June 2005 
Editor: Mimi Lozano ©2000-5

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

"Not to know what happened before we were born
 is to remain perpetually a child. 
For what is the worth of a human life unless it is woven 
into the life of our ancestors by the records of history."

Author, MARCUS TILLIUS CICERO 106-34 B.C.
Sent by James Estrada Hardy estradahardy@direcway.com

  Letters to the Editor : 

Below is a very kind email from Roberto José Pérez Guadarrama of Venezuela.  In referring to Somos Primos, he is identifying the value and the result of readers sending historical, current and family information.  

Every month the list of names under contributors are those who have sent or whose information was sent for use in Somos Primos. This month, letters received are dispersed within the issue, appropriate to the area of interest.  

With gratitude and thanks for  your submissions and letters.   
Sincerely,  Mimi

UNITED STATES

Jose M. Lopez

 José Mendoza Lopez, the oldest living Hispanic recipient of  the Medal of Honor and one of fewer than 40 surviving World War II veterans with the honor, died Monday, June 13th,  in San Antonio.    

 Lopez, 94, a Mexico-born Army veteran, received the nation's highest honor for bravery for single-handedly repelling German infantry forces advancing on his unit near the start of the    
Battle of the Bulge.                                           

"He was a great hero, a super guy and a super dad," said his son, John Lopez of San Antonio. 
 Lopez had returned a few weeks ago from the hospital. He had  been undergoing treatment for cancer that had spread from his kidneys. He lived at the North Side home of his daughter,      
 Maggie Wickwire, where he died about 2:45 p.m.                 
 
 In frail health and using a walker in recent years, Lopez  attended presidential inaugurations, as well as the funerals of other Medal of Honor recipients. In January, he made his  last inauguration, as President George W. Bush was sworn in for a second term in Washington.                               
 
 Many had become concerned about Lopez after his wife of 64 years, Emilia, died in February 2004. In one of his last interviews, in January, though too weak to speak at length, he  sang from memory a Spanish love song he'd often crooned to her.                                                           
                                                                
"They're dancing up there now," his son said Monday,  commenting on the couple's faith that they would meet in heaven.                                                        
 
On Dec. 17, 1944, Lopez, with the 23rd Infantry, 2nd Infantry  Division, fended off dozens of German troops and tanks trying to overrun his Company K near Krinkelt, Belgium. He lugged a   
 .30-caliber Browning automatic rifle, jumped into a shallow hole and killed 10 German soldiers. 

"Ignoring enemy fire from an advancing tank, he held his position and cut down 25 more enemy infantry attempting to turn his flank," his Medal of Honor citation states. Lopez kept firing, despite having to reload and being blown backward by the concussion of enemy fire.                      
  
 "Sgt. Lopez's gallantry and intrepidity, on seemingly suicidal missions in which he killed at least 100 of the enemy, were almost solely responsible for allowing Company K to avoid being enveloped, to withdraw successfully and to give other forces coming up in support time to build a line which         
 repelled the enemy drive," the citation reads.                 
 
 Lopez was immediately promoted from private to sergeant.  Nearly 50 years later, he returned to the site in Belgium with journalist Bill Moyers and a PBS documentary film crew.  Questioned by Moyers about his bravery, the man who had prayed  to the Virgin of Guadalupe as he fired at Germans replied, "I  believe any man would do the same thing."                      
  
 Though his medal citation and most biographies list his birthplace as Mission, Lopez was born in Santiago Huitlan, Mexico. To join the Merchant Marine, he bought a false birth certificate in 1935.                                           
  
 In his youth, Lopez held a variety of jobs, from picking  cotton to working on ships. As a lightweight boxer using the moniker Kid Mendoza, he accumulated a 52-3 record.             
  
 Returning to the United States from Hawaii after the Dec. 7, 1941, Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Lopez almost was arrested. Authorities thought he was Japanese.    "I let them see my papers, that I was Mexican, and they let me  go. They were going to put me in the prison," he told an interviewer for the U.S. Latinos and Latinas & World War II oral history project. 

In 1942, Lopez enlisted in the Army. He received a minor wound  but rejoined his unit after being treated.  Lopez also was awarded the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart.    But his Medal of Honor was what he cherished most among his  many mementos.                                                 
 
 His son reflected Monday on a man who lived a humble life.  "He was a hero, without being a hero around his family," John  Lopez said.     Sunday, José Lopez had enough strength to squeeze relatives'    hands as they spoke to him, said June Pedraza, a  granddaughter. Monday, he was unresponsive, she said. 
                         
"I told him, you're really sick, grandpa. It's OK if you go today," said Pedraza, 25.  A short time later, after family members dispersed for lunch,  Lopez died with only a nurse in the room, she said. Pedraza said she doubted Lopez had any fear of dying, because he'd always told her, "Fear is the one thing that will hold you  back in life."  

When she was 9, afraid to jump off a 10-foot diving board,   Lopez encouraged her to jump. At 78, he leapt off himself, landing with a belly flop.    Lopez would take his family fishing or ice-skating and hated  to be apart from his wife for long periods, even when they  were quarreling, Pedraza said. 
"He was the rock of our family," she said.                     
   
 In Austin, a hush fell over the House chamber Monday as Rep. Carlos Uresti, D-San Antonio, announced Lopez's death. The House adjourned for the day a few hours later in his honor.   

Other survivors include three other daughters, Candida "Marie"  Pierati of Mahopac, N.Y., Virginia Rogers of Ogden, Utah, and Beatrice Pedraza of Lima, Peru; 19 grandchildren; and 10       
great-grandchildren.   Porter Loring Mortuary is handling arrangements, which are  expected to include a wake at Cornerstone Church and graveside  service at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery.   

Subj: Latino History Fiesta - UPDATE 
Date:Tuesday  5/11/2005 
From: mrmrsgrad@msn.com
To: mimilozano@aol.com

Mimi Hi,

Well...things went well, for starters,

Students had a wonderful time; several posters of Hispanics in society were posted on the walls, Caesar Chavez, Carlos Santana, Linda Ronstadt, Los Lobos... One of Joshua's friends volunteered to help by taking pictures; she was so excited, she said, "This exhibit makes me feel proud..." Other kids including Anglo kids found the exhibit very interesting and Joshua found himself caught in the lime light when many kids came to ask questions about the various artist's and politicians on the wall, The kids had the opportunity to hear Latin music through a P.A. system provided by the school and many really liked the music. Some kids expressed excitement about what they were going to do next year.

My husband and I, went to meet with the Vice Principal Mrs. Graiser, She supported the display, but as we pushed for the curriculum you had made for Hispanic Heritage month, we ran into resistance, she stated the schools teaching Code superceded Public Law when it came to curriculum, she also said it was so involved they were hard pressed to meet the Code requirements. She said best they would be able to do would be to give an announcement once a week, making statements like "Did you Know...?"

We are not discouraged because this is more than what was being offered before Joshua had started this Journey, We are taking steps to meet with the Director of secondary education Dianne Vaez, with a name like Vaez, I am hoping for favorable support. (Hoping not counting on) We have been to the library to request copies of the original Proclamation 3869 written by Former President Lyndon B. Johnson from the UCR Library as well as Joint Resolution 90-498, we want to enlarge, laminate, and frame them for our home as a reminder of how small steps can make big strides. We will continue to support our son Joshua throughout his education and ourselves by learning and becoming more involved in Hispanic awareness.

Continued Success to you and your endeavors

Virginia and Mark Gradilla

Subject: Latino History Fiesta - response
Date: 5/11/2005
From:  mimilozano@aol.com
To:  mrmrsgrad@msn.com 

Hi Virginia. 

Wonderful that you husband is also supporting you and Josh in this effort.

The response of  Vice Principal "best they would be able to do would be to give an announcement once a week is a bit shocking.

There are 20 school days during Hispanic Heritage Month.  Those historical announcements could be made over the PA system each morning.  Most could be read in a minute or minute and a half.  She is saying they are not willing to dedicate 1-1/2 minutes or about 30 minutes total during the entire month of Hispanic Heritage Month.  

The problem is that Hispanic Heritage Month comes at the beginning of the school semester, teachers and students are adjusting to each other, new schedule, etc.

But the PSA concept, for an administrator wanting their school to participate  in recognizing Hispanic Heritage Month, could easily implement.  Historical tidbits are available on the Celebrating Hispanic Heritage page. 

No teacher preparation is required.  No administrator need be involved beyond giving permission, and seeing that the sound equipment is in place.  The announcements could be read by student body officers over the PA system. 

Students would have 20 bits of historical facts that could lead them to a better understanding of the Hispanic presence and contributions.   http://www.somosprimos.com/heritage.htm

Best of luck Virginia in opening the doors of understanding.  Josh is an incredible young man. Please give him a hug for me.

Warm regards, Mimi

In April,  the National Council of Hispanic Employment Program Managers concluded the 2005 Voting and Selection process for the National Theme for Hispanic Heritage Month.  Sylvia Holguin Bourn, EEO Specialist with the USDA Food Safety Inspection Service submitted the winning theme.

Sent by Joe.Martinez@science.doe.gov

SOURCE: NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF LATINO ELECTED AND APPOINTED OFFICIALS (NALEO);
 RICH CLABAUGH - STAFF

[The following is the historical introduction to a study: Latino Political Participation & Representation in Elective Office by Kevin Coleman, Analyst in American National Government, Government and Finance Division, CRS REPORT FOR CONGRESS Order Code RS20353, Updated July 27, 2001]  

By the time England established a permanent new world settlement at Jamestown in 1607, Spain's colonial empire spanned both American continents, from Cape Horn to what is now Canada. Shortly after Columbus's expeditions for Spain, explorers and missionaries founded colonies at Hispaniola (the Dominican Republic) in 1496, Puerto Rico in 1508, and Cuba in 1511. Within a century, Spanish missions extended across southwestern North American from St. Augustine (Florida, 1565 to Santa Fe (1609):"There has been no other conquest like this in the annals of the human race. In one generation, the Spaniards acquired more new territory than Rome conquered in five centuries."'By the beginning of the 17th century, as French and English colonization of North America gained momentum, Spain's power had begun to ebb. England had repelled Spain's attempt to invade the British Isles in 1588 and destroyed the Spanish fleet. Spain's effort of maintain its far-flung empire further burdened the nation and, over the next two centuries, its empire receded as the result of competition from other European colonizers and armed conflict.Although Spain had claimed much of the North American interior, Spain's presence was found primarily in missions scattered along the Gulf coast and across the southwest to California. A series of agreements transferred the Louisiana territory, once claimed by Spain, back and forth between Spain and France until France sold the area to the United States in 1803. The U.S. nearly doubled its size by acquiring Louisiana, a vast region that extended from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains. Shortly thereafter, Spain accepted the transfer of east and west Florida to the U.S., under Transcontinental Treaty of 18119. Mexico declared independence from Spain in 1823. and Texas subsequently declared independence from Mexico in 1836. The U.S. annexed Texas in 1845. Following the Mexican-American War, the U.S. acquired lands north of the Rio Grande River under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848) and the Gadsden Purchase (1853). Under the terms of the Treaty of Paris (1898) that ended the Spanish-American War, Spain lost its remaining possessions in Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines.' Samuel E. Morison, Henry Steele Commager, and William E. Leuchtenburg. The Growth of the American Republic.Spain's cultural influence on the territory that became the United States remained long after the Spanish Empire collapsed. Explorers, missionaries, and conquistadors had pushed the boundaries of European settlement in the Americas and created a distinct people and culture, with the Spanish language as the common element. When the United States expanded to the Pacific, the Spanish-speaking people of the west and southwest, and the settlements they established at San Francisco, Santa Fe, and San Diego, became part of the new nation. Until immigration laws were revised I 1965, most Latinos in the U.S. were of Mexican descent. Cuban communities inn Florida, New Orleans, and New York can be traced to the 19' century, and a Puerto Rican community emerged in New York in the 1930s, but most of the Latino population in the 1950 was found in the Southwest. including the descendants of the Spanish who originally settled the territory when it was called New Spain. The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 (79 Slat. 911) eased previous restrictions on immigration and established a 120,000 a year limit on immigration from countries in the Western Hemisphere. Latino immigration the U.S. has increased sharply since then, reinforced by migration from South and Central American countries because of political and social unrest. From 1950 to 1990, the Latino population of the U.S. grew by an estimated 265%, whereas the total population grew by approximately 50% during these four decades.2 Latinos will be the largest minority group in the country within a decade, according to the Census Bureau, a phenomenon which has focused greater attention on Latino voters and their impact on electoral politics.2 Edna Acosta-Belen and Barbara R. Sjostrom. The Hispanic Experience in the United Stales Contemporary Issue and Perspectives: (New York: Praeger, 1988) P. 10.

Top Hispanic Market Advertisers

According to research report "U.S. Hispanic Media Markets, 2000-2007" by HispanTelligence, monies spent by the top-50 advertisers to reach U.S. Hispanics from 2000-2004 grew from $658.37 million to $1.23 billion, an 87 percent increase. Among the biggest investors are Procter & Gamble, General Motors, McDonald's, and Coca-Cola. Most notable however, is Lexicon, developer of Inglés sin Barreras, a video-based English learning program, which increased its advertising from $12.56 to $75.00 million in little over a year, and is now challenging Procter & Gamble for the top position.

Sears Catering to Hispanic Women
Sears Holdings Corp. and Latina Media Ventures, the publisher of Latina magazine, said they would create a new line of apparel, footwear and handbags designed for Hispanic women. Brief available at msnbc.msn.com/id/7561914/
  

Study on Latinos: Jobs Up, Pay Down
While Hispanics saw their unemployment rate drop in 2004, the hiring occurred primarily in low-skill jobs that dragged down their overall average wages, a May 05 report shows. More details

http://www.borderlandnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050503/NEWS/505030347/1001 

      POEM BY JUDGE ROY MOORE 

    
The following is a poem written by Judge Roy Moore from Alabama. Judge Moore was recently sued by the ACLU for displaying the Ten  Commandments in his courtroom foyer. He has been stripped of his judgeship  and now they are trying to strip his right to practice law in Alabama.
        
           

              X X X X X X X X

Introducing S.H.E. - StayHomeEntrepreneur.com
 
It is for moms who have started their own businesses while raising their children and tending the home.  Consider joining with us in this for the publicity and potential.  It is only $20 per year! 

Let us know if you are interested (and if so, please feel free to eMail info for publishing - your pop-up could be live soon).  The SHOP page will be a business directory so that we can all refer  one another, shop among our circle when appropriate and etc.  LINKS will provide business tools and other online resources.  We already have interest in the site from Working Mother and Latina magazines...  and we've only just begun.  

Home Sweet Success, Tamara & Addy
StayHomeEntrepreneur@yahoo.com


              X X X X X X X X

U.S. Hispanic purchasing power has surged to nearly $700 billion and is projected to reach as much as $1 trillion by 2010, according to new estimates by HispanTelligence®.

The rate of growth is nearly three times the overall national rate over the past decade and will propel the aggregate disposable income of the nation's largest minority group to $699.78 billion in 2004, according to a HispanTelligence® analysis of data recently released by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.

Hispanic Business, May 2004 
http://www.hispanicbusiness.
com/news/newsbyid.asp?fpa=0&id=16041

SURNAME: LOPEZ/LOPES

http://shop.store.yahoo.com/4crests/misc.html
Source: Coat of Arms and Family Crests

LOPEZ, the 6th most common surname among modem Hispanic families in the United States and the 5th most popular in Spain. It is patronymic deriving its origin from the Latin "lupo," lupe, lope, meaning wolf. The very popular Lupe, used for both men and women as a first name does not originate from wolf. Lupe as a first name comes from Guadalupe which is Arabic in root.

Galvez Patriots

Left to right Ernestine McGovern, Chumash descendant; Jarrell Jackman presidio comandante, Felipe de Goicoechea; and Michael Hardwick, Neve

Founding Day Speech, 
Santa Barbara, California
by 
Michael Hardwick 
as
Felipe de Neve
April 23, 2005

Texas Connection to the American Revolution

Historical Points from talk given by 
Jack Cowan, President  
Texas Connection to the American Revolution at the 
Fort Sam Houston Preservation Society  
May 17th

For more information, contact Jack Cowan JVC4321@aol.com
Texas Connection to the American Revolution  

ORANGE COUNTY, CA

Photo by Jynene Johnson

Golden West College was founded in 1966 as the second college in the Coast Community College District. It serves an approximate annual enrollment of 40,000 students each year seeking lower division higher education courses towards a four-year degree, as well as training in nursing, criminal justice, technology and other career-oriented programs.

Over the last 20 years, my children and grandchildren have taken classes at Golden West College 
Also, I taught at Golden West College as a part time teacher between 1975-1980.  My interest in hearing President Bryan speak, within a small group, was to ask if any special programs were in place for Latinos.

I found out that in collaboration with the University of California, a program is in place, Puente designed to assist Latinos to transfer to a College or University where the students can earn a college degree.  The Puente program is committed to assisting first-generation, educationally disadvantaged/underserved students prepare to make the transfer.  Students enroll for a year and get specific help in the very needed area of English composition skills, college and career planning.  Remembering my needs as an undergraduate at UCLA many years ago, Puente sounds like a perfect base of support. For more on the Puente program, please go to http://www.puente.net

President Bryan's message was one of encouragement.  Using himself as an example, Bryan personalized the message when he shared the fact that it had taken him 8 years to get his Bachelor's degree. He just didn't give up, and neither should they, he told them strongly.

He spoke about the community college system which supports changes, catching up, making up, along the way allowing for alternate paths for getting an education.  Golden West College is quite innovative in its use of technology.  Bryan mentioned the wide range of online classes offered, and his projection that in the future 80% of the students will opt to take basic classes online. 

Golden West College will soon be the first college to offer a program on creating/developing/writing computer games as a profession. It was an excellent talk.  

The Institutes of Religion where the luncheon was held is an one of the educational programs of the Church of  Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  Institutes of Religion are maintained close to colleges to assist the youth in adjusting to college demands, as a support system in addition to offering classes.

I am in purple in the photo.  The kneeling young man to the left  towers above me when he stands at 6 foot three.  Seeing Kevin reminds me of how the time has passed.  His mom and my daughter were high school friends.

Please help preserve the history of the Cypress Street Barrio by bringing in your family albums and personal photo collections to the Orange Public Main Library. We will duplicate your photographs while you wait, then put them in the Local History Collection at the library so that they're available for everyone to see and use. We are interested in seeing all of your photographs! Some areas of special interest include:
History of the Mexican settlement
Cypress Street School 
 Sunkist packing house 
Anaconda Wire & Cable 
California Cordage 

In addition, we would like to interview and videotape longtime residents of the area, as part of Chapman University's documentation of Cypress Street Barrio history.

For more information or to schedule an appointment, call Rosemarie Williams at (714) 288-2472.

Shades of Orange Cypress Street Barrio Photo Days is sponsored by the Orange Barrio Historical Society (contact Leo M. Castro or Helen Poblano Castro at (714) 538-3758), Old Towne Preservation Association, Orange Public Library and the City of Orange, Chapman University and EDAW, inc. 


SHADES OF ORANGE - FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS 

QUESTION:  What format of photographs are you looking for? A. We will work with any size B&W and color prints and negatives as well as slides. We prefer to work from the originals, as opposed to digitized copy prints. P. How do you decide which photographs ore historically important? 
ANSWER: We would like to see photos that you feel ore important, but we would also like to see photos that you may not think? are of historic value. Very often there is historic value and Interest in what is going on in the background of photos. A photograph provides a visual record of people, places, and events. 

QUESTION: What subjects are you interested in? 
ANSWER: We are Interested in a wide variety of subjects; here are some examples; 
• Family Life - homes/houses, family gatherings, vacations, celebrations 
• Community/Social Life - schools, graduations, holidays, parades, religious observances 
• Work Life - people at work. businesses, agriculture, uniforms 
• City and Neighborhoods - buildings, tourist attractions, cemeteries, park's 
• Transportation - cars. trucks. trains, buses, bicycles 
• Especially needed for the Chapman University study: History of the Mexican settlement. Cypress Street School, the Sunkist packing house, California Wire & Coble (Anaconda West Bldg, 204 N. Cypress), and California Cordage Plant (Anaconda EastBldg. demolished), the old Friendly Center, mural on garages at 400 N. Cypress St., 337 & 343 N. Cypress St.. 328 & 336 N, Lemon St 

QUESTION:  Will you be keeping my photographs? 
ANSWER:  Copy prints or digital scans will be mode on site of your photographs so you will not have to part with your originals. If It ts more convenient for you, we can have the copies made at the photo studio and return the originals within a week or less, so that you don't have to wait or if you are unable to attend the Photo Day.

QUESTION:  Some of my photos are fading and out of focus; should I bring them anyway? ANSWER:  Bring everything! Our first choice technically is clear, In-focus prints, but if a subject is of value and the only Image, we may choose to copy the photo anyway.

Photographs from family albums are highly valued by researchers precisely because they are documents produced from within the community. They can offer information not found in images taken by commercial or government photographers, documenting the personal history of the families and their environment. Photograph albums give families a sense of belonging. They include valuable information about the past-portraits of ancestors-possibly providing clues to who we are now, snapshots taken of ageless rituals and ordinary daily life. The albums assure us that our place in this family Is recorded for us and for our children. Browsing through snapshots, portraits, and personal mementos, we are reminded of what is Important—family, friends, and the community. 

Source: Doug Westfall ParagonA@pacbell.net

It reads " Congratulations on your graduation from Chapman College . We are proud of you. Kathryn is recognized "for promoting unity and pride in education."

The Illustration has the figures of an American eagle and a Mexican eagle. The text reads:
Two symbolic eagles . . . one identity.

Dr. Hernandez kept his audience totally attentive to his presentation on the Corridos on May 21st.

One attendee said, " I can't believe the time, I thought it was about half and hour, not an hour and a half!"

