OCTOBER 2014

Editor: Mimi Lozano ©2000-2014
  Index   Table of Contents

http://almaawards.com 

Orange County, CA
Los Angeles Co, CA
California
Southwestern US
Texas

East Coast
African-American
Indigenous
Sephardic
Archaeology

Mexico
Puerto Rico, & Cuba
Central & South America
Philippines
Spain
International

Letters to the Editor

Mimi!  Thank you for the placement of Dorothy Perez' article into your excellent magazine.  I stayed up all night just reading and enjoying it.

Henry A. Garcia Jr.
CIDA member
LosBexarenos Treasurer

Mimi,

As usual I enjoyed your Sept. Issue of Somos Primos!  I just have one comment.  I read that folks are trying-some have succeeded- in getting Hispanic courses in their curriculum.  I want to remind folks that my sister Mary Helen Bonilla-Berlanga led the fight when she served on the Texas States Board of Education.  She was elected in 1982 and served for 30 years.  During her tenure she addressed the need for books to include Hispanics; all the publishing companies tried to work on this issue.  I also addressed the board and told them that too many times Mexican-students were made to feel that the famous battle at the Alamo was between Mexican-Americans and Anglos.  Us against them.  Wrong.  It was an issue dealing with Mexico's laws and requirements.  The books left out the fact that there were also Hispanc Tejanos fighting for Texas independence  in 1836.  Some companies remedied the situation by including that fact.

Thanks for listening,  Esther Bonilla Read
6ebonr@sbcglobal.net  

Good morning, thank you in advance for your attention, I am a Mexican student which is gathering further information about the topics and issues published on your website, I would really love to have a subscription. As a social researcher  my goal is to enhance the results of my job. I found your pages a very helpful tool.  

Sincerely, Edgar Barron
barucles@gmail.com  Escuela Escuela Nacional de Antropología e Historia. 

 

P.O. 415
Midway City, CA 
92655-0490
mimilozano@aol.com
www.SomosPrimos.com 
714-894-8161

National Latino Museum Taking Shape by David Hood
Sept 7, 2014 Orange County Register

WASHINGTON – For most of his life, Stuart Ashman was told art was something for America’s wealthiest to create, appreciate, invest in – not for Latinos. Perhaps it’s stunning that he hears the same sentiments today from visitors to the Museum of Latin American +Art in downtown Long Beach –where Ashman is president. Ashman grew up in Cuba and moved to New York when he was 12.  

“It’s about time,” said acclaimed Latino American author Victor Villaseñor in an interview with the Register. “A museum of Latinos would mezclar (integrate) the understanding that there’s only one race: the human race,” he said. “It would bring understanding to who we humans are, and to have that in Washington, D.C., would be wonderful,” said the three-time Pulitzer prize nominee.  

Deep-pocketed supporters, such as Coca-Cola, Exxon-Mobil and Pacific Gas and Electric Co., already are on board to help fund the National Museum of the American Latino, expected to cost upward of $600 million.  Still, the project has a way to go before it becomes reality.

Personal impact: It literally takes an act of Congress to establish another museum on the Mall, alongside famous sites like the National Air and Space Museum, National Gallery, National Museum of Natural History and National Museum of American History.  Organizers say the museum would show the impact of Latino culture on American life throughout U.S. history, with exhibitions of fine art, artifacts, documents and oral histories

Rep. Xavier Becerra, D-Los Angeles, has made it his mission to make the dream shared by Ashman and other Latinos come to life. “While there hasn’t been as much movement on the legislative front as we would like, there’s been a lot of external support for it,” Becerra said. “The desire, the yearning for this museum is out there – it’s strong, and I think it’ll be more powerful once people see there’s an actual legislative push behind this.”

Becerra reintroduced a bill in March 2013 that would designate an existing building on the Mall as the location and would authorize the Smithsonian to develop a specific plan for the museum. He said that a museum for Latino Americans would help them feel at home in America, and less like outsiders. “For Latinos, the notion of a Latino museum gives us the sense that our contributions over the centuries, our contributions to science, to culture, to the history of this country, will be celebrated,” said Becerra. “It’s very personal for people who feel like there have been times where this country has failed to recognize (them).”

Organizers propose a 50-50 funding split between public and private sources, as has been done in other cases. But Congress so far has balked at funding. That’s one reason the current bill says nothing about appropriations but only secures a location on the National Mall. It also allows the Smithsonian Institution to start raising private funds. A Sept. 18 hearing will explore finances and other aspects of launching the museum. Becerra and others involved in the effort are scheduled to testify. Becerra is expected to be questioned about costs and use of public funding.

Road to Washington: Like most new Smithsonian museums, the National Museum of the American Latino has been a long time in the works.  A commission to explore the potential for creating the museum was created by Congress in 2008, and $3 million was appropriated to conduct a nationwide study. The commission included 23 prominent members of the Latino community appointed by President George W. Bush and congressional leaders.

Commission members traveled the country, talking to leaders like Ashman, then cabinet secretary for the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs, to assess interest and gather suggestions.  Ultimately, the commission produced a detailed proposal in 2011, recommending two locations, both on the National Mall. Those sites have been narrowed to one in Becerra’s bill – the historic Smithsonian Arts and Industries Building, next to the famed, red sandstone Smithsonian Castle.

“This legislation is important because it furthers the conversation about the museum,” said Estuardo Rodriguez, executive director of the Friends of the National Museum of the American Latino, the nonprofit organization overseeing the outreach campaign.

Rodriguez has been building support. The board membership roster reads like a Who’s Who of corporate America: Facebook, Hilton Worldwide, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., JP Morgan Chase, Univision and Time Warner Cable. The board also has representatives from chambers of commerce and interest groups like the League of United Latin American Citizens and AARP. Supporters are ready to donate an estimated $300 million once the bill passes, Rodriguez said.

The National Museum of African American History and Culture took about 15 years to complete and is expected to open in two years in Washington, D.C. It will cost $540 million to fully open, with funding evenly split between private donors and congressional appropriations, according to the Smithsonian Institution.

What will the museum be like?
Writer Villaseñor believes that “a Latino museum needs to have bright, happy colors ... it needs to be full of ‘carcajadas,’ a deep belly-laughter that heals the body, gets you beyond depression, that gets you beyond hunger pains ... A (Latino) museum needs to have music, dance, bright colors and laughter – celebrating life even in the midst of chaos.”

Paintings, artifacts, documents and various other objects will be displayed. Exhibit pieces will be secured through private gifts, public loans and collaborations with other museums like the Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach. There are about 56 American Latino cultural museums or sites around the country.  “We would be happy to lend collection pieces for exhibits or whatever else they need,” Ashman said. “In that respect, we can support by lending, by helping curate exhibitions.”

Legislative support
The House bill has 15 co-sponsors, eight of them Republicans, including Californian Jeff Denham. Democratic co-sponsors from California include Reps. Judy Chu and Lucille Roybal-Allard. Still, Republicans control the House, and the more of them Becerra can get on board, the more likely the bill will come to the floor for a vote.

The Senate’s identical bill has 14 co-sponsors, among them key legislators like Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, and Republican Minority Whip John Cornyn from Texas. California Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer are co-sponsors. Both bills are in committee.

The approval process stalled in 2011 after the congressional commission released its report because half of the estimated $600 million was to come from public sources. The country was technically in recovery from the Great Recession, but budget dollars were tight and other priorities crowded out any discussion of a new museum. And the Latino community at the time had other public-policy priorities, too, like immigration reform, jobs and the economy, that took precedence over a proposed museum, Rodriguez said.

“But we still have the window now,” said Rodriguez, who is confident that Congress will send a bill to President Barack Obama’s desk by the end of the year, despite a midterm election in less than 65 days and a new session starting in January.

Contingency plans 
If Becerra’s bill, which would designate the building and authorize private fundraising, fails to reach the president’s desk by the end of the year, Rodriguez said, he may pursue a temporary exhibit in the Arts and Industries Building.

“There is a possibility of getting into that building and creating a temporary or small gallery,” said Rodriguez, noting the building is being renovated. “That’s something else we’re looking at ... using a part of the building to showcase what may go inside as a way to get our foot in the door and go beyond just a designation as we wait for legislation.”

About $10 million to $20 million would be needed to start and run the temporary exhibit, which likely would be focused on works of art.  In any case, the overall prospects of the museum are looking up, said Ashman.

“From a very simple perspective, it empowers communities to (pursue) artistic endeavors,” Ashman said. “The greatest justification is to encourage those ethnic communities to participate in the arts.”

Contact the writer: dhood@ocregister.com;or @DavidAHood14

Explore the status and history of the National Museum of the American Latino: http://americanlatinomuseum.org/ 

Latino Americans Wins 2014 Imagen Award  
Corpus Christi Caller Times 

Filmmaker-turned-author again takes up Longoria Affair, Hector P. Garcia legacy

CORPUS CHRISTI - Filmmaker John Valadez was having breakfast in Corpus Christi with Three Rivers native Santiago Hernandez when he heard the news about the old funeral home.

The men met when Valadez made a documentary on the Longoria Affair , a fight led by the American GI Forum for a Hispanic World War II widow’s use of the funeral home for her husband, Felix.

The resulting political struggle, which played out in the late 1940s with Hector P. Garcia leading the forum and Lyndon B. Johnson lending support from the U.S. Senate, was one of the earliest chapters of the Mexican-American civil rights movement.

Hernandez was a central figure in the 2010 film, and he told Valadez that morning that the funeral home had a new owner who was planning to tear it down. “I immediately hopped in my car, and I drove straight to Three Rivers,” Valadez said, “and when I got there, the whole thing was gone. It was just an empty lot. I just got this terrible sense of loss.”   That was in early August, near the end of his residency at Texas State University. 

LATINO AMERICANS WINS 2014 IMAGEN AWARD!PBS TAKES HOME TOP HONOR
Friday, August 1, 2014

BEVERLY HILLS, California - Winners of the 29th Annual Imagen (Spanish for “image”) Awards, honoring positive portrayals of Latinos and Latino culture in entertainment, were announced last night at a star-studded dinner ceremony held in the International Ballroom of the Beverly Hilton Hotel. Norman Lear was on hand to hand out awards in front of an audience of six hundred attendees representing the entertainment industry and the Latino community.

The landmark PBS series LATINO AMERICANS was the centerpiece of the evening, edging out Operah Winfrey for the national broadcast award. Pictured above are: Associate Producer Monica Navarro, Director John J. Valadez, Executive Director of Latino Public Broadcasting Sandie Viquez-Pedlow, Director Nina Alverez and Director Ray Telles.

The series - which also took home broadcasts' highest honor: a George Foster Peabody Award this year - represents an important milestone for the country. While American television has been broadcasting for over 70 years, it was not until Latino Americans aired in the fall of 2013, that a nationally broadcast series that the epic 500 year story of Latinos in America was told before a primetime audience. The series also brought in the largest Latino viewing audience in Public Television history.

Valadez is including the demolition of the Three Rivers funeral home in the companion book to his Emmy-nominated film, “The Longoria Affair.”

Valadez said the book is a visual history of the Mexican-American civil rights struggle with the film’s narrative as a guide, but it also includes parts that had to be left on the cutting room floor.

Jesús F. de la Teja, director of the Texas State University Center for the Study of the Southwest, said he invited Valadez to be the first artist in residence after the two met at a campus panel. The aim of the program is to host people doing innovate work.

Valadez’s film was ground-breaking as the first nationally broadcast documentary focusing on Mexican-American civil rights issues in Texas, de la Teja said. National Hispanic Heritage Month starts Monday, and Dr. Hector P. Garcia Day in Texas is Wednesday.

“What John’s doing is ... targeting the broader, general audience on a story that needs to be told,” he said. “I really firmly believe if this book gets done right ... Felix Longoria and the South Texas connection to the national Mexican-American civil rights movement will be understood.”

Garcia was a doctor and veteran who started the forum in 1948 in Corpus Christi to fight for equal treatment of Mexican-American veterans. However important to the civil rights landscape, the Longoria Affair and Garcia remain the lesser known of players in the movement.

“I think the powers that be in Texas for a long time were able to keep the story from being celebrated, but times are changing, and particularly Mexican-Americans in Texas are gathering the clout,” de la Teja said, adding it’s something that crosses party lines. “And I think it’s important for young people, lest they forget their parents and their grandparents suffered, and to remember that not all the problems have been solved.”

While Valadez is well-versed on the events surrounding the Longoria Affair now, he had never heard of Garcia when another filmmaker offered him the project. His initial reaction was less than enthusiastic.

“This sounds like the most boring film I’ve ever heard of. My eyes immediately glaze over and I think, ‘You want me to make a film about this?’” he recalled.

That changed as he delved into the research and made connections in Three Rivers.

“It’s about how this one incident that had probably happened a million times in Texas. It probably happened every day,” he said, “but this one time in this one little town that no one ever heard of, it set off a chain of events, and it would eventually lead all the way to the White House. It would eventually change the face of the nation. And that’s a good story.”

The story also revolves around the complex relationship between Garcia and Johnson.

Johnson’s time as a young teacher in segregated Cotulla made him sympathetic to the civil rights struggle, Valadez said, but those who elected him to office supported segregation. It made for a complicated dance.

“The dance is Garcia will approach Johnson for favors, and Johnson will give Garcia favors as long as they’re not well-publicized,” Valadez said. “What Johnson gets is Garcia organizes Mexican-Americans to deliver votes.”

That became precious to Johnson as John F. Kennedy looked to him to turnout Hispanics during their 1960 run for the White House. Aside from their political relationship, Valadez said Garcia and Johnson became friends. The film ends with Johnson signing the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

With Valadez as the guinea pig, de la Teja said he has more plans for future artists-in-residence hosted at the university, though the program is searching for funding to continue. Valadez is looking for a publisher and hopes to develop a low-cost digital version of the book for teachers.

“It shouldn’t be an indictment of anyone or anything, but instead it should show how far we’ve come.  It should show us something about the ability of human spirit to overcome adversity and make our country a better place,” he said.

Sent by John Valadez 
John@valadezmedia.com 

FACTORS LEADING TO DISUNITY AMONG HISPANIC/LATINOS
by Mimi Lozano
September 3, 2001

Please note the date that this summary was posted on the Somos Primos homepage, September 3, 2001,  a week before 9/11.  The timing of the Muslim terrorist attack greatly sideswiped the movement in Congress to approve an initiative to investigate the possibility of a Museum in Washington, D.C. which would be dedicated to the history of the Spanish presence in the United States.  

I was serving on a national committee which met in El Paso on numerous occasions to discuss the possibility of  a a national museum for Hispanic/Latino history and culture being located in El Paso.  I was at the airport on 9/11, on route to a El Paso for a conference.  The committee was totally closed down.  I believe only one meeting was scheduled after 9/11 and that was to be in Washington, D.C. .  I did not attend.  

Let us hope that the illegal immigration issues and the broad world-wide terrorist activities do not effect moving forward on the concept of a National Latino Museum.  Now, more than ever, understanding the historic presence of the Spanish-language-heritage is greatly needed.  It can and will strengthen and unify the 17% minority that we now are, and growing demographically  . . . . .  daily. 

(4) Many Hispanics/Latinos in the United States are multi-national (with heritage in other countries). Whether for political or economic reasons, continual waves of migrations have brought and continue to bring Spanish-speaking individuals from all over the world into the U.S..  The history and traditions of their own mother country, separating and fragmenting the Spanish speaking Latinos in the United States. 

(5) In addition, individuals and groups have entered into the United States, from all over the world, with a great variation in education and economic levels.

[We are now, 17%, the largest minority.]

Early founders of the United States, and subsequent leadership, historically have attempted to limit the Southern European influence in the continental United States. In spite of that effort, Hispanics/ Latinos soon will soon be the majority in the United States, the result of the aforementioned five factors . Demographic predictions estimate that by year of 2050 half of the population in the United States  will have some Hispanic/Latino heritage.   

The lack of historical understanding among Hispanics/ Latinos has led to social and political divisions among Spanish- language heritage groups, who see themselves as different instead of looking for the common threads of their shared past.

Unfortunately, there is a lack of positive visibility of Hispanics/ Latinos in the United States. This is exacerbated by the continual flow of illegal immigration. The general public does not grasp the significance of the broad base of middle class Latinos with ancient roots in the United States.

Hispanic Heritage -  by Stephen Balkaran
Instructor in the Department of Philosophy & Political Science at Quinnipiac University. 
Published in the Huffington Post 
Setember 22, 2014

Recent debates surround the "Browning of America" -- the continuous reshaping of America and its Hispanic influence. Yet many of us fail to grapple that America has always been Hispanic. In fact, according to the 2011 Census Bureau, one out of every six people in the United States is Hispanic. In 2010, the New York Times reported for the first time in our country's rich history that we had more brown and black children being born than white, yet despite this astonishing information, many Americans are confused as to who Hispanics really are.

