February 2004, 
Editor: Mimi Lozano ©2000-4

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

El momento en que fray Gerónimo de Alcalá entrega el manuscrito
 de la Relación de Michoacán al Virrey don Antonio de Mendoza, Siglo XVI

Shared by Armando M. Escobar Olmedo

De la cuna a la tumba es una escuela; 
por eso, lo que llamas problemas, son lecciones. 
Armando Montes AMontes@mail.com
 

UNITED STATES

Operation Shield of Strength
http://federalist.com/news/sos.asp

It is not "official issue," but thousands of military personnel are now wearing a "Shield of Strength" dog-tag bearing a Scriptural passage on one side (Joshua 1:9 "I will be strong and courageous. I will not be terrified, or discouraged, for the Lord my God is with me wherever I go.") and the words "One Nation under God" on the other. Information on how to participate in Operation Shield of Strength. http://federalist.com/news/sos.asp

We are proud to say that the artist is Eddie Martinez, actively involved with the Galvez Project and the Hispanic American Heroes Series. Click to family photos and his story of a recent family research trip to Michoacan, Mexico. 

As part of the events associated with the World War II Memorial dedication on May 29, 2004, plans are underway to host a reception honoring Mexican American veterans on Friday night, May 28^th.

There will be 3 days of festivities prior to the 29^th. All World War II veterans have been invited to attend all the festivities. President Bush is expected to attend the dedication ceremony on the 29^th. Undoubtedly, past presidents and other dignitaries will be in attendance. The international media will cover the festivities of such an important event.

The planning committee believes that our Mexican American veterans should be recognized and honored in a hallowed, universally recognized patriotic public building. Their personnel need to be influenced by a positive image of the many contributions made by Mexican American veterans who served during World War II.

African Americans will be honored, especially through their most famous outfit, the Tuskeegee Airmen.
Native Americans will be cited for their patriotism, notably through their most famous representatives, the Navajo Code Talkers.
Japanese Americans will be recognized for their heroic service by highlighting the 442^nd and 100^th Regiments.

Mexican Americans did not serve in a specific unit; however, our history of patriotism is apparent in recent statistics. As of November 6, 2003, 382 U.S. soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen have been killed.  Of that total, sixty are Latinos, which is 16%.

In Iraq, 15-20% of the combat troops are Latinos.

More than 50% of California's and Texas's casualties are Latinos.

More than 28% of Arizona's and Florida's military killed in action, were Latinos.

Of the seven women who have been killed, five are Latinos, that is 70%

If you would like to give visibility to the very deserving 500,000 Mexican American veterans of WWII, please contact: Latino Advocates for Education, Inc.
P.O. Box 5846, Orange, CA 92863    714-225-2499

The state of Texas has an intriguing and diverse history stretching back hundreds of years. For more than two centuries, Texas was part of Spain’s vast American empire. When Mexico achieved independence from Spain in 1821, Texas became part of Mexico. Less than two decades later, Anglo and Mexicano Tejano residents of Texas engineered a rebellion against Mexican rule, which would lead – in 1836 – to the establishment of an independent Republic. Nine years later, Texas became part of the United States.

For the first few decades, some Tejanos shared the reigns of power with the Anglos in Texas. Gradually, as their percent of the population declined, Mexican-American representation nearly vanished from the Texas Legislature. And, by the end of the Nineteenth Century, only one Tejano representative was seated in the Texas House of the Representatives.

Thomas A. Rodriguez (1839-1903) was a native of the Mexican state of Tamaulipas who had served in Confederate Army during the American Civil War. Politically active in San Antonio for a period of time, Rodriguez would eventually serve three terms as the Representative for parts of Atascosa, Karnes, and San Patricio Counties. With the end of Representative Rodriguez’s term of office, the political representation of Tejanos outside of Cameron County effectively ended for several decades.

The Fifteenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States, ratified in 1870, promised "the rights of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude." In theory this amendment gave Mexican-American Tejanos reassurances that their voice would be heard in both local and national politics. In practice, however, the Amendment was flagrantly violated for the next few decades.

During the first half of the Twentieth Century, the influx of immigrants from Mexico continued to steadily increase, as the need for cheap labor in the commercial agriculture industries of Texas grew. The resulting increase in the Hispanic population of Texas, however, did not lead to increased political representation. One obstacle to Latino participation in Texas during this time was the poll tax amendment. Six attempts to pass poll tax legislation had failed between 1879 and 1899, but in 1901, the Texas Legislature finally passed the poll tax, requiring voters to pay $1.75 at the voting booth. Such an expense was effective in keeping poor Latinos from participating in the electoral process. In November 1902, Texas voters ratified the poll tax by a two-to-one margin.

Early in the Twentieth Century, the millionaire José Tomás Canales of

Brownsville would serve five terms in the Texas House of Representatives (1905-1910, 1917-1920). Representative Canales was a native of Nueces County and a lawyer by trade. Through his mother, José was descended from José Salvador de la Garza, the owner of a large Spanish land grant that occupied a large portion of Cameron County. With the support of the Cameron County Democratic machine under the control of James B. Wells, Jr., he served from 1905 to 1910 in the Texas House of Representatives as a representative for the 95^th District (Cameron, Hidalgo, Starr and Zapata counties).

For a time, Canales served as the County Superintendent of public schools in Cameron County. But, in 1917, he returned to the Texas House of Representatives as the delegate of the Seventy-seventh District, which extended through Cameron and Willacy counties, He served in this capacity to 1920 and won fame for defending the rights of Mexican Americans against the abuses of the Texas Rangers. By embracing prohibition and women’s suffrage, he had received widespread support from his Anglo constituency.

Over the years José T. Canales was extremely influential in the League of United Latin American Citizens. He addressed its founding meeting in 1929 and took part in writing its first constitution. He also became President of LULAC in 1932-33. Representative Canales died on March 30, 1976 in Brownsville.

In 1933, Augustine F. Celaya became the second Mexican American to run for the Texas House of Representatives in the Twentieth Century. Celaya served as the Representative of the 72^nd District (Brownsville, Cameron County) from 1933 to 1949 (the 43^rd to 50^th Legislatures). The third Hispanic person to serve in the Texas Legislature was John Charles Hoyo, who served the 78^th District (San Antonio, Bexar County) from 1941 to 1946 (the 47^th to the 49^th Legislatures). Hoyo was born in 1891 in Weimar, Texas and had served with the U.S. Navy during World War I. He had become a lawyer and a district court judge in Bexar County before taking office as a legislator in 1941.

For the first half of the Twentieth Century, Hispanic representation remained very limited, partly because the Mexican-American population of most counties did not make up a majority of most communities. However, in addition to the poll tax, the primary means of limiting minority representation in Texas and other states was the process of gerrymandering. In many states, legislatures would divide a county or city into oddly shaped representational districts to give political advantage to one group or another in elections.

Gerrymandering resulted in voter dilution, in which the political representation of a political unified minority was diminished or altogether obstructed. As a result, even districts containing a majority of Latinos in some parts of the United States frequently found themselves without proper representation thanks to vote dilution. In Texas, gerrymandering of the Latino vote was manifested in the nature of legislative redistricting and reapportionment.

Apportionment or reapportionment, according to law professor, Steve Bickerstaff, "refer to the result of the process of allocating members of a legislative body among areas or political subdivisions." For example, the U.S. Congress "apportions" Congressional seats among the states. In contrast, however, Professor Bickerstaff points out that districting or redistricting entail "the actual drawing of the boundaries of the election districts from which members of the federal or state legislative bodies will be elected."

Since 1876, the apportionment of legislative districts had been required by Article III, Section 28 of the Texas Constitution to take place following each federal decennial census. This reapportionment took place on a regular basis up to 1921, when the 37^th Legislature redrew district lines based on the 1920 census.

However, the Texas political establishment chose to avoid a redrawing of election districts after the 1930 and 1940 census. So, although the 1930 and 1940 census schedules were available for the purpose of reapportionment and redistricting of voting districts, the powers that be decided to protect the people in power and continued to use the districts that had been drawn in 1921. The 1921 districts, therefore, remained in effect until 1951.

One of the reasons to avoid redistricting had to do with the enormous growth of urban areas in Texas during the 1920 to 1950 period. In 1920, two-thirds of the Texas population of 4,700,000 was still rural. However, from this point, the urban areas experienced a dramatic and sustained increase. From 1940 to 1950, the urban population increased 58.4%, while the number of people in rural areas decreased 11.6%. In the 1940s, 146 out of 254 Texas counties lost population, resulting in great discrepancies among the populations of the various districts (Malcolm Jewell, 1962, p. 121).

Congressional redistricting followed the same course as that of the state legislature.

In fact, the last redistricting to determine the number of representatives that Texas would send to the U.S. Congress took place in 1933, using the figures from the 1930 census. But Texas did not redistrict the Congressional Districts for 24 years after that and continued to use the 1930 census even though the 1940 and 1950 census figures were available.

Finally, in 1957, Texas reapportioned its Congressional Districts. By that time, Texas had grown in population enough to receive another representative, but rather than adding another district, the legislature created an "at large" seat. That candidate would be voted on in all twenty-one of the districts. In addition, a 1936 amendment to Article III, Section 26(a) of the Texas Constitution had limited to the number of representatives that one county could have to seven. Only when a county’s population reached 700,000 would it get an additional representative. Such practices were blatant violations of the principle of equally populated districts.

As a result of this provision, Texas’s four most populous counties combined were awarded one representative for each 81,000 people in 1951, while most other counties were receiving one for each 45,000 to 50,000. Thus, Dallas, Bexar and Harris counties were limited in the growth potential of their representation. Article III, Section 25 of the Texas Constitution also did not permit more than one senator to represent a county. Not until 1962, did the U.S. Supreme Court, in Baker v. Carr, declare that these population inequities denied voters "equal protection of the law" guaranteed under the 14^th Amendment of the Constitution [BAKER v. CARR, 369 U.S. 186 (1962)].

In 1947 the Texas Legislature passed a proposed constitutional amendment providing for creation of the Legislative Redistricting Board, which would be composed of five high executive officers. The failure of the Legislature to redistrict in 1931 and 1941 had troubled some lawmakers, so the Board was set up to redistrict should the legislature fail to do so during the first regular session after federal census data become available. In 1948, the voters ratified this proposed amendment.

In the devastation and uncertainty of World War II (1939-1945), a new breed of Tejano was created. Fighting alongside their Anglo brothers, hundreds of thousands of young Mexican-Americans had taken part in the battle against the tyranny and oppression of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. With the end of the war, these young Mexican-American veterans came home to a state where their rights as citizens were not always recognized and – in some cases – blatantly violated. These proud young veterans, having fought to defend their native land, believed it was time to assert their rights as American citizens.

Former Representative Eligio (Kika) de la Garza, in a telephone interview with the author, explained that World War II changed the dynamics of Latino representation in Texas. Even in Kika’s small hometown of Mission, Texas (Hidalgo County), young Mexican Americans quickly enlisted to do their duty. In Mission alone, some forty to fifty boys volunteered and went off to serve their country. Seven of these young men died in the service of their country. Kika’s maternal uncle, Roberto Villarreal, flew 54 missions as a gunner but died in an air accident upon returning home.

The pride and joy of Mission was Army Sgt. Jose Lopez, a native son of the town, who saved his entire company from being surrounded by enemy troops in Belgium in 1945. For his service, Lopez won the Medal of Honor. As Kika explains it, the pride of these young men in having defended their native soil was tremendous. And this service was repeated in small towns throughout Texas.

But added to that pride was the reward that survivors were given for their wartime service. It is Kika’s view that the G.I. Bill made it possible for thousands of Tejano veterans to attend college and make a better life for themselves. The G.I. Bill Act of June 22, 1944 – or the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act [Public Law 346, 78th Congress, Title III, §§500-503, 58 Stat. 284, 291-293 (1944)] – put higher education within the reach of thousands of Mexican-American veterans.

The Veterans' Readjustment Assistance Act of 1952 [Public Law 550, 82nd Congress, July 16, 1952, Ch. 875, 66 Stat. 663, 38 U.S.C. 997] provided similar privileges to Korean War veterans. Over the next decade, Mexican-American veterans attended local and nationwide colleges and universities to obtain college degrees. In many cases, these vets were the first members of their families to receive a higher education. Armed with the weapon of education, many of these veterans became the Chicano leaders of the 1960s and 1970s.

In 1947, the Pan American Progressive Association was founded in order to stress leadership and economic interests among Latinos. The American G.I. Forum, founded March 1948, was organized by returning Mexican American veterans from the war. When a funeral home denied use of its facilities for the wake of a decorated veteran, Felix Z. Longoria, the incident received national coverage and helped the G.I. Forum to consolidate its power base and grow into a national organization.

Stressing their patriotism and service to country, the Forum campaigned to increase electoral participation in the political arena. In 1949 and 1950, they initiated local "pay your poll tax" drives to register Tejano voters. Although they failed in repeated efforts to repeal the tax, a 1955–56 drive in the Rio Grande Valley resulted in the first majority Mexican American electorate in the area.

One of the early pioneers of Hispanic representation in the Texas Legislature was Arnold J. Vale. From 1937 to 1947, Representative Vale had represented the 74^th District (Rio Grande City, Starr County). In 1949 he represented the same district for three more sessions from 1949 to 1955.

In 1952, Eligio de la Garza (b. 1927), known affectionately as "Kika" de la Garza, would run as the next representative of the Hispanic community. Eligio was born in Mercedes, Hidalgo County, Texas, on September 22, 1927 as the son of Dario de la Garza and Elisa Villarreal. In 1945, at the age of 17, de la Garza enlisted in the U.S. Navy, serving in World War II. When he returned from the war in 1946, he attended college, but was later recalled to serve his country during the Korean conflict.

Kika graduated from St. Mary’s University with a law degree in 1952 and was admitted to the bar soon after. In 1952, friends and relatives persuaded Kika to run for office in the 38^th District of Hidalgo County, recently created by the 1951 redistricting process. Because his family had already been involved in local politics, he accepted the candidacy and won the election. He would hold this office for five consecutive terms. In the 54^th Legislature of 1955-1956, Eligio de la Garza became the only Hispanic legislator, after Arnold Vale’s term had expired in 1954.

At another location along the border, Mexican American voters were able to pull off another electoral victory in 1957. Raymond L. Telles, Jr., a native of El Paso, became the first Mexican American to be elected as Mayor of El Paso and the first Hispanic to be elected mayor of a major American city.

The son of a bricklayer, Raymond was born in 1915 and attended school in the El Paso area and eventually took a job as an accountant for the U.S. Department of Justice, a job he held for eight years. In 1941, he was drafted into the armed serves and by 1945, had achieved the rank of major. From 1943 trough 1945, Telles served as an aide to several presidents and high dignitaries from Latin America and Mexico who were visiting the United States. He also acted as military aide to both Presidents Truman and Eisenhower on their visits to Mexico City.

His service record was just one of the reasons Telles ran for county clerk in 1948. In 1951, Telles was recalled by the Air Force during the Korean Conflict and served as Executive Officer of the 67th Tactical and Reconnaissance Group. In 1957, Telles and his friends created what they called "The People's Ticket," with the goal of appealing to all groups of people. Voters turned out in record numbers, sweeping Raymond L. Telles into office as Mayor El Paso.

Telles served as Mayor of El Paso from 1957 to 1961. After finishing his term as Mayor, Mr. Telles became the U.S. Ambassador to Costa Rica (1961-1967). Not until 1977, was the next Hispanic Mayor of El Paso, Ray Salazar, able to take office (1977-1979).

In the 55^th Legislative Session (1957-1958), Oscar M. Laurel joined Kika de la Garza in the House of Representatives, having won election to Laredo’s 80^th District in Webb County. He would serve two full sessions, leaving office in 1960. Oscar M. Laurel was a native of Laredo and a graduate of Loyola University of the South in New Orleans. With the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Oscar answered Uncle Sam’s call and served in the U.S. Air force from 1941 to 1945. He received his law degree in Houston and practiced law in Laredo starting in 1948. In 1955 he was elected the national president of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC). He died on March 29, 2001 at the age of 80.

In 1956, Henry Barbosa Gonzalez (1916-2000) broke down another barrier to Mexican-American political representation. Enrique Barbosa González was born in San Antonio as the son of Leonides González and Genoveva Barbosa. His father Leonides had served as Mayor of Mapimí in Durango, Mexico, but fled the turmoil of the Mexican Revolution in 1911 and brought his family to San Antonio.

Henry B. Gonzalez had first run for state representative of San Antonio in the 1950 Democratic primaries. He actually advanced to a runoff election in San Antonio, but lost by 2,000 votes out of 33,000. Gonzalez had failed to gain the necessary support of Anglo precincts, thus losing in the runoff election. However, in his 1956 run for the Senate, Henry B. Gonzalez was successful, taking office in 1957 as the first Mexican American elected to the Texas Senate in the Twentieth Century. Senator Gonzalez would serve from the 26^th Senatorial District from 1957 to 1958 and 1960 to 1961 (the 55^th and 57^th Legislative Sessions).

In 1959, Kika de la Garza and Oscar M. Laurel were joined by another Chicano representative in the House. Mauro Rosas became El Paso’s first Tejano representative to Austin during the Twentieth Century. Representing the 105^th District, Position 3, Rosas would serve in this capacity for two legislative sessions.

In 1961 – after the statistics for the 1960 Census had become available – the Texas Legislature redistricted the House of Representatives. The House retained the maximum number of representatives, which was 150 as mandated by Article III, Section 2 of the 1876 Texas Constitution. In order to comply with this provision, the number of representatives’ districts actually had to be decreased from 105 to 94, mainly because of a large increase in urban population. But large disparities existed between the various state districts. In the Representative districts, the smallest district had 33,987 persons, while the largest had 105,725.

In the Senate, the disparities were even more pronounced. The population of Texas (9,579,677), divided by 31 senatorial seats, yielded a senatorial population mean of 309,022. In theory, the thirty-one districts should have been approximately equal in population. But the population of the largest senatorial district (No. 6) had a population of 1,243,158, while the smallest (No. 16) had a population of only 147,454. The vote of the citizens in the essentially urban senatorial districts of 6, 8, 10, 26 and 29 was worth less than half the vote of the citizens in the 21 smallest districts [Robert B. McKay, "Reapportionment: The Law and Politics of Equal Representation," New York: The Twentieth Century Fund, 1965, p. 432].

