February 2005 
Editor: Mimi Lozano ©2000-5

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

"Freedom is not America's gift to give to the world, it's God's gift to humanity."
President George W. Bush

  Letters to the Editor : 

San Juan, Puerto Rico 1556 Ave Ponce de Leon, Apt 702, San Juan, Puerto Rico, 00909
 § 
Dear Mimi,
Thank you for the love and dedication you have shared through your work in all things Hispanic. You have opened the door to historical 
accuracy in various aspects of Hispanic life, history, culture, religion, etc. The fruit of the many hours you have put into this life's work has benefited thousands of people and many generations.   God bless you, Mimi, and have a wonderful and joy-filled New Year.

Sincerely, Cristina McCoy ccgm@satx.rr.com
San Antonio, Texas

UNITED STATES

Participate in Honoring 
Cesar Chavez Day 2005! 
Sent by Howard Shorr  howardshorr@msn.com

"The end of all education should surely be service to others." - Cesar E. Chavez

You can be a part of the Honorary Host Committee if you would like to:
Host a House Party-This is easy, requires little preparation, and is fun! Invite your friends to hear about the important work of the Chavez Foundation and encourage them to bring their friends too. 
Become a Table Captain-Table Captain volunteers help sell table sponsorships to our Annual Dinner or Luncheon. Foundation staff provides all necessary training and marketing materials to support volunteers in their efforts.
Community Outreach-Assist the Foundation in our outreach efforts to share information about our youth development programs.  Involve Your Employer/Company-Bring your company into the growing Chavez Foundation family through our Corporate Partners Program.  

Los Angeles, CA information: 
please contact Stacey Lee, Development Director, (818) 265-0300, ext. 224 or slee@cecfmail.org
For Phoenix, Francisca Montoya, Regional Manager, at 602-272-0080 or fmontoya@cecfmail.org

Chicano Shouldn't Be a Dirty Word
December 23, 2004
David Alire Garcia -- Albuquerque Journal
Sent by JV Martinez, Ph.D. .Martinez@science.doe.gov

The people that would eventually come to be known as the Aztecs were once gripped by a major identity crisis.  Sometime after 1376, when they were just one kingdom among many in the valley of Mexico, the Aztecs decided that it was time to ditch an unflattering "Sons of Dogs" epithet and exchange it for a proud new self-image.

So they found a small tribe, direct descendants of the legendary Toltecs and their god-king Quetzalcoatl, and forged an alliance. The Aztecs cemented the alliance by asking for a prince -- and a sacred blood line.

The prince's name was Acamapichtli and he would become their first king. Identity crisis behind them, the Aztecs went on to build a rich and sophisticated empire, ripping out a few human hearts along the way, until Spanish conquerors changed the course of history in 1521.

That's when the mestizo race was born, part European, part Indian. And with it, Chicano history was born. At least, that's the name that was given to the history of present-day Mexican Americans, coined in the politically-charged late 1960s and early 1970s. It's the name that the activists chose to use. And it was these same activists who finally succeeded in putting Mexican American history, art and contemporary struggle on the map.

It's a name, incidentally, with roots in the word used by the Aztecs for their own underclass. But today the word evokes bitter controversy.

At the University of New Mexico, the administration has decided to discard or de-emphasize the term Chicano and rename the school's 33-year-old Chicano Studies Program. The move has launched an important debate, a debate over identity and names, and the future of how UNM should teach what is otherwise a well-recognized body of scholarly research.

"Chicano studies isn't just for Chicanos," says Arturo Sandoval, one of the student-activists who helped establish the program in 1971. "It's for anyone who wants to learn about the world and anyone who wants to learn about this part of the world."

But since the term Chicano has fallen out of favor among many young Hispanics or Latinos -- today's more common self-identifiers -- UNM administrators reasoned that the name should change.  The director of the department formerly known as Chicano Studies, Enrique Lamadrid, decided in late October that the new name would be "Southwest Hispanic Studies."

Seen as a unilateral move, it was immediately opposed. At the time, Lamadrid described the change as "a pragmatic move to open the door wider" -- to larger enrollments, and maybe even more funding. But he insisted the curriculum would stay the same.

Raul Candelaria, one of the UNM student-activists who in 1996 succeeded in developing the minor program in Chicano Studies, prefers the original name.  "The issue is self-determination, and I think the name Chicano embodies that," he explains. "It also embodies the indigenous side of us and makes us who we are as a race."

Exposure to this history, culture and especially the social movement launched roughly 40 years ago has had a profound impact on many.  "It transformed my life," says Sandoval. "And mine as well," says Candelaria.  That transformation takes shape as individuals get to know their history.

"Many of us don't know who we are," Candelaria says, articulating the problem. "Chicano studies gives us that body of knowledge."  Just one example: "I know who Joaquin Murieta was in California. I understand what happened in 1846 and 1848," says Candelaria.  

In the face of mounting criticism from the likes of Sandoval and Candelaria, Lamadrid most recently found a new name -- "Chicano, Hispano, Mexicano Studies." In fact, that's the name that will appear in UNM's catalog next fall.

Of the newest name change, Sandoval says all three parts are "areas of study, but shouldn't be the title of a program."  To my ears, Sandoval offers a better way for UNM to grow interest in the program beyond a symbolic, but misguided name change.  "They should be developing the curriculum for youth in elementary and secondary schools on Chicano history so that kids early on begin to get a sense of studying this when they get to the university," he says.

This would be one change that could engage the broader community. "But that requires money, vision, commitment, planning," Sandoval argues. "Changing the name doesn't require anything."  In fact, ENLACE, the much-admired program to boost Hispanic education in New Mexico and elsewhere, incorporates Chicano studies at the public school level to expose young Hispanics to Hispanic role models -- but without the gnashing of teeth over the word Chicano.

Sandoval's ideas are in tune with the larger goal shared by his generation of activists. "The founders of Chicano studies were trying to make that connection between the ivory tower and the community, because our experience had been that there was no connection," he says.  If nothing else, the dispute at UNM underscores that it's a connection that should be strengthened.

But on the subject of academics and identity, current UNM student Ernestina Carrillo probably put it best. "The title of the program shouldn't be about what we want to call ourselves," Carrillo told the Journal earlier this week. But for a struggle over identity that's been brewing for centuries -- this one over a single word -- the struggle will do doubt continue.

Source: (C) 2004 Albuquerque Journal. via ProQuest Information and Learning Company; All Rights Reserved

Dr. Frank Talamantes, Ph.D.
Assistant Dean for Research Development and Professor of Pathology
Texas Tech Health Science Center
4800 Alberta Ave
El Paso, Texas 79905

Throughout the country, organizations are focusing on the issue of absentee fathers and all its attendant disturbing effects and statistics. Fathers, Inc. recognizes the need to reaffirm an understanding of the benefit of fathers to the family.  Though to do so our main focus will be on the development of fathers, we recognize that there is also a need for maternal involvement and development specifically as those things intersect around parental responsibility.

Fathers, Inc. is a not-for-profit agency dedicated to strengthening the community and family infrastructure by encouraging and enabling the positive involvement of fathers in the lives of their children.  We will do this by increasing awareness of father's rights and responsibilities, the programmatic impact through community collaborations, providing support services, training, and assistance to fathers in need of sustenance and direction. 

"When the Tear Won’t Fall" will be unique in the sense that many books written on the subject of fatherhood tend to be in the categories of self-help, humor, poetry and how-to.  The book will highlight the stories of fathers who have overcome obstacles, and how their life's choices impacted them as fathers.  In some instances, the stories will detail how they failed and what it means/meant to them and their children.

The book project seeks to profile the changing image of fatherhood in our society.  It will reinforce and reestablish for many that fathers are a critical part of the productive and positive functioning of the family.  Because of the changing configuration of family and the increase in absentee fathers, at a most critical time in this society, these letters will explore what it means to be a father, and offer some insight on how to be a good father.

Guidelines, requirements and deadlines for letters can be obtained by visiting our website at www.fathersinc.org  or emailing tear@fathersinc.org
Letters can also be submitted via our website. The book is due out by Christmas 2005.
Sent by Diane Sears bsi-international@earthlink.net

Latin Business Association eNewsletter, 1/11/2005
Source: Mercury News By Jessie Mangaliman

Using 2000 Census data, the Pew Hispanic Center, a non-profit research group based in Washington, D.C., analyzed the makeup of Census-defined neighborhoods across the country and found that 57 percent, or 20 million, of Latinos live in neighborhoods where they constitute less than half the population.

Still, the report acknowledges that many Latinos live in neighborhoods where they make up the majority. And, in fact, that percentage actually has increased from 39 percent in 1990 to 43 percent in 2000.

"There's a common impression that Latinos, especially immigrants, have bunched up in neighborhoods where Spanish is spoken,'' said Roberto Suro, the co-author of the study and director of the Pew Hispanic Center.

"What this shows us is a much more subtle portrait, that Latinos are being exposed to non-Hispanic culture and ways,'' he said.

That portrait, Suro said, challenges conventional American ideas about assimilation. his scattering phenomenon would suggest that there is a great deal of assimilation taking place,'' Suro said.

Manuel Pastor, professor of Latin American and Latino studies at University of California-Santa Cruz, said the Pew study makes a good challenge to the public notion that ``the Latino experience is purely a barrio experience.''

"This is really the first step in another analysis of the Latino experience,'' Pastor said. The report's findings not only could help dispel misconceptions about Latinos, they also have implications for policy makers, Suro said.  "It's important to know how this population is developing and where it's calling home,'' he said. "Everybody assumes that the storefronts where the signs are in Spanish is the neighborhood where everybody lives.''

On the question of service delivery, for example, that common assumption could result in missing many who live in neighborhoods that are not predominantly Latino, Suro said.  "Clearly the challenge of targeting this population, whether you're trying to sell them cars or get them vaccinations, is fairly complex because of this process of dispersal,'' Suro said.

Just when we were getting used to saying proudly that Spanish is no longer a "foreign language" but the "second language" of the United States, a report appears that questions the assumption that Spanish use is growing.  State University of New York at Albany researchers say that English is the preferred language of children and grandchildren of Latin American immigrants.

This news surely gave comfort to Samuel Huntington and others who believe Spanish-speaking immigrants endanger "American" culture.  The study holds that forecasts of growth of Spanish use overlook forces that bring about assimilation.  Conducted by Richard Alba, director of the Lewis Mumford Center for Urban and Regional Research at SUNY-Albany, it notes that pursuit of the "American dream" through entry into the mainstream drives immigrants and their descendants toward English. 

Based on 2000 Census data, the study found that 71% of third- or fourth-generation Hispanics spoke English exclusively at home (vs. 64% in 1990).  It points out, however, that exceptions exist along the US-Mexico border and among Dominicans in New York City who maintain close ties with their homeland. 

The issue merits a second look.  The media reported widely on the story, but appeared not to ask some obvious questions.  Is the 2000 Census the right source for assimilation and language usage trends?  Do other studies confirm or contradict the SUNY findings?  Do other factors help boost Spanish use?

The Power of Media: Spanish language media growth has been phenomenal.  Hispanic print is so attractive that mainstream companies – even foreign investors – are buying or creating publications.  Having done their homework, they conclude that their shareholders will be served by investing in Spanish language properties.  

Hemispheric Demographics: We live in a Spanish-speaking hemisphere.  English is a minority language in the Americas.  Birthrates in Latin America far exceed those of the U.S. and Canada, and weak economies, turmoil and the quest for opportunity will continue to thrust Spanish-speakers on our shores for decades to come. 

Our Spanish-speaking population, therefore, will be renewed by flows of native speakers.  And these immigrants will have more children than other residents.  Admittedly, their children and grandchildren want to learn English.  They see it as a ticket to educational and economic opportunity.  But they do not necessarily discard Spanish and Hispanic cultural attributes.

Pride in Heritage: Something innate in Hispanic cultures makes Spanish hard to shed. Catholic theologian Michael Novak wrote a book 30-odd years ago entitled "The Rise of the Unmeltable Ethnic."  He held that earlier waves of immigrants (primarily Western and Eastern European) lamented their rush to "Americanize" and losing their languages and cultures.

In Northern New Mexico, without immigrant renewal, descendants of Spanish settlers of three and four hundred years ago still speak Spanish.  Relatively isolated, they have retained, and take pride in, Spanish.  Mexican Americans in the southwest, strongly influenced by Mexico and Mexican immigration, have also retained Spanish.

The best example of the retentive powers of Spanish are Sephardic Jews who, ousted from Spain five centuries ago, migrated to Istanbul and Morocco.  Others ended up in Israel, Brazil, Argentina and Mexico.  Those Sephardic communities, even in linguistically isolated Istanbul, still speak Ladino, their ancient Spanish language.  After five centuries, Spanish thrives – without renewal, without immigration. 

The Bicultural and Bilingua: Writing in Hispanic Magazine last September, Argentina-born Marcela Miguel Berland described a neglected market segment she calls the "bi-bi’s," or the bilingual and bicultural.  A new generation of Hispanics, they navigate easily from mainstream to Latino culture.  Founder of Latin Insights, a research-based strategic communications company, Berland reports that recent studies show growing pride in heritage, culture, values and language among this group in particular and among Hispanics in general.

Like Novak’s "unmeltables," Latinos are discovering that they do not have to give up culture and language to assimilate, to become "real Americans."  Assimilation does not require the surrender of cultural and linguistic attributes.  One can acquire English and mainstream American values and still be a Spanish-speaking Hispanic American.  Too often assimilation is portrayed as an "either-or proposition."  Not true.  It is a "bilingual, bicultural is better" proposition, a "value added" proposition.

If the marketers, the manufacturers, Marcela Berland and others are correct, and if history is any measure, then pride, immigration, renewal, the media and other forces will make Spanish use continue to grow in the United States.  And this is good.  ________________________________________

Frank Gómez, a contributing columnist to HispanicVista.com  http://www.hispanicvista.com
is a retired senior Foreign Service Officer and corporate executive, and an adjunct professor of translation at New York University.  He is a member of Intérpretes y Traductores de Español (InTradES-Apuntes, Inc.), a non-profit association based in New York City. He can be reached at fgomez@LatinInsights.com.

INTERPRETIVE THEMES

The Cultural Resources Diversity Program is currently conducting research for a new publication on National Park Service cultural resources in Hispanic and Latino heritage in America. This publication will provide a resource for the interpretation of historic sites, structures, and landscapes as they pertain to Hispanic and Latino peoples in America. This resource is intended to provide guidance and suggestions to identify themes, social history topics, and historic places that reflect the cultural heritage of Hispanic and Latino peoples in the United States. Research consists of examining the Diaspora of Hispanic people throughout the United States; identifying the major scholarship on the topic; and collecting information on Hispanic cultural heritage within the National Park Service cultural resources programs (National Register of Historic Places, National Historic Landmarks, Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record).

As a resource guide, this publication will selectively highlight important themes shaped by current scholarship. The Spanish Colonial resources of the National Park Service provide numerous ways to explore Spanish heritage and its legacies in the United States, particularly in architecture, which will be a part of the final product. However, current scholarship emphasizes the diversity of historical experiences and culture of Hispanic Americans; this project will address this by exploring themes in civil rights, labor, and immigrant history pertinent to Hispanic and Latino heritage. The major historical groups that will be covered in this study are Mexican Americans, Cuban Americans, and Puerto Ricans.

For additional information, contact Michele Gates Moresi, Historian
Working title: Hispanic American Heritage: Cultural Traditions and the Built Environment

PROJECT DESCRIPTION
The Cultural Resources Diversity Program is currently conducting research for a new publication on National Park Service cultural resources in Hispanic and Latino heritage in America. This publication will provide a resource for the interpretation of historic sites, structures, and landscapes as they pertain to Hispanic and Latino peoples in America. This resource is intended to provide guidance and suggestions to identify themes, social history topics, and historic places that reflect the cultural heritage of Hispanic and Latino peoples in the United States. Research consists of examining the Diaspora of Hispanic people throughout the United States; identifying the major scholarship on the topic; and collecting information on Hispanic cultural heritage within the National Park Service cultural resources programs (National Register of Historic Places, National Historic Landmarks, and Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record).

INTERPRETIVE THEMES
As a resource guide, this publication will selectively highlight important themes shaped by current scholarship. The Spanish Colonial resources of the National Park Service provide numerous ways to explore Spanish heritage and its legacies in the United States, particularly in architecture, which will be a part of the final product. However, current scholarship emphasizes the diversity of historical experiences and culture of Hispanic Americans; this project will address this by exploring themes in civil rights, labor, and immigrant history pertinent to Hispanic and Latino heritage. The major
historical groups that will be covered in this study are Mexican Americans, Cuban Americans, and Puerto Ricans.

Information on research projects visit:  http://www.cr.nps.gov/crdi/research.htm 
An example is the Trujillo Homestead is associated with earliest generations of Hispanic-American ranchers in Colorado. 
National Center for Cultural Resources  http://www.cr.nps.gov/crdi
National Park Service
202.354.2266   202.371.2422 fax

Information on the historical Hispanic/Latino already identified in the (click>  park system .

". . .no hardship is too great to endure to win this war..."    PFC. Fernando Alatorre 

I created this web site hoping that someone who may have known my uncle or who knows someone who may have served in the Marines with him would find it and be able to share information about him with us.  My Uncle served in the U.S. Marines from 1943, right after high school, to March 5, 1945.  He was assigned to the 3rd Marine Division, 21st regiment, 3rd Battalion, "L" Company.  He served in Bougainville, Northern Solomons, Guam, and was KIA on Iwo Jima. A quote from a letter my Uncle sent home...

 Boot Camp. 
603rd Platoon San Diego 1943

Hispanic Lifestyle Online

http://www.hispaniclifestyle.com/hlmarticles
/nov04/ngycp.htm

National Guard 
Youth Challenge Program 
(NGYCP) Is Proving Its Effectiveness One Success Story After Another

Escobar continues to maintain a close relationship with his mentor, who served as a role model throughout the Program and continues to provide him with the support and encouragement he needs to stay focused on reaching his goals.

The turn around in his life has been dramatic. Deserted by his mother, he grew up in Highland, Calif., with his father and sister. With only 45 high school credits to his name by the time he reached 11th grade, and repeated run-ins with the law, Escobar was running out of opportunities. While Escobar acknowledges that his high school attendance counselor could have kicked him out of school at that point, she saw a potential in him and instead suggested he turn to the NGYCP. After waiting one semester to meet the age requirement, Derick applied and was accepted. And what a difference it has made in his life.

According to Derick: "I got to meet new people. I learned about leadership by leading my platoon. Community service was something I really liked. My GPA went from a .00 to 3.4 I graduated the program in June of 2004. My mentor kept me motivated for the whole program and is a person who I can really count on. He is still there for me and always reminds to stay focused on my goals. Currently I am attending Grizzly Technical Academy and learning about computers. I want to go to college and join the Reserves so I can get money for college and then go on to be a pilot. Grizzly helped me see a future where before there was just a black hole!"

Derick is one of nearly 53,000 young people who have graduated from the Program, which has been independently rated as one of the most effective programs of its kind. For more information, please log on to http://www.ngyf.org

About the National Guard Youth Challenge Program:

The National Guard Youth Challenge Program is a 17-month program for high school drop-outs between the ages of 16 and 18 years. Program participants are offered the opportunity to enhance their life skills, earn their GED and go on to higher education, improve their employment potential and broaden their chance at success.

About the National Guard Youth Foundation:

The National Guard Youth Foundation is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization formed to support the work of the National Guard Youth Challenge Program through public awareness, scholarships, A 12 percent of the program's representation is Hispanic. The Foundation is also working to expand the number of states and sites per state to accommodate growing demand for the program. The Chairman is General John Conaway, former Chief of the National Guard Bureau. The Honorary Board of Directors is co-chaired by Former President George H. W. Bush and former Senator Max Cleland. 

Raul Yzaguirre  joins Arizona State University 

Recruiting Yzaguirre is major coup
Yvonne Wingett
The Arizona Republic, Jan. 7, 2005

One of the country's most prominent Latinos will assume a new post with Arizona State University this month to develop a Hispanic-based community development institute and bolster the school's efforts to raise money, recruit minority faculty and students and accelerate partnerships with minority groups.

 Landing Raul Yzaguirre, former head of the Washington-based National Council of La Raza is a major coup for ASU and the region: It will raise the profile of the school, which has aggressively sought to enhance its reputation nationally and with Hispanics.

Yzaguirre was a powerful lobbyist for the nation's largest Hispanic civil rights group and built a reputation fighting for minorities in Congress, in corporate boardrooms, schools and non-profits throughout the nation. He brings decades of experience with public policy and thousands of names and numbers in his Rolodex, which will position educators and non-profits to vie more competitively for money, university and Latino leaders said.

"We expect him to be an advocate, both inside and outside the university, for the issues that are of greatest importance for the Hispanic community and the state of Arizona," ASU President Michael Crow said. "His leadership will enhance ASU's efforts in providing academic and career opportunities for Hispanics."

Yzaguirre will earn $75,000 yearly as part-time presidential professor of practice in community development and civil rights in the College of Public Programs, officials said. He will be appointed Jan. 23.

Yzaguirre, 65, fought for civil rights, housing and education for Latinos during his three decades as leader of NCLR. With millions of Hispanics on his side, Yzaguirre transformed the organization from a broke, unknown group into one of the most influential in Washington. When he stepped down as president and CEO in December, offers from universities and institutions around the country poured in.

But Crow's vision to embed the school into the Latino community beat out other offers.

Yzaguirre will focus mostly on the creation of the Hispanic research center, which will be built within the new 15,000-student ASU downtown campus. Using his relationships with local non-profits, Yzaguirre will partner social service front-liners with residents and scholars to connect research with lives. The marriage could translate into more livable communities around the region by improving heath services, housing, transportation and education, he said.

"I can be a catalyst," Yzaguirre said. "Community development . . . is not just about Hispanics. It's about the entire community. I can bring forces together, bring talent together."

His name alone can capture millions of dollars from corporations around the nation for local non-profits, Valley social service leaders believe.

"He will be able to draw corporate support (for non-profits) because he has friends in high places all over the country," said Luz Sarmina Gutierrez, president and chief executive officer of Hispanic-based Valle del Sol, which provides family services. Yzaguirre knows the Valley well: Since the creation of NCLR here in 1968, he travels to the Valley frequently to meet with lawmakers and non-profits. His established relationships here helped bring 23,000 Hispanics to its national convention in downtown Phoenix last summer. He says he will become an even more familiar face in the community, leading seminars, lecturing and mentoring students like Ana Contreras.

Like hundreds of other young Hispanics, she has watched Yzaguirre lobby lawmakers on Capitol Hill in support the DREAM Act, fair wages for farm workers, bilingual education and fair voting rights. Who better, she said, to empower young students, mentor them and advise their organizations.

"Some students feel that the power and passion with the Chicano Movement has died down," the 20-year-old Avondale junior said. "We've all been looking for what we call the Chicano Renaissance."

Yzaguirre could drive that revival for Latinos, she believes. After all, he spent his life putting Hispanic issues center stage. He became an activist at the age of 15, organizing American G.I. Forum Juniors during his segregated childhood in a small town outside of McAllen, Texas. That passion for activism led him to become one of the Hispanic community's highest-powered executives, who has the ear of the country's top lawmakers and corporations.

"You can find his fingerprints throughout the nation," Democratic Congressman Ed Pastor said from Washington. "He took NCLR, a small group, and gave it national recognition."

REFUGIO I. ROCHIN, Ph.D.
Executive Director, (SACNAS)
Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Latinos and Native Americans in Science
P.O. Box 8526 or 333 Front Street, Suite 104
Santa Cruz, CA 95061-8526
Tel:    831-459-0170 x 444  Fax:    831-459-0194
rochin@sacnas.org  www.sacnas.org 

Join us at our annual conference in Denver September 29 - October 02, 2005

According to Census 2000 figures, there are over 38.8 million Latinos living in the United States, counting 22 countries of origin. IUPLR, a consortium of 18 Latino research centers based at major universities across the United states, is the only nationwide university-based research organization bringing together scholars from a wide variety of disciplines to conduct policy-relevant research on Latinos.   http://www.nd.edu/~iuplr/   Sent by Refugio Rochin, Ph.D. rochin@sacnas.org

Lanic site:  http://lanic.utexas.edu/la/region/hispanic/
Site has links to current articles on a variety of topics of possible interest to Hispanic/Latino researchers.   Sent by JV Martinez, Ph.D.  Joe.Martinez@science.doe.gov
 

BY JUDY HOLLAND
Hearst Newspapers, 1/6/2005
Sent by JV Martinez Joe.Martinez@science.doe.gov

WASHINGTON - Representative-elect Henry Cuellar arrived on Capitol Hill early Monday morning, eager to get down to work as the first congressman from Laredo, in two decades - only to find that it's possible for a person to show up too early for a new job.  He was locked out of his new office without a key.

Cuellar, the oldest of eight children born to farm workers, showed cool leadership and led four staffers to the basement cafeteria of the Longworth Office building "to strategize" until the building superintendent handed out keys at 9 a.m.

"That's what you get for being here too early," said Cuellar, shortly after entering his starkly bare office. He said he arrived early because "I want to hear the hum of the machinery working."

Cuellar, a Democrat, defeated Rep. Ciro Rodriguez, D-San Antonio, in the March Democratic primary, garnering 50.1 percent of the vote and then 59 percent in the general election against lawyer James Hopson, the Republican nominee.  Cuellar said he wants his office in full swing when he is sworn in at noon today.

His House post is "a wonderful opportunity for Laredo and the border area to finally have a voice in Washington, D.C., from a person who breathes the air and drinks the water," Cuellar said.

When he is sworn in, Cuellar said he will be thinking of his migrant worker parents, Martin and Odilia, who took their first airplane trip Monday to witness the ceremony. His parents will be joining 40 to 50 constituents from the 28th Congressional district of Texas.

Because his parents don't speak English, Cuellar said, "they won't understand what the speakers say but they'll understand the joy and the pride of having their son sworn in as a U.S. congressman."

Cuellar said he hopes to be a role model for other children who grow up with limited means.  "If they can dream it, if they can get the education and work hard and keep with that desire, they can become a U.S. congressman or more," he said.

Cuellar, who endorsed President Bush in 2000, describes himself as a centrist Democrat who opposes gay marriage and abortion, but favors business, gun rights and free trade. He said he is determined to work with Republicans in an environment that is known for being partisan and bitter.

But he adds: "Nobody is going to take my vote for granted. Nobody is going to say 'Henry is a Democrat so he is going to vote this way."' Cuellar has rented a condo on Capitol Hill by the Eastern Market, a bustling ethnic bazaar, and will commute on weekends to Laredo to see his wife Imelda and daughters Christina, 11 and Catherine, 7.

"I intend to be very visible in the district," Cuellar said.  Cuellar, 49, said he expects his two biggest adjustments will be the chilly Washington weather in winter and his four- to five-hour commute to and from Texas on weekends.

"Those are the downsides, but the beauty of this whole thing is I can represent 650,000 people in a diverse district" that spans 11 counties, he said.0 He hopes to land a spot on the House Transportation and infrastructure Committee so he can deal with issues such as the toll that 18-wheelers take on roads and bridges along Interstate 35 that runs through his district.

Cuellar said he is also aiming for a seat on the House Agriculture Committee so he can track farm policy affecting constituents who farm peanuts, cotton, strawberries, wheat and other fruits and vegetables.

He said he is also interested in international relations, however, but for now is "looking for committees that can have a practical impact on my district."  Other priorities are improving education, health care and economic development, Cuellar said.

He said he intends to become involved in homeland security issues on the U.S.-Mexico border and wants to make sure that new security measures, such as the U.S. Visit program, don't hinder local border economies.  "You want to provide security but at the same time you've got to balance it with the movement of goods and people," he said.

Cuellar said he has worked with Texas A&M International University in Laredo to put a book together for local civic groups, leaders and nonprofit groups on how to get federal funding.

"My area has had a historical deficiency of funding and we want to rectify that," he said. "I want to be an educator about what resources are available from the federal government."

