SOMOS PRIMOS 
"We are Cousins"
FEBRUARY 2017
Editor: Mimi Lozano 
(c) 2000-2017


Artist Ignacio Gomez  
Cesar Chavez Maquette 

After three years of planning and preparation,  the Cesar Chavez Monument in Riverside, California was unveiled, on June 8, 2015 at the intersection of Main and University streets. 

The maquette, the statue's preliminary model, will be placed in the office of the  Department of Agriculture in Washington, DC.   
              Congratulations Ignacio!!

        Click to Zoot Suit poster by Ignacio.

TABLE OF CONTENTS    

United States
Historic Tidbits 
Hispanic Leaders
American Patriots
Early American Patriots
Surnames
DNA
Family History

Education
Religion 
Culture

Books and Print Media
Orange County, CA
Los Angeles County, CA
California
Northwestern US
Southwestern US
Texas
Middle America
East Coast
Caribbean Region
African-American
Indigenous
Sephardic
Archaeology
Mexico
Central & South America
Philippines
Spain
International

Submitters or attributed to:

Somos Primos Advisors   
Mimi Lozano, Editor
Mercy Bautista Olvera
Roberto Calderon, Ph,D.
Dr. Carlos Campos y Escalante
Bill Carmena
Lila Guzman, Ph.D
John Inclan
Juan Marinez
J.V. Martinez, Ph.D
Dorinda Moreno
Rafael Ojeda
Ángel Custodio Rebollo
Tony Santiago
John P. Schmal
Dr. Félix D. Almaraz, Ph.D.
Dr. Armando Alonzo, Ph.D.
Welester Alvarado Carrillo
Dan Arellanos 
Harry P. Arnn, Ph.D. 
Mercy Bautista Olvera
Eva Booher
Dr. Irene Blea, Ph.D. 
Marie Bruns
Eddie AAA Calderón, Ph.D.
Dr. C. Campos y Escalante 
Juan P. Castro
Bill Carmena
Jack Carmena
Gus Chavez
Stephen Cure  
Wade Falcon
Salvador Flores
Ignacio Gomez
Odell Harwell 
Rigoberto Hernandez  
Michael Hogan
John Inclan
Soeren Kern
Talin Kretchmer
Wendy Kramer
José María Lancho
Jose Antonio Lopez
Juan Marinez
Nick Petrie

Gilberto Quezada 
Jesús Ramírez
Crispin Rendon
Jeffrey Richardson
Lorri Ruiz Frain 
Tom Saenz 
Joe Sanchez
John Schmal 
Mary Schultz
Luis Serna
Sister Mary Sevilla, CSJ
Dr. Albert Vela, Ph.D.
Nancy Walton
Kirk Whisler  
Minnie Wilson
Yomar Villarreal Cleary

Letters to the Editor

Gracias Mimi, son excelentes tus articulos, te agradezco por tu arduo y hermoso trabajo que haces, ya por bastantes anos.

Mi pregunta para ti es, puedo compartir tus paginas en mi cuenta de Facebook?
Saludos desde California.

Sinceramente, Rigoberto Hernandez  
hrnndzrgbrt@yahoo.com  
Thank you so very much Mimi . You inspire and motivate . You keep doing what you're doing for as long as you can ! 
Love and light, Welester 

hombrepi@hotmail.com
 
Welester Alvarado Carrillo
Dear Mimi, 
  
Every month I look forward to receiving your journal, Somos Primos, as it is truly informative and inspirational, with excellent messages to live by. My sincere appreciation and thank you for sharing my family's events with your readers. The November issue had  articles that I wanted to respond to, but did not get around to commenting on. One was about the gentleman who wrote about New Mexico. Only recently did I become aware of the fact that probably many of my ancestors and relatives came to California from New Mexico. And that New Mexico was founded by our Jewish ancestors (Romeros, etc.), and then connecting the Trujillo family and others to the Agua Mansa monument in Riverside/San Bernardino, California. Will be working on this project soon. 
Then you put me in touch with Aurora Murillo Moreno of Stockton, CA. Aurora is indeed my cousin and we keep in touch. I added Aurora to my Ruiz/Romero family tree with Ancestry.com in all due respect to her family (long story here--needs to be off the record). Aurora is a descendant of the Arguello family. I work on my family tree often and have discovered fantastic information about my ancestors--this is provided that I have added all the correct information about ancestors. I do not wish to share info with the public until I have an opportunity to run all the info through a proper person who does genealogy. My tree shows my family connections to many Early Californio families--Santiago Arguello, Francisco Ortega, Pacheco, Carrillo, Lopez and more Lopez, Trastamara, Tudor, Queen Isabella of Spain, and King Ferdinand of Spain, etc. You are most welcome to checkout my tree. I urge everyone to continue working on their family trees--the rewards are exciting and wonderful.
Blessings and love, Mimi.
Sincerely, Lorri Ruiz Frain 
lorrilocks@gmail.com
 

 

Thank you, Mimi for all you have done in helping so many of us tell our stories. I am glad that I was once again able to submit another true story, better yet, two true stories of my life here on planet earth: the story of Lenny Pelullo in the jungles of Vietnam and at the Amsterdam Housing Projects with my dad. 

One can watch the story of me and my dad standing at the projects on a special TV documentary scheduled to come out, April, 2017, concerning the 50th anniversary of the construction of Lincoln Center for the performing arts. I believe it will be with the Tribeca Film Festival. It tells the story of the many families living in tenement buildings, across the street and a little farther north from the Amsterdam Housing Projects. this area was once known as "San Juan Hill", and I am not talking about Cuba in the Spanish American war of 1898. It's been written that it got its name because of the Black Americans who fought in Cuba's San Juan Hill. check it out on wikipedia.

Getting back to Lincoln Center, thousands of people were forced to leave their homes and relocate elsewhere. This started back in 1957, if I recall right. My family was forced to relocate to the South Bronx in 1958. the rest is history.

I have tried to encourage others i know to submit their stories to Somos Primos, be they Latinos or not. In somos primos { cousins } we are all family, so I want to encourage those on my contact list to check out Somos Primos January 2017, and see for themselves the many great stories and photos, shared by others. 

 Joe Sanchez bluewall@mpinet.net   1/9/2017
Mimi...! Thanks again for a great "Somos...!" 
I look forward to it every issue and enjoy it so much..! Happy New Year..!
Louis Serna  sernabook@comcast.net 

11/25/2016  jmcamelot@gmail.com writes:

Estimada Sra. Lozano,

Me llamo José María Lancho, soy un abogado de España y me interesa mucho la presencia hispana en los Estados Unidos y el proceso en que lo hispánico ha conformado y sigue adaptando el gran proyecto
norteamericano.

Suelo colaborar en varios diarios españoles y espero tener ocasión demencionar su publicación.

En todo caso le felicito por su enorme trabajo, echando solamente de menos que el idioma español, un patrimonio norteamericano también, no esté más presente en su muy digna publicación.

Con todo mi respeto y admiración, reciba un cordial saludo desde Madrid.
José María Lancho
 
Muy estimado Jose Maria . . .
 
Thank you so much for your kind comments concerning Somos Primos.  I am delighted to know you are reading Somos Primos, and will be sharing with friends and colleagues.

The mission of Somos Primos is to promote a better understanding of the important global contributions of Spain in exploring and mapping the globe.  Our ancestors were among the first Europeans to successfully settle and establish  families in the wilderness of the Americas and all over the world. 

The articles in Somos Primos are submitted in both English and Spanish.  They are published in the language submitted.   I welcome articles received in both English/Spanish.
 
Have you researched your Lancho family history? 
Lancho is a surname totally unfamiliar to me. 
Here are some websites which I think you will find of interest. 
Click here: Genealogy of Lancho - Lancho Historical Records
 
This last link is for the location of centers in Spain,  open to the public for free, manned by volunteers to help researchers with their family history research.  There are two Family Search Centers located in Madrid.

I have included your email to receive the monthly notifications.  Do enjoy and please feel personally invited to send items of heritage interest to share with Somos Primos readers.
 
With your permission, I will include your letter to me in Letters to the Editor in the December issue.   It appears that Lancho does have a presence in the United States on the East coast, the north.  Maybe you will find some US primos.
 
God bless, Mimi
www.SomosPrimos.com
714-894-8161

Estimada amiga Mimi,

Muchas gracias por incluirme en la difusión de su magnífica publicación. He leído con mucho gusto ese reflejo de la inmensa ycompleja realidad hispánica en Norteamérica..

Por si fuera de su interés le remito una reflexión jurídica que con mucha generosidad me ha publicado el diario ABC en su prestigiosa Tercera. Abordo el tema de la nacionalidad de Cristóbal Colón desde un punto de vista jurídico. Creo que no se había hecho antes. Si le pareciera interesante le rogaría que lo compartiera. Si lo hispánico tiene que ser liderado desde América que sean suyos los argumentos que modestamente desarrollo en mi artículo y que demuestra la irrevocable decisión de Cristóbal Colón de imaginar políticamente una comunidad hispana superando los antiguos reinos de Castilla y Aragón, pues aunque jurídicamente Colón exige y adopta por voluntad propia la naturalización como castellano políticamente sus ideas van más allá.

En fin, espero que lo disfrute. 
http://www.abc.es/opinion/abci-nacionalidad-cristobal-colon-201701081724_noticia.html 

Un sentido abrazo
José María Lancho 
 jmcamelot@gmail.com 

Editor Mimi:  This article is included in this issue, 
click Lancho.


SOMOS PRIMOS |  P.O. 490  |  Midway City, CA  |  92655-0490  |  mimilozano@aol.com  |  www.SomosPrimos.com  |  714-894-8161




 

 

UNITED STATES

YouTube: President Trump's entire inaugural address
Learn the Protection Granted You in the United States of America Constitution
Students arrested for giving out copies of the US Constitution - Freedom to read
Students reprimanded for expressing personal opinions - Freedom to think
5 minute Video: School choice
Election Facts:  Deduct California,  and Trump won the popular votes 51.3% to Hillary's 48.7%.
Latino Representation in California (1849-2017) by John P. Schmal, January 15, 2017
Jose Antonio López: The Seven Sisters of Texas (Las siete hermanas de Tejas)
The Roots of the Matter: Multiracial individuals celebrate at Mixed Remixed Festival 
Remembering A School 40 years later, a Fight for Equality 
His Players Disrespected The National Anthem, What This Coach Does in Response

 


President Trump's entire inaugural address https://youtu.be/VJD5Ry

 

 

Learn the Protection Granted You in the 
United States of America Constitution
Hillsdale College, Michigan

============================================ =============================================

Fellow American:   One of the greatest gifts God has given Americans is our freedom. Even with all the turmoil and oppression we see in the world around us, we still too often take these freedoms for granted.

In our great country, the Constitution is the document that protects it. After the Bible, it is the single most important document in the world. Most Americans think they know it well, since they learned about it in school.  

But far too few Americans truly understand the Constitution and the freedoms it protects.Activate your personal Constitution 101 course today --   you'll get weekly lessons via email and can take quizzes to test your knowledge as you learn.

In the fight to preserve our freedoms, our greatest enemy is ignorance. Become an expert on the document that secures and preserves your freedom -- the U.S. Constitution.   

We've made our renowned Constitution 101 course free for all Americans to take online -- 
the same course that every Hillsdale student must take to graduate, regardless of their major.   


Start your free Constitution 101 course today.

"Hillsdale offers an education designed to equip human beings for self-government." 
Larry P. Arnn, President, Hillsdale College





THE FREEDOM TO SPEAK
Alliance Defending Freedom


The fight was in the ring in 2011, 2013, 2014 and 2015, and now it’s back – and this time it’s in a courtroom.

The Alliance Defending Freedom has filed a lawsuit against Kellogg Community College in Michigan for allegedly arresting three students for handing out copies of the U.S. Constitution.  http://www.wnd.com/2017/01/again-students-arrested-for-handing-out-constitution/ 

The college alleges the students violated the First Amendment and the school’s solicitation policy, which “states that students and others must obtain permission from the school before they engage in any expressive activity anywhere on campus, including distribution of any written material.”

The lawsuit names trustees Steve Claywell, Jill Booth, Matthew Davis, Reba Harrington, Jonathan Byrd, Jule Camp Seifke and Patrick O’Donnell, and members of the management staff.

“The policy is unconstitutional for that reason, and also because it grants college officials too much discretion to restrict the content and viewpoint of student speech if it does not ‘support the mission of Kellogg Community College (KCC) or the mission of a recognized college entity or activity,” ADF said.

Get anything from a copy of the U.S. Constitution to “Constitutional Chaos by Andrew Napolitano” to the “Legalize the Constitution” bumper sticker at the WND Superstore.

“All public colleges – which are supposed to be the ‘marketplace of ideas’ – have the duty to protect and promote the First Amendment’s guarantee of free speech,” said ADF Legal Counsel Travis Barham. “Ignoring this duty, KCC arrested these club supporters for exercising this freedom, and, ironically, for handing out copies of the very document – the Constitution – that protects what they were doing.”

See a video report:

School officials told WND they just became aware of the issue on Wednesday and their legal counsel would address it.

The complaint in federal court in Michigan, on behalf of the local Young Americans for Liberty chapter and students Michelle Gregoire and Brandon Withers, explains the school had its security officers arrest them for “handing out copies of the U.S. Constitution while talking with students about the club.”

Gregoire, Withers and three other YAL supporters were talking with students about the club and handing out pocket-sized copies of the Constitution. ADF said they were not blocking access to buildings or pedestrian traffic and were not interfering with any KCC activities or other planned events.

Campus security told the YAL members they were violating the soliciting policy.

“One of the administrators told the supporters that ‘engaging [students] in conversation on their way to educational places’ is a violation of the solicitation policy because it is an ‘obstruction to their education’ to ask them questions like, ‘Do you like freedom and liberty?,’ adding that he was concerned that the students from ‘rural farm areas…might not feel like they have the choice to ignore the question,'” ADF said.

When the students told KCC officials they were “going to continue exercising their First Amendment freedoms,” they were arrested.

“Today’s college students will be tomorrow’s legislators, judges, commissioners, and voters,” said ADF Senior Counsel Casey Mattox. “That’s why it’s so important that public universities model the First Amendment values they are supposed to be teaching to students, and why it should disturb everyone that KCC and many other colleges are communicating to a generation that the Constitution doesn’t matter.”

The case is far from new, however.
In 2011, WND reported a library banned distribution of the Constitution. A federal judge in Shasta County Superior Court in Northern California granted an injunction that cleared the way for the distribution to continue.

In 2013, the dispute took place on the campus of Modesto Junior College in California. A lawsuit was launched by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education against the school.

FIRE President Greg Lukianoff said at the time the school administrators, who were caught on camera intervening, “were so unfamiliar with the basic principles of free speech that they prevented him from passing out the Constitution to his fellow students on Constitution Day.”

“Even in the face of national shock and outrage, the college has failed to reform its absurd ‘free speech zone.’ Now it will have to defend that policy in federal court,” he said.

It was just one of several incidents that developed about the same time in Ocala, Florida, and Madison, Wisconsin.  

In 2014, officials at Southern Oregon University threatened to call police on students handing out the Constitution.  And in 2015, at Penn State, students were confronted by a police officer and told they needed to stop handing out the Constitution.

Get anything from a copy of the U.S. Constitution to “Constitutional Chaos by Andrew Napolitano” to the “Legalize the Constitution” bumper sticker at the WND Superstore.


Read more at
http://www.wnd.com/2017/01/again-students-arrested-for-handing-out-constitution/#smfRx7pRAsCOhCtr.99 





THE FREEDOM TO THINK
in the classroom  

 I received this Twitter tidbit, which started me thinking  . .  Mimi
As seen on Twitter - July 7, 2015 
Will Saletan @saietan  writes: My son was marked down 5 percent on a high school health test because he chose this "incorrect" definition of family.   

Select on answer . . . a Family is . . . . 
(a.) Should be two parents, children and perhaps some extended members living together 
(b.) Should have two working adults to provide food and shelter to its members 
(c)  A collection of related-by-blood individuals living together         
(d.) Should provide the wants and needs of its younger members 
(e.) A collection of individuals who care for and about each other


Select one:  My son selected (c) and was graded  Incorrect; 
Correct answer was (e) a Family is a collection of individuals who care !or and about each other. 

Editor Mimi:  This incident is being replayed in classrooms all over the United States.  The teacher's opinion is considered the only correct position to hold on any issue.  This accepted form of dictatorship  is not new, carried to extreme by teachers is surely damning the student to narrowness of thought, and absorbing ideas, without processing them, like programmed  robots.  

In 1976,  I sat in for my daughter's classes for a week at Santa Ana College.  It was a summer session which over-lapped with her last week of her regular semester at Brigham Young University, BYU.  

It was either a sociology or psychology class, I don't remember, but the topic was family relations. The instructor started out the first day of class aggressively defying contradicting him  He stated that if anyone really believed there were normal mother/father/children families anymore, they were delusional. 

"Does anyone know any families like that now?" he asked loudly.  I quickly threw up my hand and responded loudly, "Yes, I do!"  Surprised and startled he turned towards me, trying to assess me.  He paused, and then softly said,  "Yes, I believe you do."   

I was a little worried for my daughter, if my standing up to the instructor would affect her grade, but  fortunately it did not.  My daughter handled the class discussions just fine, and ended up being an attorney.

Fifty years ago, a social movement of the "I" generation was chipping away at family ideals.  My daughter's college teacher was expressing that sentiment.  

Unfortunately, we are seeing the results of those ideas in the only correct answer requested and demanded by the teacher of  Will Saletan's son.

For many years I have viewed media with a very suspicious eye.  I look at all media with questions.  What concept are they really trying to get across:  What does the title say? Opening and closing paragraphs? Why did they chose a specific picture?  Where is the article placed, inside margin, on the edge?  What page? Size of letters? Extracted quotes?   Is the reporter being an columnist, or is a columnist pretending to be a reporter?  

If you have not been a critic of media, this is a good time to start.  We are bombarded with collages tying together visuals with embedded ideas, selling something.  Unfortunately, the mind shaping starts very early. Our citizenship requires vigilance and keeping informed with reliable facts. We need to step back and ask what are they selling (ideas) and why?

God bless America 


https://www.prageru.com/school-choice-now 

 

 

Election Facts:  Deduct California,  
and Trump won the popular votes 51.3% to Hillary's 48.7%.


Trump won the popular vote in 31 states to Hillary's 19 states + Washington, DC. 
Trump led in the total popular vote for all states except California. 

Hillary won California 5,860,714 to Trump’s 3,151,821.
California gave Hillary the accumulative popular vote for all states, but
deduct Hillary's California votes from her national vote, it leaves her with. . . . 54,978,783. and
deduct Trump’s California vote from his national total, leaves him with . . . . . 57,113.976.

Trump wins in the votes of all the other 49 states, 51.3% to her 48.7%.

This exemplifies the wisdom of the Electoral College, to prevent the votes of any one populace state from overriding the votes of the others. 

324,227, 000.  United States voters
    5,860,714.   California voters for Hillary                              

 If the Electoral College was not in place, the presidency representing 324,227,000 million voters would have been determined by Hillary's California supporter, but  California represents only  
1.8%  of ALL US voters.  
 The Electoral College worked exactly 
as the Founding Fathers intended.  
It is an inspired document.

~ Editor Mimi





Latino Representation in California (1849-2017)

 

By John P. Schmal
January 15, 2017  

 

 

The November 2016 Election

After the recent November 2016 Election, the representation of Latinos in the California Assembly increased from 23 to 27. With 27 assembly members out of 80 in the entire state, Latinos have achieved 34% representation. By comparison, the 2015 American Community Survey (ACS) reported that there were 14.7 million Latinos in California, representing 38.4% of the entire population.

 

In the California Senate, there are now five Latino Senators out of a total of 40 (13% representation). Thus, the total number of Latino California Legislators now numbers 32 out of 120 legislators, with about 27% representation in that body. This is in stark contrast to political situation in California from 1886 to the 1990s, when Latino representation was either non-existent or severely deficient. The struggle for Latino political representation has been a hard fought, long-term battle that started in 1848 and continues to this day.

The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848)

On May 13, 1846, the United States Congress, at the request of President James Knox Polk, declared war on the Mexican Republic. And thus began the Mexican-American War. The war in California ended less than a year later with the Treaty of Cahuenga, signed on January 13, 1847. Another year later, on February 2, 1848, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo forced Mexico to hand over to the United States 525,000 square miles of landing, including California.   

Of the treaty’s twenty-three articles, four defined the rights of Mexican citizens and Indian people in the territories. Californians were given the freedom to live in ceded territories as either American or Mexican citizens. The new American citizens would be entitled to “the enjoyment of all the rights of citizens of the United States according to the principles of the constitutions.”

The First California Constitution (1849)

A year later, forty-eight delegates met in Monterey to put together the first California Constitution. For six weeks from September to November 1849 the Constitutional Convention created a constitution that would guarantee rights to all citizens living within California’s borders. The final Constitution -- written in both English and Spanish -- provided that all major legislation in the future would be written in both English and Spanish.  

Article XI, Section 21 of California’s 1849 Constitution reflected the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo’s guarantee, declaring, “All laws, decrees, regulations, and provisions, which from their nature require publication, shall be published in English and Spanish.” Article II, “Right of Suffrage,” Section 1, stated that “Every white male citizen of the United States, and every white male citizen of Mexico, who shall have elected to become a citizen of the United States, under the treaty of peace exchanged and ratified at Queretaro, on the 30th day of May, 1848 of the age of twenty-one years, who shall have been a resident of the State six months next preceding the election, and the county or district in which he claims his vote thirty days, shall be entitled to vote at all elections which are now or hereafter may authorized by law.”  

Section 5 decreed: “Every citizen of California, declared a legal voter by this Constitution and every citizen of the United States, a resident of this State on the day of election, shall be entitled to vote at the first general election under this Constitution, and on the question of the adoption thereof.” Eight Californios -- six of them Mexican Californians -- represented Hispanic interests at the Convention. They were as follows:  

1.    Antonio M. Pico from San Jose

2.    Jacinto Rodriguez from Monterey

3.    Pablo de la Guerra from Santa Barbara

4.    M.G. Vallejo from Sonora

5.    Jos. Antonio Carrillo from Los Angeles

6.    Manuel Dominguez from Los Angeles

7.    Miguel de Pedrorena, a native of San Diego (from San Diego).

8.    Jos. M. Covarrubias, a native of France (representing Santa Barbara).  

The sad reality of this bilingual convention is that -- even before the ink was dry on the official paper -- certain Anglo-American interests were taking steps that would lead to a gradual and continuous appropriation of Chicano suffrage. This action, to some people, may have been regarded as the logical prerogative of a conquering people over a conquered people. But the conquerors -- once Mexico had requested peace -- signed a treaty and wrote a constitution that guaranteed citizenship and voting rights to the Californios who had well-established roots in this region. This had been a promise and, by 1893, most of these guarantees had been eliminated through legislation and plebiscites.
 

The Early California Legislature

During the first couple of decades, several prominent Californio families of Spanish and Mexican origin who held large tracts of land called ranchos, shared the reins of power with the Anglos who were arriving in their territory in ever-greater numbers. But, in the First California Constitutional Legislature, which commenced on December 15, 1849 in San Jose, was attended by a nineteen delegates from the northern states of the U.S. Another ten hailed from the southern states, but no natives of California were represented in the Assembly. Jose M. Covarrubias, a Californio landowner in the Santa Barbara area, but a native of France, was one of the few Assemblypersons with any strong California ties going back more than a decade.  

The first California Senate in 1849 was composed of nine members from northern states, five members from southern states, and only two members who were native Californians. The session lasted four months and adjourned on April 22, 1850. Less than half a year later, on September 9, 1850, California would be admitted as the thirty-first American state.  

The first session of the California Legislation after statehood commenced on January 6, 1851 and lasted until May 1, 1951. One of the delegates representing Los Angeles for the Whig Party was a well-known Californian named Andres Pico. Andres –- the brother of the last Mexican Governor, Pio Pico -- was the Mexican military officer who had fought the American forces under his commander, General Jose Maria Flores.  

Andres Pico

On January 13, 1847, Andres Pico, seeing that continued resistance to the American forces was hopeless, met with Lieutenant-Colonel John C. Fremont, the commander of the American forces, and signed the Treaty of Cahuenga in the San Fernando Valley. Article 5 of the capitulation declared, “Equal rights and privileges are vouchsafed to every citizen of California as are enjoyed by the citizens of the United States.”  

Andres Pico became the first Californio to be elected to the Assembly as the representative of District 2 in the 2nd (1851) and 3rd (1853) legislative sessions. He changed his party affiliation to Democrat and was elected to the Assembly from District 2 once again for the 9th (1858) and 10th (1859) legislative sessions. Another Californian landowner, Jose M. Covarrubias, served on the California state assembly off and on from 1849 to 1862, representing Santa Barbara district.  

Early Chicano Representation in California

For the first three decades after statehood, some Chicanos were able to find the occasional support of their constituency and represent their home districts. Pedro C. Carrillo of Santa Barbara served as a delegate from the 2nd District in 1854-55. Manuel A. Castro of San Luis Obispo served as a delegate from the 2nd District in 1856-57 and from the 6th District in 1863. Esteban Castro from Monterey served in the State Assembly as a delegate to the 3rd District (1857-58) and the 6th District (1863-65).  

Ygnacio Sepulveda of Los Angeles became a member of the California State Assembly in 1863-65 as the representative of the 2nd District. Ygnacio went on to become a Judge of the Seventeenth Judicial District, one of the first two Superior Court Justices in Los Angeles County. Another Californio, Mariano G. Pacheco served as a representative of California’s 3rd District from 1852 to 1854.  

Romualdo Pacheco

It was Mariano’s brother who stands as the most spectacular Chicano legislator during California’s Nineteenth Century. Born in Santa Barbara in 1831, Romualdo Pacheco was a proud Californian who also had roots in the Mexican state of Guanajuato. Señor Pacheco originally served as superior court judge in San Luis Obispo from 1853-1857. Romualdo moved on to serve in the State Assembly in 1853-55 and 1868-70. In 1857, he first started serving in the California State Senate and he continued to serve intermittently, also in 1861-63 and 1869-70.  

Romualdo served as a brigadier general in command of the First Brigade of California’s Native Cavalry during the American Civil War. During the Republican State Convention of 1863, Governor Stanford nominated Pacheco for the position of state treasurer. Fluent in both Spanish and English, Romualdo Pacheco was a popular politician who got along well with both Californians and Anglos-Americans and, in June 1871, he received the Republican Party nomination for Lieutenant Governor of California.  

In 1875, when Governor Newton Booth was elected to the U.S. Senate, Pacheco became the Governor of California. His stay in the Governor’s office was relatively short and, in November 1876, Romualdo ran for and was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives to serve in the Forty-fifth Congress (1877-1878), winning by a margin of one vote. He later served in the Forty-sixth and Forty-seventh Congresses (March 4, 1879 to March 3, 1883). Even after his career as a representative ended, Pacheco served in his later years as a minister to several Central American countries before his death in 1899.  

The Gradual Erosion of Voting Rights

As the Nineteenth Century wore on, a gradual erosion of Mexican-American’s rights as citizens took place. The Fifteenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States, ratified in 1870, had promised “the rights of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” In theory this amendment gave all Californian Mexican-Americans and other minorities a voice in both local and national politics.  

The 1879 California Constitution

In practice, however, the Fifteenth Amendment was flagrantly violated in the years to follow by the California Legislature. One of the most blatant examples of this was the adoption of the 1879 California Constitution. The revised Constitution officially rescinded the linguistic protective provisions of the 1849 Constitution, providing that “no person who shall not be able to read the Constitution in the English language and write his or her name, shall ever exercise the privileges of an elector in this State.” With one fell swoop, the guarantee of bilingual publication of laws was revoked and no documents relating to elections were thereafter published in Spanish.  

The English Literacy Requirement (1891)

In 1891, Assemblyman A. J. Bledsoe introduced an English literacy requirement as a proposed constitutional amendment in the State Assembly. Bledsoe had earlier belonged to the vigilante Committee of Fifteen that had expelled every person of Chinese ancestry from Humboldt County. In his introduction, he lamented the “the increased immigration of the illiterate and unassimilated elements of Europe” and expressed his belief that American labor force should be shielded “from this destructive competition.”  

Although the Assembly voted down the proposal on January 21, 1891, a flood of petitions from the public favoring the literacy requirement flooded Sacramento. With such overwhelming support from their constituents, the Legislature hastily adopted Bledsoe’s proposal as a constitutional amendment subject to ratification at the next general election. In 1894, the people of California voted to approve the English literacy requirement, which henceforth before part of Article II, Section 1.  

Anti-Immigrant Sentiment in California

The anti-immigrant attitude directed at Asians, Mexicans and Eastern Europeans prevailed into the first half of the Twentieth Century to the point that it was even written into the California election laws. Section 5567 of the California Elections Code, as adopted in 1941, required that elections be conducted in the English language and prohibited election officials from speaking any language other than English while on duty at the polling stations.  

Such actions violated the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and, therefore, were unconstitutional. But the literacy law remained on the books in California until it was challenged in the California courts many decades later. In the landmark court case, Genoveva Castro et al. versus the State of California, the constitutionality of the English literacy requirement was challenged. The Court eventually concluded that “the English literacy requirement was a direct product of the narrow and fearful nativism rampant in California politics at the end of the nineteenth century.”  

Interregnum: The Dark Years (1886-1963)

In the 77-year-period from 1886 to 1963, only one Hispanic representative from California (Miguel Estudillo) went to either Sacramento or Washington, D.C. For the first half of the Twentieth Century, anti-immigrant legislation and sentiment prevented fair political representation of Chicanos and other minorities groups in California. The one standout during this period, Miguel Estudillo, served Riverside as California State Senator (1904-1908) and as California State Assembly member (1908-1913).  

One of the most successful tactics for limiting minority representation is a practice known as gerrymandering. In California, legislatures were able to divide a county or city into oddly shaped representational districts to give political advantage to Anglos in elections. Thus, even in areas with a large Chicano community (such as East Los Angeles), fracturing and reapportionment were able to prevent Hispanics from getting elected to office for many decades.  

The Battle for Representation Begins (1961)

In 1961, Los Angeles City Councilperson, Edward Roybal, testifying before the State’s Reapportionment and Elections Committee, complained about the fragmentation of the Chicano communities in L.A. He stressed the importance of creating Hispanic districts. Although most of the redistricting that took place in 1961 (following the 1960 census) resulted in the continued gerrymandering of the Latino community in the Los Angeles area, one congressional district was created that would pave a way for Mr. Roybal to run for Congress.  

A New Generation Takes the Helm (1962-1963)

In 1962, Philip Soto and John Moreno became the first two Latinos from Los Angeles County to be elected to the California State Legislature in the Twentieth Century. (They took their offices in 1963.) They were also the first Latinos to be elected to serve in the State Assembly since the election of Miguel Estudillo of Riverside County in 1907. The election of these two men set a precedent for a long line of Latino legislators committed to the service of their communities.  

An important factor in the rise of Chicano power in the 1960s was World War II. Hundreds of thousands of Hispanic Americans served in the U.S. military, many receiving numerous decorations for their service. These proud veterans returned to their native land, but still experienced various forms of discrimination and prejudice. But, for the first time in a long time, one piece of legislation presented Chicano veterans with an opportunity for advancement in California.  

The G.I. Bill Act of June 22, 1944 –- also known as the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act put higher education within the reach of thousands of Mexican-American veterans. The Veterans' Readjustment Assistance Act of 1952 provided similar privileges to Korean War veterans. Over the next decade, Mexican-American veterans attended local and nationwide colleges and universities to obtain college degrees. In many cases, these vets were the first members of their families to receive a high education. Armed with the weapon of education, many of these Chicano veterans became the politicians of the 1960s and 1970s.  

John Moreno, a World War II veteran, was a Democrat from Los Angeles and served as a representative of the 51st District to the California State Assembly. Unfortunately, in 1964, when Moreno tried to run again, he was defeated in the Democratic Primary by Jack Fenton. In 1964, Soto won reelection by 2,178 votes in the general election. Facing the same opponent in 1966, however, he lost by 4,309 votes, possibly due to boundary changes of his district by the 1966 reapportionment.  

Edward Roybal: A Legislative Pioneer

On November 6, 1962, the Democrat Edward Ross Roybal became the first Hispanic from California to serve in Congress since the 1879 election of Romualdo Pacheco. A native of Albuquerque, New Mexico, Roybal had come to the Boyle Heights Barrio with his family when he was six years old. After serving in the U.S. Army during World War II, Edward Roybal ran for a seat on the Los Angeles City Council in 1947, but was defeated. Soon after, Roybal became one of the founders of the Community Service Organization (CSO). In 1949 the CSO held voter registration and get-out-the-vote drives in East Los Angeles and supported Roybal's bid for election to the Los Angeles City Council in 1949. He won, and was subsequently reelected and served until 1962.  

Edward Roybal took his seat in the House of Representatives on January 3, 1963 at the start of the 88th U.S. Congress. He would serve for twenty years from the 88th Congress to the 102nd Congress, retiring on January 3, 1993. At the start of his Congressional career, Representative Roybal represented the 30th District from 1963 to 1975. From 1975 to 1993, he served in the 25th District. In 1976, Roybal became one of the founding members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. In 1992, he chose not to run for reelection. That year his daughter, Lucille Roybal-Allard, was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, where she represented part of his old district, which had been divided in redistricting.
 

Voting Rights Move Forward (1965-2002)

The rights of Latinos were further reinforced by the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. This legislation, as amended in 1975 and 1982, prohibited the use of voting laws or procedures that discriminated against anyone on the basis of race, color, or membership in a minority language group. The provisions of this act outlawed the literacy tests that had kept so many Latinos out of the voting booth.  

In 1968, when the California Legislature was once again without Latino representatives, Alex Garcia, a Democrat from Los Angeles, was elected to the Assembly. Mr. Garcia had been a field Representative for Congressman Ed Roybal for five years before he decided to run for office in the State Assembly. Assemblyman Garcia was the lone Latino in the California Legislature until 1970, when Peter Chacon, a Democrat from San Diego, was elected to office.  

In the 1972, three more Latinos won election to the State Assembly: Joseph Montoya, Ray Gonzales, and Richard Alatorre. Aware of their unified strength, the five Latinos serving in the State Legislature officially formed the Chicano Legislative Caucus. The establishment of the Caucus marked a significant turning point in the political empowerment of the Latino community. For the first time in California's legislative history, an agenda was established and legislative priorities were put forward to protect and preserve the rights of Latinos throughout California.  

The Chicano Assemblymen and Congressional delegates of the 1960s and early 1970s forged an important path for other people to follow, and Latino representation slowly, but steadily, increased both in California and in the United States. The struggle has been long and hard-fought. But, with the Latino population increasing at a significant rate, Chicano political analysts see that time and demographics are on their side.  

Copyright © 2017, John P. Schmal. All Rights Reserved.  

Suggested Readings:  

California Latino Legislative Caucus. Online: http://latinocaucus.legislature.ca.gov/member-directory  

John P. Schmal, “The Journey to Latino Political Representation” (2007: Heritage Books).  

John P. Schmal, “The Journey to Latino Political Representation” (2013 Presentation). Online: http://www.somosprimos.com/schmal/LatinoPoliticalRepresentation.pdf  

Latino Community Foundation Blog, “Latinos and the 2016 Election: Where Do We Go From Here?” -- December 13, 2016. Online:  http://latinocf.org/blog/2016/12/latinos-and-the-2016-election-where-do-we-go-from-here/  

Leadership California Institute, California Latino Legislative Caucus & National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO), “The Status of Latinos in California” (2015).  

Library of Congress: “Hispanic Americans in Congress, 1822-1995: List in Chronological Order.” Online: http://lcweb.loc.gov/rr/hispanic/congress/chron.html.  

NALEO, “Historic Number of Latinos to Serve in State Legislatures Following Election 2016,” Nov. 15, 2016. Online: http://galeo.org/naleo-historic-number-latinos-serve-state-legislatures-following-election-2016/  

Ralph Guzman, “Politics and Policies of the Mexican American Community,” in “California Politics and Policies” (Eugene P. Dvorin & Arthur J. Misner, eds., 1966).

 

 



(File photo: RGG/Steve Taylor)



López: The Seven Sisters of Texas (Las siete hermanas de Tejas)

By: José Antonio López  
January 1, 2017

 

In sharing pre-1836 history of Texas with others, there’s one particular feature that surprises many folks.  

That is, the fact that Texas was already an organized state when the first Anglo immigrants from the U.S. began arriving in Mexico in the 1820s.  

That fact alone proves that Stephen F. Austin cannot be the “Father of Texas,” since Texas was over 130 years old when he immigrated to Mexico!  

Indeed, mainstream history books perpetuate skepticism of our state’s true origins, because they contain an incomplete picture of Texas history. That is, Anglo Saxon immigrants from the U.S. did not create Texas, but rather initially crossed over as immigrants.  

Next, the U.S. absorbed it in 1845-48. Since then, conventional historians have tried to separate Texas from its Mexican birthright. The intentional scheme is insulting to its true founders and continues to this day.  
 
In the words of historian David J. Weber, “Hispanophobia with its particularly vitriolic anti-Mexican variant, also served as a convenient way to keep Mexicans “in their place.” Thus, Anglo Americans repudiated the Spanish past … and replaced it with their own institutions and culture.”  

========================================== ==========================================

Historian Weber continues: “Hispanophobia has lasted longer in Texas than in any other Spanish province. Well into the 20th century, the prejudice retarded the serious study of the state’s lengthy Spanish heritage, leaving the field open to distortion and caricature.”  

In fairness, prudent historians have tried to set the record straight. Perhaps no one has ever said it better than Walt Whitman when he wrote in 1883:  

“We Americans have yet to really learn our own antecedents…Thus far, impress’d by New England writers and schoolmasters, we tacitly abandon ourselves to the notion that our United States have been fashion’d from the British Islands only … which is a very great mistake.”  

So it is with the manner that the Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) wields its rigid mandated curricula program. In their way of thinking, if it doesn’t fit the Austin and Sam Houston models, it’s left out of classroom lessons. Hopefully, one day soon the SBOE will heed Walt Whitman’s wisdom and embrace Texas’ pre-1836 history. What’s at stake?  

The answer is that students will finally learn long-ignored Texas facts. In reality, Texas was the most northeasterly member of a family of New Spain sister states commonly called Las Provincias Internas. It’s important for readers to know this: Texas and its well-established family of provinces (states) welcomed Mr. Austin and his 300 Anglo families who immigrated to Mexico to be “Mexicans.”

 While borders may have changed, some of the provinces have survived to the present day as Mexican and U.S. states. Below are brief summaries of each:  
========================================== ==========================================

New Mexico: As Texas’ big sister, recorded knowledge of the territory can be traced to Francisco Vasquez de Coronado’s 1540-42 visit. From New Mexico, the first Europeans, not only explored the area, but also travelled through upper Texas and Kansas. By the way, West Texas (i.e., El Paso) was originally part of New Mexico. Also, here is where Jumano Native Americans requested that Santa Fe missionaries establish missions in their Texas villages.  

Road connections between Texas and New Mexico began on October 4, 1786, when Pedro Vial and Cristobal de los Santos departed San Antonio, reaching Santa Fe on May 26, 1787.

As to the origins of the name, Francisco de Ibarra, an early Spanish explorer, noticed a distinct difference in flora and fauna. Thus, he informally recorded its name as “un Nuevo México” in his logbook. Then, in 1598, Juan de Oñate formally accepted the name when he became the first Governor of Nuevo México. Please note that the territory of el Reino del Nuevo México at that time encompassed most of what we know today as the Southwest.  

Sonora: There are several accounts regarding its first European settlements. For example, locals believe that the origins of a village in Sonora can be traced to Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca in 1530. The first Spanish missionaries arrived in 1614. Italian Jesuit priest, Eusebio Kino, established a number of missions in the region, beginning in 1687. Sonora was the point of departure for the settlement of points north, such as Arizona.  

Coahuila: Bordering Texas along the Rio Grande, Minas de la Trinidad was established in 1577.  In the same year, Alberto del Canto established Saltillo, its capital. Coahuila shares a close kinship to Texas because as in New Mexico’s case, part of West Texas was once within the state of Coahuila. Additionally, after Mexican independence, the two states were combined as Coahuila y Texas. Many early Texas pioneers came from Coahuila.  

 

========================================== ==========================================

California:  Although settled for the most part in the 1700s, California’s story starts in 1533. Later, Spanish navigator explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo entered San Diego Bay on September 28, 1542. Sebastián Vizcaino followed, with the Portolá Expedition of 1769-70, and founded what we now know as California. The name “California” was first recorded in 1562, with several versions as to the word’s origin. The most popular of these is “Califia” referring to a mythical land.  

Nuevo León: After initial endeavors by Alberto del Canto and Luis de Carvajal, Diego de Montemayor is credited with permanently settling pioneer settlers in Nuevo León in 1596. Significantly, all three attempts were initiated by Sephardic Jewish Spaniards. As with Coahuila, many early Texas settlers originate in this region (Monterrey and points in between).  

Nueva Vizcaya: Today, this sister province of Texas is known as the states of Chihuahua and Durango. Antonio Deza y Ulloa is credited with the establishment of Chihuahua City in 1709, but Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca and his shipwreck companions were the first Europeans to set foot in the territory. Predating New Mexico, Nueva Vizcaya was settled in 1554, and served as the home base for explorers venturing farther north. Missionaries began arriving in 1569.  

Nuevo Santander: Texas’ youngest sister, this last province was set up in northern Mexico by Count José de Escandón in 1747. (Please note that South Texas was part of Nuevo Santander (Tamaulipas) until 1848.) Count Escandón eventually settled over twenty Villas del Norte. Several of them straddle both banks (ambos lados) of the Lower Rio Grande.  

Note: All of the aforementioned states are within a cultural region known as AridoAmerica, linking Native Americans living on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border for thousands of years. It is still home to their descendants. Sadly, without political voice (power), the way of life of southwest pre-Columbian Native American cultures is in danger. They are innocent victims of the so-called border fence that will greatly reduce their desert homeland; now a mere fraction of the land of their ancestors.  

In summary, the U.S. took Texas from its natural family of sister states (provincias internas) in 1848 and has tried since then to conceal its true beginnings. Thus, this article seeks only to re-connect Texas with its Spanish-speaking family tree. As an eighth-generation Texan, I’m proud of the fact that it gives today’s Mexican-descent students deserved ownership of Texas history — a reality denied to their elders who have long been treated as foreigners in their Texas homeland.  

Although little of early Texas history is taught in the classroom, Texas’ strong Spanish Mexican foundation lineage is organic and undeniable (as Historian Weber reminds us above). It’s not by accident that the U.S. is now the second largest Spanish-speaking country in the world.  

We must no longer let political borders (and Texas SBOE bias) dictate a flawed curricula, especially now that Spanish-surnamed Texans are close to reclaiming majority group status. 

In the words of Pearl S. Buck, “If you want to understand today, you have to search yesterday.”
 

About the Author:  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 four books.  His latest book is “Preserving Early Texas History (Essays of an Eighth-Generation South Texan)”. It is available through Amazon.com.  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.

Sent by Juan Marinez  marinezj@msu.edu




The Roots of the Matter 
Multiracial individuals celebrate at Mixed Remixed Festival 
By Anh Do, Orange County Register,  June 12, 2016

======================================== ========================================
Their eyes shimmered with tears when embracing 
the "others." But this gathering - the nation's largest for multiracial people, held Friday and Saturday in downtown's Little Tokyo - would not be graced with sadness. "We're here to celebrate. 

You look around you, you see not only your identity, but countless identities," said founder Heidi Durrow of the Mixed Remixed Festival, in its third year, drawing nearly 1,000 participants. 

"When someone meets someone like us, they always say, 'What are you?'" Durrow said. "Based on our faces, they form expectations. That's why we invite them to move beyond images to hear our stories. Then let's share everyone's stories." She and organizers staged sessions, helping millennials other adults and children do just that through
books, talks, art, 'film and live  performances. 
The lineup attracted actors, comedians, dancers, 
authors and bloggers from across California - one of 16 states where the number of multiracial residents has surpassed 200,000, according to the U.S. Census. 

Plenty of families flew in from the Midwest and the East Coast. Among them were Kenneth Smith and his daughters, Mariah and Acasha, who planned their summer vacation around the festivities.  The Harpers Ferry, W.Va., siblings took ancestry tests that revealed their African American and European roots. "Our background includes Spanish, Italian, Russian and Finnish. It does confuse outsiders," said Acasha Smith, an information technology student at Shepherd University near her hometown. "I introduce them to my dad, who is darker-skinned, and they question us, 'Is that your adopted dad?' " 

'You don't get asked that at a festival like this," said Mariah Smith, a veterinary student at Potomac State 
College in West Virginia. "I think this is where you can be normal. And though a lot of society hasn't realized it, multiracial is more and more normal in America." 
Durrow, who lives in West L.A., agreed. She calls her self.Afro-Viking because she is African American and Danish. Her parents married in Denmark because it was illegal for them to tie the knot in South Carolina in 1965, when interracial weddings were outlawed. 

"We actually thought our mom and dad were outlaws, but in a good way," Durrow recalled. "The festival emerged from my desire to commune with those around me .... L.A. is obviously diverse, but there's still no natural space for a natural conversation about our issues. 

Durrow posed next to a poster for "Loving," the story of Richard and Mildred Loving, an interracial couple who married and spent the next nine years fighting to stay together as a family. They took their civil rights case, Loving vs. Virginia, to the U.S. Supreme Court, which in 1967 invalidated laws preventing interracial unions.  
Festival goers streamed toward the movie display to snap pictures at a photo booth, sponsored by Focus Features, which is releasing the film in November. The Lovings' landmark battle created buzz at the event, where people debated transracial adoptions, use of the word "mulatto" and what to do with naturally curly or straight "biracial" hair. 

Via Perkins, who wrote her honors thesis on biracial people at Salem State University in Massachusetts, said that growing up influenced by her maternal grandparents - who are German, Slovakian and English -pushed her to apply for a spot at the festival to showcase her writing and poetry. 

"On my father's side, I'm also African American," she said. "Being a Person that doesn't fit into a description, you have to figure out how to evolve. Coming here, I felt a kind of peace and a ground- 
ing. Wow." 

Deanna Novak of Orlando launched kids Heritage Inc. to help multiracial kids get a head start. The Italian American married a Polish-Czech man. After giving ing birth to their daughter, she stumbled onto the idea of publishing "My Heritage Book." It's a personalized children's book, with up to six countries that mirror 
youngsters' backgrounds, allowing them to learn 
family values and traditions. 

"There was nothing that spoke to all of our cultures," Novak said of her and her husband's ancestries. "This story shows a child that he or she belongs. You boost their confidence so when they're older, they can make decisions about the world around them, about politics, religion, lifestyle."   anh.do@latimes.com 

 

Remembering A School 40 years later, 
a Fight for School Equality 

The La Elliott School in Sonora, Texas was a segregated school for Mexican students and remained opened 16 years after the United States Senate outlawed the segregation of students based on race. 

=========================================== ===========================================


A Huge Success: La Elliott School Historical 
Marker and Alumni Reunion 

Sonora, Texas 
September 11, 2010 
By Gus Chavez 

A long sought community based search for education and social justice in Sonora, Texas, was celebrated, with great enthusiasm, heartfelt abrazos, family reconnections and solidarity among all who attended the 40th Anniversary of the closing of theL'W. Elliott School, known to the Mexican American community as "La Elliott." 

The thirty-four year existence of the school brought light to the fact that the "Mexican" school prior to 
La Elliott had existed since at least 1925 as reflected in official school board minutes. The "Mexican 
School" at the time was located in poor facilities and lacking in education amenities. The building of the new "Mexican School" in 1935, later named the L.W. Elliott School, continued the separate and unequal . education system in Sonora until the U.S. District Court ordered its closing in June, 1970. The dual racial education system in Sonora existed for approximately forty-five years. 

The historical one of a kind event held on September 11, 2010, was a tremendous success. The La Elliott reunion and placement of a beautifully crafted community historical marker at the site of the former school was hailed by all in attendance as long overdue. It was needed to remember all who attended the school and/or were directly affected by the education system in place 
at the time;  The use of the Internet gave the community the opportunity to provide a nationally publicized invitation to the unveiling of the La Elliott Historical Marker Ceremony. It also laid the foundation for the creation of an extensive first-ever Sonora Mexican American community virtual network that will remain in place for a long time into the future. The end result of this communication strategy was the staging of a hugely successful event that was exceptionally well received by an unprecedented 350-400 alumni, family and friends in attendance at the ceremony, reception and dance. La Elliott supporters traveled from as far away as northern California, Utah, Idaho, New Mexico, Arizona, Louisiana and Texas. 

Many who could not attend sent e-letters of support and encouragement to everyone who participated in organizing the historical gathering. A number of participants took part driving their cars in a long La Elliott parade through the community. 

========================================== ==========================================
It was particularly gratifying to see all of the young folks and elders in attendance, especially La Elliott 
alumnus like 90-year-young Alfred Bermea, and 97-year-young Benino, and 96-ye~r-young Genoveva Castilleja. A special note of support was given by 100-year-young Rosa Galindo who could not physically attend but joined us in spirit. 

The La Elliott School Historical Marker Dedication Ceremony program included speakers along with 
the Master of Ceremonies - Honorable Judge Pedro Gomez, Jr. 1 12th State District Court of Texas; presentation of Colors - Goodfellow Air Force Base Honor Guard; Marcos Perez, et al. vs. Sonora ISD and Plaintiff Maura Hernandez Weingart; keynote speaker Marisol L. Perez, Attorney and former MALDEF Attorney; Reverend Zaragosa Esquivel- Primer Iglesia Bautista; Rarniro Perez, Historical Marker Committee Chair; Gus Chavez - Presentation of Leadership Award to Mr. Luther Creek and Mrs. Mary Lou Mata Creek for allowing the use of their private property to place the La Elliott Historical Marker; and Sam David and Betty Hernandez - Commemoration Committee Chair Persons, who led the Unveiling of the Historical Marker. 
The program was organized and printed by La Elliott alum, Dr. Alma Sanchez Perez, President/ Owner of Learning Time Institute in San Antonio, Texas. 

Media coverage was excellent and allowed organizers of the ceremony to take part in live , 
Spanish/English language radio interviews. Radio station KSJT-FM from San Angelo, Texas, carried a two-hour live broadcast from the site of the Historical Marker that could be heard throughout the southwest 

The Spanish-language newspaper Conexion Hispana, from San Angelo, Texas, conducted interviews and took photos of the gathering. The local Sonora newspaper, The Devil's River News publishers Ben and SarnTaylor, gave extensive early support and continuous coverage of the La Elliott event and published a large front page article and photos of the actual September 11 th ceremony. 
At the reception; organizers of the La-Elliott Reunion displayed numerous photos, official La Elliott documents; archive articles of La Elliott published in the Devil's River News dated as early as 1932 and held a poetry contest which resulted ip several beautifully written La Elliott poems. 

Gus Chavez, La Elliott national contact: 619-286-9858 
Betty Hernandez, Sonora local contact: 325-206-0573 
Juanita Gomez, Sonora local contact: 325-206-0830 

=========================================== =========================================
The success of the La Elliott event is attributed to the hard work of the entire La Elliott Commemorative Committee who gave unselfishly of their time, creativity and dedication to honoring the forty-five years of memories and presence of the La Elliott family. The in-kind support and monetary donations from  individuals and local businesses assured everyone that this historic recognition was truly a Sonora, Texas happening. 

We are now in the process of completing the documentation on the existence of La 'Elliott" with the goal of encouraging university doctoral students to concentrate their research and dissertation study on the La Elliott School experience. In addition, we are seeking all avenues to place the entire Sonora, Texas "Mexican" school record in the Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C. It is fitting and appropriate that the story of La Elliott be incorporated into the fabric of our national memory and heritage. 

Wording on the Community Historical Marker 
L. W. Elliott School (La Elliott) . 

In Sonora, Texas, the site of the second Mexican Ward School was opened on January 26, 1935. 
The official name was L.W. Elliott School, after the 'Sonora ISD Board'President L.W. Elliott. 
Since opening day, the Mexican American community referred to the school in Spanish as La Elliott. 

=========================================== =========================================
La Elliott represented racial segregation in public schools and facilities that existed in many 
communities throughout the nation. Despite evident inequities in the school system, students and 
parents of La Elliott made the school the vibrant hub of cultural, social and academic life of the Mexican American community. The friendships, family connections and generational interchange created by La Elliott gave rise to lasting relationships that will continue to record and acknowledge the historical contributions, heritage and success of Sonora's Mexican American community. 

After thirty four years of operation, the Sonora Independent School District Board of Trustees closed the L. W. Elliott School in June 1970, as a result of a historic lawsuit filed by Israel Perez, Victoriano Chavez, Santos Hernandez, and Eugenio Gonzalez, representing their minor children. Thanks to the perseverance of the spirit and determination of former La Elliott students, parents, elders and friends, the closing of La Elliott marked the beginning of the end to educational racial segregation in Sonora. 4444
Sonora has continued to be a united and integrated community working for a better future. 

A special tribute is paid to the American GJ. Forum and the local community leaders who spearheaded the drive that initiated the litigation that ended school segregation in Sonora. 
Case No. CA-6-224 

Perez, et al. vs. Sonora Independent School District: the Board of Trustees of the Sonora lSD, et al. 
U.S. District Court, Northern Division of Texas, San Angelo Division 


VIVA La Elliott 
Sonora, Texas 
September 11, 2010 

Editor Mimi:  If anyone has a clear photo of the plaque, or a photo of the school itself, I would be very anxious to add to the article.   I searched on google for either and was not successful. 

 

http://www.topbuzzapp.com/article/i6260659452401566212?app_id=1106  

 

 

HISTORIC TIDBITS

Españoles olvidados de Norteamérica by Jose Antonio Crespo-Frances
How a US Republican President and a Mexican Youth Ended a Monarchy By Michael Hogan
1883 Texas land sells for 50 cent an acre


LIBRO ESPAÑOLES OLVIDADOS EN NORTEAMÉRICA.
HAWAII EL PARAISO ESPAÑOL.  
por JOSÉ ANTONIO CRESPO-FRANCÉS

[Editor Mimi: Sharing brief extracts from a review of
Españoles olvidados de Norteamérica by Jose Antonio Crespo-Frances published in Historia de Iberia Vieja pgs 68-73. The March issue of Somos Primos will carry the full article.]

 




Justo es mencionar que mucho antes de la creación de la superpotencia que hoy es Estados Unidos, estuvieron allí, y exploraron esos mares y sus islas, marinos y soldados españoles, desde Filipinas a Hawaii, Guam, Guaján, Carolinas… habiendo avistado también Nueva Zelanda y Australia, cuyo nombre dieron en honor a sus reyes. Todo ello lo describe José Antonio Crespo-Francés en su trabajo Españoles olvidados de Norteamérica (Actas Editorial). 

Varios mapas españoles del siglo XVI confirman que nuestros marinos, y no
los ingleses, fueron los primeros en explorar el archipiélago de Hawaii.

Españoles olvidados de Norteamérica
JOSÉ ANTONIO CRESPO-FRANCÉS

ACTAS EDITORIAL. MADRID (2016).
740 PÁGS + 16 DE FOTOS. 36 €. 
   rio_grande@telefonica.net 

 

El mito de Cook
LA HISTORIA ANGLOSAJONA atribuye el descubrimiento de este archipiélago a Cook 236 años después de que arribara nuestro personaje. Sus cronistas no quieren ver que antes de esta fecha ya se habían publicado numerosas cartas marinas, la primera de ellas fechada en 1551, firmadas por cartógrafos españoles, portugueses, holandeses, italianos y franceses, en las que se puede ver un archipiélago situado en puntos cercanos al lugar que estas ocupan en el globo terráqueo, y no se puede argumentar que
representen otros grupos de islas, ya que hay que alejarse cientos de millas de Hawaii para poder encontrar nuevas tierras, por lo tanto su identificación no alberga duda.

Cook afirma en su diario derrotero que no encontró tales islas, a las que cita, pues estaban situadas en los mapas que llevaba; las coloca desplazadas en el nuevo mapa que dibuja, afirmando que no las encuentra pero que en cambio ha visto estas islas nuevas, a las que renombra, rebautizándolas y apropiándose de su descubrimiento. Además, se muestra sorprendido del atuendo floral indígena de capa corta con colores rojo y amarillo, imitando al terciopelo, y casquete con plumero, y al ver objetos metálicos en poder de los
nativos similares a puntas de alabardas o refuerzos metálicos como los que se colocaban en las bordas de las naves del XVII para apoyar las culebrinas.




Abraham Lincoln and Mexico Project
How a US Republican President and a Mexican Youth 
Ended a Monarchy

By Michael Hogan

This review was also published in Alterinfos America Latina, which provides book reviews in six languages,
including Spanish, Portuguese and Italian 
http://www.alterinfos.org/spip.php?article7761 

 

On April 10, 1863, Maximilian I and his wife Charlotte were installed as Emperor and Empress of Mexico. They came to power at the behest of the Napoleon III who had first sent armed forces to collect on past-due Mexican debts, but then encouraged them to stay and finally to conquer the country. At that time the French Army was the most powerful in the world. Although Mexico provided stout resistance, including an underdog victory at Puebla (Cinco de Mayo), its army was finally overwhelmed by the French who were reinforced by Austrian cavalry and artillery. The constitutional president Benito Juarez fled to the border town of El Paso del Norte to work in a cigarette factory and to put together a government-in-exile.

In May of 1863, he asked his protégé twenty-four year old Matias Romero to go to Washington and meet with President Lincoln to see if he could persuade him to help him raise a new army to fight against the French. Lincoln, of course, had his hands full. May 1-3 was the bloody battle of Chancellorsville. May 19-22 saw the Union troops engaged with the Rebels at Vicksburg, followed in early July by the devastating battle of Gettysburg. The enemy was nearly at Potomac. The timing could not have been worse.