To many political analysts, the Texas style of redistricting and reapportionment seemed to be unfairly rigged in favor of rural areas. A 1936 amendment to the Texas constitution had limited to seven the number of representatives that one county could have. So, Dallas, Bexar and Harris counties were limited in the growth potential of their representation in the House.

A suit was filed in Federal District Court on July 16, 1963 challenging the apportionment of both houses of the Texas Legislature. The "one county" senatorial restriction of Article III, Section 25 of the Texas Constitution was challenged, as was the provision limiting the representation of individual counties. On December 14, 1964, the three-judge Federal District Court held the existing apportionment to be unconstitutional and ruled that both houses must be apportioned by August 2, 1965. They further declared that the redrawing of the legislative districts should conform to the new "one person, one vote" rule. [KILGARIN V. MARTIN, Civil Action No. 63-H-390 (S.D. Texas 1964)].

The Court invalidated the sections of the Texas Constitution that had obstructed fair apportionment by limiting counties to one senator and establishing irrational population limits for House Districts. In May 1965, the Legislature, in response, reapportioned both houses in approximation of equality among the election districts.

The United States, in the Supreme Court Case, Reynolds v. Sims, 1964, required equally populated districts in both houses of a bicameral legislature. In this case, the Court summarized the principle of "one person, one vote" as follows: "[T]he fundamental principle of representative government in this country is one of equal representation for equal numbers of people, without regard to race, sex, economic status, or place of residence within a State." The Court had determined that a voter in a district having a population greater than most districts had less influence in electing a representative than a voter in a district having a smaller population [REYNOLDS v. SIMMS, 377 U.S. 568 (1964).].

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)].

The three-judge Federal District Court found that the population disparity among Texas Congressional Districts – ranging from 216,371 to 951,527 – was "indeed spectacular" and noted that marked under-representation was "not surprisingly" found in metropolitan districts. Although Texas boasted a total of 254 counties, more than half of the population of the state was living in only eighteen counties and there were fifteen areas in the state that qualified for the label of "metropolitan."

The Fifty-Seventh Legislative Session marked a turning point for Tejano political representation. From two representatives in the 55^th Session, the Hispanic representation increased to six representatives. Including Senator Gonzalez, this meant that seven Tejanos were serving in the Texas Legislature during that session.

While Kika de la Garza continued to represent Hidalgo County and Rosas served from El Paso, four new representatives took their seats in the House. Two of the newly elected Representatives joined Senator Henry Gonzalez in representing the people of San Antonio and Bexar County. Vidal M. Trevino replaced Representative Laurel, serving the 80^th District (Laredo, Webb County) during the 57^th Session (1961-63).

Vidal Trevino had graduated from Martin High School in Laredo and had attended Texas A&I University in Kingsville, where he earned both his bachelor's and master's degrees. He served in the United States Army during World War II, after which, in 1950, he joined the Laredo Independent School District, where he became a classroom teacher. As a legislator, Representative Trevino served the constituents of District 80, comprising Webb and Zapata Counties. After leaving the legislature in 1963, Trevino rejoined the Laredo School District, eventually becoming Superintendent in 1973.

In 1960, when Johnny Alaniz ran for state representative from the 68^th District, Position 7 (San Antonio, Bexar County), he was a young lawyer who had only recently passed his bar examination. After this election, Johnny became known as "the Giant Killer" because he had successfully defeated the incumbent Freites Seeligson, a well-established conservative leader in the Texas legislature. Representative Seeligson was a wealthy person who had money, experience and a great deal of Anglo support. Nevertheless, John C. Alaniz won the election against Seeligson by a 200-vote margin and took office in 1961 as the first Mexican-American elected as State Representative from Bexar County. Representative Alaniz served the people of the 68^th District for three sessions, holding office from 1961 to 1967 (57^th to 59^th Sessions).

Representative Alaniz was the first author of the state bilingual education act in 1961. He also took a leading role in passing a law for single-member districts for the State House of Representatives and the State Senate and for eliminating the poll tax as a qualification for voting. In 1963, Representative Alaniz was the first Mexican-American to run for Speaker of the House of Representatives, but he won only nine votes out of 150 votes total. Representative John C. Alaniz died on March 26, 2001 at the age of 71.

Also in the 57^th Session, Rudy Esquivel was elected as the Democratic representative from the 68^th District, Position 2, also from San Antonio (Bexar County). Representative Esquivel would serve in the House for two sessions (57^th and 58^th) from 1961 to 1965.

During this session, Kika de la Garza would gain a new Tejano ally in the representation of Hidalgo County. In 1960, Raul L. Longoria won election as the Representative of the 38^th District, Position 1 (Pharr, Hidalgo County). Raul L. Longoria was born in 1921 as the son of Andres Longoria and Maria Enriquetta. Born and raised in his family’s ancestral home of La Grulla, Star County, Raul joined the United States Army Air Corps in 1942 and served in the European Theater of Operations of World War II for four years up to 1946. Under the G.I. Bill, Raul Longoria received his bachelor's degree in business administration in 1950 and a law degree from The University of Texas at Austin in 1952.

Longoria started practicing law in Edinburg, Texas before running for office in 1960. Representative Longoria served District 38-1 for six terms (1961-1963, 1965-1973). Then in 1972, he ran was elected to the Texas Senate where served from 1973 to 1981 (63^rd to 66^th Districts). In 1981, Longoria was elected as a Judge to the State District Court in Hidalgo County. He died in May 2001 in Houston.

In 1958, Senator Henry B. Gonzales 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. Gonzalez 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 Congress from Texas in the Twentieth Century.

In his subsequent reelection bids, Congressman Gonzalez 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, Gonzalez avoided running on a Chicano platform. He served as a congressional representative from 1961 to 1999 (the 87^th to the 105^th Congresses).

Tejano representation in the 58^th Session dropped from six representatives to five. In addition, with Henry Gonzalez having moved from the Texas Senate to the U.S. Congress, no Tejanos held office in the Upper House.

Representatives Alaniz, de la Garza, and Esquivel all continued to represent their constituencies in Bexar and Hidalgo Counties. Joining them in the House was Amando F. Canales of San Diego, Duval County, who represented the 70^th District. He would serve through two sessions from 1963 to 1967.

Joining the others in the House was the Laredo native, Honore Ligarde. Born in 1920 as the son of Amedee Ligarde and Sara Saenz, Honore had been raised in the Laredo area. He entered the service in 1941 as an Aviation Cadet with the Air Force and left the service in 1945 after serving in the 321^st Bomb Group, 12^th Air Force. For his service, Ligarde had received the Air Medal with Oak Leaf Clusters and the Presidential Unit Citation. Honore Ligarde was elected as the Representative of the 59^th District of Laredo, Webb County. Representative Ligarde would serve in five sessions from 1963 to 1973.

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 for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, 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, Kika de la Garza 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).

Because he hailed from a district with a large agricultural base, de la Garza became a member of the Committee on Agriculture. In 1967 he served as Chairman of the Subcommittee on Department Operations and Foreign Agriculture. And from 1981 to 1994, Congressman de la Garza was the Chairman of the Committee on Agriculture, becoming the first Hispanic since 1917 to be the Chairman of a standing committee in the U.S. House of Representatives.

After Kika de la Garza moved to the U.S. Congress, his seat in 38^th District, Position 3 (Hidalgo County) elected an Anglo named A.C. "Bud" Atwood to replace him. However, even with the loss of Kika’s District, the number of Latinos serving in the Texas House of Representatives increased from five in the 58^th Legislature to nine in the 59^th Legislature.

In the new session, Representative Alaniz continued to represent San Antonio, while Ligarde continued to represent his people in Laredo. In the meantime, two more Hispanic representatives came onto the scene as a delegate from Bexar County. Joseph J. Bernal (born 1927) was born in San Antonio and attended public schools in the area. He joined the infantry in 1945, taking part in World War II. After he was honorably discharged in 1946, Mr. Bernal took advantage of the GI Bill of Rights and obtained a bachelor's degree in education at Trinity University in San Antonio. A few years later, he started a 13-year teaching career in San Antonio.

In 1964, Joe Bernal defeated Rudy Esquivel, a Democrat, in the election for District 68, Position 2 (San Antonio, Bexar County). After serving for one session, Representative Bernal was elected in 1966 to the Texas Senate, where he served from 1967 to 1973. During his years in the Senate, Mr. Bernal was the primary author of several bills. He authorized the first minimum wage law in Texas and expunged from state statute all laws supporting segregation of the races.

The third Tejano representing San Antonio in the 59^th Session was R. L. (Bob) Vale. Born in Roma, Texas in 1931 to Joseph J. Vale and Maria Garcia and the nephew of Arnold Vale, Robert Lee Vale attended law school and served as a Lieutenant in the Army during and after the Korean War (1954-1956). After practicing law in San Antonio, Mr. Vale ran for Representative of District 68-6, replacing C. Jim Segrest. Bob Vale would have a long career in politics, representing the 68-6 District from 1965 to 1979 through seven terms.

When Bob Vale left the House after 14 years, he was ranked eighth in seniority of the 150 members. In 1979, Representative Vale began serving in the Senate from 1979 to 1985, representing District 26 (Bexar County) for another three terms. Senator Vale died in 1992.

In Nueces County, the attorney Tony Bonilla broke new ground with his election as a Democratic representative to District 38-1 in November 1964. Born in Calvert, Texas in 1936, Tony Bonilla had attended college in Corpus Christi before receiving his law degree from the University of Houston. After his election, Tony Bonilla stated, "I am very proud to be today the first state representative of Mexican ancestry to be elected in Nueces County." But, he added, "I am cognizant of the additional responsibility such a privilege places upon me. I will represent all the citizens."

While Amando Canales continued to represent Duvall County, Ligarde represented Laredo. Although Raul Longoria stood up for Hidalgo County, a new Tejano came onto the scene, also as a representative from Hidalgo County. Gregory F. Montoya was elected to serve District 38-2 (Elsa, Hidalgo County), replacing William Coughran in office. Mr. Montoya was served his district off and on for more than a decade.

In the 59^th Legislative Session, El Paso once again sent a Tejano representative to Austin. Born in Floresville, Texas in 1932 as the son of Raul R. Muniz and Beatrice Trevino, Raul F. Muniz had served in the Army’s 97^th Engineers during the 1950s. When he took office as the Representative of District 74-4 (El Paso) in 1965, he replaced Malcolm McGregor. Muniz would serve the 74^th District from 1965 to 1971 (59^th to 61^st sessions).

In the 60^th Legislative Session, the number of Mexican American legislators in Austin increased to eleven: ten representatives and one senator (Bernal). While Ligarde continued to represent Laredo, Longoria still represented part of Hidalgo County and Muniz stood up for El Paso. Bob Vale continued to represent San Antonio, and Joseph J. Bernal moved to the Senate. In the meantime, Kika de la Garza and Henry Gonzalez represented the only two Tejanos to represent Texas in the U.S. Congress.

However, a whole generation of freshmen delegates now entered the Texas House of Representatives for the first time. Joining Raul Muniz in representing the people of El Paso County were Paul Moreno and H. Tati Santiesteban. Humberto Tati Santiesteban was born in 1934 as the son of Ricardo Santiesteban, Jr. and Carmen Leyva. A native of El Paso, he attended the New Mexico Military Institute and was on active duty with the Army from 1956 to 1959. He attended in law school, and in 1967 became a member of the House, representing District 67-1 of El Paso. Santiesteban would serve in the House from 1967 to 1973 and in the Texas Senate from 1973 to 1991.

Paul Moreno, a native of Alamogordo, New Mexico, was raised in El Paso. He served in the U.S. Marine Corps for six years and was decorated for his service in the Korean War.

Paul Moreno was first elected to the Texas House in November 1966, taking office the next year as the Representative of District 67-3. Representative Moreno has embraced this job and was reelected in 2002 to serve his eighteenth two-year term in the House.

J.A. Garcia, Jr. was elected to represent the 48-F District (Raymondville, Willacy County) for the Sixtieth Legislature. Joseph Alexander Garcia, Jr., was born in Brownsville in 1936 as the son of Joseph Alexander Garcia, Sr. and Bertha Champion. He would serve the people of Willacy County for three sessions until 1972.

Henry Sanchez, Jr., was elected to represent District 47-2 (Brownsville, Cameron County) and served for four sessions from 1967 to 1975. Henry Sanchez had served four years in the United States Air Force. As the owner of a weekly newspaper, he had become a civic leader and activist in the Brownsville area. He died suddenly in 1995 at the age of 63. Representative Sanchez became the first Hispanic to represent Cameron County in many years.

In the 60^th Session, Oscar Carrillo, Sr. became the Duval County’s second Tejano representative, following Amando Canales. Born in 1921 in Hebbronville (Jim Hogg County) as the son of David Carrillo Chapa and Emma Peña, Mr. Carrillo served in the U.S. Army during World War II, winning the Bronze Star for his service. In 1947 at age 21, Carrillo became the youngest Mayor of the City of Benavides. Although he was proud to be a rancher and farmer in Duval County, Mr. Carrillo ran for Representative in 1966. He was elected to serve as Representative of District 50 (Benavidez, Duval County) and held that position through three sessions from 1967 to 1973. Representative Carrillo died in 2003 at the age of 81.

The major eastern urban area of Houston was also able to gain a Hispanic legislator in the 60^th Legislative District. Born in 1933 in Beaumont, Texas, Lauro Cruz was the son of Manuel Cruz and Margarita Menchaca. He attended the University of Houston and served in the Marines during the Korean War (1950-1953). With the support of LULAC and the GI Forum, Lauro Cruz ran for the position of District 23-5 and won, making him the first Mexican-American to win representation in Houston.

In the Sixty-First Legislative Session, all ten of the incumbent Tejanos held onto their respective seats in the House, while Senator Joseph Bernal continued to serve in the Senate as the lone Tejano voice in that chamber.

However, the Latino representation in this session increased to a total of 12 (counting Bernal in the Senate). The lone newcomer to the House was Carlos F. Truan. A native of Kingsville, Truan had earned a business degree at Texas A&I University in 1959. In 1968, Truan was elected to serve District 45-2 (Corpus Christi, Nueces County), succeeding Travis A. Peeler in that position.

Representative Truan would have an illustrious career in the Texas Legislature, first serving four terms in the House (1969-1977), then moving on to the Texas Senate where he served from 1977 to 2003. As the representative of Senate District 21, he served a constituency of eight counties and 650,000 people and, by the end of his career, had become the longest serving member of the Texas Senate. In the 69^th Legislature, his colleagues in the Senate had elected him to the post of Senate President Pro Tempore during three sessions. Truan himself felt great pride in the fact that he had sponsored the Texas Bilingual Education Act and the Texas Adult Education Act.

The 62^nd Legislature saw a drop in the number of Tejano representatives. From an all-time high of eleven, the Tejanos saw their numbers drop to nine in the House, while Senator Bernal continued to hold onto his Senatorial Seat.

During this session, many of the Representatives from the 61^st Session continued to serve in their districts in Houston, El Paso and Hidalgo County. The one notable addition was that of Dr. Martin E. Garcia, who succeeded J.A. Garcia as Representative of District 46-3 during this session.

In 1971, with the 1970 census data available, the Texas House and Senate both prepared for a new redistricting effort. The 62^nd Legislature turned out to be a very turbulent period in Texas Legislative History, especially after Speaker Gus Mutscher and the House leadership were challenged by a reform coalition of Republicans and liberal Democrats known as the "Dirty Thirty," which included El Paso representative, Paul Moreno, and San Antonio representative, Bob Vale.

Mutscher and his political allies sought to "purge" their opponents in the House Redistricting plan. Although Mutscher and his partners claimed that their redistricting schemes were unavoidable and accidental, most legislators knew better. Mutscher was soon ousted from power and found guilty of accepting a bribe. While the House of Representatives fought over redistricting, the Texas Senate failed to reach agreement on a redistricting plan, so the Legislative Redistricting Board had to be activated to do the job.

In 1972, the reapportionment plan for the senatorial districts in Harris County (Houston) was challenged in Graves v. Barnes. In this case, the plaintiffs challenged the state plan on the grounds that the senatorial districts were racially gerrymandered [GRAVES v. BARNES, 405 U.S. 1201 (1972)].

Then, on June 18, 1973, a three-judge Federal District Court invalidated the House redistricting plan, stating that the proposed reapportionment plan "contained constitutionally impermissible deviations from population equality, and that the multimember districts provided for Bexar and Dallas Counties invidiously discriminated against cognizable racial or ethnic groups" [WHITE v. REGESTER, 412 U.S. 755 (1973)].

The District Court's order requiring disestablishment of the multimember districts in Dallas and Bexar Counties was warranted in view of the long history of political discrimination against both African Americans and Mexican Americans in those counties. Having surveyed the historical condition of Mexican Americans in Bexar County, the Court observed that the Bexar community, along with other Mexican-Americans in Texas had, for a long time, "suffered from, and continues to suffer from, the results and effects of invidious discrimination and treatment in the fields of education, employment, economics, health, politics and others."

The Court further stated that cultural and linguistic barriers made the participation of Mexican Americans difficult. This "cultural incompatibility," the Court declared, "conjoined with the poll tax and the most restrictive voter registration procedures in the nation have operated to effectively deny Mexican-Americans access to the political processes in Texas even longer than the Blacks were formally denied access." As a result, the Court wrote, only five Mexican-Americans since 1880 had served in the Texas Legislature from Bexar County, and only two of these had come from the San Antonio Barrio. With these observations, the Court said that single-member districts would remedy "the effects of past and present discrimination against Mexican-Americans."

However, although the House plan was declared invalid, the Court did permit its use for the 1972 election, except for the injunction order requiring the two county multimember districts to be reconstituted into single-member districts. The White v. Regester litigation represents, even today, one of the most important decisions in Texas history relating to Tejano representation.

When the 63^rd Texas Legislature convened in 1973, ten Tejano legislators took their seats in the House of Representatives, while Raul Longoria and Tati Santiesteban took their new seats in the Senate. Joe Bernal’s tenure in the Senate had ended with the previous session, but the total number of Hispanics in both Chambers had once again reached 12 (as in the 61^st Legislature). However, of the ten representatives in the lower chamber, five were newcomers, and Gregory Montoya was a returning delegate.

The first newcomer, Terry Canales, became the first Hispanic person to become the Representative of District 58 (Premont, Jim Wells County) in 1973. Canales served through two terms (1973-1977) and moved on to become a four-term District Court Judge for the 79^th Judicial District of South Texas (Jim Wells and Brooks Counties). His daughter, Gabi Canales, later followed in his footsteps as a state representative.

