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Dedicated to Hispanic Heritage and Diversity Issues |
| Table
of Contents:
United States . . . . . . . . 2 Surname . . . . . . . . . . .28 Galvez Project. . . . . . .31 Orange County, CA. . . 32 Los Angeles, CA. . . . .36 California . . . . . . . . . . 40 Northwestern U.S . . . . 66 Southwestern U.S . . . 71 Black . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 Indigenous. . . . . . . . . 82 Texas . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 East Mississippi . . . .105 East Coast . . . . . . . . 110 Mexico . . . . . . . . . . .112 Caribbean/Cuba . . . .129 International . . . . . . . 135 History . . . . . . . . . . . 147 2003 Index Calendars Networking Meetings March 29, 2003 END |
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AYALA GONZALES FAMILY REUNION |
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The Ayala-Gonzales Family
Reunion took place in Visalia, CA over the Labor Day weekend.
Approximately 400-500 people attended. The Ayala-Gonzales reunions began
in 1967 and have continued since then, in Visalia, every three years. |
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"It is up to you to
rekindle the spirit of the Reunions with your own children. |
| Somos
Primos Staff : Mimi Lozano, Editor Associate Editors: John P. Schmal Johanna de Soto Howard Shorr Armando Montes Michael Stevens Perez Contributors: Edward Allegretti R.A. Andrews Jerry Benavides Joe Bentley Judge Edward F. Butler, SR Nellie Kaniski Elsa Salazar Cade Rosemarie Capodicci Bill Carmena Louis Cepeda Margaret Cepeda Richard A. Contreras Dr. Sergio Antonio Corona Páez |
Maria
Dellinger Bill Doty Zeke Hernandez Anthony Garcia Maria Rose Garcia Arturo Garza Diane Godinez Michael A. Gonzales Joe Guerra Mike Hardwick Elsa Peña Herbeck Walter L. Herbeck Lorraine Hernandez Dr. Granville Hough Eddie Grijalva David R. Jackson Galal Kernahan Melody Lassalle Cindy LoBuglio Jose Jaime Longoria Raul Longoria Alfred Lugo |
Frank C.
Martinez IV Doug Mason Dr. W. Michael Mathes Ana Maria McGuan Armando Montes Paul Newfield Gloria Oliver Lic. Guillermo Padilla Origel Danny Ramos Rob Rios Andres Rivero Lorri Ruiz Castillo Michael Salinas Benicio Samuel Sanchez Garcia Virginia Sanchez Tania Scott D.A. Sears Sister Mary Sevilla Mira Smithwick Dr. Ivonne Urueta Thompson Arturo Ynclan |
| SHHAR
Board Members: Laura Arechabala Shane, Bea Armenta Dever, Diane
Burton Godinez, Peter Carr, Gloria Cortinas Oliver, Mimi Lozano Holtzman, Carlos Olvera |
| Hispanics
Now Largest Minority Funding for Black/Hispanic Education Spanish-Language Virtual University Journalism Program for Gifted Students A High School Journalism Program Schools phase in English - Immersion Hispanics' Numbers in Clergy Low Church-going Hispanics do Better at School Church-going Hispanics do Better El Libro De Caló: Dictionary,Chicano Slang Latinas in Science: Antonia Novello They Came to America My Life As a Light-Skinned Mejicana Benjamin and the Word Senator McCain Renews Effort to Honor Cesar UT Pan-American, Among Best for Hispanics Winter break to accommodate Hispanic kids Stilled Voices in America's Education System "Words During Wartime" To Obtain Military Awards and Decorations Americanos: Latino Life in the United States Minority Business Issues |
Married
to an Alien Ancestry World Tree Holding On To Spanish? Seeking Participants for Documentary on Language Laws of Naturalization in 1881 Federal Writers’ Project (WPA) America Says Hello to Another Latin Drink Segunda Juventud Bank Ways To Charge Immigrant Money Transfers National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships Denny's Launches Hispanic Television Campaign Moving Target: A Memoir of Pursuit Espanglish Chat LNESC & Coors Young Readers Partnership Bureau of Land Management, General Land Office U.S. Census Bush Web site targets Latino businesspeople The National Archives Experience Cantu Brothers Success Story Mexicans’ remittances, leads to legal action Mexico seeks “totalization” agreement Walt Disney Records Releases CDS in Spanish |
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Hispanics
Now Largest Minority |
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| President
Bush proposes funding increases for Blacks & Hispanics President George W. Bush will propose a 5% increase in funding in 2004 for Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), as follows: |
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| Historically
Black Colleges and Universities Historically Black Graduate Institutions Hispanic-Serving Institutions |
$224
million $ 53 million $ 94 million |
$277
million $ 94 million |
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| ·
The Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) program makes competitive
grants of up to five years to eligible institutions (those
with a full-time population of at least 25% Hispanic students, at least
50% of which are low-income individuals). This funding provides Hispanic
and low-income students with faculty and academic program development,
community outreach and other student services. · The Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) program makes grants to 99 eligible institutions to help strengthen infrastructure and achieve greater financial stability, supporting activities such as construction, community outreach and student services. · The Historically Black Graduate Institutions (HBGIs) program makes 5-year grants to 18 eligible institutions to expand institutional capacity for providing graduate-level education. Funds support activities including scholarship aid, construction, purchase of educational materials and other student services. Source HispanicVista.com |
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First Spanish-Language Virtual University Launched in U.S. Source: HispanicOnline.com, January 20, 2002 The first Spanish-language virtual university in the U.S. was officially launched this December following an agreement signed between Houston-based AAMA, the Association for the Advancement of Mexican Americans, and Mexico's Technological Institute of Superior Studies (Monterrey Tec), in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon. "The initiative will provide Latino immigrants from all walks of life with the opportunity not only to attain the basic skills needed to survive in the U.S., but also to obtain a higher education in the career path of their choice, and to do so in their native language," said Gilbert Moreno, president/CEO of AAMA, the ninth-largest Hispanic non-profit organization in the country. For Moreno, the new university is just the latest means to reach out to all Hispanic immigrants, not just those of Mexican origin, and expand AAMA's services beyond its offices in Houston, San Antonio, Laredo, Del Rio and the Rio Grande Valley. The new university is part of Monterrey Tec's Virtual University outreach services, already established in Mexico, South America and Europe. Although Monterrey Tec already offered U.S. Latinos basic literacy, English and computer skills via the Internet and through its Centros Comunitarios de Aprendizaje (Community Learning Centers) in Houston, Dallas and Miami, the collaboration with AAMA will create the first Spanish-language Virtual University, providing advanced educational services, via satellite and the Internet, for Spanish-speaking residents of the U.S. "Latino immigrants migrate to the U.S. for the chance to work and help their families achieve the ‘American dream,’” said Moreno. “Once here, they immediately enter the work force and, while many of them do learn to speak English, the majority never have the opportunity to fully develop academically and increase their employability and earning potential."Through the partnership with Monterrey’s Technological University, we will finally be able to provide them with such opportunities,” he emphasized.The majority of degree plans offered through Monterrey Tec's Virtual Universities are accredited by the Southwest Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) and include Masters degrees in administration, finance, marketing, e-commerce, information technology, telecommunications, computer science, education, and many others. Doctorate programs, continuing education and business development programs are also offered through Monterrey Tec's Virtual Universities. Once established in Houston, the AAMA/ Monterrey Tec Virtual University will make its services available nationwide through AAMA's Latino Technology Network. The LTN project, funded by the U.S. Department of Commerce, is a national collaboration among Latino organizations including the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO), Center for Training and Careers, Metropolitan Area Advisory Committee (MAAC Project), Multicultural Area Health Education Center (MAHEC), National Puerto Rican Coalition (NPRC), National Puerto Rican Forum (NPRF), National Association for Bilingual Educators (NABE), Cuban American National Council (CNC), Students Alternative Program, Inc., Technology for All, and Chicanos por la Causa (CPLC) |
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| A
High School Journalism Program for Gifted Students of Color! March 14 Deadline We are seeking applicants for Journalism Camp: a special summertime program scheduled for August 9-13, 2003 at San Diego State University in California. Journalism Camp will bring together a multicultural group of high school students to sharpen their journalistic skills in a unique learning environment--to get them excited about journalism. The 40 hand-selected students will spend time in classrooms and professional newsrooms with a staff of media professionals and with the opportunity to talk with some of the top figures in the media industry, including Pulitzer Prize-winners, network newscasters and leading newspaper editors. Minority students with a keen interest in broadcasting, newspapers, magazines, photojournalism or new media are especially encouraged to apply for this annual program. Qualified applicants must be currently enrolled in high school as a freshman, sophomore or junior and must be available to travel to San Diego during the camp week. There is no cost to apply. All expenses, including airfare, room and board will be covered by the camp's sponsors: The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, with additional funding provided by The McClatchy Co. and Knight Ridder. J Camp is produced by the Asian American Journalists Association. The deadline for applications is March 14. Applications may be obtained online at http://www.aaja.org Questions: please contact Lila Chwee at AAJA's National Office:(415) 346-2051 or lilac@aaja.org Sent by Nellie Kaniski nkaniski@earthlink.net |
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| Extract:
Schools
seek to phase in English - Immersion called too costly for fall by Anand Vaishnav, Boston Globe Staff 1-23-03 http://www.hispanicvista.com/html2/012703be.htm Nineteen of Massachusetts' biggest school systems yesterday asked state officials for a delay in immersing all of their bilingual students into English-only classes, arguing that the voter-approved initiative is too costly and too complicated to begin this fall. Bilingual education, which many schools taught for three decades, is the practice of teaching non-English-speaking children in their native tongues and easing them into English. Immersion is the opposite: surrounding immigrant students in all-English classes with only token amounts of their native language. In a letter to Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey, the school systems asked that English immersion programs be phased in over three years. After a rancorous campaign, voters in November overwhelmingly replaced bilingual programs with one-year, all-English classes in Massachusetts public schools. Pro-bilingual activists last year pegged the statewide price tag at $125 million, but superintendents in several districts said they haven't analyzed the expense yet because much depends on what the state Department of Education will require. Boston Superintendent Thomas W. Payzant estimated that it would cost about $5 million in Boston if the state doesn't require school systems to pick up the cost of training teachers. In California and Arizona - two states that successfully passed the Unz initiative - education specialists yesterday said they did not know of any valid studies of immersion's costs there. They said some school systems spent more on English-language textbooks and materials, and on training regular-education teachers who were unaccustomed to having non-English speakers join their classrooms. Article: http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/023/metro/Schools_seek_to_phase_in_English+.shtml This story ran on page B1 of the Boston Globe on 1/23/2003. © Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company. |
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| Hispanics'
Numbers in Clergy Seen as Low By Larry Witham, The Washington Times, 1-24-03 Source: HispanicOnline.com Hispanics trail other ethnic groups in training clergy for religious institutions, a process or career path that in the past has usually helped immigrants assimilate and gain social mobility. Most Hispanics are Catholics, and their growth into the nation's largest minority has swelled parish sizes, particularly in the Southwest. But few are becoming priests. On the other hand, while more-evangelistic denominations can recruit potential Hispanic clergy, they still have difficulties with training candidates and integrating them into the religious mainstream. "We don't have any problem getting people interested in ministry," said the Rev. Esdras Betancourt, a Pentecostal minister. "Our main problem is getting money to train them." Mr. Betancourt, who is chairman of a Hispanic commission for the National Association of Evangelicals, said evangelicals hope their clergy will improve their ability to bring many of the small Hispanic churches into the mainstream of society. The Rev. Edwin Hernandez, a Protestant and sociologist who heads the Center for the Study of Latino Religion at the University of Notre Dame, said Hispanic seminarians and clergy are "dramatically underrepresented" in accredited theological schools. "Wherever there is a Latino presence in the institution, students get attracted to be trained in ministry," he said. "A better-educated clergy will bridge the immigrants with the mainstream." The nation's churches, according to research on minorities and immigration, often have been a gateway for social connections, training, work ethic and social mobility. And Hispanic leaders are mindful of that, as the nation's 37 million Hispanics were named this week as the largest minority by the Census Bureau. But while Hispanics make up about one-third of the nation's 65 million Roman Catholics, they are just 3.6 percent of U.S. Catholic clergy. Meanwhile, at the 244 affiliates of the Association of Theological Schools, there are four times more black students — a total of 7,462 — and more than twice as many Asians as Hispanic students. The total of black and Asian faculty at seminaries also outnumbers Hispanic professors. According to the most recently available census data on occupations, there is about one Hispanic cleric for every 3,000 Hispanic residents — far lower than the ratio for the populace as a whole. The obstacles to training more clergy resemble those in other areas of immigrant life, such as language, funding, illegal status and cultural barriers, according to interviews. "It is easier to get somebody from Mexico [to study for the priesthood] than to get somebody who has been here since he was nine years old, is now 17, but entered the country illegally" and fears deportation, said the Rev. Miguel Solorzano, pastor of St. Philip of Jesus Church in Houston. Father Solorzano, spokesman for the National Association of Hispanic Priests, said the goal is to recruit American-born Hispanics as clergy. "Immigrants from Mexico are not thinking of entering seminary," he said. "They are thinking of the American dream, like work, make some money, help their relatives." But the tide is turning, given the large number of Bible institutes that are cropping up, new Catholic movements seeking priests and lay leaders, and chances for higher education for Hispanics. "While it looks like a bleak picture, there are some bright spots," Mr. Hernandez said. "Some institutions are aggressively recruiting Latinos." Of the 9,400 lay Catholics in the United States now studying for certificates in theology and church work to help at parishes, about 60 percent are Hispanic, according to recent surveys. Father Solorzano said that a new movement of monthly conferences called the "neo-catechumenal way" is interesting Hispanic high schoolers in college seminary study. Also, national projects such as the Hispanic Theological Initiative, which has Pew Trust funding and offices at Princeton Theological Seminary, hope to train the best and brightest Hispanics to lead church institutions. Beside sheer numbers, Hispanics also add excitement to American church life, which bodes well for ministry recruitment, Mr. Betancourt said. "Hispanics are spicing up the church," he said. "They are the salsa picante of the church. Salsa picante is outselling ketchup." |
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| Church-going
Hispanics do Better at School By Larry Witham THE WASHINGTON TIMES http://www.washtimes.com/national/20030128-30457960.htm Hispanic immigrants who regularly attend church are more likely to do well in school and reverse high drop-out rates, especially in impoverished school districts, according to a study released yesterday. "Religion matters for Latinos because it provides important educational opportunities outside school and ... the church environment reinforces the importance of learning and discipline," says the report. The study, which analyzed responses from about 7,000 Hispanic students and parents collected in three national surveys from 1996 to 1999, was released at a conference on Hispanic affairs at the University of Notre Dame. "Religion is particularly important in protecting impoverished Latino youth," the study said, noting that it helps students pay attention in class and escape the "oppositional culture" often found in inner-city schools. While many studies have looked at how Hispanic educational achievement is affected by economics, ethnic background and family structure, this is the first to collect available data on the role of religion. In the past year, similar studies on the entire teen population have found a strong link between religious attendance and success in school and self-esteem. The new 50-page report, "Religion Matters," was released by sociologists David Sikkink and Edwin Hernandez of Notre Dame. It emphasizes that Hispanics now are the largest ethnic minority and may become 25 percent of the U.S. population in future decades. According to other research, 40 percent of school-age Hispanics born abroad are not enrolled in school. The drop-out rate for Latinos ages 16 to 24 is 21.6 percent, about twice that of (non-Hispanic) whites. Immigrants — and especially Dominicans, Cubans and Mexicans — produce more single-parent families the longer they live in the United States. "Religion may mitigate this trend," the new report said. The report questioned predictions that a "permanent Latino underclass" is inevitable, and rejected the theory that poor Hispanics who take refuge in Catholic enclaves or Protestant sects will reject secular education. "Religion seems less likely to create a community of closed minds than to create the conditions in which Latino youth excel in school," the report said. The parents involved in evangelical Protestant sects, in fact, tend to "communicate higher educational aspirations" than do Catholic parents. And students from active religious families tend to do better in math and science than other Hispanics. The findings make sense to Leah Tenorio, Hispanic ministry coordinator at Good Shepherd Catholic Church in Alexandria. She agreed that social connections immigrants find in churches help overcome economic obstacles. "The effort that a family makes to go to church means a strong family relationship and a positive atmosphere," Miss Tenorio said. "The church often connects the immigrant to services that help their children at school." She recommends that American churches expand Spanish-language activities. The report, in turn, suggests public schools with Hispanics work with churches. "Higher [church] attending Latinos are more likely to read books to their children," the study found. Churchgoers are 18 percent more likely to take children to a library than non-attenders. Weekly churchgoing families, moreover, are 30 percent more likely to instruct their children in "time management" and 24 percent more likely to have "discussed future plans with the child" than parents who attend occasionally. "While the first-generation immigrant Latinos have a strong achievement ethic, it is difficult to pass those on to the second and especially third generations, which are likely to be more heavily influenced by American popular culture," the study said. |
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| El
Libro De Caló: The Dictionary of Chicano Slang Compiled by Harry Polkinhorn, Alfredo Velasco & Malcom Lambert 1988 100 pgs (pbk) ISBN 0915745194 $23.95. Class use $17.95 Includes index & concordance. The most authoritative dictionary and guide to understanding the dialect popularly spoken by Chicanos in the Southwest. It includes user's guide, concordance from the English to Caló and index. Mexican American s in Urban Society: A Selected Bibliography 296 pgs. (pbk) ISBN: 0915745127 Indexes. Compiled by Alberto Camarillo. $25.95 A comprehensive bibliographic study documenting the contemporary and newly acquired urban experiences of Mexican Americans living in major U.S. cities as they migrated from the crop fields of the Southwest to the newly emerging post-war industries. Definitively the most updated and complete bibliographic control effort on writings on regional urban development by Mexican Americans as they settled in their new environments. Highly recommended for public and academic libraries. http://www.floricantopress.com/ Floricanto Press info@floricantopress.com 650 Castro Street, Suite 120-331 Mountain View, California 94041-2055 (415) 552 1879 Fax (702) 995 1410 |
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New Website dedicated to Latinas in SCIENCE: Antonia Novello The first woman in science I would like to highlight is Antonia Novello. She was the first woman and first Hispanic Surgeon General of the United States. As Surgeon General she focused her attentions on aids infected children, smoking, teenaged drinking and women’s health issues. She was born in Puerto Rico. At the age of eight, she lost her father and she and her brother were raise by her mother a school teacher. She suffered a chronic disease of the colon till she was 18 years old. The experience influenced her to pursue studies in medicine. She earned her bachelors and M.D. from the University of Puerto Rico. Married Joseph Novello, U. S. Navy flight surgeon. They both went to University of Michigan Medical Center in Ann Arbor. Antonia Novello continued and was recognized in her work treating children with kidney disease. She continued her studies at Georgetown University, then Johns Hopkins University. As deputy Minister of the National institute of Child health and human development she took special interest in children with AIDS. She gave lawmakers in Congress advice on many issues from organ transplant to cigarette warning labels. In 1989, The senior George Bush nominated her to be the country’s Surgeon General. Which she served till 1993. This is just a brief sketch based on my research in the web, for more extensive information, and additional reading on Antonia Novello please visit Glass Ceiling Biographies-Antonia Novello at: http://www.theglassceiling.com/biographies/bio23.htm. For more links on Hispanic, Latina, Chicana Women in science please visit at http://members.attcanada.ca/~ecade/hispanic-women.html. Sent by web mistress: Elsa Salazar Cade ecade@telusplanet.net |
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They Came to America: Finding Your Immigrant Ancestors, book and guide $75. PBS Aired on KOCE, January 18. Check with your local PBS station. |
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By Diana Terry-Azios, Hispanic-May 2001 Three guys walked up to me
in a bar. "Excuse me," one says. "You have to help us
settle a bet. We were just trying to guess what your ethnicity is."
After I explain that I am a person, not a sporting event to be bet on, I
tell them that I am a Latina, of Mexican ancestry. At that point, the
interrogators look at me like I am the last living unicorn, a complete
anomaly to the laws of nature that make the earth turn. "No!"
they exclaimed. Well, what are we supposed to look like? The answers I have received would astound you. The range from utter speechlessness and tongue-tied apologies to " Like the ones in the back of the trucks with lawn mowers." Some people except my answer and go on with life, but others refuse to believe it can be possible. I’ve engaged in verbal warfare over it, too. Take the instance of the slightly inebriated partygoer, for example: " Mexican? No you’re not. You are Lebanese." " No. I am Mexican." " No. I know a Lebanese person when I see one. You are Lebanese." This merry-go-round discussion escalated and eventually drew a crowd. And there was a friend’s
mother: " Mexican? I thought you were Italian. There is an
Italian girl I know, and you look just like her. You sure look Italian.
I can’t believe you are not Italian." This happened every time I
saw her, until I began to understand that maybe she would have been more
comfortable if I had been Italian. Maybe they are right. As a light-skinned Latina, I can’t possibly understand the experience of being morena. But that doesn’t mean that I don’t know what it is to be Latina, that I haven’t had my own experience, or that they could understand what it is to be at the other side of the spectrum, to be guera. Being light-skinned means I blend in. But in a "blended" crowd, everything that makes the Latino experience is magnified ten times for me. Among Latinos, it isn’t unusual to find chicken’s feet in the soup, or a cow’s head on the table at Thanksgiving. But mention any of that in a non-Latino group, and it won’t be forgotten. The normalcy an subtleties of the culture made my traditions stand out in even more in mixed company. My experience as a light-skinned Latina has been a little like being the only one in masquerade at a black-tie ball. I draw more attention than if I just looked like what everybody else expects me to. My complexion means people drop their guard when I am around. Forgetting or never guessing that I am Mexican, people let loose remarks they would never say if they thought there was a Latino around. I have inadvertently been called "spic" and "wetback" and been told that I don’t belong because the speakers assumed there weren’t any "spics" and "wetbacks" within earshot. You can only imagine their expressions when I say that I, the person next to them at the dinner table or across from them at the conference table, am Mexican. Latinos who assume I am not Latina and do not speak Spanish are guilty of the same mistakes. I recall one former apartment neighbor who used foul, loud language because he didn’t think anyone else in the complex spoke spanish. I don’t think a name has yet been invented for the red color his face turned when I greeted them in Spanish one day. Though it isn’t as easy as some believe, I wouldn’t trade my experiences for any other. It has been unique and interesting. I am almost a double agent of the gente, the infiltrator no one suspects. For anyone else still curious, I am only going to say it one more time for the record: Yes, I am Mexican. Yes, I am fair-skinned. Yes, we do exist. And yes, I do know what it means to be Latina. My color can’t revoke my culture. So don’t stop me on the street, at the bus, at the store, or the bar to ask me what I am. There will be no more long glances followed by curious apologies from people who say, "I’m sorry, we didn’t mean to stare. We were just wondering what you are." I am a human being, a women, a light-skinned Latina, a proud Chicana. |
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Benjamin and the Word, published in LA Times From: Daniel Olivas at olivasdan@aol.com This Monday through Friday (beginning 1/27), the LA Times will be publish one of my children's stories in the Kids' Reading Room section. The story is called "Benjamin and the Word," and concerns a boy who is Chicano/Jewish and who confronts bigotry in the school yard. You'll be able to access it on the web, too: http://www.latimes.com/features/kids/readingroom This is the first story they will be publishing; I'm now a contract freelancer for the kids' section. |
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Senator McCain Renews Effort to Honor Cesar On January 15 Senator John McCain (R-AZ) reintroduced a bill to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to conduct a special resource study of sites associated with the life of Cesar E. Chavez. The goal of the legislation is to establish a foundation for preserving these sites as historical landmarks. "Cesar Chavez is one of the most revered public servants in our history for his leadership in helping organize migrant farm workers, and for providing inspiration to those most oppressed in our society," said Senator McCain. "He is an exemplary American hero. It is important that we honor his struggle and do what we can to preserve certain sites located in Arizona, California and other states that are significant to his life." Senator McCain first introduced this legislation last October and has received an overwhelming positive response, not only from his constituents in Arizona but also from Americans across the nation. Congresswoman Hilda Solis (D-CA) introduced similar legislation in the House in September 2001. The bill specifically authorizes the Secretary of the Interior to determine whether any of the sites meet the criteria for being listed on the National Register of Historic Landmarks. The study would be conducted within a three-year timeframe. "Cesar Chavez was a humble man of deep conviction who understood what it meant to serve and sacrifice for others," said Senator McCain. "He was a true American hero who embodied the values of justice and freedom this nation holds dear. Honoring the places of his life will enable his legacy to inspire and serve as an example for our future leaders." The Cesar E. Chavez Foundation recently kicked off its 2003 Speakers Bureau program, which is dedicated to educating and inspiring individuals, organizations and communities to carry on Cesar's dream for a better world. Through sharing personal remembrances, experiences, anecdotes, and biographical information, Foundation speakers provide a personal link to Cesar the man and leader, while giving contemporary meaning to his values and principles. Our speakers travel throughout the U.S. sharing timely and moving insights into the life and work of this great civil rights and farm labor leader. In addition to Chavez family members, Foundation speakers are leaders in business, politics, labor, the non-profit sector and the arts. Some of our speakers include Cesar's son and Chairman of the Foundation's Board Paul F. Chavez, United Farm Workers of America, AFL-CIO President Arturo S. Rodriguez, California State Senator Richard Alarcon, Actor/Activist Ed Begley Jr., and KABC-TV Director of Diversity Programs and Community Relations Diane Medina. Last year, the Speakers Bureau and Chavez Day activities combined reached more than an estimated 20 million people. This year, we will commemorate the 10(superscript: th) anniversary of Cesar's passing by reflecting on his life and work, and by highlighting his legacy's lasting power, which continues to positively impact communities throughout the country. For more information about the Cesar E. Chavez Foundation's Speakers Bureau, please contact Amber J. Thompson, Communications Coordinator, by phone at (213) 362-0267, ext. 242, or by email at athompson@cecfmail.org For more information, please visit http://www.ci.azusa.ca.us/. Foundation Job Openings, visit the Foundation's Web site at http://www.chavezfoundation.org for more information about the following positions: - Director of Administration - Director of Programs - Office Assistant - Receptionist - Student Assistant(s) Sent by Zeke Hernandez zekeher@juno.com |
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| University
of Texas, Pan-American among nation's best for Hispanics
While the University of Texas -- Pan-American remains second nationally
in total Hispanic enrollment among four-year colleges and universities,
the institution now ranks third in granting master's degrees, based on a
recent national magazine report of the 100 bet U.S. colleges for
Hispanic. Source: Los Arcos,
Spring/Summer 2002, Vol.8, No. 3 |
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WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. - West Sacramento
students returned to school this week after a three-week vacation - an
extended winter break that school officials hope will increase
attendance for Hispanic students who travel to Mexico for the holiday. |
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Stilled Voices in America's Education System by Clara Mercedes Piloto http://www-mcnair.berkeley.edu/uga/osl/mcnair/93BerkeleyMcNairJournal/ ClaraMercedesPiloto.html Knowledge itself is power. - Francis Bacon, Of Heresies [[An
introduction to a study which includes two examples of the experiences
of two students growing in bilingual proficiency. Includes 27
footnotes.]] |
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"Words During Wartime" from Parade Magazine Nov 3, 2002
said the following: "What do people say in time of war?