For many of us, Hispanics are envisioned as migrant workers, cheap laborers with leaf blowers, non-English-speaking individuals or any number of media driven portrayals (and of course there are Cesar Chavez, Jennifer Lopez and Ricky Martin). The blending of various Hispanics' identities, cultures, traditions and lifestyles makes America culturally Hispanic without many of us even realizing it.

What mainstream Americans have failed to realize is that Hispanics have played and will continue to play a crucial role in our nation. Hispanics have contributed to every avenue of

 American life since the inception of this country. Hispanics' origins have played a key role in our country's socio-economic, political, and cultural development that many argue: What would America would be like without the presence of Hispanics and their influence?

Hispanic culture can be traced in the United States for over 500 years when California, Mexican states, Florida and the Southwest were discovered by Spanish explorers. Many of us are unaware that Hispanic culture had firm roots in St. Augustine, Florida and what is now New Mexico before the English arrived at Jamestown in 1607 or before the Pilgrims dropped anchor in Massachusetts Bay in 1621. Hispanic culture and political development flourished well before the Founding Fathers envisioned the idea of securing their independence from Britain in 1776. Not only did Hispanic culture help shape and define America's early political development, but they have also played an important role in helping to secure the birth of the new republic: AMERICA.

During the American Revolutionary War, Bernardo de Galvez, governor of the Louisiana Territory, sent gunpowder, rifles, bullets, blankets, medicine and other supplies to the armies of General George Washington in support of America's cause. Once the war began, Galvez, along with support and reinforcements from Spain's Cuba, Mexico and Puerto Rico.

What would our country's political history be without Hispanics? What would Manifest Destiny and America's expansion be without the role of Hispanics and the carving of America's great Western frontier? The Hispanic presence in the election of President James Polk in 1844 and his future policy of annexation of Texas, the stolen land, the creation of the artificial border, the Alamo, the great Southwest, and the Compromise of 1850 all help define our American history. What would America be like without the importance of The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ended the Mexican War, where the United States gained not only Texas, New Mexico and Upper California, making way for the vast expansion of American land, but also a cultural history like no other? 

The Spanish-American war not only changed America, but announced America as a world power. Our influence in Latin America and our political games with the region not only created an illusion of a fake and misleading democracy, but more so created more enemies. "Imperialism" became the new name for "colonialism." Our political foreign policy during pre- and post-Fidel Castro's Cuba helped define our Cold War foreign policy with Latin America and the rest of the world. It also played an important role in defining what it meant to be an "American."

What would our history be without the struggle for Civil Rights, equality, and guaranteed rights under the constitution of the United States? Very few understand the importance of Mendez v. Westminster
  in 1947, which the US Courts of Appeals ruled that segregation of Mexican American children from the public schools system in California was unconstitutional and violated the 14th Amendment, it paved the for the Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954.  

What would our first African American president campaign slogan "Yes We Can" be like without the Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta who coined the term "Sí, se puede" in the 1972 during the farm workers strike? Without the Hispanic struggle for economic equality, the term may not have had any importance.

From the Cuban rhythms in South Florida to the Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Peruvians, Central Americans, Bolivians, Colombians and other cultural influences in New York City, 
Chicago and Boston to the Mexican culture found in the great

Our Goya food brand which has now become an integral part of American food culture, from its humble beginnings in lower Manhattan, New York, to every major city in the world. It announced the Hispanic presence in our homes and communities despite our ethnic background. What would the ever changing American music be without the influence of Hispanics? From Jose Feliciano reminding us of "Feliz Navidad" to Celia Cruz, Carlos Santana defining much of the '60s and '70s to ever present Hispanic musical trend that embraces the great Southwest, West Coast, Midwest to the East Coast that continues to define who we are as Americans.

America must make the first move to acknowledge and respect the contributions of Hispanics in every aspect of our society. Hispanics are fast becoming the new foundation of our country's economic, political and social-cultural power and based on their promise, no other immigrant group in the history of our great nation has this potential.

Stephen Balkaran is an Instructor in the Department of Philosophy & Political Science at Quinnipiac University.  Follow Stephen Balkaran on Twitter: www.twitter.com/steve_balkaran

Sent by Daisy Wanda Garcia 
wanda.garcia@sbcglobal.net 

Clinics for medical, societal well-being
by Daisy Wanda Garcia

According to John Valadez, PBS documentary producer, the Bright Street medical clinic is one of the most important sites of historical significance in Texas for the civil rights movement and must be preserved. The first clinic, though, also is still standing.

Daisy Wanda Garcia of Austin is a daughter of civil rights pioneer Dr. Hector P. Garcia. Email her at wanda.garcia@sbcglobal.net.

I must thank you for your kind words about my dear Uncle George Borrego and his work with your awesome father! I recall as a child picking up my uncle from work a couple of times from Thrifty Drugs. Uncle George admired your father greatly! As a young pharmacist from The University of Texas, he looked to your father as a mentor. Uncle George is living in Colorado, but my cousins have shared your column with him and his family. Thank you for including him in a historic era which has always been a priority in his life! He began a G.I. Forum Chapter in Colorado and is now in his eighties! In fact, we are expecting a family visit from him this month.

Sincerely,  M. Barrera

your information many PBS stations may be showing the programs shown below during National Hispanic Heritage Month.  Check with you local PBS broadcast stations in your geographic area for the correct dates and times where you live.

LATINO AMERICANS  | WAR AND PEACE
Trace the World War II years and those that follow, as Latino Americans serve their new country by the hundreds of thousands - yet still face discrimination and a fight for civil rights in the United States.

LATINO AMERICANS | THE NEW LATINOS
Review the decades after World War II through the early 1960s, as swelling numbers of immigrants from Puerto Rico, Cuba and the Dominican Republic seek economic opportunities.

LATINO AMERICANS | PRIDE AND PREJUDICE
Witness the creation of the proud "Chicano" identity as labor leaders organize farm workers in California, and as activists push for better education opportunities for Latinos, the inclusion of Latino studies and empowerment in the political process.

LATINO AMERICANS |  PERIL AND PROMISE
Examine the past 30 years, as a second wave of Cubans and hundreds of thousands Salvadorans, Nicaraguans and Guatemalans flee to the U.S., creating a debate over undocumented immigrants that leads to calls for tightened borders, English-only laws and efforts to brand the undocumented as a drain on public resources. Simultaneously, the Latino influence is booming in business, sports, media, politics and entertainment.

REBEL | VOCES SPECIAL PRESENTATION
REBEL is the story of Loreta Velazquez, Confederate soldier turned Union spy. She was dismissed as a hoax for a hundred and fifty years, but new evidence shows Loreta, a Cuban immigrant from New Orleans, was one of estimated 1000 secret women soldiers of the American Civil War

INDEPENDENT LENS | LAS MARTHAS
The annual debutante ball in Laredo, Texas is unlike any other in the country -- its 94 percent Latino debutantes and their attendants all dress as Martha Washington or other patriotic figures from America's colonial period.  

Join LARED-L, the fastest growing Latino/Hispanic Listserv Network in the country. It's Free and Easy to join.  (( La Voz del Pueblo))  http://listserv.cyberlatina.net/SCRIPTS/WA-CYBERL.EXE?SUBED1=lared-l&A=1  
"LaRed Latina" WWW site:   http://www.lared-latina.com  Discussion Group: http//www.lared-latina.com/subs.html 
Roberto Vazquez    admin@lared-latina.com   President, CEO   http://www.lared-latina.com/bio.html  
Sent by Juan Marinez  marinezj@msu.edu

LULAC Kicks Off Hispanic Heritage Month with Second Annual Federal Training Institute Partnership in Washington, D.C.  September 16, 2014  

Washington, D.C. — The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), the country’s largest and oldest Latino civil rights organization, is proud to make available a series of workshops and seminars free to Federal government employees. These critical resources will focus on enhancing leadership skills and developing Executive Core Qualifications which are a requirement for leadership positions and entry into the Senior Executive Service within the Federal government.

The Federal Training Institute Partnership (FTIP), a non-profit partnership between Federal agencies and LULAC, is focused on promoting diversity and inclusion in the Federal workforce. The FTIP is an extension of LULAC’s Federal Training Institute (FTI) which has been an integral component of LULAC for the past 40 years. This year the FTIP will be hosted by Secretary of Labor Thomas E. Perez at the Department of Labor and it is being offered to Federal employees from September 16 through September 17, 2014. In addition, Director of the Office of Personnel Management, Katherine Archuleta, will be providing keynote remarks at the opening session. Director Archuleta has dedicated herself to being a champion of a diverse, engaged and inclusive Federal workforce.

“El Diezyseis and El Cinco
 in Texas History”
September 16, 2014

By José Antonio López
jlopez8182@satx.rr.com  

Padre Miguel Hidalgo,
 Father of Mexico.

SAN ANTONIO, September 16 - Two particular Mexican patriotic days are really popular in Texas. They are September the Sixteenth (El diezyseis) and May 5th (El Cinco de Mayo).

Of the two, El Cinco de Mayo seems to enjoy more recognition. Why is that? It may be because capitalist Madison Avenue has long known its “sky’s the limit” market value. It’s already an integral part of U.S. corporations’ mega-million dollar TV   and multi-media advertising blitz from  coast to coast.

 independence in the name of Father Hidalgo in 1811. Likewise, José Bernardo Gutiérrez de Lara, native of Revilla, Nuevo Santander (now Guerrero, Tamaulipas) mobilized Mexico’s Army of the North to seek independence for Texas. After defeating the Spanish Army in five battles, he accomplished that feat on April 1-2, 1813.

As to “El Cinco de Mayo,” contrary to popular opinion, it’s not an independence day in Mexico. Actually, this date recalls the Mexican Army’s victory over the French Army at the Battle of Puebla, May 5, 1862. 

The 1850s were a period of great turmoil in Mexico. Much blood was shed in the violent struggle between the federalist faction and conservatives supporting a monarchy. Eventually, the federalist army defeated the conservatives and Benito Juárez was elected as president. However, amid all the chaos of trying to set up a new government, Juárez faced an overwhelming problem. Short of cash flow and unable to repay bankers in Europe, Mexico became the stage for an invasion from France in 1861. To lay claim to Mexico, Napoleon III installed Austrian Prince Maximilian Ferdinand as Maximilian I, Emperor of Mexico. His plans were to set up a European style kingdom in order to exploit Mexico’s vast natural resources and enhance French trade. 

To face his European enemy, President Benito Juárez named 33 year-old General Ignacio Zaragoza Seguín as commander of the Mexican Army. General Zaragoza was born in La Bahia (now Goliad), Texas and was a member of the patriot Seguín family. So, although Texas was already part of the U.S., it had been so for only a short fourteen years. As such, most native-born Texans of the day still had close family members living in Mexico; fathers, mothers, daughters, sons, brothers, sisters, etc. Thatis the main reason that many Tejanos volunteered to go help their relatives in their time of need.

Even though outnumbered, General Zaragoza was able to take advantage of the French commanding general’s several tactical blunders. In the end, the army of French Emperor Maximilian I was defeated at the Battle of Puebla. In reporting his triumph, General Zaragoza’s dignified and selfless message to Benito Juárez read simply “Las fuerzas nacionales están cubiertas de gloria” (The national arms are now covered in glory).  

Sadly, General Zaragoza was struck down with typhoid fever shortly after his victory and he died September 8, 1862. He is buried in Panteón San Fernando in Mexico City. In addition to the highest honors that Mexico has bestowed on him he is also honored in Texas. For example, the home where he was born is preserved in Goliad on La Bahia Presidio grounds. Also, San Antonio, Laredo and many other communities honor General Zaragoza with statues, monuments, and historical markers. The tributes are earned, since the hero of Mexico is Texas-born. Thus, observing the Mexican patriotic events of “El diezyseis de Septiembre” and “El Cinco de Mayo” only demonstrates the direct connection between Texas and Mexico.

Clearly understanding that link benefits all. Firstly, Mexican-descent Texans must be proud of the fact that it’s okay to have close family ties with Mexico and to speak Spanish. The projected re-browning of the U.S. is not due to recent immigration. Rather, their genealogical Native American roots have been here all along. 

José “Joe” Antonio López was born and raised in Laredo, Texas, and is a USAF Veteran. He now lives in Universal City, Texas. He is the author of three books: “The Last Knight (Don Bernardo Gutierrez de Lara Uribe, A Texas Hero),” “Nights of Wailing, Days of Pain (Life in 1920s South Texas).” and, “The First Texas Independence, 1813”.  Lopez is also the founder of the Tejano Learning Center, LLC, and www.tejanosunidos.org , a Web site dedicated to Spanish Mexican people and events in U.S. history that are mostly overlooked in mainstream history books.

September 11, 2001 marks one of the darkest days in American history.
John Vinson and his Flags, 9/11 Tribute

September 11, 2001 marks one of the darkest days in American history. 13 years ago today the terrorists declared war on all Americans, and attacked innocent civilians, killing thousands of Americans and people from around the world.

Today, marks one of the darkest days in American history. 13 years ago today the terrorists declared war on all Americans, and attacked innocent civilians, killing thousands of Americans and people from around the world.

People of every race, religion and creed, have been slaughtered by the radical Islamic terrorists of Al Qaeda. All killed in a jihad on America, a war against freedom and liberty.

The memorial put on by John Vinson grows larger each year.  We appreciate the efforts of people like John Vinson, or the countless other patriots around the country who are flying their flags today, supporting our troops.  

If you haven't already figured out how YOU will remind people of what today means, please think now, figure out WHAT YOU CAN DO with the tools God gave you, to remind your fellow Americans that we have been attacked, and we are at war, and we have brave troops that need our support!

Here at Move America Forward we continue our diligent efforts to support our troops with care packages and support from home. If you would like to take part in our small efforts to comfort our brave troops deployed over in Afghanistan, sponsor a care package today.  

All Donations are Tax Deductible
Donations by Check Can be Sent To:
ATTN: Scott Raab
Move America Forward
8795 Folsom Blvd. Suite 103
Sacramento, CA 95826

To sign up a deployed service-member to receive a care package or to request care packages if you are a deployed service-member, visit www.moveamericaforward.org 
or call (916) 441-6197.   

Sent by Yomar Villarreal Cleary

Our American Dream has been  Compromised 
and our Country is Going Backwards by Gilberto Quezada

Sent by Roy Archuleta archroy1953@gmail.com

J. Gilberto Quezada, a native of Laredo, Texas, is an author, historian, and a retired educator. He graduated from St. Augustine High School in 1965, and received a Bachelor's and a Master's degree in Latin American history from St. Mary's University in San Antonio. Later, Quezada earned a Master's degree in Mid-Management from the University of Texas at San Antonio.

He served as president of the San Antonio Historical Association, the second Hispanic to hold the leadership reins of the 74 year old organization. In addition, Quezada also served on the Institute of Texan Cultures Board of Directors, the Higher Education Advisory Board for the City of San Antonio, and on the Executive Council of the Texas State Historical Association. He was an active member of the Texas Oral History Association, Los Bejareños Genealogical Society, and the Bexar County Historical Commission.

Quezada has written several scholarly essays that have appeared in the Journal of South Texas, the East Texas Historical Journal, the Confederate Veteran Magazine, and the Journal of Texas Catholic History and Culture. Furthermore, he has done book reviews for scholarly historical journals from throughout the Southwest.

The reason our American dream has been compromised and our country is going backwards is because of the secularization of our society.  We are lost at sea, we have lost our sense of moral purpose and our moral values, traditions, and consequently, our Judeo-Christian heritage is adrift, anchorless, in a sea of political correctness, relativism, and diversity.  By the way, diversity, to the culture elite, means conformity.  There is no longer a right or a wrong choice, everything is relative, what goes now by moral relativism.  We have lost our moral certitude to fight for what made our country great.

The goal of the secularists is to cut the ties between our Judeo-Christian values and our culture.  The culture wars that you hear very often on Fox News is, in essence, a religious war.  During the Christmas season, many stores prohibit their employees from saying "Merry Christmas."  As you are probably aware, some state legislators and governors call the Christmas tree by its new name, "The Holiday Tree."  In the school district's calendars throughout San Antonio, the state, and the nation, they use the new secular term, "Winter Break," instead of the traditional "Christmas Break."  And as you know by now, the de-Christianization of our public life is almost complete.  Nativity scenes, Christmas carols, Christian books, stories, pageants, are all but vanished from public schools and the public square.  The dethronement of God from American public life was not done democratically, but it was accomplished dictatorially by judicial activism.  

Political correctness is the flip side of secularism.  Saul Bellow once said that "political correctness was free speech without debate."  And taken to an extreme, political correctness denotes a form of intellectual terrorism in which people who express ideas that are offensive to the cultural elite may be punished regardless of the accuracy or relevance of what they saidIn my opinion, a worst evil than the big corporations is the Supreme Court.  If one would study the decisions of the Supreme Court, starting with the Warren Court, it is mainly responsible for using its legal power to reshape American society.  While America remains a predominantly Christian nation, thanks to the Supreme Court, our public institutions and popular culture have been completely de-Christianized.  As a former educator I can tell you that our public schools are no longer operated according to the dictates and wishes of the local community or the taxpayers, but according to the dictates of the federal courts, the Supreme Court, and the ACLU.  It is sad that we the people no longer rule.  We no longer live by majority rule.  Regrettably, we now live under the rule of the minority whose vision of what America ought to be is shared by the majority of the justices in the Supreme Court.  Judicial activism is, and has been, the guiding hand behind secularism and political correctness.

