August 2004, 
Editor: Mimi Lozano ©2000-4

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

 
Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez applauds
Joseph Mendoza Lopez, 93 years,
after a presentation to decorate the World War II veteran
 with Belgium's highest honors. 

Two medals were awarded to Lopez shortly after the war, but he did not receive them until July 8, 2004, 60 years after his heroism. 

Photo: Kin Man Hui / San Antonio Express-News 

                                  Symbols of Valor earned for bravery in Battle of the Bulge
                                Extract: Lopez awarded Belgium's highest military honors
                            By John W. Gonzalez 
                             Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle, July 9, 2004
                             Sent by J.D. Villarreal  juandv@granderiver.net

Lt. Gen. Eric Olsen, a fellow armor battalion commander in the first Gulf War, said: ``Sanchez is one of the most principled, ethical commanders I have ever met. He is not afraid to offer an opinion or take an action that might be perceived as unpopular if it was the right thing to do. I'd trust my flank to him anytime.''

Retired Col. Bill Chamberlain, another Gulf War armor battalion commander who served with Sanchez, said: ``He's one of the true achievers in our Army. He got what he got through hard work, lots of ability and some luck.''

Source: American tale: Poor Hispanic rises to commander in Iraq
by Joseph L. Galloway jgalloway@krwashington.com, June 14, 2003
Sent by Mira Smithwick  SagaCorpus@aol.com

Click to story: Canadian Medal of Valor received by Felipe de Jesus Rosete Vazquez 

"Dear Mimi,
My sincere thanks to you and your devoted staff for issuing another fantastic newsletter!
Especial thanks for publishing the article from Dr. Barbara Voss (Stanford University)  regarding this year's  excavation project at "El Polin Springs" located at the San Francisco Presidio.  This is timely news for me and my family, as we are descendants of the Briones and Tapia families.  Last year, My daughter, Magdaline Castillo Reynolds and her daughters, Margaret and Katie and I met Barbara at the El Polin Springs site and we had a swell time discussing the goals of the excavation.  The dig last year uncovered the stones of the foundation of one of the Briones homes. This is so exciting, and I am overwhelmed by it all. 

I remain ever-so grateful to you all,"
Lorri Ruiz Frain "  lorrilocks@earthlink.net

Dear Mimi,
Margaret Wellman Jaenke, President/Curator for the Hamilton Museum and Ranch Foundation in the city of Anza, California has ask me if its possible to link the Anza Letters article to their Museum's web site.    The small town of Anza is named after the Gran Capitan and from my conversation with Margaret, she is excited, the board is excited, and the people of Anza are excited and want to put it on their web site or link it. Margaret was instrumental in opening the doors for me to get into the Cary Ranch where the monument is located. She was very pleased with the pictures. 
Quote" the pictures make it seem like if I am right there".
Again thanks for all you have done y hasta pronto.
Phil Valdez   De Anza8g@aol.com

"Thanks for the July 4th issue. The Somos Primos, is dynamite ---it has a wealth of info. Should be put in every school. I didn't know that we had any Hispanic US Senators?? And all the Hispanic State Reps.  You're doing a great job, collecting all of this Hispanic history.  Your work is helping a lot of people--even though they don't let you know. They will in time!! Why don't do an article on Dr. Ed Aguirre, and tenure as the first Hispanic US Commissioner of Education. In fact he was the first Commissioner of Color.  
Wills Papillion"  willis35@earthlink.net

Editor's note:  
Willis Papillion was kind enough to share a little bit of his background.  He writes:
"I'm presently the Director of the Kitsap Peninsula MESA Educational programs of Math, Engineering and Science Achievement. Which started in California  30 years ago.  California now has over 35 MESA Centers Statewide. I worked with the U.C. Berkeley MESA Center in 1982.  I lived in California. for 54 years--moved to Washington 1995. Also, I work with the US Office of Education/HEW in 1974 on the Desegregation of Western Schools Districts,  Title 7, Emergency School Aid Act, under the US Commissioner, Dr. Ed Aguirre and Amado Rodrigues.  We desegregated the schools, with teacher training in Hispanic and Black Cultural histories and special programs/Magnet schools--in Math, English, Reading and Science. It appears that we have to re-educate our teachers, parents, students, communities and school administrators--every decade!!! 

Click for article on Dr. Edward Aguirre

UNITED STATES

 "2004-2005 Year of the FatherTM" 

http://www.bsi-international.com/2004_year_of_the_father.htm
Sent by Diane Sears, Editor
  In Search of Fatherhood

We are just beginning to discover some very interesting and startling statistics about Men.  Did you know that there are at least 2,000,000 Men who are Single Fathers in the United States?  Did you know that there are at least 2,907,000 Men who are Custodial Fathers in the United States? 

"2004:  Year of the FatherTM" is designated as a year for the development and implementation of focus groups and online discussion groups on all issues directly and indirectly related to Fatherhood -- men's health (diabetes, colon cancer, prostate cancer, heart disease, etc.), equal parenting rights, child custody, child support and paternal isolation and the establishment of networks and strategic alliances among male parenting organizations and the medical and scientific communities in an effort to aggressively and effectively address men's health issues which will lead to increased research and research funding.  "2004:  Year of the FatherTM" is designated as a year in new mechanisms will be created and existing mechanisms will be strengthened which afford Men who are Fathers from all Walks of Life throughout your global village with having greater access to medical and health information concerning their unique health issues.  "2004:  Year of the FatherTM" will lay a foundation for a collective strategy which will be developed by interested individuals, male parenting organizations, educational institutions and health and medical institutions and which will be announced in "2005:  
 
BSI International, Inc. ("BSI") is a Philadelphia-based independent publishing company, literary agency and media relations company. BSI made its independent publishing debut on April 23, 1998 with the publication of a first-in-a-series book project on Fatherhood created by a first-time author, entitled IN SEARCH OF FATHERHOOD® - Volume I. On 15 October 1999, BSI launched a quarterly male parenting publication - IN SEARCH OF FATHERHOOD® Forum for and About the Fathers of the World -- which was a spin-off from the book project. We are a member of the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce and the  Non-Profit Council of Philadelphia.  Inquiries and suggestions can be directed to BSI International, Inc. at bsi-international@earthlink.net. 

National Latino Fatherhood & Family Institute http://www.bienvenidos.org/nlffi/  
5252 Beverly Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90022
Phone: (323) 728-7770 or (323) 728-9577
Fax: (323) 728-8666

The overall goal of the Institute is to address the multifaceted needs of the Latino males as it relates to their positive involvement in their families and community. Through research, training and direct service, the institute will look at the development of fathers as active positive partners in nurturing, guidance, and education of their children; while at the same time, addressing the very painful aspects of child abuse, domestic violence, gang violence, school failure, illiteracy, teen pregnancy and other related issues.

Men unite against domestic violence by Jaelyn Leary

The Round Up  
Student Voice of New Mexico State University

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=
ISO-8859-1&q=Circulo+de+Hombres&btn
G=Google+Search

Marcos Torres joins a candlelight vigil at the Community of Hope Friday night as a way to unite against domestic violence

February 4, 2002 

Dr. Spellman stated.  “That’s why the title as well as the book – is brilliant – because it’s about all Fathers because ‘THEY ARE ONE’ WITH THE SAME CONCERN --THEIR CHILDREN! ‘Transcending Boundaries’ equals ‘ONE.’  That is why this book is so amazing.  Not only is the title amazing, but the book is brilliant because the author, Diane Sears actually visualizes fatherhood as ‘ONE’ – Fathers are ‘one’ -- one massive group of men worldwide – all of whom equal ‘ONE’   --one group of men who are all ‘Fathers’ all who have one essential, significant, meaningful interest at heart and in common – THEIR CHILDREN.  Thanks Diane for bringing fourth this idea -- these thoughts from the brilliant writers you have assembled into this marvelous volume of work -- this unified concept of fatherhood. Thanks Diane for bringing this book into our lives; for sharing with all of us the sensitive, caring, challenging side of fathers. Thanks Diane for sharing the essence and the dignity of Fatherhood.”

Charles G. Spellman, Ed.D. 
Dr. Spellman  has served on the World War II Committee appointed by the United States Congress.  He has been featured as a World War II/D-Day subject matter expert for the United States Department of Defense and C-SPAN where he was a C-SPAN Scholar and a Rockefeller Fellow at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he engaged in political communication research.  His academic career as a Professor of Mass Communications and Media Studies at a myriad of universities throughout the United States spans more than twenty years. 

U.S. Latino and Latina WWII Oral History Project, 
Department of Journalism, 
University of Texas at Austin

http://www.utexas.edu/projects/latinoarchives/

Links to Narratives can be found on each of the 8 online issues produced by the U.S. Latino and Latina WWII Oral History Project, Department of Journalism, University of Texas at Austin. 
http://www.utexas.edu/projects/latinoarchives/narratives/v1n1index.html

Manuel Salazar Mejia

Despite anti-Hispanic bias, staff sergeant led a dozen men
Man who left high school to join Army  took pride in earning jump badge
By  Brooke West  Interviewed by Joe Olague
Submitted by niece, Helen Mejia-Savala

Published by 
U.S. Latino and Latina W.W. II Oral History Project, UT School of Journalism
Project Director: Dr. Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez
http://www.utexas.edu/projects/latinoarchives/narratives/v4n1index.html
Volume 4, Number 1  
Spring 2003

Photo Specialist Rajesh Reddy 

World War II interrupted Manuel Salazar Mejia's academic endeavors, and he abandoned scholarly pursuits when he enlisted in the Army in May 1942. The high-school sophomore was only 18.

One of five children born to immigrants from Zacatecas, Mexico, Mr. Mejia was raised in Kansas City, Kan. His father, Fidel, a butcher, and his mother, Ignacia (Salazar), a housewife, struggled with finances. They depended on a large family-tended garden, in which they grew "corn, pumpkins, tomatoes, onions, peppers, some potatoes," Mr. Mejia said. 

Mr. Mejia, born April 6, 1925, said he remembers playing in the hills around the colonia where his family lived. There was a schoolyard close to his home, but Hispanic children were not allowed access to the area. At the time, Hispanics were segregated throughout Kansas City, as well as in many parts of the rest of the country. 

"We had our own little school," Mr. Mejia said. "The (elementary) school I went to was Major Hudson Annex. That's where all the Hispanics went."

In his youth, Mr. Mejia was fond of reading newspapers and kept up-to-date on the war from its start in 1939. He kept track of his friends and neighbors in the service through newspaper clippings. 

"I didn't graduate from high school," Mr. Mejia said. "I (enlisted) in my sophomore year, so I went into the war at that time." 

Mr. Mejia summed up his thoughts at the time about the Germans with a simple comment: "If them rascals get up there and get England, what's going to stop them from coming over here and jumping in on New York?" 

Such thoughts drove Mr. Mejia during his Army career. He received most of his training at Fort Benning, Ga. From there he moved to Fort Bragg, N.C., where he received his jump training before leaving for Yuma, Ariz., for maneuver training. 

Then he went "clear across country" to the East Coast. 

Pvt. Mejia then shipped out on a 14-day journey from New York to Belfast, Ireland. He was aboard a troop carrier ship that held men from all divisions. The men trained in Belfast and then they were split up. Pvt. Mejia and the rest of the 82nd Airborne Division were sent to Nottingham, England.

While in England, Pvt. Mejia and his men continued their training. They went on dry runs in C-47s, planes from which they simulated war situations, and they also performed routine practice jumps. A soldier needed to have six training jumps before receiving a jumping badge. 

Being a jumper was an important part of his military experience. 

"It was a proud moment for a GI to get a badge," Mr. Mejia said. "That meant a lot." 

In the military, discrimination was subtle, he said. Although he served in an integrated unit, Pvt. Mejia found that the prospects for promotion were not readily available to him and other Hispanics. It did not stop Mr. Mejia, however, from becoming a squad leader - Staff Sgt. Mejia had 12 men under his guidance. 

Staff Sgt. Mejia's first objective was to jump behind enemy lines and neutralize German "pillboxes," enclosed gun emplacements of concrete and steel. The line was located six miles behind Omaha Beach in Normandy. However, the pilot overshot the zone by four miles, dropping the men in an apple orchard. Staff Sgt. Mejia had to quickly round up his men, using aluminum noisemakers that simulated the sound of crickets. The troops quickly realized that the Germans had set up realistic-looking wooden dummy guns, so Staff Sgt. Mejia and his squad proceeded onward to find the real pillboxes. 

Together with help from other divisions, Staff Sgt. Mejia said he and the other men "knocked out six guns before afternoon." 

"We beat the daylights out of them," Mr. Mejia said. "We climbed on top of that (pill box) and started throwing grenades inside of them holes."

The squad was then assigned to guard two bridges of importance to the Allies. The bridges were within two miles of Ste. Mere Eglise, and it was thought that the Germans wanted to destroy the structures. After capturing many prisoners, Staff Sgt. Mejia and his squad spent an entire night disconnecting a slew of mines. They set up flags to mark safe passageways for tanks and personnel.

Staff Sgt. Mejia also crossed the Rhine River at Frankfurt, Germany, jumped in Belgium, and crossed into France to participate in the Battle of the Bulge during December 1944. During that battle, Staff Sgt. Mejia was wounded in his left knee, and he was transported to England for an operation. 

During the war, he kept in touch with his sisters and his mother. He remembered his sisters sending him cookies, news articles, and fruitcakes. His mother helped him keep in touch with Mexican traditions by sending him buñuelos, a fried tortilla pastry, during the Battle of the Bulge.

Staff Sgt. Mejia was in Munich training with the 82nd Airborne Division when he learned that the war had ended. 

Mr. Mejia is proud of the many awards he and his division earned during the war: two Presidential Citations, the Bronze Star Medal, The Belgian Valor Medal, and The Holland Military Medal of Valor. Mr. Mejia also received the Purple Heart Medal with two clusters, a Combat Infantry Badge, a Jump Badge and a Good Conduct Medal.

Mr. Mejia was classified as being 100 percent disabled after receiving three wounds during combat. He also carries mental wounds, which he says he seeks to heal with weekly group therapy with 20 other veterans. The meetings have helped him and others deal with the memories of war. 

Upon his return from war in March 1946, Mr. Mejia was faced with several difficulties. He needed to find a job and a place to live back in Kansas City. In June, he married Beatrice Marie Muñoz Mejia, and the couple eventually had three children: René, Ronald and Bea Marie.

Finding a job to support his family was difficult. Veterans like Mr. Mejia were being told that companies were not hiring Mexicans.

Locating a home also proved difficult for the couple. Mr. Mejia and his wife spent many months trying to find a Kansas City neighborhood that would accept Mexicans. They would make deposits, only to be told that neighbors wanted no Mexicans in the neighborhood.

Eventually, Mr. Mejia got a job at the Simmons Mattress Company. He worked there for 45 years and was chief inspector of the box spring department. He also was president, at one time, of Local 173 of the Upholsterer's International Union of North America.

Mr. Mejia is now retired; he and his wife live in Green Valley, Ariz.  Mr. Mejia said his experience during the war has left an indelible mark on his personality. When asked what message he would like to leave the Hispanic youth, he responded: "Forget about being Hispanic,'' he said. "Go for what you want."

(Mr. Mejia was interviewed at the Tucson Vet Center on Jan. 5, 2003, by Joe Olague.)

SBC Foundation Makes $1 Million Technology Grant To LULAC 
SBC Excelerator Grant to Support LULAC's Empower Hispanic America with Technology Initiative
The Corporate Social Responsibility Newswire Service, Press release  07/07/2004  

(CSRwire) SAN ANTONIO - To advance technology skills in diverse communities, the SBC Foundation - the philanthropic arm of SBC Communications Inc. - today awarded a $1 million SBC Excelerator grant to the national League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC). 

Announced at the 75th LULAC National Conference in San Antonio, Texas, the grant will support LULAC's Empower Hispanic America with Technology initiative which gives Hispanic communities across the United States greater access to technology resources. The grant will provide computer equipment and high speed Internet access, technology curriculum and technology support to LULAC community centers throughout the 13-state SBC territory. 

The Empower Hispanic America with Technology initiative works to increase Hispanic educational attainment and economic empowerment. According to current U.S. Census Bureau data, just 57 percent of the Hispanic population over the age of 25 has graduated from high school, and Hispanics are more likely to be unemployed or underemployed. LULAC will use the $1 million SBC
Excelerator grant to fund a competitive grants program for regional LULAC organizations and community partners to offer enhanced technology access and services. Visitors to LULAC community centers will use high speed Internet access and computer technology to research career options, college opportunities, scholarships, GED preparation, financial aid and other resources. 

"As LULAC celebrates its diamond anniversary and our 75th annual convention, we also look toward building a brighter future for Hispanics," said Hector Flores, LULAC national president. "The $1 million SBC Excelerator grant will help communities access and utilize the tools necessary to compete in today's education environment and technology-driven workplace. Together, we
understand the impact technology can make in helping Hispanics achieve their full educational and economic potential. This grant further reflects the longstanding support SBC Communications has for programs and services for the Hispanic community." 

LULAC is the first 2004 SBC Excelerator national grant recipient. SBC Excelerator, the SBC Foundation's signature initiative, funds projects that use technology to build stronger communities. The 2004 SBC Excelerator program will provide $9 million in grants to help nonprofits fully integrate
technology into their ongoing operations and community outreach. 

The SBC tradition of leadership is focused on investing in the people and communities the company serves through a variety of philanthropic and volunteer initiatives. SBC companies support the educational progress and achievement of Hispanics and currently contribute to 30 organizations with
educational programs or scholarships supporting Hispanics. In 2003, 98 predominantly Hispanic- serving organizations received funds through the SBC Foundation's SBC Excelerator annual program. Also, through the Hispanic Association of Communications Employees (HACEMOS) volunteer group, SBC employees engage with the Hispanic community with programs such as High Tech Day - an annual event that encourages high school students to pursue careers in telecommunications and technology - across the company's region. 

"SBC shares LULAC's commitment to building a strong culture of opportunity, growth and diversity," said Forrest Miller, SBC group president of External Affairs and Planning. "Our support for the Empower Hispanic America with Technology initiative reflects the company's core commitment to strengthening education and community development opportunities to improve
lives and communities through technology." 

SBC companies have a solid, industry-leading record of workforce and supplier diversity, providing employment and leadership opportunities to employees and Hispanic businesses. In fact, SBC Communications has been recognized by Fortune magazine's 50 Best Companies for Minorities for six consecutive years, as one of the top 50 companies for diversity by DiversityInc.com and as one of the best companies for Latinas by LATINAStyle magazine. 

Projects funded through the SBC Excelerator grant will be awarded to LULAC centers and community partners on a competitive basis in the SBC 13-state operating area, which includes Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas and Wisconsin. A Request for Proposal package will be available to regional
LULAC organizations later this month. 

In coming months, the SBC Foundation will announce additional SBC Excelerator national grant recipients, as well as the regional nonprofit recipients of $5 million in competitive grants awarded throughout the SBC 13-state region. Since SBC Excelerator's inception in 2002, nearly $20
million in technology grants has been awarded to more than 1,000 non-profit organizations. In 2004, the SBC Foundation celebrates its 20th anniversary year. Since 1984, SBC Communications and the SBC Foundation have contributed more than $1 billion to nonprofit organizations and affiliates across the country. 

For more Information, please contact: Misty Zelent, mzelent@sbcnews.us  512-495-7163  or 
Lorraine Quiroga, lquiroga@lulac.org  202-365-4053

Dr. Edward Aguirre, President of Aguirre International 

Dr. Edward Aguirre was appointed to the post of U.S. Commissioner of Education by President Gerald Ford in 1976. At the end of his appointment, Dr. Aguirre founded the social science and education research firm Aguirre International.  His background as a policy maker and high-level administrator has provided him with a broad perspective on issues relevant to public policy.  Dr. Aguirre is of Mexican-American descent and is bilingual in English and Spanish. He is committed to improving the business, cultural, and economic environment of people both in the United States and abroad. 

Dr. Aguirre has been a consultant to a number of diverse organizations and Government agencies, including the Venezuela National Curriculum Commission, the Office of Education's Bilingual Education Representative to Mexico, and the Department of State's Representative to the Bolivian Ministry of Education.  Early in his career, Aguirre served as Associate Professor of Industrial Education at San Diego State University. Dr. Aguirre was awarded grants from the Department of Education, as part of the National Defense Education Act, to direct three institutes preparing teachers in math, science, and industrial technology. 

Ed.D., Industrial Education, Arizona State University, 1963. 
M.A., Industrial Arts, Arizona State University, 1958. 
B.A., Industrial Arts, Arizona State University, 1953. 

http://www.aguirreinternational.com/aiweb/home.nsf/ai?openform&c=who2_421
Remarks by Dr. Aguirre at a Ceremony Honoring Hispanic Excellence in Education
September 14, 1984, in the Rose Garden at the White House
http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/resource/speeches/1984/91484a.htm
Dr. Aguirre served as chairman of the board of trustees of the National Hispanic University.

Extract: Survey Reveals 48 Top Supporters of Hispanic-Serving Engineering Programs  By CCG, Jun 29, 2004, 
http://www.hispanicengineer.com/artman/publish/article_77.shtml
Sent by Willis Papillion  willis35@earthlink.net

The Boeing Company Leads List 
BALTIMORE - A recent survey conducted by Career Communications Group, Inc. (CCG) has found that 48 companies and government agencies are considered most supportive of Hispanic-serving engineering schools.  
 
CCG asked the engineering deans of the U.S. colleges and universities with the highest numbers of Hispanic engineering graduates to name the five corporate or government sponsors they feel contribute most to the success of their Hispanic students. Some deans listed more than five, and there were many duplications. But, in all, 48 separate organizations were named. 
 
According to Tyrone D. Taborn, CCG's founder and chief executive officer, "This list is a reflection of the commitment of these organizations to the pipeline growth of Hispanic engineers. These companies and agencies do not see these schools as just recruiting grounds. They have moved beyond their traditional comfort levels by supporting these learning institutions. This ranking reflects the perception the deans have of the total level of support they receive." 
 
The results of the survey reveal The Boeing Company as the leader of the pack: The leading aircraft-maker was listed by the most deans as a "Top Supporter." Boeing is closely followed by Lockheed Martin Corporation and NASA, which tied for the second highest number of mentions.  
 
CCG's Taborn points out that, "Hispanics represent 12.5 percent of the total U.S. population in the country and is set to grow to 18 percent by 2025. But a mere 4 percent of U.S. engineers are Hispanic. The pipeline growth needs to be the key focus for organizations that want to make the difference." 
 
The Top Supporters of Hispanic-Serving Engineering Programs 
(Ranked by Number of Survey Mentions) List of Top Supporters  Rank 
      

Request for military units histories  
Robert Smith Regriffith6828@aol.com

Here is an address to request the military histories of units who served in Europe during WWII.  Also, other military units, possibly individuals, unit citations and other information related to those units.  I will look up my fathers, step-fathers and his brothers units, histories of my unit in Vietnam if possible.  After all, my unit did not exist.  Take care, Bob

U.S. Army Military History Institute
22 Ashburn Drive 
Carlisle, PA 17103-5008

They can tell you where that unit trained, where they shipped out from on what ship, when they landed in the ETO, which port they left from in Europe in what ship, when and where they landed in the US and what happened to the unit afterwards. Just ask for their history.

LATINOS IN THE U.S. CONGRESS (1822-1989)

By John P. Schmal

The great promise of American democracy is the guarantee that all Americans are entitled to representation in the legislative process. The primary means for utilizing this privilege is to take part in local, state and national elections by choosing representative leaders who will make decisions based on the will of their constituency. The Fifteenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States, ratified in 1870, guaranteed this right and promised that "the rights of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude."

However, for most of the last two hundred years, Hispanic Americans have experienced the same forms of discrimination and intimidation that were inflicted upon African Americans and other minorities. The struggle to gain minority representation in the U.S. Congress has been hard fought and, at times, bitter. The story of Hispanic representation in Congress is told here:

The first Hispanic to serve in Congress was Joseph Marion Hernández (1793-1857). A native of St. Augustine, Florida, Hernández lived in the Spanish colony from the time of his birth until Florida was handed over to the United States in 1822. He was elected as the Whig Delegate for the Territory of Florida to the U.S. Congress and served in the Seventeenth Congress (September 30, 1822 – March 3, 1823). Señor Hernández continued to serve Florida and the United States Army with distinction for many years. However, when he ran for the U.S. Senate as a Whig candidate in 1845, he was defeated. Soon after he moved to Cuba, where he managed his family’s sugar estate.

No Latinos would serve in the United States Congress for the next two decades until the 1853 election of José Manuel Gallegos as a Democratic delegate from New Mexico. But, during this interim period, two events would take place that would deeply affect the history of the United States and its geographic dimensions. The annexation of Texas (1844) and the Mexican-American War (1846-1848) led to significant demographic changes for the United States.

The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo – signed on February 2, 1848 – ended all hostilities between Mexico and the United States. By the provisions of this treaty, Mexico handed over to the United States 522,568 square miles of land, including the present-day states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Utah, and a small part of Wyoming.

At the time of the Treaty, approximately 82,500 Mexican citizens lived in the annexed territories. Under the provisions of Articles Eight and Nine, these Spanish-speaking individuals were granted American Citizenship, property rights, and given the full protection of the law.