OLVERA STREET
1930-2005

CELEBRATING 75 YEARS 

OF CULTURE, PRIDE AND PROMISE

Photos sent by Early California descendant, 
Bob Smith,Regriffith6828@aol.com  

Las Angelitas, El Pueblo's docent organization, provides free tours to groups Wednesdays through Saturdays from 10 a.m. until 12 p.m. of  Olvera Street and El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historical National Monument.

A self-guided tour brochure describing the historic buildings is available at the Information Desk in the Plaza or at the El Pueblo Visitors Center, located in the Sepulveda House midway down Olvera Street on the west side.

The Visitor Center also offers a free 18 minute film: "Pueblo of Promise" about the history and the development of the City of Los Angeles.

Individuals interested in joining Las Angelitas can obtain information by calling (213) 628-1274 or visiting www.lasangelitas.org

Since its founding by Mexican settlers in 1781, Los Angeles has played an important role in California politics. Even while the administration of the state was concentrated in the north, Los Angeles continued to hold sway over California’s political direction.

For the first seven decades of its existence, Los Angeles was guided by Spanish and Mexican administrators. However, after the end of the Mexican-American War (1846-1848), a series of Anglo-American and French Mayors were elected to office, starting with Stephen C. Foster, a Yale University graduate who had only arrived in Los Angeles in 1847 (as an interpreter for the Mormon Battalion).

However, since 1848 and the beginning of American control of Los Angeles, four Latinos have served as Mayor of Los Angeles. The first three mayors had the benefit of having served as administrators or council members of the City before the American occupation.

In 1853, Antonio Francisco Coronel became Mayor of Los Angeles. Born on October 21, 1817 in Mexico City, Antonio had come to California with his parents in 1834. Antonio’s father, Jose Ygnacio Franco Coronel, had been born in Mexico City around 1795.

Ygnacio Coronel joined the Spanish army and very quickly rose to the rank of corporal of the cavalry (1814). In 1802 he had been married to Maria Josefa Francisca Romero, a native of Toluca. In 1837, Ygnacio brought his family to Los Angeles, where he started a new life as a civilian. Before his death, Ygnacio taught school, ran a small store, served as secretary of the Ayuntamiento, and enjoyed agricultural pursuits.

Antonio Francisco (more commonly referred to as Antonio Franco) was 17 years old when he first came to California. In 1838, he was appointed Assistant Secretary of Tribunals for the City of Los Angeles. And in 1843, he became a Justice of the Peace in the City (the equivalent of Mayor at that time).

When the threat of war loomed, Antonio entered the military to serve his state. He served as a Captain and Sergeant-at-arms in the Mexican Artillery and took part in military operations against the United States in 1846-47 during the Mexican-American War. Once the war had ended, however, Antonio started a career in the service of his new constituency and served as County Assessor in 1850-1851.

In California’s first census under American rule, 32-year-old Antonio F. Coronel was tallied in the large household of his parents, Ignacio and Francisca Coronel. His profession was listed as merchant and he owned real estate valued at $8,000.

In the years to come, Antonio Franco Coronel would become very active in Los Angeles politics. He served as a member of the Los Angeles Council for several years between 1854 and 1867 and as State Treasurer from 1867 to 1871.

On December 18, 1873, Antonio was married at the Los Angeles Plaza Church to Mariana Williamson, a native of San Antonio, Texas. Antonio was 55 years old and Mariana was 23 years old at the time of their marriage. Mariana was the daughter of Nelson Williamson, a native of Maine, and of Gertrude Roman, a Mexicano Tejano woman from Los Brazos river area. At the age of nine, Mrs. Coronel’s father had brought Mariana to California, where her fluency in both English and Spanish earned her respect among many of her neighbors.

Even after his retirement from politics, Antonio F. Coronel retired to his orange orchard to concentrate on agricultural pursuits, earning great respect from his fellow Angelinos until his death on April 17, 1894 at the age of 77.

The second Latino Mayor of Los Angeles during the American Era was Manuel Requena, who, as Los Angeles Council President, briefly took office as Acting Mayor.

Manuel Requena was born around 1802 in the Yucatan, Mexico, and came to California by sea, after leaving the Mexican port of Guaymas (Sonora) in 1834. A trader by profession, Señor Requena sold his vessel on arriving in California and immediately became involved in Los Angeles politics. Not long after his arrival in his adopted homeland, Señor Requena was elected to serve as Alcalde of Mexican Los Angeles in 1836-1837 and 1844.

In California, Manuel Requena was married to Gertrudis Guirado. In 1850, after the American occupation, 50-year-old Manuel Requena was tallied in the Federal Census. A native of Mexico, Requena stated that he owned $14,500 of real estate. Living with Manuel was his 32-year-old wife, Gertrudes, and their four sons: Mattias, Juan, Geronimo and Jose.

During the American Period, Manuel Requena wielded the most influence as a member of the Los Angeles Common Council, where he served several terms (1850-54, 1856, 1864-68). In the 1870 census, Manuel Requena was listed as a 68-year-old retired merchant, who owned $20,000 of real estate and $3,000 of personal estate. His wife, Gertrudes, was 40 years old by this time. One son was still living with them at that time. Well respected by his peers and neighbors, Mayor Requena died in 1876 at the age of 72.

The third Latino Mayor of Los Angeles was Cristobal Aguilar who served two separate terms as Mayor. Cristobal Aguilar was born in 1816 as the son of Jose Maria Aguilar and Maria Ygnacia Elizalde. The Aguilar family had played an important role in the California military and politics for several decades by the time that Cristobal came of age.

Cristobal Aguilar was married to Maria Dolores Yorba at San Gabriel Mission on October 31, 1848. Maria Dolores was a descendant of the famous Yorba family of Orange County. In the early years of the American Period, Cristobal Aguilar made a name for himself as one of the most visible members of the Los Angeles Common Council, serving several terms (1850, 1855-56, 1858-59, 1861-62).

Cristobal served as Mayor from 1866 to 1868. As Mayor, Aguilar signed an ordinance in 1866 to set aside five acres of land as "a Public Square or Plaza, for the use and benefit of the Citizens in common." This public square is now known as Pershing Square.

Then, in the 1870 census, 56-year-old Cristoval Aguilar was tallied in the Federal Census as a resident of Los Angeles Township. When asked for his occupation, Mr. Aguilar told the census taker that he was "Ex-Mayor of Los Angeles." He proudly pointed out that he was a native of California and noted that he owned $1,600 of real estate and $200 of personal estate.

Cristobal’s wife, Dolores, was 38 at the time of the census and was also a native of California. Living with them were four children: Librada (19 years old), Jose M. (17), Matias (12), Guadalupe (10) and Rosa (7). It also appears that Cristobal’s 68-year-old mother Maria lived with them.

Cristobal Aguilar was also elected Mayor from 1871 to 1872. When Aguilar became Mayor, there were less than 6,000 residents in the City. When the city council proposed selling off the city's water rights to bring in additional revenue, Aguilar vetoed the proposal. If Aguilar had not used his power of veto, Los Angeles would have lost control of its water rights, leading to serious problems at a later date.

When Aguilar was elected in 1870, the Latino voter registration was about 22%. When he ran for reelection, however, he was defeated by an Anglo opponent, who made an issue of his poor English. In the years following his term as Mayor, he also served as Deputy Zanjero. Aguilar was a great believer in education and made certain that all of his children received a good education. Living in quiet retirement during his later years, Cristobal Aguilar died suddenly on April 13, 1886 at his residence on Water Street.

In his second run for Mayor of Los Angeles, Antonio Villaraigosa defeated the incumbent Mayor, James Hahn on May 17, 2005. With this accomplishment, City Councilperson Villaraigosa became the first Hispanic Mayor of Los Angeles since Cristobal Aguilar left office on December 5, 1872.

Antonio Villaraigosa was born on January 23, 1953 in East Los Angeles as Antonio Ramon Villar in Los Angeles, the son of an immigrant father by the same name and Natalia Acosta Delgado.

Antonio’s grandfather had moved to Los Angeles from Mexico sometime around 1903. He built a successful produce business, which allowed him to put his two daughters in private school and buy a nice home on the Eastside. But the Depression affected this family as it did other families. Antonio’s grandfather lost his wife and his daughters soon ended up in foster care.

According to the 1930 Federal Census, a 42-year-old Peter Acosta was tallied as a Merchant working in a Wholesale Market, living in the 9^th Ward of Los Angeles. His wife, Rebecca, was 30 years old, and his daughter Natalia was not yet two years old. The census states that Peter had come to the United States in 1906 and that Rebecca had arrived in 1916.

Eventually, Antonio Villaraigosa's mother, Natalia Delgado, was separated from her sister and moved from one foster home to another. Eventually, she married Antonio Villar, a butcher and taxi driver from Mexico City.

Antonio Ramon Villar, Junior, was the oldest son of Antonio Senior and Natalia. However, when Antonio was still in kindergarten, his parents were divorced. Although he grew up in a poor household, he became dedicated to improving his lot in life and became a labor lawyer. Villaraigosa has stated that his favorite role model was his mother, Natalia Delgado, "a woman of indomitable spirit who never stopped believing in me."

Unfortunately, Natalia Acosta Delgado died on February 5, 1991. Three years later, in 1994, Antonio Villaraigosa was elected as the representative of the 45^th District to the California Assembly. He took on positions of leadership and became Assembly Majority Floor Leader in 1997. In 1998, Villaraigosa was elected to serve as Speaker of the Assembly, succeeding Cruz Bustamante.

Antonio was married to Corina Raigosa in 1987. After this marriage, Antonio and Corina combined their surnames, taking on the single surname Villaraigosa.

Assemblyperson Villaraigosa ran for Mayor of Los Angeles in 2001 but was defeated by a margin of 8% by his fellow Democrat, James Hahn, in the run-off election. In 2003, he defeated incumbent Councilman Nick Pacheco to win a seat on the Los Angeles City Council, representing the 14^th District.

Having won election held on May 17, 2005, Mayor Villaraigosa’s story is just beginning.

Copyright © 2005 by John P. Schmal. All Rights under applicable law are hereby reserved.

Sources:

Huber Howe Bancroft, "Register of Pioneer Inhabitants of California, 1542 to 1848" (Los Angeles: Dawson’s Book Shop, 1964).

J. M. Guinn, "Historical and Biographical Record of Southern California" (Chicago: Chapman Publishing Company, 1902).

Rosanna Mah, "Antonio Villariagosa (from LA Independent). Online:
http://www.antonio2005.com/news?id=0039

Marie E. Northrop, "Spanish-Mexican Families of Early California, 1769-1850." Two volumes (Burbank, California: Southern California Genealogical Society, 1984).

William A. Spalding, "History and Reminiscences of Los Angeles city and County, California" (Los Angeles: J. r. Finnell & Sons Publishing Company)

To those of us descended from the Primo families of California, especially those living in Southern California, it seems amazing that it has taken this long for Los Angeles once again to have a mayor with Hispanic roots. The last one before Signor Antonio Villaraigosa was in 1872. That was Cristobal Aguilar, one of my distant ancestral cousins by marriage to Maria Andrea Dolores Yorba in 1848. Aguilar served two terms as L.A. mayor, first from 1866 to 1868 and again from 1871 to 1872.

In a city originally called El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciuncula where the Hispanic population is nearly 50 percent, isn't it surprising that it's been so long since there has been an Hispanic mayor? And, as importantly, isn't it odd that there isn't more public acknowledgement of L.A.'s first three Hispanic mayors?

Los Angeles first Hispanic mayor Antonio Francisco (Franco) Coronel served from May 3, 1853 to May 4, 1854. He was born on October 21, 1817 in Mexico City and came to California with his parents in 1834.

His father, Ygnacio Coronel, joined the Spanish army and rose to the rank of corporal of the cavalry by 1814. In 1837, Corporal Coronel brought his family, wife Maria Josefa Francisca Romero, a native of  Toluca. and twenty year old son, Franco to Los Angeles, where he started a new life as a civilian. Before his death, Ygnacio taught school, ran a small store, served as secretary of the Ayuntamiento, and enjoyed agricultural pursuits.

In 1838, Franco was appointed Assistant Secretary of Tribunals for the City of Los Angeles. In 1843, he became Juez de Paz (Justice of the Peace) in the City.

When the threat of war loomed in Alta California, Franco entered the military to serve his adopted land. He served as a Captain and Sergeant-at-arms in the Mexican Artillery and took part in military 
operations against the United States in 1846-47 during the Mexican-American War. Once the war had ended, however, Antonio returned to his political service as Los Angeles County Assessor in 1850-1851. In 1853, he was elected mayor.

Coronel established the Department of Public Works and encouraged residents to gather in the public plaza at the sound of a gong and to publically vote on city matters by a show of hands.

He was a champion of civic beautification and supported the pueblo's horticultural and historical societies, a museum and the restoration of the missions. He and his wife, Mariana, helped Helen Hunt Jackson write the romantic novel "Ramona," which alerted the nation to the plight of Native Americans. Coronel was also highly respected for his courtly manners and served out his term as mayor with grace and honesty.

Coronel next served 12 years as a city councilman, and was state treasurer for four years. Even after his retirement from politics, Franco Coronel continued to earn great respect from his fellow Angelinos 
for his work in civic projects until his death on April 17, 1894 at the age of 77.

As Los Angeles Council President, Manuel Requena briefly took office as Acting Mayor from September 22, 1856 – October 4, 1856. Requena was born around 1802 in the Yucatan, Mexico, and came to California by sea, after leaving the Mexican port of Guaymas (Sonora) in 1834. A trader by profession, he sold his ship on arriving in California and immediately became involved in Los Angeles politics. Not long after his arrival in his adopted homeland, Requena was elected to serve as Alcalde of Mexican Los Angeles in 1836-1837 and 1844.

During the American Period, Manuel Requena wielded the most influence as a member of the Los Angeles Common Council, where he served several terms (1850-54, 1856, 1864-68). Well respected by his peers and neighbors, ex-Mayor Requena died in 1876 at the age of 72.

The third Los Angeles Hispanic mayor Cristobal Aguilar, by historical accounts, was a good politician. He made a name for himself as one of the most visible members of the Los Angeles Common Council, serving several terms (1850, 1855-56, 1858-59, 1861-62). After being elected 
mayor in 1866, one of his first acts was to sign an ordinance setting aside five acres of land as "a Public Square or Plaza, for the use and benefit of the Citizens in common." This public square is now known as Pershing Square and is one of L.A.'s enduring landmarks. Tourists and those of Hispanic heritage, however, will search in vain for any reminder that "their" mayor founded Pershing Square. Where is Mayor Aguilar's statue or historic plaque? Missing in inaction.

Another action by Mayor Aguilar was far more controversial and far-reaching in its effect. In 1868, after a disasterous flood, the Los Angeles City Council planned to raise money for repair by selling off the city's water rights to a private company. Mayor Aguilar vetoed the decision and proposed leasing it instead which, in turn, led to the formation of the city's first Water Company.

This was a "momentous decision," said Leonard Pitt, emeritus history professor at California State University, Northridge. It allowed Los Angeles to later develop its own municipal water agency and control its destiny as a growing metropolis.

The Los Angeles City Water Company was formed by Beaudry Prudent, a French Canadian from Montreal. One of its major shareholders and developers was Isaias Hellman, a Jewish immigrant from Europe who was also one of the founders of the Farmers and Merchants Bank, a direct 
ancestor through subsequent mergers of today's Bank of America. Mayor Aguilar obviously had little difficulty working outside the Hispanic constituency to help build a better Los Angeles.

In fact, when Aguilar was voted in for a second term in 1871, the Hispanic voting base only represented about 22 percent of the total.

We must make a stronger effort, I think, to remember and honor our past Hispanic mayors and the rich heritage they have bestowed on our fair city of de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciuncula. By historical accounts, they were hard-working, family-oriented, decent, civic-minded men who were proud of their Hispanic roots yet were able to work with all citizens, business, and cultural interests for the continuing improvement of the city and its life. We can hope that newly-elected mayor Antonio Villaraigosa -- Los Angeles' fourth Hispanic to hold that office -- will follow in their deep and colorful footprints.

Has your family lived in Los Angeles for many generations? Do you have any of the following surnames: Verdugo, Sepulveda, Avila, Rosas, Higuera, Lugo, Domínguez, Serrano, Olivas, Ybarra, Palomares, Rodríguez, Reyes, Romero, Valenzuela, Pico or Feliz? Or did you or your family come from the states of Sinaloa or Sonora?

If you can lay claim to any of these criteria, you may be related to the first families of Los Angeles. Most people do not know much about the founding families of Los Angeles. Very few of their names have been given to streets, cities, barrios, or buildings in the Los Angeles area.

Most people, however, know that Los Angeles was founded in 1781. But many people believe that Los Angeles was founded by the Spaniards. In fact, some people believe that the founders of Los Angeles were actually from Spain. Nothing could be so far from the truth. It is true that Spanish administrators and authorities organized and carried out the founding of the small pueblo. However, the founders of the town itself were, in fact, Mexican people from the Mexican states of Sinaloa, Sonora and Jalisco. The founding of Los Angeles was a Spanish endeavor carried out by Mexican people. The one exception was José Fernando de Velasco y Lara, who was, in fact, a native of Spain.

If you are from Sinaloa or Sonora, then you have ties to the earliest founders of Los Angeles. The first families of Los Angeles, for the most part, looked upon Sinaloa and Sonora as their "madre patria" because the lifeblood of Los Angeles was built on the manpower of citizens from Sinaloa and Sonora.

The Rivera Expedition of 1781 brought 44 settlers and several dozen solders into the Los Angeles area. Many of the people who participated in this expedition became members of the Los Angeles community. It should be noted, however, that Jalisco and other Mexican states did send their share of people in the early decades. In fact, two of the founders of Los Angeles – Luis Quintero and José Vanegas – were from Jalisco.

Many of these early citizens became involved in the political direction of the city of Los Angeles. Although these pioneers lived within the bounds of the Spanish empire, they became responsible for the success of the little pueblo. As you will see below, some of the Pueblo’s early Alcaldes (Mayors) were simple people of humble origin. Most of them were not educated but had a stake in the success of Los Angeles. If you are interested in knowing about these first families and where they came from, please read on:

Luis Quintero and María Petra Rubio. An official padrón (census) taken on November 19, 1781 listed Luis with his wife and five children. Luis was classified by the Spanish authorities as a "negro" and María Petra as a "mulata." It is said that Luis was of Indian and African extraction and was born in Guadalajara, Jalisco, even though he apparently married and raised his family in Álamos, Sonora. Luis and his family left Los Angeles in 1782 for Santa Barbara, where he spent the rest of his life working as a tailor for the soldiers at the Presidio. But many of his descendants returned to live in Los Angeles.

Manuel Camero was a thirty-year-old mulato from Nayarit when he and his wife, María Tomasa, arrived in Los Angeles in 1781. Señor Camero became involved in the political scene at Los Angeles and served as a Los Angeles regidor (councilman) during his lifetime.

In 1781, when they arrived in Los Angeles, José Antonio Navarro was a 42-year-old mestizo from Sinaloa. He and his mulata wife, María Regina, later moved north to San José and San Francisco with their young children.

José Antonio Basilio Rosas was a 67-year-old Indian from the state of Durango. He and his 43-year-old mulata wife, María Manuela Calixtra Hernandez, brought six children with them to Los Angeles in 1781. Basilio lived to a ripe old age and was able to see his grandchildren raised in the little pueblo.

José Vanegas arrived in Los Angeles in 1781 as a 28-year-old Indian. A native of Jalisco, Vanegas was accompanied by his Indian wife María Bonifacia Maxima Aguilar and one child. Vanegas was a shoemaker, but he also became involved in city politics and served as the first Alcade (Mayor) of Los Angeles from 1786 to 1788.

Cornelio Avila and his wife Isabel Urquidez came to Los Angeles in 1783. Originally from El Fuerte, Sinaloa, Cornelio and Isabel had nine children, several of whom enlisted in the military and were posted at various presidios in California. "La Casa de los Avilas" – located on Olvera Street in Downtown Los Angeles – was built in 1818 by Cornelio’s son, Francisco Avila. The Adobe Avila – as it is called today – is the oldest building of Los Angeles and one of the few that carries the surname of one of Los Angeles’ founding families. The Avila family became actively involved in Los Angeles politics and Francisco served as Alcade (Mayor) in 1810-1811.

Felipe Santiago de la Cruz Pico was a mulato from San Xavier de Cabazán, a town located close to Horcasitas, Sinaloa. He came to California with the Anza Expedition in 1775 and served in the military up until 1790. In the Los Angeles census of that year, Santiago was listed as a 60-year-old mestizo vaquero from Sinaloa. Two sons lived with him and his wife Jacinta. Santiago and Jacinta’s grandson, Pio Pico, born in 1801, would be the last Mexican Governor of California.

Pedro Gabriel Valenzuela was a mestizo soldier from Álamos, Sonora. With his wife María Dolores Parra, he had accompanied the Rivera Expedition to San Gabriel in 1781. He served many years at the Santa Barbara Presidio, retiring in 1798 to the Pueblo of Los Angeles. Their family has many descendants living in both Santa Barbara and Los Angeles.

José Antonio Ontiveros was a mestizo from Chemetla, a village near Rosario, Sinaloa. He was married to Ana María Carrasco, and in 1781, they and their two children accompanied the Rivera Expedition on its way to Los Angeles. José served at several presidios before retiring to Los Angeles, where he listed as a shoemaker in the 1790 census.

Francisco Serrano was born in Villa de Sastago, Aragon, Spain. At some point he made his way to Mexico and then to the San Diego Presidio, where he married María Blabaneda Silvas, a native of Villa de Sinaloa. Francisco and María had eleven children in all. After serving for many years in the military, Francisco moved to Los Angeles, where he served as Alcalde of the Pueblo from 1799 to 1800.

Juan Matias Olivas was a Indian soldier from Rosario, Sinaloa. He and his wife, Maria Doroteo Espinosa, took part in Rivera’s Expedition to San Gabriel in 1781. Juan served as a soldier at the Santa Barbara Presidio until his retirement in 1800. After this, Juan and his family made their home in the Pueblo.