I do not hear the priests, and for that matter from the leadership of the Catholic church, speaking out from the pulpit during their Sunday sermons against secularism or against the de-Christianization of our society, or against what goes on during the Christmas season.  The leadership from top to bottom has been silent during these culture wars, or more aptly, during these religious wars that are impacting our Catholic faith, our Catholic dogma, and our Catholic beliefs.  Maybe Pope Francis I will address these issues and take the leadership reins of the Catholic Church.

Congressional Bipartisan Prayer Caucus

The Constitution prohibits the government from coercing its citizens in their religious beliefs; it does not require that all vestiges of faith be scrubbed from view.

Profile America Facts for Features: Hispanic Heritage Month 2014: Sept. 15-Oct. 15
U.S. Census Bureau [mailto:census@subscriptions.census.gov]  

In September 1968, Congress authorized President Lyndon B. Johnson to proclaim National Hispanic Heritage Week, observed during the week that included Sept. 15 and Sept. 16. Congress expanded the observance in 1989 to a month long celebration (Sept. 15 – Oct. 15) of the culture and traditions of those who trace their roots to Spain, Mexico and the Spanish-speaking nations of Central America, South America and the Caribbean.  

Sept. 15 is the starting point for the celebration because it is the anniversary of independence of five Latin American countries: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. In addition, Mexico and Chile celebrate their independence days on Sept. 16 and Sept. 18, respectively.  

Population: 54 million

The Hispanic population of the United States as of July 1, 2013, making people of Hispanic origin the nation’s largest ethnic or racial minority. Hispanics constituted 17 percent of the nation’s total population. Source: 2013 Population Estimates

http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=PEP_2013_PEPASR6H&prodType=table 

1.1 million: Number of Hispanics added to the nation’s population between July 1, 2012, and July 1, 2013. This number is close to half of the approximately 2.3 million people added to the nation’s population during this period. Source: 2013 Population Estimates, National Characteristics: Population by Sex, Race, and Hispanic origin http://www.census.gov/popest/data/national/asrh/2013/index.html , See first bullet under “Sex, Race, and Hispanic Origin”

2.0%: Percentage increase in the Hispanic population between 2012 and 2013. Source: 2013 Population Estimates, National Characteristics: Population by Sex, Race, and Hispanic origin http://www.census.gov/popest/data/national/asrh/2013/index.html , See first bullet under “Sex, Race, and Hispanic Origin”

128.8 million: The projected Hispanic population of the United States in 2060. According to this projection, the Hispanic population will constitute 31 percent of the nation’s population by that date. Source: Population Projections http://www.census.gov/newsroom/releases/archives/population/cb12-243.html 

2nd Ranking of the size of the U.S. Hispanic population worldwide, as of 2010. Only Mexico (120 million) had a larger Hispanic population than the United States (54 million). Source: International Data Base http://www.census.gov/population/international/data/idb/informationGateway.php 

64%: The percentage of those of Hispanic origin in the United States who were of Mexican background in 2012. Another 9.4 percent were of Puerto Rican background, 3.8 percent Salvadoran, 3.7 percent Cuban, 3.1 percent Dominican and 2.3 percent Guatemalan. The remainder was of some other Central American, South American or other Hispanic/Latino origin. Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2012 American Community Survey: Table B03001 http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=ACS_12_1YR_B03001&prodType=table 

States and Counties

34.4 years: Median age of Hispanics in Florida, the highest of any state in the country. Source: 2013 Population Estimates, State Characteristics: Median Age by Race and Hispanic Origin http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=PEP_2013_PEPASR6H&prodType=table 

10 million: The estimated population for those of Hispanic origin in Texas as of July 1, 2013. Source: 2013 Population Estimates, State Characteristics: Population by Sex, Race, and Hispanic Origin http://www.census.gov/popest/data/national/asrh/2013/index.html 

8: The number of states with a population of 1 million or more Hispanic residents in 2013 — Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, New Jersey, New York and Texas. Source: 2013 Population Estimates, State Characteristics: Population 
by Race and Hispanic Origin http://www.census.gov/popest/data/national/asrh/2013/index.html 

55%: The percentage of all the Hispanic population that lived in California, Florida and Texas as of July 1, 2013. Source: 2013 Population Estimates, State Characteristics: Population by Race and Hispanic Origin http://www.census.gov/popest/data/national/asrh/2013/index.html 

47.3%: The percentage of New Mexico’s population that was Hispanic as of July 1, 2013, the highest of any state. Source: 2013 Population Estimates, State Characteristics: Population by Race and Hispanic Origin http://www.census.gov/popest/data/national/asrh/2013/index.html 

14.7 million: The Hispanic population of California. This is the largest Hispanic population of any state. Source: 2013 Population Estimates http://www.census.gov/newsroom/releases/archives/population/cb13-112.html   

4.8 million: Los Angeles County had the largest Hispanic population of any county in 2013.
Source: 2013 Population Estimates http://www.census.gov/newsroom/releases/archives/population/cb14-118.html 

50,000: Miami-Dade County in Florida had the largest numeric increase of Hispanics from 2012 to 2013. Source: 2013 Population Estimates http://www.census.gov/newsroom/releases/archives/population/cb14-118.html 

22: Number of states in which Hispanics were the largest minority group. These states were Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Massachusetts, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Texas, Utah, Washington and Wyoming. Source: 2013 Population Estimates, PEPSR6H and PEPSR5H http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=PEP_2013_PEPSR5H&prodType=table

Families and Children

11.9 million: The number of Hispanic family households in the United States in 2013. Source: Families and Living Arrangements: Table F1 http://www.census.gov/hhes/families/files/cps2013/tabF1-hisp.xls 

62.4%: The percentage of Hispanic family households that were married-couple households in 2013. For the total population in the U.S., it was 73.2 percent. Source: Families and Living Arrangements: Table F1 http://www.census.gov/hhes/families/files/cps2013/tabF1-hisp.xls http://www.census.gov/hhes/families/data/cps2013F.html 

58.5%: The percentage of Hispanic married-couple households that had children younger than 18 present in 2013, 
whereas for the nation it was 40.3 percent. Source: Families and Living Arrangements: Table F1 http://www.census.gov/hhes/families/files/cps2013/tabF1-hisp.xls http://www.census.gov/hhes/families/data/cps2013F.html 

65.1%: Percentage of Hispanic children living with two parents in 2013, whereas nationwide it was 68.5 percent. Source: Families and Living Arrangements: Table C9 http://www.census.gov/hhes/families/files/cps2013/tabC9-hispanic.xls http://www.census.gov/hhes/families/data/cps2013C.html 

43.1%: Percentage of Hispanic married couples with children under 18 where both spouses were employed in 2013, 
whereas nationwide it was 58.0 percent. Source: Families and Living Arrangements: Table FG-1 http://www.census.gov/hhes/families/data/cps2013FG.html 

Spanish Language

38.3 million: The number of U.S. residents 5 and older who spoke Spanish at home in 2012. This is a 121 percent increase since 1990 when it was 17.3 million. Those who hablan español en casa constituted 13.0 percent of U.S. residents 5 and older. More than half (58 percent) of these Spanish speakers spoke English “very well.”   

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2012 American Community Survey: Table B16001 and Table DP02 http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=ACS_12_1YR_DP02&prodType=table  and Language Use in the United States: 2012 http://www.census.gov/prod/2013pubs/acs-22.pdf 

73.9%: Percentage of Hispanics 5 and older who spoke Spanish at home in 2012. Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2012 American Community Survey: Table B16006 http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=ACS_12_1YR_B16006&prodType=table 

Income, Poverty and Health Insurance

$39,005: The median income of Hispanic households in 2012. Source: Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2012, Table A http://www.census.gov/newsroom/releases/archives/income_wealth/cb13-165.html 

25.6%: The poverty rate among Hispanics in 2012 was 25.6 percent. Source: Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2012, Table B http://www.census.gov/newsroom/releases/archives/income_wealth/cb13-165.html 

29.1% : The percentage of Hispanics who lacked health insurance in 2012, down from 30.1 percent in 2011. Source: Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2012, Table C http://www.census.gov/newsroom/releases/archives/income_wealth/cb13-165.html 

Education

64.0%: The percentage of Hispanics 25 and older that had at least a high school education in 2012. Source: American Community Survey: 2012 Table S0201 (Hispanic Origin) http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=ACS_12_1YR_S0201&prodType=table 

13.8%: The percentage of the Hispanic population 25 and older with a bachelor’s degree or higher in 2012. American Community Survey: 2012 Table S0201 (Hispanic Origin) http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=ACS_12_1YR_S0201&prodType=table 

4 million: The number of Hispanics 25 and older who had at least a bachelor’s degree in 2012. Source: American Community Survey: 2012 Table C1502I http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=ACS_12_1YR_C15002I&prodType=table 

1.3 million: Number of Hispanics 25 and older with advanced degrees in 2012 (e.g., master’s, professional, doctorate). Source: American Community Survey: 2012 Table B150021 (Hispanic origin) http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=ACS_12_1YR_B15002I&prodType=table 

6.8%: Percentage of students (both undergraduate and graduate) enrolled in college in 2012 who were Hispanic. Source: School Enrollment Data Current Population Survey: October 2012, Table1 http://www.census.gov/hhes/school/data/cps/2012/tables.html

23.3%: Percentage of elementary and high school students that were Hispanic in 2012. Source: School Enrollment Data Current Population Survey: October 2012, Table http://www.census.gov/hhes/school/data/cps/2012/tables.html  

Foreign-Born

35.6%: Percentage of the Hispanic population that was foreign-born in 2012. Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2012 American Community Survey, Table: S0201 http://factfinder2.census.gov/bkmk/table/1.0/en/ACS/12_1YR/S0201//popgroup~400 

64.3%: Percentage of the 10.3 million noncitizens under the age of 35 who were born in Latin America and the Caribbean and are living in the United States in 2010-2012-http://www.census.gov/prod/2014pubs/acsbr12-06.pdf 

Jobs

67.1%: Percentage of Hispanics or Latinos 16 and older who were in the civilian labor force in 2012. Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2012 American Community Survey, Table: S0201 (Hispanic) and B23002i http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=ACS_12_1YR_S0201&prodType=table  http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=ACS_12_1YR_B23002I&prodType=table 

19.5%: The percentage of civilian employed Hispanics or Latinos 16 and older who worked in management, business, science and arts occupations in 2012. Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2012 American Community Survey, Table C24010I http://factfinder2.census.gov/bkmk/table/1.0/en/ACS/12_1YR/C24010I? 

Voting
8.4%: The percentage of voters in the 2012 presidential election who were Hispanic. Hispanics comprised 7 percent of voters in 2010. Source: News Release: Census Bureau Reports Hispanic Voter Turnout Reaches Record High for Congressional Election http://www.census.gov/newsroom/releases/archives/voting/cb11-164.html and Voting and Registration in the 
Election of November 2012: Table 2 http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/socdemo/voting/publications/p20/2012/tables.html 

Serving our Country
1.2 million: The number of Hispanics or Latinos 18 and older who are veterans of the U.S. armed forces. 
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2012 American Community Survey: Table B21001I http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=ACS_12_1YR_B21001I&prodType=table 

Businesses
Source for statements in this section: Statistics for All U.S. Firms by Industry, Gender, Ethnicity, and Race for the United  States, States, Metro Areas, Counties, and Places: 2007, Table SB0700CSA01 http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=SBO_2007_00CSA01&prodType=table  Data for 2012 are being collected.

2.3 million: The number of Hispanic-owned businesses in 2007, up 43.6 percent from 2002.

$350.7 billion: Receipts generated by Hispanic-owned businesses in 2007, up 58.0 percent from 2002.

23.7%: The percentage of businesses in New Mexico in 2007 that were Hispanic-owned, which led all states. 
Florida (22.4 percent) and Texas (20.7 percent) were runners-up.

Editor’s note: The preceding data were collected from a variety of sources and may be subject to sampling variability and other sources of error. Facts for Features are customarily released about two months before an observance in order to accommodate magazine production timelines. Questions or comments should be directed to the Census Bureau’s Public Information Office: telephone: 301-763-3030 or e-mail: <PIO@census.gov>.

CB14-FF.22  Sept. 8, 2014
Sent by Roberto Calderon. Ph.D.   beto@unt.edu

Hispanic Surnames and Family History 

The Hispanic population in the United States keeps growing and with it the Latino influence on American culture. From salsa become the top-selling condiment (sorry ketchup), to non-Hispanics naming their children Maria, Miguel and Ernesto, there’s no question the country is changing.

This shouldn’t come as a surprise, given that Mexico is the only country in the world with a larger Hispanic population than the United States. Since the Latino population has topped 50 million, and counting. Most common last names for Latinos in the U.S. 
Refugio Rochin, Ph.D.  rrochin@me.com  

Editor:  Dr. Refugio Rochin sent me a posting of the latest most popular surnames.  It reminded me of the research of Dr. Lyman D. Platt, which gathered historical information on the changes of  Hispanic surnames over the centuries.  In 1750 there were about 250,000 Spanish surnames, down to approximately 60,000.   I wondered if there had been much change in 36 years.  Comparing both lists,  Garcia replaced Rodriguez for the first slot, and seven of the other surnames just shifted position.  Rivera drops off the top 10 lists, replaced by Ramirez.  Torres is the 10th on both lists.

What I found especially interesting in these surname listings was the fact that past the first thousand surnames, I could recognize only a very few.  I wonder if  the Hispanic/Latino presence in the United States is larger than 17%. but many Spanish surnames are not recognized as of Spanish origin.

HISPANICS AND THE  MAKING

OF THE UNITED STATES

10 AMAZING FACTS THAT TELL THE STORY  

Speech delivered by Carlos B. Vega at the State University of New York, Rockland  Campus, September, 2014. Exclusively published by Villamel Publishing Company, North Bergen, New Jersey, Copyright 2014. Reproduction prohibited except if expressed in writing by the author. Derechos reservados en todo el mundo. Es propiedad.  

I will discuss ten key facts from my new book: “Our Hispanic Roots: What History Failed To Tell Us,“ 2^nd ed, and touch on some others from my forthcoming book, “Hispanics and the American Revolution: Their Major Role in Winning the War and Freedom,” soon to be released. The untarnished truth, scathing, inexorable. Because we must after 500 years of untruths, distortions, and deception.    

About the author: A graduate of Indiana University in Bloomington and the University of Madrid. College professor since 1962 at leading U.S. universities. Award-winning author with 50 books published to date in language, literature, and history, several of which became international bestsellers. Three of his books won first place at the 2013 prestigious International Latino Book Awards, and another also first place in 2014.

Many of his books have been reviewed internationally with much praise by John Hopkins University, University of New Mexico, University of León in Spain, and Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana in Mexico City, among others.  

Voted among the top 10 U.S. Latino authors as #5 in 2013. Included among the world’s leading Hispanic scholars by the Government of Spain.

Honored at the nation’s Capitol by member of the U.S. Congress, and by the Chief Justice of the United States at his office for his Spanish translations of America’s Charters of Freedom in 1986.  

Member of the 1986 U.S. Bicentennial Commission, the Hudson County Congressional Committee for the Bicentennial Observance of the United States Constitution, and of the Nation at Risk Project. Special mention for his outstanding contribution by the Bicentennial Leadership Project.

Recognized as a leader for a better understanding and appreciation of U.S.-Hispanic history and culture.

Top-ranked speaker at major venues including the National Archives and the Smithsonian Institution.  

Published by Villamel Publishing Company  
8200 Boulevard East, 1D  
North Bergen, NJ 07047 201.868.6750  
Comments: contact the publisher.  

Copies of essay available in any quantities for $5.75 per copy. Contact the publisher. Manufactured in the United States of America.  

FACT 1.

Hispanics were the true pioneers and makers of America, of the one to the south and of the one to north. 500 years of intense work that resulted in the creation of twenty countries in one and of a major contribution in the creation of the other. Two continents covering millions of miles, various supreme civilizations, millions of people, enormous distances and obstacles. The cost in blood and treasure incalculable, the odds unimaginable, the effort epic, the sacrifice extraordinary. Yet, that colossal enterprise was carried out to completion widening the world’s horizon and presaging new hopes of a human revival.  

That’s the glory of Hispanics, what was done and what can come from it as we strive to reach new highs in advancing the human condition.  

The world is old, deeply scarred, confused and weaken by 5000 years of self-inflicted wounds of ideology and religious intransigence, of social abuse and injustice, of fighting for the wrong causes. America, on the other hand, is new, vibrant, unspoiled and full of promise, and although Hispanics may not have yet reached their place in the sun, they may one day lead the way toward a better tomorrow.  