Another Tejano freshman in the House was William N. (Billy) Hall, Jr., who essentially took on Honore Ligarde’s former post as a Tejano Representative from Laredo. Billy Hall was elected to serve the 57^th District (Laredo, Webb County) and served through seven consecutive sessions (1973-1987).

A new Tejano representative also came on to the scene from the San Antonio area. Joining Representative Vale in representing Bexar County, Joe Hernandez was elected to serve from District 57-J (San Antonio, Bexar County). Representative Hernandez would hold this seat in the Texas House through six consecutive sessions from 1973 to 1985.

Another Tejano representative from San Antonio also took office in the 63^rd Legislature.

Frank Madla, a native of Helotes, Texas (just outside of San Antonio) had received B.A and M.A. Degrees in Government from St. Mary’s University in San Antonio. Mr. Madla started out as a Junior High School teacher. However, in 1973, he took office as the elected representative of District 57-A (San Antonio).

Representative Madla would serve through ten consecutive sessions (1973-1993), and in 1993, moved to the Texas Senate, where he continues to serve. Representative and Senator Madla has gained a reputation as an outspoken advocate for health care and education issues.

Thanks to recently drawn single member districts, Ben T. Reyes took his seat as Representative of District 87 (Houston, Harris County). A twenty-five-year-old Vietnam veteran, Reyes replaced Lauro Cruz, who had resigned his position to run for Texas State Treasurer. He served through four sessions (1973-1980), representing Houston’s Second and Third Wards, Magnolia, and Northside. Gregory Montoya, who had left the House in 1967 returned as the Representative of District 49 (Elsa, Hidalgo County) to serve two more sessions.

In the Senate, Raul L. Longoria moved from the House to serve as the State Senator representing the Rio Grande Valley, becoming the first Tejano to represent south Texas as Senator. He served as State Senator until 1981 when he was elected to the State District Court in Hidalgo County. He served as District Judge for thirteen years until his retirement in 1994.

In 1972, the Mexican American Legislative Caucus (MALC) was established as a non-profit, non-partisan organization of all the Hispanic members of the Texas House of Representatives and Senate. In 1977, Tejano Senators started their own organization. According to the MALC Constitution, the purpose of the organization was committed "to represent the interests of the Mexican American community of Texas before the Legislature." By 1991/1992, MALC had 26 members, representing about a fifth of the House vote. In 2001, MALC’s membership reached 41, representing just over one fourth of the House vote.

The 64^th Legislative Session saw the largest number of Tejano legislators take their seats in both chambers: Sixteen in all. While Senators Longoria and Santiesteban returned to their seats in the Upper Chamber, fourteen Tejano Representatives took their place in the Lower Chamber.

Although many of the Representatives were holdovers from the previous session, several new delegates took their seats. Born in Galveston in 1941, Gonzalo Barrientos grew up in Bastrop and attended the University of Texas at Austin. In 1974, he was elected as the first Mexican-American to represent District 37-4 (Austin, Travis County). He took office in 1975 and served through five sessions until 1984. Then, in November 1984, Representative Barrientos was elected to the Texas Senate, representing District 14, which included most of Travis County and part of Hays County.

The Sixty-Fifth Legislative Session represented a milestone in the representation of Tejanos in the Texas Legislature. For the first time ever, three Mexican Americans took their seats in the Texas House: Longoria, Santiesteban, Truan.

A milestone of gender proportions was also reached when Irma Rangel was elected as the first Mexican-American lawmaker in the Texas Legislature. Born in 1931 in Kingsville, Kleberg County, Irma Rangel had become a schoolteacher and, later, a lawyer. Then in 1976, she became the first Mexican-American woman elected to the Texas House of Representatives as the delegate from District 49 (Kingsville). Irma Rangel served from the 65^th to the 78^th Sessions (1977-2003), but died in office in 2003.

Another freshman Representative in the House was Frank Mariano Tejeda. Born in San Antonio in 1945, Frank had dropped out of high school to join the Marines (1963-1967). Serving in the Vietnam War, Tejeda earned the Bronze Star and Purple Heart medals. After leaving the service, he continued his education, getting degrees from UC Berkeley, Yale and Harvard Universities.

In 1976, Frank Tejeda was elected to represent the people of District 57-B (San Antonio, Texas) and served through five sessions (1977-1987). He the moved over to the Texas Senate, serving from District 19 (Bexar County) from 1987 to 1992. By 1992, Senator Tejeda had become so popular that no one challenged him when he decided to run for U.S. Congress, as the representative of the 28^th District. He served in Congress from 1993 to 1997, when he died in office.

As the decade of the 1980s began, the number of Tejano elected officials stabilized. Not until the 70^th Legislature (1987-1988) did the number of Hispanic legislators in Austin reach 25. With 19 Representatives in the House and six senators in the Upper Chamber, Latinos now felt that they had a strong voice in their own destiny, even though there was a belief that redistricting in some parts of Texas was still not favorable to minorities.

Probably the most notable addition to the Legislature in the 70^th Legislature was election of Judith Zaffirini as the first Mexican-American woman to serve in the Texas Senate. Representing District 21 (Bexar County and several border counties), Senator Zaffirini would be reelected three times. She achieved a perfect attendance record and voting record, casting more than 15,000 consecutive votes during six regular and 12 special sessions. As a result, she was honored with more than 250 awards for her professional and legislative performance.

At the first election following the turn of the century (November 2000), Hispanic representatives from the State of Texas to the U.S. Congress numbered six delegates (five Democrats and one Republican). The number of Hispanics in the Texas Senate had increased to seven, while the number of Tejano Representatives in the House reached 28.

In the next election (November 2002), the number of Tejanos in the House would reach a new milestone: 30 Representatives.

The struggle for Tejano Representation in Texas has been a long drawn-out affair. The gains of Mexican American Texans in both the Texas Legislature and the U.S. Congress were, for the most part, achieved by individuals who had already served their country as soldiers fighting for freedom. These soldiers, as veterans, returned home to take part in a new struggle for freedom: the struggle for representation.

Steve Bickerstaff, "Effects of the Voting Rights Act on Reapportionment and Hispanic Voting Strength in Texas," Texas Hispanic Journal of Law & Policy (The University of Texas School of Law), Vol. 6, No. 1 (Summer 2001), 99-122.

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

Leroy Hardy, Alan Heslop and Stuart Anderson (eds.), Reapportionment Politics: The History of Redistricting in the 50 States (Beverly Hills: Sage Publications, 1981).

Malcolm E. Jewell, The Politics of Reapportionment (New York: Atherton Press, 1962).

Al Luna, The Mexican-American Legislative Caucus (Austin: Texas Legislative Counsel, 1987).

Robert B. McKay, Reapportionment: The Law and Politics of Equal Representation (New York: The Twentieth Century Fund, 1965).

Useful Website:http://lcweb.loc.gov/rr/hispanic/congress/contents.html
[Hispanic Americans in Congress, 1822-1995: Table of Contents]

White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans, welcomes a newly appointed director,  Adam Chavarria, 

Adam Chavarria joined the White House Initiative in June 2001 as associate director. In that capacity, he worked closely with the President's Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans in an effort to help the Department of Education and other federal agencies improve educational opportunities for Hispanic Americans, from early childhood to postsecondary education and under the historic No Child Left Behind Act of 2001.

     

ADAM CHAVARRIA, 

The study, titled "The Entrepreneur Next Door: Characteristics of Individuals Starting Companies in America," surveyed more than 64,000 people in the United States and found, among other things, that Hispanic-and African American-men who receive at least some college graduate training are two to three times as likely to start their own business than their white non-Hispanic counterparts.

To be sure, the importance of small businesses to the U.S. economy is difficult to overstate. The National Council for Entrepreneurship notes that nearly all Fortune 200 companies had entrepreneurial beginnings. And during the past decade, small businesses have consistently accounted for an average of 50 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product, according to the most recent report to Congress from the U.S. Small Business Administration. 

According to the Census: The number of Latinos has surged from 22.3 million in 1990 to 38.8 million in 2002, according to the Census Bureau The figure for 2003 is expected to top 40 million. That means 13 percent of the US population has Latino origins. 

According to the Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies: The Hispanic population boomed 61% between 1990 and 2001, exploding from 21.9 million to 35.3 million making it the fastest-growing group in America, according to the U.S. Census Bureau; Projections say that the Hispanic population will triple in size by 2050, making up 24% of the total U.S. population, according to Strategy Research Corporation;

In a study conducted for AHAA by Roslow Research, 85% of Hispanics have computers at home and 75% have Internet access from those computers;

The circulation of Spanish-language periodicals has risen from 2.7 million to 14.1 million in the past 15 years, says Western Publication Research.

Extract: Hispanic Media & Marketing Factoids
Published by the Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies
Sent by JV Martinez  
Source: Ancel A. Martinez ancelmartinez@hotmail.com

The Power of the Hispanic Market

The Hispanic population boomed 61% between 1990 and 2001, exploding from 21.9 million to 35.3 million making it the fastest-growing group in America, according to the U.S. Census Bureau;

Projections say that the Hispanic population will triple in size by 2050, making up 24% of the total U.S. population, according to Strategy Research Corporation;

Santiago and Valdés Solutions estimates that Hispanic purchasing power is now $561 billion and will reach $630 billion by 2002;

The Census Bureau reports that over the past three years, the income of the typical Hispanic household has risen $3,880 (15.9%), which is the largest three-year increase of Hispanic income on record;

Santiago and Valdés Solutions also reports that Hispanic household income continues to grow, with 38% earning over $40,000 in 1999 vs. 26% in 1994 and that currently over 3.5 million Hispanic households earn over $40,000/year;

The Hispanic middle class grew 80% between 1979 and 1998, according to the Tomas Rivera Center at Scripps College and the University of Texas;

Strategy Research Corporation reports that there are 9.6 million Hispanics concentrated in 7 states that have more than 1 million Hispanics per state (Arizona, California, Florida, New Jersey, New York, and Texas);

Presently, more than one in six (17%) of all babies born in the U.S. will be born to a Hispanic mother and about one in seven Hispanics are over 50, according to Santiago and Valdés Solutions.

According to Target Marketing, Hispanic households only receive an average of 20 direct mail pieces a year, compared with the 300 or so received by the general U.S. population.  The same article also states that direct mail can get anywhere from a 25 percent to 100 percent greater response from the Hispanic American market than from the population at large;

Hispanics are on-line: In a study conducted for AHAA by Roslow Research, 85% of Hispanics have computers at home and 75% have Internet access from those computers;

The circulation of Spanish-language periodicals has risen from 2.7 million to 14.1 million in the past 15 years, says Western Publication Research.

Generation: According to studies by Nielsen Media Research:
One in five teens in the United States (20%) is of Hispanic descent.  Between 1993 and 2001, the Hispanic teen population grew 30%, while the non-Hispanic population grew 8% during the same period; By 2020, the Hispanic teen population is expected to grow 62% compared to 10% growth in the number of teens overall;

AHAA Headquarters, 8201 Greensboro Drive, Suite 300, McLean, Virginia 22102
Telephone: (703) 610 -9014; fax: (703) 610-9005
Copyright 1997-2001. AHAA, All Rights Reserved.

                  Air Force Brigadier General María I. Cribbs 

In the Line of Duty By Eunice Sigler, Hispanic Magazine

It’s not uncommon to see highly-decorated women generals—although that took quite some time. Significant numbers of high-ranking posts for women have only come about in the past 10 or 15 years.  U.S. Air Force Brigadier General María I. Cribbs is one such success story, with a Hispanic twist.

For more information, please contact: ryskampg@msn.com  Lu_knudson@byu.edu, JepsonKA@ldschurch.org

Hispanic American Heroes

2004 Hispanic American Heroes Events Planned

2004 California Events
Three events are planned for California. On March 6th, SHHAR will host a reception at the Temecula City Museum.  Eddie Martinez, artist, illustrator, historian is mounting an artistic, historical display to include both the history of the indigenous in the Southwest and the heroic accomplishments of Bernardo de Galvez.  For information on  http://www.artworksstudio.net

The second is the Santa Barbara Founders Day celebration. HAHS will be collaborating with the Santa Barbara Trust to honor the contributions made by Juan Bautista de Anza, soldier and explorer. Anza’s two expeditions from the Presidio of Tubac in Sonora (now southern Arizona) resulted in the discovery of a much needed overland route to northern California and the expansion of colonization in "Alta California". This event will be held April 21^st through the 24^th. Many exciting events are planned including a ceremony reenacting the establishment of the presidio and a soldados encampment at La Purisima Mission State Historic Park. School children will be able to talk to soldiers, see examples of period crafts, participate in living history day and presidio past times.

Later in the year, the City of San Diego, the site that Padre Serra established Mission San Diego on July 16, 1769, will host an HSHA celebration event honoring Teodoro de Croix (1730-1792), soldier and government official in New Spain.

He was born in Prévoté castle near Lille, France, on June 20, 1730. He entered the Spanish army at age seventeen and was sent to Italy as an ensign of grenadiers of the Royal Guard. In 1750 he transferred to the Walloon Guards, bodyguards of the Bourbon kings of Spain. He was promoted to the rank of lieutenant in 1756 and was decorated in Flanders with the "Cross of the Teutonic Order" which gave him the title of caballero. In 1760 Caballero de Croix was made a colonel in the Walloon Guards. In 1766, when his uncle Francisco, Marqués de Croix, went to New Spain as viceroy, Teodoro accompanied him as captain of the viceregal guard. The viceroy shortly appointed him governor of Acapulco. He became inspector of troops for New Spain with the rank of brigadier in December of that year and served in that capacity until 1770. The next year the Marqués de Croix ended his term as viceroy, and Teodoro sailed with him for Spain in company with José Bernardo de Gálvez Gallardo,^qv who was retiring as inspector general.

Commandant General Croix saw little improvement in frontier conditions undertaken at the presidios to establish a new defense line to conform to Royal Regulations of 1772. The staggering toll of Indian depredations all across the frontier convinced Croix of the necessity of reorganizing the presidial line again. He ultimately returned some of the forts to their original position and buttressed them with a secondary line of fortified towns. In August 1777 Caballero de Croix left Mexico to inspect his jurisdiction. The entourage crossed the Rio Grande near San Juan Bautista^qv on December 24 and remained in what is now Texas until January 22, 1778. At Monclova, San Antonio, and Chihuahua, Croix councils to discuss with frontier officers the means of confronting the Apache challenge that was common to all the Interior Provinces. Out of the juntas came a request for the new governor of Louisiana, Bernardo de Gálvez, to join Croix in the Apache campaign, uniting a Louisiana force to 2,000 troops the commandant general hoped to obtain from the crown. Such plans, which might have enhanced the stature of both men, were doomed by the prospect of Spain's entry into the war that the North American colonists were waging against England.

San Diego de Alcala, the first of the great California Missions, marks the birthplace of Christianity in the far West. It is California's first church. This remarkable and significant historical shrine provides an understanding and appreciation of the beginning of Catholicism in this corner of the world, so remote from the Mother Country of Spain and yet so similar.

Established by Spain in 1769, the Presidio of San Diego is the oldest European settlement on the Pacific Coast of the United States and Canada.  Over the next fifty years, this fortified military colony grew to become the chief administrative and judicial center for the region and home to more than five hundred inhabitants.  

For more information on de Croix, go to the article by Michael R. Hardwick on the website of the 
The California State Military Museum  http://www.militarymuseum.org/Croix.html

2004 Nevada Co-Chairs
The HAHS EC is proud to announce the 2004 California Co-Chairs for the Hispanic American Series, Mrs. Veronica Hummel, Director of Grants and Fundraising, NevadaCares 4 Kids.  Her Co-chair is Mr. Robert Borboa, Executive Director, NevadaCares 4 Kids. Both have graciously agreed to serve on the HAHS Executive Committee

2004 Nevada Event
The Nevada HAHS Executive Committee has decided upon the theme of "The Discovery and History of Las Vegas, Nevada." Nevada will celebrate Rafael Rivera, the young scout for Armillo Trading Party, a scouting party based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, commissioned by the U.S. government to map and survey the land west of New Mexico, to San Bernardino, California.

In 1829, young Rivera was to find a safe route around hostile Northern Arizona Indians.  He found himself lost in the desert. Being the intrepid explorer that he was, he capitalized on the experience by navigating and documenting the mountain peaks as he pressed westward.  After two long weeks, Rivera finally found himself in a mountain range looking down at a fertile, green, and lush area of desert.  Traversing the valley, he verified that it was no mirage. Finding water, he and his horse drank their fill and bedded down for the night. Early the next morning Rivera, relying on his superb navigational skills, made his way back to his party and led them back to the place he named, Las Vegas or Spanish for "the meadows".  To this day, Rafael Rivera is commemorated by a Nevada State Historical Landmark No. 214, in the city of Las Vegas, Nevada, for his bravery and courage.

2004 New Mexico Event
The newly formed New Mexico HAHS Executive Committee will also host a celebration event honoring Teodoro de Croix (1730-1792), soldier and government official in New Spain.

Santa Fe, New Mexico, is America's oldest capital city and claims a long history and rich Spanish cultural heritage. Nestled at seven thousand feet in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, it was founded as a capital city in 1607 by Spanish explorers. Its rich history boasts many cultures and peoples. The Pueblo Peoples, Spanish Crown, Mexico, and the Confederacy all had control of the city during its long history. In 1846 it was ceded by the Mexican Federation to the United States of America.

Present day Santa Fe is an international city renowned for its cosmopolitan sophistication and unsurpassed celebration of the arts. Its culture, art, rich Spanish traditions, art market, Santa Fe Opera, and people make it a world class city.

2005 Texas Event
The San Antonio Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution is in the planning stages of a huge event to recognize the Tejano cattlemen who supported the American Revolution. Progress is being made for a commemorative trail ride. The events will include a trail ride (from San Antonio to Karns City), parade, Bar-B-Q, cowboy breakfast, and a Louisiana style masquerade ball. The extensive three-day event will most likely be held in the spring or fall of 2005, due to its complexity and size. A parade in San Antonio is also being considered. This 1779, Texas-Spanish historic style event has been very well received. Several business organizations are showing an interest.

In 1776 officials in Mexico and Spain were not satisfied with the state of defense of the frontier of New Spain, especially in the western areas where the Apaches were more troublesome than ever. Accordingly, the Commandacy General of the Provincias Internas del Norte was created as a more effective organization for dealing with both Indians and foreign menaces to New Spain's northernmost colonial provinces. Headquarters was to be located at Arizpe in Sonora.