Juan Antonio Ybarra was from Mazatlán de los Mulatos, Sinaloa. He married María de los Angles Velasquez around 1778 and came with the Rivera Expedition to Los Angeles in 1781. Juan served in the military for more years, retiring to the Pueblo of Los Angeles sometime around 1804. Juan and María had nine children, many of whom became involved in the military and lived in the Los Angeles and San Diego areas.

José Cristóbal Palomares was from San José de Canales in Durango. He came to California as a soldier. Cristóbal and his wife, María Benedicta Saez, had eleven children, most of them baptized at Santa Barbara and San Gabriel. After his retirement from the military in 1810, Cristóbal moved to Los Angeles and became actively involved in the political direction of Los Angeles, serving as an elector from 1822 and 1824.

Francisco Xavier Sepúlveda came from Villa de Sinaloa in the present-day state of Sinaloa. Francisco and his wife, María Candelaria de Redondo, had seven children, six of whom were born in Sinaloa before the Rivera Expedition. Francisco and his family accompanied Rivera on his long journey to San Gabriel in 1781 and continued to serve in the military for several more years. The Sepúlveda family is a famous first family of Los Angeles.

José Manuel Nieto was born at San Felipe y Santiago in Sinaloa. Nieto came to California in the 1770s as a soldier in the service of Spain. Sometime around 1784, he was assigned as a soldier at the San Gabriel Mission, where served up until 1795. Manuel requested and received a land grant of about 300,000 acres in the vicinity of East Los Angeles. By the time he died in 1804, he was probably the wealthiest man in California. His four sons inherited his large landholdings, which included the ranchos of Los Alamitos and Los Coyotes.

Corporal José Vicente Feliz, a veteran of the Anza Expedition of 1776, was one of the soldiers assigned to watch over the small pueblo of Los Angeles during its formative years. In 1787, Governor Fages appointed Feliz as Comisionado of the Los Angeles Pueblo, giving him the powers of community arbitrator, presiding judge, and the head of labor relations. In effect, he was like a Mayor. For his service, Vicente Feliz was granted 6,677 acres, which became El Rancho de Los Feliz. Most of the Los Feliz District and Griffith Park made up this ranch today.

Corporal Juan José Domínguez was from Villa de Sinaloa. At a young age, Juan joined the Spanish military. He was a member of the original Portolá Expedition of 1769 and became well-known as an Indian fighter. He eventually retired to Los Angeles, where he was listed as a 53-year-old Spanish (white) vaquero in the 1790 census. In 1784, Juan was granted 74,000 acres of land south of Los Angeles. The vast Domínugez Rancho encompassed much of what is now Torrance, Carson, Redondo Beach and San Pedro.

Mariano de la Luz Verdugo, a native of San Xavier, Baja California, came from a military family. His father had been born in El Fuerte, Sinaloa, but wandered far from home as a Spanish soldier. Like Corporal Domínguez, Verdugo came to California in the 1769 expedition and, for the next two decades, served at various presidios in California. Mariano retired to Los Angeles around 1787 and served as Alcalde of the Pueblo from 1790 until 1793. In 1784, Corporal Verdugo was awarded a 36,403-acre land grant,

Francisco Salvador Lugo came to California as a soldier in 1774. He served at several California presidios, but was later assigned to stand guard at the Los Angeles Pueblo during its early years. The Lugo family is one of the most famous first families of Los Angeles. Francisco’s son, Antonio María Lugo, became a famous landowner in Los Angeles County and fathered a large family. Many of the Lugo’s living in Los Angeles today are descended from Antonio, who served as Alcalde of Los Angeles from 1816 to 1819.

José Manuel Machado and his wife, Maria, traveled from Sinaloa, Mexico on the Rivera expedition of 1781. Machado continued to serve as a soldier in different locations until he retired to the pueblo of Los Angeles in 1797. Machado’s sons became owners of the 14,000-acre Rancho La Ballona which they established in 1819. Much of present-day Marina del Rey and Culver City stand on this former rancho.

Jose Sinova was a blacksmith from Mexico City who married María Gertrudis Bojórquez, a mestiza from Villa de Sinaloa. By the time of the 1790 census, Jose and Gertrudis were raising a family of four children in the Los Angeles. Although he was a blacksmith by trade, Jose Sinova became active in politics and served as Alcalde of Los Angeles from 1789 to 1790.

Juan Francisco Reyes was a mulato from Zapotlán el Grande in Jalisco. According to the 1790 Los Angeles census, Francisco was married to María del Carmen Domínguez, a mestiza from Villa de Sinaloa, and had three children. He was listed as a farmworker and became the original owner of the San Fernando Rancho, where he raised his cattle. Juan Francisco Reyes is regarded by many as the first Black Mayor of Los Angeles, having served as Alcalde of the Pueblo from 1793 to 1795.

Manuel Ramírez de Arellano was tallied in the 1790 Los Angeles census as a 46-year old weaver from Puebla, with a wife and four children. His wife, María Agreda López de Haro, was from Álamos, Sonora. He served as Alcalde of Los Angeles from 1797 to 1798.

Many resources on the Internet are becoming available to persons who are interested in knowing and appreciating the very important Mexican contribution to formative years of Los Angeles. A list of the early Hispanic Los Angeles Mayors can be accessed at the Los Angeles Almanac website at:

http://www.losangelesalmanac.com/topics/Government/gl11.htm

Copyright © 2005, by Jennifer Vo and John P. Schmal. All Rights Reserved. The content of this article may be reproduced by individuals or educational institutions for non-commercial educational or personal purposes only.

Sources:

Maynard Geiger, "Six Census Records of Los Angeles and Its Immediate Area Between 1804 and 1823," Southern California Quarterly, Vol. LIV, No. 4, pp. 311-341.

William Marvin Mason, The Census of 1790: A Demographic History of Colonial California (Menlo Park, California: Ballena Press, 1998).

Jennifer Vo and John P. Schmal, A Mexican-American Family of California: In the Service of Three Flags (Bowie, Maryland: Heritage Books, 2004). Available at
http://heritagebooks.com/ (Code S2448).

Most people living in Los Angeles today have probably never heard of the Expedition of 1781. However, if this expedition had not taken place or fulfilled its objectives, Los Angeles would not be 224 years old this year. This expedition of almost a thousand miles founded a small pueblo on the outskirts of the extensive Spanish Empire. That small pueblo, now known as Los Angeles, would eventually form the nucleus of a thriving multi-ethnic, multicultural urban center with a population of almost 10 million people.

In 1774, King Carlos III of Spain had authorized the settlement of the California communities we call San Gabriel, Los Angeles, and Santa Barbara. He believed that the establishment of pueblos, missions and presidios in these areas would serve as a bulwark against the looming threat of the Russian and British empires, both of which were moving closer to California.

In December 1779, Viceroy Bucareli and Commandant General de la Croix had approved a proposal by California Governor Felipe de Neve to establish settlements at the sites of present-day Los Angeles and Santa Barbara. Soon after, Fernando Rivera y Moncada, the Lieutenant Governor of California, was appointed to oversee the recruitment of the proposed settlements.

In December 1779, Governor de Neve sent an expedition under the command of Captain Rivera into Sinaloa and Sonora to recruit 59 soldiers and 24 families of pobladores (settlers). Of the fifty-nine recruits, thirty-four soldiers were to go to California, while the other twenty-five would fill the places of those soldiers taken from the presidios in Mexico.

Most of the soldiers selected to accompany the settlers on their northward march belonged to a unique breed of Spanish soldiers called los soldados de cuera (the leather-jacket soldiers). Recruited from the poorest classes of Sinaloa and Sonora, these young men were prepared to serve and perhaps die in the service of the Spanish Empire. However, although they served under the flag of Spain, most of them were, in fact, natives of Mexico and of modest, mixed-race origins.

These young soldiers – and the pobladores (settlers) they accompanied – were prepared to take their families with them to this strange, untamed land, uncertain of the challenges that lay ahead. However, with the challenges and uncertainty came great opportunities and we are certain that they were well aware of this.

The instructions required that the soldier recruits and the settlers should be "healthy, robust, and without known vice or defect." Both the soldiers and settlers were to be married men – with families – and should possess "greater strength and endurance for the hardships of frontier service." Included among the settlers would be a mason, a carpenter, and a blacksmith.

Rivera was to offer prospective colonists daily rations and a monthly salary of 10 pesos for the next three years, as well as "an allowance in clothing and supplies." The settlers would be granted the use of government land as common pasture and would also be granted an exemption from taxes for five years.

All recruits were required to bind themselves to ten years’ service. It was also hoped that the unmarried female relatives of the pobladores would be encouraged to marry bachelor soldiers already in California. Upon completion of his task, Rivera would assemble the whole company of recruits at Álamos in Sonora. From Álamos the recruits and their families would move on by sea or land. In addition to recruiting soldiers and settlers, Rivera had to purchase equipment and supplies, as well as 961 horses, mules, and donkeys. The animals would be sent north by way of the Gila and Colorado Rivers.

Although he started his search in February 1780, Rivera did not enlist his first settler until May. It was difficult to enlist people for a ten-year commitment to a remote and desolate outpost surrounded by thousands of potentially hostile Indians. Most people realized that getting to California from Sonora and Sinaloa was a long, arduous and dangerous journey. Additionally, rumors were circulating in Sonora that soldiers serving in California were not getting paid their due.

By August 1, 1780, Rivera had recruited only 45 soldiers and seven settlers from Sinaloa and Culiacán. But, by August 25, he was able to recruit eleven farm families (numbering 44 people in all) and 59 soldiers. By November, Captain Rivera had recruited all of the soldiers he needed, but was still short on settlers.

Rivera’s entire expedition of settlers, soldiers, and livestock were assembled at Álamos in January. At this point, he decided to split the expedition into two groups. First, he assigned seventeen of his soldiers under the command of Alferez Ramon Laso de la Vega to accompany the eleven settlers’ families in their march up the Baja Peninsula. This party, under the overall command of Lieutenant José de Zuñiga, left Álamos on February 2, 1781, started northward, and eventually crossed the Gulf of California from Guaymas to Loreto, Baja California. An outbreak of smallpox among the settlers delayed the journey for awhile. Not until August would most of Zuñiga’s party make it to the San Gabriel Mission.

Meanwhile, Captain Rivera on the mainland, accompanied by 42 soldiers and 961 horses and mules, rode north toward the Colorado River. Rivera and his troops arrived in July at the junction of the Gila and Colorado Rivers. At that point, Rivera sent the troops and their families ahead to the San Gabriel Mission. With several men still under his command, Rivera camped on the eastern (Arizona) bank of the Colorado on the night of July 17, 1781 in order to rest and feed his livestock before crossing the Colorado Desert.

However, Rivera’s large herd of cattle and horses caused a great deal of damage to the Indians’ mesquite trees and melon patches. Enraged, the Yuma Indians attacked and massacred Rivera and several of his soldiers. At the same time, the Indians also attacked two nearby pueblos, killing a total of 46 people.

Fortunately, the thirty-five soldiers and thirty families of the Sonora escort had already arrived safely at the San Gabriel Mission on July 14, 1781. This massacre caused a great deal of trepidation to the Spanish frontier zone. As a result the inland route from Sonora to California was virtually closed for several years.

Rivera was 57 when he was slain. He had been a California soldier for 40 years. His widow was left destitute. She was never able to collect any part of Rivera's last five years of pay, held up as it was by disputes with missionaries and higher civil authorities. 

Having traveled more than 950 miles from their starting point in Sonora, the settlers and soldiers lived at the San Gabriel Mission for several weeks as they made preparations to start their new lives in Los Angeles. At that point, the settlers were only nine miles from their destination (Los Angeles).

The Pueblo of Los Angeles was officially founded on September 4, 1781, when, it is believed, a procession of settlers and soldiers made their way to a location along the Los Angeles River. In actuality, the building of the pueblo may have been a more gradual process.

Although founded in 1781, the small pueblo grew steadily over the decades. The Sinaloans and Sonorans who had contributed so greatly to the establishment and the life of the pueblo continued to play an important role in the growth of Los Angeles. At the following website, one can see the names of the inhabitants of Los Angeles in 1790:

http://www.sfgenealogy.com/sf/ca1790.htm#losangeles

Scanning this list of names, one can easily see that Sinaloans and Sonorans were, by and large, the life-blood of the young pueblo. The passing of two centuries has greatly diminished the influence of Sinaloa and Sonora on the city’s direction, but the Angelinos of today can still appreciate the efforts of these pioneers.

Thomas Workman Temple II, "Soldiers and Settlers of the Expedition of 1781," Southern California Quarterly, Vol. XV, Part 1 (November 1931).

Marion Parks, "Instructions for the Recruital of Soldiers and Settlers for California – Expedition of 1781," Southern California Quarterly, Vol. XV, Part II (1931), pp. 189-203.

Jennifer Vo and John P. Schmal, A Mexican-American Family of California: In the Service of Three Flags. Heritage Books, 2004.

Few of the great cities of the land have had such humble founders as Los Angeles. Of the eleven pobladores who built their huts of poles and tule thatch around the plaza vieja … not one could read or write. Not one could boast of an unmixed ancestry… the conquering race that possesses the land they colonized has forgotten them. No street or landmark in the city bears the name of any one of them.[from J. M. Guinn, Historical and Biographical Record of Los Angeles and Vicinity (Chicago: Chapman Publishing Co., 1901)]

Not too many people can claim that they have had a ringside seat at significant historic events. And those who did have a ringside seat usually did not fully comprehend the significance of the events they took part in. This appears to have been the case for my ancestor, Luis Quintero, a poor middle-aged African-Mexican tailor from Sonora, Mexico. In September 1781, Luis and his family joined ten other families in the founding of El Pueblo de Nuestra la Reina de Los Angeles (The Pueblo of Our Lady Queen of the Angels), with no clear vision of what would happen.

My name is Jennifer Vo, and I am a senior editor for a major publishing firm in the Los Angeles area. I am one of millions of Angelinos who live in one of the largest cities in the world. But I am one of only a few thousand who is actually descended from the original 44 founders of Los Angeles.

The founding of Los Angeles, California, was not a random event. It was the result of a well-planned strategic move by Spain to secure the northwestern border regions of its extensive American empire in the last half of the Eighteenth Century. With this goal in mind, the Spanish authorities in Mexico organized the Expedition of 1781 for the specific purpose of founding of the Pueblo.

My ancestors, Luis Quintero and his wife María Petra Rubio, represent one of the eleven original couples to settle with their families at El Pueblo de Los Angeles in 1781. They are also my great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandparents (also referred to as eighth-generation grandparents). Luis is said to have been born in Guadalajara, as the son of a Black slave and Indian woman, although we have not yet verified this through our own research.

When Captain Rivera assembled his crew of soldiers and settlers in Álamos in January of 1781, Luis Quintero's destiny was already tied to the historic expedition about to take place. On January 21, his 16-year-old daughter Catharina was married at Purísima Concepción Church in Álamos to one of Rivera's soldiers, Joaquin Rodríquez. His 15-year-old daughter, Fabiana Sebastiana, was married to another soldier of the expedition, Eugenio Valdés, on the same day. And, on the following day, Luis's eldest daughter, 18-year-old María Juana Josefa, was united in marriage with still another soldado de cuera, José Rosalino Fernández. 

The prospect of never seeing his daughters again may have played a role in the decision-making process, for it is believed that Luis Quintero was the last poblador to sign on the dotted line. When the settlers left Álamos on February 2, 1781, Luis, María Petra, and their eight children were among them. In addition to the three married daughters, María Concepcíon (9 years old), María Tomasa (7), María Rafaela (6), and José Clemente (3) made the 950-mile journey. Sixteen-year-old María Gertrudis Castelo came along as an adopted daughter. 

On August 18, 1781, Luis Quintero and the other pobladores arrived at the San Gabriel Mission after a journey of six-and-a-half months and 960 miles. Several weeks later on the morning of September 4, 1781, according to legend, forty-four persons set out westward from the San Gabriel Mission with an escort of soldiers and priests. It is said that Governor de Neve led the people in a parade, followed first by the soldiers and padres, who were then followed by the settlers. The travelers carried their belongings on their backs or upon their mules as they crossed the Los Angeles River. 

By late afternoon, the party arrived at the site of their new home. Ceremonies were concluded by prayers and blessings from the padres, shortly after which, the flag of Our Lady of the Angels was raised over El Pueblo de Nuestra la Reina de Los Angeles. In The Land Known as Alta California, the author Regina V. Phelan described the first night at the new pueblo:

That evening the women fetched water from the river and cooked supper for their families. The older boys took care of the livestock. The girls quieted their baby brothers and sisters. The men set about marking off their small parcels of land, then started building earthen-roofed huts of willow branches interlaced with tules gathered from the river.

Some researchers have suggested that the founding of the Pueblo may have been a more gradual process and that this grand procession on September 4th may not have taken place as dramatized by some historians. The one thing that is certain is that there is very little documentation about the first years of the pueblo and the events that took place there.

Of the fourteen pobladores that had been enlisted one thousand miles away in Álamos, Sonora, only eleven of them - with their families - actually took part in the founding of the Pueblo of Los Angeles. A list of the first settlers, as indicated by a padrón (census) taken on November 19, 1781, is shown below. This listing - which groups together people of the same surname - can also be found on the Pobladores' plaque on the south side of Pueblo Plaza in Downtown Los Angeles:

As part of the Olvera Street 75th Anniversary Celebration
 1930-2005

Tropical America, 1932
David Alfara Siqueiros
18'H x 82'W
http://www.ci.la.ca.us/tourist/tropical.htm

"Tropical America," ("La América Tropical") by David Alfara Siqueiros. is painted on the Italian Wall on Olvera Street. A banner reproduction, exactly 18 x 80 ft, just like the original  hangs over the protective cover of the original master piece. Tropical America was the first large-scale mural in the United States that created a public space by being painted on an ordinary exterior wall, 
History behind the Piece, America Tropical  

Upon is expulsion form Mexico in 1932 for political activity, David Alfara Siqueiros settled in Los Angeles for six months. During that brief time, he completed three murals. The first, Street Meeting, was painted at the Chouinard School of Art, where he taught a class on fresco paining. He painted the last mural, Portait of Present Day Mexico (which still exists), at a home in Pacific Palisades. But Siqueiros' most important mural in Los Angeles was his second -- Tropical America. The powerful political statement was executed along the exterior of the second floor of the Italian Hall, where the Plaza Art Center was located. 

The title was suggested by F.K. Ferenz, the director of the Plaza Art Center who, along with Dean Cornwall, one of the muralists of the Los Angeles Public Library, sponsored the work. Commercial companies donated paint, cement, mechanical equipment and wood for the scaffold. Siqueiros, assisted by approximately 20 artists known as the Bloc of Mural Painters, began the mural in mid-August. He worked primarily at night, paining with an airbrush after the design was outlined on the wall with a projector. The fresco, made of cement rather than the traditional plaster, was completed the night before its dedication on October 9, 1932. 

In executing this work, along with his other murals in Los Angeles, Siqueiros extensively used mechanical equipment, such as the airbrush, for the first time. So emotionally charged was the allegorical imagery that within six months, a section of the mural visible from Olvera Street was painted out. Within a year, the work was completely covered. Portraying the struggle against imperialism was particularly offensive to Christine Sterling, the leading promoter of Olvera Street, presumably because it did not conform to her image of a docile and tranquil Mexican village. 

Virtually forgotten for years, the mural was rediscovered in the late 1960s when the whitewash began to peel off. However, it was severely damager shortly thereafter by exposure to the sun. A plywood cover which now hides the work, was installed in 1982 to prevent further deterioration. The mural has now been conserved. 


David Alfara Siqueiros (1896-1974), born in Chihuahua, Mexico, joined Jose Orozco and Diego Rivera as the 20th Century's most influential muralists. They revolutionized mural content and style by portraying Mexico's rich history and contemporary economic problems in visually bold political terms.

CALIFORNIA

Domingo Arvizu, 1859
The leather bound book is 3 X 5 inches. 
Domingo was the first author of this record.

Our history parallels the history of numerous other Hispanic families as they helped settle the west over many past generations.  To me, the log is a key to our past, and as I follow the old Spanish script, I can almost feel the hand of Domingo as it must have moved when he first penned the names of all his children some 140 years ago.

                                                                                              John Arvizu

The "fechas de nacimiento"  were written by Abraham and Louisa Arvizu.

Hole in the Wall 
Julian Arvizu is seated bottom right.  Pedro Romero is standing to the right
Circa 1900

Where the script changes, most likely finished by his wife, Francisca Lopez Arvizu.  

Puente, September 14, 1899 Author:  Domingo Arvizu to his wife Francisca Lopez Arvizu 
How can I express to you my joy in realizing that you are my Sweetheart.

Domingo Arvizu and grandchildren

John Arvizu is a direct descendant of Domingo Arvizu. 

Dear Mimi,  

 I have followed your incredible work at Somos Primos for awhile,  thanks to connections with Lorri Frain and Wilma Espinoza. Thanks for  a great website, and articles that end up fascinating me in for hours  at a time.

As president of the Juana Briones Heritage Foundation, I want to thank  you for  posting information about our effort to buy the house that  Juana built, in order to create a hands-on history program there for  schoolchildren and a scholar in residence, too.

The effort to save the house has gone through  many twists and turns.  At one point we were hoping the City of Palo  Alto would take initiative and help find a long term solution by  buying the house.

In October of 2004, our Foundation launched a campaign to form teams to:
 1.Seek to open negotiations with the owners to buy the house privately  and
 2. Broaden the base of public interest in Juana and what her story  represents of Latina's contributions to California history.   We'd  like people to have the most current information: that this is no  longer a campaign to convince City Council members in Palo Alto, but a  challenge to demonstrate Juana's importance to the Latino community,  to women's groups, and more.  Uncovering her story has brought the  Foundation members to many areas of study from archaeology to  curandera plant studies,  from ethnic scholarship about Afro Mexican families to historic  maps and Mexican California Expediente land records  in Sacramento.