FACT 2.  

Hispanics have been in the shadow of history for the past 500 years. They have been ignored, dismissed, ridiculed, pushed aside in the making of this great nation. Yet, we did the most and got the least recognition and praise while the others far less deserving went home bearing all the laurels. Well, as far as this author is concerned, the time has come to set the record straight if only because it is the proper, honorable, and moral thing to do.  

We were here first and remained here the longest, many more years than the French or even the British. In fact, from 1513 when Hispanics discovered North America, to 1848 when the United States took over half of Mexico’s territory—a total of 335 years, 97 more years than the United States has been in existence.  

So then, what happened during that very long period of time? A country was created deeply rooted in Western Civilization. Hispanics discovered, explored, and settled most of the North American continent extending to all points north, south, west and east. 

Let’s look at this map that shows that as late as 1763, just 13 years before the U.S. Declaration of Independence, two thirds of North America, or all lands west of the Mississippi River, plus   Florida was under Hispanic domain. (The map also shows 5 more states east of the Mississippi.) That territory comprised the following 27 present-day states:  

Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada,  Mexico, N. Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, Wyoming.

That’s over half of today’s 48 contiguous states. They also discovered and explored many parts of Alaska and even may have discovered Hawaii. Micronesia, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the Virgin Islands were all discovered and explored by Hispanics; well, the first two by Magellan at the service of Spain, and the third by Columbus.  

Hispanic discovered all bodies of water surrounding North America and chartered the Atlantic Ocean making the newly-discovered continent accessible to the entire Western world. Not only did they charter it, but also wrote a detailed account on it that was quickly devoured by all European nations—Pedro de Medina, “Arte de Navegar,” (Art of Navigation) Valladolid, 1545. Now ponder this: What would have happened to the United States if in order to have access to those bodies of water it would have had to cross over lands belonging to Mexico and Spain? The United States had now full control not only of all the lands comprised within the continent east, west and south, but also free and direct access to the entire world except from the north—Europe, Asia, and South America. With California they secured the Pacific, with Texas and Louisiana the Gulf, and with Florida the Caribbean Sea, all lands that had previously belonged to Hispanics. “From sea to shining sea,” or from one coast to another, had now become a reality thanks to Hispanics.  

FACT 3.

In view of all of the above, how can anyone refer to a Hispanic as an illegal alien? Who are really the illegal aliens? Let’s back track 500 years. By the Treaty of Tordesillas of 1494, the entire world was divided into two parts. Lands to the east went to Portugal and those to the west to Spain which included both Americas with the exception of Brazil. That means that all the Europeans that came to North America in the early 17^th century were blatantly trespassing on Spanish territory. So the British, French, Germans, Irish, Swedish plus others, were in effect North America’s first illegal aliens four hundred years before Mexicans and other Hispanics dared to cross the Rio Grande under the cover of darkness. On the other hand, those Mexicans and Hispanics were not interlopers, least of all foreigners, like the others were, but immigrants that happened to cross from one side of home to the other side which to them was also home, say from Jalisco to Arizona, or from Taxco to California. Those lands north of the Rio Grande eventually became part of the United States, but that was a political ploy signed off by a puppet and corrupt Mexican government. The United States flexed its muscle and that government caved in out of pressure and/or fear. Eventually the deal was sealed with a payment—let’s call it what it was: bribery—of $15 million, what it would cost today a 10-story building in Manhattan.  

Unquestionably, the continuous flow of Hispanic immigrants into the United States is a big tragedy, a human calamity especially for those crossing the border. Bearing the full blame are the governments of those countries incapable of providing adequately for their citizens, and the United States for taking over lands within the same territory that belonged to someone
else. Time and distance can heal wounds and ease tensions. Spain gave up Florida and went back home far away; Britain lost the war and went back home

far away; France gave up its domains and also went back home far away, and even the Russians when they gave up their claims of the Pacific Northwest, packed up and went back home far away. On the other hand, Mexicans lost their lands and stayed put still feeling the rightful owners of that territory. For the United States to claim sovereignty over those lands might be stretching the truth a bit. Politically, perhaps. Morally, not so sure. In any event, the only sovereign people in North America are the Native Americans on both sides of the border. The only true claim of sovereignty the United States had was over the newly liberated Thirteen Colonies for it won the war fairly and squarely, but the other territorial claims were not as clear-cut but were basically the product of deception and trickery.

But those Europeans were not the only illegal aliens. So were the Russians when they encroached on lands along the Pacific northwest in the late 18^th century, and the Anglo-Americans when they took over (annexed?) Texas in the mid-19 century with the acquiescence of the U.S. Government (another political ploy.) By crossing the Texas border are Mexicans breaking the law? But, wait, who broke the law first? That’s the question.  

If we follow the same rationale, we must conclude that the Thirteen Colonies were founded on lands that had been previously claimed by Spain, which makes us wonder about their institutional legitimacy. Of course, the same would apply to many other countries throughout history for they equally trespassed on forbidden territory, which doesn’t absolve the Thirteen Colonies for doing the same.  

FACT 4.  

Who founded the United States? If we look once again at the 1763 map, all of that vast territory west of the Mississippi was already founded, settled, and developed when the United States took it over. Therefore, we must arrive to the following logical conclusion:  

That the Thirteen Colonies founded the republic and Hispanics the country in which the Thirteen Colonies had absolutely nothing to do, while Hispanics had a lot to do with the founding of the republic.  

In other words, not only did Hispanics found the country, but, in addition, they also played a stellar role in founding the republic. On the other hand, the British did absolutely nothing to found the country and sought to crush the republic, to turn it into dust.  

In contrasting their colonization pursuits, Britain and  Spain were driven by drastically different ambitions.  Britain thought of their new lands as colonies, while Spain thought of theirs as provinces of the kingdom. Mexico, Peru, and others were thought of and treated as integral parts of the whole or provinces (despite the huge distance) just like León, Castile, or Aragón. The British sought exploitation. The Spanish greatness. Yes, Spain had her share of grave mistakes, but also had a soul and lofty ideals, while Britain had neither as evidenced then and later throughout its vast territorial domains—India,  Australia, South Africa.  

FACT 5.

It is truly amazing what Hispanics accomplished in building the country. It would take many pages to give faith to it, but suffice is to say that by the time their North American enterprise came to an end the seeds of Western Civilization they had planted were sprouting and growing everywhere. The barren lands had become fertile meadows full of life and promise, allowing the United States to annex a newer, bigger, brighter and more prosperous home—like moving from a studio apartment downtown to a 20-bedroom sprawling, fully furnished  estate in the country.  

So then we have that Hispanics were the first and the ones who did the most beginning in the 16^th century, when the other European countries, especially Britain and France, were at the tipping point of an economic disaster.  

A little known fact is that Hispanics founded North America’s first colony, San Miguel de Gualdape in 1526, 81 years before Jamestown, which, although short-lived, paved the way for future explorations and settlements along the eastern seaboard. And the first city, Saint Augustine in Florida in 1565, 43 years before the French founded Quebec in Canada, 59 years before the Dutch founded New Amsterdam in New York, and 73 years before the Swedish founded New Sweden in New Jersey.  

But there’s more, much more. All across the land they founded/ established the first towns, cities and communities, schools, hospitals, churches, convents for abandoned women, children and the elderly, system of government, laws and courts, industries, commerce, manufacturing—farming equipment and tools, ship-building, clothing, furniture, construction materials, armaments—infrastructures, transportation, museums, libraries, zoos, botanical gardens, published the first books and periodicals, and cared tenderly and with deep devotion for the indigenous population teaching them all the virtues and values of Western Civilization and at the same time propagating Christianity. By 1832, they had performed a combined total of 87,787 baptisms. And by the way, they had also founded North America’s first full-fledged university modeled after the University of Salamanca, the Royal Pontifical University of Mexico in 1551, 85 years before Harvard. All along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts they founded a string of missions that set the basis for the further development of the region. Although their primary objective was to 

evangelize and propagate the faith, they were also centers of the most advanced instruction in the manual arts, agricultural techniques, science and linguistics, and of major industries such as farming and ranching. By 1832, in California alone, the missions collectively owned 151,180 head of cattle, 137,969 sheep, and 14,522 horses.

By the time the other Europeans arrived 100 years later, Hispanics had considerably added to the United States’ flora and fauna, and introduced many of today’s foods and delicacies, including chickens, pigs, sheep, goats, wheat, flower, rice, maize, beans, potatoes, tomatoes, herbs and spices, chocolate, vanilla, cinnamon, sugar, coffee, cheese, ham, apples, pears, peaches, grapes, cherries, strawberries, bananas, oranges, carrots, cabbage, onions, pepper, flowers such as the rose and carnation, plus the horse, cattle, domestic animals and hundreds of medicinal plants. Although the turkey was indigenous to North America, after it was taken to Spain by Columbus and later by Hernán Cortés and then to Europe, it was re-introduced to North America by the British and the rest is history.  

FACT 6.

In the founding of the republic, Hispanics played a pivotal role in contributing to the triumph of the American Revolution. In fact, today we can affirm that without their support and aid the American Revolution would have either failed or delayed indefinitely. Let’s elaborate a bit.  

The American Revolution had two key allies: France and Spain, each contributing considerably to its victory by providing funds, supplies, and troops. France provided loans for $130 million and Spain for $87 million, but of the $130 million provided by France Spain gave France half or $65 million. So, altogether, Spain provided $152 million versus $65 from France. Ironically, at the end France was paid its money back while Spain wasn’t, as if assumed by the Continental Congress that the Spanish money were essentially subsidies or donations rather than loans. Here again, the French and the Americans proved to be savvy, while we proved to be fools.

FACT 7.  

So how did Spain get involved in the American cause? First of all, it was George Washington’s idea, and as the French had already committed to help, the Spanish Court, also ruled by a Bourbon king, jumped on the wagon. To this end it sent a representative from Cuba to the United States, a man called Juan de Miralles. Miralles met with Washington and both quickly became close friends. Not only did Miralles funnel lots of Spanish funds to Washington, but also gave him large sums of his own money. Unexpectedly Miralles took ill and Washington tended to his friend personally until he expired, and then, as army surgeon Dr. James Thacher tells us:  

His Excellency George Washington, with several other general officers and members of Congress, attended the funeral solemnities , and walked as chief mourners.  The other officers of the army, and numerous respectable citizens, formed a splendid procession, extending about one mile. The pall-bearers  were six field officers of the artillery in full uniform. A Spanish priest performed service at the grave in the Roman Catholic form.  

We checked several American history textbooks and the name of Juan de Miralles didn’t appear anywhere.  

Another prominent figure of the American Revolution was a man by the name of Diego de Gardoqui, the Spanish Ambassador to the United States, who worked wonders steadily for four years in consolidating Spain’s aid. Just like Miralles, he gave lots of his own money to the American cause, as much as $4,908,883 in cash and supplies. When learning about Gardoqui’s appointment, this is how George Washington reacted in a letter he wrote to the King of Spain:  

...The appointment of Mr. Gardoqui gave great satisfaction to the United States, and I flatter myself that the manner in which he was received, and will continue to be treated, will be perfectly agreeable to his Catholic Majesty.  

 

Reflecting on the above-mentioned, it stands to reason to conclude that the United States had two sets of founding fathers, one for the republic—Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Franklin, Madison, among others, and the other for the country—Ponce de León, de Soto, Coronado, Cabeza de Vaca, Gálvez, among others. Although surprising and even shocking to most people, how can this fact be argued? Who was de Soto, just any explorer? And what about Gálvez, just any military man? And Friar Serra, just any man of the cloth? They were North America’s first grand-scale pioneers who made much of what came later possible. Yet, in American history textbooks their names are merely mentioned in passing and soon forgotten. Juan de Miralles and Diego de Gardoqui may not be of the same status as the others, but they are surely entitled to much recognition and praise. Many foreigners took active part in the American Revolution as well as Blacks and Indians, so not only Anglo Saxons earned that distinction.  

FACT 8.  

The Battle of Yorktown was decisive in winning the War of Independence, but what most people don’t know is that it was financed almost completely by a public collection of funds in Cuba of over $500,000 organized and conducted by ordinary citizens. Who on this earth is aware of this besides a handful of scholars? A Cuban connection in the American Revolution? Yes, one out of many, such as using the port of Havana as a haven for Spanish and French naval forces, and the point of departure of badly-needed provisions sent from Spain and elsewhere in South America to strategic locations in the mainland. There was also a Mexican connection through Governor José de Gálvez, uncle of Bernardo de Gálvez, the great hero of the American Revolution, who oversaw all negotiations as instructed by the Spanish Court, and a Florida and Louisiana connections then under Hispanic domain. The American Revolution was fought in many fronts outside of the Thirteen Colonies, as far as Gibraltar in the southern tip of Spain. Again we checked several American history textbooks and none of this was mentioned anywhere. Another casual oversight, hardly? 

FACT 9.  

Unknown also to many people is the fact that the Thirteen Colonies were largely built and economically sustained for many years past 1776 by the gold and silver streaming in  from the mines of Mexico, Peru, and Bolivia, which  means that the Indian and Black slaves that labored them were the principal economic lifeline of the United States well before the American Revolution up to the middle of the 18^th century. Even after the Coinage Act of 1792, when the United States issued its own currency, the Spanish gold and especially silver remained legal tender and the much preferred currency in all financial transactions both domestically and globally. For example, the Chinese refused getting paid for their exports in any currency other than Spanish Milled dollars. Then, if Spain was the banker of the American War of Independence, those Indian and Black slaves were either the collaterals or the investors. Sad is to see that they were never compensated nor recognized for their hard work and much sacrifice. Certainly they head the list of the forgotten heroes of the American Revolution.  

FACT 10.

You would have thought that by 1848, after Mexico’s cession of its territory, the Hispanic political involvement in U.S. affairs had come to an end, but it didn’t. We don’t know precisely the reasons why, but Hispanics played also an important role in the U.S. Civil War 33 years later by sending troops and supplies to both the Confederacy and the Union armies. On June 12, 1864, Queen Isabella II of Spain dispatched an army of 25,000 men to aid the Confederacy, and soon after an all-volunteer army of 10,000 men composed mostly of Mexicans, Puerto Ricans and Cubans joined the Union. Many died, were wounded and imprisoned. Three were awarded the Medal of Honor for valor. Even a woman joined the Confederacy army in a very peculiar way by disguising herself as a man under the name of Lieutenant Harry Buford. Her name was Loreta Janeta Velázquez, a Cuban woman of Spanish descent related to Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar who governed Cuba when Hernán Cortés sailed for Mexico, and the Spanish master Diego Velázquez. She fought in many battles, including Bull Run, but was immediately discharged when her gender was discovered.  

Among other distinguished Hispanics was David Farragut, son of a Spaniard born in the Island of Minorca, the very first admiral of the U.S. Navy. The father had distinguished himself in the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812.  Another Hispanic was Diego Archuleta, a Mexican of New Mexico’s volunteer infantry who climbed up to the ranks to become a brigadier general. After the war, he was appointed an Indian Agent by President Abraham Lincoln. Checked again the same American history books, and besides a brief mention of Admiral Farragut—not because he was a son of a Spaniard, but because he had the distinction of becoming the first U.S. admiral—none of the other Hispanic aid was mentioned.  

I trust that these 10 facts have given you a new perspective on the making of the United States and how you, as a Hispanic or of Hispanic descent, has contributed  to the birth and development of this great nation. It is now incumbent upon you to carry the torch ever so forward with equal zeal, clarity and devotion. History has a sacred mission, which is none other than to record human events honestly, objectively, and honorably. When this fails, as it has in this case, it hinders our understanding of those events and cast a shadow on how we as humans relate to each other.  

Finally, two more things.  

In case you didn’t know it, George Washington, the United States first president, and Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence and its third president, were direct descendants of Spanish royalty, King Ferdinand I, called “the Saint” of the Middle Ages, and Washington also of Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, called “El Cid” through his daughter Cristina. If you ever wonder about the true meaning of being a Hispanic, I would like to read part of the speech I delivered some years ago at the National Archives in Washington.  

Hispanic Heritage Month 2004  
What Does It Mean to be a Hispanic?  

Speech delivered by Carlos B. Vega at the conference: “Hispanics in the Formation of the American People” at the National Archives, Washington, October 2, 2004.

(As it appeared in the “Washington Hispanic” newspaper.)  

--Tell me, Félix, what does it mean to you to be a Hispanic?
--To be from a Hispanic country, of course.

