled with a cousin Santiago Castro, “Chago” to Mexico, and we did not travel to Mexico with him again.

To be continued:

                                                                                                                          1954 in Ciudad Valles, Mexico. 
                                            Daisy Wanda, Wanda F. Garcia, Adrianna & Hector P. Garcia jr.

First Texas Latina Supreme Court Justice

Judge Eva M. Guzman

A Wise Latina  

By

Mercy Bautista-Olvera  

Judge Eva M. Guzman  

On October 8, 2009, Houston , Texas , Governor Rick Perry appointed Judge Eva M. Guzman of Cypress , an unincorporated area of Harris County , to serve as Texas ’ Supreme Court Justice She replaces Houston 's Scott Brister, who stepped down from the Supreme Court to go into private practice. 

Eva Martinez-Guzman was born in 1961 in Chicago , Illinois but raised in Houston , Texas . She is the daughter of Mexican immigrants from Monterrey , Mexico Ubaldo Martinez and Micaela Pedraza-Martinez, her father worked as a Welder and her mom did odd jobs, working often as a domestic worker. She has four sisters and two brothers. Judge Guzman has been married to Houston Police Sergeant Antonio Guzman for twenty years; they have a 17-year-old daughter, Melanie Alexis.  

Eva was 13 years old when she began working nights in a drapery factory to help her family.

In 1979, she graduated from Stephen F. Austin High School in Houston , Texas . Guzman earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration from the University of Houston . In 1989, she earned a Jurist Degree from South Texas College of Law.    

Guzman practiced Family and Civil Law for ten years before she was appointed as a Harris County Family Court judge by then-governor George Bush in 1999 to the 309th District Court, a family law bench.  

In 2001, Governor Rick Perry appointed Guzman to Texas 14th Court of Appeals, making her the first Latina to hold a position there as well. Judge Guzman disposed of more than 5,000 cases in her three years on the trial court bench.  She has ruled on more than 2,000 civil and criminal appeals and has authored hundreds of published opinions.  

Judge Guzman has received solid marks in judicial polls, she is an elected member of the American Law Institute, a former board member of the Garland Walker American Inns of Court, and she has been an adjunct faculty member of the University of Houston Law Center. She taught Civil Trial Advocacy this fall at the Law Center , marking her 10th year of teaching at the school.   

The Hispanic National Bar Association honored Guzman as “Latina Judge of the Year.” She has been named “Appellate Judge of the Year” by various groups during the course of her career. She has also been named Appellate Judge of the Year by P.O.L.I.C.E. Inc. and the Houston Police Officers Union. In addition, the Mexican American Bar Association of Texas Foundation named Guzman “2009 Judge of the Year.”  

Judge Guzman is an elected member of the American Law Institute and an appointed member of the Supreme Court of Texas Advisory Committee. She is a Senior Fellow of the American Leadership Forum Class XXII, and a Fellow of the Texas and Houston Bar Foundations. Judge Guzman is also a board member of the South Texas College of Law Alumni Association, Greater Houston Area Chapter of the American Red Cross, and Texas Executive Women.   

The Texas ’ Supreme Justice Appointment event took place at her Alma Matter Stephen F. Austin High School , a predominantly Latino school from which Guzman graduated. Guzman shared the podium with Governor Perry, the high court's Chief Justice Wallace Jefferson and Gerald Treece of South Texas College of Law. “This is a special day and this is a special place,” Judge Guzman said while surrounded by family and friends. “We chose this location because this is where my journey began. It is a strong reminder of the power of big dreams, hard work and good choices.” “My parents didn't have wealth, didn't have power, didn't have influence,” Judge Guzman told a gathering of students in the school library, however, she said, they taught her that ordinary people can do extraordinary things. ”I want all those of humble beginnings to know opportunities await,” she said.  

Texas Governor Perry states “Justice Guzman is known throughout legal circles as a strict constructionist with an unmatched work ethic, and has demonstrated a proven record of sound jurisprudence.” Perry further adds, “I am proud to appoint this principled, conservative judge as the first Hispanic woman on the Supreme Court of Texas.”  

“I am honored by this appointment and am grateful for the confidence Governor Perry has shown in me,” Judge Guzman said. “It has been a privilege to serve the citizens of this region over the last decade, and I look forward to serving all Texas citizens as a justice on the Texas Supreme Court.”  

In an interview, Judge Guzman stated, “There are days that you dream of all of your life and days you will remember for the rest of your life, today is both."  “One of my passions throughout my career has been education. I hope I am a role model and can inspire Latino kids and all kids to dream big, work hard and make good choices,” Judge Guzman said.  

“I congratulate Justice Guzman on this historic appointment, and I am confident that her service to the state of Texas will encourage young Latinas to pursue

opportunities to serve our beloved state with great pride and distinction as well.”
- Hope Andrade , Texas Secretary of State stated.  

Roger Townsend, a partner in the Houston office of Alexander Dubose & Townsend, who is a friend of Judge Guzman's, says she is an outstanding choice who will arrive at the court with no agenda. “I’ve had cases where she’s voted for plaintiffs and cases where she’s voted for the defense. She’s not going to be a predictable vote,” Townsend additional stated. “I think she’ll be kind of a moderate voice. She is extremely hard working. If you are talking a 1 to 10 scale, I’d give her a 10.”  

Texas Supreme Court Justice David Medina, who was a law school classmate of Judge Guzman's, says she’ll be a welcome addition to the court. “I think it’s awesome, it’s exciting... she obviously has a tremendous amount of experience on an appellate court and a breadth of knowledge. She has analyzed every type of issue that we have analyzed before.” 

In Texas , the Governor’s nominee for a vacant seat does not have to be confirmed by the Texas Senate until it convenes again. Justice Guzman can start preparing for the 2010 elections, during which she will elected for a six-year term.  

MENTAL MENUDO, Los Angeles Group

REPATRIATION VIDEO

Comments on the Task force 
for the Creation of a National Museum for the Latino Community
 

WITNESS TO HERITAGE

Discovering the LEGACY OF VALOR  
October 8-9th, 2009
Palo Alto Veterans' Medical Center, California
Photos curtsy of Thomas Turrey

The other billboards on display were of course the Legacy of Valor “Above and Beyond the Call of Duty” pictured with President Truman awarding Private First Class Silvestre Herrera the Medal of Honor.  More important than being awarded the Medal of Honor was how Private Herrera was recovering from the loss of both legs in an Army hospital, studying and receiving his United States Citizenship.  President Truman was not sure Private Herrera’s health would allow him to attend the ceremony, but determined as always, Silvestre wheeled himself across the White House lawn and received the Medal of Honor.

Hopefully as you are reading this I hope I was able to relay the feelings that I was going through, and this is only the beginning, because I was in complete “awe”.  I was blown away! I was on the verge of tears! It was truly heartfelt and this Exhibit hit me right in my soul.  I was surrounded by heroes and I was honored.

While still at the exhibit, I had a conversation with Mr. Rick Leal, the President of the Hispanic Medal of Honor Society, who made this display what it is today and is still adding to it.   Assisted by Rick Cochrane, these men who I now call “The Ricks” have paid meticulous attention to the details especially honoring “The Lost, but not Forgotten” which is the POW/MIA memorial off to one of the corners in this remarkable display.

He was surprised when he found out where I was from and worked, and then I became even more surprised when I found out that he is from San Francisco.  This was too good to be true, because the wheels in my head began to turn as it now became a personal goal of mine to have the privilege of hosting this Exhibit at our own Veterans Hospital in Palo Alto.

This was a tremendous start to my visit at the NCLR, which made my day and basically the entire conference.  Both Mr. Leal and I had tremendous dialogue as we exchanged business cards and I could not wait to get back to California so I could start the planning of this event for Hispanic Heritage Month.

I waited about a week after the conference to contact Mr. Leal which was probably one of the longest weeks of my life as I was so excited to plan the arrival of this exhibit to our HealthCare System.  The first conversation I had with Mr. Leal was bittersweet as he was in the process of planning an event with San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsome to have the exhibit at City Hall.  I made it a point to congratulate him and wish him the best of luck with the Mayor as it would make some great headlines for this exhibit to be in Downtown San Francisco.  

Mr. Leal called me back and informed me that they were indeed having the Exhibit in San Francisco, but he really wanted to bring the exhibit to the Veterans Hospital in Palo Alto either before or after the City Hall event.  Well, as you can imagine I was very excited and now all we had to do was work out the details. 
 

We were able to host the exhibit at the Veterans Hospital for two days, October 8^th and 9^th.  What made this celebration of Hispanic Heritage month so special was that we were able to share this Exhibit with our Veterans who visit this hospital every day.  My committee began spreading the word and posting fliers in Palo Alto and our other location in Menlo Park.  Mrs. Mimi Lozano the editor of “Somos Primos” also had some friends of hers post fliers throughout the city of Palo Alto.

October 9^th arrives and we are still receiving laudatory comments from everyone we encounter.   There is one more presentation scheduled for the late morning and we have more patients coming in from Menlo Park again.  Prior to the arrival of patients we had a viewing of Master Sergeant Roy Benavidez Medal of Honor Ceremony with President Reagan.  Those in attendance were treated how the award ceremony is conducted by the Army Rifle Drill team and the George Washington Continental Army Band and concluding with the citation being read by President Reagan.

 Hispanic Heritage Committee of the Palo Alto Veteran's Medical Center
From left to right: Chris Martinez, Marcia De Calisto, Heliana Ramirez, Diana Linaja, & Yndra Medina, Ms. Lisa Freeman, The Director of the Hospital, Rick Leal, Thomas Turrey, Kevin Miller, and Victor Mancilla, Film producer.   Sitting is Marisa Galvan.

Editor: November 19, Rick Leal visited NASA at the invitation of  Robert Lazaro, the Ethnic Director for NASA's Public Affairs Office.  Rick had contacted NASA, sharing his desire to celebrate the fact that two Latinos, Danny Olivas and Jose Hernandez, both of Mexican heritage and of California residency had recently both flown together on board a shuttle flight. NASA was quite receptive to Rick's plans to produce a panel honoring NASAs Latino Astronauts and has offered to supply needed visuals.  The targeted goal is for the unveiling of the Latino Astronauts panel during NCLRs national conference.

2010 the Legacy of Valor is scheduled to exhibit at:
National Council of La Raza, San Antonio, TX
State Capitol, Sacramento, CA 
San Francisco City Hall, CA
Palo Alto Veterans' Medal Center, Palo Alto, CA

HONORING HISPANIC LEADERSHIP

Col. (Ret) Ernest A. Montemayor
Father of Hispanic Heritage Month
by Mimi Lozano

May 22, 1928 to July 16, 2009

Michael Kabotie, 1942-Oct 23, 2009
Famed Hopi artist

Armando Ayala, Ph.D. 
Tireless Promoter of  Bilingual Education
August 16, 1929 to October 26, 2009

Please receive this sad news conveyed in this form.  On behalf of the Ayala family and close friends we would like for you to know that our dear Armando was recently taken peacefully in his sleep.  Known affectionately for his passionate e-mails as Dr. Chile@webtv.net and with his Laredo nickname as "El Hueso",  he has been a friend to all
and an inspiration to children, parents, and community leaders in the education world and especially an icon to educators in the bilingual/multicultural movement.  

Details are available on-line through the Sacramento Bee Internet site @ www.sacbee.com (Obituary, Guest Book, and a developing Memorial Web site on Legacy.com via the
link http://memorialwebsites.legacy.com/drarmandoayal/homepage.aspx . Our fallen warrior and my brother is gone, but not forgotten. "To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord".  Your prayers, comments and contributions to the above sites are available to share in his celebration of life and memories.

Respectfully, 
Dr. Steven F. Arvizu

Fallecimiento de Don Rodrigo Escobar Restrepop

José Cisneros: Iconic El Paso artist dies
By Ramón Rentería / El Paso Times, 11/14/09  
http://www.elpasotimes.com/ci_13792913

1910 to November 14, 2009

EL PASO -- José Cisneros, the modest, self-taught artist knighted by the king of Spain and celebrated in Texas, Mexico and across the United States, died Saturday, November 14, 2009.

Cisneros, regarded as a legend for his vivid pen-and-ink sketches died of natural causes at an El Paso foster-care home where he was admitted two weeks ago, according to his family.

Born in Villa Ocampo, Durango, in 1910, Cisneros had only a fifth-grade education but was revered as a historian with a sketch pad, an artist who illustrated more than 300 historical books and publications. Stories of the United States-Mexico border and the Southwest burst alive with Cisneros' touch and meticulous attention to detail. 