Husbands to wives? Sons to parents? Mothers to sons?
Presidents to generals?" David H. Lowenherz asked these
question, and his answer is The 50 Greatest Letters From America's
Wars (Crown). Here, Lincoln defends his Emancipation
Proclamation, freeing the South's slaves; and Capt. Rodney
Chastant of Mobile, Ala., fighting in Vietnam, thanks his parents for
letters recounting "trivial events" back home that helped him
forget the war for a moment. Most messages from today's war zones
come via e-mail, but we suspect the feelings are largely the same. Diane Godinez, SHHAR Calendar web mistress canprin@yahoo.com |
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| Where to
write for medals: |
Where
medals are sent from: |
Where to write in case of a problem or an appeal | |
| ARMY | U.S.
Army Reserve Personnel Center ATTN: ARPC-SFE 9700 Page Avenue St. Louis, MO 63132-5200 |
Commander,
U.S. Army Support Command U.S. Army Support Activities ATTN: STRAP-SEI P.O. Box 13460 Philadelphia, PA 19101-3460 |
U.S.
Army Reserve Personnel Center ATTN:DARP-VSA-A 9700 Page Avenue St. Louis, MO 63132-5200 |
| AIR
FORCE Including Army Air Corps & Air Force |
Air
Force Reference Branch (NCPMF) National Personnel Records Center (Address as above) |
HQ, Air
Force Manpower & Personnel Center AFMPC/DPMASA Recognition Programs Branch Randolph AFB, TX 78150-6001 |
HQ, Air
Force Manpower & Personnel Center AFMPC/DPMASA Recognition Programs Branch Randolph AFB, TX 78150-6001 |
| NAVY,
MARINE CORPS, COAST GUARD, including Merchant Marines > all have the same address where to write, and where the medals are sent from the same address; however in case of a problem or an appeal, the address is different: PERS-313E, Room 3475 9700 Page Avenue St. Louis, MO 63132-5200 |
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| NAVY: Chief of Naval Operations Navy Awards Board Washington, DC 20380-0001 | |||
| MARINE
CORPS: Commandant, U.S. Marine Corps HQ, USMC Awards
Branch (MHM) Washington DC 20480-0001 |
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| COAST
GUARD, including Merchant Marines: Commandant, U.S. Coast Guard
Medals and Awards Branch (G-PS3) Washington, D.C. 20593 |
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| December
14, 2002 - March 2, 2003 Americanos:
Latino Life in the United States This is a project of Olmos Productions, which has been organized by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service and the Smithsonian Center for Latino Initiatives. The exhibition offers an extraordinary view of the breadth and variety of the Latino experience, encompassing national origin, economic status, education, profession, religion and language. It brings together the work of thirty top photojournalists--including Jose Galvez, Eugene Richards, and Alexis Rodriguez-Duarte--united by their common interest in the diversity and complexity of contemporary Latino life in the United States. With perspectives as distinctive as the many Latino communities they document, the photographers explore aspects such as national origin, economic status, education, profession, religion, and language. The exhibition includes over 100 photographs as well bilingual texts by prominent Latinos such as celebrated singer Celia Cruz and the renowned author Carlos Fuentes. The location is the University of Arizona in Tucson. For more information call (520) 621-7968 or http://www.creativephotography.org/. Public Programs and Events for AMERICANOS-- All programs are FREE and take place at the Center for Creative Photography unless otherwise noted. Sent by Diane Godinez SHHAR Calendar web mistress canprin@yahoo.com |
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Minority Business Issues: Hispanic Achievers is set to launch a new television program on Time Warner Cable dedicated to minority business issues. The new programming will begin broadcasting the 2nd Monday in February at 9:30 PM on Channel 98. More information: mailer@hispanicachievers.tv Danny Ramos, eNews |
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The Genealogical Society of Santa Cruz Country 1907 On 2 March 1907 an act was passed wherein a wife’s citizenship status was determined by the status of her husband. Here is where the confusion begins to get worse. For women who immigrated after this act (and before later changes were enacted), there was no real change from before (unless their husband was already a U.S. citizen). However, it was different for U.S.-born citizen females who married an alien after this date. These women would lose their citizenship status upon their husband’s naturalization. Women who married men who were racially ineligible to naturalize lost their ability to revert to their pre-marriage citizenship status. 1922 On 22 September 1922, Congress passed the Married Women’s Act, also known as the Cable Act. Now the citizenship status of a woman and a man were separate. This law gave each woman her own citizenship status. This act was partially drawn in response to issues regarding women’s citizenship that occurred after women were given the right to vote. From this date, no marriage to an alien has taken citizenship from any U.S.-born woman. Females who had lost their citizenship status via marriage to an alien could initiate their own naturalization proceedings. 1936 This act affected U.S. citizen women whose marriage to an alien between the acts of 1907 and 1922 had caused them to lose their citizenship status. These women, if the marriage to the alien had ended in death or divorce, could regain their citizenship be filling an application with the local naturalization court and taking an oath of allegiance. Those women still married to their husband were not covered under the act and these individuals would have to go through the complete naturalization process. 1940 In 1940, Congress allowed all women who lost their citizenship status between 1907 and 1922 to re patriate by filing an application with the local naturalization court and taking an oath. The complete naturalization process was no longer necessary for any women whose marriage between 1907 and 1922 caused her to lose her citizen status. |
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| Ancestry
World Tree
Wealth of information at no charge.
The address is: http://pedigree.ancestry.com |
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Dr. Maceri's articles have appeared in "The Los Angeles Times," "The Washington Times," "The San Francisco Chronicle," "Hispanic Magazine," "Montreal Gazette," "The Japan Times," "La Opinión," "The Korea Herald," "L'Unità," and elsewhere.
The two supermarket shoppers were switching between one language and the
other so effortlessly as if both English and Spanish were their native
languages. Although I know many people who speak languages very well
because I teach foreign languages at the college level and have many
multilingual friends, I know very few people who seem equally
comfortable in two languages. Typically, one language dominates in spite
of the high level of skills one might posses in a second or a third. The views and/or opinions expressed by Domenico Maceri are not necessarily those of the staff of the DenverHispanic.com. Dr. Maceri teaches foreign languages at Allan Hancock College in Santa Maria, CA and can be reached by E-Mail at dmaceri@aol.com. We reserve the right to make any editorial changes. http://www.denverhispanic.com/ Sent by Margaret Cepeda margaret@orci.com
(Margaret Cepeda) |
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Seeking Participants for Documentary on Language Source: LatinoLa.com January 22, 2002 USC Graduate Student seeks participants for an advanced documentary exploring the lives of non-Spanish speaking Hispanics in Los Angeles. Do you think all Hispanics should know Spanish? Do you think the expectation for all Hispanics to automatically know Spanish, is outrageous? Has this subject affected your life in any way? Do you have strong feelings overall about this subject? If so, please call or e-mail me back soon. Even if you don't want to be on camera, but have opinions you'd like to share, please contact me: Yolie Martinez Phone: 562-477-2880 E-mail: martiney@usc.edu |
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Laws of Naturalization in 1881 Foreigners, before they became citizens of the United States, as set forth in the following forms and explanations, are called aliens, and owe no allegiance to the State in which they reside. Aliens do not possess the right to vote for the elections of any officer of the government, town, municipal, county, State or national; nor can they hold public offices until they are naturalized or have declared their intentions to become citizens. Their personal and property rights while aliens are, however, respected and protected by all branches of our government. Comparing individuals with governments, the alien seems to bear about the same relation to citizenship that the Territories of the United States do to the Union-protected, but with certain privileges withheld. The laws by which an alien is transformed into a citizen, and is endowed with all a citizen’s rights and privileges, are established by the general government. The United States laws require the applicant for naturalization to be an individual who has lived within its territory for five years immediately before and up to the time of his application. He must also have resided during one year of the five in the State or Territory in which he makes his application. Two years before he can legally be naturalized, he must go before a federal court or some local court of record, or the clerk of either of such courts, and make an affidavit that he proposes to become a full citizen of the United States at the proper time, and to renounce his allegiance to all other governments, princes or potentates, and, particularly, the sovereignty of the country from which he emerged. In most States this declaration entitles him to vote. If an alien has served in the army or navy of the United States, and has been honorably discharged from such service, he may be naturalized after one year’s residence in any State or Territory. Such residence must, however, be definitely proven before the court. The first step in the process of the legal naturalization, the applicant having duly shown that he is entitled to become a citizen, is to file in court a declaration of his intentions as follows: Form of Declaring Intention to Become a Citizen. I, Gustave Baum, do declare an oath (or do affirm), that it is really my intention to become a citizen of the United States, and to renounce forever all allegiance and fidelity to all and any foreign prince, potentate, State and sovereignty whatever, and particularly to William, Emperor of the German confederation. Gustave Baum. Sworn (or affirmed) in open court, at Loredo, Webb county, State of Texas, this sixteenth day of January, A.D. 1881. Simon R. Peterson, Clerk. |
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Orange County
California GS Newsletter – Federal Writers’ Project (WPA) Life Histories were written by the staff of the Folklore Project of the federal Writers’ Project of the U.S.> Works Progress (later Work Projects) Administration (WPA) from 1936-1940. The histories typically were 2,000-15,000 words in length and span the years 1889-1942 and cover a wide range of topics and subjects. Altogether the Federal Writers’ holdings number approximately 300,000. They include a rich collection of rural and urban folklore; first-person narratives (called life histories) describing the feelings of men and women coping with life and the Depression; studies of social customs of various ethic groups; authentic narratives of slaves about life during the period of Slavery; and Negro source material gathered by project workers. The writers chronicled interviews with Americans asked to recall significant events in their lives. The resulting collections offer a rich exposition of every day life in rural and urban United States, from the end of the Civil War through the years of the Great Depression. Each document in this collection relates the compelling story of human life. It may not be your ancestor that is being interviewed, but it may give you insight into life in that time period. http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/wpaintro/wpahome.html *History World An award-winning site with histories, biographies, images and more.http://www.historyworld.net *Oregon Land Records Lists land records found in Oregon State. http://arcweb.sos.state.or.us/land.html *California Country History *Online Census Finder Links to 8,200 census records. Http://www.censusfinder.com *Genealogy Wheel Chart Generator *What Passenger Lists Are Online? Expert Advice: Concerning The Census The federal censuses have been taken every 10 years and began in 1790 (1719for Vermont). Due to privacy laws, only census records 72 years and older are available for open research. Each census has an "official date" that should always be noted. The census taker, regardless of what day he or she recorded the information, was to list the occupants of any given household on the official of that year’s census. The official dates for each year up to 1930 are listed below: *1790-August 2 (first Monday in August) This means that a person born on April 20, 1910 shouldn’t be listed in the 1910 census. The enumerator was to list only those people living in the household on April 15, 1910. In some cases it took months for the enumerator to visit every household and record the data. In the early census years (1790 to 1840), the enumerators were allowed anywhere from nine to 18 months to complete their tasks. In 1850, 1860 and 1870, they were allowed only five months to record all of the residents and from 1880 to 1820, only one month. Some enumerators followed the rules strictly, while others did not. |
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America
Says Hello to Another Latin Drink
Signs of Mexico's influence on American drinking habits are everywhere.
College kids routinely squeeze limes into their cervezas. Bars thousands
of miles from the border sell dozens of varieties of tequila. Kahlua
with cream is not only a drink but also a premium ice-cream
flavor. |
| Segunda
Juventud
In order to better serve on diverse membership we've created Segunda
Juventud - a new quarterly bilingual publication building news
information and features a particular interest to Hispanic Americans.
Our mission refused to serve people age 50 and older to education,
advocacy, benefit and accessing programs and services -- to help them
protect your help, Madison money, when a retirement, serve their
community, strengthen their families I enjoy their leisure time. We want
to help all Mr. people become who they always dreamed of being -- to
open the door to the very best of airlines. |
U.S. Banks Seek Ways To Charge Immigrant Money Transfers by Katie Warchut, The Dallas Morning News, 1- 3-03 Sent by Howard Shorr howardshorr@msn.com Money sent home to Mexico and other Latin American countries by immigrant workers has grown into a multibillion-dollar industry, catching the eye of U.S. bankers who previously had shunned the market. Immigrants sent $23 billion home to Latin America and the Caribbean last year, paying $3 billion in one-time fees and exchange rates to wire-transfer companies and financial institutions. Although banks are working to make it easier to transfer money abroad, the Inter-American Development Bank said in a recent study that immigrants remain plagued by overly high fees. A survey of 302 Latinos who provide some support to families back home found the average worker sends $200 home seven times a year. But they are often hit with fees as high as $20 per transfer, which shaves 10 percent or more from their contribution. "The costs can come down much more, and we need to get at that," said Donald F. Terry, manager of the development bank's multilateral investment fund. The study found that most immigrants send the cash, called a remittance, through money transfer companies such as Western Union or MoneyGram because it's easier and because they are not aware of other options. Low-wage laborers often have to send money home as soon as they get it, requiring multiple one-time fees on small sums. They say they often do not realize how the fees add up. They lament the fact that the fees shrink the amount they send home to families who often depend on the dollars for necessities. A woman identified only as Elizabeth from Guatemala said in a taped interview that relatives spend the money "on stuff like medicine for my mom and expenses they have to pay, and I don't know what else they use it for." One way to get those fees down, the development bank said, is to entice immigrants to open bank accounts rather than rely on wire-transfer services. Currently, about half of Latin American immigrants do not have bank accounts. But low-income immigrant workers, many of whom are living in the United States illegally, often lack the necessary documentation to open a bank account. And minimum balance requirements also hurt laborers, who often run through the money they earn every month. "Many fear that going to a bank and giving their name would expose them to law enforcement action," said Roberto Suro, director of the Pew Hispanic Center, which also participated in the study. Some banks help workers by allowing them to set up accounts using a taxpayer identification number, which doesn't require legal documentation, rather than the typical Social Security number. More financial institutions also are accepting matriculas, the identification cards issued by Mexican consulates in the United States. Mexican consulates report they have issued more than 740,000 of the IDs to date. Bank of America began a program this year called SafeSend, which offers customers in the United States special accounts from which their relatives in Mexico may withdraw money with ATM cards. Almost all of the study's respondents said they were interested in such a program. "They give me the (ATM) card and send it to my family. All I have to do is call them and tell them I put in money, and they can take it out, just like they can here," said Antonio from Mexico. The president of Bendixen & Associates, the research company that conducted the study, acknowledged that financial institutions would have to do a lot of work to persuade low-wage immigrants to open bank accounts. "Their enthusiasm has to be in a sense compared to their inertia," Sergio Bendixen said, adding that banks will have to reach the Latino market through advertising. The answer for permanent change may not be through regulation of banking services but in the creation of competition for remittance services, Terry said. Competition among Spain's banks, for example, has reduced transfer costs by half in the last year. "The U.S. wants to see greater competition and make sure there's an even playing field," Suro said. Get more from the Web. |
National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships Source: LatinoLA Amigos - 1.8.03 National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) at http://www.nea.gov seeks to advance its goal of encouraging and supporting artistic creativity and preserving America's diverse cultural heritage by expanding opportunities for artists to create and refine work. The program operates on a two-year cycle with fellowships in prose available one year and fellowships in poetry available the next. For fiscal year 2004, the NEA will make grants for projects in prose. Deadlines: March 3, 2003 (Fiction and Creative Nonfiction); February 3, 2003 (Translation Projects in Prose). Funding for poetry projects will be awarded in fiscal year 2005. Deadlines: March 1, 2004 (Fellowships for Creative Writers - Poetry). For additional RFPs in Arts and Culture, visit: http://fdncenter.org/pnd/rfp/cat_arts.jhtml Sent by Anthony Garcia amigos@latinola.com |
Denny's Launches New Hispanic Television Campaign Source: LatinoLA Amigos - 1.8.03 Denny's announced the debut of a new Hispanic television advertising campaign designed to speak directly to Spanish-speaking consumers. The new commercial is the first creative effort of Denny's newly-appointed Hispanic agency of record, cruz/kravetz: IDEAS. It will air in select markets. The new tagline -- En Denny's, nos ocupamos de ti (At Denny's, we take care of you) -- will be featured in all Spanish broadcast and print efforts." Sent by Anthony Garcia amigos@latinola.com |
Book: Moving Target: A Memoir of Pursuit Ron Arias is the author of "Moving Target: A Memoir of Pursuit." It is the story about his 15-year search for his father, Army Major Armando Arias, a kind of Latino Great Santini who was a WWII spy and, during the Korean War, the man the LA Times once headlined as "America's Ace POW." Army Major Armando Arias disappeared from the family after the premature death of the author's mother under suspicious circumstances. In telling how he found his father, Arias will describe his visits with Ernest Hemingway, Jorge Luis Borges and other figures who helped him define fatherhood. Moving Target is published (Jan. 2, 2003) by Bilingual Review/Press, Arizona State University, tel. 480-965-3867. http://www.asu.edu/brp Arias, a Los Angeles staff correspondent for People magazine, is also the author of the novel The Road to Tamazunchale, nominated for a National Book Award; Five Against the Sea, a true survival tale; and Healing from the Heart, with Dr. Mehmet Oz. Sent by Zeke Hernandez zekeher@juno.com |
| Espanglish
Chat Our bilingual online chatroom where you can practise your Spanish. Now with voicechat! http://www.lingolex.com/spanish.htm |
LNESC and Coors Continue Young Readers Partnership LNESC NATIONAL PRESS RELEASE 2000 L Street, NW, Suite 610; Washington, DC 20036 (202) 835-9646; http:// www.LNESC.org 1/8/03 Sent by LQuiroga@LULAC.org (Lorraine Quiroga) Pueblo, CO- The Coors Brewing Company has provided a $10,000 grant to LNESC- Pueblo to continue the long running and successful Young Readers program at Minnequa Elementary. Recognizing that the path to graduation and college enrollment lies in early childhood education, LNESC and Coors Brewing Company are continuing the Young Readers program in Pueblo. Young Readers encourages children in the first to third grades to make reading a life-long habit through the incorporation of entertaining educational activities that help children enhance their reading skills and develop an understanding of the reading process. As part of LNESC national reading campaign, the program in Colorado will impact 30 students and their families. "We are very excited about the opportunity that Coors is providing to the children of Minnequa Elementary," said Richard Roybal, LNESC Executive Director. "We have seen Young Readers yield strong results in other areas of the country and expect that we will see it happen here too." The Young Readers program is an after-school program for 30 first to third grade students that take place throughout the school year and during its six week summer program. The program coordinator works with the participants' teachers and family members to insure that the value of reading is underscored. The support of local LULAC Councils brings a unique dimension to the program. In addition, the involvement of the local community will help to solidify the future of the program. For more information please contact Lorena Maymi, National Young Readers Coordinator at the LNESC headquarters in Washington D.C. at 202.835.9646. |
Bureau of Land Management, General Land Office Records The
Official Federal Land Patent Records Site We provide live access
to Federal land conveyance records for the Public Land States. We also
provide image access to more than two million Federal land title records
for Eastern Public Land States, issued between 1820 and 1908.
Images of Serial patents (land titles issued between 1908 and the
mid-1960's) are currently being added to this web site. Due to
organization of documents in the GLO collection, this site does not
currently contain every Federal title record issued for the Public Land
States. |
| U.S.