Romero was unable to get an interview with the President, although he did have the opportunity to offer Mrs. Lincoln his rented carriage and accompany her shopping, a trip that lasted more than three hours! It was likely to due to her intercession that he was finally able to present his credentials to her husband as “Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of Mexico.”

As high-sounding as the title was, it was also essentially meaningless. He had no real diplomatic standing since his “government” was in exile. Although Lincoln was sympathetic, his hands were tied. He dared not antagonize the French for fear their army would join the Confederacy which could very well prove an unbeatable combination and defeat the Union forces. Nevertheless, perhaps because of Mary Todd ‘s intervention, Lincoln gave Romero an audience and recognized his standing as ambassador, giving him not only access to the Oval Office but introductions to members of his cabinet, and ultimately to Ulysses S. Grant and Philip Sheridan, generals who would become Romero’s stanch allies in the years ahead. Using a note which Lincoln wrote expressing his friendship to the Mexican people, Romero visited bankers in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and San Francisco to raise money to support an army to overthrow Maximilian and the French usurpers. Over the next two years he and agents had sold over $30 million in Mexican bonds raising a total of $18 million in cash and credits. The money would go a long way in buying supplies and paying troops. But to defeat the most powerful European army they would need something more: they would need rifles and cannons.

Secretary of State Seward objected strongly to giving military aid to the Mexicans. He felt that this would needlessly antagonize the French and bring them closer to an alliance with the Confederates. Meanwhile, young Romero went out of his way to convince other members of the cabinet, as well as Grant and Sheridan, that such aid was essential and that France would rush into the breach as soon as it saw the Union exhausted by the efforts to defeat the Confederacy. Could the US really afford another war? Moreover what France was doing was in violation of the Monroe Doctrine which showed France’s contempt for American policies in the hemisphere. As the Civil War drew to a close, Lincoln decided to placate his Secretary of State by insuring him that no overt military aid would be given to Mexico. At the same time he ignored reports of Mexican agents to purchasing rifled cannon, and allowed Romero to meet with influential businessmen in San Francisco, Philadelphia, and other locations to form Monroe Doctrine Clubs to raise funds, purchase munitions and even levy volunteers.

By the time of the surrender at Appomattox Court House on April 10, 1863, most of those movements were far advanced. In addition, Grant was ordered to send Sheridan with 50,000 soldiers to Texas to both prevent shipment of Southern cotton to Europe and also to cut off the supply lines to the French. Once there, he instructed Sheridan to “lose” 30,000 repeating rifles at the El Paso border.

Although Lincoln was assassinated the following month, Grant and Sheridan continued to carry out his wishes. Both generals encouraged soldiers upon their discharge from the Union Army to join an American Legion of Honor which would form part of the Mexican army and defeat the French at Querétaro in the spring of 1867. On July21st of that year the Mexican Republic was restored.

The legacy of Lincoln is still honored in Mexico today with statues and other memorials. It is a hopeful reminder that our two countries have a history of cooperation and victory as well as one of animosity and conflict as we go forward with a new Republican administration in 2017.

Michael Hogan is a historian and teacher. He lives in Guadalajara, Mexico. His most recent book is Abraham Lincoln and Mexico: A History of Courage, Intrigue and Unlikely Friendships.

This article first appeared in http://www.alterinfos.org/spip.php?article7761 . The opinions expressed herein in the articles and comments are those of their authors and do not necessarily reflect those of AlterInfos. Insulting or injurious comments will be deleted without previous notice. Alter Infos is a pluralist media with a sensibility leaning toward the left. It tries to echo emancipatory projects and struggles. Comments oriented towards the opposite direction will not be published here, but they will surely find another space on the web to do so.

https://lincolnandmexicoproject.wordpress.com/2017/01/13/mexico-united-states-how-a-us-republican-
president-and-a-mexican-youth-ended-a-monarchy/
 


Sent by Mercy Bautista Olvera 
scarlett_mbo@yahoo.com
 

 


The day January 22nd, 1883 -- in Texas the Fifty Cent Act repealed
The act, advocated by Governor O. M. Roberts and passed in July 1879, provided for the selling of Texas land for fifty cents an acre, with one-half of the proceeds to be used to pay down the public debt and the other half to establish a permanent school fund. The act opened to settlement about fifty-two Texas counties, in which the state sold 3,201,283 acres for $1,600,641.55. The Fifty Cent Act was repealed as a public necessity due to fraudulent land speculation.

 


HONORING HISPANIC LEADERSHIP

Jonathan Sanchez: Assoc. Publisher/COO, Eastern Group Publications 
Aug. 31, 1952  - December 23, 2016

Bishop Joseph J. Madera, The Roman Catholic Diocese of Fresno, 
November 27, 1927 to January 21, 2017


Jonathan Sanchez


Jonathan Sanchez
Aug. 31, 1952  - December 23, 2016

With Great Sadness,
Eastern Group Publications Announces Passing 
of Assoc. Publisher & COO 

Surrounded by his family, Eastern Group Publications (EGP) Associate Publisher and Chief Operating Officer Jonathan Sanchez passed away Dec. 23 at his home in Highland Park, California, his family has announced.  Jonathan's comes following a short battle with cancer. He was 64.
Jonathan was very private and never wanted to burden his family or friends with his illness, so his passing comes as a shock to many who knew and loved him all these years. He was a loving husband, father, grandfather, friend and confident to many, an advocate for the Latino community he loved so much and for the Latino-owned small businesses he worked so hard to give a voice to.  
Jonathan left us too early and will be sorely missed.

One of nine children, Jonathan was born Aug. 31, 1952 to Juanita Beltran Sanchez and Jose Vicente Sanchez. He was a lifelong Angeleno who spent most of his childhood and adult life in the Northeast Los Angeles communities of Highland Park and Mt. Washington.

Together with his wife of three plus decades, EGP Publisher Dolores Sanchez, they established a highly respected chain of 11 bilingual (English/Spanish language) community newspapers serving East, Northeast and Southeast Los Angeles County. In 2015, the venerable Mexican-American Sun, ELA Brooklyn-Belvedere Comet, Wyvernwood Chronicle and Monterey Park Comet were folded into EGP's flagship newspaper, the Eastside Sun. EGP's other publications are the Northeast Sun, Bell Gardens Sun, Montebello Comet and Commerce Comet.

Before joining EGP in 1979, Sanchez was art director at the Bloom Agency, a full service advertising agency that also published monthly magazines. In addition to overseeing the layout and design for the various publications, Sanchez also doubled as a photographer, shooting covers for many magazine covers.  Photography would remain a passion for much of his life. Jonathan was an avid collector of vintage cameras.

Jonathan attended UCLA and completed journalism programs at the Amos Tuck School of Business Administration and The Poynter Institute for Media Studies.

In his capacity as EGP associate publisher and COO, Sanchez oversaw the business side of the family-owned and operated newspaper group, including advertising, client and government relations. He also directed EGP's special advertising and public relations contracts, such as a multi-year statewide outreach project for California's former Healthy Families Program that included advertising, public relations, community engagement, enrollment and other elements, and dozens of other contracts.

Shortly before taking ill, Sanchez was elected to the Board of Directors of the California Newspaper Association (CNPA). As a member of the CNPA, Sanchez advocated strongly and successfully against a plan to change California's public notice laws that would have endangered the public's ability to know what its government is doing and how taxpayer dollars are being spent. In a letter to state legislators opposing the legislation, Sanchez wrote:

"The changes this legislation would make will severely hamper the community's right to know, making it more difficult for citizens, taxpayers, property owners and others to access information that could pertain to them, whether in the form of notices about local public works projects, land use and environmental issues, delinquent taxes that could result in property seizure, termination of parental rights, contracting opportunities or ways to mitigate issues arising from government action." He pointed out that it's "a step to further disenfranchising Latinos."

His past professional affiliations include:

- Founding Member and Board Member of the Los Angeles Latino Chamber of Commerce
- Founding President of the California Hispanic Publishers Association (CHPA), a statewide organization
  of Hispanic owned newspapers that during his term in office reached more than four million readers a
  week.
- Vice President and founding member of The National Federation of Hispanic Owned Newspapers
   (NFHON).
- Member of the National Association of Hispanic Publications (NAHP)
- Member of the National Newspaper Association
- Founding member of The New California Media, which later became New America Media
- Member of the California Newspaper Publishers Association
- Founding member of The California Free Press Association
- Member of the Latin Business Association
- Member of the Board of Latino Journal
- Member of the Latino Health Coalition
- Member of the Latino Peace Officers Association

Jonathan was appointed by former Gov. Pete Wilson to the Small Business Development Board of the California Trade and Commerce Agency; and California Inspection/Maintenance Review Committee (Department of Consumer Affairs/Bureau of Automotive Repair.)

He was the founder and president of the Eastern Group Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to "Family Literacy and Community Volunteerism." The EGP Foundation's Letters to Santa program benefited more than 90,000 disadvantaged children and their families. The Foundation also provides internships for college and high school students pursuing a career in journalism, and has previously worked with grammar school students helping them publish their own mini newspapers.

Active in community service, Jonathan also served as a member of:
- Board of Governors of the Crippled Children's Society.
- Board of Directors of the Boy Scouts of America.
- Member of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art Advisory Board.
========================================= == ===========================================
In May 2016, the Los Angeles Boys and Girls Club honored Jonathan and Dolores Sanchez for their support of programs that enrich the lives of children.

Jonathan has received many other recognitions and honors over the years from nonprofit groups, elected officials and the cities where EGP newspapers circulate.

In addition, he has served on numerous boards and committees for community based organizations, law enforcement agencies and educational entities.
Jonathan is survived by his wife Dolores, daughters Deana and Bianca Preciado and her husband Arturo Preciado; brothers David, Miguel, Juan and Pedro and sisters Maria Teresa, Delia and Rose; Dolores' children Gloria Alvarez and husband Mike Alvarez, their four children and two grandchildren; Michael Sanchez and wife Christine and their five children and four grandchildren; Sarah Ramos and her husband Jon Ramos and their three children and; Joe Sanchez III and his wife Carla, their 8 children, spouses and nearly two dozen grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

A Christian Memorial Service was held Friday, Jan. 6 at 11 a.m. at Pillar of Fire Church: 4900 N. Figueroa St., Los Angeles, CA. 90042.  In lieu of flowers, the family is asking that donations be made in Jonathan's name to the nonprofit Los Angeles Boys & Girls Club in Lincoln Heights: 2635 Pasadena Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90031, (323) 221-9111, or another program supporting children. 
For more information, visit http://www.labgc.org  or email info@labgc.org
Additional information will be posted on the EGP website: www.EGPNews.com  and/or Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/Eastern-Group-Publications/146212265407642  .

For more information, email Gloria Alvarez at galvarez@egpnews.com or leave message (323) 221-1092.
Gloria M. Alvarez, Managing Editor 
Eastern Group Publications/EGPNews.com

Sent by Kirk Whisler  kirk@whisler.com 







Most Reverend Joseph J. Madera, M.Sp.S., D.D.

Bishop of the Diocese of Fresno 
 1980-1991 

November 27, 1927 to January 21, 2017

 

============================================= =============================================
Bishop Madera was born in San Francisco, California on November 27, 1927. The Bishop’s family soon moved to Mexico where he was reared, and at fifteen years of age he became a clerical aspirant of the Missionaries of the Holy Spirit, following two of his uncles into that Order. He was ordained June 15, 1957. He ministered in various locations in both Mexico and California before becoming a pastor in Oxnard in 1970 where he soon established the Hispanic radio program La Hora Catolica, in addition to his numerous pastoral duties.

In 1979, during his tenure as pastor in Fowler, he was appointed Coadjutor Bishop of Fresno, being ordained Bishop of Fresno on March 4, 1980. Bishop Madera’s earlier radio experience in Oxnard impressed him with the power of the media in evangelization, so he took the seminal idea of the diocese starting an educational television station and through his dynamic leadership made it a reality when KNXT Channel 49 broadcast its inaugural program on November 2, 1986.

Bishop Madera was appointed to the Archdiocese of the Military Services, Washington, D.C. on May 28, 1991 and retired on September 15, 2004. He lived in residence in Saint Martha Parish since September of 2011.

Bishop Madera was preceded in death by his parents, Jesus Madera Flores and Paz Uribe Santana, and six siblings. He is survived by his sister, Carmen Madera.

Funeral services were held at:
St. Martha's Parish
Our Lady of Guadalupe Church
Saint John the Baptist Cathedral
Saint Anthony of Padua
St. Peter’s Cemetery

El Obispo Madera nació en San Francisco, California el 27 de noviembre de 1927. La familia del Obispo se trasladó a México donde él fue criado y, a los quince años de edad se convirtió en un aspirante clerical de la Orden Religiosa Misioneros del Espíritu Santo, siguiendo a dos de sus tíos en esta orden religiosa. Él fue ordenado al sacerdocio el 15 de junio de 1957. Él prestó sus servicios ministeriales en varios lugares en México y California antes de ser nombrado párroco en Oxnard en 1970, donde él estableció el programa de radio hispano La Hora Católica, adicionalmente a sus numerosas responsabilidades pastorales.

En 1979, durante su ejercicio como párroco en Fowler, él fue nombrado Obispo Coadjutor de Fresno, siendo ordenado como Obispo de Fresno el 4 de marzo de 1980. La experiencia anterior del Obispo Madera en la radio de Oxnard lo impresionó con el poder de los medios de comunicación en el campo de la evangelización, por lo que él tomó la idea trascendental de la diócesis de iniciar una estación de televisión educativa y, a través de su liderazgo dinámico lo hizo realidad cuando KNXT Canal 49 transmitió su programa inaugural el 2 de noviembre de 1986.

El Obispo Madera fue nombrado a la Arquidiócesis de los Servicios Militares en Washington, D.C. el 28 de mayo de 1991 y se jubiló el 15 de septiembre de 2004. El residió en la Parroquia de Santa Martha desde el mes de septiembre de 2011.

El Obispo Madera fue precedido en la muerte por sus padres, Jesús Madera Flores y Paz Uribe Santana y seis hermanos. Le sobrevive su hermana Carmen Madera.

 

To sign family’s online guestbook, share stories, and post pictures visit: www.garciamortuaryoxnard.com  click on Bishop Madera’s name located below "Obituaries."  Funeral arrangements are under the direction of Garcia Mortuary  of Oxnard, CA and Robert Rey Garcia, Jr. Funeral Services of Santa Paula, CA.

Sent by Sister Mary Sevilla, CSJ 
msevilla1256@gmail.com
 




Latino soldiers
 Cebu, Phillipines, WW II

LATINO AMERICAN PATRIOTS

Click to Borinqueneers "Year in Review"
and Message from National Chair, Frank Medina 

 

EARLY AMERICAN PATRIOTS

North Carolina State Archives, copies of: 
October 18, 1777, 2-page letter From Patrick Henry to the General Bernardo de Galvez 
November 8, 1779, 4-page letter from Thomas Jefferson to General Bernardo de Galvez



North Carolina State Archives
The Division of Archives and Records 
Office of Archives and History and the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources. 

Sylvia Carvajal, a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, Washington, D.C. Spanish Task Force, visited the North Carolina State Archives July 2009.  She was able to obtain copies of the two letters below and has generously shared them with Somos Primos.   

October 18, 1777 Communication from Patrck Henry to the Governor in Chief of Louisiana 
November 8, 1779, four-page letter from Thomas Jefferson, concerning purchases from merchant Pollock and the difficulties Pollack is encountering with transporting goods from New Orleans.

October 18, 1777 
From: Patrick Henry, Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia to: 
To: Governor in Chief of Louisiana (This would have been to General Bernardo de Galvez)
November 8, 1779:  Four page letter from Thomas Jefferson, 
To: Your Excellency (This would have been to General Bernardo de Galvez)
concerning purchases from merchant Pollock and the difficulties Pollack is encountering with transporting goods from New Orleans.




Judge Edward Butler, past National President General of the Sons of the American Revolution is looking for letters of  communications between  George Washington and  Bernardo de Galvez.  He (we) would appreciate any leads in that direction.   Thank you . .  SARPG0910@aol.com

 

Spanish SURNAMES

Naming system in Spain
by Jack Carmena jcarmena@bellsouth.net
Sent by Bill Carmena  JCarm1724@gmail.com



Currently in Spain, people bear a single or composite given name (nombre) and two surnames (apellidos). A composite given name comprises two (or more) single names; for example Juan Pablo is considered not to be a first and a second forename, but a single composite forename. Traditionally, a person's first surname is the father's first surname (apellido paterno), and the second one is the mother's first surname (apellido materno). However, gender equality law has allowed surname transposition since 1999,[1] subject to the condition that every sibling must bear the same surname order recorded in the Registro Civil (civil registry), but there have been legal exceptions. From 2013, if the parents of a child are unable to agree on order of surnames, an official decides which is to come first.[2]

For example, if a man named Eduardo Fernández Garrido marries a woman named María Dolores Martínez Ruiz and they have a child named José, there are several legal options, but their child would most usually be known as José Fernández Martínez.

Each surname can also be composite, the parts usually linked by the conjunction y or e (and), by the preposition de (of) or by a hyphen. For example, a person's name might be Juan Pablo Fernández de Calderón García-Iglesias (John Paul Fernandez of Calderon Garcia-Iglesias), consisting of a forename (Juan Pablo), a paternal surname (Fernández de Calderón) and a maternal surname (García-Iglesias).

There are times when it is impossible, by inspection of a name, to correctly analyse it. For example, the writer Sebastià Juan Arbó was alphabetized by the Library of Congress for many years under "Arbó", assuming that Sebastián and Juan were both given names. However, "Juan" was actually his first surname. To resolve questions like this, which typically involve very common names ("Juan" is rarely a surname), one must consult the person involved, or legal documents.


DNA
Back to 1400s You Have 1,073,741,825 great, great, great, great, great grandparents. 
The world population in the year 1400 was 450,000,000.  
Mathematically, you are related to everybody - twice.

Meaning you and I are primos with everyone!!  Humm m m

 

FAMILY HISTORY RESEARCH

Six Things to Look for in Family Search in 2017
My Father Made Everyone Laugh at His Own Funeral by Jesús Ramírez
New Resource:  MyHeritage.com



SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (9 January 2017)--Worldwide interest in online genealogy services and activities will continue to grow solidly in 2017. And FamilySearch plans to play a major role in creating millions of new, fun family discoveries and online connections. Here are 6 exciting developments to look forward to from FamilySearch in 2017, a global leader in free online family history services.

1. Personalized Dashboard
Now available in 2017, if you log in to your free FamilySearch account today, you will be greeted with your own, customized home page full of interesting, relevant activity feeds, notifications, and suggestions on your personal dashboard. The more you work on your personal FamilySearch family tree, the more new, applicable content the system will automatically send to you through your dashboard throughout the year. In other words, it continues to work for you even when you're not.

========================================= =========================================
New features include:  Recommended Tasks. "Next-step" suggestions for specific ancestors in FamilySearch Family Tree that can lead to new discoveries. 
Ancestor Hints. As millions of new historical records are added to FamilySearch weekly, the savvy search engine maps them against your Family Tree. High probability matches are presented for your consideration as "hints" on your dashboard. Keep checking back to see what new information it has been dug up on your ancestors. Add it to your ancestor’s source page. 
Recent Ancestors. Forgot what you did the last time you visited your tree? Your new dashboard will automatically keep track of the ancestors you are researching each time and create a list that makes it easy to pick up where you left off a few minutes ago or during a previous visit. 

To-do Lists.
Make quick notes in this convenient new feature to help you remember what you want to do on your next visit to your Family Tree. Jot short reminder notes about records to search, people to contact, photos or documents to upload and add to an ancestor’s profile, or personal and family stories you want to capture for posterity in the Memories feature. 

To-do Cards. See fun new photos, stories, and relevant documents about your ancestors that have been recently added by other family members and cousins to your collective family tree. It's a fun way to identify relatives who are currently working on your family lines and make new discoveries or connections with extended family members. 

========================================= =========================================
2. New and improved Mobile Apps
FamilySearch's two mobile apps—FamilySearch Family Tree and FamilySearch Memories—will see cool new updates. Users will be able to search Ancestry.com from the convenience of the FamilySearch mobile app. Imagine being able to search the two largest online sources of family history records from your mobile device! A new descendancy view feature will give users the ability to create notes for specific ancestors, easily see a log of any changes made by others, and download user-contributed memories (Memories app). Multiple windows in the Family Tree app will significantly increase the speed of research from mobile devices.
3. Improved Searching
The FamilySearch.org search engine is already best-in-class, but in 2017, users will notice even faster search results from newly published historic records worldwide, and quicker hints from those new records and user-contributed trees.

4. New Indexing Tools
“We are really excited to launch the web-based version of our successful indexing software in 2017," said Craig Miller, FamilySearch's Senior Vice President of Product Development and Engineering. "It will be easy to use and will work on any digital device with a web browser (excluding cell phones), eliminating the need to download the indexing software. That means more volunteers worldwide will be able to contribute in making more of the world’s historical records searchable by name online, and more quickly.”
Indexing is the nifty, web-based tool FamilySearch volunteers use to make hundreds of millions of historic records worldwide searchable by name for free online each year. These indexes are the secret ingredient to your ability to discover ancestral connections online quickly and easily. Additional innovations to the tool in 2017 will include more rapid completion of tasks, improved help, and even automated indexing for some record sets (obituaries) which means more records searchable at your fingertips, faster.

============================== =========================================
  In February, 2017, FamilySearch will open a wonderful, state-of- the-art Discovery Experience attraction on the Library's main floor. The new feature will enable guests to have fun, large-as-life personal discovery experiences with their family history using the latest technologies. Similar discovery experiences will be implemented in select locations worldwide in 2017. 5. New Discovery Experiences  The Family History Library in Salt Lake City is a top tourist attraction for the state of Utah.

6. More Free Historic Records
Over 330 FamilySearch digital camera teams worldwide will digitally preserve 125–150 million historical records in 2017 for free online access. Another 200 million images will be added from FamilySearch's microfilm conversion project that uses 25 specialized machines to convert its vast microfilm collection at its Granite Mountain Records Vault for online access. Over 30 percent of the 2.4 million rolls of microfilm have already been digitized and published online. The digital collections can be located in the FamilySearch catalog online and by perusing collection lists by location.

FamilySearch's online community of volunteers will be focused on creating searchable name indexes to two major collections in the United States (marriage records and immigration records that will include passenger lists, border crossings, and naturalization petitions), and core record collections from select high priority countries.

If you are not familiar with all the wonderful free benefits of FamilySearch, create your free account at FamilySearch.org, and start your fun journey of discovery.
Find and share this release easily online from the FamilySearch Media room.

https://us.vocuspr.com/Publish/3313993/vcsPRAsset_3313993_84602_bd6e23ad-f836-4104-8fb2-5659cca8a51f_0.png   

###

About FamilySearch

FamilySearch International is the largest genealogy organization in the world. FamilySearch is a nonprofit, volunteer-driven organization sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Millions of people use FamilySearch records, resources, and services to learn more about their family history. To help in this great pursuit, FamilySearch and its predecessors have been actively gathering, preserving, and sharing genealogical records worldwide for over 100 years. Patrons may access FamilySearch services and resources free online at FamilySearch.org or through over 4,960 family history centers in 129 countries, including the main Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Corporation of the Presiding Bishop of T, 50 East North Temple St, Salt Lake City, Utah 84150 United States




My Father Made Everyone Laugh at His Own Funeral 
by Jesús Ramírez

During the funeral, friends and family laughed as my mom and dad talked about his lack of creativity and finesse when my dad approached for the first time the woman who would become his wife. When my father spoke about the circumstances surrounding his being wounded in Bitburg, Germany they laughed too.

At my dad’s funeral, my papi was alive… On the screen.

For seven years leading up to the passing of my father, I digitally preserved his story, my story. I learned about family genealogy, family traditions, funny anecdotes, difficult life transitions, the meaning of life, and so much more.

Perhaps I should step back a little and tell you that I used to be an advertising guy who made television commercials for the national Hispanic marketplace. Because I was the youngest of six children, I did not know my father very well. My mother was more integrated into my life because she was a teacher and because she was an eternal student. My father owned a little gas station and convenience store in the small town of Hebbronville, Texas so he left early before I awoke and returned at about 9 pm after closing. If ever I was in his presence it usually meant that he would request that I sweep, pump gas, stock merchandise, be the cashier or fix a tire. Instead, I made myself hard to find. That had its consequences.

I didn’t really get to know my father.
I didn’t really know who I was.

The boy who would become my father. What did he do as a boy? 
How would he play?

On an early fall day in 2006 and after the death of my mother, I decided that I would pull out our family 8mm camera and ask my father to talk about his life. He was visiting and it seemed like the important thing to do. Since my father was a disabled veteran who fought in World War II, I would ask him about the fateful day when he was wounded by an 88-millimeter caliber German Artillery Gun.

I was missing a wire or an accessory that day so it prompted me to go to the now defunct Circuit City near my house. Upon turning into the parking lot of the store, an insight arrived in my mind’s inbox. Was I the only young person who wanted to preserve his parent’s story? I captured my dad’s story that day but kept thinking about the bigger question.

I had been looking for a way to transition away from a life of lifeless commercials and empty promises. I wondered if a company dedicated to capturing the life memories of dads, moms, grandmas and grandpas for years to come could or would be a viable business. Was the world ready for this type of service? Was I too early? Was I on time? Was I late?



After my mom’s death, I asked my father to come live with us in San Antonio. We became great friends. I also decided to form a company and named the life story documentary service My Story.  
http://thestorytellingplace.com/ 
                       
The Future of Memories

Over the years, the company has had peaks and valleys. We’ve had very interesting storytellers grace us with their entire life story. 

One particular storyteller completed about 36 hours of storytelling and has passed on a 9 volume Blu-Ray collection to all his grandchildren. As a company we now include the capturing of company stories so that employees can understand and appreciate the path, struggles or insight it took to get to past successes. Our approach serves as a marketing tool and as a defining tool for the company or the organization. We’ve found that when a company culturally finds itself in these storytelling sessions, it is easy to culture the company’s values and determine what is missing from their DNA in light of the flux in the market environment. 

My Story has even produced an Emmy Award winning 20-part documentary series called The Children of the Revolución: How the Mexican Revolution Changed America which aired on PBS in Texas.
My father was a shy and humble man. He thought his life was uninteresting and that I should not need to preserve it. On the contrary, his story provided many missing pieces to my story that will continue to take shape in generations to come. I admit that before the age of 40, I thought that my family’s history was irrelevant. Once I matured, I understood how this was my most valuable inheritance.

My father’s photo as a child was used on the cover of the Children of the Revolución book.
After preserving my dad’s story and because I wanted improve upon the first session, I had him retell the stories on several occassions. Along came HD and I traded up to better cameras and better sound. I asked him to get in front of my camera again. He would remember another chapter about our genealogy and would request that I do another session. He had fun. He also felt a sense of satisfaction at having told his story. I didn’t stop with him. I extended the storytelling experience to my aunts and uncles.


On one occasion when I noticed that he was in a storytelling mood, I had him visualize in words what downtown Hebbronville, Texas was like when he was growing up. He mentally walked down the street for about 9 city blocks, crossed the street and came back all the way to where the story started. All the while he identified all the businesses and personalities who had once made Hebbronville a bustling town at the turn of the 20th century. Today, Hebbronville is a whisper of those memories. The buildings burned or fell. However, his telling of the story of my hometown is on display in the Jim Hogg County Museum.

“We die three times.
When you stop breathing.
When your body disintegrates.
When nobody remembers you.”
Mayan Proverb.

I often say that material inheritance is fleeting. Perhaps you may inherit a valuable piece of art, a home or a bundle of money. Receiving the story of your family is one of the most valuable inheritances that a person can receive. It will last hundreds of years.   Consider telling your story.

It’s time to tell my story. Have you told your story?

I am 51 years old now and I’ve got lots of valuable miles traveled on my life road. It would be a pity if my children did not know how many times I rose to greatness and how many times I fell to ruin. Life has serendipities, u-turns, setbacks, magic, disasters, fast lanes, roadblocks, redos.



If I don’t tell my story, then perhaps I never  really existed. Sure, I’ll be in pictures but that won’t provide any context for who I am or for who I was when 100 years have passed.

Why did the people laugh at my dad’s funeral when he was telling his World War II Purple Heart story?
My grandmother lived in the United States close to the border. In March of 1926 she decided to visit cousins in a Mexican border town while 8 months pregnant. The doctor in Guerrero, Tamaulipas ordered my grandmother to deliver my father in that Mexican town because he feared for her safety. A few weeks later my father was en route to Hebbronville, Texas. Because the immigration laws weren’t formalized in 1926 and because my grandmother’s cousins worked at the border, no proper recording of the birth was established. My dad grew up in citizenship limbo until he was 18. By then the US Border Patrol had been created. When my father presented himself to authorities to “fix” his paperwork, he was threatened with deportation or with the alternative to go to World War II in exchange for his citizenship.

 


He chose to serve.

While still a Mexican citizen, Jose Heberto Ramirez fought for the United States Army during WWII
My father was wounded when German soldiers saw him and his partner enter a farmhouse in Bitburg, Germany. A powerful 88 millimeter shell hit his partner square on and killed him while the ricochet of the explosion wounded my father. He had lost too much blood, and so he received German blood in the battlefield. He was later transferred to England to convalesce. All the while in the eyes of the United States, my father was still a Mexican citizen waiting for his official immigration papers. The immigration papers were always one station (location) behind him. The immigration papers finally arrived while he was in England. His official immigration status stated that his port of entry into the United States was England. Did that make him British?

“I didn’t know if I was Mexican, American, British or German because of the blood I received. I didn’t know what I was,” my dad joked on the video played at his funeral.

Everybody laughed.
It was a perfect funeral.

Sent by Mercy Bautista Olvera 
 scarlett_mbo@yahoo.com 



MyHeritage

Research your family history easily and instantly
Click here: Find Your Ancestry! - MyHeritage
https://www.myheritage.com/


More than 6,300,000,000 Names

Birth, marriage and death records from 32 countries

Military and immigration records

25 million pages of historical newspapers, dating back to 1803

100 million tombstone inscriptions and photos worldwide

Millions of Tombstone Inscriptions and Tombstone Photographs
Editor Mimi:  
I am not familiar with MyHeritage, but the testimonies are quite positive.  
Do check it out yourself and give us your opinion. 



EDUCATION

First Generation College Student Guide
Undocumented Ph.D. Makes History at UC Merced by Sasha Khokha 

FIRST GENERATION COLLEGE STUDENT GUIDE
Financial Aid, Timelines, Checklists & Encouragement for Students Who Are the First in the Family to Attend College
 

According to the U.S. Department of Education NCES, nearly one-third of all incoming freshman each year are first generation college students. Defined as learners coming a family where neither of their parents or guardians have obtained a bachelor’s degree, the majority of these students hail from minority households. While being a first generation college student is a proud accomplishment, students in this category often face obstacles their peers don’t experience. A UCLA report found that, within six years of matriculation, only 40 percent of these students had graduated, compared to 55 percent whose parents held a postsecondary degree. The following guide helps first generation students understand the challenges and unknowns they’ll face while also offering concrete guidance, support and resources.

http://www.affordablecollegesonline.org/college-resource-center/first-generation-college-students/ 





Yuriana Aguilar sits in a biomedical lab at UC Merced that studies sudden cardiac death. 
(Sasha Khokha/KQED)


THE CALIFORNIA REPORT
Undocumented Ph.D. Makes History at UC Merced
By Sasha Khokha 
December 30, 2016
Story originally published on May 23, 2016.

Update:  Yuriana Aguilar is now a postdoc in Chicago, continuing her cardiovascular research.

========================================= =========================================
Have you ever seen a beating heart, pulsing on its own for hours, outside of the body? I got to see one last week, after it had been removed from a mouse.   “You can see that it’s still beating,” says 26-year-old Yuriana Aguilar, a newly minted Ph.D. in a white lab coat. “It’s a very impressive organ.”

Aguilar is injecting a special dye into the heart, so she can look at the electrical signaling going on in the membrane of each cell. She’s a researcher in a biomedical lab at UC Merced, the University of California’s newest campus. She’s also the first undocumented student to get her doctorate at UC Merced.

Aguilar is looking at mouse hearts to figure out what happens in the human heart just before sudden cardiac death, which kills hundreds of thousands of people each year. Professor Ariel Escobar, who runs the lab, says Aguilar is the best student he’s ever taught.
“She presented her work at the Biophysical Society meeting. She was the only student in that session. They were all full professors and chairmen of departments, and her!” he exclaims. “She’s superb, superb!”

DACA allowed Yuriana to get a temporary work permit. She has to renew it every two years, but has no path to permanent legal status.
But Aguilar’s future is uncertain. She came to California from Mexico with her farmworker parents when she was 5. None of them have immigration papers.

“Everybody has the American dream,” Aguilar says. “They think, ‘We’re going to strive, we’re going to have our own homes, our own businesses.’ My parents have not been better off economically. But they see the American dream fulfilling in me. That keeps me going.”
Aguilar has worked her way through school picking watermelons, cleaning hotels and selling produce at flea markets.  “There are fears. I fear that if I’m in the flea market, and they’re doing deportations or something, nobody’s going to care that I have a title,” she says.



Yuriana Aguilar with her family in their squash field: (L-R) Arturo Aguilar, Yuriana and her daughter Victoria, Ana Torres, and Yuriana’s husband, Ismael. Yuriana is the first undocumented student to graduate with a Ph.D. from UC Merced. (Sasha Khokha/KQED)

========================================= =========================================
As an undergraduate, Aguilar wasn’t eligible for many grants and scholarships. Her parents sold enchiladas and vegetables to help pay her costs. Once she got her bachelor’s degree, she was working as an unpaid volunteer in the lab when the Obama administration announced Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA.

“I remember, I was here in the lab when I was watching the news about DACA. I cried,” she says. “I was here with the heart, so that was very emotional. To see that I could actually do this, that it would allow me to continue to work here.”
For Migrant Farmworkers, Educating Kids Presents Wrenching Choices

Undocumented UC Students May Find Paths to Citizenship With Legal Aid
DACA allowed Aguilar to get a temporary work permit. She has to renew it every two years, but has no path to permanent legal status. Without that, she can’t apply for a lot of government grants and fellowships. She also can’t travel to visit the scientists she’s collaborated with in Brazil, Spain and Argentina.

“When you don’t have papers, you are very limited. But science just doesn’t have borders. That’s very impressive to me. They don’t exist because that would limit the advancement of technologies and how much progress we’re making in the field,” Aguilar says.
========================================= =========================================
An article about her in the local Merced Sun-Star newspaper prompted a number of readers to write in, saying she shouldn’t be at the university taking the space of a U.S. citizen, or that she should be deported. I asked her how she felt about that.

“You know, you get discouraged, but I am used to hearing those comments. There are shortages of researchers and physicians. Definitely, if somebody’s more qualified, go for it,” says Aguilar. “We all compete for the same spots.”

“She hasn’t taken anybody’s spot. She earned that,” says Alex Delgadillo, who runs a special office at UC Merced to help undocumented students, and to train faculty and staff about how to assist them.

“Yuriana came here as an undergraduate, distinguished herself at her high school, she continued and excelled, did research here,” says Delgadillo. “She was up against competitive candidates, and she distinguished herself in that regard, just like any competitive candidate has to meet the rigorous requirements of a UC.”

Serving low-income immigrant students is core to UC Merced’s mission. About two-thirds of its students are the first in their family to go to college, and many are immigrants, like Aguilar. UC President Janet Napolitano recently earmarked $8.4 million to expand support for undocumented students across the UC system.

How Did Two Farmworkers Put Five Kids Through College?

================================ =========================================

After working at the lab, Aguilar drives with her husband and 1-year-old daughter, Victoria, to visit her parents on their farm in West Fresno. It’s right in the heart of one the most impoverished ZIP codes in the state.

Her parents rent a plot of land to raise goats, grow squash and cucumbers they sell at markets in San Jose.

Yuriana’s mother, Ana Torres, is a tough lady. She climbs a tall metal fence and leaps down into the goat pen to help a 3-day-old goat nurse on the mama goat she calls Bambi.
Ana Torres shows off a baby goat to her daughter Yuriana and granddaughter Victoria. (Sasha Khokha/KQED)

“I have to be tough,” she tells me in Spanish. “I raised five kids, and they’re all getting their degrees.”
========================================= ================================
Tending the goats and picking zucchini has destroyed Torres’ fancy manicure. She normally doesn’t get her nails done, she tells me, but two of her children graduated this week — Yuriana with her doctorate, and a son as a pilot.

I ask Torres and her husband, Arturo Aguilar, what their secret is. How did two farmworker parents who didn’t finish elementary school put five kids through college?

“We’d talk to them a lot, tell them they’re smart,” says Arturo. “And we would pay them $20 for every A and B they got. They had to pay us $25 or $30 if they got an F. We had to work harder to earn more money if they got A’s, but it was worth it.”

And if they didn’t do a good job in school, they had to do longer shifts on the farm, picking spiny cactus. Ana and Arturo say they were tough on their kids, but loving, present, involved.
Farmworkers Arturo Aguilar and Ana Torres have put their five children through college, including Yuriana, UC Merced’s first undocumented Ph.D. (Sasha Khokha/KQED)
===================================== =============================================
Arturo says a lot of immigrants come from Mexico wanting to buy fancy trucks or cars. “But the best investment you can make is your children’s education,” he says. “A car or truck only stays new and shiny for a while. But a child’s education lasts their whole life.”

Ana Torres starts to cry as she tells me how proud she is of her daughter getting her Ph.D. She walks over to hug her.

“I am crying, but they’re happy tears,” says Torres. “Before, I was crying tears of sadness. Especially when Yuriana would call me to tell me that people cared more about her documents than about her intelligence or her perseverance in getting ahead.”

“Thank you for believing in me,” says Yuriana, “even though there were so many obstacles in our way. I remember you always told me that no one can take away your education. The government may not give you papers, but they can’t take away your learning.”

“That’s right,” says Torres. “I always told you that learning lasts you your whole life. It’s the only inheritance you’re going to get from us, and as long as we have feet to stand on and hands to work, we’re going to support you.”

Yuriana Aguilar says she hopes to open her own medical research lab. She’s got faith that somehow she’ll find a path to citizenship. But even then, she won’t mind working in the fields sometimes — or even buying a lot of land to farm someday. You have to do every job with dignity, she says, and with your heart.
Sent by Mercy Bautista Olvera scarlett_mbo@yahoo.com 


  RELIGION

God Changes the Heart of ISIS Leader
United Nations Resolution 2334, based on inaccurate history 
Christian Clergy Welcomes Islam in Church, Then Bows to It by Giulio Meotti


God Changes the Heart of ISIS Leader

CBN: How did ISIS start?
12-27-2016
http://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2016/december/god-changes-the-heart-of-isis-leader  

                                                                                                               

An lSIS leader planned to lure a team member from a Christian TV ministry into a trap to be killed, but the would-be assassin ended up turning to Jesus instead.

The incredible story is told on the Leading the Way web page, a ministry of Egyptian-born pastor and Bible teacher Michael Youssef. 

The ISIS leader -- "Muhammed" -- saw an episode of the ministry's TV channel and called the number on the screen. "I need to meet with you," he told the LTW team member over the phone. 

While the ministry is careful to vet callers before meeting them in person, the team leader-- "Peter" -- said God told him to "Go and meet this man - and be bold with him." 

Peter met with Muhammad and shared the Gospel with him. After Peter left, God continued speaking to Muhammad, revealing himself in a dream that brought great conviction on the ISIS leader. 

When Muhammad decided to follow Christ, he shaved his beard, a symbol of his radical devotion to Islam, and reached out to Peter again. 

"Peter I have a confession," Muhammad said. "The first time I was going to meet you, I intended to kill you, and I am sorry."   He then fell on his face and repented to God. 

To help other Muslims come to Christ you can visit the Leading the Way Ministries website here: http://www.ltw.org/get-involved/donate 

Sent by Odell Harwell  hirider@wt.net 

 

 

 


Comments on United Nations Resolution 2334  ~ Mimi

=========================================== ===========================================
United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.


United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334 was adopted on 23 December 2016. It concerns the Israeli settlements in "Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem". The resolution passed in a 14-0 vote by members of the U.N. Security Council (UNSC). Four members with United Nations Security Council veto power, China, France, Russia, and the United Kingdom, voted for the resolution, whereas, the United States abstained.[1]

The resolution states that Israel's settlement activity constitutes a "flagrant violation" of international law and has "no legal validity". It demands that Israel stop such activity and fulfill its obligations as an occupying power under the Fourth Geneva Convention.[2][3]

It was the first UNSC resolution to pass regarding Israel and the Palestine territories since 2009,[4] and the first to address the issue of Israeli settlements with such specificity since Resolution 465 in 1980.[5][6] While the resolution did not include any sanction or coercive measure and was adopted under non-binding Chapter VI of the United Nations Charter, Israeli newspaper Haaretz stated it "may have serious ramifications for Israel in general and specifically for the settlement enterprise" in the medium-to-long term.[6]

The text was welcomed by much of the international community in the following days. In response, the government of Israel retaliated with a series of diplomatic actions against some members of the Security Council[7][8] and accused the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama of having secretly orchestrated the passage of the resolution. Palestine's representatives stated this was an opportunity to end the occupation and establish a Palestinian state to live side by side with the state of Israel on the 1967 line.[9]

UNSC Res. 2334 is a shocking example of monumental  distortion of facts, and grossly inaccurate in every aspect. Historic facts do not support the premise of the resolution. I am surprised that such a resolution would be mounted and passed. Anyone with just a basic knowledge of the history of Israel would know that this is wrong history.  It is blatant racism, with no explanation for their action, except unadulterated  anti-Semitism.  

The Hebrew nation selected its first King, Saul in 1020 BC.   They have occupied what was called the Land of Canaan since that time, 3000 years.   Scrolling through hundreds and hundreds of ancient maps of the area, I found the region consistently called Canaan, even as it lists the tribes that occupied that area, none of which were called Palestinians.

"The first clear use of the term Palestine to refer to the entire area between Phoenica and Egypt was in the 5th century BC."  

The Greek and Roman historic records of the Jewish people, acknowledge their presence in the land of Canaan and the Holy and Civil capital as Jerusalem.  

I found one map with an 1899 date produced by a firm in New York.  Click here: ancient maps of canaan - Google Search   Anciently there were sporadic previous mentions of Palestine, but none predate the identifying of the area as the Land of Canaan, tribes were numerous and areas were called by tribal name. 

The popularization of the term Palestine has been made by the United Nations, under the influence of the Arab nations. Note the map below 1947.   ~  Editor Mimi




Editor Mimi: I suggest that this video be viewed as a historical overview. https://www.prageru.com/courses/foreign-affairs/middle-east-problem 


Israel Creation and History
Nov. 29, 1947 | United Nations Partitions Palestine
The plan called for land to be parceled to Arabs and Jews.
Click here: 1947 Israel divided - Google Search

The Learning Network - The New York Times 190 × 348
U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. 
Since the United States seems to be caught up into this ancient battle, between the Israelites and Arabs.  Historic facts would be good to understand.


Since the United States is caught up into this ancient conflict, between the Israelites and Arabs, historic facts should be reviewed and understood.  Christian support of Israel is expected.  We are promised that the Lord will bless those that bless Israel and curse those that curse Israel.  Genesis 12: 3.  It is very obvious that our Lord Jesus Christ is in support of Israel.


Although the Arabs received what they demanded in 1947, through the United Nations, they were not satisfied. Almost immediately after Israel was created, armies from five Arab countries (with 80 million Arabs) invaded Israel, determined to drive the Israelis into the sea. About 1/2 million Israelis, with very limited arms, battled for 15 months, lost more than 1% of its people (6000), and finally forced a truce in 1949. 

The Arabs had full control of Gaza, West Bank, Golan Heights, and East Jerusalem. When the Arabs controlled East Jerusalem, the Arabs refused to allow Jews access to their holiest site (Western Wall), Israel always had allowed all religions access to their holy sites. Israel was about 4 miles wide near Tel Aviv. Arab tanks could have cut Israel in half in about 10 minutes. Unfortunately, the Arabs would not allow the Israelis to live in peace. 

The Arabs repeatedly broke the truce, determined to destroy Israel. Israel was able to defend itself and improve its defensible borders. Whatever problems the Arabs now have, they themselves are responsible. Perhaps Turkey's partitioning of Cypress is an example of the only possible immediate solution for Israel. Maybe, after several generations without hate being taught in the schools, the walls can come down and both peoples can live in peace. (factsandlogic.org, more info) Very complete web sites with many links: www.geocities.com/truthmustbesaid/Middle-East   http://www.mideasttruth.com/index.html
http://www.geocities.com/compassionplease/SyriaTheMonster

Egypt, with additional troops from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Algeria, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, and Lebanon attacked Israel in 1967. Syria said it will drench the land with Israeli blood and throw them into the sea. Against all odds, Israel won the war and took land needed as a buffer zone against further attacks. (OCR, 9/30/01, Commentary 3 letter) [Arabs now want pre-1967 borders, to regain land they lost after attacking and trying to destroy Israel.] ..... The middle east Arab cartel produce oil for $2 a barrel, and sell it for $30 a barrel. (OCR, 9/9/03, Local 9) ..... Oppression of Christians in Muslim countries: "In its October 18 [2003] edition, “La Civiltà Cattolica” published a strikingly severe article on the condition of Christians in Muslim countries. The central thesis of the article is that “in all of its history, Islam has shown a warlike and conquering face”; that “for almost a thousand years, Europe lived under its constant threat”; and that what remains of the Christian population in Islamic countries is still subjected to “perpetual discrimination,” with episodes of bloody persecution."  

http://213.92.16.98/ESW_articolo/0,2393,41931,00.html
  ..... Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar said,
"resistance will continue until the Islamic flag is raised not only over the minarets of Jerusalem, but over the whole universe." 

NOTE: CANAAN was the name of a large and prosperous country (at times independent, at other times, a tributary to Egypt) which corresponds roughly to present-day Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Israel and was also known as Phoenicia. 

The origin of the name `Canaan’ for the land comes from various ancient texts (among them the Hebrew Bible) and there is no scholarly consensus on precisely where the name originated nor what it was intended to convey about the land.  http://www.ancient.eu/canaan/ 

ISRAEL:  After the 1947 United Nation participation, Israel was the name given to the area by the United Nations, as the homeland for the Children of Israel, identified in the Old Testament, as descendents of Jacob's 12 sons,  who name was changed to Israel and thus the people were called Israelites

PALESTINE: However, the United Nation refers to Israel as Palestine on the map above, and continues to act against Israel in most action taken in the United Nations. 

Mike Giles
August 2, 2011
 
"
The world is really un-informed to the facts presented here. There is no such thing as “The Palestinian homeland”.  Through out world history the names of countries have been changed many times because of war.  The land of Canaan became Israel after Joshua subdued the land. Later 2 kingdoms came out of one, Israel and Juda, which the entire area was later called Judea during the time of Jesus.  Not until the Romans changed the name did Israel become “Syria Palaestina”. However, today as it was known in the time of King David, the name of the country is Israel.  The so called Palestinians do not have a country called Palestine."

Andy Boswell
July 8, 2011

"So Palestine is not a country, just a roman name for this for this area. The British chose to call the land they mandated Palestine, and the Arabs picked it up as their nation’s supposed ancient name, so that they wouldn’t have to call it what it is-ISRAEL. "

 

For more comments on the topic of Israel being referred to as Palestine, go to:

http://www.palestinefacts.org/pf_early_palestine_name_origin.php 




Christian Clergy Welcomes Islam in Church, Then Bows to It
by Giulio Meotti
January 4, 2017 

There is a disturbing and growing trend in Italy and Europe.
For the first time in more than 700 years, Islamic songs resonated in Florence's Cathedral, the Church Santa Maria del Fiore. Under the famous Dome of Brunelleschi, Islamic melodies accompanied Christian ones. The "interfaith initiative" was promoted a week after the barbaric massacre by Islamist terrorists in Paris at the magazine Charlie Hebdo, and included "Koran is Justice" and other such "hymns".
============================================= =============================================
A priest in the south of Italy then enraged parishioners by dressing the Virgin Mary in a Muslim burqa for his church's Christmas nativity scene. The pastor of the parish of Saints Joachim and Anne in Potenza, Father Franco Corbo, said that he had the special crèche constructed "in the name of dialogue among religions". These interfaith initiatives are based on the gradual elimination of the Western-Christian heritage in favor of Islam.

Another priest in Italy also eliminated the Christmas nativity scene at the local cemetery because "it could offend Muslims". Father Sante Braggiè said there would be no crib in the cemetery in the northern city of Cremona because it may anger people of others faiths or people whose relatives are not buried there:
"A small corner of the cemetery is reserved for Muslim graves. A crib positioned within sight of them could be seen as a lack of respect for followers of other faiths, hurt the sensibilities of Muslims, as well as Indians and even atheists".

In Rebbio, the Italian parish church of St. Martin was preparing the end of Mass. Suddenly a veiled woman, Nour Fayad, took the floor and read the verses of the Koran which announce the birth of Christ. The initiative was intended by the priest, Don Giusto della Valle, as "a gesture of dialogue".
In Rozano, near Milan, headmaster Marco Parma, then scrapped his school's Christmas carol concert: he decided to ban traditional festivities at Garofani school, "to cause no offence".

In July, for the first time during a Mass in Italy, a verse of the Koran was recited from the altar. It happened in the Church of Santa Maria in Trastevere in Rome, during a ceremony in memory of Father Jacques Hamel, who was slaughtered by ISIS terrorists in France. While Catholics recited the Creed, a delegate of the mosque of al Azhar Mosque in Cairo softly repeated an "Islamic prayer for peace".

Imam Sali Salem recites a verse from the Koran in Rome's Church of Santa Maria in Trastevere, on July 31, 2016. (Image source: La Stampa video screenshot) 

The Catholic clergy is probably disoriented by Pope Francis himself, who was the first to allow the reading of Islamic prayers and Koran readings from the world's most important Catholic facility. It happened when Pope Francis met with late Israeli President Shimon Peres and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Vatican City, a gathering designed "to pray for Middle Eastern peace".
Since he was elected Pontiff, Francis has spent a lot of time in mosques. He has visited many Islamic places of worship abroad, as in Turkey and in the Central African Republic, but he was also willing to become the first Pope to visit the Grand Mosque in Rome.
============================================ =============================================
When it comes to Islam, the Pope embraces religious relativism. He repeated that Islamist violence is the work of "a small group of fundamentalists" who, according to him, have nothing to do with Islam. When asked why he did not speak of Islamic violence, the Pope replied, "If I speak of Islamic violence, I must speak of Catholic violence", even though one would be hard-pressed at this time to find any priests, nuns or other Catholics planting bombs anyplace in the name of Jesus Christ.

This trend goes beyond Italy. In the UK, Bishop Harries suggested that Prince Charles's coronation service should open with a reading from the Koran. In the US, more than 50 churches, including the Washington National Cathedral, hold Koran readings. The head of the Protestant Church in Germany, Bishop Heinrich Bedford-Strohm, has also called for Islam to be taught in state schools. Is there any reading of the Christian liturgy in the mosques?

These interfaith shows also seem to be making us blind to more disturbing readings of the Koran in Christian churches, such as the one that recently took place in Istanbul's Hagia Sophia: for the first time in 85 years, Turkish Muslims read an Islamic text inside the Christianity's most beautiful Eastern church. 
Their goal, as attested by bills submitted to Turkey's parliament, is clear: Islamizing the church, which had been used as a museum since 1935.

Christian silence is less clear: how is it that so few Christian leaders raised their voice against this unprecedented attack on a Christian monument? Have they organized so many Koran readings in their own churches so that they now view it as normal to convert a church into a mosque?

After a terror attack in a church in Normandy last July, the Christian clergy opened the doors of their churches to Muslims. This gesture was welcomed as a turning point in the relation between the two religions. But from a population of six million Muslims in France, only a few hundred Muslims participated. Was their attendance really representative of Islamic public opinion?

These well-intended gestures might look like an interfaith gain, but are in fact an ecumenical loss. Would it not be better for the heads of the Catholic Church to establish a real dialogue with the Islamic communities, based on principles such as reciprocity (if you build mosques in Europe, we build churches in the Middle East), protection of Christian minorities in the Crescent and theological repudiation of jihad against "infidels"?
To the Catholic clergy who opened the door of Florence's Cathedral to Islam, Muslims will next suggest removing a painting in the basilica: Domenico di Michelino's "Dante and the Divine Comedy". For Muslim extremists, Dante is guilty of "blasphemy": he included Mohammed in his poetic Hell. The Islamic State does not make a secret of its willingness to strike Dante's tomb in Italy. Other sites on ISIS's list include St. Mark's Basilica in Venice and the Basilica of San Petronio in Bologna, both of which portray scenes from the Divine Comedy.
============================================= =============================================
A fantasy? Not at all. The Italian human rights organization Gherush92, which advises UN bodies on human rights, already asked to have Dante removed from school curricula because supposedly it is "Islamophobic". In this new interfaith "correctness", only Islam gains. Christians have everything to lose.

Giulio Meotti, Cultural Editor for Il Foglio, is an Italian journalist and author.
© 2017 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved.
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9716/christian-clergy-islam
 

This message may contain copyrighted material which is being made available for research of environmental, political, human rights, economic, scientific, social justice issues, etc., and constitutes a "fair use" of such copyrighted material per section 107 of US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material in this message is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving it for research/educational purposes. 
For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml 
Sent by Odell Hardwell  odell.harwell74@att.net 




CULTURE

Does Mexican Music Have German Roots?  By Gerald Erichsen
Political Salsa: Chicano music and los trovadores by
Salomón R. Baldenegro 
History of the Tortilla...
Latortilla Loca
The Power of LARED-L,  a National Network by Moderator  Roberto Franco Vazquez 
María Teresa Márquez and CHICLE: The First Chicana/o Listserv Network


Does Mexican Music Have German Roots?  

Immigrants' Musical Styles Spread South From Texas
By Gerald Erichsen

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I was listening to a radio station with an eclectic selection of music and I heard what I thought was a terrific German polka band. And then I found out that the band wasn't German at all, but Mexican. Is it just coincidence that so much Mexican music sounds like German oom-pah-pah?

Answer: It's no coincidence at all. The story of the Mexican style of music you're talking about had its origins in central Texas around 1830 when a few immigrants established the first German settlement. The word about Texas spread back home, and within a few years formal efforts were under way to help Germans establish themselves in what would become known as the German Belt.

At the time — and even now, to a certain extent — the Río Grande marked more of a political and geographical divide than a cultural one, and the musical styles of the immigrants became popular among those of Mexican heritage. One of the most important musical instruments of the Germans' musical style, the accordion, became especially popular and was frequently used in dance music such as waltzes and polkas.
Today, various overlapping styles of music that descended in part from the German music include tejano (from the Spanish name for Texas, Tejas), conjunto (which features the accordion along with the bajo sexto, similar to a 12-string guitar), Tex-Mex, quebradita (heavy on the horns), banda (similar to the polka), ranchera, norteño and various mixtures of the above. The musical style also has influenced music from other parts of Mexico, such as the mariachi music of the Guadalajara area. Such musical styles are especially popular in northern Mexico and in places of the United States where there is a large immigrant population of Mexican heritage. Incidentally, the music is nearly always performed in Spanish, even by Mexican-Americans who speak primarily English. (Native Texan and crossover artist Selena sang in Spanish as a girl long before she could speak Spanish, which she learned to market herself better in Mexico.)
So common is the tejano-style genre that in the United States it is often erroneously viewed as synonymous with Mexican music (or even with Spanish-language music).
In fact, though, Mexican music these days is incredibly diverse. Although you'll hear tejano on Mexico City radio stations, you'll also hear Mexican-produced rock o rap en español as well as the same English-language hits you can hear across the border to the north. Spanish-language versions of songs by international performers such as Enrique Iglesias and Shakira remain popular.

Sent by John Inclan  
fromgalveston@yahoo.com
 





Political Salsa: Chicano music and los trovadores

Estimadas/os: For those who may be interested, my latest “Political Salsa y Más” blog, “Chicano music and los trovadores…,is on “Latinopia”—the link is below.

In this blog I focus on the important role that music and musicians—trovadores—have played in our community’s history.

Founded by Chicano media pioneer Jesús S.Treviño, Latinopia features Art, Literature, Theater, Music, Cinema and Television, Food, History, and Sci Fi. Jesús documented on film and in his book “Eyewitness: A Filmmaker's Memoir of the Chicano Movement” the most important events in the Mexican American/Chicano Civil Rights Movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s. ¡CHICANO! History of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement,” the 1997 four-part PBS documentary series that Jesús co-produced remains a classroom staple throughout the country.

Jesús recently published a collection of short stories, “Return to Arroyo Grande” (Arte Público), for which he received the 2016 American Book Award given by The Before Columbus Foundation. It is noteworthy that this Award is a writers’ award given by other writers rather than bestowed by an industry organization. 

Other national and international awards and recognitions Jesús has received include: ALMA Award for Outstanding Director of a Television Drama, and Outstanding Co-Executive Producer of Best Prime-time drama series, and (twice) Directors Guild of America award.

Salomón  
salomonrb@msn.com
  

Link to Latinopia: http://latinopia.com/blogs/political-salsa-y-mas-with-sal-baldenegro-01-15-17-los-trovadores/

 

 



Latortilla Loca
History of the Tortilla...
Definition:  Tortilla – A name given by the Spaniards to the unleavened flat bread they found in Mexico among the Aztec in the sixteenth century. The word “tortilla comes from the Spanish word “torta” which means round cake.
========================================== == =========================================
Past, and Present, and Future:

Tortillas date back as far as 10,000 years before Christ. It was the principal food of the Aztecs who were the dominant people in Meso-America in 1519. Spanish conquerors looking for gold, that they found and sent back to Spain, when they reached the highlands of Mexico found a civilization that had the most delightful and unusual food. The main diet of these people was corn; it supplied the necessary starch, the main source of energy, as well as protein and a little fat. Sometimes the corn was eaten raw on the cob but in most cases it was stored dry and ground into corn meal and later made into masa, corn dough. As time went on, the Indians learned to soak the corn kernels in a lime solution until the skins came off, which made the making of the masa a lot easier.