When our newly remodeled website launches hopefully by the end of  May, we'd like toannounce that widely.  We want to stir up a buzz about Juana so the owners of the house, who do not feel she's significant in California or to women's history, will be willing to change their minds about
demolishing  this house, and move towards a sales agreement with the Foundation.  Individuals and groups are invited to endorse the cause right now at the website: www.brioneshouse.org   Signatures there can connect us with people who can help the cause, and also demonstrate a broad base of support for Latinas in California history.

Juana is going to be included in the soon to open exhibit in  Sacramento, "Latinas: The Spirit of California. "  On all these fronts  there's lots to celebrate. But challenges lie ahead if we are to save
the house to create a living history program.

We hope everyone who wants to know more about Juana, the rare form of rammed adobe walls,
and the possibilities for making history come alive in her historic house will visit the site:
http://www.brioneshouse.org
 
Regards, Halimah Van Tuyl,  president JBHF
Juana Briones Heritage Foundation
chair@brioneshouse.org

Luis Cervantes -- muralist who inspired generations of artists
Photo source:  http://www.siliconvalleydebug.com/story/051005/stories/Luis.html
Cicero A. Estrella, San Francisco Chronicle Staff Writer
Monday, May 2, 2005 
Sent by Dorindo Lupe Moreno dorindamoreno@comcast.net

Wholesale prices put the books into every schools' budget.  Suggested Retail for Juan and Mariano, ($5.95), but wholesale 1-10, ($2.67). Glossary in the back and a one-page synopsis of the historical facts on which the 40-page booklet is based. Ally's Alarm Clock is $6.99 retail, but $1.29 wholesale. ]]

To order email debraromeyn@comcast.net or call: 707-322-8699 or write:
Gossamer Books, 444 Eastwood Drive, Petaluma, CA 94954

Santa Barbara, April 23, 2005, 
Los Soldados del Presidio Real de Santa

A PLAIN METAL locker at the San Fernando Mission archives belies its magnificent contents - a 200-year-old homage to God and proof of the glorious, long-denied heritage of Old California.

But the treasure, much like the period of history it represents, remained hidden for centuries, all but forgotten. It was finally rediscovered in 1992 by a musicologist who stumbled upon the set of three Masses by composer Ignacio de Jerusalem, the choirmaster at the Mexico City Cathedral in the mid-1700s. Scholars believe that the complex, fully orchestrated Masses were brought here in the early 19th century and performed by Native American Christian converts.

The Masses of the San Fernando Mission are the most recent - and perhaps most elegant - examples cited by those who believe that California's most important post-Columbian cultural legacy comes not from pioneers moving west, but from those moving north.

Settlers from Mexico and the native people who entered their communities brought skills - from animal husbandry to high art - that some scholars contend are too often discounted when compared to the European-influenced culture of the East Coast.

"We no longer have to accept a rather dim, rather sleepy, rather lazy kind of distant view of Spanish California," said William Summers, an expert in Mexican American music. "We can see Spanish California as a vibrant, exciting, productive, artistically stimulating period in our history."

IF OTHER scholars are not quite ready to rewrite their history texts, they are willing to listen to the Masses and to their advocates' views of musical history.

Richard Crawford, a University of Michigan professor and a leading scholar of American Colonial music, acknowledges that an Eastern-centered view of Co-'< lonial-era culture predominates in academe. The Jerusalem Masses, he said, could give scholars a new lens through which to view the West.

Musicologist John Koegel came upon the Masses just before the 500th anniversary of Columbus' landing in America, when he went to Mission San Femando and, out of curiosity, asked for a stack of music vaguely referred to in a footnote of a 1941 book. The footnote made no mention of Jerusalem, just early Mass music.

"No one had ever asked to see them before," said Msgr. Francis J. Weber, the archivist of the Los Angeles Archdiocese. "That's one that slipped through the cracks."

Weber rummaged through the metal cabinet, which is housed in a locked vault containing mission documents from throughout California. He brought Koegel a manila folder labeled simply, "Mass Music."

The loose pages were just slightly yellowed, as if they were no older than the average library book. The composer's name had been omitted. The musical notes were carefully drawn, the Latin text written in black ink.

SURVIVING ACCOUNTS from travelers to early California detail accomplished Native American orchestras that reportedly" rivaled Europe's own. Shipping logs, filled out by the mission fathers and sent to Mexico City, list requests for violin strings, flutes, orchestra gowns and sheet music.

But before Koegel saw the mission Masses, the few musicologists who studied early California could not prove the level of artistry that they thought must have existed.

"It was beautiful music," Koegel said. "I heard the music in my mind as"I looked at the pages (and) here were all the parts of the instruments and the singers." 'He imagined the sounds of the Mass in D, with trumpets, horns, oboes and all the fanfare of a battle Mass; the lyrical Mass in F, which emphasizes woodwinds and gentle, heavenly tones. Arid he imagined the two-choir echoes of the joyful Polychoral Mass in D, which at times exults in a combined . voice and then breathlessly splits into light, complex lines .that rush through chord progressions like a river rushes through rapids.

That most of the period's music has been lost does not surprise Koegel. Land deeds and other legal documents were protected from the elements and periodic house cleanings at the 'missions, when excess papers were burned. Music,, often stored with a musician's personal property, was not as well protected.

THE LAST area colonized by the Spanish Empire, California is among the few places where musical manuscripts can still be found; missions in the South and other parts of the Southwest contain few if any such treasures.

After his discovery at Mission San Fernando, Koegel first called colleague Craig Russell, who was soliciting works for a concert, "After Columbus, the Musical Journey."

Russell immediately suspected that two of the Masses were composed by Jerusalem because of the rhythmic style typical of his work. He confirmed his hypothesis when he found the single-choir Masses in the Mexico City Cathedral's microfilmed copies of Jerusalem's work.

Jerusalem, A violinist and composer, was born in Lecce, Italy, in 1710 and was recruited to play in the Mexico City equivalent of a Broadway theater in 1742. Jerusalem became that city's choirmaster in 1749, directing the choir and composing liturgical music until his death in 1769.

A composer as well as a musical historian, Russell filled in the Masses' missing parts. He began with the Polychoral Mass in D and what he called an effort at honorable "musical forgery." He pretended that he was Jerusalem while composing the Masses' "missing lower-register parts and correcting obvious copying mistakes.

"If you know the violins are doing one thing, you ask what natural harmonies would underscore that and support the melodic line," said Russell, a music professor at Cat Poly San Luis Obispo.."Are leaps allowed? How far? What sort of range would a cello player use? You look at his music and music of the time and try to find something to match the time and him."

Chanticleer, a vocal group from San Francisco, already was scheduled to sing at .Russell's conference. When members read through the "Polychoral" Mass, they readily agreed to perform it along with a selection from another Mexican composer, Manuel de. Zumaya.

"When we performed it for audiences here, they all asked, 'When are you going to record it?'" said Louis Botto, Chanticleer's founder and artistic director. "No one knew that this stuff from two Mexican composers could be so exciting."

The group recorded both selections on its 1993 release, "Mexican Baroque."

After the missing parts were reconstructed, there still were matters of history to resolve. Russell, Summers and Koegel wanted to show that these' works were not only artistically brilliant but genuinely American.

"American history is written by people who stand on the East Coast and look west, so they have a very hard time giving credit to the Spanish accomplishments throughout the United States," Summers said. "Where you would have simple psalm singing in churches on the East Coast, in California you would have orchestras and choruses performing marvelous concerted Masses."

SUMMERS HAS long chastised colleagues for setting one standard for composers of British ancestry and another for those from Mexico or the West Coast; the former are held to be American musicians, he said, while the latter are not.

"(Many historians think) the music by Ignacio de Jerusalem, performed in California, isn't American music, it's Spanish music, so we don't have to integrate it into our view of the American past," Summers said. "Historians have a hard time admitting Hispanic culture into American culture, whereas they have no such difficulty with the English culture."

As an example Summers cites Hanover, N.H., where he teaches music at Dartmouth University. The town was founded in 1769 - the year Father Junipero Serra established the first California mission in San Diego.

It was not until 1807 that Hanover developed its first choral group, the Handel Society, and not until 1830 that a major orchestral work was performed. That same year, the town had 100 head of sheep and cattle.

By contrast, the missions had full orchestras and choirs when the Jerusalem Masses were brought here in 1804.

At its most successful point in 1817, Mission San Femando -which was founded 28 years after Hanover - had 12,800 cattle, 7,800 sheep and 780 horses. Hanover did not have 1,000 residents until 1870; the mission's population topped 1,000 as early as 1804. "It was everything the Eastern Seaboard colonies would have liked to have been," Summers said.

To Russell, that people ask for comparisons between Jerusalem and better-known European composers illustrates early California music's identity problem.

"We ask ourselves the wrong question" he said. "We ask, 'Is someone as good as Bach or as good as Mozart?' That's like asking if enchiladas are as delicious as salmon. What an irrelevant question. The question is, does listening to Jerusalem's music enrich my life, and it's an unqualified yes."

RUSSELL AND Summers suspect that the Masses made their way north through Father Juan Sancho, an accomplished musician who came to California in 1804 and whose handwriting matches the notations on other pieces of music found with the Masses They hypothesize that Sancho brought the Masses for his orchestra at Mission San Antonio de Padua near what is now King City in Central California.

At the time, all of California was one diocese, so church documents were shifted around throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. The Archdiocese of Los Angeles has housed its archives at Mission San Femando since 1981.

It is not clear where these Masses were performed, because mission padres shared their music. Scholars can document the expertise of musicians at missions San Antonio de Padua, Santa Barbara, San Jose and Santa Clara de Asis. A famous 1860 photo depicts a small ensemble of Native American converts and their instruments at Mission San Buenaventura.

The California musicologists also do not dispute that Native Americans had a vibrant pre-colonial society, or that it was ravaged in part by mission fathers. Their arguments are with the historical record of colonial development.

And they would like that record updated. Koegel, Russell, Summers and others see the Jerusalem Masses as an opportunity to re-examine the state's cultural roots and their legacy for Californians today.

"In academia we've been asleep at the wheel, and slow to look in our own back yard -Mexico, California, wherever that might be - and acknowledge it as a legitimate place to understand and find beauty and elegance," Russell said. "What we find in the mission doesn't invalidate Mozart any more than Arthur Miller invalidates Shakespeare, but there's room for both."

And it goes beyond Jerusalem, they say. They talk about a day when Zumaya, born in Mexico around 1678 of Native American and European ancestry, will be as well-known and as admired as other musical masters of the baroque.

In 1711, for instance, Zumaya did something no one born in the New World is known to have done before then. He wrote an opera.

Abigail Goldman is a reporter for the Los Angeles Times. Music from Polychoral Mass in D by Ignacio de Jerusalem can be heard on "Mexican Baroque," a CD recorded by the Chanticleer group for the Teldek label.

Portraits of their times
By Christopher Knight
Los Angeles Times, May 29, 2005
Sent by Viola Sadler vrsadler@aol.com

NORTHWESTERN UNITED STATES

Ernesto Apomayta Chambi

The Embassy of Peru
cordially invites you to the event

Bridging the World through communication

and cultural exchange exhibition

 

Artistic works by
Peruvian painter

Ernesto Apomayta Chambi

From Thursday 16 until Thursday June 30, 2005

Opening evening on June 16, 2005, at 6.30 p.m.

at the

Gallery of Art of the Embassy of Peru

1700 Massachusetts Avenue, NW

Washington, DC 20036.

The Exhibition is open to the public
10 a.m. to 4.30 p.m.
From 16 to 30 June, 2005

SOUTHWESTERN UNITED STATES

Albuquerque, ¡Feliz Cumpleanos! 
Three Centuries to Remember”

New Book To Honor Albuquerque’s Tri-Centennial:
 
by Dr. Nasario Garcia|
with assistance from freelance writer 
Richard McCord


Sent by Jane Blume  jblume@desertskycommunications.com
                        

John Navarrette would like to connect with any Navarrete families.
Surnames of interest: Aguilar, Mendia,Lozano,Saldana ,Rodriguez ,Caldera .

Please contact him at: john.navarrette@worldnet.att.net

Please go to the SHHAR networking database for the family data that John has gathered. Click to the homepage and then click on Networking. http://www.SHHAR.org

Mission 2000

Tumacacori National Historical Park

Sent by Mary.Kasulaitis,  Arivaca Library, Arivaca, Arizona
  Mary.Kasulaitis@tucsonaz.gov

 

I have been looking at your websites and links and would like to  suggest the following one for research into the Southern Arizona  Hispanic community. Don Garate, the Tumacacori Mission historian, has  been entering names into this database for many years. 

The search is based on names in the database.  If you do not find what you are interested in, try a different spelling, or type only the first few letters of the name.  Since ancient spellings varied greatly, a partial spelling will list all entries with those particular letters.  Each person listed in the results will have a Personal ID Number shown in blue.  Click on the number of the person you are interested in to see his or her specific personal information. Included with the personal information will be a listing of all Event ID Numbers, shown in blue, with which that person is associated.  Click on any of those numbers for a display of information concerning that particular event.

The movement to make English Arizona's official language came to a screeching halt Monday.
Lawmakers said they almost certainly will not pursue a resolution to put an official-English referendum on the November 2006 ballot at least this year. The resolution has been stalled in the Senate for more than a month. 

Two other key immigration measures did appear headed for passage by the Legislature but both face likely vetoes from Napolitano. If that happens, it would mean that most of the high-profile immigration proposals during this year's legislative session would have gone nowhere.

"The Legislature, to date, has failed to appropriate adequate funding to allow schools to teach English-language learners," she wrote. "Consequently, under Senate Bill 1167, English is required as the official language, but funds are not available to help non-English speakers to learn to read, write or speak English. Under these circumstances, making English the only language for official action is contradictory at best."

In 1988, Arizona voters approved an English-only law. But the state Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional because it violated free-speech and equal-protection rights. Supporters had argued the new proposal would have met that test because it would have allowed private citizens to speak or learn any language they wanted. 

BLACK

By Michael Kolhoff
http://earlyamerica.com/review/2001_summer_fall/fugative.html

The early colonial period was the heyday of the fugitive communities in North America. Europeans usually only occupied a small portion of a colonies available land. This left vast expanses of wilderness open to the fugitives. By the beginning of the 19th century expanded settlement and increased European populations had pressed the fugitive communities (with a few exceptions) ever further into the wild.

The Melungeons were driven from their farms in the Shenandoah Valley by the mid 18th century. Other tri-racial groups were driven deeper into the mountains and swamps. In the period prior to the Civil War, tri-racial people were classified as "free persons of color", a classification which has led many researchers to erroneously identify tri-racials as freed slaves.

After the Reconstruction period, with the rise of the Eugenics movement of scientific racism, tri-racial groups were classified as African Americans in many locations (based on the "one drop" rule: if you have ANY Negro ancestry, you are a Negro). These measures did much to destroy many tri-racial communities, since those who could "pass for white" eagerly did so to avoid the racist restrictions placed on Negroes. Those tri-racials who exhibited the most prominent Negro features were forced to dissolve into the African American community, where they became "mulattos". Those that exhibited the most prominent European features dissolved into white society, where they explained their dark features by various acceptable means. Tri-racial communities still exist, and many occupy lands that their fugitive ancestors settled generations ago. Their story is an important example of the determination and resilience human beings can achieve, as well as of the many complex possibilities that presented themselves in the early colonial period.

Perhaps the question most central to my thinking about the topic could be expressed succinctly as: "How do black people in Mexico understand and live their black identity?" This question fascinates me primarily because issues of blackness and race are rarely talked about in Mexico, and the black population is extremely small there.

Sent by Dorinda Lupe Moreno
dorindamoreno@comcast.net

The film was screened during the month of April in several locations in northern California.

SEPHARDIC

Dora Marina Roe

On Father's line, Grandfather's name was Rodolfo Pulido (bullfighter). Pulido means to polish. This may have Jewish origins. Mom is Hispanic and her name was Rivera. She was born in Chihuahua, Mexico, as well as my maternal grandmother, Marina Natalia Rivera. Mother's father was
Rosendo Peres. He never said his family was from Spain.  On Mom's side, I know she has a sister in Guadalajara and was raised within the Hispanic culture.  Father ws adopted by a childless couple because Grandfather's work took him away. He was born in Guadalajara.  I know my paternal grandparents met in Spain.

My great-grandmother on my mother's side was Elijia Rivera.  My maternal grandmother, Natalia Rivera was raised Catholic. Yet, she named my Dora. You were suppose to name your children after a Catholic saint.  The Catholic midwife asked, "What are you going to name the child?" Grandmother said, "Dora." The midwife said, the name Dora is not a saint's name."  My grandmother asked the midwife, "What name can I give that is a Saint's name?" On the midwife's suggestion, she named her Clara, but kept Dora as the first name. Grandmother said, "Then it will be Dora Clara." My grandmother never called her Clara, and my mother never used that name. My grandmother was raised Catholic, and as a Catholic, it was surprising that she no idea that Dora wasn't a saint's name.  In the Catholic Church a child is named after a saint. You can give them as many names as you want, but one of thenames has to be after a saint. Dorit is my Hebrew name, and it means generation. 

My maternal grandmother could not pray without lighting candles and always covered her head to pray. She did this every evening. Mom's family wouldn't talk about the pasti You never looked at them or any older person (parents, grandparents) in the eye when they were giving you a lecture. It was like you were disrespecting them or giving them the evil eye."  They would say, "You're going to to give me the evil eye." You were to sit there with head down. Mother's mother hated Christmas - detests it. She was raised this way.   She once mentioned that relatives may have come from Spain because of their light skin.  The Riveras look like Anglos, some red-headed with green and blue eyes, white skin and freckles.

He never said his family was from Spain. On Mom's side, I know she has a sister in Guadalajara and was raised within the Hispanic culture. Father was adopted by a childless couple because Grandfather's work took him away He was born in Guadalajara, Mexico. I don't know when they came to Guadalajara. I know my paternal grandparents met in Spain.

My great-grandmother on my mother's side was Elijia Rivera. My maternal grandmother, Natalia Rivera, was raised Catholic. Yet, she named my mother Dora. You were supposed to name your children after a Catholic saint. The Catholic midwife asked, "What are you going to name the child?" Grandmother said, "Dora." The midwife said, "The name Dora is not a saint's name." My grandmother asked the midwife, "What name can I give her that is a saint's name?" On the midwife's suggestion, she named her Clara but kept Dora as the first name. Grandmother said, "Then it will be Dora Clara." My grandmother never called her Clara, and my mother never used that name. My grandmother was raised Catholic, and as a Catholic, it was surprising that she had no idea that Dora wasn't a saint's name. In the Catholic Church a child is named after a saint. You can give them as many names as you want, but one of the names has to be after a saint. Dorit is my Hebrew name, and it means generation.

My maternal grandmother could not pray without lighting candles and always covered her head to pray. She did this every evening. Mom's family wouldn't talk about the past. You never looked at them or any older person (parents, grandparents) in the eye when they were giving you a lecture. It was like you were disrespecting them or giving them the evil eye. They would say, "You're going to give me the evil eye." You were to sit there with your head down. Mother's mother hates Christmas-detests it. She was raised this way. She once mentioned that relatives may have come from Spain because of their light skin. The Riveras look like Anglos, some red-headed with green and blue eyes, white skin and freckles.

Mom said there were a lot of secrets in the family, and they didn't want to talk about it. My mother, when she was fifteen, went to confession and the priest made a pass at her. She never went back. She changed to the Baptist Church. I was raised that way even though I was baptized in the Catholic Church. My mother was seventeen when I was born. Her mother was still Catholic. To this day, Mom is a Baptist and hates Christmas. She hates Easter, all the fuss. My mother will get up in an ugly mood during these holidays.

I spent my formative years in New Mexico. Mother was from Chihuahua and was told her Spanish was different than in New Mexico because they spoke Ladino. I realized they spoke Ladino when I read about it. The Riveras speak Ladino. We didn't have icons in our home. Mom hated saints. Grandmother had saint figurines that candles were on. I don't remember icons in Grandmother's house.

We would come home from school on Fridays and make sure everything was clean for the weekend, Saturday and Sunday. My mother or grandmother never swept dirt past the doorway. I got in big trouble when they saw me doing it. They said it was not correct to do it.

My grandmother had a little thing by the door with holy water. She would dip her hand in the water and cross herself when entering and leaving the house. Mom was very strict that we did not worship saints. "You don't pray to saints. You don't look at them. When you pray, you bow your head and pray." Mom said, "There is no Virgin Mary. We do not worship Mary as far as her being the mother of Jesus. She is simply remembered as the tool God used to bring Jesus into the world, but we do not put her on a pedestal." Mom is Christian, but is not convinced about the different beliefs within the religion.

My grandmother and mother would cook meat until it was well-done and didn't have blood. We ate pork, but this was rarely done. My step-grandfather took a chicken and twirled it until it was decapitated. It was hung to drain the blood and would dig a hole and bury it.  Mom wouldn't use eggs with blood spots.  Everything was cooked completely.  Mother took all fat and veins from the meat. We would not drink milk and watermelon together.

My little brother was circumcised.  Mother's brother is David. I would hear Grandmother say that it has been ayear since so and so died, and then she went to her candles and she lit them. She didn't go to church to do it, only at home.

We didn't observe Lent. I never grandmother saying, "Don't eat meat because it is Friday." Grandmother and Mom made buñuelos around Ne Year's. When someone was leaving or going on a trip, Grandmother would put one hand on their should and make the sign of the cross. We said grace after meals, thanking God for the food. My maternal grandmother would put a piece of bread a jar in the cabinet so there would always have bread in the house. I have a jar with bread so we'll always have bread. We wouldn't throw salt away because we were concerned about not having any more. Salt was like the spice of life.

My grandmother was not able to go to school. My mother  has a bachelor's degree. I'm working on mine.  Once, after she finished talking to an uncle, Grandmother Natalia dipped her hand in the holy water on the door and sprinkled it on him. I never remember Grandmother telling anyone to go to confession.