Charles III, King of Spain, appointed Brigadier Theodoro de Croix as the first Commandant General. Croix was born in France and had served the Spanish army for nearly 30 years prior to his appointment. He had come to New Spain in 1766 as a captain of his uncle's [the marqués de Croix, Carlos Francisco de Croix] vice-regal guard. Serving as commandant of the fortress of Acapulco and subsequently as inspector of all troops in the viceroyality, Croix was knighted as a caballero in the Teutonic order.

Croix assumed his new appointment on May 16, 1776. In special royal instructions King Charles III defined Croix's new authority with almost vice-regal powers over the provinces of Texas, New Mexico, Coahuila, Nueva Vizcaya, Sinaloa, Sonora, and Baja California. In the new province of Alta California, however, he was to share authority with Viceroy Bucareli.

SURNAME: AGUIRRE

ORANGE COUNTY, CA

Executive Director, Carmen Vali-Cave and Chairman of the Board, John G. Cruz

Lincoln Juarez Opportunity Center
Original Artwork Competition 
The deadline for submission is Friday, February 6th.  

The Lincoln Juarez Opportunity Center with the assistance of the Santa Ana Education Foundation, invites High School student to participate in an original artwork competition.  The artwork chosen will be used as a logo for the Lincoln Juarez Opportunity Center's 2nd Annual Fundraising Gala 2004.

The winning artist will receive an educational scholarship, as well as an invitation to and recognition at the Formal Gala scheduled for Friday, April 23rd to be held at the Santa Ana Performing Arts and Events Center, 505 N. Sycamore, Santa Ana, CA 92701.

The theme for this year's Gala to be incorporated into the submitted artwork is: Tres Llaves: Education, Healthcare and Employment, Keys to the American Dream

Please submit your original artwork to Ms. Bernadette S. Medrano, the Executive Director of the the Santa Ana Education Foundation located at 1601 East Chapman Avenue, Santa Ana.
For further information contact Ms. Medrano at 714-639-9505 or Anna Hall 714-245-1408

The Lincoln-Juarez Opportunity Center is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that is working to promote the American dream in the Hispanic community. The Lincoln-Juarez Opportunity Center, located in Santa Ana, assists the members of the Hispanic Community of Orange County by providing resource referral and educational programs to help individuals prosper both personally & professionally.  The Center is located at 117 W. 4th St., Suite 300, Santa Ana 92701. 

For information on the center or the upcoming gala please contact: 
LJOC Executive Director, Carmen Vali-Cave at 714-245-1408 or go to: http://www.lincolnjuarez.org

By the 1940 the family had moved to California where Grandfather Adán found work in the San Pedro shipyard.  Eventually he returned to his profession as a typesetter with the Herald Examiner. 

 
Ron Reese, Friends of Rancho Los Cerritos 
He reenacts the character of Juan Cañedo during the Temple and Bixby periods, 1850-1870s

CALIFORNIA

Congratulations  

Michael Hardwick
Co-Chair of the California Galvez Committee Project, 2004 

On January 10, 2004
Was the recipient of the 
Life Honorary Trustee
with the  
Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation

In accepting this award, I want to thank the Board of Directors of the Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation for considering me worthy of receiving it. To me it represents a monument to my involvement with the Presidio Project. It formalizes something I have been doing for the last 34 years.

I started working on the presidio project in 1970 while still a student at UCSB. I had just been discharged from the navy after serving on a cruiser in Vietnam. Doing some of the original archaeology at the presidio in the 1970s, I literally spent hundreds of volunteer hours digging, sorting and documenting.

Half of the people in the photo have passed on, Russell, Alice Ruth, and Dick Whitehead. In the photo I am much younger wearing my old navy work clothes. Jeremy Hass (seated) used his skills as a lawyer to negotiate property acquisitions for the project.

In the 1970s I also worked at La Purismia Mission State Historic Park and established an archive there. I was a State Park Ranger Intermittent at Purisima for five years. Today I am a docent at the mission, having formally completed the docent 10 week training program.

In 1982 I was appointed to the Board of Directors for The Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation. I served on the Board for 17 years. While on the Board, I served as its Treasurer for 2 years. I chaired the Archive Library, Descendants and Genealogy Committees, and was a member of the Reconstruction Committee.

In 1990 I was instrumental in founding Los Soldados del Real Presidio de Santa Barbara. The organization came to life as we acquired authentic reproduction uniforms and flintlock muskets that were used by the soldiers of the presidio. Jim Martinez became our drill instructor and drilled soldados using commands (which he translated) from an 1808 Spanish Manual of Arms that was acquired from the Los Angeles County Museum.

Los Soldados as an organization today is motivated by the same spirit of volunteerism that started the presidio project. We have a WEB site, and we do a number of events every year. In 1995 we provided the honor guard for the visit of Prince Felipe from Spain. In 1996 we traveled to Washington D.C. with a proclamation from the City of Santa Barbara to participate in the 2^nd Annual Hispanic Heroes parade which honored Bernardo de Gálvez, Hispanic Hero of the American Revolution. In October of 2003 Los Soldados rendered honors again to Bernardo de Gálvez, but this time it was in Long Beach as a part of a Hispanic-American Heroes series of events sponsored by Somos Primos, a contemporary Hispanic Heritage organization.

An interesting sidelight of the Long Beach event happened when Hector Diaz, who played the part of Bernardo de Gálvez, came from Baltimore, Maryland, to participate in the ceremonies. Hector had organized the 1996 Gálvez event in Washington in 1996. When he arrived in California, Hector had with him proclamations from the mayor of Baltimore issued some seven years ago.

Los Soldados had so impressed the mayor of Baltimore in 1996 that the mayor issued proclamations from his city to honor not only Los Soldados, but also Jarrell Jackman, executive director of the Trust, and the Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation. So it is with great pleasure that I present these awards now to Dr. Jackman and the Trust. I am only sorry that our colonial courier took seven years to deliver them.

Josef de Zuniga, Comandante, San Diego  1781-1792
Author, M. Hardwick: hardwic@cox.net

Josef de Zuniga was born in Mexico in 1755. He entered service as an officer candidate in the frontier army at the age of 17 enjoying the position of soldado distinguido, which qualified him as a nobleman, not subject to the performance of manual labor or other less distinguished tasks. In 1778 Zuniga became alferéz (sub lieutenant) after extensive service on the Texas frontier. By 1780 Zuniga was promoted to lieutenant while serving at the Presidio of San Carlos de Cerro Gordo in the Big-Bend Country of Texas.

In 1781 Zuniga was recruited by Captain Rivera y Moncada to lead a division of colonists from Guaymas to Loreto and Bahia San Luis Gonzaga by sea. The colonists, destined to found Pueblo de Los Angeles and the Santa Barbara area, were escorted by Zuniga from the Baja Peninsula to San Gabriel Mission.

In September of 1781, Lt. Zuniga was appointed as the second comandante of the Presidio of San Diego. Lt. Zuniga relieved José Francisco Ortega who had served as comandante of San Diego for 8 years. Alferéz José Velásquez was Zuniga’s second in command until he passed away in 1785. During Zuniga’s 11 year tenure as the military commander of San Diego he built and extensive comandancia (house of the commandant) and maintained good relations with his fellow soldiers. He kept good accounts and related well with superiors, missionaries, and the local Indians. In 1783 he built a "beautiful church" at the presidio. He served as carpenter, mason, and painter for the construction of the chapel. In 1784 he received membership in third order of Franciscans.

By 1792 Zuniga had been promoted to captain and assigned to the royal presidio of Tucson. Having to wait for his replacement, he served on detached duty at Monterey and finally arrived in Tucson in 1794. Zuniga served as comandante of Tucson until 1806. Later he ended his career as a lieutenant colonel and as Adjutant Inspector of Presidios in Arizpe Sonora.

Visit Los Soldados on the internet http://www.Soldados.us/StBarbara/index.htm
Presidios and soldiers bibliography  http://www.ca-missions.org/biblio.html

The Family of Jose Raimundo Carrillo (1749-1809)

1874, San Francisco, California 
"Para papa" of Elena Anita Thompson y Carrillo de Tyng and my grandfather's two older brothers Charles (b.1870) and George (b.1871),
both born in Santa Barbara, California.

He married Tomasa Ignacia, daughter of the soldier Francisco Lugo, the ceremony being performed by Junipero Serra at San Carlos, on April 23, 1781. His early services in California were at Santa Barbara and Monterey, coming to San Diego in 1806. The South Coast Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution has a copy of the 1782 garrison list for Monterey which shows Jose Raimundo Carrillo serving in the rank of Corporal. Upon his death in 1809 at San Diego, he was buried in the chapel on Presidio Hill on November 10th. His only daughter, Maria Antonia, became the wife of Jose de La Guerra y Noriega. His sons, Carlos Antonio de Jesus, Jose Antonio Ezequiel, Anastasio, and Domingo Antonio Ignacio, were all prominent in the early history of California.

This brief bio is found on the San Diego Historical Society website. Credit given to William Ellsworth Smythe's History of San Diego, page 162, courtesy of Professor Steven Schoenherr, University of San Diego Department of History.  American Revolution information added.

The following is my line of descent:
Jose Raimundo Carrillo, Carlos Antonio Carrillo, Maria Francisca Carrillo married Captain Alpheus B. Thompson, Elena Anita Thompson y Carrillo married George Tyng, Francisco Carrillo Tyng married Emma Loraine Hyde, Dorothy Loraine Tyng married William Talbot McEwan

Living:
William Talbot McEwan, Jr., married Mary Virginia Thompson son, Paul William McEwan, married Elizabeth Wesley Stephenson children: William Talbot McEwan, III Robert Alan McEwan, Richard Stephenson McEwan, Kathleen Forbes McEwan son, Alan Maxwell McEwan, married Karen Cecilia Schliep children: Monica Ruth Schliep McEwan, Susan Tyng McEwan, married Nicholas Wolf Fels daughter: Sarah Brook Fels, married George Robert Steel, Jane Tracy McEwan

My grandfather Francisco Carrillo Tyng's baptism certificate. He was born September 27, 1883 in Mexico City.
                     Thanks again and saludos!!  Bill McEwan  BillandVirginia@compuserve.com

Alviso, Bojorques, Borondo, Espinosa, Higuera, Lara, Lugo
Nattalia K. Merzoyan From: cmcutshaw@charter.net

Domingo Alviso
Greg Bernal-Mendoza- Smestad, Ph.D. smestad@solideas.com

Pedro Amador
Mary Benitez m.g.benitez@juno.com
Al Solis SolisCasa@aol.com

Josef Ygnacio Archuleta
Greg Bernal-Mendoza- Smestad, Ph.D. smestad@solideas.com

Manuel Ramirez (Arellanes) Arellano
Nancy Bonetti Ray nancy.ray@sbcglobal.net

Jose Dario Arguello and two sons Luis Antonio Arguello and Jose Dario Arguello
Dora B. Buckmaster SO DB Buck@aol.com

Juan Francisco Bernal
Greg Bernal-Mendoza- Smestad, Ph.D. smestad@solideas.com

Pedro Antonio Bojorquz
Sheila Ruiz Harrell sheila-ann@juno.com
and brothers, Michael Eugene Harrell, David Vincent Harrell

Pedro Bojorques, and son Bartolome Bojorques
Pauline Reed paulinereed2002@yahoo.com

Josef Ramon Bojorquez
Sheila Ruiz Harrell sheila-ann@juno.com
and brothers, Michael Eugene Harrell, David Vincent Harrell

Jose Antonio Buelna
Mary Ryan ohmairiainr@juno.com
Gail Slade dardena@link2usa.com

Manuel Butron
Paul Trejo PGBlueCoat@aol.com

Ignacio Cantua
Edward Allegreti EAllegretti@rosendin.com

Jose Raymundo (Raimundo) Carrillo
Andrew Carrillo califexp@yahoo.com
Bill McEwan BillandVirginia@compuserve.com

Miguel Cordero and son Mariano Antonio Cordero
William E. Cordero wcordero@lawa.org
William E. Cordero II bmlcordero@earthlink.net
Sheila Ruiz Harrell sheila-ann@juno.com
and brothers, Michael Eugene Harrell, David Vincent Harrell

Don Pablo Antonio Cota
Mary Ryan ohmairiainr@juno.com
Stephen M. Rieden srieden@yahoo.com

Roque Jacinto de Cota
Nancy Bonetti Ray nancy.ray@sbcglobal.net

Josef Joaquin Cayetano Espinosa
Greg Bernal-Mendoza- Smestad, Ph.D. smestad@solideas.com
Gail Slade dardena@link2usa.com

Jose Miguel Espinosa
Gail Slade dardena@link2usa.com

Mariano Estrada
Troy Bunnell troy@coyotecanyonwines.com

Juan Victoriano Feliz 
Lorraine Moffat WCMOFFAT@aol.com

Jose Rosalino Fernandez
Sheila Ruiz Harrell sheila-ann@juno.com
and brothers, Michael Eugene Harrell, David Vincent Harrell

Felipe Santiago Garcia
Richard Ameil, Pres. California Missions foundations  http://www,save-the-missions.org

Nicolas Galindo
Sheila Ruiz Harrell sheila-ann@juno.com
and brothers, Michael Eugene Harrell, David Vincent Harrell

Josef Manuel Higuera
Greg Bernal-Mendoza- Smestad, Ph.D. smestad@solideas.com

Francisco Juarez , son Francisco Xavier Juarez, grandson Jose Joaquin Juarez
Helen Collins hbmsjc@earthlink.net

Ignacio Linares
Edward Allegreti EAllegretti@rosendin.com
Sheila Ruiz Harrell sheila-ann@juno.com
and brothers, Michael Eugene Harrell, David Vincent Harrell

Felipe Santiago Lugo
Ray Dall dall26@inreach.com

Francisco Salvadore Lugo
Mary Ryan ohmairiainr@juno.com
Mark W. Holmerud mmmjd@aol.com

Jose Manuel Machado
Mary Benitez m.g.benitez@juno.com

Maccimo Martinez
Mary McGinnis Mdmcginnis@aol.com

Alejo Miranda
Sheila Ruiz Harrell sheila-ann@juno.com
and brothers, Michael Eugene Harrell, David Vincent Harrell

Maria Dolores Morales
Greg Bernal-Mendoza- Smestad, Ph.D. smestad@solideas.com

Jose Francisco (de) Ortega
Thomas (Tom) Klope klope@pacbell.net
Sheila Ruiz Harrell sheila-ann@juno.com
and brothers, Michael Eugene Harrell, David Vincent Harrell

Juan Osuna
Mary Benitez m.g.benitez@juno.com

Juan Salvio Pacheco
Miguel Antonio Pacheco
Greg Bernal-Mendoza- Smestad, Ph.D. smestad@solideas.com

Gabriel Peralta
Luis Maria Peralta
Greg Bernal-Mendoza- Smestad, Ph.D. smestad@solideas.com
Gail Slade dardena@link2usa.com

Felipe Santiago de la Cruz Pico
Sheila Ruiz Harrell sheila-ann@juno.com
and brothers, Michael Eugene Harrell, David Vincent Harrell

Pablo Pinto
Sheila Ruiz Harrell sheila-ann@juno.com
and brothers, Michael Eugene Harrell, David Vincent Harrell

Josef Antonio Sanchez
Greg Bernal-Mendoza- Smestad, Ph.D. smestad@solideas.com

(Y)Ignacio de Soto
Edward Allegreti EAllegretti@rosendin.com
Greg Bernal-Mendoza- Smestad, Ph.D. smestad@solideas.com

Felipe Santiago Tapia
Gail Slade dardena@link2usa.com

Eugenio Valdez
Mary Benitez m.g.benitez@juno.com

Don Ygnacio Vicente Vallejo
Nattalia K. Merzoyan From: cmcutshaw@charter.net

Marianno Guadalupe Vallejo
Mark W. Holmerud mmmjd@aol.com

José (Josef ) Manuel Valenzuela
Mary Ayers M3Ayers@aol.com
Ernest J. Garcia hande.garcia@sbcglobal.net
Sheila Ruiz Harrell sheila-ann@juno.com
and brothers, Michael Eugene Harrell, David Vincent Harrell

Jose Antonio Yorba
Mary Benitez m.g.benitez@juno.com

SOUTHWESTERN UNITED STATES

PASO AL NORTE MUSEUM

From Left: Executive Director,  Margarita Rivera Houze,  Chair, Dr. Carlos Arce, Mimi Lozano, Dr. Refugio Rochin
International Advisory Council, January 16, 2004, Camino Real,  El Paso, Texas 

She has worked to develop outreach programs for immigrants in Texas, an effort that culminated in the creation of the Governor's Office of Immigration and Refugee Affairs. In 1995, she received a Presidential appointment to the U.S. Department of State, where she served until 2001 as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State. In this position, she formulated policies and managed programs related to refugee protection, humanitarian assistance and migration in Europe, the Middle East, and the Americas. She also managed the program for worldwide admission of refugees into the Untie States.

Ms. Houze completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Texas at Austin, and has a Master's in Business Administration from the University of Texas at Austin, and a Master's in Public Administration from the Lyndon b. Johnson School of Public Affairs.

If you ancestors lived in El Paso, or came through El Paso, Paso al Norte would particularly like to hear from you. Photos and stories are being collected and archived. Public financial support and involvement is welcomed.  

Marguerite Rivera Houze, Executive Director
Paso al Norte Museum
University of Texas at el Paso
El Paso, Texas 79968
(915) 747-8679
mhouze@utep.edu

Dr. Carlos H. Arce
Founder and Principal
NuStats Research and Consulting
Austin, TX

Mr. Victor Arias, Jr.
Spencer Stuart
Dallas, TX

Dr. Jorge A. Bustamante
Eugene Conley Professor of Sociiology
Institute for Latino Studies
University of Notre Dame
Notre dame, IN

Mr. Ignacio Durán
Director, Mexican Cultural Institute

Washington, D.C.

Mr. Miguel A. Fernández
Embotelladora Argos
Cd. Juarez, Chih, México

Mr. Juan Roberto Job
Corporate Vice President
New York Life Insurance Company
New York, NY

Ms. Elizabeth Lisboa-Farrow
President o& CEO, Lisboa, Inc.