Cuellar recalls first touring the Capitol as a new student at Georgetown University in Washington after transferring from Laredo Community College in 1976 and telling his best pal Carlos Barrera, now an Austin, Texas, attorney, "One day, I'll work at the Capitol."  Barrera quipped back: "I'm sure they'll need janitors."

Cuellar, whose father was born in Mexico and finished third grade and whose mother was born in Zapata, Texas, and finished sixth grade, graduated from Georgetown and got a law degree and Ph.D. in government from the University of Texas. He was elected a Texas state representative at age 30 and later served as Texas secretary of state in 2001.  

Cuellar said he has been very happy with his career path so far.  "Where else can you have that?" Cuellar said. "When they talk about the American dream, I think this is it."

Census: To some Hispanics, identifying with a certain race is paramount. Others emphasize national origin.  

RIVERDALE - With dirty-blond hair and hazel eyes, Oscar Bonilla is called guero - Spanish for "blond" or "fair-skinned" - by customers at La Central music and video store. But his race is less easily defined.

"I look white, completely white," says Bonilla, 21, who was born in El Salvador but raised in nearby Montgomery County. "But the first thing I would call myself is Hispanic. My race? I don't really think about it."

Like nearly 15 million Latinos in 2000, Bonilla would identify himself as "some other race" on the U.S. Census. A new study from the Pew Hispanic Center, called Shades of Belonging, analyzed the 2000 data and found complex racial attitudes within the nation's largest minority group - attitudes that speak to how successful American immigrants perceive themselves to be in both fitting in and getting ahead.

The study, which combined data with nearly 3,000 interviews, revealed striking differences between the two most popular categories. Hispanics who think of themselves as "white" are better educated, earn more and are more likely to vote Republican than Hispanics who identified themselves as "some other race."

"One thing that has been clear since the 2000 Census came out is we knew that the race categories didn't fit that well for Latinos," says Sonya Tafoya, a research associate at the center. "So what we wanted to get at was the reasoning for people to chose 'some other race.' Was there a pattern?"

The findings solidify a suspicion Tafoya had long ago: Hispanics who chose white seemed to convey a feeling of belonging to mainstream America. Likewise, "some other race" Hispanics are feeling "left out," she says.

Hispanics can be any race or a mix of many. When asked to choose for the 2000 Census, nearly 48 percent of Hispanics picked "white," and 42 percent selected "some other race." About 2 percent chose "black," and another 6 percent chose two or more races.

For Bonilla, race isn't important. He is often mistaken for a "gringo" but is proud of his Latino roots. He grew up considering himself a typical American kid but does not prefer to be called "white." "I like saying I'm Hispanic," he says. "In El Salvador it doesn't matter if you're light-skinned or dark-skinned."

Jose Daniel Amaya is Bonilla's co-manager at the store on Riverdale Road in Prince George's County, where the merchandise ranges from CDs of salsa singer Celia Cruz to videotapes of the feature films Kill Bill and Oklahoma! "There is a lot of racial mixture," says Amaya, 19, a Maryland native whose family is Salvadoran. His olive-toned skin is a shade darker than Bonilla's. "And here, there are so many [people from] Hispanic countries. I think people are more proud of where they come from. They care more about their country than race."

Hispanics, particularly new immigrants, tend to prefer being acknowledged by country of origin rather than race, say researchers. "Many people will say they are Mexican or Dominican; that is an important word for them," says John Logan, a sociology professor at Brown University, who last year conducted a study on race and Hispanics at the Lewis Mumford Center for Comparative and Regional Research in Albany. "But many discover that people here will treat you as Hispanic, even if that's not the way you really see yourself."

In fact, more immigrant Hispanics selected categories outside the standard census categories than did native-born Latinos, according to Tafoya's analysis. Forty-six percent of foreign-born Hispanics identified themselves as "some other race," while 40 percent of Hispanics born here did, the Pew report found. Also, the children and grandchildren of immigrants are more likely to identify themselves as white than their parents.

While some immigrant Latinos say they are surprised by America's obsession with race, Latin America has a long history of racism. In colonial Latin America, enslaved Africans, European conquistadors and indigenous groups converged. In many countries, mixed races were common and a complicated hierarchy emerged, often with the darker-skinned or indigenous people at the bottom.

Jose Perdomo, a physician from Rockville, is often called trigueno in his native Venezuela, meaning "dark-skinned." His caramel-colored complexion is darker than the beige coloring of his brother Edgar.

In Spanish-speaking countries, mulato and mestizo define racial mixes. And there's canela - the Spanish word for cinnamon, to describe tawny brown skin. Race has also worked its way into Spanish sayings that suggest a significance beyond skin shade.

Edgar Perdomo remembers a saying that he heard as a child: "Trabaja como un negro para vivir como un blanco" - "He works like a black to live like a white." "But we don't mean anything by it," he says. "I think it just means that someone is hard-working."

Logan suggests Latinos recognize racial distinctions in their home countries, yet the differences are not as important as in the United States. "In most Latin American countries, there are certainly more than two categories," Logan says. "And while the distinctions are there, it's not always in terms of thinking some groups as better or worse, just different."

The Perdomos' diverse heritage defies any "check-a-box" expectation. Their father's mother, from Trinidad, was black, and their father's father was Italian-born. Their mother's father immigrated from Spain to marry their mother's fair-skinned Venezuelan mother.

"With my background, you tell me what should I pick?" says Jose Perdomo.

But his brother, Edgar, also a doctor, who lives in Gaithersburg, says, "I look white, so I would pick white. I am an American, first of all."

But Edgar Perdomo says he resents the pressure he feels in America to choose a race.

"In Latin America, we feel that from Alaska to Argentina you are an American," he says. "When you are in Central and South America, you don't have to pick. But when you come here, you suddenly belong to a different group of people. They put you in boxes; I hate it."

Census officials have always struggled to catalog Hispanics. In the early 20th century, the bureau provided choices such as "Spanish surname" and "mother tongue." In 1930, it listed "Mexican" as a race but later classified all Mexicans as white. "Hispanic origin" did not emerge until the 1970 Census.

It's an exodus that worries policy experts, even though schools like Carnegie Mellon say they are doing all they can to attract low-income students. Theories abound to explain the trend -- from too little government aid to the disadvantaged to subpar preparation of students in poor school districts to decisions by prestige-driven colleges about who is admitted.

But most experts agree on what's at stake. They warn of a society increasingly stratified by wealth since top schools often are a pathway to the most lucrative jobs. And they point out that even as those schools publicly tout gains in diversifying their campuses by race, they may be quietly losing another front in the war for campus access.

"We Americans like to portray ourselves as a country where you can pull yourself up by the bootstraps, where anybody can go from the furthest depths of poverty to become the president of a university or the president of the United States," said Robert Shireman, senior fellow with the Aspen Institute in Washington, D.C. "One indicator of the truth of that American ideal is the ability of low-income students to attend and succeed at institutions that tend to create those leaders -- the CEOs, the senators."

Just how scarce are the neediest students? The Century Foundation found last year that individuals from the poorest quarter of the population comprised just 3 percent of the student bodies at the nation's most selective 146 schools. By contrast, 74 percent were from the richest quarter, as defined in terms of family income and parental education.

"Another way of putting that is you're 25 times as likely to run into a rich kid as a poor kid at the top 146 schools," said Richard Kahlenberg, a senior fellow with the New York City think tank. "The students who tend to be at these schools are upper- and middle-class whites, blacks and Latinos."

Who's to blame? 

In fact, researchers at UCLA's Higher Education Research Institute recently reported that even with student financial aid initiatives and affirmative action, the wealthy accounted for an increasing share of enrollment in the top schools between 1985 and 2000. At the same time, the share of students from middle-income families and first-generation college students declined at those schools, while poor students gained almost no ground.

"American higher education, in other words, is more socio economically stratified today than at any time during the past three decades," researchers Alexander Astin and Leticia Oseguera concluded.

Mortenson lays much of the blame on school admission policies.

He says campuses obsess over high-achieving students who can enhance the school's standing in rankings like the one in U.S. News & World Report. And they prefer students from families better able to pay the bill and more likely to one day drop a wad of money on the school.

He said it's no secret that better-prepared students -- the ones liable to score 1400 and up on the SAT's -- tend to come from wealthier families.

"Profits and prestige," Mortenson said. "Everybody wants to be like Harvard."

Many campus officials, though, balk at that as unfair and too simplistic. Sure, they say, schools vie for top students and enjoy record numbers of applications. But other factors discourage qualified-but- disadvantaged students from even applying.

Financial aid, for one, isn't growing as fast as college prices and increasingly comes in loans, which are a particular barrier to the poor, experts say. A shift from need-based scholarships to those based on academic merit tends to benefit better-prepared and usually wealthier students, as do tuition tax credits, which are less beneficial as family income declines.

New approaches

At Carnegie Mellon, Bill Elliott, vice president for enrollment, said his school works hard to identify prospects from poor backgrounds, but finding them is harder than it once was. He points to a summer science academy for promising but disadvantaged high school students as just one example of his school's outreach.  Carnegie Mellon, he said, allocates ever-more financial aid to students, including its 637 Pell grant recipients this year.

"Obviously, we wish we were more successful, but we've been successful to the extent that there are 637 of these students here," he said. "It's increasingly expensive because the feds have walked from the Pell commitment by not increasing the grant."

He said Carnegie Mellon does consider income in admissions and invests $30 million in financial aid, nearly all of it based on need. But, as is true at other schools, recipients often have family incomes far above the Pell Grant cutoff. The median family income for financial aid recipients there is $75,000, Elliott said.

"I've only got so much financial aid," said Elliott, noting that Carnegie Mellon's endowment is a fraction of its peers'. "I'm doing the best I can with what I've got."

At Penn State, Anna Griswold doesn't dispute that there are nearly 500 fewer Pell grant recipients on the main campus. But she said Mortenson ignores the branch campuses. If they are included, she said, many more are actually being served.

"The culprit is not Penn State and its selectivity. I would say it's the inequality of our nation's public school system, K-12," said Griswold, assistant vice provost for enrollment management. "If you're poor, you're probably going to be living in a poorer neighborhood with poorer schools. It may mean you come out less prepared to compete."

Promoting access is important, she and others say. But so is being realistic about an applicant's chances for success on a highly competitive campus.

"You do these students no favors if you bring them in, and then don't help them achieve their dreams," said Shirley Ort, director of scholarships and student aid at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, that state's public flagship, where 13 percent of undergraduates hold Pell grants.

That said, her school has overhauled financial aid policy to ensure that more low-income students can afford to enroll. Under its "Carolina Covenant," qualified needy students are guaranteed a debt-free education if they work 10 to 12 hours weekly on campus.

Princeton University made headlines a few years back by announcing that the Ivy League campus would replace loans with grants for low-income students and reduce debt for the middle class. Other schools have made similar moves.

And still others are taking a hard look at the issue as the income gap on their campuses grows.

In 1990, students in the top one-fifth of family incomes (above $83,000 a year) made up 30.6 percent of in-state freshmen at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, said Steve Van Ess, who directs financial aid services there. Now, it's 38.4 percent. "It's uneven, and it's getting more uneven," he said. "We see it, to some extent, as a problem, something we'd like to change."

Sandy Baum, senior policy analyst with The College Board, said what Mortenson and other researchers have hit on is indeed worrisome. It's reasonable to ask, she said, just what difference does being at a top school make, and who benefits most?

"If you come from an affluent, educated family you are going to have all kinds of opportunities, so where you go to college probably matters less," she said. "But if you come from an environment where you haven't been exposed to extensive opportunities, then the world that gets opened up to you can change your life in a really dramatic way."

SURNAME

Grijalvo, Grijalva, Grijalba y Grijalbo...y Grehalba, Grihalba y Grihalva
y tal vez Brijaldo, Grijaldo, Grisalba, Rijalba y Rijalva

The information below was gathered by Eddie Grijalva.  
For two photos of  the Villa de Grijalva, Spain, click.

Galvez Patriots

Los ascendientes de la casa de Gálvez, muy conocidos ya por su nobleza entre los godos, se distinguieron entre los animosos guerreros de Don Pelayo en las montañas de Asturias y después en las de Sobrarbe, entre los no menos valerosos del invicto García Jiménez. A medida que se fue reconquistando a los moros Galicia, León, Castilla, Aragón, Navarra y otras provincias, fueron extendiéndose los ilustres hijos del linaje de Gálvez, fundando muchas casas solariegas; algunos acompañaron al santo rey Don Fernando a la conquista de Sevilla, en cuya ciudad y en otros puntos de Andalucía, recibieron en premio de sus señalados servicios ricos heredamientos.

Háyanse todavía muchos descendientes de aquellos esclarecidos varones, que sostienen en nuestros días su antigua nobleza e idalguía.  Son las armas de este linaje: Escudo de plata partido en pal; en el 1º un árbol y dos lobos pasantes al pie del tronco; en el 2º, tres veneras de azur

Art from 
The Army of Spain in the New World and the American Revolution
http://www.uniformology.com/S-1.html

Soldados of the Santa Barbara Presidio are very active in community events.
Michael Hardwick at the El Presidio de Santa Barbara State Historic Park 
Northwest Corner Reconstruction Project Dedication

On February 27, we will be doing our annual participation in the Anza in Calabazas event …Format will be "Pedro Alcantara Sepulveda" tells about the building of the Adobe, his family, and then he reminisces about events of 1776 … introducing representatives of Native American culture. Soldados willl be introduced, with the Viceroy of New Spain …. Introduction will include Fray Font and other members of Anza expedition.

I thought you might also like to know that Paragon Press there in Orange has agreed to publish a book that I am writing on Mission La Purisima:

La Purísima A Timeless Vista will be the second in a series on the Missions of California by Paragon Press. La Purísima in two centuries, went from a fledgling frontier mission, to a State Historic Park. Unlike other California Missions, La Purísima reinvented itself after a major setback. Originally founded in 1787, the first mission gre around a quadrangle and maintained influence over more than 1,500 Native American.

The 1812 earthquake, abruptly ended that settlement, and a new mission was built across the Santa Ynez River without a quadrangle. The mission then grew to become the headquarters of the Spanish California misssion system.

La Purísima – A Timeless Vista, is the heart warming story about a mission that refused to perish in the face of radical change.   For more information, contact Michael Hardwick  hardwic2@cox.net

Spain and the Independence of the United States: an Intrinsic Gift by Thomas E. Chavez. Albuquerque, N.M.: University of New Mexico Press, 2002. Includes extensive notes, bibliographical references, and index.

Book review by George E. Gray
Noticias Para Los Californianos, Vol. XXXVI, No. 3, July 2004

This interesting publication documents the important role that Spain played in the conflict of 1776-1783 which had ramifications from India to the Mediterranean and in the Caribbean, and Central and South America and led to the independence of the United States. The book covers the largely Spanish actions repulsing British forces at Natchez, Mobile, Pensacola, and in the Mississippi Basin as far north as Michigan. Besides military actions, it details Spain's strong support of the anti-British forces in the colonies and the Ohio River area with shipments of arms, gun powder, clothes, uniforms, blankets, and funds.

It is true that Spain benefited by the conflict by such results in the New World as the return of the Floridas to Spanish rule and the solidifying of her presence in Central and North and South America. Nevertheless, Spain's help to the rebel colonies of England was of major impact to the success of our revolution. Don Bemardo de Galvez, his father, and his uncle were among those who played key roles in the actions covered in this book.

Several of the individuals involved forecast that the newly created United States would become a threat to Spain's future in the New World. As reported by conde de Aranda in 1783:

The Federal Republic was born a pigmy. As such, it needed the aid and strength of two powerful states like Spain and France to accomplish its independence. The day will come when it will grow up, become a giant and be greatly feared in the Americas. Then it will forget the benefits that it had received from the two powers and only think in its own aggrandizement.

I found the book highly interesting and it answered many of my questions about the world events which led to the almost incidental, and even accidental, formation of our country. 

ORANGE COUNTY, CA

"Es importante para mis electores el entender que el "sueño americano" todavía sigue vivo," puntualizó Correa. 

Louis Correa is surrounded by his wife and four children as he is sworn in by Superior Court Judge, Fredrick P. Horn, on January 3, 2005

SBA programs and services are provided to the public on a nondiscriminatory basis.  Reasonable arrangements for persons with disabilities will be made, if requested at least two weeks in advance.  Contact: 714/550-7420 ext. 3601.  U.S. Small Business Administration Santa Ana District Office, 200 W. Santa Ana Blvd., Suite 700, Santa Ana, CA 92701

Thanks to all of you, we’ve been able to do great things at Swallows’ Day in San Juan Capistrano over the last two years. Our Historical Affairs program is going great guns from Sacramento to San Diego. But, you haven’t seen anything yet! There are brass bands being formed all over the state to play the music of Old Nauvoo - to warm hearts as we teach the history of this great people who came west to……that’s right, California!!!

The time is ripe. The harvest awaits us. Never before has there been so much support for this history that we love. We need to strike while the iron is hot.    Let’s get together and make Swallows’ Day 2005 an event to remember. Let’s make Swallows’ Day 2005 a wonderful day of respect and honor  for those courageous Saints who came here before us, opened roads, bridged cultures to bring peace to the West, and joined people together in the true spirit of community. Our goal is clear; we want to appropriately honor those who should never be forgotten, and thereby join the hearts and minds of the people of our time with those who have gone before us.

This year, we have a special surprise. Our Swallows’ Day Fireside is going "Big Time." On March 18, at 7:30 p.m., we will assemble at the Newport Beach Stake Center for a program  we won’t soon forget. Come hear the big pipe organ accompany the Anaheim Mormon Chorale. Our special guest speakers will be Susan Easton Black, Ph.D. (BYU professor, noted author, and celebrated Battalion historian.), and Elder Val. R. Christensen. This all takes place next door to the new Newport Beach Temple. You do not want to miss this. Let all your Ward members and friends know about this one. All are invited.

The 2005 Swallows’ Day Parade falls on Saturday, March 19, in the city of San Juan Capistrano. We march 158 years, minus one day, from the time the Battalion marched to the Mission San Juan Capistrano. We already have wagons and cannon committed, along with Mormon Battalion re-enactors from all over California, from Sacramento to San Diego. Please mark your calendars now and plan to be with us. Please begin contacting those in your area who should be with us and forward this e-mail to them. Tell everyone to forward their up-dated e-mail addresses to me, in order to be placed on our e-news list. Much more information will be coming.

We invite all who would like to help with this event to contact me for more information. There is no better way to enjoy this event than to be part of it! Don’t miss it!
 Guy Dickson  guy.dickson@smithdickson.com

Hi there, as you may already know, Manuel Esqueda has been selected to receive the Hispanic Influential Lifetime Achievement Award for the United Way of Orange County.  I would like you to join us in this special tribute to a Man of unquestionable integrity, honor and vision.

If you have ever been a recipient of a Scholarship from his organizations or ever been helped by Manuel, this would be a perfect opportunity to honor him and all he has done for our community.

Hispanic Influentials will be held on Friday, February 11 from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. at Hyatt Regency Irvine located at 17900 Jamboree Road, Irvine. The event is $100 per person and $1,000 for a table.  For more information call (949) 263-6176

Also that evening  receiving Community Service awards will be Frank Garcia, Founder, Owner of Casa Garcia Restaurant and Max Madrid, Director of Gang Prevention for Community Service Programs, Inc.  Frank feeds approximately 20,000 homeless each year and gives out free Thanksgiving meals. Max has started gang prevention/youth development programs for troubled communities.

In education, Dr. Kenneth D. Yglesias, Chancellor of Coast Community College District, will be recognized.  As Chancellor, Kenneth has served over 60,000 students each semester and is committed to advocacy for Hispanic students.  He has worked on KinderCaminata, Chicano Latino Conference and the Puente Program.

 Elena Rojas, President and CEO of Protrans, Inc., will be receiving the Business award.    Nominated by her daughter, Elena formed the Federacion Venezolana de Sofbol, a non-profit organization that brings disadvantaged athletes from across Latin America to study in the United States.

CALIFORNIA

The Rancho Los Cerritos Foundation has entered into an agreement with the Long Beach Unified School District to help develop supplemental educational materials for elementary schools. The district received a federal grant to expand history Teaching in grades three through five. Mejghan Maguire, the Rancho's education projects specialist, will work specifically on fourth grade curriculum. Selected teachers will collaborate with us to review and pilot educational outreach kits for classroom use, and to assess lessons and activities for teachers and students. With a grant from the Employees Community Fund of Boeing California, we will upload the new lessons and activities onto the Rancho's website.

In December 1843, John (Don Juan) Temple purchased 27,000-acre Rancho Los Cerritos from the heirs of Manuela Nieto de Cota for $3,000; he threw in an additional $25 for the right to use their cattle brand. Shortly thereafter, in 1844, Indian laborers began construction of a two-story adobe to serve as headquarters for Temple's cattle ranching operations. 160 years later, the adobe is still standing, serving today as a historic site museum interpreting over 2,00 years of California history.

Temple's ranch house was built in the "Monterey Colonial" slyle and contained architectural elements that were both Mexican and American. The layout, three wings in a U-shape enclosed on the fourth side with a high wall to create an inner courtyard, was typical of more affluent Mexican ranch homes. So, too, was the use of adobe as the primary building material. The two and three-foot thick walls were mud plastered and white-washed. Paint fragments hint at a terra cotta wainscoting along the base of stone walls, and turquoise woodwork. Most rooms opened to the outside, and the roof was flat and sealed with hot brea -most likely from the La Brea tarpits in Los Angeles.

The building's two-story central wing, double high verandas and internal staircase were American influences and Temple's choices were apparently inspired by Thomas Larkin's house in Monterey. Thanks to his personal wealth, Temple was also able to install both a wooden floor and double-hung windows with glass panes in the main portion of the house. Doors and veranda columns also included simple Greek Revival details.

The 160-year-old adobe was little changed until 1930, when Uewellyn and Avis Bixby modernized the home for their use. The renovation was timely, for the adobe was in a major state of disrepair and might not have survived the 1933 Long Beach earthquake in its weakened state.

Source: Rancho Review, Fall/Winter 2004  For updates: http://www.rancholoscerritos.org

Abstract of article, The Founders of Santa Barbara, Who They Were and Whence They Came written by Mary Triplett Ayers, first published in the Summer 2003 issue of La Campana, the quarterly journal of the Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation. http://www.sbthp.org.  The complete article is now available online at the California State Military Museum website  http://www.militarymuseum.org/SBFounding.html
Sent by Johanna De Soto

"I used to think that just as all the pobladores of the Pueblo of Los Angeles came with the Rivera Expedition, so did the entire Company for the founding garrison of the Santa Barbara Presidio. This is not true. Five of the officers and seven of the soldiers on the July 1, 1782 list for the garrison of the Santa Barbara Presidio came in 1769 with Portola. They were: Teniente Jose Francisco Ortega, Sargento Pablo Antonio Cota, Sargento Ignacio Olivera, Cabo Jose Maria Ortega, son of the Lieutenant, Cabo Alejandro Sotomayor, and soldiers Luis Lugo, Ignacio Olivera, Ignacio Maria Ortega son of the lieutenant, Luis Pena, Martin Reyes, Alejo Ruiz, and Francisco Maria Ruiz.

There was one officer recruited by Rivera in 1781. He was Alferez Jose Dario Arguello. Thirty-nine soldiers of the July 1, 1782 list came with Rivera in 1781. They were: Jose Carmen Arana, Francisco Calvo, Ildefonso Dominguez, Anastacio Maria Feliz, Victorino Feliz, Rosalino Ferndndez, Felipe Gonzales and his sons Jose Gonzales and Tomas Gonzales, Julian Guerrero, Justo Herndndez, Agustin Leyva, Jose Lobo, Ignacio Lugo, Juan Ignacio Martinez, Francisco Xavier Mejia, Juan Andres Montiel, Juan Olivas, Jose Ontiveros, Manuel Orchaga, Jose Parra, Victorino Patino, Jose Polanco, Vicente Quijada, Ignacio Rodriguez, Joaquin Rodriguez, Jose Esteban Romero, Efigenio Ruiz, Fructuoso Ruiz, Loreto Salazar, Jose Maria Samaniego, Guillermo Soto, Eugenio Vdldez, Melecio Valdez, Juan Ignacio Valencia, Jose Manuel Valenzuela, Jose Velarde, and Jose Villa.

I cannot find out when Sargento Hermengildo Sal came to Santa Barbara. He was born in Valdemora, Toledo, Spain. He appears in the Monterey records as early as 1775 and later at San Francisco. I haven't found his name in the early Santa Barbara records.

Most of these people came from Sonora and Sinaloa, about fourteen from Sonora and thirty-one from Sinaloa. The town that furnished the most soldiers for the new Presidio of Santa Barbara was the Villa de Sinaloa, Sinaloa. Eleven came from there: Ildefonso Dominguez, Felipe Gonzales, Jose Gonzales, Martin Reyes, Joaquin Higuera, Jose Lobo, Francisco Lugo, Ignacio Lugo, Francisco Xavier Mejia, Manuel Orchaga, and Jose Manuel Valenzuela.

Ten soldiers were recruited at Real de los Alamos, and many of them were born there: Anastacio Maria Feliz, Juan Ignacio Martinez, Juan Andres Montiel, Victorino Patino, Vicente Quijada, Joaquin Rodriguez, Loreto Salazar, Jose Maria Samaniego, Eugenio Valdez (born at Villa del Fuerte, Sinaloa), Ignacio Rodriguez, and the expelled poblador, Luis Quintero was recruited there.

Seven were from the Villa del Fuerte, Sinaloa: Rosalino Ferndndez, Efigenio Ruiz, Fructuoso Ruiz, Melecio Valdez, Alejo Ruiz, Eugenio Valdez and Cabo Alejandro Sotomayor. (Alejo, Alejandro, and Alex Sotomayor or Soto are one and the same person.)

Four were from Real de Cosald, Sinaloa: Guillermo Soto, Jose Carmen Arana, Francisco Calvo, and Victorino Feliz.

Four were from Loreto, Baja California: Sargento Pablo Antonio Cota, Cabo Jose Maria Ortega, Mariano Cota, and Francisco Maria Ruiz.

Two were from Real del Rosario, Sinaloa: Tomas Gonzales and Juan Olivas.

Two were from San Jose del Cabo, Baja California: Sargento Ignacio Olivera and Luis Pena.

Three came from Spain: Sargento Hermengildo Sal from Valdemoro, Toledo, and Francisco Paula Garcia from Puerto Real Obispado de Cadiz, Andalucia.

The expelled poblador, Josef Fernando de Velasco y Lara, was a native of the Port of Cadiz, Andalucia.

Teniente Jose Francisco Ortega was born in Celaya, Guanajuato. He enlisted in Loreto, and his sons were born there.

Alferez Jose Dario Arguello was born in Queretaro; Luis Lugo in Palo Blanco, Jurisdiction of Culiacdn, Sinaloa; Jose Miguel Flores in Juchipila, Zacatecas; Jose Velarde on the Piaxtla River, Sinaloa; Ignacio Olivera in San Antonio, Baja California; Jose Esteban Romero in Real de San Antonio de la Huerta, Sonora; Agustin Leyva in Tepic, Nayarit; Juan Ignacio Valencia in Real Presidio de Santa Rosa Corodeguachi, Sonora; Jose Ontiveros in Chametla, Sinaloa; Justo Hernandez in Culiacdn, Sinaloa; Jose Parra in Amatldn de las Canas, Nayarit; Jose Villa in Horcasitas, Sonora; Julidn Guerrero in Pueblo del Nombre de Dios; Jose Polanco in Cocula near Guadalajara, Jalisco; and Ignacio Maria Ortega in Real de Santa Ana, Baja California.

I would like to thank Trust Board Member Paul C. Mills for encouraging me to write this.

Extraction by Karla Everett  EverettKA@bak.rr.com
CA-SPANISH-L@rootsweb.com

One of the last survivors of the old rancho life of Southern California, Mrs. Erolinda Cota Yorba, 80 years of age, the daughter of Francisco and Martina Cota, once owners of the great La Ballona rancho, which once covered the territory now occupied by Culver City, died yesterday at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Martina L. Pelanconi, of Hollywood.