Census http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Search/frameset_search.asp?PAGE=census/search_census.asp You can choose the 1880 United States, 1881
British Isles, or the 1881 Canadian Census. You also can search all
censuses at once. Enter at least your deceased ancestor's first or last
name, and then click Search. |
| Bush
Web site targets Latino businesspeople http://www.commerce.gov/index_spanish.htm Source: Association Press via San Francisco Chronicle Washington - The Bush administration is starting a Spanish-language Web site designed to give 1.2 million Latino-owned businesses better access to information on governmental grants, trade and high tech issues. The number of U.S. Latinos rose by 58 percent during the past decade to 325.3 million, according to census figures - just under the 35.4 million figure for black Americans, the nation's largest minority. Sent by Tania Scott tntscott@qwestinternet.net |
| The
National Archives Experience
http://www.archives.gov/national_archives_experience/ This compelling mandate gave rise to a dramatic and powerful project-the National Archives Experience. Because we are renovating the National Archives Building, we have a once in a lifetime opportunity to create the kinds of experiences that not only will help combat ignorance and indifference, but also will inspire us, reunite us, and celebrate the American spirit. |
  The National Archives Experience truly has the power to teach us how our nation's past can become a living instrument for directing our nation's future. |
|
By 2000, Redapt was the second-fastest-growing private company in Washington, with $57.2 million in annual sales—a 700 percent increase in three years. This year, the brothers project sales of about $35 million—still enough for a profit. Customers include Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Eastman Kodak. |
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| Exorbitant
profits made from Mexicans’ remittances, leads to legal action and new
competition. http://www.hispanicvista.com/html2/012703gi.htm
January 2003 report In 2000, a class-action suit charging that Western Union and another subsidiary of First Data Corp, Orlandi Valuta, as well as MoneyGram, did not disclose the full cost of sending remittances to Mexico was settled with an agreement to provide those who used these companies to transfer funds between 1987 and 1999 with discount coupons for future remittance transfers. The companies agreed to provide $375 million in coupons, including two $4.25-coupons or one $6-coupon for each transaction between 1993 and 1999, and another coupon for every 10 transactions conducted before 1993. Please let friends know: Coupons must be claimed by March 17, 2003 When the suit was filed, the usual cost of sending $300 to Mexico was $30 plus a foreign exchange mark up- the difference between the exchange rate used to convert dollars to pesos and the bank rate- that ordinarily added $5 to $10 to the cost of transferring money. The suit charged that this foreign exchange mark up was not disclosed to those sending money. Lawyers for migrants who sued received $10 million, and the money transfer companies contributed $4.6 million to organizations serving Hispanics in the United States as part of the settlement. The migrants making transfers are not the only USresidents who do not use banks. About 13 percent of Americans do not have bank accounts- -"unbanked" in banking parlance. Mexican officials have mounted educational efforts to make migrants aware of the full cost of remitting money, and increased competition among money transfer firms has led to falling costs- currently about $16 for a $300 transfer -an $11 fee, plus a $5 foreign exchange mark up. There are many money transfer companies in the US-Mexico market, and banks such as Bank of America, which charges $10 per transfer, are expected to have a hard time competing with established companies that charge more, but also have more storefront agents in the US and Mexico. In a bid to expand its marketing to 36 million US Hispanic residents, including 21 million Mexican-Americans, Bank of America took a 25 percent stake in Grupo Financiero Santander Serfin, Mexico's third-biggest bank. Only 25 percent of Mexicans have a bank account, and with remittances to Mexico expected to hit $10 billion in 2002, many foreign banks want to use low-cost remittance transfers as a way to build loan relationships with customers in both the US and Mexico. Bank of America divided Hispanic immigrants in the US into three groups: 1.7 million people who have been in the United States more for than a decade and who have bank accounts, 11 million people who have been in the country for five to 10 years and need more banking services, and 3.4 million who have been in the United States less than five years and are unlikely to have a bank account or a credit history. Mexico's 43 US consulates have also begun to issue matricula consular ID cards so that migrants in the US can open bank accounts with government-issued identification, which has become necessary in many US transactions. As of December 2002, 13 states, hundreds of police departments, and airlines, banks, and other private firms accepted matricula consular ID cards as government-issued identification. However, New York state and New York City have refused to accept the matricula consular as an ID card. Mexico is developing banking institutions for more of its citizens. Elektra, a chain of 815 household goods stores, sells refrigerators and other consumer durables on credit to four million past and current customers. It has started Banco Azteca to serve what it says are 73 million Mexicans living in households with incomes of $250 to $4,000 a month, or $3,000 to $48,000 a year. In November-December 2002, some 250,000 savings accounts were opened at Banco Azteca, which is located inside Elektra stores. Elektra is often the agent for money transfer companies, drawing customers as Mexicans visit to obtain remittances. Remember: Coupons must be claimed by March 17, 2003 |
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| Extract:
Mexican
government seeks Social Security “totalization” agreement, as the US has with 20 European countries. http://www.hispanicvista.com/html2/012703dm.htm The Mexican government is seeking a "totalization" Social Security agreement with the US, so that workers employed in both the US and Mexico can "totalize" the number of years they have worked in both countries to meet the minimum years required to qualify for benefits in the Mexican or US social security system. For example, a Mexican employed six years in the US and four in Mexicocould combine these periods of employment to qualify for US Social Security benefits, which require 10 years of employment. Until now, the cost of totalization agreements has been relatively small, since they have been almost exclusively with European countries. The current 20 agreements cover 94,022 persons abroad at a cost to the US of $184 million a year; recipients abroad receive an average $163 a month. If a totalization agreement is reached with Mexico, an estimated 162,000 Mexicans could obtain Social Security benefits in the first five years of an agreement. Mexico would also like the US to allow workers employed under false Social Security numbers to obtain credit for their US earnings. Over $21 billion in Social Security payments have not been tracked to potential beneficiaries, most likely because they were paid under a false Social Security number. |
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| Walt
Disney Records Releases CDS in Spanish Source: LatinoLa.com January 22, 2002 Walt Disney Records is releasing two of their best-selling children's titles in Spanish for the very first time. The first album, "Favoritas de las Princesas de Disney," spotlights Disney's most beloved heroines with Spanish versions of classic songs from magical films such as "Beauty and the Beast," "The Little Mermaid," "Pocahontas," "The Lion King" and many more. The second release, "Disney Presenta Cantar y Jugar," is a celebration of children's favorite playtime songs from Latin America. Highlights include "Las Mananitas," "Arroz Con Leche," "Que Llueva," "Los Elefantes" and "Pin Pon." Both "Favoritas de las Princesas de Disney" and "Disney Presenta Cantar y Jugar" will be released on February 11, 2003. |
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| SURNAME GARCIA |
| Al igual que ocurre con otros apellidos patronímicos, este derivado del nombre propio de García, no tiene relación con los numerosos solares que se originaron indistintamente en los diferentes puntos de la Península Ibérica. Algunas familias así apellidadas, tomaron el nombre de los lugares geográficos |
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donde se asentaban, a fin de diferenciarse de sus homónimos, dando nacimiento a los García de Andoain, García de Castañeda, García de Castro, García de la Lastra, García de León, García del Puerto, etc., etc. Otros le añadieron la profesión, apodo o accidente topográfico. |
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lngresaron en las Ordenes militares de Santiago, Calatrava. Alcántara y Montesa, así como en las de Carlos III, San Juan de Jerusalén, y Reales Maestranzas de Caballería. Lo hicieron, igualmente en las Reales Compañías de Guardias Marinas, Santo Oficio y otros estamentos nobiliarios. También justificaron su hidalguía ante las Reales Chancillerías de Valladolid y Granada, y en la Real Audiencia de Asturias. Uno de los primeros varones apellidado García, de que se tiene noticia, fue Ramiro García, Potestad y Gobernador por los años 843. En 981 florecieron Nuño García y Fortún García, este último Señor de la Torre de Tovar; Sancho García fue Conde de Castilla en el siglo X. Alonso García, Ricohombre, estuvo casado con doña Estefania Méndez, a la que hizo madre de Bermudo García, que se señaló por su valor y proezas en la conquista de Toledo. Gómez García, hijo del Conde de Cabra, fue marido de la Infanta doña Elvira. Algunos tratadistas afirman que varias familias de este apellido proceden de Garci-Jiménez, el héroe de la reconquista de Aragón, que ganó Ainsa, donde se fortificó, tomando el nombre de Rey de Sobrarbe. Otros autores hablan de tres hermanos García que se señalaron en la defensa de la ciudad de León, la primera vez que la tomaron los moros y que fueron los últimos en abandonarla cuando se hizo inútil la resistencia. Separándose estos tres hermanos al salir de León, uno se dirigió hacia Balisa e hizo su asiento en el barrio de Luna; otro radicó en el de Armentero y de éste procedió aquella matrona llamada Antonia García, conocida también por la "Dama de Armentero", tan cantada en las historias por su valor, y el tercero de dichos hermanos se afincó en el barrio de Ribela en Modino. A estos se les considera progenitores de muchas familias García, que se extendieron por toda España. De varios documentos consta que en 843 gobernaba la ciudad de León Ramiro García, a quien suceden en dicho gobierno tres Pedro García, Ricohombres, en 947. Se haría interminable mencionar uno por uno a todos los caballeros de este apellido en la antigüedad y los entronques que realizaron. Merecen destacar, no obstante, los siguientes: Ruy García, Cabo de las tropas del Rey don Pedro I el Cruel, que se hizo famoso en el sitio de Montiel, y Ruy Pérez García, que dejó varios hijos enlazados con los Morales, Espinosa, Fernández de Monroy, Chacón, Herrera y Manrique. Por los años 947 y 981, confirman privilegios los Ricohombres don Munio García, don Lope García, don Fernando García y otros caballeros y prelados de quien hace memoria Garibay en el "Compendio de la Historia de España", obra citada en el siglo XVI; Salazar de Mendoza en sus "Dignidades seglares de Castilla" (1618), y otros autores. Los García más antiguos que se conocen, se hallaron afincados en Asturias, León y Aragón, que a través de varios siglos han venido litigando su hidalguía ininterrumpidamente, bien en las Chancillerías para acreditar su condición de los cambios de vecindad o para ser admitidos en Ordenes Militares. Las armas más antiguas de este linaje, usadas principalmente en Galicia, Asturias y Burgos, son: EN CAMPO DE PLATA, UNA GARZA DE SABLE, CON EL PECHO RAJADO; BORDURA DE GULES CON ESTE LEMA : "De García Arriba Nadie Diga", en letras de sable.Así lo confirman distintos autores, mereciendo
citarse a los siguientes: Nobiliarios de Aragón, de Pedro Vitales,
folio 364; obras de Miguel de Salazar, tomo VI, folios 245 y 279 vueltos;
Nobiliario General, de Juan Baños de Velasco, folios 65, 79, 224 vuelto,
248 vuelto, 173 y 297; Nobleza General de España, de Francisco Lozano,
tomo II, folio 341; Anuario de la Nobleza de España, de Luis Villar y
Pascual, impreso, tomo VII, página 169, y tomo VIII, página 204, y
tantos otros de interminable relación. Conde de las Navas de Amores, a don Pedro García Amores, en 1740; Marqués de Casa Real, a don Francisco García Huidobro, en 1760; Marqués de Fuente Hermosa de Miranda, a don Francisco García del Rallo, en 1761; Conde de Valdellano a Pedro Garcia Romero, en 1772; Marqués de Sales a don José García de Miranda, en 1771; Marqués de Villadangos, a don Jacinto García de Herrera, en 1788; Marqués de Navasequila, a don Blas García de Quesada en 1787; Marqués de Cáceres, a don Juan García de Cáceres, en 1790; Conde de Santa OlaIIa, a don Juan José García Carrasco, en 1844; Marqués de Peñas Rubias, a don Severo García Valdés, en 1852; Duque de Vistahermosa, a don Angel García Arista, en 1789; Marqués de Barzanallan, a don Manuel García Barzanallana, en 1867, y Marqués de Teverga, a don José García San Miguel, en 1873. El Archiduque pretendiente don Carlos de Austria, concedió las dignidades nobiliarias de Marqués,a don José García Rabanal, en 1727; a don L. García Alvarez Galo, en 1718; a don Antonio García Rulino, en 1720, y a don Luis García y Torres, en 1718, las que posteriormente fueron reconocidas como de Castilla, en virtud del tratado de Viena, del año 1725. Extract from BLASONES
Y APELLIDOS, 828-page book by Fernando Muñoz Altea |
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Most Common Spanish Surnames in
the United States For example, more than 90 percent
of male heads of household with the surnames GARCÍA, MARTÍNEZ,
RODRÍGUEZ, and LÓPEZ indicated that they were of Spanish origin, while
less than 1 percent of male heads of household with the surnames SMITH,
JOHNSON, and BROWN did so. Go to the website for a list of
the 639 most commonly occurring Hispanic surnames in the U.S., compiled
by the U.S. Bureau of the Census’ Population Division. Number
indicates relative ranking: |
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| Garcia
1 Perez 7 |
Sanchez
8 Lozano 122 |
Chapa
247 Farias 428
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Bernado de Galvez Somos Primos Project |
In our search for Galvez descendants, we are fortunate to have enlisted the interest and support of Dr. Estevan Real-Galvez, New Mexico's State Historian. Dr. Real-Galvez completed his Ph.D. studies in May of 2001 and commenced his duties with the New Mexico Commission of Public Records - State Records Center and Archives the following month, in June 2001. He is the first Hispanic to hold the position of State Historian. "I would like to encourage people to re-think how they look at history and understand how important the perspective of 'the people' is.” We are please to announce that Clarence Lucas, California State Treasurer for the Sons of the American Revolution will serve on the Executive Committee for the Project. If you are a member of the Sons of the American Revolution in California and would like to be involved in the project, please contact Mr. Lucas at 510-864-6920, or clucas@bart.gov. Other project members are: |
| ORANGE COUNTY, CA | |
| Orange
County Pioneer Council Orange County's Black Population O.C. Pioneering Black Family Member "Puerto Rico, the Island, its Heart, its Culture” 8 articles pertaining to black heritage, click |
Indigenous
Mexico: Past/Present: March 29th History 105-Family History and Genealogy NARA Schedule of Genealogical Workshops The Civil War Legacy in Santa Ana Latino-Vietnamese Coalition Produces Results |
DID YOUR FAMILY RESIDE IN ORANGE COUNTY PRIOR TO 1926? http://www.ocpioneer.org/application.htm The Orange County Pioneer Council is comprised of members of those early families who were the pioneers and original settlers of this area. The year 1926 is used as the cut-off point, and all those whose families settled the Orange County area prior to that year are eligible to join and become a member. Annual dues are $10, which includes a subscription to regular winter and summer issues of the OCPC newsletter, invitations to the Annual Spring Dinner and Fall Family Picnic, and the opportunity to participate in the oral history project done in conjunction with California State University, Fullerton. The only requirement for membership in the Council is that some family member must have lived in Orange County prior to 1926. If you qualify for membership and would like to join our group, please fill out and send this form and your check to Orange County Pioneer Council., 1100 Irvine Blvd. #106, Tustin, CA 92780. Sent by Eddie Grijalva Grijalvaet1@aol.com |
Orange County's Black Population has Historically Been Small by Greg Hardesty, Orange County Register, January 1, 2003 Orange County has a mixed past when it comes to the black community. In 1924, the Ku Klux Klan backed four city council candidates who were swept into office in Anaheim. A year later, newly enlightened Anaheim voters tossed the four out in a special election. The roots of discrimination did not end with the ouster of Ku Klux Klan-backed council members in Anaheim. In 1951 the ultra-conservative John Birch Society was founded in that city. The John Birch Society sought the banishment of the civil-rights movement on the grounds that it was a communist plot. Over the years, relatively few blacks have moved to Orange county. They've tended to cluster in Santa Ana and Tustin. One of their main gathering spots has been the Second Baptist Church in Santa Ana. The church, Orange County's oldest, was founded in 1923, and functioned as much as a social club as a house of worship. The church now has 1,500 parishioners. In the 1920s, only about 140 blacks lived here - less than 1% of the country's population. Today, the percentage remains small - 1.7%, or about 48,000. By comparison, Latinos now make up 30.8% of Orange County's population, and whites 51.3%. Asian-Americans account for 12.7%, with other races making up 5.2% |
Extract: Pioneering Black Family Member dies at 76 by Theresa Walker, O.C. Register, January 31, 2003 Former Santa Ana resident Dr. Willis K. "Bill" Duffy Jr., a member of one of Orange County's pioneering black families, died January 28 of a heart attack in Palm Desert. Duffy's father, Willis Kiel Duffy Sr., in 1920 became the first black property owner in Santa Ana. Duffy attended Santa Ana High, making his marks as an all-state football star and as student body president. At 17, he graduated early to go train as a Tuskegee Airman during World War II. The war ended before he saw combat. Duffy came home to attend UCLA and played halfback on the football team. He declined to rejoin the team in his fourth year because of prejudice he has endured under the coach. He studied dentistry at Howard University in Washington, D.C., and ran a successful practice in Los Angeles until retiring in 1992. He civic activates included work with the NAACP, the Los Angeles Police Department and numerous other organizations. |
| Orange
County, Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration, will co-host a
month long International Cultural Festival:
“Puerto Rico, the Island, its Heart, its Culture” throughout
the month of MARCH at Orange County Children’s Therapeutic Arts Center, 208 N. Broadway, Santa Ana, CA For more information: Call (714) 556-4490 or visit: http://www.mchviva.org/ Sent by Nellie Kaniski Kaniski_Nellie@RSCCD.org |
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DO YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS ABOUT
INDIGENOUS MEXICO? |
| Congratulations to John. His expertise is being recognized. On February 27, 2003, he will be interviewed by VISTA LA (ABC TV, Channel 7, Los Angeles) about his and Donna Morales' recent publication, "Mexican-American Genealogical Research: Following the Paper Trail to Mexico" (published by Heritage Books, Inc., Bowie, Maryland). Ms. Velia la Garda, the producer of this popular program for Latinos, had won four Emmy Awards for VISTA LA. Stay tuned for more information. |
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Meets Tuesdays 5:30-8:40 p.m., begging February 4, for 16 weeks
(ending May 27). Contact me, Doug Mason, at 714-432-5038 or dmason@cccd.edu for more information on the class. To enroll, call 714-432-5072, for registration information. |
National Archives and Records Administration, Pacific Region 24000 Avila Road, 1st Floor East Laguna Niguel, CA 92677-3497 Schedule of Genealogical Workshops, all start at 9:30 a.m. February 4 and 5th: Naturalization and Immigration Records This course examines immigration and citizenship records, emphasizing procedural changes from 12790 to the present as well as methods for locating both naturalization records and passenger manifests. February 14: Introduction to Military Records This workshop will explore basic military resources for genealogy relating to American military actions from the Revolutionary War through the conflicts of the late 20th century. Special resources and techniques useful in genealogical research from World War II to the present will be emphasized. February 18: Preserving Your Family's
History February 25: Introduction to
Genealogical Resources Class sizes are limited. Please call
(949) 360-2641, ext. 0 to reserve your place in each class you would
like to attend. All workshops cost $7.50, payable at the door. Driving
directions: |
Book: The Civil War Legacy in Santa Ana Explore the impact of the War Between the States on the creation and development of Orange County. This book by former Santa ana Mayor Gordon Bricken and the the Orange county Blue and Grey Project gives fascinating insights in to the impact of Civl War veterans to the birth of Santa and Orange County. Softbound edition, 70 pages. Price $12.75 plus $2. shipping. Santa Ana Historical Preservation Society, 120 Civic Center Dr. West. Santa Ana, Ca 92701-7505 Learn about Santa Ana history at http://www.SantaAnaHistory.com |
"Latino-Vietnamese Coalition Produces Winning Results" Los Angeles Times - Orange County Commentary Sunday, January 12, 2003 (By Christian Collet, Christian Collet, PhD, is principal of Pacific Opinions, an Irvine-based polling and voter research firm, and is writing a book on the political activities of Vietnamese Americans.) Not long ago, Little Saigon was more famous for anti-communist demonstrations directed at Vietnam than for participating in conventional democratic exercises in America. Yet after all of the votes were counted in early December, Little Saigon had taken a big step forward in becoming an area where its voters, not its protesters, were the ones to be feared. Not only did retiring Westminster Councilman Tony Lam transfer his seat to 30-year-old Planning Commissioner Andy Quach, but attorney Lan Nguyen also scored an upset, using a strong absentee ballot campaign to come from 700 votes behind to win a seat on the Garden Grove Unified School District Board of Trustees by less than 100 votes. Nguyen and Quach joined Garden Grove council member Van Tran as the only elected Vietnamese Americans in Southern California. Quach, a two-time candidate and Republican congressional aide, was an overwhelming winner; Nguyen, a first-timer without experience in partisan politics, faced a more serious challenge. The Garden Grove Unified School District extends well beyond Asian American hubs in Westminster and Garden Grove to parts of Santa Ana, Stanton, Fountain Valley, Cypress and Anaheim. Furthermore, the newcomer was up against two two-term Republican incumbents presiding over a district that has won awards as one of the best systems in the country. Nearly every factor in the race favored the status quo. Nguyen made two decisions that helped him win -- and, in the process, turn the Vietnamese American community into a force with which to be reckoned. The first was a furious, six-week voter registration drive that used the popular Vietnamese- language media as well as volunteer youth organizations. Nguyen sought to expand his potential electorate rather than focus simply on sending mail to high-propensity voters. The strategy worked. A Pacific Opinions analysis of voter records indicates that more than 3,700 Vietnamese American voters were added to county rolls between early September and election day, with more than 2,000 in Westminster and Garden Grove alone. Ten percent of the 33,000 Vietnamese Americans who voted countywide in November did so for the first time. Turnout among Vietnamese Americans in the district was 53%, higher than the countywide average. Nguyen also extended an olive branch to local Latinos. A year ago, local Latino and Asian American organizations presented competing plans and fought each other for representation in the county's redistricting process. This time, they fought on the same side. Nguyen distributed literature in Spanish and ran a tag-team effort with Latino leaders, including Zeke Hernandez, the president of Santa Ana's League of United Latin American Citizens and a candidate for Santa Ana City Council. It was at Nguyen's victory party that the coalition prospects between the county's two largest minority groups flowered. Hernandez spoke of the "great steps" Latinos and Vietnamese were taking while Santa Ana School Board President John Palacio added that "the Vietnamese community is a friend of the Latino community." Both received warm applause from the estimated 250 who came to eat cha gio (Vietnamese eggrolls) and cheer the new Vietnamese Trifecta of Tran, Quach and Nguyen. Should relations between the two groups develop, it would become a coalition of consequence in several areas throughout northern and central Orange County. Minorities could become the majority on a number of city councils and school boards. Latino challengers pitted against one another in Santa Ana and Anaheim might turn to the nearly 15,000 Vietnamese American voters in those cities. A minority candidate in the 68th Assembly District or 1st Supervisorial District (where approximately 1 in 5 voters is Vietnamese American and 1 in 4 is Latino) could conceivably benefit from that demographic blend. In a crowded race for either of these seats, a lone Vietnamese American or Latino candidate would probably bring enough ethnic votes to threaten any challenger. Although the Vietnamese American electorate has grown 21% since 2000, some significant challenges remain. The most important will be to avoid the community's infamous infighting and to channel the ambitions of aspiring leaders to different offices. Quach's victory is instructive. Just two years earlier, he, along with two Vietnamese American rivals, mounted a campaign for the same city council seat that fractured the community vote; all three lost, and two white incumbents kept their seats. But the unity that Lam and other first-generation refugees worked for over the last quarter-century is becoming attainable as the new generation ascends. Politics in Hanoi will not be forgotten, but expect more focus on the politics of Orange County and, at some point, Sacramento and Washington. When the newly energized electorate that put Tran, Quach and Nguyen in office manifests a similar passion for a candidate of another ethnicity, perhaps Latino, or a political party or ballot measure, it will be said without hesitation that Little Saigon is not so little anymore. Sent by Zeke Hernandez zekeher@juno.com |
| LOS ANGELES, CA | |
| VISTA LA
(ABC TV, Channel 7, Los Angeles Los Angeles Free Cash for College Day Celebrities Discover Their Family Trees Southern California Genealogical Jamboree |
Boyle
Heights: The Power of Place Ghosts of a 1931 Raid, Decade of Betrayal City of Carson Image Gallery Los Angeles Public Library, Daily 24 hours Service |
| On February 27, 2003, John Schmal will be interviewed by VISTA LA (ABC TV, Channel 7, Los Angeles) about his and Donna Morales' recent publication, "Mexican-American Genealogical Research: Following the Paper Trail to Mexico" (published by Heritage Books, Inc., Bowie, Maryland). Ms. Velia la Garda, the producer of this popular program for Latinos, had won four Emmy Awards for VISTA LA. Stay tuned for more information. | |