However, for the rest of the Nineteenth Century, the Hispanic population in the Southwestern states would, for the most part, be unable to achieve political representation. In some areas, the Anglo-American population had increased so dramatically in the decade following the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo that Latinos had become minorities in many of their small communities. But, even in New Mexico, southern California, and the Texas regions south of San Antonio where Hispanics boasted significant majorities, political representation was hard to achieve.

The Spanish-speaking population of New Mexico would succeed in sending several Territorial Delegates to the U.S. Congress in the second part of the Nineteenth Century. But in California and Texas, poll taxes, literacy requirements, political gerrymandering and intimidation would also keep qualified Latinos from expressing their voices in the voting booth well into the middle of the Twentieth Century. In these two states, true and fair representation would not be achieved until the 1960s and 1970s.

The first Hispanic delegate to represent the recently annexed territories in the United States Congress was José Manuel Gallegos (1815-1875). In 1853 the New Mexico territory elected the Democrat Gallegos as its Delegate to Congress. The following year Congress approved the Gadsden Purchase, which added 29 million new acres to southern Arizona and New Mexico. The New Mexico territory would continue to send both Democratic and Republican Hispanic Delegates to Congress throughout the rest of the nineteenth century, all fighting to achieve statehood for their territory.

José Manuel Gallegos’ term in Congress lasted through the 33^rd and 34^th Congresses (March 4, 1853 to March 3, 1857). A native of Rio Arriba County, Gallegos was ordained as a Roman Catholic priest in 1840 and became very influential and popular in New Mexico. Powerful in his parish and elsewhere, Father Gallegos was first elected to the first Territorial Council of New Mexico in 1851 before becoming the first New Mexican Delegate to Congress.

Beginning in the summer of 1853, Gallegos dedicated himself completely to his political career. Although Gallegos did not speak English fluently, he received support and guidance from David Merriwether, a Democrat who would later become Governor of New Mexico. With Merriweather’s help, Gallegos was able to win the Democratic nomination for U.S. Delegate, despite the opposition from New Mexican politicians who called themselves the "American Party." Once elected, Gallegos replaced the previous New Mexico delegate, Richard Hanson Weightman.

Although Gallegos won election to a second term in office, his political opponent, Miguel A. Otero made an important speech on the floor of the House, contesting Gallegos’ election. Otero appealed to the House of Representatives on the basis of his loyalty to the United States despite his being a "native citizen" of a territory that was once part of the Mexican Republic. He explained that he had come to the Congress of his "adopted fatherland" to address the House "in the language of its laws and its constitution." Otero claimed that Gallegos had won the election with the help of Mexican citizens who had voted illegally. The House seated Otero even though Gallegos, the incumbent, had received a small majority of the votes in the election.

Despite this setback, Gallegos returned to New Mexico and continued with his political career. In 1860 he was elected to the Territorial House of Representatives as the representative from Santa Fe; he served as Speaker of the House from 1860 to 1862. In 1862 he was defeated in his reelection bid. Gallegos also served as treasurer of the territory from 1865 to 1866 and superintendent of Indian affairs for New Mexico in 1868. He returned to the U.S. House of Representatives as a Delegate from New Mexico in the 42nd Congress, but was unsuccessful in his bid for reelection in 1872.

Miguel Antonio Otero (1829 - 1882), a native of Valencia, was the next Hispanic politician to step forward in New Mexico. His father, Vicente Otero, had held prominent civic positions as judge and mayor in Valencia County, under the Spanish and Mexican Governments. Miguel A. Otero as well as other members of his family continued the tradition of civic service.

Otero was educated in New York and in Missouri, where he studied law and was admitted to the bar. On March 4, 1856 Otero was seated as a Delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives, after successfully contesting the election of José Manuel Gallegos.

Otero was succeeded by a non-Hispanic representative, John Sebrie Watts, who served from 1861 to 1863. However, in 1863, Watts was replaced as the New Mexican delegate by Francisco Perea (1830 - 1913), a native of Las Padillas, who came from a long line of Mexican politicians.

Francisco Perea served as the Republican Territorial Delegate to the 38^th Congress (March 4, 1863 to March 3, 1865). During the Civil War, the Jesuit-educated Perea served as a Union officer and took part in the Union victory at the battle of Apache Canyon. Perea’s success in both military and commercial ventures helped him to win election as New Mexico’s delegate to Congress in 1863. However, in his bid for reelection in 1864, he was defeated by his first cousin, José Francisco Chaves (1833-1904).

The next Congressional Delegate from New Mexico to the U.S. Congress was José Francisco Chaves, who – as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Union Army – helped to turn back a Confederate invasion of New Mexico in the Battle of Valverde (1862). Chaves first took office as Delegate to the Congress during the 39^th Congress (March 4, 1865 – March 3, 1867). Later, he successfully contested the election of Charles P. Clever (1830- 1874) to the Fortieth Congress.

Chaves was reelected to the 41^st Congress, serving from February 20, 1869 to March 3, 1871. However, he failed in his bid for reelection in 1870 to the 42^nd Congress, when the former delegate, José Manuel Gallegos was returned to the legislative body. Gallegos served from March 4, 1871 to March 3, 1873 and then retired to Santa Fe, where he died two years later. Gallegos was succeeded by Stephen Benton Elkins (1841-1911), a native of Ohio who served in this capacity from 1873 to 1877. Elkins later served as Secretary of War under President Benjamin Harrison.

California had become a state in 1850 and, in its first two decades, had sent several Hispanic representatives to the State Assembly and Senate. However, not until 1877 did California send a Mexican-American Representative to Congress. Serving as Representative from 1877 to 1883, Pacheco was became the first Hispanic American to chair a Congressional Committee when he was appointed as the Chairman of the Private Land Claims Committee. Not until the 1962 election of Edward Roybal would another Hispanic Californian represent his state in Congress. Romualdo served in many governmental positions and was also California’s first and only native-born Hispanic governor following statehood.

Trinidad Romero (1835-1918) was a member of one of the oldest and most prominent Hispanic families of New Mexico. A native of Santa Fe County, Romero had become a member of New Mexico’s Territorial House of Representatives in 1863. After serving as Probate Judge in San Miguel County, Romero moved on to win election as New Mexico’s Republican Congressional Delegate to the 45^th Congress (March 4, 1877 – March 3, 1879). Romero was later appointed United States Marshall by President Harrison, a position that he held from 1889 to 1893.

Romero’s successor as Congressional Delegate was Mariano Sabino Otero (1844- 1904), who also belonged to a very influential New Mexican family. The Otero family had produced several judges and one governor and held extensive tracks of land in the Territory. Mariano’s uncle, Miguel Antonio Otero had earlier served as Territorial Delegate from 1856 to 1861. A native of Peralta, Otero had attended St. Louis University in Missouri and later engaged in business, stock raising and banking.

It was not long before Otero decided to join the political arena, serving as Probate Judge of Bernalillo County from 1871 to 1879. The Democratic Party State Convention of 1874 nominated him for the position of Congressional Delegate, but he declined. However, in 1878, Mariano accepted the nomination of the Republican Party and was elected Delegate, becoming the second member of his family to sit in Congress. After serving in the 46^th Congress (March 4, 1879 to March 3, 1881), Otero declined renomination so that he could return to his business in New Mexico.

Tranquilino Luna (1847-1892), a native of Los Lunas (a town named after his family), was the next Delegate to represent New Mexico in Congress. Elected in 1880 as Delegate, Luna served in the 47^th and 48^th Congresses (March 4, 1881 to March 3, 1884). As a member of Congress, he was appointed to the Committee of Coinage, Weights, and Measures. In his first term he introduced several bills, including one that would have allowed for a state government of New Mexico, but the bill failed.

Tranquilino Luna’s 1883 reelection to Congress was contested by Francisco Antonio Manzanares (1843-1904), a successful businessman in New Mexico. A native of Abiquiu, Manzanares had supported the Union during the Civil War and served in the Legislative Assembly. The House Committee, investigating Luna’s election results, came to the conclusion that more than 2,000 votes in Valencia County were fraudulent. With this decision, Manzanares took his seat as New Mexico Delegate and served in the 48^th Congress (March 5, 1884 – March 3, 1885). After completing his term in Congress, Manzanares returned to pursue his business interests and also served as County Commissioner in San Miguel County in 1886 and 1897.

Francisco Antonio Manzanares was succeeded as Delegate by Antonio Joseph (1846-1910) of Ojo Caliente, Taos County. A seasoned politician, Delegate Joseph would serve as the Delegate to U.S. Congress from New Mexico Territory from 1885 to 1895. Antonio Joseph was the first known Portuguese-American to serve in Congress.

Joseph was succeeded as Delegate by Thomas Benton Catron (1840-1921), who served from 1895 to 1897 and was followed into office by Harvey Butler Fergusson (1848-1915), a native of Alabama who served one term from 1897 to 1899. In 1898, Pedro Perea (1852-1906), a cousin of Francisco Perea, stepped in to represent New Mexico in the Congress.

A native of Bernalillo, Sandoval County, Perea had attended St. Louis University in Missouri and returned home to New Mexico to engage in agricultural and ranching pursuits. During the 1890s, Pedro became involved in state politics and in 1898 was elected as the next Delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives. After serving in the 56^th Congress (March 4, 1899 to March 3, 1901), Perea was not renominated.

By 1900, the representation of Mexican Americans and other Latinos in the United States Congress had been very limited in all states, except New Mexico. In New Mexico, nine men had served as Delegates from the New Mexico Territory, some of them serving multiple terms.

However, in the state of California, Romualdo Pacheco was the only Mexican American who served as Governor or as a Representative to Congress. In the California Senate and Assembly, several Chicano representatives had served their various constituencies, but by the end of the Century, Mexican-American representation had disappeared. The literacy requirement enacted by the State Legislature and approved by the people in 1894 was effective in preventing many qualified citizens from taking part in the electoral process.

In Texas, Mexican-Americans had served in the State Legislature, but not a single one of them had made it into the Halls of Congress. The State of Texas would be without Hispanic representation for 116 years until Henry B. González (1916 – 2000) began his tenure in the 87^th Congress (1961). The poll tax of 1902 would play a significant role in keeping Mexicano Tejanos away from the voting booth, as would the state’s questionable reapportionment and redistricting practices.

During the first half of the Twentieth Century, Hispanic representation in Congress would remain elusive. In addition to the deterrents at the polling booth enacted by state legislatures, the Chicano population in the Southwest still lacked the concentration needed to elect their own representatives. Where they did have majorities, their voting strength was usually diluted and weakened by blatant gerrymandering.

In 1900, Mexican-born residents of the United States numbered 103,393, and eighty percent of these persons were living in Texas and Arizona. Only 8,086 ethnic Mexicans lived in California, where the state population had reached 1,485,053, with a dramatic increase of the Anglo population in recent decades. However, it is worth pointing out that many Hispanic Californians – longtime residents of the state – were not included in the Mexican designation, as their nativity would be listed as California, not Mexico. Hence, the true Chicano population of California was probably a much larger number than these statistics reveal.

In Texas, the estimated number of ethnic Mexicans was only 70,000, less than three percent of a total population in excess of three million people. Even in San Antonio, ethnic Germans actually outnumbered ethnic Mexicans. In Arizona, the ethnic population of 14,172 represented less than 12% of the total population of 122,931.

In 1898, the United States defeated Spain in Spanish-American War. The Caribbean island of Puerto Rico was handed over to American control following the Treaty of Paris, signed on December 10, 1898. An office in Congress was established in 1900 for a single delegate from Puerto Rico, known as a Resident Commissioner, who was elected to Congress for two-year terms that were expanded to four-year terms in 1920, although Commissioners did not possess voting privileges at that time. These Resident Commissioners worked to give the Island greater self-government, establish a constitution, and provide for the election of the governor of Puerto Rico.

In 1900, Federico Degetau (1862-1914), a native of Ponce, was elected as Puerto Rico’s first Resident Commissioner, the island’s official representative in the U.S. Congress. Commissioner Degetau would serve from the 56^th to the 58^th Congresses (March 4, 1901 to March 3, 1905). As a member of the Committee on Insular Affairs, Degetau submitted a bill to grant U.S. citizenship to the people of Puerto Rico, but it was denied and Puerto Ricans would not receive official citizenship until 1917.

Tulio Larrinaga (1847-1917) succeeded by Degetau as Resident Commissioner and served from the 59^th to the 61^st Congresses (March 4, 1905 to March 3, 1911). Once in office, Commissioner Larrinaga continuously addressed the House of Representatives on the status of Puerto Rico. Larrinaga’s term in office was summarized in the U.S. Congress website dedicated to his service at http://lcweb.loc.gov/rr/hispanic/congress/larrinaga.html.

Larrinaga was succeeded as Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico by Luis Muñoz Rivera (1859-1916), who is one of the most famous and revered political figures in Puerto Rican history. His long political career has been summarized at the following Congressional website dedicated to his memory: http://lcweb.loc.gov/rr/hispanic/congress/munozrivera.html

A native of Barranquitas, Muñoz Rivera tirelessly campaigned for political autonomy for Puerto Rico and played an important role in securing American citizenship for Puerto Ricans. According to the Congressional website, "The work of Muñoz Rivera led to the enactment of the Jones Act. On May 23, 1916 the U.S. House of Representatives approved this legislation and sent it to the Senate where, after a number of modifications, it was signed into law by President Wilson on March 2, 1917. The Jones Act granted United States citizenship to Puerto Ricans; it also gave the Puerto Rican Government more autonomy by establishing a two-chamber legislative assembly, which included a nineteen-member Senate and a thirty-nine-member House of Delegates, elected by universal male suffrage."

Luis Muñoz Rivera served as a member of the Unionist Party during the 62^nd, 63^rd, and 64^th Congresses (March 4, 1911 to November 15, 1916) , but died in office and was unable to see the fruits of his many labors. The next Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico was Félix Córdova Dávila (1878-1938), a native of Vega Baja. Commissioner Dávila would serve from the 65^th to the 72^nd Congresses (August 7, 1917 to April 11, 1932).

In 1850, New Mexico Territory had been added to the United States. Thirteen years later, New Mexico and Arizona were made into separate territories. In 1906, the U.S. Congress passed a joint statehood bill for Arizona and New Mexico. This bill stipulated that rejection of joint statehood by the voters of either territory would prevent it from taking place. At this point in time, New Mexico Territory was about 50 percent Spanish-speaking, while Arizona’s Indian and Hispanic population was under 20 percent.

The joint statehood proposal was not well received by the people of Arizona who felt that New Mexico’s bilingual school system would disrupt their education system. These fears were summarized in a "Protest Against the Union of Arizona with New Mexico" presented to Congress on February 12, 1906 [See U.S. Senate Document 216, 59th Cong., 1st Session (Feb. 12, 1906), pp. 1-2]. This protest noted that the "people of New Mexico" were "different in race and largely in language," and that they had "entirely different customs, laws and ideas … [with] little prospect of successful amalgamation."

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, in their website "Language Rights and New Mexico Statehood," discusses the statehood issue for New Mexico and Arizona in more detail at the following URL:

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/JWCRAWFORD/nm-con.htm

Finally, in 1910, the Senate Committee on Territories considered separate statehood for Arizona and New Mexico. On January 6, 1912, President Taft signed the Statehood Proclamation, making New Mexico the forty-eighth state, effective February 14, 1912. Arizona became a state on the same day.

Benigno Cárdenas Hernández (1862-1954) would become the first Hispanic from the new State of New Mexico to serve as a full Member of Congress. A native of Taos, Hernández was elected County Sheriff of Rio Arriba County in 1904. He served in several more governmental positions until 1914, when he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.

Representative Hernández served in the 64^th Congress (March 4, 1915 – March 3, 1917) but was defeated in his reelection bid by William B. Walton. However, he was elected to the House seat in the 66^th Congress and served for two more years (March 4, 1919 to March 3, 1921). After his term ended, Hernández was appointed by President Warren G. Haring to serve as Collector of Internal Revenue for New Mexico.

The next Hispanic Representative from the state of New Mexico would be Néstor Montoya (1862-1923), a man who campaigned vigorously for New Mexico statehood. Unfortunately, Montoya died in office, two months before his term was up, thus serving from March 4, 1921 to January 13, 1923 in the 67^th Congress.

Albert Estopinal (1845-1919), a native of St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana, was a veteran of the Confederate Army, having served in the 28th Regiment from 1862 to 1865.  After serving as a Representative to the Louisiana House of Representatives, Estopinal also served as Lieutenant General from 1900 to 104.  He was elected as a Democrat to the 60th Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Adolph Meyers.  He was elected to serve the First Congressional District of Louisiana for five more Congresses until his death in 1919.

Ladislas Lazaro (1872-1927) was the second Hispanic person to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives from the State of Louisiana. A native of St. Landry Parish (now Evangeline), Lazaro served in the Louisiana State Senate before his election to Congress.

Not long after, another person of Hispanic origin from Louisiana joined his state’s Congressional Delegation. A native of New Orleans, Joachim Octave Fernández (1896-1978), served in the Louisiana House of Representatives from 1923 to 1928, at which time he moved to the State Senate. In 1928, he was elected to serve as the U.S. Representative from Louisiana’s First District.

Representative Fernández served from the 62^nd to the 66^th U.S. Congresses (March 4, 1931 to January 3, 1941) but was defeated by Edward Hebert in his fifth bid for reelection. But, with the beginning of World War II, Fernández answered a new calling and became a Lieutenant Commander in the U.S. Naval Reserve, serving until September 30, 1943.

Not until 1928 did any Hispanic person serve in the United States Senate. Octaviano Larrazola (1859 – 1930), a native of Allende, Chihuahua, Mexico, had arrived in the United States at the age of eleven. In 1928, Larrazola was appointed to fill the unexpired term of Democratic Senator Andieus A. Jones, who had died in office. However, Senator Larrazola fell ill and only served for several months of the 70^th Congress from December 7, 1928 to March 3, 1929. He then returned home to Albuquerque where he died on April 7, 1930.

The next Hispanic Senator from New Mexico, Dionisio (Dennis) Chávez (1888-1962) who would serve his native state for several decades. By all accounts, Chávez has been regarded as the "political godfather" of New Mexico. Chávez, a Democrat, first served as United State Representative from New Mexico during the 62^nd and 63^rd Congresses (March 4, 1931 to January 3, 1935). During his two terms in office, Chávez was assigned to several committees that were of great significance to his New Mexico constituency: Indian Affairs, Irrigation and Reclamation, Public Buildings, Public Land, War Claims, and Veterans Committees.

Then, in 1934, Chávez decided to run against the influential Republic Senator, Bronson Cutting (1888-1935), which has been characterized by many New Mexico historians as an epic battle for the Senate seat. Cutting, a native of Long Island, New York, was a veteran of the Senate, having served from 1927 to 1929 and 1929 to 1935.

The close and intense campaign that took place in 1934 resulted in Chávez’s defeat by a very narrow margin. Chávez contested the election on the grounds of fraud, but the issue had not been resolved when Cutting was killed in an airplane crash near Atlanta, Missouri on May 6, 1935. With the death of Senator Cutting, Governor Clyde Tingley appointed Dennis Chávez to fill the vacant seat in Congress and serve out the remainder of the unexpired term in 1936.

With this introduction in the U.S. Senate, Dennis Chávez would serve almost three decades from the 65^th to the 87^th Congresses (May 11, 1935 to November 18, 1962), winning reelections in 1940, 1946, 1952, and 1958. With his reelection in 1940, Chávez would become the first native-born Hispanic elected to the U.S. Senate. By the time he died in office on November 18, 1962, Senator Chávez was the fourth ranked in Senate seniority.

Many people point to Senator Chávez as a great source of inspiration for entering public life. As a Democrat, he benefited from Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal policies at a time when many Hispanics and African Americans were joining the Democratic Party. In 1950, when Chávez was well into his third term of office, Latinos comprised roughly 37% of New Mexico’s population. Many people have regarded Chávez as a role model to present-day politicians because he was able to forge biracial coalitions to win statewide elections during his terms in office.

Chávez long and distinguished career has been summarized in the Congressional website dedicated to his memory at http://lcweb.loc.gov/rr/hispanic/congress/chavez.html.

Antonio Manuel Fernández (1902-1956), a native of Springer, Colfax County, New Mexico started his political career working as a court reporter. In 1942, Fernández was elected to represent New Mexico in the U.S. House of Representatives and was reelected for seven consecutive terms, serving from the 68^th to the 85^th Congresses (January 3, 1943 to November 7, 1956).

While in Congress, he served on several committees, including Claims, Indian Affairs, Insular Affairs, Irrigation and Reclamation, Mines and Mining, and Public Lands. In the 81st Congress, Congressman Fernández became the first Hispanic to serve on the Appropriations Committee. His last reelection occurred after he suffered a stroke on October 15, 1956, while campaigning in Las Vegas, New Mexico. While he remained in a coma, voters reelected him for his eighth term. He died the day after the election on November 7, 1956 in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Joseph M. Montoya (1915-1978) was appointed to succeed Representative Fernández. A native of Peña Blanca, he had attended law school at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. In 1936 at age twenty-two, while he was still at Georgetown, Montoya became the youngest representative in the history of the state to be elected to the New Mexico House of Representatives. In 1938 Montoya graduated from law school and was reelected to his office.

Montoya’s impressive political career continued when he was elected to the State Senate in 1940, once again becoming the youngest member of that body ever elected. He was elected to the State Senate position twice and then, from 1947 to 1957, served as Lieutenant Governor three times, followed by another two terms in the State Senate.

In 1957, Montoya had been elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in a special election to replace Congressman Antonio Manuel Fernández. He served from the 85^th to the 87 Congresses (April 9, 1957 to November 3, 1964), later moving to the U.S. Senate where he served from the 87^th to the 91^st Congresses (November 3, 1964 to January 3, 1977). However, in November 1976, Montoya was defeated by Harrison Schmitt, a former astronaut.

Because of the illegal methods utilized to limit minority participation in the political process, Latino representation from the contiguous forty-eight states had rarely been achieved before 1960 and, in fact, did not improve significantly until after the Voting Rights Act of 1965. From 1900 to 1960, seventeen Hispanic Americans served in Congress. However, nine of these representatives were Resident Commissioners of Puerto Rico, who did not have voting privileges. Seven more delegates represented New Mexico. Not until 1936, did the first American-born Latino serve a full term in the U.S. Senate. Dennis Chávez, a Democrat, represented his New Mexico constituency for 27 years until his death in 1962.

By 1960, the number of Hispanics living in the United States had reached 6.9 million, which represented roughly 3.9% of the total population of the country. However, while the Hispanic population of most American states, was still relatively small, California was a different story. In 1960, California had a total population of 15,717,204 persons. This new figure increased California’s representation in the U.S. Congress from 30 seats in 1950 to 38 seats. Roughly 1.5 million Hispanics made up more than 9% of the California population, but 20% of these Hispanics were foreign-born, many of who were not naturalized and, as a result, were not eligible to vote.

As the new decade commenced, there were still no Chicanos in the California State Senate, the Assembly or in the California Congressional delegation. There was no representation of the Mexican-American population in any part of California, primarily because of political fracturing. "Fracturing" is the drawing of district lines so that a minority population is broken up. Members of the minority are spread among as many districts as possible, keeping them a minority in all the districts.

Because of fracturing, the Latino community of Los Angeles was unable to concentrate its strength so that it might elect representatives in some of its districts. And so it was that the East Los Angeles Barrio, with its large population of Hispanics, was split up into nine different Assembly districts, seven State Senate districts, and six different Congressional Districts.  Most of these districts were combined with neighboring Anglo communities so that Hispanics rarely made up more than 20% of any one district's population.  This district manipulation was effective in depriving the Latino community of legislative power and influence.

Although most of the redistricting that took place in 1961 resulted in obvious and continued gerrymandering of the Latino community in the Los Angeles area, the increasing Latino population in the Los Angeles area finally led to the election of Mexican-American representatives. Most significant was the creation of a congressional district, which would pave a way for Edward Roybal to run for Congress.

The California Supreme Court later ruled that California's congressional districts, as drawn in 1961, were unconstitutional and ordered reapportionment of the districts (Silver v. Reagan, 67 Cal. 2^nd 452). Similarly, the Supreme Court also ruled that the Assembly and Senate would have to reapportion their districts (Silver v. Brown, 63 Cal. 2^nd 270).

Up to 1960, Congressional redistricting and reapportionment in the State of Texas was unfavorable to Tejano representation. When the 1957 Congressional redistricting took place, Texas had grown in population enough to receive another representative. This redistricting created a new "at-large" Congressional seat, District 6. In this unique situation, the candidate would be voted on in all twenty-one of the districts. This approach to redistricting allowed all incumbents' existing districts to remain intact and meant that the at-large candidate had to campaign across and represent the entire state. This policy also guaranteed that an Anglo would be elected to office.

Up to 1965, 22 Texas representatives to the U.S. Congress were elected from statutory districts, while one was elected at large. In Bush v. Martin, plaintiffs from two congressional districts asserted that the congressional districts in Texas were unconstitutional. The Federal District Court in Houston held Texas’ Congressional Districting act to be unconstitutional and stated that the Texas Legislature must redraw the Texas Congressional Districts in compliance with Wesberry v. Sanders. [BUSH V. MARTIN, 224 F. Supp. 499 (S.D. Tex. 1963), affirmed, 376 U.S. 222 (1964)].