Born in the adobe home of Augustine Machado, which once stood at Fifth and Main streets, Mrs. Yorba during her life saw the transition of Los Angeles from a small pueblo to a metropolitan city.  Her marriage to Vincente, son of Bernardo Yorba, whom she survived by twenty years, was an event in the early days of the city.  The ceremony was performed at the home on the La Ballona rancho and was followed by a fiesta, which drew celebrants from all the old California families.

With her husband Mrs. Yorba lived for many years on the Yorba ranch in Orange county and when the town of Yorba was built aided in the construction of the small adobe church for the new town.  Later, when the church proved too small, Mrs. Yorba was active in support of the new structure.

In addition to Mrs. Pelanconi, Mrs. Yorba leaves two sons, Bernardo of Anaheim and Vincente of Santa Ana Canyon, and three other daughters, Mrs.Hortense M. Palomares and Mrs. Mary L. Vejar, both of Pomona, and Mrs.George Wentz of Hollywood.

The funeral rites will be conducted in the Yorba church at 10 a.m. Monday, with burial in the Yorba family cemetery near the church.

NORTHWESTERN UNITED STATES

AMME, April 3rd-6th
MGM Conference Center Las Vegas, Nevada
www.mexicanosenelexterior.com
Sent by Carlos Villanueva carlos@amme.us

The Convention an Expo will have delegates, companies, and participants from 788 organizations nation wide, as well as US and Mexico dignitaries, Mexico Governors, states business delegations, American Corporations. In this event we have sponsorships opportunities that allow you company consolidate or grow your business into the largest Latino market in US.   If you have any questions don’t hesitate to call us.

Regards, Asociacion Mundial de Mexicanos en el Exterior (AMME)
Worldwide Association of Mexicans Abroad
468 N. Camden Dr. Suite 201
Beverly Hills CA 91016
http://www.amme.us
http://www.mexicanosenelexterior.com

SOUTHWESTERN UNITED STATES

Our adventure began the next morning when we set out, on foot, to discover the central downtown area. As we walked down the main street, across from the Cathedral, I noticed an outdoor sign for the office of the city recorder, and we entered. We approached the young woman sitting at the front desk, and I, in my modest grasp of the Spanish language, told her that we were looking for information on the Terrazas family. She promptly arose, and excused herself, in order to retrieve her supervisor, Sr. Ruben Beltran Acosta. Sr. Acosta turned out to be a treasure trove of information, and he was genuinely pleased that we had come into his office. Sr. Acosta is known as the cronista, that individual who holds the colorful stories and history of his/her town.

Sr. Acosta devoted a great deal of time, and much paper, informing us of sites we should visit, and of immediate relatives that we might call upon. Each time that he wanted to record new information, he reached over and grabbed a fresh sheet of white bond paper, and began either written information, or a rough drawing of a monument. We came away with a wonderful collection of hand written notes and rough drawings, which became the launching tools for this new adventure.

· Mausoleo de los Chihuahuenses Ilustres 

· El Centro Cultural de Chihuahua : 

Somos primos, has never meant more 
to me  than the present!

Saludos,  Michael Connolly Terrazas
Edmonds, Washington, USA
Email: connollyg@comcast.net 

UTEP Projects Preserve 
 bracero  history
by 
Tammy Fonce-Olivas, El Paso Times, 
January 14, 2005
Sent by Roberto Camp mexicomarketing@yahoo.com

Courtesy of the 
University of Texas at El Paso Oral History Institute 
Braceros lined up to receive their lunch at the Santa Fe Bridge in this photo taken decades ago.
 

Victor Calzada / El Paso Times 

While the institute works to complete its bracero project, a UTEP professor is making a documentary on braceros. The documentary will be based on research conducted by the institute and by Professor Patrick Mullins, a senior lecturer in UTEP's Department of Communication.

Mullins, also the project director for the documentary, said he sought grant funding for a documentary on a braceros because of his love for documentaries and because he thinks it is relevant to recent discussions President Bush has sparked about guest-worker programs.

"By revisiting experiences of some of these men who have gone through a program like that, we might be able to get some good insight into what is good about these programs and what can be improved," Mullins said.

Violeta Dominguez Lopez, a UT Austin graduate, conducted the first video interviews for the documentary last month in Mexico City. Mullins said UTEP students will also assist in producing the documentary, which he expects will be completed by the end of the year. Mullins said his goal would be to have the documentary distributed as a home video and education video and broadcast on public television.

Navarro said she wants to preserve the experiences of the braceros because their contributions to the agricultural industry makes them a significant part of the nation's history. "It is important that we document their stories because most people don't realize the impact that this program had, not only locally, but nationally. It was a great economic program," Navarro said.

The bracero program was established in the early 1940s through bilateral agreements between the United States and Mexico as an emergency measure to cope with the labor shortage the United States was having because of World War II. The program continued uninterrupted until 1964. It is estimated that almost 5 million Mexican immigrants worked as braceros from 1942 to 1964.

De Santiago, now 88, said he worked as a bracero for five years. He did not recall the year he began working as a bracero but said it was in the late '50s.

A family member signed him up for the program. At first he didn't want to be a bracero, but he took the job anyway."I remember back then 10 to 15 men would sign up for the program, but they wouldn't last long and would be back in Mexico in about six months."I thought it was wrong, so I did it to prove to them that I could handle the work. And I did it. I worked as a farm worker for five years," De Santiago said.

His experience as a farm worker was pleasant, particularly because his bosses encouraged him to become a legal U.S. resident and helped him with the paperwork.  "They told me because my wife was born in Long Beach, California, it would be easy for me to establish residency," De Santiago said.  "They were good to me. I was happy working for them. But don't think that all the bosses were the same and treated their people well. For some men it was a sad and tough experience."

De Santiago said that despite the hardships many braceros faced, he remains supportive of worker programs. "When people are in the United States legally, it is easier for them to obtain employment. The other way, they risk so much, and nothing is secure, especially not where they are going to work," he said.

UTEP Professor Patrick Mullins wants to hear from people who are involved in or have information about the bracero program and are interested in the documentary he is producing.  Call: 747-7690 
Tammy Fonce-Olivas may be reached at fonce@elpaostimes.com   546-6362.

Discussion Notes for EUROPEAN EXPLORATION OF THE AMERICAS
From the book EPIC of the Greater Southwest by Rubén Sálaz Márquez 

Note # 2, pages 14-15

A steady tenet of American historiography is that anyone now speaking English, no matter what nationality/ethnicity, is referred to as an "Anglo" if being written about in English and pertaining to the USA. Use of the ethnic label "Anglo" or "Anglo American" must be understood when studying Southwest history.

People who speak languages that evolved out of Latin are described as "Latins." English, Norwegian, Icelandic, Swedish, Dutch, Afrikaans, Flemish, etc., developed out of German and are referred to as "Germanic languages" so why aren't the people referred to as "Germanic"? The preferred label is Anglo, which supposedly connects someone to the (Germanic) tribe of Angles who entered England around the 5^th century. When studying Southwest history one is certain to run across the phrase "Anglo-American" applied to all kinds of people, whether German, Irish, Italian, French, Czech, Latvian, Lithuanian, etc. Is this merely a device to establish a "majority/ minority" system? The implication that whole groups of immigrants, most of whom have Ellis Island as a heritage, are descended from the Germanic tribe of Angles who settled in England in the 5^th century A.D., is ludicrous. The Angles were just one of the many Germanic groups who settled northern Europe. Saxons from Germany also went into England. Celts, Visigoths, Ostrogoths, Vandals, Suevi, etc., are just a few of other examples of Germanic groups who are ignored by using "Anglo" as if it was the only acceptable Germanic tribe. Is it anti-German prejudice that doesn't permit American writers to use "Germanic" to describe themselves or other people from northern Europe? The "Anglo" connection to England is made even more tenuous when we observe that the people of England refer to themselves as "Brits," not Anglos.

Why don't we see "Hispano-Portuguese" or "Franco-Italian"? The Orwellian (from George Orwell who wrote the "classics" Animal Farm and 1984 in which the use of language is recognized • as powerful as any weapon of mass destruction; Orwell structures, referred to as "Doublespeak" and "Doublethink," are "employed to make lies sound truthful and can give wind the appearance of something solid") and psychology aren't applied to paladins from other countries. Further, English language writers generally point out that heroes like Ferdinand Magellan was really Fernao Magalhaes, a Portuguese who merely happened to be sailing for Spain. Likewise, Jehan de Varrasanne, a Florentine by birth who sailed under the French flag, is written about as Giovanni de Verrazano, while Giovanni Caboto, an Italian who sailed for England, is promoted John Cabot.

It must be pointed out, especially when dealing with the Hispanic Southwest, that the 'Anglo American" caricature is an Orwellian device intended to imply a connection with England, which is basically fantasy, as well as a sense of "We're the superior majority" racism.

The preceding points aren't intended as mere polemics. These perspectives should be discussed in an open, tolerant manner because they are as basic as they are crucial to understanding Southwest History.

Cecilia's Year

Loretto Academy of El Paso 

The Loretto Academy of El Paso web site includes a brief history of the school and the names of all their graduates.  In many cases this includes the married names.  Photos and years: 1923-2001 http://www.student.loretto.org/loretto75/
Sent by Alicia DeN. Thornton  ADeNood@attglobal.net

BLACK

ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS

Afro-Mexican Racial and Ethnic Self-Identity:
Three Generations of the Thornton Family in Nogales, Arizona

by Alva Moore Stevenson
Master of Arts in African American Studies
University of California, Los Angeles, 2004
Professor Juan Gomez-Quinones, Chair

A website of interest is AfroMexico http://www.afromexico.org  by Mexican filmmaker Rafael Rebollar. His works in include "De Florida a Coahuila" and "La Raiz Olvidada". The first focuses on the history of the Black Seminoles who fled to Mexico and whose descendants live on both sides of the border today. The second focuses on Blacks in Mexico.

Last Saturday while working at the Locale Genealogical Societies Ancestral Road Show. I was given something priceless that the locale public library was going to throw away. This priceless gem was a binder of "Servant Records" These records contain names and dates of servants that worked for a particular family in South Carolina on their plantation. It has markings for baptisms indicating two different churches. It also shows Names of both parents on most, some only have the name of the mother, but in general it list both parents.

It also has the ones who were sold underlined. in the back it list 92 deaths with the ages starting from 1837. There are individuals listed in this list that were born in the late 1700s.  I plan to make this information available for free to all in the next month or so on rootsweb. By the way I have been searching on various sites to see if someone else had already put the information out there. I have not found it yet!

Cindy Hofmeister  hofsearch@aol.com

SEPHARDIC

The display above is one of the many that were mounted by Gloria Golden, author of the book, Remnants of Crypto-Jews Among Hispanic Americans.  

Remnants of Crypto-Jews Among Hispanic Americans, 2005 
by Gloria Golden  
Floricanto Press, Mountain View, CA 94041 2005
415-552-1879  http://www.floricantopress.com
     

" I realized that I had a Jewish connection after being a part of my cousin's Jewish wedding. I then began to question an actual heritage after reading a book written by an Orthodox Rabbi. I discovered traditions and customs that paralleled Jewish tradition.  At this point, I began to ask my grandmother and mother questions regarding the origins of these parallel traditions.

Maria Emilia Martinez

"My grandmother lit candles on Friday nights. She told me that it was a Catholic tradition. Yet, she also prepared kosher dishes, and my grandfather followed kashrut practices in butchering the cows and chickens on their farm. They covered mirrors when someone passed away and placed stones on the graves of family members. Many families in the Pecos, New Mexico, area also had mourning practices similar to Jewish tradition.

"Also, my grandmother made sure that she cooked on Friday so that she rested on Saturday. I feel a deep connection to Judaism. I now know that I am Jewish. I feel that God has revealed to me my true identity. My mother recently visited Spain, and a historian told her that our family from the Valencia province is indeed Jewish. I am becoming more whole as I study and practice Jewish traditions. Hopefully, I will make my bat mitzvah. This would probably be the first in my lineage. I also hope that my son will someday bar mitzvah. He is only two and a half. Yet he is fully aware that we celebrate Shabbat. I will bring him up teaching him that he is a Sephardic Jew. "   Pages 166-167

For more information on the topic of Anusim and the Crypto Jew you might want to subscribe to the Yahoo forums: anusim@yahoogroups.com and SephardicForum@yahoogroupscom
Sent by Michah'el Ben-Yehudah  olingergallegos@msn.com  (aka Michael Luis Gallegos)

Maria Steiglitz "New Mexico’s Secret Jews: Anna Rael Delay and Family." 
Lilith 16 (Summer 1991) 8-10, 12. Zerubavel, Yael and Esses, Dianne. ...
http:// www.brandeis.edu/projects/fse/ judaism/juda-bib/juda-bib-africanjwomen.html

Crypto-Judaism in America
Today more and more of the descendants of these Crypto-Jews are rediscovering their Jewish heritage. Some, like Anna Rael Delay, reconverted back to Judaism. http://www.betmidrashyeshua.org/Crypto.htm   

TEXAS 

Head of the Class
24-year old design prodigy Victor Cornejo brings Stetson hats back into the ring
by Claudia Kolker
Photographed by Alyson Aliano
Los Angeles Times Magazine, January 13, 2002

9:00 a.m. Welcome and Introduction
"The Production Possibilities of the Economy of the Lower Rio Grande Valley in the 1790's as reported by Felix Calleja"*  (*South Texas Historical Assn) Miguel Bedolla, Pontifical University Regina Apostolorum in Rome and UT Health Science Center at San Antonio, 

10:00 a.m. "Who Was Felix Longoria and Should We Care? How NAFTA Has Changed Mexican and American History"  Douglas Monroy, Organization of American Historians Distinguished Lecturer; Ray Allen Billington, Visiting Professor at Occidental College and the Huntington Library

11:00 a.m. "The Changing Face of Ranching in South Texas"*
Wayne Hanselka, Texas A&M University

1:30 p.m. "John Wesley Hardin, the Taylors, the Suttons: A Feud?"*
James Smallwood, Emeritus Professor of History at Oklahoma State University

2:30 p.m. "When the Boys of Summer Still Wore Flannel: The History and Success of the San Antonio Missions Baseball Team"
Rebecca Ramsey, Graduate Paper Award Winner, Texas State University-San Marcos  

7:00 p.m. Kathryn Stoner O'Connor Lecture on South Texas  "The Life and Times of Carlos Truan"
Ward Albro, Professor Emeritus of History at Texas A&M-Kingsville

Saturday, February 5, 2005  
10:00 a.m. "Audubon in Texas"  Ron Tyler, University of Texas 
11:00 a.m.  "What, No Beer?: Pearl Brewery & Building of San Antonio" Char Miller, Trinity Univ 
12:00 p.m. Luncheon in the Student Center: "Interpreting the Buckeye Knoll Site, Victoria County: The Significance of Recently Completed Analyses" Bob Ricklis, Dir., Coastal Environments, Inc. 

The Victoria College, Division of Social and Behavioral Sciences
2200 East Red River, Victoria, Texas 77901  361-582-2530
For more information:  sandra.drozd@victoriacollege.edu

Premediated: Meditations on Capital Punishment
Exhibition On Display:  January 5 - 30, 2005  
Artist Reception and Talk by Malaquias Montoya:  January 14, 2005, 6:00 - 8:00 PM
Julia C. Butridge Gallery, Dougherty Arts Center, 1110 Barton Springs Road, Austin, Texas
Sent by Elvira Prieto vira@mail.utexas.edu

[[ Editor: Although I received this information too late for inclusion in January issue, I thought I would share it in terms of the activities of the Center for Mexican American Studies, University of Texas at Austin.]]

Capital Punishment Exhibit by Malaquias Montoya,
Doin' Time: Through the Visiting Glass by Ashley Lucas,
and Death Penalty Panel Discussion: Life, Rights, & the State 

(Austin, Texas) In the United States, more than 80% of all state-sanctioned murders since 1976 have been committed in one region, the South, with Texas leading both the region and nation with 329 executions including 16 just this year alone.  This cultural practice has boundless numbers of critics and none could be more meditative than Malaquias Montoya, a world-renowned artist and leading figure in the West Coast political graphic arts movement.  Montoya's latest exhibit titled PreMeditated: Meditations on Capital Punishment consists of 23 thought-provoking works and will be on display January 5 - 30, 2005 at the Dougherty Arts Center, 1110 Barton Springs Road, Austin, Texas.  This exhibit is sponsored by The Center for Mexican American Studies at The University of Texas at Austin and will include an artist reception and talk by Malaquias Montoya on Friday January 14, 2005 to kick off a week of events and speakers on capital punishment.

Artist Biography: Malaquias Montoya was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico and raised in the San Joaquin Valley, California. He was raised in a family of seven children by parents who could not read or write either Spanish or English. The three oldest children never went beyond 7th grade education, as the entire family had to work as farm workers for their survival. His father and mother were divorced when he was 10 and his mother continued to work in the fields to support the four children still remaining at home so they could pursue their education.

Since 1968, Montoya has lectured and taught at numerous universities and colleges in the San Francisco Bay area including Stanford and the University of California, Berkeley. He was a Professor at the California College of Arts and Crafts for 12 years, 5 of which he was Chair of the Ethnic Studies Department. As Director of the Taller de Artes Graficas in Oakland for 5 years, he produced various prints and conducted many community art workshops. Montoya, a visiting Professor in the Art Department at the University of Notre Dame in 2000, continues as a Visiting Fellow for the Institute for Latino Studies also in Notre Dame, Indiana.

Montoya has been a Professor at the University of California, Davis since 1989. His classes, through the departments of Chicana/o Studies and Art include silk screening, poster making, mural painting, and a focus on Chicano culture and history. Montoya's work includes acrylic paintings, murals, washes, and drawings but he is primarily known for his silkscreen prints which have been exhibited nationally as well as internationally. He is credited by historians as one of the founders of the "social serigraphy" movement in the San Francisco Bay Area in the mid-1960's. His visual expressions, art of protest, depict the struggle and strength of humanity and the necessity to unite behind that struggle. Montoya now resides in Elmira, California.

Elvira Prieto, Academic Advisor
Center for Mexican American Studies
University of Texas at Austin
1 University Station F9200
Austin, TX  78712  
Phone: (512) 471-2134  Fax: (512) 471-9639
http://www.utexas.edu/depts/cmas

Legislation inspired by border film
by Elizabeth Pierson, Monitor Staff Writer epierson@link.freedom.com
The McAllen Monitor, Monday, January 10, 2005, 1A
Sent by George Gause  ggause@panam.edu

AUSTIN — One Texas legislator filed a bill that could bring public recognition to the seedy side of the Texas Rangers, who historians say killed and terrorized thousands of Tejanos.

Rep. Aaron Peña, D-Edinburg, Thursday filed House Bill 317, which would designate Cinco de Mayo, or May 5, as Tejano Heritage Day. The day would commemorate the history of Tejanos and the contributions they have made to history in Texas and the world. He is working with historians and families of the victims to develop some type of memorial, he said last week.

The recent interest by legislators was spurred largely by the 2004 film, Border Bandits, which depicted the 1915 story of two well-respected Tejano landowners who were shot in their backs near the McAllen Ranch in Hidalgo County by Texas Rangers after Mexicans came to raid the ranch.

Their assailant, Bill Sterling, has a historical marker at his grave in Corpus Christi, but the victims, Jesus Bazan, 67, and his son-in-law, Antonio Longoria, have ordinary roadside graves on Farm-to-Market Road 1017 in northern Hidalgo County.

But Peña will stop short of introducing the bill to require that Texas children learn — in their state history classes — about the questionable activities of the Texas Rangers, which may have omitted events that happened in his district in 1915, he said. Another lawmaker, Rep. Roberto Alonzo, D-Dallas, was considering legislation, according to the filmmaker. Alonzo did not return calls seeking comment.

Changing curricula to reflect what many historians know to be true would be politically difficult considering the lore, he said.  The influence of the McAllen family in Hidalgo County history and politics did not affect his decision not to push for a curriculum change, he said.

He said he wants to take steps to recognize the history without risking losing support for the bill in a state where Texas Rangers are respected in the history books for their bravery.  "Where the middle ground is where we have to find, because this is not a bunch of South Texans getting together to decide what happened," Peña said. "These are people who have a vision of Texas as being glorified and pure."

Peña is also exploring the possibility of working to have a highway named in honor of Tejano heritage.  He would not say where that highway is, saying the discussions are preliminary.  The issue is near to Peña, who has studied it since seeing the film last fall in Harlingen. After the screening, grandchildren of each of the two men killed said they want recognition of the deaths.

A New York Times reporter was also in the audience, and Peña’s office later was flooded with e-mails from all over the country from people who said they knew of relatives killed by the Texas Rangers, Peña said.

The Texas Department of Public Safety, which includes the Texas Rangers, said the history has nothing to do with the Rangers of today. Tom Vinger, spokesman for DPS, said he had not seen the movie, but was familiar with the story it tells. "That was a historical event that took place before the Rangers were part of DPS, so it doesn’t have any relation to the modern Rangers," he said.  The Texas Rangers merged with the highway department in 1935, Vinger said.

Dallas filmmaker Kirby Warnock created Border Bandits based on a story told to him by his grandfather, who had been a 19-year-old cowboy working on the Guadalupe Ranch, near present-day Edinburg.  His grandfather, Roland Warnock, witnessed the Rangers from Company D shoot the two unarmed men in the back, according to the film.

The Rangers said they were seeking justice for an earlier raid by Mexicans on the McAllen Ranch, but the men killed were Valley landowners and American citizens.  One was a postmaster and another a respected 67-yearold, Warnock said.

Warnock first recorded his grandfather’s story in 1973 when he was a senior history major at Baylor University taking a course in oral history. He held on to the recordings and later spent five years researching the story to back up his grandfather’s account with facts.

The screening in September at the Cine Sol film festival in the Valley, along with other screenings around Texas, has received strong responses from audiences who were either shocked that their history books misled them or glad to have attention paid to their ancestors’ stories, he said.

"The Anglo people in the audience, they’re just dumbfounded, but the Hispanics, they are both angry and relieved," he said. "They’re angry it’s taken so long to tell the story, and relieved that someone is finally telling it."

Warnock said he’s not out to dispel the contributions of the Texas Rangers, but rather to tell his grandfather’s story.   "I’m not some crusading liberal," he said. "I own a Suburban, seven guns, I drink beer, and I go hunting, so please don’t call me the Michael Moore of Texas, because I’m not."

Since the release of the film, Warnock has had at least 70 calls from families, many in the Valley, saying the Texas Rangers killed their relatives, he said.  

Rudolfo Rocha, professor of history and the dean of the College of Arts and Humanities at the University of Texas-Pan American, appeared in the film, and has studied Texas Rangers and Tejanos for 20 years.   In his research, Rocha has documented 3,000 Tejanos killed by the Texas Rangers. Other historians estimate the number was twice as much, he said.   He was asked by Peña to be part of an advisory team to decide what type of memorial or grave marker should be erected for the two men who were killed.

Like Peña, Rocha wants recognition of the event to serve as an important reminder of an ugly chapter in history, not to nullify the positive accomplishments of the Texas Rangers or change history.

"We should have some sort of a memorial to them as a symbol, not just to those two individuals, but symbolic of what happened to way over 3,000 Mexican-Americans," he said.   With Hispanics set to eventually become a majority in Texas, the time is right to tell their story, Rocha said.

"In this country, when we think of racism, or segregation or integration, people probably think of black and white," he said.     "However, in Texas, it really hasn’t been black and white, it’s been brown and white, so it’s time that we recognize that." 

The film is scheduled to play again on at 4 p.m. Jan. 29 at the Border Theater in Mission, Warnock said. For more information, visit Warnocks’ Web site at http://www.bigbendquarterly.com.
Elizabeth Pierson covers the state capital for Valley Freedom Newspapers. She is based in Austin and can be reached at (512) 323-0622.

Texas General Land Office:  Archives and Records, Texas Land Office
http://wwwdb.glo.state.tx.us/central/LandGrants/LandGrantsSearch.cfm?sa=z
Land Grant Search  The database currently has 449,097 records.

Calling it an important "untold Texas story," local officials Monday unveiled plans to hold the first international conference on the newly designated El Camino Real de los Tejas National Trail in Cameron this spring.  "This is older than the Old San Antonio Road," said Robertson County historian Robert Hicks. He said the trail, which earned national status last month, has been in use since the very early 1600s. 

"El Camino Real de los Tejas Symposium/ Conference: A Texas, Louisiana, Mexico Legacy" is a two-day event that will begin Friday, April 22 in Rockdale with a tourism workshop sponsored by five state agencies.

Cameron's 850-seat arts center will host the symposium/conference Saturday, April 23. The focus of the conference will be the important and significant history of the Trails and the shared legacy between Texas, Louisiana, and Mexico. The contributions of Spain and France will also figure prominently in the discussions led by noted historians.

Sanchez: 'Mexican-American' is only a small piece of who I am

Mary Sanchez, KANSAS CITY STAR
Sent by Dick Trzaskoma  TexasTrz@aol.com

Tuesday, January 04, 2005, A new year, and I brace for disgruntled, disagreeing readers. Informed debate is welcomed. The difficult reader replies are opinions based on assumptions. About who is legal, and who is not. About immigrant loyalties; their reasons for being in the United States. So here. A tweaked edition of a column I wrote several years ago, after my father's death. He was an immigrant from Mexico. I was prickly that day. Still grieving, no doubt. 

But a good beginning to 2005 would be dispelling common misinterpretations about immigrants: Sometimes the comments are in phone messages, left late at night when the caller is sure no one will answer. Some arrive in curse-laced e-mail. Others are written into letters with no return address. "You people are ruining this country." " I'm tired of pushing 'one' for English when I call the bank. This is my country, not yours." "Go back to Mexico." "Why must you people use the term Mexican-American?" 

The hyphen is a grammar mark, not a subtraction sign. The label "Mexican-American" does not leave any less room for simply being American. Besides, acceptance of the term Mexican-American is not political ideology. It is about family, a label of the soul. 

One e-mailer said: "I consider myself an American first and foremost. I don't find it necessary to hyphenate anything about myself or my great country. "Exactly. I suspect the writer is generations removed from his immigrant ancestors. Perhaps he has forgotten or never knew his great-greats sang songs in different languages, songs that didn't talk about of "purple mountain majesties."  

I am the daughter of an immigrant, although my father, born in Mexico, would never have used that term for himself. My father was an American first and foremost, as am I.   I think the Mexican flag is beautiful, with its soaring eagle. But I do not salute it.  When I hear comments about people speaking Spanish, I think of my grandmother, who never learned much English. Was she grateful for America? Yes. 

It was the country that gave her, a single woman with a child, refuge after the Mexican Revolution. And yet, she encouraged my father to move out of their Mexican-American neighborhood, not to isolate himself.  I suspect she knew that every slur uttered, every joke about "wetbacks" and "bean-eaters," must go somewhere. Sometimes it crystallizes on a person as a veneer of victim-hood.  Sometimes it is poured, drink by drink, into a glass. Sometimes it is slapped out, abuse taken out on a wife or on a child. Sometimes people become bitter of their own reflection, confusing what others say about them — dropout, drug seller, gang member — with the image that God intended.  

Some people work themselves to death, doing anything to disprove the image of the lazy Mexican. Others forget their Spanish, forbid their children from learning it and move away from neighborhoods and customs that might associate them with "those people." This is why it was easier for my father to be "American," to only speak English, and rarely mention that he was born elsewhere. And yet, at the end of his life, Mexico came roaring back.  

My father died in August 2002. He was 85. Daily, it seemed, he slipped further from this world. Doctors would say he had a series of small strokes. I think he was just ready to leave.  In his last few days on earth, my father's words came in Spanish, not English. A psychologist friend says this is common. The mind is many layered, like an onion. As the body leaves this life and readies for the next, the layers peel away.  Spanish was at my father's core. 