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On March 29th John will be answering questions
from newly compiled data 1. How many people in Mexico speak indigenous languages today? For John P. Schmal's answer to these
questions, click to: Indigenous |
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Los Angeles Free Cash for College Day Los Angeles Mayor Jim Hahn has created the
Los Angeles Free Cash for College Day to help high school seniors and
their families access the record amounts of college financial aid
available. Los Angeles Free Cash For College Day will take place on
February 1, 2003 at 49 high schools in LAUSD. The event, in partnership
with the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce and LAUSD, will bring together
financial aid experts with civic leaders from business, education,
labor, community-based organizations and government to spend the day
helping graduating seniors and their families complete financial aid
forms. For more information about Free Cash for College Day, to
volunteer or to register for help with your financial aid forms, please
visit http://www.lafreecashforcollege.org
or call (213) 978-0721. |
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Celebrities Discover Their Family Trees Billy Crystal, Maya Angelou, Carlos Santana, Joe Torre, Michelle Kwan and other well-known entertainers, artists and athletes are uncovering their family history in a new exhibit. Finding Our Families, Finding Ourselves at the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles opens Feb. 11. The exhibit runs for one year and is the largest the museum has hosted since it opened 10 years ago. The exhibit offers visitors a multimedia journey into each celebrity's family history. The well-known participants discover their heritage by connecting with past generations. Billy Crystal, who is also an executive producer of the project, greets visitors in a welcome video and leads them through four personal histories: "A Place Filled with Hope" tells the story of Maya Angelou's grandmother. Visitors view a virtual image of Angelou in her grandmother's general store, where she learned to read. The famous poet discusses her relationship with her grandmother and the influence her grandmother had on her. "A Family Gathers to Explore the Past" highlights Joe Torre's Italian heritage. Images of Torre and his family at the dinner table in their Brooklyn, NY, home reveal the baseball manager's past. "Watercolor Memories" paints a picture of the life of Billy Crystal's father, who died when the actor was only 15. As Crystal uncovered his father's past, he formed a relationship with his dad's brother, who captured Crystal's father's apartment in a watercolor painting. Carlos Santana's family history goes back nearly 300 years. In "Celebrating the Sacred Grace Within Ourselves," the musician talks about teaching his children and grandchildren about their heritage. Museum goers end their journey in a resource room. There, they'll learn how to start tracing their own family trees and discovering their roots. For more information about Finding Our Families, Finding Ourselves and the Museum of Tolerance, call (310) 553-8403 or visit the Museum's Web site. Source: Family Tree newsletter Sent by Mary Rose Garcia maryr_garcia@hotmail.com |
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Boyle Heights: The Power of Place Great Leap and community Members Perform Multicultural stories about Life in Boyle Heights LOS ANGELES – In conjunction with the exhibition, “Boyle Heights: The Power of Place,” Great Leap and the Japanese American National Museum present nine performances of “To All Relations: Memories of Boyle Heights,” a poetic fusion of stories, music and dance drawn from the lives of the people of Boyle Heights, beginning on Saturday, January 25, at 2 pm. These performances culminate Great Leap’s “To All Relations” residency project, which began in October 2002 with free community workshops at the Japanese American National Museum. For the past several months, participants have been hard at work during weekly sessions with Great Leap artists and guest musicians to craft their personal stories into short performance pieces that capture the spirit and energy of LA’s oldest multicultural neighborhood. In addition to Japanese American, African American, Latino, and Jewish community participants, performers include singer/performer Nobuko Miyamoto, performance artist Dan Kwong, dancer/ choreographer June Watanabe, Eastside musician Ruben Guevara, and Taiko drummer Maceo Hernandez. Founded in 1978 by Artistic Director Nobuko Miyamoto, Great Leap’s mission is to create, produce and present works that give expression to the multicultural experience through performances and residencies. Great Leap is dedicated to using the arts to cross cultural borders as a powerful force for positive social change. Since 1998, Great Leap has led “To All Relations” residencies throughout the United States in diverse communities such as Watts, Phoenix, San Jose and Detroit. Performance dates and times are as follows: Saturday and Sunday, January 25 and 26 at 2pm and 4 pm, Thursday, January 30 at 7:30 pm, and Saturday and Sunday, February 1 and 2 at 2 pm and 4pm. Admission is free with museum entry, and reservations are strongly recommended. To RSVP, please call (213) 250-8800. The Japanese American National Museum is located at 369 E. First Street in the Little Tokyo district of downtown Los Angeles. Parking is available across from the museum and on nearby streets. Museum admission is $6 for Adults, $5 for Seniors (age 62+), $3 for Students and Children (ages 6-17), Museum Members and Children age 5 and under are Free. “To All Relations: Memories of Boyle Heights” is supported in part by the California Arts Council, Los Angeles County Arts Commission, Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department, The Ralph M. Parsons Foundation, Japanese American Community Services, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Hitachi, Ltd., The Gas Company, Target Stores, Meissner Manufacturing Co., Inc., and The Aaroe Associates Charitable Foundation. Contact Nona Chiang (213) 250-8800 Sent by Howard Shorr HowardShorr@msn.com |
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| Ghosts
of a February 26th, 1931 INS Raid At 3 p.m. on February 26th, 1931, the INS in Los Angeles commenced what was to be a series of raids against Mexican-Americans. The targeted area was La Placita, near the barrios of Bunker Hill. Federal Immigration agents stormed a park near the birthplace of Los Angeles and pulled more than 400 terrified men and women into waiting vans, and deported them to Mexico. Many of them were actually U.S. citizens. Scholars such as history professor Francisco E. Balderrama at Cal State Los Angeles, found that 60% of those deported had been born in the United States. Some did not even speak Spanish. Dr. Balderrama with Raymond Rodriguez have documenting the raid and its the aftermath in their 1995 book, Decade of Betrayal. Sent by Sister Mary Sevilla |
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City of Carson Image Gallery: Community History in Words and Deeds http://www.colapublib.org/history/carson/images.html |
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This is a wonderful resource
for the entire San Pedro area, with an abundance of photos |
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Live
Help http://www.247ref.org/portal/colapl1.cfm 24 hours a day, 7 days a week on the Internet, from live reference staff in libraries throughout Los Angeles and Orange Counties. |
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About the creators of this service: 24/7 Reference is a project of the Metropolitan Cooperative Library System (MCLS), supported by Federal LSTA funding, administered by the California State Library. To find out more about the project, please visit our Website at www.247ref.org. MCLS is an association of 31 independent city and special district public libraries located in the greater Los Angeles area, which have agreed to cooperate in providing library service to the residents of all participating jurisdictions. MCLS provides member libraries a resource-sharing network and a means for enhancing the level and diversity of resources available to library users, while reducing duplication of effort. To find out more about MCLS, please visit the MCLS Website www.mcls.org Staff: The 24/7 Reference service is
staffed by local reference librarians, MCLS reference librarians, and
library school graduate students hired by the Metropolitan Cooperative
Library System (MCLS). When you click on the Ask the Librarian logo, the
librarian who answers your question may or may not be a librarian at
your local library. When the MCLS librarian is unable to provide you
with the information you need, we will refer either you or your question
to your library, the MCLS Reference Center, an expert, or other library
that can provide the needed information. |
| CALIFORNIA | |
| California's
Original Bilingual 1849 Constitution TIMES Unpublished Letter to the Editor Reversing California Amnesia Official California legislative information California Quarter Design Finalist Poll Did the Californios Mine Gold? 1st Battalion Native Cavalry, California Volunteers California History Resource Guide More on the Castro Adobe History of El Cerrito Links Los Californios in Monterey: A Lost History The Museum of the City of San Francisco The San Francisco Story Told in Web Sites San Francisco Genealogy The first mayors of the City of San Jose CERES: State Historical Landmarks Monterey's La Mirada Adobe |
California's
Calaveras County Marriages California's Calaveras County Cemeteries Mission San Carlos de Carmel "Northern California Marriage Index 1850-1860" California Spanish Genealogy Cupertino Athletes of the Week Santa Clara Mission Juana Briones The Changing Face of Santa Barbara Southern California House Museums Rancho Los Cerritos Rancho Los Cerritos Board Changes Mission The Footprints of the Padres History of the Rancho Los Cerritos Matriarch Teaching with Historical Places Ayala-Gonzales Reunion Memories |
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Ayala-Gonzales California Reunions - that have been meeting since 1967click article |
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Steve Gonzales Rodriguez on
left with |
Alma Gonzales Lenander with Ayala cousins |
| photos |
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California's Original Bilingual 1849 Constitution |
| TIMES
Unpublished Letter to the Editor by
Galal Kernahan We wish to commend State Librarian Kevin Starr for his excellent article, "Time to Rethink the Golden State," (Opinion Section of the Sunday, January 12, 2003, TIMES). He is not exaggerating when he declares that, in the face of our monumental state budget crisis ". . .one can legitimately say that the state of California is being more than renegotiated. It is being re-founded, if not reborn." We wholeheartedly agree. We must learn from other momentous turning points, none more telling than the birth of American California. The way he says it: "Our elected officials in short, must think California through anew, just as California was thought through anew in the constitutional convention in Colton Hall, Monterey, in September through November, 1849." Even a minor historical error here points up what, working in two languages, 48 very different persons--foreign-born, California-born and born in various eastern States of the Union- -accomplished in a month. They prepared our bilingual state birth certificate by October 13, 1849 and went home. The birth was registered on November 13, 1849, when voters from San Diego to Sonoma ratified their work and stamped it as official by a margin of 16-to-1. It is more than a pity so many Californians (through no fault of their own) know so little about how we began. It wasn't always so. Every two years, the State Senate and Assembly Rules Committees officially publish an updated, widely used paperback about the U.S. and California Constitutions and their history. Two decades ago, all but incidental reference to our original state charter was dropped. We urge it be restored in full in the edition due out soon. After all, if our first constitution could be printed, distributed throughout California and voted on in 30 days 153 years ago, it doesn't seem like much to ask. About a great renewal of California, Starr wrote in his TIMES article: "Only individual men and women--elected officials, such as those who met in Philadelphia in 1787 or those who gathered in Monterey in 1849--are capable of the nuances and subtleties, the tradeoffs and compromises and the courage of such foundational thinking and action requires." Again, he is right, but for one inaccurate implication. There were no women among Philadelphia's 39 signers of the U.S. Constitution or Monterey's 48 framers of the California Constitution. Our Original Constitution broke new ground in America. It scored an unprecedented advance toward equal rights for women: a guarantee to married women of their own property. The march toward gender equity has been long. A mark of our progress: more than a third of California's 120 Senators and Assembly members today (in time for a cataclysmic state fiscal crisis) are women. Starr began to wrap up his TIMES remarks with good questions: "What kind of people are we Californians? Do we see state government as something worthy of re-foundation? Are we willing to back our elected officials when they are forced to make hard choices?. . ." In other words, who were we and are we? How committed are Californians, stirred by earlier examples, to straighten out our public affairs together? LOS AMIGOS OF ORANGE COUNTY, our informal cross-section of local Latino leadership that has met weekly for 25 years, has been discussing these issues a long time. We believe everyone must be committed to renewal of the California community. If you care at all, there is no other choice. Amin David, Chair, LOS AMIGOS OF ORANGE COUNTY 1585 West Broadway, Anaheim, CA 92802 amin@imp-prod.com Phone: (714) 758-8090 |
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REVERSING
CALIFORNIA AMNESIA Q and A: Civic Memory in Our Diverse State (1) Who am I and what am I doing here? You are a Californian. This is your home. You have lost your memory. What memory? Exactly! You don’t know what being a Californian is because you don’t know what being a Californian was? What was and is being a Californian? Often, being from somewhere else. And those, who aren’t, are different from one another anyway. Wherever born, living together means dealing with differences. In the past, Californians have made differences work for them. Why look back? Because the past’s helpful successes and hurtful mistakes come back unrecognized again and again. We need to repeat successes, but how can we if we can’t even recall what they look like? Give an example of a hurtful mistake? Chinese pioneered irrigated farming here. . .now multibillion-dollar agribusiness. Chinese helped tie California to the rest of the U.S. with a transcontinental railroad. They slaved through mountains and across deserts, and then were not even given a ride back to California after they finished. California’s revised second Constitution of 1879, people who wrote it and those who supported them were viciously anti-Asian. Their failure of good will and good sense should never be repeated. Give an example of a California success? Mid-September to mid-October 1849, forty-eight men convened in Colton Hall, Monterey, to write the original bilingual Constitution of the State of California. Seven were California-born. With an eighth born in Spain, they together had lived here 305 years. The remaining forty had logged 154 California years between them. Five of them were born in Europe. Most were recent arrivals from all over eastern United States. The First California Legislature convened a month after Californians voted ratification of our Original Constitution by a ratio of almost 16-to-1! Why don’t I know about this? Deleted
memory. California’s official publications used to tell the story.
Every two years the Rules Committees of the California Assembly and
Senate update and reissue a book: THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES
OF AMERICA AND THE CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA. It always
includes the September 9, 1850, Congressional ACT FOR THE ADMISSION OF
CALIFORNIA INTO THE UNION, which begins: Whereas the people of
California have presented a constitution and asked admission into the
Union…What constitution? The Original 1849 California Constitution
in its English-language or Spanish-language version (or both) has not
appeared in any edition issued since before World War II! Will this change in 2003? COMITY AND COMMUNITY Q and A: Civic Memory in Our Diverse State (2) Has our Legislature forgotten who created it? Looks like it. Few Californians remember (much less celebrate) what our varied forefathers accomplished. Comity? They had a new State up and running by November 13, 1849, eleven months before ours became the 31st star in the American Flag. What about November 13? It is our rarely celebrated California Birthday. Perhaps the last time the Governor officially proclaimed it was 1965. One rare observance took the form of a cooperative 150th anniversary symposium at the University of California, Irvine, in 1999. What was special that day? In spite of rain over much of California, voters went to the polls from San Diego to Sonoma. A month earlier, forty-eight people--very unlike each other--finished a draft constitution in Monterey. That bilingual state charter was approved 12,872 to 811. Officers were elected and, a month later, our first State Legislature met in San Jose. How "unlike" might one delegate. . . William McKendree Gwin, born in Tennessee, a plantation owner and lifelong political tactician, was only four months in California when, at age 44, elected from San Francisco, he joined in writing our constitution. The State Legislature named him a U.S. Senator. At California statehood, he returned where he schemed to be: Washington, D.C. In dying days of the Civil War, he lobbied in Paris for a "Pacific Republic" hard-pressed Confederates favored. It fantasized an armed Southern refuge in Sonora. Supposedly that shield France’s imperial venture in Central Mexico from potential U.S. military pressure. . . .be from another? Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo, outstandingly self-educated and owner of vast lands in Sonoma, rose to Mexican California’s highest levels of political and military life. The Constitutional Convention took place in the rustic capital, Monterey, 42 years after he was born there. Three years earlier in that same community, he argued for California’s incorporation into the United States. Elected to the First Legislature as a State Senator, he wrote a requested report on the meaning of the names of the State’s original 28 counties . . .from memory. What are the legacies of these two kinds of
constitutional forefathers? Gwin offered the constitution of the
then-new State of Iowa as a blueprint. Most delegates, recently from the
East, saw ideas and forms they were used to and we still are. Vallejo
embodied memories and traditions. Many live on in patterns of local
government; a tradition he was used to came to launch half all Americans
toward equal justice. RECOVERED DREAM THERAPY Q and A: Civic Memory in Our Diverse State (3) How can Californians bring back their deleted memories? Through Recovered Dream Therapy. Beginning with the smell of gunpowder and candle wax and sounds of nonstop Saturday night partying. A month’s work by 48 people was finished. Each chipped in $25. That got them four musicians (two guitarists and two fiddlers) and all they cared to eat and drink all night. They celebrated their birth certificate for the State of California, our Original Bilingual Constitution. The whiffs of gunpowder? No one in Monterey slept through the night of December 13-14 in 1849. A cannon boomed 31 times to honor the United States of America! The final thunderclap for California rolled off hills and over the bay. It was going to be State Number 31! Wasn’t California’s pretty much like the constitutions of other states? Yes. Most of the persons who drafted the 1849 Constitution came from eastern states: Connecticut; Florida; Kentucky; Maryland; Massachusetts; New Jersey; New York; Ohio; Pennsylvania; Rhode Island; Tennessee; and Virginia. The constitution that played the biggest role in their thinking was from Iowa and only three years old. But differences emerged. Delegates, who were lifelong Californians, were behind a major constitutional advance in American human rights. Who were the lifelong Californians? Jose A. Carrillo of Los Angeles, at 53, the oldest delegate; Jose M. Covarrubias of San Luis Obispo, 40; Pablo de la Guerra of Santa Barbara, 36; Manuel Dominguez of Los Angeles, 46; Antonio M. Pico of San Jose, 40; Jacinto Rodriguez of Santa Barbara, 36; and Mariano G. Vallejo of Sonoma, 42. Also, though born in Spain, Miguel de Pedroena of San Diego, 41, had lived in California 12 years, when he helped draft the 1849 Constitution. Together, these eight represented a sixth of the 48 delegates. What was the important new step in constitutional human rights? When California was admitted as 31st State in the Union, September 9, 1850, it immediately moved to the front of the long march to gender equity. The English Common Law concept that "becoming one" in marriage justified ownership and control of a wife’s property by her husband was prevailing doctrine. Not in American California! Drawing on Latino tradition and practice, California insisted property a woman held at marriage or acquired thereafter remained hers. Rights have come a long way in California and the U.S. since then! They certainly have, but this was a start. Though there were no women delegates in 1849 Monterey, more than a third of California’s current legislators are women. More than one-fifth 2003-2004 state lawmakers are Latino. In spite of cruel anti-Asian biases in the Second (1879) Constitution, six Asian-Americans now help craft our laws. Five African-Americans sit in our Legislature, one a former Lt. Governor of California. Note to 2003-2004 Rules Committees of the California Senate and Assembly Every two years, you update and republish THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND THE CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA. Because it is intended to be educational as well as official, the U.S. CONSTITUTION section (together with Amendments and an Index) includes basic historical documents that led up to it: Magna Carta, Mayflower Compact, Declarations of Rights of 1765 and 1774, Declaration of Independence and Articles of Confederation. Because it is intended to be educational as well as official, the section on the CALIFORNIA CONSTITUTION includes more than the updated text of that document. Yet California’s Founding Constitution has been absent from the biennial editions since before World War II! It is not being republished to speak for itself. The only reprinted historical mention of its existence appears in an opening phrase of the "Act for the Admission of California into the Union" of September 9, 1850, passed by Congress ten months after its ratification. ****PLEASE REPRINT THE ORIGINAL 1849 CALIFORNIA CONSTITUTION (IF NOT BILINGUALLY, AT LEAST IN ITS SPANISH VERSION OR ENGLISH VERSION.)**** For decades, California’s Constitution of 1879 and its Index bulked up the biennial editions.. With amendments now topping 460, this ever-expanding current basic law grows in stupefying complexity. Example: According to Article XX, Section 3, every public official MUST swear true allegiance to, support and defend ". . .the Constitution of the State of California against all enemies foreign and domestic. . ." How intricate an undertaking that may be is hinted by the Article XX Section 2 just preceding the oath: Except for tax exemptions provided in Article XIII, the rights, powers, privileges and confirmations conferred by Sections 10 and 15 of Article IX in effect on January 1, 1973, relating to Stanford University and the Huntington Library and Art Gallery are continued in effect. And this is one of the briefer provisions. What else does the CALIFORNIA CONSTITUTION section include? As mentioned, the one-page "Act for the Admission of California into the Union" (September 9, 1850) is there. The 2001-2002 edition brought back for encores a 50-year-old historical essay about early constitutional history (resurrected after a two-decade absence from biennial re-printings) and a 30-year-old report on revision efforts aimed at paring hopelessly obsolete growths from our forever ballooning 1879 Constitution. . . . . .and the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, which ended the U.S.-Mexico War and embodies understandings about cession of lands (from stray Oklahoma counties to the Pacific). It has as little to do with the CALIFORNIA CONSTITUTION as the (not reprinted) First and Second Treaties of Paris have to do with the reprinted U.S. CONSTITUTION. (The First Treaty of Paris recognized the independence of thirteen former British Colonies on the Atlantic Seaboard; the Second accepted as American everything from the Appalachians to the Mississippi and the Great Lakes to the Gulf.) |
Official California legislative information. This WWW site is maintained by the Legislative Counsel of California, pursuant to California law. For more information, you may read Accessing California Legislative Information on the Internet, refer to Frequently Asked Questions, or visit other Legislative WWW sites. For new additions to our site, see our New Features page. http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/ |
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California
Quarter Design Finalist Poll http://134.186.46.107/ |
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From Old Noticias, Los Californianos
Governor Alvarado believed that Russians knew of gold in the Sacramento
Valley as early as 1814, as a Russian jailed at Monterey was found to
have gold in his possession. The double wedding rings of Maria Martina
Castro and Governor Alvarado, married at Mission St. Clara in 1834, were
made of California gold. |
1st
Battalion Native Cavalry, California Volunteers
Updated August 24, 2002 by webmaster David
R. Jackson drj1@earthlink.net |
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Graduate Seminar in California History, Prof. Dan Cornford
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More
on the Castro Adobe The Castro Adobe has been unoccupied since the 1989 earthquake because of massive damage. The state has purchased the property and plans to renovate it and turn it into a State Park. On September 27, 2002, there was a big ceremony passing over ownership to the State of California. It was held in the beautiful gardens at the adobe in Watsonville. Refreshments were served including freshly cooked corn tortillas with all the trimmings. The California State Park System wants to have an interpretive park showing how people lived and worked during the Spanish and Mexican eras. Speaker Pro Tem Fred Keeley, of the California assembly, worked very hard to get the money for the project. He was speaker at the ceremony. It is anticipated that in two to three years this historic park will be ready for school tours and other public events. Several members of Los Californianos were there, including Peter Cole, Leonard and Barbra Espinosa, Jerry and Millie Fitzgerald, Boyd de Larios, Tim Ledesma, Frank and Gerry Shelly, Greg Smestad, and Noreen and Art Wohl. A special time was had by all. |
| History