Washington, DC

Ms. Mimi Lozano
President, Society of Hispanic Historical

And Ancestral Research
Midway city, CA

Ms. Adair Margo
Adair Margo Gallery
El Paso, TX

Mr. Victor Miramontes
President and COO, American City Vista
San Antonio, TX

Mr. Gustavo Mohar
Mexico D.F., México

Dr. Diana S. Natalicio
President, University of Texas at El Paso
El Paso, TX

The Honorable Jaime Oaxaca
Chairman of the Board
United State Space Foundation
Rancho Palos Verdes, CA

Dr. Demertrios G. Papademetriou
Co-Director, Migration Politcy Institute
Washington, DC

Dr. Raymund A. Paredes
San Antonio, TX

Mr. William Parsons
Holocaust Museum
Washington, DC

The Honorable Silvestre Reyes
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC

Mr. Eugenio Clariond Reyes-Retana
CEO, Grupo IMSA, S.A. de C.V.
San Pedro Garza Garcia, N.L., México

Ms. Belen Robles
President, Belen Robles and Associates, LLC
El Paso, TX

Dr. Refugio I. Rochin
Executive Director
Society for Advancement of Chicanos
and Native American in Science
Santa Cruz, CA

Ms. Marian L. Smith
Historian, Bureau of Immigration and
Customs Enforcement

Washington, DC

Dr. Maria Socorro Tabuenca
Colegio de la Frontera Norte
Juárez, México

Rev. Lydio f. Tomasi
Editor, International Migration Review
Center for Migration Studies of New York
Staten Island, NY

Mr. Luis Alberto Urrea
Associate Professor
Department of English
University of Illinois at Chicago
Chicago, IL

Mr. Victor Villaseñor
Author
Oceanside, CA

Mr. Albert C. Zapanta
President and CEO
U.S.-Mexico Chamber of Commerce
Washington, DC

Julian Diaz m. Eulogia Fernandez b. 1808, Mission San Juan Mission San Juan, San Antonio
↓
Leonides Diaz m. Mariano Trevino b. 1841 b.11/12/1829  San Antonio, Tx. San Antonio
↓
Leonides Trebino m. Jose Felix Casanova b. 1860 (9/01/1875) b. 05/13/1842 
San Antonio,Tx. San Antonio, Tx. d. 01/16/1928 d. 08/19/1917 San Antonio,Tx. San Antonio, Tx.
↓
Mariano Casanova m. Virginia C. Charles b. 10/10/1886 (11/13/1910) b. 01/23/1887
San Antonio, Tx. San Antonio, Tx. d. 02/11/1969 d. 11/10/1950 San Antonio, Tx. San Antonio, Tx.
↓
Virginia C. Casanova m. Benjamin de Jesus b. 11/27/1912 (5/10/1947) b. 02/14/1915
San Antonio, Tx. Florida, Puerto Rico d. 04/22/1973 d. 12/10/1996 San Antonio, Tx. San Antonio, Tx.
↓
Sylvia Jean de Jesus Garcia b. 11/23/1948 San Antonio, Tx.
Submitted by: Sylvia Jean Garcia, rgarciajr2@satx.rr.com
14932 Seven L Trail, Helotes, Tx., 78023

Remember to attach documentation validating Participant’s involvement or activities in the Texas Revolution.

BLACK

For all practical purposes, early California could truly be described as a melting pot. Most people of African descent from 1816-1840 were absorbed into the mix, so that there were few if any real "Negro communities" prior to the Gold Rush. By 1848, the Californio was often tri-racial (Indian, Spanish and African), and included many immigrant bloodlines. The lower economic classes of Californios gradually became more Indian, partly due to intermarriage with California Indians. The upper classes of Californios often "married light", to European-born Spaniards when possible, or to other European or American whites.

This is a request for donations of books to an Afro-Argentine library in Santa Fe Argentina.  Contrary to popular opinion Afro-Argentines are still very much in existence.  There is a small
community in Santa Fe north of Buenos Aires in the interior.  Santa Fe was devasted last Spring by flooding.  A library run by an organization called Casa de la Cultura Indo-Afro-Americana was
severely damaged by the flooding.  The director of the organization Sra. Lucia Dominga Molina is trying to rebuild the library.  Some of the materials may be irreplaceable because they were materials
pertaining to Afro-Argentine history and culture, but their is a general need for works dealing with African Americans in the US and the Afro-Latin experience throughout the hemisphere.  She has
asked me particularly for books dealing with Afro-Argentines and Afro-Uruguayans, but stresses that she is also very interested in receiving books on the US, the Carribbean and other parts of Latin
America.  She can accept books in English and Spanish although books in Spanish would be particularly welcome.   I didn't ask her but I would suspect if you have books in Portuguese on Brazil that those would be welcome too.  Her address is:

                            Sra. Lucia Dominga Molina
                            Casa de la Cultura Indo-Afro-Americana
                             LaMadrid 2956 (3000)
                            Santa Fe, Argentina

So please send your spare books on slavery, race etc.  They will be used for the library and to educate Argentines in the Santa Fe region about issues of race and slavery.  Any correspondence with Sra. Lucia Dominga Molina should be in Spanish.

Thank you,
Robert J. Cottrol
Harold Paul Green Research Professor of Law,
and Professor of History and Sociology
George Washington University

Source: REFORMANET http://lmri.ucsb.edu/mailman/listinfo/reformanet
Sent by iespinal@library.umass.edu

DRUGS for MALARIA:  QUININE
Website: Scientific Anti-Vivisectionism
http://www.freewebs.com/scientific_anti_vivisectionism13/malaria.htm
Sent by John Inclan

The properties of the bark of the cinchona tree in the treatment of malaria were first written no later than 1633 by an Augustinian monk, Father Antanio de la Calancha, who lived in Peru. The bark reached Seville, Spain - which had a trade monopoly with Peru - and from there was sent to Rome by the family of Cardinal Joannes de Lugo. Once the bark had reached Rome, requests for the bark became widespread throughout Europe - distributed by the Jesuits, which resulted in elements of religious bigatory and confusion as to its merits. In 1658, Brady, a Professor of Physic, in Cambridge, began prescribing `Jesuits` bark to treat an outbreak of malaria. Robert Talbor, an apprentice to a Cambridge apothecary, moved to Essex and then to London, where he treated malaria patients with the `secret remedy`. In 1672, Talbor wrote a small book "A Rational Account of the Cause and Cure of Agues" but avoided mention of actually having used `Jesuit`s` bark himself. However, thanks to his book, his reputation grew. In 1678, Talbor was knighted by King Charles II and appointed as physician in ordinary to the King. The College of Physicians were angered by this - as Talbor was not, in their eyes, a qualified practitioner. In the same year, Talbor cured the French Dauphin and Queen of Spain of malaria with his `remedy`, but again met with hostility - from physicians in Paris and Madrid. In 1679, King Charles II fell ill with tertain fever and was cured by Talbor`s `remedy`. Louis XIV of France, in recognition of the life of his son being saved, offered Talbor a sizeable sum for the `secret` of his `remedy`. Talbor agreed, on condition, that the formula would not be revealed during his lifetime. Talbor died in 1681, and King Louis arranged for a small volume to published that year - in which was disclosed the formula - large doses of `Jesuits` bark infused in wine. The book was translated into English and published as "The English Remedy: or, Talbor`s Wonderful Secret for Curing Agues and Fevers". These revelations and a subsequent book, in 1712, on the therapeutic properties of the bark, by Fransesco Torti, professor of medicine at Modena, helped to popuarize the use of the treatment. In 1737, Charles-Marie de la Condamine investigated the origins of the bark and obtained specimens. With these, Linnaeus, a Swedish botonist, classified the family of trees from which the barks had come as Cinchona - from the Indian name for the fever bark tree.(1)

Over a century later, with concerns about varying responses to treatment with cinchona bark, Bernadino Gomes attempted isolating the active principle. He extract the bark with dilute acid and then neutralized it with alkali and managed to obtain a few crystals which he named cinchonin (later, to be known as cinchonine). In 1819, Friedlieb Runge isolated a base from cinchona, which he named "China base" - which was different from cinchonine. Shortly afterwards, Pelletier and Caventou repeated Gome`s experiments on cinchona and isolated cinchonine from samples of grey bark. They also isolated an alkaloid - quinine - from yellow bark - which, when its properties were compared, was seen to be identical to "China" base. But Runge`s prior discovery was overlooked(1).

refs  1. Sneader,W. Drug Discovery. John Wiley & Sons. 1985

SEPHARDIC

A message from Greenspan as presented in his web site, addressed the DNA Surname Project as follows: ttp://www.familytreedna.com http://www.FamilyTreeDNA.com

"One item for you to be aware of…. If you are testing male members of the founding families of Mexico, especially the founding families of Northern Mexico, you will probably see a strong % of Semitic DNA evidence of Crypto Jews who were among the Spanish conquerors of Mexico from the 1500’s.  We have clearly seen these footsteps in the testing we have done to date

With DNA we can confirm the theories of Crypto Jewish origins (Cohanim test).  We can see how ancestors with the same surname migrated and consequently which branches of the family settled at what locations.  We would be able to see if similar sounding surnames are related.  We can connect those with the same surname and merge paper trails effectively saving genealogical work and money.  Also we may find out if a maternal name was taken as a surname at some point in time.  
By sharing information we can piece together our family’s history.  The possibilities are endless!"

Provided by Dorina Alaniz Thomas, PhD., AR Newsletter Coordinator, HOGAR website webmaster

Judaism, In Memory and Spirit
500 Years After the Spanish And Portuguese Inquisitions
What Remnants of Judaism Remain?
by Gloria Golden

Many people are unaware that Sephardic Jews were forced to convert to Christianity or leave their homes forever. To remain in Spain and practice their religion might result in torture or being burned alive. So as to save their lives, Jews transformed themselves, and inevitably, conversions occurred. Jews who converted and accepted Christianity were the conversos, whereas the Sephardim who converted and practiced Judaism in secret were the crypto-Jews. That was 1492 (The Edict of Expulsion was signed.) and rather than convert, a huge proportion of Spain’s Jewish population left Spain and settled in various parts of the world such as North Africa and Italy. Many Jews went to Portugal where they were eventually forced to convert. These Jews were known as the anusim, meaning the forced ones.

Coincidentally, the year 1492 also marked the beginning of Columbus’ voyage to the New World. There are many who believe Columbus had Jewish ancestry for he associated with Jews and sailed to the New World with Sephardim among his crew. According to Professor Seymour Liebman, "The Spanish throne divided its New World colonies into viceroyalties. The first two were Mexico [New Spain] and Peru [New Castile}. . . . Mexico consisted of what is now the southwestern United States, all of Mexico and Central America, the Spanish islands in the Caribbean . . . [and] the Philippines."¹

Reports of Jews residing in the New World led to the establishment of Inquisition centers in Mexico, Peru, and Cartagena, Colombia.² The need for secrecy was extremely important as conversos were constantly observed for evidence of practicing Jewish rituals. Judaizing would result in punishment or torture. Therefore, many conversos, in order to escape the scrutiny of the Inquisition, settled in areas of northern New Mexico, near Colorado.

My interviews with descendants of conversos uncovered Jewish practices, often combined with those of the Catholic Church. Although many were unaware of their ancestry, others were informed of their Jewish heritage by family members. Their lineage from Spain was of utmost importance and a great source of pride.

A particular name or ritual does not indicate a Sephardic heritage, and one must listen carefully to the stories that were told within their families. Some descendants of Jews heard references to a Jewish heritage as they were growing up. Others remembered Jewish practices such as ritual slaughter, slaughtering animals according to Jewish law. Jewish law forbids the consumption of blood, and draining all the blood of the slaughtered animal is necessary. Jewish burial practices were often another indication of a possible connection to the Jews from Spain or Portugal. Jewish burials must take place soon after the occurrence of death, preferably within twenty-four hours. The sum total of the oral histories inform us how descendants of conversos brought vestiges of Judaism into the twenty-first century

A need for secrecy still exists within many Hispanic communities where conversos still hear the voices of their ancestors telling them, "No, do not tell." One feels their emotion and a profound respect for those who came before them.

My belief is that this painful chapter in Jewish history must be brought to the attention of people throughout the world. Many citizens within the Hispanic community will discover that they’re part of this story and will assist in documenting the history of the Sephardim.

TEXAS 

War Council at San Jacinto
by Henry Godines
Completed Dec. 23, 2003

This is the latest painting of Texas born, (Alice, TX) and present day Californian, 
Master Artist Henry Godines.  It is an original painting, 3' x 4' oils on canvas.

Seated from left to right: Edward Burleson, M.B. Lamar, Tom Rusk and Sam Houston
Standing left to right: Sidney Sherman, Ben McCulloch, Antonio Manchaca, Nepromucento Flores, Jess Billingsley, Manuel Flores, Juan Seguin and Erastus (Deaf) Smith.  
I took some artistic license with three of the Tejanos in Seguin's company.  
There were no sketches of A. Manchaca, N. Flores and M.Flores 

It took approximately 300 hours over a period of 3-1/2 months to complete. Asking price $6,000.  Prints will be made in a limited edition of 500 full color Giclee type prints, signed and numbered by the artist.   Sheet size: 24 in. x 30 in.    Image size: 20 in x 30 in. Price:  $95 ea.

As history tells us very little communication took place between Houston and the rest of his command up until  the very day of the battle. There had to be a moment  prior to the battle in which some coordination and planning took place. This is the moment I tried to capture, as seen from an artist or photographer's perspective.    Best regards,  Henry Godines  henryg@translogicinc.com

Table of Contents
Surname List - A list of all surnames on this site 
Index of Names - A list of all names on this site 

About This Work by Guillermo David Guerra Treviño stnem_genealogy@hotmail.com

Hello fellow History and Genealogy enthusiasts. Although I am not a writer or a historian by trade, (I'm actually a programmer/analyst) I really enjoy studying the history of the people and places of the area where I am from, and where my ancestors were from. I have always been interested in my family's roots. Only recently did I begin to work on my own genealogy. I found such a vast quantity of research material available that I decided to begin compiling it, and presenting it in a new way. 

Some of the elements that will make up the finished work will be:
A genealogical database of linked individuals. 
A detailed and concise study of the Spanish and Mexican Land Grants. 
A study on the transition of some of the land grants into ranches and settlements. 
A detailed study of the towns and settlements in the proposed area. 
Of course there are some towns that have a lot of information available on them, and some do not. 
Chronological data on some of the most historical towns/cities of the area. Hopefully the end result of this work will be a published book. The content of this site will be extracted from a larger work. I set up this web site so that I could get establish contacts and aquire information from readers that share a common interest... Where do we come from? Last Updated: November 13, 2002
 

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Robert A. Calvert and Arnoldo De León, The History of Texas (Arlington Heights, Illinois: Harlan Davidson, 1990). Arnoldo De León, Apuntes Tejanos (2 vols., (Ann Arbor, Michigan: University Microfilms International, 1978). Arnoldo De León, "Texas Mexicans: Twentieth-Century Interpretation," in Texas through Time: Evolving Interpretations, ed. Walter L. Buenger and Robert A. Calvert (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1991). Dictionary of Mexican American History (Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1981). Gerald E. Poyo and Gilberto M. Hinojosa, eds., Tejano Origins in Eighteenth-Century San Antonio (San Antonio: Institute of Texan Cultures, 1991). San Antonio Ledger, July 14, 1855. Andres A. Tijerina, Tejanos and Texas under the Mexican Flag, 1821-1836 (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1994). David J. Weber, The Spanish Frontier in North America (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992).

The Cavazos of New Spain

© By John D. Inclan

Edited by Bernadette Inclan

Pensions for service to the Republic of Texas were not generally awarded before the 1870s, although the congress or the legislature might, in an act passed during a legislative session, authorize a special pension for an individual. At first pensions were confined to "Each and every surviving veteran of the revolution which separated Texas and Mexico, including the Mier prisoners," Beginning in 1874, pension acts added later military services that would qualify pension applicants, but these acts required that the pensioner be indigent to qualify.

Statements of military service found in these State of Texas Archives files are among the most detailed in the Republic of Texas records. Affidavits testifying to the applicant's worthiness also provide considerable personal information. The files can include:

Affidavit of service (usually handwritten, detailed accounts)
Transcript of County Court ruling on validity of the claim
Certification of continuing indigence
Certified copies of muster rolls (occasional)
Powers of attorney
Pension Certificate
Oath of identity
Widow's Application (1883 or later)

These records can provide name of claimant, date filed, by whom filed, disposition, amount of pension, company commander, service information, age, residence, heir's name, husband's name (for widow's pension), date of death, widow's age, widow's residence (county). The fact that a person has a Republic Pension file does not guarantee that he or she received a Republic pension.

To obtain a copy of a "Petition Application", write or go to the Texas State Library & Archives Commission located in the Lorenzo De Zavala State Archives Library Building, P.O. Box 12927, Austin, Texas, 78711. Provide the name of the person you are searching and indicate that you want his/her "Pension Application". There is no fee or charge for their service.

If you have access to an on-line computer, then open this link: http://www2.tsl.state.tx.us/trail/RepublicSearch.jsp

This link is a search link of the Texas Library & Archives Commission and upon entering a specific name, a digital image of your ancestor’s petition will appear. You can then print the application yourself.  The list of Tejano surnames on file are as follows:

In your recent January, 2004 issue of "Somos Primos", you asked readers to submit their pedigree information if they were descendants of any of the Tejano Cattle Ranchers during the American Revolution.

In addition, I am submitting a document which contains the official transcript from the Bexar County Archives in San Antonio,  Texas, of the “taking of possession” of the physical site for the future Mission San Francisco de la Espada in 1731 in San Antonio.

We enjoy “Somos Primos” very much; keep up the fantastic work.  
Robert Garcia, Los Bexarenos Genealogy Society, San Antonio, Texas

March 5, 1731.

(One of the listed witnesses to the founding of Mission San Francisco de la Espada on the 5^th of March, 1731, was Marcelino Martinez. He is the grandfather, 7 generations removed, of Yolanda Garcia Kirkpatrick, Olga Garcia Lizcano and Robert Garcia Jr, all currently living in San Antonio, Texas. At the time that he served as a witness, Martinez was an active duty soldier at the Presidio de Bejar located in San Antonio. He married Ildefonsa Valdez Castro on June, 29, 1728 in the chapel of Mission San Antonio de Valero. He died on February 23, 1760 and was buried in San Antonio.)

Collection of Photos that includes buildings and sites in Spain and Mexico.
Go to the website and click on the pictures to get an enlarged version of these and others.