In 1958, Texas State Senator Henry B. Gonzáles (1916-2000), a native of San Antonio, ran for the office of Governor in the Democratic primary, but lost. However, in 1961, Congressman Paul Kilday, a Democrat, was appointed to the federal bench by President John F. Kennedy. This left his congressional seat with the 20^th District vacant. In 1961, Henry B. González was elected in a special election to fill this position and won by a margin of 10,000 votes, becoming the first Mexican-American representative to the U.S. Congress from Texas since statehood.

In his subsequent reelection bids, Congressman González faced very little opposition, usually winning at least eighty percent of the vote and running unopposed a number of times. Although he supported and initiated legislation for the welfare of Hispanic Americans, González avoided running on a Chicano platform. He served as a Congressional Representative from 1961 to 1999 (the 87^th to the 105^th Congresses).

Early in 1962, Los Angeles City Councilman Edward Roybal had announced that he would run for the 30^th Congressional District. In the November 6, 1962 General Election, Roybal defeated Loyola University Professor William Fitzgerald, and thus became the first Hispanic from California to be elected to Congress since the 1879 election of Romualdo Pacheco.

Edward Roybal took his seat in the House of Representatives on January 3, 1963 at the start of the 88th U.S. Congress. He would serve for twenty years from the 88th Congress to the 102nd Congress, retiring on January 3, 1993. At the start of his Congressional career, Representative Roybal represented the 30th District from 1963 to 1975. From 1975 to 1993, he served in the 25th District.

In 1964, an important piece of federal legislation would bring about the end of the Texas poll tax. On January 23, 1964, the U.S. Congress ratified the 24^th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution – originally proposed on August 27, 1962. The 24^th Amendment banned the use of poll taxes in federal elections, stating that "the right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election… shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax."

For two more years, the poll tax still existed for state and local elections in Texas. For this reason, different ballots had to be provided for voters qualified for all elections and for those voting only in federal elections. But, early in 1966, in Harper v. Virginia State Board of Elections, 383 U.S. 663 (1966), the Supreme Court held Virginia's poll tax to be unconstitutional under the 14th Amendment. This ruling judicially invalidated the poll tax for all state and local elections.

On August 6, 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the "Voting Rights Act of 1965." Section 2 of this act prohibited any state or political subdivision of a state from using any "standard, practice, or procedure," including a redistricting plan, "which results in denial or abridgement of the right of any citizen of the United States to vote on account of race or color" or membership in a protected language minority group. On a Federal Level, this Act made illegal the Texas redistricting policies of recent decades.

After serving six consecutive terms as a representative in Austin, Eligio "Kika" de la Garza (born 1927) was elected in 1964 to the U.S. House of Representatives to represent Texas’ 15th Congressional District, which primarily included McAllen and Edinburg (Hidalgo County) and Kingsville (Kleberg County). When the 89^th Congress convened in 1965, Representative de la Garza took his seat as a Democrat, effectively ending a thirteen-year career in the Texas House of Representatives. Kika would served in Congress from January 3, 1965 until the January 3, 1997 (the 89^th to 104^th Congresses).

Manuel Lujan, Jr. (born 1928) was a member of a prominent and politically active family in New Mexico. A native of San Ildefonso, Luján attended in college in Santa Fe and, after spending some time in his family’s insurance business, began his political career. In 1968, Luján was elected as a Republican candidate to the U.S. House of Representatives from New Mexico’s First District. He would serve his state in the Congress for two decades through the 91^st to 100^th Congresses (January 3, 1969 to January 3, 1989).

The 1970s represented new opportunities for Chicano candidates. The beginning of true Hispanic representation would be established during these years. In 1970, California had a total population of 19,971,069 persons. Of this total, 2,369,292 were Hispanics, who made up 10.8% of the state’s total population.

Of the 2.4 million Hispanics living in California, 490,892 were foreign-born, making up 22.9% of the total Hispanic population. Many of these people were not citizens and therefore ineligible for American voting privileges. This represented a significant stumbling block in electing Chicanos to public office. Edward Roybal represented the only Chicano sitting among the 43 California Representatives in Congress after the 1971 reapportionment.

In 1970, Texas had only two representatives: Henry B. González represented the 20^th District, while Kika de la Garza represented the 15^th District of the southern border area. Puerto Rico was represented by Resident Commissioner Jorge Luis Córdova Díaz, who served during the 91^st and 92^nd Congresses (January 3, 1969 to January 3, 1973). In New Mexico, Manuel Luján, Jr. served as representative, while Joseph Manuel Montoya served in the U.S. Senate. Senator Montoya would eventually serve his state as Senator from the 87^th to 91^st Congresses (November 3, 1964 to January 3, 1977).

During the 1970s, New York elected its first Hispanic representative. In 1971, Herman Badillo (born 1929) became the first Congressman born in Puerto Rico to represent a district in the continental United States. A native of Caguas, Puerto Rico, Badillo had come to New York City when he was eleven years old and earned a B.A. degree from City College of New York. In 1970 Badillo was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from New York's 21st District in the South Bronx. He won with eighty-four percent of the vote and was reelected to the three succeeding Congresses, each time with an impressive percentage of the vote. Congressman Badillo would serve as Representative for his district from the 92^nd to 95^th Congresses (January 3, 1971 to December 31, 1977).

In 1979, sixteen years after Edward Roybal had first entered the Congress, a second Hispanic representative was elected to represent his constituency in the House of Representatives. Anthony Lee Coelho (born 1942), a native of Merced County, earned a B.A. degree from Loyola University in Los Angeles. In 1979, Coelho was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from California's 15th District. In his first general election he received sixty percent of the vote and was subsequently reelected five times. Coelho’s career would last more than a decade from January 3, 1979 until his resignation on June 15, 1989.

According to the 1980 census, Hispanic Americans increased their numbers to 14,608,673 persons at the turn of the decade and now represented 6.4% of the national population. Even as their numbers began to increase, however, their political representation in following years remained very limited. In Texas, the Hispanic population now reached 2,985,824, representing 21% of the total state population of 14,225,513. But even with these significant demographic changes of recent decades, only two of Texas’ 24 Representative seats in Congress were occupied by Tejanos: Henry B González and Kika de la Garza. With the 1981 reapportionment, the number of Texas Representatives to Congress would increase to 27. So, although Tejanos had grown to represent 21% of the Texas state population, their two Congressmen represented only 7.4% of Texas’ delegation to Washington, D.C.

Puerto Rico was represented in Congress by Resident Commissioner Baltasar Corrada del Río (born 1935), who would continue to serve in that capacity from the 95^th through the 98^th Congresses (January 3, 1977 to January 3, 1985). In New Mexico, with the end of Senator Joseph Manuel Montoya’s Senate career, Manuel Luján, Jr. served as the sole Hispanic representative.

In California, a Chicano population number 4,544,331 persons now represented 19.2% of the total population of 23,667,902. In spite of their large numbers, California’s forty-three seats in the House of Representatives were occupied by only two Hispanics: Edward R. Roybal and Anthony Lee Coelho. After the reapportionment of 1981, California’s Congressional delegation increased to 45 seats. However, California Hispanics, while representing almost 20% of the state population, had only two Representatives in Congress, representing only 4.4% of all the representatives.

In New York State, Representative Badillo had resigned in 1978 to become Deputy Mayor of New York City. A special election to fill his position brought Robert Garcia (born 1933), a Bronx native, to Congress. A Korean War veteran, Garcia had become the first Puerto Rican elected to the New York Senate in 1966. Garcia won his first election with fifty-five percent of the vote and would win reelection with high percentages of the vote in his next six elections. He would serve his constituency from the 95^th to the 101^st Congresses (February 14, 1978 to January 7, 1990).

The effect of California’s rapid population growth finally yielded results for the Chicano population in 1982. Because of its rapid population growth, California was apportioned two additional congressional districts. With Latino Richard Alatorre, the head of the Assembly Committee with the task of drawing the new district lines, the Latino community was assured of at least one more congressional position. As it turned out, both Representatives Matthew G. Martinez from Monterey Park (born 1929) and Esteban Torres of La Puente (born 1930) joined longtime U.S. Rep. Edward Roybal (D-Los Angeles) and Representative Coelho. With these additions, the total number of Latinos in Congress increased from five to nine.

For Texas, the number of seats in the House of Representatives was increased from 24 to 27 with the next reapportionment. The primary beneficiary of this increase was Solomon P. Ortiz (born 1938), a native of Corpus Christi, who came to Congress representing the Texas 27^th District in 1983. Ortiz was followed two years later by Albert G. Bustamante, a Democrat representing the 23^rd District.

The 1980s were notable for the election of Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (born 1952) who became the first Hispanic woman elected to Congress. A native of Havana, Cuba, Ileana had emigrated to the United States when she was seven years old. Educated in Florida, Ros-Lehtinen began her political career in 1982 when she was elected to the Florida House of Representatives, becoming the first Hispanic woman elected to Florida's State legislature. She served until 1986, when she became a State Senator. Then, in 1989, Ros-Lehtinen was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in a special election to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Claude D. Pepper. She represented Florida's 18th District where, according to the 1990 census, sixty-seven percent of the population was Hispanic. Ros-Lehtinen was the first Hispanic elected to represent Florida in 166 years and she had the distinction of also being the first Cuban-American and the first Hispanic woman
to serve in the U.S. Congress.

Note: The political representation of Latinos in the U.S. Congress from 1990 to 2004 will be discussed in a future issue of www.somosprimos.com.

Cuellar, Robert. A Social and Political History of the Mexican American Population of Texas, 1929-1963 (San Francisco: R and E Research Associates, 1974).

Gomez-Quinones, Juan. Chicano Politics: Reality and Promise, 1940-1990 (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1990).

"Hispanic Americans in Congress, 1822-1995."
http://www.loc.gov/rr/hispanic/congress/introduction.html

"Hispanic Americans in Congress, 1822-1995: List in Chronological Order."
http://lcweb.loc.gov/rr/hispanic/congress/chron.html

"Hispanic Americans in Congress, 1822-1995: Table of Contents."

http://lcweb.loc.gov/rr/hispanic/congress/contents.html

Lujan, Joe Roy. "Dennis Chávez and the Roosevelt Era, 1933-1945." (Ph.D. Dissertation, University of New Mexico, 1987).

Ralph Nader Congress Project. Henry B. González, Democratic Representative from Texas (Washington, D.C.: Grossman Publishers, 1972).

Rodríguez, Eugene. Henry B. Gonzalez: A Political Profile (New York: Arno Press, 1976).

Sánchez, George J. Becoming Mexican American: Ethnicity, Culture, and Identity in Chicano Los Angeles, 1900 - 1945 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993).

Vigil, Maurilio. Los Patrones: Profiles of Hispanic Political Leaders in New Mexico History (Washington, D.C.: University Press of America, 1980).

John P. Schmal is the author of several books. His recent work, "The Dominguez Family: A Mexican-American Journey," coauthored with Donna Morales, will be published in Sept. / Oct., 2004 by Heritage Books. This book will discuss the struggles and triumphs of the Dominguez family in Kansas City.

John Schmal has recently compiled a 160-page book of twenty-two stories that he has published on the Internet in the last five years. This unpublished collection is entitled "The Hispanic Experience" and includes articles cowritten with Donna Morales and Jennifer Vo. The articles are taken from such sources as www.somosprimos.com, Hispanicvista.com and the Houston Culture Website.

The topics discussed in these articles include indigenous histories of various Mexican states, the political representation of Chicanos in California and Texas, military contributions of Latinos, the Mexican origins of Los Angeles, the railroads used by Mexican immigrants to reach America, and the cultural evolution of the Puerto Rican people. Below is the Table of Contents:

I – Hispanic Contributions to America’s Defense
II – Are You Related to the Aztecs?
III – The Struggle for Tejano Representation
IV – The Struggle for Chicano Representation
V – A Legacy of Service (with Jennifer Vo)
VII – Louie Dominguez: An American Hero (with Donna Morales)
VIII – Erminio Dominguez: In the Service of His Country (with Donna Morales)
VIII – Indigenous Mexico: An Overview
IX – A Lost Connection (with D. Morales)
X – Indigenous Identity in the Mexican Census
XI – Michoacán: From Kingdom to Colony
XII – The Diversity of Indigenous Mexico
XIII – The Mexica of Tenochtitlán
XIV – The History of Jalisco (with Donna Morales)
XV – Las Lenguas of Jalisco
XVI – Chihuahua: War and Assimilation
XVII – The Founders of Los Angeles (with J. Vo)
XVIII – The First Families of Los Angeles (with J. Vo)
XIX – Los Angeles: A City of Latinos (with J. Vo)
XX – How We Got Here: The Roads We Took to America (with Donna Morales)
XXI – The Puerto Rican People: The Evolution of a Culture
XXII – Electing the President: The Latino Electorate (1960-2000)
To purchase a bound copy of this, please send $25 to:
John P. Schmal
1731 Pico Blvd., #8
Santa Monica, CA 90405
Cost covers photocopying, binding, large envelope, and priority mail delivery.

SURNAME     SANCHEZ

Tal como ocurre en los demás apellidos patronímicos, éste nació indistintamente en diferentes lugares y épocas, por lo que es poco probable que la mayoría de sus ramas tengan conexión entre sí, a no ser las que geográficamente estén muy próximas.

Extract from BLASONES Y APELLIDOS, 828-page book by Fernando Muñoz Altea
In its second edition, the book can be ordered from blasones@mail.com or at
P.O. Box 11232, El Paso, Texas 79995  or by contacting Armando Montes AMontes@Mail.com

Galvez Patriots

TCARA Pres Jack Cowan stands in front of the Alamo with youthful delegate

THE TEXAS CONNECTION TO THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION ASSOCIATION 

San Antonio Mayor Ed Garza, a member of TCARA, and TCARA President Jack Cowan discuss upcoming TCARA events. At the May 1 Reenactment, Jack Cowan shows the mayor,
a trifold TCARA brochure.

      El Camino Real de los Tejas
    Lifeline of the American Revolution
by 
Jack Cowan

You remember those French ships that showed up just in time to seal the British’s fate at Yorktown? Those ships, after assisting Galvez in the capture of Pensacola, were refitted and re-supplied by Galvez at Havana, making it possible for them to sail on to Yorktown.. Galvez would not have been at Pensacola if it hadn’t been for all those T-bone steaks from Texas beef. Why, you ask? Because the British controlled virtually all shipping, and the only way Galvez could obtain the necessary food supply to feed his army was overland, and the only food available overland was Texas beef from the San Antonio River Valley. With a plentiful supply of beef his army was able to surround all the British forts along the Gulf Coast and literally starve the British Army into submission.

So if you are interested in supporting Texas & American History, TCARA is where you should be spending time. Visit the TCARA website at http://TCARA.NET or contact TCARA President Jack Cowan at 210-651-4709 tccommission@aol.com or Secretary RoseMarie LaPenta at 210-828-2901 rlapenta@vistaprograms.net

                     SUPPORT TEXAS HISTORY – JOIN TCARA

Sent by Ernest Montemayor
montemayor@satx.rr.com

ORANGE COUNTY, CA

Photo: Paul E. Rodriguez,

Among some of Steven's accomplishments, he persuaded the Defense Department not only to give Indians surplus housing on military bases but also to transport the houses to distant reservations.  Some 5,000 American Indians who were homeless or lived in a car or a broken trailer now live in a functional house.

Stevens also talked the Defense Department into deploying some military medical reservists to reservations for their two weeks of annual duty.  At some of these remote reservations, the reservists treat people for illnesses and affiliations that might see in a poor nation.  Some 60, Indians have been treated that way.

Every Christmas, the charity organizes a Christmas gift collection for poor reservation Indian children.  Las year was typical: The group collected 55,000 toys and trucked them to reservations where for most of the children, those gifts were the only ones they received.   "I've lived the American dream," he says.  "I want the children on those reservations to have a chance at it."

Alvarado, Smith and Sanchez is one of the largest Hispanic-owned law firms in California with 14 lawyers in Irvine and six in Los Angeles.  The new partnership to be knows as Adorno Yoss Alvarado & Smith, will have more than 185 attorneys in California, Florida and Georgia.

It will specialize in banking, real-estate, litigation, motor vehicle, employment, corporate/business and public-agency law.

Hispanic/Latino Family History Conference, Monterey Park
Save the Date!  . . . October 9th, 2004

Look for the conference workshops and speakers in the 
September issue of Somos Primos
For more information contact mimilozano@aol.com

"Botánica Los Angeles:  
Latino Popular Religious Art in the City of Angels" 
and "Infinito Botánica: L.A."

Nineteen notable artist express their notions of Mexico in this exhibition of paintings, photographs, sculptures, installations and videos.

UCLA Hammer Museum (310) 43-7000 or http://www.hammer.ucla.edu
Through 9-12-04

CALIFORNIA

Maria Shriver unveils 
California's Remarkable Women Exhibit 

California State History Museum 
1020 O Street, Sacramento 
Open Tuesday-Saturday 10-5; Sunday 12-5; 
Reserved tours on Mondays,  916-653-7524
Sent by  Lorri Ruiz Frain  lorrilocks@earthlink.net

"This exhibit is designed to inspire generations to come," said Maria Shriver.

      Great Grandmother of Mrs. Mardy Morgan

Born: 2 November, 1841
San Gabriel, California
Died: 14 October, 1912

Father born in Los Angeles, CA
Mother born in San Juan Capistrano, CA
Her uncle was Juan Pacifico Ontiveros

Jose Maria Corona served in Company D, 
1st Battalion Native California Cavalry
Military records describe him as 5 ft, 8 in, complexion light, occupation laborer.  He was enrolled in February 26, 1864 and mustered out the the company Mary 20, 1866 at the Drum Barracks, California

"Golden Tales of the Golden State" 
Los Angeles Times, June 29, 2003
California Cultural and Historical Endowment 
http://www.library.ca.gov/cche/LATArticle.cfm

The history of that time dealt with the Spanish and Mexican borderlands, followed by the Mission era, the Gold Rush and the creation of a predominately Anglo American state. While this history paid attention to literature, it was only in the first stages of acknowledging art, architecture and related cultural topics as historical forces. The stream of publications dealing with California was small but steady. Today — thanks, in part, to a new generation of historians but also to the growing diversity of the state — the story of California has branched into dozens of directions. As befits a global culture, the history of our ethnic and cultural traditions has become a flourishing enterprise, as has the history of women in California. Historians pay closer attention to material culture and everyday life, to the role of technology, to education, art, architecture, gardening and landscape design, urban design and city-making, engineering and public works — and the all-important history of our environment. The publication stream has become a torrent. 

Equally impressive as formal scholarship is the rise of historical and preservationist activism at the statewide and local levels. We are entering, in fact, a golden age of historical awareness and activism. Still, is it an exaggeration to compare the California Cultural and Historical Endowment to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington or the National Trust in Britain, or our own National Trust for Historic Preservation? Yes and no. Yes, this program will be dealing with large and important issues of cultural development. But it will be chiefly the peoples of California who will define, celebrate and preserve their histories. The Endowment must root in local historical societies and cultural groups that focus on the history and heritage of those omitted from the California story. It must see history, as much as possible, from the local perspective. The program must be participatory but well-regulated, connected to the local level, where historical activism is so vital, yet adhering to the highest standards of statewide administration and statewide equity. But it must also be mindful of the powerful need at the core of the endowment. The people of California want their stories told, in their tragedies and triumphs, their grandeur and their textures of everyday life. Such stories can be told through exhibitions in museums, historical societies, libraries, public galleries and similar venues. They can also be told through preservation in which significant places are set aside because they embody high and important moments in a group’s journey through identity. 

For some Japanese Americans, for example, the buildings in which Japanese American Army intelligence agents trained and worked in the immediate aftermath of Pearl Harbor — while most of their community was being rounded up and sent to internment camps — possess a deeply emotional and moral meaning. For African Americans in Los Angeles, there are places on Central Avenue that, though now bars or restaurants, embody the memory of jazz culture in Los Angeles and all that jazz has meant to the African American community across the decades. Caesar Chavez’s home is more than just another surviving California bungalow. The legislation that created the California Cultural and Historical Endowment charges the State Library to develop it during in its initial phases. The State Library is already drawing up guidelines for a competitive grant process. Eventually, the endowment probably will stand on its own as a separate and continuing program. The history and culture of California are important instances of American civilization, indeed of world culture. Now, the endowment will enable us to add many new textures and meanings to the story of California.  

The Endowment will administer several programs required by AB 716. It will develop and implement competitive grant and/or loan programs using the Proposition 40 bond funds. It will conduct statewide public hearings in developing these programs. It will also conduct studies and surveys to assess the state’s cultural and historic resource preservation programs, as well as access to and interpretation of those resources. It will make recommendations for additional steps that should be taken to better preserve and administer cultural and historic resources efficiently and effectively. To the degree that funding is available, it will establish a program to assist and enhance the services of California’s museums and other institutions that conduct cultural projects reflective of underserved communities.

Grant Programs: The Endowment will be developing program guidelines and application materials. We will conduct public hearings on the guidelines and ask for public comment and review of the draft materials. Information about this process and the draft guidelines will be posted on this site when they are available.  Information about how and when to apply for grants will be posted on this site.
http://www.library.ca.gov/cche/

A lot of people want to preserve this house. Our chance of saving the property is to get people e-mailing, calling, or appearing at City Council meetings to say, this house is important to our community and must be preserved.  They especially need to hear from Latinos, since we still do not have any Latinos on our Board.  We would love to have some folks join us in this fight or join forces with other organizations on this issue.

Send a carbon copy to the newspapers.  Tell who you are and why the house is important to all Californians.  Identify any professional organizations that you are part of so that they know who you are. Tell any other Hispanics / Latinos that you know, or organizations. 

Juana Briones and her house are pictured in the California State History Textbook for fourth graders; it would be a great loss for this h house to be demolished.

Monday night meetings: oral communications 3 min, speeches, starting at 7 p.m.
Letters:  250 Hamilton Ave., Palo Alto, CA 94301
E-mail:  city.council@cityofpaloalto.org
Send copies of the e-mails or letters to the newspapers:
readerwire@paloaltoweekly.com
letters@mercurynews.com
letters@paloaltodailynews.com
letters@sanfranciscochronicle.com

Tell everyone you know.  People can communicate their opinion, even if they don't live in Palo Alto because this house is a story of California peoples--the house is a legacy to all Californians."
Signed: Halimah van Tuyl
Visit the website:  www.brioneshouse.org
or contact the Juana Briones Heritage Foundation, 650-327-4977 or jfmcd@aol.com

HISTORIC HOME WILL STAND - City Council will appeal decision to raze Briones house
By Randy Jensen, Daily News Staff Writer
Ref: Palo Alto Daily News, Thursday, July 15, 2004, page 8 
Sent by  Lorraine Ruiz Frain   lorrilocks@earthlink.net

"The Palo Alto City Council has decided to appeal a judge's ruling that would allow the 1840s-era Juana Briones home to be razed. During a closed session meeting Monday council decided to challenge a Superior Court Judges ruling that lays the foundation for tearing down the historic landmark.'

Owners of the Briones home, Jaim Nulman and Avelyn Welczer, filed a lawsuit in 1999 against the city to get out of a contract to maintain the house at 4155 Old Adobe Road. The city filed a counter suit against the couple for not complying with the contract, which came with a tax break when they
bought the home.'

In May, Superior Court Judge John Herlihy sided with the owners and said the city's contract was too vague and said it waited too long to file a counter suit, according to Senior Assistant City Attorney Bill Mayfield.' A historic preservation contract, drawn up under the state's Mills Act, came attached to the Briones house when Nulman and Welczer bought it in 1997.  The Mills Act allows owners of historic structures to pay less in taxes in exchange for preserving and maintaining the property for public benefit, such as tours.'

However, the contract allows the home to be torn down if it sustains damage through an "act of God."  The home was damaged during the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. The couple also says the previous owner had already illegally renovated the home, significantly impacting the integrity of the home's historic status.' Mayfield said the city will file with the state Court of Appeals in the next couple of weeks and said the process could take a year. In the meantime, the couple is suing for $375,000 from the city in attorney fees.'

Spanish settler Juana Briones built the house in the late 1840s after leaving her husband.  For $300, Briones bought the 4,400-acre ranch where she raised eight children.  The home, made of dirt packed around a wooden framework, is considered to be one of four rammed-earth buildings left in California"     

NORTHWESTERN UNITED STATES

Ruth Cruz, owner of the Jesus Rey de Reyes bilingual Christian bookstore.
Photo by Scott Sady

Extract:
Nevada's linguistic diversity grows

Top 3 languages in Nevada: 
English, Spanish and Tagalog
Reno Gazette-Journal, July 9, 2004 http://www.rgj.com/news/stories/html/2004/07/08/75132.php

Sent by Cindy LoBuglio lobuglio@thegrid.net

EL GOBIERNO DE CANADÁ OTORGA 

LA “MEDALLA AL VALOR” 

AL SR. FELIPE DE JESÚS ROSETE VÁZQUEZ 

Boletin Especial, Lozas 
México, D.F. a 8 de julio de 2004 
Boletín Número 131
Instituto de Los Mexicanos en el Exterior

 
El pasado viernes 25 de junio de 2004, el Gobierno de Canadá entregó, por primera vez a un ciudadano mexicano, la “Medalla al Valor” al Sr. Felipe de Jesús Rosete Vázquez por haber salvado la vida de una niña canadiense.