Tortilla warmer with tortillas insideStill today this ancient method of making tortillas is still being followed, an Indian woman working with a stone slab grinding the soaked kernels into masa. The masa can be white, yellow or any color the raw corn is, but more importantly the consistency is key. As simple as the ingredients are, if the temperature of the mix water is not just right or the not the right quantity, the tortillas will not come out perfect. In Mexico a young girl will spend years learning the secrets to making the perfect tortilla. Once the masa is just right, a golf ball size of masa is placed between her wetted hands and the process of patting it into a flat thin pancake begins. When the masa is about six to eight inches in diameter, it is placed onto a hot griddle/ comal to be quickly cooked on both sides. If you have ever eaten a tortilla right off the griddle you will know how good it can be. 
Tortilla warmer with tortillas inside.  Still today this ancient method of making tortillas is still being followed, an Indian woman working with a stone slab grinding the soaked kernels into masa. The masa can be white, yellow or any color the raw corn is, but more importantly the consistency is key. As simple as the ingredients are, if the temperature of the mix water is not just right or the not the right quantity, the tortillas will not come out perfect. In Mexico a young girl will spend years learning the secrets to making the perfect tortilla. Once the masa is just right, a golf ball size of masa is placed between her wetted hands and the process of patting it into a flat thin pancake begins. When the masa is about six to eight inches in diameter, it is placed onto a hot griddle/ comal to be quickly cooked on both sides. If you have ever eaten a tortilla right off the griddle you will know how good it can be. 

Today tortillas are prepared using the same ingredients but machines have replaced the Indian women working over a grinding slab. Each tortilla is perfect and uniform in size. They are made from corn as well as wheat flour and they come in every flavor imaginable. But even with all our new technology one can still make them from scratch if they so choose. 

From the days of the Aztecs and the first known tortillas, to today, tortillas have gone from an ethnic food to mainstream in the United States. Tortillas sales have now become second only to sliced bread as the number 2 packaged bread product sold, passing bagels and muffins. It is estimated that 5.7 billion dollars of tortillas will be sold in the United States in the year 2002 according to TIA the Tortilla Industry Association. 
Tortillas once only thought of as a Mexican food, is now being eaten by Americans with everything one can think of; hotdogs, peanut butter and jelly, pizza, casseroles, sandwiches, a wrap for anything you can think of. Tortillas have become, a bread product you can find almost anywhere from fast food restaurants to gourmet shops. Americans have fallen in love with this new and exciting flat bread that has been around for centuries.

La Tortilla Oven® US Patent Number RE42,311 
La Tortilla Oven, LLC
340 S. Lemon Ave #6509
Walnut, CA 91789
Copyright ©2005-2016. All rights reserved 
http://www.latortillaloca.com/History.htm  

Sent by John Inclan  
fromgalveston@yahoo.com
 







The Power of LARED-L,  
a National Network 
by 
Moderator  Roberto Franco Vazquez  

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Estimados/as Colegas:

There are a lot of listserv users, but only a few actually 'Get It.'
http://www.lsoft.com/products/listserv.asp  

By 'Get It,' I mean that folks actually understand the potential power of Listservs Networks: to empower 'La Gente' by bringing them together from throughout the country on a 'Cyber Discussion Forum' such as LARED-L. 
http://www.lared-latina.com/subs.html 


Imagine a college auditorium with an audience of over 1000 people. Now imagine that the audience is comprised of people who represent all regions of the United States, as well as Mexico, Canada, and Puerto Rico.

Now imagine that every member of the audience has the right to go up to the Podium and express any opinion, belief, or sentiment regarding any socio- political, economic, or educational issue, or concern.

Well LARED-L is such a Virtual Forum. The only difference is that LARED-L is a Social Forum that exists in Cyberspace, and it happens right in your own personal email box. Another difference is that you can step up to the Podium anytime, 24/7, and have a captive audience 24/7 as well. Cyberspace Never Sleeps. 


LARED-L is a National Network because we have subscribers from throughout the USA, mostly the West Coast, Southwest and Intermountain Regions. Today, you may have received a messages from Los Angeles, Las Vegas, El Paso, Chicago, California, New York., Dallas, Denver, or Salt Lake City. Yet, were all joined together through the power of LARED-L. http://www.lared-latina.com/subs.html 


LARED-L might be considered an International Network as well, because we have some subscribers from Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Argentina.

Listserv Networks provide Latinos/Hispanics/ Chicanos a Cyber-Platform where we can come together to discuss vital issues and concerns related to nuestra comunidad. There are other Latino Listservs, but many are specialized lists. ie., Such as listservs for Engineers, Librarians, etc., These Listservs have their
own discussion rules and protocol, and socio-political issues are rarely addressed. 

============================================= =============================================
LARED-L is unique in that we have an 'Open Forum' that encourages discussion of ethnically relevant social and political issues."The term 'Open Forum' can refer
to several things, depending on who is speaking and what the context is. All of these meanings, however, imply the open exchange of ideas and information,
usually to better the common good.

The word 'Forum' comes directly from the Latin. In Roman times, the Forum was an open marketplace where people could make purchases, have discussions with other citizens, and try to reach agreement on matters of public interest. Some of
these meanings have carried through to modern day on CyberSpace.

Friends, the growth and expansion of the LARED-L, depends largely on us.

Do we care enough to tell a family member, friend, colleague or associate about LARED-L? This person could be a soldier, college student, colleague, or
associate residing anywhere in the country or the world and still be able to join our Cyber-Network.

I want to encourage each one of you to help just "one person" to join our Cyber Network. You can make it HAPPEN. All you need to do is to forward this message to a friend, colleague, or associate and direct them to the LARED-L visit at: 
http://www.lared-latina.com/subs.html   

It is crucial that you follow up to insure that the person actually joins  LARED-L. Alternatively, you can just send me: rcv_5186@aol.com  Your friend's name and email address, and I'll be glad to add them directly to LARED-L.  Gracias, Saludes, y Buena Suerte,  Atentamente, 

Roberto Franco Vazquez  LARED-L Moderator



María Teresa Márquez and CHICLE: The First Chicana/o Listserv Network

============================================= =============================================


These days we take e-mail and electronic lists for granted, but imagine a world where there is no e-mail or exchange of information like we have now?

That was the world for Humanities Librarian María Teresa Márquez at the University of New Mexico (UNM) Zimmerman Library and creator of CHICLE, the first Chicana/o electronic mailing list created in 1991, to focus on Latino literature and later on the social sciences. [1]

Other Chicano/Latino listservs include Roberto VáZquez’s Lared Latina of the Intermountain Southwest (Lared-L) [2] created in 1996, and Roberto Calderon’s Historia-L, created in March 2003. [3] These electronic lists were influential in expanding communication and opportunities among Chicanas/os. CHICLE, nevertheless,  deserves wider recognition as a pioneering effort whose importance has been overlooked.

Check out the rest at:

http://library.osu.edu/blogs/mujerestalk/tag/lared-latina-of-the-intermountain-southwest/


BOOKS & PRINT MEDIA

Latino 247 Media Group . . . Formerly Latino Print Network
Breaking and Bleeding of a Macho Man by Isabel Delia Gonzalez  
Dogged Pursuit: Tracking the Life of Enrique Garfias, First City Marshal of Phoenix, AZ 
Return to Arroyo Grande by Jesús Salvador Treviño 
We Became Mexican American: How Our Immigrant Family Survived to Pursue the
      American Dream by Dr. Carlos B. Gil 
Beneath the Super Moon by Dr. Irene Blea
El Censo de 1680 de la Gomera y El Hierro  by Julio C. Vera



Kirk Whisler
Latino 247 Media Group
formerly Latino Print Network
3445 Catalina Dr.
Carlsbad, CA 92010



Breaking and Bleeding of a Macho Man 
by Isabel Delia Gonzalez  

A novel written by the Mexico-born Gonzalez based on her observation of men believing machismo is the badge of courage.  They have been conditioned to believe that courage is more important than life itself.  What are the consequences of the conditioning?

============================================= =============================================
Breaking and Bleeding of a Macho Man  
is a novel written by Mexico-born Isabel Delia Gonzalez depicting one man’s struggle to find his way to success in a family tainted by abuse, mental illness, alcoholism, and rigid role expectations. set in a time period of ignorance and superstition about mental illness, his family uses black magic and witchcraft to “treat” the ills that befall it. abandonment of the victims is routine to protect the status of the family, leading to further pain. all members of the family are affected and bear scars from it. despite these roadblocks, Ricardo finds strength and courage in small steps, sometimes forward and other times back  

The author draws from her personal experience of culture shock as a child, moving from Mexico to a Midwest city in the early 1960s in the United States.

Her tremendous strength and perseverance in the face of prejudices taught her many lessons on the importance of forgiveness. 

Even though we pride ourselves in bringing psychiatric disorders out of the “snake pit” and into modern medicine, we still fail at removing the stigma and misunderstandings associated with them.

Persistent are the beliefs that witchcraft, voodoo, and potions are treatments and moral/emotional weaknesses are causes.  
I hope that she writes a sequel so that we can continue our journey with Ricardo as he navigates adulthood. His struggles are still as timely today as they were in the last century. 
 
Judith Campbell, M.D.
Adult, Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist, Distinguished Fellow, American Psychiatric Association


For Empowering Speaker on Mental Health crisis in diverse communities. How to build strength in communities for a common goal. Go to www.scribbler.company.com  or fromhuffman@gmail.com.

 




 

Enrique "Henry" Garfias was one of the most notable law enforcement figures in Arizona's territorial era. As Phoenix city marshal, constable, U.S. deputy marshal and Maricopa County deputy sheriff, he was known as a crack shot and a tenacious man hunter.

Dedicated to the rule of law and proud of his Hispanic origins, Garfias was widely respected for his evenhanded approach to policing a frontier town sometimes beset by racial tensions.

This engaging biography confirms Garfias' prominent place in the annals of the American Southwest.

 

Hola, Mimi,  Feliz Año Nuevo! Thanks so much for the excellent reminder from Philippians, it says a lot with a few words. Thanks, too, for your honesty in explaining your decision about accepting social network invitations. Courageous, in this day and age.

It's been many years (the early 90s!) since we first made contact, thanks to Christine Marin, Ph.D. at the U of Arizona. You were kind enough to put me in touch with Cindy LoBuglio (que descanse en paz). She was so helpful and encouraging in the early stages of my project. Later, you graciously put me in touch with a prospective publisher. Although he and I were not quite a fit, I did finally find a publisher for: Dogged Pursuit: Tracking the Life of Enrique Garfias, First City Marshal of Phoenix, Arizona.

You may recall he was one of the children of Manuel and Luisa Garfias, one of the the old ranchero families of Los Angeles County.I'm not sure the best way to advise your readers that this biography is now available, but for the moment, it just brings me great pleasure to inform YOU of this moment that I have worked towards for so many years. It has always been a part of my vision that the Latino/Hispanic community deserved a fuller portrait of Garfias, and it has been a labor of love to bring his story to fruition.

I hope the new year brings you and your enterprise many, many blessings, and I look forward to being in contact once again!

Jeffrey Richardson
Bend, OR
541-610-3826
jephyr7@hotmail.com

Reader review:  A Well-researched Account of a Forgotten Town Tamer
By Charles Lewis on January 8, 2017

"If you're a fan of frontier history and the story of early law enforcement in the American West, its rare to come across a fresh story that hasn't already been picked clean by a legion of historians. However, the story of Enrique "Henry" Garfias is one of those rarities and journalist Jeffrey R. Richardson has done an excellent job in bringing it to light. An uncommon biography of a Hispanic lawman, "Dogged Pursuit: Tracking the Life of Enrique Garfias, the First City Marshal of Phoenix, Arizona" is a great introduction to a now largely forgotten frontier town tamer and the community that he served. This would be a welcome addition to any library on western peace keeping and early Arizona."

 





Return to Arroyo Grande
by Jesús Salvador Treviño 

Chicano media pioneer Jesús S.Treviño recently published a collection of short stories, “Return to Arroyo Grande” (Arte Público), for which he received the 2016 American Book Award given by The Before Columbus Foundation. 

It is noteworthy that this Award is a writers’ award given by other writers rather than bestowed by an industry organization. 

Other national and international awards and recognitions Jesús has received include: ALMA Award for Outstanding Director of a Television Drama, and Outstanding Co-Executive Producer of Best Prime-time drama series, and (twice) Directors Guild of America award.


In the opening piece, “Where Lost Things Reside,” rumor has it that Old Man Baldemar has died. Stories about the old geezer’s demise abound: he died of pneumonia; he was hit by a car, even killed by the big C. All Yoli Mendoza knows is that she’s lost the income from helping the perverse recluse with his grocery shopping. Entering the house she has never been allowed in before, she’s shocked to find it’s much larger than it appears from the street. And even odder, it’s full of items, each tagged with a name, city and date. There’s a room full of cell phones, drawers packed with rings, trays and trays of plastic lids … socks, watches, wallets, glasses! Was Baldemar the caretaker of all of the things that have been lost, no matter the time, city or even country?

Weird things continue to happen to the characters that renowned author and filmmaker Jesús Salvador Treviño introduced in his captivating debut, The Fabulous Sinkhole and Other Stories. At the theme park where Choo Choo Torres works, people begin to disappear—and then reappear slightly changed; are they moving back and forth between alternate universes? Charlie Villalobos keeps blacking out and losing days; could it be that he exists only in someone’s dreams? And Jeannie de la Cruz has very distinct memories of seeing her partner Gale run over by a speeding taxi in Mexico City; how can she still be alive?

Many in these interrelated stories have left Arroyo Grande to follow their dreams, but in the raucous title story they all return to their home town in a resounding confirmation of the power of community. Weaving magical realism with issues of loss, memory and identity, Jesús Salvador Treviño once again confirms his place as a powerful storyteller in Chicano—and American—literature.

See more at: https://artepublicopress.com/product/return-to-arroyo-grande/#sthash.FXUt0S1f.dpuf 

by Jesús Salvador Treviño 
ISBN-13: 978-1-55885-819-0
Publication Date: September 30, 2015
Bind: Trade paperback  $17.95, Pages: 160


Sent by Salvador Baldenegro, via http://Latinopia.com   

Link to Latinopia: http://latinopia.com/blogs/political-salsa-y-mas-with-sal-baldenegro-01-15-17-los-trovadores/




 

Dr. Carlos B. Gil
"We Became Mexican American: 
How Our Immigrant Family Survived 
to Pursue the American Dream" 
by Dr. Carlos B. Gil
 (2012, 2014).

This is a story of Mexican family that arrived in America in the 1920s for the first time. And so, it is a tale of immigration, settlement and cultural adjustment, as well as generational progress. Carlos B. Gil, one of the American sons born to this family, places a magnifying glass on his ancestors who abandoned Mexico to arrive on the northern edge of Los Angeles, California.

Do view the Youtube of  Dr. Gil's comments:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M62OiJXa6QY
.  Watching this video was especially enjoyable for me because I was in the middle of reading his book, and his comments were even more meaningful.   

========================================= = ========================================
He narrates how his unprivileged relatives walked away from their homes in western Jalisco and northern Michoacán and traveled over several years to the U.S. border, crossing it at Nogales, Arizona, and then finally settling into the barrio of the city of San Fernando. Based on actual interviews, the author recounts how his parents met, married, and started a family on the eve of the Great Depression.

With the aid of their testimonials, the author’s brothers and sisters help him tell of their growing up. They call to memory their father’s trials and tribulations as he tried to succeed in a new land, laboring as a common citrus worker, and how their mother helped shore him up as thousands of workers lost their jobs on account of the economic crash of 1929. 
Their story takes a look at how the family survived the Depression and a tragic accident, how they engaged in micro businesses as a survival tactic, and how the Gil children gradually became American, or Mexican American, as they entered young adulthood beginning in the 1940s. It also describes what life was like in their barrio.

The author also comments briefly on the advancement of the second and third Gil generations and, in the Afterword, likewise offers a wide-ranging assessment of his family’s experience including observations about the challenges facing other Latinos today.
 

 

"We Became Mexican American: How Our Immigrant Family Survived to Pursue the American Dream"  tied for first place with the Las Comadres 2013 selection for Best Latino Focused Nonfiction Book in the International Latino Book Awards competition.

"....Vivid, highly informative and entertaining, Gil's book shines and should be a staple on the bookshelves of history teachers and their students." (October 2012) 

"Provides a unique perspective into the complex cultural struggles immigrant families face and the circumstances that bring them here. (Kirkus review: November 2012) 

"Rich, textured portrait....Black-and-white photographs inserted throughout the text vividly express this change of fortune." (Clarlion Foreward Review: December 2012) 

Editor Mimi:  Dr. Gil made me very aware of the economic differences of those entering the United States. His detailed and emotional accounts of the hardships of those entering the US in the 1920s is very similar to the current situations of many poor Mexicans seeking employment in the United States, walking or free-riding on top of trains, fleeing the depressive economic unrest and political dangers of Mexico.  

My Grandpa brought the family from Nuevo Leon to San Antonio, as paid travelers inside the train.  
They left their home, fleeing from the marauding revolutionary units, unstable political conditions, and new volatile government leadership.   Grandpa was an educator, served as mayor of the small town of Sabinas Hidalgo,  ran a store to support his large family which included seven girls.  They fled for safety.  

Dr. Gil's ancestor, fled for safety also.  Reading the incidences and events described filled-out the reality of what was happening in Mexico and then the adjustments to living in California, increase my insight and understanding of my family, mi abuelita y abuelito, mis tios y tias, mi mama y papa, y mis muchos primos.  

I strongly recommend reading, "We Became Mexican American, How Our Immigrant Family Survived to Pursue the America Dream."   



============================== ===================================================
Dr. Irene Blea has published her 10th book.  Beneath the Super Moon, is Dr. Blea's latest novel, the 3rd in her Suzanna trilogy.

Synopsis: By the mid 1960’s, at the thrust of the Chicano Movement, Suzanna Montoya had settled in the city and began to address urban concerns about race, class, and gender. Like many of her nameless contemporaries, Suzanna did her part where she lived on the west side of town, part of, but isolated from the mainstream. Once again, Irene Blea’s analytical gift renders a colorful voice to those concerns as they are faced by Suzanna, who still seeks to reunite with the sons she left behind when she ran from her abusive husband.

My new novel, Beneath the Super Moon is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and ABQ Press.com. Your local book store can also order it for you.

For book signing and other speaking dates visit Dr. Blea at https://www.facebook.com/irene.blea  

http://www.southwestwriters.com/?s=irene+blea&submit=Go



 

ARE YOU A CANARY ISLANDS DESCENDANT?

El Censo de 1680 de la Gomera y El Hierro

El Censo de 1680 de la Gomera y El Hierro
With English Guide
, which may be obtained at Amazon.com
 
Julio Vera, editor

According to Canary Islands government sources*, thousands of people living in the United States and Latin America are descended from the Canary Islands. Now, they can trace their lineage - and uncover many details of their ancestors’ lives - in the newly published El Censo de 1680 de La Gomera y El Hierro (Amazon, $29.95).

Researcher Julio C. Vera of Los Angeles, California, has published a forgotten census of two of the Canary Islands - La Gomera and El Hierro - presumed lost for  three-hundred-and- twenty-five years. Taken in 1680 by the Catholic church, the census captures the lives of 1,748 households - listing the full names, ages, relationships and other valuable details of the 7,602 residents - in short, a treasure trove of demographic information for genealogists, historians, anthropologists and statisticians.

Vera was able to locate a manuscript copy of the census buried in an obscure lawsuit found at the Archivo Historico Provincial de Las Palmas, in Gran Canaria. After securing a digital scan of the manuscript, Vera worked for a year painstakingly deciphering its archaic script and transcribing every word. He has now published it in book form. El Censo de 1680 de La Gomera y El Hierro is available on Amazon. In exploring other parts of the lawsuit’s pages, Vera also uncovered additional demographic information consisting of lists of residents, taxpayers and their payments, some recorded deaths and contemporary descriptions of the islands, all which he also transcribed and appended to the census. Finally, he created a full index of all its surnames and even added an English Guide to facilitate access by English-speaking researchers.
Vera, a writer who holds a Master of Fine Arts from the University of California, Los Angeles, graduate film school and a Master of Library and Information Sciences from the same university recalls, "It started out as a search for my own ancestors who lived in the islands at that time. But I felt that I couldn’t just keep all that information to myself, so it soon grew into quite the project - a real labor of love." His seventh great grandfather, Bartolomé de Vera and his family are listed living in El Hierro.
http://www.gobiernodecanarias.org/educacion/culturacanaria/emigracion/La_emigracion_canaria.htm  

CONTACT: contact@juliovera.com 


 


ORANGE COUNTY, CA

Feb 11: SHHAR "The Who, What, When, Where, and Why of Writing: Fun Ways to Trigger Memories, from Oral History to Written History" by Mimi Lozano  
 
Feb 10:
Civil Spirits: The Politics of Booze in Orange County, HMOC
Feb 18: Celebrate Black History Month at the Heritage Museum of Orange County
Feb 25:  Un Tributo a Mexico, A Free Concert for Residents
45 Mexican Barrios/Colonias in Orange County in the  1900s by Dr. Albert Vela, Ph.D.
Santa Ana grads set record for bi-literacy, and state seals the deal


Dear primos and friends, 

If you have thought of writing your own personal and family stories,
 I do hope you can make this workshop and let me help get you started.

 
"The Who, What, When, Where, and Why of Writing: Fun Ways to Trigger Memories, 
from Oral History to Written History".  

Society of Hispanic Historical and Ancestral Research
February 11


Mimi Lozano is one of the original founders of SHHAR and editor of Somos Primos, an on-line Hispanic Heritage and History Magazine.  She is a retired educator and an active member of the SHHAR Board of Directors.  She is the immediate past President of the SHHAR Board, a position she held for many years.  As editor of Somos Primos she is in contact and engaged with the Hispanic Community nationwide and internationally –she has a wealth of information to share with her audience! 
 

The free presentation will take place at the Orange Family History Center, 674 S. Yorba St., Orange. Volunteers will provide research assistance from 9 -10 a.m., and Lozano will speak from 10:15 -11:30 a.m.

For information, contact Letty Rodella at lettyr@sbcglobal.net.

 

 



============================================= ===================================

A "Spirited" Evening of Humor & History! 

Civil Spirits: 
The Politics of Booze in Orange County

Friday, February 10, 2017 
7pm to 10pm

Come on down to the ‘ol juice joint and hobnob with the swells!  Our guest speaker, Santa Ana Historian Manny Escamilla, will present, Civil Spirits: The Politics of Booze in Orange County

Join us for this inaugural event in our Speakeasy History Series!
It'll be a lively evening of OC History... with a twist! 
General Seating = $35.00 
Open to the Public.
Limited seating available. Reservations required.
No guests under age 21  (714) 540-0404, ext. 224. 


Celebrate Black History Month! 

will be celebrating with... "History, Culture, and Community"  

Saturday, February 18th, 10am-4pm

This event will be FREE and OPEN to the public! 

 

Heritage Museum of Orange County, Heritage Museum of OC, 3101 West Harvard Street, Santa Ana, CA 92704

 




GMFBC is proud to present, Un Tributo A Mexico, to be held at the historic Warner Grand Theatre at 7:30 p.m. on February 25th. This event is free of charge to people residing in the 15th District of Los Angeles. (zip codes: 90012, 90731, 90002, 90247, 90744, 90044) Tickets are available for sale to residents outside the 15th district at the cost of $30 per ticket, general admission, first come - first serve.






45 Mexican Barrios/Colonias in Orange County in the 1900s
by Dr. Albert Vela, Ph.D.

cristorey38@comcast.net

When I sent out the notice of wanting to learn more about the number n names of the barrios in Orange  
County, the count then was 32. The list has grown to 45. Every colonia had a name. Asyou look at the attached list some names r missing. 

Santa Ana, Anaheim, Orange, Placentia, n La Habra had the most barrios. I have a hunch El Toro had at least two. 

The barrios covered all of Orange County from east to west n north to south. . .in growing upEl Toro, San Juan Capistrano (Capo) and Fullerton seemed so remote I imagined them in another  state! Even after I was able to drive, those places seemed far away. . .anything over 12-15 miles was far. . .

If you played on the early barrio softball teams in the 40s n 50s, you got to know those localities made 
friends and married girls from those barrios. 

As Professor Emeritus Richard Santillán noted in the Mexican American baseball books he authored(or co-authored), baseball/softball was more than a game for the Mexican American communities. . .Julio 
Chico Méndez of the Westminster barrio married a gal from El Modena. When he played for the softball 
team sponsored by the Ford Motor Company he got a fellow barrio teammate Tony Rivera to join Ford 
and the team (see photo below n Hoover School photo below it).

 Julio Méndez, standing #2 from left; kneeling #2 from left, Tony Rivera

 

Yes Al,  my dad sponsored the team from the Artesia barrio for many years,  which had Felix( Vito) Orozco and also the Murillo brothers, which were exceptional players.  I used to attend all the games and some were in San Pedro, which I thought was another country.  Correct,  my dad was Flores Service. The team was co-sponsored by El Encanto, a cantina, one block away.   Sal Flores salflores@outlook.com  



Hoover School, Westminster Barrio, CA 1938

 
Top Row L - R: Mr Miceli; ? / Julio Méndez #2/ Kiko "Perico" Felix / Joe Arganda #4/ Lalo Cruz/ Victor Ramírez/ Raymond Bermúdez/ Alesio Méndez / Ophelia Poyorena/ Vangie Díaz/ Mary Vega/ Evelyn Peña/ Pauline Varela/ Anita Hernández
Middle Row: Julia Vela #1; Mimi Díaz/ Aurelia González #3/ NN / Irene Perez / Virginia López #6/ Lola Rivera / Jenny Palomino / Benigna "Bennie" Medina (Glida's/Glider's sister) / Rosina Mendoza 

Front Row: Daniel Limas/ Andrew Rivera/ Jessie Limas/ Ralph Cervantes/ Manuel Meño Rivera/ Peter Jackson/ Glida Medina/ Adán Méndez/ Raymunda Poyorena/ Dolores Vela #4/ Annie (Margie) Varela/ Julia Rivera/ Angelina?/ 



Mexican Barrios/Colonias of Orange County, 1900s-

Albert V Vela, PhD

January 6, 2017  

Anaheim
            Colonia Independencia; La Conga; La Fábrica; La Palma; Tijuanita;
            La Philadelphia (downtown Anaheim)

Buena Park
           
Los Coyotes

Capistrano Beach
Cypress
El Toro

Fountain Valley
            Colonia Juárez

Fullerton
            Tokers Town on Truslow; Maple St

Garden Grove
            La Paz; Manzanillo/La Bonita/La 17th east of Verano (now Euclid)

Huntington Beach
            Wintersburg; La Bolsa

Irvine
            Farm Labor Camp

La Habra
            Campo Colorado; Campo Corona; Alta Vista; Campo Verde 

Los Alamitos

Orange
            Cypress (west of the Plaza); 
            El Modena: El Pirripe (north of Chapman Ave.);     
           
El Modena: Hollywood (south of Chapman Ave.; 
           
La Paloma (SE corner at foot of hill along Alameda St.)

Placentia
            Atwood; La Jolla; La Esperanza; La Paloma;
            Placita Santa Fe (downtown Placentia)

San Juan Capistrano
           
Little Hollywood; Los Ríos

Santa Ana 
           
Logan (east of Main St); 
           
Artesia (where the Trolley from Garden Grove entered onto 5th to 4th Streets); 
           
Santa Anita (between Harbor Blvd & Santa Ana River); 
           
Grand & 4th Streets;
            Grand & 1st (including Pine, Walnut to 4th St);
            North of 1st St and West of Bristol;
            Silver Acres (north of 1st St & west of Euclid);
            Delhi (South Main St by the Holly Sugar Factory)

Stanton
            Stanton Village; Crow Village

Westminster
           
Olive Street

Other Colonias/Barrios
             Silver Acres; La Bonita; Chico Farms; Camp Limón; Farm Labor Camp

The author is indebted to Baldwin Pedraza, Ricardo Valverde, Louis Holguín, and
Angelina Veyna for their contributions to this list of Mexican barrios.  


 




Santa Ana grads set record for bi-literacy, and state seals the deal
by Jessica Kwong, staff writer
Santa Ana Register, June 19, 2016


A record number of Santa Ana high school students graduated last week with a Seal of Bi-literacy, a glowing badge of their fluency in English and at least one other language. J During graduation ceremonies held Tuesday through Thursday, 1,013 seniors received state-issued seals affixed on their diplomas - an increase of124 students from the previous year, according to the Santa Ana Unified School District.

"It's a very prestigious seal that they have bestowed, a very proud moment," said school district spokeswoman Deidra Powell.

To earn the seal, seniors were required to be "proficient" or "advanced" in

English; have a GPA of 2.0 or better; take a foreign language Advanced Placement exam and an SAT II foreign language subject test; and study a foreign language for four years or take a school district-approved foreign language exam.

Proficiency in Spanish was the most common, followed by French. The district also offers Vietnamese and German classes. SAUSD, the largest school district in Orange County and the seventh largest in California, has a student body that is 96 percent Latino. About 60 percent of students are English learners, with Spanish, Vietnamese and

Khmer the most common languages spoken at home. The school district embraces students' ability to be bi-literate, Powell said. "They speak different languages at home with their families, and then when they come to school, they speak English, so it's using both languages all the time," she said. "We encourage that. We think it's an asset."



LOS ANGELES, CA

Zoot Suit runs at the Mark Taper Forum from January 31 to March 19, 2017.
Don't Just Cry, Qualify! Ortiz, the Hobo Professor by Rudy Padilla





Zoot Suit runs at the Mark Taper Forum 
from January 31 to March 19, 2017.

As part of Center Theatre Group’s 50th Anniversary celebration, playwright and theater director Luis Valdez is bringing his groundbreaking Zoot Suit back to the Mark Taper Forum, the venue where it premiered in 1978. 

After running for a year in Los Angeles, the Center Theatre Group-commissioned play—whose story was inspired by the wrongful conviction of members of the East Los Angeles 38th Street Gang for the Sleep Lagoon murders—moved to Broadway in 1979 and was adapted into a major motion picture by Universal in 1981. 

The production not only transformed Edward James Olmos—who played El Pachuco, alter ego of the play’s protagonist—into a star, but more importantly, it shone a national spotlight on Chicano theater and inspired a generation of Chicano/Latino playwrights.

And there along for the ride was alumnus Ignacio Gomez (BFA 1970 Advertising), who painted the production’s poster—an image that not only captured the spirit of the play but which has also become an iconic symbol of Chicano/Latino pride.

According to Gomez, that image would have turned out far less iconic had he not been willing to lay his own money and reputation down on the line. 

Sitting in the living room of his home in Glendale and surrounded by different versions of his Zoot Suit poster as well as maquettes of his Cesar Chavez public works he create decades later—he explained how he was commissioned to create the work.

“Somebody at the Mark Taper Forum had seen a cover I did for New West Magazine and called me and asked, ‘Are you Ignacio Gomez?’ I said, ‘Yes.’ ‘Are you a Chicano?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Have you heard of the play Zoot Suit?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘We want you to do the poster for the upcoming season,’” says Gomez. “I said, ‘Great’ and I got all excited.”

“But then they said, ‘We can only pay you $300 and we can only afford two colors, yellow and black,’ adds Gomez, with a laugh. “I told them, ‘No, it’s gotta be full color, even if I have to pay for it.’ Imelda, my wife, who was nearby holding one of my kids, heard me say that and her mouth dropped.”

Fortunately, that spurred the Mark Taper into action. Not only were they able to renegotiate with their printer to do full-color printing, but they also upoed his pay to $500, and let Gomez retain the image’s copyright.

Looking at the poster today, it’s hard to imagine it existing in any other format (though Gomez has since rendered El Pachuco both as a silhouette and, playfully, as a giant robot).

The poster, which is part of the Smithsonian’s collection and went on a national tour as part of the museum’s 2013 exhibition Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art, features a El Pachuco in a heroic pose, wearing his defiantly oversize zoot suit and looming large over a 1940s Los Angeles skyline.

“I was given a description of the play and the script, but I was also familiar with the pachucos and the zoot suits because I would see them growing up,” said Gomez, who was born in East Los Angeles in 1941.

When asked about what kind of direction he received for the artwork, he says, “I was going to have Edward James Olmos pose for me. He wanted to do it, but the Mark Taper said ‘No, we’re not trying to glorify the actor.’ But they did send me the jacket, the pants and the hat. I did end up using some of Eddie in there in the final poster, but his neck wasn’t that massive.”

Gomez says he rendered the figure of El Pachuco to be larger than life, and for his posture and the angle which the viewer sees him to evoke the ancient pyramids of Mexico. “The background is a subtle representation of the American flag,” adds Gomez, pointing to the red- and white-striped sunset, topped by a blue sky that gradually turns into a field of stars. “Originally I wanted to make much larger stars, but I decided that would take something away from the man himself.”

Mike Winder  
Mike.Winder@Artcenter.edu
 
Editorial Director
Marketing and Communications

T 626 396-2384
M 323 807-3735
mike.winder@artcenter.edu

ArtCenter College of Design
1700 Lida St.
Pasadena, CA 91103
www.artcenter.edu


Sent by Ignacio Gomez  ignaciogomezstudio@icloud.com 

 




“Don’t Just Cry, Qualify!”…
“Wichita” Ortiz, the Hobo Professor
by  Rudy  Padilla  opkansas@swbell.net 

 

A few years ago, when writing the weekly Caminos, I read an amazing article about Martin Ortiz.  I spoke with the writer, Michael Quintanilla and we had a conversation.  He commented “Martin Ortiz” is one of my favorite people and after he gave me the telephone number for Mr. Ortiz, he gave me permission to use his article.  

I had a very nice conversation with him in early 2003 and I agree – what a nice man.  I told him I wish he could come to Kansas City , Kansas and start a Center for Mexican American Affairs as he had done in California . Unfortunately, when we spoke last fall his health has deteriorated.  I received a call from him at the home where he is convalescing.  Since 2003, I have spoken with his friends who grew up with him and his family.  The Ortiz family is highly respected in the Mid-west.  Martin made his mark in WWII and in the field of Education. Several of his family were musicians and formed a large group called “Los Ortiz.”  Some were athletes.  One of the family members was a running back for the University of Nebraska .

(The following was written by Michael Quintanilla – permission granted to reprint). 

============================================= =============================================

Martin Ortiz, a man of many firsts attempts another crossing of a plaza packed with well-wishers being sidelined for a quick hello, handshake or hug.  Buena suerte!  Not even Ortiz, a retired Whittier College elder known as El Jefe (the boss), can control the pandemonium his presence is causing.

 
For 26 years , Ortiz, director of the college’s Center of Mexican American Affairs and its only Latino graduate in 1948, has guided thousands of students, finding  scholarships, arranging tutors, securing jobs and sharing words of wisdom that many hold dear long after graduation.

His crusade, or movimiento, as he prefers to call it, is inspired by a past that taught him, “Don’t just cry, qualify!” a Ortiz original.  

As a boy, a teacher degraded him because he didn’t speak English.  As a young man, restaurateurs, barbers, hostelers and landlords turned him away because of his Mexican heritage.  And while walking to class on his first day at Whittier , he was stopped cold and asked, “And where do you think you’re going?”  A soft-spoken Ortiz replied: “To get an education.”  

 

Today, Ortiz, long considered by educators the nation’s father of minority student programs, is the college’s first Latino namesake of a multi million dollar scholarship endowment for Latinos.  But it’s his personal touch, his chivalrous and charismatic way with people, that has lured 700 Latino students and parents on a fall day to the hilltop mansion of Whittier College President , James Ash for a tardeada, or afternoon reception.  

An 11-piece mariachi orchestra plays ‘Cielito Lindo” on the vihuela, guitarra de golpa and guitarron, high-gloss guitars of various sizes and sounds.  Ninos, perched on their father’s shoulders, reach for helium-filled balloons.  Streamers in patriotic red, green and white flutter like kite tails above the throng.  Ortiz, in a receiving line, manages to break away.  He takes three steps before a former student hits him with a kiss and asks if the man she considers her surrogate father might give her away at her July wedding.  

Another student approaches to vigorously pump the hand of the man he respectfully calls “Dad” the man who provides the encouragement to stick with college, especially when the student’s own father, an alcoholic, abuses his mother until the violence becomes unbearable.  

============================================= =============================================

This proud Mexican woman whose son is the first in the family to attend college bashfully asks Ortiz to pose with her for a photo.  Wearing a gorgeous braid and fringed shawl, she wraps her arms around his waist, snuggles against his chest and smiles, revealing several gold-capped teeth.  “One day I will show my grandchildren his picture,” she says later in Spanish, “and I will tell them, El Jefe is the reason for my son’s success.”  

But Ortiz, a painfully shy man, flatly refuses to take credit.  The praise, he says, should be showered on the parents and their kids.  Thanks should go to Ash and his predecessors (except the one who tried to put the center out of business in its early years), and, he says, the center’s Hispanic Students Association, the Hispanic Parents Advisory Council and the Hispanic Alumni group should also be commended.  

In 1970, two years after returning to Whittier to teach Chicano studies, Ortiz, then 49, became the center’s founding director.  The college’s enrollment was 5.5% Latino.  Five years later, it reached 16%.  This year, 27% of the 1,260 students are Latino the highest percentage among the 73-member assn. of Independent Colleges and Universities.  Says Jonathan Brown, the association’s president:  “Carefully and cautiously, Martin has followed a social mission to deeply enmesh Whittier into the Latino community. 

 

He is the foot soldier who has made it work.”  Says Ash, simply, eloquently:  “We are here today to celebrate the gentleman whose work is the glorious fulfillment of his hopes and dreams.”  Clearly, El Jefe, surrounded by cheering and applauding students, is moved.  “I’m in heaven,” he whispers.  

A few days later, Ortiz is strolling across the velvety green grounds of Whittier College , founded by the Quakers 107 years ago.  In the distance, a trio of student’s strikes out of their path to say hello, filling him in on their schedules, assignments and grades, and regaling him with stories about their families, from little brothers and sisters to grandparents Ortiz has befriended.  He never forgets a name or a face.  

Destiny must have brought Ortiz to a place where he could touch many lives, where he could help tear down the barriers that keep many Latinos from going to college.  

Through the decades, in his low-key but persuasive style, he tells parents who never finished high school, who never considered higher education, to change history by giving their kids a shot at the American Dream.  He reassured Latinos that attending college, instead of working full time to help their families, is the right thing to do.  And he manages to alleviate fears about fitting in at Whittier , where wealthier Anglo students are in the majority.  

He speaks from his own experience.  His father never encouraged education because he never went to school.  “Not even for one day,” Ortiz says.  Tirso Ortiz rode with Pancho Villa during the Mexican Revolution and later immigrated to the United States , settling in Wichita , Kansas .  His wife died when Martin was 4.  He later remarried, but Martin never bonded with his stepmother.  There were too many children.  The oldest of 12, he worked whenever he could to help.  
============================================= =============================================

Born in a Wichita barrio called El Huarache, he grew up in poverty.  Even though he couldn’t speak English, he understood enough of the language to love school until the eighth grade.  As long as he lives he’ll never forget his teacher that year.  It was Mrs. Mitchell, a tall, skinny woman “with a strange hairdo” who chastised him every time he spoke Spanish.  

“I remember just asking if I could go to the bathroom because I didn’t know how to say it in English.  One day Mrs. Mitchell sat me in the corner of the classroom by myself.  She emptied all the desks around me and pinned a sign on my shirt.”  For an entire semester, the pinning became a ritual.  Every morning, his classmates would dance around him, laughing, pointing to the placard that proclaimed: “I am retarded. “  

“I didn’t know what the sign meant then,” Ortiz said.  “But I know that I didn’t cry.”  That ordeal fired a resolve “to never let that happen to anyone again” and to dedicate his career with help from his assistant, Rose Hernandez to creating opportunities for Latinos.  And he has forged lifelong friendships.  

Olivia Cervantes doesn’t need convincing.  As chairwoman of the Hispanic Parents Advisory Council, a support group that meets at the center, she sees Ortiz work his magic on parents as well, arranging financial-aid workshops and other programs.  He translates at meetings, visits parents at home and invites them to campus for walks and lunch.  Cervantes’ oldest daughter, Jacquelyn, graduated in 1987 thanks to Ortiz’s scholarship assistance.  Today, her youngest daughter, Judi, a sophomore, is in the same good hands.  Guatemalan-born Joseph Solorzano, a 21-year-old senior and Hispanic Student Association member, credits Ortiz with keeping him in school.  “I had some family problems at home this summer and when I got back to school, I talked to Mr. Ortiz about that,” Solorzano says.  “He shared his personal life with me and made it obvious that returning to school was the best thing for me.”  

Ortiz told the students of his own brief escape from school.  At 13, toward the Depression’s end, Ortiz was frustrated, pressured by discrimination in school and alienation at home. 

He and two friends went to the local railroad yard and caught the first freight train headed for Kansas City .  “We became hoboes for 3 ½ years,” Ortiz says.  He remembers jumping aboard boxcars filled with two or three families, riding atop and underneath cars, and getting locked inside one for days at a time.  His nickname was “ Wichita .”  
============================================= =============================================

“I was on the move.  But I didn’t beg or steal,” he says, he worked on a sugar beet farm.  He dug up potatoes, picked cotton and harvested apples.  He slept in hobo jungles, heated food in tin cans over campfires, and learned to speak English.  “I went wherever the tracks took me with no destination in mind.”  At 16, tired of his directionless lifestyle, he returned home and enrolled in high school, one of three Latinos.  In his senior year, he became the school’s first Latino student council president.  

Ortiz never planned to attend college.  He had to work and was content sacking groceries at the neighborhood Safeway.  But one morning a friend rousted him out of bed and took him to Friends University , a Quaker-run school on registration day.  “My friend had a paper bag with him.  We went into the men’s room in the basement, he pulled out a shirt.  ‘Put this on.  You’re going to college.”’ Ortiz recalls his friend saying.  “My friend did this because he felt that I was college material.  He had faith in me.”  So did three other Anglo friends who dipped into their pockets to pay Ortiz’s  $200 tuition, and later tutored him.  Three years ago, Ortiz was the guest speaker at his high school reunion in the very hotel where he had been barred as a youth because of his brown skin.  In the back of the ballroom sat his four buddies, wiping away tears as he spoke.  

“What you fellows did for me is what I have been doing all these years at Whittier College ,” Ortiz recalls saying, “Nurturing the minds of young people with potential.”  

Ortiz put in one summer at Friends, then signed up with the Marines in 1942, serving in the South Pacific as an aerologist and language specialist.  After World War II, he enrolled at Whittier because it offered a YMCA management program.  

His skin color, his last name, his sack lunches of tacos, who knows why, he says, kept him from feeling accepted by other students.  “I just kept to my own and in my own place because it was more comfortable to do that.”  In town, no barber would touch his head, no restaurant would give him a table, no landlord would rent an apartment to Ortiz and his young Cuban-born bride.  So they lived in veteran’s housing near City Hall and persevered.  

After he earned a sociology degree, the couple moved to Chicago , where Ortiz got his master’s degree from George Williams College .  He also founded the city’s Mexican American Council and taught Spanish at the YMCA. 


Then his wife, Maria was found to have a brain tumor.  After two operations she lapsed into a coma that would last over four years.  Eventually Ortiz returned her to Cuba , her body stretched across six plane seats where the press dubbed her “La Cubana Dormida,” the sleeping Cuban woman.  She died at 26.  
============================================= =============================================

Ortiz remarried in 1980.  He and his wife Linda, a bilingual kindergarten teacher, shared a home in La Habra with Peluso, a floppy-eared rabbit, Valentine, a turtle, Perlita and Emi, two cats.  Iggy the iguana, and Foxy, a mutt found beaten and left for dead 11 years ago.  “The other night I went home and the dog bit me,” Ortiz says.  “He hadn’t seen me for a few days because I’d been so busy, coming home late from meetings.  Finally, he said, ‘I’ll get your attention.”’  When Ortiz isn’t caring for his menagerie, he’s working in his rose garden, reading one of five newspapers or reliving his hobo years at National Hobo Association meetings in Century City .  



And when he isn’t deep into work at the center, he’s serving on commissions, committees and boards across Southern California , and planning to finish his doctorate.  But his kids always come first.  “When people ask me if I have any children, I say ‘Well, this year I have 340.”’  

On his own college commencement day, Ortiz’s father was in the audience.  “I’ll never forget when I walked past him after I got my diploma,” Ortiz recalls.  He stops and his eyes water.  “My dad was crying in tears because a member of his family had graduated from college.”  (Rudy Padilla can be contacted at opkansas@swbell.net).


CALIFORNIA 

Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, Citizen of Guatemala and Native of Palma del Río: 
    New Sources from the Sixteenth Century by Wendy Kramer

Photo: Old Caretaker at Mission San Juan Capistrano, 1897
1st Battalion of Native Cavalry, California Volunteers,  Prepared by Dr. Albert Vela, Ph.D.
  
Historic Hispanic Clothing by Mary Schultz,
MSE, MS
Circular Bridge, Mt. Lowe Railway 1897-1924





JUAN RODRÍGUEZ CABRILLO, 

CITIZEN OF GUATEMALA 
AND 
NATIVE OF PALMA DEL RÍO: 

New sources from the 
16th Century
by 
WENDY KRAMER

The Journal of San Diego History 
San Diego History Center Quarterly 

Summer Fall 2016, Volume 62, Number 3 & 4
Extracted Introduction to: 
Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, Citizen of Guatemala and Native of Palma del Río:
          New Sources from the Sixteenth Century (PDF)

             http://www.sandiegohistory.org/journal/2016/july/juan-rodriguez-cabrillo-citizen-of-guatemala-and-native-of-palma-del-rio/ 


INTRODUCTION 

New technology affords new opportunities as well as new situations to historians engaged  in  archival  research.1  Frequently  today,  exciting  findings are encountered in digital format, often online, in isolation in front of a screen, and not in some timeless archive reading room, leafing through a bundle of ancient manuscripts. So it has been with this recent research that I have been conducting, and last year, the news of my discovery of some documents in  which Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo declared himself a native of Palma de Micer Gilio, modern-day Palma del Río in Cordoba, Spain, generated considerable interest– the international press and digital media reported it worldwide.2 This particular item was considered newsworthy not only in California but throughout Latin America, Spain and Portugal.3

Since the early 1980s, when I was based in Seville and carrying out research at the General Archive of the Indies (hereafter the AGI),4 I have been assembling biographical data on the first generation of conquistador-encomenderos who accompanied Pedro de Alvarado and his brothers to Guatemala in the 1520s and 1530s, sent there by Hernán Cortés from Mexico.5 Recently, I renewed efforts to complete these social histories, working with the early Cabildo books housed in the Hispanic Society of America in New York City.6 Sources like the Cabildo books record detailed chronological information on a town’s inhabitants and their participation in town affairs.

Working alphabetically I reached the letter “C” and the name of the legal representative, the Procurador of Guatemala, appointed in 1531, a Gabriel de Cabrera.7 While doing a random online search on the AGI website, I came across five or more separate documents mentioning criminal activity aboard the ship on which Cabrera was carrying gold to the Spanish Crown.8 The investigation on the ship concerned gold that he transported from Guatemala overland to Veracruz, Mexico and from there by ship to Seville, Spain.9 As the Procurador, a royal agent, Cabrera had been commissioned to journey back to Spain in 1531-1532 with what was actually the first shipment of gold sent since initial contact and conquest. First contact occurred in 1524 between the Maya-Pipil of Mesoamerica and the European conquistadors, led by the ambitious, heartless, and relentless captain and military leader, Pedro de Alvarado.

Reading the online digitized documents about the case and the proceedings concerned with appearance of witnesses and their questioning, I was surprised to learn that Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo was a passenger on the ship, travelling to Spain with some other citizens of Guatemala.10 Along with the passengers and crew, Cabrillo was interrogated about a theft, and asked to testify about what he witnessed on the ship.

I offer additional background on my areas of research and prior acquaintance with Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo to contextualize the circumstances of this finding.11 Cabrillo was a conquistador and an encomendero of Guatemala, and although he held a large encomienda, it was his prominent position heading the expedition of discovery to the Pacific Coast of California in 1542 that distinguished him as an important historical figure.12 While conducting research in the AGI in the early 1980s on the encomenderos of Guatemala, I met historian Harry Kelsey, who was doing research for his detailed book on the life of Cabrillo. So Cabrillo had been a topic of interest for a long time and I was certainly intrigued that, unlike most of the conquerors of Guatemala, his place of birth and country of origin had not been ascertained. Modern historians turned up insubstancial evidence for his logical place of birth–Spain but the similarly insubstancial evidence for his alleged birthplace, Portugal, meant that the issue was unresolved.13

Antonio de Herrera, royal historian of Spain, sixty years after Cabrillo’s death, published that the captain of the San Salvador was “Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo Portugues.”14 Herrera’s source for this designation was not given and since then no one has verified his claim that Cabrillo was Portuguese. This pronouncement, made much later, was apparently not credited by the Costa Rican diplomat and historian, Manuel María de Peralta (1847-1930), who in a book of sixteenth century documents from the Spanish archives that he edited and published almost 300 years later in 1883, referenced Cabrillo in the following way: “Before [Sir Francis] Drake, only a distinguished Spanish sailor, Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, had ventured into such high latitudes on the western coast of North America, in a voyage of reconnaissance of the California coastline commissioned by the Viceroy of Mexico don Antonio de Mendoza, in whose honor Cape Mendocino received its name (1542).”15

Harry Kelsey, writing in 1986, noted that Cabrillo’s own family and offspring and those who knew him in Santiago de Guatemala, never mentioned that he was Portuguese. This is remarkable because in the conquest of New Spain, the largest group of foreigners were the Portuguese conquistadors, and information of this type was not generally concealed.16 Among the documentation submitted to the Crown in the sixteenth century by conquistadors and their descendants to prove their services in the conquest, place of birth is frequently mentioned either by them or by their witnesses.17

In the first Guatemalan Cabildo book, there is record in March and April 1528 of “Domingo Portugués” who was granted a house plot, and “Juan Alvares, Portugués” who was given agricultural land.18 The list of deceased persons’ estates in Guatemala for the years 1536 and 1537 includes reference to an “Andrés Jorge, Portugués” and an “Álvaro Gonzales, Portugués,” the latter recorded as being from the Kingdom of Portugal from a place called Freixo de Espada à Cinta.19

Editor Mimi:  This information was sent by Nancy Walton, San Diego Genealogist//Historian cyberferret1542@yahoo.com   Nancy's husband, Robert Walton is the Historian and the Cabrillo National Monument.  Nancy said that she and her husband are excited with this new finding. It establishes Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo's birthplace and that Juan Rodriguez was Portuguese, not Spanish.   

Please go to the article for more information:
http://www.sandiegohistory.org/journal/2016/july/juan-rodriguez-cabrillo-citizen-of-guatemala-and-native-of-palma-del-rio/ 

Also, let me suggest that you explore the website and their archive of journals.  
You'll find an outstanding collection of historical articles on San Diego and California history.

 
     



Old Caretaker at Mission San Juan Capistrano, 1897




  

Historic Hispanic Clothing

                                                                         Southern California Styles 1840, 
                      Prepared by Mary Schultz M.S.E.  M.S.   Textiles and Clothing Consultant 

========================================= =========================================

The clothing of the 1830-1840's for the Hispanic 
population was very rich and colorful. A unique experience happened that affected clothing of that period. Because of unsafe travel over' land, Southern California was isolated from Mexico City for over fifty years. Goods were traded by ship but there were no social visits where people saw and traded ideas about clothing. This isolation in combination with the long length of time clothing items were used provided an opportunity for a folk style to develop. This was the golden aria of the Hispanic people. Men wore clothing that was very dashing and flamboyant with much decoration. 
==== Women choose clothing which was more restrained yet very romantic. Children wore clothing in similar styles to adults but with less decoration and made from more sturdy fabrics to  with stand rough wear.   Clothing was worn and repaired for many years. Some clothing was passed down to family members for as much as three generations. 

Clothing was very important to the Hispanic people and was symbolic in ceremonies such as Weddings. The groom often made shoes for the bride and presented her with presents of clothing which she displayed at the wedding ceremony. These customs suggested that the groom could provide the life necessities for the bride. 


MEN'S HISPANIC CLOTHING

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Hats or sombreros had a 4-5" crown with a round flexible or flat brim. The color was dark brown, blue, or black, or if light colored wool was used may have been dyed a bright color. They were also made of leather. Hats were trimmed with gilt bands, glass beads and/or tassels. They were worn to the side or far back on the head--Very Dashing. Hair was worn long with a center part to the crown & 1-3 braids to shoulders. Often ribbons were tied on the ends. Side bums were worn to the jawbone. A handkerchief was worn over the hair covering the forehead and tied in the back. They were black or colored and made of cotton or silk. The hat was worn over the handker- chief. The shirt was made of linen or cotton and it was white with white or colored embroidery. It was worn with an open neck. The shirt had a roll or a high collar. The style had drop shoulders, gathered sleeves; yoke in front and a gathered bodice. Shirts had a front inset with hand stitching in white or colors. A vest called a waistcoat was not always worn. Fabrics were very fine. Brocaded satin, velvet, calico, or damask, in
various colors that contrast with the jacket and pan Is. The vest only came to the waist. Fabrics for jackets ranged from nankeen (a buff-colored cotton cloth), twill, broadcloth, corduroy, satin, velvet, or velveteen, and deerskin. The colors were blue, green, black, and red. The design was a round back slightly fitted to the form with no shoulder pads. Shoulders have a round not a square look. The jacket may have had a narrow roll collar with lapels or no collar. It was worn open in front, and had rows of silver, copper, or gold, buttons or coins. Bound edges were of tile same or contrasting color. Cuffs were velvet or silk. Sometimes spangles & frogs were used as trim.  Breeches (short pants) were made of the same types and colors of fabrics as jackets but usually did not match the jacket. They were gathered around tile waist on cord and had an open band below tile knee. The breeches had an outside seam open about six inches
above the knee. The edges were usually lined with
calico. They were laced or buttoned above the knee
with button holes on tile front. The band at the knee
could be fastened with a buckle but was usually worn unfastened. Garters which kept up leggings 
(stockings) were of bright colors and often 
embroidered. A sash was worn by both men and
women. They were of red, purple, yellow, or another bright color. They were made of silk or satin and wound around the waist two or more times. The sash kept the shirt from being seen between tile coat and pants. The sash may be tied on either side with tile ends to the knees for men and to tile skirt hem for women. Also, the ends may be worn tucked in. Often the ends were finished with tassels of beads or fringe  of gold or silver. 
Drawers (underwear) were made of white linen. They were very full at knee and bound under the knee with a garter  being tucked into the top of the stockings. Garters were one to one and one half inches (I-I Y2") wide and about thirty-six inches (16") long. They were knitted with colored silk thread with ends which  hand embroidered flowers made with colored silk, gold, or silver, and sometimes spangles. They were tied in large bunches on the outside leg. Stockings were worn loose and were made of white silk or cotton. They came to the knees and were tied with the garters. Shoes were either boots with turned up toes and no spurs or the same flat soil leather slipper women wore. In cool weather the men wore a poncho or manga. This is a flat oval, sleeveless cloak. The opening for the head was a center slit from front to back. The opening was fastened with frogs in the front and back. The width was to the wrist when the arms are out stretched, and the width was to the mid-calf. The poncho was made of a dark broadcloth often blue or black. It may have had a short, velvet, shoulder cape. The cape and poncho would have been trimmed with gold or silver or other embroidery. The  embellishment would have been placed in a design  following the shape of the edge. As with all clothing it would have been lined with a contrasting color and print. Chaps or botas were of light brown leather and wrapped around the calf, flaring over the boot. They had embroidery on the exposed outer edge. The embroidery on the bottom edge is about eight inches (8") with a more narrow edge of about four to five inches (4-5") at the top. Pantaloons or calzoneras were long pants which were high waisted with a "bam door" flap in front. The flap was buttoned on both hips with about four or five buttons. The pantaloons had an outside seam open hip to floor. The front and back seam edges were lined with bright colored print cotton or silk in a contrast color. Pantaloons were made of the same fabrics as jackets but may have been of darker colors. The front edge had buttonholes bound with contrasting colors. The back seam edge had buttons of silver balls, gold coins, or other metal. Pants were fastened from the hips to knee with either buttons, laces, or the seam was sewn to the knee. Laces were gold, silver, colored ribbon. Below the knee, the pantaloons were open showing leggings (stockings), drawers, etc. The outside of the inner legs  was often lined with deerskin. The outside pantaloon  around the open seam was heavily decorated with  gold, silver, or braid in intricate designs. Some of the  pantaloons were appliquéd and embroidered with  desi gns like dragons.  