Often described as a world-class illustrator, Cisneros built an international reputation with pen-and-ink illustrations of Mexican, American and Spanish history. He was best known for detailed pen-and-ink drawings of horses and Spanish horsemen that he often described as his favorite subjects.

News of Cisneros' death triggered widespread tributes and condolences. The artist was so modest that he said he never had his work appraised.

"He was an El Paso treasure. We were hoping to celebrate his 100th birthday," El Paso gallery owner Adair Margo said. "He aspired to be a world-class illustrator and he became one."

Collectors of Cisneros' art include former President George W. Bush and his wife. Former first lady Laura Bush once described Cisneros as a friend and "a magnificent artist and important historian of the Southwest."

King Juan Carlos of Spain knighted Cisneros for contributing to the understanding of history through his art. In 2002, President Bush awarded Cisneros the National Humanities Medal for his work as an artist and historian. Cisneros also received the National Cowboy Hall of Fame Wrangler Award in 1985 for his book, "Riders Across the Centuries."

Bobby Byrd, owner of Cinco Puntos Press, published Cisneros' "El Ratoncito Pequeño / The Little Mouse," a nursery rhyme in Spanish and English.

"I always admired him and loved being around him," Byrd said. "He had this real traditional aesthetic and a precise way of going about himself. His craftsmanship was admirable -- delicate, traditional and very, very expressive.

Felix Almaráz Jr., a professor of history at the University of Texas at San Antonio and contributor to "Borderlands: The Heritage of the Lower Rio Grande Through the Art of José Cisneros" once said of the artist: "Cisneros finds little nuggets of information and then translates them into an artistic expression of high quality."

Timid about speaking in public, Cisneros was a devout Catholic who went to Mass daily. He counted the late El Paso artist Tom Lea among his friends and mentors. He often advised John Houser, creator of "The Equestrian" sculpture at El Paso International Airport.

Relatives said Cisneros received his last sacraments Friday at Loving Hands Foster Care in Central El Paso.

"We all told him we loved him and kissed him good-bye," his daughter Patricia Cisneros Pride said, adding that her father always taught the community to "value work, live every day, and to thank God for everything they have."

Ever modest about his legacy, Cisneros questioned in a recent interview with El Paso Times' Style magazine whether he deserved a lifetime of accolades.

"My work is what has given me the name that I have, but I don't think I deserve it because there have been a lot of great artists in El Paso who have been forgotten," he said. "There is no recognition of them and they were lost forever."

Cisneros taught himself to read and write. Displaced by the Mexican Revolution of 1910, his family eventually settled in El Paso-Juárez 

Venerated artist Jose Cisneros. (Times file photo)in 1925. 
West Side resident Andy Saenz worked with Cisneros at City Lines, a company where Cisneros once painted buses.

"It was an honor to know him," Saenz said, recalling a co-worker who shunned having a beer with the guys after work and instead rushed home to work overnight in his basement on the detailed pieces for which the artist is now known.

El Paso artist Bill Rakocy befriended Cisneros 30 years ago and admired his discipline and humanitarian traits.

"He was one of the most talented people I've ever known," Rakocy said.

John O. West, a retired University of Texas at El Paso professor and Cisneros' biographer, once described him as a giant in accurately depicting Southwestern history. "If we didn't have people like José, we'd forget our past. He tells the truth, yet he has a romantic attitude," West said once.

West and his wife, Lucy, escorted Cisneros to Spain in 1998, where he became the first recipient outside of the country to receive the prestigious Universidad de Alcalá Award.

"His legacy is the rich scholarship of Spanish influence on the Southwest," Lucy West said. "He was a classic gentleman, a very humble man."

Cisneros' work has hung in the governor's mansion in Austin, the Palace of the Governors Museum in Santa Fe and the Institute of Texan Cultures in San Antonio.

Cisneros is survived by daughters Magdalena Villarreal, Irene Cisneros Solla, Patricia Cisneros Pride and Rita Sillas; 10 grandchildren; 13 great-grandchildren; and one great-great-grandchild. He was preceded in death by his wife, Vicenta, and a daughter, Inez. Funeral services are pending.

Color-blind since birth, Cisneros continued to draw in recent years until his vision deteriorated to the point that he had trouble writing his name. He never lost or abandoned his passion for a lifetime of artistic and literary work that brought him widespread recognition over the years, fame that he often downplayed.

"I'll die with my pen on the paper," he once said.

Ramón Rentería may be reached at rrenteria@elpasotimes.com; 546-6146.
Times reporters Isabel A. Rodriguez, April Lopez and Zahira Torres contributed to this story.

About Cisneros, Age: 99.
Children: Five daughters.
Wife: Vicenta Cisneros, his wife of more than 55 years, died in 1994.
Highest level of formal education: Fifth grade at Lydia Patterson Institute.
Favorite piece of work: He considered all of his work his favorite.
Favorite subjects: Juan de Oñate and horse riders.
Artists he admired most: Tom Lea and Norman Rockwell.

Work's value: He never had entire collection appraised. He said he never really cared about the money. Collectors of his work include former president and first lady George W. and Laura Bush, former president and first lady George H.W. and Barbara Bush; UTEP; EPCC; various museums; New Mexico Governor's Mansion; and art collector J.P. Bryan.

Originals: About 12 originals are still in Cisneros' home.
Sent by Ivonne Thompson kenandivonne@sbcglobal.net
In April 2010 he would have been 100 years old.

Ramiro Cortez Gonzalez:  
A Saginaw, Michigan Mexican-American pillar  
January 5, 1946 to November 17, 2009
 

Private First Class Alejandro R. Ruiz
June 26, 1923 - November 20, 2009
Medal of Honor Recipient 

                           By: Tony (The Marine) Santiago  

On November 20, 2009, we lost one of our heroes,  Alejandro R. Ruiz. Ruiz was a Private First Class in the United States Army who was awarded the Medal of Honor, the United States' highest military decoration, for his actions on in Battle of Okinawa in the Ryukyu Islands during World War II. May he rest in peace.

                                               Early years  
Ruiz was born and raised in Loving, New Mexico and enlisted in the United States Army in the town of Carlsbad, New Mexico upon the outbreak of World War II. He was assigned to the U.S. 27th Infantry Division after completing basic training.

                                           World War II  
During World War II, the conquest of the Japanese island of Okinawa was considered vital for the Allied forces as a step towards an invasion of the Japanese mainland.  The invasion (codenamed ''Operation Iceberg'') was the largest amphibious operation of the Pacific war, and involved units of the U.S. Tenth Army, commanded by Lieutenant General Simon Bolivar Buckner, Jr.  These consisted of III Amphibious Corps (1st and 6th Marine Divisions, with the 2nd Marine Division as an afloat reserve), and XXIV Corps (7th, 77th, 96th and 27th]] Infantry Divisions.  

On April 28, 1945, PFC Ruiz's unit was pinned down by machine gun fire coming from a camouflaged Japanese pillbox and was unable to advance to its assigned objective.  Ruiz, on his own initiative, charged the pillbox under a hail of machine gun fire. On his second attempt, he was able to neutralize the pillbox by killing all of its occupants.  For his actions he was awarded the Medal of Honor. On June 26, 1946, President Harry S. Truman presented Ruiz with the Medal of Honor in a ceremony held at the White House

.                                    Medal of Honor citation  

ALEJANDRO R. RUIZ  
Rank and organization:

                  ''Private First Class, U.S. Army, 165th Infantry, 27th Infantry Division

                     Place and date: ''Okinawa, Ryukyu Islands, April 28, 1945                             Entered service at: Carlsbad, New Mexico

                                     Born: ''June 26, 1923, Loving, New Mexico 
                                                 G.O. No. 60, June 26, 1946. 

                                                              Citation:  

When his unit was stopped by a skillfully camouflaged enemy pillbox, he displayed conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty. His squad, suddenly brought under a hail of machinegun fire and a vicious grenade attack, was pinned down. Jumping to his feet, Pfc. Ruiz seized an automatic rifle and lunged through the flying grenades and rifle and automatic fire for the top of the emplacement. When an enemy soldier charged him, his rifle jammed. Undaunted, Pfc. Ruiz whirled on his assailant and clubbed him down. Then he ran back through bullets and grenades, seized more ammunition and another automatic rifle, and again made for the pillbox. Enemy fire now was concentrated on him, but he charged on, miraculously reaching the position, and in plain view he climbed to the top. Leaping from one opening to another, he sent burst after burst into the pillbox, killing 12 of the enemy and completely destroying the position. Pfc. Ruiz's heroic conduct, in the face of overwhelming odds, saved the lives of many comrades and eliminated an obstacle that long would have checked his unit's advance.

                                                  Honors  

Ruiz resided in Visalia, California and actively participated in activities honoring Medal of Honor recipients. On November 20, 2009, Ruiz passed away. The town of Visalia has honored Ruiz by naming the "Alejandro R. Ruiz Sr. Park" after him, located at North Burke Street and Buena Vista Street.  

Awards and recognitions  

Among PFC Alejandro R. Ruiz' decorations and medals were the following:

*Medal of Honor  
*Purple Heart  
*American Campaign Medal  
*Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal  
*World War II Victory Medal  

Badges: *Combat Infantryman Badge

Thank you to Pedro Olivares for also notifying your editor.  polivares2004@yahoo.com

NATIONAL ISSUES

Few Latinos in leadership positions at California nonprofits
By Joe Rodriguez
jrodriguez@mercurynews.com 

Land of Day Laborers, Farm Workers and Guest Workers
Tuesday 10 November 2009
by: Text and photos by David Bacon, t r u t h o u t | Photo Essay
http://www.truthout.org/1110095

One possible future for migrant 
farm laborers is visible in a crew 
of workers picking tomatoes on the Camp Pendleton Marine Corps base. These are H2-A guest workers, recruited in Mexico by grower Harry Singh. On the base, the workers are hidden in the rows behind a barbed wire fence, and outside labor organizers or legal advisers can't gain access. At the end of the day, these guest workers are taken to a labor camp on Singh's 

ranch, where access is also restricted in order to keep them isolated from the surrounding community. H2-A guest workers can't leave their jobs without being deported back to Mexico. They fear that if they protest or even speak with legal aid, they won't be hired the following season. Singh used to be the only California grower importing H2-A workers, but now there are several. The number is growing.

Immigrants in the Military, Eight Years After 9/11

Kirk Whisler
Hispanic Marketing 101
email: kirk@whisler.com  web: www.hm101.com  Podcast: www.mylatinonetwork.com
voice: (760) 434-1223  Latino Print Network overall: 760-434-7474

Migrant Memories Surround the Days of the Dead
Immigration News, 11/2/09, fnsnews@nmsu.edu 

Sent by Juan Marinez
marinezj@anr.msu.edu
 

ACTION ITEMS

http://www.alegreresearch.com/studies.htm
Alegre Research and Demographics

“ We have a scattered and divisive leadership and no vehicle by which people can come together effectively.” “There is so much talent and we have so much to offer—but it’s frustrating that we can’t get it together. There are a lot of people out there that don’t get involved because of the same frustration.” “Latinos aren’t really coming together at a county level or even at a city level. ‘One of our weaknesses is that we are growing in numbers but not in leadership.’” “Just within the last few years, I have seen 7 different organizations started to address Latino issues and they never get off the ground.” “The development of leadership is a very important issue—most don't have developed skills. We are mostly self-taught and OJT.” “One of the problems that we’re having with certain leadership in Trenton is they do not have the mentality of cultivating leadership.” “We need to forget regional, geographic, national differences to be able to work together and as "Latinos" for common goals. There’s a lot of dissension between the Puerto Ricans, Guatemalans and Mexicans and other Latinos.” “In the Latino community there are divisions even within the Latino subgroups. There divisions pending of what city they came from in their country of origin. There is a great need to bring the Latino community together because despite the differences many of the basic needs are the same.”

While many communities have leadership programs such as Leadership Trenton, the kind of Leadership program needed for the ongoing development of Latino leadership is very different in content and curriculum.

Todos nos equivocamos pero solo los sabios lo reconocen.
Everyone makes mistakes but only the wise learn from them.

Three years ago in Reading, PA, a study of the Latino population described it in terms very similar to those that describe Trenton today. Survey respondents indicated that Reading Latinos “generally lacked an understanding of the political process, lacked awareness of their power, did not have visible leaders and role models. The current leadership is seen as fragmented, with Latino groups and leaders seen as lacking unity and cohesion.” The study found that “Throughout the history of Latinos in Reading and Berks, Latino leaders and leadership efforts have come and gone. While some progress has been made there exists no community infrastructure that maintains and builds on past efforts of Latinos. The individuals who have emerged as community leaders over the years were a combination of grassroots and professional individuals who, for the most part, had little organizational, leadership and political experience or training.”3

Ø Domingo Jimenez and Ricardo Saad — Worked with local schools to get children involved in sports
        to improve their academics.