of El Cerrito Links Ohlone or Costanoan Indians Occupied the are which is now el Cerritos http://www.elcerrito.com/elcerrito_links.htm Before the Spanish explorations of the San Francisco Bay region, the Huchiun group of the Ohlone (or Costanoan) Indians occupied an area which included what is now El Cerrito. Other branches of the Ohlone extended south along the coast to Big Sur, and north to Martinez. The Ohlone had occupied this area for thousands of years, and had developed a lifestyle which allowed them to flourish without making major changes to the natural landscape. They ate acorn mush, seed cakes, and seafood and meat from a variety of wildlife. Because of the abundant food available in this climate, they had no need to cultivate crops, although they did utilize a variety of excellent land management practices. The Ohlone produced a great variety of baskets for different purposes, including even water tight baskets. They also had rich ceremonial practices and a strict social system, which helped to maintain peace within and between communities. Although the Ohlone were decimated by the policies of both the Spanish missionaries and the other European settlers, and the last native speaker of an Ohlone language died in 1935, descendants of the Ohlone still live in this area, and some are trying to revive their ancestors' culture and language. For more information on the Ohlone, see The Ohlone Way by Malcolm Margolin (1978), from which most of this information is taken. The Spanish explorations into California began with the expedition of Don Gaspar de Portola in 1769. After setting up a base in San Diego they set out for their main objective, the Port of Monterey. In early spring in 1772, Pedro Fages, who had been invested by Portola with the government of Alta California, set out with Father Juan Crespi and twelve soldiers to explore the eastern shore of the bay. This was the first exploration of what is now the counties of Santa Clara, Alameda and Contra Costa. On March 27, 1772, they halted at the base of a small hill on the bank of a creek opposite the Golden Gate -- the present site of the City of El Cerrito and the "little hill" from which it derives its name. At the time of the Mexican revolution, the area now known as Contra Costa County, appears in the records as a grazing land for sheep and cattle belonging to Mission Delores across the bay. It was about this time on 1823 that Don Francisco Castro, a former soldier at the San Francisco presidio and alcalde of the pueblo of San Jose, was a member of an exploration party through this area. Later that year he received a provisional grant for approximately for square leagues (19,394.40 acres) from Governor Arguello on April 15, 1823. The present city of El Cerrito fell within the limits of that grant which became known as the San Pablo Rancho, and which became final 1834. Don Francisco Castro took possession of an old mission dwelling on this rancho north of El Cerrito in the present town of San Pablo. It was in 1839 a son, Don Victor Ramon Castro, chose the edge of his father's sprawling rancho near Cerrito Creek on San Pablo Road to build his hacienda for his wife Luisa, the daughter of Don Ygnacio Martinez, their neighbor to the north. The two story adobe remained for 117 years until it was burned to the ground in April 1956. Today one adobe brick remains on the site marked by a brass plaque in the El Cerrito Plaza Shopping Center. Victor raised cattle and vegetables; he also owned a schooner-launch and a whale boat which he employed ferrying passengers to various points on the bay when the gold rush hit California in 1849. William F. Rust, a journeyman blacksmith from Hanover, Germany, is designated as the founder of El Cerrito. He came into the area in 1883 and later chose a location for his blacksmith shop on the main road between Oakland and San Pablo (San Pablo Avenue) near the county line. As Rancho San Pablo was excellent farming land, Rust began making farm implements for which there was great demand. In 1909 a post office was established in William Rust's store and he became postmaster of the station which was called Rust. The little community grew until August 23, 1917, after a spirited contest, the unincorporated areas of Stege Junction and Rust voted incorporation. Starting with an estimated population of 1,400 in 1917, the area grew slowly, reaching a population of 3,852 in 1930; 7,000 in 1940. During the war years, the population sky-rocketed to 16,624, with approximately half that number living in temporary war housing or government trailer parks. Then came the post-war housing boom. Population in permanent housing jumped from an estimated 7,000 in 1945 to 18,000 in 1950. During the 1930's and early 1940's the community was perhaps best known for its casinos, poker parlors and dog racing track. The Castro adobe was one of the gambling spots at this time. In 1946 the slogan "The City of Homes" was adopted. About the same time, a new city council was elected. One of their first major acts was to outlaw draw poker and to embark on a vigorous enforcement campaign against all gambling activity. Two years later, the Council-Manager plan was adopted to aid in streamlining the reorganization of City Government. Residents of the community embarked on a program of civic improvements to provide the facilities needed in a growing, modern, urban community. As a result of these efforts, El Cerrito, with its population of 23,000 has evolved into a prime residential community and still is "A City of Homes". PREPARED BY THE: El Cerrito Chamber of Commerce, P.O. Box 538 El Cerrito, CA 94530 AND El Cerrito Historical Society, P.O. Box 304, El Cerrito, CA 94530 City Hall MAINTAINED ONLINE BY: Charles Goldstein, Real Estate Agent Office 510-843-7399 TollFree 800-878-0987 Fax 510-843-5625 realtor@elcerrito.com |
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San Jose premier of
David Anaya's
This film is the thesis project for David Anaya, California State
University at Monterey. This 45 minute documentary tells the story, from
the perspective of the Californios (native Spanish/Mexican Americans of
colonial California), of the history of California from its founding
until just after the American conquest. This film gives an excellent
history of California, portrays the perspective of the Californios well,
has many interesting photographs and commentaries, and it flows well and
is enjoyable to watch. As one of the subjects interviewed and shown in
this documentary, I can attest to its good merits. Please join the
members of Los Fundadores, members of other historical associations, and
civic leaders for this event. Please join us in supporting this
exceptionally well made documentary by Director/Producer David Anaya. |
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http://www.sfmuseum.org/hist6/founding.html By the Editor, Edward F. O’Day
Introduction from a full article: |
The San Francisco Story Told in Web Sites *San Francisco 1790 ‘Census’ http://www.sfgenealogy.com/sf1790.htm *San Francisco 1846 Passenger List for ‘The Brooklyn’ http://www.sfgenealogy.com/brook846.htm *San Francisco 1846 City Directory http://www.sfgenealogy.com/sf1846.htm *San Francisco 1850 City Directory http://www.sfgenealogy.com/hd850a.htm *San Francisco 1878 Telephone Directory http://www.sfgenealogy.com/hgtel.htm *San Francisco May 1906 Temporary Telephone Directory http://www.sfgenealogy.com/may06.htm *San Francisco County Birth Records http://www.sfgenealogy.com/sfbir.htm From What's New on Cyndi's List, UGANEWS, November-December, 2002 |
| San
Francisco Genealogy http://www.sfgenealogy.com/ Part of the US Gen Web and CA Gen Web Projects: Great source for vital statistics, maps, cemeteries, databases, links, queries, ook-ups, maps, telephone directories, and more. Sent by Johanna de Soto |
| The
first mayors of the City of San Jose
Mercury News, Posted on Wed, Nov. 27, 2002 http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/2002/11/27/news/local/4616208.htm San Jose's list of early mayors was verified through pueblo records translated from Castilian to Spanish to English. Some mayors, or alcaldes, served more than once and some were commissioners appointed by the governor. Some mayors shared the office. |
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| 1783 --
Jose Ignacio Archuleta 1784 -- Unknown 1785 -- Jose Manuel Gonzales 1785-1792 -- Ignacio Vallejo 1792 -- Jose Marcario Castro 1793 -- Antonio Romero 1794-1796 -- Gabriel Moraga 1796 -- Marcos Chabolla 1797 -- Jose Maria Martinez 1798 -- Jose Velarde 1799 -- Ignacio Castro 1800 -- Francisco Castro 1801 -- Miguel de Osuna 1802 -- Tiburcio Vasquez 1803 -- Ignacio Archuleta 1804 -- Ignacio Castro 1805 -- Jose Maria Martinez 1806-1817 -- Unknown 1818 -- Antonio Soto 1819 -- Jose Tiburcio Castro 1820 -- Teodosio Flores 1821 -- Augustine Narvaez 1822 -- Juan Alvirez 1824 -- Ignacio Pacheco 1825 -- Joaquin Hiquera 1826 -- Juan Alvires |
1827 --
Mariano Castro 1828 -- Salvio Pacheco 1829 -- Florentino Archuleta 1830 -- Mariano Castro 1831 -- Mariano Duarte 1832 -- Ignacio Guillen 1833 -- Salvio Pacheco 1834 -- Pedro Chabolla 1835 -- Antonio Maria Pico 1836 -- Jose Mario Alviso 1837 -- Juan Alvires 1838 -- Dolores Pacheco 1839 -- Jose Noriega 1840 -- Antonio Sunol 1841 -- Dolores Pacheco and Tomas Pacheco 1842 -- Antonio Buelna and Isidro Guillen 1843 -- Salvio Pacheco and Antonio Maria Pico 1844 -- Antonio Maria Pico and Felix Buelna 1845 -- Antonio Maria Pico 1846 -- Dolores Pacheco, Pedro Chabolla, John Burton 1847 -- John Burton 1848 -- Charles White, James W. Weeks 1849 -- H.K. Dimmick, Richard May, John C. Conroy 1850 -- John C. Conroy Sent by Johanna de Soto |
| CERES:
State Historical Landmarks, Santa Cruz County California State Historical Landmarks in Santa Cruz County http://ceres.ca.gov/geo_area/counties/Santa_Cruz/landmarks Properties of historical importance in California are currently designated as significant resources in three state registration programs: State Historical Landmarks, Points of Historical Interest, and the California Register of Historic Places. Below is a list of the State Historical Landmarks for Santa Cruz County. This data is provided by the Office of Historic Preservation - California Department of Parks and Recreation and is also available in the California Historical Landmarks Book. Sent by Johanna de Soto |
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Monterey's La Mirada Adobe by Cathleen A. FreemanThe introduction to an essay written as a class assignment in SBSC 326: History of the Monterey Bay Area, 10,000 B.C. to Steinbeck, California State University Monterey Bay, Spring Semester 1996. La Mirada began its existence as one of three small adobes built in the early 1800s on a little hill south and east of the old Presidio. It was probably built for a retired soldier from that post. The first record on the property, in 1836, showed it to be the home of Maria Beltran, widow of Antonio Mario Castro, a soldier in California from 1780 until his retirement in 1809. Maria sold a portion of the property, including a small adobe between her house and that of another soldier named Buelna. The "Buelna Adobe" still stands on that site. In confirmation of this, the 1849 map of Monterey shows the three building sites on the hill. 
The La Mirada Adobe in the 1890s. Courtesy Pat Hathaway Collection (image 84-02-01). In the early days of the U.S. occupation, another family of prominence--John C. Fremont, his wife Jessie, and their daughter Elizabeth (Lily)--was connected with the Castro Adobe. Lt. Col. Fremont decided Monterey would be a good place for his wife and daughter to stay while he took care of mine holdings in Mariposa. There were no houses for rent in Monterey, but Modesta Castro agreed to rent two rooms in her adobe to Jessie. The rooms were bare and Jessie had to borrow cots and other necessities until Fremont could send furnishings form San Francisco. When the crates arrived, much was still needed, although Chinese matting, a teakwood table, grizzly bear rugs, a cane couch and chair, and lace and brocade for the windows were welcome. It was reported that Jessie Fremont used two fine punch bowls as much-needed wash basins. Descriptions of the Fremonts' time in the adobe appear in two books by Jessie Fremont: Souvenirs of My Time and A Year of American Travel. Her daughter, Elizabeth (Lily) Benton Fremont also wrote about her memories of living in the Castro Adobe, in Early Days in California. Sent by Johanna de Soto |
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California's Calaveras County Marriages The Listings of California’s Calaveras County Marriages are being compiled as my time permits. If you would like to request a lookup for a marriage not listed, or seek additional information about a listed marriage, please contact me. Herbert Good Calaveras County Marriage
Application Books H and I, 1915 through 1951, have additional data not
contained in the General Marriage Index.
Similar data exists in some of the other books, but has not been
transferred to these tables. I
am willing to check individual marriages for you to obtain additional
information, just ask by email. Calaveras
County Marriage Applications, Book H, 1915-1935 Sent by Johanna de Soto |
California's Calaveras County Cemeteries http://www.angelfire.com/ca2/cemeterykid/ The Listings of the California Calaveras County Cemeteries is being compiled from direct observation and several sources. These sources, in most cases, reflect cemetery listings several years old, cemetery maps, church records, newspaper articles, and mortuary records. Below is a list of most of the known cemeteries and burial sites in Calaveras County. Those shown in hyperlink are accessible through the web. For those not shown in hyperlink, please contact me for lookups. If you have a cemetery list you would like to have added to this site, or would like to have a hyperlink added going to your list, please contact me. Herbert Good p11zp368@goldrush.com. |
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CALIFORNIA,
ITS HISTORY AND ROMANCE ILLUSTRATED  MISSION SAN CARLOS DE CARMEL [[Editor's
note: It appears that the entire book is online, with photos and
bookmarks.]] |
| "Northern
California Marriage Index 1850-1860"
http://feefhs.org/ghcsv/mgb/mgb-ncmi.html Marriages from 22 Northern CA Counties by Nancy Justus Morebeck Approximately 4, 000 marriages taken from County Clerk and Recorder's Offices from the 1850-1860's. California Counties Covered: Butte, Colusa, De Norte, El Dorado, Humbolt, Klamath, Marin, Mendocino, Napa, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, Sacramento, Shasta, Sierra, Siskiyou, Solano, Sonoma, Sutter, Tehama, Trinity, Yolo, and Yuba. Sent by Johanna de Soto |
Sent by Rita Avila GoElRio2@aol.com |
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Cupertino Athletes of the Week, Mercury News, 01/02/2003 BayArea.com Ben Reynolds, Cupertino Sport: Wrestling. Weight class: 189 pounds. Class: Senior.Accomplishment: Reynolds, who placed second in the 189-pound division of last season's Central Coast Section final, was named outstanding wrestler at the 23-team Lynn Dyche tournament at Independence. Reynolds, ranked second in the state in his weight class, won all four of his matches by pin. He also placed third at the 100-team Sierra Nevada Classic in Reno last month, losing 10-9 in the semifinals after losing a point for a slam. Comment: ``He just looked dominating,'' Cupertino Coach Jay Lawson said. ``He is a very aggressive, strong and focused wrestler. He is very physical and has set some very high goals for himself this year.'' Ben is the son of Magdaline Castillo Reynolds
of Cupertino. Ben is a member of this LO. Ben is 9th |
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| Santa
Clara Mission http://www.sculib.scu.edu/search/aSanta+Clara+Mission/asanta+clara+mission |
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Sent by Joan de Soto |
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| Juana
Briones Gail was a former Mayor of the City of Palo Alto. Today, Gail is immediate Past President of the Juana Briones House Foundation. We are desperately attempting to save the Juana Briones house that was built c. 1840's and still stands today, but the owners of the house want to demolish the house. I am a seventh generation Californio. I am a descendant of Juana's brother, Jose Antonio Briones. Juana and Jose Antonio's parents were Marcos Briones and Isadora Tapia. |
Another Spotlight on Juana The January-February issue of Harvard Magazine has an illustrated article, "Economic Woman: From Eliza Pinckney to Oprah" and our dear Juana is one of the individuals noted. There is a brief description with a photograph of the familiar artist's conception of her superimposed on a view of Yerba Buena below and part of the map of her ranch above, plus a photo of an actual pair of spurs. She is one of twelve women selected for the article. The exhibit of which she is a part is now at the National Heritage Museum in Lexington, Massachusetts, and it will travel to the New York Historical Society, Atlanta History Center, National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington D.C., Los Angeles Public Library, and Detroit Historical Museum. http://www.enterprisingwomenexhibit.org gives the dates it will be shown at each location. Below is the link for her page.http://www.harvard-magazine.com/on-line/0103152.html Gail Woolley SMTP:gailwool@pacbell.net Sent by Lorri Ruiz Castillo Frain lorri.frain@lmco.com 408.756.5518 |
http://www.geog.ucsb.edu/~sara/html/mapping/newspress/changingface.html
Whether it's the affordability gap or white flight, Santa Barbara County
now has fewer white residents than it did 10 years ago. |
| Southern
California House Museums http://www.lahacal.org/housemuseum.html Note: to be included in this list a historic site must be open to the public and have some sort of interpretive program. It must also have a website. This list also includes ship museums, though it does not include the Missions, which are very well covered by the California Missions Index. San Fernando Valley & Adjacent Los Encinos State Historic Park Encino 1840s-1870s adobe & historic buildings Leonis Adobe Calabasas 1880s rancho with live animals Andreas Pico Adobe Boulton Hall Travel Town Griffith Park Railroad museum William S. Hart Ranch, Newhall The 1920s home of the cowboy movie star Campo de Caheunga, Studio City A 1920s building commemorating the 1847 surrender of California to the US Fort Tejon State Historic Park Lebec 1850s dragoon barracks Pasadena & the North East The Gamble House Pasadena Early 20th Century "Arts & Crafts" house Huntington Library, Pasadena 19th Century "Robber Baron's" estate, now an art museum and botanical garden Feynes Mansion, Pasadena Site of the Pasadena Historical Museum Workman & Temple Homestead. Industry Early 20th Century houses. Pio Pico State Historic Park Whittier 1850s-1890s adobe. Home of last Mexican Governor of CA Hurst Ranch, West Covina Modest mid 20th Century farm buildings Casa Adobe de San Rafael. Glendale 1871 Adobe house The Doctor's House. Glendale 1880s "Queen Anne" Victorian house Grand Central Air Terminal, Glendale 1920s air terminal Heritage Park, Santa Fe Springs Collection of Victorian Buildings Hathaway Ranch Museum, Santa Fe Springs Los Angeles Area El Pueblo de Los Angeles Olvera St. Former city center, now a Latin American marketplace. Contains numerous historic buildings, now undergoing an extensive renovation. Angel's Flight Railway, Downtown The "Shortest Railway in the World" Case de Adobe , Highland Park A reconstructed Californio adobe, part of the Southwest Museum. Heritage Square Museum, Highland Park A collection of transplanted Victorian houses The Lummis House,Highland Park The somewhat odd early 20th Century home of Charles Lummis. Watts Towers, Watts "Folk Art" par excellence Neff Park, La Mirada Contains several historic buildings West Side Adamson House.Malibu. 1920s mission revival mansion Banning House Museum Wilmington 1860s Victorian mansion of the creator of the Port of LA Rancho Los Alamitos. Long Beach 1930s-40s "Southwest" style home of the Bixbys Rancho Los Cerritos, Long Beach Another Bixby home--most of it from the 19th Century Schooner American Pride, Long Beach Rancho Dominguez, Carson 19th Century adobe Drum Barracks Civil War Museum, Wilimington What's left of a Civil War era military post Fort Macarthur, San Pedro WW II era costal fort. Will Rogers State Historic Park. Malibu The quirky home of the Cowboy philosopher Queen Mary Long Beach Muller House, San Pedro SS Lane Victory, San Pedro Riverside County Jensen-Alvarado Ranch, Riverside Gilman Ranch, Banning Trujillo Adobe, Riverside California Citrus State Historic Park, Riverside San Diego County Old Poway Park Railroad Museum Antique Gas & Steam Engine Museum, Vista Rancho Buena Vista Adobe, Vista Old Town San Diego State Historic Park Heritage Park--San Diego Whaley House--San Diego San Diego Maritime Museum San Pasqual Battle Field State Historic Park Marston House--San Diego Orange County George Key Ranch, Placentia Peralta Adobe, Anaheim Heritage Hill Historic Park, El Toro Modjeska House, Lake Forest Dr. Willella Howe-Waffle House, Santa Ana Old County Courthouse Santa Ana Yorba Cemetary Placentia Brig Pilgrim, Dana Point Newland House, Huntington Beach Privateer Lynx, Huntington Beach Fullerton Arboretum San Bernardino County Calico Ghost Town, San Bernardino Co. Yorba Slaughter Adobe, Chino Asistencia, Redlands Yuciapa Adobe. Yucaipa Riley's Farm, Oak Glen Ventura County Stagecoach Inn, Newbury Park Olivas Adobe, Ventura Satwiwa Indian Cultural Center Heritage Square, Oxnard Rancho Camulos, Piru Camarillo Ranch, Camarillo Sent by Johanna de Soto |
| Rancho
Los Cerritos 4600 Virginia Road 570-1755 Open Wed-Sun 1-5 p.m. Admission is free. Public Tours The 158-year old adobe will offer self-guided tours on weekdays, with guided tours on the hour every weekend. Volunteers are needed as docents and living characters. |
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| http://www.ci.long-beach.ca.us/park/facilities/RanchoLosCerritos.htm Once part of an early Spanish land grant, the 27,000 acre Rancho Los Cerritos evolved from cattle ranch to sheep ranch to private home before becoming a City museum in 1955. The current 4.74 acre site, a National and State Historic Landmark, includes an 1844 two-story Monterey-Colonial adobe and historic gardens, houses a California History Research Library, and Museum Gift Shop and hosts many educational programs for families and youth. Call (562) 570-1755 for up-to-date information on exciting events at the museum! |
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RANCHO
LOS CERRITOS BOARD CHANGES MISSION!
Rancho Los Cerritos Board members met January 21st with Long Beach
Councilwoman Tonia Reyes-Uranga, representatives of Councilman Robb
Webb, City Staff from Parks and Recreation and agreed to the request of
local Hispanic groups and State-wide Early California preservationist to
change the Mission of the Rancho Los Cerritos to specifically include
the years prior to 1840 in their Interpretive History! |
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| Irene
& Art Almeida Maurice & Marcy Bandy Dan Cartagena Cesar Castellanos Laura Claveran Mario & Gloria Cordero Doug Daniels Edward Grijalva Robert Hanson |
Robert
Lopez Mimi Lozano Therese Marino Irene Mills Jorge Morales Jan Ovalle Jessica Quintana Christime Rodriquez-Lara |
Ann
Salas-Rock Henry Taboada Armando Vazquez-Ramos Rico Valdez Efren Valdovinos Margarite Valendzuela Richard Verdugo Douglas Westfall |
THE FOOTPRINTS OF THE PADRES by Leo Carrillo from his book, "The
California I Love" |
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History of the Rancho Los Cerritos Matriarch: |
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| Teaching
with Historical Places: Californio
to American: A Study in Cultural Change http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/8californio/8californio.htm http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/8californio/8facts1.htm Rancho Los Alamitos (Ranch of the Little Cottonwoods) is one of the few sites remaining that represents the growth of Southern California from the time of its first occupation by Europeans. The ranch house itself has grown from a four-room adobe shelter to an 18-room structure and serves today as an outstanding example of the way in which an existing Spanish-Mexican structure gradually developed into an eastern form adapted to the California lifestyle. Rancho Los Alamitos was carved out of a 300,000-acre land grant called "Los Coyotes" awarded by the king of Spain to Manuel Perez Nieto in 1790. Nieto was a corporal in the Spanish army stationed at the San Diego presidio and had come to Alta California with the Portola-Serra expedition of 1769. He retired in 1795 and settled down on his rancho to raise cattle. The following year, Governor Borica ruled in favor of the San Gabriel mission's petition for more land, and reduced Nieto's holdings to 167,000 acres. Nieto's wife and five children inherited the rancho upon Nieto's death in 1804. His oldest son Juan built an adobe house on the property and acted as manager. In 1834, the land was divided into five ranchos: Santa Gertrudes, Las Bolsas, Los Alamitos, Los Cerritos, and Los Coyotes. By this time, California had become a territory of Mexico. Mexican Governor Jose Figuero purchased the 28,000-acre Los Alamitos rancho that same year and added additional houses. No one is certain whether the surviving adobe dates from the early 1800s or from 1834, but the earlier date is more likely. Abel Stearns, a New Englander, purchased Rancho Los Alamitos in 1842 for he and his young Spanish-Californian wife, Arcadia Bandini, to use as a summer home. As a trader who settled in Los Angeles, Stearns had become one of the area's wealthiest citizens. He served as the first alcalde (mayor) during the Mexican period and president of Los Angeles under American rule. Stearns was typical of the Americans who came to Southern California during both the Mexican and the American periods. He adopted some of the Californio ways of life, but put his own American stamp on others. Stearns became a large landowner and cattle rancher and helped to change the economic life of Southern California. During his ownership of Rancho Los Alamitos, California was annexed by the United States (1848) and subsequently became the 31st State of the Union (1850). He increased the traditional Spanish-Mexican cattle-raising operation of Rancho Los Alamitos and added to the house by building a north wing of wood-frame construction, positioned at right angles to the original adobe. In 1861, Stearns mortgaged the rancho to Michael Reese, who purchased it at a sheriff's sale five years later. A Bavarian, Reese settled in San Francisco in 1850 and purchased large tracts of land vacated by the exodus to the gold fields. By 1878, when Reese died while on a trip to his homeland, his estate was worth more than $6 million. He never lived at Rancho Los Alamitos, but leased it for stock grazing. In 1878, John Bixby leased the ranch from Reese and moved into the deteriorating adobe. Thus began what was to be a 90-year occupation of Rancho Los Alamitos by the Bixby family. By the early 20th century, this family would be one of the largest landowners in the Los Angeles area. John Bixby had traveled from his native state of Maine to California to supervise the sheep-raising operation of his cousin Jotham Bixby's Rancho Los Cerritos. During the Civil War, cotton was replaced by wool, hence the profitability and importance of raising sheep to the newly created state. In 1881, John Bixby purchased Rancho Los Alamitos in partnership with I. W. Hellman and J. Bixby & Co. (which comprised Jotham Bixby & Flint Bixby & Co.). To make the adobe more livable for his wife and young children, John Bixby added many improvements before he died suddenly at age 39 in 1887. The ranch was then divided into three parts; his wife and two children received the middle section, which included the ranch house and gardens, the barns, and the corrals. By 1915, Rancho Los Alamitos was described in the following way:
One of the most beautiful in this section, the buildings being located on the heights overlooking the mountains, the valleys and the sea, an ideal spot for a home, the land extending six miles along the coast and being in itself a small principality. The old adobe house that was built over 100 years ago with walls from three and a half to four feet in thickness, has been improved and modernized, and yet retains the appearance and necessarily its historical interest that clings to the days when the Spanish dons reigned supreme. The other buildings of the ranch are large and in keeping with the progressive spirit of the owner.1 By 1915, Rancho Los Alamitos was commonly referred to as the Bixby Ranch. In 1968, the surviving trustees of the Bixby Home Property Trust granted the furnished ranch house, gardens, and six barns to the city of Long Beach to maintain and develop as a regional historic and educational facility. Questions for Reading 1 1. Why might the king of Spain have felt free to award large tracts of land in California to his subjects? 2. How does Rancho Los Alamitos reflect the history of Southern California? 3. Who was Abel Stearns? What was his connection to Rancho Los Alamitos? 4. How did Michael Reese make his fortune? 5. Why do you think the Bixby heirs gave Rancho Los Alamitos to the city of Long Beach? Reading 1 was adapted
from Nancy J. Sanquist, "Rancho Los Alamitos" (Los Angeles
County, California) National Register of Historic Places Registration
Form (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park
Service, 1981).