 

WOMEN'S HISPANIC CLOTHING

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Married women wore their hair parted in the center and combed down over the ears. The hair was then fastened in the back and put up to form a bun at the back of the head. A tall comb was then placed between the bun and head. The mantia was placed over the comb and hung over the hair in front. 
For daily wear a married woman would part her hair in the middle, comb the hair over the ears and form two braids which then crossed and wound around head. A lock hung down on the side of each cheek. The hair could also be gathered in colored silk net.
Unmarried women parted her hair in the middle, drew her hair over the ears, and the hair hung loose or in one or two braids to the waist. They often used colored ribbons in the hair. The blouse or bodice of the dress was of silk, satin, velvet, or printed cotton. The colors used were black, blue, green, red, or other colors. Sometimes wealthy young women may have had a pastel colored party dress. Party dresses or good dresses could have a slightly lower neck (one to two inches below the base of the neck). Blouses and dresses hooked up the back and had a front point that extended below the waist. Sleeve length was to the elbows or three quarters length (3/4) length, with about a three inch wide (3") gathered lace edge. The sleeve fit close and was drawn tight around the upper arm with a drawstring. The neck was round or v-shaped.  If the neck was high, it had a rolled collar fastened with a brooch. Women wore a neckerchief most of the time which was large enough to be folded as a triangle and worn over the shoulders, crossing in front, and with the ends fastened with pins on each side to the belt. The neckerchief was often made of silk in a print or plain color. Skirt fabric was the same or different from the bodice fabric. Skirts were gathered very full to cover the six to twelve (6-12) petticoats with ruffles. 
Older women wore their skirts and petticoats long, sometimes coming to the instep. Skirts often had 2·3 wide ruffles, embroidered or diagonal strips of another fabric, around the bottom. For parties a woman might have a white muslin or lawn skirt, worn with a colored bodice. Women also used colored embroidery, flouncing, ribbons, or spangles of gold. Stockings for women were silk and in colors of white or flesh. Shoes could be satin in white, blue, green, or to match the costume. Shoes had round or slightly pointed toes, a low cut, and small heels or no heel for dancing. Shoes were kept on with ribbons like a ballet dancer and may also have artificial flowers. Shoes for day wear were made of calfskin, morocco leather, or brown fabric from hemp. Shoe heels were made of light wood. Sometimes buckles and/or or embroidery
around edges was used. Women always wore jewelry. Styles were; pearl necklaces, one strain, to knees; eardrops, gold brooches, bracelets, rings, earrings, set with diamonds, emeralds, etc. The shawl, rebozo or mantilla was the only wrap women wore. The shawl was worn to church and parties, as was the mantilla. The shawl was a silk large square about sixty inches (60") which was heavily embroidered in colorful figures and had a long fringe about ten to twelve inches (10-12") in length. A rebozo was a rectangular cotton cloth with bright stripes. A rebozo was worn for daily wear and by poorer people. The mantilla was for very wealthy women. A mantilla was lace in either black or white. Mantillas were either rectangular, triangular or shaped. The shape for a mantilla was a long narrow oval with wide gathered lace flouncing and a large square on one side. The square was placed over the head, folded back once and used to cover the
face in church. The high tortoise shell comb was worn stuck in the hair bun and extending to the top of the head. The sash was colored scarlet, purple, turquoise or some other color to contrast with the costume. The sash was made of silk or satin. 


Circular Bridge, Mt. Lowe Railway 1897-1924. It was “the grandest scenic trip on earth”; an enchanting and world-famous mountain railway journey to a vast resort where champagne and caviar was served along with panoramic views over southern California as far as the Pacific Ocean. this railway hasn’t existed since 1936 when it was abandoned following a series of natural disasters and bad business decisions. The pride of California’s once most scenic attraction has been all but lost and wiped off the map. Hikers who only have access to the former railway resort by foot, will find nothing but ruins, a few steps and other clues, basic stone foundations of the old luxury hotels and rusted metal remains from the railway. More pictures can be found on the Mount Lowe Preservation Society.
 



El Gran Capitán: Juan Jose de la Guerra

In a message dated 1/18/2017 

Good morning, Mimi.
 
I first came across Juan José de la Guerra in the book by Leo J. Friis Kleinigkeiten (1975) pp 11-14: "A Visit with Juan de la Guerra." Friis chanced to meet don Juan at the Anaheim Elks Club describing him as "an elderly, courtly looking gentleman." After exchanging pleasantries, Friis notices a button on don Juan's lapel and says, "I see you're a member of the G.A.R." "Yes, replied the gentleman, "I was in the Civil War." He then relates he served in Company C of the Native Californian Battalion adding that "all were from Santa Barbara."
 
In the article below we learn that don Juan lived and most likely farmed in Yorba, CA. He died at age 93 having been born in 1847 the year after the U.S. took California.
 
Other sources of the de la Guerras of Santa Barbara are El Gran Capitán: José de la Guerra
(1961) and The Father of All (2009).
  


Juan Jose de la Guerra
Birth: 05-23-1847 in Mission Santa Barbara, Alta CA
Death: 12-19-1940 in Sawtelle Veteran's Home, Los Angeles Co., CA 
https://familysearch.org/photos/artifacts/22334894 
30 January 2016

 


ID: P3602 Name: Juan Jose de la Guerra Burial: 12-22-1940 Calvary Catholic Cemetery, Los Angeles Co., CA Sex: M Birth: 05-23-1847 in Mission Santa Barbara, Alta CA Death: 12-19-1940 in Sawtelle Veteran's Home, Los Angeles Co., CA Note: Per Huntington.org Baptism Records, 

http://missions.huntington.org/BaptismalData.aspx?ID=1878:
Juan Jose de la Guerra was baptized 24 May 1847 [A ge 1 day old] Mission Presidio Santa Barbara #01813Y. Father stated as Francisco de la Guerra and mother is stated as Concepcion Sepulveda. Godparents are Josefa Moreno and Antonio Maria de la Guerra. Officiant and Recorder is Jose Maria de Jesus Gonzalez. Per 1850 U.S. Federal census Juan de la Guerra is living in Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, California, born abt 1847 California Son Per 1852 California State Census Juan De La Guerra is living in Santa Barbara County, age 5, born abt 1847 Upper California Son American Civil War Soldiers: 

Name:Juan De la Guerra Enlistment Date: 25 Jul 186 4 Enlistment Place: Santa Barbara, California Side Served: Union State Served: California Service Record: Enlisted as a 1st Serge ant on 25 July 1864. Enlisted in Company C, 1st Battn Native Cavalry Regiment California on 25 Jul 1864. Mustered Out Company C, 1st Battn Native Cavalry Regiment California on 2 Apr 1866 at Presidio, San Francisco, CA. Sources: 56 From the Santa Barbara Tierra Adorada, 

A Brief History of Santa Barbara from Old Spanish Days to 1930, F-869.S5 S45: "However, the strongest civil leaders of the quiet little town (Santa Barbara), although staunch Democrats like the majority of the Spanish Californians, believed in the cause of the Union. 

When Don Antonio Maria De la Guerra, accepted leader, former Mayor, Stat e Senator, came forward ardently for the Union, Santa Barbara's response resulted in the formation of a company of eighty-four volunteers for the Union. Eighty-three of them were Spanish Americans and single American of the company, young Horace Robinson, spoke Spanish. Headquarters of the volunteers were taken up in an adobe house on Anacapa Street, not far from the famous De la Guerra mansion, out of which had come the strength of leadership and the fountainhead of enthusiasm for this patriotic effort. 

Able as well as handsome in his dashing way, Antonio Maria De la Guerra, by common con sent, became Captain. His nephew, Santiago De la Guerra, was First Lieutenant. The office of Second Lieutenant was filled by Porfirio Jimeno De la Guerra, a second nephew, while the Fourth Sergeant was a De la Guerra too. This was Juan, then a boy of only 17 years. Don Juan still lives today, last but one of the gallant company that marched out from Santa Barbara to save the Union in the sum mer of 1864. Juan had learned to speak English while at school at the old Santa Ynez College. Neither his uncle, the Captain, nor his brother and cousin, the Lieutenants, spoke anything but Spanish. 

Probably they were the only officers of the entire Union army who did not speak the language of the nation they offered themselves to preserve. So little Sergeant Juan bore the responsibility of s peaking for the entire staff. Unbelievable as it seems, these California caballeros started on their way to Los Angeles from Santa Barbara on foot, although many of them had never walked a mile entire in their lives before. 

They were destined to become a cavalry company after they reached General Winfield Scott's headquarters in Wilmington, but as infantry they plodded wearily down the coast an d across the mountains to Los Angeles. One night on the way, the Company made camp in Cahuenga Pass, almost on the very spot where only seventeen years before Fremont, representing the nation they, a s Volunteers, were going to defend, had received the surrender of their fathers. Among the new troopers there were even some who had taken part in that contest against the "Yanquis." 

While the camp fires flickered, Francisco Lugo [Pvt. Francisco Maria de Lugo], an old man who had been for many years the servant of Sergeant Juan De la Guerra's father, Francisco De la Guerra, led the young office r to a large tree near an old adobe house. "I came here with your father," said the old man dramatically, "seventeen years ago, and here on this very spot I saw them sign the document that ended war between the Americans and the Californians. 

Here sat your father, here sat Don Andres Pico, and here sat General Fremont." Per 1870 U.S. Federal census Juan de la Guerra is living in Township 2, Santa Barbara, California, born abt 1848 California Son, both parents born CA Per 1880 U.S. Federal census Juan De La Guerra is living in San Buenaventura, Ventura, California, born abt 1847 California Son Single Ranchero, both parents born CA Per 1884 Voter Registrations (1866-1898) Juan Jose de la Guerra is living in San Buenaventura, Ventura County, California, age 36, born abt 1848 California Ranchero. Registered 10 January 1884. 

Civil War Pension Index: General Index to Pension Files, 1861-1934: Name: Juan J. Guerra State Filed: California Date: 15 August 1891 Per 1900 U.S. Federal census Juan J. de la Guerra is living in Yorba, Orange, California, born May 1847 California Head Married Farmer, spouse name Ramona, both parents born CA [census states Juan ha s been married 4 years] 

Per 1910 U.S. Federal census Juan J. de la Guerra is living in Yorba, Orange, California, born abt 1848 California Head Married Farmer-Home Farm, spouse name Romana, both parents born CA [census states Juan has been married 14 years] Per 1920 U.S. Federal census Juan Jose de la Guerra is living in Yorba, Orange, California, born abt 1848 California Father-in-law Widow No Occupation, both parents born CA Per 1930 U.S. Federal census Juan Jose de la Guerra is living in Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, born abt 1847 California Father-in-law Widowed Veteran of Military, both parents born CA [census states 

Juan was age 49 years old at marriage] Los Angeles Times, 14 January 1940, 16:2: "Last of Ventura's Grand Army of the Republic Laid to Rest. Manuel F. García served with Famous Group. Only one surviving member of the famed cavalry companies, which quelled lawlessness threatening California during the Civil War, was left yesterday to mourn the death of Manuel García, 99, at Sawtelle. García, who was buried with full military honors in the Veterans' cemetery, had been the last member of the GAR in Ventura. 

His death placed Juan de la Guerra of Sawtelle as the only remaining member of the daring group of horseman, which maintained order in the Southwest during the Civil War. De la Guerra nearing 100, also is at Sawtelle." 

Per CA Death Index Juan J. de la Guerra died 19 Dec 1940 Los Angeles, born 23 May 1847 California, mother's maiden name Sepulveda OBJE: FILE:
http://trees.ancestry.com/rd?f=image&guid=e3918fc1-2b59-4640-a04d-344d77306e3d&tid=8764085&pid=3602 
FORM: jpg Title: Juan Jose de la Guerra Gravestone OBJE: FILE:
http://trees.ancestry.com/rd?f=image&guid=cd450075-6359-47d6-b99d-b35b00cb701d&tid=8764085&pid=3602 
FORM: jpg Title: Juan Jose de la Guerra Hints Ancestry Hints for Juan Jose de la Guerra 
5 possible matches found on Ancestry.com  
Ancestry.com  
Father: Francisco Antonio Maria de Altagracia Guillermo de la Guerra b: 06-25-1817 in Mission Santa Barbara, Alta CA Mother: Maria de la Concepción Sepulveda b: 11-29-1831 in Los Angeles Plaza Mission, Alta CA Marriage 1 Maria Ramona Unknown b: 08-1846 in Mission San Gabriel, Alta CA? Married: ABT 1896 in Yorba Linda, Orange Co., CA







California and the Civil War
1st Battalion of Native Cavalry, California Volunteers
 
 
Introduction First Battalion of Native Cavalry
Prepared by Dr. Albert Vela, Ph.D.

Extracted from "Records of California Men in the War of the Rebellion, 1861 To 1867." 1890. pp 304-306.
Transcribed by Sandy Neder.

The extraordinary horsemanship displayed by the native Californians led to the belief that a battalion of cavalry, composed entirely of such, would render excellent service in Arizona. Accordingly a telegram, a copy of which is here inserted, together with the reply, was sent to the War Department.
 
 

 

 [Telegram.]

 


San Francisco, December 19, 1862.

To Adjutant-General L. Thomas:

I request authority to raise four companies of native cavalry in the Los Angeles District, to be commanded by a patriotic gentleman, Don Andreas Pico.

G. WRIGHT
Brigadier-General



 

 [Telegram.]


War Department, Adjustant-General's Office,
Washington, January 20, 1863.


To General Wright, San Francisco, Cal.:

Secretary of War gives authority to raise four companies native cavalry in Los Angeles District.

    Thomas M. Vincent,
    Brigadier-General
    Assistant Adjutant-General

A favorable response having been received, the officers were appointed and the work of recruiting the battalion commenced. Don Andreas Pico, of Los Angeles, then Brigadier-General of the First Brigade of California militia, was commissioned Major of the battalion. He, however, declined the commission, on the ground of sickness and his inability to ride on horseback.
 
General Pico having declined, Salvador Vallejo was commissioned Major of the battalion. He was not mustered as such, however, until August 13, 1864. He resigned in February, 1865, and was succeeded by John C. Cremony, who had been a Captain in the Second California Cavalry, and, with his company, constituted part of the 'California Column" during its march to, and service in, New Mexico.
 
Considerable delay was experienced in raising men for this battalion. Recruiting commenced in February, 1863, but the first company was not filled up and mustered until September seventh, same year. The other companies were not mustered in until the spring and summer of 1864.

The battalion was stationed in various places in California, as shown by the table published herewith. During the summer of 1865, it was taken by Major Cremony to Arizona and stationed in the southern part of that territory, until early in 1866, when it was returned to California to be mustered out. The table on page 7 will give the dates of mustered in and muster out of the companies. Companies A, B, and D were mustered out at Drum Barracks; Company C was mustered out at Presidio, San Francisco.
 
The records of this battalion are very incomplete, and for that reason it is impossible to give a full account of the service rendered by it. There seems to have been an unusually large number of desertions from it. From one company there were more than fifty; from another, about eighty.

The following is the correspondence and remarks on muster rolls found relating to this battalion:
 
 
     
     

    General Headquarters, State of California
    Adjutant-General's Office, Sacramento, June 2, 1864.


    General: Colonel Curtis' letter has been read by me, and in reply to your inquiry as to whether the Governor has authorized Don Antonio de la Guerra to raise a company, I have to state that the Governor did not specially authorize him to raise a company, but that he, on yesterday, concluded to accept his company (known as the Santa Barbara Company), and has directed commissions to issue, which has accordingly been done and forwarded to Colonel Drum to-day, for the following officers: Captain, Antonio M. de la Guerra; First Lieutenant, Santiago de la Guerra; Second Lieutenant, Porfino Jimeno.

    The recommendation for the Fourth Infantry, California Volunteers, I have duly forwarded to his Excellency the Governor.

    Respectfully, your obedient servant,

    Geo. S. Evans
    Adjutant-General, State of California.

    George Wright, Brigadier-General U.S. Army, Commanding Department of Pacific


 
 

State of California, Executive Department
Sacramento, March 27, 1865


Colonel: I enclose a memorandum of the officers already commissioned for the native battalion, as appears from the books of the Adjutant-General.

I have the General's recommendation for Mr. Leese and some other men (I think) for a commission in this battalion.

Mr. Leese was commissioned by me as Adjutant, but could not be mustered in.

From this date it appears that there are no vacancies to fill; and even one or more of the Second Lieutenants that I have appointed have not been mustered in, for the reason that their companies were below the minimum.
It seems to me that all these companies should be recruited to above the minimum before they leave for Arizona. I am informed that the companies could easily get recruits enough to fill them up in Monterey County if any effort was made to do it. Please call the General's attention to the matter.

Truly yours,

F. F. Low,
Governor.


To Lieut.-Col. R.C. Drum.


[Inclosure.]

Company A, Rose R. Pico, Captain; Crisanto Soto, First Lieutenant; M.E. Jimenez, Second Lieutenant.
Company B, Porfino Jimeno, Captain; John Lafferty, First Lieutenant; J.G. Donevan, Second Lieutenant.
Company C, Antonio M. de la Guerra, Captain; Santiago de la Guerra, First Lieutenant; ---- Coddington, Second Lieutenant.
Company D, Edward Bale, Captain; J. Clement Cox, First Lieutenant; Francisco F. Guiraido, Second Lieutenant.
Note: Company C is the only one that has the minimum number of privates.


Remarks on Muster Roll of Company A, First Battalion Native Cavalry, for March and April, 1865. -- Pursuant to orders from Headquarters Benicia Barracks, Cal., a detachment of twenty-five enlisted men in command of Second Lieutenant M.E. Jimenez, proceeded, on the twenty-third of April, to Green Valley and arrested and brought to confinement ten marauders. A fight ensued, wounding private Antonio Guilman and Juan Leon, both severely.

Remarks on Return of Company B, First Battalion Native Cavalry, for May 1865. -- First Lieutenant John Lafferty and five enlisted men left Camp Low, San Juan, Cal., April 10, 1865, in pursuit of the murderers Jason and Henry, per Post Order No. 3, Headquarters Camp Low, Cal.

The following are the stations occupied by the headquarters and various companies as gleaned from monthly returns, muster rolls, etc.:

Field Staff

Drum Barracks, Cal. ..........................................................................December 31, 1864.
Drum Barracks, Cal. ..................................................................................April 30, 1865.
Drum Barracks, Cal. ...................................................................................May 31, 1865.
Drum Barracks, Cal. ...................................................................................June 30, 1865.
Fort Yuma, Cal. ...........................................................................................July 31, 1865.
Fort Mason, A.T.......................................................................................August 31, 1865.
Fort Mason, A.T.................................................................................September 30, 1865.
Fort Mason, A.T. ...................................................................................October 31, 1865.
Fort Mason, A.T..................................................................................November 30, 1865.
Fort Mason, A.T. ................................................................................December 31, 1865.

Company A

Camp Curtis, Cal...................................................................................August 31, 1864.
Fort Humboldt, Cal..............................................................................October 31, 1864.
Fort Wright, Cal................................................................................December 31, 1864.
Fort Wright, Cal..................................................................................February 28, 1865.
Benicia Barracks, Cal...............................................................................April 30, 1865.
Tubac, A.T............................................................................................ August 31, 1865.
Tubac, A.T...........................................................................................October 31, 1865.
Fort Mason, A.T...............................................................................December 31, 1865.

Company B

San Francisco, Cal. ...................................................................................June 30, 1864.
Presidio, San Francisco, Cal..................................................................August 31, 1864.
Presidio, San Francisco, Cal. ...............................................................October 31, 1864.
Presidio, San Francisco, Cal. ...........................................................December 31, 1864.
Monterey Barracks, Cal. ....................................................................February 28, 1865.
Camp Low, Cal.......................................................................................March 31, 1865.
Camp Low, Cal.........................................................................................April 30, 1865.
Camp Low, Cal. ..........................................................................................May 2, 1865.
Camp Low, Cal........................................................................................... June 1, 1865.
Fort Mason, A. T................................................................................... August 31, 1865.
Fort Mason, A.T....................................................................................October 31, 1865.
Fort Mason, A.T................................................................................December 31, 1865.
Company C

Cahuenga Pass, en route for Drum Barracks, Cal.................................August 31, 1864.
Drum Barracks, Cal..........................................................................December 31, 1864.
Drum Barracks, Cal............................................................................. January 31, 1865.
Drum Barracks, Cal............................................................................February 28, 1865.
Drum Barracks, Cal...................................................................................June 30, 1865.
Tubac, A.T...........................................................................................October 31, 1865.
Fort Mason, A.T...............................................................................December 31, 1865.

Company D
Drum Barracks, Cal...................................................................................June 30, 1864.
Drum Barracks, Cal...............................................................................August 31, 1864.
Drum Barracks, Cal..............................................................................October 31, 1864.
Drum Barracks, Cal......................................................................... December 31, 1864.
Drum Barracks, Cal...................................................................................May 31, 1865.
Drum Barracks, Cal................................................................................June 30, 1865.
Carrisso Creek, en route via Fort Yuma to Tubac, A.T.........................July 31, 1865.
Tucson, en route for Tubac, A.T.........................................................August 31, 1865.
Fort Mason, A.T............................................................................September 30, 1865.
Fort Mason, A.T.................................................................................October 31, 1865.
Fort Mason, A.T..............................................................................December 31, 1865.
Tucson, en route for Drum Barracks, Cal...........................................January 31, 1865.
 
 

 

Lives of the California Lancers
The First Battalion of Native California Cavalry, 1863-1866

by Tom Prezelski

 

On July 4th 1865, two companies of an unusual cavalry unit observed Independence Day in traditional Californio style, with a bull-and-bear fight at a "grand arena" near the old mission town of San Buenaventura. Neither the men nor their officers seemed concerned that they were expected to ride in a parade some sixty miles away in Los Angeles that very day. Nearly a week late for their scheduled arrival at Drum Barracks in Wilmington, the troopers had stopped for a few days of rest and revelry-a break in a long overland march that would ultimately take them to a forsaken post on the Arizona-Sonora border.[1]

These were men of companies A and B of the First Battalion, Native California Cavalry. It was immediately obvious to the casual observer that these troopers were different from the thousands of other loyal Californians who had joined volunteer units of the Union army since the beginning of the Civil War-more than half the horsemen carried lances, a throwback of sorts to the proud Hispanic heritage of California. The men themselves were heirs to that tradition, or, as one correspondent put it, they were of the "vaquero class ... natives of California or Mexico, and brought up from youth on horseback and accustomed to the use of the lasso and to simple fare and [the] rough herdsmen's life." [2]

As early as 1862, California state senator Remauldo Pacheco of San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties had observed that California's Mexican-American population (or Native Californians in the vernacular of the day) comprised an exceptional pool of cavalry recruits already well versed in the arts of horsemanship and life in the field. A former officer in the Mexican army and a Union loyalist, Pacheco was eager to give his fellow Californios an opportunity to prove their patriotism. He proposed the formation of a regiment of "native cavalry," which would draw recruits from the vast ranches of Southern California and the central coast to serve as lancers in Texas. His novel idea was well received and, in January 1863, the War Department authorized raising a four-company battalion.[3]

Initially, the unit was "to be commanded by a patriotic gentleman, Don Andreas [sic] Pico" The choice was at once inspired and ironic, for Andres Pico had commanded the Californio lancers who humiliated a force of regular cavalry and volunteers under Gen. Stephen Watts Kearny at the battle of San Pascual in 1846. In the process, they not only gave the United States its only clear defeat of the Mexican War, but also forced the previously unimpressed Americans to recognize the skill and mettle of the California vaquero. [4]

Pico's popularity and Union loyalty made him a good choice for the position. The aged caballero was not sufficiently healthy, however, to ride a horse or perform many of the other duties required of a field commander, and he never accepted his major's commission. It was not until the recruitment of the battalion was underway in August of 1864 that Maj. Salvador Vallejo replaced Pico. Like Pico, the crusty Vallejo was a member of an old and established Californio family. On the other hand, Vallejo seemed an unlikely choice for command because of his disdain for all things Anglo. Don Salvador was better known for his conflicts with American squatters on his Napa Valley property than for his admiration of the Union cause. It seems likely, given Vallejo's sentiments, that Confederate overtures to the French backed imperialist government of Mexico drove the dignified curmudgeon to set aside his hostility and don the blue uniform of a United States Army officer. [5]

Even as the paper battalion languished without a commander, a few prominent citizens, Californio and otherwise, took the initiative and began gathering recruits for the four companies. Jose Ramon Pico, a nephew of Andres and who later claimed to have also fought at San Pascual, enthusiastically started the process of organizing recruits weeks before official approval for the unit had come back from Washington, D.C. In a flowery letter to Governor Leland Stanford, Pico cited his credentials as a partisan Republican and, without the slightest hint of humility, demanded a captain's commissions [6]

Stanford granted the request, and Captain Pico immediately gathered recruits at his personal expense. On March 3, 1863, at his headquarters on the plaza in San Jose, he spoke to an assembled crowd in the "soul-stirring" manner for which the men in his family were renowned:

Sons of California! Our country calls, and we must obey! This rebellion of the southern states must be crushed; they must come back into the union and pay obedience to the Stars and Stripes. United, we will, by the force of circumstances become the freest and mightiest republic on earth! Crowned monarchs must be driven away from the sacred continent of free America!

The mention of "crowned monarchs" was an obvious reference to the emperor Maximilian, who enjoyed not only the support of France and conservatives in Mexico, but apparently of the Rebel government in Richmond as well. Clearly, Pico sensed that sentiments linking Imperial Mexico and the Confederacy as mutual enemies of California were rife within the Spanish-surnamed community.[7]

Pico's bluster and fiery rhetoric "infused with martial spirit" the Native Californians of San Jose. Even before his speech, Pico had already enlisted more than fifty recruits, mostly from the San Jose area. Many of the Califormos showed up with their lassos, "a novel weapon of offense. . . which they are exceedingly expert at using on horseback." The eighty-one recruits of Company A trained at the Presidio of San Francisco that summer. By August, a dozen men had deserted, a sign of troubles that would plague the battalion during its entire existence.[8]

Although the enlistees were skilled horsemen, trained and drilled as lancers, it is unlikely that Company A was quite what Senator Pacheco had in mind when he proposed a unit of "native" cavalry. Many of the Spanish-surnamed recruits were foreign born, primarily from Mexico and Chile, and seem to have been former miners. The unit contained a number of non-Hispanic recruits as well. A San Francisco journalist later described the company as "truly a mixture of colors and tongues, the men rugged and hearty-more than half being native Californians and the remainder Mexicans, Chilenos, Sonorans, California and
Yaqui Indians, Germans, Americans, etc." [9]

In December, the colorful lances adorned with red pennons were replaced by Sharp's carbines and Company A sailed north by steamer to Humboldt Bay, where it joined an ongoing campaign against the Hupa, Wintun, and other Indians in the northern region of the state. Its duties in the redwood country included escorting prisoners, livestock, and supply trains, but little actual fighting. While the company was posted at Fort Gaston in February 1864, four more men deserted and this time robbed a local civilian. A detachment rode out in pursuit and quickly apprehended the culprits.[10]

While Company A campaigned in the northern part of California, Capt. Ernest Hippolite LeGross was recruiting Company B in San Francisco. A French expatriate who had served with the Corps d'Afrique in Algeria and the Crimea, he was commissioned in part on Pico's recommendation. Contrary to Pacheco's original vision for the battalion, the majority of Captain LeGross's original recruits were Frenchmen, including at least two fellow veterans from Algeria. Like Company A, Company B was inducted into federal service at the Presidio of San Francisco, where it remained until January 1865.[11]

Recruitment of vaqueros from the vast ranches in the southern part of the state-the so-called "cow counties"-did not begin until early 1864. A drought had devastated many of the old ranches in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties and even the prominent de la Guerra family was forced to sell much of its vast holdings. Newly unemployed ranch hands from the area formed the core of Company C, recruited by Capt. Antonio Maria de la Guerra. State Senator Ramon J. Hill, a secessionist elected from San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties, lamented the choice of de la Guerra, pointing out that he "does not even write fluently in his own language, knows not one word of English, knows not what figures are-but is an experienced horseman." Still, even Hill later admitted that "the men will not be kept together for any other captain."[12]

Company C was very much a de la Guerra family operation, which explains its high morale and low desertion rate. Other de la Guerras in the company included Ist Lt. Santiago de la Guerra and 1st Sgt. Juan de la Guerra. Also present was 2d Lt. Porfirio Jimeno, the captain's nephew and stepson of Dr. James Ord, brother of a Union general as well as a prominent surgeon and rancher. Educated at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., the twenty four-year-old Jimeno was the most intellectually well equipped of the battalion's officers and would prove to be one of the best.[13]

Mustering of the company was delayed until July because of rumors that raised suspicions about the officers' loyalty. In the intervening two months, the already financially strapped Antonio Maria de la Guerra quartered the full-strength company of recruits at his own expense. According to the de la Guerra family and their political allies, the rumors arose from a clique of political rivals, who sought to diminish the de la Guerras' influence by preventing them from receiving officers' commissions. The issue was apparently resolved by late June and, by late August, Company C was on the march toward' Drum Barracks. [14]

Meanwhile, Capt. Jose Antonio Sanchez had already recruited Company D in Los Angeles. He was anxious to reverse the work of his brother, Sheriff Tomas Sanchez, a Democratic Party boss who, early in the war, had provided militia arms to Rebels operating in Arizona and New Mexico. Again taking advantage of anti-imperialist sentiment among the Spanish-surnamed Angelenos, Sanchez enrolled eighty-nine volunteers. As with Company C, politics and doubts about officers' loyalty delayed mustering in until March at nearby Drum Barracks. At the same time, Juan J. Moreno, another prominent local citizen, took the initiative in April and recruited forty men for a Los Angeles company. But after languishing at Drum Barracks without any word from department headquarters, Moreno and his volunteers apparently lost interest in federal service and dispersed by the end of May. [15]

Sanchez's enthusiasm for military service also quickly waned. Already overwhelmed by the paperwork involved in commanding a company, in June Sanchez and 1st Lt. Jose Redona resigned in frustration over what they saw as poor treatment of their men, exacerbated by a currency crisis in Los Angeles caused by an influx of nearly worthless federal scrip. While Sanchez remained active in promoting the Union cause in secessionist southern California, command of his men went to Capt. Edward Bale, promoted from Company B. A native-born Californian proficient in Spanish, Bale was respected in the Californio community [16]

In September, de la Guerra's Company C joined Bale's Company D at Drum Barracks. Post commander Col. James Curtis apparently had a low opinion of the native troopers and put them to work on a massive irrigation project to carry water from the San Gabriel River to Wilmington. Although other officers protested the treatment of the Californios and the use of federal soldiers for a private project, the construction continued until January 1865 with the troopers also marching in parades and patrolling the waterfront and guarding federal property at nearby San Pedro amd Wilmington. [17]

Frustrated by ditch digging and the general dullness of service, Major Vallejo resigned at the end of February, gruffly dismissing his tour of duty as "devoid of interest." Three weeks later, Maj. John C. Cremony transferred from the Second Cavalry, California Volunteers, and took command of the battalion. [18]

Although an Anglo, Cremony possessed many assets that well-suited him for his new command. First, he was adept at languages, including Spanish and four other tongues. Second, the colorful officer and sometime journalist seemed to understand and have a fondness for the Californios, even affecting the flamboyant dress of a vaquero. Third-and perhaps most important in the coming year-he was a veteran campaigner in Apacheria, including a stint (1851-1852) as interpreter for the Bartlett Boundary Commission, as well as his more celebrated (and exaggerated) role with the California Column in 1862. [19]

As it happens, Vallejo quit just as things were becoming more interesting for the battalion. In November of 1864, bandits John Mason and Jim Henry held up a stage on the road from Watsonville to Visalia, killing three men and vowing to "slay every Republican they would meet." Under the pretense of being Confederate guerrillas, Mason's and Henry's gang terrorized Monterey County and its environs for the next several months.[20]

Company B, newly posted to Camp Low at San Juan, comprised the entire cavalry force in the county. In a letter to Governor Frederick Low, post commander Maj. Michael O'Brien, Sixth California Infantry, described the arrival of the troopers in late January 1865:

The gay and gallant Spanish lancaroes [sic] came dashing through the town with the lances in their hand, a flag flying from each of them. I assure you that they presented a warlike appearance, the people here had never seen a soldier in their lives-Yes sir! they even stampeded the Spanish cattle that were so poor before that they could scarcely stand alone.

Shortly thereafter, O'Brien received intelligence about the location of Mason's and Henry's hideout. Early one Sunday morning a detachment of a dozen Native cavalrymen under 1st Lt. John Lafferty rode out to find the bandits. Unfortunately, Lafferty was unsuccessful and the gang continued its depredations.[21]

Meanwhile, drastic changes were taking place for Company B. In March of 1865, Captain LeGross resigned in the face of declining morale that produced forty desertions in a little less than a year. Promoted from Company C, Capt. Porfirio Jimeno, the new company commander, replaced the mostly French and Anglo deserters with Hispanic recruits. This improved morale somewhat by making the company more "native" in character.[22]

In April, word arrived at San Juan that the Mason-Henry gang had struck at Firebaugh's Ferry. Captain Jimeno, temporarily in command of Camp Low, sent Lieutenant Lafferty and a detachment of five men in pursuit of the bandits. Hoping to cut off the gang at Panoche Pass, the lancers rode south along the western flank of the Diablo Range and encountered Mason the next morning. As the bandit spurred his horse in a desperate attempt to escape, Lafferty fired, wounding Mason in the hip and felling his mount with a single bullet. Although the soldiers captured the outlaw's horse, somehow Mason managed to elude them. At six that evening, Lafferty and his troopers returned to Camp Low with the horse in tow. Captain Jimeno boldly vowed to continue the pursuit of Mason and Henry, unaware that he and his new command soon would be otherwise occupied.[23]

Similar troubles erupted in the Mohave Valley, where secessionist sentiment ran high, and Chimehuevi Indian depredations plagued the local residents. In response, Captain Bale and Company D were sent to Camp Cady on the road from Cajon Pass to Fort Mohave. Only thirty of Bale's men were mounted as cavalry; the bulk of the company served on foot and was equipped with model 1842 muskets left over from the Mexican War. The Californios performed routine garrison and patrol duties through March and were back at Drum Barracks by April 9, in time to prepare for a new assignment.[24]

 

 

In March 1865, Brig. Gen. John S. Mason, newly appointed commander of the District of Arizona, announced that the battalion of Native Cavalry would be traveling east to fight Apaches. Company A assembled at Benicia Barracks on the mouth of the Sacramento River in early April, where it began preparations for the nearly thousand-mile march. Meanwhile, Major Cremony arrived at Camp Low with headquarters and Company B.[25]

Reports of President Abraham Lincoln's assassination reached the West Coast on April 15, delaying the departure of the two Native companies. Major Cremony, Captain Jimeno, and Lieutenant Lafferty served on the committee that planned Monterey County's memorial observance, and on April 19, Company B participated in a procession through the streets of San Juan. Meanwhile, detachments of both companies were assigned to quell violence and arrest men caught "rejoicing" at the news of the president's death. Disturbances occurred across the state, and in response, detachments were sent as far away as Grass Valley, where twenty-five troopers of Company A under Lt. Marcelino Jimenez arrested ten individuals after a skirmish that left two Native Cavalrymen wounded.[26]

By June, companies A and B were united at San Juan. On June 3, the eve of the Californios' scheduled departure for Arizona, two secessionists arrested in the wake of President Lincoln's death escaped from the Camp Low guard house. Major Cremony detailed both companies to hunt for the fugitives. After a week of fruitless searching, on June 16, troopers began the long march that would take them first to Drum Barracks and then to their new station at Tubac, Arizona Territory. Although they were expected at Drum Barracks by the Fourth of July, the cavalrymen marched leisurely south along the coast, their pace slowed not so much by their sizeable stock train that included "14 fine mules and some 300 horses," as by their frequent stops for fandangos and bull-versus-bear fights.[27]

The arrival of Major Cremony's column at Drum Barracks on July 9 represented the first time that the First Battalion, Native California Cavalry, was assembled in one place. Companies C and D were now fully mounted and armed, thanks in part to Captain Pico's uncle, don Pio Pico, who supplied the garrison with horses. Capt. Thomas Young, a veteran of service in New Mexico and Arizona, was now in command of Company D, replacing Captain Bale who had resigned in May. [28]

Like the California Column three years earlier, the Native California Cavalry departed at staggered intervals in order to conserve water and forage on its journey across the desert. Company A left Drum Barracks on July 13, followed by Company B on the fifteenth and Company D on the twenty-first. For reasons that are unclear, Company C with Major Cremony and his staff remained behind until September. During the two-week march to Fort Yuma, the three companies spread out for seventy-five miles along the famous Overland Road. [29]

Captain Jimeno, for one, questioned the wisdom of crossing the Mojave and Sonoran deserts in July and August. In a letter home, the gloomy and cynical commander of Company B warned his uncle Pablo de la Guerra of the perils of such a journey:

For Heaven's Sake never come out here if you can help it; you will surely melt. Thermometer every day in the shade 112 to 116-wind none-Scorpions thick as molasses, flies still worse and when we want to drink cool water we have to boil it and drink it immediately or else it will get hotter. Es imposible dan una description de esta punto. [30]

Dallying at Fort Yuma only long enough to bivouac for a few days, the Californios continued on toward Tubac. The route would have been familar to the ancestors of most of the California-born men of the battalion, as well as to many of the troopers of Mexican birth, since it was the same route they had followed in the opposite direction from Sonora to California years before. On August 9, Company D once again took up the rear of the column, escorting a supply train that included two light artillery pieces.[31]

Six men deserted Company A during the first five days out of Fort Yuma, while Company B lost twenty men. Because the desertions occurred as the column passed through the lower Gila Valley, where the prosperous but short-lived mining camp of Gila City had existed only a few years before, it may be that the abscounders, some of whom were ex-miners, ran away to try their hand at placer mining, either near Gila City or a few days north at La Paz. It is also possible that some of the fugitives fled south along the Camino del Diablo, which linked up with the Overland Road in the same area, and sought sanctuary in Sonora.[32]

A night march across the forty-mile desert, a week or so out of Fort Yuma, brought Company D to the Maricopa villages. After more than three weeks on the trail, the Native cavalrymen cast envious eyes on the melons ripening in the fields. According to 1st Sgt. Juan Robarts, the "men having a sneaking regard for the fruit," but having no hard currency, paid the enterprising Indians with "their shirts, drawers, and other articles of apparel." In Robarts's estimation, the Maricopas "got the best of every trade that was made."

Arriving in the Old Pueblo on August 30, Robarts had nothing nice to say about what he sarcastically referred to as the "flourishing and extensive city of Tucson." After a day's rest, Company D resumed its march south on September 1. Two nights later, a corporal on guard duty spotted "eight or ten" Apaches, the Califormos' first encounter with the desert warriors. Apparently the Indians had "only come to see if they could find a horse or mule loose, or picketed outside of camp," and nothing came of the brief sighting.[33]

The following day the Los Angeles company arrived at Tubac, only to find the ancient presidio all but abandoned and the military post moved a dozen miles south to the old hacienda of Calabasas. There they joined companies A and B and three companies of the Seventh Infantry, California Volunteers, all under the command of Lt. Col. Charles Lewis, a competent and decisive officer who led the "Hungry Seventh." [34]

Named Fort Mason after Gen. John S. Mason, who commanded the District of Arizona from his Fort Whipple headquarters near Prescott, the new post could hardly be called a fort, consisting instead of tents and brush shelters and only a few permanent buildings. The site, selected by Colonel Lewis, was the former location of Camp Moore, occupied by two companies of the First Dragoons for a few months in 1856.

Lewis probably did not foresee the problems that would plague Camp Mason. Unusually heavy monsoon rains in August and September swelled the Santa Cruz River and its tributaries. Water that accumulated in the arroyos and cienegas provided an ideal environment for mosquito-borne fever that prostrated the garrison throughout the fall and winter. Five enlisted men of the Native California Cavalry and two of its officers, 1st Lt. Crisanto Soto of Company A and Capt. Thomas A. Young of Company D, eventually died of the disease. At one point, between one-third and one-half of the garrison was laid low. The fever slowed construction of the post to a near standstill and delayed serious forays against the Apaches.[35]

Despite its problems, Fort Mason was strategically located on the most important road leading from Tucson into Sonora. Stationed at an important listening post less than ten miles from the border, the men of the Native California Cavalry found themselves only a few hours ride from Mexico, a nation occupied by a foreign power and mired in turmoil that threatened the United States.

Sonora was so far removed from Mexico's central government that in many ways it was effectively independent. The political chaos that consumed the rest of the country did not leave the frontier province untouched, however. Governor Ignacio Pesquiera, a Liberal of convenience, had been fighting to retain the governorship since 1855 against partisans of his predecessor, Conservative Manuel Gandara, who sought forcibly to unseat him. Gandara's support collapsed in 1861, and he was exiled just in time to miss the coming French invasion.A supporter of the Republicans under President Benito Juarez, Pesquiera was friendly to the Union cause during the American Civil War. He resisted overtures from Confederate agents and cultivated friendships with federal officers, including Colonel Lewis and Col. James Carleton of the California Column. These amicable relationships were born not only out of pragmatism, but also out of partisanship, for the French-backed Imperialists maintained ties with the Confederacy, while the Union generally favored the Republican faction. [36]

While Sonora remained more or less unaffected by the war in central Mexico, Pesquiera managed to retain his governorship during the early part of the French Intervention. That changed in 1865 when French regulars landed at Guaymas in hopes of seizing the fabled Sonoran silver mines and using the loot to defray the high cost of supporting Maximilian's monarchy. The French movements alarmed United States officials in California, who had received reports that the Imperialists sought to overturn the Gadsden Purchase and reclaim Arizona. Sonoran Conservatives were encouraged. They assisted a small-but-disciplined foreign force in destroying Pesquiera's ragtag and demoralized army, forcing him
to flee to the safety of his friends north of the border.

Major Cremony, who was not yet present at Fort Mason, later wrote an account of Pesquiera's September 6 arrival at the post that seemed to imply that the exiled governor stumbled into American territory with a force of French regulars in rapid pursuit at his heels. The reality seems to have been somewhat different. Accompanying the governor was a sizeable entourage that included his family, sheep, goats, a thousand head of cattle, a hundred horses, and a military escort. Col. Federico Ronstadt, an infantry officer in the Republican army, rode ahead of the party and requested permission to camp in the valley below Fort Mason. According to Sergeant Robarts of Company D, "Colonel Lewis replied that he and his officers would do themselves the honor to wait on the Governor of Sonora, which accordingly they did, and offered the protection and hospitality of the post." Pesquiera camped with his entourage in the shadow of the fort before briefly taking up residence at the nearby hacienda of Calabasas. He then moved on to Tubac and established a sort of capital in exile, where he could gather financial resources and recruits for a new army. [37]

Meanwhile in Sonora, Jose Moreno, prefect of the military district of Altar, moved "300 or 400 Mexican Imperialists" to Magdalena, some fifty-five miles south of Fort Mason, apparently with the intention of crossing the border to seize the governor. Colonel Lewis belligerently declared, "Let him come and try it!" War seemed inevitable, and the boredom and misery of garrison life only amplified the tension. [38]

The situation may have been too much for fifteen men of companies A and B, who deserted shortly after Pesquiera's arrival and fled south with thirty horses and "numerous" pistols and carbines. Receiving word that the deserters were at Magdalena, Captains Pico and Jimeno, along with Lt. William Emery of the Seventh California Infantry and thirty men of Company A, Native California Cavalry, set out to recover the deserters and the stolen property.

A two-day ride brought the detachment to the outskirts of the Sonoran community, where Captain Pico sent Emery forward as a messenger. Impatient for Emery's return, Pico selected eight to ten men and charged into the town. Stopping in front of Prefect Moreno's office, the Californio boldly demanded the return of the deserters and stolen property, as well as safe passage for himself to Altar and Hermosillo. During the ensuing heated argument, Pico arrogantly declared that as an American officer, he did not recognize the Imperial government. A crowd that assembled in the plaza cheered the blue-coated invaders. Like everyone else in Magdalena, Moreno assumed that Pico was there to start a fight. Consequently, he assembled ten to twenty cavalrymen in a line opposite the Californios and sent for an infantry detachment camped nearby. "A single gun fired at this moment would have started a general fight," one California soldier later wrote.

For some reason, perhaps the intervention of the cooler headed Lieutenant Emery, the situation calmed somewhat and Prefect Moreno agreed to send a courier to Hermosillo for instructions. Captain Pico, for his part, agreed to send Captain Jimeno and the bulk of the detachment, who still remained outside the town, back across the line. During the eight-day wait for the messenger to return, Republican sympathizers in Magdalena treated Pico, Emery, and the small escort of Native cavalrymen who had been permitted to stay with them to "three fine dinners." Pico's request for safe passage into the Sonoran interior was refused and the proud Californian was forced to return home empty-handed. On the way back, the Californios spotted five Apaches in the hills overlooking the road. So that the expedition would not be a total loss, Pico ordered his troopers to give chase. Lieutenant Emery narrowly escaped injury as his horse lost its footing on the steep and rocky incline. Captain Pico burned himself severely when his pistol discharged as he fell with his horse. The incident no doubt humiliated Pico, who had a reputation as one of California's finest horsemen. He called off the chase and the humbled Californians returned to Fort Mason on September 15. The next day, word arrived that Moreno's men had auctioned off the federal property the deserters had stolen. [39]

In the wake of Imperialist protests against Pico's belligerent behavior and an apparent accompanying buildup of French and Imperialist troops near the border, Colonel Lewis established an outpost at Sylvester Mowry's recently abandoned Patagonia mine and sent a twenty-man detachment from Company D to patrol the line. Meanwhile, a rumor reached California that Pico was being held prisoner in Mexico and would be executed by the French-backed Imperialists at Hermosillo. [40]

Major Cremony finally arrived at Fort Mason, together with Captain de la Guerra and Company C, in early November. A three week delay at Fort Yuma-possibly due to flooding-and Cremony's visit with the ailing Governor Pesquiera at Tubac had slowed the march from Drum Barracks. Now the Native California Cavalry battalion was once again assembled, just in time to respond to a threatened Imperialist invasion of southern Arizona. [41]

Late on the night of November 24, word reached Fort Mason from Patagonia that a large Sonoran force had attacked the ranching community of San Rafael, just north of the border. About 350 Opata volunteers under the command of Col. Refugio Tanori, an Opata leader commissioned in the Imperial Army, had crossed the line on an apparently botched raid that left an American citizen wounded. Believing that the raid was an attempt to capture Pesquiera, Major Cremony quickly assembled a detachment from companies C and D and rode across the Patagonia Mountains, reaching San Rafael early the next morning. From there, Cremony crossed the border and entered the town of Santa Cruz, where he learned that Tanori's command had retreated farther south. The major sent ahead 1st Lt. Edmund W. Coddington of Company D and ten troopers to make contact with the Imperialist colonel. After a forty-mile ride, the troopers reached Imuris only to find that Tanori and his irregulars had melted into the countryside. After resting a few days at Santa Cruz, the command returned to Fort Mason, where it arrived on November 30. [42]

By the time of Tanori's raid, the French regulars had largely withdrawn from Sonora. Pesquiera and the Republicans, while, had successfully raised a small army to challenge Imperialist authority in the frontier state. Increasingly through December and January, Republican forces engaged the Imperialists in battle in the heart of Sonora. Although the war was far from over, the Imperialists would never again molest the northern regions.[43]

At the same time, frontier privations and the especially miserable conditions at Fort Mason took their toll on the men of the Native California Cavalry. Company returns signed by Cremony in December show a battalion that, although fairly well disciplined, was scarcely ready to fight. Arms for companies B, C, and D, including the distinctive lances that were once such a source of pride, were listed as unfit for service. Accoutrements and clothing were also in bad shape. Despite the Californios' evident unreadiness for field service, General Mason was contemplating a campaign against Cochise that involved the 'men of Fort Mason. [44]

For much of the Native Cavalry's service at Fort Mason, the much-talked-about Apaches were nowhere to be seen in the Santa Cruz Valley. A few patrols caught glimpses at a distance of small parties of less than a dozen, and Captain Jimemo reported killing one Apache in a brief exchange in October. Cochise had greatly curtailed his activities north of the border, partly in response to the troop buildup during the summer and fall that accompanied General Mason's arrival in Arizona. [45]

Mason's plan called for troops from Forts Mason and Bowie to conduct a two-pronged campaign against the Chiricahua Apaches. Colonel Lewis's command, including men from the Native Cavalry and his own Seventh California Infantry, started from Fort Mason in late December, then split into three detachments that scouted the San Pedro Valley and the Huachuca and Dragoon mountains. Captain Jimeno's cavalry tracked a party of Apaches to an encampment at Sulphur Springs on Christmas Eve. Attacking from ambush, the Californios killed one Indian, wounded two others, and scattered the remainder.

Several days later, Lewis and the rest of the expedition joined Jimeno's troopers at the ambush site. Striking north and west, the California Volunteers eventually reached Fort Bowie, where they were joined by noted scout Merejildo Grijalva. By January 6, the command was in the field again, tracking Cochise's band in: the Chiricahua Mountains. Although at one point the Californios observed sixty to seventy warriors at a distance, the Apaches constantly remained a few steps ahead of Lewis's troops. The pursuit continued as far south as Fronteras, Sonora, where the frustrated colonel turned back toward home, blaming the expedition's failure on Captain Jimeno, despite the fact that the Native troopers produced the only tangible success of the campaign. Fortunately for Jimeno, department headquarters in San Francisco, unaware that the Chiricahua Apaches had largely withdrawn from Arizona in the pervious months, proclaimed the expedition a success, since it appeared to them that Cochise had been driven into Mexico. [46]

Even before Major Cremony arrived at Fort Mason back in November, orders had been issued for the dissolution of his battalion. On October 21, 1865, department headquarters at San Francisco instructed the Native California Cavalry to return to Drum Barracks for mustering out. By early December, detachments that had remained behind to guard federal property at Camp Low, the Presidio, and Angel Island had been relieved by regular troops and discharged. A few more months would pass, however, before regulars arrived in Arizona. So the bulk of the battalion remained at Fort Mason until late January, when it began its long march home. [47]

Reaching Tucson on January 31, 1866, the Californios retraced their route along the Overland Road to the Colorado River opposite Fort Yuma, where high water from heavy autumn rains forced them to stop for over a week. As soon as they were able to ford the river and reach the fort, the battalion split up, with companies A, B, and D marching overland to Drum Barracks, while Major Cremony and Company C boarded a steamer for the Presidio. The Santa Barbara company may have received this special treatment because of the poor health of Captain de la Guerra. Suffering from a social disease that he caught some time during his service, the captain had been confined to quarters during much of his stay at Fort Mason and was likely unable to withstand the rigors of a road march. [48]

Lagging behind the other two companies traveling over land, Company D reached Drum Barracks on March 8, joining companies A and B who had arrived there a week earlier. Captain Jimeno and Company B were mustered out on March 15; the other two companies were discharged five days later. One news paper correspondent tersely summarized the Californios' tour of duty. "They have done good service," he wrote. [49]

The journey home for Major Cremony and Company C took somewhat longer. Together with a company of the Seventh California Infantry and two companies from the Second California Infantry, the remaining Californios boarded a Colorado River steamer at Fort Yuma and sailed south to Cabo San Lucas at the tip of Baja California. After a few days stopover, they continued the voyage around the peninsula and then north to San Francisco, where they docked on March 27. [50]

At the Presidio on April 2, the men of Company C were mustered out, given their back pay, and let loose in San Francisco, where they were "to be seen on every street corner. . . spending their greenbacks with great liberality." The ex-lancers, threadbare after their frontier service, spent most of their newly issued scrip at clothing stores. [51]

The veterans of the Santa Barbara company were welcomed home with a parade down the dusty lane that would become State Street and a two-day fiesta in De La Guerra Plaza. The events of the Civil War and their political fallout had given the old families of Spanish California power and prestige that they had not enjoyed since the American conquest. Now, the return of the vaqueros, who had served their country in the best tradition of the valiant lancers of San Pascual, gave the Californios a chance to celebrate this brief moment when the glory and romance of Old California seemed restored. Perhaps they knew that it was not to last. [52]

Porfirio Jimeno was offered a commission in the postwar regular army, but turned it down. Instead, he went to Mexico, possibly to join members of his father's family, or, according to some reports, throwing in with the American Legion of Honor, a band of ex-California Volunteers who aided the Republican cause in Mexico. Either way, he died a commissioned officer in the Mexican Army at Mexico City in 1870. [53]

Antonio de la Guerra continued to suffer from the illness he contracted in the service. Treated with injections of mercury, he died blind and toothless at age fifty-six in 1881. [54]

The other officers and men of the Native California Cavalry returned to their civilian lives. Like most of the California Volunteers, they faded into obscurity, forgotten by nearly everyone except when the proud veterans appeared at the battalion reunions held at Drum Barracks until 1923. The last Californio lancer, 1st Sgt. Juan de la Guerra of Company C, died at Santa Barbara in 1945. [55]

Well before Sergeant de la Guerra's death, the tradition that the Native Cavalry represented had become a throwback, seen only in popular novels like Ramona and The Mark of Zorro. Even as the battalion served in California and Arizona, the big ranches were being broken up and sold. The end of the war brought an influx Anglos ignorant of California's past and thus unable to respect the contributions of their Spanish-surnamed predecessors. The charge of the lancer, with brilliant pennon fluttering in the wind blowing in from the sea, had become as quaint a romantic notion as the sprawling rancho and the vaquero. The service of the First Battalion of Native California Cavalry was one last chance for the proud California vaquero to ride into glory. [56]

 

Footnotes

 

1. San Francisco Bulletin, July 11, 1865; Wilmington Journal, July 1, 8, 1865.

2. Officially, the armament of the lancer companies of the Native California Cavalry consisted of a Colt army revolver, a saber, and a lance manufactured at the Benicia arsenal.
Special Order 65, Headquarters, District of Southern California, Drum Barracks, in The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, 70 vols. in 128 pts. (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1880-1901), Series I, vol. 50, pt. 2, p. 1035 (hereinafter cited as O.R.); San Francisco Bulletin, July 8, 1865.

3. Richard H. Orton, Records of California Men in the War of the Rebellion (Sacramento: State of California, 1890), p. 304; Sacramento Union, January 28, 1863.

4. Orton, Records of California Men, p. 304; Leonard Pitt, The Decline of the Californios: A Social History of Spanish-Speaking Californians, 1846-1890 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1966), p. 34.

5. Orton, Records of California Men, p. 304; Pitt, Decline of the Californios, pp. 230, 233.

6. Wilmington Journal, March 10, 1866 J. R. Pico to Governor Stanford, San Jose, January 2, 1863, Box 6, Military and National Guard Collection (MNG), California Archives,
Sacramento.

7. Alta California (San Francisco), March 11, 1863

8. Ibid., March 11, 20,1863; Orton, Records of California Men, pp. 307-310.

9. Muster and Descriptive Roll, Native California Cavalry (NCC), MNG; San Francisco Bulletin, July 8, 1865.

10. Aurora Hunt, The Army of the Pacific: Its operations in California, Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, plains region, Mexico, etc. 1860-1866 (Glendale, Calif.: The Arthur H. Clark Company, 1951), pp. 246-48; A. J. Bledsoe, Indian Wars of the Northwest: A California Sketch (Oakland, Calif.: Biobooks, 1956), pp. 234, 249-51; Alta California, February 18, 1864.

11. San Pose Patriot, January 18, 1863. J. R. Pico to Governor Stanford, September 9, 1863, Box 6; and Muster and Descriptive Roll, Company Returns, Company B, NCC, both in MNG.

12. A. Dibblee Poett, Rancho San Julian: The Story of a California Ranch and Its People (Santa Barbara: Futhian Press, 1990), pp. 3-38. Maj. S. Vallejo to Lt. Col. Richard C. Drum, Drum Barracks, April 13, 1864; Raymond Hill to Governor Low, Santa Barbara, April 24, 1864; Hill to General Kibbe, Santa Barbara, May 16, 1864, Box 7, MNG. Muster and
Descriptive Roll, Company C, NCC
, ibid.

13. Constance Wynn Altshuler, Cavalry Yellow & Infantry Blue: Army Officers in Arizona Between 1851 and 1886 (Tucson: Arizona Historical Society, 1991), pp. 178-79; Stella
Haverland Rouse, "Civil War Volunteers," Noticias (Santa Barbara Historical Society), vol. 27 (Fall 1981), pp. 58-59.

14. Pablo de la Guerra to Low, Los Angeles, May 26,1864; W. G. Still to Low, Los Angeles, May 27, 1864, Box 7, MNG. Alta California, June 18, September 11, 1864.

15. Pitt, The Decline of the Californios, p. 231. Jose J. Moreno to Low, Los Angeles, April 28, 1864; Still to Low, May 27, 1864, Box 7, MNG. Post Returns, Drum Barracks, March 1864, Records of the U.S. Army Commands (RUSAC), Record Group 94, National Archives.

16. William P. Reynolds to Low, Los Angeles, June 9, 1864, Box 7; Vallejo and Pico to Stanford, Presidio of San Francisco, November 30, 1863, Box 6, MNG. Alta California,
June 24, 1864. Post Returns, Drum Barracks, July 1864, RUSAC.

17. Post Returns, Drum Barracks, September 1864, RUSAC; Reynolds to Low, Los Angeles, March 28, 1864, Box 7, MNG; Wilmington Journal, January 14,1865; Haverland Rouse, "Civil War Volunteers."

18. Pitt, Decline of the Californios, p. 233; Orton, Records of California Men, p. 301.

19. Altshuler, Cavalry Yellow & Infantry Blue, p. 85.

20. Parajo Times (Watsonville), November 12, 1864.

21. Alta California, January 24, 1865; Michael O'Brien to Low, Camp Low, San Juan, February 1, 1865, Box 8, MNG.

22. Vallejo to Low, Drum Barracks, February 23, 1865; Captain de la Guerra and Lieutenant Jimeno to Low, March 17, 1865, Box 8, MNG. Orton, Records of California Men, pp.
310-14.

23. Alta California, April 12, 13, 1865.

24. OR., pp. 1150-51; Post Returns, Drum Barracks, March and April 1865, RUSAC.

25. Sacramento Union, March 11, 1865; Alta California, April 12, 1865.

26. Pajaro Times, April 29, 1865; Sacramento Union, April 28, 27, 1865; Alta California, May 14, 1865; Orton, Records of California Men, p. 305.

27. Monterey Gazette, June 9, 1865; San Francisco Bulletin, July 8, 1865.

28. Post Returns, Drum Barracks, July 1865, RUASC. Alta California, April 12, 1865. Company Returns, Company D, NCC, June 1865, MNG; Gilbert C. Smith to Low, May 24, 1865, Box 9, ibid.

29. Wilmington Journal July 29, 1865; Post Returns, Drum Barracks, July-August 1865, RUSAC.

30. Jimeno to Pablo de la Guerra, August 3, 1865, Folder 554, de la Guerra Collection, Santa Barbara Mission Archives.

31. Los Angeles Tri-Weekly News, October 24, 1865.

32. Orton, Records of California Men, pp. 307-314.

33. Los Angeles Tri-Weekly News, October 24, 1865.

34. Ibid.; Constance Wynn Altshuler, Chains of Command: Arizona and the Army, 1856-1875 (Tucson: Arizona Historical Society, 1981), pp. 41-44.