--No, Félix, no, it goes far, far beyond that. A Hispanic should never walk the earth head-bowed but with his head high above his shoulders for he is the direct heir of one of the grandest of civilization. When you think of a Hispanic, Félix, you think of a 3000-year history going back to the Phonecians, Carthagenians, Greeks, Romans, Visigoths, Arabs, and beginning in the 15th century, the Incas, Aztecs, Mayas plus the Blacks, all of whom are woven into a very special culture which we call today “La Raza.” Think of the greatness of Athens and Rome, Toledo and Córdoba; of Homer, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Seneca, Caesar, Virgil, Saint Augustine, El Cid, King Alphonse X, Maimonides, Manrique, Rojas, Queen Isabella, Elcano, the Emperor Charles V, King Philip II, Saint Teresa of Ávila, Velázquez, El Greco, Goya, Picasso, Saint Ignatius of Loyola, Cervantes, Cortés, Pizarro, Orellana, Moctezuma, Atahualpa, Cuauhtémoc, Tupac-Amaru, Anacaona, Junípero Serra, Coronado, De Soto, Cabeza de Vaca, Balboa, María de Toledo, Isabel Barreto y Quirós, Francisca Pizarro, Unamuno, Azorín, Ortega y Gasset, Lorca, Machado, Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, Gallegos, Poma de Ayala, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Bello, Bolívar, San Martín, Darío, Martí, Palma, Hidalgo, Hostos, Azuela, Rivera, Orozco, Hernández, Gallegos, Mistral, Neruda, Asturias, García Márquez, and Borges. Finally, think of the African-Americans for they are also an integral part of our history and culture. Genealogically speaking, all of that blood runs through our veins no matter when we were born and where we come from. Thus, basically, our ethnic makeup is western European, Jewish, Muslim, indigenous American, African, and to some extent Asian particularly after the 19^th century. Don’t ever think of African-Americans as merely slaves, but as the economic lifeline of both Americas, Europe, and most of the world, for they were the ones who labored the gold and silver mines that jump-started and sustained for at least 200 years the failed economies of many world countries, including China and Japan, and which eventually spawned the creation of modern capitalism. No African-American did ever stand idle in the development of the Americas. Same goes for the indigenous population. They were both also builders of the Americas.

Well, Félix, those are your roots, your past, your heritage, unmistakable unique and sublime. Thus, walk the earth tall, with your head up high and never forget who you really are. Your history as a Hispanic did not begin in the 19th century, but one thousand years before the birth of Christ. That is the legacy you have inherited and what has made you what you are today. So, next time you say “I am a Hispanic,” take a deep breath, fill your heart and soul with great pride and honor and shout it out with all the strength you can muster.

--But, said Félix…
--Wait, Félix, I am not yet finished. In a broader philosophical sense, this should work both ways for we all are Americans, meaning that the United States’ heritage should be part of ours and ours should be part of theirs. Each should embrace the other. The Americas’ heritage should not just be the patrimony of some but of all those who were born in this hemisphere. And, in the firm belief that the Americas will one day unite and fuse into one, add to our Hispanic heritage Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Adams, Franklin, Lincoln, Hemingway, and Frost, and proudly count yourself also among “We the People.”

Could this be true, that the Americas will one day become one nation? It is very conceivable. Except for language and certain beliefs, they are intrinsically bound together by everything else. However, before this could happen, some changes would have to be made on both sides. For Hispanics, they would have to come to grips with their own past, accept it as it turned out to be, and heal all wounds that have weakened them for a five hundred years.

No great civilization has ever survived least flourished when people are consumed by their shortcomings rather than by their virtues. If this had happened to the Spanish people after the victory at Granada, there would have never been an America as we know it today. Or, if our founding fathers would have spent their time and energy dwelling on the wrongs done to them by their British brethren and in particular by George III, the United States as we know it today would have never come to be. The British lost the war, went back home, and the United States went about the business of putting its own house in order and securing its future.

Never again did the United States look back. This is just the opposite of what we Hispanics have done, dragging our feet in the swampy waters of historical grudges. This has plunged us into an abyss of insecurity and self-doubt, undermining our own existence and casting a shadow on our future. As Borges said: “The past is indestructible,” and indeed it is. No doubt that the Hispanic race must once again rise and reclaim their historical greatness.

This rising of the Hispanic race will begin and take root right here in the United States, for it is here that Hispanics have become active participants not merely spectators of our democratic process. It is here also where they have bonded together feeling and acting as a united people with a common aspiration and purpose. And it is from here that this new breed of Hispanics will nurture and embrace their brethren on the other side changing the continent forever. And then, one day, as we envision and predict, both Americas will unite and lead the world toward a better tomorrow. Ortega y Gasset once said that the future belonged to Asia. For us, however, it belongs to America. It always did.

To which America? To both, although one has a better claim than the other in calling itself America. This is what we mean. The United States, as it was conceived and founded, is not really America but rather an extension of Europe. On the other hand, Hispanic America is indeed America, not because of the way it was founded but because it always was. The British barely had any interaction with the indigenous population, while the Spanish intermingled with them from the time of the conquest on including the two famous conquistadors, Cortés and Pizarro. One built on their own kind. The other created a vibrant new race.

Washington, D.C., August 27, 2014 - LATINA Style Inc., the premier company addressing the needs of the Latina professional and business owner in the U.S., proudly announces the LATINA Style 50 Report for 2014. Now in its 17^th year, the annual report sets the standard for identifying corporations that are providing the best career opportunities for Latinas in the U.S. The LATINA Style 50 Report is the most respected evaluation of corporate America's career advancement opportunities for Latinas.

Companies responding to LATINA Style's questionnaire are evaluated based on issues that LATINA Style magazine readers identified as most important to them in the workplace. Among the principal areas of evaluation are: number of Latina executives, Latina retention, mentoring programs, educational opportunities, alternative work policies, employee benefits, women's issues, job retraining, affinity groups, and Hispanic relations. Evaluations for the 2014 annual report are based on 2013 data.

"The LATINA Style 50 Report is the most exhaustive study of corporate America's policies and opportunities for Latinas in the workplace. The companies listed on the report are the ones that truly are the best places for Latina professionals to work," says Robert E. Bard, president and CEO of LATINA Style, Inc. "This year, we are happy to announce Accenture as our 'Company of the Year.' Accenture has been steadily rising up the list through the past years. Their ascension reflects a continued commitment straight from the top and throughout the company. Congratulations!"

Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company serving clients in more than 120 countries. Combining unparalleled experience, comprehensive capabilities across all industries and business functions, and extensive research on the world's most successful companies, Accenture collaborates with clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments.

"At Accenture, our more than 293,000 people represent a tremendous variety of cultures, ethnicities, beliefs and languages that provide us with a level of diversity that makes our company stronger, more innovative and better able to serve the diverse needs of our clients around the globe," states Steve Rohleder, Group Chief Executive - North America, Accenture. "Inclusiveness will always be at the core of everything we do at Accenture, and so we are especially proud to have been selected as the 2014 Company of the Year."

The annual awards ceremony honoring the LATINA Style 50 companies will take place on February 5, 2015 during LATINA Style's Diversity Leaders and Awards Conference in Washington, D.C.

Honorable Mentions (In Alphabetical Order):

Freddie Mac, Ingersoll Rand, PG&E

Now in its 20th year, LATINA Style magazine is the most influential publication reaching the professional working woman. LATINA Style broke new ground in 1994 by launching the first national magazine dedicated to the needs and concerns of the Latina professional working woman and the Latina business owner in the United States. For more information regarding LATINA Style please visit: www.latinastyle.com

CESAR’S LAST FAST IS NOW ON NETFLIX!

Cesar's Last Fast is now available in North America and Latin America on Netflix!

The film’s digital premiere honors one of the most creative, committed and charismatic leaders in the labor movement. Thank you to our co-creators: crew, supporters, sponsors and funders. You worked hard and with so much dedication to bring this film to life. We are especially indebted to the late Lorena Parlee, our co-producer and co-director. 

In Solidarity, Richard Ray Perez & Molly O'Brien
Director/Executive Producer Producer/Executive Producer

In case you missed it, Huff Post Latino Voices and Comfort Inn put together a list of heritage sites throughout the country rich in Latino history.  As the nation’s Hispanic population grows, sites like these become more important to preserve and visit.  Check out the list here:  

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/02/hispanic-heritage
-sites_n_5359359.html?ncid=fcbklnkushpmg00000048  

Sylvia M. Gonzalez | MANAGER OF PUBLIC PROGRAMS 
P 210.223.9800  F 210.223.9802  

NATIONAL TRUST FOR HISTORIC PRESERVATION
Villa Finale: Museum & Gardens
401 King William Street  San Antonio TX 78204
www.PreservationNation.org  www.VillaFinale.org  

HERITAGE PROJECTS 

Screening of the PBS film, "Texas Before the Alamo" at the Laredo Center for the Arts, September 5, 2014, Laredo, Texas.  Pictured left to right: Idalia Garcia Davila, Bill Millet, film producer, Author Jose Antonio "Joe" Lopez, Cynthia Snyder, and Dr. Felix D. Almaraz, Jr., author of "Texas Before the Alamo.". 

To All:  Great news! The screening of the PBS film “Texas Before the Alamo” in Laredo to a packed house at the Laredo Center for the Arts was truly terrific.  Bill Millet and Dr. Almaráz were overwhelmed by the awesome response.  (See photo below courtesy of Cordelia Dancause López.) 

Thank you, Laredo & Nuevo Laredo fans of early Texas history. As I like to remind folks, the first chapters of our state’s history are written in Spanish, the language of Cervantes, but that only means that Texas history is bi-cultural & bilingual. 
“¡Aquí todavía estamos y no nos vamos!” (Here we still are and we’re not leaving.)

Saludos, José Antonio “Joe” López 

California Mission Project: 
Exploring Beyond the Model 
by Christopher Reynolds, 
with comments by Mimi Lozano.

http://www.latimes.com/la-bio-christopher
-reynolds-staff.html

Editor Mimi:  With thanks to Christopher Reynolds for writing this article, but I must point out some generalization that Mr. Reynolds makes, although accepted as fact, are in fact, not entirely correct.  I agree with his suggestion: "But if you want to explore how California came to look and behave the way it does, how civilizations collided, how farming was started here, how some of our biggest cities got their names and how we wound up with dozens of Native American reservations, the missions are a good place to start."   

Let me suggest that doing family research on the families associated with the 21 California missions could be an invaluable lesson to grasp what was taking place in California and the entire southwest.  . . .  and is still taking place right now, intermarrying, mixing traditions, eating different foods, learning different languages, etc. 

Unfortunately, it appears that the suggested call to learn more about the missions is to look at the harm which the missions brought to the Natives. 

I highlighted the prejudicial sentences in the article below.  I sincerely hope this is not the direction that this project takes.   Hopefully, readers may have some stories among their family histories connected to a California mission, which are positive." 

Reynolds: "Attention, fourth-graders. If you want to make a model of a handsome, historic California building that was built for a simple purpose and produced entirely positive results, consider a lighthouse.

But if you want to explore how California came to look and behave the way it does, how civilizations collided, how farming was started here, how some of our biggest cities got their names and how we wound up with dozens of Native American reservations, the missions are a good place to start.

As many a Californian can tell you, there are 21 mission sites from San Diego to Sonoma, founded by Father Junípero Serra and succeeding Spanish friars between 1769 and 1823.

Besides spreading Christianity, these missions helped Spain grab a chunk of North America. They were built largely through the labor of Native Californians, whom the friars recruited, baptized, educated, forced into labor and sometimes locked up at night, often with the help of Spanish soldiers.  

This collection of photos and stories is designed to help teachers, students, parents and, of course, travelers get to know those buildings better.

How people talk about the missions is changing. In recent years, many scholars, writers, teachers and tour guides have begun to pay more attention to the Native Californian perspective, especially the experience of the baptized converts and laborers that the padres called "neophytes."

Such changes are a belated recognition that if you were a Native Californian in 1769, the same missionaries and soldiers who brought Christianity, reading, writing, farming and ranching also may have destroyed your old community, tried to erase your beliefs and traditions, and unknowingly exposed you to deadly diseases. Along with more than 80,000 baptisms, the California missionaries counted more than 60,000 Native American deaths.  [Editor: implying a connection between baptisms and deaths.]

Many educators are trying to present more points of view these days, said Kristina Foss, the museum director at the Old Mission Santa Barbara, who has worked with the California Missions Foundation to host an annual gathering of mission specialists since the late 1990s. But, she said, "It's very hard to do. The public has a sort of sense of what missions are, and they aren't always open" to new perspectives.

When you're in these missions, there's a lot more to think about than thick walls, red tiles and burbling fountains. As you explore, remember that 19 of the 21 mission sites are still run by the Catholic Church, which has preserved many remarkable artifacts but often relies on part-time staffers and volunteers to maintain historical displays and lead tours.

Within the church hierarchy, "there's no centralized program" to coordinate mission educational efforts, said Msgr. Francis J. Weber, an author and archivist at the San Fernando Mission who has written often about the missions. "It should probably be better organized."  

Meanwhile, at the state historic parks that include the Lompoc and Sonoma missions (and part of the old Santa Cruz site), rangers and interpretive specialists play larger roles. At those sites, said Emily Walski, an interpretive specialist at Sonoma State Historic Park, "you see more of an acknowledgment of what went on with the Indians in terms of labor."

In these pages, we've pulled together site-by-site tips for mission explorers; a timeline of key events; new and old photos; a story of one family's long relationship with Mission Dolores; and a look at how language has changed through the decades in textbooks and in this newspaper.

Next it's your turn. Students, parents and teachers: If you have a mission story or project to share — or alternative assignment to propose — send words and pictures, with "Mission Project" in the subject line, to travel@latimes.com. (File size may not be larger than 12 megabytes.) We can't display everything, but we'll do our best to present a broad sampling online."  

Editor Mimi:  I hope that students will search the records and seek out the truth for the assimilation of the indigenous nations.  Not focusing on the negative, but the positive.

I will point out that the Spanish did not set up reservation and force the acceptance of Spanish practices by the indigenous for acquiring land which they had freely accessed prior to the government of the United States. 

And if we look at Mexico, Central and South America, many indigenous are bilingual, still speaking their native tongue and Spanish.  In fact, after 500 years of a Spanish presence,  many indigenous only speak their native tongue. 

Whereas in the United States after only 300 years, and with somewhat forced current habitation on Indian reservation, most of the indigenous languages within the United States have long disappeared, and there are many projects now underway to try and salvage the Indigenous languages.
 
So, in all fairness, in Exploring Beyond the Model, a different perspective is needed for looking at the California Missions, but not only the changes and adaptations under the Spanish system, but the changes and adaptations under the United States system.  

http://www.latimes.com/travel/california/missions/la-tr-d-missions-intro--20140907-story.html

Copyright © 2014, Los Angeles Times
Thank you to a heads-up from Joan De Soto who sent the article.
CasaSanMiguel@aol.com

CAMPAIGN TO PROMOTE ETHNIC STUDIES SUMMIT
*HOSTED BY:  CALIFORNIA-MEXICO STUDIES CENTER and LEAD ORGANIZATION
Saturday, October 18, 2014         9am-5pm
Campus of California State University, Long Beach
Anatol Conference Center (University Library)
1250 N Bellflower Blvd, Long Beach, CA 90840  

PURPOSE: A historic conference for those committed to promote Ethnic Studies at all levels of the educational system, to discuss the state of Ethnic Studies in California, Arizona and Texas, and present new models that enhance Ethnic Studies in K-12, based on local-control school board policies and partnerships between schools with colleges and universities.

KEYNOTE ADDRESSES: by Dr. Maulana Karenga, Professor & Chair, Africana Studies Dept., CSULB and Dr. Rudy Acuña, Professor Emeritus, Chicana/o Studies Dept., CSUN  

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS:  El Rancho USD Ethnic Studies Requirement Historical Precedent; Carson H.S.-CSULB Chicano & Latino Studies

College-Credit Model; Case studies on the Arizona & Texas struggles, and panels on American Indian, Chicano/Latino, Asian/Asian American and Africana Studies; The role of students, parents and communities on expanding Ethnic Studies.  

Register to Attend: http://www.ethnicstudiesnow.com/  

With Live Global Webcast  & On-Demand Replay http://www.livestream.com/lsacnational
more info: go to www.california-mexicocenter.org          http://www.california-mexicocenter.org
or call Prof. Armando Vazquez-Ramos at: (562) 972-0986

* IN COLLABORATION WITH: THE EL RANCHO UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT
* CSULB AFRICANA STUDIES, AMERICAN INDIAN STUDIES, ASIAN/ASIAN-AMERICAN STUDIES AND
   CHICANO & LATINO STUDIES DEPARTMENTS
* CSU NORTHRIDGE CHICANA/O STUDIES DEPARTMENT
* CARSON BOYS & GIRLS CLUB ~ COLLEGE BOUND PROGRAM
*  HEART OF LOS ANGELES (HOLA) AND FAMILIES IN SCHOOLS
*  STUDENTS FOR EDUCATIONAL REFORM (SFER)
* LONG BEACH CENTRO C.H.A. AND THE MEXICAN CULTURAL INSTITUTE OF LOS ANGELES

Extensive Heritage Projects by the Trujillo Primos . . .   
going back to the 1920s  Congratulations!!