Ø Rev. Virgenmina Ortiz and Rev. Edgardo Rivera — Encouraged Latino clergy to get involved in
        community issues.

Ø Isamac Torres-Figueroa — Directed a voter registration drive in Reading.

Ø Jose Serrano Ayala — Founded American Legion Post 872, "The Borrinqueneers."

Ø Mary L. Rivera — Working to form local partnership with La Raza, a national Latino advocacy
        organization.

Ø Josephine Torres-Boykins — Founded a business, A Small Business World.

Ø Juanita Morales-Kremer — Participated in a youth outreach program.

Ø Sunilda D. Tejada — Ran a class to help immigrants deal with the Bureau of Citizenship and 
        Immigration Services, formerly the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

Ø Norma I. Montanez — Started a Parent Teacher Organization at Thomas Ford Elementary School.

Ø Swithen Ortiz — Served as a consultant on local political campaigns.

Ø Yvette Santiago — Conducted a comprehensive study on why more Latinos do not vote.

In addition, a group of students worked together to form the Organization for Latino Advocacy to promote Latino issues in Berks County: Raquel Lopez, Miguel Lopez, Logan S. Smith Jr., Maria E. Candelaria, Eliana J. Serrano, Yvonne L. Stroman, Luz M. Tassone, Margarita M. Caicedo, Guadalupe Rivera Rosalind Rodriguez.

The outcome of the Berks Hispanic Leadership Institute with a program consisting of 8 hours a month and a major community project include: 

Please go to the website and read the study's outcome.  The recommendations would be adaptable to any location.   http://www.alegreresearch.com/pdf/UWGMCStudy.pdf 

BUSINESS

This isn’t a joke.

Walmart is trying really hard to win the Latino dollar. Last year, Walmart was the number 3 advertiser in Spanish-Language Media in the U.S. Earlier this year they started opening ‘Supermercados de Walmart’, stores with a “new lay-out, signing and product assortment designed to make them even more relevant to local Hispanic customers.” And just in time for Dia de los Muertos, the Lady de Guadalupe coffin:

EDUCATION

Dr. Rodolfo AcuÑa Awarded MALDEF Lifetime achievement award 

http://www.csun.edu/~hfchs006/Dr.RodolfoAcunaLifetimeAchievment.html

Thanks once again for the tremendous work you do in keeping us all in communication. 

Saludos, Gabriel Gutiérrez, Ph.D.
Associate Chair, Department of Chicano/a Studies
California State University, Northridge
18111 Nordhoff Street
Northridge, CA 91330-8246

Sent by Roberto Calderon, Ph.D. 
beto@unt.edu

Becas/Scholarships for Latinos, regardless of status
http://www.collegescholarships.org/minority2.htm

The American Society of Hispanic Economists (ASHE)—a member of the Allied Social Science Association—is a professional association of economists and other social scientists who are concerned with the under-representation of Hispanic Americans in the economics profession and with the lack of research generated on Hispanic American economic and policy issues. Our primary goals include:
1. Promoting the vitality of Hispanics in the economics profession through education, service, and excellence;
2. Promoting rigorous research on economic and policy issues affecting U.S. Hispanic communities and the nation as a whole; and
3. Engaging more Hispanic Americans to effectively participate in the economics profession.
For more information about ASHE, please contact ASHE_mail@att.net or visit our website at www.asheweb.net.

Art seeks to do justice to courts' history  
By Paloma Esquivel  
October 15, 2009

Students' paintings reflecting significant Orange County cases adorn 
the new building of the 4th District Court of Appeal in Santa Ana.

The student artist who created this work, based on a graffiti case, says the painting symbolizes the good and bad of graffiti. The work itself makes the writing on the wall look beautiful. But the message, he said, is that in the end it is all washed away. (Alex Gallardo / Los Angeles Times / October 13, 2009)

BILINGUAL/BICULTURAL EDUCATION

CSUB
Department of Modern Languages and Literature
California State University, Bakersfield
24 DDH, 9001 Stockdale Highway
Bakersfield, California  93311-1002
(661) 654-2359  FAX  (661-654-2017    

November 20, 2009

Progress Report  

To: Friends of the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures  

Greetings,  

It has been five weeks since I held an informational meeting on campus to inform students and other interested parties about the possibility of a moratorium being placed on the Spanish B.A. and M.A. programs in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at California State University , Bakersfield . The response from those in attendance—faculty, students, alumni, community members, and representatives from various organizations was overwhelming and immediate. It confirmed my philosophy, embodied in the Apache saying, that, “It is better to have less thunder in the mouth, and more lightening in the fist.” To say the least, that preemptive action caught everyone by surprise.  

The meeting was followed by a petition drive, along with a great deal of media attention—television, radio, newspapers, Más magazine, blogs—and a flurry of letters addressed to CSUB President Mitchell. It also created a great deal of discussion and debate far beyond our campus, about the whole issue of program elimination.  

Last week, the CSU faculty union (California Faculty Association) asked Dr. Joanne Schmidt and me to attend the CSU Board of Trustees meeting in Long Beach yesterday to voice our concerns. Dr. Schmidt graciously yielded to me when they suggested that one of us speak before the trustees and the 23 CSU campus presidents.  

To paraphrase my talk, I began by reminding them that Kern County is César Chávez country, Dolores Huerta country, United Farm Workers country. I then emphasized the large percentage of Hispanic enrollments in the Kern High School District—schools in Bakersfield and surrounding towns like Arvin, Delano, McFarland, Shafter, Wasco. Hispanic enrollment at Arvin High School , for example, is 95%. These schools are our feeder schools, and to close any university program would deny most of these students access to the “comprehensive regional university” which CSUB purports to be.  

I told them about how quickly and fervently people circulated our petition; in one week, we got 1393 signatures, to be exact. I told them that the petition drive taught me that the people who signed the petition—farm workers, gardeners, waiters, maids, the most humble of people, truly value education, and we should learn from them.  

I concluded by telling them that a program such as our Spanish program could be easily dismantled by next year. But, it has taken the 40 years of this university’s existence to grow from 0 Spanish majors to 100 majors. If it takes forty years to rebuild the program, that will put us in the year 2050!  

After the talk in the boardroom (we were only allowed two and a half minutes), I spoke at the CFA rally outside, giving them a slightly longer version of the earlier talk.  

As for the current status of our program, Dr. Edwin Sasaki, Interim Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences, called an emergency meeting with our department on Tuesday, October 27.  

At the meeting, Dr. Sasaki berated us for saying that he had announced a moratorium on the Spanish B.A. and M.A. programs, as well as faculty cuts. He stated that he had merely asked all departments to suggest solutions to the budget crisis. We were all we were all shocked by his demeanor, but we were respectful of the dignity of the centuries-old title of dean, and we did not contradict him.    

However, when he announced his departure from our meeting, I informed him that I wanted the department to remain for a few minutes. We then agreed that his behavior was hostile, rude, patronizing, and generally unbecoming of a dean. More importantly, we agreed that I had not made up the term “moratorium,” that I had not conceived of the idea of a moratorium, nor had I misrepresented any other statement that he had made during our October 6 meeting with him, including his statement that we would “end up being a one-man department in a few years.”  

Yet, in a meeting with a group of department chairs on the following day, he stated that no programs would be cut next year, and that no tenured or tenure-track faculty would be laid off.  

As of this date, then, it appears that our B.A. program will not be cut next year—i.e. no “moratorium.” However, the dean is pressuring us to suspend the M.A. program. We may be able to convince him that we can continue the program by keeping the number of graduate courses offered to one per quarter (M.A. students can also count up to four 400-level undergraduate courses toward the M.A). We plan to remind him that the nearest graduate programs are Northridge, Fresno , UCLA and Santa Barbara , and that one of the reasons that the establishment of CSUB by the CSU was approved was precisely because the nearest institutions of higher education were more than one hundred miles away.  

Yesterday we submitted our proposals for programmatic reductions to the dean, but he insists that there will be “work force reductions,” and that we have to tell him what we would like to do. Although we know which of our colleagues have to be cut, if cuts must be made, there are established contractual procedures based on the seniority system, and it is the duty of administrators to implement the policies.  

Again, I am truly grateful for your support. It was lightning fast.    

José R. Reyna, Ph.D.
Chair  

BOOKS

Lila Guzman, Ph.D. 
http://www.lilaguzman.com

Lorenzo and the Pirate by Lila and Rick Guzman
Hardcover $13.95  ISBN-10: 1933831154 ISBN-13: 978-1933831152
Lorenzo and the Pirate is the 4th  in a series of young adult history novels. 

Lorenzo's Secret Mission (Arte Público, 2001); 
Lorenzo's Revolutionary Quest (Arte Público, 2003);
Lorenzo and the Turncoat (Arte Público, 2006); 
Lorenzo and the Pirate (Blooming Tree Press, 2009)

The Lorenzo novels focus on the Spanish contribution to the American Revolution. In Lorenzo's Secret Mission, readers meet fifteen-year-old Lorenzo Bannister, as he becomes drawn into the battle for colonial independence while delivering a message from his dying father.

For his next adventure (Lorenzo's Revolutionary Quest), Lorenzo, now sixteen, goes on a secret mission to drive cattle from the Province of Texas to Louisiana.

Lorenzo and the Turncoat (set in 1779) shows that history does indeed repeat itself. A powerful hurricane levels New Orleans in August 1779 as Bernardo de Gálvez prepares to attack the British in Baton Rouge. Lorenzo’s fiancée Eugenie is missing.

All the information in the "Lorenzo" series is based on fact. Spanish involvement in the American Revolution is rarely discussed in our history books.

Like the cities they describe, the stories in Anywhere But L.A. shift and slide and refuse to be pinned down. Daniel Olivas is an exciting writer, whose prose rings with humor, insight, and power."
-- Daniel Alarcón, author of Lost City Radio and War by Candlelight

"Funny yet touching, these skillfully rendered characters remind us of our own vulnerability. Individually, the stories are punchy and sharp; collectively, the stories create a colorful mural of a thriving Latino community." 
-- Kathleen de Azevedo, author of Samba Dreamers

"Daniel Olivas has mastered the knack of telling intricate tales that are natural, never labored, and a genuine pleasure to read."  
-- Manuel Ramos, author of The Ballad of Rocky Ruiz

Cynthia E. Orozco, Ph.D.

Chair, History & Humanities Dept.

Sent by Roberto Calderon, Ph.D. beto@unt.edu

Text below from Barnes and Noble website:

http.barnesandnoble.com/Lost-Architecture-of-the-Rio-Grande-Borderlands/
W-Eugene-George/e/9781603440110/://search

For more on this topic: http://www.thecajuns.com/malaguenos%20in%20la.pdf
Sent by Bill Carmena  JCarm1724@aol

CULTURE

BIANCA COLLINS, PROFESSIONAL ACTRESS

Bianca Collins, daughter of member Anita Palacios Collins, has been a professional actress for fourteen years.  She has worked with Paul Simon, Mark Anthony, and Ruben Blades on the Broadway workshop of The Capeman; played George Lopez’ daughter in his Christmas television movie, Naughty or Nice; and was the recurring mean girl, “Patti Perez,” on Nickelodeon’s Unfabulous  for three years.  

Her interest in acting began when she was three years old and saw her older brother auditioning for a community theatre production of Rogers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella. She insisted on asking the director for permission to sing on stage, the director obliged, and she auditioned with “Fwinkle Fwinkle Little Star” (she couldn’t pronounce her T’s yet). No role for a three year old, they wrote one in and she was hooked.  Three years later, she was sitting next to Paul Simon as he taught her a song that was to be part of the Broadway production of The Capeman.   

The following year she was cast in the Broadway Production of Annie, then toured the United States and Canada with the show for about nine months.  Her father, an officer in the Navy at the time, was transferred to Pt. Mugu, CA so she moved to Southern California and started her career in television.   

She taped national commercials, guest starred in episodics, and then co-starred in Disney’s television movie, Tiger Cruise, as “Tina Torres.”  She worked with the producer of Tiger Cruise again when she co-starred in the 2008 MTV television movie, American Mall.  In November of this year, she was a guest star in House and is currently taping a new TeenNick episodic, Gigantic, in which she will be the recurring character, “Lulu.”  

And, lest we forget to mention…she’s also attending USC full-time! Originally accepted into the theatre department at USC, she’s now a junior, majoring in sociology and minoring in screenwriting.