35. Constance Wynn Altshuler, "Camp Moore and Fort Mason," Journal of the Council on Abandoned Military Posts, vol. 26 (Winter 1976), pp. 34-36; Sacramento Union, October 19, 1865.

36. Rodolfo F. Acuiia, Sonoran Strongman: Ignacio Pesquiera and His Times (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1974), pp. 79-87.

37. John C. Cremony, "How and Why We Took Santa Cruz," Overland Monthly, vol. 6 (April 1871), pp. 335-40; Los Angeles Tri-Weekly Times, October 24, 1865; Thomas Edwin
Farish, History of Arizona, vol. 4, p. 118, typescript, Special Collections, University of Arizona Library, Tucson; Edward F. Ronstadt, ed., Borderman: Memoirs of Federico Jose Maria Ronstadt (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1993), p. 4.

38. San Francisco Bulletin, October 23, 1865.

39. Ibid.; Sacramento Union, October 19, 1865; Los Angeles Tri-Weekly News, October 24, 1865.

40. Returns, Company D, NCC, October 31 to December 31, 1865, MNG; Porfirio Jimeno to Josefa Maria de la Guerra, October 30, 1865, Folder 551, de la Guerra Collection; San Francisco Bulletin, October 23, 1865.

41. Muster Roll, Field & Staff, NCC, August 31 to October 1865, MNG; Cremony, "How and Why We Took Santa Cruz," p. 337.

42. Cremony, "How and Why We Took Santa Cruz," pp. 337-40; Wilmington Journal, December 30, 1865.

43. Acuna, Sonoran Strongman, pp. 87-93.

44. Returns, Companies A, B, C, and D, NCC, MNG.

45. Jimeno to Josefa Maria de la Guerra, October 30, 1865, Folder 551, de la Guerra Collection.

46. Edwin R. Sweeney, Cochise: Chiricahua Apache Chief (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1991), pp. 239-40.

47. Sacramento Union, October 26, 1865; Los Angeles Tri-Weekly News, December 15, 1865; Returns, Company B, December 1865, NCC, MNG.

48. Wilmington Journal; February 17, March 17, 1865; Returns, Company D, January 31, 1866, Company C, October 31 to December 31, 1865, NCC, MNG; Diblee Poett, Rancho San Julian, p. 42.

49. Wilmington Journal, March 3, 10, 1866; Orton, Records of California Men, pp. 307-14, 317-20; San Francisco Bulletin, March 30, 1866.

50. Don McDowell, "Vaqueros en Azul," Drumbeats, vol. 3 (October 1989); Alta California, March 27, 1866.

51. Orton, Records of California Men, pp. 315-17; Alta California, April 4, 1865.

52. McDowell, "Vaqueros en Azul"; Pitt, Decline of the Californios, pp. 241-42.

53. Altshuler, Cavalry Yellow & Infantry Blue, pp. 178-79.

54. Diblee Poett, Rancho San Julian, p. 42; McDowell, "Vaqueros en Azul."

55. McDowell, "Vaqueros en Azul."

56. Pitt, Decline of the Californios, pp. 247-76.

 

About the Author
Tom Prezelski is a graduate of the University of Arizona and a docent at the Arizona Historical Society, Tucson. He presented an earlier version of this article at the 1998 joint New Mexico-Arizona Historical Convention in Santa Fe. 

The Pima County Board of Supervisors appointed Tom Prezelski to the House of Representatives in February 2003 to fill the vacancy left in District 29 by Representative Victor Soltero, who resigned to accept an appointment to a vacancy in the State Senate.

Representative Prezelski is a Tucson native with deep roots in the Old Pueblo and Southern Arizona. His father had a distinguished twenty-two year career in the United States Air Force, retiring with the rank of Senior Master Sergeant. His mother, who had a long and varied career at the University of Arizona, is a descendent of several pioneer families of the Arizona-Sonora border region, including some ancestors who served as soldiers in the Spanish garrison at Tucson in the 18th Century. His family’s tradition of public service extends at least as far back as his grandfather, Francisco Ronquillo Villa, a cowboy, rancher, union railroad worker and Cochise County Democrat who served on a school board in the San Pedro Valley in the 1930s.

Representative Prezelski is a graduate of the University of Arizona, where he was active in the Arizona Students Association and received a degree in Geography.

Representative Prezelski is an amateur historian, and some of his articles have seen print. For this article he received the James F. Elliot II award for the best article by a non-professional historian. He has worked as a docent and volunteer at the Arizona Historical Society in Tucson. He also participates in a reenactment group that recreates the Segunda Compania de Voluntarios de Cataluña, a Spanish infantry company that served in what is now Arizona, California and Sonora in the 1780s. In 1995, he was appointed to the Tucson-Pima County Historical Commission, a board that advises local government about historical and cultural preservation issues in the greater Tucson area.

Representative Prezelski worked as a planner for the Tohono O’odham Nation from since 1999 to 2003.

Representative Prezelski lives in the Barrio Viejo neighborhood of Tucson on the same block where his grandmother grew up.

 

 

 

NORTHWESTERN UNITED STATES 

Photo:  Temple Square, Salt Lake, 1898. Built as a Mormon temple in 1847
Photo: Salt Air Pavilion, Great Salt Lake, Utah, 1901. Burned down in 1925.
 


Temple Square, Salt Lake, 1898. Built as a Mormon temple in 1847, the Temple is owned by 
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and located in the center of Salt Lake City, Utah. Attracting 3 million to 5 million visitors a year, Temple Square is the most popular tourist attraction in Utah, bringing in more visitors than the Grand Canyon or Yellowstone National Park with its museums and libraries. Official  site here.

 


Salt Air Pavilion, Great Salt Lake, Utah, 1901. Burned down in 1925. Today, Salt Air III is still a popular concert venue, but it’s a shadow of what it once was.



SOUTHWESTERN UNITED STATES
   

February 1: Soldados del Presidio San Agustin del Tucson
Photo:
Gold’s Curio Store, Santa Fe, New Mexico, circa 1897.
Descendants of Native American Slaves In New Mexico Emerge From Obscurity
Photo:  Pack Trail Ready for Mines, Colorado, 1904



Soldados del Presidio San Agustin del Tucson
In 2017: Blacksmithing demonstrations, every 4th Saturday 
10 a.m. - 1 p.m. 
Jan 28  |  Feb 25  |  March 25  |  April 22

===================================== =====================================

Join us for the new Presidio District Historic 
Walking Tour and Lunch!
February 1 and February 4, 10:30 am - 1:30 pm
$40/person

Discover the stories of Tucson's past that have made the city what it is today! Experience how history comes alive at the Presidio Museum featuring:

The excavation site of a Native American pit house 
European technology and how it changed daily Presidio life 
Blacksmith and musket demonstrations, 
plus old and new world food tastings 
Pre-railroad Sonoran row house, most likely made from bricks that were once in the Presidio walls 
Following the tour at the Presidio Museum, enjoy a delicious pre-selected lunch at La Cocina!

After lunch, continue your journey through Tucson’s rich history by exploring five historic houses built between the mid-1850s and the early 1900s located on the campus of the Tucson Museum of Art and Historic Block. The properties on the tour are:

The J. Knox Corbett House 
La Casa Cordova 
The Edward Nye Fish House 
The Romero House 
The Stevens/Duffield House 
Participants must register and pay ahead of time at www.TucsonPresidio.com. Questions? Call us at 520-837-8119 or email info@TucsonPresidio.com.

Presidio San Agustin del Tucson   |  196 N. Court Avenue  |  Tucson, AZ 85701  |  USA
Sent by Monica Smith    tortelita@aol.com 


Gold’s Curio Store, Santa Fe, New Mexico, circa 1897.

This was the first Indian curio business established in Santa Fe. The ramshackle old adobe building with wood carrying burros in front of and or around the corner on Burro Alley made this innovative curio shop on San Francisco street a favorite subject for photographers of the late 19th century. Jake Gold, a brilliant salesman, cast himself as a man worthy of a souvenir portrait card as a moustached, frilly leather jacketed rugged frontiersman complete with a muzzle-loaded pistol stuck in his braided sash belt. He was equally colorful in discourse, “The tourists want to hear tales, and I am here to administer the same.”

  

    

 

NPR logo
Descendants of Native American Slaves In New Mexico Emerge From Obscurity
John Burnett/NPR, December 29, 2016

Thank you to Marie Bruns for bringing Los Genízaros to my attention with an article by Art Latham
published in the New Mexico Magazine, September 1995.
========================================= =========================================
Santo Tomas Catholic Church in Abiquiu, N.M., is the site of an annual saint's day celebration in late November that includes cultural elements of the genizaros, the descendants of Native American slaves.

Every year in late November, the New Mexican village of Abiquiu, about an hour northwest of Santa Fe, celebrates the town saint, Santo Tomas. Townfolk file into the beautiful old adobe Catholic church to pay homage its namesake.

But this is no ordinary saint's day. Dancers at the g paint and ankle bells that honor their forebears - captive Indian slaves called genizaros.         

The dances and chants are Native American, but they don't take place on a Pueblo Indian reservation. Instead, they're performed in a genizaro community, one of several scattered across the starkly beautiful high desert of northern New Mexico. 
                                           
After centuries in the shadows, this group of mixed-race New Mexicans - Hispanic and American Indian - is stepping forward to seek recognition.

Genizaros are descendants of slaves, but not Africans who crossed the Atlantic in shackles to work in Southern cotton fields. They are living heirs to Native American slaves. In the 18th and 19th centuries, Native American women and children captured in warfare were bought, converted to Catholicism, taught Spanish and held in servitude by New Mexican families. Ultimately, these nontribal, Hispanicized Indians assimilated into New Mexican society.

"Who is the genizaro?" asks Virgil Trujillo, a ranch manager in Abiquiu. "We know who the Apache are, the Comanche, the Lakota. We know all this. Who's the genizaro? See, in our history that was suppressed. Spanish people and white people came in. [They said] 'bad Indian, bad Indian.' "


 


Virgil Trujillo

Ranch manager Virgil Trujillo wants the world to know that "the genizaro people of the pueblo of Abiquiu are alive and well."  The name genizaro is the Spanish word for janissary, war captives conscripted into service to fight for the Ottoman Sultan.  Some New Mexican genizaros gained their freedom by serving as soldiers to defend frontier villages like Abiquiu from Indian raids. By the late 1700s, genizaros comprised one-third of the population of New Mexico.

The territory changed hands from Spain to Mexico to, in the early 20th century, the United States. Genizaros intermarried with Hispanics, and their identity as Native Americans was effectively erased, at least in the historical record. 

"Today we have a little tiny opportunity to get our word out," says Trujillo. "The genizaro people of the pueblo of Abiquiu are alive and well."
  

The Santo Tomas fiesta moves from the church grounds to the home of the festival chairman. A trio of musicians entertains. People sit at outdoor tables in a chill wind, eating bowls of steaming pozole, or hominy stew, with red chile.  

One of the dancers is Gregorio Gonzales, a 28-year-old man in a black skullcap with a red arrow painted on his cheek. If asked, he says, he would say he is a genizaro.  Today, genizaro is a neutral term. But it wasn't always so, Gonzales says. He's a Ph.D. candidate in anthropology, writing his dissertation on genizaro identity.

"Genizaro, the term, was actually used as a racial slur by people, especially here in northern New Mexico, the equivalent of the N-word," he says. 

What's happening in New Mexico today is a sort of genizaro renaissance.

========================================= =========================================
There have been recent symposia on genizaro history and identity. A pair of scholars at the University of New Mexico is putting out a book. The working title is Genizaro Nation.

"There was a lot of Native American slavery going on. It's just an eye-opener to the average Americans when they discover this," says co-editor Enrique Lamadrid. He is a distinguished professor emeritus of Spanish at the University of New Mexico who has done some of the groundbreaking scholarship on genizaros.

While Native American slavery was commonplace, New Mexico was the only place where free Indians were called genizaros.
Enrique Lamadrid (left) and Moises Gonzales, professors at the University of New Mexico, are co-editing the forthcoming book Genizaro Nation.
They were often Comanches, Utes, Kiowas, Apaches and Navajos taken as slaves by each other, and by colonists.
"In the 1770s, if you were going to get married, one of the best wedding presents you could get is a little Indian kid who becomes part of your household. They took on your own last name, and they became part of the family," says Lamadrid.

One thing the new genizaro scholarship does is smash the conventional notion that New Mexican identity is somehow defined as either the noble Spaniard or the proud Pueblo Indian.

"The Spanish fantasy is a myth," says Moises Gonzales, an architecture professor at UNM and co-editor of Genizaro Nation. "I think it's great that we're finally having a very elevated conversation about what it means to be genizaro in contemporary times."

In the 300-year-old villages tucked in river valleys of New Mexico, the genizaros are finally telling their stories.

Sent by John Inclan  
fromgalveston@yahoo.com
 

Pack Trail Ready for Mines, Colorado, 1904

 

TEXAS

Dr. Dr. Félix D. Almaraz Jr. & Gilberto Quezada, teacher/student friendship of 49 years. 
March 2-4th: 121st Texas State Historical Association Annual Meeting

Tejano and the Rise of Commercial: Ranching in Texas, 1848-1920 
        by Dr. Armando Alonzo
April 8: 5th Anniversary Celebration: Unveiling of Tejano Monument, Texas State Capitol 
January 13th, 1847 -- Future scalp hunter enlists in army
January 19th, 1858 -- German school chartered in Austin
Tejano History Matters by Dan Arellano, St. Mary's University 
Spanish Archives of Laredo by J. Gilberto Quezada
A Tribute to Miss Carmen Perry by J. Gilberto Quezada
Texas Alliance of Land Grant Descendants (TALGD)
Texas State Historical Association Newsletter 


Hello Mimi,

Dr. Félix D. Almaraz Jr., and I met for lunch today at the Olive Garden Restaurant to celebrate 49 years of friendship.  We meet on a bimonthly basis for lunch to catch up on each other's readings, writing projects, and scholarly pursuits and on social history (gossip).  


Left to Right:  Gilberto Quezada,   Dr. Dr. Félix D. Almaraz Jr. 

For being eighty-three years young and a retired professor from UTSA, he is as active as the careers of three normal people.  The official title that was conferred on him by the university is as follows:  "Peter T. Flawn Distinguished University Professor Emeritus of Borderlands History."  

After our lunch he presented me with a nice gift--a book with beautiful color photographs that he bought for me when he was at the Vatican a few months ago to deliver a lecture on Father Antonio Margil de Jesús, a Franciscan missionary to Texas in the eighteenth century.  Among other missions that he founded in East Texas, he established Mission San José y San Miguel de Aguayo in San Antonio, Texas.  
The title of the book is, Vatican Splendors: A Journey Through Faith And Art, and  I am looking forward to reading it.



Below  table of contents: Vatican Splendors: A Journey Through Faith And Art,:

Lenders
Benedict XVI
Curator's Welcome: 
     Monsignor Roberto Zagnoli
Saint Peter and His Successors
The History of the Vatican: 
     Monsignor Roberto Zagnoli
The Papacy in the Church and in the World: 
     Brother Charles Hilken, F.S.C., M.S.L., Ph.D. 
Foundation of the Church
The Tomb of Saint Peter and Saint Paul
Constantine's Basilica
The Rise of Christian Rome
The Early Renaissance
Michelangelo and Pope Julius II 
The Renaissance Basilica
Art in the Service of Faith
The Art of the Liturgy
Dialogue with the the World
The Successors of Peter: Papal Portraiture
Art and the Contemporary Papacy
Glossary

Our friendship started when I was a junior at St. Mary's University during the first summer session of 1968.  I took his history class H.S. 307--The Spanish Southwest, and  we have been friends ever since and  that is a very long time.  Less than forty years went by between the day Lincoln was shot and the day Queen Victoria died.  More than forty years elapsed between the Declaration of Independence and the Mexican Independence Movement.  And exactly forty years went by from the end of the Mexican Revolution until Sputnik, the Soviet satellite that was launched into space.  Amazing isn't it?  Friendships that last more than forty years are something.  Monuments I call them.
 
After spending a year at the University of Texas at Austin as a Visiting Professor, he then moved to the South San Antonio Independent School District to take over the reins of the newly established Bilingual Education Program.  I called him in the spring of 1971 to visit with him and he asked me if I needed a job.  And, I did need to find gainful employment because I was getting married in a few months.  In the meantime, I was still trying to finish writing my thesis for my M.A. degree in history.  He told if I would accept an opening he had in the Bilingual Program as a curriculum writer and I immediately jumped at the opportunity.  We spent two years working together, and in 1973, he moved to the new campus of UTSA, and I stayed with the school district.  He and his wife were padrinos de brindis at our wedding in Zapata.   
Over the span of half-a-century, he has amassed an incredible literary record of exceptional creative writing that reflects his lifelong commitment to the writer's craft, as evidenced by a plethora of delightful stories, all skillfully embroided with such meticulous care and elegance.  And, he has influenced, motivated, and inspired thousands of students and many people from all walks of life.  When he retired from UTSA, Dr. Juan Carlos Moreno, a professor of Spanish Literature at St. Mary's University asked me to say a few words at a reception honoring him.  I entitled my thoughts, "Take the High Ground:  A Tribute to Dr. Félix D. Almaráz, Jr."  In all the years we have been friends, taking the high ground has always meant, generally speaking, his advice, not only to me, but to anyone who came in contact with him--that we should always strive to be the best, to excel in our chosen profession, and to rise to the challenge of setting high standards for ourselves, both in our personal lives and in our professional careers.
In the acknowledgements to my award-winning political biography, Border Boss:  Manuel B. Bravo and Zapata County, I paid tribute to him because he was one of my pillars who supported my efforts in writing the book.  

Gilberto  Quesada 

 

March 2-4th: 
Texas State Historical Association Annual Meeting will
celebrate its 121st annual event
at the Hyatt Regency Houston Hotel

 




Tejanos and the Rise of Commercial
Ranching in Texas, 1848-1920

by Dr. Armando Alonzo
Texas A&M University 


While Tejanos founded towns and started ranchos 
(as did the Franciscan missionaries) in the colonial era, they had a more significant role in the development of a ranching economy after 1848. Initially, there were small numbers of livestock producers along the San Antonio River, the Nacogdoches district, Victoria, Refugio and San Patricio. In the Lower Valley, originally the northern district of Nuevo Santander known as the Villas del Norte, the first ranchers arrived in the 1730s and 1740s. 

There were 365 Spanish and Mexican land grants in the Lower Valley, a greater number than any other Tejano district, meaning the settlers to the region were more numerous and became productive for generations. A long tradition in stockraising, excellent grasslands, and ideal weather fostered a ranching economy for a considerable period, with farming being much less important. Coinciding with the rapid commercialization of the livestock industry of Texas after the Civil War, Tejano ranching peaked during that era. Although, conflict with Anglos and other factors had displaced some Tejanos from their ranchos since the Texas War of Independence. 

My objective here is to quickly survey key aspects of this history.

With the adjudication of their rights to the land grants in the Trans-Nueces district under state agencies, Mexicans returned to the land and restarted the ranching economy in the 1850s. It was a slow recovery that involved local sales of livestock and some overland drives to Texas packeries along the coast and to New Orleans. Ranchmen and women herded on a moderate-scale of a few hundred horses and cattle. Limited marketing opportunities prevailed on account of revolutions, political disorders in Mexico, and the effects of the Civil War on the region, which restricted the expansion of stock- raising. 

Ranchers also herded sheep and goats, usually in conjunction with the raising of horses and cattle. Wool, hides, and skins were profitable because the merchants in the countryside and the more important ones in Laredo, Brownsville, Corpus Christi, and San Antonio had connections to buyers at New Orleans, New York, and other places. 

 
Landowners of the extensive grazing lands were either the original grantees, their children, or grandchildren. In some cases, Tejanos were new buyers of land from those who had obtained confirmation of title. By 1865, some rancheros raised larger herds and the prospects seemed good and limitless, as the trail drives to Kansas and other places commenced slowly at first, and then expanded rapidly by the early 1870s.
Read more ... 
http://tshaonline.us7.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=9ac611cecaa72c69cecc26cb8&id=148f2baf23&e=3967c4da92 
=========================================== =============================================
Texas Insights, publication of the Texas State Historical Association in cooperation with 
The University of Texas at Austin
Sent by Editor Stephen Cure  
steve.cure@tshaonline.org
     


Texas State Historical Association
3001 Lake Austin Blvd.  Suite 3.116  
Austin, TX 
78703

April 8, 2017: 5th Anniversary Celebration: Unveiling of Tejano Monument at Texas State Capitol



SAVE THE DATES and JOIN US

April 8, 2017---- 5th Anniversary Celebration: Unveiling of Tejano Monument at Texas State Capitol

March*----- 2017 Tejano Book Award contest begins.

June*--------- 2017 Members' Choice Award, contest for Self-Published works begins

September 28 –30, 2017--- 38th Hispanic Genealogical and Historical Conference, Austin, Texas

*Deadline for submissions to be announced. Check our website.

For more information please visit our website: www.tgsaustin.org
Sent by Minnie Wilson




January 13th, 1847 -- Future scalp hunter enlists in army


On this day in 1847, John Joel Glanton enlisted in Walter P. Lane's company of rangers for service in the Mexican War. The South Carolina native had arrived in Texas in time to serve in the Texas Revolution, and was a member of John Hay's company of Texas Rangers between the wars. He served with distinction in the invasion of Mexico under Zachary Taylor. 

Always a controversial figure, Glanton's career turned sinister after the Mexican War when he traveled to Chihuahua and became the leader of a band of scalp hunters. 

The memoirist Sam Chamberlain met and rode with Glanton during this period. Eventually the authorities in Chihuahua accused Glanton and his gang of scalping friendly Indians and Mexicans for bounties, and drove him into Sonora province. There he resumed his activities. He and his gang seized and operated a river ferry controlled by the Yuma Indians. While operating the ferry, they killed Mexican and American passengers alike for their money and goods. Finally, in mid-1850, they schemed to kill a party of Mexican miners who used the ferry, but before they carried out their plot, the Yumas attacked the ferry and killed Glanton and most of his men. Glanton himself was scalped.

Source:  Texas State Historical Association
http://tshaonline.us

Editor Mimi:  This brief history summarizes the horrors of the criminal activities on the border between Texas and Mexico perpetuated by non-Mexicans.  So much of US history blames the border conflicts on  Mexicans.  More and more facts are surfacing which point to the activities of non-Mexicans as the perpetuators of criminal behavior.  Killing for scalp money could not be more despicable. 


  



January 19th, 1858 -- German school chartered in Austin

On this day in 1858, the German Free School Association of Austin became the first Austin school chartered by the Texas legislature, for the "education of the youth, the promotion of useful knowledge, and the advancement of the sciences." The school was to be "accessible to all alike without regard to religious opinions." The two-story school building was constructed in 1857 with volunteer labor on land donated by the von Rosenberg family overlooking Waller Creek. Living quarters were added in 1872 for the schoolmaster, Julius Schuetze. Classes were taught in English, probably with German as a second language. After the school closed in the 1880s, Schuetze stayed in the family quarters and eventually purchased the rest of the building. The former school building changed hands several times after Schuetze's death. In August 1991 artist Kelly H. Stevens deeded the German Free School property to the German-Texan Heritage Society, with the understanding that it would be preserved for future generations. The building is now the headquarters of the German-Texan Heritage Society and the German Free School Guild. The guild was established in 1993 as a volunteer service arm of the society to support the facility as a historic cultural center with a library, tours, beginning-German classes, and other regularly scheduled programs.

http://tshaonline.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=9ac611cecaa72c69cecc26cb8&id=b6792a413d&e=3967c4da92  

 



Lecture Schedule at St Mary’s University
Tejano History Matters by Dan Arellano  Author/Historian 
 
=========================================== ===========================================
Dear Friends,
I have accepted an invitation by St Mary’s University of San Antonio to deliver a series of lectures on Tejano History. 

St Mary’s is a Marianist Liberal Arts Institution located in the North East corridor of down town San Antonio and is the largest Catholic University  
in the State of Texas . As you know the recent struggle with the State Board of Education will continue so we must always remain vigilant. This 
is, in a small way, our response to insure that our history is never forgotten.
  1. Friday February 10th 2017 , 9 A.M. 10 A.M. The First Texas Republic and the Battle of Medina .
  2. Wednesday February 15th  9 A.M. 10 A.M. The French Connection to the Alamo
  3. Thursday February 16th. 9A.M. 10 A.M. ‘Cinco de Mayo” and the real reason we celebrate.
Dan Arellano Author/Historian
President Battle of Medina Historical Society
President Battle of Medina and San Antonio Missions Historical Tours


Our Mission : To Protect, Preserve and Promote Tejano History
     If we don’t do it no one will do it for us.

 


 Spanish Archives of Laredo
by J. Gilberto Quezada

=========================================== ===========================================
Hi Mimi, 

Having been born in El Barrio Azteca in Laredo, Texas, and having lived in my hometown until 1967 when I transferred as a junior from Laredo Jr. College to St. Mary's University in San Antonio, Texas, I had never heard of the Spanish Archives of Laredo. I do admit that I was ignorant of this fact; however, it was never mentioned in my formative years attending St. Augustine School or while taking Texas history at Laredo Jr. College. And, none of my peers mentioned the Spanish Archives of Laredo. I can only surmise that they did not know either. 

Towards the end of my junior year at St. Mary's University, I noticed a part-time job opening for a bilingual student assistant that was posted on the
 huge glass-encased bulletin board between the Administration Building and Reinbolt Hall. I applied and I went for an interview with Miss Carmen Perry, archivist of the Spanish Archives of Laredo. Her office was located on the third floor of the Academic Library (now the Louis J. Blume Library) in the Special Collections Room. At the beginning of the interview when she first mentioned the Spanish Archives of Laredo, I was flabbergasted. I did not know that my hometown had such a rich Spanish history. She also told me that she was hired a few months ago and that she was looking for a student who was fluent in reading and writing Spanish and who could be her assistant. Miss Perry was a native  of Torreón, Coahuila, Mexico, and was fluent in reading, writing, and speaking Spanish. Her previous work assignment was head librarian at the Daughters of the Republic of Texas Library at the Alamo. 
The task was to translate, catalogue, and index this valuable collection. Miss Perry wanted an index card for each document--a painstaking monumental task that required lots of patience. And, the question that ran through my mind was, "What are the Spanish Archives of Laredo doing at St. Mary's University?" I had no earthly idea that there existed a wealth of historical information about my hometown. The only inkling I had of Laredo's Spanish history was the Don José de Escandón's red granite historical marker on the northeast side of the historic San Agustín Plaza, commemorating the site of the original Villa de San Agustín de Laredo. I would see this marker almost on a daily basis since the plaza was located across the street from St. Augustine School. Needless to say, I got the job. 

Every afternoon, I looked forward to handling the actual Spanish documents with vinyl gloves. Some of them were too fragile, badly frayed, or almost illegible to read. The Special Collections Room was big enough to accommodate a few tables and that is where we worked. To the right of the tables, the room was lined up with bookshelves that contained about 3,000 valuable rare books, dealing with military history, mathematics, religion, music, travel, and Texana. For instance, I remember the following tomes: The Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, 1736-1756, Recopilación de las Leyes de las Indias, and The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft. Another one was a Coptic book of hours that was given by the Emperor Haile Selassie from Ethiopia. And to the left of the tables was a walk-in steel vault that was fire proof and had humidity control. 


An elaborate signature of Nicolás de Ybarra y Galindo, from a 1700s document. Note the person's intricate and elegant rubric. According to Miss Carmen Perry, in Spain, if a person did not have a rubric after their name, then the name was worthless, it carried no value, prestige, or honor.

The documents are kept inside this walk-in steel vault in a heavy four-drawer steel filing cabinet, which was kept locked at all times and the vault door had a combination lock. Miss Perry was the only one who knew the combination. Each document was kept in a separate Lancaster bond folder. I found out from Miss Perry that these were the conditions that were stipulated in the agreement on December 10, 1961, when the university formally accepted to be the custodian of the Spanish Archives of Laredo. 

We would take one document at a time, study it, and fill in the information on a 5x8 index card. On the upper left hand side, we filled: Provence and Destination. On the upper right hand side, we filled in the box number where we found the document and the date. Then, we filled in the FROM and TO of the document, the type of communication, and the condition of the document. And, finally we wrote a brief description of the content. The cards were then cross-referenced with numerous sources so that a researcher could quickly find a document dealing with a specific subject. There were a total of 3,245 separate documents for a total of 13, 343 pages. The oldest document was dated 1749 and the most recent one was from 1868.

This is the oldest document from the Spanish period, dated 1749.

Based on a survey of the Spanish Archives of Laredo that was done in the early 1960s by Richard G. Santos, then the Archivist for the Bexar County Archives, he provided the following information. The number of documents listed for each box is based on the number count appearing on the microfilm reels, and not on an actual count of the manuscripts.

=========================================== ===========================================
A. The Colonial Period
Box I: 1749-1794
150 documents
Most of these documents are copies of decrees and bandos issued by the Spanish government and distributed in Nuevo Santander. Also includes decrees concerning the expulsion of the Jesuit Order from the Spanish Empire, arrival of the Flota from Spain, announcement of the Fería de Xalapa, the Visita General of 1767, a petition by José de Escandón, some correspondence between the Ayuntamiento of Laredo and the governor of the state.


B. The Mexican War for Independence
Box II: 1795-1815
226 documents 
Extensive collection of decrees, bandos, órdenes, and correspondence, including an excellent (but small) collection of correspondence and manifestos dealing with the Mexican War for Independence in the Provincias Internas de Oriente.
C. The Age of Agustín de Iturbide
Box III: 1816-1823      115 documents
Consists of numerous cuadernos of decrees, bandos, and órdenes issued by the Spanish and Mexican governments, includes Gacetas Extraordinarias dealing first, with the defeat of the insurgents throughout New Spain, and later, with the establishment of Mexican Independence. The latter half of the box contains documents relative to the establishment of the Mexican Republic, its Constitutional Congress, provincial deputation, and election of the State Governor. Several documents dated 1824 deal with the ouster, capture, and execution of Agustín de Iturbide.

D. The Age of Guadalupe Victoria
Box IV: 1824-1829  267 documents
Extensive collection of cuadernos containing decrees, bandos, oficios, órdenes, correspondence, and Gacetas issued by the state and national government. Includes documents relative to the capture and execution of Iturbide, election of Gutiérrez de Lara as Governor, and "plan" of the "Protector de la Libertad," Don Antonio López de Santa Anna.

This document is dated 1771 and is signed by the founder of Laredo, Don Tomás Sánches.

=========================================== ===========================================
E. Santa Anna and the Secession of Texas
Box V: 1830-1834, 418 documents
Box VI: 1835-1840, 481 documents
Deals with the era of Antonio López de Santa Anna and contains an extensive number of cuadernos of decrees, circulares, bandos, reports of municipal officials, correspondence between the ayuntamiento and the governor, and oficios between the military commandant of Laredo and Martín Perfecto de Cos, José Juan Sánchez, Joaquín Ramírez y Sesma, and Vicente Filisola.

F. Border Warfare: Invasion and ,"Counter-Invasion
Box VII: 1841-1845     428 documents
Contains numerous cuadernos of decrees, bandos, extensive monthly correspondence, oficios, "Gaceta del Gobierno de Tamaulipas," reports of municipal offices, and contemporary reports of border warfare.
G. The U.S. Mexican War
Box VIII: 1846-1868
95 documents
First half of the box consists of contemporary reports and accounts of incidents leading to the opening of hostilities between the United States and Mexico. Second half of the box consists of census reports, criminal cases, correspondence, and municipal office reports.


H. Laredo and Its Citizens
Box VIIIB: Miscellaneous
320 documents
This box consists primarily of documents of genealogical interest, census and school reports, probates, and a collection of manuscripts considered by Mr. Seb S. Wilcox as, "the most interesting." 

 A census of Laredo, dated April 30, 1819. The four categories include: Age, Single, Married, Widow/Widower, and the Total Number of inhabitants. There were 458 single males, 408 single females, 211 married males, 216 married females, 15 widowers, and 110 widows, for a total of 1,418.
The Spanish Archives of Laredo also contain about 581 cattle brands, trade statistics, the number of Native Americans congregated in the villa, number of houses, number of citizens armed for defense, Indian raids, and letters and documents bearing the signatures of El Marques de Croix, Fray Antonio de Bucareli y Ursua, Francisco Javier Venegas, Generals Joaquín Arredondo, Mariano Arista, and Pedro de Ampudia, Adrian Woll, Jesús Cárdenas, Vicente Filisola, and many others. There are only two documents in English, one signed by Mirabeau B. Lamar, the second President of the Republic of Texas, and William G. Crump, who was the first Speaker of the House of Representatives of Texas. Not included in the archives is the Laredo Times newspapers. The newspapers are extremely fragile and can not be used for research. They are stored in wrapping paper in chronological order from 1883 to 1926.
=========================================== ===========================================
My interest in the Spanish Archives of Laredo increased exponentially and I read everything I could find on this important topic and on any historical aspect that had to do with the history of Laredo. I do know that credit for saving and preserving the Spanish Archives of Laredo goes to Sebron (Seb) Sneed Wilcox, a court reporter for the 49th Judicial District of Texas, which comprised the counties of Dimmitt, Jim Hogg, Webb, and Zapata. The pivotal year for the discovery of the Spanish Archives of Laredo is 1934. Prior to this year, and without anybody's knowledge, these historic documents had been haphazardly stored on the floor of the dark and damp basement of the Webb County Courthouse. Some of the documents were partially submerged in water, while the majority of the folders were amidst discarded papers, old record books, and tons of trash.  Now that the courthouse was being remodeled in 1934, the work crew was instructed to clean out the basement. The task fell on Francisco Ramírez, one of the janitors. Furthermore, he was ordered to burn all useless papers. From previous experience in dealing with old records, Francisco checked these dusty documents and realizing that they might be of some importance, he notified Seb S. Wilcox. At this point, allow me to interject that after Wilcox's appointment as court recorder in 1911, he had developed an interest in the history of Laredo. And, being aware of the Spanish Archives of Bexar and Nacogdoches, he instinctively felt that the Spanish Archives of Laredo had to be stored somewhere in the courthouse. He let people around him, and including the janitors, know that he was searching for the elusive collection.
=========================================== ===========================================
After going down to the basement with Francisco, Wilcox made a cursory review of the folders and immediately obtained approval to stop the destruction of these old and filthy Spanish documents until he had carefully removed them for a more thorough inspection. With the assistance of Francisco, they took about eight hefty bundles and temporarily put them in Wilcox's office. Realizing that it was going to be a monumental task to clean all the documents, dry the ones that were wet and with mildew, assemble them in chronological order, and group them in folders according to years, Wilcox sought the assistance of his friend, Father Florencio Andres, O.M.I., a Spanish priest at San Agustín Church. From their previous conversations, Wilcox knew that the priest was interested in Laredo's history and in his parishioners' genealogical roots. Once they finished with their arduous task, they placed the historical papers in steel storage boxes that Webb County had provided. 

Two years later, Wilcox had a meeting with Thomas Sutherland, a representative of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), and an agreement was reached for this federal agency to compile an index and possibly complete a transcription of the Spanish Archives of Laredo. And, in 1940, the Historical Research Survey took over the project under the supervision of Ricardo de la Garza, a direct descendant of Tomás Sánchez. During this process, Ricardo sought the technical advice of Wilcox. The first draft of the transcription was done and consisted of 15,000 pages, but not the indexing. The bound volumes of the typed transcriptions only go to 1836, although the original documents extend to 1868. If the WPA made copies of all the documents, then several volumes of typed transcriptions were lost. 

=========================================== ===========================================

In 1959, Seb S. Wilcox passed away to his eternal reward. He was a graduate of St. Mary's University, and his wish was that the Spanish Archives of Laredo should be donated to the university. Accordingly, after his death, the Wilcox family sent the archival collection in fourteen crates. At a special ceremony held in the library of St. Mary's University in San Antonio, Texas, on Sunday morning, December 10, 1961, Mrs. Stella Marie Wilcox and her son William Wilcox officially presented the Spanish Archives of Laredo to the president of the university and to the librarian for safekeeping. Another important stipulation was that they were to be made available for historical research. The university also had them microfilmed.


By the early 1970s, I was working on my M.A. degree in history and had transferred to the History Department as a student assistant, an opportunity that I could not pass up. I said good-bye to Miss Perry and we had a tearful farewell. A few years later, before Miss Carmen Perry could finish the indexing of the Spanish Archives of Laredo, the newly established University of Texas at San Antonio offered her a lucrative job that she quickly accepted. For over a decade, the work on the Spanish Archives of Laredo lay dormant and the Special Collections Room was closed to the public. 
=========================================== ===========================================
By the early 1970s, I was working on my M.A. degree in history and had transferred to the History Department as a student assistant, an opportunity that I could not pass up. I said good-bye to Miss Perry and we had a tearful farewell. A few years later, before Miss Carmen Perry could finish the indexing of the Spanish Archives of Laredo, the newly established University of Texas at San Antonio offered her a lucrative job that she quickly accepted. For over a decade, the work on the Spanish Archives of Laredo lay dormant and the Special Collections Room was closed to the public.  In the early 1990s, Brother Robert D. Wood, S.M., with a Ph.D. in Latin American history and fluent in Spanish and knowledgeable in archival experience, volunteered to continue the work left unfinished by Miss Carmen Perry. In 1993, the St. Mary's University Press published the completion of his work, Indexes to the Laredo Archives. And, in 2004, as part of the Al Filo: Mexican American Studies Series, under the editorial leadership of Dr. Roberto R. Calderón, Brother Wood's second book was published (University of North Texas Press), Life in Laredo: A Documentary History of the Laredo Archives. 

A few years ago, Brother Wood retired and once again the Spanish Archives of Laredo are without an archivist. I had the pleasure of visiting him a couple of times when I was invited to have lunch at the Society of Mary's retirement house on the campus of St. Mary's University. Lamentably, he passed away on Tuesday, December 6, 2016. 

With best wishes and sincere appreciation for your friendship and may God's blessings be always upon you this new year and always.

Gilberto



A Tribute to Miss Carmen Perry
by J. Gilberto Quezada

A Tribute to Miss Carmen Perry

During the years that I was hired to work with Miss Perry and the Laredo Archives at St. Mary's University, she taught me many Spanish linguistic skills that I will never forget. She was my boss, my teacher, and above all, my role model. Yes, indeed, Miss Perry was a very nice lady and a scholar. 

She was born on the Fourth of July 1905 in Torreón, Mexico, to a Spanish mother and a German father. She and her two brothers were taught to speak four languages; namely, German, English, Spanish, and Catalan, a dialect of French and Spanish spoken in Cataluna. During the outbreak of the Mexican Revolution, her family fled Mexico and settled in San Antonio, Texas. Miss Perry received a B.A. degree from Our Lady of the Lake University and an M.A. degree in Spanish Literature from the University of Texas at Austin. 

While working on the Laredo Archives, she discovered the lost town records of the Spanish settlement, San José de Palafox, located north of Laredo along the Río Grande. She translated and edited the documents and publish them in a book entitled, The Impossible Dream by the Río Grande: A Documented Chronicle of the Establishment and Annihilation of San José de Palafox, published by St. Mary's University Press. On Tuesday morning, March 23, 1971, Brother Paul Novosal, S.M., Director of Libraries, gave her a book signing party that took place just outside the entrance to the Special Collections Room of the Academic Library. A big chocolate cake in the form of a presidio with the words, "San José de Palafox" in white frosting decorated the center table. I attended and had my copy inscribed, she wrote: "To Juan Gilberto Quezada, May the valor of these early settlers inspire you to do great things. 'El que quiere, puede'. " Miss Perry was 66 years old. 

Seventeen years later, on a Tuesday afternoon, November 22, 1988, after I got off work, Jo Emma and I went to visit her. The apartment was not too far from St. Mary's University. I also wanted Miss Perry to sign my copy of her new book, With Santa Anna in Texas: A Personal Narrative of the Revolution by José Enrique de la Peña, published by Texas A&M University Press. She wrote the following inscription: "For Jo Emma & Gilberto, With sincere appreciation for your interest and your contributions to Texas history." I noticed that her handwriting was shaky. After all, she was 83 years old. After our visit, we continued to keep in touch. 

Two years later, on January 18, 1990, she moved to the Incarnate Word Retirement Community, and on several occasions I went to visit her. After we walked to the nearby Luby's for lunch, we returned and took the elevator up to the thirteenth floor, Room 136G, and spent the rest of the time in her tiny room, reminiscing about our days at St. Mary's University, her two books, current events, Mexican history, and the death threats she had received in the mail and by phone when With Santa Anna in Texas was published. Some people felt that she was dishonoring the memory of Davy Crockett, a Texas hero. 

When Miss Perry translated the diary of José Enrique de la Peña into English, the demise of Davy Crockett presented a different interpretation. José Enrique de la Peña was a lieutenant colonel in the Mexican army of General Antonio López de Santa Anna at the battle of the Alamo. According to de la Peña, Davy Crockett and six other defenders were captured alive and were later executed. They were stabbed with bayonets and shot. This eyewitness account completely shattered the legend/myth that Davy Crockett died on the walls of the Alamo in hand-to-hand combat, and that he fought to the end, wielding his long rifle, Betsy, like a club.

Lamentably, on Friday, June 11, 1999, I was notified that she had passed away in the morning at the age of 93. I do miss her friendship, her knowledge, and her wisdom. She will always have a special place in my heart.

Gilberto Quezada 
jgilbertoquezada@yahoo.com
 






Texas Alliance of Land Grant Descendants (TALGD)

January 4, 2017 
TO: Mary Torres, President, Rio Grande Hispanic Genealogy Society
FROM: John Falcon, Executive Director, Texas Alliance of Land Grant Descendants (TALGD)
SUBJECT: Harlingen Visit to Speak at your January 15, 2017 Conference.

Dear Mary Torres: 

Please accept my sincerest appreciation for your invitation to speak at your conference. It will be my pleasure to visit and share information that, I believe, benefits all of us.
Your organization closely parallels our interests and I anticipate you'll garner that perspective as well. Perhaps most significant, are the political opportunities that lay ahead which are of vital importance to all Hispanics in Texas. I will speak of these in greater detail.

As our organization traversed the history of our ancestors who settled South Texas, it became evident that Texas was dreadfully unethical in their treatment. Also evident is the institutional role Texas has maintained in this iniquitous continuum. It's truly time to address that in earnest with both, the State and U.S. Governments. Although it will undoubtedly be an arduous undertaking. It is important that those of us who have the interest begin setting the foundation. It will take time but worth the effort for our next generation. Your organization is a key component in this cause. 

Again, my sincerest gratitude for your interest in TALGD. I am honored with your invitation and remain grateful. 

With Warmest Regards,
John Falcon
John Falcon

Enclosures:
- Speaking Notes 
- Bio

Presentation Notes for: Hispanic Genealogy Conference
Harlingen, Texas, Public Library, January 15, 2017

1. Mission of the Alliance of Texas Land Grant Descendants.
2. Roots of Texas Web Site and future developments.
3. Brief coverage of HB 724 Unclaimed Mineral Proceeds Commission.
4. Historical Items of Interest and Litigations.
5. Parallel Objectives of SAGA and the Alliance 
6. Open Forum.

Q&A: 

 


Sent by Juan P. Castro
956-648-3885





Texas State Historical Association Newsletter 
In this Issue:
TSHA's 121st Annual Meeting Illuminating Texas History for 120 Years
Book Bundles for National History Month FREE eBook: William B. Travis 
Workshop Opportunities for Educators 

Join us for TSHA's 121st Annual Meeting 
March 2-4, 2017 at the Hyatt Regency Houston
http://tshaonline.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=9ac611cecaa72c69cecc26cb8&id=b0ec6f4151&e=3967c4da92
History will happen in Houston at TSHA's 121st Annual Meeting on March 2–4, 2017, at the Hyatt Regency Houston Hotel in downtown Houston. In addition to 46 sessions showcasing the research of more than 150 historians, events will feature distinguished speakers and opportunities to view storied collections and venues. Throughout the meeting, the Exhibit Hall will showcase the finest new and rare books about Texas and will also display treasures in the Silent Auction. 

One of the most eagerly anticipated events, the President's Dinner on Friday, March 3rd, will honor TSHA President Stephen C. Cook. He will deliver a presentation on "The Audacious 1837 Launch of Houston at the Corner of Main Street and Texas Avenue." The text of his remarks will be published in the October issue of TSHA's Southwestern Historical Quarterly. The dinner will be held in the elegant Crystal Ballroom of the former Rice Hotel, which has its own connection to Texas history. 

Noted academic speakers will give presentations at the Women in Texas History Luncheon and the Fellows Luncheon when TSHA also will present awards for research and publication of Texas history. The President-Elect's Reception to honor Paula Mitchell Marks will be held at the Houston Public Library's stunning Julia Ideson Building. Additional receptions, events, and fun are interspersed before the meeting concludes with a tour of The Bryan Museum in Galveston.

Online registration is open through Feb. 20, 2017. We offer student and K-12 educator rates as well as single-day rates. Opt to attend every event or customize your schedule with individual event registrations. 

Register now for the Annual Meeting.
Make reservations at the Hyatt Regency Houston at the special Annual Meeting rate of $159.
View the Annual Meeting Program's Session Information.
View the Riding Line Annual Meeting edition with Session information.
Discover more about Annual Meeting Events.
See you in Houston, March 2 - 4, 2017! 


TSHA Celebrates 120 Years 
We have been illuminating Texas history since 1897 

we begin 2017, TSHA proudly celebrates 120 years of being the authority on Texas history. Each month, we will spotlight different aspects of our programs and publications to illuminate the wide variety of resources and outreach opportunities we provide. 

For January, TSHA President Stephen C. Cook tells about the extraordinary reach of our web presence as we make the rich and unique history of Texas available to all who want to learn about the Lone Star State. Every month more than 400,000 online visitors access our Digital Initiatives, which include the Handbook of Texas, the Texas Almanac, and the Southwestern Historical Quarterly. View the video.

As we celebrate the progress of the last 120 years, we look forward to spending the next 120 and beyond, bringing our state’s past into your life through an ever-shifting digital presence.

To maintain our exemplary publications and programs, and to explore new opportunities, we rely on your generosity. Help us continue to illuminate Texas history with your investment in TSHA.  Every gift matters; every dollar counts. Invest in TSHA with your gift TODAY!  For just $10 per month, you can contribute $120 to TSHA in our 120th year by making a recurring gift.

It's National Book Month . . . Get a book about Texas . . . 
Better yet, get a Bundle of Texas Books with special savings.  These are a few of our Texas favorites: 
http://tshaonline.us7.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=9ac611cecaa72c69cecc26cb8&id=5396f77996&e=3967c4da92
Texas in the Civil War Bundle (5 books)

http://tshaonline.us7.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=9ac611cecaa72c69cecc26cb8&id=be56e08d91&e=3967c4da92
Texas Independence Bundle (11 books)
Relish eleven great titles that provide insight into the Texas Revolution. The bundle includes books on battles, events, places, and people that figured in Texas Independence written by some of the state's leading historians.
$179.95 for all eleven and FREE shipping.  Get details and Buy Now.

http://tshaonline.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=9ac611cecaa72c69cecc26cb8&id=05b9b26559&e=3967c4da92
Texas Art and Photography Bundle (7 books)
Enjoy great titles highlighting a range of early Texas art and artists to contemporary photographs. Several of these books should adorn your coffee table. All of them belong in your library.  $209.95 for all seven and FREE Shipping.
Get details and Buy Now.  Check out all the great TSHA book bundles, all with significant savings. 


Where are you on the Road to the Texas Revolution?
Download your FREE eBook William B. Travis: Victory or Death

http://tshaonline.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=9ac611cecaa72c69cecc26cb8&id=9f477da735&e=3967c4da92
Whether you are new to the series, or have journeyed with us on the Road to the Texas Revolution from the start, TSHA proudly delivers to you number three in our series of seven eBooks: William B. Travis: Victory or Death. 

In addition to his well-known heroism at the Alamo, William Barret Travis: 
Arrived in Texas illegally in 1831. 
Published a newspaper in Alabama. 
Embarrassed Colonel Bradburn with a prank. 
Led an amphibious assault on the garrison at Anahuac. 

In this FREE eBook you’ll learn more about the defender of the Alamo who gave his life for the Texas Revolution, making William Barret Travis a name to remember in Texas history. We hope you enjoy this enlightening read!
Download your FREE eBook now. 


Opportunities for Educators
Exploring Texas Workshop Series
Professional Development Feb. 6 - 7, 2017 


http://tshaonline.us7.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=9ac611cecaa72c69cecc26cb8&id=41add68b57&e=3967c4da92
Next month, TSHA will partner with the Bullock Texas State History Museum and Region 13 Education Service Center in Austin for the Dicovering Texas History Conference on
Feb. 6 - 7, 2017.

The Exploring Texas Workshop Series provides timely and accessible historical content and advice from renowned scholars, respected classroom practitioners, and organizations with expertise in the fields of history, geography, economics, civics, and skill-building. Find out more about the Exploring Texas Workshop Series... 


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MIDDLE AMERICA

Winter Living on the Farm, The Learning Years 1945-1950  by Rudy Padilla 
200 years of Baton Rouge: A city that grew up around present-day downtown .
Photo: St. Charles Street, New Orleans, 1900
The cultural project about the Descendants of Canary Islanders in the US               

 


Winter Living on the Farm.  
THE LEARNING YEARS 1945 -1950.
Rudy Padilla 
opkansas@swbell.net 
 

I admired mi padre in the way he was very sure of himself and could accomplish so much. There was a row of trees that he wanted to remove so he and his compadre Jose Porras walked out to the worksite. I automatically followed without anyone asking me to. I knew they would need some water, so I had a pail of water and extra cups with me.  Mexican Americans in those days knew how to do heavy labor in Kansas, that is what they did.
============================================= =============================================

Mi padre and his compadre had both had experience driving spikes into rail road ties and using pick axes in the salt mines – then located in Hutchinson, Kansas.  They took turns using the axe while the other rested. I was amazed the power they had in driving the sharp axe into the trees.  Wood chips would fly and then they were finished. I recall that day, later while they rested they were asking me questions. Mr. Porras was obviously a very intelligent man, but because of bias against Mexicans, he was limited on where he could work. He knew that I was doing very well in school. Mi padre told anyone he knew about the A’s I would bring home on the grade cards. Mr. Porras asked me what I wanted to do when I was an adult – mi padre had never asked me that and now he was interested in what I would say. I just really loved my life then in the country.

So I answered that I was sure that I wanted to live in the country and raise cows and horses. Mi padre was pleased with my answer. Mr. Porras agreed, but I think he was hoping that I would say a teacher or a doctor.

The brothers who were available would all help when we butchered a pig. This was not easy for me, since I had been feeding the pig from a small to a now large pig. But the reality was that the meat was needed. Mi padre knew how to smoke pork and cure bacon, so he built a small shed for this purpose. Food for the winter included the canned vegetables that we prepared from the garden, chicken and pork. The last two winters there I was taught to trap for rabbits by my brother Ruben. I was not asked to do this, but I knew the help with rabbit meat was appreciated.  


Our only heat was from wood-burning stoves during the cold winters. So now we also used the big stove in the living room. My job was to bring in wood from outside and keep both stoves supplied with wood. Then about once a week I would shovel out the ashes that had accumulated inside the stoves.  I have attached the photo of a wood stove which looks like what I recall in our kitchen. 

[Editor Mimi: If you are not familiar with wood stoves, the top is a flat
heavy metal sheet with openings with metal lids, that are removed in order to feed the fire. The fire can be built under one opening. My grandmother's wood stove was all dark metal.]  
============================================= =============================================

A heavy snow overnight meant that we had no school. The isolated dirt roads that we used would not be passable, so we just stayed home like the other students. The country school that I attended had no public transportation. It was a three-mile walk – or might be lucky enough to have a family member drop us off. The school had electricity, but no running water and no gas furnace. Since I always made good grades, occasionally I was asked to see if the furnace needed more coal. I never felt less because I was Mexican American, most likely people felt that I had an alpha personality. My friends at the school were country boys like me. We liked to discuss and laugh. A few times a poor white family would attend the school only for the year. They would be thin and dress a bit different. But we always tried to make them feel welcome to the school.

I would get very sick one of those winters and miss most of the school year. My parents sent me to various doctors in the area, but could not determine what was wrong. Finally, one doctor out of desperation had me in the hospital to have my tonsils removed. The procedure went well and after three days I went home. But, I still could hardly walk and was in constant pain.

 

 Fifty-five years later a new eye doctor during a routine examination asked “what is that small spot in your left eye?” After asking me if I had ever been around chickens when I was younger and doing some research, the doctor determined that I had many years ago, suffered from Histoplasmosis. I had been infected in the lungs by spores carried from chicken droppings.  During those years, I was in the chicken coop every day, cleaning, feeding chickens or gathering eggs.

During the first few years in the winter, life was simple on Saturday nights. Some would play board games, read or sit in the kitchen to watch. That is where someone would experiment making a new dish. To us this was entertainment. You could expect a lot of laughs if the dish did not turn out well. Mi hermaño Ruben would make his famous chocolate fudge. We did not stay up late. But, that changed the last year on the farm. We would have electric service and our lives would change. We then had real electric lamps and could listen to radio programs on Saturday nights. I would be wide-eyed as I listened to the mystery programs and listening intently when Gene Autry the singing cowboy came on the air. 

 

This is when I grew to love western music. On some occasions, Ruben and I would be treated to the movies. We would be dropped off at the Rio movie theater in Bonner Springs, Kansas. Even though he was 4 yours older than me, we had a lot of likes in common. For sure we both loved horses and cowboy movies. The many World War II movies were also high on our list.

 

 

Roy Rogers also made cowboy movies then. My sisters thought that Roy Rogers was cute. I thought that was a strange thing to say – so I then preferred Gene Autry as a cowboy. Roy Rogers and Dale Evans always sang when their movies ended. The song started “Happy Trails to you – until we meet again” and ended with “Happy Trails to you - Til we meet again…” Cowboy movies then always left you in a happy mood. They always gave a person hope.  And of course, you always knew who the good guys and the bad guys were.


200 years of Baton Rouge: A city that grew up around present-day downtown .

Contributed photo from the Friends of Magnolia Mound Plantation, Inc. This is a pencil, ink and watercolor drawing by a U.S. Soldier, W. T. Kummer.  Kummer was then stationed at the U.S. Garrison in Baton Rouge. This image shows the early waterfront, interesting watercraft on the river, and the highland of then Second Street (now Lafavette Street) along the bluff which helped identified Baton Rouge for passing river travelers.

Six square blocks straddled Calle Floridana - Florida Street - 200 years ago, when the sleepy Mississippi River outpost of Baton Rouge was incorporated as a Louisiana city that grew around a downtown now back on the rise. On January 17, 1817, no traffic snarls piled up on the nonexistent Horace Wilinson Bridge over the river. The doughy smells from Schlittz & Giggles did not waft around Florida Street at lunchtime. Nor did the tinkering of construction workers signify the next hotel being built.

Only 1,463 people lived in Baton Rouge back then, compared with the 140,000 people who now pass through downtown daily. City limits stretched farther than they were settled, eastward from the Mississippi River to 22nd Street, and from Capitol Lake (then known as Garcia's Bayou) to South Boulevard.

And the roots of racial divisions that linger in modern Baton Rouge were in full force, as that population total included 266 slaves who were estimated to live in the city at the time.

Sent by Bill Carmena 

jcarm1724@gmail.com


Editor Mimi:  Recommend viewing the URL below: Series of related articles on the history Baton Rouge.
http://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/article_c3c4da04-d913-11e6-b9cf-6b1a95ba1b5d.html 






St. Charles Street, New Orleans, 1900

 

 


Cislanderus Project


The cultural project about the Descendants of Canary Islanders in the US

https://www.cislanderus.com/
      https://www.cislanderus.com/gallery/ 

Fellow Islenos,  If you have not heard, a researcher, Thenesoya Vidina Martín De la Nuez, from the Canaries is looking for families of the Islenos of Louisiana.  Her project is worldwide.  I'd like you to contact her.  She is arriving in Louisiana soon and may want to interview you.  Her addresses are: 
 tvmartin@fas.harvard.edu  or  tvidina@gmail.com   Project website is: https://www.cislanderus.com/
If you have questions, let me know.   Wade Falcon falcanary@yahoo.com 
=========================================== ===========================================

The cultural project about the Descendants of Canary Islanders in the US

Why this project? Between 1778 and 1783, around 2500 Canary Islanders traveled to what was then the Spanish owned Louisiana territory to defend the recently acquired land from the British troops. Entire families embarked on a journey towards a wetland full of marshes and at the mercy of frequent floods. Four Canary Islander settlements were established around New Orleans: Galveztown, Barataria, Valenzuela and La Concepción, later renamed Saint Bernard Parish. Of these four, only Saint Bernard still remains. While Louisiana ceased to be a Spanish colony in 1803, the Spanish language from the Canary Islands has been preserved to the present day, albeit in a reduced manner and in danger of disappearing. Throughout the last centuries the descendants of Canary Islanders have survived floods, wars, and hurricanes including Betsy (1965) and the devastating Katrina (2005), proving their ability to overcome even the worst of hardships. And, before the Canary Islanders arrived to Louisiana, 16 families arrived to San Antonio, Texas, after a one-year trip through Mexico. Their descendants are currently in San Antonio trying to keep the history of their ancestry.

The idea for this undertaking arose from our need to find answers, to complete what we could not find in the limited number of books dedicated to the history and language of this community. Today, more than three years after starting our research, Cislanderus is much more than a project, it is a voyage of discovery that will introduce us to the Canary Islanders of Louisiana in a way that has never been done before: face to face, and with the desire to look towards the future of a community which yet has much to say.

