Dedicated to Hispanic Heritage 
and Diversity Issues 

Editor: Mimi Lozano, mimilozano@aol.com

"Nationalities do not want to be fused: 
they each want to go their own way.  
A satisfactory situation can be brought about only if . .

 they mutually tolerate and respect one another."

Albert Einstein, 1921

United States
Census Information
Top Home Buyers
Bilingual Education
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State and Federal Court Sites

Orange County, CA
Mexicans Abroad
Feb 17, Dr. Guevara St.
O.C. Demographics
Register's Trail Blazers

Los Angeles, CA
Cyper Pen Pals
Manazar Gamboa
Hollywood Forever Cemetery
Feb 7, Demasiado Corazon 

California
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Pio Pico 
Ruiz Surname
1928 Flood
Chumash

Northwestern United States
Basque Studies
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Who is an Indian?

Texas
Don Manuel Becerra
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Successful Networking
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Dissertations
El Clamor
Query from Nova Scotia

Southwestern United States
Family Secrets
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Arizona Vital Statistics Website
Cerrillos Marquez Family Commerce of the Prairies

East of the Mississippi
Notre Dame

East Coast
Portuguese Increase
SOLOELLA.com

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U.S. History
Spanish Patriots in the U.S.
Land Deeds
Slave Ancestry 

Miscellaneous
Writing a Life Story
Esperanza- Poem
Historical Timelines
Genealogy Pox - Humor

Society of 
Hispanic Historical
and Ancestral
Research 

Founded
1986

SHHAR networking 2001 year meetings are:
March 24
May 26
July 28
September 29 

 Questions:  714-894-8161

Bert Corona: 
The Father of the Modern Day Chicano Movement
January 15, 2001 

A Tribute by Herman Baca, 
President, Committee on Chicano Rights

With the passing of Humberto "Bert" Corona, the Mexicano/Chicano people in the U.S. and Mexico, have lost a warrior. An epoca has passed and a good man, that I had the privilege of knowing and working with, is gone.

With Humberto "Bert" Corona's passing, the Mexicano/Chicano people, today are poorer.

History will record, that before there was a Cesar Chavez, Corky Gonzales, Reis Tijerina, Jose Angel Gutierrez, and many others, that first there was Humberto "Bert" Corona. History will also record that Humberto "Bert" Corona, "THE FATHER OF THE MODERN DAY CHICANO MOVEMENT," fought and struggled for decades, up to his final breath to bring justice, organization, and political power to the Mexicano/Chicano people in the U.S.

All of us, whether activists, immigrants, campesinos, students, young people, politicians, union leaders and every day working people, owe Humberto "Bert" Corona, a great historical debt. A debt that can only be repaid by continuing the unfinished historical struggle that Humberto "Bert" Corona lived and died for.

Bert's philosophical, ideological, political perspectives, and leadership will be sorely missed by all who walked, marched, protested, fought, organized and struggled in the Chicano Movement with him. QUE DESCANSA EN PAZ!

Tribute to a Valiant Teacher: Bert Corona

by Alex Garza
CSEA/SEIU Local 1000 (state workers)
Sacramento, California

Brothers and Sisters, Hermanos y Hermanas:

A great labor organizer and community leader passed away Monday, he is Bert Corona. To many Mexican-American communities and Chicano Mexicano activists, Bert served as the quintessential activist role model -- constantly engaged with the grassroots people in the barrios, in the factories and sweatshops, organizing and encouraging in both languages, that the power of change is in their hands. "El Senor", as many of us called him out of respect, was based in Los Angeles, yet his organizing efforts at one point through Centro de Accion Social Autonomo (CASA Hermandad General de Trabajadores) led to the creation of organizing service centers in a dozen major cities in the country. Countless organizing drives and collective bargaining agreements won by the poorest of the working class can be traced to Bert Corona's unwavering faith en el pueblo, in the people. I was proud to serve with Bert Corona in the early 70s when we organized in Santa Ana and throughout Orange County in the CASA center. The Centro in Santa Ana helped create much-needed change and hundreds of families in the area owe Bert acknowledgement for inspiring the young and teaching the veterans that it is never too late to unite and fight for your rights. Bert also stressed that uniting with the poor of any race or background was a duty wherever workers were targeted by an unsavory boss.

I owe a lot to Bert and his down-to-earth teaching methods, that to this day I use in my work in the labor and civil rights movement. How fitting it would be if an organizing and worker justice institute were to be opened in every union where we, who worked with Bert, continue to organize around one of his favorite demands, "Un Dano Contra Uno es Un Dano Contra Todos" --An Injury Against One is An Injury Against All.

!Viva Bert Corona, Viva La Causa, Siempre!

Over 2000 attended a Memorial Service in Los Angeles on January 20th. 

A People's Memorial Tribute to Bert Corona will be held February, 10th at 11:00 a.m.
Everyone is invited to and share personal stories of experiences with Bert Corona.

East LA Community College Auditorium 
Avenida Cesar Chavez, Los Angeles
(323) 265-8650

We wish to share the pictures of the services
with La Raza and specially for those in Chicago
and New York and other locations beyond
Aztlan. We are placing the pictures in the public
domain and you are welcomed to copy any of
them. We have not added any text and hope
that they are adequate in communicating, at
least partially, the essence of the historic event.

           Autobiography of Bert Corona- Memories of Chicano History

Nativo Lopez, instrumental in founding Hermandad in Orange County suggests anyone wanting further information on the life and contributions of Bert Corona should obtain a copy of  Corona's  autobiography published in 1993 by the University of California Press,  Memories of Chicano History. 

Professor Mario T. Garcia, who collaborated with Corona in the preparation of the narrative of his Memories, stated, "Bert Corona was born in (May 29) 1918 in El Paso, Texas, a child of the Mexican Revolution of 1910. Through his family, Corona symbolizes the thousands of Mexican immigrants and refugees who crossed the U.S.-Mexican border-a border created by nineteenth-century U.S. expansion-seeking jobs and safety."

Bert Corona had been serving as National Director and Executive Director of the Hermandad Mexicana Nacional, a national nonprofit membership community based organization of Spanish-speaking immigrants headquartered in Los Angeles, California.

An article by Minerva Canto, carried by the Excelsior (Jan 26 - Feb1) indicated that Nativo Lopez is being considered to assume the responsibility as Executive Director for Hermandad Mexicana Nacional. 

Correspondence can be forward to: Hermandad Mexicana Nacional
634 S. Spring Street, 8th Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90014                   Return to Table of Contents

HISTORY vs. HOLLYWOOD

"Although much of history is subject to interpretation, art shouldn't exist in a truth vacuum.  Those with a forum to sway opinion -- which includes the crowd making movies -- shouldn't be in the business of rewriting history by freely fabricating, however noble the motive.  They have a responsibility not only to their art but also the the public reached by their art.    . . . . . . popular art's portrayal of history does have an impact on the way we see ourselves and others."  

Howard Rosenberg, columnist : If Not History, Honesty Suffices    1-22-01

Latinos make up only about 2% of the producers, directors and writers guilds. However Latino pioneer leader in Hollywood,  Moctesuma Esparza stated: "There is, in fact, a critical mass of Latinos forming in the industry.  The numbers are just coming to a point where people are just beginning to feel like there is a community.  We have the beginnings of a real producing community - and that didn't exist five years ago at all . . There are a lot of people who have been working for years and are just now breaking through."

Los Angeles Times, 1-6-01                                                        Return to Table of Contents

The fuss over movie accuracy isn't going to vanish overnight.  It's a clash between two radically different sensibilities: the journalist's desire for objective truth and the artists' right to embellish it.

When events like the Cuban missile crisis serve as Hollywood fodder, filmmakers must decide which creative liberties can help tell a greater truth.

"If we just gave people a history lesson, we'd be making movies for the History Channel." 
Armyan Berstein, producer of Thirteen Days

Over the last decade, a number of ambitious fact-based films have had their reputations tarnished by attacks on their accuracy. 

                                           How the West was Really Won 

                                                     by Iris Rodriguez

It's a hot and steamy day out in the middle of no where. The old desert ghost town has no sign of life except for a tumbleweed traveling down the middle of the dirt road. From a distance comes the sound of spurs clicking every few seconds. On one end of the dirt road is a cowboy, a real rugged John Wayne type. On the other end is a sombrero who has beneath it a rough and dark skinned Mexican bandit with a mustache and a mean look in his eye. It's a face off between the cowboy and the outlaw, the typical good versus evil scene. 

The Mexican smiles, showing his dirty yellow teeth as the rugged cowboy keeps his eyes fixed. Everything is still. All of a sudden there's a loud bang. A shot has been fired! Smoke and dust fill the air as a dead silence settles in. Slowly the street clears as the bad guy falls to the floor. The cowboy blows the smoke out of his pistol. He has done his job of protecting his one-horsed town from the evil Mexican bandit.