Helen  Trujillo Mora   
Holymora@aol.com  


Trujillo & Olive Trujillo Vlahovich, Diana Luna in background 
at Trujillo Adobe placing bricks for the Historic marker.1968.

Generation 1
1. LORETO1 AGUAYO was born in 1820 in Mexico, Mexico. He died in 1870 in Colton, San Bernardino, California, USA. He married (1) GUADALUPE MESA. She was born in 1830 in Agua Mansa, Riverside, CA. She died in 1900.

Loreto Aguayo and Guadalupe Mesa had the following child:
2. i. ELOISA2 AGUAYO was born in 1848 in Mexico. She married (1) JOSE MARIA ESPINOSA. He died in 1878 in Colton, San Bernardino, California, USA.

Generation 2
2. ELOISA2 AGUAYO (Loreto1) was born in 1848 in Mexico. She married (1) JOSE MARIA ESPINOSA. He died in 1878 in Colton, San Bernardino, California, USA.

Generation 3
3. BERSABE C.3 ESPINOSA (Eloisa2 Aguayo, Loreto1 Aguayo) was born on 16 May 1865 in California. She died on 22 Aug 1951 in San Bernardino, San Bernardino, California, USA. She married (1) JOHN B CASTILLO. He was born on 04 Mar 1868 in California, USA. He died on 03 Jul 1948.

John B Castillo and Bersabe C. Espinosa had the following children:
4. i. ELOISE4 CASTILLO was born on 22 Jan 1882 in California, USA. She died on 17 Dec 1969 in Olivewood Cemetery,Riverside Co. California. She married Antonino G. Trujillo, son of Antonio Teodoro Trujillo and M. Peregrina Gonzalez, on 03 Jul 1903. He was born on 31 Jan 1868 in San Salvador, Riverside, California. He died on 24 Sep 1945 in High Grove, Riverside Co. CA.
ii. SARAH CASTILLO was born on 02 Apr 1884.
iii. MARION CASTILLO was born on 23 Apr 1886 in California. He died on 17 Oct 1963 in Riverside, California.
iv. GRACE CASTILLO was born on 31 Oct 1887. She married (1) LARRY RAY.|v. TANISLADA CASTILLO was born on 13 Nov 1890.
vi. LILLIADA CASTILLO was born on 06 Feb 1893.
vii. ANGELINA CASTILLO was born on 18 Dec 1896.
viii. JOHN L. CASTILLO was born on 05 Oct 1898.
ix. LEWIS CASTILLO was born on 12 May 1908.

Generation 4
4. ELOISE4 CASTILLO (Bersabe C.3 Espinosa, Eloisa2 Aguayo, Loreto1 Aguayo) was born on 22 Jan 1882 in California, USA. She died on 17 Dec 1969 in Olivewood Cemetery,Riverside Co. California. She married Antonino G. Trujillo, son of Antonio Teodoro Trujillo and M. Peregrina Gonzalez, on 03 Jul 1903. He was born on 31 Jan 1868 in San Salvador, Riverside, California. He died on 24 Sep 1945 in High Grove, Riverside Co. CA.

Antonino G. Trujillo and Eloise Castillo had the following children: 
5. i. STELLA L.5 TRUJILLO was born on 31 Jul 9 AD in Born in Trujillo Adobe-La Placita de los Trujillos. She died on 12 Dec 1984 in Harbor City, Los Angeles, California, USA.  She married (1) ROBERT G. WORKMAN. He was born on 15 Jun 1908 in Churhuahua,Chihuahua, Mexico. He died on 28 Jan 1978.

6. ii. THEODORE TRUJILLO was born in 1904 in San Salvador, Riverside, California, United States. He died in 1983 in Riverside, Riverside, California, USA. He married (1) TILLIE.

7. iii. OLIVE TRUJILLO was born in 1906 in San Salvador, Riverside, California, United States. She died in 1997 in Arroyo Grande, San Luis Obispo, California, USA.
8. iv. RANDOLPH WILLIAM(DUTCH) TRUJILLO was born in 1911 in San Salvador, Riverside, California, United States. He died in 1957 in Highgrove, Riverside, California, USA. He married (1) VIRGINIA.
9. v. ARNOLD (NOLLY) TRUJILLO was born in 1914 in San Salvador, Riverside, California,United States. He died in 1991 in Phoenix,Arizona. He married (1) VIRGINIA.
10. vi. CHARLES TRUJILLO was born in 1919 in High Grove, Riverside Co. CA. He died in 2010 in Morro Bay, San Luis Obispo, California, USA. He married (1) PEGGY.
vii. LAWRENCE WILFRED TRUJILLO.

5. STELLA L.5 TRUJILLO (Eloise4 Castillo, Bersabe C.3 Espinosa, Eloisa2 Aguayo, Loreto1 Aguayo) was born on 31 Jul 9 AD in Born in Trujillo Adobe-La Placita de los Trujillos. She died on 12 Dec 1984 in Harbor City, Los Angeles, California, USA. She married (1) ROBERT G. WORKMAN. He was born on 15 Jun 1908 in Churhuahua,Chihuahua, Mexico. He died on 28 Jan 1978.

Robert G. Workman and Stella L. Trujillo had the following children: 
i. MARY ANN6 WORKMAN was born in Apr 20 AD in Riverside County, California, USA. She died in Harbor City, Los Angeles, California, USA.
ii. ROBERT ANTHONY WORKMAN was born in Jul 31 AD in Riverside County, California, USA. He died in San Diego County, California, USA.
iii. THOMAS RAY WORKMAN was born on 28 Sep 1932.
11. iv. HELEN ANTOINETTE WORKMAN was born on 16 Aug 1938 in Wilmington, Los Angeles, California, USA. She married (1) ROY DAVID MORA SR.. He was born on 09 Aug 1935 in Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA.
v. TERESA ESTHER WORKMAN was born on 21 Aug 1944 in Long Beach, Los Angeles, California, USA.
vi. LORRAINE ELOISE WORKMAN was born on 18 Sep in Riverside County, California, USA.

6. THEODORE5 TRUJILLO (Eloise4 Castillo, Bersabe C.3 Espinosa, Eloisa2 Aguayo, Loreto1 Aguayo) was born in 1904 in San Salvador, Riverside, California, United States. He died in 1983 in Riverside, Riverside, California, USA. He married (1) TILLIE. 

Theodore Trujillo and Tillie had the following children: 
i. RICHARD6 TRUJILLO.
ii. JAMES TRUJILLO.
iii. JEANNE TRUJILLO.

7. OLIVE5 TRUJILLO (Eloise4 Castillo, Bersabe C.3 Espinosa, Eloisa2 Aguayo, Loreto1 Aguayo) was born in 1906 in San Salvador, Riverside, California, United States. She died in 1997 in Arroyo Grande, San Luis Obispo, California, USA.

Olive Trujillo had the following child:
i. CARLOS6 CROWELL. He died in Arroyo Grande, San Luis Obispo, California, USA.

8. RANDOLPH WILLIAM(DUTCH)5 TRUJILLO (Eloise4 Castillo, Bersabe C.3 Espinosa, Eloisa2 Aguayo, Loreto1 Aguayo) was born in 1911 in San Salvador, Riverside, California, United States. He died in 1957 in Highgrove, Riverside, California, USA. He married (1) VIRGINIA.

Randolph William(Dutch) Trujillo and Virginia had the following children:
i. MARLENE6 TRUJILLO.
ii. RANDOLPH TRUJILLO JR..
iii. RENEE TRUJILLO.
iv. DUTCHIE TRUJILLO.
v. DARREL W. TRUJILLO

i. RICKY8 RIVERS IV was born on 20 Sep 1984 in Harbor City, Los Angeles, California,
.

9. ARNOLD (NOLLY)5 TRUJILLO (Eloise4 Castillo, Bersabe C.3 Espinosa, Eloisa2 Aguayo, Loreto1 Aguayo) was born in 1914 in San Salvador, Riverside, California, United States. He died in 1991 in Phoenix,Arizona. He married (1) VIRGINIA.

Arnold (Nolly) Trujillo and Virginia had the following children:
i. ARNOLD6 TRUJILLO JR..
ii. VALERIE ROSE TRUJILLO.|
iii. EDWARD TRUJILLO.
iv. DOLORES TRUJILLO.

10. CHARLES5 TRUJILLO (Eloise4 Castillo, Bersabe C.3 Espinosa, Eloisa2 Aguayo, Loreto1 Aguayo) was born in 1919 in High Grove, Riverside Co. CA. He died in 2010 in Morro Bay, San Luis Obispo, California, USA. He married (1) PEGGY.

Charles Trujillo and Peggy had the following children:
i. RAQUEL6 TRUJILLO.
ii. MARIA TRUJILLO.
iii. CHARLES TRUJILLO JR..

11. HELEN ANTOINETTE6 WORKMAN (Stella L.5 Trujillo, Eloise4 Castillo, Bersabe C.3 Espinosa, Eloisa2 Aguayo, Loreto1 Aguayo) was born on 16 Aug 1938 in Wilmington, Los Angeles, California, USA. She married (1) ROY DAVID MORA SR.. He was born on 09 Aug 1935 in Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA.

<< Marlene Trujillo Dinneen and Arnold(Nolly)Trujillo dressed in military outfits.

1. JUAN ESTEVAN1 TRUJILLO was born on 10 Jan 1735/36 in New Mexico, USA. He died on 08 Apr 1781 in Abiqui, New Mexico. He married MARIA JULIANA MARTIN. She was born in 1760 in Abiqui, New Mexico. She died in 1816.

Juan Estevan Trujillo and Maria Juliana Martin had the following child:
2. i. LORENZO2 TRUJILLO was born on 09 Aug 1794 in Abiqui, New Mexico USA. He died on 04 Apr 1855 in San Salvador, Riverside, California. He married MARIA DOLORES ARCHULETA. She was born on 04 Oct 1791 in Abiqui, New Mexico. She died on 05 Oct 1866 in Riverside County, California, USA.

2. LORENZO2 TRUJILLO (Juan Estevan1) was born on 09 Aug 1794 in Abiqui, New Mexico USA. He died on 04 Apr 1855 in San Salvador, Riverside, California. He married MARIA DOLORES ARCHULETA. She was born on 04 Oct 1791 in Abiqui, New Mexico. She died on 05 Oct 1866 in Riverside County, California, USA.

Lorenzo Trujillo and Maria Dolores Archuleta had the following child: 

3. i. ANTONIO TEODORO3 TRUJILLO was born in 1819 in New Mexico, United States. He died on 04 Jul 1882 in Riverside County, California, USA. He married M. PEREGRINA GONZALEZ. She was born on 25 Jan 1835 in New Mexico, United States. She died on 27 Jan 1906 in California, USA.

3. ANTONIO TEODORO3 TRUJILLO (Lorenzo2, Juan Estevan1) was born in 1819 in New Mexico, United States. He died on 04 Jul 1882 in Riverside County, California, USA. He married M. PEREGRINA GONZALEZ. She was born on 25 Jan 1835 in New Mexico, United States. She died on 27 Jan 1906 in California, USA.

Antonio Teodoro Trujillo and M. Peregrina Gonzalez had the following child: 
4. i. ANTONINO G.4 TRUJILLO was born on 31 Jan 1868 in San Salvador, Riverside, California. He died on 24 Sep 1945 in High Grove, Riverside Co. CA. He married ELOISE CASTILLO. She was born on 22 Jan 1882 in California, USA. She died on 17 Dec 1969 in Olivewood Cemetery, Riverside Co. California.

4. ANTONINO G.4 TRUJILLO (Antonio Teodoro3, Lorenzo2, Juan Estevan1) was born on 31 Jan 1868 in San Salvador, Riverside, California. He died on 24 Sep 1945 in High Grove, Riverside Co. CA. He married ELOISE CASTILLO. She was born on 22 Jan 1882 in California, USA. She died on 17 Dec 1969 in Olivewood Cemetery,Riverside Co. California.

Antonino G. Trujillo and Eloise Castillo had the following children:
5. i. THEODORE5 TRUJILLO was born in 1904 in San Salvador, Riverside, California, United States. He died in 1983 in Riverside, Riverside, California, USA. He married TILLIE.

6. ii. STELLA L. TRUJILLO was born on 31 Jul 9 AD in Born in Trujillo Adobe-La Placita de los Trujillos. She died on 12 Dec 1984 in Harbor City, Los Angeles, California, USA. She married ROBERT G. WORKMAN. He was born on 15 Jun 1908 in Churhuahua,Chihuahua, Mexico. He died on 28 Jan 1978.

7. iii. RANDOLPH WILLIAM(DUTCH) TRUJILLO was born in 1911 in San Salvador, Riverside, California, United States. He died in 1957 in Highgrove, Riverside, California, USA. He married VIRGINIA.

8. iv. OLIVE TRUJILLO was born in 1906 in San Salvador, Riverside, California, United States. She died in 1997 in Arroyo Grande, San Luis Obispo, California, USA. v. LAWRENCE WILFRED TRUJILLO. 
9. vi. ARNOLD (NOLLY) TRUJILLO was born in 1914 in San Salvador, Riverside, California, United States. He died in 1991 in Phoenix,Arizona. He married VIRGINIA.

10. vii. CHARLES TRUJILLO was born in 1919 in High Grove, Riverside Co. CA. He died in 2010 in Morro Bay, San Luis Obispo, California, USA. He married PEGGY.

5. THEODORE5 TRUJILLO (Antonino G.4, Antonio Teodoro3, Lorenzo2, Juan Estevan1) was born in 1904 in San Salvador, Riverside, California, United States. He died in 1983 in Riverside, Riverside, California, USA. He married TILLIE.

Theodore Trujillo and Tillie had the following children:
i. RICHARD6 TRUJILLO.
ii. JAMES TRUJILLO.
iii. JEANNE TRUJILLO.

6. STELLA L.5 TRUJILLO (Antonino G.4, Antonio Teodoro3, Lorenzo2, Juan Estevan1) was born on 31 Jul 9 AD in Born in Trujillo Adobe-La Placita de los Trujillos. She died on 12 Dec 1984 in Harbor City, Los Angeles, California, USA. She married ROBERT G. WORKMAN. He was born on 15 Jun 1908 in Churhuahua,Chihuahua, Mexico. He died on 28 Jan 1978.

Robert G. Workman and Stella L. Trujillo had the following children: 
11. i. HELEN TRUJILLO6 WORKMAN was born on 16 Aug 1938 in Wilmington, Los Angeles, California, USA. She married ROY DAVID MORA SR.. He was born on 09 Aug 1935 in Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA.

ii. THOMAS RAY WORKMAN was born on 28 Sep 1932.
iii. MARY ANN WORKMAN was born in Apr 20 AD in Riverside County, California, USA.
iv. LORRAINE ELOISE WORKMAN was born in Sep 28 AD in Riverside County, California, USA.
v. TERESA ESTHER WORKMAN was born on 21 Aug 1944 in Long Beach, Los Angeles, California, USA.
vi. ROBERT ANTHONY WORKMAN was born in Jul 31 AD in Riverside County, California, USA.

7. RANDOLPH WILLIAM(DUTCH)5 TRUJILLO (Antonino G.4, Antonio Teodoro3, Lorenzo2, Juan Estevan1) was born in 1911 in San Salvador, Riverside, California, United States. He died in 1957 in Highgrove, Riverside, California, USA. He married VIRGINIA.

Randolph William(Dutch) Trujillo and Virginia had the following children:
i. MARLENE6 TRUJILLO.
ii. RANDOLPH TRUJILLO JR..
iii. RENEE TRUJILLO.
iv. DUTCHIE TRUJILLO.
v. DARREL W. TRUJILLO.

8. OLIVE5 TRUJILLO (Antonino G.4, Antonio Teodoro3, Lorenzo2, Juan Estevan1) was born in 1906 in San Salvador, Riverside, California, United States. She died in 1997 in Arroyo Grande, San Luis Obispo, California, USA.

Olive Trujillo had the following child:
i. CARLOS6 CROWELL. He died in Arroyo Grande, San Luis Obispo, California, USA.

9. ARNOLD (NOLLY)5 TRUJILLO (Antonino G.4, Antonio Teodoro3, Lorenzo2, Juan Estevan1) was born in 1914 in San Salvador, Riverside, California, United States. He died in 1991 in Phoenix,Arizona. He married VIRGINIA.

Arnold (Nolly) Trujillo and Virginia had the following children:
i. ARNOLD6 TRUJILLO JR..
ii. VALERIE ROSE TRUJILLO.
iii. EDWARD TRUJILLO.
iv. DOLORES TRUJILLO.

10. CHARLES5 TRUJILLO (Antonino G.4, Antonio Teodoro3, Lorenzo2, Juan Estevan1) was born in 1919 in High Grove, Riverside Co. CA. He died in 2010 in Morro Bay, San Luis Obispo, California, USA. He married PEGGY.

Charles Trujillo and Peggy had the following children:
i. RAQUEL6 TRUJILLO.
ii. MARIA TRUJILLO.
iii. CHARLES TRUJILLO JR..