And so my last words to him were in Spanish. "Go home to your mother," I told him. "Go meet the father you never knew. Play with that little dog you had as a child, the one you called Pinto. Go visit Mexico in the next life. You will see its beauty." Mexican-American is a sliver of who I am. But it is the piece that connects me to my father. So whatever hateful or negative images the term conjures for some don't concern me.  For me, Mexico reaffirms love for my father.  Sanchez is an opinion-page columnist for The Kansas City Star.

(Partial research for this articles  was done at The University of Texas-Pan American Library / Special Collections.  The link was sent by George Gause  ggause@utpa.edu librarian for the Collection. The article was in 5 parts

GOLIAD - What began as a dissertation 15 years ago has become an award-winning book for Ana Carolina Castillo Crimm, doctor of Latin American history and a professor at Sam Houston State University.

The Mexico native's "De Leon, A Tejano Family History" was selected by the Sons of the Republic of Texas for its LaBahia Award, which was presented Dec. 4 at the chapel of Our Lady of Loreto at Presidio La Bahia. The prestigious award is presented annually for a book written about Spanish or Mexican Texas.

Crimm, whose descendants were once ranchers in Refugio County, was inspired to research the book while pursuing her doctorate at the University of Texas in Austin about 15 years ago.

"It began as a dissertation under Nettie Lee Benson at the University of Texas. I was her last doctoral student, and she had begun taking an interest in Mexican Texas," Crimm said. "She was the one who inspired me to start looking at the Mexicans in Texas."

So many books at that time were written from the Anglo point of view, Crimm said. They portrayed Mexican Texans as having lost their land and going to work for Anglos, she said. She was told she would find little documentation about Tejanos because, it was believed, they did not write diaries or leave other documentation.

"I found that was not true, that there was a tremendous amount of documentation in court cases, in documents that dealt with land laws and in testimony in other cases, material on wills and tax rolls," Crimm said.  Crimm finished her dissertation in 1992 and began trying to turn it into a book. After several re-writes, other authors and friends told her to keep working.

"It was boring as all get out. It was a numerical nightmare," she said. Finally, she pitched her documentation into the footnotes and told the story of the De Leon family as a narrative history.

"The point of narrative history is to use the documentation you have to extrapolate, to figure out why these people are doing what they're doing," Crimm said of her book, which traces the ancestors and descendants of Victoria's founder, Martin De Leon, from 1780 to 1880.

The family is fascinating, Crimm said, because of the choices it faced, both during the Mexican Revolution and during the Texas Revolution. De Leon married above his station to Patricia DeLaGarza, a wealthy woman.

"She married down, out of her station and supported him in everything he did to become very effective in the founding of the colony of Victoria," Crimm said. De Leon stayed out of the Mexican Revolution by staying on his ranch. After his death, some of children sided with the Anglos during the Texas Revolution, but two others took no sides.

Crimm said her narrative shows how the family stuck together, even during the 10 years they left Texas for Louisiana where they remained until Texas joined the United States and became more stable again.

When they returned to Texas, most of their land had been stolen, and the family fought to get it back. The American courts did provide them with justice, Crimm said. Many Mexicans did not lose their land as Anglo histories have portrayed, she said. Instead, they divided it among their children over the years. Eventually, some of the smaller portions were sold off, she said.

While working to write the narrative, Crimm stumbled upon her own family history. After moving to Texas, she learned that the Castillo family had been here before. Her great-great grandfather had been a soldier in Monterrey, Mexico, and was sent to LaBahia in Goliad in 1792 as punishment. The family joined him and obtained a land grant in Refugio. The Castillos were ranchers there for 100 years until they got in trouble with their neighbors, the Welders. Crimm's grandfather shot Tom Welder, and the family was forced to flee to Mexico, she said.  "I learned all this while I was working on 'De Leon' about eight years ago," she said.

The book is 300 pages and was published in February by the University of Texas Press. It can be purchased through UT Press' Web site or Amazon.com. You can view the entire article at http://thevictoriaadvocate.com/county_by_county/goliad/story/2448361p-2835297c.html

EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI

Military Artifacts of Spanish Florida, 1539-1821

Clayton Library in Houston

Military Artifacts of Spanish Florida, 1539-1821

AN INTERNET MUSEUM
http://www.artifacts.org

Sent by Bill Carmena 
JCarm1724@aol.com

Clayton Library in Houston
Louisiana Manuscripts, eleven land grants, deeds, or decrees, mostly concerning early Anglo immigration into Natchez, 1792-1803; also, a letter of John Quitman to Richard Coxe of Natchez, 1827).  Those mentioned in this collection are:

EAST COAST

Alternative Rock Pioneer Targets Latino Audience

Extract: WHFS Changes Its Tune to Spanish
Alternative Rock Pioneer Targets Latino Audience
By Teresa Wiltz and Paul Farhi
Washington Post Staff Writers, Thursday, January 13, 2005; Page A01
Sent by Sam Anthony  sam.anthony@nara.gov

WHFS-FM, the Washington area radio station that was a pioneering purveyor of alternative rock to generations of young music fans, did a programming U-turn yesterday by ditching the genre for a Spanish-language, pop-music format that transforms it into the largest Spanish-language station on the local dial.

The switch reflects both changing demographics and a corporate war of attrition involving Washington's two major radio station owners, Infinity Broadcasting, which owns WHFS, and Clear Channel Communications, which owns WHFS's chief competitor, DC-101.

Despite its self-proclaimed "legendary" status, WHFS (at 99.1 on the dial) has long trailed DC-101 in the race to win the ears of rock listeners in the Washington-Baltimore area. At the same time, Spanish-language radio is the fastest-growing format in the country, while alternative rock radio is a withering niche.

January 12 at noon WHFS ended its 36-year history as the arbiter of cutting-edge rock. Lanham-based WHFS is now "El Zol," where they're "siempre de fiesta" -- always partying. (Zol plays off sol, the Spanish word for sun, and is a station brand of the Spanish Broadcasting System Inc.which owns other "Zol" stations.)

Although radio insiders have discussed the likelihood of WHFS changing formats for many months, the switch came as a shock to former employees and fans who grew up listening to the radio station that, since the late 1960s, had gained a reputation as the place to go for new music. Radio stations often switch formats and often without promoting the change in advance.

Doing what they've got to do includes wooing the Latino radio market, the fastest growing in the business. The audience of Spanish-language stations has grown 37 percent since 1998 and currently accounts for about 9 percent of all listeners. (Some radio experts believe that this understates the actual audience, as it does not take into account the large numbers of undocumented Latinos for whom the radio is a vital source of information.) In 2003, Latin album sales increased 16 percent, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

In the Washington area, the Hispanic population has grown more than 25 percent in the last four years, Infinity says. "El Zol's" playlist is aimed at the region's largely Central American population, featuring Caribbean and Central American dance music, mostly salsa, merengue and bachata.

The station will target radio's "money demographic": Adults ages 25 to 54. Washington has five other radio stations aimed at Spanish speakers: WBZS-FM, WPLC-FM and WKDL-AM, all owned by Mega Broadcasting; WILC-AM, owned by ZGS Broadcasting; and WACA-AM, owned by Entrevision.

Spanish-language radio programs have scored some notable successes in recent years. In New York, "La Mega" (WSKQ-FM) has a morning show that frequently trumps Howard Stern in the quarterly Arbitron ratings, according to Seth Rosen, media director for Reynardus and Moya, a New York-based advertising agency that caters to the Latino market.

The Viacom media conglomerate owns Infinity Broadcasting, which in turn also owns Washington area stations WPGC-FM and AM, WARW-FM and WJFK-FM. Recently, it has been flipping some of its weaker-performing stations across the country to a Spanish-language format, reflecting an industry trend. The switches have been prompted by Infinity's alliance with the Spanish Broadcasting System Inc., the nation's largest Latino-controlled radio broadcasting company. Infinity owns an equity interest in the Florida-based company, which served as a consultant on the WHFS reformatting.

MEXICO

Agustín de Iturbide 

"Vallisoletano, consumador con 
Guerrero de la Independencia 
y primer emperador del México Independiente."

Shared by Armando M. Escobar Olmedo, the newly appointed Director for the 
Archivo Histórico de Morelia, Michoacán.

armandoescol@hotmail.com

Immigrants from Mexico do far worse when they migrate to the United States than do immigrants from other countries. Those difficulties are more a reflection of U.S. immigration policy than they are of underlying cultural differences. The following facts from the 2000 U.S. Census reveal that Mexican immigrants do not move into mainstream American society as rapidly as do other immigrants. 

Eighty percent of non-Mexican immigrants are fluent in English. Among Mexicans, the number is 49 percent. Non-Mexican (working) immigrants have an average wage income of $21,000 a year. Mexican immigrants have an average wage income of $12,000 a year.

The typical non-Mexican immigrant has a high school diploma. The typical Mexican immigrant has less than an eighth-grade education.  Compared to other Hispanics, only 49 percent of Mexican immigrants are fluent in English, compared to 62 percent of non-Mexican Hispanics.

Mexican average incomes are about 75 percent that of other Hispanic immigrants, and Mexican immigrants have about two and a half fewer years of schooling. Two other facts are worth noting. First, Mexican immigrants live in communities where 15 percent of the residents were also born in Mexico. Non-Mexican immigrants live in communities where fewer than 3 percent of the residents are from their native land. Second, Mexican immigrants account for a much higher proportion of the immigrant population than does any other group—29 percent in the 2000 census.

The last two points are key. Individuals become assimilated when their incentives to do so are great. An immigrant from Mexico who moves to East Los Angeles can survive knowing only Spanish and interacting primarily with people from her or his own community. A Bulgarian immigrant to Billings, Montana, must learn English quickly or return to Bulgaria.

A number of studies suggest that the most important factor in explaining English fluency and other aspects of assimilation is the proportion of individuals in one's community who come from his or her native land. When there are many, assimilation is slow; when there are few, assimilation is rapid. Mexicans often do poorly because they have been part of a large wave of immigrants who have similar cultures, languages, and backgrounds.

One other factor is that U.S. immigration policy selects immigrants from Mexico primarily on the basis of family connection rather than skill. Immigrants from other countries are more likely to enter and take jobs in highly skilled occupations. In fact, our most able immigrants come from North Africa— Morocco, Algeria, and Libya. Is this because those countries have the world's best educational systems and cultures? No, it is because it is virtually impossible to enter the United States from those countries. The only North Africans to get in are highly educated and talented.

Nothing inherent in Mexicans causes difficulties for them when they come to the United States. Instead, it is our immigration policy that encourages the formation of large, insular Mexican communities. Additionally, our policies do not employ the same selection criteria for Mexicans as they do for applicants from other countries.

Moving in the direction of skills-based immigration and away from relative-based immigration is one step we can take to ensure that immigrants do well and become integrated when they come to the United States. Moreover, a conscious policy that encourages a more balanced distribution of countries from which we draw immigrants will improve the speed of assimilation and raise the incomes of both immigrants and U.S. natives.

Edward P. Lazear is the Morris Arnold Cox Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and the Jack Steele Parker Professor of Human Resources, Management and Economics at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business. Original article at: http://www-hoover.stanford.edu/pubaffairs/we/2004/lazear11.html

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed by HispanicVista.com http://www.hispanicvista.com    without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.

Patrick Osio, Jr.Mr. Osio was born in California. He lived and attended schools in Mexico City and Los Angeles, California. He has lived in San Diego, California since 1982 with his wife of 41 years.Mr. Osio is an award-winning columnist with over forty-years experience in the U.S. Hispanic and Mexican communities. For over 15 years, he was a consultant to the private and public sector on trans-border business and economic affairs. He is a frequent lecturer on U.S.-Mexico issues, and is a frequent guest in radio talk shows. He brought his business, political and cultural experience to bear in his writing. His monthly column, The Connection, written for the San Diego Metropolitan Magazine, has won 5 awards for excellence from the San Diego Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.Hispanic Media selected him as one of the 100 best Hispanic Journalists in the United States in 2002. In 2003, Hispanic Media selected Patrick as one of the 50 Most Influential Hispanic Journalists in the United States. Also in 2003, the CCNMA honored Mr. Osio with La Pluma Lifetime Achievement Award.Mr. Osio is the Editor of HispanicVista.com http://www.hispanicvista.com ,
and Internet weekly publication and writes a weekly column. His articles are distributed by Knight Ridder Tribune News Service to over 400 newspapers throughout the United States.His articles have appeared in such newspapers as the Los Angeles Times, the Miami Herald, The Houston Chronicle, Detroit Free Press, San Diego Union-Tribune, El Paso Times, The New Mexican and numerous others.

Brief Glossary:
YDNA - Y chromosome DNA (DNA passed from Father to Son)
R1b - a mutation of YDNA found in people of western European origin
J - a mutation of YDNA found in people of Semitic origin
J2 - an mutation of YDNA found in people of Semitic origin and an additional mutation from J. 
E3b - a mutation of YDNA found in people of Semitic origin and found most frequently in people from countries surrounding the Mediterranean 
Semitic - origin of Jews and Arabs.  
Moorish - An Arab people
Native Americans - ancient people that settled the Americas as far back as 30,000 years ago

Most of our ancient YDNA (R1b) can  be found in the Basque of Northern Spain and Southern France. This makes sense as the Ancestors of the Basque were a Non-Indo European speaking people that were the first settlers of Europe. Therefore they would have left the most descendants in Europe. They were the first Iberians.

Spain was a refuge in Europe after the last glacial maximum 18,000 years ago. People from northern Europe migrated and eventually mixed with Iberians already there. 

Next the Phoenicians (Semitic ancestors of modern day Lebanese), Greeks and Carthaginians (semitic or J,J2,E3b) invaded and settled Spain along with a later migration from the Jews (J,J2 and E3b).

Followed by the Romans (E3b and R1b) and Visigoths (I2 or I1c and I1b1).  The Moorish (E3b) invasion followed although DNA studies suggest little impact on our YDNA as yet.

In the mean time Native Americans (Q, Q3) were migrating south in the Americas and settling in the Valley of Mexico. The Mexica (Aztec) were an advanced civilization that the conquistadors compared to the Ancient Egyptians. This was a civilization that had laws, libraries, zoos, government, royalty and schools of higher learning.

A major purpose of this study is to bring family previously not known to each other, together. This has occurred thus far with some of the more larger families such as the Villarreal, Trevino and Garza. Probably the vast majority of us if we looked back far enough would link to some of the numerous members of these families.

Knowing our origins and family lines ultimately brings us together. DNA testing is a very rewarding experience. I would encourage you all to know the truth about our ancestors. The truth is out there sometimes buried in numerous legal documents of the colonial period or deduced through DNA statistics or determining what makes sense from numerous points of view. This realization is liberating.

We can be proud of the rich history of our ancestors. DNA testing has begun to help us know them! Find out about your family.

This surname project is open to all surnames with a male line to Mexico or the following states prior to 1848; California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Nevada, Utah and Colorado.

I invite you to expand your family research by including DNA data. Please contact me for information on how to proceed.

Gary Felix garyf@pacbell.net
Administrator of the Genealogy of Mexico DNA Surname Project
Website: http://members.tripod.com/~GaryFelix/index63.htm

DIRECTORIO DE AUTORIDADES DEL ESTADO DE TAMAULIPAS

CIUDAD CAMARGO, TAMAULIPAS
C. Eduardo Hinojosa Cepeda
Presidente Municipal de Ciudad Camargo
Calle Inturbide y Zaragoza, Plaza Principal
Ciudad Camargo, Tamps
Tel: (891-97) 4-00-03: 4-13-00: 4-00-44: fax :4-08-14: 4-00-16

CIUDAD GUSTAVO DIAZ ORDAZ, TAMAULIPAS
C. Juan Carlos Olivares Guerrero
Presidente Municipal de Ciudad Gustavo Díaz Ordaz.
Calle Tercera s/n. Plaza Principal
Ciudad Gustavo Díaz Ordaz. Tamps.
Tel: (891-93) 8-24-17: 8-31-55 : fax: 8-29-60

NUEVA CIUDAD GUERRERO, TAMAULIPAS
M.V.Z. Luis Gerardo Ramos Gómez
Presidente Municipal de Nueva Ciudad Guerrero
Calle Vicente Guerrero y Ruiz Cortinez, s/n Plaza Principal
Nueva Ciudad Guerrero, Tamps. c. p. 88370
Tel.: (897-97) 6-01-14 y 6-03-70, fax: 6-08-29
e-mail: guerrero@tamaulipas.com

CIUDAD HEROICA MATAMOROS, TAMAULIPAS
Lic. Baltazar Hinojosa Ochoa
Presidente Municipal de Ciudad de Matamoros.
Calle Sexta entre Morelos y González, Zona Centro C. P. 87300
Heroica Matamoros, Tamaulipas.
Tel.: (868) 812-30-27: 812-34-81: e-mail: marsol10@hotmail.com.com

CIUDAD MIER, TAMAULIPAS
C. P. C. Erbey Ramos Ramos
Presidente Municipal de Ciudad Mier, Tamps.
Calle Hidalgo y Obregón s/n, Plaza Juarez
Ciudad Mier, Tamaulipas, C. P. 88390
Tel.: (897-97)- 3-00-70 : 3-00-71: 3-09-51: fax: 3-08-93
Particular: (897-97) 3-02-72: cel: (897-97)-977-36

CIUDAD MIGUEL ALEMAN, TAMULIPAS
Ing. Alfonso Ramírez Rodríguez
Presidente Municipal de Ciudad Miguel Alemán
Calle. Francisco I. Madero No. 150
Ciudad Miguel Alemán, Tamps. C. P. 88300
Tel.: (897-97) 2-09-35: 2-00-30: 2-08-77: fax: 2-28- 87

NUEVO LAREDO, TAMAULIPAS
L.A.E. Daniel Peña Treviño
Presidente Municipal de Nuevo Laredo, Tamps
Guerrero y Maclovio Herrera 3440 Col. Centro
Nuevo Laredo, Tamps. C. P. 88000
Tel.: (867)-715-14-17: 712 -51-29: 712-42-88 fax: 712-92-41

REYNOSA, TAMAULIPAS
Francisco J. García Caveza de Vaca
Presidente Municipal de Reynosa
Plaza Principal s/n
Tel: (8999) 22-00-05 : 22-01-38: 22-67-69

CIUDAD RIO BRAVO, TAMAULIPAS
C. Juan de Dios Cavazos Cárdenas
Presidente Municipal Ciudad Rio Bravo, Tamps.
Ave. Miguel Aleman con Ave. Las América
Ciudad Rio Bravo, Tamps, Mexico. C. P. 88900
Tel: (8999) 4-00-11: 4-00-43: 4-34-24: 4-21-46: y 4-15-65   Fax: 895-4-05-34

CIUDAD VALLE HERMOSO, TAMAULIPAS
Dr. Alberto Alanís Villarreal
Presidente Municipal Valle Hermoso
Eduardo Chávez s/n. Hidalgo y Cosme Santos
Ciudad Valle Hermoso, Tamps. C. P. 87500
Tel.:(894-84)-2-07-13: 2-08-29: 2-00-65: fax: 2-36-19

CIUDAD VICTORIA, TAMAULIPAS
Lic. Eugenio Hernández Flores
Gobernador Constitucional del Estado de Tamaulipas.
13 Baja California # 506 Fraccionamiento San José
Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas. 87000
Tel. (131-31) 2-21-07: 2-11-44: fax: 2-34-92

SOURCE: Carlos Rugerio  cachis99@hotmail.com 
Alphabetized and reformatted by George Gause

Guadalajara: Crónica Miscelánea de la Sancta Provincia de Xalísco
escrito por  Fray Antonio Tello, en 1653

[[Editor: This information was sent by Carlos Martín Herrera de la Garza.  I received it December 29, 2004. I found the history of how he became in possession of the information and the historical perspective of Fray Antonio Tello quite interesting.]]

Estimada señora Mimí:  aquí  le envío un documento de la época de la colonia española sobre la historia del septentrión mexicano.

Permítame explicar cual fue el momento de encuentro con esto. Sucede que por asuntos de vacaciones en navidad, hube de ir a recorrer por seis escasos días esos hermosos lugares de Guanajuato y de Michoacán en la parte central de México.

En nuestro recorrido, mi esposa y yo, el primer puerto de abrigo fue Santa María del Río, un  municipio entre Querétaro y San Luis Potosí; ahí 45 minutos para comprar un rebozo en la tienda de la esquina de la plaza;  que para quien no sabe lo que un rebozo es un chal, un gazné un algo para vestir en el cuello y cabeza de la mujer en tiempo de frío; pero en ese pueblo todos los días del año a las doce mediodía repican las campanas de la iglesia y truenan volados cohetes.

Luego seguimos y continuamos la carretera central no sin rumbo antes admirarnos con la belleza de artesanía que se ofrece en Dolores Hidalgo cuna de la Independencia.

Después llegamos a San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, una joya colonial por excelencia;  para nuestra decepción ya no la que antes era, ahora llena de carros por las angostas calles del centro de la ciudad. 

Pero de cualquier manera se disfruta la estancia frente a la plaza; esa hermosa Iglesia de motivos góticos churriguerescos;  y tantos extranjeros entre vecinos nativos van por la calle ofreciendo una sonrisa al visitante.

Bueno, ...   precisamente ahí fue donde yo hambriento de los saberes de esas tierras pregunté donde adquirir, no sé, algunos libros de esos que se venden en tiendas de segunda; quería algo sobre la historia.

En eso luego de tanto esperar mientras comíamos, irrumpe la señora cocinera dueña del restorante y nos dice que ahí está el señor que viene de México y se dedica a vender libros y antigüedades; si muy bien, muchas gracias hágalo pasar ; total que llega y era un señor como de 65 años, gordo muy amable, y luego, bueno pues nosotros todavía terminando de comer el señor nos esperó para irnos a una casa del pueblo donde tenía los libros que vendía.

Caminamos como 700 metros entre calles adoquinadas y carros de turistas  para llegar al zaguán de un señor llamado Jesús, con acento de español al hablar y muy parecido al senador  Diego Fernández de Cevallos; fue tan pronta la sorpresa que ni siquiera queríamos entrar.

Después ya adentro fue como estar en un lugar donde lo demás era estar afuera.

y de pronto ese señor que va sacando un costal lleno de libros de los que ayer había traído desde el Distrito Federal, y luego platicó que cuando venía de viaje el chofer del autobús se detuvo porque unos policías de caminos subieron  directamente frente a unos pasajeros de esos que les llaman indocumentados, y que luego los bajaron y se los llevaron quien sabe pa' donde.

De entre los libros que rescaté con este señor de quien estoy hablando, es el que ahora envío mi correspondencia para que  tenga Usted a bien publicar en su prestigiada revista.

Muchas Gracias y Saludos; reciba usted mis mejores deseos y parabienes a su familia con todos los seres queridos en este nuevo año que comienza y para toda la vida que continua.

Sinceramente: Carlos Martín

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 Carlos Martín Herrera de la Garza   cherrera@uat.edu.mx   Guadalajara,  México

El documento que se incluye en esta publicación es tomado de los cinco indistintos capítulos que, del Libro Segundo de la Crónica Miscelánea de la Sancta Provincia de Xalísco escrito por  Fray Antonio Tello,  O. F. M.  en 1653, fue encontrado en  "Testimonios de Guadalajara";  prólogo y selección de José Cornejo Franco; ediciones de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México; colección Biblioteca del Estudiante Universitario # 35; director de la Imprenta Universitaria Francisco Monterde; ilustraciones de Julio Prieto. México 1942. 

y dice... ( se ha respetado el estilo literario del autor con scanner y procesador de texto )
" Habiendo sabido Nuño de Guzmán, que estaba en Compostela, cómo la villa de Guadalajara no se había fundado en el puesto que se había determinado de Tlacotlán, sino que se habían ido los vecinos á fundar á Tonalán, sintiólo mucho, por ser pueblos y tierras de su encomienda, y porque pretendía que el emperador le hiciese marqués de ellas, y así envió á mandar se volviesen á donde habían comenzado á poblar, y que se conservase el título de Guadalajara, á contemplación de la ciudad de Guadalajara en su patria, en el reino de Toledo. Nombró alcaldes y regidores, y por justicia mayor al capitán Juan de Oñate, como lo había sido antes, y repartió á los vecinos en encomienda toda la Caxcana, Barranca y algo de la Tecuexa y Cocas; señaló jurisdicción á la villa desde la provincia de Avalos, la Tecuexa, Caxcana, los Ayos, Pénjamo, Cuinan,  Cuitzeo del Río,  que son confines de la Tarasca, (( Michoacán)),   Tzacatecos  (( Zacatecas )) y Tepec (( Nayarit ? )). Partió términos con la ciudad de Compostela en Guaxícar y Tequila, y hizo dar asiento á la villa y todo lo perteneciente á una república. Esta vez pasaron al puesto de Tlacotlán, entre unas barranquillas ó quebradas, este año de 1535, y no el de 36, ni como cuenta esta historia cierto papel que vino á mis manos, escrito por un soldado que dice haberlo sido de la Conquista, porque por autos del Cabildo de la dicha villa, consta cómo estando fundada en Tlacotlán, recibieron por vecinos de ella en doce días del mes de Marzo de 1535 á Juan de Saldívar, y á Juan de Sosa y á Juan de Gavilla, y dijeron que les darían los solares y huertas pertenecientes;  y luego después de esto, recibieron por vecino á Juan de Salas, y que este año se cometió á los españoles una gran conspiración de indios caxcanes, tecuexes y tzacatecos, en que murieron muchos indios y algunos españoles, y se les apareció el apóstol Santiago segunda vez, y les ayudó, con que salieron del peligro, y duró mucho tiempo, y cada día tenían grandes rebatos.

En el dicho pueblo estuvo poblada GUADALAJARA hasta el alzamiento tan nombrado del Mixton, entendiendo NUÑO DE GUZMÁN que por lo menos se le daría título de conde ó marqués de ella, y ni lo uno ni lo otro gozó, sino hasta miseria y pobreza, la cual padecía en esta ocasión en la ciudad de Compostela en compañía de los vecinos, porque no había género de moneda baja ni rica, y así andaban desconsoladísimos y intentaban dejar la tierra; pero Nuño de Guzmán, con valor y ánimo, que en esto fue excelente capitán, los animaba á la perseverancia."

"Habiendo puesto el gobernador todas las cosas en orden con grande apercibimiento, hizo alarde de su gente y armas, y allí les  hizo una plática á todos para que estuvieran advertidos en lo que convenía hacer en tal ocasión, y mandó que con los indios que iban por leña y yerba, fuese gente de á pié y á caballo haciéndoles escolta, y por caudillo de ellos señaló á Pedro de Plascencia; y víspera del Señor San Miguel, del año de 1541, habiendo salido Pedro de Plascencia con la gente á coger leña y yerba para hacer su guarda, se puso en lo alto con los españoles y vieron y divisaron que los valles, montes y campos venían cubiertos de indios enemigos á cogerles la entrada y salida de la ciudad y á meterse y ganarla, porque no tenía más que una entrada, que todo lo demás es peña tajada sobre el Río Grande; y visto por Pedro de Plascencia y su gente, se retiraron afuera llevando á los indios amigos que habían ido por la leña y yerba. Venían por detrás los enemigos, sin hacer ruido por no ser sentidos, y cuando bajó Plascencia por el otro lado hacia la ciudad, vio más multitud de gente y más sin número de la que había visto, que venían de hacía Xuchipíla llamándose para meterse en la  ciudad, que estaban de ella medía legua; y á cuarto de legua Pedro de Plascencia, que llegó con toda la gente á la ciudad, á todo correr á las nueve de la mañana, por decir al gobernador como venían tantos indios sobre la ciudad, que era grima. Cuando Plascencia llegó diciendo: "¡Arma! ¡arma, Sr. Capitán!" halló que toda la gente estaba en misa y entró á caballo á dar la nueva, y como le oyeron apellidar ¡arma!  ¡arma! las mujeres y niños comenzaron á llorar y á desmayarse algunas. Mandólas el gobernador callar, y no queriéndolo hacer, se levantó la mujer de Juan Sánchez de Olea, que fue de grande ánimo y esfuerzo, y se llamaba Beatriz Hernández, y dijo al gobernador: "Señor, haga V. S. su oficio de buen capitán; acábese la misa, que yo quiero capitanear á estas señoras mujeres". El gobernador acudió á que acabasen la misa, y luego sacaron el Santísimo Sacramento y le consumió el Br. Bartolomé de Estrada, y sacaron algunas imágenes y dejaron otras en los altares, y luego el gobernador mandó tocar á recoger y se juntó toda la gente, y la Beatriz Hernández sacó á todas las mujeres de la iglesia, que estaban desmayadas, diciendo: "¡Ahora es tiempo de desmayos!" y las llevó á la casa fuerte y las encerró.