Sounds like something straight out of the West, eh? Actually, it isn't. Hollywood has portrayed the West to be about white cowboys fighting Mexican or Indian villains. This inaccurate and prejudiced portrayal has done a serious injustice to the real story behind the cowboy. 

Saddle up and get ready to ride off into the sunset in search of the truth - the truth about how the West was really won. Let us mosey on out by talking about the actual word. The word "cowboy" is actually a derivative of the Spanish word for the first of his kind - the "vaquero." The word "vaquero" evolved from the word "vaca", which in Spanish means "cow." Therefore, the name was given to the first Spaniard who herded cattle back in Spain. 

The word vaquero (cowman) was then translated into the English word "cowboy" to replace
the word "drover" which was "[...]the English term for someone who managed cattle[...]"
(Chavez, Cowboys). The "charro" is the Mexican counterpart to the vaquero and the cowboy. The word "caballero" (literally meaning horseman, traditionally meaning gentleman) is a derivative of vaquero (which will later be discussed.) The word "caballero" is widely used by almost all the Latino ethnic groups.

Merriam Webster's 1997 Dictionary defines a cowboy as "one (as a mounted ranch hand) who tends cattle or horses." The original vaqueros and charros would beg to differ, seeing as how they drove up to half a million sheep almost 2,000 miles from New Mexico to Chihuahua, Mexico every year. This obviously made them to be more just ranch hands. But regardless of that fact, the basic definition of the word "cowboy" as well as the basic jobs and duties have essentially remained the same throughout time.

The first vaqueros were descendants of "a very selective portion of Europeans," which were the Spaniards who conquered the New World (Chavez, Cowboys). They were not like the colonists and pilgrims of the thirteen colonies who left their country because of political or religious oppression. The Spaniards were ambitious and courageous noblemen in search of adventure in the new land. They arrived to the new land through Mexico, which is where they eventually settled.

Over time, the Spaniards and the indians native to Mexico intermixed, creating a new breed of people which were called "mestizo." These people, although bearing Spanish surnames, not only had the adventurous blood of the Spanish, but also had the feel for their natural environment, like the Native Americans. This new culture was created and eventually embraced by the Spaniards that had settled in that area. However, the adventure in the blood of the Spanish and Spanish descendants called out to them.

It was in these open spaces of "Nueva Espana" where ways of herding and managing cattle began to develop and evolve. Various forms and ways developed, but one stood out in particular -
the use of the horse as a ranching tool. The horse, which had been brought to the New World by the conquistadores, became vital in the process of herding cattle. There were too many head of
cattle to round up on foot (which was how they used to do it in the Old World.) The horse
empowered the vaqueros and charros. It gave them speed, as well as the ability to oversee the herd better. As time progressed, the methods of stock-handling techniques improved. 

However, the status of the cowboy was not yet mythical in nature. The cowboy, usually being a mestizo or semicivilized Indian, was on the "lower rungs of the social ladder" (Dallas, Vaquero). When herding began to be a way of life and ranches (haciendas) began to flourish, a new breed of vaquero came about. This new breed was different from the "primitive" Spanish vaquero:
The vaqueros may have been poor and of low social status, but the fact of being horsemen gave them a sense of pride and power that no poor people had known before. They were skilled riders who worked with wild and dangerous animals and who regularly faced the many dangers of the
frontier. 

Living on the frontier created both a culture and a and mythology. The basic attitudes of the charro, or vaquero hero, were founded on social economic necessities, which became a genuine folk-culture. They valued bravery and disregard of personal danger; comradeship with peers; and
loyalty to the hacienda and its brand; the determination to ride any horse that lived; skill with the rope; and a disdain for work that could not done in the saddle. (Texas Parks, Vaquero)

The charro became (and remains) a national symbol of gallantry for the United States, and
especially in Mexico. It is from this particular moment in history when the word "caballero" literally took on a new meaning. "Caballero" literally means "horseman" but is used in place of the word "gentleman" in Spanish speaking cultures. This was the genesis for what is today considered to be the attitude of the cowboy. This intrepid and gallant persona transcended throughout the evolution of the vaquero from the Spanish, to the Mexicans, to the Anglos.

The first English speaking settlers in the Mexican province of Texas arrived in 1821. The cattle there was so abundant that the Anglos needed only to "throw a rope and register a brand to become a cattleman". (Chavez, Cowboys). They had to take some cowboy lessons from the Mexican vaqueros who had by this time been practicing for 300 years. The attitude of the vaquero was passed along as well. 

Cowboys in time developed a sense of attachment to thier rough lifestyle. They began to write poetry, commonly labled as "Cowboy Poetry," that would describe and explain their sentiments
and attachments to the type of life they lived. As portrayed in Paul Harwitz's "I Want to Die
With My Boots On", a cowboy wants to "live in the West and die in the West....[he needs] wide open spaces... [and] unspoiled Nature..." In his "I'm Just an Old Cowboy", Paul Harwitz clearly states "I'm not against progress, I am just against change..." This outlook contained within it a powerful message; it holds that a cowboy would rough it regardless of circumstance. However, this attitude of "roughing it" was not the only thing the Anglos adopted from the Mexicans.

The Anglos adopted the herding techniques. This eventually led to cowboying being considered "Texan", not vaquero or charro. The Anglo Texans translated everything to English. For example, words such as "mesteno" were converted to "mustang." Even the word "vaquero" turned into "buckaroo." The tools for the job were converted too. "La reata" transformed into "lariate." The cattle, which had been called Corriente cattle, were renamed Texas Longhorns. New Mexico mules were transported to St. Louis and renamed Missouri Mule. Mexican attire was adopted to be Anglo cowboy wear.

As people from the east began to move westward and the way of life had been adapted to, the final evolution of what it meant to be a cowboy took place. No longer was it a vaquero or charro that roamed the wide open spaces and herded cattle. It was all about the Anglos moving West for progress and trying to live decently while surviving the atrocities the Mexican bandits or savage Indians would impose on them.

The Anglos were "hard workin', God lovin' folks" with no malice or evil in their heart. They were in the West only "makin' a decent livin' while supportin' the kin." Anglos had taken over and had stolen the Mexican ways, giving them no credit. As cinema and television came out, a mythological status was finally added to cowboys. They were portrayed by actors such as John Wayne to be individuals with a great moral character, which was correct. However, Hollywood decided to give the ultimate thanks to the creators of the cowboy (the Mexicans) by portraying
them as villains and desperadoes with no moral fortitude who usually killed, ravaged, raped, and
stole. 

Seeing as how the public is almost totally influenced by what is observed on the media, the inaccurate version of history has been taught worldwide. The wrongful representation and depiction of Mexicans and the Spanish, as well as the Indians, has harmed the true Southwest culture and has impaired its acceptance in to the new Anglo-American mainstream. Television series such as "Gunsmoke" and the "Lone Ranger" began to emit across thousands of miles to families on their T.V. sets. The West was no longer about dedicated workers who would go to extremes do complete their task to support their families. It turned out to be about Anglo cowboys ridding the West of Mexican and Indian vermin who were of no use and only caused trouble in the "civilized" towns. 

Even if characters were not explicitly depicted as being Mexican, the bandit or villain had a Spanish accent. The richness and beauty behind the cultivation of the cowboy was in essence
destroyed along with the culture that created it because of this misrepresentation . Interestingly enough, another situation has developed from this injustice is of the view of Anglos in general by the Southwest Mexicans and Indians. 

Because of the injustice they have had to endure, they teach thier children to never fully trust an Anglo. The atrocity done by Hollywood actually created a sort of domino effect that affected not only history, but a region, a people, and a society. Even notable American Anglos have seen this effect. 

The great Walt Whitman stated in 1883, [...]We Americans have yet to really appreciate our antecedents. Thus far, impress'd by new England writers and schoolmaster, we tacitly abandon
ourselves to the notion that our United States have been fashioned from the British Isles only, and essentially from a second England only - which is a very great mistake...Anglo-Saxon Americans, with their aggressive practicality and their cultural chauvanism, already threaten excess," and
that "something outside of them, and to counter balance them, is seriously needed...character, literature, a society worth the name, are yet to be established, through a nationality of noblest spiritual, heroic, democratic attributes...to that composite American identity of the future, Spanish
character will supply some of the most needed parts. No stock shows a grander historical perspective - grander in religiousness and loyalty, or for patriotism, courage, decorum, gravity and honor. As to the Spanish stock of our Southwest, it is certain to me that we do not appreciate the splendor and sterling value of its race element. (Chavez, Cowboys)

Ahhh. It has been a long, hard drive this time. The sun is now setting in the West, and the shadows dance across the desert floor. The drive is finally over and night time is near. You have learned a lot about life, the present and the past, on this ride. Hopefully, if cattle drives just like the one that you went on begin to flourish, then maybe justice can be done in the end and people could know how the West was really won.

'Night, partner.