With children, a lot of times a child would get sick and they didn't know where the illness was coming from. Grandmother Rivera would rub a raw egg in the shell on the  child's body to ward off the evil eye.  Prayers were said during  this cleaning {limpia). In effect, you were cleansing the body  of the evil eye. After you were done, if the egg had a blood, they would say it was an evil eye. She was also a midwife. 

until it was decapitated. It was hung to drain the blood. Mom was raised by her mother Natalia and step-grandfather. They drained the blood and would dig a hole and bury it. Mom wouldn't use eggs with blood spots. We never ate anything with blood. Everything was cooked completely. Mother took all fat and veins from the meat. We would not drink milk and watermelon together.

My little brother was circumcised. Mother's brother is David. I would hear Grandmother say that it has been a year since so and so died, and then she went to her candles and lit them. She didn't go to church to do it, only at home.

We didn't observe Lent. I never remember my mother or grandmother saying, "Don't eat meat because it is Friday." Grandmother and Mom made buñuelos around New Year's. When someone was leaving or going on a trip, Grandmother would put one hand on their shoulder and make the sign of the cross. We said grace after meals, thanking God for the food. My maternal grandmother would put a piece of bread in a jar in the cabinet so there would always be bread in the house. I have a jar with bread so we'll always have bread. We wouldn't throw salt away because we were concerned about not having any more. Salt was like the spice of life.

My grandmother was not able to go to school. My mother has a bachelor's degree. I'm working on mine. Once, after she finished talking to an uncle, Grandmother Natalia dipped her hand in the holy water on the door and sprinkled it on him. I never remember Grandmother telling anyone to go to confession.

With children, a lot of times a child would get sick and they didn't know where the illness was coming from. Grandmother Rivera would rub a raw egg in the shell on the child's body to ward off the evil eye. Prayers were said during this cleaning (limpia). In effect, you were cleansing the body of the evil eye. After you were done, if the egg had a blood  spot, they would say it was the evil eye. She was also a midwife.

I returned to Judaism, and the children did too. Mom didn't, and she's fine with it. I hated going through conversion because I felt that I was always Jewish. I never could swallow church doctrine. I always asked questions. As a result, in Sunday school of the Baptist Church, teachers would tell me to go home and ask Jesus to come into my heart and that He would help me to understand.

Judaism makes a lot more sense to me. I believe my thinking has always been Jewish. I'm not a person that conforms to whatever. I always ask questions. If someone asks, "Why did you return," I say, "Why not?" Mom said, "You can never go by the rules. Your father had a very stubborn nature, and you're exactly like him." She said, "You were never around your father and you are just like him." I was very athletic and so was my father. My daughter has Hirschsprung, a rare congenital disease which is common in Jewish people. This disease is where cells in the large intestine that squeeze food down through the canal are missing. She had corrective surgery. I still have many questions about where I came from because I have many relatives out there, and I would like to find them. I am the first in my family to be born in this country, on both sides.

TEXAS 

 
http://www.tejanopride.com/main.html

Rudy Tejano Pena,Gloria Candelaria, Hernan Jasso 
5 de mayo festival, Goliad 

The new website Tejano Pride was sent by  Gloria Candelaria founder and first President of the Victoria (Texas) Hispanic Genealogical and Historical Society of Texas, organized in 1998. 
Gloria has an outstanding website, easily to maneuver, lots of links, name search, and resources.
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~abel2479/

 Gloria has extracted and compiled the parish records for the following:

"1880 CENSUS - Genealogies and Family Histories of Spanish-Surnamed Citizens of Victoria County, Texas  to 1889". This book contains vital information on early Victoria County Mexican Americans such as births, baptisms, marriages, divorces, cemetery information, land records and much more. The book is 228 pages, soft bound with spiral binding. 

"Spanish Surnamed Citizens of Victoria County, Texas - 1850 Census,"  booklet contains 43 pages.
"Spanish Surnamed Citizens of Victoria County, Texas - 1860 Census,"  booklet has 77 pages.
"Spanish-Surnamed Citizens of Victoria County, Texas - 1870 Census,"  booklet has 92 pages.

"Spanish-Surnamed Baptism Records and Some Burial Records of St. Mary's Catholic Church of Victoria, Texas - 1840 to 1872."  baptism booklet, 100 pages, 194 entries, 1, 250 names in index.

"Spanish-Surnamed Marriage Records of St. Mary's Catholic Church of Victoria, Texas - 1840 to 1881," The  booklet has 25 pages with 194 entries, and 617 names in the index.

Email Gloria if you would like to order any of the books above, GeneGloCan@aol.com 
Also sent by Yolanda Patino       and George Gause ggause@panam.edu

UNIMOS - an E-museum for San Antonio's Historic West Side

Border Bandits Synopsis
From the producer of the award-winning PBS documentary Return to Giant comes a new look at a very old incident. In 1915 a group of Mexican banditos raided the McAllen Ranch, one of the largest in the area. The next day a group of Texas Rangers supposedly arrived and eliminated the perpetrators. However, the real story is not as tidy as it has been portrayed. Roland Warnock, a 19-year-old cowboy working on the Guadalupe Ranch near present-day Edinburg, witnessed two of these killings when he saw Texas Rangers from Company D shoot two unarmed men in the back and leave their bodies by the side of the road. The effects of these killings by the Rangers are being felt in south Texas some 80 years later. This single incident brings into play much of the roots of the distrust between Mexicans and the Rangers, as well as the continued friction between Hispanics and Anglos in Texas.

An important and moving story, Border Bandits was produced and directed by Kirby Warnock, the grandson of Roland Warnock, and features the actual voice of Roland Warnock as he describes the events of 1915. In 1974, he sat down with his grandson and dictated the entire story to him on a reel-to-reel tape recorder for Baylor University's oral history program. The younger Warnock kept the tapes, then thirty years later digitized them and placed them in this documentary, with re-enactors portraying the events described by Roland Warnock. Unlike other documentaries that rely on voice talent to read letters or journals, Border Bandits contains the actual voice of the primary source of information, Roland Warnock, lending it an air of authenticity unmatched in most documentaries.

Re-enactment scenes were filmed at Old City Park in Dallas, and Warnock's family ranch near Fort Stockton, Texas. Narration for the film is provided by Jon Dillon, the well-known radio personality for KZPS, 92.5 FM in Dallas, Texas.

For the performers, he "stumbled" across The Ramirez Family, an all-female mariachi band from Odessa, Texas. "A close friend took me to lunch at a restaurant in Midland, and The Ramirez Family was performing there. I had never heard those Tex-Mex sounds coming out of a female band before, and I was immediately captivated." Warnock tracked down Betty Ramirez, the leader, and arranged for them to record "Desperado" in Spanish for the soundtrack. The result is a haunting score of a familiar rock standard, sung in Spanish by female voices.

Information on upcoming screenings, kirby@bigbendquarterly.com
Read the story that inspired the film, from the book Texas Cowboy, available for $11.50 per copy (includes postage and handling). Trans-Pecos Productions, P.O. Box 4124, Dallas, TX 75208.

Major Controversy:  
After being postponed by PBS station KMBH in Harlingen, BORDER BANDITS is FINALLY going to be seen in the Rio Grande Valley, June 7, at 7 pm.   The hour-long documentary played across the entire state of Texas on May 16, EXCEPT in the Rio Grande Valley.  

Although it was slated to air state-wide on May 16, the programmers at KMBH notified me via e-mail that morning (May 16) that they were delaying the broadcast of BORDER BANDITS until June 7 "to draw a larger audience."  I don't know what the reasoning on this was, as we had newspaper stories, our Web site and a widely distributed e-mail message alerting everyone to the May 16 date .

I'm re-starting my publicity campaign for this one station. I think it is vitally important for EVERYONE in the Valley to see this program, so any publicity you can give us will be GREATLY appreciated.  Our Web site is http://www.borderbanditsmovie.com

Please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.
Sincerely, Kirby F. Warnock  Kirby.Warnock@acs-inc.com

PS: In response to the three e-mails I received from people who "don't want their PBS contributions spent on this type of programming," I am giving BORDER BANDITS to all of the Texas PBS stations free of charge. Not one penny of the taxpayers or PBS contributors money was spent on this documentary. You may contact the Texas PBS stations to verify this.

El Corrido de Oliviera

Año mil novecientos veinte    
mes de abril día primero.     
Mataron a tres Tejanos    
esos rinches de Laredo.    
Mataron a tres Tejanos   
esos rinches de Laredo. 

Cuando llegaron a Bruni   
las puertas tenían candado   
El que fue a traer las llaves  
fue Dionicio Maldonado.
El que fue a traer las llaves    
fue Dionicio Maldonado.   

Si te preguntan los nombres 
no lo vayas a negar.                        
Fueron Dionicio Maldonado 
Oliviera y Aguilar.     
Fueron Dionicio Maldonado  
Oliviera y Aguilar.                            

El rinche que estaba allí                     
corazón de una gallina.                     
Se puso descolorido   
nomas vio mi carabina.      
Se puso descolorido     
nomas vio mi carabina.     

Oliviera como era hombre 
le dio rienda a su caballo.
Salgan rinches del gobierno
a pelear con este gallo.
Salgan rinches del gobierno
a pelear con este gallo.

Cuando su padre llego
 se encontraba en agonía.
 Fuerzas son las que me faltan
valor tengo todavía.
Fuerzas son las que me faltan
 valor tengo todavía.

No siento a mi caballo prieto
ni siento a mi silla plateada.
Lo que siento es a mi Chucha
que deje pedida y dada.
Lo que siento es a mi Chucha
que deje pedida y dada. 

The following is a portion of the chapter entitled "The Legitimacy Of Texas As An American State" in my book "The Continuous Presence Of Italians And Spaniards In Texas As Early As 1520" which deals with  the issue of who started  the Mexican War and whether the southern border of the United States is legitimate where it stands at the Rio Grande"

When Santa Anna abolished the Mexican Constitution and the Mexican Republic, the Texans were under no obligation to submit to this self-crowned king, they legitimately had the right to declare their independence from Mexico. As the unsung giant of Texas and American history Lorenzo De Zavala so eloquently put it before his fellow Texans in an address urging them to resist Santa Anna:

"The fundamental contract having been dissolved, and all the guarantees; of the civil and political rights of citizens having been destroyed, it is incontestable that all the States of the Confederation are left at liberty to act for themselves, and to provide for their security and preservation as circumstances may require. Coahuila and Texas formed a State of the Republic, and, as one part of it is occupied by an invading force (Santa Anna’s army), the free part of it should proceed to organize a power which would restore harmony and establish order and uniformity in all the branches of the public administration, which should be a rallying point for the citizens whose hearts now tremble for liberty. But as this power can be organized only by means of a convention which should represent the free will of the citizens of Texas, it is my opinion that this step should be taken, and I suggest the 15^th day of October as a time sufficient to allow all the departments to send their representatives." ( Manuel Justiniano Lorenzo de Zavala y Saenz; General Lawrence DeZavala, Lawrence L. McKeehan, Sons of Dewitt Colony, Texas, 1997-2003).

It can not be overly emphasized how absolutely important and significant this speech by the giant of Spaniard Founding Fathers of Texas Manuel Justiniano Lorenzo de Zavala y Saenz, also known as General Lawrence De Zavala, is. This is an authoritative source, De Zavala was there, he was a scholar, a Texas Patriot, a statesman of the highest order, an honest man and a man held in high regard. He had helped write the Mexican Constitution of 1824, he had traveled through out Europe promoting Mexico’s right to be a sovereign nation after it gained its independence from Spain in 1821. If any original Texan’s opinion of the fortunes and happenings in Texas is authoritative, it is that of Manuel Justiniano Lorenzo de Zavala y Saenz (I write his full name to stress the point). In his speech he said, "Coahuila and Texas formed a State of the Republic, and, as one part of it is occupied by an invading force the free part of it should proceed to organize a power which would restore harmony and establish order…"

This statement by De Zavala is crucially and essentially important because in it he, as a Texan Founding Father of Spaniard origin and not an Anglo-American Texan, addressed the issue of Texas Independence and American intervention at its foundation. According to De Zavala, Coahuila and Texas were one single State of the Republic of Mexico, not two different states. Furthermore, De Zavala in his speech argued for the right of this single State of Coahuila Texas to declare its independence from Mexico. The problems was, said De Zavala, that part of this one State, that part called Coahuila, was occupied by an invading force, that is, the Mexican army under Santa Anna. Because part of it was occupied by that invading force, the part of that one single State of Coahuila Texas that was still free needed to go ahead and organize an independent government. And so De Zavala called for a Texas Convention to declare independence from Mexico. As we just saw, in his speech, De Zavala identified the Mexican army under Santa Anna as the invading force that had successfully already occupied one of the two parts of the one State of Coahuila Texas. That De Zavala was not the only one who saw the Mexican Army as an invading force is evident in that in 1840, just a few years after the Texas Revolution, the occupied part of the one State of Coahuila Texas, that is, Coahuila, along with the other States of the Republic of the Rio Grande, had also attempted to expel the Mexican invading force but had failed to do so. That invading force had to be stopped. When American troops crossed the Sabine River or the Medina River, they were not invading Mexico unprovoked, they were not starting a war under false pretenses, as some disingenuously assert who (for some deep seated and unknown reason) like to blame their own country first. The American army was recognizing the border claimed by Manuel Justiniano Lorenzo de Zavala y Saenz and the Republic of Texas of the free part of the one State of Coahuila Texas that DeZavala had exhorted his fellow Texans to organize into a free state, and defending it against invasion. They were rescuing from the lion’s clutches the one part of Coahuila Texas that had not yet been brutally crushed and its yearning to breathe free suffocated by the invading force during the period of the Republic of the Rio Grande. They were selflessly once again leaving their homes and their families to, like brothers, join the Texans, both Spaniard and Anglo-American, in their struggle and their cause. Remember, after Mexican forces surrendered to Juan N. Seguin and Sam Houston they were escorted out of Texas at the Rio Grande. When the Mexicans agreed to leave Texas and left unmolested in return for their parole, they agreed to leave at the Rio Grande, by their action recognizing that the border of Texas, which had never been well defined, was the Rio Grande. The Mexican peace commissioners also recognized this border when they said,

" The intention of making the Bravo a limit has been announced in the clearest terms for the last twelve years… After the battle of San Jacinto, in 1836, that was the territory we stipulated to evacuate, and which we accordingly did evacuate by falling back on Matamoros. In this place was stationed what was called the army of the north". ( Z.T. Filmore "The Annexation of Texas and the Mexican War", The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Vol. V, page 46, July 1901).

By their own admission, when after their defeat at San Jacinto the Mexican Army peacefully evacuated the area south of the Nueces and Medina Rivers and fell back south of the Rio Grande and stationed their army of the north at Matamoros, Mexico recognized and legitimized the Texas border at the Rio Grande. Consequently, because by their own admission both in word and in deed the Mexicans had recognized and legitimized the Texas border at the Rio Grande, when they crossed the Rio Grande to attack General Taylor’s forces they did so on purpose and with intent, not to defend Mexico, but to invade and forcibly reannex Texas which had sovereignly decided to be part of the United States. What really happened then is that the Mexican government reneged on its own word and commitment. When in a cataclysmic flood the Rio Grande had changed course in 1830-31 placing San Elizario and its neighboring West Texas towns north of the deepest channel of the Rio Grande right in the nick of time before the Texas Revolution, with a bigger faith than mine you may call it coincidence, I recognize the eternal intent of Divine Providence that San Elizario and its neighboring towns should be part of the United States… of course, I am a theologian as well as a fledgling historian.

As President Polk pointed out in a message dated December 2, 1845, "the government of Mexico by a formal act agreed to recognize the independence of Texas on condition that she would not annex herself to any other power. The agreement to acknowledge the independence of Texas, with or without this condition, is conclusive against Mexico. The independence of Texas is a fact conceded by Mexico herself, and she has no right or authority to prescribe restrictions on the form of government which Texas might afterwards choose to assume." (Z.T. Filmore, p. 38). But the reason the Mexican government felt that it could prescribe restrictions on the form of government Texas chose while conceding its independence is because Mexico was acting deceitfully, despite her words, Mexico regarded independent Texas as a rebellious province. Mexico was doing to Texas what Spain, which did not recognize the independence of Mexico but until 16 years after the fact, had done to Mexico. Mexico started the Mexican War long before American troops ever crossed the Medina River, which was not the Texas border, the Rio Grande was, when it promised to go to war against the United States if the United States ever annexed the Republic of Texas. Mexico was forgetting that it was the United States who had first recognized Mexico’s own independence from Spain. That is why when, with strict orders from President Polk not to engage the Mexican Army but in self defense, General Taylor arrived at the Rio Grande across from Matamoros, which area he had found free of Mexican soldiers because the Mexicans had recognized that area as Texas when they had left after the Battle of San Jacinto, and he sent General Worth across the river to deliver a courteous note to the Mexican commander telling him of his desire that the two armies would be at peace pending a settlement between the two governments, the only reply he received was a rude note telling him his actions were acts of war. When Mexican troops crossed the Rio Grande and attacked American forces, they were not defending their country, they were knowingly invading a territory they had conceded was part of the independent Republic of Texas, which had already voluntarily become part of the United States, and they were attempting to impose their will on a republic they themselves had recognized as sovereign. They were invading American soil. They had started the Mexican War.

As I was doing research for this particular section of this book, as I was writing this chapter, I just happened to go over my family’s, my ancestors’, family records in San Elizario, Texas. I had no intent, as I was doing so, to link my own family’s history with the issue I am presently discussing. But as I perused over the records, I found something so absolutely fascinating and so evidently linked with this particular discussion, that I had to include it here. As I was looking over the baptismal records of my great grandfather’s great grandfather’s children, Estanislao, Antonio, and Maria Tereza Loya, born in 1799, 1800 and 1801 respectively, I noticed something very interesting. I noticed that they had been born in San Elizario, Texas but had been baptized at the Church of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe,Our Lady of Guadalupe, which is located in present day Juarez, Mexico. I thought that was interesting, especially when, as I "traveled" up in time to 1844 (not literally, of course, but perusing the documents), I noticed that Maria Diega Loya, daughter of Arcadio Loya, older sister of my great grandfather Gabino Loya, was also born in San Elizario (circa Nov. 30, 1844) but baptized in the same Church of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe. Now, by 1844 the Rio Grande had changed course so that San Elizario and present day Juarez were no longer both on the south bank of the river. In other words, in 1844, one year before the annexation of Texas by the United States, not just the Loya family, but people in general who were born in San Elizario, and El Paso area in Texas, were traveling across the river to Mexico to be baptized. That was an established pattern that I noticed starting as far back as 1799 and continuing up until 1844. As I did more research, sure enough, I found out that up until November of 1882 the people of El Paso would cross the Rio Grande on a hand pulled ferry to attend mass at Our Lady of Guadalupe (Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe) in Juarez. (The Handbook of Texas Online, El Paso, Catholic Diocese Of). What I began to find fascinating is that when my great grandfather, Gabino Loya, was born three years after his older sister, on February 2, 1847, he was born in San Elizario, Texas, but, unlike his older sister and his predecessors, he was also baptized in San Elizario by one Reverend Jose de Jesus Camacho. I thought that was fascinating! Ever since 1799 at least, and up until 1844, the Loya family, and everyone else, born in San Elizario had to go across the Rio Grande to present day Juarez to Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church to be baptized. Abruptly, in 1847, my great grandfather was both born and baptized in San Elizario, Texas. As I read the record of the birth and baptism of my great grandfather Gabino Loya’s uncle, Mercedes Loya (not to be confused with Mercedes Benz, that shiny vehicle worth a year’s salary), born to Gabino’s grandparents Antonio Loya and Gregoria Zeraffini, only six months before Gabino’s birth, on September 25, 1846, once again the absolutely fascinating became absolutely and extremely historically important! Mercedes Loya was born on September 25, 1846 in San Elizario, Texas, and was baptized on October 1, 1846 also in San Elizario, Texas by, again, the Reverend Jose de Jesus Camacho. The year 1846, as reflected by these baptismal records, appeared to be a crucial year in braking the pattern of people born in Texas and baptized in Mexico that had been established for a long time in the El Paso area. Starting in 1846, people born in San Elizario were now also baptized in San Elizario, they no longer traveled across the Rio Grande to be baptized, thanks to the services of the Reverend Jose de Jesus Camacho.