Sent by proud Mom, Anita Palacios Collins
alwaysanita@ymail.com  

Santa Cruz River Band

SHOPPING IN PREPARATION FOR TAMALE MAKING
Photo by Sergio Hernandez

Dr. Felipe de Ortego y Gasca will be reading his entry “Life Among the Ruins” from Mezcla: Art & Writing from the Tumblewords Project.  Dr. Ortego is Scholar in Residence and Chair of the Department of Chicana/Chicano and Hemispheric Studies at Western New Mexico University in Silver City.

“Life Among the Ruins” is a philosophical piece about the mystery and wonder of the natural world. The piece was inspired by an observation in Indanapolis, Indiana, during the year Dr. Ortego was a Lilly Fellow for Community Leadership.

An accomplished writer of various genres (prose, poetry, fiction, drama, song), Dr. Ortego was identified in 1971 as “a brilliant new talent in fiction” with publication of his short story “The Coming of Zamora” in The Chicano: From Caricature to Self-Portrait, Mentor Books: New American Library).

His academic career spans almost six decades and a staggering output of published and performed works. His scholarly interests include works on Chaucer, Shake­speare, Milton, Johnson, Words-worth, Brownin­g, Melville, Steinbeck, et al. His work The Stamp of One Defect: A Study of Hamlet (1966) is considered one of the most provocative in a century of Hamlet inquiry. 

Sent by Dr. Felipe de Ortego y Gasca  ortegop@wnmu.edu  

Los Texas Wranglers and Los T-Birds

 
Sacramento boy wins Mexican art contest
By Stephen Magagnini, Nov. 10, 2009 
http://www.sacbee.com/159/story/2316035.html
smagagnini@sacbee.com

Juan Misael Gonzalez-Montañez, a shy 8-year-old who loves to draw, has won his family of six its first-ever computer.  Juan, a third-grader at the Smythe Academy in North Sacramento, was one of 15 top winners in an international art competition sponsored by the Mexican government.

His award-winning crayon and watercolor picture shows the first flag of Mexican independence containing the image of La Virgen de Guadalupe, an important national and religious symbol in Mexico. The flag was raised by Father Miguel Hidalgo on Sept. 15, 1810. 

Hidalgo – with his now famous grito, or yell – rallied the town of Dolores to battle the Spaniards. "Hidalgo proclaimed the end of slavery in all Mexico, including California," said Carlos González Gutiérrez, the consul general of Mexico in Sacramento.

"Our independence was not achieved until 11 years later, after a long and bloody war, and Father Hidalgo was killed in less than a year," said González Gutiérrez.

Juan was the first Sacramento winner in the 13-year history of the competition. Este Es Mi Mexico – This Is My Mexico – was sponsored by the Mexican government for children 7 to 11.

This year's theme was the bicentennial of Mexican independence and centennial of the Mexican Revolution.

Other winning submissions depicted the revolution that began Nov. 20, 1910, to overthrow President Porfirio Díaz, who had ruled Mexico for more than 30 years.

Juan was one of 15 top winners out of 6,266 entries worldwide for the official 2010 Mexican calendar. The top 120 drawings – done by children as far away as Russia and Argentina – will be part of an exhibition at the History Gallery in the Museo del Caracol in Mexico City, where Juan was born.

"I draw 15 to 20 minutes a day," said Juan. "I like making the Mexican flag and stuff."

His sister Adriana, 13, added, "he also draws cars, superheroes, a lot of stuff." She called the winning picture "a good thing so I can remember about Mexican history, and I want to learn more about my Mexican culture."

It's also a good thing because the family – which includes Luis, 12, and Daniela, 15 – will finally get a computer, a $1,500 desktop, this week.

"I'll do my homework – math projects in pre-algebra – and check my grades," said Adriana. "Right now it's hard because I have to go to the library to use a computer and sometimes it's not open."

Juan could have chosen a digital camera, a drawing kit or school supplies, but he chose the computer.

"I want him to do his homework, mainly," said his dad, Daniel Gonzalez.  "It's beautiful," he said of his son's drawing, "I know he draws all the time but I never knew he submitted it."

Gonzalez said he came to Sacramento from Michoacán in 2000. Five years later, the family joined him. Gonzalez is now a cook in a local restaurant while Juan's mother, Maria Gonzalez Montañez, works at a plastics factory.

Juan was honored Sept. 15 on the steps of the Capitol before 5,000 Mexican Americans celebrating Hidalgo's call to arms 200 years ago, the consul general said.  But Juan doesn't plan to become an artist. "I want to be a cook like my dad," he said. 

Sent by Dorinda Moreno fuerzamundial@gmail.com

Trailer of documentary: The Rose, A Sense of Place

Sent by Roberto R. Calderón, Ph.D.

LITERATURE

Troncoso: Why is Texas Library Association ignoring Latino authors?
by Steve Taylor, November 3, 2009

Troncoso said he needs to find out how the TLA list is compiled. “Our community right now has great young adult writers, Benjamin Saenz, for example, who has published two young adults novels to great acclaim and won major awards for them. Then there is Victor Martinez, author of Parrot in the Oven, which won the National Book Award for young adult fiction. There are so many names out there,” Troncoso said.

“It is not about being a Latino name and being happy with it. This is about high quality literature by writers who also happen to be Latino. There need not be a compromise any more between quality and having a good Latino story out there as well.”

The list Troncoso is referring to is called the TAYSHAS. It is compiled by the Young Adult Round Table of the Texas Library Association.

Troncoso said he knows there are some excellent librarians around the state. He cited Carol Brey-Casiano, currently director of the El Paso Public Library and immediate past-president of the American Library Association.

“Carol has readings in the El Paso Public Library promoting Latino literature all the time. She would have many books to recommend to this list. Why they do not make it, I do not know. I want to know. They (TLA) have to defend this list,” Troncoso said. “I want to know why only five percent are about or by Latinos in a place where you should be appealing to that Latino student who walks into your library and wants a book that reflects his or her life.”

Troncoso said that a quick scan of the Tayshas list shows one book about a Massachusetts boarding school for rich kids and another about Australian teenage life. That’s well and good, he said, but why almost no books about Latinos. “It’s incomprehensible,” he said.

Troncoso said he has already spoken to Saenz about the list and said Saenz was not surprised Latinos were not featured prominently. 

So annoyed was Troncoso that when he got back to New York he blogged about the TLA list. Click here to read the blog.

“When I saw that list it seemed like I was going back to the 1950s. We are beyond that,” Troncoso said. “For me this is not about literary affirmative action. The quality is there. The great writers are there. I would never sacrifice quality of putting up a Latino surname. I don’t think you have to do that anymore.”

Troncoso said he does not see himself as an activist. He said, rather, he was a serious writer that has a point to make. “For me, it is not just about entertaining people. I want to change peoples’ minds. I do not know why people (in Texas) are being so placid about this. Maybe they are not and I have not heard about it. There needs to be a lot more activism, but intelligent activism,” he said.

Maribel Castro is president-elect of the TLA. She has served as a committee member on the Texas Lone Star Committee (which is the middle school book list and little sister to the TAYSHAS committee, the high school list). She said she is one of the thousands of hardworking librarians that volunteer their time to work on this and other literacy projects for the people of Texas. 

Castro said she found Troncoso’s blog “interesting but disconcerting.” 

She said she agrees with Troncoso that “we need more Latino literature in book lists and awards.” She said there is a tremendous opportunity to do something about it right now. The process to submit titles to TLA’s reading lists is not secretive or obscure; it's wide open to anyone who wishes to have a title considered for the list,” Castro said.
The nomination form is available at: http://www.txla.org/groups/forms/tayshassuggest.html 

Castro said the book discussions for the Lone Star and TAYSHAS committees are open to the public. Any librarian who serves young adults through either a public or school library can apply to be on one of these two committees, she said. 

“Serving on the Lone Star Committee has been one of the most memorable and rewarding experiences of my career as a school librarian,” Castro said.

Castro said that having served for three years on the Lone Star Committee she can vouch for the "open-mindedness and good will" of the members of these two selection committees. "Many of us on the committees serve majority Latino populations in our schools and schools districts and have a clear understanding of the literary interests and taste of these young adults,” she said.

Castro said that while, as one colleague put it, no student has ever come to her to ask for Hispanic-themed books, “we strive to give our students quality and diverse reads, which of course includes materials written by Latino authors.”

Castro said multicultural literature titles from publishers both small and large are sought. All titles submitted to the selection committees are thoughtfully considered, and its members conscientiously strive to create a list that is inclusive of diverse cultural/ethnic backgrounds, varied teen topics and interests, and genres, she said.

“The committee, through a vigorous review process, evaluates hundreds of books nominated. We believe exposing teens to topics, not only about their communities but outside of their communities – like Australian teenagers and boarding schools – is not a bad thing. Inherently, it matters not where you come from or where you go to school. We all have many things in common despite socioeconomic and geographic boundaries,” Castro said.

Castro added that the TLA has been on the “leading edge” in supporting multiculturalism and Latino programming, literature, and services for decades. 

“From creating the pilot program for statewide Dìa de los Niños/Dìa de los libros celebrations to conducting multitudes of programs and workshops on Latino literature, authors, services, and other resources and programming, TLA has worked tirelessly to promote Latino and multicultural literacy,” Castro said.

© Copyright of the Rio Grande Guardian, www.riograndeguardian.com, Melinda Barrera, Publisher. All rights reserved.

Sent by Roberto Calderon, Ph.D.  beto@unt.edu

The National Association of Hispanic Publications' 
2010 José Martí Publishing Awards 
 
José Martí Publishing Awards Newsletter
 

MILITARY AND LAW ENFORCEMENT HEROES

Say THANKS in support of our troops.  An easy way to show you care.  Send one or a dozen postcards. No cost:   http://www.letssaythanks.com/Home1280.html  
Sent by  Gerald Frost Telger6

After 58-year search, former Marine 
finds heroic Hispanic pilot with roots in Laredo, Edward Ochoa 
by Sara Puig Laas

For:  Release via Somos Primos   One-time Rights
Ó Sara Puig Laas
4823 Bob Wire Road, Spicewood, TX  78669
H:  512-264-0005    C:  512-925-1147   SaraPuigLaas@austin.rr.com

For 58 years, William “Buddy” Hixon searched for the lone Marine pilot who had saved his life and that of 41 other Marines in 1951 during the Korean War.

It was a story in three parts: a fierce battle; a long quest to find a mysterious, unknown pilot; and finally, a chance to say, “Thank You” to that hero, Marine pilot Edward Ochoa — who grew up in Laredo. 

THE BATTLE

It was April 23, 1951, and Hixon was a machine gunner in Charlie Company, 7^th Marines. They were assigned to hold a position called Objective 44, about 1,000 yards northeast of Horseshoe Ridge. It was a narrow saddle of land connecting two ridges that had a deep valley between them.

When the battle started the day before, there had been 235 Marines in Charlie Company. It was the biggest fight since the war began in June of 1950, and the enemy — thousands of troops from the communist People’s Republic of China — had attacked in waves all night.

By the light of occasional flares, the Marines could see Chinese machine guns on the opposite ridge just thirty yards away. The Americans fired in the dark toward the smell of approaching enemy soldiers.

“The Chinese soldiers’ diet contained a lot of garlic,” says Hixon.  “We learned to tell how close they were and when to shoot.” When daylight came, enemy bodies lay as close as three feet away.

By then, some Marines had been sent to guard the left flank; the rest were dead or wounded. Of the original 235, only 42 were left to face the hordes of Communist troops. The odds of surviving the day were small to none.

The Marines’ 5^th Regiment was supposed to be on the right flank, however, and Hixon walked along the ridge to look for them.

Then, about 8 a.m., he heard the plane.  It was the unmistakable sound of an F4-U Corsair, flying up the valley toward the saddle on the left.

“I stood at the top of the ridge and waved my Browning Automatic Rifle,” says Hixon.  “The Corsair was just a few yards away, level with me. The pilot was wearing a helmet, but his goggles were pushed up, and we made eye contact. When he passed, he gave me a ‘thumbs up’ and smiled.  He was the most beautiful sight I had ever seen in my 22 years of living.”

Hixon continues, “The pilot flew to the saddle connecting the two ridges, pulled the Corsair almost straight up, and dived toward the Chinese. The plane had three machine guns in each wing. By his second run, we could tell he had only 50-caliber ammo — no bombs, rockets, or napalm. The Marine pilot made one strafing run after another. After he ran out of ammo he made three more runs.  He flew so low to the ground that we couldn’t see him, but we could hear the Chinese screaming.”

The Marine pilot’s daring and bravery had saved 42 Marines by buying them precious time to regroup. “Without that Corsair pilot, we would never have made it out alive,” says Hixon.