Traía esta señora un gurguz ó lanza en la mano y andaba vestida con unas coracinas ayudando á recoger toda la gente, animándoles y diciéndoles que fuesen, hombres, que entonces verían quien era cada uno, y luego se encerró con todas las mujeres y las capitaneó, y tomó á su cargo la guarda de la puerta, puestas sus coracinas, con su gurguz y un terciado colgado de la cinta. El gobernador subió en su caballo para recoger toda la gente, que estaba fuera de la casa fuerte, así soldados como indios é indias de servicio, y niños, y los encerró, y él con ellos, con todas sus armas y caballos.

Hecho esto, habiendo quedado todas las más casas de la ciudad cerradas, el gobernador en dos puertas que había principales en el fuerte, puso en cada una diez hombres de guarda con su capitán y caudillo, y les mandó que so pena de la vida y traidor al rey, no dejasen entrar ni salir á nadie sin su licencia y mandato, y señaló la gente de á pié por las estancias del fuerte para su guarda; así mesmo señaló artillero para el reparo de las troneras y treinta hombres de á caballo, todos á punto y armados, y por capitán de ellos á Juan de Anuncívar. Hizose lista de la gente que había, y halláronse cien españoles de á pié y de á caballo, y algunos tan bisóños y afligidos, que de oír el murmullo de la gente, no sabían qué hacerse por no haberse hallado en otra; y tan apercibidos estuvieron todos, que dentro de una hora se pusieron en orden y á punto de guerra para ofender y defender, esperando el suceso con mucho con cierto, y como a las diez ó once del día, se mostraron los enemigos al derredor de la ciudad, muy galanes, con plumería y arcos, macanas, rodelas y lanzas arrojadizas, armados de todas armas, y era tanta la multitud de ellos, que media legua al derredor de la ciudad por cada parte, la tenían rodeada y cercada, que no se veían sino indios enemigos, embijados y desnudos, pareciéndose al diablo, de quien traían la guía y forma, tanto que ponían espanto, y llegados, entró un escuadrón de doscientos indios de guerra en la ciudad, todos mancebos, dispuestos á reconocer; que no osaron entrar de golpe, temiendo no les viniese algún daño de las casas. Reconocieron, pues, toda la casería de la ciudad, con tanta brevedad, por ser las casas de cuenta tan pocas, que se volvieron á juntar con la otra gente que estaba al rededor, y habiéndose juntado, comenzó un gran rumor y murmullo andando la palabra de unos en otros, que causaba temor oírlos, y luego por escuadrones entraron bailando y cantando mil canciones al demonio, pidiéndole favor, y hicieron su paseo por la ciudad, y lo primero que hicieron fue entrar en la iglesia y arrancar las imágenes, y sacaron algunas de ellas puestas en la trasera, arrastrándolas y profanándolas, y luego quemaron la iglesia y todas las casas de la ciudad, y ya concluso con todo lo que hallaron, parecióles sería cosa muy fácil de hacer lo mismo en  la casa  fuerte,  y así arremetieron á  ella con tanto ímpetu y tan recio, que se entendió la postrasen á empellones. Recibieron los nuestros muy bien este combate defendiendo cada uno su estacía, saeteras y barbacanas, y los hicieron retirar, y mandó el capitán y gobernador Oñate que no hiciesen mudanza, sino que se estuviesen quedos y los dejasen desflemar en su furia primera, y que hubiese silencio hasta que él otra cosa mandase; y estando en estos combates, en una de las puertas que se guardaban, un indio, que en el cuerpo parecía gigante, arremetió á la puerta valentísimamente y se entró en la casa fuerte poniéndose á fuerzas con todos, y las guardas cerraron las puertas, no le queriendo matar de lástima.

Al ruido que había, salió Beatriz Hernández á ver á su marido, que era capitán de la guardia de la puerta por donde el indio había entrado, y comenzó a reñirlos á todos estando el indio allí peleando con ellos, diciendo que la dejasen á ella con el indio. Riéronse de ella, y estando en esto, el indio arremetió á ella y ella á él echando la mano á su terciado, y le dio una cuchillada en la cabeza (que cual á otro Goliat dio con él en el suelo) y poniéndole el pié en el cuello, le dio dos estocadas, con que le mató, y luego dijo a su marido, que con él se había de haber hecho aquello, por haber dado entrada á los enemigos, y que mirase lo que hacía, porque no era tiempo de descuidarse un punto, y así acudía ella á todos los combates, como sí fuera varón, y siempre se hallaba al lado del gobernador en cualquier ocasión, porque de verdad fue muy valerosa mujer en todas ocasiones y muy estimada hasta que murió.

Andando, pues, las cosas muy sangrientas en el combate, fueron á disparar una escopeta y no dio fuego la pólvora, que estaba húmeda, y viendo el gobernador que la pólvora no estaba buena, llamó á un Pero Sánchez, herrero, que vino con el capitán Moncivar, gran fanfarrón y que presumía de gran polvorista y artillero, y mandó le refínase aquella pólvora, y luego el Pero Sánchez la comenzó á refinar en un comal al fuego, debajo de una cubierta de paja, y quemó la pólvora la cubierta que estaba en la casa fuerte, que fue mayor tribulación para los cercados con el fuego y con la prisa que había para apagarle; los enemigos se alentaron más, viéndolos atribulados, y comenzaron con más furia á batir y querer ganar la casa fuerte. Fue un caso temerario en tal tiempo, con que se dobló la pena en todos; pero al fin se remedió y apagó el fuego; y estando en esto, los enemigos acometieron por las espaldas de la casa, y empezaron á descimentar la pared con tantas veras por debajo de las barbacanas, que derribaron el un lienzo, sin que se lo pudiese impedir por no jugar la artillería, á causa de estar el artillero ocupado en refinar la pólvora;  y entonces el gobernador Oñate, acometiendo á los enemigos y viendo la falta, pareciéndole que otro barril de pólvora que estaba allí al sol estaría mejor, mandó al Pero Sánchez que luego entrase y armase los tiros de la artillería de las troneras y los disparase hacia aquel lienzo que iban ganando, y al cabo de rato, viendo que no acababa de disparar y que ya los enemigos publicaban victoria, fue el gobernador á la tronera y dijo al artillero Pero Sánchez, que cómo no disparaba, el cual respondió:   "Señor, heme cortado y no acierto"; entonces arremetió a él y dijo: "Vuestro rajar y cortar nos tiene puestos en este aprieto; mirad que los indios minan la casa y se muestran ya.  ¡Acabad, dad fuego!" A que respondió: "Señor, no acierto"; entonces Oñate arremetió y pegó fuego á la artillería, y del primer tiro no quedó indio en la casa que no lo llevó, hasta que la pelota se embazó en los muertos, con que desampararon los enemigos la calle y quedó la casa libre, sin que osasen llegar más á ella.

Fue la batería tan grande, que causaba temor y espanto, y viendo que los llevaban ganados, todos estaban temblando, hasta que el buen Oñate los desvió con el estrago que hizo con el tiro que disparó, siendo parte su buen ánimo para sacarlos de aquel aprieto; y luego armado con su espada y rodela, acudió á ver los alojamientos y estancias y á las partes do hallaba flaqueza, á proveer de todo, peleando en la defensa, que parecía un león animando á sus capitanes y soldados para que peleasen como buenos españoles, pues ya los enemigos se habían apartado de la casa fuerte.

Así que los enemigos se desviaron, se sosegó la batería, y el llanto de mujeres y niños era tan grande, que espantaba, y mandó el capitán y gobernador que callasen, porque era animar más á los enemigos, y que esperasen en Dios y en su Madre bendita que presto se daría fin á aquel negocio, pues era causa suya; y así que cesó el llanto de las mujeres, dieron una tan gran rociada de flechería, que no se podía andar por el patio y plaza, y llegándose algunas mujeres á las ventanas llorando á ver la gente, fue tanta la desvergüenza de los indios ladinos, que decían: "Callad, mujeres, ¿por qué lloráis? que siendo mujeres no os hemos de matar, sino solamente acabaremos á esos barbudos de vuestros maridos y nos casaremos con vosotras", y hubo mujer que de solo oír estas palabras se quiso echar por una ventana á pelear con ellos, y lo hiciera si no se lo estorbaran, y visto que no la dejaban, de pura rabia volvió la trasera y alzó las faldas diciendo:

"Perros, besad aquí, que no os veréis en ese espejo, sino en este"; y cuando lo estaba diciendo, le arrojaron una flecha que le clavó las faldas con el tocado en las vigas del techo por estar bajo. Sería casi medio día cuando sucedió esto, y cansados los enemigos de batir la casa, se fueron á la plaza y muchos de ellos se pusieron por las calles á la sombra, y un capitanejo subido en una pared, dijo en lengua mexicana: "Llorad bien, barbudos cristianos, hasta que comamos y descansemos, que luego os sacaremos de allí y nos pagareis los que nos matasteis en la pared", á que no le respondieron cosa los nuestros, sino que estuvieron muy callados. Sacaron mucha comida los indios de las despensas de las casas, que robaron los indios, y traída, dijo el capitanejo que se había subido en la pared: "Comamos y descansemos, pues estos españoles barbudos ya son  nuestros.   ¿No los veis llorar, que son unos gallinas?" y comenzaron á comer muy sosegados, y en medio de la comida, volvieron á hablar y á echar suertes en las mujeres que á cada cacique habían de caber repartiendo todas las mozas, y dijo un cacique de Xuchipila, llamado D. Juan:  "¿pues qué hemos de hacer de las viejas?" y respondió otro diciendo;  "hacerlas que tejan y hilen y nos hagan bragas; y si no quisieren, matarlas y echarlas en esas barrancas para que las coman auras, y matar á los niños para que no nos den guerra como sus padres, y después que estemos hartos de las mozas, las daremos á los mozuelos para que se aprovechen de ellas".

Muy de reposo estaban en estas cuentas antes que se acabase la comida y plática, y los nuestros con gran sentimiento de oírlos, y las mujeres, como flacas, lloraban entendiendo se habían de ver en lo que los enemigos decían, según las victorias que habían tenido; pero el gobernador Oñate, viendo el reposo con que los enemigos estaban, llamó á toda la gente de á caballo y les mandó que se armasen, porque era ya tiempo y llegada la hora de Dios para pelear y vencer ó ser vencidos, que de su parte tenían a Dios, pues peleaban por su fe.

Habiendo visto la determinación del gobernador, les pareció á algunos de los capitanes y soldados que no convenía se hiciese, porque no sucediese al revés de lo que pensaban. Oyéndolo el dicho gobernador, les dijo que qué cobardía era aquella y que cuando no quisiesen salir abriría el fuerte para que entrasen los enemigos y los acabasen como á cobardes y traidores á su Dios y rey, y con esta sofrenada, se pusieron todos en arma para salir á la batalla, y él se armó y subió en su caballo y mandó que se hiciesen tres cuadrillas, y que en cada una fuesen diez soldados llevando por capitán á Juan de Moncivai, que era buen hombre de á caballo y animoso, y que saliesen por una puerta y volviesen á entrar por otra, y que luego los otros saliesen más adelante ganando tierra y matando cuanto hallasen, y luego mandó que los soldados de á pié guardasen las estancias que tenían y la casa fuerte, y a los de las puertas y sus capitanes guardasen las puertas para que con el tropel de los caballos no entrasen los enemigos, y que no dejasen salir soldados de los de á pié, y mandó al capitán Diego Vásquez guardase las mujeres con diez soldados.

Después de esto, el Br. Bartolomé de Estrada les predicó un sermón y plática en que les trató de la victoria que los ángeles tuvieron en el cielo contra Lucifer, cuyos ministros eran aquellos indios; que se esforzasen porque San Miguel les ayudaría y el Sr. Santiago, patrón de España y de sus españoles, y que de parte de Dios les aseguraba la victoria y sabía habían de vencer, pues estaban confesados y dispuestos, y que hiciesen como caballeros esforzados, y tendrían ante Dios gran premio por pelear en su causa, por haber quemado su iglesia, profanado sus imágenes y haber cometido tantos sacrilegios y muertes de cristianos; que ya era llegada la hora, que estuviesen ciertos de la victoria, porque aquel día era de mercedes por ser día del arcángel San Miguel, que sería con ellos, y tan gran sermón les hizo como él los solía hacer, con que todos derramaron muy copiosas lágrimas; y habiendo acabado, les echó la bendición diciendo: "Dios todopoderoso y los ángeles, sean con todos: ea, caballeros, ánimo", y se entró do las mujeres y niños estaban, y el padre Alonso Martín se puso delante de un Cristo de rodillas, cantando las letanías y psalmos, pidiendo á Nuestro Señor la victoria,  haciendo esta plegaría con  muchas  lágrimas,  y luego entraron algunos á despedirse de sus mujeres y hijos, y habiendo salido, subieron en sus caballos, y puestos en orden como estaba mandado, dijo el gobernador: "Ea, señores, ya es tiempo, salgan los diez de á caballo", y se disparó un tiro que llevó toda la gente de la calle, y salieron los diez de á caballo y fueron rompiendo por en frente de la iglesia hasta la esquina de Miguel de Ibarra; y de allí volvieron y se entraron por la otra puerta de la esquina; y luego salió otra cuadrilla y fue abriendo hasta la casa de Juan Sánchez de Olea, y plaza grande, y al volver, cayó del caballo Francisco Orozco, por haber tropezado en unas vigas que estaban en un caño de agua, y viéndolo caído, le echaron mano los indios, le hicieron tajadas y el caballo disparó entre los enemigos. Dio harta pena su muerte, porque era un hombre honradísimo, de muchas gracias y de mucha estima; y vista la desgracia por el gobernador," dijo desde una ventana;   "Ea,  caballeros, vamos todos los de á caballo", y él cogió su caballo, y al salir dijo a todos: "¡Santiago sea con nosotros! y en un instante dieron en los enemigos, con tan gran tropel y tan recio, que matando y hiriendo, no quedó enemigo en la ciudad que no alanceasen, y aquí se dijo peleó Santiago, San Miguel y los ángeles; y luego salieron todos los soldados de á píe, y no dejaron indio á pié que encontrasen; y Romero, que era uno de los de á caballo, pareciéndole que quedaba la ciudad sola, como tenía hijos y mujer, volvió á la ciudad, y pasando por su casa, hallóla quemada; y fuese por la calle abajo y dio vuelta hacia la casa de Hernán Flores, y mirando la calle arriba, vio en una loma que estaba sobre la casa fuerte, más de dos mil indios caxcanes que se venían á meter en ella y querían coger el caballo de Orozco, que solo andaba entre ellos escaramuceando, y visto por Cristóbal Romero fue corriendo á la casa fuerte á avisar disparasen la artillería hacia donde estaba aquella gente, y el pasó adelante y se metió entre los enemigos, y comenzó á pelear y alancear indios, y dio una lanzada á un capitán de ellos; y al sacar la lanza se le tronchó en la espaldilla, quedando la mitad con una punta, como astilla, y con ella mató y alanceó más de ciento de ellos y les quitó el caballo de Orozco, y viendo los enemigos el destrozo que hacía, se fueron huyendo, y los venció.

Y al estruendo de la artillería, que lo oyó el gobernador, vino Diego Vásquez, mientras Romero peleaba, y le llamaba á grandes voces diciendo: "Vuelta, señor capitán, que los enemigos se nos entran en la ciudad por la parte de las barrancas", y fueron Vásquez y el gobernador al socorro, y no hallaron enemigo en la ciudad ni otra persona que á Remero que venía a ellos con el caballo de Orozco ensillado y enfrenado, que había vencido á los dos mil indios y echádolos fuera. Y era tanta la multitud de gente que murió de los enemigos, que las calles y plazas estaban llenas de cuerpos muertos, y corrían arroyuelos de sangre, con que mandó el gobernador tocar á recoger, y á las dos de la tarde se juntó todo el campo, y se halló que fueron más de cincuenta mil indios los que vinieron sobre la ciudad, que fue cosa de admiración. Duró la batalla tres horas, y murieron más de quince mil indios: de los nuestros no faltó más que uno, y fue Orozco; y así que llegó y se recogió el campo, todos se fueron por la ciudad á ver sus casas, y hallaron en ellas muy gran suma de indios escondidos en los hornos y aposentos, y preguntándoles que á qué se hablan quedado allí, dijeron que de miedo, porque cuando quemaron la iglesia, salió del medio de ella un hombre en un caballo blanco, con una capa colorada y cruz en la mano izquierda, y en los pechos otra cruz, y con una espada desenvainada en la mano derecha, echando fuego, y que llevaba consigo mucha gente de pelea, y que cuando salieron los españoles del fuerte á pelear á caballo, vieron que aquel hombre con su gente andaba entre ellos peleando, y los quemaba y cegaba, y que con este temor se escondieron en aquellas casas y no podían salir ni ir ni atrás ni adelante, por el temor que le tenían, y que muchos  quedaron como perláticos, y otros mudos.

Este milagro representan cada año los indios en los pueblos de la Galicia.

Siempre se entendió ser obra del cielo, según la gente que allí se venció y mató, porque fuera imposible vencer tantos enemigos si no fuera con el ayuda de Dios, de Santiago y de los ángeles, que en tales ocasiones se acuerda de los suyos, lo cual se confirmó con lo que dijeron los indios enemigos que se hallaron en las casas. Mandó el gobernador juntar á todos aquellos indios, que eran mucha cantidad, junto á un árbol grande que llamaban zapote, que estaba en medio de la plaza, y allí mandó hacer justicia de ellos. Cortaron á unos las narices, á otros las orejas y manos y un pié, y luego les curaban con aceite hirviendo las heridas; ahorcaron y hicieron esclavos á otros, y á los que salieron ciegos y mancos, por haber visto la santa visión de Santiago, muy bien hostigados los enviaron á sus tierras, y fue tal el castigo, que hasta el día de hoy jamás volvieron á la ciudad.

Así que se venció la batalla y fueron echados los enemigos de la ciudad, el gobernador Cristóbal de Oñate, los soldados y vecinos, cogiendo una cruz y el estandarte, fueron con los sacerdotes que allí había á la iglesia, cantando el Te Deum  laudamus y letanía en procesión á un altar que fuera de la iglesia se había aderezado para este efecto (por estar la iglesia quemada) cerca de la casa fuerte, dando mil alabanzas al Señor por la merced tan singular que Su Divina Majestad les había hecho en librarlos de tanta multitud de enemigos, siendo ellos tan pocos. Iban todos armados, pues no se descuidaban un punto, y llegados al altar, se dijeron las vísperas muy solemnes, las cuales acabadas, se volvieron á la casa fuerte y pusieron su pendón en una esquina y todos se fueron á comer, porque aquel día no habían comido, ni tenido una hora siquiera de reposo por acudir al reparo y defensa de tanta fuerza de enemigos, y después de haber descansado y comido toda la gente, como á las cinco de la tarde, víspera del Señor San Miguel, mandó el gobernador que todos se armasen y subiesen en sus caballos dentro de la plaza de la casa fuerte, y estando juntos, mandó hacer alarde y halló toda su gente, si no es Francisco de Orozco, que le mataron, como queda dicho, y trajeron allí su caballo ensillado y enfrenado; hubo muchos que deseaban tener el caballo por ser bueno, y quien más lo deseaba, era Cristóbal Romero, el cual le quitó y ganó de los enemigos; pero el gobernador mandó llamar á Diego de Orozco su hermano. Era un hombre muy femenino, aunque de buen rostro, y le dio el caballo y armas, y en encomienda los pueblos de su hermano, que eran los de Mezquítuta y Moyagua, díciéndole quería ver si estimaba á su hermano en el esfuerzo y valentía, y el Diego de Orozco se lo prometió diciendo que, aunque el cuerpo era pequeño, el corazón era muy grande para servir á Dios y al rey, y así lo mostró en todas las ocasiones que se ofrecieron, con mucho esfuerzo y valor.

Hecho esto, y hecha la lista y alarde, dijo el gobernador: "Señores capitanes, caballeros y hijosdalgo, ya V. Ms. han visto en el aprieto en que nos vimos; gracias sean dadas á Dios y á su bendita Madre, Reina de los ángeles, pues con su ayuda conseguimos la victoria; conviene que de aquí adelante, haya más recato y guarda en esta ciudad y casa fuerte, porque estos traidores no revuelvan esta noche, y entiendan que con la victoria hemos dejado las armas y acostádonos á descansar, y nos cojan descuidados; ahora es menester más recato y vigilancia; no hay que fiar de ellos, pues desde tan lejos nos vinieron á acometer y cercar; porque ahora estamos más cercados, y en mayor peligro de perdernos, y así conviene más guarda y recato".

Pareció bien á todos lo que el gobernador decía, y dijeron que S. S. proveyese lo que más conviniese en ello, y así mandó que cada capitán de los de á pié acudiese á sus estancias á hacer su guarda, y que los de á caballo saliesen fuera y velasen la ciudad  por  sus   cuartos,   y   á   los   capitanes   y  soldados que guardaban las puertas, asistiesen á ellas con más veras, porque era la llave de todo. Hecho todo esto, se fueron todos á sus alojamientos, como se ordenó, y el gobernador mandó llamar a Pero Sánchez, el artillero, y le dijo tuviese cuenta con la artillería y no se durmiese ni le sucediese lo que la vez pasada, que se turbó en el combate. Blasonó Pero Sánchez que haría maravillas, y el gobernador le dijo:  "¡plegué a Dios que sea así, y no sea necesario que yo acuda á ello!" Cuando salieron los de á caballo fuera de la casa fuerte, iban en orden, de dos en dos, dando vuelta por la plaza, y dispararon una escopeta, que no se supo quien fue, que dio á un Vendesur un pelotazo en la frente, y dio con él muerto en el suelo, que era de los que iban á caballo, lo cual dio mucha pena á todos, y sabido por el gobernador, porque la mujer del muerto le fue á pedir justicia por la muerte de su marido, y eran tantas sus exclamaciones, que el gobernador la metió con las otras mujeres, consolándola y diciendo que él sabría quien le había muerto; y lo que se averiguó fue, que como habían llegado á hacer vela en cada cuartel, sin ánimo de dañar dispararon las escopetas, y acertaron á dar las balas en los de á caballo, sin saber los del cuartel do estaban, y que no hubo malicia en ello, sino desgracia, sin pensarlo ni quererlo hacer, con que el gobernador trató no se tratase de ello.

Aquella noche velaron muy bien, y el gobernador Oñate casi no reposó, acudiendo á todas partes y guardas como valeroso capitán; y una hora antes que amaneciese, mandó al P. Alonso Martín que enterrasen á Vendesur, el difunto del pelotazo, porque se apaciguase la mujer; y después de esto, entraron los de á caballo en la casa fuerte, y dieron razón de cómo no había bullicio de gente de guerra ní otra cosa que los muertos del día antes. Esto era el día del Señor San Miguel por la mañana, y estando ya todos congregados en la casa fuerte y habiendo descansado, fueron todos con el pendón que tenían y su cruz, llevando la imagen del Señor San Miguel en procesión á su hora á oír la misa mayor, y llegados pusieron la imagen en el altar, que era de guadamacíl dorado, y dijo la misa muy solemne y predicó el Br. Bartolomé de Estrada, y acabada la misa, allí juntos todos, sobre el misal y ara consagrada, hicieron voto de tener por patrón de aquella ciudad, al Señor San Miguel y hacerle altar particular, y en memoria de esta tan gran victoria, sacar cada año su pendón. Para hacer esto, se habían juntado á cabildo el día antes, como consta del archivo de la ciudad de Guadalajara, y hicieron el auto siguiente:

"A veinte y ocho de septiembre, á las ocho de la mañana, juntos en cabildo pleno el gobernador Cristóbal de Oñate, los alcaldes y regimiento de la ciudad de Guadalajara, y demás vecinos, en presencia del Br. Bartolomé de Estrada y de su compañero el P. Alonso Martín, curas, hicieron voto perpetuo para tener por patrón al gloriosísimo arcángel San Miguel y erigirle particular capilla, y sacar cada año el pendón por las calles públicas, en memoria de tan gran victoria". Lo cual se ratificó al día siguiente, como queda dicho, acabada la misa mayor, y después de esto, se volvieron con el pendón á la casa fuerte, donde subieron todos á caballo, llevando el gobernador Oñate el pendón, y lo trajeron por la ciudad y le volvieron á su puesto, y luego todos se fueron á descansar, porque tenían mucha necesidad de ello, y habiendo descansado y comido, mandó el gobernador á los capitanes recogiesen toda la gente de los indios naboríos de servicio, que había cantidad, y que luego arrastrasen los cuerpos muertos que había en la ciudad y los quemasen, porque comenzaba ya muy mal olor, y porque no causasen alguna peste que fuese peor que el cerco de los enemigos, lo cual se puso por obra, y echaron de una barranca abajo más de mil, y á otros amontonaban y quemaban, y para otros hacían grandes cavas como pozos y allí los arrojaban, y con esto limpiaron la ciudad sin tocar á los que estaban muertos á media legua de ella, que allí los comieron aves y animales, y hartos años permanecieron sus huesos esparcidos en el campo, hasta que el tiempo los consumió, y no fue poco castigo éste ni de pequeño espanto para los enemigos, ver en qué habían parado las reliquias y soberbias de sus antepasados, con que hasta el día de hoy no se han atrevido á alzar.

Otro día mandó el gobernador que se juntase el regimiento en cabildo con los capitanes que había y la gente más principal de la ciudad y vecinos, para tratar de cosas que convenían al servicio de Dios y Su Majestad, y habiéndose juntado todos en cabildo, dijo el gobernador: "Señores alcaldes y cabildo, capitanes y vecinos de esta ciudad, aquí nos hemos juntado en nombre de Dios; conviene tratar en él cosas que sean en servicio suyo y que no haya parcialidades ni facciones, porque de haberlas habido hemos estado en este aprieto; que si desde el principio que Guzmán entró, se poblara en otra parte, como yo intenté, que fue en el valle de Tzapotepec, donde ahora se llama Tuluquilla, ó en los llanos de Atemaxac, no anduviéramos en estos trabajos"

Prosiguió su plática el gobernador diciendo: "Bien veo que ninguno de los que estamos aquí tiene la culpa, sino Nuño de Guzmán, pues estando en Tonalán poblados para quedarnos allí, nos echó diciendo que no quería que en sus pueblos ni en contorno de ellos hubiese villa ni poblazón de españoles, haciéndonos ir al valle de Nochistlán, donde poblamos la villa en una mesa redonda que parecía la de los Doce Pares de Francia, donde no se tuvo reposo, por estar allí muy estrechos padeciendo muy grandes trabajos por no poder sufrir las amenazas de los caxcanes; la despoblamos y nos vinimos á Tonalán otra vez, y estando allí, con propósito de poblar, sabido por Guzmán, que estaba en la ciudad de Compostela, envío á mi hermano Juan de Oñate para que, como capitán, los echase fuera, y no sabiendo que hacerse, vinieron á poblar en este puesto tan triste y desventurado, á trasmano, cercado de barrancas, con poca agua y sin refugio, y que no tiene sino una entrada, y en especial el inconveniente de tener el Río Grande á un lado, para no poder salir sino con mucho trabajo de cualquier peligro; ahora tenemos la experiencia en la mano, pues conociendo los enemigos el ruin estado de esta ciudad y que estamos cercados de barrancas, por una parte, y de rocas tajadas de la otra, han venido á cojernos á mano por la entrada llana, donde nos hemos visto en tanto aprieto, y más con la avilantez de las victorias pasadas, por vernos sin asiento fundado, ni defensa, que sí Dios no acudiera amparándonos, hoy estuviéramos acabados y las mujeres y niños, y pues Dios nos ha librado de ésta, conviene poner remedio, no sea peor la revuelta, y que esto sea con brevedad; salgamos de aquí, busquemos donde se funde esta ciudad y nos aseguremos, que estando segura, lo demás se hará con gusto. Véase dónde será bueno que se pase, que conviene hacerlo así para que se haga el servicio de Dios y Su Majestad, y á todos nos importa, pues va no menos que la vida en ello, y yo de mi parte aseguro á vuesas mercedes no desampararles hasta morir, y favorecerles y ayudarles hasta que tengan sosiego verdadero".