Ponciano Longoria

& Maria Rita <Villarreal

Chapel of Casa de Longoria in Spain >

  At first, Goetz envisioned promotoras forging  individual bonds with families. But Gulfton's apartment complexes were far more vast than Salvadoran mountain hamlets. And unlike their counterparts in El Salvador, U.S. promotoras cannot dispense medication. So health educators such as Rojas, who has worked for Goetz since 2000, instead began to talk at health fairs and other public gatherings. ProSalud's eight promotoras now address specific Latino health concerns such as cholesterol, diabetes and high blood pressure. 
 
   Promotoras along the Texas-Mexico border often resemble those in Latin America. Emulating a program in Matamoros, Mexico, the Planned Parenthood affiliate in South Texas now sends four promotoras door to door in ramshackle settlements to teach reproductive health. "It's a matter of being able to communicate and a matter of being able to be accepted," said Rosemarie Hermann, executive director of Planned Parenthood in Cameron and Willacy counties.

  Although health educators abroad often work as volunteers, Planned Parenthood -- like several other Texas agencies -- pays its promotoras a small salary. Many groups are also enrolling health promoters in Texas's new certification program. Three years ago, Texas became the first U.S. state  to authorize promotora certification. 
 

Located at present day Arteaga, Coahuila
By Carlos Federico Valdes Ramos

This book contains records of 1585 baptisms. The record gives the name of the child being baptized, date, name of father and mother, and page number of the original microfilm.

Papercover, 8.5X11 inches, Tape binding,  42 pages, $12.00 plus $1.35 postage
Los Bexarenos Genealogical Society, P.O. Box 1935, San Antonio, TX 78297
Sent by elindio2@hotmail.com

Miercoles 28 de enero del 2004
Celebración del 178 Aniversario del cambio de nombre de Villa del Refugio a Matamoros.
9:00 a. m.  a 10: 00 a.m. Plaza principal ceremonia oficial.
10:00 a 11:00 Colegio de San Juan,  7a.  Reunión del Colegio de Cronistas e Historiadores de  la Frontera Norte de Tamaulipas y Sur de Texas.Presentación de los trabajos de restauración del Centro Historico por parte del Fideicomiso FICEMAT.

11:00 a 12:30 Tour por los principales edificios Restaurados.
12:30 a 2:00 comida ( por cuenta propia)

Por la tarde quienes gusten se hara una visita al Museo Nacional del Agrarismo Mexicano.
Para mayores informes. con el Ing. Clemente Rendon de la Garza: (956) 495-7644
Mil Gracias Carlos Rugerio rugerio@email.com
 

EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI

Military Artifacts of Spanish Florida, 1539-1821 
http://www.artifacts.org/default.htm
Sent by Bill Carmena

AN INTERNET MUSEUM 

   This site is dedicated to the exhibition and interpretation of Spanish colonial military artifacts from that vast region of southeastern North America which once comprised the Spanish Floridas and, to a somewhat lesser extent, Spanish Guale, Luisiana, and Tejas. While other materials are included in the illustrative displays, the interpretive emphasis of this site has been placed upon military clothing and, as they evolved, uniform-related artifacts: the buttons, strap and accoutrement buckles, and insignia worn by Spain's regular, provincial, and urban militia forces in the study region.  The period of interpretation is from ca. 1539—when Hernando de Soto began his epic journey of exploration in what is now the southeastern region of the United States—to the conclusion of Spain's colonial tenure in North America in 1821.

This Internet Museum represents an attempt to display, in a user-friendly manner, an assemblage of Spanish colonial military artifacts reposing in dozens of private and public collections in southeastern North America. It also represents an ongoing effort to interpret the temporal placement, historic deployment, geographic distribution, and manufacturing and stylistic attributes of the examples here exhibited.

EAST COAST

Dalia Gonzalez has been on her own for years now. At 20, she works nearly full time at a Taco Bell in College Park, earning enough to cover her rent and, sometimes, send a little money to her mother in Mexico. She has a 25-year-old boyfriend and flirts with thoughts of marriage.  She's also a junior in high school.

The growth of Washington's immigrant communities has prompted public schools to focus attention on young men and women such as Gonzalez, who are several years older than their classmates in algebra. Many fled nations in Africa, Latin America and Asia, where war or poverty forced them out of school, and they arrived in the United States lacking the English skills or academic backgrounds to go straight to college.

Some cannot produce transcripts from their homelands to prove that they earned enough credits to graduate; others have not taken the courses required for a U.S. diploma.

So they enroll in their neighborhood high school, seeking to better themselves, even if it means feeling out of place among their younger peers.

"Here are these older students who still want to have a piece of that American dream that is to get an American diploma, and for those who are willing to do anything to do that, I do believe we need to help them," said Carol Bass, a Prince William County school administrator who supervises programs for immigrant students.

Area school officials say there has been a steady increase in adult immigrants, though precise numbers are not available. Evidence of this growth comes in other forms: School districts in Virginia successfully lobbied the state legislature to increase the legal age for free public schooling -- from 20 to 22, if students are still learning English -- in response to the growing numbers of older students.

"Until recent years, educators were not openly embracing this population, because the schools didn't have the appropriate resources to deal with them," said Francisco Millet, director of Fairfax County's English for Speakers of Other Languages program. "School districts are now becoming more cognizant that these students are out there."

MEXICO

Sent by Armando M. Escobar Olmedo armandoescol@hotmail.com

Este gráfico es la portada de la carpeta de la obra, Relación de Michoacán.  Contiene una vista del lago de pátzcuaro, el Cazonzi ( o rey tarasco) con su arco y plumas de quetzal en la cabeza observa a lo lejos a tres españoles que marchan de regreso a México.  una fotografía tomada del original y repoducida fielmente en el facsimil, las imágenes que te he mandado fueron tomadas directamente del códice original que se encuentra  en la Real Biblioteca de San Lorenzo de El Escorial.  Para hacer el facsimil se pasó por un detallado proceso que reprodujera con la máxima fidelidad los colores, textura, tamaño etc que tiene el original.

Armando M Escobar Olmedo

Morelia, Michoacán, febrero de 2003

Debido al interés que han manifestado varias personas sobre la Relación de Michoacán, cuya coedición en facsímil se realizó en el año de 2001 entre el H. Ayuntamiento de Morelia presidido entonces por el destacado político y académico Mtro. Salvador Galván Infante y con la decidida participación de la prestigiada y multilaureada editorial hispana Testimonio, especialmente por su dinámico director don César Olmos Pieri, me permito reproducir la parte esencial del texto de la carpeta promocional de la misma, realizado por quien esto escribe esperando se cubran las expectativas de quienes nos han preguntado por tan valioso códice, que ha sido catalogado en su momento como el "mejor facsímil del mundo", y que debido a la excelencia de su manufactura, recientemente (año de 2002) el Ministerio de Cultura español le otorgó el primer premio al mejor facsímil editado en España. Esta distinción que en mucho nos enorgullece nos impulsa a compartir el contenido de la obra y difundirlo ante la comunidad nacional e internacional.

Desde su publicación, hasta la fecha, ha habido tres importantes etapas: la primera, ya comentada, de su aprobación y publicación, que fue sin duda la más difícil por los múltiples problemas que se tuvieron que remontar y en la que se salvaron gracias a la decisiva voluntad del Mtro. Salvador Galván Infante; la segunda etapa fue de su publicación y difusión, la cual estuvo a cargo del entonces presidente Ing. Augusto Caire Arriaga, y la tercera y actual de consolidación por el actual presidente Lic. Fausto Vallejo Figueroa quien ha sido de los más interesados en que se conozca y difunda tan destacado manuscrito, fue por una agradable coincidencia el representante de gobierno que estuvo en la presentación de la obra, junto con el inolvidable don César Olmos y su siempre gentil esposa doña Maria Luisa García-Calamarte de Olmos quienes hicieron ex profeso el viaje desde Madrid para compartir con los michoacanos tan inolvidable momento.

Veamos a continuación lo más destacado de este preciado manuscrito y su entorno.

(gráfica 1 cuyo pie de foto es:)  Mapa de localización de Michoacán, de Pátzcuaro y su región

Gráfica 2: 
Vista del lago de Pátzcuaro, antigua Laguna de Michoacán, con las islas Yunuén y Tecuela.
Foto. J. Antonio Romo Careaga

Michoacán

Se denominó Provincia de Michoacán o Mechoacán a gran parte del territorio perteneciente al antiguo reino tarasco o purépecha, ubicado en la parte media occidental de México. Región de muchos contrastes, con vastas y ricas planicies, escarpados y boscosos montes o valles calurosos, semidesérticos y áridos unos, otros abundosos de aguas, ríos, lagos y peces, de donde se derivó su nombre, Michoacán, "lugar del pescado", en náhuatl. Sus minas de oro, plata y cobre le dieron celebridad y pronto despertaron la codicia de los encomenderos a quienes Cortés repartió la mayoría de los pueblos. A mediados del siglo XIV, la región ahora conocida como Michoacán se encontraba dividida en una gran cantidad de pequeños señoríos que fueron conquistados y cohesionados por Taríacuri, quien antes de su muerte dividió su territorio en tres partes y las repartió entre su hijo Hiquíngare y sus sobrinos Hiripan y Tangaxoán I. Al primero le correspondió "Pátzcuaro", al segundo "Hiuatsio" (Coyoacán o Cuyacán en náhuatl) y al tercero Tzintzuntzan o "Mechoacán" respectivas cabeceras de los tres señoríos que conformaron el gran reino tarasco. Poco antes de la conquista hispana ya era un centro político y religioso, la región central lacustre del actual Estado de Michoacán, y su principal capital, Tzintzuntzan, llamada por los meshicas "Huitzitzilan" o "Uchichila" y mencionada en la "Relación" como " Mechoacán o Ciudad de Mechoacán".

Gráfico 3

En tiempos del asedio de Cortés para conquistar la Ciudad de Tenochtitlan-México, gobernaba a los tarascos el Cazonci o rey ( el que estaba aquí en la tierra en lugar del dios Curicaveri o Gran luminar), Zuangua, hijo de Tzitzispandácuare y nieto de Tangaxoán I. Ya era hombre viejo cuando atendió a la embajada que le enviaron los señores de México en 1521, la cual le pedía con urgencia su apoyo para rechazar a los conquistadores, esta petición fue escuchada con interés pero no fue atendida. Se tenía recelo de la solicitud por las grandes enemistades y guerras que siempre habían existido entre los tarascos y los meshicas. Murió Zuangua al poco tiempo contagiado de viruela y se eligió en su lugar a su joven hijo Tsintsicha o Tangaxoán II, a él tocó rendir al aguerrido señorío tarasco sin pelear, y recibió nueve años más tarde una cruel muerte como luego se verá.

La Provincia de Michoacán se transformó a finales del siglo XVIII en la Intendencia de Valladolid y al triunfo de la República en 1824 como el Estado de Michoacán. A partir de 1861 recientemente fusilado el ilustre político y humanista don Melchor Ocampo se le agregó al nombre del Estado el apellido de Ocampo en homenaje a tan ilustre prócer de la Reforma. Actualmente nuestro Estado está gobernado por el Antropólogo Lázaro Cárdenas Batel quien diligentemente ha dado gran impulso, entre otros rubros, a las artes, la industria, el campo y el turismo.

El primer virrey de la Nueva España, don Antonio de Mendoza, visitó en varias ocasiones, desde finales de la tercera década del siglo XVI, a la Provincia de Michoacán, cuya capital como ya hemos visto era Tzintzuntan, denominada por los españoles la Ciudad de Mechuacán o Michuacán, a orillas de la bella Laguna de su nombre y sede principal del muy famoso reino tarasco o purépecha.

(Gráfico 4, cuyo pie de foto es: "Guerreros tarascos" fragmento del Mural de Juan O’Gorman
Biblioteca, Gertrudis Bocanegra Pátzcuaro, Michoacán)

Debido la abominable muerte, del gran Cazonci o rey tarasco Tzintzincha Tangaxoán llamado don Francisco en su nombre cristiano por mandato de Nuño de Guzmán en febrero de 1530, la Provincia se encontraba inquieta, a pesar de los esfuerzos tanto de los frailes franciscanos y posteriormente de los agustinos como los del admirable impartidor de justicia don Vasco de Quiroga su primer Obispo. La conquista que Nuño emprendió a Jalisco en la región cercana de los Téules-Chichimecas dejó una estela de destrucción y desolación y tuvo por resultados continuas revueltas de los afectados, las que subían o bajaban de intensidad. El virrey Mendoza decidió, para acabar con ellas, emprender una campaña contra los belicosos "chichimecas" llevando consigo importantes aliados de varios antiguos señoríos, entre otros a los tlaxcaltecas, meshicas y por supuesto a los tarascos, los cuales eran gobernados por don Pedro Cuiniarángari.

Desde la primera vez que Mendoza que pasó a la región en conflicto (hacia 1539), en su estancia obligada por la Ciudad de Michoacán (Tzintzuntzan), trabó amistad con un fraile franciscano, que el destacado historiador norteamericano Dr. Benedict Warren a logrado identificar como fray Gerónimo de Alcalá, y le "dijo dos o tres veces, que porqué no sacaba algo de la gobernación desta gente…" y el fraile, por hacerle un servicio y aprovechando el relato de los más viejos y antiguos de la Provincia, se decidió a escribir esta relación "…esto digo, que yo sirvo de intérprete destos viejos y haga cuenta que ellos lo cuentan a Vuestra Señoría…dando relación de su vida y cerimonias y gobernación y tierra…" y añadió que por ser de mayor utilidad y para aprovechamiento de los religiosos que entendían en su conversión, puso "…también dónde vinieron sus dioses más principales y las fiestas que les hacían…". Gracias a ese gran interés tanto del virrey, como del fraile y muy particularmente de los viejos sacerdotes tarascos de la ciudad en narrar sus antigüedades, se escribió este excepcional documento. No como autor, el mismo fraile insiste que no lo es, sino como intérprete que consignó de primera mano, la vieja historia del valeroso e invencible pueblo tarasco, testimonio único que por su contenido e ilustraciones lo convierten en un valioso tesoro no sólo de México, sino de toda América.

No llegado a nosotros la manera en que se llevó el manuscrito al famoso acervo bibliográfico del rey Felipe II en la Biblioteca del Real Monasterio de San Lorenzo de El Escorial, donde celosamente se le resguarda en la actualidad, lo cierto es que dentro de los miles de importantes libros que ahí se encuentran, a nuestro códice conocido como la "Relación de Michoacán" se le ha considerado como uno de sus más preciados ejemplares y su exhibición ha sido obligada en las más importantes exposiciones.

Desde que en l869 fue publicada la primera vez en Madrid por don Florencio Janer dentro de la Colección de Documentos inéditos para la Historia de España, tomo LIII, la obra ha sido impresa al menos 10 veces y es palpable el empeño tanto de Madrid como de Morelia en editarla pues de éstas, tres corresponden a nuestra ciudad ( 1903, Tipografía de Alfonso Aragón; 1977, Balsal Editores y 1980, Fimax Publicistas.)

De las ediciones que de la Relación de Michoacán se han hecho, la facsimiliar, impresa en Madrid, el año de 1956 por la Editorial Aguilar debido el destacado investigador hispano don José Tudela de la Orden es de las más notables. Incluso su texto e ilustraciones han servido de base a varias de las editadas posteriormente. Las técnicas de su época permitieron reproducirla en fotografía en blanco y negro y posteriormente algunos de sus ejemplares, fueron coloreados manualmente. Muy notable también es la del prestigiado estudioso michoacano Dr. Francisco Miranda Godínez basada en un profundo y magnífico estudio del manuscrito original, con separación de textos. Hay además ediciones en inglés, francés y japonés.

Nuestra Edición consta de dos volúmenes, el primero, que es la más fiel reproducción facsimilar que se halla realizado y el segundo, el Libro estudio que contiene siete estudios de destacados investigadores como Dra. Vicenta Cortés Alonso, Dra. María del Carmen Hidalgo B, Dr. Juan Carlos Batalla R, Dr. Benedict Warren, Dr. Francisco Miranda Godínez y Dr. Gerardo Sánchez Díaz. La transcripción, introducción y notas, apéndice y coordinación general de la obra estuvo a cargo de Armando Mauricio Escobar Olmedo, Presidente de la Academia Michoacana de Historia, de la Sociedad Mexicana de Geografía y Estadística colaborador entonces del Ayuntamiento moreliano.

Mucho han avanzado las técnicas para la edición de facsímiles, que ahora permiten se obtengan obras tan bien logradas que reproducen el papel, textura, color, olor y hasta las imperfecciones del original, es por lo anterior que el H. Ayuntamiento de Morelia presidido por don Salvador Galván Infante ha tomado la iniciativa de publicar tan singular obra y ha unido sus esfuerzos con Patrimonio Nacional de España y la muy prestigiada editorial hispana Testimonio que atinadamente dirige don César Olmos Pieri a fin de editarla y facilitar a los bibliófilos, investigadores y público en general el poder tener en sus manos una verdadera joya de la historia y literatura michoacana y una auténtica obra del arte americano.

La "Relaçión de las çerimonias y rrictos y poblaçión y governaçión de los yndios de la provinçia de Mechuacan hecha al Yllustrísimo señor don Antonio de Mendoça, virrey y governador desta Nueva España por su Magestad, etc.," es un documento manuscrito en papel verjurado, realizado hacia los años 1539-1540 en la Provincia de Mechuacán o Michoacán en la Nueva España. Consta en la actualidad de 153 hojas en tamaño 0.215 x 0.160 mm, de las que solo 140 escritas corresponden a este texto, tiene además 44 láminas o ilustraciones. El documento se encuentra en la Biblioteca del Monasterio de San Lorenzo de El Escorial, cerca de Madrid, en la Sección Manuscritos, bajo la clave Ç.IV.5. Su actual encuadernación, que no es la original, fue seguramente realizada en los talleres del famoso encuadernador don Pedro del Bosque a finales del siglo XVI, siguiendo los criterios que para las encuadernaciones de la Real Biblioteca de Felipe II había dado fray José de Sigüenza. Las mismas deberían estar a tono con la unidad de las librerías o estanterías de maderas preciosas y el majestuoso recinto que los albergaría, así, espacio, mobiliario y libros formarían un armonioso conjunto. Para ello se determinó que los libros fueran agrupados y encuadernados dentro de lo posible por tamaños y materias afines. No presentarían como era usual, el lomo con el nombre del texto, sino que su disposición sería a la inversa, con el corte delantero de frente y el lomo por detrás. En el corte, que estaría recubierto de pan de oro, llevaría pintado el título del libro, en el lomo no iría nada. De este modo el dorado de los cortes realzaría entre las nobles maderas y sería un adecuado complemento a las espléndidas pinturas de las paredes y los techos.