WORKS CITED

1. "VAQUEROS - The First Cowboys." Texas Parks and Wildife Parks and Historic Sites. August 4, 2000. http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/park/jose/vaquero.htm

2. "COWBOYS - VAQUEROS." Donald Gilbert Y Chavez
http://www.unm.edu/~gabbriel/chap1.html

3. "Memories of the day and years - Charreria the symbol of Mexico." México Desconocido Virtual. Guadalupe Silva Corcuera. http://www.mexdesco.com/tipsaero/ta9707_1.htm

4. The Texas Handbook Online. The Texas State Historical Association.
February 15, 1999. María-Cristina García.
http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/CC/llc4.html

5. "I'm Just an Old Cowboy." Paul Harwitz. 1997.
http://www.isis-intl.com/paul/poems/old.html

6. "I Want to Die With My Boots On." Paul Harwitz. 1998.
http://www.isis-intl.com/paul/poems/bootson.html

                                                                                                Return to Table of Contents

SISTER MARY SEVILLA and ELLIS  ISLAND

Sister Mary was soon contacted and entered into an exciting experience, being filmed in various locations and traveling with a filming crew to Mexico.  

The most exciting part for all of us is that Mary's segment will be part of the permanent exhibits in Ellis Island.  Her documentary segment will represent the raices quest of a Mexican-American heritage researcher which will ultimately be seen by millions of visitors.  Hooray for all of us. . .  .  Mimi

Ellis Island Databases

For more than four years volunteers have been working on a database of ship's passenger manifest records fro the more than 17 million people who entered the US through the Port of New York and Ellis Island from 1892-1924.  Originally the database was to be available on-site at the American Family Immigration History Center by the end of 2000, with Internet access to the database to follow.  Now, however, the database will open to the public simultaneously on the island and online in April 2001.

More information on the Ellis Island database project is available at:
http://www.familytreemagazine.com
/articles/ellis1.html

Gen.Soc. of Santa Cruz Co. Newsletter,Jan-Feb 2000, via 
CSGA Newsletter, Vol. 19, No. 2 (Feb 2001)

UNITED STATES

National Council of La Raza, Boletín, December 2000

Report by the Urban Institute, a Washington, D.C. think tank. Orange County Register, 1-6-01

YellowPages.com http://www.yellowpages.com/

Sent by George Gause

1.800.563.12222

                          Return to Table of Contents

ORANGE COUNTY, CALIFORNIA

Basically the many-faceted problems fall into three categories: 

(1) Cooperative programs whereby the labor needs of  both Mexico and U.S. will benefit, but with regard to the civil rights, education and medical needs of Mexicans Abroad,

(2) Economic and educational needs of the Mexican Indigenous tribes, and

(3) Isolation of U.S. born Mexican-Americans and Mexicans living in the U.S.

For family historians, the third category should be of particular interest to all Mexican heritage researchers.  Dr. Hernandez said that President Fox wants to facilitate Mexican-Americans in their raices search.  President Fox believes that seeking and documenting family lineage will strengthen family ties and be very good for the individuals, their families, and Mexico too. 

Mr. Maginnis chose Dr. Roger Guevara for another reason too.  Dr. Guevara was the great-great-great-great grandson of Jose Dario Arguello who was the 8th acting governor of Alta California during Spanish rule.

Jose Arguello's first son, Father Jose Ignacio Maximo Arguello was California first native-born Catholic priest.

Arguello's second son Luis Antonio Arguello became California first Native-born governor in 1822 under Mexican rule.  He married Maria de la Soledad de Ortega, the grand daughter of Jose Ortega.  Jose Ortega is credited with being the first to view the Capistrano Valley as a scout with Gaspar de Portola in 1769.  Ortega Highway is named for him.

Santiago Arguello, the forefather of Dr. Roger Guevara was granted Rancho Trabuco by the Mexican Govenor Juan B. Alvarado on July 31, 1841.  

Mr. Maginnis hopes that naming the street after Dr. Guevara will give the message that we value our heritage and honor those who serve our community and contribute to the health, growth and well being of fellow citizens.

If you would like to support this effort, please attend the Council meeting and/or call  John Maginnis  (949) 661-8277. 
                                                                                                              Return to Table of Contents

Latino students make up the largest ethnic group in Orange County's public schools for the first time. Area leaders say the demographic shift adds new urgency to calls to improve education for Latinos in Orange County, from training the mostly white teaching force to work with other cultures to slashing dropout rates.  The shift continues a 20-yeart trend in Orange County and statewide . . .

Orange County Register, 1-9-01

Source of data: Orange County Department of Education

                 1981                      2000
Latino        18%                      42%
Asian           8%                      12%
Black           2%                        2%
White         71%                      41%

"It certainly is not reflecting the population," said Tom Lugo, a manager who helps oversee the state's gifted and talented program, GATE, which is voluntary for school districts.  " I think we have a lot of children who have a language barrier who aren't being identified for that reason."

Recognized is the problem of  training teachers to use tools besides test scores to spot gifted students.

Orange County Register, 12-19-00 

Luis Walter Alvarez (1911-1988) was born in San Francisco on June 13, 1911.  His father was a physician, professor, and medical journalist who later moved the family to Rochester, Minnesota when he joined the Mayo Clinic. Alvarez graduated from Rochester High School in 1928 and then entered the University of Chicago, where, encouraged by a professor, he switched his major from chemistry to physics.  Luis achieved academic excellence at the university and was initiated into Phi Beta Kappa and Sigma XI, the science-research honor society.  Upon receiving his B.S. degree in 1932, he pursued and earned an M.S. degree in 1934, and his Ph.D. in 1936.

After graduation, Alvarez did cyclotron research at the University of Berkeley.  During World War II he helped develop a radar system called Ground-Controlled Approach (GCA), still in use today.  During 1944-45, Alvarez worked at Los Alamos, New Mexico, on the development of the atomic bomb.  On August 6, 1945, he flew as a scientific observer in the B-29 which followed the Enola Gay when it dropped the bomb on Hiroshima.  After the war, Alvarez returned to teaching and research at Berkeley.  In 1968 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics for his research using bubble chambers to detect new subatomic particles.  Alvarez was the first U.S. born Hispanic to receive a Nobel Prize.  After retirement, Alvarez worked with his son, a geologist, in analyzing fossils in layered rocks.  Their discover of iridium (an element found in asteroids) in these rocks led to their theory that the dinosaurs were destroyed when a huge asteroid struck the earth. On August 31, 1988, Luis Alvarez died at his Berkeley home, having developed ideas until his last days.

For more information: Laura Hanson  (714) 796-4969

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA

Manazar Gamboa, a convict-turned-poet who devoted his life after prison to writing and sharing the liberating power of literature with others from troubled backgrounds, died December 13 at 66 years old.

His writing career started while in prison. After his 38th try, a work was accepted by a journal run by a University of Colorado professor.  In 1977, when he was released from prison for the second time, he worked for Beyond Baroque, where he started the first multicultural reading series and edited its magazine, Obras.  From 1981 to 1983 he was a director of the L.A. Latino Writers Assn. and editor of its ChismeArte magazine.

Since 1989, Gamboa had been artistic director at the Homeland Neighborhood Cultural Center in Long Beach, where he directed theater and literary reading projects and led writing workshops for adults and children.  He also directed more than 2,500 writing workshops for youths in the Los Angeles County juvenile justice system and for inmates at state prisons in Chino and Frontera during 13 years with L.A. theatre Works, a nonprofit in Venice. 

Los Angeles Times, 1-7-01 

The concept of creating mini-documentaries about ordinary people is not new; Steven Speilberg has chronicled the lives of Holocaust survivors with his Shoah Foundation.  But the idea of marketing these mini-videos as a cemetery service was a departure.

The styles of the biographies, which are produced by Forever Studios, reflect the personalities of their subjects and their families.  Some are simple, some are sophisticated.  Some are narrated in broken immigrant's English.  Others are entire in Russian, Spanish or Armenian.

A Ukraine immigrant who returned to the Ukraine to gather photos and music stated, "In America there is not much interaction between generations.  This is a little tool to give grandchildren a chance to see their grandparents, to learn a little more." 

                              Extracts from the Los Angeles Times, 1-3-01

The Avenue 50 Studio will host an art exhibit of portraits painted by artist Margaret Garcia. This exhibit will include a new series emphasizing her theme of love and romance painted in a dark and sensuous tone, using a strong color palate of oils and pastels. Margaret's love for the portrait surfaced when she was young girl playing a game of projecting herself into another person, wanting to "wear their personality" to understand who they were. Her deeply colorful and emotionally expressive paintings reveal those parts of the personality she's most attracted to; her paintings honor and respect the individual.

Artist Margaret Garcia recently finished a Metro-rail station commission at Universal City. 
She is currently teaching art through a grant by the California Arts Counsel.