Acabadas estas razones y plática, no supieron qué responder; sólo se movieron algunas dudas acerca del mudarse al valle de Atemaxac, temiendo que Nuño de Guzmán había de volver á sus pueblos por señor de título y los había de echar de allí; otros eran de parecer que se fuesen á México, y dejasen la tierra y no concordaban en cosa, y el contador Juan de Ojeda dijo que se acabasen de determinar y decir dónde habían de hacer asiento, y que entender que Guzmán había de volver, era cosa muy dudosa, porque sus causas en España iban muy largas y despacio, y que cuando bien librara de ellas, le habían de quitar los indios y ponerlos en la corona real, lo cual era cierto, por haberlo visto y oído en el Consejo, que había pocos días había venido de España con su oficio. Con esto algunos dijeron que convenía que se pasasen entre Ocotlán y Tonalán, en el llano de Atemaxac, otros que en Tuluquilla, y siempre hubo diversidad de pareceres sobre donde se pasarían, y los aficionados á Guzmán lo contradecían, y estando en esto, entró á donde estaban en cabildo Beatriz Hernández, mujer de Juan Sánchez Olea, y dijo; "Acaben los señores de determinar á do se ha de hacer esta mudanza, porque sí no, yo quiero y vengo á determinarlo, y que sea con más brevedad de lo que lo han estado pensando; miren cuáles están con demandas y respuestas, sin concluir cosa ninguna". Pidió licencia y dijo quería dar su voto y que, aunque mujer, podría ser acertado. Entonces el gobernador la hizo lugar y dio asiento, y estando oyendo á todos y que no se conformaban ni determinaban, pidió licencia para hablar, y habiéndoselo dado, dijo; "Señores, el rey es mi gallo, y yo soy de parecer que nos pasemos al valle de Atemaxac, y si otra cosa se hace, será de servicio de Dios y del rey, y lo demás es mostrar cobardía, ¿qué nos ha de hacer Guzmán, pues ha sido causa de los trances en que ha andado esta villa? que si Dios no nos favoreciera y el amparo y industria de nuestro buen capitán, no hubiéramos tenido su vigilancia y cuidado, aquí hubiéramos perecido", y volviéndose al gobernador le dijo: "¿cómo no habla aquí V. S.? Agora calla que es menester no hacer caso de votos tan vandoleros; el rey es mí gallo", y viendo que callaban todos, les dio voces que hablasen. Entonces dijo el gobernador: "Hágase así, Sra. Beatriz Hernández, y puéblese do está señalado", y todos contentos de que una mujer los sacase de confusión, vinieron en su parecer, que casi todos lo querían así, y no osaban hablar por ser en tierras de Guzmán, que los tenía tan sujetos cuando los gobernaba, que con estar en España aun tenían miedo de él. El gobernador dijo que no tenían para qué rehusar poblar la ciudad á donde se trataba, pues todas eran tierras del rey, y que ya no había qué hacer caso de las cosas de Guzmán, que temiesen á los enemigos á quien cada día tenían encima y los querían acabar, y era lo más forzoso y dificultoso de reparar, y que cuando fuera contra la voluntad de Guzmán (dado caso que volviese) vería la razón y las causas que les movía á hacerlo, y lo tendría por bien. Además, que la necesidad carece de ley, y que pues estaban ya resueltos de mudarse, que luego se proveyesen de personas tales para que fuesen y viesen dónde se había de fundar la ciudad, y así nombraron á Juan del Camino y á Miguel de Ibarra, los cuales fueron al valle de Tonalán y pueblo de Atemaxac, y de allí pasaron al pueblo que es agora Tuluquilla, y hallaron aquella hermosa fuente, y habiéndoles parecido bien, luego discordaron ambos capitanes, porque Miguel de Ibarra decía que allí era mejor que donde se pobló después, que fue en el puesto que ahora está, y Juan del Camino dijo que no era bien se poblase en el ojo de agua de Tuluquilla, que era cenagoso, además que era hacer doblado agravio á Guzmán, que tenía allí sus estancias. Así se conformaron y fueron al puesto á do hoy está la ciudad de Guadalajara y echaron de ver ser aquel mejor sitio, por tener unos llanos y ser más acomodado para correr sí viniese los enemigos, y buen arroyo de agua y muchos manantiales con buenas entradas y salidas para todas partes, y les pareció podrían meter el arroyo en la ciudad, y se engañaron, porque después fue dificultoso el hacerlo; pero hiciéronse muy buenos pozos y los hay.

y habiéndolo visto todo, y ser el sitio y valle tan desembarazado para poder pelear y correr, se trazó la ciudad y se repartieron solares para todos los vecinos, con que se volvieron y dieron cuenta al gobernador de lo que habían hecho, y á cada vecino su solar y traza para que acudiese á hacer su casa, y luego se salieron muchos vecinos de la ciudad combatida, y se pasaron al valle de Tonalán y sus pueblos para desde allá acudir á hacer sus casas, que no vían la hora de irse de tan espantados como quedaron de la rota, y por salir de un sitio tan triste y desventurado, que no era otra cosa que un cautiverio y destierro terrible, y sólo esto bastaba para despoblarlo. "

The First Pastorela: 
Tlajomulco, Jalisco
Recorded by Franciscan Prelate 
Father Alonso  Ponce in 1586
http://www.colonial-mexico.com/West%
20Mexico/ponce.html
Sent by George Gause ggause@panam.edu

Throughout Mexico, today as in colonial times, the Christmas season comes to a climax on January 6th, the Day of the Three Kings or Los Santos Reyes. Presents are exchanged amid communal festivities and traditional religious observances. Among these observances are the popular pastorelas, or re-enactments of the Nativity, instituted in early colonial times and still performed today in towns and villages across Mexico.

One of the earliest recorded pastorelas was witnessed in 1586, by the visiting Franciscan prelate Fray Alonso Ponce in the churchyard of the village of Tlajomulco, south of Guadalajara in what is now Jalisco. This scripted Nativity drama, performed by a native cast under the direction of the resident Franciscan missionary, was described by Antonio de Ciudad Real, a fellow Franciscan who accompanied Father Ponce on his arduous journey around New Spain.

In the 16th century, Tlajomulco was the principal Franciscan mission town for the Lake Cajitítlan region. Following destruction of the main church there and the establishment of Los Reyes Cajititlan beside the lake in the 18th century, this new mission town became the locus of this important regional festival.

The former colonial hospital chapel of La Purísima at Tlajomulco still stands, however (above), and has been recently restored for use by the residents.

Here are some excerpts from Ciudad Real's account of the elaborate and affecting miracle play:

The Pastorela of The Three Kings (1586)
"... (The Indians) had erected a "portal of Bethlehem" in front of the church door, containing the figures of the Christ Child, Mary and Joseph. The portal reached almost to the belfry and was constructed of thin poles and sticks covered with a Spanish moss, known as paxtle. To one side, Herod was enthroned in a ramada. From a nearby hill... the Three Kings descended slowly on horseback... accompanied by an Indian on foot and followed by an ancient guide who carried the gifts for the Christ Child. As they approached, natives dressed as angels sang and danced before El Niño, followed by troupes of shepherds who chanted praises and laid gifts of bread, sheep and a goat before him...

When the shepherds were altogether in the middle of the courtyard, there appeared an angel in a little tower made of wood, singing the Gloria in excelsis Deo. At the sound of the voice, the shepherds fell as if senseless to the ground. The angel exhorted them, telling them the news about the birth of the Child. They came to themselves again, rose up, went together to the ramparts, and with great happiness and rejoicing offered what they were bearing to the Child: one giving a little lamb, another a kid, some bread, another a cap, and other things, but all with such reverence that it provoked devotion in the onlooker.

Then again they commenced dancing about and singing in the same Mexican language (Nahuatl) in praise of the Child, some asking questions of others and recounting what they had seen and heard. They reacted with great happiness, repeating what the angel had said and chanting, 'gloria, gloria, gloria.' They gave great leaps and bounds using their shepherd's crooks, as of the greatest joy and pleasure... They wove intricate patterns with steps and with acrobatic antics, some leaping over the shepherd's crooks of the others, and all together forming circles and squares in a most commendable fashion...

"And finally, when they saw that the Kings were approaching, they made a circle or corral by joining their hands as in a wheel, leaving two of their number inside with their crooks; these ran after those of the circle as if they were bulls. Either of them brought to the ground with their crooks anyone whom he could catch. Thus they went about circling around from one place to another terminating their celebration which was certainly something to see.

The Kings, having been guided by a star which the Indians had made of shiny tinsel (or brass), arrived at the gate of the patio. They moved the star along by two cords which reached from the mountain to the tower of the church. They had placed little wooden towers at intervals, and made the star move along on its cord from these. As the Kings arrived at the gate of the patio, they hid the star by putting it in one of these little towers; they then sent their messengers in to see Herod...

Herod appeared and in response to their questions summoned his advisers, who consulted their books of prophecy, confirming the birth of a king. Furiously, Herod cast the books to the ground and demanded that the seers repeat the news, which they did. Pounding the table in a rage, Herod ordered an immediate search for the child. The star emerged from its hiding place and was moved to the Portal of Bethlehem at the foot of the church tower. The Three Kings then prostrated themselves before the figure of the Christ Child and offered up their gifts, including silver, with speeches in the Mexican language... Then the angel in the tower addressed the Kings, urging them to return to their lands by another route...

More than five thousand Indians attended this fiesta, with ten or a dozen friars and many Spaniards... "  ".. de una fiesta que los indios de Tlaxomulco hicieron el día de los Reyes" from Antonio de Ciudad Real, Viajes de fray Alonso Ponce al occidente de Mexico. Guadalajara (1968)

SOURCES AND LINKS:
Translations and abridgment ©1970 by Marilyn Ravicz, and ©2004 by Richard D. Perry. 
text ©2004 by Richard D. Perry Picture: The chapel front of La Purísima, Tlajomulco, at fiesta time. ©1996 by Richard D. Perry. For another account of Three Kings festivities in Jalisco, see our page on Cajititlan See also our Yucatan Nativity pages: Mérida and Tizimín. We have also expanded our earlier page on nearby Santa Anita Atlixtac.  For other pages on Jalisco and West Mexico, check out our archive. For a complete guide to the colonial art and architecture of Jalisco and West Mexico, consult our book Blue Lakes & Silver Cities.
  

LLAMAS DE TLALTENANGO Y JEREZ ZACATECAS

POR:  Salvador Cabral Valdes
http://cabral.galeon.com
cabral@jerez.zzn.com

CARIBBEAN/CUBA

Lares, Isabela, Camuy, Puerto Rico

Saludos a todos, Noted below is a listing of the contents of several LDS microfilms that I recently had the pleasure to review. I expected only to find genealogical data on Lares. To my surprise, I also found data on Isabela, Juncos and other towns in Puerto Rico. I hope this information helps you in the search for your roots. The LDS Microfilms can be ordered via your local LDS-Family History Center. Happy Hunting, David Acevedo y Pitre

LDS # 1511831 ? This film is labeled "Census de Jornaleros/Census of Workers
(1866-1870)". The film's contents is about 10% Lares and 90% Isabela, as delineated below:

Lares ? Contribucion Industrial y de Comercio ? 1898 through 1899.
Isabela ? Listing of Jornaleros/Workers ? 1866 through 1867
Isabela ? Listing of Jornaleros ? 1867 through 1873
Isabela ? Listing of Comercio/Merchants ? 1885 through 1899
Isabela ? Electoral 1879 ? Listing of Voters

Special note: all of the entries and pages are legible.

LDS # 1511663 ? This film is labeled "Censo de Habitantes/ Census of Households"
(1869-1875)". The film's contents is about 50% Lares and 50% Juncos, as
delineated below:

Juncos ? Censo de Habitantes/Household Census- 1897 -1898
Juncos ? Barrio Juraba. Household Census ? The year is not noted but it appears taken mid 1840's.
Bill of Sales Statements ? 1868
Bill of Sales Statements ? 1871-1872
Lares ? Censo de Habitantes/Household Census - 1884, for the following barrios:
· Barrio de Lares
· Barrio de Espino
· Barrio de Pesuela
· Barrio de Pueblo
Lares ? List of Varones/Males ? Age 14 through 60. Listed by Barrio and by
first name and last two surnames ? 1875
(special note: widows are also recorded on this list).
Lares ? Censo de Habitantes/Household Census by Barrio - 1873
Lares ? Censo de Habitantes/Household Census by Barrio ? 1846
Lares ? Censo de Habitantes/Household Census by Barrio ? 1840

Special note: all of the entries and pages are legible.

LDS # 1511709 ? This film is labeled "Censo 1852?1878, 1863 ?1898, 1855-1898". The film's contents is about 20% Juncos/Fajardo and about 80% Lares, as noted below:

Juncos ? Listing of Esclavos/Slaves and their owners ? 1842 through 1868
The Puerto Rican Newspaper called the "Gaceta de Puerto Rico" Issue 110,
Thursday, September 12, 1867. It contains articles written about numerous towns across the island.
Juncos ? 1867 Listing of Merchants.
Juncos ? Listing of Esclavos/Slaves and their owners ? 1867 and 1870
Fajardo ? Listing of Esclavos and their owners ? 1851 thru 1868, 1868 thru 1869, 1875
Fajardo ? Letters in English and Spanish and telephone directory 1885 thru 1923.
Lares - Economico de 1876 ? Tarifas ? Contribucion Industrial y e Comercio
Lares - Censo de Habitantes/Household Census ? 1878 ? Barrio Rio Prieto
Lares - Listing of Jornaleros/Workers ? 1863 ? Writing in poor condition ? 50% legible.
Lares - Censo de Habitantes/Household Census ? 1897 ? Barrio de la Torre
Lares - Listing of Esclavos/Slaves and their Owners ? 1869 and 1870.
Listed by barrios. Slaves are listed by name and occupation.
Lares ? Listing of Merchants - 1879 (e.g. Banaderias, Picadores de Tobaco, etc.).
Lares - Censo de Habitantes/Household Census ? 1872 ? Not all barrios are listed.
· Barrio Poblacion
· Barrio Latorre (formerly known as Barrio de la Torre)
· Barrio Bartolo
· Barrio Espino
· Barrio Pesuela
Lares ? Listing of Jornaleros/Workers ? 1865. Listed by barrio.
Lares ? Listing of Esclavos/Slaves and their Owners - 1872
Lares - Listing of Esclavos/Slaves and their Owners ? 1873
Lares ? Censo de Habitantes/Household Census - 1852. Listed by barrio.
This segment is very important because it also contains a listing of property (land, livestock, etc).
Lares ? Censo de Habitantes/Household Census - 1840. Listed by barrio.
This segment is very important because it also contains a listing of property (land, livestock, etc).
Lares ? Listing of Jornaleros/Workers ? 1836.
Lares ? Censo de Habitantes/Household Census - 1856. Listed by barrio
Buenos Aires and Barrio Bartolo only.. 
This segment is very important because it also contains a listing of property (land, livestock, etc).
Lares ? Listing of Esclavos ? first name only ? year unknown.
Lares - Censo de Habitantes/Household Census ? 1841
Lares ? Censo de Habitantes/Household Census ? 1871. Listed by the following barrios:
· Barrio Bartola
· Barrio Pilatas
· Barrio Mirasol
· Barrio Espino
· Barrio Pesuela
· Barrio Pueblo
Lares ? Censo de Habitantes/Household Census ? 1872. Listed by the
following barrios:
· Barrio Pesuela
· Barrio Latorre
· Barrio Poblacion

Special note: all of the entries and pages are legible, except otherwise noted.

LDS # 1511736 ? This film is labeled "Census de Jornaleros/Census of Workers
(1847-1875)". The film is about 90% Isabela and 10% Lares, as noted below:

Isabela ? Electoral 1890, 1893, 1894, 1895, 1896, 1897, and 1898. Listing of Voters. Listed by barrio.
Barrio Cota ? Listing of Padron (Employers) de Jornaleros/Workers ? 1852-50% legible.
Barrio Tovos y Bejucos ? Listing of Jornaleros?1852, 1857, 1860, 1862,
1865, and 1873. Camuy ? Listing of Jornaleros/Workers ? 1871, 1872
The Puerto Rican Newspaper called the "Gaceta de Puerto Rico" 1873.
Lares ? Listng of Jonarelos by barrio ? 1849 and 1852 ? It delineates the physical traits (i.e. height, color of eyes, hair, beard, etc.), name of parents, date of birth, etc.

LDS # 1511809 ? This film is labeled "Censo de Habitantes/ Census of Households (1864-1875) and Jornaleros/Workers (1866-1870)." About 50% of the film contains genealogical data on Lares. The remaining 50% is on various other towns, delineated below:

Listing of Esclavos for the towns of Toa Baja, Corozal, Trujillo Bajo, Dorado, La Carolina and Vega Baja (1873).
Lares ? Censo de Habitantes/Household Census ? 1874. Listed by all 12 barrios:
This makes it a complete census, for 1874, taken of the town and its barrios.
Lares ? Listing of Jornaleros/Workers ? 1862. Listed by barrios
Lares ? Listing of Jornaleros/Workers ? 1867
Lares ? Listing of Jornaleros/Workers ? 1866
Lares ? Listing of Agriculturalist ? Cultivo de Café ?1898-99

Special note: all of the entries and pages are very legible.

SPAIN

Grijalva Church, founded in 1320
VILLA de GRIJALVA, La Provincia de Burgos, 
Castilla y León  -  Burgos, Northern Spain.
http://perso.wanadoo.es/jmarron/sigloXIV. XV.htm

Sent by Eddie Grijalva, grijalvaet@sbcglobal.net

Phil Valdez Jr., at the entrance to the Archivo General de Indias, where he was privileged to look over some records.

Phil Valdez Jr., standing below
 the statue of Columbus in Madrid.

Entrance, walled village of Niebla about 40 kilometers from Sevilla, and about the same distance from Palos de la Frontera, 
cuna del descuvirmiento de las Americas, 
Niebla is the birthplace of Juan Bautista Valdez.

Statue commerating Rodrigo de Triana in the barrio de Triana in Sevilla.
Rodrigo is credited with being the first to sight land on that famous morning of October 12, 1492.

The Library of Congress, 
Global Gateway
World Culture and Resources

MOGUER, España
Odiel Información, de Huelva, Edición 20 de enero de 2005

Tuvo Moguer especial importancia en la aventura del encuentro con América, ya que de su astillero salió la Carabela Niña, que junto con la Pinta y la nao Santa Maria partieron el 3 de agosto de 1492. La carabela "Niña", la llamaron así porque era propiedad de los hermanos Niño, hijos de Moguer que participaron en el primer viaje de Cristóbal Colon.

Moguer está escasamente a siete kilómetros de Palos, por lo que es normal que en la aventura colombina formaran parte de las tripulaciones hombres de este pueblo, como Bartolomé Roldán, Alonso López, Juan de Moguer y Francisco García Vallejos, entre otros.

En los siguientes viajes, tanto de Colón como de otros, también fueron moguereños que, en muchos casos, se quedaron en el Nuevo Mundo.

En la Expedición de Fernando de Magallanes para descubrir el Océano Pacifico de 1519, también iban marineros de Moguer, como; Antón Rodríguez, casado con Teresa González Neblina, que era calderero e ingreso en la armada de Magallanes como marinero de la San Antonio, a la vez que su hijo Lorenzo de Grumete, mas tarde se trasbordó a la Concepción y fue a morir en la emboscada que sufrieron en Zebu el 1 de mayo de 1521. Un hijo suyo, llamado Francisco, se presentó al Consejo de Indias en 1547, solicitando que se le pagase el sueldo que había devengado su padre.

Otro vecino de Moguer en la expedición de Magallanes fue Francisco Ruiz, que estaba casado con Beatriz Martín, e iba como marinero en la Concepción y cuando esta nave se hundió pasó a la Trinidad, donde falleció el 5 de octubre de 1522 durante la travesía. Por mandato del Consejo de Indias de 3 de junio de 1526, se pagaron a la viuda de Ruiz 6.759 maravedíes. Hay una Real Cedula de 9 de mayo de 1532, librada a instancia de Beatriz Martín y sus hijos huérfanos. Que ordenó al Consejo de Indias que averiguase la parte de sueldo que se le debía a Francisco Ruiz y lo que hubiera importado la quintalada de clavo que se decía haber remitido a Sevilla, certificación que solo se obtuvo a principios del año 1536.

Al parecer el grumete Lorenzo Rodríguez, regresó a España a mitad de la singladura aprovechando un barco de vuelta.

                                     Ángel Custodio Rebollo

De Odiel Información.Huelva.España, 
Edición 18 de enero de 2005

Creo que los onubenses conocemos la aventura que emprendió Francisco de Vides, de Trigueros, que fue Gobernador de Cumaná, en la actual Venezuela y que entonces era llamada Nueva Andalucía. A nuestro paisano le tocó defender la ciudad contra el ataque del corsario inglés Walter Raleigh, que fue derrotado, el 24 de junio de 1595

Francisco de Vides había partido en 1592 con una expedición de pobladores de esa región y como es lógico llevó a mucha gente de su pueblo y de la zona de Huelva. Como a muchos lectores  les gustará hacer conjeturas o investigaciones sobre si alguno de estos pobladores perteneció a su familia, voy a facilitar los datos que poseo.

De Trigueros, de donde partía Francisco de Vides como Gobernador de Cumaná, le acompañaban Juan Ruiz de Vides, Gonzalo Muriel, Cristóbal Rodríguez, Juan de Huelva, Cristóbal Martín Ramos, Juan de Vargas,y Juan de Villalba, todos solteros. De Beas, la familia compuesta por Cristóbal Rodríguez Orihuela y su mujer Maria García, con sus hijos Benito e Isabel y Cristóbal Martín, soltero. De Moguer, nada mas iba Alonso Ramírez con su mujer Antonia Martín. De Aracena, Alonso de Vides Vergara, soltero, y dos matrimonios, García Gómez y Catalina Pérez, y el compuesto por Alonso Martín y Violante de Ávila. De Ayamonte, Álvaro de Sosa, Juan Núñez de Bohórquez. De Villarrasa, Cristóbal Jiménez y Francisco de Contreras y de Niebla, Luis Sánchez de los Olivos, estos cinco últimos también solteros.

En la expedición de pobladores abundaban los extremeños, y hay un pueblo que me ha llamado la atención porque emigraron muchos naturales de Fuente de Cantos. En realidad hay de casi todas las zonas de España y por ejemplo de la actual Andalucía, hay pobladores de todas las provincias, pero sin duda, aparte de la zona onubense, es Sevilla quien se lleva la palma, algo muy natural porque allí autorizaban en la Casa de Contratación a los pasajeros y, por lógica, habría recomendaciones y sobornos para incluir a alguno en una expedición de conveniencia, aún cuando, una vez en el destino, podrían utilizar alguna forma de marchar para otro lugar.

                                                  Ángel Custodio Rebollo

FRANCISCO VELA SILLER

(Ciudad Real, 1946 – 1985) Pintor. Formado en Ciudad Real, donde asiste a los talleres de Antonio López Torres y Manuel L. Villaseñor. Expuso por primera vez en el Hotel Castillo de Ciudad Real en 1971, haciéndolo desde entonces sin interrupción, y hasta su muerte, en las principales ciudades españolas. Galardonado en innumerables ocasiones, desde 1972 en que logra el Premio de Pintura al Aire Libre del Ayuntamiento de Ciudad Real, obtuvo entre otros el Premio de la Exposición de Primavera de Sevilla (1975), el de las Cajas de Ahorros (1975), la Medalla de Oro de la Exposición Nacional de Pintura de Argamasilla de Alba (1977), el Molino de Oro de la Exposición Nacional de Valdepeñas (1979), el Premio de Ponferrada (1980),el de Campo de Criptana (1980) etc.

Fundó y dirigió la Galería Andrade en 1977. Realizó una pintura figurativa dentro de un realismo intimista y poético, que no restaba testimonio al modelo con el que se enfrentaba, sino que lo trascendía de espíritu y emoción.

Antonio Gamoneda escribe: "Sus cuadros, son cuadros con historia, representación de tiempo, de soledad, de la ruina o la vejez que se deposita sobre las cosas. Y su atmósfera, la de sus obras, tiene una misma connotación". Y Manuel Espadas apostilla: "se mueve la pintura de Vela Siller, en esa aneja y fecunda línea de la Escuela Española que, espléndida en Velásquez, llega con irresistible atracción a los artistas de nuestra hora". Excelente pintor, al que esperaba un brillante porvenir, murió en un trágico accidente automovilístico, en plena madurez creadora. Él mismo había escrito: "Desde que tengo conciencia estoy pintando".

En 1985, el Ayuntamiento de Valdepeñas le dedicó una muestra retrospectiva dentro de la XLVI Exposición Nacional de Artes Plásticas, y la galería Arjana de Ciudad Real organizó una antológica de recuerdo y homenaje en 1991. Su obra figura en la colección de la Diputación de Ciudad Real y en otras importantes pinacotecas públicas y privadas.

                              Angel Custodio Rebollo  custodiorebollo@terra.es

Los orígenes de los apellidos son a veces, de lo mas curioso. Hace unos días, indagando sobre otro tema, me encontré con la leyenda del origen del nombre del apellido Treviño y, como tengo una amiga que así se apellida y sé que me lee con alguna frecuencia, quiero dedicarle mi articulo de hoy.

La leyenda del apellido Treviño dice así: El principal ascendiente de esta casa, Rodrigo Fernández de Unda, estando un día en lucha con los invasores, un árabe de los que en aquel tiempo estaba muy considerado entre los suyos como hombre de mucho valor, desafió a cualquiera de los caballeros cristianos que quisieran combatir con él cuerpo a cuerpo, con la condición que el vencedor, fuese cristiano o musulmán, estuviese obligado a pelear con otros dos que a cada uno acompañarían en la lucha. Rodrigo Fernández de Unda pidió ser el que aceptara la pelea y, cumpliendo con las condiciones del desafío, volvió victorioso después de haberle cortado la cabeza a los tres musulmanes.

El Rey se mostró muy honrado con la victoria de Rodrigo, y éste se retiró a descansar después de la lucha. Como los árabes se mostraban muy inquietos, los cristianos se prepararon para defender en caso de que fuesen atacados, y los caballeros, cuando marchaban junto a la tienda de Rodrigo, le quisieron llamar, a lo que el Rey se opuso diciendo:"Dejadle descansar que esta tarde con tres viño". Y desde entonces, le llamaron Tresviño, vocablo que se fue corrompiendo hasta nuestros días y desde entonces todos los descendientes de Rodrigo Fernández de Unda, cambiaron el apellido Unda por el de Treviño.

Ángel Custodio Rebollo  custodiorebollo@terra.es

More on Treviño sent by Irma Cantu  Irmacantu@aol.com

http://www.buber.net/Basque/Surname/T/trevino.html  includes more on :

TREVINO This Surname (must be read Trevigno), was originated in Trevino, but there are families with this name in Trevino, Navarra and Spain (Burgos, and Ciudad Real). It is very difficult to know what it means. There are four coats of arms of this surname depending of the family.