La ceremonia de entrega de condecoraciones al valor, encabezada por la Gobernadora General de Canadá, la Honorable Adrienne Clarkson, tuvo lugar en el Rideau Hall en Ottawa, Canadá. En este evento se reconocieron los actos heroicos de 35 personas, que en diferentes circunstancias, demostraron su excepcional coraje a favor de otros. Cabe destacar que el único extranjero distinguido fue el Sr. Rosete.La “Medalla al Valor” forma parte de las condecoraciones al valor instauradas por la reina Isabel II de Inglaterra el 1 de mayo de 1972. Existen además, los grados de “Cruz al Valor” y “Estrella al coraje”.El 26 de julio de 2002, el Sr. Rosete, originario de la Ciudad de México, y el Sr. Jardath James Nelson, de Canadá, se percataron de que 3 niños eran arrastrados mar adentro en las costas de Ensenada, Baja California, México.

El Sr. Rosete, sin ser un nadador experimentado, inmediatamente se lanzó al agua para ayudar a los niños, y tras luchar contra la corriente por espacio de 20 minutos, puso a salvo a uno de ellos; mientras esto sucedía, el Sr. Nelson nadaba para rescatar a los 2 niños restantes; por este acto, se hicieron merecedores de la “Medalla al Valor”.Después de la ceremonia, la Embajada de México en Canadá ofreció una recepción en honor del Sr. Rosete a la que asistieron miembros y líderes de la comunidad mexicana, entre los que destaca el Lic. Héctor Carranco, consejero del Instituto de los Mexicanos en el Exterior en Ottawa, Canadá; el Sr. Orlando Iturbe, Presidente de la Asociación Mexicano Canadiense de Ottawa-Gatineau y la Sra. Arminda Meléndez, Vicepresidente de la misma.

Asimismo, estuvieron presentes la Sra. Emily Sarrel, District Vice President Ottawa River de Scotiabank, así como Anatol Von Hahn, Director General de Scotiabank Inverlat México, gracias a cuyo patrocinio se hizo posible el viaje del Sr. Rosete a Canadá.Durante la recepción la Min. Martha Cecilia Jaber, Jefe de Cancillería de la Embajada de México en Canadá, destacó la importancia de este reconocimiento para la imagen de México y los mexicanos en el extranjero.

El Instituto de los Mexicanos en el Exterior se complace en felicitar al Sr. Felipe de Jesús Rosete por este reconocimiento, que contribuye a reforzar los lazos de amistad y solidaridad entre México y Canadá, este año que se cumple el LX aniversario del establecimiento de relaciones diplomáticas entre ambos países.
El Sr. Felipe de Jesús Rosete, acompañado de su esposa y del Lic. Héctor Carranco, Consejero del IME.
    
Lazos es un servicio informativo del IME, se distribuye de lunes a viernes, y contiene información sobre la población de origen mexicano y latino en EE.UU.

VISITE NUESTRA PÁGINA: www.sre.gob.mx/ime 

SOUTHWESTERN UNITED STATES

World Anza Conference

ANZA IS COMING

World Anza Conference

He has been called one of the greatest frontiersmen this continent ever produced. Juan Bautista de Anza—governor and commander of the Province of New Mexico—will be the subject of a three-day conference Aug. 26-29, 2004 in Salida, Colorado. Scholars, history buffs and anyone interested in learning more about this great Spanish colonial figure are encouraged to attend.

The veil of time continues to lift on the exploits of this remarkable man. He was the first European to leave an account of his travels through the upper Arkansas River valley when Mexico and the Southwestern United States, including Colorado, were part of the Spanish Empire.

Anza was born to a military family of Basque heritage at a date and place most scholars accept to be July 7, 1736, at Cuquiárachi, Sonora, Mexico. His grandfather had served for 30 years on the northern frontier, and his father, who was killed by Apache when Anza was quite young, had been presidio captain at Fronteras in Sonora.

Anza enlisted in the army in 1752, when he was 17, and was commissioned a lieutenant three

years later. He distinguished himself in several campaigns against the Apache and was promoted to captain.

He may not be all that well known in Colorado, but he is famous on the West Coast as founder of San Francisco. He arrived there March 10, 1776 with 300 colonists including three newborns. Only one death was suffered along the way from Sonora.

In 1778 he took office as governor of New Mexico where the northern pueblos along the Rio Grande had been terrorized by Comanche raids from the east. His 1779 campaign from Santa Fé took him through present-day Salida, where he camped nearby with some 800 soldiers and Ute warrior-trackers and some 2,400 horses, before crossing the front range to chase and defeat the Comanche in battle. A subsequent generation of peace between the Comanche and Spanish nations along the northern frontier stands as a tribute to Anza’s diplomacy and humanism.

After a decade in the Palace of the Governors in Santa Fé, Anza returned to Sonora in 1788, where he died on Dec. 19.

• Friday, Aug. 27, listen and discuss research papers presented all day at the Steam Plant Theater in historic downtown Salida, Colorado. That evening, 225 years to the day he came over Poncha Pass, Juan Bautista de Anza will appear again impersonated by historian-interpreter-biographer Don Garate of Tumacacari, Arizona.
• Saturday, take a field trip to where Anza is suspected of having crossed the Rio Napestle (Arkansas) and started up Ute Trail into South Park. Sit-down dinner in Salida follows.
• Master of Ceremonies for the conference will be Ed Quillen, columnist and publisher of Colorado Central magazine, who hosts Anza Day annually in neighboring Poncha Springs.
• Travel and conference arrangements are being made by TourAZ4Fun of Phoenix AZ, < touraz4fun.com > 602-993-1162. The local contact in Salida, CO is Earle Kittleman, 719-539-6153, < kittleman@amigo.net > .
• The cost of the conference will be $316.00 per person, including meals and transportation from Albuquerque or Colorado Springs; or $269.00 without transportation. Cost to attend Friday’s conference only with lunch will be $50.00 per person. Cost for youth to attend the Friday conference only with lunch will be $35.00. Online registration is at < touraz4fun.com >, which has a list of recommended lodging. For mail-in registration forms, visit or call the Salida Chamber of Commerce, 719-539-2068 , or 877-772-5432 (toll-free).

We recommend that you fly into Albuquerque, NM on August 25. Vans will be departing at 8:00 a.m. at a motel near the airport on the 26^th. Your favorite Anza speakers will be on board to explain important and interesting sites as we follow Anza’s route north through San Luis Valley and over Poncha Pass to Salida. If you have to fly to Colorado Springs, there will be a van available to you by reservation only. However, you will miss the fun, history and stops planned with the Albuquerque group!

Save these dates for the conference, August 26 – 29, 2004 in Salida! And, plan to stay in beautiful Central Colorado, your headwaters of adventure--a great vacation place anytime of the year.

--end—

          

Using handwriting analysis to explore 
the character of Juan Bautista de Anza
by 
Treyce Benavidez 

Special thanks to Phil Valdez for sharing the letters from which the analysis was made. 
For more information, please go to the July issue of Somos Primos.  

Society is under the assumption that handwriting analysis is nothing other than a "psychic" tool – one to predict like that of palm reading and tarot cards. Handwriting Analysts will never "predict". They simply profile the personality reaching back to the writer’s age of six and gather information about their behavior and thought patterns. Handwriting Analysis is Applied Psychology (science). Aristotle, Confucius, and Shakespeare recognized the relationship between writing and printing to one’s character traits. In fact, each of them has commented on the relationship between one’s character and the way one writes. 

While you’ve been discovering your ancestors’ names, learning about your family history and seeing old photos have you ever wished you could meet your ancestors? What were they like? Did they have anything in common with you other than genetic makeup? Names, dates, and photos give us interesting information about our ancestors, but we can only guess what their personality was like. Most pictures from those eras make everyone look cold and angry so it’s difficult to tell what kind of people they really were. That’s why genealogists love handwriting analysis. If you have samples of your ancestors’ handwriting, you can learn about their personalities and psychological as well as physical health. I always get an enormous amount of joy when I hear someone say, "Wow my 12 year old son is just like this past Great Uncle Roy….". Believe me I hear that nearly every time I do a genealogical analysis. Same applies to children who grew up without a parent, no matter what the reason, the writing sample will provide the means to get to know that individual.

Every now and then someone will say to me, "I write just like my mother (sister, brother, father) but in reality everyone’s handwriting is unique. This fact is one that allows experts to testify in court about whose writing was really on that will. That’s because handwriting is "brain writing" – an electrocardiogram of the brain and no two brains are wired exactly the same.

Some people think handwriting is simply a matter of pure habit or learning, but if that were the case, everyone would write the same or very similar. After 16 years of practice I rarely see similar handwriting styles. It is not just random chance that we write the way we do and studies have shown that all of a person’s movements, including handwriting, body movement, and facial expressions, are related. There is something at the core of each of us that is reflected in our movements, and handwriting freezes that movement so that we may understand its meaning. Think about it… there is nothing we do that does not require a thought process first and writing is no different.

Handwriting Analysts look at how individual letters are formed but it reaches way beyond that to entail things such as the pressure, flow, slant, width, spacing, size, margins and more. Many times people have approached me and said, "If I lean toward the left that means I am introverted right?" Yes and no. That’s only one possible meaning. Good analysts never consider handwriting features in isolation.

When I was asked to look at the personality of Juan Bautista de Anza from 1775 – 1776 I was very excited. If you compare his writing to the writing of today, you’ll see that his writing looks smoother, flowing, and coordinated. This kind of writing shows he had a well-integrated personality. A disturbed personality would show as "uncontrolled" in the writing – completely opposite of the writing style of Juan Bautista de Anza.

Let’s further examine Juan Bautista de Anza’s writing to see what it says about his character.

1. The flowing ‘J’ in his signature shows his exuberance of creativity and arrogance with an over-active imagination.



2. The curly circles on the beginning of his letters are representative of a visionary with good business acumen. This also reveals his charm and seductive power.



3. His simplistic ‘b’ represents having respect for others.



 

4. The loose circles at the beginning of his above letters are indicative of having empathy for others less fortunate that he.



 

5. The long entry strokes of certain letters indicate his analytical thought processes. His mind never shut off, not even for a moment.



 

6. His closed loops indicate anti-social traits. He was very particular with whom he brought into his goals, private life and didn’t just trust everyone. He was self-protective.



7. The beginning ‘support’ strokes of certain letters represent his typical attitude of resisting when he felt pressured into something that he didn’t believe in.



8. His angular loops in certain letters show that he liked to be in control of his surroundings, life and decisions at all times.



 

9. His width of his lower loops show that he was "Don Juan" – he loved erotic and physical activities. He had a healthy libido. The length of these loops represents his strong desire for change.



10. Most of his ‘i’ dots are perfect (without tails) in which this would indicate

loyalty. They are also placed high and to the right showing optimism,

ambition and eagerness to reach his goals.

 



 

11. The height and flourishness of his tall letters shows his imagination was on 

Fire with tons of ideas.



 

12. The flourish of his signature represents his creativity within himself (visionary-sense) but, more than that, the underlining of his name represents self-reliance. He wanted to accomplish his goals by himself. He did not depend on anyone to do it for him. His mind gave birth to ideas, his compassion and believe in the ideas drove him to completion.

Oh yes… Juan Bautista de Anza was quite the man: driven, ambitions, hard worker, compassionate and more. No wonder he accomplished that which he did. It came easy to him. He was charming enough to seduce and/or utilize whomever he needed to achieve his goals. Did he use or manipulate people? No – remember he has respect for others. However he saw what he wanted, acted toward this vision and the underlying goal underneath every thought, word or deed was to accomplish his vision. It worked. Now wouldn’t it be great to see the writing of his extended family today?

Genealogy profiles make wonderful gifts and family heirlooms. Being adopted and, until last year, never knowing the identity of my biological mother I was able to obtain a first name only signature of her that was written on my adoption papers (1964). It’s unbelievable how much I write like her. By profiling her I was able to figure out her personality and become aware of health problems from her side of the family. Genetics… aren’t they great?

If you are interested in learning more about the fascinating science of Handwriting Analysis please visit http://www.Treyce.com   or email profilady@yahoo.com   for upcoming training, available books and more.

Ms. Treyce Benavidez, Handwriting Analyst
The Handwriting Company 
P.O. Box 151468, Austin, TX  78715-1468
PH: 512-481-2777; FAX: 408-869-5373 (NEW)
http://www.Treyce.com
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProfileAndAnalyze/join
http://www.zinos.com/f/z/view_author?;AU02908

BLACK

Gladys Watt and Lydia Turnage Connolly had been friends for roughly 30 years -- a decade of that as next-door neighbors in Greenwich, Conn. -- by the time Mrs. Connolly died in 1984 at the venerable age of 99. Mrs. Connolly seemed to have no family; she relied on Mrs. Watt to take her grocery shopping and regularly ate Christmas and Thanksgiving dinners at her best friend's home.
.
"I never saw a single visitor to her house. Not one," Mrs. Watt told me recently, adding that her friend had been tight-lipped about her origins. When she alluded to her family at all, it was only to say that her father had been "a wonderful man."

Mrs. Watt thought that she knew her friend pretty well. She then stumbled upon a startling secret. Mrs.
Connolly had once let the secret slip to strangers but, for most of her life, she had apparently seemed intent on carrying it to the grave.

Mrs. Connolly, who had straight dark hair and swarthy skin, explained her appearance throughout most of her life by describing herself as Portuguese. The disguise began to crumble as she moved into her 90's and became too ill to care for the straight black hair — which turned out to be a wig. When it slipped away, Mrs. Watt recalls, the hair beneath was revealed to be short and coarse to curly. Combined with the darkish skin she had attributed to a Portuguese heritage, it gave her an African-American appearance.

This finally made sense when Mrs. Watt received her friend's meager possessions. They included old photographs, showing Lydia posed with family members. There was also a leather-bound book handwritten by Wallace Turnage, her father. It contained his account of his life as a slave in Alabama.

In the book, Mr. Turnage recounted his life at the hands of brutal owners, his attempts to escape and
finally a daring break for liberty. After running away several times, he found a small boat and weathered a storm. He was rescued by Union soldiers and realized that he had obtained the freedom he had wanted for so long.

Mrs. Watt held onto the book for nearly 20 years until she saw a public television program on the importance of slave narratives. Two years ago, she took Wallace Turnage's story to the Historical Society of Greenwich — where the Yale slavery historian David Blight encountered it and made plans to use it in a forthcoming book. Historians describe it as a remarkable find — particularly because first-person narratives by slaves who managed to liberate themselves are so rare.

White Americans are generally surprised when they encounter stories like this — of an African-American with a proud heritage who nevertheless decides to leave blackness behind. But just about every black family in the United States knows of a light-skinned person who decided to avoid the penalties associated with blackness by becoming white. Hundreds of thousands of these people set sail into whiteness — leaving behind black parents, siblings and children — and were never heard from again. The people who abandoned their families were described as "passed" —
a euphemism for dead.

Though tragic, Lydia Connolly's passing makes perfect sense given that she was born in the 1880's, when national impulse toward marginalizing black people was gathering virulence with every passing day.

In 1896, the Supreme Court made segregation legal in Plessy v. Ferguson. By the mid-1920's, black Americans everywhere were glued to a sensational, yearlong divorce trial involving a black woman named Alice Jones and Leonard Rhinelander, scion of one of New York's richest families. The Rhinelanders believed Alice had hidden her racial background to get at the family fortune. Alice was forced to disrobe in court, so that the jury could see the skin beneath her clothing.

Too dark to pose plausibly as northern European, black people of Mrs. Connolly's color passed as Italian, Greek, Spanish or Portuguese — anything to escape segregation and the penalties associated with blackness. No one knows when she decided to leave blackness behind, or whether her white husband knew her secret.

Mrs. Connolly appears to have been listed under a false name in the Greenwich directory for several
years. Her real name, Lydia T. Connolly, appears in the directory only in the late 60's after the rise of
the civil rights movement and a few years after her husband's death. Her secrecy and isolation fit the
pattern for passing people in the early 20th century — as does the fact that she remained childless. Passing people often feigned infertility out of fear that the baby might be born visibly black — genetically unlikely, but nonetheless a stubborn part of the black folklore.

The passers left a huge chasm in history. They hid or destroyed important records and suppressed family stories that would give them away. Historians of slavery are relieved that Mrs. Connolly preserved her father's remarkable memoir and grateful to Mrs. Watt for snatching it back from the verge of oblivion.

Mrs. Watt found that her friend had mentioned her father, in passing, to the couple to whom she sold her home during the 1960's. Mrs. Connolly was about 80 by then, and may have been reconsidering the path she had chosen.

For her part, Mrs. Watt is delighted to have served as an instrument of history, but speaks sadly of her friend's hidden life. "I'm not the kind of person to pry," she said recently, "but I wish that we'd had a chance to talk about it."

First Americans Festival 
September 21 to 26, 2004
Washington, D.C. 

Founding Director:
W. Richard West
U.S. News & Word Report
June 21, 2004

For many decades American Indians were typically showcased as relics of a distant past, in contrast the NMAI will tell the story of how they came to be who they are, now.  As Brian Dippie wrote in The Vanishing American:  "The belief in the Vanishing Indian was the ultimate cause of the Indian's vanishing."  The museum will try to change that perception.  A long wall will project the images of passersby wtih others walking alongside them.  It turns out that all the images but your own belong to Indians.  "The notion," West says, "is that you've been walking amongst Indians and don't even know it."   Source: U.S. News and World Report, June 21, 2004

333 S. Twin Oaks Valley Rd.
San Marcos CA 92096
(760) 750-4000

[[Editor's Note: I found it particularly interesting that the complaints of the indigenous were recorded and sent backto Spain for redress. . .   It reveals some abuses, but also indicates that the Spanish government was listening, and trying to  keep track of what was happening in Nueva España..]]

SEPHARDIC

The Jews of St. Eustatius
Rescuers 
of the 
American Revolution

Samuel Kurinsky, Fact Paper 37 
http://www.hebrewhistory.org/factpapers
/37eustatius.html#ch1
Hebrew History Federation LTD
Sent by Bill Carmena JCarm1724@aol.com
[[Editor's note, go to the site!!]] 

St. Eustatius (Statia) a Dutch Antilles island, was the arsenal and savior of the American Revolution. Over a hundred Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jewish families formed its core commercial establishment. 

TEXAS 

By LYNN BREZOSKY Associated Press Writer
Corpus Christi Caller-Times, December 26, 2003

EDINBURG, Texas- The doors of the Museum of South Texas History are carved of mesquite, the chandeliers graced by carvings of yucca plants and longhorn cattle, the wrought-iron door handles crafted by a San Antonio specialist. From the caliche walls to the Mexican ceramic floor tiles, no detail was spared in transforming what was once a small county museum into a significant history of a region that remains a melting pot of old Mexico and new Texas.

What was once known as the Hidalgo County Museum got a $5.5 million facelift this year that added some 28,000 square feet at a new building alongside the historic jail that housed the old museum. The trademark hanging tower at the jail will remain when the two buildings are joined later this year, as will existing exhibits from the old museum.

Shan Rankin, executive director of the museum, said the goal was to rival large museums such as those in San Antonio and Monterrey, Mexico. But the upgrade also was needed because the history of the Rio Grande Valley merited more space, she said.

Several large Texas charitable foundations eagerly contributed funds for the new museum, which is more than double its former size.  "We are so often called and depicted as a very poor, backward region, and we have a wonderfully rich history," she said. "That story needed to be told."

The new museum tour starts with a walk into a darkened room beneath a 24-long mosasaur, a giant prehistoric sea lizard from thousands of years ago when the region was covered in water. Dappled lighting simulates the effect of being in water.

Exhibits include a 25,000-year-old mammoth tusk and leg bone found over the border in Mexico and donated by a man who remembered sitting on them as though they were stools. There's also a leg bone found in Reynosa, Mexico, and a tooth found in Sinton, Texas.

From there, the rooms progress through history _ an exhibit on the now-extinct Coahuiltean tribe ends at a 16th-century Spanish door that symbolizes a crossing into the New World. There's a ship's hold stocked with models of harnessed horses and a floor featuring a mosaic from a navigational chart.

There is a case of weapons and other artifacts that washed up over the centuries on the Texas coast, including a swivel gun and cannonball from a 1554 galleon.

Then comes the period of Spanish colonial ranching compound, the Mexican-American War era, the pioneer and gold rush era and the riverboat era, where fortunes were made by shipping goods out of Matamoros, Mexico.

"We were the back door of the Confederacy," Rankin said, standing beside a facsimile of a Civil War-era hotel modeled after one that stood in Brownsville. "The cotton would be shipped out of the area to Europe and that is how the Confederacy was able to survive."

The fact that the history of the region is still unfolding is evident in the tales behind the exhibits. When staff struggled to get the mud-and-stick dwelling known as a jacal right, a contractor who had grown up in one showed them how. Exhibits such as the horno, a beehive-shaped caliche oven used in Spanish colonial ranching compounds, were copied from the ones slowly crumbling away on the lonely grounds of nearby ranches.

Jim McAllen, a rancher whose family is the namesake of the neighboring city, made the fence known as a lena in the cattle kingdom exhibit, threading his own antique staples and fence wire into the wood and insisting on the bent-log hinge.

When a company wanted $1,000 per burlap-covered cotton bale for the riverboat exhibit, a local building contractor came through for a fraction of the price. Trouble finding the right music for the pila, or cattle watering hole, ended when the son of the late rancher John Armstrong donated a 1980s recording of his uncle singing old campfire songs, two in Spanish one in English.

Rankin recalled how the artists who designed the exhibit were on hands and knees throwing the cement so it would appear as wind-blown cattle tracks. "Every museum has a mission statement," Rankin said. "Ours is to preserve and protect the blended histories of South Texas and northern Mexico. ... The whole premise we want people to go away with is that this region is a mixture of the history of two nations that has formed its own region."

Museum of South Texas History
121 East McIntyre, Edinburg, TX 78541
(956) 383-6911 Voice   (956) 381-8518 FAX

The second Saturday of each month, the Center for Archaeological Research (CAR), University of Texas at San Antonio, sponsors a dig at Mission Concepcion. The general public is welcome to participate in this hands-on educational trip into San Antonio's colonial past. Those under 18 must have a parent or guardian present. The dig lasts from 9am to 3pm. For more information please visit CAR’s web site at http://car.utsa.edu or call (210) 458-4378 and ask for Dr. Steve Tomka or Tom Castanos.

Farias home to become veterans museum 
Local veterans will soon have a museum of their own. 
by Robert Lopez, 06/27/04 
Sent by Elsa Herbeck  epherbeck@juno.com
 
Representatives of the Laredo Veterans Coalition received a plastic baggie full of keys as Daniel Farias signed over the deed to his 160-year-old ancestral home Friday. 

The coalition, which has spent the past six months ironing out a purchasing agreement with the Farias family, acquired the property for $100,000. 

"I think God always had a perfect plan, because 30 years ago the Farias family turned down a very lucrative offer to sell the house," said family member Olga Guerrero Perez-Garcia, who attended the signing ceremony at Neel Title on McPherson. "He was just waiting for the right time. Now it's very gratifying to know that it will always be a part of the Veterans (Coalition)." 

The house, located at 409 San Bernardo, has a long history. Built by Juan Francisco Farias (who served as mayor during the Civil War) in 1840, it was the site of numerous meetings between the Benavides brothers, who masterminded the defeat of the invading Union Army on April 19, 1864. 

Francisco Farias, first president of the Laredo Independent School District, lived there from the late 19th century until his death in 1915. 

Daniel's brother Hector and his family were the last to call the place home and moved out in the 1970s. Since then they've rented it out for various storage and retail companies. Currently the building houses El Nuevo Poblano restaurant. 

Veterans Coalition member Richard Geissler, who was in charge of negotiating the deal, said he estimated renovations would cost $600,000. 

"We know it's going to take a lot of money to get it up to museum quality, but we're not afraid of the building's historical significance," he said. "We're going to have to put in temperature and humidity control equipment. The windows have been bricked up, and we're going to have to find artisans to rebuild them." 

The coalition plans to raise money by selling raffle tickets, and by obtaining grants from local foundations and businesses. The group has already received assistance from attorneys and bankers who agreed to wave some of their fees in helping to acquire the property, and from the Farias family itself, who sold the tract at less than a fourth of its assessed $440,000 value. 

Geissler said he remains unsure about exactly what types of exhibits will be on display, but expects to receive plenty of help from area veterans. 

"There are a lot of things in people's closets looking for a place to go," he said. "I've met a guy who has Union and Confederate uniforms, and asked if we wanted them. We're going to see a lot of stuff come out of the woodwork." 

He will likely have plenty to draw from. David B. Barkeley, the First World War's only Hispanic Medal of Honor recipient, came from Laredo. High school yearbooks from the 1940s are filled with tributes to their alumni in arms. And according to census figures, about 6,800 veterans from all wars, reside in Webb County. 

Descendants of Simon-Francisco de Arocha

 Compiled and Prepared 
by John Inclan 
fromgalveston@yahoo.com

Generation No. 1

1. CAPTAIN SIMON-FRANCISCO³ DE AROCHA (FRANCISCO-JOSEPH², SIMON¹) was born November 03, 1731 in San Fernando, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas, and died July 29, 1797 in San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas. He married MARIA-IGNACIA DE URRUTIA¹ January 29, 1751/52 in San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas, daughter of JOAQUIN DE URRUTIA and MARIA-JOSEFA HERNANDEZ-LONGORIA. She was born Abt. 1735 in San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas¹, and died April 27, 1812 in San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas¹.