131 North Avenue 50, Highland Park, CA 90042  ave50studio@msn.com  
Exhibit will fun through the month of February. Kathy Gallegos, (323) 258-1435;
                                                                                                 Return to Table of Contents

CALIFORNIA

Doing California genealogy research? 
Los Californianos has a genealogical queries section that non-members can use.
http://www.loscalifornianos.org   
Sent by Mary Ayers

The March 1928 flood rushed down the Santa Clara River when the San Francisquito Dam broke.
The 1955 flood was all over California, the 1928 was just in one river; however 
400 died in the 1928 flood and 
64 people died in the 1955 flood. 

There may have been more dollars worth of property damage in the 1955 flood, because the 1928 flood took out more agricultural land than buildings, and prices were higher in 1955 than in 1928. 

Sent by Mary Ayers

An excellent bibliography Maintained by Francis Steen, Department of English, UC Santa Barbara

The Chumash

The Spanish Incursion: Early Accounts, Themes, General Works

UC Berkeley's Bibliographies of Northern and Central California Indians (external)

The Chumash

Gibson, R.O. The Chumash. New York: Chelsea House, 1991.

Holmes, Marie S. and John R. Johnson (1998). The Chumash and Their Predecessors: An Annotated Bibliography. Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. Contributions in Anthropology No. 1. See also the Museum's up-to-date recommended Chumash references.

King, Chester. Evolution of Chumash Society: A Comparative Study of Artifacts Used for Social System Maintenance in the Santa Barbara Channel Region Before A.D. 1804. New York: Garland, 1990. Series title: The Evolution of North American Indians. UCSB  Main Lib  E99.C815 K55 1990 Native American Studies

Lee, Georgia. The portable cosmos: effigies, ornaments, and incised stone from the Chumash area.  Socorro, N.M. : Ballena Press, c1981. Series title:  Ballena Press anthropological papers ; no. 21. UCSB  Main Lib  E99.C815 L43 Native American Studies
 
 
Local California History index

 Submitted by Johanna de Soto                                                           Return to Table of Contents

                          Center for Basque Studies        http://basqaue.unr.edu

Newsletter: The Center for Basque Studies is located at the University of Nevada in Reno. They publish a semi-annual newsletter free of charge to any interested person.  If you would like to receive future issues, write to the Center. If you would rather receive the newsletter in electronic format, let them know your email address.

The newsletter includes information about new books, projects, classes, tours, visiting scholars, awards, scholarships available, research projects and other topics of interest to Basque family history researchers.

Books: In the book An Enduring Legacy: The Story of Basques in Idaho, brothers John and Mark Bieter chronicle the Basque presence in Idaho from 1890 to the present, and follow their evolution into the prominent ethnic community of today.  The book is illustrated with photographs from the Basque Country and the early years in Idaho.  Available in a hardcover edition for $31.95.

Speaking Through the Aspens: Basque Tree Carvings in Nevada and California by Jose Mallea-Olaetxe contains a record of messages and images left by sheepherders on aspen trees through the American  West.  As described in the University of Nevada Press catalog, the book allows ". . . these men who contributed so much to the development of the region, many of whom went on to establish the West's thriving Basque community and some of its leading families, [to] speak for themselves about their experiences."

Oral History Projects: Over the years several scholars have conducted and tape recorded interviews with Basque people in the American West for their various research projects.  The Basque Studies Library has archived over 250 of these tapes.  Center Director Joseba Zulaika suggested that the tapes could be made more accessible by converting them to a digital format, together with photographs of the interviewees and their families, and with their permission, putting them on to a website.  Thus we we could create a database of oral histories of Basque immigrants and their descendants.  We discussed the idea with the University of Nevada, Reno's Oral History Program, who have experience with a similar project, and found that Basque oral histories are being collected in Boise, Idaho for a database project there.

Joined by other groups as well, the project will be funded by Eusko Jaurlaritza (the Basque government). "Imagine the possibility of children being able to hear their grandparents talk about their journey to the States and their hardships and good times, just by sitting at their computer!"

The American Indians who were accepted on the final rolls of the Five Civilized Tribes as members of the Cherokee, Seminole and Creek tribes - those 50,000 more or less people - can now be searched on the Internet.

The records of the Choctaw and Chickasaw have not been entered, but it is reported that they will be completed soon.

This record was produced for members of the Dawes commission from 1898 to 1914 in Indian Territory (now Oklahoma).  It was required that each person applying had to prove their ancestry and their tribal affiliation.  The evidentiary documents are included in the case files of all those who did apply which is a wonderful source of information fro today's genealogists.

Search on NARA which is updated weekly: http://www.nara.gov/nara/nail.htm

Sent by Johanna de Soto                                                                   Return to Table of Contents

A census of the Confederated Tribes of the Flathead Reservation (Montana) completed in 1904 contains 2,000 names, each person identified by "blood quantum" of racial ancestry.  The 1904 list is now computerized.  With each passing year, the numbers on the list grow more complex: 17/64, 111/128, 165/256. 

Blood quantum is still assigned to each child born on most U.S. tribal reservations. Controversy is growing as to Who is Indian?  Among a few tribes, casino money has fueled the controversy, but among some tribes, it is a matter of maintaining a tribe. Assimilation, both through marriage and moving off of the reservation has lead to strong divisions in answering the question: What is an Indian? 

Small Salmon doesn't bother hiding his resentment.  The "new" Indians," as he calls those who embrace their heritage later in life, are able to move back and forth between the white and Indian worlds.  They didn't pay the emotional toll their darker cousins faced.  Now those same people might be declared just as "Indian" as he is.  Small Salmon thinks this is unfair.

"If I have one drop of white blood," he said, "that doesn't make me white. Right?"

Darryl Dupuis has urged relaxed rules on who is considered Indian.  Today there are 200 or so full bloods in the united Flathead tribes.  The youngest is pushing 40. "If this trend continues, we feel we're going to be phased out.  There will be so few of us that the Bureau of Indian Affairs will say we're not a tribe anymore."

"Even if you look like you're an Indian individual and you speak the language and practice the traditions, if you don't have the correct degree of Salish and Kootenai blood, then you can't be a tribal member," Dupuis said.  Dupuis official blood quantum level is 11/32.  He children are 11/64, which is 5/64 short of the degree required for membership.

The Flathead Reservation isn't the only place where the debate has turned shrill.  Blood quantum is an inescapable fact of life for most Native Americans, perhaps the most regulated, counted and classified people in the United States.

Mike Miller, a tribal spokesman said, "It's cooler now to be an American Indian than it was 30 years ago."  Every year, tens of thousands of people try to sign up for tribal membership.   The Cherokees get the most applications - about 19,000 annually.

Abstract from article by Hector Tobar, Los Angeles Times, 1-4-01

"With all beings and all things we shall be as relatives."  Black Elk, Ogalala Sious
The Family Tree Oct/Nov 2000
                                                                                                      Return to Table of Contents 

TEXAS

Dear Ms. Lozano, I wanted to share with your readers  the results of the hard work of my Aunt Estella Zermeno of Goliad and my father's cousin Abel Rubio. 

Through the efforts of my Aunt Estella and Cousin Abel  the Historical marker for Don Manuel Becerra has been approved by the Texas State Historical commission. This will be the first Historical  Marker  for a Tejano in the county of Goliad. 

We will be having the Cesar Chavez Parade, again, March 31, 2001 in Houston, Texas.  Please visit our website frequently as my husband David is constantly updating it.  For more information, please go to: http://www.tejanoahp.org

Sent by:  Loretta Martinez Williams    latejana2001@yahoo.com 
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FAMILIA

                                                    BY ODIE ARAMBULA
                                                             Times editor

An idea borne from a Webb County Heritage Foundation historical tour in 1987 put Mrs. Lucas Garcia Sr., 87, on a quest to locate and restore the burial site of the patriarch of Rancho Los Ojuelos.

The former Maria de Jesus Guerra and her youngest son, Raymond Garcia, of Alice, pursued a task that culminated on Aug. 15 of last year with the designation of the gravesite as a Texas Historical Cemetery. "It's something we wanted to do for my mother," Raymond Garcia said. "She came up with the idea after she made a trip to Los Ojuelos and located the gravesite."

It's the gravesite of Dionicio Guerra, Mrs. Garcia's great-great-grandfather, the son of Ignacio Guerra and Maria Petra Gutierrez and is located about two and half miles past Mirando City on
State Highway 649. Dionicio Guerra and two of his brothers, Juan and Jose Maria, established
Los Ojuelos in the year 1857.

According to the Guerra family archives, Los Ojuelos was one of the first inland ranch settlements in the area. The first attempt to settle is credited to Eugenio Gutierrez, a native of Old Guerrero (Revilla), under a Spanish land grant dating to the 1790s. State historians write that Don Eugenio was forced out by marauding Indians and later a son, Isidro Gutierrez, came and fled in 1835.