1A History of California and an
Extended History of Los Angeles and Environs, vol. 3 (Los Angeles:
Historical Records Co., 1915), 540.
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Ayala-Gonzales
Reunion Memories
The Ayala-Gonzales lines
came from Zacatecas, Mexico (Fresnillo, Jerez, Zacatecas, Zacatecas).
Perhaps some of your readers might be interested in communicating with
me. If so, I can be contacted by phone or through my email address:
(817) 222-5034 TexGonzales@myexcel.com The 2002 Reunion: I felt pretty much the same about this Reunion as I did about the 1990 Reunion. The same friendship and affection poured out from each room as you walked around the Lamplighter Inn in Visalia, California. The spirit of cooperation of the committee members was evident everywhere. As I walked into the lobby of the Lamplighter and picked up my tickets for the dinner on Saturday evening, as I picked out the T-shirts for my family, as I bought the tickets for the giant raffle, I could sense a great spirit of love for the Reunion. Ron Vargas and committee, you all did a fine job, as have all of the previous organizers in the past! Thanks to you all for making these events something to plan for and something to remember. I have been planning my trips from Ft. Worth to California for quite a long time so my family can be at the Reunions. These trips have been something special to me and I hope to continue making them. My wife, Sherrie, my mother, Minnie Gonzales (age 88), and my sisters Rita, Alma and Madge and Alma’s husband, Larry were able to attend this time. Sadly, we missed some of the familiar faces and voices that have been so much a part of the Reunions for me. My Tía Emilia, my father’s sister, was no longer there for me to visit and hug on. She lived in Visalia with her husband, Reggie Rosales. After each Reunion came to a close, stopping by her house on the way out of town to have menudo was a treat. I have many sweet memories of my dear Tia that I shall cherish for many years to come. Emilia Gonzales Rosales passed away on May 15, 2000. I missed the booming, pleasant voice of a great man, and a good friend, Julian Vilaubi. As we all know, he was in the hospital during the time of the Reunion and passed away several days afterwards. His absence will be greatly missed. He and Genny represented a lot of the spirit of the Reunions for me. Julian and I met many years ago in the home of Sebastian and in Buena Park. At the same time, I met another great man and friend, Frank Gonzales. These two men were devoted to the concept and beauty of the Reunions. They looked forward to and wholly supported the Reunions. We have a duty and responsibility to continue in their spirit as future Reunions are planned. Our new leaders need to stand up and prepare to carry on in the same tradition. Remembering the traditions of the past is the key to carrying on the spirit that Frank and Julian ignited and kept alive. Many of us have heard the stories of the past, the trials of our ancestors as they left a country in revolt during the period 1911-1917. I have tried to capture these stories, but more needs to be done in this area. Remembering the past helps us keep the Reunion spirit alive. Some day we will be able to compile a good amount of those old stories and place them in a book along with the personal stories of our ancestors. But as you can see, our older generation of living relatives is fading away. Let’s not let their stories fade away with them. Is it now time to look in each of our families to see who can be groomed to capture the stories of your family line? There are writers in each of your families that should be encouraged to gather information from each of your older relatives through personal interviews about their lives. For our next Reunion, we will again have a contest for our middle school and high school students to compose a short story about a favorite older relative. We don’t need to limit this to only our students. Appoint a member of your immediate family to be the historian of your family line and charge that person with the responsibility to write down the personal stories of your family that are so great to hear form those who have lived them. Another pair of voices that I missed were those of George and Frances Gonzales who faithfully attended all of the past Reunions, traveling all the way from Roseburg, Oregon. I had a great interview with them several years ago and was able to compile a short history of the Senobio Gonzales family. George and Frances were ill in September and could not travel to the Reunion. Also unable to travel due to illness were my Tía Nancy and Tío Alfred Montoya. Nancy is of the De La O family that married into the Bernarda Reyes Ayala family, offspring of Jose Maria Ayala and Serapia Reyes. Sadly, I report that Alfred passed away on November 27, 2002. Alfred was a fine, steady, talented man and a great father. Our prayers go out to Tía Nancy and her children, Gloria, Anita, John and her grandchildren. A word of caution: Don’t stay away from the Reunions simply because your older relatives have passed away. It is up to you to rekindle the spirit of the Reunions with your own children. As with any tradition, in order for it to continue, we must keep it up. There is no better tribute to our family history than to contribute to it by recording your memories for those who come after you. Michael and Sherrie Gonzales TexGonzales@myexcel.com |
| Center
for Basque Studies Reno vies for U.S. Hispanic Chamber Convention |
Perpetual
Education Fund, Inc. LDS Church Archives Documents available |
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Center welcomes Gloria Totoricaguena New faculty member Gloria Totoricaguena began working at the center last spring, having recently completed her Ph.D. in Comparative Politics. Following is an interview with Dr. Totoricaguena by editor Jill Berner. JB: How did your interest in the Basque diaspora originate and develop? GT: I really was born into it, I’ve lived it all my life. My parents are survivors of the bombing of Gernika and were refugees to different parts of the Basque Country. And I’ve also lived the whole sheepherder family experience that is so common to Basque identity in the U.S. My father came to the U.S. as a sheepherder, and then later went back to Gernika where he met my mother and they married and came here. My parents went back and forth actually, and eventually settled in Boise. So this idea of transnational identity, and multiculturalism, is not new at all to me. It has really been my whole life experience. Living with different languages was another aspect of our multicultural identity. My parents spoke to each other in Basque, and to the older children in Spanish. Then later my parents spoke Basque to our youngest sister, so we learned Basque at that time. It was a trilingual household, very much a transnational identity. My academic interest started when I lived in Urugauy on a Rotary Club international Graduate scholarship. I earned a Master’s degree from the University of the Republic in Montevideo in 1986. I was working there on a Latin American politics and economics, but I spent all of my free time at the Basque Center, the Euskal Erria. I knew there was a Basque communities that existed in other countries, but I actually met the people at the Basque Center in Montevideo and spent time there, then I started to really compare and analyze their experiances, to look at the similarities and differences between the Basque Center and Basque communities in the U.S. So that really started my academic interest. Although my Masters degree was in Latin American politics and economic development, the experience there gave me the idea for a Ph.D.---to compare contemporary Basque diaspora communities all around the world, and at their development, the politics of the Basque Country, and their institutional relations. JB: Tell us about the research you did for your Ph.D. dissertation, in Latin America and other places. GT: I was awarded the Ph.D. from the London School of Economics and Political Science. My research involved a comparison of various Basque diaspora communities, so I was researching Basques in the United States, Belgium, Peru, Argentina, Uruguay, and Australia, and in the end had visited over fifty Basque communities---I have almost a thousand anonymous questionnaires completed by Basque. So I have enormous amounts of quantitative and qualitative data to compare those to Basques: What do they do to maintain their identity? What is their language ability? How often do they cook Basque food? Has their Basqueness ever helped them find a job, or get a scholarship? What political parties do they vote for in their own host society and also what parties do they vote for in the Basque Country? Etc. Because many Basque have dual citizenship, they can register to vote in Basque Country elections. We have approximately 33,000 Basques who live outside Basque region that are qualified to vote in the homeland elections, and help elect the Basque parliament and president, and also vote in local elections. |
Extract: Reno vies for U.S. Hispanic Chamber convention Directors impressed with what city has to offer by Ryan Randazzo, Reno Gazette-Journal Convention officials worked during the weekend presenting what the region has to offer to the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in hopes of bringing its 2008 national convention to town. USHCC estimates its 5,000 attendees at its October convention in Los Angles put $6 million into the economy for the four-day event.“Many board members were surprised to see all the amenities and convention opportunities Reno had to offer,” said J.R. Gonzales, chairman of USHCC. “When it comes time to consider where it is going to be, Reno will definitely be on the short list.” The USHCC also is looking at Reno as a possible site for a BizFest, a much smaller event focusing on building youth entrepreneurial skills, Gonzales said. Attracting the attention of USHCC could mean big business for the area’s tourism dependant economy, said Leslie Mix, president/CEO of the Northern Nevada Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. “It is opening a new market for the community,” she said, noting that California has 60 Hispanic chambers of commerce that could bring meetings and conventions here. “It is a group we want to address.” Sent by Cindy LoBuglio lobuglio@thegrid.net |
Perpetual Education Fund, Inc. The PEF is a non-profit corporation organized by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormon) with the mission of providing vocational opportunities to LDS missionaries who return to their homes, located in impoverished countries. The goal is to make small loans to these young people to assist them to prepare for meaningful employment within their own countries. The PEF President, John K. Carmack spoke in Newport Beach, California, January 26th. Although the Fund was organized only a year and a half ago, President Carmack shared many success stories. For example, a Mexican waitress went from earning $150 a month to $660 a month as a dental assistant. This monumental difference for a Mexican citizen was made possible through a 2-year loan of a thousand dollars from the Perpetual Education Fund. The young lady will be required to repay the loan at a 3% interest and no quicker than 10% of her salary. The Perpetual Education Fund is modeled after the Perpetual Emigration Fund which brought thousands of English converts to the Mormon Church to the United States between the 1840-1880. The concept is that of helping individuals financially to improve their life-condition through a program of education and vocational training. The funds from repayment of loans than will help others. The first three countries to participate where Mexico, Peru, and Chile. Now PEF has distributed loans in over 25 countries. So far 6,000 loans have been granted. Estimates are that over 90% of students in the program will complete their educational goals. On the average, the educational programs are for a period of 2.2 years. Most of the funding to initiate this project was from the individual donations of about 300,000 members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormons). Although the success of the program has attracted the attention and donations of individuals outside the Church as well. One aspect of the organizational structure which has attracted support is that none of the funds are used for administration, all staff is volunteer. All funds received are used for the loans, and only for the loans. For information or to make donations: Perpetual Education Fund, Inc. C/O John K. Carmack, President 50 East South Temple Street Salt Lake City, Utah 84150 carmackjk@ldschurch.org Fax: 801-240-2255 Phone: 801-240-7841 |
BYU Press releases DVD collection of documents from LDS Church Archives Contact: John W. Welch, (801) 422-3168 PROVO,
Utah (December 19, 2002)—The BYU Press has announced its DVD publication
of thousands of documents from the archives of The Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City. Two years in production, this
electronic database contains more than 400,000 images scanned in full
color at high resolution. People anywhere interested in their
ancestors or the histories of Ohio, Missouri, Illinois, Utah, Arizona,
California, Hawaii and many other places will want to consult these
images. “This publication moves the discipline of Mormon history up to a
new level of scholarly and professional research,” said Welch. |
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Latinos to Get Cemetery of Their Own
Latino
immigrants find thriving communities to begin new lives in Utah. But in
death, there are few places here for them to retain their ethnic identity.
Len McKee is trying to change that. McKee, cultural project manager at
Wasatch Lawn Memorial Park and Mortuary, is planning a cemetery to
accommodate the traditions and wishes of Latino families. He has help from
members of Utah's Latino community. |
| SOUTHWESTERN UNITED STATES | |
| New
Mexico Patriot Frequently Asked Questions Petra Jimenez Maes, New Mexico Chief Judge National Hispanic Cultural Center, Albuquerque La Herencia Sacramental Records of Gallup, NM 1777-1920 Edward James Olmos, to appear, February 8th Colorado Marriages and Divorces |
Colorado
State Census Information, 1870 Conquistadors of New Mexico Genetic Disorder, only in New Mexico Mission 2000 Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail Mexican History Microforms, Univ. of Arizona |
New Mexico Patriot Frequently Asked Questions http://home.attbi.com/~virginia.sanchez/patriotfaq.htm#questions [[Kudos to Virginia Sanchez for mounting a
website to assist the descendants of New Mexico Patriots in tracing
their heritage back to their involvement in the American Revolution. She
has created the links and resources for a successful pursuit of that
goal. Here is the very latest information, last updated January
28, 2003. Go to the site for all the answers to the following
questions, and much, much more.]] |
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SANTA FE, N.M. - Petra Jimenez Maes on Wednesday was named the first
Hispanic woman to become chief justice of a state's highest court.
Maes, 55, is the third woman to serve on the state Supreme Court, and
the second female chief justice. The first, Pamela Minzner, was chosen
in 1999. Source: HispanicOnline.com, 1-8-01 On the Net: http://www.supremecourt.nm.org |
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Noticias para Los Californianos, Vol. XXXV, January 2003 Sent By Felix Medina, #756
Felix Medina visited his sister in Albuquerque last summer. They visited
the new National Hispanic Cultural Center there. They were very
impressed. Felix sent me several pamphlets and suggested this would be a
good topic for Noticias. |
La Herencia http://www.herencia.com/ Includes: The Land Grant Legacy, Genealogy, Crypto Jews, History, Literature, Spanish Editorial Remedios, Recetas, Folklore and more... Volumes I-XXXII Now Available on CD-ROM FREE With a Two-Year Subscription for Only $34.99 The CD-ROM features a search engine and complete volume index. Sent by Rob Rios riosr@lib.uci.edu |
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Emmy Award-winning actor Edward James Olmos will be among the stars who
shine during the Latin American Educational Foundation's (LAEF) Gala
2003, where he will be presented with the Sol Trujillo National
Leadership Award for his numerous efforts on behalf of children and
Latinos worldwide. Grammy Award-winning recording stars Jose Feliciano and Jon Secada will headline the event, set for 5:30 p.m. - midnight, Saturday, Feb. 8, at the Adams Mark Hotel Denver. Latin funnyman Chris "Crazy Legs" Fonseca will also be among the evening's entertainment. Time and time again, the Emmy Award-winning Olmos has used his celebrity status to promote diversity and raise awareness for various humanitarian efforts--particularly those focusing on the needs and rights of children. Born and raised in East Los Angeles, Olmos serves as the executive director for the "Lives In Hazard Educational Project," a national gang prevention program funded by the U.S. Department of Justice. Thru the program, he annually makes more than 150 personal appearances in venues where he can reach at-risk youth: juvenile halls, detention centers, boys and girls clubs, and schools nationwide. He also serves as the U.S. Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF. Olmos also promotes Latino culture. In 1999, he launched a nationwide multimedia project called Americanos: Latino Life in the United States, a cultural celebration via photography, film and music. Designed to inspire pride and to build bridges among Latinos and others, Americanos includes a five-year traveling photography exhibition organized by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service and the Smithsonian Center for Latino Initiatives; a music CD featuring Latino artists; an HBO documentary; and a widely-popular book of essays, photos, and commentary by today's most notable figures. Currently starring in the PBS-drama American Family, Olmos also is a multi-talented performer, director and producer. The actor first won acclaim on stage for his Tony Award-nominating performance in the musical play, Zoot Suit. Small screen success soon followed, as he earned both Emmy and Golden Globe awards in the mid-1980s for his portrayal of Lt. Martin Castillo on the popular television series, Miami Vice. And while Olmos' television honors solidified his reputation as a solid actor, it was his work on the big screen that led to wider acceptance among audiences. In 1988, Olmos received an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of eccentric math teacher Jaime Escalante, in Stand and Deliver. His more notable feature-film credits include: American Me, The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez, Blade Runner, My Family/Mi Familia, Selena, Wolfen and 12 Angry Men. The organization's annual fundraiser is among the state's most prestigious benefiting Hispanic education. Over the past two years, LAEF has used the event to raise more than $1.7 million. A limited number of corporate tables and individual seats remain available. For more information on the LAEF 2003 Gala, call 303-446-0541. Sent by Margaret Cepeda |
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Colorado Marriages and Divorces Search http://www.quickinfo.net/madi/comadi.html Search on all marriages (from 1975 through October 2002) and divorces (from 1968 through October 2002) in the state of Colorado. Sent by Johanna de Soto |
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Colorado 1870 Census Information Type of County Information Recorded Population of Counties Map of Counties in 1870 Information Indexed Name Index Type of Citizen Information Recorded in 1870 Census Name, Age, Race and Gender of individuals in household Professional Status/Title Value of Real Estate and Personal Property Birthplace Parents Birthplace Month Born in Census Year (only in the year of the census) Month Married (only in the year of the census) School Attendance (only in the year of the census) Male Citizen Over 21 and Voting Status Whether a Pauper or Convict Colorado Population in 1860: 34,277 Colorado Population in 1870: 39,864 http://www.archives.state.co.us/1870/index.htm |
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Population in 1870 by County Arapahoe 6,829 Bent 592 Boulder 1,939 Clear Creek 1,596 Conejos 2,504 Costilla 1,779 Douglas 1,388 Elbert 510 El Paso 987 Fremont 1,064 |
Gilpin
5,490 Huerfano 2,250 Jefferson 2,390 Lake 522 Larimer 838 Las Animas 4,276 Park 447 Pueblo 2,265 Saguache 304 Summit 258 Weld 1,636 |
| Sent by Johanna de Soto | |
Conquistadors of New Mexico by Ron Roman Of the approximately 210 conquistadors brought to New Mexico in 1598 and 1600 by Juan Onate, most of the soldiers returned to New Spain in November of 1601. Some died at the battle of Acoma in December 1598, and some were executed for desertion or other crimes. However, at least 27 soldiers had descendents who remained in New Mexico and are the grandfathers of the present day Hispanic population of New Mexico. The descendants of these 27 conquistadors have been compiled into 27 volumes each containing a Genealogy Report, Kinship Report and Family Tree. The genealogy report includes (if available) of the known descendants date and location of births, names of spouse, date and location of marriages, date of deaths and census listings of each individual. As an example, the volume for Juan Griego consists of just over 2100 pages covering 12 generations, 8000 names of descendents and their spouses and over 9000 citations. Descendants living in the Rio Grand valley from Taos to Socorro county have been included. Reports on the following conquistadors have been compiled: |
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de ARECHULETA Diego BLANDIN Francisco CADIMO Juan de Vicotora CARVAJAL Francisco GOMEZ Hernando de HINOJOS Avaro Garcia HOLGADO Pedro Gomez DURAN(DURAN Y CHAVES) Juan GRIEGO Juan de HERRERA Juan Lopez HOLGUIN Geronimo MARQUEZ Alonzo MARTIN BARBA Hernan MARTIN SERRANO |
Bartolome
de MONTOYA Juan de PEDRAZA Juan PEREZ DE BUSTILLO Pedro ROBLEDO Sebastian RODRIGUEZ DE SALAZAR Bartolome ROMERO Juan RUIZ CACEREA Pedro SANCHEZ DE MONROY Cristobal VACA Blas de VALENCIA(VALDIVIA) Alonso VARELA Pedro VARELA Francisco VASQUEZ |
In one New Mexico family tree studied all 27 conquistadors appear as ancestral grandfathers for a total of 540 times as a result of numerous cousin/cousin marriages in the family. Typically, it has been found that if one of Onate's conquistadors appears in a family tree then there is a very high probability that many others will also be in the family tree. In addition, if a family tree can be traced to the early 1800s in New Mexico there is a high probability that there will be conquistadors in the family tree. For more information on the contents of each of the 27 volumes, e-mail ronroman@aol.com with "Conquistadors" in the subject line. These reports are in ADOBE Acrobat "pdf" format and can be supplied either by e-mail or on CDs. Cost for a CD including shipping and handling is $25.00 per volume. Cost for e-mail delivery is $20.00 per volume >> |
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Even before Elena Rivera was born, her mother wondered if something
might be wrong. The baby wasn't moving much, and the midwife said she
felt small. Elena has spent almost seven of her 10 months in hospitals.
She was born with a genetic disorder that has not been seen anywhere but
New Mexico, where it has been detected in five Hispanic children in the
last decade.
Copyright 2002 Albuquerque Journal HispanicOnline.com
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Mission 2000 http://www.nps.gov/tuma/M2000.html Mission 2000 is a searchable database of Spanish mission records of the Pimería Alta (southern Arizona and northern Sonora, Mexico) containing baptisms, marriages, and burials from the late seventeenth century to the mid-nineteenth century. Names of persons associated with each event (i.e., priest, baptized, parents, godparents, husband, wife, witnesses, deceased, etc.) and personal information about each person are included. The ethnicity of names include O’odham, Yaqui, Apache, Seri, Opata, Yuma, Mexican, Spanish, Basque, Catalán, Gallego, Andalusian, Valencian, German, Swiss, Austrian, Bohemian, Italian, and others. Mission 2000 presently contains more than 6500 events and over 16,500 names of people and their known personal information. It is an on-going project taken from the original mission records and updated weekly on the Internet. A majority of the present information comes from the Guevavi, Tumacácori, Cocóspera and Suamca Mission registers and the Tubac Presidio register, but watch for more information in the future from Arizpe, Átil, Bisanig, Caborca, Cieneguilla, Cucurpe, Cocóspera, Horcasitas, Magdalena, Oquitoa, Pitiquito, San Ignacio, Santa Ana, and Tubutama. The search is based on names in the database. If you do not find what you are interested in, try a different spelling, or type only the first few letters of the name. Since ancient spellings varied greatly, a partial spelling will list all entries with those particular letters. Each person listed in the results will have a Personal ID Number shown in blue. Click on the number of the person you are interested in to see his or her specific personal information. Included with the personal information will be a listing of all Event ID Numbers, shown in blue, with which that person is associated. Click on any of those numbers for a display of information concerning that particular event. Sent by Johanna de Soto |
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Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail Website http://www.therapure.com/anza-trail/anzaintr.htm#anchor737492 On the eve of the American Revolution, the Spanish sought to control the Pacific coast of today's United States against British and Russian incursions. Juan Bautista de Anza, a third-generation frontier soldier of New Spain, shepherded 198 emigrants and their escorts and 1,000 head of livestock on the first overland colonizing expedition from Sonora, Mexico into Alta, or Upper, California. This expedition led to the founding of the Presidio of San Francisco and missions San Francisco de Asís (Mission Dolores) and Santa Clara de Asís. Anza's expedition and the route it established are commemorated by the Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail. Background By the 1770s, the Spanish had been in the New World for 200 years. Their empire included the present-day western states, Florida, and the Philippine Islands. Still, they needed to secure the Pacific coast from Russian and English influence. Expedition led by Gaspar de Portolá in 1769 created only small settlements in Alta California. By 1773, there were two presidios and five missions, but the total Spanish population was about 70. Settlement and supply of Alta California was difficult: the small ships that could make the arduous sea voyage from San Blas, Mexico, could not carry cattle or many people. The land route through Baja, or Lower, California was treacherous, and Baja California itself was too poor to support northern settlement. To ensure possession of Alta California, the Spanish needed a new overland route originating in Sonora. This situation prompted Juan Bautista de Anza, among others, to pursue opening an overland route from Sonora to California. Anza was Captain of the Royal Presidio at Tubac, Sonora (now southern Arizona). In 1774, he proved that an overland route was possible by financing his own successful exploratory trip. Planning to return with emigrants and a herd of livestock, he charted watering spots and pasturage, and established contacts with native tribes along the route. Sent by Johanna de Soto |
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Mexican History Microforms at the University of Arizona http://www.library.arizona.edu/library/teams/sst/his/guide/micro/mexico.html Unless otherwise noted, microforms (both microfiche and microfilm) are located in the compact shelving on the first floor of the Main Library, and are shelved in numerical order. |
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La
Antorcha El
Archivo de Hidalgo del Parral, 1631-1821 Archivo
franciscano, a manuscript collection in the National Library of Mexico
(Film reproductions of manuscripts relating to Spanish Sonora (now
southern Arizona, Sonora, and Sinaloa) from the Archivo franciscano, a
manuscript collection in the National Library of Mexico) Archivo
General de la Nación (Mexico). Catálogo de fichas hemerográficas. British
Foreign Office Records on Mexico; 1920-1948 Confidential U.S. State Department Central Files. Mexico, 1950-1963: Foreign Affairs
Confidential U.S. State Department Central Files. Mexico, 1940-1954: Internal Affairs
Demographic
Trends of Mexico: hearing before the subcommittee on Census and
Population of the Committee on Post Office and Civil Service; 1986; Despatches
from United States Consuls in: (NOTE: All the GUIDES listed are in
Pamphlet format) |
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| Josephine Baker, the Daring
Diva California African American Genealogical Society Cuambo, Ecuador Black Catholics on a Mission |
Homes of
Color What's in a Name In Search of Fatherhood Slave descendants to file suit in Texas 3 more articles under Orange County, click |
Josephine Baker, the Daring Diva by Samanatha Levine U.S News & World Report, January 27/February 3, 2002, page 74 A lavish fur coat made it impossible to tell that Josephine Baker's dress was oddly lumpy as she boarded a train in France on November 23, 1940. On that day, and many others, the American chanteuse known for dancing in a belt of bananas and little else was using the shield of her diva status to secretly ferry information about German Army forces to French and British intelligence officers. As Baker traveled around Europe and the Middle East to entertain troops during World War II, she never failed to tote home at least some scrap of intelligence. She pinned photographs of German installations to her undergarments and carried sheet music covered with messages in invisible ink detailing moves of the Axis enemies. She was never stopped or questioned, her adopted son, Jean-Claude Baker, recalled in his biography, Josephine: The Hungry Heart. As she herself once said: "Who would dare search Josephine Baker?" Born into poverty in St. Louis, Baker rose to international renown in such productions as La Revue Nègre and the Folies Bergère in Paris. She later became a French citizen and pledged her life to her adopted homeland as World War II became a dark reality. The country showered her with adulation as an African-American star, in contrast to the racism she had encountered stateside. So when the chief of counterintelligence in Paris recruited Baker to become a secret informer, she eagerly served. Baker traded on her charms to sidle through military checkpoints and secure prized transit visas for friends, including Spanish Moroccan passports for Jews from Eastern Europe to get them safely to Latin American. Dangerous liaisons. Her support of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini's invasion of Ethiopia, a stance she alter regretted, still gave her entree to Italian diplomats. "She would go to the Embassy of Italy, dressed in a beautiful evening gown for a liaison," says Jean-Claude Baker. "She would listen . . . They would talk openly about which countries they would be attacking." It is hard to say whether the intelligence Baker gathered resulted in lives saved or attacks averted. But her help was invaluable to the Free French, who were up against the bulldozing Nazi regime. Baker enthusiastically took every assignment and came up with some of her own::: When se was bedridden for months in Morocco, visitors never suspected they were feeding her information machine. Baker took mental notes as they discussed German intentions toward Morocco, the Free French invasion of Sria, and American probes into North Africa.} After the war, General Charles de Gaulle gave Baker the Croix de Guerre and the Medal of the Resistance. She died in 1975, buried in Monaco to the booms of a 21-gun salute. |
California African American Genealogical Society P.O Box 8442 Los Angeles, CA 90008-442 General Meetings, 3rd Saturday monthly at
10 am except June and August |
| Are you
interested in joining an African American Genealogical Society in the
state(s) you are researching. Each month the newsletter will
include a few societies and how to contact them. Watch for your
state in the Heritage Newsletter.