Notes for CAPTAIN SIMON-FRANCISCO DE AROCHA:  In 1774, Simon served both as Lieutenant Governor of the province and commander of the town militia.  Source: From the books, San Antonio de Bexar by Jesus F. De La Teja, and Tejano Origins in Eightreen-Century San Antonio, edited by Gerald E. Poyo and Gilberto M. Hinojosa.

On his wife's will, he is listed as Commander of the corps of Militia of Texas. ( Maria Ignacia de Urrutia's will can be viewed in the May, 2004 issue of Somos Primos.)  Simon Francisco de Arocha is listed as a farmer on the 1793 - San Antonio de Bexar census. He is listed as Captain on Juan Andres Travieso will, dated April 10, 1783, San Antonio, Texas. Source: Wills and Inventories of Bexar County, Texas - San Antonio Genealogical and Historical Society.

Children of SIMON-FRANCISCO DE AROCHA and MARIA-IGNACIA DE URRUTIA are:

2. i. JUAN-FRANCISCO⁴ DE AROCHA, b. March 15, 1753, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas; d. Bef. 1814, Executed at Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico.

ii. TOMAS DE AROCHA, b. Abt. December 1753, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas; d. December 1753, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.

3. iii. ANA-MARIA-GERTRUDIS DE AROCHA, b. August 23, 1754, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas; d. June 23, 1830, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.

4. iv. TOMAS-ANTONIO-DE-LA-TRINIDAD DE AROCHA, b. November 15, 1756, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.

v. JOSEFA-GERTRUDIS-DE-LA-TRINIDAD DE AROCHA, b. November 06, 1758, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas; d. November 13, 1758, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.

5. vi. JOSE-MIGUEL-DAMIAN-DE-LA-TRINIDAD DE AROCHA, b. September 16, 1759, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.

vii. BARBARA-GUADALUPE DE AROCHA, b. December 04, 1761, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas; d. Died young.

viii. FATHER JOSE CLEMENTE DE AROCHA, b. 1764, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas; d. Laredo, Webb County, Texas.

Notes for FATHER JOSE CLEMENTE DE AROCHA: Native of San Antonio, he was a Roman Catholic Priest who studied in Mexico City for the priesthood.
After his studies, he served as local pastor at the San Fernando Cathedral, San Antonio, Texas.  He is listed as 27 year of age on the 1790 census of San Antonio. He was quite active in the revolutionary movement of 1811-1814, and subsequently he was transferred to Laredo in 1811.  Source:The Handbook of Texas Oline and San Antonio de Bexar by Jesus F. De La Teja.

6. ix. CADET JOSE-IGNACIO-DE-LA-CANDELARIA DE AROCHA, b. January 31, 1766, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas; d. April 29, 1842, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.

Generation No. 2

2. JUAN-FRANCISCO⁴ DE AROCHA (SIMON-FRANCISCO³, FRANCISCO-JOSEPH², SIMON¹) was born March 15, 1753 in San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas, and died Bef. 1814 in Executed at Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico. He married (1) MARIA-MANUELA MONTES-DE-LA-PENA, daughter of JUAN-JOSEPH-FRANCISCO MONTES-DE-OCA and MARCELA DE-LA-PENA-CASTRO. She was born April 18, 1748 in San Fernando, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas. He married (2) MARIA-JOSEFA NUNEZ-FLORES July 15, 1779 in San Fernando, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas, daughter of MANUEL NUNEZ-FLORES. She was born 1757 in San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas, and died in San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.

Notes for JUAN-FRANCISCO DE AROCHA: Christening on March 23, 1753, San Fernando Catholic Church, San Antonio, Texas. For his part in the revolutionary movement of 1811-1814, he was taken to Monterrey for execution.

Children of JUAN-FRANCISCO DE AROCHA and MARIA-JOSEFA NUNEZ-FLORES are:

i. JOSE-NEPOMUCENO-BARNARDO⁵ AROCHA-NUNEZ, b. August 28, 1785, San Fernando Cathederal, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.

Notes for JOSE-NEPOMUCENO-BARNARDO AROCHA-NUNEZ:  He is listed on the 1830 Census of San Antonio,Texas. From the book 1830 Citizens of Texas by Gifford E. White. Page 109.

7. ii. MARIA-TERESA-DE-JESUS AROCHA-NUNEZ, b. October 21, 1800, San Fernando Cathederal, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas; d. August 30, 1876, Villa de Pesqueria Chica, Nuevo León, México..

3. ANA-MARIA-GERTRUDIS⁴ DE AROCHA (SIMON-FRANCISCO³, FRANCISCO-JOSEPH², SIMON¹) was born August 23, 1754 in San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas, and died June 23, 1830 in San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas. She married JOSE-JOAQUIN LEAL-DELGADO Abt. 1770, son of BERNARDO LEAL-HERNANDEZ and LEONOR DELGADO-MELANO. He was born 1738 in Villa de San Fernando, Bexar County, Texas, and died 1813 in Shot at Fort Trinidad, East Texas.

Notes for JOSE-JOAQUIN LEAL-DELGADO:  Joaquin Leal, born 1745, was the son of Bernardo Leal and Leonor Delgado, who came from the Canary Islands and founded this city of San Antonio, which they originally named Villa of San Fernando in March 9, 1731. His grandfather, Juan Leal, was 56 years old a widower when he arrived here in 1731, and married the widow Delgado. Juan Leal was the first Mayor of this city and the first Judge. He came from the Island of Lancerote, Canary Islands. They had been in that island since 1460 where they came from the mainland of the Southern Part of Spain. All the men were given the title of "Hidalgo" which title still carries to all their male descendants and are considered "Knights of the Frontier". Joaquin married Ana Maria Arocha, granddaughter of Francisco Arocha, the first secretary and notary public of the villa of San Fernando. Her mother was from the old Urrutia spanish military family. Joaquin and Ana Maria donated the land for what is now St. Joseph Catholic Church, as family tradition states. Joaquin also owned five ranches in what is now the city of Elmendorf, Texas and is an ancestor of this author, John O. Leal.  He and his family are listed on the 1790 & 1803 census, San Antonio, Texas

Children of ANA-MARIA-GERTRUDIS DE AROCHA and JOSE-JOAQUIN LEAL-DELGADO are:

i. JOSE ANTONIO⁵ LEAL-AROCHA, b. November 21, 1771, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas; d. November 27, 1771, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.

8. ii. JOSE ANTONIO PONCIANO LEAL-AROCHA, b. November 21, 1771, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas; d. February 18, 1821, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.

iii. JOSEPH FRANCISCO LEAL-AROCHA, b. October 02, 1772, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.

9. iv. MARIA-IGNACIA-APOLONIA-DE-LA-TRINIDAD LEAL-AROCH, b. February 1774, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.

v. JOSE JULIAN FERNANDO LEAL-AROCHA, b. February 05, 1776, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.

vi. JOSE RAFAEL LEAL-AROCHA, b. October 29, 1777, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas; d. October 30, 1777, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.

vii. MARIA ANTONIA FAUSTINA DEL PILAR LEAL-AROCHA, b. October 14, 1778, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas; d. October 20, 1778, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.

viii. JUANA JOSEPHA NEPOMUCENA LEAL-AROCHA, b. April 15, 1780, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas; d. November 1834, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.

10. ix. JOSE-MIGUEL-CLEMENTE LEAL-AROCHA, b. October 09, 1781, San Fernando, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas; d. San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.

x. JULIAN LEAL-AROCHA, b. August 30, 1782, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas; d. September 05, 1782, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.

xi. MARIA JOSEFA DE LOS DOLORES LEAL-AROCHA, b. February 08, 1783, San Fernando, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas; d. November 05, 1851, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.

xii. MARIA ANTONIA LEAL-AROCHA, b. March 08, 1784, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.

xiii. JUANA MARIA DE LOS DOLORES LEAL-AROCHA, b. September 15, 1785, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.

xiv. JOSE SIMON BALTASAR LEAL-AROCHA, b. January 11, 1787, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.

xv. JOSE SIMON LORENSO LEAL-AROCHA, b. August 14, 1788, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.

xvi. JOSE ANTONIO ALBINO LEAL-AROCHA, b. April 07, 1790, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.

11. xvii. JUANA-ISIDORA LEAL-AROCHA, b. May 23, 1792, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.

xviii. MARIA DE LA CONSOLACION LEAL-AROCHA, b. May 02, 1795, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas; d. May 28, 1857, Graytown, Wilson County, Texas; m. JOSE LEONARDO DE-LA-GARZA, June 04, 1821, San Fernando, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas; b. 1784; d. Aft. 1830.

Notes for MARIA DE LA CONSOLACION LEAL-AROCHA: She is listed on the 1830 Census of San Antonio, Texas. Source:1830 Citizens of Texas by Gifford E. White. Page 80.

Notes for JOSE LEONARDO DE-LA-GARZA: He is listed on the 1830 Census of San Antonio, Texas. Source:1830 Citizens of Texas by Gifford E. White. Page 80.

xix. JOSE MARIA LEAL-AROCHA, b. March 08, 1798, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas; d. March 10, 1798, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.

4. TOMAS-ANTONIO-DE-LA-TRINIDAD⁴ DE AROCHA (SIMON-FRANCISCO³, FRANCISCO-JOSEPH², SIMON¹) was born November 15, 1756 in San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas. He married MARIA-ANTONIA-JOSEFA ROMERO-ZEVALLOS, daughter of JUAN-ANTONIO ROMERO and TERESA SAENZ-DE-ZEVALLOS. She was born 1779 in San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.

Notes for MARIA-ANTONIA-JOSEFA ROMERO-ZEVALLOS: On June 11, 1892, she and her siblings are is mentioned on her mother's last will and testament. Bexar County Courthouse Archives.

Children of TOMAS-ANTONIO-DE-LA-TRINIDAD DE AROCHA and MARIA-ANTONIA-JOSEFA ROMERO-ZEVALLOS are:

i. JUAN ANGEL⁵ AROCHA-ROMERO, b. August 09, 1799, San Fernando Cathederal, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.

ii. MARIA TOMASA AROCHA-ROMERO, b. January 03, 1801, San Fernando Cathederal, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.

12. iii. JOSE-IGNACIO-OCTAVIO AROCHA-ROMERO, b. May 07, 1802, San Fernando Cathederal, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.

iv. JUAN JOSE NEPUMUNCENO AROCHA-ROMERO, b. May 09, 1808, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.

v. JUAN BAPTISTA AROCHA-ROMERO, b. November 30, 1811, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.

vi. JOSE MARIA AROCHA-ROMERO, b. September 30, 1813, San Fernando Cathederal, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.

5. JOSE-MIGUEL-DAMIAN-DE-LA-TRINIDAD⁴ DE AROCHA (SIMON-FRANCISCO³, FRANCISCO-JOSEPH², SIMON¹) was born September 16, 1759 in San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas. He married (1) MARIA DE LOS ANGELES HERNANDEZ-MONTES 1791 in San Fernando, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas, daughter of JOSE-PLACIDO HERNANDEZ-HOYOS and ROSALIA MONTES-DE-OCA. She was born 1762. He married (2) JOSEFA XIMENEZ-SEGURO Abt. 1810. She was born 1795 in San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.

Notes for JOSEFA XIMENEZ-SEGURO: A widow, she and her sons, Antonio and Lino are listed on the 1830 Census of San Antonio, Texas. From the book, 1830 Citizens of Texas by Gifford E. White. Page 100.

Children of JOSE-MIGUEL-DAMIAN-DE-LA-TRINIDAD DE AROCHA and JOSEFA XIMENEZ-SEGURO are:

13. i. ANTONIO-CRUZ⁵ AROCHA-XIMENES, b. 1812, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.

14. ii. JOSE-LINO AROCHA-XIMENES, b. September 25, 1817, San Fernando Cathederal, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.

6. CADET JOSE-IGNACIO-DE-LA-CANDELARIA⁴ DE AROCHA (SIMON-FRANCISCO³, FRANCISCO-JOSEPH², SIMON¹) was born January 31, 1766 in San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas, and died April 29, 1842 in San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas. He married MARIA-JOSEFA-DE-LA-LUZ SALINAS-RODRIGUEZ April 11, 1793 in San Fernando, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas, daughter of JOSE-MANUEL SALINAS and MARIA RODRIGUEZ. She was born September 22, 1774 in San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.

Children of JOSE-IGNACIO-DE-LA-CANDELARIA DE AROCHA and MARIA-JOSEFA-DE-LA-LUZ SALINAS-RODRIGUEZ are:

i. JOSE-FELIS-NAVON⁵ AROCHA-SALINAS, b. July 16, 1794, San Fernando, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.

15. ii. IGNACIO AROCHA-SALINAS, b. 1795, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.

Generation No. 3

7. MARIA-TERESA-DE-JESUS⁵ AROCHA-NUNEZ (JUAN-FRANCISCO⁴ DE AROCHA, SIMON-FRANCISCO³, FRANCISCO-JOSEPH², SIMON¹) was born October 21, 1800 in San Fernando Cathederal, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas, and died August 30, 1876 in Villa de Pesqueria Chica, Nuevo León, México.. She married JOSE-RAMON GUERRA-DE-LA-GARZA November 17, 1824 in Villa de Pesqueria Chica, Nuevo León, México., son of JOSE-ANTONIO GUERRA-LOZANO and MARIA-TOMASA DE-LA-GARZA-SAENZ. He was born 1804.

Child of MARIA-TERESA-DE-JESUS AROCHA-NUNEZ and JOSE-RAMON GUERRA-DE-LA-GARZA is:

i. MARIA-DE-JESUS⁶ GUERRA-AROCHA, b. 1827, Villa de Pesqueria Chica, Nuevo León, México.; d. December 20, 1897, Villa de Pesqueria Chica, Nuevo León, México.; m. CRESCENCIO DE-LA-GARZA; b. 1819, Villa de Pesqueria Chica, Nuevo León, México.; d. June 27, 1864, Villa de Pesqueria Chica, Nuevo León, México..

8. JOSE ANTONIO PONCIANO⁵ LEAL-AROCHA (ANA-MARIA-GERTRUDIS⁴ DE AROCHA, SIMON-FRANCISCO³, FRANCISCO-JOSEPH², SIMON¹) was born November 21, 1771 in San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas, and died February 18, 1821 in San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas. He married (1) MARIA JOSEFA HIGENIA XIMENEZ-DE-LUNA June 20, 1803 in San Fernando, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas, daughter of JOSE XIMENEZ and MARIA DE LUNA. She was born January 19, 1783 in San Antonio de Valero, Bexar County, Texas. He married (2) MARIA-ANTONIA CASANOVA-DE-LA-GARZA 1812 in San Fernando, San Antonio, Texas, daughter of JUAN-ANTONIO-DE-LA-CANDALARIA CASANOVA and MARIA-JOSEFA-DEL-REFUGIO DE-LA-GARZA-MARTINEZ. She was born in San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas, and died November 24, 1834 in San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.

Notes for JOSE ANTONIO PONCIANO LEAL-AROCHA: Family Source: With the Makers of San Antonio by Frederick C. Chabot. Page 164.

Notes for MARIA-ANTONIA CASANOVA-DE-LA-GARZA: Her will was partition on November 24, 1834. Source: Wills and Inventories of Bexar County, Texas. San Antonio Genealogical and Historical Society. Page 62.

Children of JOSE LEAL-AROCHA and MARIA XIMENEZ-DE-LUNA are:

i. CRESENCIO⁶ LEAL-XIMENEZ, b. 1804, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas; d. 1849, South Texas; m. DOLORES ARCINIEGA; b. 1814, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.

Notes for CRESENCIO LEAL-XIMENEZ: He is listed on the 1830 Census of San Antonio, Texas.  Source:1830 Citizens of Texas by Gifford E. White. Page 81.

Notes for DOLORES ARCINIEGA: She is listed on the 1830 Census of San Antonio, Texas  Source:1830 Citizens of Texas by Gifford E. White.

ii. MARIA JOSEFA LEAL-XIMENEZ, b. 1806, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas; d. November 05, 1851, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas; m. MANUEL DE MONJARES, July 01, 1824, San Fernando Cathederal, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.

iii. JOSE YLARIO LEAL-XIMENEZ, b. December 19, 1808, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.

iv. PAULA LEAL-XIMENEZ, b. 1810, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.

v. MARIA PETRA LEAL-XIMENEZ, b. October 18, 1812, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas; m. JOSE MARIA VIDAL.

Notes for MARIA PETRA LEAL-XIMENEZ: She is listed in the book, 1830 Citizens of Texas, by Gifford E. White. Page 81.

vi. MARIA DE JESUS DE LOS DOLORES LEAL-XIMENEZ, b. February 21, 1815, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.

Child of JOSE LEAL-AROCHA and MARIA-ANTONIA CASANOVA-DE-LA-GARZA is:

vii. JOSE MANUEL DE JESUS⁶ LEAL-CASANOVA, b. December 27, 1812, San Fernando, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.

9. MARIA-IGNACIA-APOLONIA-DE-LA-TRINIDAD⁵ LEAL-AROCH (ANA-MARIA-GERTRUDIS⁴ DE AROCHA, SIMON-FRANCISCO³, FRANCISCO-JOSEPH², SIMON¹) was born February 1774 in San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas. She married JUAN-ANTONIO-BACILO DE URRUTIA¹ 1797¹, son of FRANCISCO-ESTEBAN DE URRUTIA and GERTRUDIS VALDEZ. He was born Abt. 1772 in San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas¹, and died in San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas¹.

Children of MARIA-IGNACIA-APOLONIA-DE-LA-TRINIDAD LEAL-AROCH and JUAN-ANTONIO-BACILO DE URRUTIA are:

i. JOSE-ANTONIO-VICENTE⁶ DE URRUTIA-LEAL¹, b. December 05, 1798, San Fernando, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas¹; d. WFT Est. 1798-1896¹.

ii. JUAN-FRANCISCO-ANTONIO-VITORIANO DE URRUTIA¹, b. 1800, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas¹; d. Abt. May 02, 1859, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas¹; m. MARIA-ANTONIA SANDOVAL, Abt. 1832, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas; b. 1818; d. San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.

Notes for JUAN-FRANCISCO-ANTONIO-VITORIANO DE URRUTIA: He and his family are listed on the 1850 USA census, Bexar County, Texas. #396. His will was signed on January 29, 1859. Juan M. Chavez and Mariano Trevino- witness. Filed on May 2, 1859, San Antonio, Texas. Source: Wills & Inventories of Bexar County, Texas - San Antonio Genealogical and Historical Society.  Bexar County Courthouse records, San Antonio, Texas

 iii. MARIA-ANTONIA-AURELIA-NEPOMUNCENA DE URRUTIA, b. September 30, 1802, San Fernando, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.

iv. JOSE-NEPOMUCENO DE URRUTIA¹, b. January 22, 1805, San Fernando, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas¹; d. WFT Est. 1806-1895¹.

v. JOSE-MARIA-DE-JESUS DE URRUTIA¹, b. January 22, 1805, San Fernando, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas¹¹.

vi. INCARNACION DE URRUTIA¹, b. 1811, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas¹; d. WFT Est. 1808-1899¹; m. JOSE-LINO AROCHA-XIMENES, May 06, 1841, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas; b. September 25, 1817, San Fernando Cathederal, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.

Notes for INCARNACION DE URRUTIA: Information from the book - Texas Marriages Early to 1850, compiled, extracted and transcribed by Liahona Research, Inc. LDS film #1760896

Notes for JOSE-LINO AROCHA-XIMENES:He is listed on the 1830 Census of San Antonio, Texas  Source:1830 Citizens of Texas by Gifford E. White.

10. JOSE-MIGUEL-CLEMENTE⁵ LEAL-AROCHA (ANA-MARIA-GERTRUDIS⁴ DE AROCHA, SIMON-FRANCISCO³, FRANCISCO-JOSEPH², SIMON¹) was born October 09, 1781 in San Fernando, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas, and died in San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas. He married (1) ALEJANDRA DE SAN-MIGUEL. She died in Monclova, Nuevo Leon, Mexico. He married (2) MARIA-ANTONIA CASANOVA-DE-LA-GARZA April 12, 1826 in San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas, daughter of JUAN-ANTONIO-DE-LA-CANDALARIA CASANOVA and MARIA-JOSEFA-DEL-REFUGIO DE-LA-GARZA-MARTINEZ. She was born in San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas, and died November 24, 1834 in San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.

Notes for JOSE-MIGUEL-CLEMENTE LEAL-AROCHA: Estate partition on November 24, 1834, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas. Source: Wills and Inventories of Bexar County, Texas - San Antonio Genealogical and Historical Society.

Notes for MARIA-ANTONIA CASANOVA-DE-LA-GARZA: Her will was partition on November 24, 1834. Source: Wills and Inventories of Bexar County, Texas. San Antonio Genealogical and Historical Society. Page 62.

Children of JOSE-MIGUEL-CLEMENTE LEAL-AROCHA and MARIA-ANTONIA CASANOVA-DE-LA-GARZA are:

i. JOSE-MARIA⁶ LEAL-CASANOVA, b. San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas; m. MARIA-SINFOROSA RUIZ-SEGUIN; b. August 22, 1817, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas; d. October 08, 1875, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.

ii. TOMASA DE JESUS LEAL-CASANOVA, b. December 18, 1825, San Fernando, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.

iii. MANUEL LEAL-CASANOVA, b. 1827, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.

iv. FRANCISCO LEAL-CASANOVA, b. 1828, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas; d. San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.

Notes for FRANCISCO LEAL-CASANOVA: Remained single.

v. RAFAEL MENCHACA-CASANOVA, b. 1829, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas; m. MARIA CHRISTINA XIMENEZ, August 31, 1839, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas; b. San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.

vi. MARIA-DE-JESUS MENCHACA-CASANOVA, b. 1830, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas; d. Aft. December 06, 1883, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas; m. CLEMENTE BUSTILLOS, October 18, 1856, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas; b. 1829.

vii. JUAN FRANCISCO LEAL-CASANOVA, b. 1831, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.

viii. THOMAS LEAL-CASANOVA, b. 1832, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.

ix. MARIA ANTONIA LEAL-CASANOVA, b. January 02, 1832, San Fernando, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.

11. JUANA-ISIDORA⁵ LEAL-AROCHA (ANA-MARIA-GERTRUDIS⁴ DE AROCHA, SIMON-FRANCISCO³, FRANCISCO-JOSEPH², SIMON¹) was born May 23, 1792 in San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas. She met (1) FATHER JOSE DARIO ZAMBRANO, son of JOSEPH-MACARINO ZAMBRANO-GOMEZ and JUANA DE OCON-Y-TRILLO. He was born December 07, 1768 in San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas, and died March 02, 1826 in San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas. She married (2) SERGEANT VICENTE-MANUEL TARIN-ARAUJO Abt. 1807, son of PEDRO TARIN and MARIA ARAUJO. He was born Abt. 1767 in Villa de San Geronimo, Chichuahua, Mexico.

Notes for JUANA-ISIDORA LEAL-AROCHA: She is listed on the 1840 census of the Republic of Texas. Bexar County. Bexar County.  Source: The Pemberton Press, edited by Gifford White, 1966 Austin

Notes for FATHER JOSE DARIO ZAMBRANO: Parish priest at San Fernando Catholic Church, San Antonio, Texas.  Source:The Handbook of Texas Online.

Notes for SERGEANT VICENTE-MANUEL TARIN-ARAUJO: He served in the military for twenty years and was a sergeant with the Second Flying Company of San Carlos de Parras. Source:The handbook of Texas Online.

Children of JUANA-ISIDORA LEAL-AROCHA and JOSE ZAMBRANO are:

i. JOSE ANTONIO NEPOMUCENO DEL CARMEN⁶ LEAL, b. February 29, 1816, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.

ii. JUAN BAUTISTA LEON DE LA SANTA CRUZ LEAL, b. June 23, 1819, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas; d. January 09, 1837, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.

Notes for JUAN BAUTISTA LEON DE LA SANTA CRUZ LEAL:  He was raised by a cousin, Petra Zambrano and her husband, Gaspar Flores.  A.K.A. Juan Leal and Juan Flores.  Source:Transtations by Robert L. Tarin, Jr, Bexar County Courthouse, Spanish Archives Dept.

iii. JOSE JOAQUIN LEAL, b. August 08, 1821, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas; d. November 1880, Graytown, Bexar County, Texas.

iv. JOSE FRANCISCO LEAL, b. July 03, 1824, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas; m. MARIA-GERTRUDIS SMITH-RUIZ; b. January 19, 1826, San Fernando Cathederal, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.

Children of JUANA-ISIDORA LEAL-AROCHA and VICENTE-MANUEL TARIN-ARAUJO are:

v. MANUEL-ANTONIO-SANTIAGO⁶ TARIN-LEAL, b. July 26, 1811, San Fernando, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas; d. Aft. 1849; m. MARIA LUISA CASARES.

vi. JOSE-VICENTE-DEL-CARMEN-NASARIO TARIN-LEAL, b. April 26, 1814, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas; m. CONCEPCION RUIZ, October 13, 1842, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.

vii. JUAN-MARIA-DEL-SACRAMENTO TARIN-LEAL, b. December 26, 1816, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas; m. MARIA-JOSEFA RIVAS-SEGUIN, January 04, 1838, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas; b. December 15, 1820, San Fernando, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas; d. Abt. 1875, Graytown, Bexar County, Texas.

viii. JOSE-JOAQUIN TARIN-LEAL, b. August 08, 1821, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas; d. November 17, 1880, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas; m. MARIA-PETRA-DE-LOS-ANGELES SEGUIN-RODRIGUEZ, January 17, 1842, San Fernando, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas; b. August 01, 1821, San Fernando, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas; d. February 25, 1904, Graytown, Wilson County, Texas.