The village in the eastern stretches of Webb County prospered in ranching and farming despite the constant threat of raiding Indians. Mrs. Garcia's late father, Margarito Guerra, who died in 1913, would tell her stories about Los Ojuelos. Mrs. Garcia said she remembers taking her
first steps as a little girl in and around the main house of the Los Ojuelos Ranch. "My father took me to the place when I was a child and he used to tell me stories about how his father's grandfather raised a family and how he helped build the Los Ojuelos community."

Through the years, the name of Dionicio Guerra became synonymous with Rancho Los Ojuelos.
This is was case despite the fact that, according to research by Guadalupe Martinez Laurel, none of the Guerras now own property at Los Ojuelos community. The research showed that two Guerra women married into Garcia families. Raymond Garcia said a land tract nearest the Dionicio Guerra gravesite is owned by a Flavio Garcia.

Mrs. Lucas Garcia Sr. did not elaborate on an event wherein Dionicio Guerra signed a paper giving temporary title to one Eusebio Garcia. The rest is history. Mrs. Garcia, nevertheless, said her location of her great-great-grandfather's burial site served to preserve an important chapter of Los Ojuelos and Webb County history for the Guerra family and their posterity.

The Texas Historical Commission acknowledged the documentation developed by Mrs. Garcia and her son, Raymond, leading to the designation of the Guerra Cemetery as a Texas Historic Cemetery. "My father told me about the Los Ojuelos Cemetery where Dionicio Guerra, my great-great-grandfather, was buried," Mrs. Garcia said. "The burial site was inside a boveda constructed of wood and adobe brick over the gravesite."

Mrs. Garcia described the boveda as a vault-like structure. "We could not visit the cemetery because the property gates were locked," Mrs. Garcia explained. "I had always wanted to go there and look for the gravesite. One day in 1987, a historical tour was announced to Los
Ojuelos. I bought two tickets from a lady named (Gloria) Canseco. I went along with other ladies and we walked around. I remember this high school teacher, Mr. Staggs, was a speaker and he had arranged to have a woman, DaCamara, to speak also. 

Mr. Staggs announced that the group included a descendant of the founders of Los Ojuelos. It was me. The cemetery was now part of brush land. Tall grass and brush covered everything."' Mrs. Garcia said she subsequently located the gravesite in the brush during a Guerra family reunion. "I asked a ranch hand about the old gravesite and the cemetery. He pointed the direction and we found it. It was hard to see because it was in the middle of all this tall grass and thick brush."

For Mrs. Garcia, it was the culmination of a dream that grew out of the stories her father, Margarito Guerra, used to tell her. All she wanted was to preserve the gravesite as a tribute to her father and mother, and for the benefit of the Guerra family's posterity. "We are indebted to the Texas Historical Commission and Mr. Garron S. Hite for their assistance in helping us officially establish the gravesite a Texas Historical Cemetery," Raymundo Garcia said. "My mother and I, along with all those who are descendants of Dionicio Guerra, are pleased with the designation."

Garcia and his brother, Lucas Garcia Jr., a psychologist in Hartford, Conn., said the designation ensures that "this cemetery will continue to be honored, respected, enjoyed and preserved by present and future generations."

Lawrence Oaks, THC executive director, and Frances F. Richard, director of the TMC history programs division, attested the THC certification of the site of the Guerra Cemetery as a Historic Texas Cemetery. Garron S. Hite, cemetery preservation coordinator for the THC, advised
Raymond Garcia on Aug. 15, 1999, of the designation.

Hite characterized the designation as "a testimony to your commitment to the preservation of this important historic process." Hite advised that the Historic Texas Cemetery designation makes the site eligible for a state medallion and interpretive plaque.

Mrs. Garcia said the THC will submit a suggested design for the medallion for approval by the family. She said a medallion dedication ceremony is planned for the near future. Hite acknowledged the participation of the descendants of the Dionicio Guerra family in providing all the necessary historical documentation to facilitate the certification.

The gravesite is marked by a small structure, which is visible from a dirt road off a land tract now owned by Flavio Garcia. "It's been my mother's lasting dream to preserve the gravesite and to
make it accessible to the family," Lucas Garcia Jr. said. Lucas Jr., visiting from Connecticut, said his father, Lucas Garcia Sr., owned and operated a typewriter repair and office supply store for years downtown at Lincoln and Convent.

The family business later relocated on 2120 Springfield at the present Garcia homestead.
The Garcias are the parents of eight children, Mariana (Mrs. John Milton), of Kerrville, Raymond, of Alice, Francisco, of Mission, Javier, of Garciasville, Sixto, of Houston, Manuel, of Lake Jackson, Lucas Jr., of Hartford, Conn., and Felix, deceased.

Editor Odie Arambula can be reached at 728-2561 or by e-mail at odie@lmtonline.com
Sent by Elsa Herbeck   epherbeck@JUNO.com  via losbexarenos@eGroups.com

Dionicio Guerra, son of Ignacio Guerra and Petra Gutierrez married (1ST)
Francisca Zapata,3 Jan. 1852 in Revilla ( now Guerrero, Tamaulipas). She was
the daughter of Eutemio Zapata and Maria Gertudis Ochoa .
children:
1 Jose Juan Nepomuceno, bapt. 27 Feb. 1853 at Revilla .
2 Manuela, married Cayetano Ochoa in 1871 in Laredo.
3 Juan, married Petra Tailes in 1874 in Laredo
4Maria Blasa del Refugio, bapt. 27 Feb. 1876 at Los Ojuelos ( baptism was
registered at San Agustin in Laredo) born 3 Feb. 1876, married Macedonio
Guerra in 1892 in Laredo
5 Francisco married Maria Salinas in 1900 in Laredo
6 Zaragosa, bapt. 15 Nov. 1871 in Laredo.
7Amada bapt. 29 April 1874 in Laredo( born 8 Feb. 1874)
8 Tomas, bapt. 24 Dec. 1877 at Los Ojuelos, born 18 Dec. 1877. ( registered
at San Agustin)
Dionicio married (2nd ) Andrea Velasquez ,6 May 1882 in Laredo at San
Agustin church. She was the daughter of Marcos Velasquez and Segunda Vela,

Jose Ignacio Guerra and Petra Gutierrez
Children:
1 Maria Petra del Refugio, bapt. 1 July 1829 at Revilla.
2 (un parbulo) buried 11 Aug.1829 in Revilla
3 Jose Dionicio, bapt. 9 Oct. 1830 in Revilla, married (1) Francisca Zapata
1852 in Revilla, (2) Andrea Velasquez 1882 in Laredo.
4 Juan Nepomuceno, bpt. 14 Oct. 1833 in Revilla, married Manuela Rodriguez.
5 Jose Maria married Adela Aguirre in 1863 in Laredo
                                                                                                     Return to Table of Contents 

Don Jose was preceded in death by his wife of 65 years, Josefina (Josie) Valls Guerra; a brother, Alberto Guerra and a sister, Adela Guerra Blevins. Survivors include Joe A. (Josie) Guerra, Ricardo J. (Suzanne) Guerra, Josie Guerra Levander, Laura (Ken) Adler, Rosario (Stewart) Lapin, Anna (Robert) Nudelman, Angela (Carlos) Cuellar, Luis A. (Lydia) Guerra, and
Gabriela (Steve) Kirchner; 27 grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren; sister-in-law, Herminia G. Guerra, surviving members of the Valls family, and numerous cousins, nephews and nieces. 

Interment was in the family plot of the Calvary Catholic Cemetery.

Source: Walter L. Herbeck Jr. wherbeck@juno.com
via losbexarenos@egroups.com
                                                                                                           Return to Table of Contents 

Emilio D. Santos, CEO
Valley Multimedia, Corp
1624 N 10th Suite 6
P.O. Box 3916
McAllen, TX 78502-3916
(956) 994-3996 Fax (956) 994-3989

SOUTHWESTERN UNITED STATES

LaDeane Miller writes he is working on the following, and has offered to do look up's on the following: 
San Miguel marriages and baptisms,   
Santa Fe marriages and baptisms, 
San Lorenzo de Picuris baptisms, 
Fray Chaves ONMF,

                                                 The Other Las Vegas

[In reference to a previous article which appeared in the January issue of Somos Primos, 
Daniel Aragon Ulibarri sent the following:]

The piece on Las Vegas in the Northwestern section appears to confuse Las Vegas, New Mexico with Las Vegas, Nevada. Las Vegas, New Mexico, in San Miguel County, was established as a Spanish Land Grant around 1735 and went on to become the largest city west of the Mississippi in the 1800s. The land grant was assigned to Alcalde, Jose de Jesus Ulibarri and 35 others. It is indeed green with grass. Sitting about 40 miles due east of Santa Fe, New Mexico, it is situated at the southeastern end of the Rockies and is the beginning of the great plains. It is the first city on the Santa Fe trail that easterners would see once leaving Kansas. The largest fort, Fort Union, in the United states was established just east of Las Vegas.