Sent by Julian Trevino-Villarreal

Cuando pare en el pueblo de Trevino tuve la oportunidad de conversar con varias personas del pueblo, pero nadie sabia con exactitud el significado del apellido Trevino. De hecho me decian que no conocian en ese momento a nadie en ese pueblo que se apellidara Trevino. Me diriji al panteon y tampoco encontre a nadie sepultado alli con el apellido Trevino. No fue si hasta que conoci al padre de la iglesia del pueblo que me dio dos versiones de lo que significa la palabra "Trevino" La primera es que cuando este pueblo fue fundado por los Romanos estos le pusieron el nombre en latin "Trevinium" que significa Tre=Tres Vinium=confines en relacion a los tres confines que significaban las culturas Celta, Vasca, y Mora. La otra version del origen del nombre viene despues de que establecen los vinyedos en La Rioja donde Tre=Detras vino= de los vinyedos. Asi que ahi tienes las dos versiones del origen del nombre Trevino, pero no encontre nada de algun antecesor de mi apellido. Otra version que escuche en el pueblo es durante la reconquista muchos sefarditas (judios) se vieron en la necesidad de cambiar sus apellidos y escojian como su apellido el del pueblo en donde vivian!!!

2. Muy estimadas personas,con el apellido TREVIñO:
En efecto,el origen m[as seguro de nuestro apellido, es el de origen latino,trifinium,que aun se emplea como palabra de uso corriente en topografi'a, y significa el sitio donde tienen sus 'confines' tres demarcaciones, en español actual un trifinio, es el punto donde convergen tres comarcas,o terrenos,o provincias o estados.Y al examinar el mapa del condado de Treviño, enclavado en el sur de la provincia de Alava,la ma's meridional de las vascongadas,pero perteneciente administrativamente a la provincia de Burgos,de la Comunidad Auto'noma de Castilla-Leo'n,nos damos cuenta de que Treviño esta' en donde limitan o 'confinan' tres fronteras o li'mites o 'confines, que son los del Pais Vasco;Navarra; y Castilla.Lo dema's son especulaciones.Nuestro apellido es muy antiguo,viene desde los Romanos.Y a mucha honra. Les saluda su tocayo de apellido:Enrique Ricardo Treviño.

INTERNATIONAL 

Venezuela, País de Inmigrantes, 
Todo en Domingo, No. 261 Caracas 03 de Oct de 2004. Diario El Nacional   
Melania Suárez   melaniasuarez@hotmail. com
 
Los Españoles
"Los Españoles , las adversidades de la Guerra Civil iniciaron un proceso migratorio que continuo con la debacle económica europea. Venezuela alberga a la segunda mayor colonia de españoles, después de Argentina"
"Se calcula que en el País viven casi 300.000 Españoles"
"Los Canarios y Gallegos representan 50% de la Comunidad" 
"Entre 1948 y 1958 ingresaron 150.000 Inmigrantes provenientes de España"

El Mundo Árabe
"Entre Libaneses, Sirios, y Palestinos suman cerca del 90% de la inmigración del mundo Árabe en Venezuela. En varias oleadas, representantes de estos laboriosos pueblos llegaron al País donde desplegaron sus costumbres con el pueblo Venezolano.
"A los llegados de los Países Árabes se les solía decir "Turcos" porque durante la dominación del Imperio Turco Otomano sobre Líbano, Siria y Palestina, los oriundos viajaban con "pasaporte Turcos""
"El Historiador Ramón Díaz Sánchez fija el año 1866 como el de llagada del primer Libanés a Venezuela. Otros estudios indican que en 1882 los Hermanos Dibo iniciaron la inmigración entrado por la Isla de Margarita, axial como los Dao por Puerto Cabello"
"Hay casi medio millón de Musulmanes en Venezuela, la mayoría de ascendencia Árabe. En el País hay cuatro Mezquitas. La de Caracas-ubicada en Quebrada Honda-es una de las mas grandes de Latinoamérica. El credo Musulmán exige ciertas normas: las mujeres deben "tapar sus encantos" y los días de mucha concurrencia oran separadas de los Hombres; además rezan en dirección a La Meca, todos los Fieles deben descalzarse"
"Generalmente se asocia al mundo Árabe con la religión Musulmana. Sin embargo, en Caracas, la mezquita Musulmana y la Iglesia Católica Moronita - que recibe, en su mayoría, a Libaneses Cristianos - conviven a unos pocos metros."

Los Colombianos 
"Los Inmigrantes de la Hermana Republica comenzaron a llegar al País durante los años 60 y 70, aupados por el boom Petrolero y prestos a ocupar cargos de mano de Obra. Actualmente, el perfil también abarca Profesionales y Técnicos."
"La mayoría de los Colombianos proviene de la Zona Norte Costera del País."

Los Italianos 
"Muchos llegaron sin un centavo, sin conocer el Idioma y sin mayores conocimientos. Aquí levantaron Negocios, Empresas y Familias. En honor a su gentilicio gregario, suelen reunirse en largas conversas ante un café, un vino o una comida abundante"
" En 1957, llegaron mas de 45.000 Inmigrantes; 24.022 eran Italianos."
En el siglo XIX arribo la primera gran Oleada de Italianos"

Los Judíos 
"Los Primeros Judíos Sefardíes vinieron a Venezuela desde Curazao durante el Siglo XIX. Luego de la II Guerra Mundial, se llevo a cabo una importante Migración del Grupo Ashkenazi. Actualmente, la comunidad Hebrea es una de las mas influyentes de la Vida Publica Nacional"
" Los Tefilin. Esta pieza consiste en dos pequeñas cajas que contienen cuatro pasajes del Tora. Una de las piezas se coloca sobre el brazo izquierdo, frente al corazón, mientras que la correa que las une se ata alrededor del mismo brazo. La segunda caja se coloca en la cabeza. Así, la atención se dirige al corazón y la mano, de modo que el practicante consagre a Dios todo lo que piensa, siente y hace."
"En la Sinagoga Tiferet Israel se congregan los Judíos Sefardíes, quienes descienden de los que fueron expulsados de España ( 1492 ). Los Ashkenazi provienen de Europa Central."
" Baruj Benacerraf Judío-Venezolano gano el Nobel de Medicina "
"En 1939, llegaron al País 251 Judíos que escaparon de los nazis" 
"La Biblioteca Leo y Anita Blum, en la Unión Israelita de Caracas, guarda los mayores tesoros del Pueblo Hebreo Criollo: el Conocimiento y la Memoria de la Comunidad. Allí consultan, tanto estudiantes como estudiosos, desde antiguos textos Judaicos hasta libros de Historia. Para visitarla hay que pedir una cita a través de numero: 058-0212-5528222"

Los Portugueses
"Llegaron con su buena madera para el trabajo arduo pleno de amaneceres y horas extras. Con las Panaderías han hecho de esta Tierra un lugar mas amigable y en sus manos esta mas del 50% del comercio de Alimentos"
"La Comunidad Lusitana en Venezuela suma 550.000 Personas, incluidos sus Descendientes."
" 70% de los inmigrantes Portugueses llegaron de Madeira"
"Existen 35 Clubes Lusitanos en todo el País, según lo atestigua Aleixo Vieria, director del Correio de Caracas"
"Los Portugueses son Familiares por Excelencia."
"Las Fiestas Patronales de Portugal se celebran con puntualidad en esta Tierra. El día de la Virgen de la Salud - La Virgen de la Montaña para los Madeirenses - merece una Fiesta durante el mes de Agosto en el Centro Portugués, que incluye una misa, danzas y comida Típica."
"En cada Estado de Venezuela hay por lo menos dos Grupos Folclóricos Portugueses. Un baile indispensable es el bailinho de Madeira. ( Es como la Canción: Alma Llanera Nuestra ), comente Antonio Granja, director de Danzas y Cantares del Centro Portugués."
"Se calcula que 72% de las Panaderías del País están en manos de Lusitanos "

Los Chinos 
"Provienen de uno de los Países mas Poderosos y Poblados del Mundo. Dispersos por todo el Planeta, en Venezuela las ciudades del centro del País concentran la mayor cantidad de Inmigrantes de la Patria de Mao"
"Huyendo del Comunismo, los Chinos están ampliamente disgregados por todo el Mundo. Solo de la provincia de Guangdong - al Sur de China - han emigrado cerca de 20 millones de Personas a mas de 100 Países"
"Caracas, Valencia, Barquisimeto y Maracay son las Ciudades que concentran la mayoría de Colonias Chinas de Venezuela. En cada una, los Inmigrantes se reúnen en el Centro Social de la localidad"
"Se estima que 100.000 Chinos viven en Venezuela"
"Con jiaozi(raviolis) acompañados de lechón asado y sopa de aleta de tiburón celebran los Chinos su Fiesta de Año. De acuerdo con el calendario Lunar. el festín se realiza a finales de enero y principios de febrero"
" De Guangdong, cuya capital es Cantón, proviene la mayoría de Inmigrantes Chinos.". 

La Inmigración, por Etapas Oleadas de gente nueva.
Melania Suárez melaniasuarez@hotmail.com

Distintos procesos inmigratorios han signado de manera indeleble la Idiosincrasia nacional. De modo que la historia del País y la cotidianidad de cada Venezolano se han visto enriquecidas por personas de otras fronteras.

Decirlo con ejemplos tomados de la calle es mas fácil y suena a globalización: después de desayunar en la Panadería del Portugués, nos montamos en el autobús que conduce un Colombiano para ir a la Librería del Argentino. Almorzamos Español, Árabe o Chino, el carnaval nos suena a Calipso, el heladero nos habla Creole y le decimos Nonna a la Abuela.
Pero indagar sobre el impacto de los Inmigrantes en la economía y los hábitos sociales de los Venezolanos no es tarea fácil. La investigadora Susan Berglund, coautora del libro Los de afuera: un estudio analítico del proceso migratorio en Venezuela, explica"Nadie ha hecho un análisis cuantitativo del aporte extranjero a la sociedad Venezolana, por lo tanto no se puede precisar ningún aspecto en concreto". Sin embargo, algunas consideraciones se desprenden de la opinión de investigadores como el eminente geógrafo e historiador Pedro Cunill Grau: "Las corrientes migratorias del siglo XX dejaron una huella positiva en geografía cultural y económica Venezolana, contribuyendo a modernizar y ampliar importantes actividades financieras, comerciales y culturales".
Cunill se refiere a los dos grandes procesos inmigratorios de la historia nacional, hace menos de 60 años. Desde entonces, esos grupos de inmigrantes fueron asociados con algún tipo de actividad aunque, como dice la historiadora Maria González Deluca, no es posible asegurar si se trata de un fenómeno real o de un estereotipo.

"Los Italianos se relacionan con la construcción en los años 60; los Portugueses con el comercio de comestibles y el establecimiento de abastos y supermercados; los Canarios con el cultivo y el pequeño comercio; los del Cono Sur con la inmigración intelectual y profesional; y los de Países Andinos con mano de Obra barata para labores domesticas, del campo y la construcción".

GOBERNAR ES POBLAR
Para Cunill Grau, Venezuela adquiere su primer rostro urbanos y rural del ambiente mediterráneo de los primeros conquistadores: "Pensar en lo que significa la irrupción del caballo, la hacienda, la ciudad... Eso transforma todo el paisaje Venezolano".
después de la guerra de Independencia, existía un País pero muy pocos ciudadanos. Por eso, la consigna para la reconstrucción era: "Gobernar es Poblar". Pero los intentos de establecer colonias agrícolas con inmigrantes europeos fracasaron, uno tras otro. Apenas fue entrando el siglo XIX - cuando prosperan los sistemas de plantaciones de café, cacao y azúcar - cuando cambia el panorama. "Entonces sino de la búsqueda de oportunidades y movilizaciones de Capital", dice González Deluca.

Los comerciantes, principalmente europeos - Ingleses, Alemanes, algunos Franceses, muchos Corsos-, ocuparon los centros portuarios del País: Maracaibo, Puerto Cabello, La Guaira y Ciudad Bolívar. Paralelamente, se producen otros aportes como las llamadas "migraciones silentes" de colombianos a zonas Andinas. También se inicia la explotación de Oro en Guayana, lo que se traduce en la llegada de inmigrantes del Caribe, Trinidad y Guyana, al Sur y Oriente del País.
"Esa migración de Las Antillas anglófonas genero formas culturales binacionales - en particular, musicales como el Calipso y el Parang - que constituyen parte del Patrimonio cultural Venezolano", dice la socióloga Lulu Gimenez Saldivia. A su vez, otras inmigraciones - Sirias, Chinas y Japonesas - comienzan a configurar los oficios del País económico.


SE ABREN LAS PUERTAS
Hasta mediados del siglo XX, Venezuela sequía sin atraer inmigrantes. Pero al finalizar la Segunda Guerra Mundial, se produjo un rápido ascenso en el numero de Extranjeros que ingreso al País.
En 1945, entran legalmente a Venezuela 7.218 Personas. En 1947, la cifra asciende aproximadamente a 20.000 . Y entre 1948 y 1961 se produce la primera inmigración masiva en la historia de Venezuela: unos 800.000 Extranjeros ingresaron en ese periodo, aunque muchos siguieron de paso y , para 1961 solo se naturalizaron 526.000.

La mayoría eran Españoles, Italianos, Norteamericanos, Colombianos y Portugueses. Un tercio de los Españoles eran oriundo de Las Islas Canarias y otra cantidad similar de Galicia. Un tercio de los Portugueses vino de Madeira y 60% de los Inmigrantes Italianos vino del Sur. "En la década de los años 50, Españoles, Italianos y Portugueses contribuyen a formar nuevas urbanizaciones que marcan la expresividad urbana Caraqueña y de otras ciudades del País. Un caso relevante : La Candelaria", dice Cunill Grau.

Al ingresar al País, los inmigrantes reportan sus ocupaciones: agricultura, construcción, comercio, mecánica, artesanía y manufactura. Uno de cada cinco extranjero trabajaba en el sector de servicios. "Los sobresalientes fue que una de cada dos personas en la categoría de gerentes, administradores, directores y propietarios era Extranjera", comenta Berglund.

El enorme crecimiento que experimenta la población Venezolana después de 1950 hace innecesario seguir fomentando la inmigración. Pero la convulsión política en el Caribe produce una nueva movilización. "Llegan los desplazados por el triunfo de la revolución cubana, por las dictaduras de Duvalier en Haití y de Trujillo en Republica Dominicana", dice Gimenez Saldivia. Este "exilio" voluntario no es muy numeroso, hasta los años 1973 y 1974, cunado enorme incrementos en los precios del petróleo y los ambiciosos planes gubernamentales provocan un nuevo auge, mayor incluso que en la década de 1950.

Durante los años 70, mas de 300.000 Personas regularizaron su condición de residencia. Aunque proceden de varias partes del mundo, la inmigración sudamericana, centroamericanos y de las antillas es muy superior en numero: Colombianos, Ecuatorianos, Dominicanos, Peruanos, Trinitarios, Haitianos, Guayaneses, Argentinos, Chilenos y Uruguayos. "Lo que mas atraía a la Inmigración a Venezuela era la movilidad social, lo que era estrictamente resultado de la bonanza económica petrolera, sumado a las coyunturas políticas y económicas de los otros Países", opina González Deluca.

Para 1980, se contabilizan 270.000 indocumentados, de los que 92% eran Colombianos, seguidos muy de lejos por Ecuatorianos, Dominicanos y Peruanos, entre otros. Esta nueva Inmigración se parece mucho a la población Venezolana, en grado de educación, tipo de ocupación... y problemas económicos.


LOS DESPLAZADOS
Buscando mejores oportunidades, las corrientes migratorias siguen su camino. Para finales de los 90, Bergland afirmaba: "La crisis económica, que se agudizo en 1983 y estallo en 1989 freno la Inmigración. Esto no significa que haya disminuido, sino que se sabe que se han ido mas de 25.000 Portugueses, 20.000 Italianos, 40.000 Españoles, entre otros. Ellos han sido reemplazados en gran parte por Personas procedentes de varios Países Hispanoamericanos".

A juicio de Cunill Grau, se mantienen aquellas inmigraciones "provenientes de zonas donde se expresan problemas de inseguridad, deterioro ecológico y pobreza extrema, como en las regiones del Manabi, en Ecuador, o en los Andes y el litoral caribeño Colombiano". Esta Inmigración es fundamentalmente económica. "Ha creado un nuevo componente social, que se evidencia especialmente en las ciudades", dice Gimenez Saldivia. "No solamente Colombianos, también Dominicanos, Ecuatorianos y Haitianos han creado barriadas enteras en las grandes ciudades de Venezuela". Barrios con contenido culturales móviles, como dice la socióloga, entendidos como un nuevo producto cultural Venezolano que se integra a las corrientes migratorias del siglo XXI.
"Uno de los impactos fundamentales de las olas Inmigratorias es que Venezuela se abrió al resto del mundo, pues siempre había sido un contexto aldeano, aislado". Y de que manera se abrió. Aquí quedan los sabores, los sonidos, los colores y la historia de un territorio de paso devenido en País de todos. 

LA INMIGRACIÓN EN EL TIEMPO 
1825 Fracasa el proyecto de la Colonia Topo de Tacagua, con inmigrantes Escoceses.
1831 Se promulga la primera ley de inmigración, dirigida a los Canarios.
1837 Se reforma la ley de inmigración para incluir a todos los Europeos.
1843 Se funda La Colonia Tovar, único proyecto de colonización agrícola que se mantiene hasta nuestros días.
1874 Se funda La Colonia Guzmán Blanco "Ex-Presidente de Venezuela"( luego Independencia ) y la Colonia Bolívar. Ambos proyectos decaen rápidamente.
1891 Se desarrollan los centros portuarios y comienza la explotación del Oro en Guayana, atrayendo comerciantes Europeos y trabajadores Antillanos.
1903 Cipriano Castro "Ex-Presidente de Venezuela" firma la primera ley de Extranjeros, no tanto para incentivar la inmigración sino para controlar sus actividades.
1936 Se promulga una Ley de Inmigración y colonización, que se reforma en 1937. Las nuevas leyes solo contemplan a "blancos"
1945 Con el fin de la Segunda Guerra Mundial, se reinicia el proceso inmigratorio, casi detenido hasta entonces.
1948-1961 800.000 Extranjeros ingresan en ese periodo; en su mayoría Españoles, Italianos, Portugueses, y Centro-Europeos.
1958 Termina la política de "puertas abiertas".
1960 Llega la "antigua inmigración" antillana con "exiliados" de los gobiernos autoritarios en Cuba, Republica Dominicana y Haití.
1970 Se produce una nueva oleada de inmigrantes, sudamericanos en su mayoría.
1980 Los Colombianos seguidos por Ecuatorianos, Dominicanos y Peruanos, superan al resto de los inmigrantes. Los del cono sur comienzan su retirada.
1990 El numero de extranjeros se reduce. 70% son sudamericanos. 

HISTORY

http://www.nps.gov/grca/pphtml/nature.html

Parques Nacionales Norteamericanos
National Parks of the United States

Pedro de Tovar and Lopez de Cardenas, were, in 1540, the first Europeans to be struck with awe before the wonders of the Grand Canyon of the Colorado, in Arizona.

Few relate the Spaniards in America and the national parks of the United States. Nevertheless, the connection is there. Let us begin our quest in the most remote of the forty-eight contiguous states-Washington, on the Pacific Coast, adjoining Canada and we shall soon find traces of Spain.

Olympic National Park is a preserve as distant as any from the big cities of the Atlantic seaboard, from the geographic center of the forty-eight contiguous states, and from the nation's capital. Let us see what is said of a Spaniard on a commemorative stone in the state of Washington on the Pacific Coast, on the edge of a marvelous highway that runs close to this magnificent park:

The Spanish captain Juan Perez sailed north from San Bias in 1774, with orders from Spain to claim the coast, against the Russians. Perez discovered Nootka Sound on the west shore of Vancouver Island and traded with the natives of the Queen Charlottes. He sighted a snow peak, towering high and afar from a rock-bound coast, on August 11, 1774. He named it Sierra Nevada de Santa Rosalia. Four years later British captain John Meares was the second explorer to observe the mighty peak. He named it Mt. Olympus.

Two captains of Coronado's troops, Pedro de Tovar and Lopez de Cardenas, were, in 1540, the first white men to be struck with awe before the wonders of the Grand Canyon of the Colorado, in Arizona.

The wooded heights of Great Smoky Mountains National Park were sighted by Hernando de Soto in the sixteenth century when he traveled with his men through what is now North Carolina and Tennessee.

The discovery of the Hawaiian archipelago generally is attrib-uted to Captain James Cook of the Royal British Navy, who arrived there in 1778. But the Haleakala Guide published by the Hawaii Natural History Association in 1959 asserts that a Spanish navi-gator, Juan Gaetano, visited the islands in 1555. Contemporary documents in the Spanish Archives, the Haleakala Guide states, show a group of islands in the latitude of Hawaii, but ten degrees of longitude too far west. What corresponds to the island of Maui is called La Desgraciada (The Unfortunate); the island of Hawaii is labeled La Mesa (The Table); and what appears to represent Kahoolawe, Lanai, and Molokai is called Los Monjes (The Monks). Despite the error in the recorded longitude, the fact that the islands appear on the chart, as well as their approximate locations-there are no other islands in the vicinity-allow us to assume with some assurance that Juan Gaetano was in effect the first white man to cast his eyes on the region that now includes Haleakala and Hawaii national parks.

In 1541, De Soto was in what is now Hot Springs National Park, Arkansas.

Kings Canyon, California, owes its name to the Spaniards who discovered the river of the Holy Kings one January 6, the feast of the Three Magi, in whose honor they named the area Canyon of the Three Kings.

Mesa Verde, Colorado, was discovered by Juan Maria de Rivera in 1765. Ten years later, Father Escalante camped near what is now the entrance to Mesa Verde National Park.

The Olympic Mountains, dominating the Strait of Juan de Fuca from the state of Washington and forming the central spine of Olympic National Park, were discovered in 1774 by a lieutenant of the Spanish navy, Juan Perez, who named the highest of them Cerro de Santa Rosalia. Four years later an English navigator, John Meares, saw the same peak from the Strait of Juan de Fuca and gave it the name of Mount Olympus, which has been used ever since on maps and maritime charts.

Platt National Park, Oklahoma, is a part of the territory that was traversed by Coronado's captains in or about 1542, when they were exploring the southern part of what is now the United States.

At least some of the seventy-five peaks that rise above 9,800 feet in Rocky Mountain National Park were sighted by Father Silvestre Velez de Escalante, Father Francisco Atanasio Dominguez, and Captain Miera y Pacheco, who accompanied the priests during their fabulous wanderings through what now is Colorado.

The men who discovered Kings Canyon and the River of the Holy Kings were the first to know or to hear anything about the gigantic trees that grow in Sequoia National Park, California.

The island of St. John, where Virgin Islands National Park is now established, was christened San Juan in 1493 by Christopher Columbus.

The discovery of the area known today as Yosemite National Park, in California, is generally attributed to two American ex-plorers. But this marvelous region is full of Spanish names-the Merced River, Mariposa Grove, El Mono and Fernandez passes, El Portal, El Capitan-an indication that the first men to become acquainted with its principal features spoke Spanish.

Zion, in Utah, forms part of the territories crossed by Father Escalante and his companions in 1776 during their march from Santa Fe into Colorado and Utah and back in search of the best route for reaching the missions that other Franciscan fathers had established on the coast of California.

Spaniards did not discover Mount McKinley or the region of Alaska that now constitute the magnificent park bearing its name, but they were relatively close to these areas in the course of the expeditions which, for political reasons, they carried out from Acapuico by order of Charles III during the last third of the seventeenth century. Abundant traces remain of their passage along the southern coasts of Alaska. I myself have counted, on the spot or on recently published maps, some two hundred Spanish place names-towns such as Valdes and Cordova, capes, promontories, mountains, bays, creeks, islands, lakes, and rivers-which have endured for nearly two centuries. Spaniards, therefore, were not only the first Europeans to visit vast areas of Central and South America and of the continental United States, but also the first to explore and occupy part of Alaska, passing its western confines and anchoring their ships among the Aleutian Islands.

In the museum at Hot Springs National Park, Arkansas, the Park Service, whose leaflets are the source for some of the preceding data, commemorates the Spanish discoveries in America with these words:

Spain implanted her religion and culture in a New World nearly a century before other European nations gained a foothold inside it. A few courageous soldiers, priests and colonists spread Spanish Dominions from Arkansas to Peru and left a heritage of culture which still flourishes in the South West and in countries south of the United States. De Soto ranks with Pizarro and Cortes amongst the great conquistadores. Although his last expedition failed, it explored 4,000 miles of wilderness and traversed the territories occupied by ten States of the Union.

Eleven national monuments or historic sites in the custody of the National Park Service are linked to Spanish activities in the United States and one of its dependencies.

1. De Soto National Memorial, in Bradenton, Florida, cornmemorates the Conquistador's prodigious march through unexplored and inhospitable regions. It lasted four years, during which De Soto journeyed with his men through more than 4,000 miles of forest and wilderness.

The National Park Service's leaflet on this monument-an evocative, simple, and romantic area of some fifty acres situated at the entrance to Tampa Bay-is dedicated entirely to the personality of Hernando de Soto and to his prodigious, well-organized expedition through virgin territories. "Don Hernando de Soto," the leaflet says, "caballero de Santiago and a gentleman by all four descents, was a typical conquistador. Charles V appointed him Governor of Cuba and Adelantado (leader) to 'conquer, pacify, and populate' the northern continent.

"On April 17, 1538, trumpets sounded and cannon thundered as the flotilla left San Lucar, Spain, with about 700 volunteers aboard. The winds were favorable, and De Soto's bride was at his side.

"In Havana, on May 18, 1539, De Soto bade farewell to his Dona Isabel and set sail for Florida. On May 30, the army landed on the west coast, apparently at Tampa Bay. A few ruined pearls lay in the dust at the deserted Indian village where they camped, and the Spaniards believed themselves at the threshold of fortune. So Narvaez had thought, when he chanced upon a single golden ornament!

"Spanish scouts found the lost Juan Ortiz, who had come to Florida with Narvaez and had been saved by a native princess from death at the stake. For 10 years Ortiz had been a slave of the Indians, and, while he had seen no riches, he had heard wonderful reports of the interior land. De Soto assigned 100 men to guard the camp and sent the ships back to Cuba for supplies. The march through 4,000 miles of unknown land began on July 15, 1539.

"De Soto led 600 or more disciplined veterans who averaged - and sometimes doubled -a steady 10 miles a day on the march. Counting the Indians drafted as they went along, the expedition must often have numbered up to 1,000 people. About 200 horses mounted the lancers. There were about 300 crossbowmen and harquebusiers, a dozen priests, a physician, and workmen to build boats and bridges or repair weapons and rivet the slave chains.

"As they pushed northward, heat and hunger plagued them; hidden natives rained arrows upon them. De Soto followed the practice of seizing village chieftains and forcing them to supply food, carriers, and guides. Once beyond Ocale (in what is now Florida), Indians gathered to rescue their chief, but the Spaniards moved first, driving the warriors into nearby lakes.

"De Soto continued onward. Then from winter quarters in the hostile Apalachee farmlands (now northern Florida, near Apalachee Bay), he summoned the men left at the landing site, while to Havana he sent a present of 20 Indian women for Dona Isabel. Meanwhile, his scouts discovered Pensacola Bay; others saw the bleached bones of Narvaez' horses at Apalachee Bay.

"In the spring of 1540, they marched toward the Savannah River, where the comely chieftainess of the Cofitachequi, an Indian village, bestowed her pearl necklace upon Don Hernando. Another 200 pounds of pearls were dug from the burial mounds. But the Adelantado pushed onward. If no richer land were found, they could always return.

"Some were lame and sick by the time they reached a region called Xuala in what is now western South Carolina, but here they saw 'more indications of gold mines than in all the country they had traversed.' Up into what is now North Carolina, then across the Smokies into Tennessee they went. Mulberries, nuts, maize, and turkeys the natives gave willingly, as the army pressed south-ward toward 'Coosa' in central Alabama, still searching for treasure.

"Powerful Tuscalusa, lord of the Mobile Indians, hid his anger when the Spainiards seized him, and agreed to furnish 400 carriers as soon as they reached the town of 'Mabila.' But warriors-not carriers-surrounded De Soto in Mabila. The Spaniards fought free and in a fierce day-long battle burned the Indian town and slaughtered 3,000 Indians. De Soto suffered crippling losses in this battle; 20 men killed, including a brother-in-law and a nephew; a number of horses killed; most of the expedition's supplies and property destroyed; 'and the wounded comprised all the men of most worth and honor in the army.'