Notes for JOSE-JOAQUIN TARIN-LEAL:  He is listed on the 1850 Agricultural Census for Bexar County. Source:Our Heritage, Volume 42. #3-4. Publication of the San Antonio Genealogical and Historical Society. Spring & Summer 2001.

ix. ANTONIO-MACARIO TARIN-LEAL, b. July 08, 1824, San Fernando, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas; m. (1) MARIA-GERTRUDIS SMITH-RUIZ, March 25, 1847, San Fernando Cathederal, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas; b. January 19, 1826, San Fernando Cathederal, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas; m. (2) JUANITA RUIZ, March 07, 1875, Graytown, Wilson County, Texas.

12. JOSE-IGNACIO-OCTAVIO⁵ AROCHA-ROMERO (TOMAS-ANTONIO-DE-LA-TRINIDAD⁴ DE AROCHA, SIMON-FRANCISCO³, FRANCISCO-JOSEPH², SIMON¹) was born May 07, 1802 in San Fernando Cathederal, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas. He married MARIA-JUANA GARCIA. She was born 1806 in San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.

Notes for JOSE-IGNACIO-OCTAVIO AROCHA-ROMERO: He is listed on the 1830 Census of San Antonio, Texas. From the book 1830 Citizens of Texas by Gifford E. White. Page 108.

Notes for MARIA-JUANA GARCIA: She is listed on the 1830 Census of San Antonio, Texas. From the book 1830 Citizens of Texas by Gifford E. White. Page 108.

Children of JOSE-IGNACIO-OCTAVIO AROCHA-ROMERO and MARIA-JUANA GARCIA are:

i. TOMAS⁶ AROCHA-GARCIA, b. 1825, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.

ii. REFUGIO AROCHA-GARCIA, b. 1827, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.

iii. JOSE ANTONIO AROCHA-GARCIA, b. 1828, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.

iv. MANUELA AROCHA-GARCIA, b. 1829, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.

v. JOSE IGNACIO AROCHA-GARCIA, b. September 11, 1832, San Fernando Cathederal, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.

vi. SIMON DE JESUS AROCHA-GARCIA, b. February 23, 1834, San Fernando Cathederal, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.

13. ANTONIO-CRUZ⁵ AROCHA-XIMENES (JOSE-MIGUEL-DAMIAN-DE-LA-TRINIDAD⁴ DE AROCHA, SIMON-FRANCISCO³, FRANCISCO-JOSEPH², SIMON¹) was born 1812 in San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas. He married MARIA DE JESUS PENA.

Children of ANTONIO-CRUZ AROCHA-XIMENES and MARIA PENA are:

i. ALEJANDRO⁶ AROCHA-PENA, b. May 07, 1841, San Fernando Cathederal, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.

ii. MARIA JULIA CONCEPCION AROCHA-PENA, b. May 07, 1843, San Fernando Cathederal, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas; m. VICTOR BEZE.

iii. CANUTA AROCHA-PENA, b. Abt. 1844, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.

iv. EPITACIO ANTONIO AROCHA-PENA, b. May 31, 1851, San Fernando Cathederal, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.

v. IGNACIO AROCHA-PENA, b. January 24, 1853, San Fernando Cathederal, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.

14. JOSE-LINO⁵ AROCHA-XIMENES (JOSE-MIGUEL-DAMIAN-DE-LA-TRINIDAD⁴ DE AROCHA, SIMON-FRANCISCO³, FRANCISCO-JOSEPH², SIMON¹) was born September 25, 1817 in San Fernando Cathederal, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas. He married INCARNACION DE URRUTIA¹ May 06, 1841 in San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas, daughter of JUAN-ANTONIO-BACILO DE URRUTIA and MARIA-IGNACIA-APOLONIA-DE-LA-TRINIDAD LEAL-AROCH. She was born 1811 in San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas¹, and died WFT Est. 1808-1899¹.

Notes for JOSE-LINO AROCHA-XIMENES:  He is listed on the 1830 Census of San Antonio, Texas Source:1830 Citizens of Texas by Gifford E. White.

Notes for INCARNACION DE URRUTIA:
Information from the book - Texas Marriages Early to 1850, compiled, extracted and transcribed by Liahona Research, Inc.   LDS film #1760896

Children of JOSE-LINO AROCHA-XIMENES and INCARNACION DE URRUTIA are:

i. MARIA-TRINIDAD⁶ AROCHA-URRUTIA, b. Abt. 1842, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.

ii. MARIA-JOSEFA-DEL-REFUGIO AROCHA-URRUTIA, b. September 15, 1844, San Fernando Cathederal, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas; m. ANDRES BROWN.

iii. PEDRO-LINO AROCHA-URRUTIA, b. August 26, 1847, San Fernando Cathederal, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas; m. MARIA ENGRACIA DE-LA-GARZA.

iv. MARIA-IGNACIA-MARTA AROCHA-URRUTIA, b. August 11, 1849, San Fernando Cathederal, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.

v. JUAN ANTONIO REFUGIO DEL S AROCHA-URRUTIA, b. April 19, 1851, San Fernando, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.

vi. REFUGIO EPITANIO AROCHA-URRUTIA, b. June 02, 1853, San Fernando Cathederal, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.

15. IGNACIO⁵ AROCHA-SALINAS (JOSE-IGNACIO-DE-LA-CANDELARIA⁴ DE AROCHA, SIMON-FRANCISCO³, FRANCISCO-JOSEPH², SIMON¹) was born 1795 in San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas. He married MARIA-JUANA GARCIA-DE-BEJAR.

Child of IGNACIO AROCHA-SALINAS and MARIA-JUANA GARCIA-DE-BEJAR is:

i. MARIA-MANUELA⁶ AROCHA-GARCIA, m. JOSE PEREZ.

Endnotes: 1.        Brøderbund Software, Inc., World Family Tree Vol. 6, Ed. 1, (Release date: August 22, 1996), "CD-ROM," Tree #4100, Date of Import: Sep 10, 1998.

 [[Editor's note: This pedigree has very special meaning to me, 
Maria Manuel Arocha Gacia de Bejar is my gggg grandmother.]]  

EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI

INTRODUCTION Since 1519, when the Spanish explorer Alonso Alverez de Pineda led an expedition along the northern shores of the Gulf of Mexico and discovered the mouth of the mighty Mississippi, Spanish culture has influenced Louisiana. The Spanish-language manuscript resources in the Louisiana and Lower Mississippi Valley Collections (LLMVC) at LSU touch upon all these sources of Spanish cultural influence. This guide to these resources includes descriptions of the papers of early colonists, Spanish-speaking people and free people of color in the nineteenth century, and residents of cities and towns like New Orleans and Natchitoches. The documents it describes came from farmers and merchants, writers and artists, women and men, the famous and the anonymous. 

Collections in this guide are listed alphabetically, with a chronological index after the alphabetical listing. Brief descriptions include references to sources for additional information--either the LSU Libraries' catalog, which is accessible through the Internet, or the manuscript card catalog in the Special Collections reading room of Hill Memorial Library. Still additional information on some of these collections can be found in detailed finding aids in the reading room. Increasingly, electronic copies of these finding aids can be found on the World Wide Web site for Special Collections, where you can also find information about using the collections, searching the online catalog remotely, and asking us questions.

Hill Memorial Library / Louisiana State University
Baton Rouge, LA 70803
Public Services Desk: (225) 578-6544
Reference Desk: (225) 578-6568
Fax (225) 578-9425

EAST COAST

Washington, D. C. , Hispanic Family History Conference, Oct 1-2
State's Latino immigrants toil to uplift home folks
Summer days a time for learning
It was the alphabet that brought the three friends together.
Lib of Virginia, "Revolutionary War Pension Records, Veterans, Widows"  

"Hispanic Genealogy: The U.S. and its Cultures"

Friday, October 1-2
National Archives and Records Administration

DRAFT
This information will be updated weekly on the NARA website, http://www.archives.gov/about_us/calendar_of _events/index.html
Or on the "National Archives Lecture Program E-mail Newsletter"

Interested patrons can contact:
Sam Anthony, Director of Lecture Programs, 
National Archives and Records Administration, 
700 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20408
(202) 208-7345 phone
(202) 501-5248 fax
sam.anthony@nara.gov

Saturday, October 2
All events will be held in Conference Rooms

State's Latino immigrants toil to uplift home folks

Maryland's immigrants from Latin America outdo their countrymen in other states at sending money to those they left behind, study finds
By Stacey Hirsh, Baltimore Sun Staff, originally published May 26, 2004
Sent by Howard Shorr  howardshorr@msn.com

Five days a week, Eduardo Castro works as a foreman for a construction company, overseeing building projects, making sure all the supplies are delivered and keeping the job on budget.

Then, once a month he goes to a small grocery store in Fells Point where the clerk speaks only Spanish and wires between $200 and $400 home to El Salvador. There, the money has paid off his parents' house and his sister's telephone and water bills and is helping to finance his niece's college education.

"One of the reasons that most of us come up here is to try to help our families. It's more for economical reasons if not political," said Castro, 35, who left his family and emigrated to the United States in 1990.

Latin American immigrants in Maryland send more money home on average than Latinos working in any other state, and they send it more often, a new study of immigrant spending patterns has found.

About 80 percent of Maryland's more than 170,000 Latin American immigrants are expected to wire money home this year, sending an average of almost $3,000.

Maryland immigrants typically send money to their home country an average of 14.8 times per year, compared with the national average of 12.6 times a year, according to a study commissioned by the Inter-American Development Bank, a Washington-based group that focuses on the economic development of Latin America and the Caribbean.

That generosity reflects the relative youth of Maryland's Hispanic immigrant population and underlines its relatively recent growth, experts say. Young immigrants are more likely to have family back home than are older workers who might have sent for their relatives, the experts say.

One in four Maryland immigrants sending money home is between the ages of 18 and 24; across the nation, 15 percent are in that age group.

Maryland's immigrants are newer to the country than those in other states, in part because they have been lured by the state's recent strong economic growth and jobs in Washington and its suburbs. Maryland "has a relatively recent migration pattern of adults from Latin America," said Donald Terry, manager of the multilateral investment fund of the Inter-American Development Bank.

Immigrants in states with longer histories of immigration, such as Texas and California, have had more time for families to join them in the United States, so they might not need to send as much money as newer immigrants do, such as those in Maryland, Terry said. And more recent arrivals might feel stronger ties to their home countries and be more likely to send money home.

About 60 percent of the 16.7 million Latin American adults in the United States send money home regularly. By the end of the year, they are expected to have sent $30 billion to their home countries, according to the study.

The study, which has a 3 percent margin of error for national information and 5 percent for state information, was compiled using census data and a survey of 3,800 households. Washington and 37 states were surveyed. Some states were not included because their combined populations included less than 1 percent of the Latin American adults living in the United States.

Gustavo Torres, executive director of the immigrant advocacy group CASA of Maryland, sends money home to his mother in Colombia every month. He emigrated to the United States a dozen years ago and said his contributions to Latin America are critical for both his family and his community.

Spending in U.S. :"I'm very proud to make a contribution both here and in my country," Torres said.  The workers sending money home to Latin America range from blue-collar laborers to professionals such as Torres. Experts and immigrant advocates say they also pump money into the U.S. economy by providing a labor force, paying rent and mortgages and, in some cases, starting businesses.

Workers typically send about 10 percent of their income home, leaving 90 percent of it in the United States to be spent on American goods and in sales and income taxes, Terry said.

"This is a huge, huge macroeconomic phenomenon," said Paul Dwyer, chief executive officer of Viamericas, a Bethesda-based company that handles money transfers to Latin America.

Money sent home by immigrants is different from other flows of money overseas because there is no intermediary, such as the government. The money goes directly to where it is needed without a public authority deciding how it will trickle down, Dwyer said.

The cost of sending money home varies with its destination. It costs $10 to send up to $3,000 to El Salvador through Viamericas. The cost of sending money to Colombia is $4 for up to $100, then 4 percent of anything more than $100, he said.

It was the alphabet that brought the three friends together.

Jashona Harris and Stephanie Huiza are H's, so ever since middle school, teachers have been seating one right in front of the other. By the time the next row reaches the two, the teachers have arrived at the Ns, and Renee Nykolak has plunked down her books beside them.

The trio, now in the 10th grade at Long Beach High School, spend most of their day together. "Our teachers say we're joined at the hip," Huiza said.

It's an unremarkable story, really, except for a few details. Huiza is Hispanic. Nykolak is white. Harris is black.

That a quirk of the alphabet could have led to such an interracial friendship says as much about the Long Beach public schools as it does about the three teens.

While Long Island's schools are some of the most racially segregated in the nation, the Long Beach district is one of the exceptions. According to state Education Department statistics, 65 percent of Long Beach's students are white, 12 percent are black, and 19 percent are Hispanic.

The school district, which performs about average academically compared with other Long Island districts, also is economically diverse, ranging from children who live in ritzy waterfront homes to those who inhabit public housing projects.

"Long Beach is a very thriving, multicultural community," said Long Beach school Superintendent Ron Friedman, who has been working in the district since the 1980s. "I've seen the community evolve over 20 years, and everything I've seen about the diversity has been positive."

With its integrated population, Long Beach may have come close to achieving the goal of the Supreme Court justices who issued Brown v. Board of Education 50 years ago this month, but that hasn't translated to academic success for the bulk of its black students, who are still rare in honors classes and yet plentiful in the special education program.

And though the atmosphere in the schools is for the most part friendly, many students say that during lunch and after school, they tend to stick to those of their own race. Finally, school leaders say getting non-white parents involved is a constant struggle because they are often struggling financially and lack time and transportation to participate.

Running such a racially mixed school without conflict is nearly impossible, says vice principal Ismael Colón. "If anyone tells you that they are, I don't believe it."

The bell rings on a recent day, and kids spill into the halls. White girls strut down the hall, sporting big hoop earrings. Hispanic boys mimic hip-hop artists, showing off pants that slide off their hips. The halls smell sweet, a mixture of shampoo, lip balm and sweat.  Because this is Long Beach, a city by the sea, nearly everyone wears flip-flops.

For the most part, say students of all races, the mix works. "Everyone gets along," said Qaseem Owens, who is 17 and a junior. Qaseem, who is black, was elected "homecoming prince" of his class this year. In addition, this year's senior class elected a black girl to be homecoming queen and a Hispanic boy to be homecoming king.  Qaseem's friends, he says, come from many backgrounds. "And I'm not the only one like this," he said. "Everybody's cool with everybody."

Diverse leadership

His upbeat analysis pleases high school administrators, who themselves are a diverse cast. Principal Nicholas Restivo is white. His two vice principals, Colón and Anthony Bridgeman, are Hispanic and black, respectively.

Their aim, Colón says, is not necessarily to eliminate racial divisions, but to make all students feel that they have a stake in the community. For this reason, they focus on school wide events, such as homecoming, pep rallies and Valentine's Day dances, to bring students together. "We try to promote school spirit, and unity," he said.

Still, many students - and the administrators themselves - acknowledge that divisions remain. Harris, for example, says she is one of only two black students in her 10th-grade honors classes. And many students noted that special education classes are dominated by black students. Hispanic students follow a similar pattern, Restivo said, but to a lesser degree.

Few students placed the blame on overt racism on the part of the school district. "I think it's because of the parents," Harris said. "I think my mother would kill me if I got an 80." But, she noted, one of her cousins regularly skips school but is not punished.

Many black students don't push themselves, said senior Paul Solomon, who is black and in Regents classes. "I feel like a lot of kids, they could be in the honors classes, but they don't work as hard," he said.

Bridgeman agreed. "I think there's a perception - a mindset - that they don't want to look too good for their friends," he said. "We have to really debunk that."

Another factor, say Bridgeman and Restivo, is that Long Beach's black children have few positive role models. "That's a big void," Bridgeman said.

While the community's white families range from the working class to the extremely rich, much of the black population is poor, Restivo said. When he first arrived at the district two years ago, he said he kept noticing that parents' nights, concerts, and plays were dominated by white moms and dads.

Lynn Gergen, president of the Central Council of the Long Beach Parent-Teacher Association, said her group has few minority members. One factor, she said, may be that many black and Hispanic families are struggling financially. "I remember one husband saying to me, 'How can we come to a PTA meeting? I work all day and my wife works all night. Where do you think we have the time?'" she said.

In the past couple of years, Restivo, Bridgeman and Colón have made regular visits to black and Hispanic churches and civic group meetings. When few minority families showed up at an informational meeting for parents of juniors one year, Restivo wondered if some were having a hard time getting to the school.

So this past fall, he sent a bus to several neighborhoods to pick up parents who didn't have a ride. The effort brought in only six parents, but it was a start, Restivo said.

"It's a work in progress," Bridgeman said.

Like countless generations of students before them, lunch hour is where Long Beach's social topography is laid bare. Amid the smell of French fries, and beneath a row of flags from El Salvador, Israel, Italy and Puerto Rico, the students sort themselves out.

Goths and punks sit at one table, the lacrosse team another. The students also divide themselves along racial lines. While at least half a dozen tables are racially mixed, an equal number are exclusively white, black and Hispanic.

As to whether students of different racial groups mix socially, "for the most part I don't think so," said Allyson Conner, a junior, who is white. Her table was white, with the exception of one half-Hispanic boy. "Everyone kind of stays with their own race."

It's a situation that may alarm outsiders, but is of little concern to the students. "I think everyone feels comfortable within their own group," said Pam Romero, a senior, who was eating with a group of mostly black and Hispanic girls.

Though she and the other girls said they felt pride in their school, several said they never buy the yearbook.

"It's mostly white people," said Atthis Nunez, a sophomore. She said the yearbook's candid shots of students did not include many black or Hispanic faces, a fact she attributed less to racism than to the fact that the mostly white yearbook committee tends to take pictures of their friends.

However, minority faces also are missing from many club and team photographs. The National Honors Society, for example, is virtually all white, as are the swim and lacrosse teams. The school band and chorus are often dominated by white students, despite efforts by school officials to change it.

Students self-segregate

Though Harris, Nykolak and Huiza are inseparable during school hours, the three often go separate ways after school. Harris has been to Nykolak's house many times to study or to work on projects, but Nykolak has never visited Harris. Nykolak and Huiza hang out socially, but Harris says she is more likely to spend time with her cousins. "They live in my neighborhood," she said.

Harris's friendship with Nykolak and Huiza, in addition to her achievement in school, doesn't come without ribbing from her cousins and other black friends. "They call me white. They say I talk like a white person," she said. "But I don't care."

Web Site of Interest: Library of Virginia  http://www.lva.lib.va.us
The Library of Virginia has added a number of new collections to its web site, including "Revolutionary War Pension Records for Veterans and Widows" and "Public Service Claims for Compensation." Some of their databases have scanned images of the original records. For military records there is a search engine that will search all databases at once.
Source: South Texas Researcher, Volume II, Number 7 July 2004

MEXICO

Generation No. 2

2. CAPTAIN IGNACIO2 ZARAGOZA-SEGUIN (MIGUEL G.1 ZARAGOZA) was born March 24, 1829 in La Bahia, Goliad County, Texas, and died September 08, 1862 in Puebla, Mexico. He married RAFAELA PADILLA-DE-LA-GARZA January 21, 1857 in Sagrario Metro, Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico, daughter of JOSE-MARIA PADILLA and MARIA-JUSTA DE-LA-GARZA. She was born November 01, 1836 in Nuestra Sra de Guadalupe, Salinas Victoria, Nuevo Leon, Mexico.

Notes for CAPTAIN IGNACIO ZARAGOZA-SEGUIN:

Ignacio Zaragoza Seguin, (1829-1862). Militar. Héroe Nacional. Nació en la Bahía del Espíritu Santo. En Matamoros, Tamaulipas a fines de 1836 hace su instrucción primaria y después en Monterrey cursa estudios de preparatoria en el Seminario. En 1846, al iniciarse la Guerra de Intervención Americana, pidió su ingreso al ejército para batirse contra el enemigo, pero no logró su incorporación. En 1850 regresa a Monterrey con su padre quien obtuvo el retiro del ejército; trabaja como empleado de comercio y en 1853 sienta plaza en la Guardia Nacional del Estado de nuevo León iniciando su carrera militar; en 1855 tenía el grado de capitán y el 30 de mayo de dicho año secundó los Planes de Ayutla y de Lampazos desde Ciudad Victoria marchando hacia Monterrey para ponerse a las órdenes de Vidaurri con 113 hombres de tropa y algunos oficiales; participó en la ocupación de Saltillo en 1855 y obtuvo el grado de coronel después de la derrota del gobierno de Santa Anna, y al sobrevenir la Guerra de Reforma a fines de 1857 Zaragoza permanece fiel al bando liberal destacando en diversas acciones en Silao, Guadalajara y Calpulalpan, ascendiendo en 1860 al grado de general. En 1861 fue ministro de Guerra y Marina en el Gobierno del presidente Benito Juárez, cargo al que renunció para tomar el mando de una división frente a la Intervención Francesa que se iniciaba, participando en la Batalla de Acultzingo del 28 de abril de 1862, siendo nombrado días después por el Presidente Juárez, Comandante en Jefe del Ejército de Oriente en substitución de José López Uraga y con ese cargo dirigió la defensa de la ciudad de Puebla obteniendo la famosa victoria del cinco de mayo. El 8 de septiembre del mismo año, víctima de tifo, murió en su cuartel general en Puebla. Zaragoza no sólo pasó a la historia como héroe nacional sino también como reorganizador del Ejército Mexicano. Se le declaró Benemérito de la Patria. (Arroyo Llano, Rodolfo: Ignacio Zaragoza, Monterrey 1962; Ramírez Fentanes, Luis: Zaragoza, Secretaría de la Defensa Nacional. México, 1962; E. D. M., T. 12, 1130 y 1131). 

In 1852, hero of Cinco de Mayo at Puebla.

Source:From the book, Juan Cortina and the Texas-Mexico Frontier by Jerry D. Thompson.

Captain Ignacio Seguín Zaragoza, Mexican general and hero of Cinco de Mayo, was born on March 24, 1829, at Bahía del Espíritu Santo, Goliad in the state of Texas. He was the second son of Don Miguel G. Zaragoza of Veracruz, Mexico, and Dona María de Jesús Seguín of Bexar, who was a relative of Juan José Erasmo Seguín. With Mexico's defeat in the Texas Revolution, Miguel Zaragoza, an infantryman, moved his family from Goliad to Matamoros, where Ignacio attended the school of San Juan. The elder Zaragoza was transferred to Monterrey in 1844, and Ignacio entered a seminary there. Initially he wanted to be a lawyer and priest. By 1846 he realized that he did not have a strong vocation and left. When the United States invaded Mexico, he volunteered to serve as a cadet in the Mexican army but was rejected. He entered the mercantile business for a short time, and in 1853, he joined the National Guard of Nuevo León with the rank of sergeant, this began a brilliant military career, with the high point of which was the Battle of Puebla. When his regiment was incorporated into the Mexican army, he was promoted to captain.

Children of IGNACIO ZARAGOZA-SEGUIN and RAFAELA PADILLA-DE-LA-GARZA are:

i. IGNACIO-ESTANISLAO3 ZARAGOZA-PADILLA, b. November 22, 1858, Sagrario Metropolitano, Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico.

ii. RAFAELA ZARAGOZA-PADILLA, b. July 01, 1860, Sagrario Metropolitano, Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico.

Generation No. 7

43. ISIDORO⁹ LONGORIA-CISNEROS (REFUGIO⁸ CISNEROS-PEREZ, JUAN-NEPOMUCENO⁷ CISNEROS-SALINAS, JUAN-NEPOMUCENO⁶ CISNEROS-GUAJARDO, MARIA-ANTONIA⁵ GUAJARDO-VILLARREAL, MARIA-IGNACIA⁴ DE VILLARREAL-TREVINO, CRISTOBAL³ DE VILLARREAL-DE-LAS-CASAS, DIEGO² DE VILLARREAL, FRANCISCO¹ VILLARREAL) was born October 03, 1857 in Matamoros, Tamaulipus, Mexico, and died June 24, 1904 in Matamoros, Tamaulipus, Mexico. He married MARGILA CISNEROS-GOMEZ December 22, 1885 in Cameron County, Texas, daughter of FELIX CISNEROS-LONGORIA and MARIA GOMEZ-CHAPA. She was born Abt. 1865 in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico.

Children of ISIDORO LONGORIA-CISNEROS and MARGILA CISNEROS-GOMEZ are:

44. MARGILA⁹ CISNEROS-GOMEZ (FELIX⁸ CISNEROS-LONGORIA, JOSE-RAMON⁷ CISNEROS-SALINAS, JUAN-NEPOMUCENO⁶ CISNEROS-GUAJARDO, MARIA-ANTONIA⁵ GUAJARDO-VILLARREAL, MARIA-IGNACIA⁴ DE VILLARREAL-TREVINO, CRISTOBAL³ DE VILLARREAL-DE-LAS-CASAS, DIEGO² DE VILLARREAL, FRANCISCO¹ VILLARREAL) was born Abt. 1865 in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico. She married ISIDORO LONGORIA-CISNEROS December 22, 1885 in Cameron County, Texas, son of JOSE-ALEJANDRO LONGORIA-CHAPA and REFUGIO CISNEROS-PEREZ. He was born October 03, 1857 in Matamoros, Tamaulipus, Mexico, and died June 24, 1904 in Matamoros, Tamaulipus, Mexico.