El proyecto cultural sobre los descendientes canarios de Estados Unidos

¿Por qué este proyecto? Entre 1778 y 1783 aproximadamente 2500 canarios viajaron a la entonces Luisiana española para defender el recién adquirido territorio de las tropas británicas. Familias enteras emprendieron un viaje hacia una tierra húmeda, llena de pantanos y a merced de frecuentes inundaciones. Cuatro fueron los asentamientos de los canarios alrededor de la ciudad de Nueva Orleans: Galveztown, Barataria, Valenzuela y La Concepción, más tarde renombrada como Parroquia de San Bernardo. De los cuatro, solo sobrevive el último. Si bien Luisiana dejó de ser colonia española en 1803, el español de Canarias se ha mantenido hasta nuestros días, aunque de forma cada vez más escasa y en peligro de extinción. En estos más de dos siglos, los descendientes canarios de Luisiana han sobrevivido a inundaciones, guerras, huracanes como el Betsy (1965) o el brutal Katrina (2005), demostrando así su capacidad de superación. Antes de la llegada a Luisiana, 16 familias canarias llegaron a San Antonio, Tejas, el 9 de marzo de 1731, después de un año de viaje a través de Méjico. Sus descendientes siguen intentando hacer visible la historia de sus ancestros.

La idea de este trabajo comenzó a partir de la necesidad de buscar respuestas, de completar lo que no pudimos encontrar en los escasos libros dedicados a la historia y la lengua de esta comunidad. Hoy, más de tres años después de comenzar nuestro trabajo, Cislanderus es mucho más que un proyecto, es un viaje de descubrimiento que nos presentará a los descendientes canarios de Luisiana como nunca se hizo antes: cara a cara y con el deseo de mirar hacia el futuro de una comunidad a la que aún le queda mucho por decir.

=========================================== ===========================================
What does CISLANDERUS means? The name of our project, is formed from the combination of pieces that represent the union of two cultures: CANARY + ISLANDER + US. We wanted to allude playfully to the United States acronym (U.S.), while making a reference to the plural personal pronoun “us”. Therefore, our project unites the Canary Islanders from both sides, the ones from the US, and the ones from the archipelago. 

What is next? After our first exhibition in Gran Canaria (Jun-Aug. 2016), with more than 5000 visitors, we continue working on moving the exhibition within the Canary Islands. We also plan to take it to the US. Our next trip to Louisiana will be in January 2017, where we will conduct research and make more interviews with the descendants (send us a message if you want to be part of the project). This trip will also help us in going deeper into the history of Baton Rouge area and South of New Orleans. Later on, our goal is to go back to San Antonio, Texas, to continue working with the descendants of the 16 families that arrived to the Presidio on March 9 1731. If you are interested in patron our work, let us know!
¿Qué significa CISLANDERUS? El nombre de nuestro proyecto (pronunciado Cislánderus), está formado a partir de una serie de piezas que representan la unión de dos culturas: CANARY + ISLANDER + US. Hemos querido que el nombre juegue con las siglas de Estados Unidos en inglés (U.S), pero también son el pronombre personal “us”, cuyo significado es “nosotros”. Nuestro proyecto reúne a los canarios de uno y otro lado, los de Estados Unidos y los del archipiélago. 

¿Y ahora? Después de tener nuestra primera exposición en Gran Canaria (jun-ago. 2016), con más de 5000 visitantes, seguimos trabajando en mover la exposición por las Islas Canarias y llevarla a EEUU. En enero de 2017 regresaremos a Luisiana para continuar el trabajos de campo, hacer más entrevistas a descendientes y seguir ahondando en la historia de los descendientes canarios del area de Baton Rouge y sur de New Orleans. Después de este viaje, nuestro objetivo es volver a San Antonio, Tejas, para seguir trabajando con los descendientes de las 16 familias que llegaron al Presidio el 9 de marzo de 1731. Si estás interesado en patrocinar nuestro trabajo, ponte en contacto con nosotros.
=========================================== ===========================================
Acknowledgements Dedicated to all those who helped us to get here, opening their homes and lives, thank you! Our special gratitude to Los Isleños Heritage and Cultural Society and Columbus Museum (Casa de Colón) for their support. Agradecimientos Este trabajo está dedicado a todos lo que nos han ayudado a llegar hasta aquí, abriéndonos sus casas y sus vidas, ¡gracias! Nuestro especial agradecimiento a “Los Isleños Heritage and Cultural Society” y a Casa de Colón por el apoyo prestado.
Source: Wade Falcon  falcanary@yahoo.com 
Wade did a GREAT job of photographing the Isleno Festival last weekend. ~Bill Carmena
 
=========================================== ===========================================


Thenesoya Vidina Martín De la Nuez
Harvard University PhD Candidate
Department of Romance Languages and Literatures
Cislanderus Project

Both the exhibition and the book will visit the emblematic places of this history, the places lost after the repeated scourges of the sea; we will see the faces and hear the voices of the “isleños” from Delacroix Island, from Baton Rouge and Reggio; we will delve deep into their work as fishermen and hunters, and discover the ways in which they fight on a daily basis to preserve an unprecedented historical and cultural legacy, often despite institutional oblivion and silence.

The idea for this undertaking arose from our need to find answers, to complete what we could not find in the limited number of books dedicated to the history and language of this community. Today, two years after starting our research, Cislanderus is much more than a project, it is a voyage of discovery that introduces us to the Canary Islanders of Louisiana in a way that has never been done before: face to face, and with the desire to look towards the future of a community which yet has much to say.

A project about the Canary Islander descendants 
in the United States. In collaboration with photographer Aníbal Martel Peña.

For the first time, Cislanderus gives a face to this reality, and does so through a book and and a photographic exhibition that will travel around the United States and the Canary Islands. 

If you want to know more about our work, please visit www.cislanderus.com 
Thenesoya Vidina Martín De la Nuez

Information sent by:  Bill Carmena   JCarm1724@aol.com  who writes:
Was interviewed for 3 hours day before yesterday. Was impressed with the professionalism and knowledge of Thenesoya and her husband videographer. Highly recommend you assist them. Bill 
http://scholar.harvard.edu/thenesoyamartin/cislanderus-project 



EAST COAST 

The Last Address: photo-montage series/oral history/book project by award-winning artist   
      Leslie Starobin
Now Through April 2017
Photo: The Broadwalk, Atlantic City, 1900  
Photo: A Monday washing, New York City, 1900 
 

American Sephardi Federation
Myron Habib Memorial Display Now Through April 2017


When Baghdadi Jews Baruch and Ellen Bekhor (née Cohen) succumbed to the camera’s gaze for their denaturalization pictures in 1951, they became stateless. Ellen was in her eighth month of pregnancy. Permitted to bring no more than a few kilos of belongings out of Iraq, Ellen carried their wedding picture and ketubah in her pocketbook. Laissez-Passer, Royaume D’Irak by Leslie Starobin (2016) 

The Last Address

Now Through April 2017
in ASF’s Myron Habib Memorial Display 

Center for Jewish History 
15 W 16th Street
New York, NY 10011
 
The American Sephardi Federation proudly presents excerpts from The Last Address, a multi-year, photo-montage series and oral history and book project by award-winning artist Leslie Starobin that explores the enduring texture of memory and culture in the lives of Greater Sephardic families from dispersed Jewish communities in Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Iran, and Lebanon.

Leslie Starobin is a Boston-area photographer and montage artist. Her work is in the permanent collections of many academic (Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University, Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University) and public (Jewish Museum, MoMA) museums. Starobin is the recipient of numerous grants, including from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New England Foundation of the Arts/Massachusetts Cultural Council, and the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture. Most recently, she received two Hadassah-Brandeis Institute Research Grants for this series, The Last Address.

Her exhibition in ASF’s Myron Habib Memorial Display is sponsored in part by CELTSS: The Center for Excellence in Learning, Teaching, Scholarship and Service at Framingham State University in Massachusetts, where Starobin is a Professor of Communication Arts.  Please click here for additional information and viewing hours

 

photochrome23

The Boardwalk, Atlantic City, 1900 


photochrome24

A Monday washing day, New York City, 1900 



CARIBBEAN REGION 

Borinqueneers "Year in Review"
and Message from National Chair, Frank Medina 





Borinqueneers "Year in Review" and Message from National Chair 

In this bulletin (In chronological order): 
A message from the National Chair, Borinqueneers CGM Alliance 
Borinqueneers CGM Formal Unveiling Ceremony, Washington D.C. 
Puerto Rico Borinqueneers CGM Recognition Ceremony Recognition and Ceremonies in various PR Municipalities 
U.S. Major League Soccer (Orlando City Lions Team) honors the Borinqueneers 
Fort Buchanan, PR Installation Gate Entrance Dedication to Borinqueneers 
New York Borinqueneers CGM Recognition Ceremony 
Connecticut Borinqueneers CGM Recognition Ceremony 
East Harlem, New York Borinqueneers Way Renaming Dedication Project 
Chicago Veterans Housing Development Building Dedication to 65th Infantry Regiment 
New Britain, Connecticut Borinqueneers Memorial & Park Project Moves Forward 
Naval Air Warfare Center Borinqueneers Recognition Ceremony, Orlando, FL 
Ohio Borinqueneers CGM Recognition Ceremony 
South Korea Return Trip by Borinqueneer Veterans from Puerto Rico 
Center for Puerto Rican Studies Borinqueneers Digital Archives Project 
Filipino-American WWII Veterans CGM Legislation Approval and President's Signing 
Florida Borinqueneers CGM Recognition Ceremony 


Saludos Borinqueneers Community, 

First, I wish everyone a belated Merry Christmas and for those forward deployed service-members reading this bulletin, God Bless you all in harm's way. 

This past year has been an absolute BANNER YEAR as well as historic for the Borinqueneers! We have seen how Borinqueneers Ambassadors around the nation have vigorously evangelized the Borinqueneers legacy in their communities in diverse ways. The pinnacle Congressional Gold Medal achievement has not only ignited a renewed awareness of the 65th Infantry Regiment but also has propelled an unprecedented momentum in striving to make the Borinqueneers a household name. 

As we have always done in recent years, we would like to take this opportunity to RECAP all of the major highlights which have further weaved the Regiment in the fabric of our society and gratefully recognize those organizations who played a vital role. In the spirit of educating the public on the 65th Infantry, this is a perfect chance for those of us who have not been able to stay abreast on the Borinqueneers throughout the year and catch up on the latest and greatest Regiment news from around the nation. While all events/activities commemorating the Borinqueneers are equally important, we regret that we cannot capture all of them for the sake of efficiency. 

The concerted efforts by organizations and advocates around the nation to memorialize the Borinqueneers truly demonstrate that this chapter in our nation's history will only continue to transcend within the public conscious. We wholeheartedly thank you for your tireless efforts!

Most of us are either family members, friends, or acquaintances of a Veteran(s) of the Regiment. The livelihood and societal relevance of the Borinqueneers legacy, and as a result, the contributions to the Hispanic/Latino heritage, will undoubtedly rest on our shoulders to carry on for our generations to follow. As I hold my 8-week old infant daughter in my arms, it is incumbent upon me to pass along my grandfather's military heritage as a timeless reminder that his sacrifices were not in vain.

In closing, I challenge everyone to champion (or continue to champion) the Borinqueneers history and legacy around your communities and those whom you encounter. As always, we are here to help/collaborate with you to achieve this aim. If you need specialized, tailored information resources for an education/learning environment, we'd be glad to facilitate your needs.

I am much confident that 2017 will continue to bore the Borinqueneers' story that much deeper in the American folklore and elevate its awareness to new heights!!

I encourage you to follow us on our Facebook and Twitter  channels to stay plugged-in to the most current news and events related to the Borinqueneers around the country. For those who already follow us, thanks for your continual support! Also, check out our website for cool facts, resources and historical information on the 65th Infantry Regiment! Vaya con Dios! (Godspeed!)

Honor y Fidelidad! (Honor and Fidelity!)

Saludos, 

Frank Medina
National Chair
Borinqueneers CGM Alliance

“Like” our Facebook Page:  http://www.facebook.com/BorinqueneersCGMAlliance
FOLLOW US on Twitter: https://twitter.com/CGMBorinqueneer
Visit our Website:  http://www.65thCGM.org
 
Sponsored by:
You Are Strong! Center on Veterans Health and Human Services
www.youarestrong.org
  

 

1. Borinqueneers CGM Unveiling Ceremony, Capitol Visitors Center, Washington D.C. (April 13, 2016) 

The formal unveiling of the Borinqueneers Congressional Gold Medal without question established a groundbreaking milestone in the Regiment's history. It was a breathtaking event that left us memories that will last a lifetime. The Capitol Visitors Center hall was teeming with overjoyed Borinqueneer Veterans and their families. The leaders from both chambers of Congress as well as the Secretary of the VA and the Secretary of the Army were present as well. 

Click below to watch the Washington DC Borinqueneers CGM Unveiling Ceremony video: 
Borinqueneers CGM Unveiling Ceremony Video 

Read an article from "US News & World Reports" on the ceremony: 
"Congress Honors Army's Borinqueneers with Gold Medal"

Special thanks to the Office of the Speaker of the House and other key organizations/individuals for making this event a true success. 

2. Puerto Rico CGM Recognition Ceremony Recognition and other PR Municipalities (April 27, 2016)

The actual CGM traveled to the original birthplace of the 65th Infantry Regiment at the fairgrounds of "El Castillo San Felipe del Morro". Once arrived, the CGM met full circle with its remnant battalion, 1st Battalion of the 65th Infantry Regiment, a subordinate unit of the Puerto Rican National Guard. The CGM Recognition ceremony was equally emotive and awe-inspiring as the cannons opened and closed the ceremony in epic fashion. 

Borinqueneer veterans resident of Puerto Rico who could not attend the D.C. ceremony were elated to receive their due CGM bronze replica. The Secretary of the Veteran's Administration, elected officials of Puerto Rico, and other key dignitaries were in attendance.

Click below to the watch a video news reel of the Puerto Rico Borinqueneers CGM Ceremony Recognition Video: Puerto Rico Borinqueneers CGM Ceremony Recognition Video

Read articles about the Puerto Rico Borinqueneers CGM Ceremony:
"Congress Honors Army's Borinqueneers with Gold Medal"

Presentan la Medalla de Oro de los Borinqueneers en San Juan (Includes video clip in Spanish)
Presentan la Medalla de Oro de los Borinqueneers en San Juan

US honors Puerto Ricans who fought, died in segregated unit
US honors Puerto Ricans who fought, died in segregated unit

Follow on CGM Ceremonies also took place in the municipalities of Humacao, Cayey, Juana Diaz, San Juan and Mayaguez. Puerto Rico Borinqueneers CGM Ceremony Recognition Video

Special thanks to the Puerto Rican National Guard, the Association of the 65th Infantry Regiment, Puerto Rico's Veterans Advocate Office, and other key organizations/individuals for making this event a success. 



3. Major League Soccer (Orlando City Lions Team) for honors the Borinqueneers (May 25, 2016)

Orlando City Lions Major League Soccer (MLS) Team honors the Borinqueneers on their Military Appreciation Night. Click below article to read more about the event:
Orlando City to host Military Appreciation Day on Wednesday
Special thanks to the Borinqueneers CGM Ceremony Committee and key organizations/individuals for making this event a success. 

4. Fort Buchanan, PR Installation Gate Entrance Dedication to Borinqueneers (June 14, 2016)

Fort Buchanan made history on June 14, 2016 as the garrison honored the heritage of Puerto Rican Soldiers who bravely served our nation by dedicating Gate 902 to the illustrious unit of the 65th Infantry Regiment, The “Borinqueneers”.

Click below article to read more about the event (Page 8):
Fort Buchanan dedicates gate to 65th Infantry Regiment The “Borinqueneers”
Special thanks to the Association of the 65th Infantry Regiment, Fort Buchanan Garrison Command, the 1st Mission Support Command and other key organizations/individuals who made this event a success. 


5. New York Borinqueneers CGM Recognition Ceremony (July 17, 2016)

Borinqueneers Veterans residing in New York and outlying states received their due CGM bronze replica. Click below to the watch New York video:  New York Borinqueneers CGM Recognition Ceremony (July 17, 2016)
Special thanks to El Pozo Productions, Center for Puerto Rican Studies, Borinqueneers CGM Ceremony Committee, Acaia Network Group and other key organizations/individuals who made this event a success. 

 

 

6. Connecticut Borinqueneers CGM Recognition Ceremony (July 30, 2016)

Borinqueneers Veterans residing in Connecticut received their due CGM bronze replica. Senator Richard Blumenthal (Borinqueneers CGM Senate Bill Chief Sponsor) was on hand as the keynote speaker along with other Connecticut elected officials and dignitaries. 

Click below article to read more about the event:
Aging Puerto Rican Veterans Honored As Heroes In Hartford

Special thanks to the Hispanic American Veterans of Connecticut, the regional office of Senator Richard Blumenthal, Borinqueneers CGM Ceremony Committee and other key organizations/individuals who made this event a success. 

7. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio Approves Borinqueneers Way in East Harlem, Aug 3, 2016

On August 3rd, 2016 New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio signed the legislation approving the naming of East Harlem's 102nd Street and Lexington Avenue "El Barrio" neighborhood as "Borinqueneers Way." This is a major achievement as "El Barrio" (meaning "The Neighborhood" in English and nestled in Manhattan's upper-east side) is the cradle of the Puerto Rican migration movement of the 1940's & 1950's and a major Puerto Rican cultural staple. 

Click below article to read more about the event: 
NYC Mayor de Blasio Approves Borinqueneers Way

Special thanks to the East Harlem Borinqueneers Honoring Committee and other key organizations/individuals who made this event a success. 

 

8. Chicago Veterans Housing Development Building Dedication to 65th Infantry Regiment (August 9, 2016)

Chicago made history by dedicating the first building structure in the nation in honor of the 65th Infantry Regiment. The 65th Infantry Regiment "Borinqueneers" Veterans Housing building will permanently serve as rental housing for veterans living on the Northwest Side of Chicago. 

Click below article to read more about the event:

Humboldt Park [Chicago] Affordable Development A New Home For Veterans
Special thanks to all of those organizations/individuals who made this event a success. 

 


9.
New Britain, Connecticut's Borinqueneers Memorial & Park Receives State Grant and Progresses (August 18, 2016)

New Britain, Connecticut is well on its way to creating the biggest monument & park in the continental U.S. commemorating the service and sacrifices of the 65th Infantry Regiment, the Borinqueneers. 

Click below article to read more about the event: 
New Britain ‘Borinqueneers’ Park Clears Yet Another Hurdle

Special thanks to the 65th Infantry Historical Society, elected officials in New Britain, the town of New Britain and other key organizations/individuals who are continually making this project a success. 



10. Naval Air Warfare Center Borinqueneers Recognition Ceremony, Orlando, FL (September 15, 2016)

The Naval Air Warfare Center-Training Systems Division in Orlando, FL, kicked-off their Hispanic Heritage Month by hosting a Borinqueneers presentation and recognition to their workforce. 
The leadership of the organization warmly received the Borinqueneer veterans/family members and personally provided them a tour of the naval facility.

Click below to watch the Naval Air Warfare Center Borinqueneers Presentation video: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OL-A23hWR-A&feature=youtu.be 

Click article to read more about the event: Tribute to "Borinqueneers" to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month

Special thanks to the Borinqueneers CGM Alliance and other key organizations/individuals for making this event a success. 


11. Ohio Borinqueneers CGM Recognition Ceremony (September 18, 2016)

The ACTUAL Borinqueneeers Congressional Gold Medal traveled to Lorain,Ohio as the Borinqueneers Veterans residing in Ohio received their due CGM bronze replica. Congressional Representative Marcy Kaptur was on hand as the keynote speaker along with other Ohio elected officials and dignitaries. 

Click below article to read more about the event:
Lorain's 'Borinqueneers,' Puerto Rican segregated Army unit, honored with Congressional Medal


Click below to watch a video clip summarizing the Ohio Borinqueneers CGM Recognition Ceremony: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pheli3utFy8 

Special thanks to the Lorain Arts Council and other key organizations/individuals who made this event a success. 

12. Borinqueneer Veterans from Return to South Korea (September 18, 2016)

17 x Borinqueneer Veterans from Puerto Rico returned to South Korea and transcended back in time when they deployed there to fight in the Korean War. They relived bittersweet moments as they toured several key military sites and locations during their Korean War service. The South Korean government and various South Korean Veterans agencies and organizations showed an outpouring of gratitude for the 65th Infantry Regiment's service through a variety of artistical, musical performances and ceremonial tributes. 

Click below to watch the Noticias 24/7 WIPR video of the Borinqueneers' journey back to South Korea: 
Boricuas: Héroes en Corea

Click below article to read more about the event:
Reencuentro de Borinqueneers con Corea del Sur

Special thanks to the Korean American Association of Puerto Rico, the 65th Infantry Regiment Association, and other key organizations/individuals for making this event a success. 

13. Center for Puerto Rican Studies: Puerto Rican Veteran Digital Archives Project (November 11, 2016)

The Center for Puerto Rican Studies (CPRS) has authored a compendium of articles which chronicle the participation of Puerto Rican veterans throughout the history of Puerto Rico and the nation's military campaigns. Undoubtedly, the 65th Infantry Regiment is appropriately and comprehensively covered in this digital archive for the public to learn more about its origins and history. 

Additionally, CPRS has produced a video reel briefly narrating the Borinqueneers' history and the CGM achievement. I encourage you to circulate these resources among your channels. 

Click below to learn more about the digital archives about the Borinqueneers: 
The Puerto Rican Experience in the U.S. Military: A Century of Unheralded Service

Click below to watch the Center for Puerto Rican Studies Borinqueneers video reel: 
Puerto Rican Voices: Borinqueneers (Season 3 Episode 7 from Center for Puerto Rican Studies)

14. President Signs Filipino-American WWII Veterans CGM Legislation (December 14, 2016) 
Congratulations to the Filipino-American Veterans of WWII for their Congressional Gold Medal achievement! On December 14, 2016, President Obama signed the CGM legislation. 

We applaud the Filipino Veterans Recognition and Education Project for spearheading this great initiative and all of those organizations/individuals around the nation who contributed in making history for this extraordinary group of heroes and thus ensuring their sacrifices did not go unnoticed. A hearty salute to all of the Filipino-American WWII veterans for their extraordinary service to the nation.

Click below article to read more about the event:
President Obama Signs Bill Granting Recognition to Filipino World War II Veterans

  

         
15. Florida Borinqueneers CGM Recognition Ceremony (December 18, 2016)

Borinqueneers Veterans residing in Florida received their due CGM bronze replica. The Adjutant General for the Puerto Rico National Guard, Major General Marta Carcana, delivered the keynote address. 

Click to watch the Florida Borinqueneers CGM Ceremony video:  https://vimeo.com/196755660 

Special thanks to the City of Kissimmee, the Borinqueneers CGM Ceremony Committee, Puerto Rico National Guard, and other key organizations/individuals for making this event a success. 

Copyright © 2016 Borinqueneers CGM Alliance
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AFRICAN-AMERICAN

$7.75 million grant program to Rosenwald Schools
 


$7.75 million grant program
ROSENWALD SCHOOLS ENEWS | January, 2017

Rosenwald Schools Mapping Project Receives National Park Service African American Civil Rights Grant

============================================= =============================================
The National Trust for Historic Preservation received a $50,000 federal grant through the National Park Service African American Civil Rights Grant Program for the Rosenwald Schools Mapping Project. The funded project will enhance documentation and interpretation of extant Rosenwald Schools and the stories they tell. Using story maps, combining spatial information with text and audiovisuals will promote greater understanding of the schools' past and present. 

In 2016 Congress appropriated funds through the historic preservation fund for the $7.75 million grant program in support of historic preservation of sites associated with the civil rights movement and stories of the African American experience. 39 projects were funded in over 20 states. 


"Through the African American Civil Rights Grant Program, we're helping our public and private partners tell unique and powerful stories of the African American struggle for equality in the 20th Century," National Park Service Acting Director Michael Reynolds said. 

©2016 National Trust for Historic Preservation 
2600 Virginia Avenue NW, Suite 1100, 
Washington, DC 20037
202.588.6000 | 800.315.6847 | 202.588.6085 (fax) 
Forum.SavingPlaces.org 


 http://my.preservationnation.org/site/R?i=2qS2Sz7ezc-51bZKeW3VR
ghttp://my.preservationnation.org/site/R?i=4uyhp09j0HZaAjL24PqonA
 

INDIGENOUS

Árbol genealógico de un descendientes de Moctezuma
Photo: Navaho Woman Weaving a Blanket, 1902
Photo: Cliff Palace, Mesa Verde, Colorado, 1904

 


ÁRBOL GENEALÓGICO DE UN DESCENDIENTE DE MOCTEZUMA

Árbol genealógico de los descendientes de Moctezuma, el huey tlatoani mexica derrotado por Hernán Cortés. Sigue la línea de su hija Tecuichpo Ixcaxochitzin, rebautizada como Isabel, que había estado casada con los dos sucesores de su padre: su tío Cuitláhuac y el que sería último tlatoani, Cuauthémoc.
A continuación tuvo un hijo con Cortés y volvió a casarse, esta vez con españoles: primero con Alonso de Grado, luego con Pedro Gallego de Andrade (con el que tuvo un hijo) y finalmente con Juan 
Cano de Saavedra (con quien tuvo cinco vástagos).

El esquema genealógico fue presentado en el correspondiente expediente por don Pedro de Toledo Moctezuma para solicitar un hábito, en atención a haber renunciado a lo que le pertenecía como heredero de Moctezuma. La fecha: entre el 5 de diciembre de 1599 y el 21 de marzo de 1600.
Jorge Álvarez


Documento está en PARES (Portal de Archivos Españoles en Red)
Encontrado en la pagina de Facebook de "Hispania: Nuestra Historia"

Encontrado por Dr. C. Campos y Escalante   campce@gmail.com   


Navaho Woman Weaving a Blanket, 1902

 

g


Cliff Palace, Mesa Verde, Colorado, from the Ruins, 1904. Cliff Palace is the largest cliff dwelling in North America. The structure built by the Ancestral Puebloans is located in Mesa Verde National Park in their former homeland region. More info here.



SEPHARDIC

Latinos along border discover Sephardic Jewish heritage, by Mercedes Olivera
Narratives from the Sephardic Atlantic by  Dr. Ronnie Perelis
Europe's Jihad against Israel 
Spanish Jewish Names Coming from Jewish Persons



Latinos along border discover Sephardic Jewish heritage
by Mercedes Olivera, Community Columnist, Dallas News

The Spanish spoken along the border these days may be slightly different from the Spanish you'd find in Mexico City or in Dallas-Fort Worth.  And there would be a reason for that: its Ladino influence. That's the language spoken by Sephardic Jews who left Spain after 1492, the year they were officially expelled by the Catholic kings there.

That's the conclusion of Dr. Peter Tarlow, a rabbi and professor at Texas A&M University and the chairman of the Texas Holocaust and Genocide Commission. He's also the director of the Center for Latino-Jewish Relations and Crypto-Jewish Studies.

He presented his research at a seminar on the crypto-Jewish experience at the University of Texas at Dallas Ackerman Center for Holocaust Studies.

In the 16th century, most of the Spanish colonists who arrived after the Spanish conquest of the area known today as Mexico settled in or around Mexico City.  But others had a different idea.

They were a little rougher, a little less educated, Tarlow said. And they wanted to hide their Jewish heritage from the surrounding community. Many were sailors who were trying to escape the inquisition in Spain.
Many of them came to Texas. It was viewed as a new frontier to Spanish colonists.

"The people who were doing well, they stayed in Mexico City," Tarlow said. "The people who were afraid or seen as second class — as a minority among minorities — who were seen as having sangre sucia [impure blood], they tended to go north to the frontier."  They had to convert or die if they stayed in Spain.

"Their attitude was, 'I'm a bad Jew. I'll be a bad Catholic.'" Tarlow said. "They went with the hope that nobody else would bother them."

And they settled along the area now known as the Texas-Mexico border and farther south.

By the 1800s, one could say there were three cultures thriving in this area, known as the Tejas-Coahuila region, Tarlow said.

There was the culture north of San Antonio that was English-speaking and Anglo-dominated. And if you went farther south to Monterrey, you'd hear Spanish.

"But if you're 100 miles either side of the border, that's Ladino," Tarlow said. He estimates that 3 million people who live in South Texas and along the Rio Grande Valley today have crypto-Jewish blood.
For Xico R. García, a Southlake doctor who was born in Corpus Christi, finding out about his Jewish heritage enthralled him. It just felt right.

"I had grown up with Jewish people in Mexico City" and attended bar mitzvahs and saw the touching of the prayer shawls, he said.

He booked a flight to Israel in 2014 and was in awe when he got there.  "When I touched the Wailing Wall, it brought tears to my eyes," García said. "I felt an incredible energy there."

By then, he had explored his DNA heritage at FamilyTreeDNA.com and found he had Jewish blood.

Former WFAA-TV (Channel 8) news anchor Gloria Campos was looking to solve a family mystery as to where her great-great-grandfather had come from.

She ended up uncovering her Jewish heritage. "I had no clue about the Sephardic connection in the New World," she said. "I'm proud of my heritage, both European and Native American. The sense of pride is therefore twofold that my ancestors, native and Jew, still survive in me and in thousands like me."
 


13 January 2017

============================================= =============================================

Narratives from the Sephardic Atlantic 
by  Dr. Ronnie Perelis

In memory of Francis Salvador, a Sephardi immigrant to Charleston, South Carolina, who, on 11 January 1775, was the first Jew elected to public office in the Americas and became known as the "Southern Paul Revere" for warning his fellow Patriots of the approaching British fleet. 

Dr. Ronnie Perelis is a professor of Sephardic studies at Yeshiva University and a self-professed: “total Ashkenazi… who loves Sephardic history and culture.” Perelis’ love is on display in his book, Narratives from the Sephardic Atlantic: Blood and Faith, an exploration of three remarkable, “first-person accounts of life in the 15th and 16th centuries,” each of which could be made into a movie: “I feel I’ve been so lucky… So many people who write books get so sick of their material by the end. I still find the stories powerful and eye-opening.” 

 


The autobiographical manuscripts of Luis de Carvajal the Younger, circa 1595, with devotional manuscripts  (Photo courtesy of the Government of Mexico/The Times of Israel) 
Comments By Larry Yudelson, "The New Jersey Jewish Standard"
 Source: The Sephardi World Weekly

 



 

 

  • Resolution 2334 was as sickening a surrender to the Arab-Muslim jihad in the name of "peace," as was the surrender of UK Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain to Adolf Hitler at Munich in September 1938.

  • The UN before 1967 did not refer to the West Bank and Gaza as "occupied" territories when they were "occupied" by Egypt and Jordan after the 1948-49 war, which the Arab states launched against Israel. The Arab states then were the "occupiers" of parts of Palestine west of Jordan until 1967, and rejected any notion of Jews having a historic connection with Palestine, which they claimed was an integral part of Arab lands.

  • From the time of the Balfour Declaration and the League's Mandate for Palestine until the UN Resolution 181 (1947), reference to Palestine meant land with historic connection to the Jewish people. It was on this basis that the Jews' (Zionist) claim to reconstitute their national home was given legal recognition by the League, which the UN, as its successor, was legally bound to protect.

  • From the Arab perspective of religion and politics there never was a "Palestinian" people, or nation, distinct and separate from Arabs as a people or nation. The jihad called by the Mufti Haj Amin el-Husseini against Jews in Palestine after 1921 was in the name of "Arabs" and Islam, and it has so remained since. According to the Hamas charter, "the land of Palestine is an Islamic Waqf [Trust] upon all Muslim generations till the day of Resurrection."

  • Jerusalem, its principal city, was built by King David, a Jew, some ten centuries earlier.

  • For the past nine decades and more, however, Arabs and Muslims, with 56 Muslim states in the OIC, have been waging jihad to destroy the one and only state of the Jews. And Christendom, as if oblivious of its own shameful past history of anti-Semitism, has even more shamefully supported the falsification of history. 

UN Security Council Resolution 2334, adopted as a result of the United States abstention, confirmed the historic bigotry against Jews and Israel entrenched within the United Nations, just as it was within its predecessor, the League of Nations. As previously indicated, Arab and Muslim states could not move a single anti-Israel resolution in the Security Council without the complicity of the Western powers, representing the historically Christian nations.

The collusion of the Western powers and the Islamic countries against Jews and Israel is now ostentatious, without any subterfuge. Resolution 2334 was as sickening a surrender to the Arab-Muslim jihad in the name of "peace," as was the surrender of UK Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain to the Adolf Hitler at Munich in September 1938. The gathering in Paris on January 15, at the invitation of French President François Hollande, was further evidence of appeasing the Arab-Muslim world's jihad against Israel. The timing of the Paris gathering – five days short of the 75th anniversary of the notorious Wannsee Conference of 20 January 1942, held in the suburbs of Berlin, in which top-ranking Nazi officials finalized the preparation for the "Final solution to the Jewish problem" in Europe – could not have been more overtly insulting to Israel. 
=========================================== ===========================================
Members of the European Union plotted shafting the Jewish state in accordance with the wishes of their Arab and Muslim friends of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) – 56 Muslim states, plus "Palestine," and the biggest bloc at the UN.

"Fake news" and writing "fake" history have long been the modus operandi of tyrants; nothing new. The "big lie," repeatedly broadcast so that people might succumb to believing it, was an art that Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's minister for propaganda, practiced to devastating results. The most notorious Arab ally of Hitler, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Mohammed Amin al-Husseini, as an admiring student of Goebbels, passed on the art of "fake" history and "big lie" to his allies. It is grotesque and criminal that the EU and the UN, together in "ganging up," insist that Israel comply with their resolutions – Israeli withdrawal to pre-June 1967 boundaries – without having shown any attempt to have the "Palestinians" of the so-called "occupied territories" end their jihadi terrorism.

It was not an oversight in the Security Council Resolution 242 of November 22, 1967 that there was no mention of "Palestinian" people, or "Palestinian Arabs," or "Palestinians." In the decades after the passage of Res. 242, there was a systematic push by the OIC states in the UN, supported by the EU and its predecessor, the European Community (EC), to refer to disputed territories taken by Israel in a defensive war initiated by Egypt, Syria, and Jordan as "occupied" territories. The Egyptians had closed the Strait of Tiran at the mouth of the Red Sea, an act that was a casus belli, legal cause for war. The UN, before 1967, did not refer to the West Bank and Gaza as "occupied" territories when they were "occupied" by Egypt and Jordan after the 1948-49 war, which the Arab states launched against Israel. The Arab states then were the "occupiers" of parts of Palestine west of Jordan until 1967, and rejected any notion of Jews having a historic connection with Palestine, which they claimed was an integral part of Arab lands.
=========================================== ===========================================
The entire jihad of Mufti Haj Amin el-Husseini, and since, is based on the argument that Jews have no historic rights. From the Arab perspective of religion and politics, there never was a "Palestinian" people, or nation, distinct and separate from Arabs as a people or nation. The jihad called by Husseini against Jews in Palestine after 1921 was in the name of "Arabs" and Islam, and it has so remained since. According to the Hamas charter, "the land of Palestine is an Islamic Waqf [Trust] upon all Muslim generations till the day of Resurrection" (Article 11). Hence, that there ever had been a "Palestinian people" was a "big lie," pushed by Arab states after 1967, and that the Western nations unquestioningly swallowed.
=========================================== ===========================================
"Palaestina" – in a still earlier effort to strip the area of its Jewish roots, this time by the ancient Romans – was the name the Emperor Hadrian gave to territory on both sides of the River Jordan – Judea and Samaria – after crushing the Jews in the Bar Kokhba Rebellion in 135 CE. Jerusalem, its principal city, was built by King David, a Jew, some ten centuries earlier. In the seventh century CE, Arabs seized "Palestine" from the Christian Byzantine Empire and it became part of the Arab, later Ottoman Empire.
The Crusaders conquered Jerusalem in 1099 during the First Crusade, and subsequently the surrounding area, to establish the Kingdom of Jerusalem in the twelfth century. Arab armies evicted the Crusaders from Palestine at the end of the thirteenth century. For the next six centuries, in the name of Islam Arabs, then Turks under the Ottoman Empire, ruled over Palestine until 1917, when the British Expeditionary Forces arrived during World War I.
The defeat of the Ottoman Empire left its former Arab territories between Egypt and the Persian Gulf, including Palestine, under the control of the victorious Allied Powers, Britain and France. In the Balfour Declaration of 2 November 1917, the British government committed itself to "the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people," while noting that this should not "prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities" therein.
=========================================== ===========================================
At the San Remo Conference of April 1920, the Allied Powers agreed that Britain, under the authority of the League of Nations, would be the Mandatory Power over Palestine. The League officially handed the Mandate for Palestine to Britain as a trust in London on 24 July 1922. The Balfour Declaration was incorporated into the Palestine Mandate; the twenty-eight articles of the Mandate stipulated how Palestine would be governed until, as everyone understood, the Jews were capable of "reconstituting their [Jewish] national home" – meaning the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine. There was no mention of a "Palestinian" people in the Balfour Declaration or in the Palestine Mandate, since speaking about Palestine primarily meant everyone there. Everyone born there at the time – Jews, Muslims and Christians – were Palestinians; that was what was stamped on everyone's passport. From the time of the Balfour Declaration and the League's Mandate for Palestine until the UN Resolution 181 (1947), reference to "Palestine" meant land with a historic connection to the Jewish people. 

It was on this basis that the Jews' (Zionist) claim to reconstitute their national home was given legal recognition by the League, which the UN, as its successor, was legally bound to protect. Britain's record as the Mandatory Power in Palestine between the two world wars was nothing short of shameful. British administrators of the Colonial Office, sent to Palestine, devised policies limiting Jewish immigration and favoring Arabs, as the first of a series of decisions that undermined the primary objective solemnly pledged in the Balfour Declaration and incorporated into the Mandate.
=========================================== ===========================================
The subversion began with Sir Herbert Samuel, an English Jew, appointed the High Commissioner for Palestine in 1920, after the San Remo Conference. As the author William B. Ziff, documents in The Rape of Palestine – published in 1938 to the consternation of the British – Britain's "stiffing" of Jews under the specious policy of treating the demands of both Jews and Arabs "equally" was in effect deliberately prejudicial against Jews. The British historian of the Middle East, Elie Kedourie, born in Baghdad, Iraq, also documented inThe Chatham House Version (1970), how Samuel's policy, designed to conciliate Arabs, increasingly hurt Jews. Similarly, Pierre Van Paassen, a Dutch-American Unitarian minister, documented in The Forgotten Ally, (1943), the "stiffing" of Jews in Europe by the Western nations, and especially Britain as the Mandatory power in Palestine. Britain's perfidy over Palestine took root with the election in 1921 of a known felon, Haj Mohammed Amin al-Husseini, a younger brother of the deceased Mufti (religious head) and known to be a rabble-rouser, as the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem. Husseini, despite the notoriety surrounding him, was the preferred candidate of Samuel for the position. The Grand Mufti, when World War II began, enthusiastically embraced the Third Reich, Hitler and his "Final Solution" for the Jews, and found his way to Nazi Berlin. The poisonousness of Samuel's choice of Amin al-Husseini as the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, however, was exceeded by his role in creating the Emirate of Transjordan (present-day Kingdom of Jordan) at the expense of the Palestine Mandate. This was done at the behest of the Colonial Office under Winston Churchill, reputedly the most ardent English friend and supporter of Zionists, to appease Arabs.
=========================================== ===========================================
In 1922, the chunk of Palestine east of the River Jordan, amounting to about two-thirds of the Mandated territory, was sliced off and gifted to Abdullah, son of Sharif Hussein of Hejaz, under whose name the flag of the 1916 "Arab Revolt" against Ottoman rule was raised. After the 1922 partition of Palestine, which gave most of the land promised to the Jews to Transjordan, the substantially reduced Mandated territory remained only west of the River Jordan. Transjordan, as an Arab state, became closed to Jewish immigration. Consequently, the policy of allowing Jewish immigration, according to the formula of "absorptive capacity" adopted during Samuel's tenure in Palestine, turned increasingly restrictive. Arab opposition, with incitement to violence against Jews by the Mufti and his supporters, escalated, and Britain's appeasement of the Arabs became routine. The sordid legacy of Britain, as the Mandatory authority in Palestine, was the restriction of Jewish immigration from Europe when it turned out to be most urgently needed. As the desperation of European Jewry mounted after Hitler came to power in Germany in 1933, the response of the Western powers was completely to deny entrance to Jewish refugees who had started fleeing the Nazis. Finally, a meeting of the Western nations to consider the Jewish plight was called at the initiative of U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt. Thirty-eight countries attended this meeting in July 1938, known as the Evian Conference, held in France. The Evian Conference was doomed even before it convened. Among the countries attending, not one – not even Canada, Argentina or Australia, with vast open spaces – was prepared to accept Jewish refugees from Austria and Germany. Even worse, the United States and Britain refused to open their doors to Jewish refugees from Hitler, while at the same time Britain also prohibited Jews from entering Palestine. The Evian Conference was the last gasp of Western powers to lend assistance to a people threatened with extinction by their enemies. The spectacle of the Evian Conference as a charade, according to the historian Robert Wistrich, could only have firmed the resolve of Hitler to proceed with his plans for the "Final Solution." In his book, Hitler and the Holocaust, Wistrich wrote:

"If Nazi Germany could no longer expect to export, sell, or expel its Jews to an indifferent world that plainly did not want them, then perhaps they would have to do something even more drastic."

=========================================== ===========================================
After the defeat of the Nazis, and after their crimes against Jews were no longer disputed or hidden, the Western powers, through the UN, could have established Israel, as justice demanded, in what was left of the Palestine Mandate on the entire territory west of the River Jordan. But the subsequent history of Palestine, approached by the Western powers with a second partition under the UN resolution of November 1947, turned out predictably as sordid as that of the Mandate under Britain's supervision during the period 1922-48. The Arab states, in failing to achieve their objective of defeating Israel during the 1948-67 period, adopted the unconventional means of jihadi terrorism backed by the repeated broadcast of the "big lie" that the Western nations, or Christendom, willfully accepted. The "big lie" is that the "Palestinians," as a people under a supposed "occupation" by Israel – to which the Arabs hadagreed in the Oslo II Accord (section: Land) – deserve a state of their own.

The state for the "Palestinian" people (Muslims and Christians) in two-thirds of Palestine was created arbitrarily by Britain in creating Transjordan in 1922. The "two-state" solution in Palestine therefore has been in existence for the past ninety-five years. For the past nine decades and more, however, Arabs and Muslims, with 56 Muslim states in the OIC, have been waging jihad to destroy the one and only state of the Jews. And Christendom, as if oblivious of its own shameful past history of anti-Semitism, has even more shamefully supported the falsification of history. The first time it was done by UNESCO, in calling ancient Biblical sites (including Jerusalem) Islamic, when Islam did not even exist at the time. Now, with UN Security Council Resolution 2334, the UN, with the enthusiastic manipulations of U.S. President Barack Obama and the backing of most European leaders, is complicit in this jihad against Israel.



SPANISH
FAMILY NAMES COMING FROM JEWISH PERSONS

Ala, Abadia, Abanillo, Abarim, Abed, Alcazar, Alcariiz, Aleman, Baltasar, Barba, Barcelo,Barcelona, Baro, Barrachina, Barrionuevo, Berenguer, Belluqa, Caballero, Cabeza, Cabezudo, Cabra, Caceres, Cadiz, Caldero, Campo, Canete, Carrillo, Cazorla, Chaves, Chico, Chavariz, Chelva, Chapetel, Colombo, Correa, Dalmau, Darmon, Daroca, 'David, Davila, Delgado, Diez, Domenech, Donlope, Dormido, Duarte, Elias, Elisa, Elvira, Enero, Enriquez, Escalera, Escobar, Escriba, Espiritu Santo, Espinosa, Espino, Fabib, Fadol, Fajardo, Farache, Faral, Faras, Farias, Faro, Fernandes, Ferrando, Ferrer, Ferrera, Fierro, Fuertes.J Fuster, Gabirol, Galaf, Galiana, Gallego, Gallo, Galvez, Gaona, Garces, Garcia, Garcia de Moros, Garro, Gato, Gerena, Gilabert, Gil, Haro, Hasid, Hassan, Hascan, Henriques, Herrero, Herrera, Hervas, Hierro, Hospital, Hoz, Illesas. Iniesta, Ismail, Izquierdo, Jara, Jaime, Jordan, Julia, Kahn, Kayffman, Kesselman; Kohan, Krispin, La Torre, LacaHes, taparda, Laparra, Lara, laredo, Lauria, Leo, Lerin, Levi, Leyba, Macanas, Macia, Machado, Marques, Mayo, Mazana, Mazin, Medina, Meir, Melero, Nadal, Najara,
Narvaez, Navarro, Natanel, Negrin, Nieto, Noe, Obadia, Obrador, Olivera, Oliveros,
Olivos, Olmos, Orduna, Orella, Orgaz, Ortega, Osorio, Pacheco, Padre, Padresanto,
Padron,
Palache, Palma, Pardo, Paredes, Pujol, Pulgar, Querido, Quersi, Quiros,
Rabatoso, Ramirez
, Ramos, Ravel, Rebasa, Redo, Reina, Rossel, Rosales, Ros,
Saavedra, Sabina, Sagarra, Salami, Salgado, Salom, Sanchez, Sanchez de Toledo,
Sanchez de Ocana, Sastre, Tabora, Talavera, Tamarit, Tarazona, Tejedor, Terrasa,
Thomas, Totedo, Obeda, Ulloa, Urrea, Usua, Usillo, Vaamonde, Valderrama, Valencia,
Valera, Valeriola, Valero, Vall, Valls, Vaquero, Zaragoza, Zarco, Zayat, Zorrila, etc. etc ..

NOTE: Free consultation regarding the origin of Spanish last names believed to be of Jewish origin. Maximum value of 30 dollars per consultation about origin and meaning of the surname. -Help about heraldry through  photocopies.Check out his web page at http://www.semiticroots.com/index_esp.html.      



ARCHAEOLOGY

Una navaja multiusos romana de hace 1800 años
Wreck of 16th-Century Spanish Ship Found Off Florida Coast by Stephanie Pappas




Una navaja multiusos romana de hace 1800 años
ARQUEOLOGÍA, Publicado hace 2 años - Guillermo Carvajal 

=========================================== ===========================================
Es una creencia extendida que fueron los suizos quienes inventaron la navaja multiusos. Pero nada más lejos de la realidad. La prueba es una pieza romana que se expone en el Museo Fitzwilliam de Cambridge (Reino Unido), y que además se puede ver online en su web oficial, que además es la más visitada.

El diseño incluye una cuchara, tenedor, espátula, punzón y limpiador de uñas, y está realizada en plata. Por ello se cree que tuvo que ser un objeto de lujo en la Antigüedad, probablemente posesión de una persona acaudalada que viajase frecuentemente. Por ejemplo un mando del ejército o un historiador.

La hoja del cuchillo está completamente oxidada, pero los otros utensilios tienen las bisagras en buen estado. No es una pieza habitual. Si que se han encontrado pequeños cuchillos y cucharas de bronce de época romana, diseñados para ser llevados o transportados, pero un artilugio con tantos elementos combinados es inusual.
Aparte de este de Cambridge solo existen unas pocas piezas más similares, una en una colección privada de Suiza, y otras halladas en una tumba de Bulgaria y en el norte de Italia.

El uso que debió tener hace 2000 años está claro para algunos de los elementos, pero en lo que respecta a otros solo cabe especulación. Probablemente se utilizaba para abrir nueces o extaer la carne del interior de cangrejos, caracoles y otros crustáceos.

En cuanto a la época en que se fabricó, los expertos la datan entre el año 201 y el 300 d.C. Por cierto que se pueden comprar reproducciones online en Armillum, a un precio de unos 60 euros.


Enviado por: Dr. C. Campos y Escalante campce@gmail.com 

http://www.labrujulaverde.com/2014/11/una-navaja-multiusos-romana-de-hace-1800-anos 




Wreck of 16th-Century Spanish Ship Found Off Florida Coast
by Stephanie Pappas, Live Science Contributor |  January 13, 2017 
The third of six sunken Spanish ships that were lost in a hurricane in 1559 has been discovered off the coast of Pensacola, Florida. In the summer of 2016, the wreck of the ship, dubbed the Emanuel Point III, was found resting under the sand 7 feet (2 meters) below the ocean surface in Pensacola Bay.

"The shipwrecks themselves are giving us insights into these amazing machines they were developing for these voyages that were never really happening before," marine archaeologist Greg Cook, of the University of West Florida, told Live Science. [Images: See the Lost Luna Shipwreck and Artifacts]

A failed colony

The recently discovered ship was part of a fleet that was led by Don Tristan de Luna, a conquistador who attempted to be the first European to establish a permanent colony in North America. The Spanish fleet launched from Vera Cruz, Mexico, Cook said, with 12 ships carrying a total of 1,500 would-be colonists onboard. It landed in Pensacola Bay on Aug. 15, 1559. On Sept. 19, a hurricane struck. The colonists lost seven ships and many of their supplies, which were being stored onboard.

Some colonists died in the hurricane. The rest tried to push inland, but they lasted only until 1561 before abandoning the settlement. After the disaster, the king of Spain gave up on colonizing the land around the Gulf of Mexico and decided to focus on the East Coast instead, Cook said. St. Augustine, Florida, which was founded four years later in 1565, would go on to achieve the title of the first permanent North American settlement.

The first lost ship in the de Luna fleet, the Emanuel Point I, was found in 1992, and the second, dubbed the Emanuel Point II, was discovered in 2007. In 2015, a local historian noticed pottery shards at a construction site in a residential neighborhood abutting the bay. University of West Florida archaeologists found that the shards were Spanish artifacts dating to the 16th century. The shards were the first terrestrial evidence of the colonists' temporary home, known as the Luna settlement. 

New find

As part of a research grant to study the Emanuel Point II wreck and look for more ships, Cook and his colleagues conducted a survey, which was colloquially called "mowing the lawn," between the site of the Luna settlement and the two known shipwrecks. During the survey, marine archaeologists went back and forth in straight lines with a magnetometer, which detects magnetic anomalies from metal on the seafloor. In the summer of 2016, the researchers found roughly 100 magnetic anomalies, Cook said, including one in a sandy-bottomed spot in about 7 feet (2 m) of water. The Emanuel Point I and Point II shipwrecks are in about 12 feet (4 m) of water. All of the wrecks are named after a nearby peninsula, since the original ship names aren't known.

"We thought this would be a good opportunity for students to learn how to do searches," Cook said. The bay is full of metal garbage, he said, from old fishing traps to dumped cars and even discarded pizza ovens, so the team wasn't expecting a blockbuster find.

"Nine times out of 10, it can be some wire rope from a barge, or a fish trap or crab trap," Cook said. But within a few minutes of diving, the student archaeologists reported that their probes were hitting rock under the sand. They excavated by hand to find large cobbles — the same sort used as ballast in 16th-century ships. Soon, they turned up ceramic artifacts as well.

Artifacts of life

That wasn't enough evidence to prove that they had found a shipwreck, though, Cook said. Ships often dumped ballast if they had to take on more cargo, and those piles of rock can mimic the look of a wreck. The team applied to the state of Florida for permission to do a more intensive exploration with dredges.

"It wasn't until we could dig through and see that we had intact hull timbers that we were willing to say we had a wreck," Cook said. [Shipwrecks Gallery: Secrets of the Deep]

The excavation turned up the ship's frame, outer hull planking and more artifacts, including fragments of olive jars, which were used to carry food, wine and other supplies.

Of the seven ships that were destroyed by the 1559 hurricane, six went down in the bay and one was grounded on shore, Cook said. That means that three more wrecks from the de Luna expedition remain to be found. The artifacts onboard tell archaeologists more about the day-to-day life on these expeditions than leaders like de Luna would ever think to include in their letters, Cook said. For example, on the Emanuel Point II, the team discovered an ivory manicure set deep in a ballast pile, complete with toothpick and ear scoop, he said. The set, which looked a bit like a Swiss army knife, even had a whistle on it that still worked after 450 years, Cook said. It probably belonged to one of the major officers in the fleet, perhaps even to de Luna himself.

"When that was lost, I'm sure it really ruined someone's day," Cook said. The team members have covered the initial, excavated portions of the Emanuel Point III with sand to preserve the wood. They're currently finishing documenting the Emanuel Point II and will likely return to study the third shipwreck in more detail next summer, Cook said. They also plan to keep surveying for more lost de Luna ships.


Original article on Live Science. http://www.livescience.com/57496-16th-century-spanish-shipwreck-off-florida.html 
Sent by John Inclan fromgalveston@yahoo.com  

 

   


MEXICO


Valentin Gomez. Farias, Padre del Reforma, Handwriting Analysis by Sister Mary Sevilla, CSJ Kindred Group 2016 Genealogy Year End Report
¿Quiénes son los jarochos? por Rosalba Quintana Bustamente y Jairo E. Jimenez Sotero
Matrimonio del Teniente Coronel don Bernardo Villamil con doña Marìa Josefa de la Gandara
El bautismo y segundo matrimonio de Don Tirso Castillon Saenz
El bautismo, matrimonio y defunción de doña Marìa Eufemia de los Angeles Castillon Mùzquiz









"El Padre de la Reforma"
Handwriting Analysis 
by Sister Mary Sevilla, CSJ, Master Certified Graphoanalyst 

=========================================== ===========================================
Valentín Gómez Farías was born in Guadalajara, 
14 February 1781. In 1808 he received his medical degree, and although he never fully left the field of medicine, he became very involved in the struggle for justice and liberty in Mexico. He was considered by many historians to be "E1 Padre de la Reforma." He lead the federalist's liberals in their thirty year struggle for reform. 

He served as vice-president with Santa Anna as President, but in general they held opposing views. Santa Anna's frequent abandonment of presidential duty resulted in Valentin Gomez Farias serving as acting President three times in 1833. As President, 
Gomez Farias initiated many liberal reforms. Santa Anna returned, rejected the liberal program and, through the presence of his army, dissolved the Congress. 

Gomez Farias was forced into exile in 1834, living three years in New Orleans. However; he never gave up the fight to shape the government into a more democratic system. He believed strongly in public education and many of the educational reforms 
he initiated are still in practice. 
The culmination of his life of service was the privilege of being the first to sign his name to "La Constituci6n Politica de 1857," encompassing the principles for which he had fought all his life. 

In analyzing an old specimen of handwriting a number of cautions need to be noted: 

1) The specimens, it seems, were written in the mid 18oos. We have no sample of the standard writing of the period so we cannot determine how Valentin Gomez Farias's writing may have deviated from the standard. 

2) The specimens are written in Spanish, which is not insurmountable, except that they are written in the last century. 

3) Copies are never as clear as originals. 
With these reservations in mind, I shall set out to describe the character/personality of a multifaceted man: Valentin Gomez Farias, documents dated 1834 and 1855. 

=========================================== = ==========================================
At first glance, one would say that Farias must have been a poet. His writing shows very strong rhythm, outstanding literary talent and he cherished time to be alone with his own thoughts. 

On analyzing his writing further, numerous gifts are added to these. He has many executive traits such as strong organizational ability, openness to new ideas, a 
burning desire to learn all he can, the ability to focus on a project, attention to details (although he found them annoying!), intuition which gave him wonderful insight and the ability to see the whole picture, versatility and enthusiasm that helped get the project done. 

Was he some sort of administrator? His thinking was alert, analytical and exploratory. His concentration ability was keen and he never left a stone unturned in 
finding out information for himself.: 
So was this man a scientist?  Farias was quite emotionally  responsive but didn't allow his  emotions to overrule his common  sense.  His deep passion and intensity left life's experiences  indelibly imprinted on him and, no doubt, impelled him to become involved in "causes" in which he fervently believed. Was he a revolutionary? a missionary? 
He was a very secure individual without many fears to hold him back. One of his greatest fears. however, was a fear of criticism about his personal looks. This anxiety would have begun in early childhood when he believed there was something inferior about the way he looked. This seemed to cause him much pain. 

He also was a man given to brief temper bursts and/or irritation. Or did he become exasperated when others didn't join his "causes" as readily? 

His writing indicates that he made great efforts at self control so perhaps he was trying to control
his temper, emotions or his judgments of others. 

So here we have the makings of a poet, scientist, administrator, revolutionary and a missionary. I 
doubt that he was one of these exclusively but a marvelous combination of them all. I don't know 
because I do not read or speak Spanish! I feel I know this extremely gifted man well, but one of you will have to tell me how he used these gifts. 

For information on an analysis of one of your ancestors, contact Sister Mary at (310) 804-3447. 

First Published in Somos Primos Print Newsletter Spring 1995 




Kindred Group 2016 Genealogy Year End Report

This email is going out to the 968 people found in my genealogy address books (Kindred Group). 

=========================================== ---- =========================================

Database growth has started to slow. The kindred group database has grown to over 412,000 records, up 37,000 records from the year 2015. Most of the new records come from the research required to produce the Families of Montemorelos, Nuevo Leon series which will be posted in 2017. Some database records came from family trees submitted in return for ancestor reports. I very much enjoy creating them. Thanks to all of you that referred your friends. Those reports ranged in size from a 5 generation report to a 18 generation 397 page book. The number of ancestor reports/books grew from 78 in 2013 to 129 in 2014 to 141 in 2015 to 154 in 2016. Some ancestor books were converted from English into Spanish. 

The Annual Kindred Group mtDNA Report, posted in April, expanded and with interest should continue to do so. There is more funding than needed candidates. A new report will be out this coming April. As you probably know I do this research because I enjoy it not for money. Some un-named people sent me unsolicited money again this year. Those funds were use for mtDNA testing. There are more funds in a Kiva account for when the need arrives. Until then, much of those funds are helping Mexican businesswomen obtain loans. 

Monthly Free online ebooks in 2016 at times exceeded the website monthly traffic limit. Older volumes were removed and that will continue to allow for new books.