"De Soto had planned to meet supply ships on the coast and send the pearls of Cofitachequi to Havana. But the pearls were lost at Mabila. Some of his disillusioned men, naked under their rusty mail, planned to sail with the ships. To prevent this, De Soto again turned his face from the coast.

"The expedition almost ended in the spring of 1541, when the Chickasaw Indians made a surprise dawn attack on the northern Mississippi camp. Fortunately, the Indians mistook stampeding horses for cavalry and withdrew; yet a dozen Spaniards lost their lives, and 50 horses were killed. Clothing, saddles, and weapons were burned. Shaking with cold, the men covered themselves with grass mats, while they fashioned new saddles and lances.

"On May 8, 1541, De Soto saw 'the great River,' so wide that 'if a man stood still on the other side, it could not be discerned whether he were a man or no.' Beyond the Mississippi lay the rumored wealth of Pacaha Province, so the artisans built barges and the army crossed for the march into Arkansas to the mouth of the St. Francis. Finding no gold, they turned west, then south, to winter on the west bank of the Ouachita River, near what is now Camden, Ark. Here, the interpreter Juan Ortiz died, a great loss.

"Even De Soto was discouraged. He went back to the Mississippi, planning to settle at a seaport and refit for a westward advance, but the scouts found no news of the sea. To terrorize the populous country and keep the Indians from uniting against him, De Soto ordered the destruction of the Aniico village in what is now Louisiana. The fighting was left to his lieutenants, for De Soto, called by his men 'one of the best lances who have passed to the New World,' was burning with fever. A few days later, on May 21, 1542, Hernando De Soto died.

"Not all mourned his passing, for he was a stem man. Yet, his skill and courage demanded respect, and his concern for his men won devotion. Secretly, they buried their knight within the village walls, telling the Indians that the 'Child of the Sun' had ascended to his father. When the natives saw the loosened earth and whispered, the Spaniards dug up the body, weighted it in an oaken casket, and sank it in the dark bosom of the Father of Waters, as the Indians called the Mississippi."

2. Fort Caroline, Florida, is a commemorative monument principally related to the passage of the French through this region. It also signalizes Spanish military actions; for that reason I include it here.

3. Fort Frederica National Monument, in Georgia, commemorates the struggles among Spain, France, and England for pos-session of this region.

4. The Fort of Matanzas, a national monument, is a small fortress not far from St. Augustine, Florida. Protected by this fort, the Spaniards here destroyed the French who threatened them.

5. Castillo de San Marcos National Monument, Florida, is an impressive fortress in classic style, built by the Spaniards in St. Augustine to defend the city and protect the ships that sailed along the Gulf Stream on their way to and from Mexico, loaded with merchandise and traveling between Spanish and Caribbean ports while exposed to the attacks of English pirates. In this fortress, since November 9,1955, the flag of Spain again flies alongside the flag of the United States.

6. San Juan National Historic Site, in Puerto Rico, consists of fortifications, walls, and buildings constructed by the Spaniards.

7. Cabrillo National Monument, in California, commemorates the discovery of the Bay of San Diego by the Portuguese Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, a member of a Spanish expedition in 1542.

8. El Morro National Monument, in New Mexico, covers an area of some 250 acres. It was declared a national monument in 1906 to preserve the inscriptions by Spanish and other explorers on its rocky walls.

9. Gran Quivira National Monument, New Mexico, was a Spanish mission during the seventeenth century.

10. Tumacacori National Monument, Arizona, commemorates another Spanish mission.

11. Finally, San Jose Mission National Historic Site, Texas, jointly administered by the Catholic Church and the state of Texas, was designed to preserve one of the numerous missions established in the United States by Spaniards.

It is thus that the memory of Spain's ventures-exploratory, military, or spiritual, always heroic in the face of peril is honored in areas that now form part of the United States and its possessions. This tradition provides a treasury of resources which, through Spanish and American public opinion, can help to cement Spain's close relations with a country to which so many peoples are linked today by close friendship. [[ and family lineage - editor]]

[[Editor:  Having visited St. Augustine in Florida, acknowledged as the oldest permanent European settlement on the North American continent, 1513, I was frankly bewildered by this historical account of the early colonial lighthouses which placed the first lighthouse in Boston in 1716.]]

Boston Harbor Light (1716) - The first colonial lighthouse was established in 1716, on Little Brewster Island, on Boston Harbor in Massachusetts.  Duties were collected from vessels based on the type of ship.  Due to the Revolutionary war, the British blew the tower up as they retreated from Boston in June 1776.  A new tower was built on its base in 1783. 

Description: St. Augustine, the oldest permanent European settlement on the North American continent, is affectionately called the Old City. Don Juan Ponce de Leon discovered La Florida, the "Land of Flowers", in 1513 for Spain. Roughly fifty years later, Spain made a serious attempt at colonizing Florida, when Don Pedro Menendez de Aviles was dispatched to the area. Menendez arrived off the Florida coast on August 28, 1565, the Feast Day of St. Augustine, and soon the fledgling colony of St. Augustine was established. Near St. Augustine the Matanzas River empties into the Atlantic, flowing past barrier islands named Anastasia and Conch. 

On the northern end of Anastasia Island, several towers have been built through the years overlooking the inlet that leads to St. Augustine. Early on, the Spanish constructed a wooden lookout tower. Later, a more permanent tower was built using blocks of coquina that was formed as large deposits of shells were cemented together over time by calcium carbonate. Spain ceded control of Florida to the English in 1763 to regain control of Cuba. However, under the 1783 Treaty of Paris, control of Florida was returned to the Spanish, who controlled Florida until they relinquished it to the United States in 1821. 

As St. Augustine was the leading port in the newly acquired Territory of Florida, the U.S. Government worked quickly to establish a light to mark the inlet. John Rodman, the customs collector at St. Augustine, initially proposed that the old Spanish tower be converted into a lighthouse. However, after a thorough inspection, the tower was deemed unsound, and a new tower was built nearby. 

The old tower might have served as a lighthouse temporarily, but in 1824, a new brick tower, rising to a height of seventy-three feet, was placed in service. John Andreu was paid $350 a year to care for the lighthouse and tend the oil lamps, set in silver, bowl-shaped reflectors. The lighthouse was outfitted with a fourth-order Fresnel lens in 1855, increasing the light’s range. 

This improved light was extinguished shortly after the outbreak of the Civil War, and the tower remained dark until the conflict ended in 1867. By that time, it was clearly evident that erosion was endangering the tower. A coquina breakwater was hastily built to retard the encroaching sea. Still, it was determined that a new lighthouse was needed and a five-acre tract, located a half-mile inland, was acquired. Plans for the new lighthouse were drawn up by Paul Pelz, Chief Draftsman of the US Lighthouse Board and who would later be one of two architects responsible for designing the Library of Congress. Construction on the lighthouse began in 1871, but the walls had grown to a height of just a few feet when funds were exhausted. Work resumed after additional funding was obtained, and the lighthouse commenced operation on October 15, 1874. The tower was built using brick from Alabama, granite from Georgia, iron work forged in Philadelphia, and a first-order Fresnel lens crafted in France. 

The small building attached to the base of the tower originally housed a keeper’s office on one side and an area for storing the large drums of lard oil, used in the lighthouse’s lamp, on the other. When the light was converted to kerosene in 1855, a new oil house was built a safe distance away from the tower to contain the more volatile fuel. The keepers continued to live at the old lighthouse until a duplex, built just east of the new lighthouse, was finished in 1876. The head keeper lived in the north side of the dwelling, with the first assistant in the south side and the second assistant making do with two small rooms located on the top floor between the two sides. The keeper’s bedrooms were located upstairs, while downstairs each side had a dining room on the west and a parlor on the east side. Constructing the new lighthouse proved to be a prudent move as the old tower toppled into the sea on August 22, 1880. With three keepers station at the lighthouse, the day was divided into three eight-hour watches. The primary responsibility of the keepers was to care for the light, which required lugging a 30-pound can of lard oil up the tower’s 214 stairs and periodically winding up the 275-pound weight that revolved the lens. In addition, the keepers maintained all the station’s buildings, provided tours to visitors, and when necessary even served as lifesavers.

Once you know Laus Deo's history, you will want to share this with everyone you know. But these words have been there for many years; they are 555 feet, 5.125 inches high, perched atop the monument, facing skyward to the Father of our nation, overlooking the 69 square miles which comprise the District of Columbia, capital of the United States of America.

Laus Deo! Two seemingly insignificant, un-noticed words. Out of sight and, one might think, out of mind, but very meaningfully placed at the highest point over what is the most powerful city in the most successful nation in the world.

So, what do those two words, in Latin, composed of just four syllables and only seven letters, possibly mean? Very simply, they say "Praise be to God!"  Though construction of this giant obelisk began in 1848, when James
Polk was President of the United States, it was not until 1888 that the monument was inaugurated and opened to the public. It took twenty five years to finally cap the memorial with a tribute to the Father of our nation, Laus Deo .......... Praise be to God!"

From atop this magnificent granite and marble structure, visitors may take in the beautiful panoramic view of the city with it's division into four major segments. From that vantage point, one can also easily see the original plan of the designer, Pierre Charles l'Enfant...a perfect cross imposed upon the landscape, with the White House to the north. The Jefferson Memorial is to the south, the Capitol to the east and the Lincoln Memorial to the west.

A cross you ask ? Why a cross? What about separation of church and state? Yes, a cross; separation of church and state was not, is not, in the Constitution. So, read on . How interesting and, no doubt, intended to carry a profound meaning for those who bother to notice.

Praise be to God! Within the monument itself are 898 steps and 50 landings. As one climbs the steps and pauses at the landings the memorial stones share a message. On the 12th Landing is a prayer offered by the City of Baltimore; on the 20th is a memorial presented by some Chinese Christians; on the 24th a presentation made by Sunday School children from New York and Philadelphia quoting Proverbs 10:7, Luke 18:16 and Proverbs 22:6. Praise be to God!

When the cornerstone of the Washington Monument was laid on July 4th, 1848 deposited within it were many items including the Holy Bible presented by the Bible Society. Praise be to God! Such was the discipline, the moral direction, and the spiritual mood given by the founder and first President of our unique democracy "One Nation, Under God."

I am awed by Washington's prayer for America. Have you never read it? Well, now is your unique opportunity, so read on! "Almighty God; We make our earnest prayer that Thou wilt keep the United States in Thy holy protection; that Thou wilt incline the hearts of the citizens to cultivate a spirit of subordination and obedience to government; and entertain a brotherly affection and love for one another and for their fellow citizens of the United states at large." And finally that Thou wilt most graciously be pleased to dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that charity, humility, and pacific temper of mind which were the characteristics of the Divine Author of our blessed religion, and without a humble imitation of whose example in these things we can never hope to be a happy nation. Grant our supplication, we beseech Thee, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen." Laus Deo!

When one stops to observe the inscriptions found in public places all over our nation's capitol, he or she will easily find the signature of God, as it is unmistakably inscribed everywhere you look. You may forget the width and height of "Laus Deo", it's location, or the architects but no one who reads this will be able to forget it's meaning, or these words: "Unless the Lord builds the house its builders labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain." (Psalm 127: 1)

It is hoped you will send this to every child you know; to every sister, brother, father, mother or friend. They will not find offense, because you have given them a lesson in history that they probably never learned in school. With that, be not ashamed, or afraid, but have pity on those who will never see.

FAMILY HISTORY

The Meanings Behind the Symbols or...What does it mean if your coat of arms bears a red boar's head?  [[Although most of these surnames or non-Hispanic. The European symbolism, colors, and shield layouts would be consistent. ]]  http://www.fleurdelis.com/meanings.htm
Sent by Bill Carmena JCarm1724@aol.com

to the Enciclopedia Heráldica Hispano-Americana of Alberto and Arturo García Carraffa
Sent by Paul Newfield pcn01@webdsi.com  

The 88 volumes of this work, [Library of Congress Call Number: CR2142.G3] supplemented by a continuing work, offer an immense tribute to the work of indefatigable genealogists. The work treats Spanish heraldry in the first two volumes, and with volume three begins the Diccionario Heráldico y Genealógico de Apellidos Españoles y Americanos, or a listing of over 15,000 names with their respective genealogical histories (with color illustrations of representative crests) of Spanish and Spanish-American families. Please note that on the spine one finds two numbers, the Enciclopedia number followed by the Diccionario number (in other words there is a two volume difference in numbering).

Originally begun in 1919, its publishing history continued until 1963 when the last volume encompassing the letter "u" was published as a tribute to her late husband by Margarita Prendes Carraffa. In 1952, a reprinting of the earlier volumes began. The alphabet covered by the work goes from "a" through "u".

The structure of the work provides an index in each volume. As the work progressed, supplemental names were added, breaking the alphabetical continuum. Without perusing all the volumes one could never be sure that an article may have been missed. This present automated index, compiles all the names mentioned in the respective indices and allows a comprehensive search of all volumes at one time. One need only enter -- without accents -- the respective surname (whether it be a compound surname or not) and press "Submit." Enter query: 

The resultant list is a finding aid consisting of the names, volume number of the Enciclopedia, and page number of more than 15,000 genealogical and coats of arms compiled by the García-Carraffa brothers. Continued by the work of Endika de Mogrobejo (whose contribution is indicated in this index by volume numbers which are preceded by the letter 'E'), the work of García Carraffa is a huge single published effort on Hispanic genealogy. Fortunately, it is available in a variety of libraries in the United States besides the Library of Congress. The following locations in the United States report holding this title:

Location
Boston Public Library
California State Library
Getty Center Library
Harvard University
The Hispanic Society of America
New York Public Library
Princeton University
University of Illinois
University of Pennsylvania
University of Tennessee
University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley, Bancroft Library 
University of California at Santa Barbara
University of Michigan
University of Nevada (Reno)
State University of New York at Buffalo

The Library of Congress Call Number (CR2142.G3) will allow the work to be paged for use within the Library. It is not available for Interlibrary Loan. Note also that the condition of some volumes may prohibit their photo reproduction. Further information concerning the reproduction of articles from this title may be answered by writing directly to the Photo duplication Service of the Library of Congress, Washington DC 20540. Additional reference work should be continued in consultation with the specialists in the Local History & Genealogy Reading Room, or in the Hispanic Reading Room. We are unaware of any major translation of this Spanish-language compilation. Translation and genealogical research is not available through the offices of the Library of Congress.

Google Your Family History, and More
News of the Utah Genealogical Association
November-December 2004, Vol. 33, No. 6

Google is such a handy search engine it's become an Internet favorite for many genealogists. Never mind that it often returns a million answers for one simple question—the first answer is very often the website you really wanted.

Not so with hunting your ancestors. Common-noun surnames. Lake, Hall, Lane, Fisher, Bell, Stone, and color names: Green, Brown, Black, White—we've all got names like these that are pretty confusing to search for unless we go directly to a genealogical site where we can tell the "Search" utility that what we want is somebody's name. However, this has limitations too. There are so many of these sites, and what about the sites we don't know about?

Try a utility designed especially for genealogists: http://www.genealogy-search-help.com
. The site says, "This free site will create different Google™ searches using tips or 'tricks' that will likely improve your genealogy search results. Just provide what you know about an ancestor and the site will set up the best searches for you, based on what you enter." The site doesn't necessarily find something a regular Google search doesn't find, but the results won't be buried deep in the middle of 1,565,000 other possibilities.

If you like this one, try another website for genealogical searches. See Best Internet Genealogy - Web Search Help at 
http://expertgenealogy.com/free/search.htm

This one looks more intimidating. The screen is full of clutter, but ignore all but the top or the upper left and start out simply. This search also uses Google, Yahoo, and MSN advanced search engines as well.  If you're starting to get results you can also look at http://www.cyndislist.com/search.htm to see links to other search engines.

Mountain View, Calif. - January 18, 2005 - Google Inc. today released Picasa™ 2, free photo management software that makes it simpler than ever for people to organize, edit and share their digital pictures. Available at http://www.picasa.com, Google's new version of Picasa offers photographers of all skill levels easy-to-use tools that automatically organize even the largest photo collections on a PC and turn average snapshots into great pictures.

New and improved features of Picasa include:
* Advanced editing tools - Fix pictures with more powerful tools, 12 photographic filter effects, color and lighting adjustments, red-eye removal, photo cropping and straightening.
* Improved organization - Add captions, quickly and easily search across all photos on a computer, attach labels and stars for better photo organization, reorder pictures and clean up cluttered folders.
* Backup capabilities - Archive photos from a computer to a CD or DVD, save photos on an external drive, and create gift CDs with personalized slideshows.
* Customized prints - Print at home with standard sizes, or order photo prints by uploading pictures to Ofoto, Shutterfly, Snapfish, and Walmart.com.
* Enhanced sharing features - Email photos via Gmail (and other email clients), upload photos to a Blogger blog, and send and discuss photos in real-time via Hello™, Picasa's free peer-to-peer software, available at http://www.hello.com.  

"With Picasa 2, we've made it easier for people to find, organize, improve and enhance their photographs, as well as create photo CDs, personalized slideshows, desktop collages, and much more," said Lars Perkins, General Manager, Picasa, Google Inc. "Digital photos are an important and growing category of personal information, and Picasa is in line with Google's commitment to develop advanced technologies that further help users to find, organize and share information that's important to them."

More information about Picasa can be found at http://www.picasa.com.  About Google Inc.Google's innovative search technologies connect millions of people around the world with information every day. Founded in 1998 by Stanford Ph.D. students Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google today is a top web property in all major global markets. Google's targeted advertising program, which is the largest and fastest growing in the industry, provides businesses of all sizes with measurable results, while enhancing the overall web experience for users. Google is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. For more information, visit http://www.google.com .

Google is a registered trademark, and Picasa, Hello, Gmail and Blogger are trademarks of Google Inc.  All other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated. Contact: Eileen Rodriguez, 650-623-4235, eileen@google.com

The following is an excerpt from George G. Morgan's book, Your Family Reunion: How to Plan It, Organize It, and Enjoy It. In this excerpt George hopes that these tips will help family historians expand on their genealogy research at a family reunion.

Family reunions can be extremely exciting events, especially for a genealogist or family historian. Where else can you get a large group of relatives together and gather so much information at one time? That's the good news. The not-so-good news is that you can be overwhelmed with information too.

As always, the key to success is organization. Advance preparation is important. Start by gathering all the genealogical information and materials you have collected that are pertinent to the family units involved in the reunion and that you haven't yet completed. That means taking all those photocopies and notes, photographs and vital records, and that mess of sticky notes and going through them. Sort it all out by surname, evaluate it, and enter the appropriate information into your computer database.

Once the data is entered, print new pedigree charts for every branch of the family and every collateral line you think will be represented at the reunion. Prepare these charts for display at the reunion. Take a package of tape flags along so that you can tape the charts to a wall. (The tape flags are less likely to damage a wall than ordinary adhesive tape.) The pedigree charts will be a tremendous hit at the family reunion.

In addition to the pedigree charts, print a complete set of family group sheets for all the lines you think will be represented at the reunion. Most genealogical software programs will allow you to print custom reports. I urge you to include on your family group sheets every piece of information you have. That includes dates, notes, and all your source citations. If there is information of which you are unsure or that has yet to be verified or corroborated, you might want to make a notation to that effect so that other family members are aware.

Make several copies of each family group sheet. You might put one complete set in a binder as a master set. You can then write on this set as the reunion takes place and, most importantly, make notes of who told you what. The other sets you can take with you and distribute to key contact people. They can make copies for others in their family and can also update them and return them to you or the family historian.

You will find that people will flock around the family tree display to see what family information has been compiled. Don't get defensive if someone's feathers are ruffled because you have the wrong information. Just explain that the information is what you were told or given, and ask them to give you the correct information and tell you how or where you can find verification. You might want to have a supply of forms and writing utensils handy for people to provide this information on the spot, or you can ask them to mail it to you. A sample form titled Family Genealogy Correction is included here (opposite) as well as in Appendix B. [Editor's Note: George's book contains a copy of these forms.]

If you want to collect new information or make corrections to the information you already have, try to enlist one person from each branch of the family or collateral line to act as the coordinator of his or her line. Be prepared to give this person a copy of all the family group sheets for his or her line, as well as some blank copies for new generations or collateral lines. Ask him or her to add to the sheets, make changes or corrections, and return them to you. Encourage him or her to also provide you with photocopies of any documents they might have that could verify the information they are providing.

Whatever you do, encourage the return of information to you. Prepare self-addressed 9"xl2" manila envelopes with plenty of stamps. Provide an envelope to each person who will be collecting information for you. Tell them that you will reimburse them for any postage and/or photocopies of the additional materials they send to you.

Be prepared to accept all types of information in a variety of formats from your family members. One thing you may want to collect is family recipes. At many family reunions, there are homemade pies, cakes, appetizers, main dishes, and other foods. Some of these recipes have been passed down through the generations. Take some index cards along and compliment the creator by asking him or her for that special recipe.

As for collecting information, I have known people to take laptop computers to their family reunions for the purpose of displaying information and updating their database onsite. While this seemed like a great idea, it actually glued them to the computer and prevented them from circulating, making contacts, asking questions, exchanging information, gathering new information, and otherwise having a great time.

There are four tools I suggest you use to gather information at a family reunion. These are in addition to the family members you enlist to help you update charts and family group sheets. Let's talk about each of the four tools:

Steno Pad - Purchase several steno pads at the office supply store and carry several pens or pencils. As you talk with people and hear interesting stories, ask if you can take notes. Some people may be unnerved by this and refuse so don't press the point. However, listen carefully to what they say, and then jot notes as soon afterward as you can. Whenever you take notes, make sure you indicate who told you what. Like a good journalist, you can always contact the person again later for clarification or more details.

Tape Recorder - A small handheld cassette tape recorder is an invaluable genealogical tool. I use one whenever I visit a cemetery to read and record the inscriptions on tombstones. If a photo doesn't develop clearly enough to allow me to read the inscription, I still have a record of it on audiotape. At a reunion, a tape recorder is terrific for quickly and accurately capturing information. Always ask permission to tape. Take a number of cassettes with you and label them as you use them. You can assign a number to each cassette and, as you record, make a note on your steno pad of the cassette number, the number of the conversation, and the name of the person you re-corded. Be careful not to record over something. Nothing is worse than recording over a wonderful interview! Last but not least, don't forget extra batteries for the recorder.

Camera - A reunion is an invaluable opportunity to take pictures. If you own a camera, make sure you are prepared for all contingencies with all-purpose, indoor/outdoor film. Disposable cameras are inex-pensive and versatile, and you may want to take several along. These come in the indoor variety with a built-in flash, the outdoor variety, and in a terrific panorama model that is great for large, wide-angle group shots. Even if you don't use all the film, it is definitely worth the price to obtain those priceless shots.

If you are terrible at remembering names you may use a technique used by professional photographic journalists. They date and number every roll of film. (You can date and number each disposable camera.) They carry a small pad (like your steno pad) with a date and number at the top of each page corresponding to each of the rolls of film. They number the lines of each page to correspond to each of the pictures on the roll of film. As they take pictures, they make a note of the subjects' names (and location if appropriate). Later, when the film is developed, it is easier to identify the people and places in each shot-and the photographer can then correctly label the pictures as needed.

Please note that black-and-white photographs will endure far longer than color shots. You may want to consider taking a roll of black-and-white pictures in addition to color shots for posterity. Digital cameras are also terrific for capturing pictures as data. How-ever, keep in mind that technology changes quickly, and you will need to continue converting your digital photographs to new technologies as they evolve so that the images are never lost to future generations.

Video Recorder - If you have a video camera, you may want to supplement your genealogical experience by making videotapes. Videos can capture motion pictures, voices, and sounds. They can become a wonderful part of your genealogical collection. Even if there is a professional videographer at your reunion, you may want to make your own videotapes. If you plan to video family members at the reunion, be sure they are not uncomfortable at the prospect. And be sure to ask permission before trying to interview someone on videotape. Take several blank video cassettes with you, and remember the batteries and/or a charger.

All of the above tools can be carried in a shoulder bag. It keeps all your information-gathering tools close at hand and keeps your arms and hands free for important things like hugs, handshakes, and eating all that wonderful food!

Copyright 2004, MyFamily.com.

ARCHAEOLOGY

Christopher Columbus

This box might hold the remains of Christopher Columbus.  
Researches hope to do DNA testing on remains found in the Dominican Republic,  
Photo by Emilio Morenatti, AP   Orange County Register, January 18, 2005   

For an illustrated overview of Columbus' life, go to: http://www.franciscan-archive.org/columbus/

Ángel Custodio Rebollo.

Esta noticia complementa y anula el articulo enviado con esta misma referencia.

El Gobierno de la Republica Dominicana ha cancelado el permiso a los cientificos españoles de la Universidad de Granada, que tenían previsto efectuar en febrero las pruebas de ADN para aclarar definitivamente si los restos del Almirante Cristobal Colon estan en Sevilla o en Santo Domingo.

MISCELLANEOUS

Lotería Workshop
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Create and print your own 
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Generates 500+  unduplicated playing boards. 
Make custom Playing Boards.

Nuevos Valores

Finding a small bit of time each day to feed this force will not only reward you with increased creativity, but also an expanded sense of appreciation and gratitude for the creative process.

The following list highlights simple yet powerful actions you can take to spark your creative energy from the inside out.

1. Keep a Daily Journal
Use a journal to jot down the meandering thoughts of your mind. Write, draw, doodle, paste collages together. Stuck between your great ideas are random thoughts, mental notes, and menial observations. Use your journal as a place to deposit these thoughts, keeping your creative mental workspace clear. Think of it as feng shui for the mind, a way of keeping the creative juices flowing.

2. Create Sacred Space
Find a place in your home to keep inspiring, motivating and spiritually significant objects. Remind yourself that creativity flows like water and wind, that it is steadfast like earth and powerful like fire. Collect objects from nature to remind you of this. Place things that awe and inspire you, projects you’re most proud of, and photos of people who support and encourage your creative action.

3. Reflection.
Reflection can be a minute of appreciating someone or something, or it can be a day of meditation and writing. Find ways to incorporate reflection into your daily routine, noting how experiences and interactions help you grow as a creative person. This is great for surveying what inspires you and what blocks you, what attracts you and what doesn’t.

4. Get Away.
If you can, find some time to sneak away and enjoy a creative pleasure. It can be an hour wandering through a craft store, window shopping, a hike in nature or a visit to a special place. If you have kids and can’t get away alone, don’t worry. Enjoy the outing and reflect on it together. There are no rules to creative getaways. It is whatever touches you at that moment.

5.  Do Something Loca.
What’s something crazy you’ve always dreamed of doing but didn’t because of insecurity, fear or intimidation? Make a pact with yourself to get to know your Inner Loca (or loco for you guys reading this) and find ways to let her out to play each and every day.

6. See the World Through a Child’s Eyes.
Children have the amazing ability to be open to the possibilities of just about anything. Give yourself playtime to see the world through the eyes of a child. Sometimes it can be simply sitting on the floor and looking at a room from a new angle, or giving yourself permission to laugh and have fun.

7. Chart Your Course

It’s one thing to dream of creative things and it’s another thing to make them happen. Look at all the wonderful ideas you have and pick one to act upon. Make a commitment to do at least one daily action to support this idea.  Doing the footwork to make your dream a reality will show you how easy it really is to turn ideas into action.

Ritual is a series of repeated acts. By incorporating creative ritual in your life, you will increase your innovation and creativity in ways that will surprise and delight you. Try at least one of these actions and feel your creativity grow!

Nancy Marmolejo helps creative and entrepreneurial women hone in on their core strengths to turn ideas into action. She helps both the wildly creative and the mildly creative launch innovative ideas, enter new markets and build upon natural talents.

Visit Nancy Marmolejo on the web at http://www.ComadreCoaching.com  to receive a free copy of "Get Creative Now! Four Simple Tools to Boost Your Creativity from the Inside Out" and the award winning newsletter "The Pocket Comadre".