Children are listed above under (43) Isidoro Longoria-Cisneros.

45. MARIA-APOLONIA⁹ ALEJANDRO-GUAJARDO (MARIA-DE-JESUS⁸ GUAJARDO-VALLE, PEDRO-JOSE⁷ GUAJARDO-ELIZONDO, PEDRO-JOSEPH⁶ GUAJARDO-DEL-RIO, CRISTOBAL⁵ GUAJARDO-VILLARREAL, MARIA-IGNACIA⁴ DE VILLARREAL-TREVINO, CRISTOBAL³ DE VILLARREAL-DE-LAS-CASAS, DIEGO² DE VILLARREAL, FRANCISCO¹ VILLARREAL) was born April 14, 1860 in San Pedro, Villaldama, Nuevo Leon, Mexico. She married (1) URBANO SANCHEZ-DE-LA-SERNA, son of JUAN-ANTONIO SANCHEZ and MARIA-DOLORES DE-LA-SERNA. He was born July 18, 1861 in San Jose, Sabinas Hidalgo, Nuevo Leon, Mexico. She married (2) MARCIAL SANCHEZ-VILLARREAL, son of JOSE-NOBERTO SANCHEZ-DE-LA-SERNA and MARIA-SALOME VILLARREAL-FLORES. He was born July 02, 1862 in San Jose, Sabinas Hidalgo, Nuevo Leon, Mexico, and died October 24, 1927 in Cotulla, La Salle County, Texas.

Child of MARIA-APOLONIA ALEJANDRO-GUAJARDO and MARCIAL SANCHEZ-VILLARREAL is:

46. MARIA ROMANA⁹ ALEJANDRO-GUAJARDO (MARIA-DE-JESUS⁸ GUAJARDO-VALLE, PEDRO-JOSE⁷ GUAJARDO-ELIZONDO, PEDRO-JOSEPH⁶ GUAJARDO-DEL-RIO, CRISTOBAL⁵ GUAJARDO-VILLARREAL, MARIA-IGNACIA⁴ DE VILLARREAL-TREVINO, CRISTOBAL³ DE VILLARREAL-DE-LAS-CASAS, DIEGO² DE VILLARREAL, FRANCISCO¹ VILLARREAL) was born March 09, 1866 in San Pedro, Boca de Leones,Villaldama,Nuevo Leon,Mexico. She married ANDRES SANCHEZ.

Child of MARIA ALEJANDRO-GUAJARDO and ANDRES SANCHEZ is:

47. DELFINA⁹ GONZALEZ-VILLARREAL (MARIA-ANTONIA⁸ VILLARREAL-ZAMBRANO, JOSE-VICTORIANO⁷ VILLARREAL-ELIZONDO, JOSE-HERMENEGILDO⁶ VILLARREAL-VILLARREAL, JOSEPH-FRANCISCO⁵ VILLARREAL-CANTU, MIGUEL⁴ DE VILLARREAL, CRISTOBAL³ DE VILLARREAL-DE-LAS-CASAS, DIEGO² DE VILLARREAL, FRANCISCO¹ VILLARREAL) was born December 24, 1876 in Hacienda de Mezquital, Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico, and died January 01, 1958 in Carrizo Springs, Dimmit County, Texas. She married JOSE-MARTIN CANTU-DE-LA-GARZA, son of JOSE-MAURICIO CANTU and AGAPITA DE-LA-GARZA. He was born January 30, 1868 in San Nicolas Tolentino, San Nicolas de Los Garzas, Nuevo Leon, Mexico, and died December 12, 1938 in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico.

Child of DELFINA GONZALEZ-VILLARREAL and JOSE-MARTIN CANTU-DE-LA-GARZA is:

48. JOSE-LIBERADO⁹ MARTINEZ-DE-LA-GARZA (JOSE-RAFAEL⁸ MARTINEZ-VILLARREAL, MARIA-JUANA⁷ VILLARREAL-ELIZONDO, JOSE-HERMENEGILDO⁶ VILLARREAL-VILLARREAL, JOSEPH-FRANCISCO⁵ VILLARREAL-CANTU, MIGUEL⁴ DE VILLARREAL, CRISTOBAL³ DE VILLARREAL-DE-LAS-CASAS, DIEGO² DE VILLARREAL, FRANCISCO¹ VILLARREAL) was born August 16, 1853 in Marin, Nuevo Leon, Mexico. He married MARIA-DE-JESUS CASTANEDA-ARREDONDO January 09, 1879 in Agualeguas, Nuevo Leon, Mexico, daughter of JOSE CASTANEDA and MARIA ARREDONDO. She was born Abt. 1859.

Child of JOSE-LIBERADO MARTINEZ-DE-LA-GARZA and MARIA-DE-JESUS CASTANEDA-ARREDONDO is:

Generation No. 8

49. MARIA-LUISA¹⁰ SANCHEZ-ALEJANDRO (MARIA-APOLONIA⁹ ALEJANDRO-GUAJARDO, MARIA-DE-JESUS⁸ GUAJARDO-VALLE, PEDRO-JOSE⁷ GUAJARDO-ELIZONDO, PEDRO-JOSEPH⁶ GUAJARDO-DEL-RIO, CRISTOBAL⁵ GUAJARDO-VILLARREAL, MARIA-IGNACIA⁴ DE VILLARREAL-TREVINO, CRISTOBAL³ DE VILLARREAL-DE-LAS-CASAS, DIEGO² DE VILLARREAL, FRANCISCO¹ VILLARREAL) was born August 29, 1887 in San Pedro, Villaldama, Nuevo Leon Mexico, and died April 10, 1956 in Cotulla, La Salle County, Texas. She met (1) ALBERTO GUAJARDO-JIMENEZ, son of JOSE-INES-DE-JESUS GUAJARDO-DE-LA-GARZA and MARIA-DE-LOS-DOLORES JIMENEZ-FLORES. He was born January 30, 1881 in San Jose, Sabinas Hidalgo, Nuevo Leon, Mexico, and died 1957 in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon,Mexico. She married (2) ANTONIO VILLARREAL. She met (3) JESUS DE-LA-GARZA-JIMENEZ.

Child of MARIA-LUISA SANCHEZ-ALEJANDRO and ALBERTO GUAJARDO-JIMENEZ is:

50. ANGELITA¹⁰ CANTU-GONZALEZ (DELFINA⁹ GONZALEZ-VILLARREAL, MARIA-ANTONIA⁸ VILLARREAL-ZAMBRANO, JOSE-VICTORIANO⁷ VILLARREAL-ELIZONDO, JOSE-HERMENEGILDO⁶ VILLARREAL-VILLARREAL, JOSEPH-FRANCISCO⁵ VILLARREAL-CANTU, MIGUEL⁴ DE VILLARREAL, CRISTOBAL³ DE VILLARREAL-DE-LAS-CASAS, DIEGO² DE VILLARREAL, FRANCISCO¹ VILLARREAL) was born August 02, 1909 in Hacienda del Mezquital, Nuevo Leon, Mexico, and died December 13, 2001 in Simi Valley, Ventura County, California. She married YNES GUAJARDO-SANCHEZ March 10, 1928 in Pearsall, Frio County, Texas, son of ALBERTO GUAJARDO-JIMENEZ and MARIA-LUISA SANCHEZ-ALEJANDRO. He was born March 29, 1904 in Sabinas Hidalgo, Nuevo Leon, Mexico, and died September 11, 1950 in San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.

Child of ANGELITA CANTU-GONZALEZ and YNES GUAJARDO-SANCHEZ is:

Generation No. 9

51. YNES¹¹ GUAJARDO-SANCHEZ (MARIA-LUISA¹⁰ SANCHEZ-ALEJANDRO, MARIA-APOLONIA⁹ ALEJANDRO-GUAJARDO, MARIA-DE-JESUS⁸ GUAJARDO-VALLE, PEDRO-JOSE⁷ GUAJARDO-ELIZONDO, PEDRO-JOSEPH⁶ GUAJARDO-DEL-RIO, CRISTOBAL⁵ GUAJARDO-VILLARREAL, MARIA-IGNACIA⁴ DE VILLARREAL-TREVINO, CRISTOBAL³ DE VILLARREAL-DE-LAS-CASAS, DIEGO² DE VILLARREAL, FRANCISCO¹ VILLARREAL) was born March 29, 1904 in Sabinas Hidalgo, Nuevo Leon, Mexico, and died September 11, 1950 in San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas. He married ANGELITA CANTU-GONZALEZ March 10, 1928 in Pearsall, Frio County, Texas, daughter of JOSE-MARTIN CANTU-DE-LA-GARZA and DELFINA GONZALEZ-VILLARREAL. She was born August 02, 1909 in Hacienda del Mezquital, Nuevo Leon, Mexico, and died December 13, 2001 in Simi Valley, Ventura County, California.

Child is listed above under (50) Angelita Cantu-Gonzalez.

EXTRACTOS DE ALGUNOS INFORMES MATRIMONIALES 
EN EL OBISPADO DE MICHOACÁN,
 REFERENTES A LA ALCALDÍA MAYOR DE LEÓN, 
DURANTE EL SIGLO XVII


GUILLERMO PADILLA ORIGEL
1645-1685

1 DE MAYO DE 1645 Villa de León
Don Pedro López de Aguirre, residente en esta villa ; con Catalina de Veurco, hija legítima de Joanes de Veurco y Ana de la Parra, residente en esta villa.

25 de marzo de 1650 Pénjamo
Nicolás Méndez, vecino de este pueblo ; con María García, hija legítima de Joseph García y Francisca de Andrada.

23 de abril de 1652 Villa de León
Don Francisco de Segura, español, hijo legítimo de Don Martín de Segura y Mariana de Genagurría, vecinos de la villa de San Sebastián , en la provincia de Guipúzcoa ; con Doña Isabel de Ulloa y Jeréz, hija legítima de Don Alonso de Ulloa y Doña Juana de Jeréz, vecinos de esta villa.

20 de julio de 1652 Villa de León
Diego de Herrera, mestizo, hijo de Pedro de Herrera y Juana de Ocampo, mestizos, vecinos del pueblo de San Luis ; con Micaela de Murguía, hija legítima de Mateo Sánchez y Francisca Hernández, mestizos, vecinos de esta villa.

26 de noviembre de 1652 Pénjamo
Don Juan Pérez de Bocanegra, vecino de la hacienda de Cuerámaro, de este partido de Pénjamo, jur. de la villa de León, h.l. del Capitán Marcos Mexía de Bocanegra y de Doña María de Xaramillo y Mendoza, vecinos que fueron de la dicha hacienda.

20 de diciembre de 1653 Pénjamo
Nicolás Arias Maldonado, viudo, vecino de este partido ; con María de Segura, hija legítima de Juan Alonso de Segura y Leonor de Bribiesca.

20 de mayo de 1656 Pénjamo
Diego Rodríguez, vecino de este pueblo, hijo legítimo de Diego Rodríguez y Agustina de Villaseca ; con María García, vecino de este partido, hija legítima de Pedro Zentril e Isabel García.

24 de noviembre de 1658 Pénjamo
Francisco Gómez de Lara, vecino de este paartido ; con Jerónima de Castro, hija legítima de Antonio de Castro y Margarita de Lara.

12 de octubre de 1659 Villa de León
Gabriel Candelas, natural de la ciudad de Granada, en los reinos de Castilla, hijo legítimo de Don Bartolomé Sánchez del Barco y Ana de Candelas ; con Catalina Pacheco, hija legítima de Joseph de Pacheco y María de Landeros, vecinos de esta villa.

24 de diciembre de 1659 Villa de León
Manuel Pachco, vecino de esta villa, hijo legítimo de Joseph de Pacheco y María de Landeros ; con Catalina de Zendejas.

4 de diciembre de 1659 Villa de León
Joseph Ortiz de Parada, español, natural de esta villa ; con Elvira de Aguilar y Castro, hija legítima del capitán Alonso de Aguilar y Ventosillo y de Doña María de Castro y Busto.

28 de junio de 1659 Villa de León
Francisco de Morales, natural de esta villa, hijo legítimo de Jacinto de Morales y María de Medina ; con Josefa de Villanueva.

29 de junio de 1659 Villa de León
Jorge Duarte, vecino de esta villa ; con Ana de Álvarez, hija legítima de Diego de Álvarez y Catalina Barbosa.

13 de abril de 1660 San Francisco del Rincón
Francisco Barajas, vecino de esta jur. ; con María Durán, hija legítima de Alonso Durán y Beatriz Ramírez, vecinos de esta jur.

14 de abril de 1660 San Francisco del Rincón
Alonso de Tapia, vecino de la villa de Santa María de los Lagos ; con Juana Pérez, hija legítima de Juan Pérez Domínguez y Magdalena de Torres, vecinos de esta jur.

15 de junio de 1660 San Francisco del Rincón
Nicolás Sánchez Bañales, de la villa de León ; con María López, vecina de esta jurisdicción.

I de octubre de 1660 Villa de León
Pedro Márquez de Arroyo, natural de Córdova, en los reinos de Castilla, vago, hijo legítimo de Pedro Márquez de Arroyo y María de la Paz ; con Juana de Figueroa, natural de la villa de San Felipe, hija legítima de Francisco Álvarez Barretos y Mariana de Figueroa, vecinos de esta villa.

8 de mayo de 1661 Villa de León
Nicolás de Villalpando, vecino de esta villa ; con Juana Resines, hija legítima de Cristóbal Resines y María Lozano, vecinos que fueron del pueblo de San Francisco del Rincón.

27 de junio de 1661 Villa de León
Cristóbal Barrera, vecino de esta villa ; con Tomasa de Gurrustiola, hija legítima de Bartolomé de Gurrustiola y Magdalena Briceño Torres, vecinos de esta villa.

30 de enero de 1661 Villa de León
Antonio de Torres, vecino de esta villa, natural de la isla de la gran Canaria ; con Teodora de Bustos, hija legítima de Juan Moreno de Lázaro y María de Bustos.

16 de febrero de 1661 Villa de León
Francisco Ramírez, hijo legítimo de Alonso Arias y Teresa Martín, naturales de Cartana del Ducado de Béjar, en Castilla ; con Ana García, hija legítima de Bartolomé García y María de Orellana, originarios de la ciudad de San Luis Potosí y vecinos de esta villa.

1 de enero de 1662 Villa de León
Mateo de Villanueva Sandoval, vecino de esta villa ; con María Ortiz de Parada, hija legítima de Lázaro Ortiz de Parada y Catalina de Ulloa y Xeréz, viuda de Alonso Sánchez Bañales.

12 de mayo de 1662 Pénjamo
Joseph de Alcocer, vecino de esta jur. , viudo de Antonia Arredondo y Bracamonte ; con Doña Ana de Leyva, hija legítima de Don Pedro de Zurita y Leonor de Rentería y Leyva, vecinos que fueron de la ciudad de Sombrerete.

13 de enero de 1662 Pénjamo
Agustín Velásquez de Luque, vecino de este partido, hijo legítimo de Cristóbal de Luque y Luisa de Arguello, vecinos de Valladolid ; con Dominga Sánchez, hija legítima de Nicolás de Carvajal y María Gómez.

22 de mayo de 1663 Villa de León
Francisco de Navarrete, natural de los reinos de Castilla, en la Rioja, de la villa de San Ascencio, hijo legítimo de Pedro Navarrete y Catalina de Ávalos ; con Doña Leonor de Aguilar, hija legítima de Don Alonso de Aguilar y Ventosillo.

23 de octubre de 1663 Pénjamo
Juan de Herrera, vecino de esta jur. ; con Josefa de Castañeda y Santoyo, hija legítima de Juan Pérez de Santoyo y Catalina de Castañeda.

19 de julio de 1665 Villa de León
Joseph de Navia, vecino de esta villa, hijo legítimo de Juan Crisóstomo de Navia y María de Sarabia, vecinos que fueron de la ciudad de México ; con Juana Ponce de Léon, hija legítima de Juan de Jaso y Tomasa de Ontiveros, vecinos de esta villa.

19 de septiembre de 1665 Villa de León
Antonio de Villegas, vecino de la villa de Lagos ; con Ana Marmolejo y Bustos, hija legítima de Don Pedro Marmolejo y Josefa de Bustos, vecinos de esta villa.

17 de agosto de 1666 Pénjamo
Manuel de Ortega, vecino de esta jur., en la hacienda de Corralejo, viudo de Leonor Ortiz ; con Clara de Saavedra, hija legítima de Juan de Saavedra y María de Villegas.

24 de agosto de 1666 Villa de León
Feliciano de Espinoza, vecino de esta villa, hijo legítimo de Antonio de Espinoza y Ana de Torres, vecinos de la ciudad de México ; con Francisca de la Paz, hija legítima de Francisco Rodríguez y María de Saucedo, vecinos de esta villa.

1 de octubre de 1666 Villa de León
Juan Cordero de Alanís, español, natural de la villa de Yerena, provincia de Extremadura, en los reinos de Castilla ; con Ana de Aguilera y Vera, hija legítima de Pedro de Aguilera y Josefa de Vera, vecinos de esta villa.

12 de marzo de 1666 San Francisco del Rincón
Diego Martín, vecino de este partido, natural del pueblo de Huichapa, hijo legítimo de Domingo Martín y Catalina de Oria ; con Juana de Santoyo, vecina de Pénjamo, hija legítima de Juan Pérez de Santoyo y Catalina de Castañeda.

9 de abril de 1667 Villa de León
Juan de Roxas, nacido en la ciudad de Tlaxcala, hijo legítimo de Luis de Roxas y Catalina de Alfaro ; con Juana de Aguilera, hija legítima de Pedro de Aguilera y Josefa de Vera.

8 de septiembre de 1667 San Francisco del Rincón
Simón de Torres Quesada, natural de la villa de los Lagos y vecino de este pueblo, hijo legítimo de Joseph de Torres e Isabel de Quesada ; con Gertrudis Ramírez, vecina de este pueblo.

26 de febrero de 1668 San Francisco del Rincón
Francisco López de Medina, natural y vecino de este partido, hijo legítimo de Juan López de Medina y Jerónima de la Cruz , vecina del dicho paartido ; con María Magdalena Hernández, natural de la villa de los Lagos, hija legítima de Lázaro Hernández y María Magdalena.

23 de noviembre de 1668 Pénjamo
Alonso Bravo, vecino de este pueblo, hijo legítimo de Alonso Bravo y Leonor Montero ; con María de Magaña, hija legítima de Andrés de Magaña y Catalina de la Cruz.

27 de abril de 1669 Pénjamo
Diego de León Betancur, vecino de esta doctrina ; con Antonia Hernández, hija legítima de Gabriel Hernández y Teresa de Campos.

18 de octubre de 1669 Villa de León
Juan de Herrera, vecino de esta villa, hijo legítimo de Diego de Herrera y María de Suazo, vecinos que fueron de la ciudad de México ; con María Moreno, hija legítima de Juan Moreno de la Rúa y María de Bustos y Villavicencio, vecinos de esta villa.

15 de febrero de 1670 Pénjamo
Jerónimo Gaytán, hijo legítimo de Juan de Gaytán y Margarita Zavala, vecinos de este pueblo; con Juana Calderón, de la parroquia de Huaniqueo.

20 de abril de 1670 Villa de León
Lucas de Gaona, vecino de esta villa, hijo legítimo de Lucas de Gaona y María de Yllesca, vecinos y naturales de la ciudad de Viana, provincia de Navarra, en los reinos de Castilla ; con Sebastiana de Espejo, hija legítima de Antonio Chávez e Isabel de Espejo, vecinos de esta villa.

3 de enero de 1671 San Francisco del Rincón
Nicolás de Torres y Quezada, natutral de la villa de los Lagos, hijo legítimo de Joseph de Torres e Isabel de Quezada, vecinos de esta jur. ; con Catalina de Aceves, natural de la villa de Celaya y vecina de este partido.

5 de mayo de 1671 San Francisco del Rincón
Nicolás Ramírez, hijo legítimo de Nicolás Ramírez y Ana Sánchez Becerra, viudo de María de Ovalle ; con Ana Ruíz de Aldana, hijo legítimo de Tomás de Aldana e Isabel Barrón.

7 de junio de 1671 San Francisco del Rincón
Estéban Vázquez de Lara, vecino de este partido, natural de la villa de los Lagos, hijo legítimo de Juan Vázquez de Lara y Petrona González, vecinos de este partido ; con Josefa de Aguilar, natural de Silao, vecina de Guanajuato y del Rincón, huérfana.

8 de agosto de 1671 San Francisco del Rincón
Juan Infante, natural del valle del Armadillo y vecino de la jur. de la villa de los Lagos, viudo de María de las Nieves ; con Luisa de Torres, viuda de Gregorio López de Ortega.

2 de diciembre de 1671 Villa de León
Miguel Ortiz, natural de Tepotzotlán, hijo legítimo de Pedro Ortiz y Elvira de los Reyes ; con Ana de Villegas, hija legítima de Juan de Saavedra y María de Villegas, vecinos de esta jurisdicción.

18 de abril de 1672 San Francisco del Rincón
Joseph de Vargas, vecino de esta jur., natural de Xiquilpan, hijo legítimo de Pablo de Vargas y María de Chávez ; con Beatriz Ramírez, vecina de esta jur., hija legítima de Alonso Durán Malaver y Beatriz Ramírez.

12 de diciembre de 1673 San Francisco del Rincón
Juan de León, natural de la ciudad de México, y vecino de este partido, hijo legítimo de Diego de Lara y Josefa López ; con Francisca de Solís Avilés, natural de esta jur., hija legítima de Martín Pelayo de Solís y Juana de Torres.

25 de enero de 1673 San Francisco del Rincón
Juan Mateo Santibáñez, hijo legítimo de Pedro Martín Santibáñez y Mariana Barajas, vecinos de esta jur., en el sitio de "San Nicolás del Palenque" ; con María Francisca Barajas, hija legítima de Bernardo Barajas y Margarita López.

12 de febrero de 1673 San Francisco del Rincón
Jerónimo de Morales, vecino de este partido, y natural de Sierra de Pinos, hijo legítimo de Juan de Morales y María de Mendoza, vecinos de San Luis Potosí ; con María de los Ríos, vecina de este partido, natural del real de Santa Ana en Guanajuato, hija legítima de Marcos de los Ríos y Teresa de Solís.

2 de marzo de 1673 San Francisco del Rincón
Juan de Torres Luna, vecino de esta jur., natural de la villa de León, hijo legítimo de Juan de Torres Luna e Isabel de Ontiveros ; con Ana de Sandoval, natural de la villa de León y vecina en este partido.

24 de noviembre de 1673 San Francisco del Rincón
Nicolás de Solís y Valdés, natural de este partido, hijo legítimo de Rodrigo de Solís y Valdés y Antonia de Sayas ; con María de la Cruz y Quesada, natural de Santa María de los Lagos, hija legítima de Joseph de Torres e Isabel de Quesada, vecina de este partido.

21 de diciembre de 1674 San Pedro Piedra Gorda
Pedro Galván de Rojas, viudo de Elvira Ortiz Peguero, vecino de esta jur., hijo legítimo de Alonso Galván de Rojas y Juana de Salcedo ; con Gregoria de Villaseñor y Cueva, hija legítima de Don Diego de Villaseñor y Gertrudis de Cueva y Samaniego.

4 de octubre de 1674 San Francisco del Rincón
Francisco Muñoz, natural de la villa de León, vecino de este partido, hijo legítimo de Marcos Muñoz y Agustina Rodríguez ; con Leonor de los Ríos, hija legítima de Marcos de los Ríos y Teresa de Solís.

30 de enero de 1675 San Francisco del Rincón
Nicolás de Aguirre, natural de la villa de los Lagos y vecino de este partido, hijo legítimo de Alonso de Aguirre y Juana Muñoz ; con María González, hija legítima de Juan Vázquez de Lara y Petrona González.

17 de enero de 1675 San Francisco del Rincón
Agustín Sánchez de León, natural de la villa de Santa Fe de Gto. , hijo legítimo de Nicolás de León y de María Sánchez Alvarado, vecinos de esta jur. ; con María de Solís Avilés, natural de esta jur., hija legítima de Rodrigo Solís Avilés y Antonia de Sayas.

4 de mayo de 1675 San Francisco del Rincón
Nicolás de Porres, vecino de este partido, viudo de Luisa de Aguirre ; con Juana de la Cruz, vda. de Juan Hernández.

17 de mayo de 1675 San Francisco del Rincón
Antonio de Quiróz, natural del real de Santa Ana de Gto., vecino de este partido, hijo legítimo de Tomás de Quiróz y Juana Domínguez ; con Juana Rodríguez, natural de la villa de León, y vecina de este partido, hija legítima de Nicolás Rodríguez y Magdalena de la Cruz.

5 de junio de 1675 San Francisco del Rincón
Marcos de Olvera, natural de la villa de Amaya, arzobispado de México, vecino de este partido, hijo legítimo de Marcos de Olvera y Antonia Camacho, vecinos de San Juan del Río ; con Beatriz Ramírez, natural de este partido, hija legítima de Francisco Posadas y María Durán.