THE QUEST

            After his honorable discharge from the Marine Corps in March of 1953, Buddy HIxon began to build a life in Kentucky. He married Lou, and they reared three daughters.

But the memory of the Corsair pilot stayed in his mind like a photograph in an album. As he watched his girls grow up, he would think about how blessed he was to be there for them — and how he longed to say, “Thank You” in person to the Marine pilot whose smiling face still haunted him.

            Hixon scoured history books, Leatherneck Magazine, and Marine Corps records. He attended Marine reunions, always asking, always searching for clues that could lead him to the mystery pilot. From one book, Hixon learned that the Marine Corsair VMF-214 Black Sheep Squadron had flown from the USS Sicily in support of 7^th Marines.

            In 2008, Hixon had a stroke of good luck. At a Marine reunion he met Philadelphia University Professor Bob Wagner, former crewmember in a Korean Conflict Antisubmarine Squadron. Wagner helped him locate a source for the April 23 Deck Logs of the escort carrier USS Sicily.

But the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) reported that the Black Sheep Squadron was not on the USS Sicily at the time. Thankfully, it was “bad news, good news.”

The NARA also sent along a Historical Diary stating that the squadron had been based at the time in Pusan, Korea. The log listed all flights the squadron made on April 23, 1951.

Working with Hixon’s maps, coordinates, a spreadsheet, and the Historical Diary, Wagner and Hixon determined that only three sorties came near Objective 44 ridge on April 23. 

One flight was not launched until 11:30 a.m.  Too late. Another would have arrived about 6:15 a.m. Too early. The third would have been in the area at 8:03 and had the closest coordinates. Right time, right place.

At long last, Hixon could read his pilot’s name:  Major Ochoa, Commanding Officer of Squadron VMF-214. More research turned up his first name:  Edward.

But where, among 300 million Americans, could Edward Ochoa be?

Searching the internet produced hundreds of Edward Ochoas. Then Col. Walter Ford, publisher of Leatherneck Magazine, suggested Hixon call its Airwing Section.

“We have a record of him,” the pleasant female voice said, “but Col. Ochoa has not contacted the Marine Corps Association since 1996.”

Hixon was trembling as he wrote down the information. Now 80, he had to wait a whole day to calm his emotions before he could take the next step.

On March 28, 2009, after 58 years of searching, Hixon picked up his phone and dialed Col. Edward Ochoa’s number in Harbor City, California.

SAYING THANK YOU

            A woman’s voice answered. Hixon asked, “Is this the home of Edward Ochoa and was he a pilot during the Korean War?”

            “Yes,” she said, “but my husband passed away last year on September 11, 2008.”

            For Hixon, it was a bittersweet moment. He had finally found his hero, but it was six months too late to thank him in person.

Hixon shared his story with Edward Ochoa’s widow, Lisa.

In turn, Lisa told him that Ed Ochoa was originally from Laredo, born in 1920.  He was one of eight brothers, and six of them — Louis, Albert, Fred, Ed, Peter and Rod — served in WWII.

Ed and his three youngest brothers — Rod, Art, and Richard — also saw military duty during the Korean Conflict.

After active duty, Ed Ochoa remained with the Marine Reserves, eventually retiring as a full colonel.

Edward Ochoa was an honor graduate of Martin High School’s first class in 1937. He earned an engineering degree from the University of Texas after World War II and put it to work for Douglas Aircraft as a Safety Engineer and Crash Analyst in California. In 1969, he married Lisa Rodriguez and helped rear her two children, Leon Rodriguez and Marlyn Rodriguez Dinon.

When Hixon finally hung up the phone at his home in Kentucky, he decided that he would still keep his promise to say, “Thank you” in person. 

In August, 2009, he and Lou and their daughter Kelly traveled to California for an emotional reunion with Ed Ochoa’s family at the home of his nephew Phil Ochoa, also formerly of Laredo. 

Hixon recounted the events of April 23, 1951 for twenty-one assembled members of the Ochoa family. The group included Richard Ochoa of El Paso, the last surviving Ochoa brother.

Although his relatives knew that Ed Ochoa had been awarded a Distinguished Flying Cross during WWII, none of them were aware of his heroic efforts on that April day in Korea.

Buddy Hixon told them, “I regret that my long search ended without being able to thank Col. Ochoa in person for saving the lives of 42 Marines so long ago.”

“Don’t worry,” said stepson Leon Rodriguez.  “My dad was a Marine to the end. I know what he would have said: ‘I was just doing my job.’ ”

Hixon thinks Edward Ochoa did much more. At a Marine reunion in Buffalo, New York in September, Hixon found four more of the forty-two Marines whose lives were saved by Ochoa at Objective 44 in Korea.  They are working on a recommendation to the Commandant of the Marine Corps that a Medal of Honor be awarded posthumously to Col. Ochoa for his exceptional valor.

Hixon says, “I know it will be difficult, but we feel we must pursue it.  There are recipients who saved a few; Edward Ochoa saved 42 of his fellow Marines from almost certain death.”

                                                - 30 -       

Retired General Sanchez talks on patriotism 
November 7, 2009
The former commander of coalition forces visits Fullerton. 
By MICHAEL MELLO 
Photos, PHOTOS: JEBB HARRIS
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER 

Retired Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, once the highest-ranking Latino in the U.S. Army, shakes hands with ROTC Cadet Susan Mejia at Cal State Fullerton. Sanchez had just signed his book, "Wiser in Battle: A Soldier's Story," for her. 

"When you deploy to war, you have to say goodbye to the person you will never be again," says retired Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, speaking to a group of ROTC cadets at Cal State Fullerton. 

Images of Valor: U.S. Latinos and Latinas of World War II, traveling exhibition

The Enemy Within

the story of Supercop Joe Sanchez

By: Tony (The Marine) Santiago  

The majority of the police officers who serve our cities, towns and counties are good law abiding men and women that we can look up to, as heroes. However, we also often hear in the evening news about the police officers who believe that they are above the law and are witnesses all to the abuses that some of them  commit against the defenseless illegal immigrant or the petty criminal who is unarmed and surrenders, expecting simply to be read his Miranda rights and hauled off to the nearest county jail, upon viewing the televised videos presented in the news. Yet, many of these officers are seldom charged for their crimes and often the only punishment that those who are accused receive is a minor and limited suspension from their jobs.  I am sure that you as I,  have asked yourself, why is it that some of these officers who are so cruel can get away with the things that they do. Well they do get away with it, however that is not the worst of it, the most amazing thing of all is that there are many corrupt officers within the police forces who are associated with the worst criminal elements known to society and the fact that they are  officers of the law makes them worse then your common street criminal. In many cases the corruption and criminal acts committed by these officers are known by other fellow officers, who would rather keep quite and look the other way instead of doing something about it. There is a code of silence within the police force similar to the Mafia “Omerta”, known as the “Blue Wall of silence” or the “Blue Code of Silence“. A police officer who reports the criminal acts of another officer is considered a traitor by his fellow officers and often has to go through hell as a result of his honest acts.  

I recently had the honor and pleasure of making the acquaintance of a highly decorated former NYPD police officer who had the guts to do the right thing, even though it meant the end of the career which he so much loved. That man is Jose “Joe” Sanchez Picon. Sanchez discovered the corrupt activities of his Captain and Lieutenant and he refused to be dragged down to their level. Instead he decided to do something about it, only to be betrayed by his own Department of Internal Affairs, who instead of taking action against his superiors helped to frame him of criminal acts which he did not commit. Sanchez was acquitted, but lost his job. He wrote two great books about the events that happened to him. He also tells of the many good cops he worked with, be they white, Latinos and blacks he doesn’t discriminate. I highly recommend the books and hope that someday one of our Latino movie producers will make a film of them. You can purchase the books at Amazon.com. They are “Latin Blues, A Tale of Police Omerta From The NYPD",  ISBN 1601790007 and "True Blue: A Tale of the Enemy Within", ISBN 978-1-60179-012-5 . Here is the biography which I wrote in Wikipedia about Joe Sanchez, enjoy:

                                         Joe Sánchez

                           By Tony (The Marine) Santiago

                                               Joe Sánchez

Joe Sánchez  (born: January 16, 1947), is a highly decorated former New York City police officer and author whose books give an insight as to the corruption within the department. Upon exposing the illegal acts committed by some high ranking officers, he was betrayed by the Internal Affairs Division and arrested on the false allegations of committing various crimes in a case which was highly publized by the news media. He was found guilty for the assault charge, a conviction which was overturned. His case exposed the existence of a code of silence among police officers known as the "Blue Wall of Silence".

                                               Early years  

Sanchez (birth name: Jose Manuel Sánchez Picon) a native of Santurce, Puerto Rico, was one of five siblings born to Jose Sánchez and Clotilde Picon. In the early 1950s his parents migrated to New York City in search of a better life and settled in Manhattan. Sánchez' parents divorced and his mother remarried and the family moved to the South Bronx. There Sanchez received his primary and secondary education. Sanchez decided that he would enlist in the United States Armed Forces upon his graduation from Theodore Roosevelt High School.    

                                         Military service  

Sánchez attempted to enlist, but was not accepted by any of the four military branches. He then signed up for the selective service and in 1965, Sánchez was drafted into the United States Army, at the age of 18. On January 16, 1967, his twentieth birthday, he found himself with Company D, 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry of the 1st Air Cavalry Division (Mobile) (after being transferred from A Company, 5/7) deployed near the village of Phantiet in South Vietnam. On that day, his unit was engaged in a firefight with the Viet Cong. Sánchez and three of his comrades were seriously wounded by the shrapnel of an enemy grenade during that firefight. Sanchez was awarded the Army Commendation and Purple Heart Medals. After he recovered from his wounds, he was discharged from the Army and he returned to New York. There he met a young girl by the name of Lorraine Pfaus whom he married. He worked in various jobs among them as a Taxi and Ambulance driver. In various occasions Sánchez applied to become a police officer in the New York Police Department, but was not accepted. He then opted to apply to take the entrance examination as a police candidate in the New York Port Authority and was accepted. Sánchez served in the NYPA from January 1971-October 1973, during which time Sánchez discovered that his application for the NYPD had not been accepted once more because of a technicality. He opted to take his case before the board and was finally accepted as a police candidate in the NYPD.  

                              New York Police Department  

Sánchez graduated from the New York Police Academy after six months of training and was assigned to the 90th Precinct in Brooklyn. The 90th Precinct is located in northern Brooklyn in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. It is primarily a residential and commercial area consisting of factories, warehouses, one and two family private homes as well as numerous apartment buildings. The five primary commercial strips are Graham Avenue, Grand Street, Lee Avenue, Havemeyer Street and Broadway.  During his years as a police officer, he learned that there were good police officers and as well as corrupt ones. He also noticed that the illegal acts committed by some of his fellow officers were often ignored and seldom reported by others, including some of his superiors who believed in a code of silence known amongst them as the "Blue Wall of silence" in which reporting another officer's errors, misconduct, or crimes is regarded as a betrayal. He served in various precincts before being transferred to the 30th Precinct. The 30th Precinct is primarily residential, containing a commercial area on Broadway. The neighborhoods in the precinct are known as Hamilton Heights, Sugar Hill and West Harlem.

                                  The Blue Code of Silence  

Sánchez discovered that his Lieutenant was receiving payments and sexual favors in exchange for protection by accident, after he gave a routine traffic summons to the brother of a powerful businessman. The businessman cited him to his office and asked if he would be interested in providing protection for his drivers, same as his (Sánchez') Lieutenant and Captain were doing, and made a monetary offer to Sánchez. He reported the situation to Internal Affairs Division, who in turn "wired" him, which in this case means that he was connected to a recording device, with the supposed intention of gathering proof of his accusations. Unknown to Sánchez was the fact that those who wired him were friends of his Lieutenant. Sánchez returned to the businessman and gathered enough information to implicate his Lieutenant and Captain on corruption charges, however upon learning of the situation his Lieutenant had him transferred to another precinct.  

It 1983, Sánchez participated in a drug bust which ended his career as a police officer. In October of 1983, Sánchez was framed by some members of the police force involving the drug bust and was indicted by a Special and Extraordinary Grand Jury in Manhattan for one count of Burglary in the First Degree; one count of Grand Larceny in the first Degree; one count of Grand Larceny in the second Degree; six counts of Grand larceny in the Third Degree; and, one count of assault in the Third Degree. The witnesses against Sánchez were drug dealers involved in the drug bust who were promised to have their indictments dropped if they agreed to testify against him. After a lengthily trial, he was exonerated of the charges and applied for reinstatement in the NYPD. In 1988, after an administrative "snafu" sent his appeal for reinstatement to two different Supreme Court justices, one ruled that he be rehired and the other upheld his dismissal. The latter prevailed.  