As I compared the photocopy of the primary handwritten document of my great grandfather Gabino Loya’s birth and baptism, with the translation of his uncle Mercedes Loya’s baptismal and birth record, as translated by Mrs. Lillian Trujillo, the genealogist with the San Elizario Genealogy and Historical Society who is in charge of translating the church records, including the cemetery, marriage, baptismal and birth records (she is leaving a great legacy for generations to come!), I noticed it said basically the same thing, with one important difference. In 1847 in my great grandfather’s baptismal and birth record the Reverend Jose de Jesus Camacho identified himself as priest of "San Elceo" (San Elizario), whereas in his uncle’s baptismal and birth record six months earlier in 1846 the same Reverend Jose de Jesus Camacho identified himself as from the Parish of San Antonio. In both he was under "holy visit" baptizing them. When I read what Mrs. Lillian Trujillo translated, that the Reverend Jose de Jesus Camacho came from the Parish of San Antonio, I thought it was significant because 1846 was the year the Mexican War started after the United States annexed Texas at the Republic of Texas' sovereign request one year earlier in 1845, and San Antonio was the seat of authority for the Republic of Texas which was now the State of Texas. As I did more research my amazement became absolute when I discovered that the Reverend Jose de Jesus Camacho, who was the first priest of San Elizario, had arrived and started his ministry at San Elizario on January of 1846 (rootsweb.com/txelpaso/priests), the same exact month President Polk had sent General Taylor south of the Medina River to the Rio Grande! Apparently, when President Polk sent the U.S. Military to assert the border of the United States where the people of the Republic of Texas and Mexico had both in word and deed recognized the border of Texas to be after San Jacinto, at the Rio Grande, Reverend Jose de Jesus Camacho had arrived to West Texas from San Antonio to assert the same border by making sure that those who were born on the north bank of the Rio Grande were also baptized on the north bank of the Rio Grande within the border the Republic of Texas claimed and Mexico had recognized! Fascinating! And absolutely significant because, notice, the Reverend Jose de Jesus Camacho was not the Reverend Sean O’Flahearty or the Reverend Dean Johnson, he was the Reverend Jose de Jesus Camacho. In other words, from among the original Spaniard Texans, the original Tejanos, they sent the clergy to make sure those born within Texas were baptized within Texas and to assert the border Texas claimed and Mexico had recognized and accepted after the Battle of San Jacinto. For this, the name of the Reverend Jose de Jesus Camacho should forever be remembered among the heroes and Founding Fathers of Texas. When President Polk sent the U.S. Military to assert the U.S. border down in South Texas, the original Tejanos sent their clergy to assert the same border in West Texas. This in itself is significant because since the American military was not present in West Texas, the clergy, evidently, took up the responsibility to assert the border there, also at the Rio Grande. And this the clergy, in the person of the Reverend Jose de Jesus Camacho, did, not just geographically, but emotionally and spiritually by, again, braking the established pattern and making sure that through the duration of the Mexican War those who were born in West Texas were also baptized in West Texas, having started this practice at the exact time all knew war was imminent because the Mexicans had threatened to start a war should the U.S. honor the sovereign desire of the Republic of Texas to be annexed by the United States. This is absolutely evident by the documentation, which can be found at the Church of San Elizario, Texas and at the Latter Day Saints Genealogical Archives.

To be honest, I have not had the opportunity examine the primary document that Mrs.Lillian Trujillo translated to verify that, indeed, the Reverend Jose de Jesus Camacho came to San Elizario from San Antonio. I don’t have any reason to doubt the accuracy of Mrs. Trujilllo’s translation, specially since she is the genealogist for the San Elizario Genealogy and Historical Society who is in charge of translating all those documents, but sometimes old handwritten archival records are hard to read. Never the less, it does not matter whether the Reverend Jose de Jesus Camacho came to San Elizario from San Antonio. For all that matters, he could’ve come from China because the point is that in the year 1846 the Reverend Jose de Jesus Camacho broke the long established pattern of people being born in Texas and baptized in Mexico, and made sure that starting in 1846, at the exact time that General Taylor was asserting the Texas border at the Rio Grande, and, like I said, through the duration of the war, people born in West Texas no longer had to cross the Rio Grande to be baptized but could now do so in West Texas. The point in history in which the Reverend Jose de Jesus Camacho started baptizing babies born in West Texas in West Texas is too crucial, too momentous to be coincidental! I mean, he did so when all knew that a major war, which had been long threatened by Mexico, was about to break out and would forever establish the Rio Grande as the border between these two neighboring nations. He did so through the duration of the Mexican War. It is clearly evident his actions were intended to assert the border of Texas, and of the United States, at the Rio Grande in West Texas. It is clearly evident his actions were intended to ensure that people born in West Texas, by also being baptized in West Texas, would feel, emotionally and spiritually, that they belonged in Texas and the United States, that they were fully and legitimately American. For this, like I said, the Reverend Jose de Jesus Camacho ought to be remembered and honored as a Texas and American hero.

Frankly, those who say the Mexican War was started by President Polk just to include another slave state in the Union do not know the facts, or purposefully conceal them. The former disqualify themselves from teaching this chapter of American History, the latter disqualify themselves from teaching anything at all. The reason I say this is because, when one studies the facts regarding the issue of slavery in the annexation of Texas, it is evident that, like I said, the issue of including another slave state had nothing to do with the annexation of Texas by the United States. The free States of Indiana, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Maine, New York, Illinois and New Hampshire with a total population of 6,201, 991 white people voted for the annexation of Texas by the United States. On the other hand, the free States of Rhode Island, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Vermont, Ohio and Connecticut with a total population of 3, 281, 401 white people voted against annexation. In other words, twice as many people from free states voted for the annexation of Texas by the United States than those who voted against it. That the war had nothing to do with the issue of slavery is also seen in that of the slave holding States, South Carolina, Georgia, Virginia, Alabama, Arkansas, Missouri, Mississippi and, of course, Louisiana, with a total population of 2, 489, 358 white people voted for the annexation of Texas by the United States. On the other hand, the slave holding States of Kentucky, Tennessee, Delaware, Maryland and North Carolina, with a total population of 2, 092, 515 white people voted against annexation. In other words, people in slave holding States were divided roughly in half regarding the annexation of Texas by the United States. Twice as many more people in the free States voted for the annexation of Texas, while half the people in the slave holding States voted against annexation (Z.T. Filmore p.36). 

Clearly, to say that the Mexican War was about adding another slave State to the Union is just plain ignorant or intellectually dishonest and therefore perfidious. Outside of New England, the concern and argument against the annexation of Texas was that the annexation of Texas would result in Mexico waging war against the United States. When we realize that it was the fear of war with Mexico that actually affected the vote regarding the annexation of Texas, and not at all the issue of slavery, we are able to see that the kinship ties between the people of Texas and the people of Louisiana which I mentioned earlier in this chapter were very real and went both ways. Louisiana voted for the annexation of Texas knowing full well that doing so may lead to war with Mexico, and knowing full well that because of Louisiana’s proximity to Texas the war could possibly spill over into Louisiana, where the children of Louisiana would learn of the horror of war with their own eyes. Yet, Louisiana voted to annex Texas. By doing so the Louisianans showed the kinship they felt for Texas because they showed they were willing to sacrifice everything and to fight for Texas even if they had to do so in their own house. The fact that the vote for the annexation of Texas was directly affected by the fear of going to war with Mexico also serves to determine which country was picking a war before it ever started. To this we add the fact that Stephen F. Austin was a Southerner who vehemently opposed slavery, that his colonists included people from the most influential countries of Europe and from all over the United States including at least 60 families from New York State, and that the impresarios who actually brought colonists to Texas included men from England, Ireland, free States and Mexico, and it becomes clear that slavery was not at all a motivating factor in the colonization of Texas or its subsequent annexation by the United States.

When American troops crossed the Medina River, they were fulfilling the manifest destiny, not of the Anglo-Americans, but the manifest destiny of the original Spaniard Texans, the manifest destiny of which Antonio Menchaca and Judge Rodriguez wrote about, the manifest destiny that Francisco Ruiz always had a conviction of, Jose Antonio Navarro was willing to give his life for and Jose de Jesus Camacho labored to fulfill, the manifest destiny the original Spaniard Texans, also known as original Tejanos, held to that they should be and were a part of the United States of America ever since they invested money, prayers, cattle and soldiers in its birth before Mexico was ever conceived. It was the new Empire of Mexico that had no right then to attack Texas to try to crush it and forcibly re-annex it as it had brutally done with the other provinces of Northern Mexico which had also legitimately attempted to be free. When the border between the United States and Mexico was drawn at the Rio Grande, it was legitimate and ethical to do so because that was the border of the part of the one State of Coahuila Texas of which De Zavala spoke that had not yet been occupied by the invading Mexican force and it was the border Mexico itself had recognized and accepted in word and in deed after the Battle of San Jacinto. There really would not have been any border dispute had Mexico kept its commitment after San Jacinto, but although the territory was disputed, the provinces which laid claim to the land, as the Republic of Texas did, had also legitimately attempted to be free from Mexico, even then making its annexation by the United States legitimate. 

American troops did not attack Mexico unprovoked, they defended De Zavala’s home and Menchaca’s dream with their lives and their blood, like brothers. Why! The United States was so ethical in its conduct of war with Mexico that it was then that the U.S. Army mustered the first Roman Catholic chaplains into service! And it did this specifically as a gesture of respect towards the people of Mexico and to ensure their freedom of religion while the U.S. briefly occupied their land into Mexico City! On the other hand, on Palm Sunday, the day that Christian people celebrate Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, March 27, 1836, Mexican soldiers under Colonel Portilla, in what is known as the Goliad Massacre, brutally executed, murdered, over three hundred Texan prisoners of war, including 40 wounded Texans who were in the chapel, turning the day of Christian celebration into a day that will truly live in infamy! After shooting the wounded soldiers at the chapel the Mexican soldiers proceeded to entertain themselves by shooting at the chapel bells, demonstrating a marked difference between them and the Americans in their respect of their enemies’ religion. When Colonel Fannin asked 3 simple things as his last request before the Mexicans executed him; that they would not shoot him in the face, that his personal belongings be sent to his family and that he be given Christian burial, the Mexicans shot him in the face, a Mexican officer stole his personal belongings and his body was burned and discarded along with many others. Incredibly appalling!… The Mexicans left the Texans’ bodies exposed for two months to be eaten by coyotes and dogs (Katheryn Stoner O’Connor, Presidio La Bahia, & The Sons of Dewitt Colony). Judge for yourself which country and which army was brutal and unethical in its conduct of war! 

To say that American troops started the Mexican War under false pretense, to say that after knowing what the original Tejanos felt and thought, is to besmirch and taint the reputation of those selfless Spaniard Texans who sacrificed so much and who so deeply believed and felt it was their destiny and their descendants’ destiny, our destiny, to be Americans. It is to say their deep conviction, which was birthed from their participation in the American Revolution, was a "false pretense"… you might as well go spit on our ancestors’ graves! And you might as well flush our American Passports down the toilet since to say that is to say that all the descendants of original Tejanos, and also of original Anglo-American settlers, are not legitimately American and are all the descendants of traitors… now, that is reprehensible prejudice no longer founded on ignorance! No sir, Texas and the Southwest legitimately belong to and are part of the United States of America. "

Alex Loya  alexloya@integrity.com
Venice, LA.
April 22, 2005

For more, click to History

Attached is a portion of your webpage on the Benavides family.  The Nicolas Baez Benavides ( iv) is the one I am referring to.  Jose Ignacio Benavides left a will in Reynosa where he referres to his children, spouses and his parents Jose Nicolas Benavides and his mother Maria Leonor Guerra.

Great webpages, Jose O. Guerra
joguerra@hispanicgs.com
joguerra@olsenguerra.com

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

Fwd: Ancira genealogy

Esther.Herold@qwest.com

John,  I was looking at your Ancira family tree. I am descended for Jose Antonio Ancira, son of Clemente Ancira de Perez. I was looking at the 2nd marriage for Clemente Ancira. I was looking at the dates that the children of that marriage were born. It seems that Clemente would be about 100 years old. Doesn't that sound unlikely given that the average logevity was probably 50 years or so? Isn't it more likely that that Clemente was a grandson of the original and probably a son of Jose Antonio de Ancira de Perez? If the the the 2nd Clemente was in his mid to early 20s when he married it would mean he was born in the 1750s which matches with the children of Jose Antonio. Have you looked at the marriage record for Nov 1777?

As an aside MARIA-GERTRUDIS PEREZ-DE-ANCIRA-ELIZONDO and JOSE-FRANCISCO-XAVIER SAENZ-SANDOVAL-Y-MESA also had a daughter Faustina Saenz-Ancira. Married: 15 AUG 1795 in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico to Joseph Balentin Ayala. I have not yet found her baptismal record. I looked in Vallecillio, Monterrey, an Villaldama. I need to check out Salinas Victoria and places between Villaldama and Monterrey. I estimate she was born about 1778. Her parents were listed on her marriage record. I am descended from Faustina. My genealogy is out on www.rootsweb.com. Look for Bertha Ayala, my mother who is deceased.

I also have reason to believe that the 1st Clemente Ancira de Prez was born in Mexico City.

I go back to to Diego Montemayor about 25 times.  ALso to Diego Trevino about 25 times.  I also go back to the Garza's about 15 times. I also go back to the Farias, Sepulvedas, Arredondos, Ayalas, Villarreals.  I do have my genealogy out on www.rootsweb.com which is free access.

Thanks for sharing your genealogy, Esther

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

Hi, John

that was a great webpage you have on Somosprimos on the Cavazos.

I have 10,000+ names on my database and had the wrong Cavazos tied to the wrong parents on a few instances and that helped me tie up lose ends.

Are you Cavazos-related ?

I am a Vallejo, my ancestor is Antonio Fernandez Vallejo, the first Vallejo in my tree from Nuevo Leon. We here in Austin, Texas are all descendants

of this man. Antonio was born to Lorenzo Fernandez Vallejo and Catalina de la Barreda abt 1658 in northern Spain.

Antonio married Elena de la Garza Falcon and then Maria Guerra Garcia de Sosa, all famous families from that era in Nuevo Leon.

I have tried to create webpages using PAF but they don't look like yours, yours is more streamlined and looks good. How did you create your webpage?

I have much to share with my Vallejo cousins and wish to do so this year, I have been researching for 2 years now and love this work Anyway, keep up the good work, it's well appreciated.

Santiago Corona Vallejo santiago_vallejo@contractor.amat.com

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

Juana Francisca de la Garza Falcon married Jose Francisco de la Garza Guerra and their son Julian's son Agapito de la Garza married Tiburcia Elizondo of the El Lucero ranch.

Agapito and Tiburcia's son Julian married Micaela Gonzalez (the mystery lady) This has been the focus of my search for months now and I am totally frustrated by my lack of success. She is the all time mystery lady.

I would appreciate any assist. Thanks.  Lexa  alexa0074@aol.com
P.S. your line from Blas Maria is thru ?

EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI

Pt. Coupee Militia, 1777

Plaque of Galvez in Natchez : In 1779 Spain entered the Revolutionary War (1775-83) on the side of the Americans, or more accurately, it entered the war against the British. Spanish Governor Bernaldo de Galvez raised a patchwork army of Creoles, Indians, free African Americans and his own Spanish regulars and marched on and seized British-held forts at Baton Rouge then at Natchez. A British counterattack failed, and in May, 1781 he engaged the British at Mobile, and a year after that at Pensacola, in western Florida, the last British military post on the Gulf. In each case, Galvez was able to force the British from their entrenchments. 

These victories diluted British strength in the south when Great Britain needed it most---just as it was bringing the campaign into the southern colonies. For his heroics, Galvez was memorialized in Texas, where the city of Galveston honors him with its name.

The war ended in 1783 with British recognition of American independence at the Treaty of Paris. The western border of the United States was set at the Mississippi, but in a separate peace agreement, the British ceded Western Florida (southern Alabama and Mississippi) and returned Eastern Florida to Spain. These Colonial Militia groups of Louisiana were the forerunner of today's Louisiana National Guard. 

The Pt. Coupee Chapter of the Louisiana Society of the D.A.R. honored these soldiers in ceremonies as part of the nation's Bicentennial on May 16, 1976. A plaque hangs in the lobby of the Pt. Coupée Courthouse which lists these soldiers. Additional information was added by myself in parentheses. 

GALVEZ and OTHER LOUISIANA PATRIOTS, contains brief history of the American Revolution in Louisina, and lists about 2,000 Spanish Militia from Louisina, whose descendants are elligble to join SAR or DAR. More information can be obtained from:
Sons of the American Revoultion
733 Chippenham Drive
Baton Rouge, LA 70808
Info: 504-769-5463


Links to the following:
The troops and men of Galvez' Army from Louisiana
Galvez Army Rolls listed by the various Militia across Louisiana
Links to other sites about Louisiana in the American Revolution
Revolutionary Soldiers listed by State, Links
Bibliography of Spanish Louisiana in the American Revoltionary War
History of National Guard of Louisiana
Governor Galvez, Spanish leader of the Louisiana Forces of the American Revolution
Winston DeVille's book which lists most Louisiana Soldiers in the American Revolution
Louisiana Society of the Sons of the American Revolution.
Gen. Philemon Thomas Chapter of Baton Rouge, SAR.
Avoyelles Parish: Home of many of the Pt. Coupee Military Soldiers

Email me at decuir@writeme.com   or PtCoupeeMilitia@avoyelles.com
.

EAST COAST

Society for Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS)
 receives 2004 Presidential Award for Excellence in 
Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring (PAESMEM)

On May 16, 2005, the White House announced that the Society for Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) is among the recipients of the 2004 Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring (PAESMEM), a program supported and administered by the National Science Foundation (NSF).  Each award includes a $10,000 grant for continued mentoring work.

SACNAS is recognized for establishing "an array of mentoring activities at scientific meetings, teacher workshops, and through its own annual conference. It engages in broad partnerships with other professional organizations.  The society provides and supports opportunities for students to strengthen their presentation skills, self-confidence and to make connections with scientists.  Recently established and expanded student chapters have brought to 2,862 the number of student members, which should broaden the organization's reach.  An ongoing project to develop biographies of Hispanic/Latino and Native American scientists serves as an inspiration to students from these populations."

PAESMEM honors individuals and institutions that have enhanced the participation of underrepresented groups such as women, minorities and people with disabilities in science, mathematics and engineering education at all levels.  Since its inception in 1996, the PAESMEM program has recognized 87 individuals and 67 institutions.  Each year's awardees add to a widening network of outstanding mentors in the United States, assuring that tomorrow's scientists and engineers will better represent the nation's diverse population.  This year, nine individuals and five institutions received the award.

The 2004 individual awardees are drawn from institutions across the country and represent a variety of professional fields.  SACNAS was honored alongside nine individuals and four other institutions with programs directed to Latino and Native American students, women and minorities in biological sciences and underrepresented groups seeking mathematics doctorates. 

For over 30 years, SACNAS has provided strong national leadership in improving and expanding opportunities for minorities in the scientific workforce and academia; mentoring college students within science, mathematics and engineering; as well as, supporting quality pre-college science education. SACNAS’ annual National Conference and K-12 Teacher Workshops, student chapters, e-Mentoring Program, and online internship/job placement resources are tools that help a diverse community of undergraduate and graduate students, professors, administrators, and K-12 educators achieve expertise within their disciplines.
 
PHOTO identities. .

Dr. Marigold Linton, President of SACNAS, seated second from right.
Dr. Refugio I. Rochin, Executive Director of SACNAS, standing at far left.

Top Row, left to right: Dr. Rochin; Mrs. Charlena Hole Grimes, Washington State University; Dr. David C. Manderscheid, University of Iowa; Dr. Richard E. Ladner, University of Washington; Dr. Jeffrey Russell, University of Wisconsin, Madison; Dr. Herbert Paul Schroeder, University of Alaska, Anchorage; Dr. Steven F. Watkins, Louisiana State University and A&M College; Dr. John H. Marburger, III, Director, Office of Science and Technology Policy, Executive Office of the White House; Dr. Joseph Bordogna, Deputy Director, National Science Foundation;; Dr. Kathie L. Olsen, Associate Director for Science and Technology Policy, Executive Office of the President; Dr. Donald E. Thompson, Assistant Director (Acting) Education and Human Resources, National Science Foundation;

Bottom Row, left to right: Dr. Elizabeth Greenwell Yanik, Emporia State University (Kansas); Dr. Judith Richardson Vergun for The Native Americans in Marine and Space Sciences (NAMSS) Program, Oregon State University; Dr. Barbara Ann Burke, California Polytechnic University, Pomona; Dr. Lenore Blum, Carnegie Mellon University; Dr. Judy Alexis Brown for the Miami Museum of Science, Inc.; Dr. Marigold Linton for the Society for Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS); and Mrs. Elizabeth Mark Marincola for the American Society for Cell Biology.

Dr. Refugio Rochin, 
831-459-0170 x 444
rochin@sacnas.org
333 Front St. Suite 104, Santa Cruz, CA. 95060

On Tuesday, May 24, 2005, the short  31 minute film "Timeless" 
was presented at the Instituto de México, Washington D.C.
2829 16th st . Washington D.C. 20009
Tel: (202) 728 1628 at 6:30 pm

Gabriel Garcia
Producer/Director
2950 Van Ness Street, Suite 728, NW
Washington, DC 20008
Cell: 202 957 3198
www.gabrielgarciaproductions.com

Edvin Osorio's alarm clock echoes through his tiny Landover Hills basement apartment. It is 3:45 a.m. He and his roommates, all from the same town in Guatemala, rouse themselves quickly, dress and head to Osorio's white Chevrolet van.

Osorio climbs into the van with two of his three roommates and flips the radio to WHFS 99.1 FM "El Zol." "That's bachata ," Osorio says, smiling as the Dominican music fills the van.

They cruise down New York Avenue through the dark, sipping coffee from Dunkin' Donuts. Osorio pulls up to Sixth and F streets NW and parks at a meter, then waits for the six-foot-tall metal gate to open so they can enter the construction site of the Shakespeare Theatre.

The 35-year-old Osorio is one of tens of thousands of Hispanic construction workers who have been pouring the concrete and erecting the steel beams of the scores of buildings going up around the region. He and others are part of a historic shift to Hispanic from white construction workers that has brought prosperity to some immigrants and helped support the region's building boom.

Osorio came here illegally 13 years ago, and his first job was pulling weeds. Now he is here legally and makes $24.05 an hour. Each day, he shuttles between two worlds. As a construction worker, he deals with American bosses and translates their instructions for his co-workers who do not understand English. After hours, he eats food from home, listens to Spanish-language radio, watches television shows beamed in from Latin America and hangs out with friends from Guatemala and El Salvador.

"We like where we're from, our people and our ways," Osorio says.

His immigrant dream is not to have a big house in the American suburbs, but to earn enough money to return to Guatemala and start a business with his brother. That's partly because he misses Guatemala and partly because the U.S. crackdown on illegal immigrants makes him angry.

Osorio is particularly upset about a law recently passed by Congress that will make it more complicated for undocumented workers to get drivers licenses. That, he says, will hurt construction companies, which need these workers, as well as the immigrants, who are here simply to earn money to support their family.  "It's not fair," he says.

Osorio and at least a dozen of his co-workers are from Chiquimula, a town in the eastern region of Guatemala -- near the Honduran border -- filled largely with farmers who earn $6 a day growing beans and corn on small plots of land. Most families live in shacks with tin roofs and walls and no indoor plumbing, and they get around the hilly area by donkey or on foot.