Nuestro códice michoacano o Códice de Michoacán como le denomina el padre Miguélez en 1917, y como se encuentra registrado en Patrimonio Nacional, contiene dos obras distintas encuadernadas conjuntamente por la razón ya enunciada, la Relación cuyo título completo ya se ha dado, y otro breve texto intitulado "Calendario de toda la índica gente por donde han contado sus tiempos hasta oy, agora nuevamente puesto en forma de Rueda para mejor ser entendido" cuyo autor es muy probablemente de fray Toribio de Benavente, mejor conocido como Motolinía y que consta de tan sólo 3 hojas, que ocupan de la 141 a la 143v. Para mantener la unidad de nuestra publicación facsímil, ambos documentos se publican bajo el título de la obra principal.

El manuscrito al ser despojado de su primera encuadernación y preparado para la que ahora tiene, al ser refilado, sufrió cortes en sus tres cantos los cuales, incluso mutilaron infortunadamente, algunas letras de varias hojas en el corte delantero y margen exterior, pero además al ser reencuadernado de manera tan justa, también varias palabras se perdieron en sus juntas, al quedar sin un adecuado margen interior.

En el corte delantero, la obra debió lucir el bello dorado del pan de oro, ahora casi desaparecido y en el que se pintó el número "5" para su localización, y la palabra "Mechvacam". Manuscrito tan importante ha sufrido muchas alteraciones, pero de todas la más grave fue sin duda la pérdida de la valiosa información de la primera parte: "…de dónde vinieron sus dioses más principales y las fiestas que les hacían…". Ignoramos en qué momento y con qué intención se hizo, pero tal vez fue para que no se guardara una memoria que se deseaba olvidaran los naturales. Del resto conservado, al ser reencuadernado, por no tenerse el cuidado suficiente en la ordenación de las hojas se trastocó su orden invirtiéndolo y quedando de la siguiente manera:

Comienza el códice con la portada y lámina introductoria y el prólogo, donde el fraile compilador, explica al final de éste, el orden en que irán las tres partes en que se dividió el texto, este prólogo comprende de la hoja 2 a la 4, le siguen las láminas 2 y 3; a continuación debería de ir la Primera parte, ahora lamentablemente perdida, pero se puso equivocadamente en su lugar la parte tercera y última que trata "De la Gobernación que tenía y tiene esta gente entre sí" comprende las hojas 6 a 59, en la foliación actual y termina el manuscrito con la Segunda Parte, cuyo título es "Síguese la historia, cómo fueron Señores, el Cazonci y sus antepasados en esta Provincia de Mechuacan…" hojas 61 a la 140 y última escrita de nuestro documento. Se salvó sólo una hoja de la Primera parte, que es la 10-10v y en la que se describe la Fiesta de Sicuindiro.

La edición de Aguilar de 1956 reubicó las partes y las láminas a como pudieron estar originalmente, aunque no sea esa su actual disposición. Nosotros hemos decidido respetar el "orden" que tiene en la actualidad, con su numeración, tanto de las hojas como de las láminas, para que nuestro facsímil corresponda fielmente al manuscrito. La versión paleográfica en el Libro Estudio de nuestra edición sigue fielmente la secuencia del original y por tanto del facsímil, queda aclarado así que el Códice de Michoacán comienza actualmente, en la tercera parte y termina en la segunda, contiene además 7 trabajos de prestigiados investigadores de Michoacán, de México, de Estados Unidos y de España.

Por lo que se refiere a sus cubiertas, algo maltratadas por el uso continuo, estas son en papelón forrado con piel de becerro color natural (avellanado) y en el centro de la cubierta principal lleva el sello de la Biblioteca del Monasterio, estampado en seco. Sumamente deteriorado se encuentra el "lomo", por alguna razón rasgado y mal cosido y con un parche de refuerzo, de la piel jaspeada, de otro libro donde se lee claramente " Comedias de Vega y Carpio", este parche desmerece notablemente el libro y su valioso contenido.

El papel utilizado es verjurado manufacturado en fibra de lino. Al menos se han detectado 4 filigranas en forma de mano con algunas variantes. En lo que se refiere a su letra es de diferentes manos predomina la cortesano humanística y cortesano-rápida, la tinta es negra de diferente intensidad, en las tachaduras es más obscura.

Tiene algunos espacios en blanco y varias correcciones. Para ocultar lo escrito se utilizó una pintura blanca a semejanza de los correctores actuales. Se usó sobre todo en borrar los títulos de los capítulos para darle mayor espacio a las ilustraciones.

El manuscrito como se ha dicho ha sufrido varias mutilaciones, se le quitó la parte primera, de la que se ignora su extensión y láminas contenidas. En fecha más reciente, pero hace varias décadas, le fueron cortadas varias hojas: una, entre la actual hoja 8 y 9, de la cual quedó solo una pestaña en la que se observan rastros de pintura azul, por lo que se intuye que lo que se cortó fue una lámina entera; otra entre las hojas 48 y 49, que ilustraba el "…Tesoro grande que tenía el Cazonci, y donde lo thenía rrepartido…", por la descripción que hay en el capítulo es fácil comprender el contenido de la ilustración. Al terminar la Tercera Parte, ahora puesta en primer término, en la hoja 59, le sigue la hoja 60 que está en blanco pero foliada y luego continúan 4 hojas más en blanco pero sin foliar, entre esta última y lo que ahora es la hoja 61, se cortaron dos hojas que sí tenían texto. En la hoja 61 comienza la Segunda Parte como claramente lo indica su inicio. Lamentablemente varias ediciones recientes no han tenido el cuidado de cotejar la disposición de las hojas y las láminas que hay en el manuscrito original, y proporcionan datos diferentes al que realmente tiene.

En el prólogo el recopilador e intérprete, fray Gerónimo de Alcalá anuncia las tres partes en que dividirá la obra, y el contenido de cada una: en la primera, de dónde vinieron sus dioses más principales y las fiestas que les hacían. Ya hemos dicho que se encuentra perdida esta parte, salvo una hoja, la 10-10v que trata de la fiesta de Sicuindiro; la segunda parte relata cómo poblaron y conquistaron Michoacán los antepasados del Cazonci y en la tercera, de la gobernación que tenían entre sí y de la llegada de los españoles a la Provincia, terminando el manuscrito con la muerte del Cazonci o gran señor, Tangaxoán II conocido en su nombre cristiano como don Francisco. El manuscrito contiene en esencia una larga narración de la historia del pueblo tarasco, que el Petámuti o Gran Sacerdote decía ante todo el pueblo antes de proceder al ajusticiamiento de los condenados a muerte en la principal fiesta denominada de Equata consquaro o de las flechas. Este relato fue transcrito bajo el cuidado del fraile recopilador y de los informantes al manuscrito que ahora nos ocupa. Todo el pueblo atento, si comer ni distraerse pasaba, casi todo un día escuchando la historia de sus antepasados, la misma que era narrada por otros sacerdotes todos los pueblos de la Provincia.

Ignoramos de cuantos capítulos constó la primera parte, que hablaba de sus dioses, fiestas, de cómo fueron creados por ellos y de su llegada a Michoacán, tan valiosa información se encuentra lamentablemente perdida, pero a lo largo del resto de la obra se han podido rescatar los nombres de las fiestas de 14 de los 18 meses del calendario tarasco, y las denominaciones de varios de sus dioses, predominado sobre todos Curicaueri dios del fuego y gran luminar a quien se le daba "mantenimiento" con continuas fogatas y ofreciéndole sacrificios personales y de algunos cautivos.

La segunda parte, compuesta de 35 capítulos trata de las luchas entre dos grandes grupos de pobladores que señoreaban en la cuenca lacustre de Pátzcuaro, unos isleños, pescadores y otros cazadores que así mismos se llaman "chichimecas", por el predominio de la región, ambos tenían idioma parecido que provenía de "los agüelos del camino" o sea de un grupo común en el largo peregrinar en busca de la tierra prometida. Destaca en esta parte la narración de cómo se encontró el lugar sagrado de Pátzcuaro y la vida de su héroe más importante, Taríacuri, cuya historia abarca algo más de veinte capítulos. El periodo de tiempo que comprende el contenido de la narración podría remontarse en nuestro calendario a principios del siglo XIII y terminar en el primer tercio del siglo XVI. La tercera y última parte, que como ya se ha visto se puso por error de encuadernación en segundo lugar, comprende 29 capítulos. El recopilador ya había anunciado su título en el prólogo y en efecto así quedó: De la Gobernación que tenía y tiene esta gente entre sí. Trata de muy variadas materias: los principales oficios; de la manera en que hacían sus guerras; de la forma en que se casaban los señores y la gente del pueblo; del repudio; de las ceremonias a la muerte del Cazonci o gran señor; de cómo se elegía su sucesor; de los agüeros que tuvieron antes de que llegasen los españoles; de la llegada de ellos; la reacción del Cazonci ante esa noticia; del gran tesoro que tenía; del arribo de los primeros religiosos y de la prisión y muerte del Cazonci a manos de Nuño de Guzmán.

Las Ilustraciones. (gráfico 7) Los dioses tarascos Fragmento de la lámina 16.

Un de los principales atractivos de la Relación son indiscutiblemente sus láminas o ilustraciones, actualmente 44, distribuidas de la siguiente manera: 1 en la portada, 17 en el primer apartado (Parte tercera) y 26 en el último (Parte segunda). Estos dibujos, de muy diferente calidad y factura, ilustran la esencia del contenido de los capítulos en que está dividida la obra. No todos los capítulos (65) contarían con ilustraciones, en varios de ellos no hubo la intención de incluir algún dibujo como son : la fiesta de Sicuíndiro, el que habla Del Repudio, De los que se casaban por amores, etc. Por el contrario en el inicio de algunos capítulos se dejó el espacio en blanco para ser luego ilustrado, lo que nunca ocurrió, tal es el caso de los que tratan de: Cómo echaban sus juicios… o Cómo vino Nuño de Guzmán. En otros capítulos, especialmente en la parte segunda, se lograron dibujar varios de ellos entre el muy corto espacio que quedó al borrar el título del mismo y ponerlo forzadamente en otro lugar, entre capítulo y capítulo, de ahí sus extrañas medidas. Como ya hemos referido, en la actual encuadernación fueron mutiladas al menos dos láminas, sin duda muy atractivas y que ocupaban toda la hoja: las que ilustraban el capítulo primero de la "Gobernación" (entre la hoja 8 y 9, y "Del tesoro grande que tenía el Cazonci"(entre la hoja 48 y 49.)

Estas 44 singulares ilustraciones son en la actualidad un valioso aporte para muy diversos campos de la investigación sobre nuestro extraordinario pueblo tarasco. Han sido seleccionadas para esta carpeta las cuatro siguientes:

La ilustración ocupa casi toda la primera hoja, nos muestra el momento en que el recopilador, el fraile franciscano Gerónimo de Alcalá entrega probablemente en la Ciudad de Michoacán (Tzintzuntzan) hacia 1540, el manuscrito al virrey don Antonio de Mendoza quien lo recibe sentado en sillón de madera con ornamentación que aún se usa mucho en la región de Cuanajo, pueblo cercano a Pátzcuaro, el libro está abierto y parecieran conversar sobre algún tema del mismo.

Tras el fraile se encuentra el Gobernador de los tarascos don Pedro Cuiniarángari, vestido a la española y aún muestra el bezote bajo el labio, que era la insignia del "valiente hombre". Detrás de él se hallan tres sacerdotes vestidos a la usanza indígena, dos llevan el bordón ceremonial y traen calabazas engastadas con turquesas a las espaldas, trenzado, y guirnaldas de trébol en las cabezas. Uno de ellos, seguramente el Petámuti fue el que debió aportar la mayor información para la elaboración de la Relación, lleva también bezote. Atrás del virrey (al que se le agregó posteriormente una cruz en el pecho) se encontraba originalmente un extraño personaje vestido de rojo y con el pelo encrespado, pareciera ser un hechicero. Para ocultarlo se puso sobre él un gran cortinaje verde semejando un brocado de follajes de acanto, diseño que se repite en el brazo del sillón. El fraile, estaba en un principio también sentado, como conversando entre ambos, pero para darle más solemnidad a la entrega, se le puso de pie, y a fin de borrar la corrección se alargó su figura, quedando de gran estatura. Destaca en el franciscano lo detallado de su elaboración, su hábito gris sombreado, el rostro minuciosamente realizado, lo rosado de su piel, la barba, los ojos claros, la tonsura, hasta las pestañas son fácilmente visibles, el cordón de su Orden se encuentra finamente elaborado. Indudablemente, es la figura protagónica de esta escena.

Lámina 4. (folio 9) Estos son los sacerdotes y officiales de los cúes.

En ésta lámina que también ocupa toda la hoja, se muestra los principales oficios relacionados con la casta sacerdotal. En el centro destaca la gran figura del Petámuti o sacerdote mayor con su vestido ceremonial y sus insignias: bezote de turquesa, guirnalda en la cabeza, calabazo decorado también con turquesas, trenzado, lanza-bordón ricamente decorado y con plumas, y sus cotaras o sandalias azules. Le rodean 10 grupos de varios de los oficiales que son descritos en el capítulo 2 de la III parte, estos son: los Cuziecha o que ponían incienso, lleva en la mano uno de ellos un sahumador; los Axamencha o sacrificadores, con su pelo largo, trae como distintivo un pedernal ensangrentado; los Hopitiecha eran los que detenían los pies a los que iban a sacrificar, su distintivo aquí es una pierna recién cercenada; los Tihuimencha, destacan por llevar las cabezas rapadas y solo un copete de pelo en la frente, ellos tenían en cargo llevar los dioses a cuestas. Casi a los pies del Petámuti se encuentran los Pazariecha o sacristanes, uno de lo cuales lleva en la mano un templo o cú en el que sobresale la cabeza con un rico penacho de algún dios. Tras ellos se encuentra el grupo de los Quiquiecha (su nombre no aparece en la lámina) encargados de llevar arrastrando a los sacrificados, su distintivo es aquí un hombre con el pecho abierto que se ha puesto debajo de ellos por no tener espacio en el frente. A continuación vemos a los que hacían la ceremonia de la guerra, los Curipecha, portando vistosos bastones. Otro grupo era los que llevaban la rama y juncias para las fiestas, los Curizitacha, que portan a las espaldas un cargamento de ellas. Tras estos se encuentran los atabaleros, o Atapacha quienes tañían los atabales o tambores y por último encontramos a los que tocaban las cornetas o Pungacucha, uno de los cuales toca precisamente una de ellas.

Esta ilustración, que comprende las tres cuartas partes del folio, describe diversas escenas. En una, se muestra al Capitán General del Cazonci, ricamente ataviado, y con calzado rojo, dando instrucciones a los guerreros sobre la manera en que se realizará el ataque a un pueblo; el diseño con las estrategias de ese ataque se encuentra en el suelo, gran cantidad de guerreros que escuchan con atención, portan sus arcos, flechas, porras y escudos. Hacia dónde se efectuará acción bélica, se aprecia con claridad según lo indican las pisadas, forma prehispánica de indicar acción, éstas confluyen en el diseño hacia el pueblo elegido.

En otra escena, varios habitantes del pueblo atacado, cuya traza es redonda, se esconden temerosos en sus casas, algunos lloran, otros combaten o incendian los hogares, unos más se esconden tras los nopales cargados de rojas tunas. En la parte inferior se escenifica una cruenta batalla, se observan a los guerreros luchando, algunos han caído, los alférez portan las banderas de plumas rojas y blancas.

Lámina 18. (folio 46) El Cazonci despide a tres españoles en la Ciudad de Michoacán.

Está lámina que ocupa toda la hoja nos describe también varias escenas. La más importante, destaca por el gran tamaño de los personajes y muestra a Tzinztincha Tangoaxan II, el infortunado Cazonci o don Francisco en su nombre español, ricamente vestido con un vistoso jubón, collar de turquesas, sus brazaletes de piel de jaguar, cascabeles de oro en las piernas, penacho de plumas verdes, tocado también de jaguar y sus sandalias rojas, le acompañan algunos principales, uno de ellos seguramente don Pedro Cuinarángari, (quien entregó al virrey con el fraile esta Relación ) y el Petámuti que se distingue por su tenaza de oro en el pecho. El Cazonci observa cómo se marchan tres españoles que a lo lejos suben una empinada cuesta a caballo por un camino señalado por huellas (acción de caminar), cada uno porta una gran lanza y el de en medio lleva a sus espaldas una adarga o escudo de cuero. Les siguen cinco tamemes o cargadores que llevan a sus espaldas diversos obsequios y pertrechos para el camino.

Bajo el Cazonci y su casa se ven rodelas y ricos plumajes de quetzal, muy preciados por los pueblos indígenas.

En otra escena, dos canoas bogan por la Laguna de Michoacán, ahora conocida como de Pátzcuaro, una de ellas lleva algunas mercancías. Otro momento es representado por un grupo de tamemes que marchan llevando diversos objetos: bancos o silletas, metates, y hachas, mientras los observan escondidos tras un árbol y unos magueyales unas mujeres y niños; una de ellas saca vino o "pulque" del maguey. Dos muchachos llevan, uno, un perro y otro, un ave que bien pudiera ser un guajolote o pavo.

Gráfico 10: Monasterio de San Lorenzo y la Real Biblioteca

Nuestro valioso códice y una gran cantidad de preciados libros y manuscritos se encuentran en El Monasterio de San Lorenzo de El Escorial, obra iniciada en 1563 por el arquitecto Juan Bautista de Toledo y terminada bajo la dirección de Juan de Herrera en 1584. Además de la célebre iglesia, cementerio y regias dependencias, contiene la Biblioteca, una de las más importantes del mundo.

La ciudad de Morelia, con cerca del millón de habitantes, es la capital del Estado y ha sido conocida internacionalmente como "la ciudad de la cantera rosa" por predominar en sus antiguas edificaciones este material que le da su peculiar estilo, fue declarada por la UNESCO Patrimonio Mundial de la Humanidad en 1990 por la belleza de sus construcciones: La Catedral, el Acueducto, Palacio de Gobierno, Ex Convento del Carmen, Palacio Municipal, y las Iglesias de san Diego y las Rosas entre otras, como por la importancia de su historia y su cultura. Baste recordar que como sede del vasto y rico Obispado de Michoacán fue uno de los más importantes centros religiosos, políticos y culturales de México, teniendo como "centro" el famoso Colegio de San Nicolás fundado en la cercana Ciudad de Pátzcuaro por el humanista y benefactor de los indígenas don Vasco de Quiroga y en el que fuera su destacado Rector el preclaro iniciador de la Independencia de México don Miguel Hidalgo; como justo homenaje a ambos personajes, don Melchor Ocampo siendo Gobernador del Estado le dio a aquella institución educativa el nombre de Colegio de San Nicolás de Hidalgo que aún lleva y que ha heredado a la Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo que tantos lauros a dado a nuestro País.