Rivera discovered Las Vegas, Nevada in 1829 not the 1700s. Las Vegas Valley was indeed known by Native Americans. The Paiute lived there when the Anastazzi abandoned the area around 1150.

Attached is an article that appeared in my column for the Santa Fe New Mexican Sunday news last week. It speaks to the confusion between the two cities--one known for gambling and one know for its Hispanic heritage. I invite you to read about my novel "Devil's Hatband--cintillo de Diablo, a 
true story about Hispanics adjustment and conflict with American ways in Northern New Mexico.

Go to http://www.ushispanic.net

I hope that the confusion is corrected since Las Vegas, New Mexico was the site of the first Hispanic political party in the United States and from 1888 to 1900, was openly fighting for civil rights of US Hispanic citizens and their activity dominated easterners and Washington DC politics toward the West.

 Daniel Aragon Ulibarri   usorg@usorg.com

http://www.ushispanic.net/USHisp/DHatband.html 
http://www.ushispanic.net

                                                                                                            Return to Table of Contents 

HISTORY OF THE LOS CERRILLOS MINING AREA

by Homer E. Milford

This material was originally published by the New Mexico Abandoned Mine Land Bureau
Reports 1994 - 2 and 1996 - 1

Pre-revolt Cerrillos Marquéz Family Tree

                            Fernando de Oñate
                            & Juan de Oñate         Vincente de Zaldivar
                              uncles?                cousin?
                                    |                 |
                                    |        ----------
                                    |        |
	Gerónimo Marquéz ------ Doña Ana de Mendoza
                           |
  ? ---------------------Diego Marquéz(?-1643)------------Bernardina Vasquez
	 |                                          |
	 |	 ---------------------------------------------
	 |       |           |                 |             |
    	 |   Cristóbal 	  Bernabé----(A)     Pedro,     Margarita----Gerónimo Carvajal
	 |   (note B)     (1642-?) |        (note C)     (note D)  |  (note E)
	 |                         |                               |
	Alonzo                6 children                      6 children
	Catiti           (half-grown in 1680)             (almost adults 1680)
	(?-1684)                                        Maria Ana (G) post-1658-?
	(note F)                                        Magdalena (H) post-1658-?
	                                                Josephina (I) post-1658-?
                                                        Antonio (J) 1658-?
 	                                                Ambrosio 1656-?
                                                        Luís (K) 1661-?

The notes that accompany this family tree are fascinating, filled with intrigue and conjecture based on historical documents. If you have any connection with this family tree, you'll will doubtless pick up some clues for further research.  

http://www.cerrilloshills.org/Park/History.htm.

Sent by Johanna de Soto

Commerce of the Prairies by Josiah Gregg - 
first published in the year 1844

KANSAS COLLECTION BOOKS

http://www.ukans.edu/carrie/kancoll/books/gregg/contents.htm#toc

DR. LYNN H. NELSON and DICK TAYLOR  produced this selection

Sent by Johanna de Soto                                                                  Return to Table of Contents 

EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI

Each entry includes a standardized name, the name as listed in the Bulletin, home state or country, and date and page number of the listing in the Bulletin.

Sent by Johanna de Soto                                                            Return to Table of Contents 

East Coast

A year-old, New York-based Web site dedicated to providing Latinas with a safe place to explore taboo topics freely and at the same time helps them deal with daily life issues.  Services available are chat sessions, email advice posted by fellow Latinas and tips from experts. Founder and president Ada Diaz Ahmed recognized two needs of Latinas:
1) personal and family privacy and respect  is very important. Sharing emotional feelings is not encouraged. 
2) Latinas often live between two cultures.  Although they assimilate into American culture, they also want to continue the customs of their homeland. 

Column by Yvette Cabrera in the Orange County Register, 10-27-00         Return to Table of Contents 

MEXICO

Hi,I ran into this URL sometime ago and had forgotten about it. But I remembered the other day when your latest newsletter came out and thought if you had never written about this part of Mexico's history, you might consider including it in your next newsletter. I knew that Mexican army had joined in the fray late in the war, but did not know that it included their air force.  
Greg Hernandez

Hispanic America, U.S.A., Inc.   http://www.neta.com/~1stbooks/unit10.htm

201st  Mexican Fighter Squadron

A little recognized contribution by Hispanics to the war in the Pacific was that made by the 201st Mexican Fighter Squadron the 201st Escuadron de Caza.

On June 11, 1942, Mexico declared war on the Axis powers and made plans for the organization of the 201st Fighter Squadron. A select group of pilots from all walks of life were inducted into the Squadron.

Most had received initial flight training in Mexico or the U.S. They were then sent for orientation flight training at Pocatello Army Air Base, Idaho and trained as a P-47 fighter squadron, with 35 officers and 300 enlisted men.

The Squadron finished all phases of its training by early March 1945 with a superior record. The 201st Mexican Fighter Squadron was attached to th 58th Fighter Group (P-47) in the Philippines.  There they began combat operations in June 1945. Considering that the 201st was new to combat, their record compares favorably with that of the veteran pilots of the 58th Fighter Group.

They participated in bombing missions in Formosa and supported troops from the 25th Division with bombing and strafing missions.

From June 1 to July 10, 1945, the 201st:
(1) flew 50 missions and 293 sortie;
(2) dropped 181 tons of bombs;
(3) fired 104,000 rounds of ammunition; and 
(4) seven pilots were killed in action.

On Veteran's Day, Carlos Faustinos, a former member of the Squadron, flies a Mexican flag in his home instead of "Old Glory." This flag is flown in commemoration of the men of the 201st Mexican Fighter Squadron who fought and died in aerial combat along with Americans in the South Pacific.

Faustinos flew approximately 25 missions, recording six Japanese zero kills. This feat brought him the distinction of a flying ace and he was awarded the "La Cruz de Honor" (The Cross of Honor), which is equivalent to the U.S. Medal of Honor, by the Mexican government.
                  
                                                                                                                                     
                                                                         © 1996-97 all rights reserved

Be sure and look at this website, a non-profit organization providing an overview of  contributions of Hispanics &  Spanish speaking America - world and United States history.  Web mister Judy Baca Romero welcomes submissions and would like to connect with other organizations and individuals.  For more information contact:
                                                                 
Judy Baca Romero
Hispanic America USA, Inc.
P.O. Box 36693
Phoenix, Arizona 85067-6693

602-234-8600 Fax 602-265-2118                                                           Return to Table of Contents 

A census search for:
Babonoyaba
San Andres
Santa Andres
Santa Ysabel
Santa Cruz Tapacolmes
Satevo
Villa de Chuhuahua
Quartels 1, 2, 3, 4
Ciudad de Chihuahua

473 pages / 8 x 10 inches format, with index.
$ 67.00 + $ 3.50 shipping and handling
California tax 8.25 %

Call: 408 267-2580 or email: Pa22@ihot.com

Census Information

1. First name/ surname of head of household
2. Spouses first name and maiden name
3. Ages of all in the household
4. Extended family within a household
5. Ages of family members
6. Status: single, married, widow
7. Occupation
8. Tax due, if any
9. Helpers key to census
10. Indexing for a fast search

Make checks to: Hispanic Genealogy
Note: Libraries, government, municipal, 
educational and corporate entities may order by enclosing an official signed purchase order.

                              Return to Table of Contents 

http://www.geocities.com/jofogo/

Now Includes:
General Zuazua, Dr. González, Higueras, Pesqueria Chica, Cienega de Flores, Sabinas Hidalgo, Salinas Victoria, Villaldama, Cerealvo, Cadereyta, Monterrey, Montemorelos

Fair, July 13 to the 22nd.   
Conferences and Family Reunion in Marin.

Jose Gonzalez  starjfg@worldnet.att.net

Orange County Register, 1-2-01

CARIBBEAN/CUBA

 Los Angeles Times. January 2001, from a column, "My Best Recipe" 1979

If the groom’s owner refused, the bride’s owner had to purchase the groom (2). Thus, slave marriages represented not only key religious activities, but also property exchanges – and additional genealogical entries.

Absentee Landlords. One key characteristic difference between Latin American and West Indian slavery and that practiced in the United States was the widespread existence of plantations owned by people who often lived half-way across the world. While no hard statistics exist, many historians believe that a high percentage of West Indian and Latin American slaves were owned by absentee landlords. These historians believe this characteristic may account for higher mortality rates among slaves in the West Indies and Latin America than in the United States (3).

This practice is also important to genealogical researchers because most absentee landlords required updates on their investments. Thus, information from the West Indies and Latin America found its way to colonial capitals, Europe and the United States and may now be housed in national archives or private collections in those nations.

Absentee landlords also held title to their property but allowed other people to manage their affairs. Thus, researchers may need to note that when using records pertaining to Latin America or the West Indies, the people reporting the information may not have been the legal owners, but rather the owners’ representatives. In the cases of wills, estate records, deeds and other records, knowing the true owner’s name is critical to successfully locating one’s ancestors.