His father, a farmer, is well known in the community because he helps serve Communion at his church and because his eldest son, Edvin, can help local men get jobs in the United States.

Osorio, who has a sixth-grade education, came to the United States with two cousins, an uncle and a friend. He rattles off the date his journey started the way others recite their anniversary or birthday: March 5, 1992. He paid a coyote, or guide, $2,400 to get him to California.

The journey included a four-hour bus ride, a 36-hour truck ride and a 10-hour walk through mountains. One of his uncles who was living in Maryland sent him money to fly to Washington from Los Angeles.

He got his first job when he met the owner of a landscaping company at a grocery store in Landover. After four months, he switched to a job repairing asphalt on Interstate 95. He then received political asylum -- part of a wave of Guatemalan immigrants who were granted that status because of the civil war back home -- and found a construction job at Miller & Long.

Almost four years later, his brother told him that the company where he worked, Wood Steel Company Inc., needed a Spanish-speaking manager. Osorio applied.

"I don't know any Spanish, and all of a sudden my whole workforce is speaking it," says Kenny Wood, founder of the 55-person iron-laying company in Charles County, explaining why he made Osorio a foreman almost four years ago.

At about 4:50 a.m., Osorio and his two roommates walk onto the Shakespeare Theatre construction work site, which is lit up by floodlights. One of his supervisors, Randy Howells, greets him.

"Everyone stayed yesterday?" asks Howells, who is 43 and white. He jots down details Osorio gives him about the group's work.

Osorio then makes his way down three makeshift ladders until he is on the level that will someday be an underground parking garage. It is cold that far down, and dark, except for a few naked light bulbs. He starts working, pulling wire from the coil on his belt and using it to attach iron beams
together. Soon other workers appear, including his brother. Osorio nods and keeps working in the dark corner.

Howells looks down as the hole begins to fill up with workers -- largely Hispanic with a scattering of blacks and whites. "This is the roughest work," Howells says. "They work hard. There's not anything pretty about it."

For years, local construction crews were almost entirely white, often men from rural Virginia and Maryland. In the 1970s, more black workers got jobs in construction. At first, they were mainly hired for lower-paying jobs, such as dry wall, painting, landscaping, iron work and concrete. Gradually, they moved into plumbing, electrical work, brick masonry and carpentry.

By 1990, Latinos began appearing at local work sites in noticeable but still small numbers. Back then, whites held 60 percent of the local construction jobs, blacks 25 percent and Hispanics 15 percent.

But then Latinos started pouring into Washington just as the economic and construction boom ramped up demand for construction workers. These days, about 45 percent of the region's 166,000 construction workers are Hispanic, according to the U.S. Census, although construction executives, labor unions and workers themselves say the percentage is far higher.

Young men born in the United States, even those who might have in the past followed their fathers into brick masonry or carpentry, had other aspirations, said Henry Gilford, chief executive of Gilford Corp., one of the area's largest black-owned construction companies. When Americans work
in construction, they prefer trades, such as plumbing, where the wages are better and the work is less back-breaking than jobs such as iron work, according to union and company officials.

Robert Carter, a 30-year-old plumber's apprentice who is black, looks up from his work to say that Hispanics "are taking over" the construction industry.

Asked how he feels about that, Carter, who lives in Southeast, nods toward Osorio's group, which is working a few feet away. "Look at them," he says. "They work hard. Real hard. They don't stop. They don't complain, they get along. They came from much worse places, so to come in here and work is easy to them."

"In my opinion, if you want a job, you can get a job out here. You just have to work," says Carter, as he goes back to examining his blueprints for hot water lines.

Just as the sun rises around 6:15 a.m., Howells yells down: "Osorio, I need you and a few of your guys up here." Osorio nods and climbs up the ladder. Howells lays out the blueprints showing where heavy iron beams are needed to support the stage and the six stories of office building.

Osorio studies the blueprint and nods. "I got it," he tells Howells. He then switches to Spanish, explaining the plans to his crew, which includes 13 workers from Guatemala, eight of them from Chiquimula.

A few feet from Osorio's group, Hispanic workers with Clark Construction Group LLC saw plywood. Next to them, young Hispanics from another company push jackhammers into rock, their bodies shaking against the machines.

At 9:14 a.m., Howells yells, "Break!" Osorio and his crew scramble out of the hole and race to the lunch truck. A young Colombian man lifts the sides of the truck, and the workers push politely to get to the silver trays steaming with empanadas, tamales, pupusas, rice, black beans, broccoli
smothered in melted Velveeta cheese and a tray of iced Mountain Dews and Cokes.

Osorio grabs a disposable plate, serves himself a tamale and milk and pays $4. He quickly eats his food, and by 9:28 a.m., he and his crew are back in the hole, carrying more long, heavy iron beams.

At one point, one Latino worker is rapidly tying wires, and Howells tries to tell him that the power boxes are in the wrong place. The worker's head bobs back and forth as he tries to follow the English. Workers and bosses say it's common for a boss to give orders in English to Spanish- speaking workers, who will then quickly look around for someone who understands English to translate. But they add that in construction, the language difference is not the problem it might be in other lines of work.

Later, a supervisor notices that Osorio's crew is struggling with some heavy iron bars. The supervisor, who is black and has been with Kenny Wood for 30 years, yells out advice: "Edvin, you've got to swing it up and out." Moses, a Salvadoran on Edvin's team, yells "Arriba. Arriba," as the others on the line push the beam. When another worker asks how much farther, some
men respond: "Un poquito mas. Un poquito mas." The supervisor, who doesn't know Spanish, chimes in, "Yeah, what they said."

At 1:30 p.m., a supervisor gives the signal to wrap it up. An hour later, Osorio and his roommates are back home. After showering, they eat a bit of grilled meat, onions and tortillas, and then chat about their impressions of the United States.

Americans, they say, don't recognize how good they have it and because of that, sometimes they are lazy. "Those who come here easily don't work hard," Osorio says. "But the person who has had to suffer to get here, they appreciate the opportunity to work." His two roommates nod in agreement.

He marvels at how much he makes. "By 5 a.m. in the morning, we've made more here on our jobs than we'd make on a job back home in a month," he said. "Here we make as much as a lawyer does in a week back in Guatemala."

Osorio, who started at Wood Steel in November 2001, makes $962 a week, or $50,024 a year. He and his two brothers send a total of about $1,500 a month to their seven siblings and parents. Osorio is saving most of the rest of his money to start a tire-repair business with his younger brother in Guatemala.

Osorio says he is proud of the contributions Hispanics have made to the Washington area. Hanging on his wall are five digital photos of a job at 900 7th St. that Osorio says was supposed to have taken nine months. His team finished it in seven.

He thinks immigrants have contributed significantly to the vitality of the Washington economy. So government efforts to get tough with illegal immigrants puzzle and frustrate him.

Developers, union officials and social workers estimate that half of the construction workforce is here illegally, although precise numbers are hard to come by. Some companies, such as Wood, say they check documents, though others say they depend on unions to screen out undocumented workers. Some workers say they join unions to avoid having their papers closely scrutinized by employers. But some unions say they lack the resources to verify a worker's legal status.

Dean Boyd, a spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, says the agency is focused on tracking illegal aliens who may be a threat to homeland security. Boyd says that employers can be fined for hiring an undocumented worker but that the government must prove the employer knew the worker was here illegally. Illegal workers often have legitimate-looking
documents, and employers are not obligated to verify that the documents are authentic, according to an immigration official.

Osorio and others say immigration officials don't show up at job sites. But they tell stories about friends being pulled over by the police for a traffic violation and getting caught for being in the United States without a proper visa. It makes them feel unwelcome here and adds to their desire to keep a low profile. As a result, they spend their spare time with other Latinos.

At 4:30 p.m., Osorio and his roommates leave their house for a field in Cheverly a few miles away to play soccer. For Osorio and his friends, soccer is the biggest leisure activity.

The crowds are biggest on Sundays, when they often gather on a grassy field near a shopping center called the Plaza del Mercado in Silver Spring. On the sidelines, wives cheer, toddlers wander around and friends munch fried yucca and thinly sliced steak wrapped in warm tortillas cooked on portable grills. Spectators often number more than 100.

On this day, there are only a handful of people. They play for about four hours and agree to meet the next day.

When they arrive home, one of Osorio's roommates flips on Telemundo to catch the end of his favorite nightly soap opera, "Betting for Your Love." After it is over, they shuffle off to bed.

Osorio sets the alarm for 3:45 a.m.

Greeting to all of us from Bronx Community College, Legal Department

MEXICO

Bishop Emeritus Manuel Talamás Camandari.
By Roberto Camp  


A dynamic cycle of 88 years of Chihuahua history ended on May 10, 2005 with the death of the Bishop Emeritus of Ciudad Juárez, Manuel Talamás Camandari.

His parents were Arab Christians from the city of Bethlehem, where they lived in close proximity to the Church of the Nativity, and were descendants of French and Italian crusaders to the Holy Land. From there they immigrated to San Pedro de las Colonias, Coahuila, and later moved to the city of Chihuahua, where he was born on June 16, 1917.   Monseñor Talamás epitomized the diverse ethnic and spiritual mosaic of Ciudad Juárez, which has received massive waves of internal migration and settlers from Europe, Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, as well as from the United States and Canada.

In 1957 Pope Pius XII created the new Diocese of Ciudad Juárez, which at the present time covers 30 thousand square kilometers, and includes Ciudad Juárez, the Valle de Juárez, and Villa Ahumada. Monseñor Talamás was named as the first Bishop of Ciudad Juárez and served in that capacity from September 8, 1957 until July 11, 1992, after completing his 75th birthday.

Both during his period as Bishop and later as Bishop Emeritus, Monseñor Talamás maintained high local, national and international profiles. He was a prolific author and editorial writer, and displayed a frank, Norteño spirit in his social commentary and observations of the Mexican political scene. Que en Paz Descanse.

http://www.loc.gov/rr/genealogy/bib_guid/hispanic/mexico.html  
Sent by Johanna De Soto

Introduction - I. Handbooks - II. Surnames - III. Hispanic History of - the United States - IV. Arizona V. California - VI. Florida - VII. Louisiana - VIII. New Mexico - IX. Texas - X. Other States XI. Puerto Rico - XII. Cuba - XIII. Mexico - XIV. Spain - XV. Emigration from Spain - XVI. Jews XVII. Catalogs and Archives - XVIII. Other Countries of Spanish America - XIX. Miscellaneous

XIII. Mexico

• Archivo General de la Nación (Mexico).
  Catálogo del ramo expulsión de españoles. 2 vols. to date. México, D.F: Departamento de Publicaciones del Archivo General de la Nación, 1980-
  LC call number: Z1426.2 .A7 1980
  LC control number: 91126250
  Catalog Record
  Paragraph-length descriptions of 1,091 documents concerning the deportation of Spanish citizens from Mexico. Many are requests for exemption from deportation, citing personal circumstances and histories. Surname index and place name index that includes parts of Mexico that are now in the United States.

• Archivo General de la Nación (Mexico).
  Ramo pasaportes. Elaborado por Clotilde Martínez de Reyes. México, D.F.: Dirección de Difusión y Publicaciones del Archivo General de la Nación, 1980. 196, 31 p.
  LC call number: CS103 .M49 1980
  LC control number: 81216816
  Catalog Record
  Indexes the first eight of 58 volumes and covers the years 1821 to 1827. Listed by volume, year, city, and surname.

• Archivo Histórico del Estado de Sonora.
  Catálogo del Archivo Histórico del Estado de Sonora. 4 vols. to date. [Mexico City]: Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Dirección de Centros Regionales, <1977- .
  LC call number: CD3675 .S66 A73 1977
  LC control number: 82197661
  Catalog Record

• Arrigunaga Icaza, Joaquín de.
  Indice-resumen alfabético y cronológico de los matrimonios del sagrario de Mérida, Yucatán, 1814-1821. Mérida, Yucatán, México: Academia Yucateca de Historia y Genealogía Francisco de Montejo, 1976. 1 vol. (unpaged).
  LC call number: CS108 .M47 A77 1976
  LC control number: 96233118
  Catalog Record

• Arrigunaga Peón, Joaquín de.
  Estirpe de conquistadores. Mérida, México: Academia Yucateca de Historia y Genealogía Francisco de Montejo, 1967. 230 p., [4] leaves of plates. Geneal. tables.
  LC call number: CS109 .A77
  LC control number: 75408790
  Catalog Record
  Families of Yucatán. Cites primary documents.

• Cabrera Ypiña de Corsi, Matilde.
  De la Peña. San Luis Potosí, S.L.P., México: Editorial Universitaria Potosina, 1985. 201 p. [1] folded leaf of plates, ill.
  LC call number: CS110 .D4 1985
  LC control number: 91168847
  Catalog Record
  Genealogy of the de la Peña family of San Luis Potosí in Mexico up to 1983. Because the family was perpetuated by four daughters, it soon became part of many other families and for this reason is a valuable adjunct to the genealogies of these additional families.

• Camara Peón, Oswaldo.
  Indice-resumen alfabético y cronológico de los matrimonios del sagrario de Mérida, Yucatán, 1776 a 1788. Mérida, Yucatán, México]: Academia Yucateca de Historia y Genealogía "Francisco de Montejo," 1981. N.p.
  LC call number: CS108 .M47 C36 1981
  LC control number: 96147747
  Catalog Record
  Gives names of groom and bride, parents of each, notation if birth was out of wedlock, date of marriage, and number of original document in Mérida.

• Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints Genealogical Society.
  Major genealogical record sources in Mexico. Series H., no. 2. [Salt Lake City], 1970. N.p., col. map.
  LC call number: CS101 .G45 LH&G
  LC control number: 70029773
  Catalog Record

• Dahl, Torsten.
  Linajes en México. México: Casa Editora de Genealogía Ibero Americana, 1967- .
  LC call number: CS109 .D3
  LC control number: 79407772
  Catalog Record
  Genealogies of Mexican families. Many of non-Spanish origin. Lists several generations in Europe, the immigrant to Mexico, and succeeding generations to the 1960s.

• Esparza, Manuel.
  Padrón de capitación de la Ciudad de Oaxaca, 1875. [Oaxaca de Juárez]: Archivo General del Estado de Oaxaca, 1983. xvii, 131 p.
  LC call number: CS108 .O17 E84 1983
  LC control number: 86150090
  Catalog Record
  Lists are by section of the city and by block of residents obliged to pay tax. Alphabetical lists are by first name with age, occupation, and marital status.

• Esparza, Manuel.
  Padrón general de los habitantes de la Ciudad de Oaxaca, 1842: 450 aniversario, 1532-1982. [Oaxaca]: Centro Regional de Oaxaca, Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, 1981. xxii, 224 p.
  LC call number: CS108 .O17 E853 1981
  LC control number: 83236370
  Catalog Record
  A street directory giving name, age, occupation, and marital status of residents.

• Fernández de Recas, Guillermo S., ed.
  Cacicazgos y nobiliario indígena de la Nueva España. 1. ed. México: Instituto Bibliográfico Mexicano, 1961. xxvi, 351 p. Plates, coats of arms.
  LC call number: CS104 .F4
  LC control number: 62042344
  Catalog Record
  Includes 35 documents from the Spanish monarch confirming pre-Columbian ownership of land, titles of nobility and coats of arms, and conferring Spanish titles and arms beginning with the generation of Montezuma. Genealogies show connections between pre-Columbian Mexican nobility and Spanish nobility. The author found these documents by happenstance in the Archivo de la Nación and believes that more exist. Black and white photographs of coats of arms.

• González de la Garza, Rodolfo.
  Hispanic roots = Raíces hispanas: genealogy, history. 1st ed. 1 vol. to date. N. Laredo, México (Allende 701, Nuevo Laredo 88000): R. González de la Garza, 1996- . Ill. (some col.).
  LC call number: CS109 .G67 1996
  LC control number: 97121670
  Catalog Record
  Origins of most families of northeastern Mexico: Tamaulipas, Nuevo León, Coahuila, and part of Guadalajara. Many have branches in the United States. Volume 1 contains 17,000 entries and the set, when completed, will contain approximately 250,000. Data are from primary sources in church and civil archives (cited on p. 10). Both paternal and maternal surnames are given for principals and parents. Brief historical sketch of the region, including a statement that the Inquisition was not active here and thus provided a haven for families of Jewish background. Describes kinds of documents consulted and defines the racial terms "castizo," "tresalbo," "mestizo," "mulato," "coyote," "lobo," and "casta" (p. 20).

• González de la Garza, Rodolfo.
  Mil familias de Tam., N. León, Coah. y Texas. 2 vols. N. Laredo, Tamps., México: H. González de la Garza, 1980-1981. Ill.
  LC call number: CS109 .A2 G66
  LC control number: 81117624
  Catalog Record
  Extensive genealogies, drawings of coats of arms indicating colors, summary of accomplishments of each family. Surnames that have articles are listed in capital letters in the index; following each are surnames in lowercase letters that are mentioned in the article.

• Greenleaf, Richard E., and Michael C. Meyer, compilers and editors.
  Research in Mexican history; topics, methodology, sources and a practical guide to field research. Compiled for the Committee on Mexican Studies, Conference on Latin American History. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, [1973]. xiii, 226 p. Maps.
  LC call number: F1225.5 .G73
  LC control number: 72086020
  Catalog Record

• Guerra, Raúl J., Jr., Nadine M. Vásquez, and Baldomero Vela, Jr., compilers and editors. Index to the marriage investigations of the Diocese of Guadalajara pertaining to the former provinces of Coahuila, Nuevo León, Nuevo Santander, and Téxas. Vol. 1. 1653-1750. Ill.
  LC call number: CD3678 .G82G84 1989
  LC control number: 90093092
  Catalog Record

GOBERNADORES DE ZACATECAS
Personajes de la historia 
Por: José León Robles de la Torre

Lic. don Eduardo Guillermo Pankhurst, Gobernador de Zacatecas 1904-1908. 
Foto tomada de la Hemerografía de Zacatecas de don Rafael C. Puente, Edic. 1951.

Los padres del joven Pankhurst (no se mencionan sus nombres), viendo con orgullo los adelantos del hijo, lo enviaron a la ciudad de Guadalajara, internándolo en el Seminario, donde cursó las materias de gramática latina, gramática española, retórica, lógica, metafísica, matemáticas, religión, inglés, derecho civil, etc. obteniendo en todas las materias y cursos, los más elevados promedios de calificación. Estos estudios fueron suspendidos debido a las luchas surgidas por toda la República y particularmente el levantamiento del Coronel Landa en el Estado de Jalisco en 1858. El aventajado estudiante se unió al Partido Liberal y con éste fue a dar a la Capital de la República luchando por los derechos constitucionales al lado del literato don Miguel Cruz Aedo.

Pasado lo agitado del momento, Pankhurst se dedicó de lleno al estudio del Derecho, hasta que obtuvo el título de abogado el 28 de junio de 1861. Ya para estas fechas había alcanzado distinciones como la de ser nombrado Miembro Honorario de la Sociedad Literaria el Crepúsculo, por sus dotes de exquisita y fina oratoria.

Al recibir su título de abogado decidió regresar a su natal Zacatecas, donde prácticamente empiezan paralelas sus carreras de político y periodista. La Sociedad Mexicana de Geografía y Estadística, lo nombró Miembro Corresponsal en el Estado de Zacatecas.

Después de varios cargos, el 14 de mayo de 1885 fundó el periódico El Álbum Zacatecano, donde escribía tantos artículos literarios como políticos que le atrajeron dificultades personales por su filiación republicana, llegando hasta ser procesado e internado en prisión, siendo clausurado el periódico, que luego continuó por algunos meses con el nombre de Porvenir.

En una época, el General Miguel Auza, siendo Gobernador de Zacatecas en 1867, lo nombró catedrático de Lógica en el Instituto de Ciencias del Estado en 1867. En 1875 fue Diputado Federal.

Después de otros cargos, fue electo Gobernador Constitucional del Estado de Zacatecas para el período de 1904-1908. Una de las cosas que todavía se tienen a la vista de las mejoras que se hicieron durante su gobierno, fue la construcción del observatorio meteorológico, que se encuentra en el Crestón Chico del Cerro de la Bufa y cuyo acto ocurrió el primero de diciembre de 1906.

Algún tiempo después el Gobernador Pankhurst cayó enfermo y se trasladó a la capital de la República para su atención médica, falleciendo el día cinco no el cuatro como se dijo de julio de 1908. Su muerte fue muy sentida tanto en la Capital de la República como en Zacatecas. Se recordaba al periodista y escritor erudito e implacable, y no podía olvidarse al Gobernador justiciero y honesto que conservó siempre sus manos limpias y murió pobre. El cortejo fúnebre partió de la Calle de Medinas No. 7 presidido por el General Manuel González Cosío, Secretario de Guerra y Marina que llevaba la representación presidencial y personal de su viejo amigo el General Porfirio Díaz. Fue sepultado en el Panteón del Tepeyac de la Capital de la República.

GOBERNADORES DE ZACATECAS
Personajes de la historia 
Por: José León Robles de la Torre

General de División don Jesús González Ortega, 
Benemérito del Estado de Zacatecas y Gobernador del mismo. 
Foto oficial de la Galería de Gobernadores que está en Palacio de Gobierno.

Titulo y merced en forma al Capitán Pedro de Medina de dos sitios de ganado menor y uno de mayor en la jurisdicción de Aguascalientes por haber servido con 88 pesos en reales.

El Lic. Don Francisco Feijoo Centellas de El Concejo de su Majestad. Su oidor de la Audiencia Real de este Reino de la Nueva Galicia Juez Privativo de ventas y composiciones de tierras por el Lic. Don Bernardino de Valdés y Jirón de el Concejo de Cámara y Junta de Guerra de Indias de su Majestad. Por cuanto su Majestad que Dios guarde se sirvió expedir una su Real Cédula a los 30 de octubre del año pasado de seiscientos y noventa y dos: que su tenor es como se sigue:

Aquí la Cédula.