AAHGAS- North Albama, P.O. Box, Normal,
Alabama, 35762 |
Cuambo, Ecuador Cuambo was founded by slaves from Africa shipwrecked off the coast of Ecuador in the early 1500s. For years they have been living in Ecuador's highlands, making progress and improving their quality of life, said Luis Espinosa, Benson Institute associate director over Latin America. However, he added, the African-Ecuadorian community still needed help with nutrition and food production. The villagers were using contaminated irrigation runoff for drinking water. In 1996, the villagers presented an official request to their government for help. Michael and Steven Bumstead and their wives visited Cuambo and learned of the village's need for clean water. Through the BYU Ezra Taft Benson, the Bumsteads donated the funds to build a system designed by the Benson Agriculture and Food Institute. Under the direction of the Institute, the villagers built the culinary water system themselves, digging 1-meter-deep trenches for a pipeline route and then carrying sand, gravel, cement and concrete forms to a high-mountain spring. The system provides potable water to each of the village's 75 homes, with sufficient reserve capacity to accommodate double that number of homes in the future. "We are confident that the new water system will benefit the villagers of Cuambo for years to come." Source: Church News, week ending August 10, 2002 |
Extract: Black Catholics on a Mission by Mike Crissey, Associated Press via Orange County Register, 1-19-03 Black Catholics make up 2 million to 3 million of the 62 million Roman Catholics in the United States, according to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, which is affiliated with Georgetown University. Although there are many saints who are black and from Africa.- they have been largely overshadowed by better-known white saints. The low profile of black saints may have hurt the church's efforts to bring more blacks into the faith. In October, the Vatican published a list of saints that included Africans. "Everyone likes to emulate people and know people of their race who have a list of good deeds," said Beverly Carroll, executive director of the Secretariat for African American Catholics in the United State Conference of Bishops. "It is a sort of a reflection of our times. We are now living in a society that wants to regain the heritage of a people who had the heritage of a people who had their heritage taken away by slavery," said James Cavendish, a Catholic and sociology professor at the university of South Africa. In the Pittsburgh area, heads of churches are trying to raise awareness of black and African saints with special masses, celebrations and other programs. In Philadelphia, the archdiocese celebrates a Mass in November for St. Martin de Porres, the first black Dominican priest and first black saint in the Western Hemisphere. |
Extract: Homes of Color by Wendy Fox, The Boston Globe, via Orange County Register, 1-18-03 A glossy magazine, full of photographs, very high end, with stories on African-American architects, designers and well-to-do homeowners with beautiful furnishings. Editor Corriece Gwynn says, "We're trying to show how we live," she said. "Nobody else is doing this. You'll get the proverbial pieces in African-American magazines, where they talk about the home of movie stars. We will have celebrities, but our focus is everyday "African Americans. We're planning on doing smaller, homes, row homes, apartments, lofts. We're planning on doing rural homes, and one of the biggest things we're planning on doing is historical properties. "When you think of African Americans, you don't think of someone well-educated, living in a nice suburban hoe, or someone well-educated living in a nice urban environment environment with disposable income to spend to send their children to private school. We're overlooked." Gwynn sites Census Bureau statistics: the home ownership rate among African Americans is 47%; 51% of married African-American couples have incomes of $50,000 or more; 17% of African Americans have bachelor degrees; 1 million African-Americans have advanced degrees; 25% of African-Americans women work in managerial and professional positions 18% of African-American men work in managerial and professional positions For subscription information, call 301-352-7697 http://www.homesofcolor.net |
What's in a Name Joel Mowbray, National Review, column in the Orange County Register, January 20, 2003 Reflecting on King's Holiday For those who actually needed a reminder that racism is alive and well, researchers at the University of Chicago and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology released a study high light the hurdles blacks still face in getting a job - or al least those with "black" names. The professors sent out 5,000 resumes to companies with classified ads listed in the Chicago Tribune and Boston globe, and the only variable in the controlled experiment was the first names used. Relying on birth certificate records, researchers selected "black" first names such as Tamika, Ebony, Rasheed and Tyrone, and "white" names such as Neil, Greg, Emily and Jill. The results" It paid to have a "white" name. Resumes with "white" first names got one response for every 10 sent out, whereas ones with "black" names received one reply for every 15 handed in - meaning that "white resumes were 50 percent more likely to elicit a response from a potential employer. |
IN SEARCH OF FATHERHOOD The International Conversation on
Fatherhood will heat up with the release of the January/February/March
2003 - "The Souls of Fathers" issue of IN SEARCH OF
FATHERHOOD(R) Forum For and About the Fathers of the World on 1 February
2003. This issue marks the return of The Fatherhood Roundtable which
features an in depth interview with an incarcerated Man who is a Father.
You'll get to meet two Men who are Fathers -- Gary Johnson, an
entrepreneur from Temple Hills, Maryland and Martin G. "Mike"
Ramey, a controversial syndicated columnist and award-winning journalist
from Indianapolis, Indiana share with us their thoughts and views on
issues directly and indirectly related to Fatherhood. Dale Fraza shares
a delightful story with us in "A Funny Thing Happened To Me On The
Way To Becoming A House Husband." Howard University Professor
Stephen Baskerville talks about the "Politics of Children"
while best selling author Warren Farrell, Ph.D. who has been called the
"Gloria Steinem of the Men's Movement" will talk about
"Our Sons ... Our Schools". Cheryl Norris Sanders explores the
benefits and joys of building a father/daughter relationship. Regina
Nicholson tells us why it's critical that we get gender discrimination
out of the courts. You'll get a double dose of straight talK from Martin
G. "Mike" Ramey when you read his article, "Woman, Teach
Thy Sister!" And Mike Jones explains why it's time to be heard and
to "return and rebuild." |
Extract: Slave descendants to file suit in Texas by R.G. RATCLIFFE Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau, 1-20-03 AUSTIN -- The descendants of Texas slaves plan to file a class-action federal lawsuit today in Galveston against numerous U.S. corporations, accusing them of profiting from slavery, which the lawsuit defines as a crime against humanity. . "As far as we know, this is the first such lawsuit to be filed in the state of Texas," said NAACP Texas President Gary Bledsoe. Bledsoe said the case is a reconciliation lawsuit, not a reparations lawsuit. He said a reparations lawsuit seeks payment for individuals while this lawsuit seeks to have a trust fund set up to benefit African-Americans. That trust fund governed by a commission might make payments to individuals, he said, but its main goal will be to promote health care for African-Americans, programs to remove the vestiges of slavery and to promote racial healing. The lawsuit is being filed in Galveston because it was a center of the state's slave trade. It also was where Texas slaves first learned they were free on June 19, 1865. Legal experts at the time said the lawsuit was a long shot because of the amount of time that has passed since the offenses. Also, the slaves most directly impacted by slavery have all died. Reparations cases involving Holocaust survivors and Japanese-Americans interned during World War II were successful in part because the people harmed were still living. But German corporations hit by lawsuits for their role in the Holocaust settled for billions of dollars in part to avoid unfavorable and continuing publicity. The lawsuit claims J.P. Morgan Chase was behind a consortium that raised money to insure slaves. It says WestPoint Stevens used cotton from Southern planters. And it claims Union Pacific built railroads with slave labor. "We never did benefit from any of the alleged actions," Davis said. "The modern Union Pacific was formed in 1897. That's almost three decades after the Civil War." Source: HispanicOnline.com 1-14-02 |
| "Indigenous
Mexico: Past and Present" DO YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS ABOUT INDIGENOUS MEXICO? |
U.S.-Based
Groups Promoting Economy of Central America's Mayan Region |
| "Indigenous
Mexico: Past and Present" March 29, 2003
On the last Saturday of March -- March 29 -- I will give the
"Indigenous Mexico: Past and Present" presentation at the
Orange Family History Center. This lecture -- sponsored by the Society
of Hispanic Historical and Ancestral Research -- will be held at 10:30
a.m. at Orange Family History Center, 674 S. Yorba Orange, California,
just off the Chapman Onramp of the 55 Freeway. |
| U.S.-Based
Groups Promoting Economy of Central America's Mayan Region (New alliance to help Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico) By Eric Green, Washington File Staff Writer, 22 January 2003 http://www.hispanicvista.com/html2/012703mn.htm Washington -- Three Washington-based groups will work together to promote tourism and sustainable development in the ancestral region of the Mayan people, which includes Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and southern Mexico. The new "Mundo Maya Sustainable Development Tourism Program" will preserve and showcase the Mayan heritage in the 500,000-square-kilometer region where some five million descendants of the ancient Mayan civilization now live. The new program was announced by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), at whose headquarters the three groups -- the National Geographic Society, Conservation International, and Counterpart International -- signed a memorandum of understanding January 16 to form the Mundo Maya alliance. The IDB is financing preparation of the program, which will be carried out by the Guatemala-based Mundo Maya Organization. That organization was created in 1992 with the mission to promote the sustainable tourism development of the Maya region, and to help preserve its cultural heritage and environment for future generations. The IDB said a $150-million investment plan includes projects in archaeological restoration, development of parks and protected areas, tourism and social infrastructure, tourist micro-enterprises, and streamlining border crossings. From about the third to the ninth century A.D., Mayan civilization produced fabled temples and pyramids, highly accurate calendars, mathematics, and hieroglyphic writing. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), in its efforts to aid Central American countries such as Guatemala, seeks to provide opportunities and resources to enable Mayan people and war-affected communities to participate fully in democratic life. USAID said the Mayans are often isolated socially, economically, and politically due to geographic and language barriers as well as from the lack of educational and economic opportunity. In Guatemala, USAID support for the Mayans includes, for example, narrowing the disparity in health care between rural Mayan families and the rest of the country. IDB President Enrique Iglesias said the Mundo Maya program will enlist the participation of local communities, which will ensure "sustained management and environmental conservation" of the region, as well as "development of alternative sources of income." The National Geographic said it is "gratified" to now have the opportunity to realize its vision of a route that would link great Mayan sites, while Conservation International said it looks forward to supporting "responsible tourism that helps to protect nature and brings tangible benefits to local peoples." For its part, Counterpart International said the agreement recognizes the huge value of tourism as a development and anti-poverty tool. "In coming to pay tribute to the ancient Mayan empire, today's tourists will be making a contribution to the development of the modern heirs to that glorious heritage," said a Counterpart spokesman. Counterpart International focuses on strengthening the ability of governments, communities and non-governmental groups to identify and meet development needs in an environmentally sustained manner. (The Washington File is a product of the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov) |
| TEXAS | |
| Joseph
Gonzales Memorial Restoring Churches, Rekindles Faith Canary Islanders to Bejar Mission Concepción Saltillo Cathedral Exhibit Judge Denies Balli Family's Claim Basilica in need of restoration The New Handbook of Texas HOGAR of Dallas Joseph de Urrutia, 1678-1741 |
Cousins
Helping Cousins A Historic View of the Past: Laredo The Streets of Laredo Foundation of the Colony of Nuevo Santander Two Longoria Family website Almo de Parras Dr. Jerry Thompson The Confederate Army 14th Confederate Cavalry Galvez Contingent Louisiana Regiment Galveston Immigration Database |
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| This is a photo taken by Rick Andrews at the memorial service November 30,2002. For those of you who do not know, Rick Andrews (third from the left) is the great-great grandson of Capt. Joe Gonzales. He lives in Grapevine Texas and contacted me several months ago to honor his ancestor. It was a great success. Sent by Bill Carmena JCarm1724@aol.com | ||
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Captain Joseph M.
Gonzales
Joseph M. Gonzales was the grandson of an Isleno soldier who immigrated to Fort Galveztown, Louisiana from the Canary Islands in the 1700s. He was born in St. Amant on May 28, 1835. Joseph Gonzales enlisted in the Confederate Army on June 10, 1862 at Clinton, Louisiana. He was Captain of the New River Rangers. 2nd Lt. John Alfred Gonzales, his brother, was also a member of the unit. The New River Rangers were attached to numerous Confederate military organizations, and their company, battalion, and regimental designations changed with reassignments. The unit's designations and associations included: 1st Louisiana Regiment, later known as the 9th Battalion Partisan Rangers, Co. B of Cage's Battalion, erroneously known as the 10th Louisiana Cavalry, Co. D of the 14th Confederate Cavalry, and finally Company A of Ogden's Louisiana Regiment. The unit never lost the title of New River Rangers. The New River Rangers engaged Federal forces in dozens of skirmishes. They fought at Denham Springs, Louisiana and Benton's Ferry, Louisiana. They harassed the rear outpost of General Nathan P. Bank's Union Army as they laid siege to Port Hudson. Fred Ogden took command of the New River Rangers in March of 1864. On June 3, 1864, they encountered a Federal force six times their own strength commanded by Benjamin Grierson, and they forced them back to Baton Rouge. They fought around Jackson, Mississippi from July 5, 1864 until July 7, 1864. Again on August 14, 1864, they encountered another Federal force at Jackson, and they made them withdraw. One account detailed how 75 selected rangers ambushed over 2,000 Federal troops and drove them back to Baton Rouge. While the New River Rangers were attached to the 14th Confederate Cavalry as Co. D under Generals S. D. Lee and Nathan Bedford Forrest at Pontotoc, the 14th was cited for gallantry. General Lee wrote of the battle that "I have been on many battlefields during the four years, but I have never seen greater gallantry or tenacity of purpose than was shown by the troop of the brigades of Rucker, Marby (the 14th), Bell and Crossland, and the batteries of Rice." He said, "I will always esteem it an honor to have personally commanded such heroes." Joseph "Big Joe" Gonzales was surrendered by General Richard Taylor at Meridian, Mississippi, and he was paroled on May 12, 1865 at Gainesville, Alabama. He returned home after the war. He became the Sheriff of Ascension Parish in 1867 in spite of the fact that Confederate officers were prohibited from holding public office during Reconstruction. The Village of Gonzales, Louisiana was founded by one of his fourteen children, Joseph Stonewall Gonzales. Captain Gonzales died on December 21, 1897, and he was buried in this village at the Cornerview Catholic Cemetery. R. A. Andrews |
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Restoring Churches, Rekindling His Faith By KATE MURPHYUBINA, Tex. — As the one who brushes the blush on the Virgin Mary's cheeks and gilds the lilies on St. Joseph's staff, Eduardo Esparza is catching his breath between busy seasons. "Christmas and Easter are when the priests really want them looking their best," he said of the brightly painted wooden statues dating back to 1876 that decorate SS. Cyril and Methodius Roman Catholic Church here. A former hairdresser, Mr. Esparza has recaptured his faith, he said, through restoring the exuberantly painted decorations and murals of churches in central and south Texas. |
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A self-proclaimed ecclesiastical artist, Mr. Esparza helps maintain many
of the lavishly decorated and somewhat campy Texas churches built by
communities of Czech, German and Hispanic immigrants in the late 19th
and early 20th centuries. "The state is unique in the wide variety of decorative churches that exist," said the Rev. Alan Oakes, associate pastor of St. Austin Catholic Parish in Austin and executive producer of a 2001 PBS documentary, "The Painted Churches of Texas." Boisterously baroque, these predominantly Roman Catholic churches may seem tacky and garish to the uninitiated, Father Oakes said. "I've had people from the East Coast walk in and say: `Aack! You're hurting my eyes.' " In Cuero, Tex., a few oak groves and cattle ranches away from Dubina (and 85 miles southeast of San Antonio), Mr. Esparza flipped on the lights in St. Michael's Catholic Church, built around 1930. "Check this out!" he cried as he ran excitedly up to the high altar. "That's St. Michael slaying the dragon," he said of a grim-faced figure atop a bright green lizard in its death throes. "I tried to capture the intense emotions," he said, proud of the undeniably passionate expressions on both saint and reptile. Sweeping his hand around to indicate the myriad statues, monograms and symbols he recently repaired and retouched, he said: "Do you see? Walking in here, it preaches to you even if there's nobody in the pulpit." Texas's painted churches often have elaborate stenciling and busy murals of darting cherubs and swirling flora. "These were poor immigrants trying to mimic the grand churches of their homelands," Father Oakes said. "They used a hodgepodge of architectural styles and used paint to simulate rich materials like marble and precious metals." They loved statues, and "they wanted all the saints in there praying with them," he added. Mr. Esparza started his business restoring the art in these unusual churches in 1994 after a 20-year career as a hairdresser in Austin. Known back then as Fast Eddie, he had clients like the golfer Lee Trevino; Bob Denver, who played Gilligan on the television series "Gilligan's Island"; and John Connally, the former Texas governor. Now 53, Mr. Esparza said he sold his chain of three hair salons because he was not happy. "I was living a little too fast, you know what I mean?" he said. "And it was all make-believe stuff — your hair, how you look."In an effort to change, he turned to church restoration. Even when he was a wayward hairdresser, Mr. Esparza painted religious art. His salons were decorated with the mystical images of Mary and Jesus that he started painting while attending Catholic grade school. Religious publishers printed some of his works on prayer cards and sold them in Catholic bookstores. Mr. Esparza has also helped his older brother, Genaro, do metal work for churches, like restoring tabernacles and chalices. During those jobs, Mr. Esparza would sometimes offer to touch up the church's crucifix or maybe replace the gold leaf that had worn off Mary's halo. "That's how the whole thing got started," Mr. Esparza said of Sacrada Familia, his Austin-based ecclesiastical restoration and design business. His commissions come mainly by word of mouth, and he has specifically sought jobs restoring the richly painted churches in the south and central parts of Texas. "Those churches are forgotten treasures," he said. "I want to be a link with the past, to restore them and to do something that is everlasting." Ernesto Hernandez, director of the 1907 Chapel of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, where Mr. Esparza has restored wall paintings and sculpture, said, "He's like this spiritual Don Quixote, traveling dusty country roads, taking care of old chapels." Mr. Esparza is hired despite his lack of formal training. "I study a lot and call museums and universities to get their opinion," he said. Though the Texas Historical Commission works only with degreed conservators on its projects, the agency's director of architecture, Stanley O. Graves, said: "There's a validity in continuing the folk art tradition in those old churches. I see no reason why they shouldn't be maintained by individuals in the community if they read up and know what they're doing." But Mr. Esparza has a loftier goal than mere historic preservation. "When they see the beauty of the church and 3-D figures looking at them — clutching their chest, giving emotion — maybe they'll see the light," he said. After all, it happened to him. |
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| Sent by Cindy LoBuglio Source: New York Times Online January 14, 2002 | ||
| Celebration
of the arrival of the Canary Islanders to Bejar Commemorative Souvenir
Program We are seeking advertisers to help with the printing costs of a color commemorative program. Sizes are Half page at 7"x 4 5/8" at $650.00 Quarter page at 3 3/8 x 2 3/1" for $300.00 Eighth page 3 3/8 x 2 3/16" for $150.00 Celebration Program to be distributed at the Re-Enactment of the Founding of the San Fernando Cathedral. commemorating the March 9 1731 arrival of the Canary Islanders to the Presidio de Bejar. San Antonio's Founding Heritage is an organization dedicated to educating the public on the true facts about the founding of La Villa de San Fernando and ultimately, the San Fernando Cathedral. SAFH will also write, produce and direct the 3rd Annual Reenactment Play of the arrival of the Canary Islanders to the area. The play will be on March 9, 2003 after the 10 o'clock mass at the doorstep of the San Fernando Cathedral, the site of the original laying out of the city, the focus of the 2003 event. A long-term goal of SAFH is to change the curriculum in our schools, much like our colleagues in Louisiana have, to reflect the actual events which are not taught in San Antonio schools; that the Canary Islanders crossed an ocean, walked from Vera Cruz, Mexico, withstood assaults by Native American Indians and settled what would become the first recognized Civilian Government of what would become the State of Texas. Please contact: Richard A. Contreras rcontreras@sbcglobal.net The Art Dept. 210 Adams Street San Antonio, Texas 78210 (210) 271-7000 |
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| Mission
Concepción: The Handbook of
Texas Online http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/NN/uqn9.html Opening Paragraph: NUESTRA SEÑORA DE LA PURÍSIMA CONCEPCIÓN DE ACUÑA MISSION. was originally established in East Texas in 1716 and moved to its present site in San Antonio in 1731. Concepción is the best preserved Spanish mission in Texas. Its stone church, which was completed in 1755 and has never fallen into ruin, is considered by some historians to be the oldest un-restored church in the United States. Concepción was the second of six Franciscan missions established on both sides of the present Texas-Louisiana border by the Ramón expeditionqv of 1716-17. |
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| Saltillo
Cathedral Starting Friday, 24 Jan 2003, at 7:00 p.m. and for a few weeks thereafter, the traveling exhibit of the Saltillo Cathedral will be on display at the Mexican Cultural Institute in Hemisfair Plaza. For more information you could call 227-2013. Since many of us have our roots in Saltillo, I thought that you might want to pass this info on to Bexarenos members. There is no charge for viewing the exhibit. The cultural institute's hours are as follows: Tuesday-Friday, 9:30 a.m. - 5 p.m. and on Saturdays, 12 Noon to 5 p.m. Source: Dan Gomez Sent by Walter Herbeck epherbeck@juno.com |
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| Extract:
Judge denies Balli family's claim to Kenedy Ranch Property By Tim Eaton Caller-Times, January 7, 2003 A claim to 83,000 acres on the Kenedy Ranch in Kenedy County made by members of the Balli family was denied on Monday by a state judge. Lawyers for 750 descendants of Jose Manuel Balli failed to convince Dallas-based Senior State Court Judge Pat McDowell that they had legitimate evidence to back up their claim to the oil- and natural gas-rich land occupied by the Kenedy Foundation. Lawyers for the Ballis have fought for two years with the foundation's lawyers about ownership of the land. Officials at the Kenedy Foundation said that a title in their possession makes them the rightful owners. The Ballis' claim is based on an almost-200-year-old document, which they said proves their stake to the land. McDowell wrote in his decision that he was not convinced that the 1804 document is authentic. The Balli lawyers also submitted a copy of a 53-year-old lease between the Ballis and the Kenedy Foundation. But McDowell said that could not be verified. "The location where they were allegedly found and the internal content made them unreliable," he wrote. "No other basis exists for their ultimate consideration by a jury." When McDowell said the lease and the 1804 document - which both sides have called "the linchpin" of the Ballis' case -were not admissible, McDowell ruled that all the evidence points to Kenedy Foundation ownership of the land. The Kenedy Foundation "has established by a mountain of evidence: its chain of title, payment of taxes, claim, use and possession of the property for at least the last 100 years if not longer," McDowell wrote. For a follow-up on the status of this case, please contact: Jose O. Guerra, Jr. Email joguerra@hispanicgs.com Visit my webpage http://www.hispanicgs.com http://www.olsenguerra.com |
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| Basilica