Switching Lands Among European Powers. Initially, the entire Caribbean and all of Latin America fell under the control of Spain. Gradually, Great Britain, France, Holland and Denmark broke Spain’s hold on the West Indies. In South and Central America, Spain, Portugal and Britain represented the long-term European powers on the continent. Over time, it was not uncommon for a colonial province to belong to several powers. For example, Holland took St. Eustatius and Tobago from Spain. In 1781, French and Spanish forces took over the territories only to lose them again to Holland in 1783. Similarly, Spain, Britain and the United States held the Bahamas Islands at different points between 1492 and 1964 (4).

These colonial power changes impacted record keeping as well as the legal and religious practices that affected the lives of slaves. Also, such key details as the language in which documents were recorded changed when lands switched hands. Thus, it is critical that researchers learn as much about the history of the areas they will research as possible. This practice will help the researcher identify:

• resource options that may be nation-dependent (were owners from Spain or England and did they generate records in those countries);
• potential language barriers (do records shift from English to Spanish to French and what effect
will this have on the research process); and
• which nation’s laws applied at which points in time (if Nation A recorded certain information
about its slave population, certain record types may have limited availability depending on how
long Nation A held the territory).

Free Versus Slave Designations. Just as in the United States, many European colonial powers established manumission laws to govern the process of freeing slaves. For example, Cuban law allowed slaves to negotiate their freedom from their owners and required the owners to consider the slave’s petition for emancipation (5). In Brazil and Latin America, freed slaves enjoyed the rights and privileges of freedom. 

However, in the British West Indies, many colonial governments established rules strictly governing the behavior of former slaves (6). Thus, researchers may be able to check for “Registers of Free Blacks,” tax books and similar sources for information about their ancestors in those areas.

In some cases, colonial powers allowed interactions between Blacks who were slaves and those who were free. For example, David Stark found that Puerto Rico permitted slaves and free Blacks to marry. Further, since children assumed the status of their mother, some slave men chose to marry free Black women so their children would not be slaves. Since such families generally lived on the owner’s property to be with the slave parent, owners usually did not object to such marriages (7).

The Melting Pot. Many whites in the United States created the facade that they had a moral imperative to protect “the family” from the dangers of “mongrelization of the race” even though that imperative was casually and frequently violated. This viewpoint may have been furthered by the fact that most American settlers came with their families or with the intent of bringing their families to America soon after arriving. In addition, when slavery evolved as a racial institution in America, slave owners and their supporters suddenly adopted the belief that God did not intend for Blacks and whites to interbreed (8).

By contrast, racial intermixing and inter-racial marriages were much more readily accepted in Latin
America and the West Indies since most settlers there were single men with few European female
prospects. Further, with many settlers having come from strongly African-influenced Spain and Portugal, most Latin American and West Indian Europeans did not view Africans or native peoples as “untouchables (9).”

Despite a general acceptance of racial intermixing, colonial powers in Latin America and the West Indies developed a complex series of racial designations to identify individuals as did their counterparts in the United States. These designations included:

• mulatto - the child of a white and Black parent;
• mestizo - the child of a Native American and white parent;
• quadroon - the child of a white and mulatto parent;
• octoroon - the child of a white and quadroon parent;
• cascos - the child of two mulatto parents;
• sambo - the child of a mulatto and Black parent;
• mango - the child of a sambo and Black parent;
• mustifee - the child of a Native American and Black parent, or the child of an octoroon and white
parent;
• mustifino - the child of a mustifee and white parent; and,
• meguelon - an individual with African, Native American and European ancestry (10).

The immigration of Asian laborers further expanded the Latin American and West Indian melting pots. Because of high mortality among slaves, colonial powers accepted cheap labor from India, China and other Asian countries (11). Thus, some researchers’ efforts may take them to yet another continent to find their ancestors.

Naming Practices. Researchers need to be aware of two common naming practices in Latin America and parts of the West Indies. First, some slaves took “Christian” names after they had been baptized. In some instances, the “Christian” name became the name that the individual used in official records, such as marriage and birth records (12).

Another naming practice common among individuals of Spanish heritage may actually help researchers piece together their family trees. In most Spanish-speaking countries, individuals use two surnames, as in Garcia-Ruiz. The left surname represents the individual’s father’s paternal line while the right surname is the mother’s paternal line (13). Thus, by tracing back both surnames, the researcher may be able to connect their family lines more easily.

Immigration and Travel. The concept of “immigration” as we know it today dates back centuries. Almost every nation with a recorded history has established rules to govern who may enter the nation. Groups as diverse as the Egyptians, Romans and Cherokee Indians all had procedures for becoming a citizen of their nations. However, the process of becoming a citizen has become more complex as nations have tried to control the influx of foreign nationals into their countries, particularly among groups deemed undesirable.

As with most processes, immigrating from one country to another or traveling to different nations has evolved to yield a significant record collection. From passport files to naturalization records to customs inspections, immigrants and travelers must provide a broad range of information about themselves and their families, their nations of origin, and their destinations. As medical science has improved its understanding of communicable diseases such as smallpox, influenza and other viral infections, immigration and travel records broadened to ask medical histories of travelers and prospective citizens. Screenings for criminal histories and mental illnesses were added as countries became concerned about the backgrounds of foreign nationals seeking to immigrate.

Prospective Research Barriers. Researchers who have worked in Latin America and the West Indies have reported a number of potential barriers they have encountered in their research efforts. While these hurdles are not exclusive to Latin America or the West Indies, it may be helpful to prepare researchers for what they may find in terms of:

• Access to Records. There are three primary concerns related to accessing records held in other
countries. The most significant barrier for genealogists can be the cost of performing on-site
research. To alleviate that concern, researchers may turn to the Family History Centers (FHCs)
supported by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints to find the FHCs do not have the full
range of available records (14). Finally, researchers may decide to turn to local searchers with
few guarantees that these individuals will produce what they promise.

• The Condition of Records. Many records housed in Latin American and West Indian archives
have suffered from years of exposure to heat, humidity, weather, lack of proper preservation, lack
of proper storage and lack of proper archiving. This exposure has almost destroyed some records while rendering others difficult to read or handle (15).

• The Existence of Record Sources. Some record sources were completely lost due to fires,
storms and neglect. However, some records were intentionally destroyed. For example, in 1891,
all Brazilian records pertaining to slavery -- log books of slave ships, custom house records,
documents of sale, and ownership records -- were ordered destroyed by government officials so
that the families of former slaves could avoid any associated stigma (16).

• Language Issues. As noted before, researchers who are not fluent in European languages other
than English will need to find individuals who can translate documents, communicate with
research staff and help them sort through records.

Individuals with Latin American or West Indian “roots” face some unique challenges in their research efforts. At the same time, there are some genealogical resources that may be more widely available in Latin America and the West Indies than in the United States. Researchers simply need to prepare themselves well for searching for their other American ancestors.

Sources

1 Rowan, Barbara A. “Jamaican Gems: Tips for Researchers,” AAHGS News, March/April 1996,
Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society, pp. 1-2, 14-15, 18.

2 Stark, David M. “Marriage Strategies and Family Formation Patterns Among the Eighteenth
Century Puerto Rican Slave Population,” Journal of the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical
Society, 15(1), 1996, pp. 12-26.

3 Franklin, John H. From Slavery to Freedom: A History of Negro Americans, 5th ed. New York: 
Alfred A. Knopf, 1980, pp. 48-49. Nash, Gary B. Red, White, and Black: The Peoples of Early
America, 2nd ed. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1982, pp. 141-163.

4 Everett, Susanne. History of Slavery. Greenwich, CT: Brompton Books Corp., 1991, pp. 66-67. 
Franklin, pp. 45-53. “Chronological History of the Caribbean,” Caribbean Historical & Genealogical
Journal, July 1995, reprinted from posting to afrigeneas@msstate.edu on 9 July 1996.

5 Novas, Himilce. Everything You Need to Know About Latino History. New York: Penguin
Books, 1994, pp. 190-192.

6 Bennett Jr., Lerone. Before the Mayflower: A History of Black Americans, 5th ed. New York:
Penguin Books, 1982, pp. 50-52.

7 Stark, pp. 12-26.

8 Nash, pp. 152-163. Bennett, pp. 51-54.

9 Nash, pp. 152-163. Bennett, pp. 51-54. Franklin, pp. 65-70.

10 Stamp, Kenneth M. The Peculiar Institution: Slavery in the Antebellum South. New York: 
Vintage Books, 1956, p. 195. Blockson, Charles L. and Ron Fry. Black Genealogy. Baltimore: 
Black Classic Press, 1977, pp. 115-116.