                                       Corrections officer  

Sánchez worked for Holmes Security as a night supervisor for 3 years, until he started to work as a letter carrier in Haverstraw, New York. In 1989, he joined the New York State Department of Corrections who welcomed him on the job. As a corrections officer he came into contact with many of the inmates he once arrested as a police officer in Washington Heights. He first worked at Sing Sing Correctional Facility, a maximum security prison  in the Village of Ossining, Town of Ossining, New York. There he was assaulted and one inmate tried to set him up on false allegations that he had mistreated him. The Department of Corrections knew what was going on and supported him.  Sánchez, purchased a house in Catskill, New York, and transferred to Coxsackie State Prison. While at Coxsackie State Prison, he was involved in many dangerous situations involving fights between inmates. There was one particular incident, which almost cost him his life, he came to the aid of an inmate which was being stabbed by another. None of the other correction officers, who witnessed what was going on, came to his aid until it was almost over. This experience led him to consider retirement.  

                                            Later years  

Sánchez, retired and moved with his family to Florida. He continues to be active in various organizations, among them the North East Florida NYPD 10-13 Chapter; the Latino Officers Association Florida; the Purple Heart Chapter 0808, Flagler County Flagler Beach, Fl., the First Cavalry Division Association; 5/7 Cavalry Association, the 7th Cavalry Association and the Association of Retired Hispanic Police (ARHP) NYPD in New York. He is quoted as saying:  

"What I tell young cops I come in contact with... they have one of the greatest jobs in the world, and to stay honest, for once you lose a job for being dishonest, it will stay with you until you die"  

                                      Written works

Sánchez together with Mo Dhania is the author of the following books:  

*"Latin Blues, A Tale of Police Omerta From The NYPD", Publisher: The Old Kings Road Press (2006), ISBN 1601790007 

*"True Blue: A Tale of the Enemy Within", Publisher: Old King Road Press, ISBN 978-1-60179-012-5  

Military decorations  
Among Sánchez' military decorations and awards are the following:  
*Army Commendation Medal  
*Purple Heart  
*Army Good Conduct Medal  
*National Defense Service Medal  
*Vietnam Service Medal  
*Vietnam Campaign Medal

Badges:  
*Combat Infantryman Badge  
*Rifle Sharpshooters Badge

PATRIOTS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION

SAR President General Ed Butler 
Sends Letter to the Texas Education Agency

Dear Text book Committee,

As President General of the National Society, Sons of the American Revolution, I speak for over 28,000 members, some 2,600 of whom live here in Texas.

I am appalled at the state of our current American history text books, and understand that there are proposals that would inhibit our youth from discovering their true heritage.

A full coverage of the American Revolutionary War should be provided so that our youth can better understand the US Constitution and Bill of Rights. Many of our Hispanic youth feel disenfranchised. They should be taught about the contributions of Spain to the American Revolution, including the efforts of Gen. Bernardo Galvez, for whom Galveston is named. They should also be told of the Texas long horn cattle that were herded from the San Antonio area to Galvez army in Louisiana.

Our text books should: 
1) Encourage American Patriotism;
2) Honor our Founding Fathers and our American traditions; 
3) Honor our Veterans and our proud heritage; 
4) And promote the values of the American Free Enterprise System.

I would be delighted to make a presentation to your committee.

Respectfully,

Judge Edward F. Butler, Sr.
President General
National Society Sons of the American Revolution

San Antonio, TX

Annual Order of Granaderos y Damas de Galvez Conference

Some guests arrived in decorated horse-drawn buggys. 

Flags used by Spanish military forces in America

Michael Bunn, of the Old Capitol Museum of Mississippi History, asked about the flags used by Spanish military forces in America, specifically De Soto ca. 1540 and Gálvez ca. 1780. I received the following information from Spanish vexillologist Eduardo Panizo:

An image of this flag exists in the Spanish Archivo General de Indias, in the city of Seville. It is a battalion flag of the Regimiento de Infanteria de Luisiana 1779-1781. This was the flag used by this regiment, commanded by Bernardo de Gálvez, at the battle of Pensacola on May 8th 1781, where the Spanish Army defeated the British one.

José Carlos Alegría, 16 July 2000

I suppose this may shed some additional light on the origin of the state flags of Florida and Alabama. This white square flag features the traditional red burgundy cross used by the Spanish army, cornered by four identical coats-of-arms, and over all the latin writing Honor et Fidélitas, meaning Honour and Loyalty.

José Carlos Alegría, 6 September 2000

Source: http://flagspot.net/flags/es%5E1779.html#des
Sent by Bill Carmena JCarm1724@aol.com

Genealogical Report on George Washington's Ancestry 
by John inclan
fromgalveston@yahoo.com

Baron Edward Cherleton was the son of Lady JOAN de STAFFORD & JOHN CHERLETON, 2ND BARON OF CHERLETON 1360. He died 13 Jul 1374.

Lady Joan was the daughter of BARONESS MARGARET de AUDLEY & RALPH de STAFFORD, 1ST EARL OF STAFFORD. 

Baroness Margaret was the daughter of Lady MARGARET de CLARE & HUGH de AUDLEY, 2ND BARON OF AUDLEY ( son of Sir HUGH DE AUDLEY and Lady ISOLT DE MORTIMER).

Lady Margaret was the daughter of Princess JOAN PLANTAGENT OF ARCE & GILBERT DE CLARE, 7TH EARL OF HERTFORD (son of Sir RICHARD DE CLARE and Lady MAUD de LACY. 

Princess Joan was the daughter ELEANOR OF CASTILE, Queen of England & EDWARD I, KING OF ENGLAND (son of HENRY III, King of England and ELEANOR of PROVENCE). 

Eleanor was the daughter of SAINT FERNANDO III, KING OF CASTILE & LEON & JEANNE OF DAMMARTIN, Countess of Ponthieu (daughter of SIMON II, Count of Dammartin, Aumale & Ponthieu and Marie (Jeanne), Countess of Ponthieu) 

King Fernando was the son of QUEEN OF CASTILE BERENGARIA & ALFONSO IX, KING OF LEON (son of FERDINAND II, King of Leon and his Queen URRACA of PORTUGAL) .

Queen Berengaria was the daughter of ALFONSO VIII, KING OF CASTILE & ELEANOR OF ENGLAND, QUEEN OF CASTILE (daughter of HENRY II, King of England and ELEANOR of AQUITAINE) .

King Alfonso was the son of BLANCHE OF NAVARRE, QUEEN CONSORT OF CASTILE & SANCHO III, KING OF CASTILE (son of ALFONSO VII, King of Castile and his Queen BERENGUELA of Barcelona)..

Notes for Blanche of Navarre & Sancho III, King of Castile: It is from this union that the descendents of Charlemagne first enter this line. Source - Pedigrees of Emperor Charlemagne.

Blanche of Navarre was the daughter of GARCIA RAMIREZ VI, KING OF NAVARRE & MARGARITA DE L'AIGLE (daughter of GISLEBERT DE L'AIGLE and JULIANA PERCHE). 

Garcia Ramirez was the son of ELVIRA Rodriguez, also known as CRISTINA, & RAMIRO SANCHEZ II, COUNT OF MONCON, (son of GARCIA V, King of Navarre and CONSTANZA de Maranon) 

Elvira, A.K.A. Cristina was the daughter of Don RODRIGO DIAZ de VIVAR, known as EL CID & JIMENA de GORMAZ (daughter of DIEGO RODRIGUEZ de OVEIDO and CRISTINA FERNANDEZ). 

Sources:

Burke's Presidential Families of the United States.

Pedigrees of Some of the Emperor Charlemagne's Descendants, Compiled by Marcellus Donald Alexander R. von Redlich, Vol I. 

Pedigrees of Some of the Emperor Charlemagne's Descendants, by J. Orton Buck & Tomothy Field Beard, Vol II. 

Ackerman, Diane, The Real George Washington 

Hallam, Elizabeth, General editor, The Plantagenet Encyclopedia. 

Kinnaird, Clark, George Washington, The Pictorial Biography . Bonanza Book. New York. 

Moncreiffe , Sir Iain of That ILK, BT, Royal Highness Ancestry of the Royal Child 

SURNAMES

Un Apellido: Garcia by Angel Custodio Rebollo
Frank Garcia, We Give Thanks Foundation
How the adventurous Italian Schiapapría family became Nuevo León's 'Chapas' by 
      Dr. Lino García Jr.

UN APELLIDO: GARCIA
por Angel Custodio Rebollo

El apellido García es, según el Instituto Nacional de Estadística, el mas extendido por nuestro País, pues lo tienen como primer apellido  l.466.204 personas y como segundo, 1.491.212. Como dato complementario, diremos que son 83.024 los que se apellidan, García y García. En la provincia de Huelva, son 14.547 habitantes los que lo llevan como primero y 14.398, como segundo y los que sus dos apellidos son García, lo poseen solo 580.

El origen de este apellido parte del nombre propio “García”, pero hay dudas de donde procede, unos creen que es de origen vasco, de las zonas de Hartze y Hortza,  pues Menéndez Pidal dice en uno de sus escritos que el nombre vasco García es ya citado en el año 789 en Castilla, donde al parecer lo introdujo la reina Jimena de León, antes princesa Navarra, quien llamó a uno de sus hijos con el nombre de García.

Ante la invasión árabe, hubo muchas familias de la zona norte del País que nos ocupa, que huyeran en desbandada y los niños quedaron olvidados hasta de sus nombres.  Fue entonces cuando muchos de ellos eligieron el García, tanto que se llegó a decir que “Quien no tenía nombre, García se ponía”

La proliferación fue muy grande y hay García no solo en España, porque está muy extendido por toda América. Tengo referencias  de una familia en Chile, apellidada García, que es originaria de Cartagena y con una gran descendencia.

Los árabes también utilizaron este nombre, y tenemos a Abu Amir Ahmad Inb García, poeta que sirvió el Emir de la Taifa de Denia y otro Ibn García, también poeta y escritor en prosa, procedente del Califato de Córdoba.

Pero no solo personas se denominan García: En México, existe una población, que se llama García, a la que recuerdo haber mencionado hace unos años.

Y como colofón a los García, tenemos el escrito clásico que se estudia actualmente en todas las escuelas comerciales y de mercadotecnia, titulado “Mensaje a García”, que lo escribió Herbert Hubbert en 1899, cuando necesitando un pequeño articulo para publicarlo en su revista local, decidió dar forma a una discusión que había tenido con su hijo sobre un héroe en la guerra de Cuba, entre España y los Estados Unidos. De este escrito se han publicado más de cuarenta millones de ejemplares.

How the adventurous Italian Schiapapría family became Nuevo León's 'Chapas'.

Dr. Lino García Jr.
October 31, 2009 

Sent by Eddie Garcia
fs1830garcia@yahoo.com

CUENTOS

DINERO ISN’T DINNER

                      By

                    Margarita B. Velez

            Mispronounced words and different accents punctuate our conversation, and make life interesting.  Whenever I hear a slip of the tongue, it reminds me of my own experiences, and makes me smile.  It’s also a good way to start a conversation. 

            Mama’s only sister speaks English with a pronounced accent.  Tia Luz is a petite shy woman who boosts my ego, and brings joy to my life.

            A favorite memory is from the day when she was visiting, and I sauntered in wearing a bright yellow dress.  Looking up, Tía Luz exclaimed, “Ay mija, que bonita te ves en jello.”  The vision of me squiggling in lemon gelatin made me smile.  But, I knew that her compliment meant that I looked good in the “yellow” dress.  Another time she said, “Margie es muy esmart.”  Her words are etched in my mind, and still give me encouragement.

            My friend, Mike lived in Central America when his father served with the Foreign Service.  At a formal dinner, Mike tells of trying out his high-school Spanish with a diplomat’s daughter while her mother eyed them closely.  Mike said something that caused the young lady to blush, and he fumbled for the Spanish word for “embarrass.” 

“Perdone que la embaracé, Señorita.”  Mike said with confidence.  The mother gasped in horror, and the young lady stiffened as fat tears spilled from her blazing eyes.  In trying to apologize for embarrassing the girl, Mike instead had apologized getting her pregnant!  It took a lot of diplomacy on his father’s part to explain Mike’s faux pas.

            Tía Ester was riding the bus when a seatmate asked for the time.  Tía was about to tell her it was 8:30, but didn’t know the English word for half past the hour.  Silently she remembered that “media” means “stocking” and “half” in Spanish.  My aunt declared, “It’s eight and stocking.”  Her companion looked perplexed.  Tía Ester had picked the wrong word.  My aunt extended her wrist, and let the woman read the time for herself.  She remembers her companion’s warm smile of understanding.