in need of restoration Associated Press GALVESTON, Texas (AP) - St. Mary's Cathedral Basilica has survived bullet scars from the Battle of Galveston in 1863 and a 1900 hurricane that wiped out much of the island city, but the long years since it was built have taken more of a toll. Parishioners of the basilica have embarked on a statewide fund-raiser to begin major restoration of the Diocese of Galveston-Houston's birthplace. After more than a century, the basilica is the oldest surviving building in Galveston and is the state's oldest Roman Catholic cathedral. "We want to get this church restored back to what it used to be," the Rev. John La Bauve, pastor of St. Mary's, told The Galveston County Daily News in Friday's editions. "This is an important piece of history." After more than a century, walls in the cathedral near graves of Vicar General Louis Claude Marie Chambodut and Bishop Aloysius Gallagher are severely deteriorated. They are puckered and peeling and some of the foundation is exposed. Pieces of the cathedral's foundation can be picked up and carried by hand, officials said. A statue of the Virgin Mother atop the cathedral is also deteriorating and the church towers are in equal disrepair. Leaders worried during recent storms if they would stand the harsh winds and rain. "This is why restoration is so important," La Bauve said. "We can't wait for those towers to fall and then decide to start restoration." Stained-glass windows that tell the story of the Nativity, Resurrection, Ascension and Emmaus are cracked. Pope John Paul II made the church a basilica in 1979, and it remains the only cathedral and basilica in the state. Fifteen other cathedrals were spawned from St. Mary's church. "This is a very special place because of its history," said Deacon John Pistone, who chairs the steering committee that hopes to raise at least $1.5 million for cathedral renovations. Only $20,000 has been raised so far, but committee members hope to have the remainder by next December. Pistone said dwindling funds and a focus on Houston might have contributed to the church's deteriorating state. Sent by Walter L. Herbeck Jr. epherbeck@juno.com 9215 Locksley, San Antonio, Tx 78254 210-684-9741 |
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| HOGAR
de DALLAS HOGAR de Dallas has the General Members meetings on the 3rd Tuesday during the months of January, March, May, September, and November. Our next meeting is scheduled for January 21, 2003, at Casa View Branch Library in Dallas, Texas. We also publish a newsletter during these same months, approximately 2 or 3 weeks prior to the meeting. We use the newsletter to announce the meeting and to communicate genealogy information and/or activities that HOGAR de Dallas members (and friends) are involved in. Dorina Thomas (our Newsletter Coordinator) has done a great job publishing the newsletter for the past three years. Since the newsletter provides genealogy information, as well as information about our members and friends, I'd like to obtain articles from you out there. Let us know what projects you are working on -- perhaps other HOGAR de Dallas member and friends can help you or might be interested in your projects. Let us know about some genealogy events that are coming up so we can announce the event(s) in the newsletter. If you are looking for somebody, send us a query and we can publish it in the newsletter. If you know of articles and/or books that are a good source of genealogy information, perhaps you can do a brief write-up and send it to us for the newsletter. The articles can range from one paragraph to a few paragraphs in length. Our newsletter is published on an 8 1/2 inch by 11 inch (with header) paper. So, if you send us an article that consists of five paragraphs, depending on the length of each paragraph, that could be a column in our newsletter -- and that'd be great. We try to keep the Newsletter to 2 or 3 double sided pages, but we can add another page if we have information to share. You all have such a wealth of genealogy knowledge, it's nice when you share some of it. Perhaps others can look to you as a "specialist" in a surname, in a geographical region of Mexico and/or Texas, or in special events or other fields. If you would like to be an "article writer" for our newsletter, let us know. We can set aside a column in our newsletter for you. Perhaps you can be a book reviewer, articles reviewer, events reviewer, places reviewer, etc. We will be sending our next newsletter during the next two weeks. It would be greatly appreciated if you can send us an article to publish. If we don't publish it in January, we'll publish it in March. If you have an article that you would like to have published in January, send it to us and let us know that it should be published in January. You will be given credit for the article, and it will be published as we receive it, we will not make any changes to it. We will not even make corrections to the spelling because there are times when a writer deliberately misspells a word to get his/her point across. You can send the articles in MS Word format or plain text. The articles can be send to me at agarza0972@aol.com or to Dorina Thomas at dorinat@earthlink.net. We look forward to hearing from you and thank you for being there for us, for being part of our family. Arturo Garza agarza0972@aol.com President, HOGAR de Dallas P.O. Box 497891 Dallas, Texas 75049-7891 Phone: (972) 841-9455 Fax: (214) 324-4268 |
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The
New Handbook of Texas, an Introduction
The New Handbook of Texas is a multidisciplinary encyclopedia
of Texas history, geography, and culture. It comprises more than 23,000
articles on people, places, events, historical themes, institutions, and
a host of other topic categories. The scope is broad and inclusive,
designed to provide readers with concise, authoritative, and accessible
articles that provide factual, nonpartisan accounts on virtually every
aspect of Texas history and culture. [[Editor's note: The original 2-Volume set is extensive. Vol. I: 977 pages, Vol II: 953 pages.]] |
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JOSEPH
DE URRUTIA [[ Editor's Note: The following information was sent by Arturo Ynclan. Happily, Arturo and I are distant cousins, both descendants of Jose de Urrutia. My ancestry was through a son, Joachin de Urrutia. Arturo's ancestry was through a daughter, Juana de Urruita who married Ignacio de Ynclan. I find it particularly interesting to read Jose de Urrrutia's Will. This brief biography is from The Handbook of Texas Online. ]] URRUTIA, JOSE DE (ca. 1678-1741). Jose (Joseph, Josef) de Urrutia was born in Guipuzcoa, Spain, about 1678. He came to America before 1691, when, as a member of the Domingo Teran de los Rios expedition, he was left at the garrison established near the Neches River. When the soldiers withdrew in 1693, Urrutia met with an accident on the Colorado River and was forced to remain among the Indians. He was one of four soldiers who remained in East Texas at this time. He lived with the Kanohatinos, Tohos, and Xarames for seven years, was made "captain general" of all the nations hostile to the Apaches, and conducted several extensive campaigns against the Apaches. He rejoined his countrymen shortly after the founding of San Juan Bautista Mission in 1700. By July 23, 1733, when Urrutia was made captain of San Antonio de Bexar Presidio, he had forty years’ experience with the Indians in Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, and Texas and was probably the best informed of all Spaniards on Indian affairs in Texas. In the winter of 1739 he led a campaign against the Apaches in the San Saba region; he apparently reached the same point that that Juan Antonio Bustillo y Ceballos had reached in his Apache campaign of 1732. Urrutia’s first wife was Antonia Ramon; they had one daughter, Antonia, who married Luis Antonio Menchaca. Urrutia later married Rosa Flores y Valdez; they had four daughters and six sons, including Toribio de Urrutia, who succeeded him as captain of the Bexar presidio. Urrutia died on July 16, 1741. BIBLIOGRAPHY: Bexar Archives, Baker Texas History Center, University of Texas at Austin. Carlos E. Castaneda, Our Catholic Hertitage in Texas (7 vols., Austin: Von Boeckmann-Jones, 1936-58; rpt., New York: Arno, 1976). William Edward Dunn, " Apache Relations in Texas, 1718-1750," Quarterly of the Texas State Hitorical Association 14 (January 1911). Robert S. Weddle, "San Juan Bautista: Mother of Texas Missions," Southwestern Historical Quartery 71 (April 1968). Elizabeth Howard West, trans., "Bonilla’s Brief Compendium of the History of Texas, 1772," Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association 8 (July 1904).
The Canary Island Descendants Newsletter, Vol.6 Issue #3 Last Will and Testament of Captain Joseph de Urrutia July 4th, 1740 Will of Joseph de Urrutia (Cross) In the Name of God Almighty, and of the Virgin Mary, Our Lady, Amen.
Be it known to all whom this testamentary document may concern that I
Don Joseph de Urrutia, captain of this royal presidio of San Antonio de
Bejar, with tenure for life, being sick in body but sound in mind and
will, and in my normal judgment and memory, believing as I do, firmly
and truly, in the high and sovereign mystery of the Most High Trinity:
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, three distinct persons and only one true
God, and all the other tenets and beliefs of our Holy Roman Catholic
Mother Church, do hereby make public declaration that I have lived, am
now living, and expect to die in that faith; and that fearing death, to
which all living beings are subject, and desiring to save my soul, I do
hereby grant this my testament in the following form and manner: Item, I command that, when by the will of God, I shall be taken from this present life to eternity, my body be buried in the chapel which is used as a church by this villa and presidio, that the priest attend my funeral wearing his surplice, with a raised cross and the additional ceremonial befitting the office which I now hold, that a mass be sung in its vigil observed on the day of my burial, if the hour is adequate, and, if not, on the day after my funeral, and the alms be paid from the best secured part of my state. Item, I command that my body be shrouded in the habit of our Seraphic Father Saint Francis and that the alms for same be paid from my state, and I now make this request by the love of God. Item, I command that one peso from my estate be given, once only to each of the following compulsory bequests: the Holy Church of Jerusalem, the ransom of captives, the Brotherhood of the Most High Sacrament, and orphan girls. Item, I declare that whereas I have long-term accounts with Don Juan de Angulo, a resident and merchant of Mexico City, who has supplied this my company during the time that I have held the office of captain of same, I order my executors to determine from the memoranda which he has remitted to me whether I have been charged more than the cost of goods which he has sent me and to liquidate and adjust said accounts with said Don Juan de Angulo, being guided altogether by the just prices for which those goods sold regularly in that city in the time they were sent to me. My executors shall collect whatever amount said Don Juan de Angula may owe me after he has been paid the amounts I have designated for him. Item, I command my executors to collect and receive all the property within my house such as account books and other papers that may be verified as belonging to me. Item, I declare that I was married according to the precepts of our Holy Mother Church to Dona Antonia Ramon, a resident of Rio Grand del Norte, now deceased, and from said marriage I had our legitimate daughter Dona Antonia de Urrutia. Item, I declare that my said wife, Dona Antonia Ramon, did not bring into my possession any property or dowry; I declare this in order that it may be recorded. Item, I declare that I did not give any property whatever or dowry to my said daughter, Dona Antonia Ramon de Urrutia; I declare this in order that it may be recorded. Item, I declare that I was married a second time, according to the precepts of Our Holy Mother Church, to Dona Rosa Flores de Valdez, a resident of the villa of Saltillo, and that the children of our marriage are: Dona Rose de Urrutia, Don Joseph Migual de Urrutia, Dona Cathalina de Urrutia, Dona Juana de Urrutia, Don Thoribio de Urrutia, Don Joachin de Urrutia, Don Pedro de Urrutia, Don Ignacio de Urrutia, and Dona Juana Gertrudis de Urrutia, who I declare to be my children by my said wife. Item, I declare that that the said Dona Rosa Flores de Valdez, my wife, did not bring into my possession any dowry or property whatever; I declare this in order that it may be recorded. Item, I declare that to none of my sons and daughters who have married have I given any property to dowry; I declare this in order that it may be recorded. Item, I declare that to my son-in-law, Don Ignacio de Ynclan, the husband of my daughter Dona Juana de Urruita, I have assigned five hundred pesos and food for him and his wife for his services during the six years he had been my cashier. I order my executor to audit the accounts of said Don Ygnacio; to charge to his account to whatever he may have bought either from my store or Mexico City; and that the amount in excess of the assigned salary of five hundred pesos for each of the six years during the which he had worked for me, be added to the property that I may leave after my death to be divided equally among all the other heirs, share and share alike; and my executors shall exercise the necessary and conscientious care to comply with my will by so doing. And I appoint as my testamentary executors Don Joseph de Plasa and Don Pedro Godoy, (my sons-in-law), residents of the real and mines of San Pedro de Voca de Leones, to both of whom and to each one severally I give the necessary power in order that from the best secured part of my estate they may sell enough with which to comply with and pay the legacies and bequests of this my testament. I charge them to do so conscientiously; and I command that whatever they may do by virtue of same shall be as valid as if I had done it. And when this my testament shall have been complied with and the bequests and legacies contained herein shall have been paid, I institute and name as my legitimate and universal heirs to the residue of all the property, rights and actions which now belong to me, or which may belong to me in the future, Dona Rosa de Urrutia, Don Joseph Migual de Urrutia, Dona Cathalina de Urrutia, Dona Juana de Urrutia, Don Thoribio de Urrutia, Don Joachin de Urrutia, Don Pedro de Urrutia, Don Ygnacio de Urrutia, Dona Gertrudis de Urrutia, and Dona Antonio de Urrutia, my legitimate children by legitimate marriage, in order that they may have and inherit same equally with the blessing of God and my blessing, and whatever part of my property each one may have squandered shall be included herein and partitioned. I revoke, annul and declare to be worthless and of no effect any will or wills, memorandum or codicil whatever which I may have made prior to this, in writing, by word of mouth, or in any other form; and I wish that only this, which I am now granting shall be valid as my Last Will and Testament, in the best manner and form according to law. Captain Don Joseph de Urrutia thus granted and signed it before me, the present notary and the following witness who were present: Lieutenant Don
Matheo Perez Signed I certify, Done in my presence Francisco Joseph de Arocha (Rubic) Notary Public and Secretary Contributed by Helen
Harrell to the Canary Islands Descendants Newsletter. |
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| Cousins
helping Cousins: Manuel G. Ramirez, a Primo Dear Lupita: Hope you had a Happy and Healthy Holiday Season. Gloria and I haven't had a chance to visit Laredo lately, but we will try soon. While at the McAllen conference, I purchased Jesse Rodriguez's Book 2 of Los Bexarenos Genealogical Society Family Group Sheets. Jesse does an excellent job in putting the information together. Your information included helped me isolate and connect Manuel, your better half, to our family tree. Gloria and Manuel have several common mutual ancestors. I have added Manuel to our relationship schedule that I have prepared and occasionally update. A copy is attached for your information. If interested, I will be glad to send you a 17-generation Ancestor Genealogical report of Manuel. Blessings; Jerry Benavides Jgbenavide@aol.com |
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Historic View of the Past: Laredo by Gilbert Villarreal, Laredo Times staff writer When visiting the Webb County Heritage Foundation, the sensation is that of walking into the past through a time tunnel. Immediately, vivid scenes of struggles and victories highlight Laredo's unique history, roots and the real essence of Laredoans. From 1519 to 1685, Spain claimed Laredo, simultaneous to the initial 13 colonies of the United States, said Margarita Araiza, executive director, WCHF. "Laredoans have many reasons to be proud of their roots, history and heritage," Araiza said. "Few cities in the United States have Laredo's vast history and rich tradition." Although the heritage foundation was officially chartered in 1980, the foundation actually started in the early '50s under the Laredo Historical Society, Araiza added. The historical society wanted to preserve records, documents and rehabilitate historic architecture, at the same time, bring to light the unique folklore and tradition of the border region. The mission of the WCHF is to promote an awareness and appreciation of Laredo's rich heritage, part of which is at the Republic of Rio Grande Museum. The museum was built in 1830 and expanded in 1861, with the additional front rooms. The Mexican-style building was the residence of Bartolome Garcia. Don Bartolome (Don means "de origen noble" or from noble origin) was a prominent rancher, who served as mayor of Laredo for several terms between 1843 and 1863, Araiza explained. According to local tradition, his home served as the capitol of the Republic of the Rio Grande. "The Museum is a live experience with Laredo's past, " Araiza said. "Many local residents find edifying visiting the museum to identify with ancestors and rich roots that shaped Laredo." Laredo was officially founded May 15, 1755, when Captain Tomas Sanchez settled with three families near an old Indian village on the Rio Grande. The 1757 census reported 11 families owning 100 cattle, 125 mules, 712 horses and 9,089 sheep and goats. Highlighting Laredo's strategic location, the first Texas cattle drives took place along the San Antonio-Laredo road to Saltillo, Araiza added. In the 18th century, Laredo became an important frontier outpost on the lower Camino Real or King's Road, which stretched from Saltillo to San Antonio. During a visit of Juan Fernando de Palacios, governor of New Spain, Laredo was officially designated as a "villa" and he christened it San Agustin de Laredo, after a town in native Santander, Spain, Araiza said. A central public square was laid out and portions of land fronting the river were issued to heads of household. Plots of land facing the plaza were surveyed for San Agustin Church, a captain's house and a jail. Araiza specified that San Agustín Church, situated on the east side of the plaza, was founded in 1767 and the present building was constructed in 1860-1872. Prominent ranchers and settlers who lived adjacent to the plaza were the García, Leyen-decker, Martin, Vidaurri, Bena-vides and Ramon families. Thirty-four years after it's founding, Laredo boasted of 800 residents, many of which were landowners, ranchers or merchants. The Texas cowboy had its roots in South Texas' traditional cattle drives and ranching, Araiza pointed out. Ranching and trading became a major activity for the community. Products were hauled from the Mexican interior through Laredo to San Antonio. Cattle hide and wool were traded south in exchange for food and household necessities. However, trade was disrupted and many ranches wiped out by the raids of the Comanche and Apache Indians who ambushed residents, ranchers and traders. Araiza vividly described Laredo's unique past as the capitol of the Republic of the Rio Grande. No other border town has been under the rule of seven different flags or been designated capitol of a Republic. During the late 1830s, Laredoans felt neglected due to the very limited protection provided by the Mexican government. For this reason, Araiza explained, a northern Mexico separatist movement began and Antonio Canales founded the Republic of the Rio Grande at the constitutional convention of January 7, 1840. Three Mexican states Coahuila, Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas combined their forces and sought independence from Mexican rule. Laredo was named the capitol of the Republic. Araiza points out that in 1849 Fort McIntosh was built precisely to assure protection for Laredoans from the continuous attacks and ambushes of Apaches and Comanches. Fort McIntosh was built near an old Spanish and indian river crossing. In 1845, the annexation of Texas by the United States led to the declaration of war against Mexico. Shortly after the fall of Mexico, the Río Grande was declared the boundary between the United States and Mexico. Under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, Laredo officially became part of Texas. "Although Leonor Villegas de Magnon is unknown in Laredo, she is certainly an example of the caliber of idealistic, committed and fearless individual this community is known to produced," Araiza said. Magnon born from a prominent Laredo family, grew up to become a heroine of the Mexican revolution. When fighting broke out in Nuevo Laredo, during the Mexican Revolution, gunshots and cannon fire were heard in the two Laredos. Magnon quickly mobilized a group of women to tend the wounded in Nuevo Laredo. Venturing into the fighting, the women pulled the wounded to safety. Magnon would cross the border waving a flag with a white cross. After a fierce battle in Nuevo Laredo, Magnon and volunteer nurses brought one hundred wounded soldiers across the river in skiffs. Magnon transformed a kindergarten school into a hospital to assist the wounded soldiers. During the 1880s, the city of Laredo began to expand northward from San Agustín Plaza, Araiza noted. The city grew north along Flores Avenue, which became the main business artery. The building of a new City Hall in 1883-1884 helped to promote businesses, hotels, and restaurants to relocate north of San Agustín Plaza. Laredo's first elite suburban development was closely connected with the electric streetcar service. In 1888, the Laredo Improvement Company was chartered by the State of Texas to construct a street railway system. The streetcar system, possibly the first west of the Mississippi, was designed to attract prospective buyers to the Heights residential area. A real estate boom occurred with many stately homes built along Market and adjacent streets, which exhibited a variety of architectural styles, late Victorian, Prairie Style, Italian Renaissance and Spanish Colonial Revival. Laredo had a booming industry of coal mining, onion agriculture, brick manufacturing and later in the 1920s, oil and gas production. Araiza highly recommends, not only to tourist, but also to local residents, the two-hour Trolley Tour that runs three times a week from St. Augustin Plaza. This guided tour provides an in-depth summary of the many historical sites of interest in Laredo, Araiza stressed. The WCHF conducts these tours of historic downtown Laredo and exhibits the historic documents, maps and photographs that would make all Laredoans proud of their rich heritage, Araiza affirmed. Known today as the city under seven flags, Laredo has emerged as the principal port of entry into Mexico. As the second fastest growing city in the nation, this border metropolis has greatly benefited from the well-planned, historic "Streets of Laredo," and its urban core continues to be reinvigorated as commercial areas and neighborhoods make the "Gateway City" their home. (Staff writer Gilbert Villarreal can be reached at 728-2566 or by e-mail: gilbert@lmtonline.com) Sent by Walter L Herbeck wlherbeck@juno.com 9215 Locksley San Antonio, TX 78254 210-684-9741 |
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Streets of Laredo Mrs. Maria Cleofas Herbeck always spoke about Las Minas where she was born and raised in Dolores. During the last few years we learned more about the people that worked on those mines. Now that we have this new CD from San Augustine Catholic Church Genealogical Records, we have been able to find some of the people and families that lived in that area. So again, we ask you, if have anyone that you want us to look for on this CD write us and give us the name of the person. If have husband's, wife's and children names it would help us better. We have helped some of you find relatives and we have really enjoyed this CD. If you think that we are trying to promote this CD, well, yes we are trying to help the church sell those CD. They only have a limited amount and once gone they are gone. If want to purchase a CD let' us know. Mas later... To order your CD: St. Augustine Catholic Church 200 St. Augustine Ave. Laredo, Texas 78040 (956) 722-1382 In San Antonio, Tx. George Farias has Borderlands Bookstore on Wurzbach and Evers. The price for the CD is only $75. +SH. For more information write us or call us. Elsa Peña Herbeck epherbeck@juno.com 210-684-9741 For more information on Laredo and the life of the miners en La Minas near Laredo. Go to http://www.mi-vida-loca.com . |
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Kudos
to the Corpus Christi Public Libraries for putting the full-text of this
document on-line for the first time. This version contains a
fully-integrated search engine and indices.
General State of the Foundation of the Colony of Nuevo Santander translated by Edna G.
Brown © 1994 This text comprises the documentation from the census records that were taken in the Spanish settlements made by Jose de Escandon in 1757. These settlements were located mainly in Northern Mexico and along its Gulf Coast. The genealogical significance of this documentation is readily apparent. |
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| Town of San Francisco de Guemes | Town
of Reynosa
Sent by Johanna de Soto |
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The
LONGORIA ALCALA Family |
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| To contact us by mail: Raul N. Longoria 7028 Golden Gate Drive Fort Worth, Texas 76132-3744 817-294-7336 |
My database of family members begins with the present and extends back to the 14th century. The Longoria branch extends back to Alonso de la Pontiga in Asturias, Spain, and is by far the most extensive branch here. Other notable branches here are my wife’s Alcala and Garza lines, my mother’s Villarreal line and my paternal grandmother’s Treviño and Vidaurri lines. |
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Longoria
Family website http://longorian.com |
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Almo de Parras |
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Thompson named VP in Texas Historical Association by Kelly Hildrebrandt, Times staff writer Dr. Jerry Thompson has spent much of his life studying the rich history of the border region, and now he's reaping the benefits. Thompson, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Humanities at Texas A&M International University, was recently named first vice president of the Texas State Historical Association. Next year he'll automatically become the president. The Texas State Historical Associa |