 

January: Lampazos, Nuevo Leon,Volume 1

February: Lampazos, Nuevo Leon,Volume 2

March: Lampazos, Nuevo Leon,Volume 3

April: Lampazos, Nuevo Leon,Volume 4

May: Lampazos, Nuevo Leon, Volume 5

June: Garcia, Nuevo Leon Volume 1

July: Garcia, Nuevo Leon Volume 2

August: Garcia, Nuevo Leon Volume 3

September: China, Nuevo Leon Volume 1

October: China, Nuevo Leon Volume 2

November: China, Nuevo Leon, Volume 3

December: China, Nuevo Leon, Volume 4

The We Are Cousins DNA project has grown to 372 members. If you have already tested either YDNA or MtDNA with FamilyTreeDNA please consider joining.  This project is for anyone in our kindred group with ancestors from the Mexican States of Coahuila, Nuevo Leon or Tamaulipas. It is free and easy to join if you can remember you Kit number and password. His is a link to the site. To join, click on the red button.

http://www.wearecousins.info/ dna/?utm_campaign=website&utm_ source=sendgrid.com&utm_ medium=email&v=7516fd43adaa

Thank you all for your support.   As Always,  Crispin Rendon  crispin.rendon@gmail.com

Sent by Juan  Marinez marinezj@msu.edu

 




OBRA DE CLAUDIO LINATI, NEGRO DE ALVARADO, 1828, LITOGRAFÍA

¿Quiénes son los jarochos?
por 
Rosalba Quintana Bustamente y Jairo E. Jimenez Sotero
http://relatosehistorias.mx/ nuestras-historias/quienes- son-los-jarochos

La presencia de afrodescendientes en Veracruz y sus cercanías fue documentada por los artistas viajeros de principios del siglo XIX, quienes contribuyeron a conformar la imagen del jarocho.

En el pasado, el término jarocho hacía referencia a los vaqueros mulatos, hijos de indígenas y africanos, del sur de Veracruz, que usaban lanzas o garrochas conocidas como jaras para arrear y dominar los hatos de reses al estilo andaluz. Detrás de esto hay toda una historia.

 

Después de la Conquista española, la primera producción ganadera en estas tierras contó con el trabajo de los esclavos negros y se extendió hacia el Sotavento novohispano (término marítimo, administrativo y militar que definía el espacio al sur del puerto de Veracruz, en contraposición al Barlovento, al norte de dicho punto), que comprendía desde el puerto veracruzano hasta lo que hoy es el noroeste de Tabasco, pasando por la zona mazateca, la mixe, la Chinantla (al norte de Oaxaca) y la región zoque chiapaneca y oaxaqueña.

 

Recordemos que los conquistadores introdujeron diversas actividades económicas que modificaron radicalmente los paisajes y las costumbres prehispánicas; entre éstas, la ganadería fue una de las que más alteró la producción anterior, pues implicó la importación de animales ajenos a esas tierras y en un principio tuvo que recurrir a la mano de obra conocedora de esa actividad, debido a que la población indígena desconocía el manejo de las reses. De modo que, para aprovechar las fértiles llanuras del Sotavento, los hacendados aprovecharon la experiencia de los descendientes de africanos para extender la producción ganadera por el sur de Veracruz.

 

En la región del Sotavento es imposible pensar en lo jarocho sin considerar el papel que tuvieron los afrodescendientes durante el periodo novohispano, ya que marcaron un estilo muy particular en las formas de vida en los llanos y en la domesticación del ganado.

 

Bajo el estilo andaluz, los vaqueros arreaban las reses, a pie o a caballo, con lanzas o garrochas conocidas como jaras, que con el tiempo se convirtieron en una herramienta fundamental para dominar al ganado y también en arma de ataque y defensa. La palabra jarocho proviene de esas jaras con las que amansaban a las reses cimarronas y dirigían el ganado capturado hacia los rodeos.

 

Desde luego, hay otras versiones sobre el origen del término; sin embargo, los historiadores coinciden en que se refiere a la vaquería más que a otra cosa, sobre todo porque la región del Sotavento se caracterizó por un tipo de ganadería trashumante y extensiva.

 

En el virreinato, a los vaqueros no se les llamaba jarochos (el término se difundió y popularizó hacia el siglo XIX), y de acuerdo con el historiador José Velasco Toro, eran contratados por un sueldo a cambio de desempeñar una actividad determinada, lo cual era muy poco común, pues durante la época novohispana el trabajo por excelencia fue el esclavizado. Pero, debido a la dinámica productiva que adquirió la ganadería, la esclavitud no floreció como en otras regiones y muy tempranamente resultó antieconómica, por lo que los hacendados recurrieron a la fuerza de trabajo libre y asalariada.

 

Al principio los vaqueros eran africanos esclavizados, quienes conocían muy bien la vaquería, pero también había cimarrones (negros huidos), ya que los hacendados optaron por darle refugio a estos fugados para sumarlos a sus filas de trabajadores y con ello evitar que les saquearan o robaran sus propiedades. Así, conforme transcurrió el periodo virreinal, comenzó a proliferar en el Sotavento una población descendiente de indígenas y africanos: los mulatos, que luego serían llamados jarochos y podían ser libres siempre y cuando nacieran de madres indígenas.

 

En palabras de Velasco Toro: “De los negros huidos, de los libertos, de los hijos de negros e indias y de algunos indios, fue como emergió ese grupo social que se fue extendiendo por los llanos y que pronto constituyó una clase trabajadora libre dedicada al difícil arte de la vaqueada: el vaquero jarocho”. Hombres y mujeres a quienes se les permitió montar a caballo; especialistas en la captura, quebranto y manejo del ganado vacuno que paulatinamente crearon una cultura muy característica del sur de Veracruz, la cual ya no sólo representaba a los vaqueros, sino al Sotavento en general.

 

Los jarochos de hoy

 

Actualmente, la región del Sotavento ya no es la misma que en la Nueva España, pues sus límites geográficos y culturales se han reducido al espacio comprendido entre la cuenca del Papaloapan y la del Coatzacoalcos. Sin embargo, la cultura sotaventina continúa presente en ciertas regiones de Oaxaca y Tabasco, como el son jarocho, que se toca desde el puerto de Veracruz hasta San Juan Guichicovi, Tuxtepec, Ixcatlán y Ojitlán en Oaxaca, y en Huimanguillo, Tabasco. Sus intérpretes son tanto poblaciones mestizas, como nahuas, popolucas, mixes, mazatecas, zapotecas y chinantecas. A principios del siglo XX, el son jarocho se interpretaba incluso al norte de Veracruz, como en algunas regiones vecinas de Córdoba, Orizaba y Huatusco, aunque actualmente ahí ya no está presente y sólo vive en el recuerdo.

 

Por su parte, el término jarocho ya no significa lo que hace algunos siglos, sobre todo desde que surgió el movimiento jaranero en los años setenta y ochenta del siglo pasado, cuando se revitalizó el son jarocho. Si bien en la época novohispana –como lo indica el investigador Antonio García de León– los jarochos conformaron el primer anillo de abasto del puerto y una fuerza en pie de guerra para la defensa en caso de un ataque de las potencias enemigas de España, para el siglo XIX sus referencias se transformarían para convertirse en “la esencia de lo propio”, no sólo de los llanos y el campo sotaventino, sino también de esferas más altas y urbanas, entre cuyos miembros estaban los políticos liberales del puerto de Veracruz.

 


Esta publicación es sólo un resumen del artículo “¿Quiénes son los jarochos?” de los autores Rosalba Quintana Bustamante y Jairo E. Jiménez Sotero, que se publicó íntegramente en la edición de Relatos e Historias en México, núm. 98. 

Fiesta y tradición jarochas. La música y bailes veracruzanos son parte de la tradición mexicana. Para ver una clásica presentación del Ballet Folklórico de Amalia Hernández, dé clic en la siguiente liga para ver el video: 
 http:// relatosehistorias.mx/galeria/ fiestas-y-tradiciones-jarochas 

Enviado por Dr. Carlos Campos y Escalante campce@gmail.com?Reading books cures the most dreaded of human diseases "Ignorance"
Source:
http://relatosehistorias.mx/la-coleccion/100-cien-ediciones-contando-historias 

Editor Mimi:  Do visit this website, very interesting assortment of articles, on the history of Mexico. 

 

 




Antes de que finalizara el año 2016, les enviè la imagen del registro eclesiástico del matrimonio del Teniente Coronel don Bernardo Villamil con doña Marìa Josefa de la Gandara.  

Ahora que inicia el año de 2017, les envìo 5 imágenes de registros de bautismos de sus hijos.  

 

En los que se citan ser hijos del Señor Coronel de Exercito don Bernardo Fernandez Villamil, Gobernador del Nuevo Reyno de Leòn, natural del Campo de Gibraltar en Andalucìa, hijo legitimo del Teniente Coronel de Infanterìa del Regimiento FIjo de Mèxico don Antonio Fernandez Villamil, natural de Ceuta y de doña Antonia Curiel y Monsalve, natural de Algeciras en Andalucia; y de la Señora doña Marìa Josefa de la Gandara y Sierra, natural de la Ciudad de San Luis Potosì, en esta Nueva España, hija legìtima del Teniente Coronel de Milicias don Manuel de la Gandara, Regidor, Alferez Real que fuè de la citada Ciudad de San Luis Potosì y de la Señora doña Marìa de la Luz Sierra, oriunda de la propia Ciudad.  

   LIBRO DE BAUTISMOS DE ESPAÑOLES DEL SAGRARIO METROPOLITANO DE LA CD. DE MÈXICO.  


“En veinte y nueve de Enero del año del Señor de mil ochocientos catorce, en la Capilla pública de Palacio que nombran de MilitaresInvàlidos, el Dr. Don Pedro Josè de Mendizabal, Cura interino del Sagrario de esta Santa Yglesia Metropolitana, bautizò una infanta que nació en el mismo Palacio, el dìa veinte y siete del presente mes, le puso por nombres: Marìa, Josefa, Juana  Nepomuceno Francisca de Paula, y de Sales; fueron sus padrinos don Manuel de la Gandara, su abuelo materno y su tìa doña Josefa Fernandez Villamil”.  


“En seis de Marzo de mil ochocientos quince, con licencia del Señor Dr. Don Agustin Yglesias, Cura de esta Santa Yglesia, el Dr. Don Pedro Josè Marìa de Mendizabal, Cura propio de la Parroquia de Señor Santa Anna de esta Corte, bautizò solemnemente à un niño que nació ayer cinco del corriente aquien le puso los nombres de: Bernardo Marìa Eusebio, Francisco de Paula; fuè su madrina doña Marìa Teresa Fernandez Villamil”.  

“En seis de Agosto de mil ochocientos diez y seis con licencia del S.D.D. Josè Miguel Guridi Alcozer, Cura de esta Santa Yglesia, el D.D. Pedro Josè Marìa Mendizabal, Cura propio de la Parroquia de Señora Santa Anna, y Familiar de la Santa Ynquisiciòn de este Reyno, baptizò solemnemente à una niña Española que nació ayer en el Real Palacio, a la qual puso por nombres: Marìa de la Luz, Emigdia Francisca de Paula; fueron sus padrinos el Sargento Mayor don Eduardo Ferrer y su esposa doña Mariana Mora”.  

    LIBRO DE BAUTISMOS DEL SAGRARIO DE LA SANTA IGLESIA CATEDRAL DE MONTERREY, N.L.  

“En veinte y uno de Noviembre de mil ochocientos diez y siete don Juan Bautista Valdez, Cura interino del Sagrario de esta Santa Yglesia Catedral, bautizò solemnemente à un niño Español que nació ayer a el qual puso por nombres: Antonio Marìa Felix Francisco de Paula; fueron sus padrinos  don Mauricio de Alcoser y doña Maria Antonia de Uribe”.  

Fuentes. Family Search. Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los últimos Dìas.

Investigò.Tte. Corl. Intdte. Ret. Ricardo R. Palmerìn Cordero.
M.H. Sociedad Genealògica y de Historia Familiar de Mèxico y de la Sociedad de Genealogìa de Nuevo Leòn.

 

                


Estimados amigos Genealogistas e Historiadores.

Envìo a Uds. las imágenes de los registros eclesiásticos del bautismo y segundo matrimonio de don Tirso Castillon Saenz, originario del Presidio de San Juan Bautista del Rìo Grande ( Cd. Guerrero, Coah.); así como el de la defunción de su primera esposa Doña Josefa de la Parra y Mier.

Fuentes. Family Search. Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los últimos Dìas.
Libro de bautismos de la Yglesia del Presidio de San Juan Bautista del Rìo Grande. ( Cd. Guerrero, Coah.).

Juan Francisco Tirso. Español en 3 de Febrero de 1800.
“En tres de Febrero de mil ochocientos en la Yglecia Parroquial de este Presidio de San Juan Bautista del Rio Grande. Yo el Br. D. Francisco Ygnacio de Sauto Capellan Real Cura en encomienda y Juez Eclesiàstico de este dicho Presidio. Bautise solemnemente puse los santos oleos y Chrisma a un parbulo de ocho días de nacido a quien puse por nombre Juan Francisco Tirso hijo lexmo. de D. Joaquin Castillon y de Da. Clemencia Saenz. Fueron sus padrinos D. Juan Francisco de la Garza y Da. Josefa de Estrada de esta vecindad. A quienes adverti el parentesco y obligación y para que conste lo firmè. Br. Francisco Ygnacio de Sauto”.

Libro de matrimonios del Valle de Santa Rosa Marìa del Sacramento. (Cd. M. Mùzquiz, Coah.).
Dbre. 13 de 1838. D. Tirso Castillon, con Da. Saturnina Muzquiz. No. 11.

“En el Valle de Santa Rosa Marìa del Sacramento a los trece días del mes de Diciembre de mil ochocientos treinta y ocho: yo el Presvitero Juan Nepomuceno de Ayala Cura interino de este y su jurisdicción. Haviendose precedido las diligencias dispuestas por el derecho se remitieron al Sr. Cura de este Obispado impetrando dispensa de amonestaciones, quien tuvo a bien dispensar las tres moniciones dispuestas por el Sto. Concilio de Trento, y no habiendo resultado canonico impedimento casè infacie Eclesie a Dn. Tirso Castillon, originario de la Villa de Guerrero de este departamento y vecino de la Ciudad de Monterrey, viudo en primeras nupcias de Da. Josefa de la Parra y Mier, cuio cuerpo esta sepultado en la Ciudad de Monterrey hace ocho meses, con Da. Ma. Saturnina Muzquiz, originaria y vecina de este Valle hija legitima de D. Miguel Muzquiz y de Da. Maria Andrea Lozano, fueron testigos al verlos casar D. Bernardo de la Garza y D. Francisco Nieto, y para que conste lo firmè. Juan Nepomuceno de Ayala”.

Libro de Defunciones del Sagrario de la Catedral de Monterrey, N.L.
Josefa Parra. Casada. F. de 4 ps. 4 rs.

“En el Camposanto de esta Iglesia Catedral de Monterrey, a los trece días del mes de Abril de mil ochocientos treinta y ocho: mi Vicario el Presbitero D. Juan Josè Calisti: diò sepultura Eclesiastica con entierro mayor y fabrica de cuatro pesos cuatro reales, al cadáver de Da. Josefa Parra casada que fue con Dn. Tirso Castillon, vecino de esta Ciudad: murió de parto de edad de treinta y seis años: recibió los Santos Sacramentos. Y para que conste lo firmè. Juan Josè Garcìa”.

Anexo dos fotografías de la Misiòn de San Bernardo del Presidio de San Juan Bautista de Rìo Grande.

Investigò: Tte. Corl. Intdte. Ret. Ricardo R. Palmerìn Cordero.
M.H. Sociedad Genealògica y de Historia Familiar de Mèxico 
y de la Sociedad de Genealogìa de Nuevo Leòn. 





Doña Marìa Eufemia de los Angeles Castillon Mùzquiz

Estimados amigos Genealogistas e Historiadores.

Envìo a Uds. los registros eclesiásticos del bautismo, matrimonio y defunción de doña Marìa Eufemia de los Angeles Castillon Mùzquiz, así como la defunción de su esposo don Jesùs Galan de la Garza.

Fuentes. Family Search. Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los últimos Dìas.
Libro de Bautismos de la Yglesia Parroquial del Valle de Santa Rosa Marìa del Sacramento. Cd. M. Mùzquiz, Coah.
Marzo 22 de 1844. Marìa Eufemia de los Angeles de cuatro días de nacida.  No.15.  

“En la Yglesia Parroquial del Valle de Santa Rosa Marìa del Sacramento a los veinte y dos días del mes de Marzo de mil ochocientos cuarenta y cuatro. Yo el Presvitero Juan Nepomuceno de Ayala, Cura Ynterino de este y su jurisdicción. Bautisè solemnemente puse los Santos Oleos y Sagrado Chrisma a Marìa Eufemia de los Angeles de cuatro días de nacida, hija legitima de Dn. Tirso Castillon y de Da. Maria Saturnina Musquiz, fueron sus padrinos Dn. Manuel Berain y Da. Maria de Jesus Flores; Aquienes advertí su obligación y parentesco espiritual y para que conste los firmè. Juan Nepomuceno de Ayala”.

Libro de Matrimonios de la Yglesia Parroquial de Santa Rosa de Musquiz.  Cd. M. Mùzquiz, Coah.
 N.5 D. Jesùs Galàn  con Da. Ma. de los Angeles Castillon à 19 de Abril de 1860.  


“En la Yglesia Parroquial de Sta. Rosa de Musquiz à diez y nueve de Abril de mil ochocientos sesenta. Yo el Presbitero Sinforiano Villareal Cura encargado de ella, casè y velè infacie Eclesie por palabras de presente que constituyen verdadero y legitimo matrimonio à D. Jesus Galan de veinticinco años de edad originario de San Fernando de Rosas y recidente en esta desde su corta edad, hijo legitimo de Dn. Juan J. Galan y de Da. Gertrudis Garza, con Da. Ma. De los Angeles Castillon de estado onesto, de quince años de edad de este origen y vecindad hija legitima de Dn. Tirso Castillon difunto, y de Da. Ma. Saturnina Musquiz, quienes obtuvieron antes la dispensa de las tres proclamas mandadas observar en todo matrimonio por el Sto. Concilio de Trento, como consta de su despacho; y confesados y comulgados en el dia anterior se presentaron à recibir dicho Sacramento, siendo testigos al verlos casar sus padrinos D. Ysmael y Da. Maria del Refugio Galan y Octabiano de Leon y para que conste lo firmo. Sinforiano Villareal”.  

 

Libro de Defunciones de la Parroquia de Santa Rosa de Muzquiz. Cd. M. Mùzquiz, Coah.
N.14. Da. Ma. de los Angeles Castillon à 14 de Diciembre de 1875.  

“En el Camposanto nuevo de esta Parroquia de Santa Rosa de Muzquiz, à catorce de Diciembre de mil ochocientos setenta y cinco. Yò el Presbº. Sinforiano Villareal Cura propio de ella, dì Ecca. sepultura con entierro mayor al cadáver de Doña Ma. de los Angeles Castillon de veintiocho años de edad, casada que fuè con Don Jesus Galan, quien quedó viudo: murió de parto no recibió los Sacramentos, por no haber tenido tiempo, ni testò y para debida constancia lo firmè. Sinforiano Villareal”.

      7. Jesus Galan.  

“En la Yglesia Parroquial de Sta. Rosa de Muzquiz à los 5 dìas de Agosto de 1883 yo el Pbro. Francisco de P. Andres, Cura interino, celebrè las exequias y después di entierro mayor al cadáver de Jesus Galan, viudo de Angeles Castillon. Muriò à la edad de 51 años, repentinamente sin alcanzar los auxilios. Y para que conste lo firmo. Francisco de P. Andres”.

Investigò: Tte. Corl. Intdte. Ret. Ricardo R. Palmerìn Cordero.  
duardos43@hotmail.com
 
M.H. Sociedad Genealògica y de Historia Familiar de Mèxico y de la Sociedad de Genealogìa de Nuevo Leòn.



CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICA

¿Qué nos separa de España?
América Española, Historia e Identidad en un Mundo Nuevo 
La masiva expulsión de españoles de América: la infame historia que escondió la 
          independencia

Juan Latino: El primero negro catedrático de gramática de España



¿Qué nos separa de España?

base_image.jpg (619×347)

¿El océano?
 
Simple barrera física que distancia a los hermanos, sin separar sus almas; pues hubo una vez en que los mares fueron nuestros. Que ni olas ni tempestades pudieron acallar el grito hispano, valiente y civilizador. Aquí estamos desde Cantabria a Filipinas, desde suelo canario a Tierra Firme. Mares otrora cobijados por la cruz de Borgoña, doblegados por las velas de Magallanes – Elcano. Aguas que bajo un mismo cielo , no separan ideales.

¿El idioma? 
Lengua castiza para hablar con Dios, dialecto noble heredado de Roma, que lleva en su pecho un par de latidos árabes. Arma nuestra contra el mundo desde hace siglos, y que en expansión perpetua se abre paso por entre diestros corazones de Quijote.


Porque fueron los libros y las canciones, fueron las leyendas y los relatos, las tradiciones a través del tiempo que hablan de similar identidad; de igual idiosincrasia. La lengua madre de Cervantes y Mejía, de Bécquer y Sor Juana… es la misma que hoy nos habla.
¿Es acaso la sangre? No, y mil veces no. Es en las Américas donde nacieron los hijos de los conquistadores, donde los apellidos Pizarro, Cortés, Ponce de León, Benalcázar, Almagro y demás, forjaron sus linajes. Es en las Américas donde los campesinos humildes y valerosos levantaron las ciudades castellanas de ultramar, ciudades legadas a siguientes generaciones que disfrutan incluso hoy de sus piedras y muros. Es en las Américas donde la casta Ibérica se unió a la casta nativa para forjar el árbol de la unidad. Es sangre de aquellos valientes guerreros la que heredaron todos los hijos de ultramar.

¿Los tiempos? Hubo mejores entre aquellos. Quien naciera en las Américas antes de la época de la traiciones, sería llamado con todo derecho y honra: “español”. Porque tan españoles eran las Américas como lo es la península; con los mismos derechos y las mismas obligaciones. Porque las provincias de ultramar tuvieron magnas representación en las cortes reales. Y porque aunque cambien nombres y fronteras para dividirnos, el tiempo no puede llevarse la identidad latente que sigue de pie en cada ciudad, en cada pueblo, en cada templo, en cada castillo, en cada cañón, en cada puerto, en cada hombre que defiende su propia historia y la del pueblo al que pertenece.

He ahí que lo que fue; bien podría volver a serlo. Lo que se ha roto volver a unirse. Es entonces cuando decimos: ¡somos Hispanoamericanos!, los españoles de ultramar en este pérfido tiempo.
Entonces ¿Qué nos separa de España?...

Simple: Lo que ha separado al hombre desde tiempos antiguos, ¡La traicionera ambición! 

Es la deserción de unos pocos, que financiados por los eternos enemigos la que nos ha separado y nos ha cambiado el nombre. Las ganas de poder de alimañas desagradecidas (tan mal llamados libertadores) las que han creado fronteras políticas, espirituales y hasta económicas. Y es la ambición de sus infames seguidores de hoy en día, la que contamina mentes y “venas” de nuestra verdadera identidad y moral hispanista, 

Pero la traición tiene su antítesis en la lealtad, siendo allí donde entramos nosotros como cura a tal enfermedad anti hispanista, y por tanto anti identitaria,

HABLEMOS ENTONCES DE SER FIEL

HABLEMOS ENTONCES DE HISPANOAMÉRICA 

HABLEMOS ENTONCES DE NUESTRO PASADO GLORIOSO

HABLEMOS ENTONCES DE TODAS LAS ESPAÑAS

Editor Andrés Guarnizo, with Mariv Valiente, Sergio Díaz de Vivar, Antonio Moreno Ruiz and 20 others.
Enviado por:?"Hispanos de Ultramar" localizado en las páginas de Facebook de los autores que la firman?

Contribución de Dr. C. Campos y Escalante 
campce@gmail.com





La masiva expulsión de españoles de América:
 la infame historia que escondió la independencia

Los Estados surgidos tras las Guerras de independencia hispanoamericanas del siglo XIX asumieron entre sus primeras decisiones la depuración de la administración y de aquellos individuos que habían ocupado cargos de responsabilidad.

La historiografía casi no quiso acordarse de ellos. Tal vez estaba demasiado entretenida con las mentiras de la leyenda negra como para prestar atención al éxodo que protagonizaron miles de españoles expulsados de América conforme se emancipaban territorios españoles en el continente. Fueron los perdedores de una guerra iniciada por los criollos (entre el 10 y el 15% de la población), los acomodados descendientes de españoles –como Simón Bolívar o José de San Martín– que se revolvieron contra la madre patria y se cobraron lo que ellos pensaban la revancha. Los últimos españoles de América sufrieron toda clase de abusos y desprecios.

La población mestiza e indígena luchó en ambos bandos
La historiografía casi no quiso acordarse de ellos. Tal vez estaba demasiado entretenida con las mentiras de la leyenda negra como para prestar atención al éxodo que protagonizaron miles de españoles  expulsados de América conforme se emancipaban territorios españoles en el continente. Fueron los perdedores de una guerra iniciada por los criollos (entre el 10 y el 15% de la población), los acomodados descendientes de españoles –como Simón Bolívar o José de San Martín– que se revolvieron contra la madre patria y se cobraron lo que ellos pensaban la revancha. Los últimos españoles de América sufrieron toda clase de abusos y desprecios una revolución popular y espontánea, los procesos de independencia de principios del siglo XIX corrieron a cargo de criollos dueños de grandes plantaciones e intelectuales enriquecidos, que recibieron el apoyo indirecto de EE.UU e Inglaterra, empezando con el comercio de armas y barcos de guerra a los insurgentes. En tanto, la población mestiza e indígena, la mayoritaria, luchó en ambos bandos. Siendo que al final el dominio económico ejercido por España fue, simplemente, sustituido por el de otras potencias mundiales como Gran Bretaña. Cambio de patrones, pero no de estructura.

Los españoles fuera de la vida civil

Los Estados surgidos tras las Guerras de independencia hispanoamericanas del siglo XIX asumieron entre sus primeras decisiones la depuración de la administración y de aquellos individuos peninsulares que habían ocupado cargos de responsabilidad. Si bien fueron miles los españoles que huyeron debido al propio conflicto, el verdadero acoso comenzó con leyes dirigidas a expulsarlos o evitar que pudieran entorpecer la creación de los nuevos estados.

Como suele ser habitual en estos casos de expulsiones masivas –véase la de los judíos en 1492 o la de los moriscos en el siglo XVI– los que se llevaron la peor parte fueron los ciudadanos con pocos recursos que lo perdieron todo.

 

Retrato de Simón Bolívar
Los miembros de la aristocracia lograron congraciarse con el nuevo régimen o, simplemente, huyeron sobre puentes de plata. Los españoles que cambiaron su nacionalidad lo hicieron por conservar sus vastas propiedades y a cambio de renunciar a sus títulos nobiliarios. El verdadero drama afectó a miles de familias humildes, que abandonaron a contrarreloj los países donde vivían y sus propiedades. En muchos casos la expulsión se realizó a través de precarias embarcaciones, hacinados y obligados por la fuerza. Una vez en puertos de la Península Ibérica tampoco les esperaban vítores precisamente. España vivía uno de sus peores momentos.

Simón Bolívar



En México, el antihispanismo que acompañó a los acontecimiento revolucionarios afectó gravemente a los 15.000 españoles que allí residían. En previsión de un conflicto de puertas para dentro, se le retiraron las armas a todo individuo español y se les expulsó del estado militar. Asimismo, en febrero de 1824, se relegó a los españoles de cualquier cargo público que ocupasen. Se les negaba la posibilidad de retirar capitales, y se les obligaba a abandonar sus lugares de residencia. En este sentido, los líderes más radicales culparon a los españoles de los males del continente y justificaron por ello que ahora se les quitara todo y se les expulsara, por muy ilegal e injusto que fuera esta medida.

Al declararse la independencia, los españoles que quisieran marcharse libremente, incluso con sus caudales, lo pudieron hacer en virtud del artículo 15 de los Tratados de Córdoba. Aquella fue la mejor opción, a tenor de la radicalización que se vivió más adelante y las insistentes vulneraciones del tratado. México promulgó el 10 de mayo de 1827 una ley de empleo por la que ningún español de nacimiento podría ocupar cargo alguno en la administración pública, civil o militar. Los españoles quedaron marginados a nivel social, hasta el punto de que tenían prohibido reunirse o asociarse. Una serie de leyes a nivel local y nacional orquestaron en varias oleadas la salida de los españoles de México, con un plazo de 30 días, y la condición de poder sacar del país únicamente la tercera parte de sus bienes.

La Muerte del Libertador Simón BolívarCalcula el investigador Harold Sims (autor de «La Descolonización de México») que, entre los años 1827 y 1829, fueron expulsados de México en razón de su origen español 7.148 personas. En 1830 quedaban ya menos de 2.000 españoles en esa región. Los principales receptores de este éxodo fueron Estados Unidos, Filipinas, Cuba, Puerto Rico y Europa. No así las islas británicas. Los peninsulares, a pesar de la supuesta amistad con Inglaterra, eran recibidos por las autoridades británicas en el Caribe con                                     La Muerte del Liberador Simóon Bolivar 
desconfianza y controles exhaustivos.

La situación vivida en la Gran Colombia de Simón Bolívar fue todavía más violenta que en México. Sin tiempo que perder, la guerra de Bolívar desembocó en una ley de expulsión de los españoles el 18 de septiembre de 1821. Todos los españoles de origen peninsular que no demostrasen haber formado parte del movimiento independiente serían sacados a la fuerza del país.

El principal lugar al que partieron estos expulsados fueron las islas del Caribe españolas, sobre todo  Puerto Rico, donde arribaron 3.555 refugiados.

Los últimos de Callao

En Argentina y Perú también se aplicaron leyes para apartar inmediatamente a los españoles de la administración. Durante el conflicto fueron habituales las penas de confinamiento, «contribuciones especiales» y expropiaciones contra los españoles peninsulares con el fin de recaudar fondos militares. Los abusos fueron frecuentes. En torno a 1.000 personas de la población de españoles peninsulares sufrieron penas de prisión en Argentina debido a la actividad militar en curso.
En torno a 1.000 personas de la población de españoles peninsulares sufrieron penas de prisión en Argentina.

En Perú la población española se concentraba principalmente en Lima y, dada la antiguedad de este virreinato, se sentía más protegida que en otros rincones. Su seguridad jurídica, sin embargo, se vino abajo con la llegada de la expedición militar al mando de José de San Martín, quien amparó 4.000 actos de confinamiento en prisiones contra civiles españoles. El acoso contra los españoles se tradujo en un exilio de unos 12.000 españoles en este virreinato.

El epílogo de la guerra tuvo tintes de masacre. Tras la batalla de Ayacucho en 1824, en Lima, cerca de 6.000 civiles españoles se refugiaron en la fortaleza del Callao cuya guarnición resistió hasta el año 1826 al más puro estilo de los Últimos de Filipinas. Aquel lugar fue el último refugio de un territorio que había sido hispánico desde tiempos de Pizarro. La capitulación de la fortaleza terminó con solo 400 soldados supervivientes, de un total de 700 personas vivas.

La masiva expulsión de españoles de América: la infame historia que escondió la independencia

Contribución de Dr. C. Campos y Escalante 
campce@gmail.com







Juan Latino: 
El primero negro catedrático de gramática de España


Erase una vez un negro mejor que Cervantes. De joven el negro le cargaba sus libros al amito y estaba a su disposición incluso en las horas. Cuando el hijo del amo termino los estudios, el que sabía griego, latín, matemáticas, gramática e historia era el criado negro.

Juan Latino ( el que siempre fue llamado en Granada Juan de Sessa), fue un esclavo negro traído en su infancia al Algarve por los comerciantes de esclavos portugueses, vendido en Sevilla al convento de San Francisco y posteriormente a la poderosa familia Fernández de Córdova —los herederos del Gran Capitán—.

Creció en Baena, se trasladó a Granada en la segunda década del siglo xvi, siguiendo a sus amos los Fernández de Córdova. Cursó estudios de bachiller y licenciatura en artes liberales, fue manumitido a la edad de treinta años, casó con doña Ana de Carleval, bella joven de muy distinguida familia

Llegó a ser profesor de latín en la universidad fundada por Carlos I y catedrático de gramática en el Colegio Catedralicio; y en los efímeros tiempos en que por decisión del César Carlos Granada fue capital política del imperio español, se convirtió en persona de gran influencia en los ámbitos más exclusivos del poder.

Fue amigo íntimo del arzobispo Pedro Guerrero, del omnímodo presidente de la Real Chancillería Pedro de Deza, y consejero de Juan de Austria cuando el hermanastro de Felipe II se instaló en la ciudad, con armas y bagajes, para sofocar la rebelión de los moriscos ocurrida en 1568.

Años más tarde, con motivo del triunfo en Lepanto, Juan Latino le dedicaría su obra más célebre, la elegía Austriada Cármine.

Tal era la confianza que en su talento y habilidad diplomática tenían los regidores de Granada, que con ocasión del traslado al Escorial de los restos mortales de los antecesores de Felipe II, hasta ese entonces sepultos en la granadina Capilla Real, el cabildo le encomendó la difícil tarea de convencer al Emperador para que no se llevase de la ciudad los sepulcros de los Reyes Católicos. Juan Latino era un hombre muy sagaz, amén de culto.

Tan astuto que mereció de Miguel de Cervantes, en el prólogo de El Quijote, la siguiente alusión —refiriéndose a sí mismo—: “Pues al cielo no le plugo / que salieses tan ladino/ como el negro Juan Latino”.

Haciendo, pues, uso de su proverbial talento persuasivo, nuestro negro dedicó a Felipe II una sentida elegía titulada De traslatione corporum regalium. En esta composición poética, escrita en latín como toda su obra, presenta a Granada como una matrona gozosa y doliente que se congratula por el nacimiento del príncipe Fernando, heredero de la corona, para de inmediato suplicar al Emperador que no se lleve de Granada los cuerpos de sus bisabuelos, pues constituyen y dan aliento al ser profundo de la ciudad.

Le recuerda amablemente su origen granadino, ya que el Emperador fue concebido en estos pagos, fruto del amor entre su padre e Isabel de Portugal, y promete eterna lealtad a la corona y fervoroso reconocimiento por la solicitada merced.

Accedió el Emperador a las pretensiones del negro. Si hoy los sepulcros de los Reyes Católicos continúan siendo visitados por muchos miles de turistas cada año, subrayando su asentamiento la transcendencia histórica de Granada, es gracias a la habilidad, el ingenio y lucidez de aquel hombre extraordinario que, según sus propias palabras, era negro de llamar la atención “como mosca en leche”, y según su amo, amigo y admirador Gonzalo Fernández de Córdova —nieto del Gran Capitán—, “rara avis in terra”.

Sin embargo en la granada de hoy solo una escuela de educación infantil lleva su nombre .

Contribución de Dr. C. Campos y Escalante 
campce@gmail.com



 PHILIPPINES

Racism, an Abbreviated Essay by Eddie AAA Calderón, Ph.D.


Racism, an Abbreviated Essay 
by 
Eddie AAA Calderón, Ph.D.

  
In my cyberspace discussion group the issue of racism has been an interesting topic and I am not very surprised if many of the discussants have confused racism with discrimination not caused by nor attributed to race when the conflict issues involve people belonging to the same race.  This is my response to the online discussion.
 
Racism is a topic that will not be etched in anyone's topic of conversation especially in the world we are living today despite laws enacted against it and other forms of discrimination. It is certain but also unfortunate, however, that many have confused racism with other forms of discrimination. I am well versed in this topic as I used to work for the city of  Minneapolis Department of Civil Rights in Minnesota, USA. My job was to investigate and resolve discrimination complaints involving unfair treatment caused not only by racism but by sexism, discrimination based on colour of the skin which can be different from complaints based on race, against homosexuals, against foreigners or national origin/nationality discrimination (which include and not only  limited to  the way they speak English with foreign accents), marital status (married, single, divorced), creed, etc. in the areas of employment, housing, education, public service, public accommodation, etc. These acts of discrimination are illegal.
 
Cultural differences that may bring forth a complaint of discrimination is not racism if the person belonging to a specific race of people files a complaint against a establishment if the owner and the members of that establishment belong to a race of people not belonging to the complainant. If it involves a dispute between a Caucasian and non-Caucasian  or between an Asian against a non-Asian, etc, where the aggrieved person filed a public complaint against the company's  head and who does not belong to that person's racial group, s/he can then file a discrimination complaint based on race  in the area of employment or public accommodation and service if the aggrieved party is also refused public accommodation and/or public service.
Native Filipinos, except those in non-Brown race, belong to one race, generally speaking, and that is the Brown or the Mongoloid race  which includes the Indochinese (Laotians, Vietnamese, Hmong people, Cambodians), Indonesians, Koreans, Chinese, Japanese, Tibetans, Manchurians, Nepalese, Malaysians, Singaporeans, etc.  So an Asian can discriminate against a fellow Asian because of difference in national origin and not due to racism. If we Filipinos can discriminate against other Filipinos because of our cultural differences,  it is again not a racial issue.  But this distinction can not hold true with those who were born with parents belonging to different races like the Mestizos in our country who are born of Caucasian/Asian-Filipino parents. Complaints filed in this case can be based on racial discrimination as both parties do not actually belong to the same race.
 
Racism is therefore a discrimination of one race of people against another. As I learnt it in high school and colleges (from  courses in Anthropology), there are at least 3 races of people. They are generally speaking Caucasian, Black. Mongoloid or Brown people. There are also white Caucasians as well as dark Caucasians such as Pakistanis. Bangladeshis, Indians, and some living in the Middle East. 
Also the difference between Caucasians who are White in complexion and those who are darker but are Caucasians make the discrimination complaint based on colour rather than race. I had investigated and resolved a case in my work  a complaint filed by a dark skinned Caucasian of Pakistani  origin against a White owner of a establishment  in the area of employment on the basis of colour and not on race. People of the same race can also file a complaint of discrimination based on colour and also on national origin. There are people of mixed races which then make the subject matter more interesting and challenging if complaints of discrimination are filed.
 
Also discrimination complaints lodged by a Hispanic from one country against another  Hispanic from another Hispanic country and from an African against another one from a different African country can be based on national origin if they all belong to the same race. But a Mulato (a child of White and African parents) and again a Mestizo (a child of White and Brown parents) can file a complaint of discrimination based on race if they are not exactly of the same race classification. 

Other than racism, a commercial or public institution can be subject to religious discrimination for a particular example if it only favours among other things persons belonging to one particular religion to work for the establishment and treat unfairly others  belonging to preferential religious denomination. The same is true with establishments that will only hire single people and not married or divorced, against homosexuals and others who are in legal protected status. I was proud to have resolved a race and national origin discrimination filed by several Hmong families (about 160 members) in the area of housing  against the Caucasian owner of the multiple apartment complexes where the Hmong people did not get their rent deposits back when they moved to another dwellings unlike  their White, Black and American Indian counterparts. The owner of the apartment complexes settled the Hmong complaints during a formal meeting in our office that I initiated and therefore I did not have to complete an investigation and make a recommendation for the city of Minneapolis to find either a probable or no probable cause of discrimination. 
 
And because of this, I received commendation and salary increase reward from the Minneapolis City Council.  I also received a high praise from the federal housing authority that deferred the complaint filed also with that office by the Hmong peoples until the city of Minneapolis Civil Rights Department had resolved the issue. This was not the only significant case(s) that I resolved for the city of Minneapolis. I included this topic in my article entitled Half a Century of Being in the USA.  Refer to:




SPAIN

Spain: a First-Time Visitor’s Overview ~ Nick Petrie
La nacionalidad de Cristóbal Colón por Jose Maria Lancho
El Castillo de los Mendoza
Donde reposan los restos de Da. Juana de Zúñiga la esposa de Hernán Cortés
       y de Catalina Cortés una de sus hijas. 



Spain: a First-Time Visitor’s Overview ~ Nick Petrie

When I was about to make my trip first to Spain, I didn’t know what to expect. So, I decided to do a background check on the country, and here’s what I found out: Spain is the second largest country in the European Union. It is so big because it was once a number of separate kingdoms Spain is a kingdom, a constitutional monarchy, to be exact. Its current ruler is King Felipe VI, who assumed power in 2014, after his father Juan Carlos had fallen from favor. Spain was the first country to rely on wind power as the main source of electricity. The world’s first modern novel was written by a Spaniard – Cervantes penned his Don Quixote as early as in 1605! Some of the world’s greatest artists – from Velazquez and Goya to Picasso and Dali - were born and worked in Spain!  These facts helped me bust a couple of stereotypes and set expectations. Now you too know enough to start your first journey to Spain! Are you willing to learn more? Then stay with me and I’ll tell you about my Spanish experiences! 

 




El Castillo de los Mendoza

 

Muy próximo a la Pedriza, con románticas vistas al Embalse de Santillana y a la Sierra de Guadarrama, descubre una de las fortalezas medievales mejor conservadas de España: el Castillo de los Mendoza, en Manzanares El Real. Recorre sus salones y estancias y déjate envolver en un viaje al pasado con sus visitas teatralizadas.

Construido en 1475 sobre una ermita románico-mudéjar en honor a Santa María de la Nava, el palacio-fortaleza de los Mendoza es hoy día uno de los mejor conservados de la Comunidad de Madrid.
Este castillo es una importante muestra de la arquitectura militar castellana del siglo XV y uno de los últimos en España. De hecho, su inicial vocación de fortaleza dejó paso a la de palacio residencial de una de las familias más linajudas de Castilla, desde la Edad Media: Los Mendoza.

Erigido sobre una ermita románico-mudéjar en honor a Santa María de la Nava, que data del siglo XIII, el palacio-fortaleza de los Mendoza es, de todas las fortalezas medievales existentes en España, la más conocida y una de las mejor conservadas. Sus obras dieron comienzo en 1475.

Este bellísimo conjunto de grandes ventanales de arcos de medio punto consta de patio rectangular y dos galerías sobre columnas octogonales. El edificio tiene cuatro torres en sus vértices, adornadas con unas bolas del más puro estilo isabelino. La galería situada encima del adarve meridional es de traza flamígera sobre antepechos decorados a base de punta de diamante.

En la actualidad el Castillo de Manzanares El Real es escenario durante de actividades públicas, congresos y seminarios, exposiciones, conciertos y actos promocionales, en la línea de mantener el castillo como un edificio vivo.

 
​Enviado por Dr. Carlos Campos y Escalante  campce@gmail.com

La lectura cura la peor de las enfermedades humanas, "la ignorancia".




La nacionalidad de Cristóbal Colón por Jose Maria Lancho 

 jmcamelot@gmail.com  
Es Noticia, Globos de Oro 2017
ABC La Tercera, Opinión, , 08/01/2017 (Jan 8, 2017)
http://www.abc.es/opinion/abci-nacionalidad-cristobal-colon-201701081724_noticia.html 

Con todos los matices que afectan a toda pretendida grandeza humana, la grandeza de Cristóbal Colón es tan enorme y su dimensión histórica tan autoevidente, que lo fue incluso para él mismo; no podemos por ello olvidar que, sin duda, Colón es uno de los pocos personajes de la historia que pudo escoger su patria. Y, efectivamente, Colón, pudiendo escoger cualquier patria, escogió la española.

Guardado en: Opinión
El poder busca en la historia su discurso, su fórmula para pervivir. Por eso, toda aspiración a un gobierno de la cultura es un estado de guerra. Bien lo expresó un viajero de las guerras perdidas, como fue Orwell, en una fórmula elemental: quien controla el pasado controla el futuro. La imposición organizada de un discurso histórico es el más viejo hechizo del poder y una de las más potentes agresiones a la identidad y la libertad del individuo. Por eso la política y la historia en occidente tienen fronteras de niebla, y todavía es imposible adentrarse puramente en ninguna de ellas. Condenadas mutuamente a reconstruirse, a sobrevivirse a pesar de la falsificación, el racismo o el prejuicio.
========================================= =========================================
El distanciamiento y fractura de las sociedades hispánicas parecen parte necesaria de la línea retórica de la presente historia del poder. La distorsión de los fundamentos identitarios hispanos alcanzó a aspectos tales como devaluación y revisión de la primacía en el descubrimiento del continente americano para los europeos o la nacionalidad del propio descubridor, Cristóbal Colón, entre otros muchos. 

Identificar esta cuestión, y proporcionar una  respuesta histórica al discurso dominante del poder es el urgente objeto de estas líneas.                        
"La cualidad nacional de Colón es parte de la disquisición corriente sobre el personaje. La singularidad del enfoque que propongo es que se ciñe a los actos propios del Almirante y el alcance que tuvieron en el derecho castellano."
Mucho se ha escrito sobre la nacionalidad de Colón, y su cualidad nacional es parte de la disquisición corriente sobre el personaje. La singularidad del enfoque que propongo es que se ciñe a los actos propios del Almirante y el alcance que tuvieron en el derecho castellano.
 
Es necesario precisar que la españolización de Colón fue una preocupación continua para el Almirante, una obsesión personal en todas sus negociaciones con los Reyes y en las que no dejó nada al azar. En Castilla, desde las Cortes de Alcalá de 1348 y la pragmática de 1369 del rey Enrique II en las Cortes de Toro, etc quedaban reservados los oficios, prelacías y beneficios del Reino exclusivamente para los naturales. Los servicios del conquistador de Canarias Jean de Béthencourt sólo le reportaron la ostentación de cargos castellanos cuando se hizo vasallo de Enrique III de Castilla. Sin naturalización Colón no podía adquirir legalmente las condiciones ni los Reyes cumplirlo.
¿Se naturalizó castellano Cristóbal Colón? A finales del siglo XV esa cualidad era una cosa bastante distinta del hecho de haber nacido en uno u otro lugar. Para comprenderlo un poco mejor vale citar a un jurista del siglo XVI, el francés Jean Bodin: «El ciudadano naturalizado es aquel que se ha hecho dependiente de la suprema autoridad de otro y por tal es admitido de el Señor». Américo Vespucio, cosmógrafo que dio su nombre al nuevo continente, no cejó hasta obtener una cédula de naturalización y hacerse castellano.
========================================= =========================================
En el caso de Colón, la condición legal de castellano está exhaustivamente trazada en un haz de documentos jurídicos que parten de las Capitulaciones de Santa Fe, documento básico que recoge las garantías reales a las propuestas de Colón y que tenían, como uno de sus efectos jurídicos fundamentales, que naturalizaban, en todo caso, a Colón como castellano. El tipo de ennoblecimiento de Colón tenía efectos directos en esa naturalización y él mismo se preocupó en que no dieran lugar a duda alguna. Se puede rastrear, incluso en la actualidad, reminiscencias del efecto naturalizador de los títulos nobiliarios en el derecho histórico hispánico. Así, por ejemplo, podemos encontrar en la propia Constitución de México, en su artículo 37, donde se prevé la pérdida de la nacionalidad mexicana por aceptar o usar títulos nobiliarios de gobiernos extranjeros. Los títulos de Colón no eran meramente honoríficos sino que suponían funcionalmente la sujeción directa y el reconocimiento como Señores a los Reyes de Castilla de una forma incompatible con cualquier otro vínculo soberano o respecto de cualquier otra nación.
"Y, efectivamente, Colón, pudiendo escoger cualquier patria, escogió la española."
Asimismo, y aún más importante, lo fue la solicitud y adquisición del cargo de almirante, y no porque le convirtiese en una suerte de general supremo de la marina de los Reyes Católicos, Cristóbal Colón no mandaba sobre Galcerán de Requesens o Juan de Lezcano, verdaderos lobos de la guerra del mar de las coronas de Castilla y Aragón. El título de Almirante tenía importancia jurídica por otro aspecto aún más relevante: se trataba de un oficio de la casa de Corte, que es regulado en la Segunda Partida en el Título IX del Rey Alfonso X y describe una vinculación orgánica con el Reino y con la casa del rey, todo ello mucho más importante para Colón que establecerle: "caudillo de todos los navíos que son para guerrear" del rey, pues pertenecer a su casa era el elemento básico para que Colón formalizara su naturaleza en estos Reinos y pudiera ostentar los cargos de virrey y gobernador y gozase los beneficios y privilegios o capacidad para dictar justicia.
 

 

El proceso no se detuvo hasta lograr una identificación de las armas de Colón con las castellanas, pues si bien entre los meses de mayo y junio de 1493, los Reyes Católicos le premian con una real provisión de "acrecentamiento" de armas, de forma que Colón podrá ostentar las armas del Reino de Castilla y León pero con ligeras diferencias, él mismo modificará motu proprio su escudo para hacerlo coincidir con las armas del Reino. Con todos los matices que afectan a toda pretendida grandeza humana, la grandeza de Cristóbal Colón es tan enorme y su dimensión histórica tan autoevidente, que lo fue incluso para él mismo; no podemos por ello olvidar que, sin duda, Colón es uno de los pocos personajes de la historia que pudo escoger su patria. Y, efectivamente, Colón, pudiendo escoger cualquier patria, escogió la española.
 
José María Lancho es abogado e historiador 
jmcamelot@gmail.com 
TEMAS HISTORIA
Toda la actualidad en portada Series

 

 

Editor Mimi:  Below are some responses to the article by Jose Maria Lancho, which is apparently one of a series on the topic of incorrect colonial history propagated by the English.  It is encouraging that a global awareness is growing.  Names of these respondents were not included.  
========================================= =========================================
Acabo de ver en TeleMadrid un reportaje lamentable dirigido por un británico, como no, donde habla de la conquista de América y de Colón muy en la línea británica. Toditos los tópicos de los ingleses están presentes.

Que una cadena española emita ese bodrio tiene delito. Resulta aún más lamentable si tenemos en cuenta que los ingleses han cometido todo tipo de tropelías, empezando por la conquista de Norteamérica donde no dejaron vivo ni un indígena, y los pocos que quedaron los metieron en reservas. Encima han hecho de sus tropelías un motivo de orgullo. TeleMadrid lo emite y se quedan tan panchos. Que estúpidos.
ResponderCompartir6 respuestas111

¿Qué va a esperar usted  de los británicos? La envidia es muy mala. Ellos impulsaron la "leyenda negra de España" y muchos se han tragado los sapos como si fueran galletas María. Los ingleses han sido, y son, los mayores expoliadores del mundo ( salvando la campaña Egipcia de Napoleón, que se llevó hasta el papel higiénico).Saludos. ResponderCompartir91
 
Hombre, cree que los ingleses exterminaron a los indios y los metieron en reservas, como para pedirle que sepa que hicimos los españoles en esa parte del contienete  ResponderCompartir1 respuesta04
 

 

Los britanicos no conquistaron Norteamerica. Norte America como Sudamerica eran possesiones españolas. La parte este de Norteamerica fue arrebatada de los españoles. Los britanicos llegaron a Norteamerica cerca de 1682 cuando todo el continente de norte a sur ya habia sido oficialmente descubierto por España. Me surprende que muchos españoles no conozcan la historia correcta de la conquista de America.
ResponderCompartir2 respuestas61

Vaya, pues viendo los negativos igual si va a ser que fueon los britanicos los que metieron a los indios en reservas, habra que avisar a Hollyood para que corrijan ese error en tantas y tantas peliculas. ResponderCompartir00
 
 
Pues yo hubiera jurado que los que no dejaron vivo ni un ''indigena'' y los que meterieron en reservas a los que quedaron fueron los estadounidenses, pero igual estoy equivocado. ResponderCompartir1 respuesta03
 
Gracias por darme la razon con tantos negativos, y por confirmar una vez mas la poca cultura del comentarista medio, por cierto, otro dia hablaremos de nativos o aborigenes, igual os llevais otra sorpresa.  ResponderCompartir00

 



¿Donde reposan los restos de Da. Juana de Zúñiga la esposa de Hernán Cortés
 y de Catalina Cortés una de sus hijas? 

Convento de la Madre de Dios en Sevilla

 

LA SEVILLA QUE NO VEMOS
     CONVENTO DE MADRE DE DIOS ( I ) 
   

  Remate de la puerta principal . Relieve de la Virgen entregado el rosario a Santo Domingo
Obra de Juan de Oviedo  fechado en 1590

 
JULIO DOMÍNGUEZ ARJONA
14 de Julio  de 2008

Hoy nuestros pasos nos llevan , en estas luminosas mañanas de domingo de verano a la penumbra de otra iglesia de convento de clausura , en este caso el Convento de Madre de Dios de la Piedad .-,

 
Ojalá todos nuestros monumentos tuvieran una lápida como esta que informara al curioso visitante de la vida y milagro del mismo, y de la tremenda importancia de los que hay dentro 


 
Retablo mayor obra de Francisco de Barahona  en 1684; siendo dorado por José López Chico un año después ;  en el se encuentran algunas esculturas del antiguo retablo de Jeronimo Hernández  de 1573.-

En la parte superior espectacular artesonado mudejar  obra de Francisco Ramírez, Alonso Ruiz y Alonso Castillo en 1568 .-

 
Detalle del retablo mayor. La Virgen del Rosario , la Sagrada Cena  son del anterior obra de Jeronimo Hernández .-
  

 

Sepulcro de Doña Catalina Cortés  obra de Juan de Oviedo y Miguel Adán  en 1590 .-

 
Retablo de San Juan Bautista  obra de Miguel Adán en 1580  

 
Retablo  de la Virgen del Rosario , obra de finales del siglo XVI , también de Miguel Adán 

continuará...  Enviado por  Dr. Carlos D. Campos y Escalante campce@gmail.com
La lectura cura la peor de las enfermedades humanas, "la ignorancia".

 


INTERNATIONAL

Kiva: Loans that change lives across the globe 
“King Mohammed VI Renames Marrakech Neighborhood to Original Jewish Name” 
The $2.6 Billion Treasure Still Lost at The Bottom of the Sea by Allison McNearney
The Islamization of France in 2016: France has a problem with Islam bu Soeren Kern




Kiva: Loans that change lives
https://www.kiva.org/

We envision a world where all people hold the power to create opportunity for themselves and others.

Kiva is an international nonprofit, founded in 2005 and based in San Francisco, with a mission to connect people through lending to alleviate poverty. We celebrate and support people looking to create a better future for themselves, their families and their communities.

By lending as little as $25 on Kiva, anyone can help a borrower start or grow a business, go to school, access clean energy or realize their potential. For some, it’s a matter of survival, for others it’s the fuel for a life-long ambition.

100% of every dollar you lend on Kiva goes to funding loans. Kiva covers costs primarily through optional donations, as well as through support from grants and sponsors.  

Make a loan to an entrepreneur across the globe for as little as $25. Kiva is the world's first online lending platform connecting online lenders to entrepreneurs.  https://www.kiva.org/about/how 

Posted on the site is a listing of loan requests with the photos and nationality of the entrepreneur.  
The listing is updated when the needed funds are accumulated for each loan.

    

Editor Mimi:  The Kiva system of a continual roll-over of funds is very similar to a program initiated by the LDS Church in 2001. It is based on a very successful  program called the Perpetual Emigration Fund which supplied loans to church members immigrating from Europe to the United States in the mid 1800s.

I read about the Perpetual Immigration Fund in the journal of two of my grandson's maternal Dutch grandfather. As a young man, their great-grandfather had converted to the LDS Church and with the loan was able to immigrant and reach Salt Lake.  

I wonder if some of the countless scholarships and grants which are being granted by various means and programs would do well to adopt the same concept.  It would require more paper work, but would build up a fiscal base, increase the amount of funds available.   It could also encourage a community spirit among both those who made the loan and those that received the loan. 

 

The Perpetual Education Fund

A Bright Ray of Hope
The Perpetual Education Fund (PEF) was established in 2001 during general conference when Gordon B. Hinckley, then President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, announced a “bold initiative” to help youth in developing areas "rise out of the poverty they and generations before them have known." He spoke of returned missionaries and other ambitious young men and women who have great capacity but meager opportunities:

“I believe the Lord does not wish to see His people condemned to live in poverty. I believe He would have the faithful enjoy the good things of the earth.” President Hinckley proposed a solution to this widespread poverty: “In an effort to remedy this [lack of opportunity], we propose a plan … which we believe is inspired by the Lord. … We shall call it the Perpetual Education Fund.” He further declared, “Education is the key to opportunity” (“The Perpetual Education Fund,” Ensign, May 2001, 52–53).

Perpetual Emigration Fund

The PEF program is patterned after the Perpetual Emigration Fund, which helped more than 30,000 early Church members journey to the Salt Lake Valley from Europe in the mid to late 1800s.

The program is funded through contributions of Church members and others who support its mission. It is a revolving resource in which money is loaned to an individual to help pay for training or advanced education. When a student has graduated and is working, he or she then pays back the loan at a low interest rate. Repayments allow for future loans.

“Today’s world is competitive, more than it’s ever been. I believe men and women need to get a type of education which will enable them to meet the exigencies [urgent needs] of life. … Men and women need to be prepared for a vastly broader scope than we’ve ever had before. ... [The Perpetual Education Fund] is a fund that will go far into the future” (Thomas S. Monson, in “16th President Fields Questions from Media,” Church News, Feb. 4, 2008)

https://www.lds.org/topics/pef-self-reliance/perpetual-education-fund?lang=eng 




 

King Mohammed VI of Morocco 
(Photo courtesy of Morocco on the Move

 

King Mohammed VI 

Renames Marrakech Neighborhood
to Original Jewish Name” 
By Morocco World News



Continuing Morocco’s policy of visibly celebrating Jewish history and culture as part of the fabric of Moroccan society, King Mohammed VI recently instructed authorities to change the street names in the Esallem neighborhood of Marrakech back to their original Jewish names. 

In addition, the original Jewish name of the neighborhood, El Mellah, will also be restored.

 American Sephardi Federation




The $2.6 Billion Treasure Still Lost at The Bottom of the Sea
by Allison McNearney
The Daily Beast


To this day, the wreck of the Flor de la Mar lies in wait, 
ready for a lucky underwater adventurer to disturb its resting place and strike it rich.

========================================= =========================================
Imagine Lisbon in 1502, during the height of Portugal’s golden age of exploration.
The port is bustling with activity as the empire’s latest crowning achievement is unveiled—a massive new ship that is the finest the seafaring nation has ever built. Clocking in at 118 feet long, 111 feet tall, and 400 tons, the Flor de la Mar was the largest vessel in the fleet. 
From the very first nail that was hammered into the very first board, the Portuguese carrack (or ocean-bound ship) was destined for India to serve the glory of god and country—by conquering and plundering the land of gold and spices that had so enthralled the West. 
========================================= === =========================================
One could say that this ship was built with some seriously bad karma.  Regardless, she was a beauty, albeit one with some flaws that would soon be discovered.  But that wouldn’t stop her from outlasting the typical life expectancy of the India-bound boats at the time, plying the seas for nine years before sinking to her final resting place. When that day came, she took with her what many consider to be the most valuable treasure ever to go down with a ship. 