11. HELEN TRUJILLO6 WORKMAN (Stella L.5 Trujillo, Antonino G.4 Trujillo, Antonio Teodoro3 Trujillo,Lorenzo2 Trujillo, Juan Estevan1 Trujillo) was born on 16 Aug 1938 in Wilmington, Los Angeles,California, USA. She married ROY DAVID MORA SR.. He was born on 09 Aug 1935 in Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA.

Helen  Trujillo Mora   
Holymora@aol.com 

HISTORIC TIDBITS

I recently rediscovered a series of unpublished articles I wrote with a book in mind more than a decade ago. Some reviewed the coming of the Mexican American War in terms of outrageously poor political leadership on both sides. I don't think much has been written about this tragic chapter in the relations between our two countries. 

Sincerely, Galal Kernahan
Laguna Woods, CA 92637 (949) 581 -3625

The only consistent elements in his whole performance were his hunger for glory and Napoleonic ego. His life alternated between the sensational and the absurd. Spectacular sallies heightened the farce that inevitably followed. In 1835, just before departing Mexico City to straighten out matters in Texas, he was boastful. If the United States were found to be aiding the rebels, he would march on to Washington and raise the Mexican Flag over the Capitol.

His troops overwhelmed foolhardy adventurers at Goliad. Surprised by Sam Houston he ran like a rabbit, hid, put on cast off clothing from an abandoned cabin. When Texans sighted him crossing a field, he dropped to the ground and pulled a blanket over his head. Taken prisoner, he first said he was a common soldier. Then that he was Santa Ana's Aide. When he reached camp, other captured soldiers recognized him. They gasped, "The President!"

The Mexican General had been in the port barely long enough to go to sleep when French forces came ashore. Because it took a bomb to knock down the city gate, Santa Ana was jolted awake a few minutes before a party came to arrest him. He grabbed a handful of clothes and rushed downstairs as they were coming up. They detained this terrified creature long enough to ask which was Santa Ana's room, then let him resume his headlong flight. His aide displayed more courage and was subdued only after absorbing pistol wounds and saber cuts.

Outside the city, Santa Ana rallied a few soldiers. By then the French were leaving. They posted a gun loaded with grapeshot to cover their embarkation. When Santa Ana charged, two of his officers and seven of his men were shredded. Others were wounded including the General. His horse was killed under him. He was hit in his left hand and leg. The leg had to be severed and replaced with a wooden one.

Better for Mexico had this indeed been Santa Ana's final victory, but he recovered from the amputation. In subsequent victories, he managed to lose more than half of Mexico's national territory. How often were long-suffering Mexicans to be reminded by Santa Ana of the blood he had shed in their defense! He insisted the leg be buried with full military honors. Many came to regret he had not given all of himself and less of the nation.

This then was the man dressed as a muleteer who fled the fury of a disgusted people in early 1845. All his insufferable posturing seemed to catch up with him- Indians 

The village priest discovered what was going on. He was horrified. He tolled the church bell. He carried the Host from the altar into their midst. That worked. The prisoner was surrendered.

Less than six months later, Santa Ana was aboard a ship going into exile. His destination was supposed to be Venezuela, but he disembarked in Havana. While he fleeced Cubans wkith his fighting cocks. He schemed for a return to power. He talked with the U.S. Consul and others who could carry his words to the greay-eyed man with grizzled hair and ashen pallor who lived in the White House.

If Santa Ana was larger than life, Polk was smaller. Santa Ana, always dramatizing his exploits, fancied himself a Napolean. Polk, raising cane with the political opposition as he combed the backwoods for votes, was dubbed "the Napolean of the Stump." His political generalship was a matter of bombast and all the feints, thrusts that went with being Speaker of the House of Representatives.

As an obedient party man, he ran for Tennessee Governor when told to.. .even though he didn't much want to. He won the first time, then lost twice. Fresh from such defeats he hardly semmed a likely presidential candidate. However, he enjoyed the paternal affection of "Old Hickory" especially in view of the fact he was trhe very embodiment of "Manifest Destiny," what would today be called "naked imperialism."

Cannons boomed. The new telegraph line to Washington, D,C. hummed. Everyone drank whiskey, smoked cigars, congratulated each other and scrambled for a place on the band wagon. Folk's position was clear. He wanted California and everything that lay between it and then America's western frontier. He had planned, if elected, to appropriate at least half of Mexico into his Nation. And that he did.

Accomplishment of these ends served both territorial and partisan considerations. General Zachary Taylor, leading the invasion into Mexico from the North, was a prominent member of the opposition Whig Party. The popularity his victories brought was, politically speaking, distressing to Polk. In spite of moves to diminish Taylor's public favor, widespread acclaim propelled him into the White House as Folk's successor. 

Colonel A. J. Antocha dropped by the White House in February 1846. He was a naturalized U.S. citizen. Santa Ana's debacle in Texas the year before brought Antocha's ejection from Mexico. He was suspected of ties to the fallen dictator. He told President Polk the exiled General was favorably disposed toward a deal and cash to facilitate handover of much of the territory America coveted. In a second interview, Antocha laid out a coercive strategy to force Mexican authorities to relinquish land. 

Santa Ana suggested American forces advance southward at least as far as Saltillo, perhaps to San Luis Potosi. They did. Near Saltillo one of the greatest tragedies of a tragic war occurred. A contingent of the Arkansas Cavalry scalped so many helpless Mexicans in a cave their blood puddled there. It was in insane reprisal for the death of fellow soldiers killed by Mexicans trying to prevent the rape of their wives and daughters.

During his career Galal was a field reporter, not only in the United States, but also in Mexico.  He has been a frequent submitter and constant friend  and supporter of Somos Primos and the Latino community.

HONORING HISPANIC LEADERSHIP

Hi Mimi,

Lest we Forget.  On the solemnity of this special day--September 11, we cried, America cried, a day that will never be forgotten as we pause to remember those innocent victims, with sorrow in our hearts and a pain that will never be erased, who were incinerated alive by the murderous Islamist terrorists.  Also on a beautiful Tuesday morning, thirteen years ago, a caring and wonderful person, Lydia Estelle Bravo (Jo Emma's cousin), had returned to work as a nurse at the Marsh & McLennan Offices, located in the World Trade Center, Tower No. 2, after spending a week in Mexico with her finance.   

On the Monday evening, Lydia, known for her passion for cooking, had prepared a pot of ribollita, a Tuscan stew of beans and greens, and celebrated their return to their home in New Jersey with a bottle of Sangiovese.  She was a devoted cook, having taken classes at Peter Kumps, and had hundreds of cookbooks, some picked up at the flea markets, others on trips abroad since she loved to travel.  

In Memory of Tomás Atencio by Janet Murguía 
October 1, 1932 – July 16, 2014  

In Memory of Tomás Atencio By Janet Murguía
President and CEO, National Council of La Raza
Posted on July 18, 2014, NCLR Blog  

The Hispanic community, and the nation, lost a hero on July 16, when Tomás Atencio, Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the University of New Mexico, passed away at his home in Albuquerque after a long illness.

The son of a Presbyterian minister whose family traced its history in New Mexico to the 1700s, Atencio was a Marine “wireman” in the Korean War, whose job was to check and maintain communications lines running through the rice patties and frozen mountains, often under sniper fire. He had degrees in philosophy, social work, and theology, and he authored or coauthored numerous works, including Albuquerque: Portrait of a Western City (Clear Light Publishing, 2006) and, most recently, Resolana: Emerging Chicano Dialogues on Community and Globalization (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2009). Tomás is perhaps best known for founding community-based academies dedicated to resolanas, or grassroots dialogues. A core concept of the resolana is that all participants are equal and discussions take place in the open, where, according to Papago Indian tradition, the sun is shining and everyone can see and hear what everyone else says, all at the same time.

Atencio’s ties to the National Council of La Raza ran deep. His brother Amos was the long-time CEO of Siete del Norte, one of our oldest Affiliates, and served on the NCLR Board of Directors. Tomás himself worked with two other NCLR Affiliates, the Mexican American Unity Council and the Colorado Migrant Council, as well as Siete del Norte, where among other things he pioneered culturally competent mental health care innovations, battled against heroin traffickers, inspired and catalyzed the development of small family farms, and in the process mentored the next generation of Latino community leaders. He also played a key role in convincing my predecessor, Raul Yzaguirre, to take the job as NCLR’s CEO in 1974, and all of us who have followed in his footsteps are grateful for that profoundly important act. For these and other achievements too numerous to list, Tomás Atencio earned NCLR’s Maclovio Barraza Award for Leadership in 1997.

But what his family, friends, and admirers will remember most about Tomás Atencio was his unique combination of fierce passion, sharp intellect, and gentle spirit. He dedicated his life to striving to help us all find, in his own words, a “new humanity that tears down all class and racial barriers.” May he rest in peace.  May his ideas live on forever.

Sent by Roberto Calderon, Ph.D.  beto@unt.edu  
For more on his contributions, please click.

A Tribute to Dr. Tomás Atencio and La Resolona

By Alejandro López  
October 1, 1932 – July 16, 2014  

Published in Somos en escrito    

Editor’s Note: Tomás Atencio was a pioneer in advancing the recognition and evolution of Chicano literature, His contribution since the early 1970s in creating the genre we now call Chicano literature and then inspiring generations of Chicanos and Chicanas to write is inestimable. We here publish a memoir written earlier this year by a friend and colleague of Dr. Atencio and a statement by the president of the National Council of La Raza.—Armando Rendón.

This tribute is still open for more comments.  http://www.somosenescrito.com/2014/07/in-memory-of-tomas-
atencio-october-1.html#!/2014/07/in-memory-of-tomas-atencio-october-1.html

Photo courtesy of Rick Bela

Upon visiting close friend and colleague, Dr. Tomás Atencio, who currently is battling a neurological disease similar to Alzheimer’s, I am moved to pay tribute to one of New Mexico’s most outstanding Chicano cultural figures of this and the last century. Long the champion of resolana, or dialogue in the plazas, villages and other New Mexican spaces, Atencio has now transitioned into a state in which his abilities to speak and move are almost nonexistent.

Dr. Atencio’s insistence on engendering genuine communication and dialogue between groups and individuals in society is his most profound legacy. In his writings, speeches and intense enthusiasm for every form of cultural expression, and especially for vibrant and highly interactive community, that legacy still inspires many to affirm, cultivate and document knowledge and wisdom borne out of grassroots community living, especially in the diverse Latino communities of the United States.

He taught us that the process of spinning the stories and drawing out the lessons embedded in the daily lives of individuals and societies is an immensely important activity. This is so, not because such an activity might represent a vestige of the past, but because by taking the time to be reflective of our thoughts and actions, we can begin to conceive of a world of greater possibilities, meaning, purpose and plentitude.  

For the better part of the second half of the 20th century, Tomás, as most everyone lovingly knows him, was the foremost cultural philosopher, sociologist and even the unofficial historian of the 

lndo-Hispano people of northern New Mexico and beyond. He was also an inspired musician, an ambitious builder in adobe, a sculptor and a compelling conversationalist, constantly switching between his two highly polished languages of Spanish and English. Not surprisingly, this published writer has also been a devoted family man.

Most importantly to his admirers, he was the founder of La Academia de la Nueva Raza (The Academy for a New Humanity), a grassroots popular-education movement deeply rooted in New Mexican soil since the 1970s. Its reverberations have been felt across the Southwest and throughout the nation, with members of each successive generation finding meaning and nurturance in his highly progressive, original thoughts and ideas, which always call for community revitalization and personal realization.

Brought up in the village of Dixon under the tutelage of his“old-school” Presbyterian minister father, but trained in academia and specifically in theology in southern California, Tomás gave voice to the concerns of the common man of the earth who sought participation and validation in an alien urban society but also dignity and justice. Tomás dedicated himself to the exploration of humanity’s most persistent questions: “Who are we?” “Where do we come from and where are we going?” together with the concerns specific to our time: “What is the nature of human consciousness?” “What is the role of the dialectical process in society?”And, “What are the promises for widespread communications in the digital and global age?”  

Certainly, Tomás will always be remembered for bringing to light the age-old practice of resolana or the informal gathering of lndo-Hispano villagers along the sunny side of adobe walls during the winter or cool early mornings of spring and fall to exchange news, dialogue or simply to reflect on life’s comings and goings. He used resolana as the central metaphor for the process of dialogue much like Socrates had done in the Athenian marketplace more than 2,000 years before.

For Atencio, as well as for celebrated Brazilian writer and community educator Paolo Freire (his friend), dialogue was the essential element needed to conduct the critical processes required in a democracy (thought, reflection, analysis and consensus building), which enabled a citizenry to consciously shape the social forces and institutions that themselves shape human collective life and interaction.

Tomás began his career working for the Colorado Migrant Council in the 1960s, where he advocated on behalf of the rights of migrant workers and helped provide for their mental health needs. He later moved to Santa Fe where he worked with COPAS, a community mental-health organization. There, he grew more intimate with the social and mental-health problems that plagued many of the native Indo-Hispano people living in the city’s barrios, as well as with their vast treasure trove of life experiences and local knowledge, which he termed el oro del barrio, or the “gold” of the neighborhood.  

Tomás came to believe in the need for the creation of a body of knowledge centered on the vital cultural, historical and even personal experiences of this long-lived (and out of necessity), highly adaptive community. He appreciated the values held by this community that arose from an intimate relationship with a rugged epic landscape composed of forested mountains, canyons, deserts, plains, farmlands, woods, rivers and even manmade acequias.

Tomás affirmed the local ways of communicating through “cuentos (stories), mentiras (tall tales), chistes (jokes), images, symbols, ceremonies and rituals; integral parts of a community’s foundational knowledge. This body of knowledge, he argued, would serve to validate the experience of a struggling community in transition, engender a shared understanding of its unparalleled historical processes under various governments, as well as enable it to map out its own future.

To satisfy this need, in the mid-1970s, with a grant from the national Presbyterian Church, he launched La Academia de la Nueva Raza, an association of community leaders and scholars who pooled their collective knowledge, wisdom, experience and sweat equity to give life to a vital, multifaceted process of concientización, or consciousness-raising in northern New Mexico. Working out of his home and later out of an old adobe in Dixon’s historic center, the academiados (La Academia’s members) organized art shows, community fiestas, gardens, service learning projects, forums, gatherings and publications for more than a decade.  

One of La Academia’s most important initiatives was an oral history project through which many of the oldest residents from northern New Mexico’s Spanish-speaking villages were interviewed and their stories and insights carefully recorded and preserved. Tomás believed that it was not enough to gather this information from the community but argued that it should be returned to the community and serve as a catalyst for further dialogue, discussion and purposeful action.

The dynamic cycle of “thought and action,” he believed, ought to be directed at nurturing and enhancing what he termed “una vida buena y sana y alegre” (a good, healthy and happy life for the people). Between 1975 and 1977 the asociados, among them, Juan Estévan Arellano, a writer, editor and photographer, produced several issues of El Cuademo de Vez en Cuando (The Occasional Notebook), a scholarly publication exploring the politics of self-determination and consciousness-raising among the Mexicano/Chicano people of New Mexico and the Southwest, and Entre Verde y Seco (Green with Life bordering on Tinder Dry), a compilation of community-derived stories and folk wisdom. Both publications, together with La Madrugada (The Dawn), a pithy community newsletter, were distributed in northern New Mexican communities, where they prompted both dialogue and action among local residents.  

In his later years, Tomás taught in the sociology department of the University of New Mexico, doggedly advocating on behalf of the self-determination of the Sawmill working-class neighborhood of Albuquerque, stood up to the heroin trade in Dixon and helped launch the Learning While Serving AmeriCorps program, which had 120 members in northern New Mexico’s Indo-Hispano and Pueblo Indian communities. That project, administered by Siete del Norte of Embudo, was designed to reaffirm traditional agriculture and inspire a new generation of academically and agriculturally proficient young people.

Through the Río Grande Institute, a reincarnation of La Academia, Tomás and his intellectual equal and wife, Consuelo Pacheco, created a forum for dialogue between Native American and Indo-Hispano people that, among other things, resulted in the publication of a joint book of poetry, essays, photos and other artwork titled Ceremony of Brotherhood. Five years ago, just before the onset of his illness, Tomás coauthored with Miguel Montiel and E.A. (Tony) Mares, a long-awaited book titled Resolana, Emerging Chicano Dialogues and Globalization (University of Arizona Press).

In it, as well as in the prestigious Ernesto Galarza Lecture that he delivered at Stanford University years before, Tomás developed the kernels of his ideas for individual and community engagement into wonderfully articulated full-fledged treatises that focused on the community that he knew best—the Chicano community. Lucky for us, he took the time to pen this legacy; more importantly, he showed us how to live what he thought and believed, which is yet an even bigger legacy.

Gracias, Tomás.

Alejandro López, a photographer and writer in English and Spanish, was one of the original asociados ofLa Academia de La Nueva Raza and specialized in the gathering of oral history among the elderly of northern New Mexico. He also served as a director of the Learning While Serving AmeriCorps program. First published in the Green Fire Times, January 31, 2014.