Morelia, fue también el lugar de nacimiento de uno de los más grandes héroes de México, don José María Morelos (1765-1815) de quien tomará su nombre (en 1828) y quien la recordaba como el "Jardín de la Nueva España" se fundó el año de 1541 por mandamiento del virrey don Antonio de Mendoza con el nombre de Ciudad de Michoacán fue posteriormente conocida como Ciudad de Guayangareo y durante más de doscientos años como Valladolid, una de las ciudades con más fama en América.

El entonces Presidente Municipal, M. C. Salvador Galván Infante (1999-2001), fue el decisivo impulsor de la transformación y modernización de la ciudad preservando la importante herencia legada y el principal promotor de la publicación en facsímil de la Relación de Michoacán. El Lic. Fausto Vallejo Figueroa (2002-2004) consciente de la enorme importancia de este excepcional manuscrito, cuyo valor trasciende las fronteras de la cultura michoacana, para adquirir una dimensión continental, ha decidido divulgarla y facilitar así el disfrute no sólo de su contenido, sino permitir además tener en las manos una excepcional obra de arte, como lo es el original.

Gráfico 14 Momento en que don César Olmos Explica la importancia del facsímil 
Al Mtro. Salvador Galván Infante entonces Presidente de Morelia 
y al Lic. Fausto Vallejo Figueroa actual Presidente Municipal.

"Familia Ramos y Rancho de las Ranas"

By Eddie Martinez

We ventured on a two-week journey driving through the beautiful Mexican States of Guanajuato and Michoacán, seeking my ancestral past.

September 20, 2003 - The morning was bright and sunny, my wife Jessie, her sister, Dolores, and her husband, Tony Gutierrez, and I all climbed into our rented car and departed from the town of Puruándiro, then headed to our destination, "Rancho Las Ranas." I felt good as I drove the brand new white Dodge, thinking about my dream of someday traveling to Michoacán to visit the home town of my father’s parents, and here I was about to discover if this was the place of my family’s roots. The ride was pleasant on the newly paved road. The scenery was breathtaking with colorful wildflowers carpeting the landscape far into the horizon. Everywhere I looked there were trees on distant high mountain ranges with sweeping valleys of cornfields. It was truly an artistically inspiring vista. We drove past many small pueblos, some in the valleys and some up the sides of the mountains. I grew more excited knowing we were getting closer as I looked up to see the small town nestled on top of the mountain I was climbing. It was picture postcard; there in front of me was a small pueblo. Its church steeple peeked through the treetops below a Michoacán blue sky and billowing white clouds. It was a beautiful sight.

The road leading up to Las Ranas was well paved all the way. From there the town road was in a sad state, probably made worse by the unusual amount of rainfall the locals had told us about. As we drove into the town we saw that a man and a small boy were trying to repair the terrible road. They were filling the holes in the road with shovels of dirt and clearing away the larger rocks that had washed down during the rain. I leaned out of the car window and asked the old man which road was best to take to the church. He waved his hand pointing to a side road and said, "Take that one, it will get you there" (of course in Spanish). We looked at the damaged road in disbelief. I took a deep breath, turned the car left and slowly drove up the dirt road, which was filled with potholes and large rocks. After carefully crossing another dirt road full of water I continued until I reached the end (after hitting bottom on the car a few times). We reached a cross street where we saw a small delivery truck had parked. I got out of the car and walked over to talk to the man who was unloading his supplies from a small commercial truck. When I reached him I could see that the cross street was nothing more than a river of rushing water coming down from the top of the mountain. There was no way I could drive through there. I asked the man for directions to get up to the main part of the town. He told me the best way to get there was from where I had started. I asked if it was safe. He said I shouldn’t have any trouble driving my car all the way. When I went back to the car, I realized that there was no way I could turn the car around. We all talked about our situation, and decided the only way to continue to our destination was for me to drive the car in reverse with Tony guiding me on foot, and that’s what we did. Tony walked behind the car signaling me as I slowly drove in reverse. While concentrating on steering, I couldn’t help thinking about the liability of any damage to the rented car. With a lot of patience and Tony’s help, I slowly inched my way back to where we had started. Although it seemed to take forever, we made it back without a scratch. Tony got back into the car and I headed up the road in the direction of the church. The old man was still working on the damaged road as we passed him but he never looked up, he and the boy just kept working.

While dodging the potholes and large rocks, I hoped the unknown of what lay ahead had some kind of information waiting for me. The small side roads we passed were nothing more than channels for the rushing water. Finally, we managed to make it to the center of town. I didn’t really feel like I could drive further. There was a small creek that prevented us from crossing to get to the church. 

A middle-aged man came to the car and greeted us, introducing himself as Sergio Ramos Torrez. We introduced ourselves and I explained to him that I was looking to see if I might have family in Las Ranas. He directed us to park and said that he would try to help us. I showed him the 1869 Puruándiro Matrimonios or marriage records of my great grandparents, Cristobal Martinez and Asuncion Saldaña. He didn’t recognize any of the names, so we all went over and asked two women in the nearby local store if they knew of any of the names listed, we had no luck. He said there was an older lady at the next store that might know about previous residents. No luck there either. Sergio said his mother was older and might know some of the people we were looking for. We decided to visit the local church or temlpo as its called in Mexico, before we went to see his mother. He said he would show us the way if we wanted drive our car. The rocky road looked unsafe so we told him we would walk instead. We began climbing up the pueblo’s winding road to the templo on top.

As we were walking up, Sergio told us an old story of how the pueblo got started. As the story goes, "A man named Jorge Ramos was climbing these mountains hunting for deer when he came upon this area. He liked it so much that he decided to stay and make it his home. Because of its many frogs, he named it Rancho La Ranas (Ranch of the Frogs). He also said that most of the people who lived in Las Ranas were named Ramos or were relatives of a Ramos.

It was too much of a coincidence to have my roots come from a town known for its frogs. Through the years I’ve had a fascination with frogs. I have included them in my work, my favorite is "Sapo Loco," and I also have accumulated quite a collection of frogs.

Sergio continued talking as he walked along side Jessie, telling her that he knew of a María Ramos who married a Secundino Martinez, and moved to Clearwater, California in the United States. My ears perked up as I heard him say those words, "María Ramos from Clearwater." Jessie and I quickly told Sergio that "María" was my grandmother. Sergio said his mother (Narsésa Torrez Ramos) was her niece. I shook his hand and said: "Somos primos!" (We are cousins!). We were all very happy. He said that he needed to return to a small arcade where he was working for his son and his wife who had gone to another town, but that he would meet with us later. After we visited the church, Sergio joined us again and said he wanted us to go with him and meet with his mother and his family at their house.

We drove the car after Sergio convinced us that it would be all right to drive there. After carefully driving over more rocks and bumpy roads, we finally arrived at the home of 85-year-old Narsésa Torrez Ramos. When we entered the house, Narsésa greeted us happily, welcoming us to her lovely home. She had a very fair complexion with blue or light gray eyes, which was like my grandmother. 

Narsésa introduced us to her 89-year-old sister, Carmen; her daughter, Rubiselia; and her niece, Maria Ybarra Ramos. Narsésa showed Jessie and Dolores beautiful flower embroidery she had done, and without a thought she gave each some of her handiwork. We spent the rest of a happy day enjoying many conversations with the Ramos family. Narsésa told us that my grandmother, María Ramos, had married Secudino Martinez and they left for Clearwater in *1917. Later, another of Narsésa’s sons, Maurilio Ramos came to the house. He told us in English that he had worked for many years in the United States in a variety of odd jobs. We exchanged addresses and telephone numbers so that we could keep in touch and invited them to come and visit with us in the United States. The family was a great host. They served us chicken soup, homegrown corn, fideo, beans and handmade tamales. The tamales were made from the corn they had gone to pick while we waited. The corn was taken off the cob and was ground to a "masa." The masa was spread on the fresh cornhusk so they appeared green when they were cooked. The tamales were sweet and very good. Narsésa told us that her father Arcadio and Candido, Josefa’s son had also gone to the United States. They had both went to Avalon, on Catalina Island, looking for work. She said Candido stayed while Arcadio had returned back to Las Ranas. Later on this wonderful afternoon we bid our sad farewells, Narsésa told Jessie she would like to give us her blessing (for all of us). She made the sign of the cross and recited a beautiful prayer for us to have a safe journey on our return home. As we drove back to the town of Puruándiro we all agreed that meeting the Ramos family in Las Ranas was the highlight of our trip to Mexico.

*1917 - Family Search Note: 1917, was the year when Narsésa Ramos said my grandparents came to Clearwater. This is inconsistent with the California Census record of 1920. It shows that my grandparents had left Mexico and arrived in Clearwater in 1909. That may mean that my grandparents may have returned to visit family in Las Ranas a few years later. If Narsésa Ramos was right about Secundino and María (my grandparents) leaving Las Ranas in 1917, then that raises the possibility that they were in Mexico during the years between 1912 to 1917. If this were true then that would help me to answer a question about where my father was born. In the United States or Mexico? I had always understood that he was born in Clearwater, U.S.A., but I couldn’t find a birth certificate on my father, Manuel Martinez in the Los Angeles County records in Downey, California. However, I have a copy of the 1920 California Census Vol. 33 E.D. 48 Sheet 12 Line 81. It reads that 6-year-old Manuel Martinez was from Mexico, which I assume would mean that he was born in Mexico. His birthday is listed as 1913, but his death record shows it as 1914.

I have since written a letter to Narsésa’s niece, María Ybarra Ramos in Puruándiro, thanking her and the family for their hospitality and asking if she can find a birth or marriage records of my grandparents. I included some photographs we took while visiting there. We had our Martinez family cousins from Clearwater come to our home, where we shared the information and photographs with them. They were excited about the discovery of our family in Mexico. Our next adventure of discovery is to visit the Ramos/Saldaña relatives on Catalina Island. I asked my cousin Gloria, "When we go to Catalina, how will we know where to find family in Avalon, do we have telephone numbers or addresses?" She answered simply by saying, "Will just go to ‘Lalo’s Barber Shop’." (Lalo Saldaña Ramos is grandson to tía Pepa Ramos, who is my Grandmother’s sister.)

I wouldn’t have guessed that finding family in Mexico at Las Ranas would have been so rewarding for us. My cousins from Clearwater and I are now working together on locating more relatives, so that we can bring our Torrez Ramos familia closer together, on both sides of the border.

EXTRACTOS DE BAUTISMOS DE ESPAÑOLES DEL PRIMER LIBRO 
DE LA PARROQUIA DEL SAGRARIO EN PÁTZCUARO, MICHOACÁN.

Guillermo Padilla Origel

Primera parte: 1597-1604

15 de octubre de 1597: María, h.l. de Pedro de Guerra y Leonor de Carvajal.

20 de noviembre de 1597: María, h.l. de Bartolomé Castañon y Juana de Gaarfias

8 de enero de 1598: Leonor, h.l. de Álvaro Pérez y Juana de Mendoza

4 de abril de 1598: Luis, h.l. de Pedro Navarro y Catalina de la Cerda.

8 de abril de 1598: Nicolás, h.l. de Juan de Murguia y Juana de la Cerda

28 de junio de 1598: Ana, h.l. de Joseph de Saucedo y Beatriz de Montoya

12 de julio de 1598: María, h.l. de Constantino Pérez y Ángela Pérez

9 de agosto de 1598: Cristóbal, h.l. de Juan Monjaráz y Francisca de Sosa

25 de octubre de 1598: Beatriz, h.l. de Cristóbal de Estrada y Luisa Verdugo.

6 de diciembre de1598: Agustín, h.l. de Baltasar de Cáceres y María de la Cerda

19 de diciembre de 1598: Mariana, h.l. de Juan de Rivera y Leonor de Pantoja

15 de noviembre de 1598: Francisca, h.l. de Antonio de Araujo y Catalina de Dueñas

31 de diciembre de 1598: Pedro, h.l. de Fernando Burgueño y María Rodríguez

23 de diciembre de 1598: Ana María, h.l. de Diego de Castañeda e Isabel Galindo

26 de enero de 1599: Sebastián, h.l. de Blas Ruíz de Gaona y Ana de Carvajal

6 de marzo de 1599: Felipe, h.l. de Diego Arias Puebla y María de Velasco

8 de julio de 1599: Juan, h.l. de Bartolomé Alexandre e Isabel de Villaroel

13 de septiembre de 1599: Nicolás, h.l. de Álvaro Pérez y Juana de Mendoza

13 de octubre de 1599: Diego, h.l. de Pedro García e Isabel Pérez

27 de octubre de 1599: Fabian, h.l. de Fabian Martínez y Catalina de Borja

13 de diciembre de 1599: Jacinto, h.l. de Felipe de Vargas y Beatriz de Castañeda

26 de abril de 1600: Diego, h.l. de Juan de Monjaráz y Francisca de Saucedo

10 de agosto de 1600: Nicolás y Andrés, h.l. de Diego de Castañeda e Isabel Galindo.

12 de noviembre de 1600: Nicolás, h.l. de Francisco Ponce y María de Rueda

12 de diciembre de 1600: Andrés, h.l. de Baltasar de Cáceres y Catalina de la Cerda

22 de enero de 1601: Fernando, h.l. de Juan de Soria y Beatriz de Castañeda

18 de marzo de 1601: Pedro, h.l. de Martín de Villegas y María de Sandoval

25 de marzo de 1601: Joseph, h.l. de Nicolás Núñez y María de la Cruz

25 de abril de 1601: Antonio, h.l. de Diego de Antúnez y María Martínez

15 de junio de 1601: Antonio, h.l. de Diego Arias Puebla y María de Velasco

10 de agosto de 1601: Sebastián, h.l. de Pedro Navarro y Catalina de la Cerda.

9 de octubre de 1601: Juan , h.l. de Fernando de Alba y Ana Centeno

9 de noviembre de 1601: Diego, h.l. de Fernando de Villegas, Alcalde mayor de esta ciudad e Isabel de Sandoval.

5 de diciembre de 1601: Álvaro, h.l. de Luis Méndez y Ana Pérez.

28 de enero de 1602: Sebastián, h.l. de Juan de Ochoa Garibay e Isabel de Ábrego.

6 de junio de 1602: Cristóbal, h.l. de Cristóbal de Estrada y Luisa Verdugo

25 de julio de 1602: Juan, h.l. de Pedro Barajas y María Flores

17 de julio de 1602: Joseph, h.l. de Juan Pérez Guerrero y Mariana Carrera

8 de agosto de 1602: Diego, h.l. de Juan de Rivera y Leonor Pantoja

3 de enero de 1603: Juliana, h.l. de Antonio Rodríguez y Catalina Infante

14 de enero de 1603: Manuel, h.l. de Bartolomé de Alexandre e Isabel de Villaroel

27 de enero de 1603: Sebatian, h.l. de Jerónimo de Alba y Ana Centeno.

28 de marzo de 1603: Joseph, h.l. de Diego de Antúnez y Ana Martínez

15 de julio de 1603: Fabian, h.l. de Juan Martínez de Gara y Ana Calderón

19 de septiembre de 1603: Jacinto, h.l. de Diego de Castañeda e Isabel Galindo

29 de octubre de 1603: Juan, h.l. de Juan Calderón y Ana Ortiz de Luna

7 de diciembre de 1603: Juan, h.l. de Francisco de Ayala y Leonor de Carranza

6 de enero de 1604: Rodrigo, h.l. de Rodrigo de Ayala y Beatriz de Castilleja

7 de marzo de 1604: María, h.l. de Fernando Altamirano y Leonor de Vera y Rodríguez

31 de marzo de 1604: Isabel, h.l. de Gonzalo de Antúnez y María Martínez

30 de mayo de 1604: Diego, h.l. de Luis Méndez de Villegas y Ana Pérez

30 de mayo de 1604: Hipólito, h.l. de Hipólito Álvarez y María de Castilleja

5 de junio de 1604: Catalina, h.l. de Antonio de Pinto y María Bohórquez

20 de agosto de 1604: Clara, h.l. de Pedro Navarro y Catalina de la Cerda

2 de septiembre de 1604: Agustín, h.l. de Cosme de Arévalo y Luisa de Mendoza

19 octubre de 1604: Alejo, h.l. de Pedro Navarro y Catalina de la Cerda

Testamentos del Siglo XVII, 
Jerez, Zacatecas

Por Leonardo De la Torre y Berumen
 
leon_torre@yahoo.com.mx

Defunciones de Jerez, siglo XVII

Por Leonardo De la Torre y Berumen 
leon_torre@yahoo.com.mx

Descendants of Cristobal de Villarreal-de-las-Casas

by Juan Inclan  
fromgalveston@yahoo.com
Part 1of 3 

Arquídiócesis de Monterrey 
http://www.arquidiocesismty.org.mx/parroquias/default.htm
Sent by John Inclan

This is a listing with links to Catholic churches in the state of Nuevo Leon. You will find the addresses, phones, fax numbers and the names of the members of the staff. 

CARIBBEAN/CUBA

"RESEARCHING YOUR HISPANIC ROOTS"

March 27, 2004, Miami, Florida
Featuring 
Dr. George R. Ryskamp
Director of the Center for Family History and Genealogy
Brigham Young University, Utah

INTERNATIONAL 

Other Places to do Research in Spain
by 
Jaime Cader 
(c) 2004 jmcader@yahoo.com 

Castles in Spain, Alcazar of Segovia
http://www.castles.nl/eur/es/seg/seg.html
http://www.castles.org/castles/Europe/Western_Europe/Spain
Sent by Joan De Soto

http://www.portugal.gov.pt/     http://www.parlamento.pt
County 1095, Kingdom 1139 (1580-1640 personal union with Spain), Republic 1910

22 de septiembre del 2000
© 2000 By Carlos B. Vega, 9-22-2000

HISTORY

FAMILY HISTORY

Organizing Paper Files: Part 1  

by Salena Ashton  
salena_ashton@hotmail.com

ARCHAEOLOGY 

MISCELLANEOUS