Soon after the grand unveiling in 1502, the Flor de la Mar took her maiden voyage under the command of Captain Estêvão da Gama, a cousin of renowned explorer Vasco da Gama. The crew sailed to India, where they gathered all the spoils that would fit into their hull before pointing their masts for home.

But on the return trip, the ship encountered her first difficulties. It turns out, a boat as big as this was a bit cumbersome and not particularly well suited to the waters it was sailing. In the height of naval indignities, the boat started leaking.
The holes were eventually patched and the ship would reach her home port several months after she was expected, but this problem would never be fully resolved. That didn’t stop the Flor de la Mar from continuing on to a storied career. 

Under a new captain, the ship set sail a few years later for her second merchant voyage to India. But after again springing a series of damaging leaks on the return trip, she was unloaded midway home and rerouted to permanent residency as part of an armada patrolling the East Indies, conquering anything that caught their fancy.

For the next four years, the Flor de la Mar became a battle ship, helping to vanquish some of the area’s most culturally and economically rich cities including Socotra, Muscat, Ormuz, and Goa. For the majority of this time, the ship was part of the squadron under the command of Alfonso de Albuquerque, a nobleman and admiral who would become Portugal’s second viceroy to India. 
========================================= =========================================
In addition to capturing the city as the latest gem in the crown of the Portuguese empire, Albuquerque also plundered the city—and the sultan’s palace, in particular—of its greatest treasures. Despite the Flor de la Mar’s spotty history as a merchant vessel, not to mention its advanced age at this time.
Albuquerque decided the ship was the perfect mode of transportation for his vast haul.
He would return triumphant to Portugal, bringing with him boundless riches and facilitating the homecoming after more than six years of what was once Portugal’s greatest ship. 

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2017/01/08/the-2-6-billion-treasure-still-lost-at-the-bottom-of-the-sea.html 

Sent by John Inclan fromgalveston@yahoo.com 

 

 

The Islamization of France in 2016

"France has a problem with Islam"

 


The Muslim population of France was approximately 6.5 million in 2016, or around 10% of the overall population of 66 million. In real terms, France has the largest Muslim population in the European Union, just above Germany.
Although French law prohibits the collection of official statistics about the race or religion of its citizens, Gatestone Institute's estimate of France's Muslim population is based on several studies that attempted to calculate the number of people in France whose origins are from Muslim-majority countries.
What follows: chronological review of some of the main stories about the rise of Islam in France during 2016:
JANUARY 2016
January 1. The Interior Ministry announced the most anticipated statistic of the year: a total of 804 cars and trucks were torched across France on New Year's Eve, a 14.5% decrease from the 940 vehicles burned during the annual ritual on the same holiday in 2015. Car burnings, commonplace in France, are often attributed to rival Muslim gangs that compete with each other for the media spotlight over which can cause the most destruction. An estimated 40,000 cars are burned in France every year.
January 3. Raouf El Ayeb, a 31-year-old French citizen of Tunisian origin, was charged with attempted homicide after he tried to run down four troops who were guarding a mosque in Valence. Although police found "jihadist propaganda images" on Ayeb's computer, they attributed the attack to "depressive syndrome" rather than terrorism because he was not heard shouting "Allahu Akbar" (Allah is the greatest) during the attack.

January 7. Sallah Ali, a Moroccan born French citizen, stormed a police station in the 18th district of Paris while shouting "Allahu Akbar." He was carrying a butcher knife, and Islamic State flag and was wearing what appeared to be an explosive belt. Police opened fire and shot him dead. The belt was found to contain fake explosives. Investigators were unsure whether the attack was an act of terrorism or the work of a man who was "unbalanced."

January 11. A 16-year-old Turkish Kurd brandishing a machete attacked a Jewish teacher outside a school in Marseille. The perpetrator said he had acted "in the name of Allah and the Islamic State."

January 12. Some 80,000 people applied for asylum in France in 2015, but only one-third of the applications were approved, according to the French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless people (Ofpra).

January 13. Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve banned three Islamic cultural organizations that ran the Lagny-sur-Marne mosque, which was closed down as part of a security crackdown. He accused the leaders of the groups of inciting hatred and calling for jihad over a period of several years.

January 15. An Ifop poll for Le Monde found that half (51%) of French Jews feel they are under threat because they are Jewish; 63% said they have been insulted; and 43% said they have been attacked. Some 70% of those who said they want to leave France said they been exposed to anti-Semitic acts.

January 27. The Ministry of Culture assigned an "18 and over" rating to "Salafistes," a documentary which features interviews with North African jihadists. The filmmakers said the government wanted to "kill the film" by banning it from being aired on public TV, and making cinemas reluctant to show it. Filmmakers François Margolin and Lemime Ould Salem insisted that the film should be given as wide an audience as possible. "What has upset the French authorities is not the violence, but the subject itself," Margolin said. "They want to prevent French citizens from knowing the truth."

January 28. The Council of State (Conseil d'État), France's highest administrative court, rejected a request by the country's Human Rights League (Ligue des droits de l'Homme, LDH) to lift the state of emergency imposed after the November 2015 terror attacks. "The imminent danger justifying the state of emergency has not disappeared, given the ongoing terrorist threat and the risk of attacks," according to a statement issued by the court. LDH had argued that the extraordinary powers given to security services posed a threat to democracy.

FEBRUARY 2016
February 2. Six converts to Islam were arrested in Lyon on suspicion of seeking to purchase weapons in order to attack swinger clubs in France. They were allegedly planning to travel to Syria after the attacks, and had already purchased bus tickets to Turkey.

February 7. An increased police presence in northern port of Calais spread France's migrant crisis to other parts of the country. Migrant camps sprouted up in the nearby ports of Dunkirk, Le Havre, Dieppe and Belgium's Zeebrugge, as migrants sought new ways to cross the English Channel to Britain.

February 9. The Islamic State identified France's National Front party as a "prime target" in the latest issue of its French-language Dar al Islam online magazine. It also identified supporters of the National Front as targets. The publication published a photo of a National Front rally with a caption which reads: "The question is no longer whether France will be hit again by attacks like those of November. The only relevant question is the next target and the date."

February 10. The National Assembly, the lower house of parliament, approved a proposal to amend the constitution to strip people convicted of terrorist offenses of their French nationality. For the measures to be fully adopted, they require the support of the Senate, as well as a three-fifths majority of Congress, the body formed when both houses meet at the Palace of Versailles to vote on revisions to the constitution.

February 15. The Council of State upheld legal provisions that allow the government to block any website that "apologizes for terrorism." Several digital rights associations had challenged the legality of two decrees related to the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2014.

February 29. Demolition teams began dismantling the southern part of the "The Jungle," a squalid migrant camp in the northern port town of Calais. The government tried to relocate the migrants to official accommodations inside converted shipping containers in the northern part of the camp. But most refused the offer, fearing they would be forced to claim asylum in France. "Going to Britain is what people here want," Afghan migrant Hayat Sirat said. "So destroying part of the jungle is not the solution."
 
French riot police attempt to control a crowd of migrants in "The Jungle" squatter camp near Calais, on February 29, 2016, as demolition teams begin dismantling the southern part of the camp. After being pelted with stones and other objects, police responded with tear gas and water cannon. (Image source: RT video screenshot)

MARCH 2016
March 3. French MPs rejected a proposal to force manufacturers of mobile phones, tablets and computers to hand over data to the security services. The amendments, inspired by Apple's refusal to give data to American authorities, were tabled in a debate on an anti-terrorism bill.

March 6. Police embarked on a manhunt for three French girls suspected of leaving for Syria. French intelligence services said an increasing number of girls are departing for Syria. They reported that among the 81 French minors who have left for Syria, a majority (51) are female. They are believed to be looking for jihadi husbands.

March 7. Migrants evicted from "The Jungle" at Calais moved to a new camp in Grande-Synthe near the northern port of Dunkirk, just up the coast. Critics said the new camp risks becoming a "new Sangatte," referring to Calais's the Red Cross center that was closed in 2002.

March 9. A confidential police report revealed that 17 Muslim police officers assigned to the Paris police department were investigated between 2012 and 2015 for Islamic radicalization. The officers, among other lapses, listened to religious music while on patrol, refused to protect Jewish synagogues and incited to commit terrorist attacks on social media.

March 11. Four girls, including three aged 14 and 15, were arrested in Paris and Lyon after threatening on the Internet to commit jihadist attacks "similar to those on November 13."

March 22. French Prime Minister Manuel Valls, reacting to the jihadist attacks in Brussels, Belgium, said: "We are at war."

March 24. Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said police had foiled a terrorist attack that was in an "advanced stage" of planning. Reda Kriket, a 34-year-old French national, was arrested in Boulogne-Billancourt after police found ten kilos of explosives in his home.

March 30. President François Hollande dropped a plan to push for a constitutional amendment that would revoke the citizenship of convicted jihadists. He first raised the idea after the November 2015 Paris attacks, but the proposed reforms failed to find support in the opposition-dominated Senate.

March 30. The Minister of Families, Children and Women's Rights, Laurence Rossignol, accused Muslim activists and Salafists of promoting Islamic fashion in Europe in order to impose political Islam. She said:
"What is at stake is social control over the bodies of women. When European brands invest in the lucrative Islamic fashion market, they are shirking their responsibilities and are promoting a situation where Muslim women are forced to wear garments that imprison the female body from head to toe."
March 30. French fashion mogul Pierre Bergé criticized European designers who create Islamic clothing and headscarves:
"I am not an Islamophobe. Women have the right to wear headscarves, but I do not understand why we are embracing this religion [Islam] and those manners that are incompatible with the freedoms that are ours in the West."
APRIL 2016
April 3. French feminist Elisabeth Badinter called for a boycott of brands that are profiting from Islamic clothing. She warned that cultural relativism was preventing the French from seeing the alarming rise of Islamism in France. She added that tolerance "has turned against those it was meant to help" with the result that "the veil has spread among the daughters of our neighborhoods" due to "mounting Islamic pressure." According to Badinter, many French citizens are afraid to speak out about the Islamization of France because of fears of being accused of "Islamophobia."

April 12. Prime Minister Manuel Valls said it was the job of the French government "to demonstrate that Islam, the second largest religion in France, is fundamentally compatible with the Republic, with democracy, our values, equality between men and women." He added:
"Some people do not want to believe it, a majority of our fellow citizens are in doubt, but I am convinced that it is possible. That is why we must protect our compatriots of Muslim faith and culture from stigmatization, anti-Muslim acts."

April 14. Prime Minister Manuel Valls called for a ban on Muslim headscarves in universities. France already bans the Muslim face veil in public places. Valls said the headscarf was being used by some to challenge France's secular society. "The veil does not represent a fashion fad, no, it is not a color one wears, no, it is enslavement of women," he said, warning of the "ideological message that can spread behind religious symbols."

April 22. More than 150 migrants from Afghanistan, Eritrea, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen occupied a high school in the 19th district of Paris. They deployed a banner which read: "A roof and papers for all refugees."

April 25. French security officials rejected an Israeli company's offer of terrorist-tracking software that could have helped them identify the jihadist cell that carried out the attacks on November 13, 2015. The offer of data-mining technology that would have allowed French authorities to "connect all the dots" concerning Islamic extremists was made to the DGSI, France's main intelligence agency. "French authorities liked it, but the official came back and said there was a higher-level instruction not to buy Israeli technology," a well-placed Israeli counter-terrorism analyst revealed. "The discussion just stopped."

April 29. Ifop poll for Le Figaro found that French attitudes toward Islam are hardening. Nearly half (47%) of French people said the Muslim community poses a "threat" to national identity. Almost two-thirds said Islam has become too "influential and visible." Only 13% of French people "favor" the construction of mosques in the country, and 63% are opposed to the veil. Ifop Director Jérôme Fourquet explained:
"The deterioration of Islam's image in France wasn't triggered by the attacks, even if those events contributed to it. What we're seeing is more of a growing resistance within French society to Islam. It was already the case among voters for the National Front and part of the right, but it has now expanded to the Socialist Party."
April 30. Canal+ broadcast a documentary about an Islamic State cell in Châteauroux, a city in central France. An undercover journalist with a hidden camera infiltrated the group, known as the "Soldiers of Allah," for a period of six months. The leader of the group, a 20-year-old Franco-Turk, Emir Abu Osama, was filmed talking about attacking passenger planes with missiles. He also threatened attacks on media outlets, nightclubs and military bases. "I want to die a martyr, that is my dream," he said.

MAY 2016

May 2. Police evacuated more than a thousand people from a makeshift migrant camp near the Stalingrad metro station in Paris. It was the third time the camp was cleared in as many months.

May 9. Prime Minister Manuel Valls unveiled a €40 million ($42 million) plan to build 13 deradicalization centers, one in each of France's metropolitan regions, aimed at deradicalizing would-be jihadists. Each center would host a maximum of 25 individuals ages 18 to 30. The government hopes that 3,600 radicalized individuals will enter these deradicalization centers during the next two years. Some 9,300 people in France are believed to have been radicalized.

May 10. Patrick Calvar, the head of France's DGSI intelligence agency, warned that the Islamic State was planning a wave of attacks in France. "France is clearly the most threatened country," he said. "The question about the threat is not if but when and where." Calvar told the parliament's defense committee about "a new form of attack ... characterized by placing explosive devices in places where there are large crowds and repeating this type of action to create a climate of maximum panic."

May 14. In an interview with Taki's Magazine, Jesse Hughes, the leader of the American band Eagles of Death Metal, discussed the November 2015 jihadist attack on the Bataclan Theater in Paris in which 89 of his fans were killed. Hughes claimed he saw "Muslims celebrating in the street during the attack." He also suggested the jihadists colluded with security personnel at the venue. Hughes called for greater scrutiny of Muslims in the West.

May 20. Two French music festivals, Cabaret Vert and Rock en Seine, cancelled concerts by Eagles of Death Metal because of remarks by the band's leader, Jesse Hughes, about the Bataclan attacks. The concert organizers said they were "in total disagreement" with comments Hughes made during a May 14 interview with Taki's Magazine. Among other offending statements, Hughes called for greater scrutiny of Muslims in the West.
May 21. French intelligence officials discovered "jihadist collusion" among Muslim employees at Paris's Charles de Gaulle Airport. The Times of London wrote:
"More than 60 passes were withdrawn for 'inappropriate behavior,' such as a refusal to trim a beard or to shake hands with female colleagues. Some employees had their passes withdrawn for praying in Salafist mosques, others because a copy of the Koran was found in their lockers. Some were said to have expressed support for the jihadists who killed 130 people in Paris six months ago."
May 31. Record numbers of French Jews are leaving Paris and are moving to other parts of the country to escape a rising anti-Semitism perpetrated by Muslim immigrants, according to Agence France-Presse. France has the largest Jewish population in Europe, estimated at around 500,000 people. Half of them live in the Paris area, but their numbers are steadily declining. A growing number of French Jews have become "internal refugees" and have moved to other parts of France to escape the insecurity in Paris. Others have fled France altogether. A record 8,000 French Jews moved to Israel in 2015 alone.

May 31. Migrants evicted from Calais moved to Paris and established a massive squatter camp at the Jardins d'Eole, a public park near the Gare du Nord station, from where high-speed Eurostar trains travel to and arrive from London. The area, so dangerous that the government has classified it as a no-go zone (Zone de sécurité prioritaires, ZSP), has become a magnet for human traffickers who charge migrants thousands of euros for fake travel documents, for passage to London.

JUNE 2016
June 3. A new counter-terrorism law expanded eavesdropping powers, such as bugging private residences, installing hidden cameras and using IMSI-catchers to track cellphone conversations. The law also established genuine life sentences for perpetrators of terrorist crimes and toughened the conditions for sentence reductions.

June 8. The Council of State, France's highest administrative court, rejected an appeal by five men stripped of their French nationality after they were convicted of terrorism. "Due to the nature and seriousness of the terrorist acts committed, the punishment of the stripping of nationality was not disproportionate," the ruling said. The five dual-national citizens involved were sentenced in France in 2007 for their role in a series of bombings in Casablanca, Morocco, in 2003 that left 45 dead. Four of the men hold dual Moroccan nationality and the fifth, dual Turkish nationality. The ruling means they can now be deported to their country of origin.

June 8. Two men assaulted a female bartender in downtown Nice for serving alcohol on the first day of Ramadan. The men said: "You should be ashamed to serve alcohol during the Ramadan period. If I were Allah, I would have you hanged." A Tunisian baker was assaulted in the same part of town for selling ham sandwiches.

June 14. Larossi Abballa, a 25-year-old French citizen of Moroccan origin, stabbed to death a police commander and his wife at their home in Magnanville, a suburb of Paris. Abballa, who claimed allegiance to the Islamic State, posted live images of the attack on Facebook.

June 14. A 32-year-old jihadist stabbed a 19-year-old woman at a bus stop in Rennes. He told police he wanted to "make a sacrifice" during Ramadan. Police said the man was "unbalanced."

June 15. Maude Vallet, an 18-year-old student from Toulouse who was returning home from a trip to the beach, was assaulted on a bus in Le Mourillon, Toulon, by five Muslim girls who hurled insults at her because she was wearing shorts.

June 16. A 22-year-old jihadist was arrested at the central train station in Carcassonne. The convert to Islam confessed to police that has was planning to attack American tourists. Police said the man had psychological problems.

June 22. Police investigated new threats against Charlie Hebdo, 17 months after eight members of its staff were killed by jihadists. Some 20 "very threatening" messages, including death threats, were posted on the paper's Facebook page.

June 28. A police spokesman said that 100 officers out of the 300 currently on duty to protect France's beaches would be armed during the summer to respond to potential jihadist attacks.

June 28. The Roman Catholic Cardinal of Lyon ordered the removal of seven stone statues of monks killed in Algeria during the 1990s. The Algerian consul in Lyon complained that he had not been informed that the statues would be placed in a public square near the Church of St. Louis, which happens to be in the vicinity of a Salafist mosque. Cardinal Barbarin removed the statues so as "not to annoy anyone." He added: "Can you imagine if an unbalanced person [jihadist] would decapitate these statues?"

June 30. Two French teenagers were handed suspended prison sentences for going to Syria in 2014 to join a brigade led by Mourad Farès, one of France's main internet jihadi recruiters. The pair, aged 15 and 16, were both given six-month suspended sentences, a sign, according to one of their lawyers, that the court did not wish to "stigmatize them as terrorists."

JULY 2016
July 1. Richard Sautour, director of Restos du Coeur, a charity, was attacked with a knife and an axe at a soup kitchen in Montreuil by a couple shouting "Allahu Akbar."

July 6. Seven men from Strasbourg who went to Syria between December 2013 and April 2014 were sentenced to terms in prison ranging from six to nine years. The heaviest sentence was handed to Karim Mohamed-Aggad, the brother of the Bataclan suicide bomber Foued Mohamed-Aggad, sentenced to nine years in jail. The defendants claimed they had traveled to Syria to do humanitarian aid work and were forced to join the Islamic State.

July 6. A Senate fact-finding report revealed that the salaries of 301 imams in France are being paid by foreign governments under conventions signed by three countries: Algeria, Morocco and Turkey.

July 6. A French parliamentary commission of inquiry into the 2015 Paris terrorist attacks published a report which recommended that the country's intelligence services be streamlined. France currently has six different intelligence units answering to the interior, defense and economy ministries.

July 7. Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris launched its own intelligence agency, with 30 agents, to collect "more sophisticated information" to protect against jihadist attacks. The airport is the second-largest in Europe.

July 12. A court in Nîmes ruled that France's intelligence agencies were partly responsible for the death of Corporal Abel Chennouf, a soldier murdered by Toulouse gunman Mohamed Merah in 2012. Judges ruled that the French state's failure to keep tabs on the jihadist was tantamount to refusing to assist a person in danger, a crime in French law. The court ordered the state to pay compensation to his widow, his son, who was born just after his death, and his parents-in-law. Victims of the November attacks in Paris said they would launch a similar lawsuit.

July 14. Mohamed Lahouajej-Bouhlel, a 31-year-old Tunisian, rammed a 19-ton cargo truck into crowds of people celebrating Bastille Day in Nice, killing 86 people and wounding more than 400.

July 17. Prime Minister Manuel Valls said: "Terrorism will be a part of our daily lives for a long time. Let's be clear: Times have changed."

July 18. An Ifop poll for Le Figaro found that 99% of French people consider the terrorist threat in France to be high or very high, but only one-third (33%, -16 points compared to January 2016) trust President François Hollande and Prime Minister Manuel Valls to fight terrorism.

July 19. Mohamed Boufarkouch, a 37-year-old Moroccan, stabbed a 45-year-old mother and her three daughters, aged 8, 10 and 13, at an Alpine resort in Garde-Colombe. The attacker reportedly complained that the victims were scantily dressed. Mayor Edmond Francou said the attacker may have been "psychologically ill," but a psychiatrist who examined the man did not detect "any particular psychiatric pathology."

July 19. A 23-year-old Parisian taxi driver was arrested after police raided his home and found explosives, as well as an Islamic State flag, three passports and two driver's licenses.

July 21. The National Assembly, the lower house of parliament, approved a counter-terrorism law that expands police powers of search, seizure and detention. Maximum sentences for terrorism offenses were also increased to 30 years, up from 10 years

July 25. Piranha Edition, a Paris-based publishing company, reversed its decision to publish a French version of the German bestseller "Der Islamische Faschismus" (Islamic Fascism). German-Egyptian author Hamed Abdel-Samad said the book was due to be published in September, but the publisher backed out after the jihadist attack in Nice.

July 26. Adel Kermiche and Abdel-Malik Nabir Petitjean, both aged 19, slit the throat of Jacques Hamel, an 85-year-old priest, at a church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, Normandy. One of the attackers was known to police and had been required to wear an electronic bracelet to monitor his movements. The other attacker was a full-time baggage handler at a local airport.

July 28. The Islamic State news agency AMAQ released a video showing Abdel-Malik Nabir Petitjean, one of the men who slit the throat of a priest in Normandy. Addressing President François Hollande and Prime Minister Manuel Valls, Petitjean said:
"The times have changed. You will suffer what our brothers and sisters are suffering. We are going to destroy your country. Brothers go out with a knife, whatever is needed, attack them, kill them en masse."
July 28. A friend of Jacques Hamel, the priest who had his throat slit by jihadists in Normandy, revealed that Hamel had donated land adjacent to his church to local Muslims to build a mosque, and they had been given use of the parish hall and other facilities during Ramadan.
July 28. Authorities in Nice banned a citizens' march planned for July 31 to commemorate the victims of the jihadist attack in Nice. Police said the threat of another attack was too great.

July 28. More than a dozen Muslim youths firebombed a city bus Saint-Denis. They placed trash cans in the street to force the bus to stop. Before throwing incendiary devices inside the vehicle, they ordered the driver and passengers to get off. The bus was completely destroyed by the flames.

July 29. Prime Minister Manuel Valls said he was open to a temporary ban on foreign funding of mosques in France. Observers said that a 1905 law on the separation of church and state prohibits the French government from directly financing mosques, many of which therefore rely on foreign funding.

July 29. An Ifop poll for Atlantico found that 77% of French people are concerned about terrorism; 58% view terrorism as their main concern.
AUGUST 2016
August 1. Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve revealed that "about twenty" radical mosques and prayer rooms were closed during the first seven months of 2016. "There will be others," he said. Some 120 of the 2,500 mosques and prayer rooms in France are believed to be preaching Salafism, a fundamentalist interpretation of Sunni Islam.
August 1. Anouar Kbibech, the head of the French Council of the Muslim Faith (Conseil français du culte musulman, CFCM), a Muslim umbrella group, said he would work with the government to harmonize the theological formation of imams in France in order to "dismantle the jihadist argument."
August 3. France introduced sea patrols for passenger ferries to and from Britain to protect against jihadist attacks.
August 4. At least five of the jihadists who carried out the attacks in Paris and Brussels financed themselves with social welfare payments: they received more than €50,000 ($53,000). The main surviving Paris suspect, Salah Abdeslam, collected unemployment benefits amounting to €19,000 ($20,000) until three weeks before the November attacks.
August 5. Lille Mayor Martine Aubry cancelled the Lille Flea Market, one of the biggest in Europe, amid fears that jihadists might be targeting it. "Safety cannot be guaranteed," she said. The annual market attracts some two million visitors during the first weekend of September.
August 8. Chartres Criminal Court became the first in France to apply a new law which makes it a crime to consult websites that promote terrorism. Yannick Loichot, a 31-year-old convert to Islam, was sentenced to two years in prison for frequenting jihadist websites and watching videos of beheadings. He is also accused of plotting to attack the Montparnasse Tower, a skyscraper in Paris.
August 8. A "very radicalized" 16-year-old girl from the Paris suburb of Melun was arrested on suspicion of planning a jihadist attack. She allegedly also helped two jihadists plan the murder of a priest in Normandy in July. The girl was charged with "criminal conspiracy with terrorists" and "incitement to commit terrorist acts using online communication."
August 11. A French counter-terrorism officer warned that Islamic State jihadists were hiding in Calais in "The Jungle." He said:
"What is happening in The Jungle is truly mind boggling. Our officers are rarely able to penetrate the heart of the camp. It is impossible to know if a jihadist from Belgium, for example, is hiding in the camp. This camp is a blind spot for national security."
August 11. Cannes Mayor David Lisnard banned the wearing of burkinis on city beaches. He approved the ban out of "respect for good customs and secularism."
August 14. Muslims went on a rampage in the Corsican town of Sisco after a tourist took a photograph of several burkini-clad women swimming in a creek. More than 400 people eventually joined the brawl, in which local Corsicans clashed with migrants from North Africa. The following day, more than 500 Corsicans marched through the town shouting "To arms! This is our home!"
August 21. More than 2,000 people of Chinese origin marched through the streets of Aubervilliers, Seine-Saint-Denis, to demand more police protection amid spiraling violence by Muslim gangs. On August 12, Zhang Chaolin, a 49-year-old fashion designer, died of his injuries after he was assaulted by three North Africans on August 7. Violent robberies targeting the Chinese community in Aubervilliers have tripled in one year, according to police.
August 23. Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve revealed that French police had arrested as many people for terror links in the first half of 2016 as for all of 2015.
August 25. Israeli fans attending a Europa League football match between St. Etienne and Beitar Jerusalem were prohibited from entering the Stade Geoffroy-Guichard stadium in Saint-Etienne with Israeli flags. Once inside the stadium, however, the Israeli fans were greeted with pro-Palestinian activists carrying Palestinian flags.
August 25. An Ifop poll published by Le Figaro found that 64% of people in France are opposed to the burkini on beaches; only 6% support it. Ifop director Jérôme Fourquet said:
"The results are similar to those we measured in April about the veil and headscarf on public streets (63% opposed). Beaches are equated with streets, where the wearing of ostentatious religious symbols are also rejected by two-thirds of the French."
August 26. The Council of State ruled that municipal authorities in Villeneuve-Loubet, a seaside town on the French Riviera, did not have the right to ban burkinis. The court found that the ban — issued after the jihadist attack in Nice on July 14 — was "a serious and manifestly illegal attack on fundamental freedoms, including the freedom of movement and the freedom of conscience." The judges ruled that local authorities could only restrict individual liberties if there was a "demonstrated risk" to public order. There was, they said, no evidence of such a risk.
August 26. Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve deported two "radicalized" Moroccans because of the threat they posed to public order. The men were accused of planning jihadist attacks in Metz, where they targeted gay restaurants and nightclubs. The deportations raised the number of such expulsions in 2016 to 15.
August 28. Youness Boussaid and Fatah Bouzid were sentenced to 18 months in prison for assaulting a couple in the northern town of Cambrai because they were eating a ham pizza. The two men, both 27 years old, told their victims they were "going to hell" for consuming ham, before beating them unconscious.
August 28. Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve called for the creation of an "Islam of France in accordance with the values of the Republic." In an interview with La Croix, he said:
"France needs, more than ever, a peaceful relationship with Muslims. This presupposes that the Republic is determined to take all its children under its arms. This also implies that all Muslims, together with all Frenchmen, engage in a total defense of the Republic against terrorism, in the face of Salafism, for the Republic is indeed their first allegiance. France is indeed a secular Republic and adherence to republican values ​​must transcend all the others."
August 30. A 31-year-old Algerian entered a police station in downtown Toulouse and stabbed an officer. The attacker shouted: "I am sick of France. I am tired of this country."
August 30. The mayor of a seaside town Cogolin, Marc-Etienne Lansade, said he would maintain a ban on burkinis:
"If you don't want to live the way we do, don't come. You have to behave in the way that people behave in the country that accepted you, and that is it. If you are accepted in Rome, do like Romans do. Go to Saudi Arabia and be naked and see what will happen to you."
SEPTEMBER 2016
September 1. A court in Nice suspended the city's ban on burkinis. The court said the full-length swimsuit worn by some Muslim women did not pose a risk to public order and that the ban constituted and "abuse of power." The case was brought by the Collective Against Islamophobia (Comité contre l'islamophobie, CCIF), which argued that the ban is discriminatory and unconstitutional.
September 2. Paris Prosecutor François Molins announced plans to toughen sentences for terrorism offenses. He said that "at some point" a large number of the 700 French jihadists currently fighting in the Middle East would be returning to France. According to Molins, a total of 982 individuals are or have been the subject of judicial investigations relating to Islamic terrorism: 280 have been indicted, of whom 167 are in detention, and 577 are subject to a search warrant or an arrest warrant.
September 3. Ghislain Gilberti, a French novelist, was assaulted and seriously injured by a group of Salafists in downtown Belfort. Gilberti received death threats after the publication of his latest novel, which describes the links between a jihadist network and drug dealing. He is now under 24-hour police protection.
September 4. More than 10,000 members of the Chinese community marched through the streets of downtown Paris to protest spiraling crime by Muslims targeting Chinese in Aubervilliers. They accused police of "closing their eyes to this growing delinquency" because "Asians are the main target of these aggressors." They called for additional police forces, surveillance cameras and the recognition of "anti-Asian racism."
September 5. Hundreds of French truck drivers, businessmen and farmers blocked off the main route in and out of Calais, in an attempt to pressure the French government to close "The Jungle." The blockage brought to a standstill the route used by trucks from all over Europe to reach Calais and Britain.
September 6. Two families out for a bicycle ride in Toulon were assaulted by a mob of ten Muslims who were angry that the women were wearing shorts. The assault, in which two people were hospitalized, raised the specter of Muslim vigilante groups enforcing Islamic Sharia law in France.
September 8. President François Hollande delivered a highly anticipated speech on the theme of "Democracy in the Face of Terrorism." He called for the creation of an "Islam of France" that would be compatible with French laws on the separation of church and state:
"Is Islam able to admit the separation of law and faith, the foundation of secularism? My answer is yes. The vast majority of our Muslim compatriots bring us proof every day by practicing their religion without disturbing the public order."
Hollande also called on French taxpayers to begin funding the construction of mosques in order to stop such funding from foreign sources.
September 9. Paris Prosecutor François Molins revealed that three French women, who were arrested after a car loaded with gas canisters was found near Notre Dame Cathedral, were planning, under the direction of Islamic State, to attack Paris's Gare de Lyon, one of the busiest train stations in Europe. Molins said:
"The transition to action by these young women, who were directed by individuals within the ranks of Islamic State in Syria, shows that this organization wants to create female fighters."
September 9. European security officials estimated that 30 to 40 suspected Islamic State terrorists who helped support the November 13 Paris terror attacks are still at large.
September 10. An automobile containing two gas canisters was found parked near the Bar Yohaye synagogue in Marseille. The vehicle was spotted at around 11AM, a time when Jewish worshipers were attending Shabbat services. The incident came days after police found a car loaded with gas canisters near the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.
September 11. Former President Nicolas Sarkozy said that France should create special courts and detention facilities to boost security:
"Every Frenchman suspected of being linked to terrorism, because he regularly consults a jihadist website, or his behavior shows signs of radicalization or because is in close contact with radicalized people, must by preventively placed in a detention center."
September 11. Prime Minister Manuel Valls warned there would be new jihadist attacks in France. "There will be new attacks, there will be innocent victims," he said. Valls revealed that the police and intelligence services were monitoring some 15,000 people suspected of being radicalized.
September 12. A document leaked to Le Figaro revealed the government's plan, dated September 1, to relocate 12,000 migrants from Calais to other parts of France. The migrants would be relocated to around 60 so-called Reception and Orientation Centers (centres d'accueil et d'orientation, CAO), each with a capacity of between 100 and 300 migrants.
September 13. The President of the Alpes-Maritimes region, Eric Ciotti, criticized the government's "irresponsible" plan to relocate migrants in Calais to other parts of France. He said the plan would "proliferate a multitude of small Calais, genuine areas of lawlessness that exacerbate lasting tensions throughout the country."
September 13. The government unveiled its first deradicalization center, known as the Center for Prevention, Integration and Citizenship (Centre de prévention, d'insertion et de citoyenneté, CPIC). It will be housed in the Château de Pontourny, an isolated 18th-century manor in central France. The center is part of a €40 million ($42 million) plan to build 13 deradicalization centers, one in each of France's metropolitan regions, aimed at deradicalizing would-be jihadists.
September 13. Three police officers were wounded during an altercation with human smugglers at the Grande-Synthe migrant camp near Dunkirk. The UNSA police union issued a statement which said it deplored the "sense of impunity" at the camp. It blamed a lax judicial system for contributing to a surge in violence at Linière. "We want the troublemakers to be brought to justice," it said.
September 14. Galeries Lafayette, an upscale department store, reported a 15% drop in foreign shoppers at its flagship Paris store in the first half of 2016. The decline was attributed to a decline in foreign tourists since the November terror attacks.
September 14. The President of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, Laurent Wauquiez, expressed anger at the government's "diktat" to relocate 1,800 migrants from Calais to his region. He said:
"This is madness and it is not a matter of solidarity. The problem of Calais is not solved by multiplying Calais throughout France. We expect the government to solve the problem of Calais, not move it to other parts of the country."
September 16. Police in Paris evacuated a makeshift migrant camp where some 1,500 migrants were living in unsanitary conditions. The operation was the latest of more than 20 such evacuations over the past year to dismantle camps in capital.
September 16. Three 17-year-old Algerians were arrested for gang-raping an 18-year-old French woman at the Champ-de-Mars near the Eiffel Tower.
September 17. A 15-year-old French boy was arrested in Paris and remanded in custody on suspicion of plotting a terrorist attack. He was the third French 15-year-old in just five days to have been remanded in custody and placed under formal investigation for terrorism.
September 19. Zeynab Alshelh, a 23-year-old medical student from Sydney, Australia, said she was chased off a beach in Villeneuve-Loubet for wearing a burkini, even though a ban on the controversial full-bodied swimsuit had been overturned. She later admitted that she wore the burkini as a stunt aimed at provoking beachgoers into a "racist" reaction.
September 20. Construction work began on a wall to prevent migrants at the camp from stowing away on cars, trucks, ferries and trains bound for Britain. Dubbed "The Great Wall of Calais," the concrete barrier — one kilometer (half a mile) long and four meters (13 feet) high on both sides of the two-lane highway approaching the harbor — will pass within a few hundred meters of "The Jungle."
September 21. A whistleblower reported that volunteer aid workers at "The Jungle" were forging sexual relationships with migrants, including children. "I have heard of volunteers having sex with multiple partners in one day, only to carry on in the same vein the following day," he wrote. "And I know also, that I'm only hearing a small part of a wider scale of abuse." He added that the majority of cases in question involved female volunteers and male migrants. "Female volunteers having sex enforces the view (that many have) that volunteers are here for sex," he wrote.
September 22. Two Belgian policemen were arrested after being found in a French border town with a vanload of migrants. The police van carrying 13 migrants and the two policemen was stopped by French police in Nieppe, a town on the Belgian border, after crossing from Belgium. The Belgian policemen, from Ypres, said they had picked up the migrants after finding them walking along a road in Belgium. One of the officers, Georges Aeck, said: "We didn't want to leave them on the side of the road to walk to the border. So we took them in the direction they wanted to go."
September 26. President François Hollande vowed "definitively, entirely and rapidly" to dismantle "The Jungle," a migrant camp Calais, by the end of 2016. He made the announcement during a to Calais — but not to the camp itself — amid growing unease over France's escalating migrant crisis, which has become a central issue in the country's presidential campaign.
September 28. A Parisian decorator filed a complaint against a Saudi Arabian princess who allegedly ordered her body guards to kill him, according to Le Point. The man said he was hired to redecorate her residence in the prestigious 16th district of Paris. Upon arrival, the man took pictures of a room he was assigned to decorate, a standard procedure to ensure that furniture is returned to its original position. The princess, however, went into a rage and accused the decorator of planning to sell the pictures to the media.
The decorator said that two of the princess's armed bodyguards grabbed him, tied his hands together, hit him in the head and made him kneel and kiss the woman's feet. Referring to the decorator, the princess then ordered her guards to "kill the dog, he does not deserve to live."
The Paris public prosecutor's office refused to say whether it would pursue the case, which drew public attention to special treatment which French authorities bestow upon wealthy Arab families.
OCTOBER 2016
October 5. Muslim employees at Air France had repeatedly attempted to sabotage aircraft, according to Le Canard Enchaîné. "Concerning Air France, we have seen several anomalies before the departure of commercial flights," an intelligence official said.
October 8. Four police officers were seriously injured while conducting a surveillance operation in the Grande-Borne housing area, a no-go zone in Viry-Châtillon, a southern suburb of Paris. The police were monitoring youths who were attacking motorists at a traffic light when they were attacked by more than a dozen "hooded youths" who launched Molotov cocktails at them and then set fire to their vehicles.
October 9. Some 15,000 Islamic radicals, including some 2,000 children, are on a watch list of Islamic radicals maintained by the French government. Around 4,000 individuals on the list constitute the "top of the spectrum" in terms of danger and are being tracked on a daily basis.
October 11. President François Hollande acknowledged that "France has a problem with Islam." He added: "It is not that Islam poses a problem in the sense that it is a dangerous religion, but in as far as it wants to affirm itself as a religion of the Republic." Hollande also said there are too many immigrants arriving in the country who "should not be here."
October 12. Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian and Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve jointly presented a draft decree calling for the creation of a National Guard to protect against jihadist attacks. The guard will consist of some 85,000 reservists (40,000 from the armed forces and gendarmerie and 5,000 from the police) by 2018.
October 16. A 32-year-old supporter of the Islamic State identified only as Rocco M. was arrested after he threatened to "blow everything up" at the Nice Côte d'Azur airport. "His behavior suggested radical religious thoughts, expressed in a strong enough way to be worrisome," said Nice Prosecutor Jean-Michel Priest.
October 17. A 50-year-old teacher at the Paul Langevin primary school in Argenteuil was hospitalized after he was assaulted by two Muslims who were angry that he disciplined an unruly Muslim pupil. The attackers said: "You do not talk like that, racist!" The teacher replied, "But I am their teacher (maître)." The attackers responded: "There is only one master (maître), it is Allah."
October 18. Around 500 police officers gathered on the Champs-Elysees to protest increasing violence against law enforcement personnel, after four officers were injured when a group of Muslim youths attacked them on October 8 in Viry-Châtillon.
October 25. Justice Minister Jean-Jacques Urvoas announced that "terrorist detainees" in French prisons would no longer be isolated from the rest of the prison population because the practice increased rather than decreased Islamic radicalism. He also said that special anti-radicalization units at prisons in Fresnes, Fleury-Mérogis, Osny and Lille-Annoeullin would be closed down because they were ineffective. Urvoas said French prisons have become "saturated" due to a "surge in terrorist detainees." Half a dozen Islamic terrorists are being incarcerated each week.
October 30. The Paris region lost a billion euros a month in income from tourism in the first eight months of the year due to fears about terrorism, according to regional council leader Valérie Pécresse. A million fewer tourists visited Paris and its surrounding region every month between January and August 2016.

NOVEMBER 2016
November 2. Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve ordered the closure of four extremist mosques: the Al-Islah mosque in Villiers-sur-Marne; the Ecquevilly prayer room in Yvelines; the Ar Rawda mosque in Seine-Saint-Denis; and the Masjid Al Fath in Clichy-sous-Bois. Cazeneuve said that "under the cover of religion the mosques held meetings aimed at promoting a radical ideology that was contrary to the values ​​of the French Republic and could constitute a serious threat to public security and order."
November 2. A Kurdish convert to Christianity said he received death threats while living in makeshift migrant camps outside the French cities of Calais and Dunkirk. He said:
"In Calais, the smugglers saw a cross around my neck and said: 'You are Kurdish and you are a Christian? Shame on you.' I said, 'Why? I'm in Europe, I'm free, I'm in a free country.' They said, 'No, you are not free, you are in the Jungle. The Jungle has Kurdish rule here. Leave this camp.' The smugglers were from inside the camp, and were Kurdish. They said to me, 'We will tell the Algerians and Moroccans to kill you.'"
November 4. The Moroccan-born French-Jewish scholar Georges Bensoussan, 64, was sued in France for alleged hate speech against Muslims. The Collective Against Islamophobia in France (Collectif Contre l'Islamophobie en France, CCIF) filed a complaint against Bensoussan for "public incitement to discrimination, hatred and violence against a group of people because of their religious affiliation" because of remarks he made on Radio France about Muslim anti-Semitism. He said:
"There will be no integration until we get rid of this atavistic anti-Semitism that is kept secret. It so happens that an Algerian sociologist, Smain Laacher, with great courage said that 'it is a disgrace to maintain this taboo, namely that in Arab families in France and elsewhere everyone knows that anti-Semitism is spread with the mother's milk.'"
November 7. Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve revealed that French police carried out more than 4,000 counter-terrorism searches since the November 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris. Police seized 600 firearms, including 77 "weapons of war." Nearly 500 people were arrested, and 95 house arrests are still in force. Nearly 80 deportation orders were issued against foreign nationals linked to the jihadist movement, including Islamic hate preachers. Some 430 individuals suspected of wanting to join jihadist groups in the Middle East were banned from leaving France.
November 12. Sting, the British rock icon, reopened the Bataclan, the Paris concert hall where jihadists murdered 89 people on November 13, 2015. Sting sang the Arabic expression "Inshallah" (Allah willing). He called it "a very beautiful word." Those in attendance, including more than a thousand of the victims' family members, applauded the song with ovations and tears.
November 13. France marked the first anniversary of the November 13, 2015 jihadist attacks in Paris in which 130 people were killed.
November 16. Some 70,500 people applied for asylum in France between January and October 2016, according to the French refugee agency Ofpra. Officials predict that the total for 2016 will be around. Some 80,000 applications were received in 2015.
November 18. Rachid Kassim, a 29-year-old French jihadist of Algerian descent, who is linked to a string of terror attacks in Europe, gave his first-ever interview. Kassim, who is believed to be based on the Syria-Turkey border, said: "To behead an animal, it would be difficult. With enemies of Allah, it is a pleasure." He added:
"A lot of us are jealous of brothers who attack in dar ul-kufr [an Arabic term for non-Muslim lands]. We believe that even a small attack in dar ul-kufr is better than a big attack in Syria. As the door of hijrah [migration] closes, the door of jihad opens. If I stayed in dar ul-kufr, I would do an attack there."
November 18. Prime Minister Manuel Valls unveiled a new campaign to stop young people joining jihadist groups. The latest publicity campaign, which aims to combat "propaganda that takes the form of a musty neo-romanticism," consists of two videos filmed from the point of view of a boy and a girl tempted by radicalization. They are interactive, allowing participants to choose between listening to friends and acquaintances or jihadist recruiters, and end with the girl in a forced marriage in Syria and the boy carrying out a terror attack in France.
November 19. Police discovered an arsenal of weapons — a rocket launcher, bulletproof vests, Mauser pistols, Kalashnikov cartridges and two grenade launchers — in a garage in a shopping center in Évry, a suburb of Paris. Investigators said they had not established a link to terrorism.
November 22. The U.S. State Department added Abdelilah Himich, a Moroccan-born French citizen who served six months in the French Foreign Legion, to its list of "specially designated global terrorists." Himich, also known as Abu Suleiman Al-Faransi, founded the 300-strong Islamic State "European foreign terrorist fighter cell" and reportedly helped plan the deadly jihadist attacks in Paris and Brussels.
November 25. Five of the jihadists arrested on November 21 plotted to target the headquarters of France's CGSI intelligence agency in the Paris suburb of Levallois-Perret, the headquarters of the Paris Judicial Police (DRPJ) at Quai des Orfèvres and the nearby Palace of Justice. Other targets included the Disneyland Paris amusement park and the Champs-Elysées Boulevard. The attacks were planned for December 1.

DECEMBER 2016
December 8. Interior Minister Bruno Le Roux launched the Foundation of Islam of France (Fondation de l'Islam de France). The new foundation is charged with "contributing to the emergence of an Islam of France that is fully anchored in the French Republic." It will conduct academic research in "Islamology" and organize lay training for imams.
December 12. Police arrested 11 people suspected of helping to arm Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, the Tunisian who killed 86 people by driving his truck into a crowd in Nice. Ten suspects were arrested in Nice and another was detained in Nantes. The 11 people arrested are believed to have been in contact with three people, including two Albanians, arrested on July 6 and charged with supplying Bouhlel with an assault rifle and a pistol.
December 12. Jobseekers of North African origin face widespread discrimination in France, according to a survey which showed that 30% of big businesses preferred candidates with French-sounding names.
December 13. The commission charged with overseeing the use of surveillance equipment (Commission nationale de contrôle des techniques de renseignement, CNCTR) reported that French security services monitored the activities of 20,282 people in year October 2015 to October 2016. Nearly half (47%) of those under surveillance during the period were/are suspected jihadists. Another 29% are members of criminal gangs.
December 15. The main suspect in a jihadist attack on a high-speed train in northern France testified that he acted on orders from the same Islamic State terror cell that carried out the Paris attacks in November 2015. Ayoub El Khazzani, a 27-year-old-year Moroccan with Spanish residency, told a counterterrorism judge in Paris that he received specific orders from Abdelhamid Abaaoud to attack a Paris-bound Thalys express train in August 2015. The revelation established, for the first time, a direct link between the August 2015 train attack, which was thwarted by three Americans, and the November 2015 Paris attacks.
December 22. The Mayor of Beziers, Robert Menard, was charged with incitement to hatred for saying that the number of Muslim students in his city was a "problem." In an interview with the French news channel LCI, Menard said: "In a class in the city center in my town, 91% of the children are Muslims. Obviously, this is a problem. There are limits to tolerance." He also tweeted his regret at witnessing "the great replacement" to describe France's white, Christian population being overtaken by foreign-born Muslims. Menard denied that his comments were discriminatory. "I just described the situation in my town," he said. "It is not a value judgement, it is a fact. It is what I can see."
December 24. The French national rail company, SNCF, announced that it would deploy armed guards on French trains. The move came after it emerged that Anis Amri, the presumed author of the jihadist attack on the Christmas market in Berlin on December 19, rode a French train to travel southern France to Italy, where police shot him dead.
December 31. French citizens were required to contribute an extra €1.60 ($1.70) on their property insurance policies to help finance a fund for victims of jihadist attacks. The new law requires policy holders to contribute €5.90, up from €4.30. Some 90 million insurance policies are financing the fund, which currently has reserves of €1.45 billion ($1.5 billion). More than 200 people have died in France in the last two years as a result of terror attacks.
============================================= =============================================
Soeren Kern is a Senior Fellow at the New York-based Gatestone Institute. He is also Senior Fellow for European Politics at the Madrid-based Grupo de Estudios Estratégicos / Strategic Studies Group. Follow him on Facebook and on Twitter
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Dear family, primos and friends: 

Hope you are greeting the new year with hope and peace. I keep learning new things which brightens my days.  The world is such a miracle of balance, with extremes in every direction.  We feel separate from one another and yet when you trace your family history, you see how you must be related on some level with everyone.  

Under the DNA section, you'll find a mathematical graph of ancestry. If you take your pedigree back to the 1400s,  you have 1,073,741,825 great, great, great, great, great grandparents; however, there were only 450,000,000, and you go back to two.  

I had assumed in California, everyone knew a little Spanish and understood that the translation of Somos Primos meant, we are cousins.  I was surprised recently when a third person told me that they thought Somos Primos was saying . . . we were FIRST, which could be a little offensive. 

Let suggest when you invite non-Spanish speakers to visit Somos Primos, you explain, we are not saying we are number one, or first,  instead we are saying we are cousins, related, connected.

We may be diverse and visually different, but we are connected, sharing this very unique earth. Hopefully we can each make the world a little bit better, within our sphere of influence.

Among the photos are eleven photos, with only the date and location, for identification.  Those are from a collection of tinted photochromes from the dawn of the 19th century.  These were published by the Detroit Photographic firm (which no longer exists), their firm's photographers traveled the country snapping the sights of North America to be printed on postcards and sold to the public. These photos were among the Beinecke rare books and manuscript library.  The Photo collection was sent by Eva Booher    EVABOOHER@aol.com 

God bless America, may we continue to be a light to the world.  

Mimi 

  01/26/2017 08:09 AM
TABLE OF CONTENTS

UNITED STATES
YouTube: President Trump's entire inaugural address
Learn the Protection Granted You in the United States of America Constitution
Students arrested for giving out copies of the US Constitution - Freedom to read
Students reprimanded for expressing personal opinions - Freedom to think
5-minute Video: School choice
Election Facts:  Deduct California,  and Trump won the popular votes 51.3% to Hillary's 48.7%.
Latino Representation in California (1849-2017) by John P. Schmal, January 15, 2017
Jose Antonio López: The Seven Sisters of Texas (Las siete hermanas de Tejas)
The Roots of the Matter: Multiracial individuals celebrate at Mixed Remixed Festival 
Remembering A School 40 years later, a Fight for Equality 
His Players Disrespected The National Anthem, What This Coach Does in Response

HISTORIC TIDBITS
Españoles olvidados de Norteamérica by Jose Antonio Crespo-Frances
How a US Republican President and a Mexican Youth Ended a Monarchy By Michael Hogan
1883 Texas land sells for 50 cent an acre

HISPANIC LEADERS
Jonathan Sanchez: Assoc. Publisher/COO, Eastern Group Publications 
Bishop Joseph J. Madera, The Roman Catholic Diocese of Fresno, 

AMERICAN PATRIOTS
Borinqueneers "Year in Review" and Message from National Chair, Frank Medina 

EARLY AMERICAN  PATRIOTS
North Carolina State Archives, copies of: 
October 18, 1777, 2-page letter From Patrick Henry to the General Bernardo de Galvez 
November 8, 1779, 4-page letter from Thomas Jefferson to General Bernardo de Galvez

SURNAMES
Naming system in Spain by Jack Carmena 

FAMILY HISTORY
Back to 1400s You Have 1,073,741,825 great, great, great, great, great grandparents 
Six Things to Look for in Family Search in 2017
My Father Made Everyone Laugh at His Own Funeral by Jesús Ramírez
New Resource:  MyHeritage.com


EDUCATION
First Generation College Student Guide
Undocumented Ph.D. Makes History at UC Merced by Sasha Khokha 

RELIGION
God Changes the Heart of ISIS Leader
United Nations Resolution 2334, based on inaccurate history 
Christian Clergy Welcomes Islam in Church, Then Bows to It by Giulio Meotti

CULTURE
Does Mexican Music Have German Roots?  By Gerald Erichsen
Political Salsa: Chicano music and los trovadores by
Salomón R. Baldenegro 
History of the Tortilla... Latortilla Loca
The Power of LARED-L,  a National Network by Moderator  Roberto Franco Vazquez 
María Teresa Márquez and CHICLE: The First Chicana/o Listserv Network


BOOKS AND PRINT MEDIA
Latino 247 Media Group . . . Formerly Latino Print Network
Breaking and Bleeding of a Macho Man by Isabel Delia Gonzalez  
Dogged Pursuit: Tracking the Life of Enrique Garfias, First City Marshal of Phoenix, AZ 
Return to Arroyo Grande by Jesús Salvador Treviño 
We Became Mexican American:  How Our Immigrant Family Survived  to Pursue the
      American Dream by Dr. Carlos B. Gil 
Beneath the Super Moon by Dr. Irene Blea
El Censo de 1680 de la Gomera y El Hierro  by Julio C. Vera


ORANGE COUNTY, CA
Feb 11:  "The Who, What, When, Where, and Why of Writing: 
     Fun Ways to Trigger Memories, from Oral History to Written History" by Mimi Lozano.  

Feb 10: Civil Spirits: The Politics of Booze in Orange County, HMOC
Feb 18: Celebrate Black History Month at the Heritage Museum of Orange County
Feb 25:  Un Tributo a Mexico, A Free Concert for Residents
45 Mexican Barrios/Colonias in Orange County in the  1900s by Dr. Albert Vela, Ph.D.
Santa Ana grads set record for bi-literacy, and state seals the deal

LOS ANGELES COUNTY
Zoot Suit runs at the Mark Taper Forum from January 31 to March 19, 2017.
Don't Just Cry, Qualify! Ortiz, the Hobo Professor by Rudy Padilla

CALIFORNIA
Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, Citizen of Guatemala and Native of Palma del Río: 
    New Sources from the Sixteenth Century by Wendy Kramer

Photo: Old Caretaker at Mission San Juan Capistrano, 1897
Historic Hispanic Clothing by Mary Schultz,
MSE, MS
1st Battalion of Native Cavalry, California Volunteers,  Prepared by Dr. Albert Vela, Ph.D.  
Circular Bridge, Mt. Lowe Railway 1897-1924

NORTHWESTERN, US
Photo:  Temple Square, Salt Lake, 1898. Built as a Mormon temple in 1847
Photo: Salt Air Pavilion, Great Salt Lake, Utah, 1901. Burned down in 1925.

SOUTHWESTERN, US
February 1: Soldados del Presidio San Agustin del Tucson
Photo:
Gold’s Curio Store, Santa Fe, New Mexico, circa 1897.
Descendants of Native American Slaves In New Mexico Emerge From Obscurity
Photo:  Pack Trail Ready for Mines, Colorado, 1904

TEXAS
Dr. Dr. Félix D. Almaraz Jr. & Gilberto Quezada, teacher/student friendship of 49 years. 
March 2-4th: 121st Texas State Historical Association Annual Meeting
Tejano and the Rise of Commercial: Ranching in Texas, 1848-1920 
        by Dr. Armando Alonzo
April 8: 5th Anniversary Celebration: Unveiling of Tejano Monument, Texas State Capitol 
January 13th, 1847 -- Future scalp hunter enlists in army
January 19th, 1858 -- German school chartered in Austin
Tejano History Matters by Dan Arellano, St. Mary's University 
Spanish Archives of Laredo by J. Gilberto Quezada
A Tribute to Miss Carmen Perry by J. Gilberto Quezada
Texas Alliance of Land Grant Descendants (TALGD)
Texas State Historical Association Newsletter 


MIDDLE AMERICA
Winter Living on the Farm, The Learning Years 1945-1950  by Rudy Padilla 
200 years of Baton Rouge: A city that grew up around present-day downtown .
Photo: St. Charles Street, New Orleans, 1900
The cultural project about the Descendants of Canary Islanders in the US


EAST COAST
The Last Address: photo-montage series/oral history/book project by award-winning artist   
      Leslie Starobin
Now Through April 2017
Photo: The Broadwalk, Atlantic City, 1900  
Photo: A Monday washing, New York City, 1900 

CARIBBEAN REGION
For the Borinqueneers "Year in Review" go to American Patriots 

AFRICAN-AMERICAN
$7.75 million grant program to Rosenwald Schools

INDIGENOUS
Árbol genealógico de un descendientes de Moctezuma
Photo: Navaho Woman Weaving a Blanket, 1902
Photo: Cliff Palace, Mesa Verde, Colorado, 1904


SEPHARDIC
Latinos along border discover Sephardic Jewish heritage, by Mercedes Olivera
Narratives from the Sephardic Atlantic by  Dr. Ronnie Perelis
Europe's Jihad against Israel 
Spanish Jewish Names Coming from Jewish Persons


ARCHAEOLOGY
Una navaja multiusos romana de hace 1800 años
Wreck of 16th-Century Spanish Ship Found Off Florida Coast by Stephanie Pappas

MEXICO
Valentin Gomez. Farias, Padre del Reforma, Handwriting Analysis by Sister Mary Sevilla
CSJ Kindred Group 2016 Genealogy Year End Report
¿Quiénes son los jarochos? por Rosalba Quintana Bustamente y Jairo E. Jimenez Sotero
Matrimonio del Teniente Coronel don Bernardo Villamil con doña Marìa Josefa de la Gandara
El bautismo y segundo matrimonio de Don Tirso Castillon Saenz
El bautismo, matrimonio y defunción de doña Marìa Eufemia de los Angeles Castillon Mùzquiz


CENTRAL & SOUTH AMERICA
¿Qué nos separa de España?
América Española, Historia e Identidad en un Mundo Nuevo 
La masiva expulsión de españoles de América: la infame historia que escondió la independencia

Juan Latino: El primero negro catedrático de gramática de España

PHILIPPINES
Racism, an Abbreviated Essay by Eddie AAA Calderón, Ph.D.

SPAIN
Spain: a First-Time Visitor’s Overview ~ Nick Petrie
La nacionalidad de Cristóbal Colón por Jose Maria Lancho
El Castillo de los Mendoza
Donde reposan los restos de Da. Juana de Zúñiga la esposa de Hernán Cortés
       y de Catalina Cortés una de sus hijas. 

INTERNATIONAL
Kiva: Loans that change lives across the globe 
“King Mohammed VI Renames Marrakech Neighborhood to Original Jewish Name” 
The $2.6 Billion Treasure Still Lost at The Bottom of the Sea by Allison McNearney
The Islamization of France in 2016: France has a problem with Islam bu Soeren Kern