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

EDUCATION

A photo of the cover of Wired Magazine on a newsstand in New York City. 
(Photo: Andrew O'Reilly/Fox News Latino)

The Next Steve Jobs Is A 12-Year-Old Mexican Girl
Published November 01, 2013
Fox News Latino

A major U.S. technology publication claims to have found the next Steve Jobs – and she lives nowhere near Silicon Valley.

Wired magazine believes they have found the world’s next tech genius in a Mexican border town. Paloma Noyola Bueno, 12, lives in Matamoros, attends a school that sits next to a municipal waste dump and is supported by her mother and other family members who get by selling scrap metal and food in the streets.

So what makes this little girl from a border city that for years was embroiled in a turf war between the Zetas and Gulf drug cartels so special? Last year, this tween, the youngest of eight children, scored a maximum of 921 in Mexico’s version of the SATs – making her test score the best in the nation.

While Paloma’s talent, especially given the dire conditions she lives and goes to school in, is almost unheard of, much of the Wired’s article focuses on the teaching methods of her educator.  

Sergio Juárez Correa, 32, employs a “minimally invasive education" concept pioneered by Sugata Mitra, a professor of educational technology at Britain's Newcastle University. This technique lets students tap into their own curiosity and self-learning to solve problems.

Under this system, Juárez Correa saw his students’ scores in Spanish and math skyrocket, with nine other students scoring over 900 in the math section of the standardized test.  

School officials lamented that the limits of Mexico’s education system, paired with the violence the children have to deal with, may have stunted Paloma’s educational growth. The school lacks basic facilities like running water, drainage or a telephone line and two of her classmates disappeared halfway through the school year without anybody knowing why.

"If Paloma had the same opportunities or open doors as Steve Jobs, she probably would be a genius in this subject," Juárez Correa said, according to Agence France-Presse.

Paloma’s genius, however, has gotten the recognition it deserves. The young girl was recently sent to Mexico City for a mental math competition and she has become a media darling in her home country after the Wired article appeared.

Despite all the press, the miniature mathlete seems happy to just be learning.b  “I'm very happy,” she said. “If you want it, you can do it."-

http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/lifestyle/2013/11/01/next-steve
-jobs-is-12-year-old-mexican-girl-wired-magazine-says/ 

Sent by Dorinda Moreno
pueblosenmovimientonorte@gmail.com 

Editor Mimi. . .  Lorri received this email as a result of sharing the above photo:
What a treasure! Thanks for sharing. My dad Peter Ruiz was the Plant Manager for Los Angeles Unified School District for 25 years. He inspired each of his children , Rosemary, Lorraine and Paul to become teachers. Rosemary is a retired music teacher. Paul is a PE a Teacher and I teach Elementary School English Language Development. We all have fond memories of LASD.  I loved seeing all these beautifully handwritten signatures.

UT establishes Mexican-American studies department
By Ralph K.M. Haurwitz- Austin American-Statesman Staff
Sept. 10, 2014  

The University of Texas is stepping up its offerings in Mexican-American studies by establishing a full-fledged academic department devoted to the field.

The Department of Mexican American and Latina/o Studies — the somewhat tongue-twisting title acknowledges both genders — is offering bachelor’s and master’s degree programs this fall, and doctoral programs are scheduled to be part of the mix in 2016-17, pending approval by state higher education officials. In addition, a Borderlands Research Institute will be established to support community-based data collection projects.

“This new department will bring together some of the nation’s finest scholars from a variety of academic disciplines and further advance our college and university as a national leader in the study of Mexican American and Latino populations,” said Randy Diehl, dean of the College of Liberal Arts, of which the new department and the planned institute are part.  

Mexican-American and Latin American studies are nothing new at UT. The Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin

 American Studies, founded in 1940, offers programs leading to bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees. The Center for Mexican American Studies, established in 1970, is also well-regarded in the field, as is the Benson Latin American Collection, whose holdings include nearly 1 million books and publications, 19,000 maps, 100,000 photographs and a variety of audio and visual materials.

The new department is intended to expand UT’s teaching and research, and one of its signature elements will be a focus on the United States’ changing demographic landscape, said Domino Perez, director of the Center for Mexican American Studies, who noted that Latinos make up a third of the state’s population. Degree tracks will include cultural studies, policy, and language and cognition.

About 25 students at UT are currently majoring in Mexican-American studies. The new department expects to have 50 after a year and 100 after two years. The Long institute has a total of 116 undergraduate and graduate students, and its offerings will continue.

NBC News
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/ut-austin-creates-major-mexican-american-latino-studies-n199736
http://www.mystatesman.com/news/news/state-regional/ut-establishes-mexican-american-studies-department
/nhKgh/#003d59d5.3585579.735486

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

EXCLUSIVE:
 90 New York city schools failed to pass a single black or Hispanic student on state tests, study shows by Stephen Rex Brown, Ben Chapman, New York Daily News
   

Families for Excellent Schools CEO Jeremiah Kittredge said the study’s findings should shock the city Education Department into taking fresh action to help struggling students.

“It’s time for bold and transformational change,” said Kittredge. “We need to acknowledge that this is not the fault of children — it’s the fault of our system.”

Education Department officials have struggled for years to close the persistent achievement gap faced by black and Hispanic kids in the city’s public schools.

Although black and Hispanic students posted better scores on the 2014 exams compared with 2013, the achievement gap still worsened, since white and Asian kids saw bigger increases.  

Read more:

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/education/exclusive-achievement-gap-worsens-black-hispanic-students-article-1.1924366#ixzz3CjhFaGQD
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/education/exclusive-achievement-gap-worsens-black-hispanic-students-article-1.1924366#ixzz3Cjh5PvLi 

Shane McGregor, 12, left, and Bruce, 17, work in the living room on their coursework while their mother and teacher, Deanna, reviews more curriculum for her children's homeschooling. (Photo: Ken Harper/Creative Commons)

• In 2003, 85 percent of parents said they chose homeschooling because of “a concern about the school environment” which included worry about safety, drugs or negative peer pressure. That number jumped to 91 percent by 2011.

• In 2003, 72 percent said “a desire to provide religious or moral instruction” was a major reason. In 2011, that number had increased to 77 percent.

• In 2003, 68 percent said “dissatisfaction with academic instruction at other schools” contributed to their decision. By 2011, that was up to 74 percent.

But, there is quite a gap between what the NEA believes about homeschooling and the actual results from homeschooling.

Sent by Odell Harwell  odell.harwell74@att.net 

School Accused of 'Purging' Christian books by Todd Starnes

It’s hard to imagine that any school would have a problem with a book about a Christian family that helped Jews escape the Holocaust. But Springs Charter Schools in Temecula, Calif., not only had a problem with “The Hiding Place,” they also took issue with any other book that was written by a Christian author or included a Christian message.

“We do not purchase sectarian educational materials and do not allow sectarian materials on our state-authorized lending shelves,” Superintendent Kathleen Hermsmeyer wrote in a letter to attorneys at the Pacific Justice Institute (PJI).

Pacific Justice Institute is representing a parent who discovered what they called a “Christian purging” of the charter school’s library.

“She was told by one of the library attendants that the library has been instructed to remove all books with a Christian message, authored by Christians, or published by a Christian publishing company,” read a letter PJI sent to the public charter school. “The attendant advised that the library would no longer be carrying those books. Indeed, our client was told that the library was giving those books away, and she actually took some.”

Among the books deemed inappropriate, the PJI said, was “The Hiding Place” the biography of Corrie ten Boom, a Dutch Christian who was imprisoned by the Germans for helping Jews escape the Holocaust.

“It is alarming that a school library would attempt to purge books from religious authors,” said Brad Dacus, president of the religious advocacy group. “This is a major sweep by this charter school to eliminate the religious viewpoint. Libraries cannot engage in an open purging of books simply because they are of a Christian perspective.”

Dacus said the charter school must reverse “their ill-conceived and illegal book-banning policy.” If they fail to do so, he said, PJI is prepared to take further legal action.

So why would a public charter school take issue with books written by Christians? I figured Superintendent Hermsmeyer would be more than willing to set the record straight and explain the book purging. It seems I figured wrong. I gave her 24 hours to return my calls, and as of this writing, she has not done so.

But she did reply to the letter she received from Pacific Justice Institute. And what she told them was a bit alarming.  “We are a public school, and as such, we are barred by law from purchasing sectarian curriculum materials with state funds,” she wrote. “We only keep on our shelves the books that we are authorized to purchase with public funds.”

Editor:  As more and more action is taken to eliminate Christian values and beliefs from  public schools textbooks,  teaching about other religions has increased.  Some of text books that I've viewed seemed to present world religions, such as Islam, with selective history, slanted and not always correct.

Radio Bilingüe and KPFK to Air presents "Latino Education: Crisis and Response"

A Live National Community Forum from Boyle Heights - Los Angeles  
Wednesday September 17 2014  11am - 2pm PT   
EDITOR Mimi < Although this date is passed, I thought it of interest to know that it had happened.

"What Can Be Done NOW to turn around the crisis preventing Latino educational success?" 

Answers will be illuminated in a live Radio Bilingüe-produced bilingual community forum from Boyle Heights, Los Angeles featuring renowned Latino education scholar Patricia Gándara on Wednesday September 17, 2014 from 11am to 2 pm PT.   

The forum will be broadcast live nationwide on the Radio Bilingüe (RB) National Latino Public Radio Network and in Los Angeles by partnering Pacifica public radio station KPFK 90.7 FM.  Hours 1&3 will be conducted in English and Hour 2 in Spanish. The public is invited to attend and participate with questions and comments during the event at Casa 0101 Theater in the Boyle Heights neighborhood, 2102 E. First St., Los Angeles, CA 90033. 

Dr. Gándara, Co-Director of the Civil Rights Project at UCLA, is author of numerous pioneering works on closing Latino education disparities, including "The Latino Education Crisis: The Consequences of Failed Social Policies." She will be joined on the panel by members of "Los MacArturos" - Latino recipients of the MacArthur Foundation's prestigious "Genius" Fellowships.    

The hosting community of Boyle Heights is a longstanding working-class Mexican American/Latino neighborhood on Los Angeles' Eastside, whose schools are part of the Los Angeles Unified School District, second largest district in the nation.  With LAUSD's student population three-quarters Latino and battling stark dropout rates, the forum will explore: How severe is the Latino education crisis and how can it be repaired? Who needs to step up to the plate?

The special Línea Abierta/Open Line forum is part of RB's series Diploma en Mano/Diploma in Hand, supported by The Corporation for Public Broadcasting's initiative American Graduate - Let's Make it Happen!   Each hour will be designed as stand-alone and stations may carry any or all hours live or recorded via radiobilingue.org or Content Depot. The recorded programs will also be posted at PRX, a web platform for distribution of public radio programs:

Hour 1  11am-12 noon PT     English - Host Richard Gonzales, veteran public media journalist  
Hour 2   12 noon-1 pm PT     Spanish -  Host Graciela "Chelis" López of RB's  Línea Abierta  
Hour 3 1-2 pm PT    English - Co-hosted by Gonzales and López  

Local broadcast partner for the forum is KPFK 90.7 FM, a listener-sponsored station of the Pacifica Radio Network serving audiences in the Greater Los Angeles area, including the Inland Empire, Santa Barbara, and Southern California. The Alliance for California Traditional Arts (ACTA) is also partnering in the coordination and promotion of the forum. 

Línea Abierta, the first and only Spanish-language news talk show broadcast nationally over the public radio satellite system, is a service of Radio Bilingüe, a national non-commercial network based in California that distributes Latino-oriented journalism and cultural programming to more than 100 affiliate stations nationwide.  

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
RADIO BILINGÜE
María de Jesús Gómez 
559-455-5782 
chuyag@radiobilingue.org 
or visit www.radiobilingue.org 

Hugo Morales, Executive Director, Radio Bilingüe, Inc.  Celebrando 28 años de Noticiero Latino y 18 años de Línea Abierta!  

The first and only Spanish-language network news service for U.S. public radio.  Hosting the national Latino conversation.  

• KSJV-FM 91.5 Fresno CA • KMPO-FM 88.7 Modesto CA •  
• KTQX-FM 90.1 Bakersfield CA• KHDC-FM 90.9 Salinas CA •  
• KUBO-FM 88.7 El Centro CA • KVUH-FM 88.5 Laytonville CA •  
• K233AV-FM 94.5 Paso Robles CA • K246BO-FM 97.1 Paso Robles CA •  
• KVMG-FM 88.9 Raton NM • KYOL-FM 91.7 Chama NM •  
• KQTO-FM 88.1 Hurley NM • • KHUI-FM 89.1 Alamosa CO •  
 • KREE-FM 88.1 Douglas AZ • KRZU-FM 90.7 Batesville TX •  
 • 89.3 FM Zapata TX • and Affiliates •

Radio Bilingue Discussion Summary
by Tom Saenz, Retired Educator

Some discussion took place regarding categorical funds earmarked for Latino students in terms of how they are being spent by school districts.

We need to train and empower Latino parents for greater involvement in the education of their children. 

Carlos Slim Foundation Launches Free Online Site for U.S. Latino Community 
by Geeks News Desk Broad Way World  

WASHINGTON, Aug. 12, 2014 /PRNewswire/ Today, the Carlos Slim Foundation unveiled Acceso Latino, a free website created to provide U.S. Latinos easy access to tools and content about education, healthcare, job training, culture and more. This site will serve as a valuable resource to help Latinos succeed in the United States.

"We're proud to launch Acceso Latino, a completely free website that can provide Latinos access to better opportunities through education, learning English, and job training," said Carlos Slim Helu. "Acceso Latino will put valuable knowledge at the fingertips of everyone who wants to learn new skills and engage with their community. It is a simple but powerful resource that can potentially help millions of people improve their lives."

At over 40 million people [NiLP Note: There are actually more than 57 million, if you incude Puerto Rico], Latinos make up the largest ethnic minority in the United States. That's why Acceso Latino was created: to provide a support network for this growing and developing community. Today, 80% of adult Latinos say that they are able to connect to the Internet. Yet many of them still struggle to find access to high value information that they can use to improve their lives and those of their families.  

The Carlos Slim Foundation has identified a number of areas that are most associated with long-term success. Acceso Latino will provide content, free of charge and in Spanish, in each of these critical areas:

Online job training for in-demand employment, both in the United States and in their country of origin, as well as information about financial literacy. Today, Latinos comprise nearly 20% of the American work force, and this website will help them become better equipped to succeed.

Academic education from elementary to the university level provided by Khan Academy, MIT-Open Course Ware, Coursera and Academica, that includes courses from top level universities such as Harvard, Stanford and Mexicos National University, as well as original materials. Today less than 55% of Hispanic students graduate from high school. Materials provided through Acceso Latino will help more students build the skills they need to succeed.

Online resources for learning English and subjects like American history and civics.  

Health care information on common topics, including professional medical advice on maintaining a healthy lifestyle for the whole family. Better health education and awareness can prevent chronic disease and unnecessary emergency room visits.

Information on human and labor rights.

Acceso Latino displays information in an easy-to-use format on each topic, complete with videos that walk users of any skill level through a step-by-step process. Acceso Latino is a collaborative effort with organizations that work with the Latino community across the United States.  

Dr. Roberto Tapia-Conyer, CEO of the Carlos Slim Foundation, explained how anyone can access the website. Dr. Tapia said. "Acceso Latino was designed with everyone in mind. No matter your nation of origin, age, level of ability, or ultimate goal, the website has something for you."  

Visit the website at  www.accesolatino.org

About the Carlos Slim Foundation

Created in 1986 to impact the most vulnerable populations, the Carlos Slim Foundation has directly benefited millions of people. With a marked sense of social responsibility, efficiency, and proven results, the Foundation has programs in various fields, such as education, employment, health, nutrition, social justice, culture, human development, support during natural disasters, protection and conservation of the environment, and economic development. These programs help improve the quality of life for populations of all ages, fostering the development of human capital and generating opportunities for people, their communities, and their countries.

Sent by Kirk Whisler  
kirk@whisler.com  

CULTURE

Mattel Launched Mariachi Barbie And This Is What She Looks Like For its “Dolls Of The World” collection, Mattel has created Barbies that represent different cultures and countries around the world.  This year’s doll for Mexico is dressed in a full mariachi outfit.  Mattel / Via barbiecollector.com  

Dia de los Muertos in San Antonio
Video 3:38 minutes highlighting some of the activities in San Antonio’s observance of Dia de los Muertos.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwMhSUPsloY
Sent by John Inclan

Mixed choral Reading by Mimi Lozano

I wrote this choral reading in 1991 as an simple non-taxing exercise for ESL teacher to use in the classroom in celebration and observation of Hispanic Heritage Month,  It is my hope that students will enjoy the choral reading and learn a little bit more about the Spanish explorers and colonizers who circled the globe, prepared maps, and marked the way.