1 de febrero de 1675 San Francisco del Rincón
Nicolás de Sosa, vecino de esta jur., natural de la hacienda de "Río de Medina", hijo legítimo de Domingo Blas de Sosa y Ana de Medina Covarrubias ; con María de Ovalle, vecina de Tlazazalca, hija legítima de Pascual Martín y María de Ovalle.

7 de octubre de 1676 San Francisco del Rincón
Juan Pérez de Tapia, natural y vecino de la villa de Lagos, hijo legítimo de Pedro Pérez Domínguez y Tomasina de Tapia ; con Inés López, natural de este partido.

13 de enero de 1676 San Francisco del Rincón
Gregorio López de Ortega, natural de la villa de los Lagos, y vecino de Purísima del Rincón, hijo legítimo de Tomás de Ortega y Juana de Chávez ; con Luisa de Torres Huerta, natural de este partido.

30 de enero de 1677 Villa de León
Francisco de Bocanegra, originario del real de Marfil, hijo legítimo de Gaspar de Bocanegra y María de Rentería ; con María Ramírez, mulata, hija legítima de Juan Ramírez y Melchora de Morales,

20 de octubre de 1677 Villa de León
Andrés de Aguilar, vecino de esta villa, hijo legítimo de Juan de Aguilar y Gertrudis Ortiz de Villafaña ; con Juana Muñoz, hija legítima de Sebastián Ruíz y María Muñoz.

18 de febrero de 1677 Villa de León
Francisco de Isasi, originario de la villa de los Lagos, hijo natural de Nicolás de Isasi ; con Úrsula Sánchez, hija legítima de Damián García y Antonia Sánchez, vecinos de esta villa.

15 de diciembre de 1678 San Francisco del Rincón
Nicolás de Bocanegra, mestizo, hijo legítimo de Hernán Pérez de Bocanegra y María López, viudo de Juana de Torres ; con Polonia Amézquita, hija legítima de Bartolomé de Amézquita y Luisa de Torres.

5 de abril de 1679 Villa de León
Joseph de Paez, vecino de esta villa, hijo legítimo de Andrés de Paez e Isabel de Acosta ; con Isabel de Solís Valdés, hija legítima de Rodrigo de Solís Valdés y Antonia de Sayas.

7 de marzo de 1679 San Francisco del Rincón
Juan de Medina, vecino de Mexticacan, obispado de Guadalajara, viudo de Antonia de Ávila, hijo legítimo de Juan Yánez del Monte y María de Medina ; con Isabel de Mendoza, natural del pueblo de San Juan, obispado de Guadalajara y vecino de este partido, hijo legítimo de Mateo Sánchez y Felipa Martín del Ángel.

31 de julio de 1679 San Francisco del Rincón
Juan Barajas, natural de este partido, hijo legítimo de Bartolomé Barajas y Mariana Durán ; con Juana de Villalpando, hija legítima de Nicolás de Villalpando y Juana Resina, vecina de León.

16 de diciembre de 1679 Villa de León
Mateo de Villanueva, vecino de esta villa ; con Josefa Moreno, vecina de San Felipe.

27 de diciembre de 1679 San Francisco del Rincón
Juan de Soto, natural de San Juan, obispado de Guadalajara, hijo legítimo de Andrés de Soto y María Sánchez ; con Luisa López de Lara, natural de este partido, hija de padres no conocidos.

26 de diciembre de 1679 Villa de León
Manuel Falcón, vecino de esta villa, hijo legítimo de Diego Falcón y María Martínez ; con Melchora de Sarabia hija legítima de Rodrigo de Bermúdez e Isabel Martín.

28 de noviembre de 1680 Villa de León
Manuel Flores, hijo legítimo de Juan Flores de Frías y Graciana Pérez Ramírez de Tapia, vecina de San Juan del Río ; con Catalina Manrique de Lara, hija legítima de Sebastián Manrique de Lara y Teresa de Aguirre, vecinos de esta villa.

6 de febrero de 1680 Villa de León
Miguel de Elizondo, natural de la villa de Aranas, en Navarra, en los reinos de Castilla, y residente en esta villa, hijo legítimo de Pedro de Elizondo y Catalina de Eguiarmendía ;: con Doña Juana Díaz, vecina de esta villa, hija legítima de Juan Moreno del la Rúa y María de Bustos y Puelles.

1 de febrero de 1680 Villa de León
Matias de Bocanegra, viudo, vecino de santa Fe de Gto., y residente en esta villa ; con Josefa de la Rocha, hija legítima de Manuel de la Rocha y Juana Antonia de la Barrera, vecinos de esta villa.

3 de abril de 1680 Villa de León
Marcos de Villalpando, hijo legítimo de Tomás de Villalpando y María de Vélez ; con María López, hija legítima de Nicolás de Aranda y María López.

12 de marzo de 1680 Villa de León
Martín Pelayo, vecino de esta jur., viudo de Juana de Torres ; con Nicolasa López de Herrera, vecina de esta villa, hija legítima de Diego López y Antonia de Ordáz.

11 de noviembre de 1682 Villa de León
Juan de Medina, vecino de esta villa, natural de Jaén en Andalucía la alta, en los reinos de Castilla, hijo legítimo de Juan Martínez de Medina y Juana de Moya ; con Ana María Hurtado de Busto, hija legítima de Francisco Hurtado Jiménez y Ana Pérez de Busto.

25 de septiembre de 1684 Villa de León
Agustín de Obregón, residente en esta villa ; con Antonia de Aguilar y Bustos.

9 de enero de 1685 Villa de León
Joseph de Santa María, natural de la ciudad de los Ángeles, y vecino de esta villa ; con Francisca de Guzmán, vecina de esta villa.

Fuente: Paleografía de documentos del archivo histórico "Casa de Morelos", fondo parroquial sacramental , siglo XVII, en la ciudad de Morelia, Michoacán

CARIBBEAN/CUBA

INTERNATIONAL 

"The two most fortunate things that could happen to a person are, first, to be Spanish, and second, to be named Salvador Dalí. 

These two things have happened to me."

  -- Salvador Dalí: 
Diary of a Genius, p.157-8

Breve informe paranoico sobre el bigotudo 

Salvador Dalí
by 
Ruxandra Cesereanu
ruxces@yahoo.com
( Rumanía)

Apenas nació Salvador Dalí cuando la tierra se hundió en un terremoto chiflado, los paraguas de todo el mundo se abrieron, las prótesis de todos los seres se quebraron, los sombreros de todas las cabezas cayeron. Fue un signo de simpatía por parte de nuestro Dios socarrón que rio a carcajadas al nacimiento del último varón de la estirpe Dalí. Cuando niño, Salvador se manifestó como un gracioso coprófago, pero este hecho no hizo sino anunciar la gloria y la suerte que conseguiría más tarde, aunque en su madurez hiciera una verdadera pasión por los excrementos, tal como el panzudo hidalgo Ubú de Jarry. Pero su pasión excremental habría de ser aquella de un buscador de oro y de un alquimista burlón.

Cuando tenía cuatro años, Salvador encontró en la playa una concha inmensa en la cual estuvo escondido por tres días enteros, sin moverse ni comer. Más tarde le dijo a su padre el notario que quería ver como pasaron las cosas en el vientre de su madre. Naturalmente que su padre se enfureció, pero Salvador no hizo otra cosa que presagiar la muerte de su madre dentro de trece años. En aquel entonces utilizaba las palabras solamente en femenino, diciendo la sol, la padre, la corazón, como si naciendo del vientre de su madre, aunque varón, hubiera guardado en el cuerpo a su propia madre. Verdaderamente, el niño pensaba que habría podido parir el mismo a su madre, imaginándose el vientre como un volcán acuático. Todas las cosas le parecían ser huevos: ciertamente eran recuerdos intrauterinos que le devastaban cada día, por lo menos durante una hora. Su propia cabeza era un huevo, de tal manera que a los veinte y cinco años se decalvó solamente para sentir el vientre de su madre metamorfoseado en su propia cabeza. Más tarde inventaría el huevocípedo, es decir el huevo locomotor, para volver al vientre de su madre y viajar hasta la estación del nacimiento. Llamaba al útero "cascarón".

Su primer deseo como niño que comenzaba a comprender la vida fue el llegar a ser cocinero para poder vivir entre las destrenzadas leonas untuosas y sudadas que preparaban la comida. Más tarde le obsesionaba de tal manera la comida que anhelaba ser comido a su vez, y no por una sola boca, sino por todas las bocas del mundo. Mediante este deseo se acercaba a Cristo. La cocina era para Salvador el cuarto de los sentidos: veía, oía, palpaba, gustaba y olía con perversidad. Sus sentidos estallaban hasta lo sublime y lo abyecto. Como hombre maduro, vino a ser hipertrofiado bucal: no se lanzaba sobre la comida, pero salivaba felinamente, tijereteaba voluptuosamente, chapoteaba y ronchaba pérfidamente. Su lengua parecía un pene hurgador en el sexo de su propia boca. Tenía maxilar de Crono y dos hileras de dientes.

Aunque ogro, Salvador temía a unos insectos saltadores llamados langostas. Dicen que, algún día, adormecido en su lecho, una ola gigantesca de langostas cayo sobre el niño, para devorarle. Las atrajeron su piel viscosa y su sueño rosado. A Salvador le daban asco las langostas, tal como a otros niños les daban asco las ratas. Pero las ratas eran indiferentes para su imaginación. En sus fantasías masoquistas estaba convencido de que, si lo hubieran deseado, las langostas le habrían buscado hasta en el vientre de su madre, para roerle. Sus mandíbulas semejaban con aquellas de Tyranosaurus Rex. Esta cosa no le impidió decir a su padre el notario que, a mediodía, había cabalgado una langosta gigantesca. De este mentirón no se curaría sino mucho más tarde, pintando El Gran Masturbador, donde aquella langosta mastodonte existe de veras.

A los siete años, sus padres le dejaron retirarse en una buhardilla donde se bañaba casi todo el santo día en un barril, intentando parecerse a los desnudos de las mujeres de la historia del arte. A la hora del crepúsculo, subía sobre el techado, disfrazado de rey de Figueras. Aquí, le gustaba dejarse caer en el vacío y aún se lanzaba al aire, pero no tanto como para morir. Tenía contusiones, su sangre corría, pero el cráneo no se quebraba y la columna vertebral no se rompía. Al mismo tiempo le gustaba echar al vacío las chicas adoradas que parecían ser unas suicidas precoces, aunque en realidad eran matadas fantasmalmente por su sadismo creador.

Desde niño descubrió el placer de hurgar por cajones y maletas. Su cabeza parecía ser ella misma un baúl. Una cueva, habría dicho Segismundo F. El toque mental de este viejo barbudo le predispuso a abrir gradualmente los cajones de su inconsciente, a pesar de que ellos podían estar vacíos o llenos de cosas cubiertas de telarañas. Así recordó que, en su niñez, Dios era la uña de su dedo meñique del pie izquierdo, cortada solamente una vez al año. Cuando se fue a la escuela, encontró allá un Fausto holgazán que le mostró un Mefisto petrificado. Pero Salvador no se espantó, viendo en Mefisto un pobre perro rojo y sin dientes.

Le gustaban las viejas porque se imaginaba en ellas unos encajes murmurantes. Quería llegar a ser una vieja, para poder mamullar infinitamente la comida. Amaba también las nalgas blancas y blandas de las mujeres, porque veía en ellas unos senos inmensos. Aún Hitler era para él una mujerzuela tentadora o una yegua, donde las nalgas dibujaban el centro del mundo. De vez en cuando tenía fantasías con un marqués francés que sodomizaba muchachas y, de veras, Sade el loco vino a ser uno de sus ángeles custodio. Rafael fue otro ángel custodio, pero Salvador renunció a sus favores por candor perverso: era una muestra de creación atormentar a este ángel custodio y rechazarle la protección. Rafael de Urbino olía a rosas y esto le excitaba. Pero la nodriza de la cual bebió leche con vino fue un peligroso dios griego, ni hombre, ni mujer, llamado Dioniso. En su juventud, Salvador quiso ser el hermano de Zaratustra, pero a los treinta años llegó a ser el campeón de la muerte de Dios.

La risa de Salvador era abismal y así nació el exterminador que reía, porque estaba sacudido por espantos. Exterminaba ideas para poder sobrevivir. Al fin y al cabo, Salvador exterminaba el mundo precisamente porque éste era un ano. Y el ano era una puerta de las percepciones o, mejor dicho, unos binóculos. Antes de dormir, Salvador no leía la Biblia, sino sus estudios favoritos sobre crepitus ventris. Los tiempos cretinos en los cuales vivía no podían ser vencidos más que mediante un cretinismo creador. Por el ano se podía llegar más allá, lo que significaba minotauros, elefantes mestizos con arañas, leones subterráneos, rinocerontes angelicales y otras fieras que anunciaban el apocalipsis. Pero se trataba de un apocalipsis excitante. Salvador aún no había inventado la rinocerontología, es decir la creación del mundo comenzando por el rinoceronte y su cuerno único en el cual veía una columna catedralicia.

Al contrario del emperador Domiciano, tenía en las moscas unas amigas, porque le gustaba ser tocado por ellas, como un muerto, sobre todo por la tarde. Se untaba con miel o con óleo, esperando ser pataleado por cien pequeños pies zumbadores. Era un roce erótico. Por las alas de las moscas divisadas en el sol, Salvador veía un arco iris compuesto por azules y violáceos. Alucinaba muchas veces durante la canícula y todas sus alucinaciones contenían una raya dorada de ternura. Se imaginaba el paraíso, ambarino como una luciérnaga royendo sus ojos. Sus sueños eran encajados en la luz de Vermeer y llenos de rinocerontes místicos. Salvador sentía todas sus emociones con el codo, este muñón del cuerpo, formando una rodilla menor. Sentía el ardor del sol y la luna con cuerno de rinoceronte solamente por esta encajadura de huesecillos. Dormía el sueño como un orgasmo de ángel cosquilleado en las plantas y rascado bajo las plumas.

Sus amigos humanos veían en Salvador un ingenioso hidalgo extraterrestre. Junto con Buñuel, dicho El Deslizable, realizó una película con nombre de perro en la cual no había ningún perro. Fascinado por la mitomanía alucinante de Salvador, Lorca, dicho El Gitano Verde, quiso poseerle, pero el bigotudo dibujó un círculo mágico en el cual el toreador no logró penetrar, porque el círculo mágico estaba delimitado por fuego verde. En Picasso, Salvador veía un malagueño Santo Padre calvo y, en un gesto supremo de simpatía, le ronchó los dedos meñiques de las manos. Con estos tres caballeros de la fantasía sin par, Salvador viajó en el metro parisiense que funcionaba en su cerebro como los misterios de Eleusis.

Le gustaban terriblemente los bastones y los cetros. Sus ensueños de rey anónimo dependían de un objeto, para apoyarse. Así inventó toda suerte de fantasmagorías: sillas con alas y alas con tirantes, uñas con espejos anamorfóticos, orejas levitadoras, pestañas postizas de plumaje de pavo real, teléfonos transparentes con venas. Sus amigos las llamaban travesuras y hazañas. Los pianos de cola eran para Salvador unos vientres, pero sonores, en los cuales se oía la música de las esferas. De vez en cuando murmuraba chocarerrías con los ángeles, diciendo al final la famosa y pajarera interjección kikirikí. Los ángeles eran para él solamente unos paracaídas chiquitos. En su visión alada habría deseado que las mujeres hubieran poseído otra pareja de senos en la espalda, como las huellas de unas alas redondas y vellosas.

Descubriendo la técnica paranoica-crítica, sus tijeras irracionales cortaron con espumas de exaltación el traje del académico tonto de capirote, cebando el delirio con la leche de las madres histéricas del polo ártico y antártico. Su órgano para percibir la realidad irreal llegó a ser el bigote. Salvador se ufanaba siempre de su bigote imperial y místico-español, aunque en la opinión de los otros este bigote parecía de húsar o de cuestor. Verdad que su mostacho era delgaducho como los santos de El Greco, semejando al mismo tiempo con los pies de araña. Con este mostacho quería superar a Nietzsche en refinamiento, porque las puntas del bigote se ponían en marcha como los taladros para agujerear. El mostacho de Salvador, con sus lados izquierdo y derecho, eran sus testículos anamorfóticos, actuando como la trompa del elefante o como el cuerno del rinoceronte.

Toda su niñez, Salvador quiso matar a una muchacha, y no de cualquier manera, sino echándola al vacío. Cuando no tenía al alcance tal fantasma, se utilizaba a sí mismo, funcionando tanto como matador, cuanto como matado, y desdoblándose ingeniosamente. Amó a Gala con toda su neurosis criminal, porque ella fue la única mujer que aceptó ser matada, pidiéndole ella misma, con exaltación, que fuera sacrificada. Por su gracia y lealtad frente a la muerte, Salvador la apodó Bailarina del vacío, pero abreviado y mestizo con el nombre real de ella resultó Gailarina. No tanto amantes como hermanos incestuosos, Salvador y Gailarina parecían nacidos por huevos mediterráneos como Cástor y Pólux. Los amigos les apodaban así, aunque cambiando un poco los nombres: ya Cástor y Poluxa, ya Castora y Pólux.

A pesar de que recorrió a lo largo y ancho los burdeles de París, Salvador sostuvo ser virgen cuando conoció a Gala, comparándose con la Virgen María, pero de sexo masculino. En su visión, la Virgen era más importante que Cristo, porque ella era una mujer más allá de ser mujer. En su misticismo alucinante, Salvador encarnaba a la Virgen flotando y cabalgando un cisne, imaginaba la copa del Santo Grial como un cubo, y fantaseaba a Cristo como un águila, igual que San Juan de la Cruz. En plena madurez, Salvador golpeó su cabeza de una peña de Port Lligat y desde entonces empezó a verlo todo con burbujas: madonas, santos, bestias, objetos, estaban desmaterializados o circundados por corpúsculos y bolas.

Pero su polimorfismo venía de otros adentros. Como individuo corporal con manos y pies, Salvador Dalí era único, pero como ser interior con cerebro, alma y corazón, era tanto Salvador, su hermano mayor, muerto tres años antes de nacer el visionario de los mórbidos relojes, como el segundo Salvador, él mismo, el rinoceronte, el paranoico, el ogro, el matador. En sus adentros, el hermano muerto vivía como un suave vampiro invisible y ciertamente que de aquí surgía el deseo desconocido de arrojar al vacío a las muchachas. Sólo cuando Gailarina languideció por ser matada, Salvador logró sepultar mentalmente a su hermano que lo tuteló como un gurú hasta los veinte y cinco años.

No puedo acabar este breve informe paranoico sobre mi trastornado preferido del siglo veinte español, sin poner por escrito mi primer y último sueño con Salvador Dalí. Y el sueño reza así: el reloj de la torre dio las cinco de la tarde cuando me desperté en el vientre dorado de mi madre. Dormía yo como el feto en sus maravillosos océanos mudos cuando oí un murmullo demencial que decía en lenguaje pajarero kikirikí. Reconociendo la extraña fórmula de Salvador, miré por todas partes y de veras divisé en otro vientre a mi querido rinoceronte bigotudo. Solitario y pareciéndose a un viejo flamenco, Salvador balbucía monótonamente su kikirikí como un huérfano abandonado al asilo. Confusa, pero al mismo tiempo contenta de encontrarle en carne y hueso, le dije: ¿seguramente está Usted en el paraíso ambarino, señor Salvador? ¡Ay, no, en nombre de Dios, respondió el bigotudo, no estoy aquí en el vientre de mi madre después de mi vida, sino en aquel vientre de donde nunca salí! ¡El segundo Salvador que nació no fui yo, sino mi hermano revivificado! Y siguió murmurando el kikirikí por canción de cuna, envolviéndose en su bigote como una capa. Me atreví a decirle de nuevo: pero, señor Salvador, ¿no es Usted aquel tortuoso pintor de las cabezas alumbradas de Lenin, del Hitler afeminado, de las madonas cúbicas y del Cristo volador? ¿No fantaseó Usted aquellos paisajes amarillos donde aun el alma se derrite al sol y el tiempo es un licor del olvido? Sí, respondió, yo soy, pero nunca nací y viví toda mi vida aquí, en este huevo, y pinté en estos adentros de mi madre. Oyéndole decir eso, me quedé sin aliento ni palabras. Porque, siguió el más loco de los pintores del mundo, no tengo que nacer para poder vivir, para devorar, para morir. Ay, le dije yo con amargura, pero de esta manera nunca se encontrará Usted con Gailarina. ¿Quién es Gailarina? me preguntó entonces Salvador, muy curioso. Su gran amor, su cisne, su sobremujer, respondí. ¿Qué es el amor? me preguntó, porque yo no conozco más que la vida y la muerte. Pensé para darle una respuesta aturdida y dije: el amor es la vidamuerte. Quedamos en silencio largo tiempo, luego, con voz picarona, Salvador me dijo: bueno, voy a nacer para conocer a Gailarina y la vidamuerte, pero nada más. Por fin, dicho y hecho, ante mis ojos, Salvador rompió el huevo de su madre y salió a la luz, naciendo a los veinte y cinco años, porque era un viejo feto. De tal manera se acabó mi sueño y yo mismo acabo aquí mi breve informe de discípulo. Kikirikí.

Dos de sus libros de poesía han sido traducidos al inglés y publicados en los Estados Unidos (Schizoid Ocean, 1997, y Lunacies, 2004).

Military Flags 1701-1843

Spain


http://flagspot.net/flags/es^1701.html#1779
Sent by Bill Carmena JCarm1724@aol.com

Hasta el próximo mes de agosto, que la reproducción de la Nao Victoria llegue al puerto de Huelva, mucho se hablará sobre este barco que formaba parte de la flota con la que partió Fernando de Magallanes desde Sanlucar de Barrameda el 20 de septiembre de 1519.

Fernando de Magallanes era portugués, nacido en Tras-os-Montes, pero como el rey portugués había rechazado siempre sus peticiones marchó a España y ofreció sus servicios a Carlos V que acepto formar una expedición para lograr una nueva vía que llegase a las Islas Molucas, ricas en especias, sin hacerlo por la ruta que utilizaban los portugueses.

Carlos V proporcionó cinco barcos que fueron pertrechados en el puerto de Sevilla; "Trinidad", "Santiago", "San Antonio", "Concepción" y "Victoria" y con una tripulación de 250 hombres se hicieron a la mar, llegando a Río de Janeiro el 13 de diciembre de 1519 y el 12 de enero del siguiente año hicieron escala en el río de Solís.

Descubrieron el que hoy conocemos por Estrecho de Magallanes y fueron perdiéndose barcos, para continuar solo tres. En una emboscada perdió la vida Magallanes y se hizo cargo de la expedición y de la nao Victoria, Juan Sebastián Elcano, con cuyo barco y solo 18 hombres llegó el 6 de septiembre de 1522 a Sanlucar de Barrameda y dos días mas tarde al puerto de Sevilla.

En la lista de tripulantes que poseo y aunque en ella figuran muchos de nuestra provincia, en la Victoria solo encuentro a dos onubenses; Bartolomé de Saldaña, natural de Palos, hijo de Juan de Perera y Leonor de Saldaña, que figura como criado del Capitán y Martín de Ayamonte, natural de Ayamonte e hijo de Diego Lorenzo y Maria Lora. Ambos huyeron a nado cuando la Nao Victoria estaba anclada frente a la isla de Timor.

Sent by Bill Carmena  JCarm1724@aol.com

HISTORIA Y DESCRIPCIÓN DEL MUSEO MILITAR REGIONAL DE CANARIAS
The pages of the booklet are on the website, but the script is very difficult to read.
http://members.fortunecity.es/jurasdebandera2/museo_tenerife_descripcion.htm

-----------------------------
MUSEO MILITAR REGIONAL DE CANARIAS 
http://members.fortunecity.es/jurasdebandera2/museo_canarias.htm   
Pictures from the Military Museum of the Canaries.
60 pictures, interior, exterior, a few period photos. 
Position the cursor on the bottom right of the photo and a description is given.

FUERTE ALMEYDA, SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE
http://www.puntoinfo.idecnet.com/seccion.php?zona=SS&zona_id=48&idioma=2&slc_menu=6

Cabildo Insular de Tenerife 
Plaza de España 1   Telefono: +34 922 239 500/501 
38003 Santa Cruz de Tenerife 

Information on Touring the Canary Islands  http://www.spaintour.com/canarias.htm
Recommended as a good site about the Canaries. . .

HISTORY

FAMILY HISTORY

ARCHAEOLOGY

Tiwanaku monoliths and the gateway to the Kalisasaya complex.

The Pumapunku Temple

      Revealing Ancient Bolivia    

Introduction to article and website by 
Alexei Vranich, Project Director
http://www.archaeology.org/online/features/tiwanaku/photos/11.html

The prehistoric city of Tiwanaku is located on the southern shore of the famous Lake Titicaca along the border between Bolivia and Peru. During the heyday of this city was between A.D. 500 and 950, religious artifacts from the city spread across the southern Andes, but when the conquering Inka arrived in the mid-fifteenth century, the site had been mysteriously abandoned for half a millennium. Even after its abandonment, Tiwanaku continued to be an important religious site for the local people. It later became incorporated into Inka mythology as the birthplace of mankind as the Inka built their own structures alongside the ruins. Tiwanaku remains an integral locale in the religious lives of Andean people in the turbulent present of modern Bolivia. Although dozens of national and international projects began to unlock Tiwanaku's secrets during the last century, we are only recently beginning to piece together the puzzle behind the origin of this architectural marvel and the people who built it.