            As a young boy, my father was working for a non-Spanish speaker.  Papa was learning to speak English, but didn’t yet know the word for money.  When he went to ask for his pay, Papa struggled for the term, but couldn’t come up with it.  “Dinero…dinner…” He decided to anglicize the word and said, “I want my dinner.”

            The kindly woman brought him a sandwich.  Papa ate it, and asked for his “dinner” again.  The woman brought him another sandwich.  Papa polished off the second serving with much less enthusiasm, and asked for his “dinner” again.  The confused woman questioned him about his insatiable hunger.  Papa was frustrated but undaunted.  He decided not to say “dinner” again. 

In Spanish he requested “mi dinero” and rubbed his thumb over his fingers in the familiar gesture meaning money.  Finally the woman’s face lit up, and she rushed for her purse.  Papa chuckled when he told how the woman hurriedly paid him, and sent him on his way.

At a PTA installation ceremony in front of a large crowd, I once said, “leadersheep” instead of leadership.  When snickers rose from the audience, my face turned red.  Looking at the crowd I hesitated, and then remembered my father’s experience.  I cleared my throat, smiled, pronounced the word properly, and went on with my speech.

            Laughing at our mistakes helps us to overcome embarrassment, and we can learn from the experience.  Sometimes if I stumble with “ch” and “sh,” and mispronounce “share” or “ Charlotte ” you might hear me say, “The taco slipped out,” just before I let out a chuckle.

 From “Stories from the Barrio and Other ‘Hoods” by Margarita B. Velez.  Margarita Velez an author from El Paso , Texas also wrote “Border Buster,” a novel about corruption and drug dealing on both sides of U.S./Mexico border.  “Stories…” is $20.00 and “Border Buster” is $29.95 with tax, shipping and handling included.  Contact the author at mbvelez@elp.rr.com for a signed copy or buy through Amazon.com. 

Editor: Sometimes "the taco slips out with me too.  Overall, what I have observed is a feeling of inadequacy on my part in pronouncing new words.  During a conversation, I know the word which would best describe what I am trying to convey, but I not sure of the pronunciation, so I opt for another word in public.  At home, I ask!!

Amarillo Had a Snowstorm
by Viola Rodriguez Sadler
www.http://www.memoriasymemories.blogspot.com/

ORANGE COUNTY, CA

Networking Strategies for Family History Research 
Photos go online offering glimpse into old O.C.  
Presentation by John P. Schmal:  History and Heritage of Indigenous Mexico

Photos go online offering glimpse into old O.C.

First American Corporation has posted a sample of its vast photo collection online.
By DOUG IRVING, The Orange County Register, Monday, October 26, 2009  

SANTA ANA – A treasure trove of old photographs that show Orange County as a place of starched collars, bathing bloomers and wide-open spaces has gone digital, a black-and-white birthday gift from The First American Corporation.

The online photo album represents just a tiny fraction of the 12,452 photographs that the Santa Ana-based business-information company has amassed over the years. But it does offer a glimpse into the past of Orange County communities, from Anaheim to Yorba Linda.

An early photo, posted on First American's Website, shows Huntington Beach Photo courtesy of First American Corporation.

Wreckage due to the Long Beach 1933 earthquake.

The photos are at www.firstam.com/HistoryOC  .  First American posted them in celebration of its own 120th birthday, and the 120th anniversary of the creation of 
Orange County itself.

Presentation by John P. Schmal  
History and Heritage of Indigenous Mexico, viewed from the perspective of language

November 7th SHHAR meeting, Orange Family History Center
 LtoR: Viola Rodriguez Sadler, John P. Schmal, Adelena 
Photo by Pat Lozano

You may view the entire presentation  http://www.somosprimos.com/schmal/IndigenousMexico.pdf 

Schmal has done extensive research on the indigenous tribes of Mexico.  You will find a whole series of his studies at:  http://www.somosprimos.com/schmal/schmal.htm

LOS ANGELES, CA

CALIFORNIA

Gardeners of Identity: Basques in San Francisco Bay Area 

A Cuban family's lucky ticket - to California

Juana Briones Heritage Foundation

NORTHWESTERN UNITED STATES

Mestizo Institute of Culture & Arts in Salt Lake City 
On 11/11/09, Roberto Rodriguez wrote to Readers of Column of the Americas

SOUTHWESTERN UNITED STATES

2009 De Colores Leadership Award Recipients

INDIGENOUS

http://www.cherokeediscovery.com/index.html

Sent by John Inclan 
fromgalveston@yahoo.com

National American Indian Heritage Month Resources

Sample DNA Tribes Results: Discovering your genetic ancestry is quick and easy with our home DNA testing kit. DNA is collected by lightly brushing inside your cheek and then returned by mail for lab processing.

Example Results with Commentary: Example results with commentary on how results can be interpreted are available for African-American, Caucasian, Chippewa/Ojibwa and Hispanic sample profiles (Updated March 12, 2008):

African-American  Caucasian  Chippewa/Ojibwa (Anishinaabe)
Hispanic  Sent by Carlos Munoz, cmjr@berkeley.edu 

Mexico's full-blooded Indigenous people

Cahokia Mound Savages? Who knew?

Coleccion de Lenguas Indigenas Biblioteca 
Publica del Estado de Jalisco "Juan Jose Arreola" 

Editor:  Site in Spanish which includes a whole collection of essays and data on indigenous languages.  I was not able to capture an example, but do check it out.  So much information.

Sent by Estela Lopez Perez  lopes440@generaciones.com.mx
to genealogia-mexico@googlegroups.com

It was then that he discovered his father sitting on the stump next to him. 
He had been at watch the entire night, protecting his son from harm.

We, too, are never alone. 
Even when we don't know it, God is watching over us, Sitting on the stump beside us. 
When trouble comes, all we have to do is reach out to Him. 


Moral of the story:
Just because you can't see God,
Doesn't mean He is not there.
"For we walk by faith, not by sight." 

Sent by Jan Mallet  jfmallet@socal.rr.com

Boy's recovery from flesh-eating bacteria 
could lead to American Indian saint canonization
Tacoma, WA - Monday, October 19, 2009 

Role of women in pre-Columbian Native American societies.
http://precolumbianwomen.com/  

ARCHAEOLOGY

Mysterious ruins may help explain Mayan collapse

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/columnist/vergano/2009-09-19-mayan-
collapse_N.htm?se=yahoorefer&POE=click-refer 

U. of Michigan to Review Policies on Returning Indian Remains

By David N. Goodman
Detroit, Michigan (AP) 11-09

Facing criticism for still holding the remains of about 1,400 Native Americans in its archaeological collection, the University of Michigan will be reviewing its policies on how to properly deal with Indian bones and artifacts.

A committee charged with looking at the legal, ethical and scientific concerns involved will meet for the first time next week and “will hear all sides of the story,” said Stephen Forrest, vice president for research at the Ann Arbor school.

“We want to have a very balanced approach,” he said Friday. “We are actively seeking to understand all the aspects of the problem.”

At issue is the conflicting interests of researchers and museums in studying and teaching about earlier human cultures and that of native peoples to have their religions and ancestral remains respected.

Under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act passed by Congress in 1990, federally supported institutions must catalog the remains and burial items they hold and return them, when requested, to groups that have a “cultural affiliation” to them.

The issue in the Michigan case is remains which the school says have no clear affiliation to present-day tribes. Forrest said the law compels the school to retain such remains until the government issues clearer guidelines or it gets specific clearance from U.S. Interior Department.

Forrest said the goal of the committee – 10 professors and one graduate student – is to properly balance Indian rights and research goals while awaiting new federal guidelines.

It’s long past time to do the right thing, said Fred R. Harrington Jr., a representative of the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians.

“The law is really clear” when it comes to what institutions are supposed to do about materials whose tribal ties aren’t immediately known, said Harrington, whose tribe is based in Harbor Springs, near Petoskey in the northern Lower Peninsula.

“They’re supposed to consult with the tribes about affiliation. The university never did this.”  Forrest said the school has complied with the law in the past and intends to keep doing so.

The Little Traverse Bay group and the Bay Mills Indian Community near Sault Ste. Marie in the eastern Upper Peninsula sent separate letters to the university protesting its continued holding of Indian remains.

“To the University of Michigan, the contemporary identification, cataloging and examination of the human remains and cultural artifacts of indigenous people may constitute an academic exercise,” Bay Mills executive council President Jeffrey D. Parker wrote to Forrest. “To the Bay Mills Indian Community, these activities are unwelcome and insensitive intrusions upon our ancestors which require our active intervention to ameliorate.”

A group representing Native American graduate students at the University of Michigan expressed hope the committee’s appointment would lead to the return of remains and artifacts to Indian tribes.

“While we’re disappointed that it’s taken 19 years for the research community at the U of M to get serious about what this law asks of them, we feel grateful to be part of a responsible process being developed now,” said Veronica Pasfield, co-chair of the Native Grad Caucus.

Thousands of remains of uncertain affiliation have been turned over to tribes by institutions nationwide, including Michigan State, Stanford and Yale universities; Minnesota’s public university system; the American Museum of Natural History in New York; and the Field Museum in Chicago, the caucus said in a Feb. 15 letter to Michigan President Mary Sue Coleman. 

Federal repatriation law Web site: http://www.nps.gov/history/nagpra
U-M statement: http://www.ns.umich.edu/htdocs/releases/story.php?id=7364
Michigan tribal coalition on repatriation: http://www.macpra.org
Sent by Carlos Munoz, cmjr@berkeley.edu 

SEPHARDIC

Sephardic Cuba, Your Family Tree
http://sephardiccuba.com 

Exiles of the Heart: 
Two Sephardic Women from Egypt Shared Their Stories of Loss and Connection 
as part of the ASF Books and Authors Series in November  info@americansephardifederation.org

Jews can trace their presence in Egypt back more than 3,000 years. In 1948 there were 80,000 Jews in Egypt; today, less than 100. Jean Naggar's book Sipping From the Nile: My Exodus From Egypt is a fascinating look at a forgotten world. Naggar was born in Alexandria and grew up in Cairo in a world of wealth and sophistication. Having left at the age of 18, her childhood memories open a window into a little-known time and place. 

One of New York's leading literary agents with a lifetime of experience encouraging authors, Jean applied pen to paper herself and recorded her memories of an exotic and happy childhood as a young Jewish girl brought up in Egypt and educated in England, whose happy life was torn apart by the Suez crisis of 1956. Jean and her family left Egypt in 1957. 

Joyce Zonana's book Dream Homes: From Cairo to Katrina, an Exile's Journey is one of seeking memories and constructing identity. She left Cairo with her family at 18 months, following the Arab-Israeli war of 1948. 

Joyce Zonana is an Associate Professor of English at Borough of Manhattan Community College, City University of New York. She has taught at the University of Oklahoma, the University of New Orleans, RowanUniversity, and Philadelphia College of Textiles and Science. 

Her essays and articles have appeared in numerous scholarly and literary journals, including Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature, Signs, Meridians, Victorian Poetry, and the Hudson Review. She currently lives in Brooklyn, New York. 

DNA: No “Crypto-Jews” in New Mexico 
Research of Dr. Wesley Sutton by Rubén Sálaz M.

The Jewish Genealogy Blog
September 21, 2009
New Mexico: Rare genetic condition
http://tracingthetribe.blogspot.com/2009/09/new-mexico-rare-genetic-condition.html

TEXAS

THE HISPANIC HISTORY OF TEXAS PROJECT
Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage
For guidelines and application, download: www.latinoteca.com
Deadline: March 1, 2010

Research Grants
Call for Proposals

February 25-27, 2010
2010 National Association of Chicana and Chicano Studies 
  "Pasado, Presente, y Futuro: Forty Years of Chicana and Chicano Studies in Texas"

Hosted by The Center for Mexican American Studies, University of Texas at Austin 

Tejano Land Grant Movement

Memories of the art of sheep carding

Thanks, Israel.

I have made a hard copy of the article for my files. Raising sheep in the South Texas/Northern Mexico brush country was never such a great idea.. most of the wool was left on the chaparral thorns and branches and the little that was clipped off the sheep was full of sticker burrs (cadillos) and thorns.  Still sheep herding was a tradition brought over from the Mother Country and remained in the old Guerrero settlement into the first part of the 20th century. 