11 Francis, Richard B. “East Indian Immigration as Sugar Workers to Guyana,” posted to
http://www/soc.genealogy.caribbean  on 7 May, 1997 by http://www.yuddh@ix.netchom.com

12 Franklin, pp. 69-70. Everett, p. 70.

13 Novas, p. 34.

14 Rowan, p. 14.

15 Ibid.

16 Everett, p. 90.                                                                            Return to Table of Contents 

U.S. HISTORY

LIBRARIES AND ORGANIZATIONS WHICH HAVE COPIES OF THE SERIES:
SPAIN'S PATRIOTS STUDIES DURING ITS 
1779-1783 War with England - During the American Revolution.

This series includes research of the Spanish soldiers whose names appear in the following states, CA1/2, AZ, NM, TX, LA

Would you like to have an Honorary land Deed to a Civil War Battlefield?   The battle was fought, August 29, 1862 at 5 p.m.  One hundred and thirty six acres are in danger of being destroyed, overwhelmed by urban sprawl.  

The International Society of Sons and Daughters of Slave Ancestry would like to honor their enslaved ancestors.  The ISSDSA is building a collection of print and non-print media relating to slavery which will be housed in the Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection at the Carter G. Woodson Library in Chicago, Illinois.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Greco began his career in 1937.  Eventually he organized the Jose Greco Dance Company and toured the world six times worldwide. His was the first Spanish dance company to ever have a run  on Broadway and it attracted 10,000 spectators to Lewisohn Stadium in New York for one of its performances.  From Greco's return to America, he stopped touring until 1969 and was told his company grossed $14 million those two decades.

He appeared in five movies. Greco retired from dance in the 1960.  In 1962 Greco was knighted by the Spanish government. In 1977, his autobiography, "Gypsy in My Soul," was published.

Orange County Register, 1-1-01,   Los Angeles Times, 1-4-01

Editor's note:  In 1952, as a UCLA sophomore, my Tía Estella took me to see Jose Greco in Los Angeles. We were seated at tables with Greco dancing in the center, just a few feet from the audience. To my surprise and amusement my Tía kept yelling out in appreciation - bravo, ole, magnifico!  After his performance, the awesome Greco joined the two of us at our table. She invited him to our table, and he came! I was totally surprised, but my Tía was not.  She acted as if it was a very natural thing to occur.  I watched quietly as they spoke - - almost like old friends. I was impressed by my Tía also, raised in a small town in Mexico speaking to this elegant world figure in such a relaxed manner. 

I remember his performance.  He was magnificent, dramatic and powerful. I also remember his attitude towards us, unpretentious, relaxed, comfortable, like family - a  prized memories.

    Do you have an experience with a well-known Hispanic, a hero, a trailblazer?  Please share.    

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Colombia Query

I have done considerable research on my ancestors in Colombia. I can trace them back to Bartolomeo Moran de la Conchay originally from the Villa de Rosario in Norte de Santander.

Beyond that there is a hole, although my ancient relatives were three knights of Cantabria,, in the service of the King of Aragon, in the fight against the moors. The family crest is a light blue shield with a sea shell in the middle of it, and a motto: un buen morir dura toda la vida.

I do not know how to identify the Concha men that moved to Mexico, Colombia, Chile and Peru. 
There are hundreds of descendants. Grandees with the De la Concha last name appear in Colombia with : MIguel de Concha and with another famous Concha brothers in Upper Peru

I am attaching what I have found so that you might help me with more clues. I am missing 1he period from 1700 to 1750, when these young cantabrians were sent to the colonies in search of fortunes. Also from mi great grandddfather Bertolmeo Moran de la Cocha, there is no trace about his parents, sons or grandsons.

Regards, Mario Concha Y Zuniga   Mjconcha1@aol.com

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The Sephardic House is located at 15 West 16 Street., New York City, New York 
Visit their web site for a full schedule of activities and resources:  www.sephardichouse.org

In a study in the journal Science, researchers say distinctive features in ancient skulls, some dating to more than 200,000 years, suggest modern humans descended independently from common ancestors that lived on nearly every continent and mingled with earlier human types.

Recent theories suggested that a single wave of modern humans came out of Africa, but Milford H. Wolpoff, a University of Michigan anthropologist and co-author of the latest study says that humans did originate in Africa, but they migrated in small groups over thousands of years and journeyed to Asia, Europe and even as far as Australia.

 Wolpoff said that evidence found in 25,000 to 200,000 year-old skulls showed clear evidence of a Neanderthal influence, along with features of the early modern humans that evolved in Africa.  Wolpoff said this suggests modern humans dribbled out of African in small numbers and migrated to distant lands where they mingled with a more ancient human type that already lived in those places.

Eventually, Wolpoff he said, the superior genes of modern humans dominated the species through natural selection, and the clearly identifiable archaic humans disappeared. "The Neanderthal disappeared as a result of interbreeding." . .  "There are still Neanderthals today and they are us," said John Hawks, University of Utah anthropologist and co-author of the study.

Abstract from article by Paul Recer, the Associated Press via Orange County Register, 1-12-01

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E-Mail: webmaster@braintrack.com
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Martin Buerlimann, Webmaster
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MISCELLANEOUS

What is your goal in writing? Some writers want to detach themselves from the subject (themselves) they will write about their favorite pet, of their father etc. Others are looking for compassion, validation, or understanding or even love. 

Auto-Bio R Us

A person's life story. Autobiography is a re-creation of a person's life and times. 

Use quotations and dramatic narration to give the reader a sense of life unfolding.

Give your subject center stage.

Allow enough historical context to set the scene.

Flesh out the bones with some psychological insights.

Do not lapse into critical commentary or psychobabble. 

Aim to engage your readers' heart as well as their mind

At the end the reader should feel they know the subject intimately 

Readers may end the story with a sense of loss 

Characterization:

Tell how the character looks, acts, and thinks. 

Let your readers draw their own conclusions about a character. Show how other characters react to this person.

Distinct parts:

Collect letters, interviews, anything written reflecting an earlier time in the persons' life. A diary is ideal.

Order:

Chronological order is events recording life from birth to death. Flashbacks help fill in missing information, explain the characters' actions, advance the story and offer political or social information, which may impact on the behavior.

Point of View:

Point of View is the standpoint from which a story is told. Autobiographies are usually told from the first-person point of view. The narrator is one of the characters in the story. The narrator explains the events through his or her own eyes. Using pronouns I, me, and mine. 

Readers know only what the writer remembered, felt, and saw through their own experiences.

Autobiographies can be told in the third-person point of view.

See Henry Adams' the Education of Henry Adams (1906)

Read, 1791, The life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. by James Boswell

It is so lively you'll feel you're being whisked through from This is start to finish, without time for a breath or sleep if you try to read this at night.

Subjects often create images of themselves and then project their images as fact and history. We can argue that the public has a right--and the writer the obligation--to reveal the truth. 

Start:

Write the persons autobiography. Quick paragraph of the person even yourself. 

Organize your material into a working outline. A chronological list of events or scenes then you can plug in the facts.

Back up disks and make copies of everything. 

Esperanza
 
 de José Marcelo Leyría 
 mleyria@powernet.net.ar

Cuatro Velas se estaban consumiendo tranquilamente.
El ambiente estaba tan silencioso que se podía oír el diálogo entre ellas.

La primera dice:
¡Yo Soy la Paz!
A pesar de mi Luz, las personas no consiguen mantenerme encendida.
Y disminuyendo su llama, se apagó totalmente.

La segunda dice:
¡Yo me llamo Fe!
Infelizmente soy superflua para las personas.
Porque ellas no quieren saber de Dios, por eso no tiene sentido continuar quemándome.
Al terminar sus palabras, un viento se abatió sobre ella, y ésta se apagó.

En voz baja y triste la tercera vela se manifestó:

¡Yo Soy el Amor!
No tengo mas fuerzas que quemar.
Las personas me dejan de lado porque sólo consiguen manifestarme para ellas mismas; 
se olvidan hasta de aquéllos que están a su alrededor.
Y también se apagó.

De repente entró una niña y vió las tres velas apagadas
¿Qué es ésto?
Ustedes deben estar encendidas y consumirse hasta el final.

Entonces la cuarta vela, habló:
No tengas miedo niña, en cuánto yo esté encendida, podemos encender las otras velas.

Entonces la niña tomó la vela de la Esperanza y encendió nuevamente las que estaban apagadas.
¡Que la vela de la Esperanza nunca se apague dentro de nosotros!

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Timelines allow you to see how a family member fits into history.  They can also help you by suggesting areas of possible research or by suggesting topics for discussion when interviewing relatives.  They can help children see how ancestors fit into the history they study in school.  Timelines are fun!

When you visit OurTimeLines.com you can make an unlimited number of timelines to view or print.  Enter a name, a birth year and a death year (or the current year).  You may also indicate up to ten color-coded personal time segments (events or ranges) e.g. schooling, marriages, job assignments, military service, etc.

Another interesting activity on this site is the ability to generate lists of contemporaries and of famous people born on a given day.  You can learn who shares your birthday, or who was born the same year as your grandmother.  Do try this free site.

CSGA Newsletter, Vol. 19, No. 1 (January 2001)