When I was a five or six year old little boy back in the early 1940s (during WWII) I remember my grandmother Jovita Cuellar Uribe would still buy raw wool ( or perhaps given to her) in old Guerrero that she would take to her home in Laredo to clean by carding it with fine brushes -- check out this youtube presentation: 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhQcadvDO0o  

I remember Mama Jovita washing the dirty raw wool by hand and carding it to remove all the stickers, thorns, crap, etc and brush out all the tangles. She would have to clean and card it several times until she could use it to make blankets, but I remember her using it mostly for stuffing in homemade, hand needled colchas. 

I still remember playing with strands of the carded wool and running it through my fingers like it was yesterday... funny how some things stick in your mind or come back when you're an old fart. 

Cheers,  Euribe000@aol.com

Here is another good article by Givens of the Corpus Christi Caller-Times.
The only thing he fails to mention is that this sheep and goat raising was begun by the Hispanic farmers and ranchers of South Texas.  The transition from this type of ranching to cattle ranching to farming is an interesting one. Anglos and Mexicans and the Making of Texas is a very good source if you are interested.

Rise and fall of the sheep and wool era in South Texas
By Murphy Givens

Wool dealer William Headen (the firm retained the name of his father) was at the corner of Chaparral and Schatzel (where Sonja’s Restaurant is today) in the 1870s. The firm of M. Headen & Son was one of the many wool dealers concentrated on Chaparral when Corpus Christi was one of the world’s great wool markets.

Like the cowboy and vaquero, the shepherd was at home in South Texas. Flocks of sheep grazed the range from Corpus Christi to Laredo, making this one of the top wool-producing places in the country. Carretas loaded with wool, from as far away as Mexico, rolled into Corpus Christi, one of the world’s great wool markets.

The sheep era began about 1850 when W. W. Chapman, an Army officer, was transferred to Corpus Christi to head the Army’s new 8th Military District depot. Chapman realized that the area’s rich grassla nds made ideal sheep country. He set up a sheep camp on Santa Gertrudis Creek and brought in purebred Merinos from Pennsylvania.

The Merino, unmatched for the quality of its wool, was too delicate for this climate. While Mexican sheep could take the heat, they had a coarse wool. Chapman figured that fine-wooled Merinos bred with tough Mexican sheep would produce a hardy breed with a fine fleece. Merino cross-breeds became the golden fleece of South Texas.

James Bryden, a sheepman from Scotland, was among immigrants attracted here by Henry Kinney’s land promotion efforts. Chapman hired Bryden to handle his sheep. In payment for watching the flock, Bryden was given part of the natural increase and a share in the wool profits. Bryden grazed the sheep along Santa Gertrudis Creek.

The following year, in 1853, Richard King bought 15,000 acres to begin his ranch near the Chapman sheep camp. King purchased 10 Merino bucks and 42 Mexican ewes; within a decade, he had some 40,000 sheep. His main sheep camp was called Borregas.

Other sheepmen besides Bryden were among immigrants attracted by Kinney’s land-selling promotion in the 1850s — Joseph Almond of Newcastle-on-Tyne, the Adams’ family, George Reynolds, the Wrights, these became sheep ranchers in the Nueces Valley. Corpus Christi in 1856 suffered a blow when the city’s top employer, the Army, moved its depot headquarters to San Antonio. Kinney’s immigrants were forced to find new jobs. George Reynolds worked cutting hay for the Army; when the Army left, he went to work on King Ranch, then began his own sheep ranch.

Other immigrants turned to raising sheep, something they knew from England and Scotland. This was the beginning of the sheep era. The cattle kingdom began about the same time, and in almost the same place, along Santa Gertrudis Creek and in the well-watered Nueces Valley, and for the same reason: necessity. For decades, Corpus Christi’s economy depended on Merino cross-breeds and longhorn steers. The wealth of South Texas walked on four legs.

Maria von Blucher wrote in a letter to her parents in Germany (“Maria von Blucher’s Corpus Christi”) — “Sheep are the best business here, better than cattle. Mrs. Chapman (her friend and the widow of the late W.W. Chapman) has grown rich by keeping sheep, going halves with somebody.”

By the end of the 1850s, quality wool was shipped from Corpus Christi to world markets. When the Civil War began in 1861, the Confederacy bought Texas wool to make uniforms for Confederate soldiers. When Texas ports were bottled up by the blockade, wool was moved down the Cotton Road to ships waiting at Baghdad.

Word spread that South Texas was sheep country; sheepherders came here from all over to make their fortunes by tending sheep on shares. John Buckley came to Duval County from Ontario, Canada, to raise sheep. He became the patriarch of the William F. Buckley family. Oscar Edgerly came here from New York to tend sheep for William Headen, one of Corpus Christi’s wealthy wool merchants.

Edgerly recorded the routines of a sheepherder in his diary. He stayed busy moving the sheep and setting up new camps. When the sheep ate all the grass near watering places, they were driven out in search of greener pastures, then brought back for water. He once moved the flock to San Fernando Creek and Richard King rode up and told him to move. Oscar moved up the creek; King told him to move again.

“As I thought I was not on his lands, I did not move,” Edgerly wrote. “I stayed there until the grass gave out, then took them up on the Aqua Dulce.”

Edgerly’s daily tasks were taking the sheep to water or grass, cooking meals, watching for coyotes and other predators. It was said that sheep, unlike cattle, had to be “lived with.”

It was a lonely life. Robert Adams went to work when he was 16 in 1863 tending sheep near Casa Blanca. He wrote that — “I never saw a house for a year, and was not inside a house for over two years. I did most of my own cooking for f our years, and had nothing to eat but meat. I had no bread and didn’t know what a vegetable looked like. I didn’t see people sometimes for two or three months.”

After the war, there were 1.2 million sheep in Nueces County. It had more “fleecies” than any other county in the country. Tax rolls for Laredo’s Webb County in 1878 recorded that that county had 8,000 cattle and 239,000 sheep, so many sheep that one cowman said he was afraid to ride through the place wearing a wool shirt.

In shearing season (April-June and August-September), big two-wheeled ox-carts loaded with bags of wool came to Corpus Christi to sell to the wool merchants on Chaparral. Sheepmen came all the way from Mexico to sell their wool here.

Chaparral would be crowded with ox-carts at the wool-buying emporiums: David Hirsch, Ed Buckley, Perry Doddrige, William Headen, John Woessner, and Uriah Lott, before he began building railroads.

Norwick Gussett, the town’s richest wool merchant, was a former muleskinner in the Mexican War. In 1873, he purchased three million pounds of wool. Gussett’s store, topped with a rooster weathervane, was called “la tienda del gallo.” Doddridge’s place had the symbol of a ram, hence “la tienda del borrego.”

The Weekly Democratic Statesman in Austin reported on May 24, 1877 — “Corpus Christi is controlling a large wool trade. It is thought that four to five million pounds will be handled this year.”

Sheepmen returning to Mexico after selling their wool clip in Corpus Christi carried back merchandise for sell, so they made a profit coming and going.

These returning sheepmen were often targeted by bandits. One strategem of the sheepmen, it was said, was to drill holes in the wooden axles of their ox-carts. The holes were packed with silver dollars, then sealed with wooden pegs.

Three things happening almost at the same time brought the colorful and lucrative sheep era to an end. A parasite decimated the flocks. In 1884, Grover Cleveland was elected president and he lowered the tariff on cheap Australian wool, a devastating blow to Texas sheepmen. The other was the end of the open range; sheepmen needed free grass and when cattle ranchers began to fence their pastures, the days of the sheepmen were numbered. The convergence of all three factors brought the sheep era to a close. Sheepmen became cattlemen almost overnight.

In an ironic postscript, during World War II Corpus Christi, this once-great wool market, received millions of pounds of Australian wool, stored here for the duration of the war. Perhaps there was an old sheepman still alive who remembered how the cheap Australian wool imports had don e so much to bring the sheep and wool era to an end in South Texas.

     
 A Link to the Past—Historian Harbert Davenport

                                                           Norman Rozeff                                          

                                                              © June 2009

He was born at the right time and in the right state, and was therefore perfectly situated to record the history of Texas pioneers and much more.  Of course, there was one other element necessary. Was he interested and capable of doing so? He was and, if you excuse the pun, the rest is history.

Harbert Davenport was born in Eastland, Texas on October 19, 1882. Olney, Texas in 1904 saw his marriage to Elizabeth Pettit, a Missouri native. They were to have two sons, Harbert Jr. and Wortham. They moved several times before, in 1908, Harbert received his LL.B from the University of Texas. After practicing in Anahuac, the family took up permanent residency in Brownsville in the year 1912. Here Harbert became a law associate of Judge James B. Wells, Jr. Wells, of course, was the county's most famous and accomplished attorney and the longtime " political boss" of Cameron County too.

Davenport was an early Woodrow Wilson supporter and knew something of Valley politics because he had written "a detailed account of the Independent party's resort to election fraud in the 1912 Brownsville election, their misuse of the city police force and their effort to gerrymander the election precincts of Cameron County."

In 1915 the infamous Plan of San Diego had become common knowledge in the Valley. While viewing a dance Pablo Falcon, a deputy constable working for the Brownsville government, was shot and killed. Davenport later characterized it as "the raiders' first victim." Harbert prided himself on his close connections with the Tejanos in Brownsville and rural Cameron County. He later wrote to his sometime law partner, J.T. Canales, that had Falcon not been murdered he "would have undoubtedly warned me of the trouble brought about by the Plan of San Diego." When the Pizana Ranch attack by authorities took place in August 1915 they, in a justification effort, tried to portray it as a major skirmish however a critical Davenport claimed the incident didn't even deserve the term "fight'. Davenport was more grounded in the realities of the situation. He would later record: "During these troubles, one good citizen—a lawyer who held high places in the judiciary of Texas—suggested to me that we ought to compel all Mexicans resident on the Border to go across the river until the troubles were over, and then go out and shoot all that were left. The mere fact that a larger proportion of those he proposed to exile were born here and were the children of parents who were born here, and that they would be no safer on the Mexican side of the river than he or any member of his family, simply did not register."

In World War I  he had served as a second lieutenant in the army air corps. Upon his return he set up his own law practice. A thorough researcher and investigator he became "recognized as an authority on southwestern land and water law and on Spanish and Mexican law as applied to Texas." He had already commenced documenting history with his "History of the Supreme Court of Texas" in 1917. Unlike his former associate Wells, Harbert was not one to become engaged in seeking  political power.

In 1918 he authored (with Jim Wells) the first of numerous articles he would submit to the Southwestern Historical Quarterly. It was titled The First Europeans in Texas 1528-1536. During 1923 he went on to edit the SWJ article on the expedition of Panfilo de Narvaez.

This journal is published by the Texas State Historical Association. Davenport was to become a fellow of the association in 1929 and serve as its president 1939-42. With his scholarly background he was a natural to serve as a Brownsville School Board member 1924-32.

In the 1920s Davenport operated a satellite office in Harlingen together with J.T. Canales. It was on the second floor of the Water District office, Jackson at Commerce. In the decade to follow he used his legal skills to represent the Good Government League of Hidalgo County in an effort to break the boss rule in that county. Who better then to write about a political power, this time in Cameron County? Davenport did so in 1933 with his "The Life of James B. Wells." In 1950 he would add to the subject with an oral history interview.

When in 1949 he composed "Notes on Early Steam-boating on the Rio Grande" for the SWQ he was the first to detail this neglected subject.

This same decade saw him conduct in-depth research on Fannin's command and the men of Goliad, the 1836 campaign there, and the massacre. He was later honored by being asked to present the address at the dedication of the Texas War of Independence monument at La Bahia, Goliad.

After the age of 60 Davenport seems to have found the time and energy to increase his history work. Together with his associate J.T. Canales, Davenport, concerned about retaining the important water rights of the Valley, generated in 1949 "The Texas Law of Flowing Water with Special Reference to Irrigation from the Lower Rio Grande." He followed this up in 1953 with "Development of the Texas Laws of Water."

Other contributions made by Davenport include these articles: Angel of Goliad (Panchita Alavez); Santa Anna; Prisoner of Mata—The Ladies Lojero; Conference on the Revolution of Mexico 1810-1943; General Jose Maria Jesus Carabajal; and Analysis of Porciones 80 and 81. In researching his classic book The King Ranch, Tom Lea used Davenport as a confirmation and clarification source.

For many years Harbert contributed to civic organizations of the area and as a veteran was active in the American Legion. After a long and productive life Harbert Davenport died at age 74 on February 23, 1957. He is buried in the Buena Vista Cemetery, Brownsville. His wife Elizabeth also had taken up history causes and made contributions to the Brownsville community. She was to die in 1965 at age 82 and be buried alongside her husband.

The Valley was fortunate to have both contribute much to preserving and explaining our heritage.

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