Y porque dicho Sr. Don Bernardino de Valdés subdelego en el todo la dicha Comisión en mi por lo que toca ... Reino de la Nueva Galicia y en su ejecución que no tengo dadas diferentes providencias en orden a que se reconozcan las tierras que se poseen sin justos y legítimos títulos las que no los tienen con la justificación necesaria y las que resultasen del Real Patrimonio para que estas se beneficiasen por cuenta de la Real hacienda y para ello nombrado jueces en los distritos de este Reino y estándolo en la jurisdicción de Aguascalientes don Luis Bernardo Pacheco compareció ante el susodicho el Capitán Pedro de Medina, vecino de dicha villa, hizo presentación de diferentes instrumentos en que se contienen un testimonio autorizado de Juan Rincón de Vivar de una merced hecha a Diego Peguero por el Señor don Santiago de Vera, Gobernador que fue de este Reino de un sitio de ganado mayor y cuatro caballerías de tierra a lindes del sitio de El Ojo Caliente, la fecha de dicha merced a los 24 de octubre del año pasado de quinientos y noventa y quatro. Otro testimonio autorizado de Pedro Arias Pardo, de una merced hecha por dicho Señor a los 20 de diciembre de año pasado de quinientos y setenta y sinco a Juan de Montoro, de un sitio de ganado menor dos caballerías de tierra y dos suertes de guerta el dicho sitio en el Peñol y Cerro de los Ojos de Agua que corren hacia (la) villa de Aguascalientes. Otro testimonio autorizado de don Alonso de Na... frigote, Escribano publico que fue de dicha villa de una Merced fecha por la Real Audiencia de este Reino a Andrés de Ayala de dos sitios de ganado menor y una caballería de tierra, el un sitio a lindes del Ojo Caliente el cual pertenece con los dos antecedentes al Capitán Pedro de Medina quien ha sucedido en el derecho de ellos y en virtud de dichos recaudos el dicho Juez pasó a su reconocimiento y medida cogiendo con las que hizo las caballerías de tierra que poseían los naturales del pueblo de San Marcos a cuyo pedimento mande que dicho Juez dejase a dichos naturales en la posesión de las cuatro caballerías de tierra y la tierra que cogían se la enterasen a dicho Capitán Pedro de Medina y habiéndolo hecho me remitió los autos y reconociendo no estar compuesto con su Majestad mande se le notificase al susodicho lo hiciese y habiéndose convenido a ello provey el auto del tenor siguiente: Auto: En la ciudad de Guadalajara a nueve días del mes de octubre de mil y seiscientos y noventa y seis años el Señor Licenciado don Francisco Feijoo Centellas del Consejo de su Majestad su oidor de la Audiencia Real de la Nueva Galicia Juez Privativo y Superintendente general de ventas y composiciones de tierras en este reino habiendo visto estos autos y en ellos los títulos y recaudos presentados por el Capitán Pedro de Medina en cuya virtud posee tres sitios el uno de ganado menor en El Ojocaliente y a sus lindes otro de ganado mayor; y otro de ganado menor. Las medidas hechas por don Luis Bernardo Pacheco y lo demás contenido en dichos autos. Dijo que aprobaba y aprobó dichas medidas y por lo que mira al derecho de justicia en su Real Nombre admitía y admitió a composición al susodicho con que sirva por esta gracia con ochenta pesos en reales para los efectos que su Majestad fuere servido y constando haberlos enterado con más ocho pesos de la media Annata se le despache titulo en forma con inserción de la Real Cedula inserta en la comisión de su Majestad Y este auto a la letra y así lo mando y firmó. Lic. Francisco Feijoo Centellas. Ante mi Ignacio de Tapia Palacios. Escribano Receptor. Por tanto y en consideración a lo que su Majestad que Dios guarde tiene dispuesto y ordenado por la Real Cédula supraincerta y a que por certificación consta haber enterado dicho Capitán Pedro de Medina la cantidad con que se le mande servir por el auto antecedente en nombre de su Majestad y sin perjuicio de su Real derecho y del de otro tercero que mejor lo tenga hago merced al susodicho por vía de composición de los dichos sitios y caballerías de tierra para que los goce como hasta aquí lo ha hecho y ocupe en lo que le pareciere y por bien tuviere metiendo ganados mayores y menores y sembrando en las partes más cómodas que hallare como suyo propio habido y adquirido con justo y derecho titulo y mando sean suyos y de sus sucesores y que de la posesión que en virtud de este titulo aprehendiere, no sea despojado sin ser primero oído y por fuero y derecho vencido ante quien y con derecho deba. Dado en la Ciudad de Guadalajara a nueve días del mes de octubre de mil seiscientos y noventa y seis años. Lic. Don Francisco Feijoo Centellas. Por mandato de su Merced. Ignacio de Tapia Palacios. Escribano Receptor. Fojas 249-251.

NOTA: Archivo de Instrumentos Públicos. Guadalajara, Jal. Número 221. Titulo y Merced en forma al Capitán Pedro de Medina de dos Sitios de Ganado menor y uno de Mayor en la jurisdicción de Aguascalientes por haber servido con 88 pesos en Reales.

1.- Señor Vásquez Borrego
1.1.- capitán José Vásquez Borrego se casó con María Josefa Imperial Pérez de Guisar.
1.1.1.- Manuela Vasquez Borrego Imperial se casò con Juan Antonio de Vidaurre
1.1.1.1.- José Fernando Vidaurre Vasquez Borrego se casó para las segundas nupcias de doña María Alejandra Sánchez de la Barrera de la Garza Uribe Treviño Lobo de la Cadena y Díaz Navarro hija del capitán Tomás Tadeo Sánchez de la Barrera y de la Garza Sosa y de Catalina de Uribe Treviño, y quien era la viuda de Bartolomé Vásquez Borrego que fue hijo de Juan José Vásquez Borrego, el hermano del capitán José Vásquez Borrego. 
1.1.1.1.1.- José Alejandro Vidaurri Vásquez Borrego y Sánchez de la Barrera nació en Mier, Tamaulipas en 1766 y murió el 10 de febrero de 1847; se casó en Mier, Tamaulipas el 10 de agosto de 1795 con María Leonor Canales García que nació en Mier, Tamaulipas el 28 de febrero de 1778 y murió en Mier, Tam. el 11 de marzo de 1850, hija de José Juan Antonio Canales González y de María de los Santos García de la Barrera.
1.1.1.1.1.1.- Alejandro Vidaurri Canales murió en el rancho Dolores del condado de Zapata en Texas en 1888, asesinado por los indios.
1.1.1.1.1.2.- Macario Vidaurri Canales nació en Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas en 1791, fue adoptado por José Alejandro y María Leonor y se casó en Mier, Tam.el 26 de noviembre de 1810 con (A) Ignacia Vela quien murió en San Antonio, Tx. en 1830; luego Macario se casó en Laredo, Tx. el 14 de marzo de 1850 con (B) María Pilar García Ramos
1.1.1.1.1.3.- María Antonia Vidaurri Canales nació en Mier, Tam. el 20 de junio de 1796..
1.1.1.1.1.4.- María Antonia Vidaurri Canales nació en Mier, Tam. el 18 de mayo de 1797 y se casó el 14 de mayo de 1816 en Mier, Tam. con José Hipólito de la Peña García quien nació en 1794.
1.1.1.1.1.5.- José Cecilio Vidaurri Canales nació en Mier, Tam. el 6 de diciembre de 1800 y murió en Mier, Tam. el 16 de agosto de 1801.
1.1.1.1.1.6.- José Félix Vidaurri Canales nació en Mier, Tam. el 25 de noviembre de 1802.
1.1.1.1.1.7.- Juan José Antonio Vidaurri Canales nació en Mier, Tam. el 29 de mayo de 1804.
1.1.1.1.1.8.- José Manuel Vidaurri Canales nació en Mier, Tam. el 20 de junio de 1809
y murió posterior a 1880 en el rancho"San José de Corralitos" del condado Zapata en Texas.
1.1.1.1.1.9.- José Laureano Vidaurri Canales nació en Mier, Tamaulipas el 6 de julio de 1818 y murió en el rancho "San José de Corralitos" del condado de Zapata en Texas; se casó en Laredo, Tx. el 23 de mayo de 1852 con Trinidad Cuellar Benavides que nació en Mier, Tam. en 1835 hija de Salvador Cuellar Sánchez y de Blasa Benavides Guzmán.
1.1.1.1.1.9.1.- Laureano Vidaurri Cuellar murió en 1889.
1.1.1.1.2.- Josefa Herculana Vidaurri Vásquez Borrego y Sánchez de la Barrera nació en 1767.
1.1.1.1.3.- María Encarnación Vidaurri Vásquez Borrego y Sánchez de la Barrera nació en Laredo, Tx. en 1768 y se casó en Laredo, Tx. el 1 de diciembre de 1796 con el lugarteniente José María Naveira García que nació en Laredo Tx. en 1775, hijo de Domingo Naveira García y de Gertrudis García Sánchez.
1.1.1.1.3.1.- Santiago Navaira Vidaurri nació en Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas el 16 de septiembre de 1798. 
1.1.1.1.3.2.- María Navaira Vidaurri nació en Nuevo Laredo, Tam. el 8 de septiembre de 1800.
1.1.1.1.4.- María Josefa Fabiana Vidaurri Vásquez Borrego y Sánchez de la Barrera nació en 1777.
1.1.1.1.5.- José Leonardo Vidaurri Vásquez Borrego y Sánchez de la Barrera nació en 1779.
1.1.1.1.6.- María de la Luz Vidaurri Vásquez Borrego y Sánchez de la Barrera nació en Laredo, Tx. en 1779 y se casó en Laredo, Tx. el 18 de enero de 1797 con el alférez Cristóbal Treviño Ramón quien nació en Laredo, Tx. en 1775 hijo de irilo Treviño Moreno y de Ana María Ramón Treviño.
1.1.1.1.6.1.- Francisco Treviño Vidaurri nació en Laredo, Tx. y se casó el 5 de julio de 1823 en Laredo, Tx. con María Concepción Flores Sánchez hija de Antonio Flores y María Regina Sánchez.
1.1.1.1.6.2.- María Januaria Treviño Vidaurri nació en Laredo, Tx. y se casó el 22 de noviembre de 1826 en Laredo, Tx. con Martín Herrera Canales quien nació en Mier, Tamaulipas hijo de Domingo Herrera y de María Juana Canales.
1.1.1.1.6.2.1.- Francisca Herrera Treviño se casó en Laredo, Tx. el 9 de diciembre de 1866
con Julián Johnson. 
1.1.1.1.6.3.- Albino Treviño Vidaurri nació en Laredo, Tx. y se casó el 25 de mayo de 1831 en Laredo, Tx. con Máría Bárbara Bustamante Flores que nació en Laredo, Tx. hija de José Ignacio Bustamante García y de María Encarnación Flores Cervera.
1.1.1.1.6.4.- Eugenio Treviño Vidaurri nació en Laredo, Tx. en 1809 y se casó el 16 de julio
de 1835 en Laredo, Tx. con María Garza de la Cruz quien nació en Laredo, Tx. en 1815 hija de Francisco Garza y de Rosalía de la Cruz.
1.1.1.1.6.5.- Ángela Treviño Vidaurri
1.1.1.1.6.6.- Teresa Treviño Vidaurri
1.1.1.1.6.7.- María Concepción Treviño Vidaurri nació en Laredo, Tx. y se casó el
11 de junio de 1831 en Laredo, Tx. con José Ramón de la Garza 
Vásquez quien nació en Cerralvo, Nuevo León hijo de José María de la
Garza y de Narcisa Vásquez.
1.1.1.1.7.- José Fernando Vidaurri Vásquez Borrego y Sánchez de la Barrera nació en
1780 y se casó en Laredo, Tx. el 14 de octubre de 1801 con María Antonia
Báez de Treviño Treviño hija de José Antonio Báez de Treviño y de Rosalía
Treviño.
1.1.1.1.7.1.- María Amada Vidaurri Báez de Treviño nació en Laredo, Tx. en 1807 y se
casó en Laredo, Tx. el 23 de noviembre de 1825 con Anselmo Martínez de la
Serna quien nació en Laredo Tx. en 1805 y murió en 1859 hijo de Francisco
Martínez Peña y de María Juliana de la Serna..
1.1.1.1.7.2.- José Rafael Vidaurri Báez de Treviño nació en Laredo, Tx. en 1820 y se casó
el 26 de agosto de 1839 en Laredo, Tx. con Dolores Sotomayor y Martínez de
la Garza quien nació en Laredo, Tx. en 1821 hija de Andrés Sotomayor y
Martínez y de Francisca de la Garza.
1.1.1.1.8.- María Josefa de Jesús Vidaurri Vásquez Borrego y Sánchez de la Barrera
nació en Mier, Tamaulpas el 17 de abril de 1781 y murió en Laredo, Tx. el
28 de febrero de 1829; se casó con Victorino Dovalina Pizaña quien nació en
Laredo, Tx. en 1765 y murió en 1835 en Laredo, Tx. hijo de Manuel de
Dovalina Sánches y de María Francisca Josefa Pizaña.
1.1.1.1.8.1.- María Remigia Dovalina Vidaurri se casó en Laredo, Tx. el 30 de octubre
de 1827 con Rafael Gutierrez Vargas quien era soldado del Primer
Regimiento Permanente del estado de Tamaulipas.
1.1.1.1.8.2.- María Leonor Dovalina Vidaurri nació en Laredo, Tx. y se casó el 3 de
julio de 1829 en Laredo, Tx. con Joseph Apolonio Ramón Rivera quien
nació en Monclova Coahuila el 17 de marzo de 1799.
1.1.1.1.8.3.- José Domingo Dovalina Vidaurri nació en Laredo, Tx. el 6 de agosto de
1801 y murió en Laredo, Tx. en 1862; se casó en Laredo, Tx. el 30 de junio
de 1836 con María Cayetana González Días que nació en Laredo, Tx. en
1817.
1.1.1.1.8.4.- José Agustín Dovalina Vidaurri nació en Laredo, Tx. el 28 de agosto de
1807 y se casó en Laredo, Tx. el 22 de octubre de 1832 conMaría Francisca
Sánchez Rodríguez quien nació en Laredo, Tx.
1.1.1.1.8.5.- José Lázaro Dovalina Vidaurri nació en Laredo, Tx. el 13 de febrero de
1814 y se casó con (A) María Felípa Balderrama quien murió en 1840; José
Lázaro celebró segundas nupcias en Laredo, Tx. el 2 de julio de 1842 con
(B) María Bárbara González de la Garza quien nació en Laredo, Tx. en el
mes de noviembre de 1822.
1.1.1.1.8.6.- José Julio Dovalina Vidaurri nació en Laredo, Tx el 27 de febrero de 1824
y se casó en Laredo, Tx. el 9 de octubre de 1854 con Rafaela Rodríguez
Martínes que nació en Laredo, Tx. 
1.1.1.1..9- Ildefonso Vidaurri Vásquez Borrego y Sánchez de la Barrera nació en
Laredo, Tx. en 1783 y se casó en Laredo, Tx. el 30 de abril de 1805 con
María Josefa García Treviño hija de Juan José García y de Maria Micaela
Treviño.
1.1.1.1.9.1.- Francisco Vidaurri García nació en Laredo, Tx. y se casó en Laredo, Tx. el
15 de octubre de 1827 con Josefa Salínas Ramírez que nació en Laredo, Tx.
hija de Juan José Salínas y de Jacoba Ramírez
1.1.1.1.9.2.- Rafael Vidaurri García nació en Laredo, Tx. y murió antes de 1857; se casó en
Laredo, Tx. el 11 de mayo de 1831 con María Lorena Gil Sánchez que murió
en Laredo, Tx. hija de Miguel Gil y de Ana María Sánchez.
1.1.1.1.9.2.1.- Felipa Vidaurri Gil nació en Laredo, Tx. y se casó el 25 de enero de 1855 en
Laredo, Tx. con Cayetano de la Garza Benavides hijo de Cayetano de la
Garza Sánchez y de María Inocente Benavides García Dávila.
Cayetano de la Garza Benavides ya antes se había casado el 8 de mayo de
1850 con Presentación Benavides García hija de Bacilio Benavides
Sánchez y de María Encarnación García.
1.1.1.1.9.2.2.- Atanasio Vidaurri Gil se casó el 10 de julio de 1857 en Laredo, Tx. 
con María Ignacia Farías hija de Juan Francisco Farías Sánchez.
1.1.1.2.- Ramón Macario Vidaurre Vasquez Borrego
1.1.1.3.- José Ygnacio Vidaurre Vasquez Borrego
1.1.1.4.- Rita Lizarda Vidaurre Vasquez Borrego
1.1.1.5.- Joseph de Jesús Vidaurre Vasquez Borrego
1.1.1.6.- Jesús María Lorenzo de San José Vidaurre Vasquez Borrego
1.1.1.7.- Rita Ana Verónica Vidaurre Vasquez Borrego
1.1.1.8.- José Maria Margil Vidaurre Vasquez Borrego se casó con su prima hermana
Marìa Josefa Vàsquez Borrego y Sánchez de la Barrera de la Garza hija de
Bartolomé Vásquez Borrego y de María Alejandra Sánchez de la Barrera de la
Garza Uribe Treviño Lobo de la Cadena y Díaz Navarro
1.1.1.8.1.- José Francisco Vidaurre Vàsquez Borrego y Sánchez de la Barrera de la
Garza naciò el 25 de noviembre de 1793 en Laredo, Texas.
1.1.1.8.2.- José Jesús Vidaurre Vàsquez Borrego y Sánchez de la Barrera de la Garza
naciò en Laredo, Tx. el 8 de enero de 1796
1.1.1.8.3.- Alejandro Vidaurre Vàsquez Borrego y Sánchez de la Barrera de la Garza
naciò en 1797
1.1.1.8.4.- Dionisia Vidaurre Vàsquez Borrego y Sánchez de la Barrera de la Garza
naciò en Laredo, Tx. el 9 de octubre de 1797
1.1.1.8.5.- Ana Juliana Vidaurre Vàsquez Borrego y Sánchez de la Barrera de la
Garza naciò en Laredo, Tx. El 19 de febrero de 1802
1.1.1.8.6.- Josefa Francisca Vidaurre Vàsquez Borrego y Sánchez de la Barrera de la
Garza naciò en Laredo, Tx. el 2 de diciembre de 1802.
1.1.1.8.7.- Juana Marìa Vidaurre Vàsquez Borrego y Sánchez de la Barrera de la Garza
naciò en 1804 y se casò en mayo de 1831 con su primo hermano José
Santiago Vidaurri y Valdez hijo de Pedro José Vidaurre Vásquez Borrego y
Villaseñor y de Teodora Valdés.
1.1.1.8.8.- Marìa Josefa Francisca Vidaurre Vàsquez Borrego y Sánchez de la Barrera
de la Garza naciò en 1807.
1.1.1.9.- Verónica Mariana Vidaurre Vasquez Borrego
1.1.1.10.- Francisco Vidaurre Vasquez Borrego se casò con Maria Ángela del Carmen
Villaseñor
1.1.1.10.1.- Juan José Vidaurre Vásquez Borrego y Villaseñor
1.1.1.10.2.- José Antonio Vidaurre Vásquez Borrego y Villaseñor
1.1.1.10.3.- Francisco Vidaurre Vásquez Borrego y Villaseñor
1.1.1.10.4.- Pedro José Vidaurre Vásquez Borrego y Villaseñor se casó con Teodora Valdés
1.1.1.10.4.1.- José Santiago Vidaurri y Valdez se casó con su prima hermana Juana Maria Vidaurre Vasquez Borrego y Sánchez de la Barrera Uribe hija de José Maria Margil Vidaurre Vasquez Borrego y María Josefa Vásquez Borrego y Sánchez de la Barrera Uribe 
1.1.1.10.4.1.1.- Prudencia Vidaurri Valdéz y Vásquez Borrego Sánchez de la Barrera se casó con el socio y amigo de su papá; Patricio Milmo O'Dowd, que nació en Ballysodere, Irlanda el 27 de septiembre de 1826, hijo de Dermott Milmo y Sara O'Dowd. 
1.1.1.10.4.1.1.1.- Sara Milmo O'Dowd y Vidaurri Vásquez Borrego murió en 1916 se casó con Harold Hutter Reeder quien murió en San Antonio, Texas el 13 de diciembre de 1932. Otra versión afirma que Sara casó con Eugenio Kelly. 
1.1.1.10.4.1.1.2.- Prudencina Milmo O'Dowd y Vidaurri Vásquez Borrego se casó con Albrycht Wojciech Radzwill.
1.1.1.10.4.1.1.3.- Leonor Milmo O'Dowd y Vidaurri Vásquez Borrego se casó con el
señor O´Hart
1.1.1.10.4.1.1.4.- Patricio Milmo O'Dowd y Vidaurri Vásquez Borrego nació en Monterrey, Nuevo León en 1874, y se casó con Laura Hickman Morales que nació en 1875 en San Antonio, Texas. .
1.1.1.10.4.1.1.4.1.- Laura Milmo Vidaurri y Hickman Morales nació en San Antonio, Texas en 1906 se casó el 26 de septiembre de 1925 con Mariano Emilio Azcárraga Vidaurreta hijo de Mariano Azcárraga y López de Rivera y de María Emilia Gloria de los Dolores Vidaurreta Rovira. 
1.1.1.10.4.1.1.4.1.1.- Laura Azcárraga Milmo nació en 1926 y se casó con Fernando Diez Barroso quien nació en 1917
1.1.1.10.4.1.1.4.1.1.1.- Fernando Diez Barroso y Azcárraga Milmo
1.1.1.10.4.1.1.4.1.1.2.- Emilio Diez Barroso y Azcárraga Milmo
1.1.1.10.4.1.1.4.1.1.3.- Laura Renee Diez Barroso y Azcárraga Milmo
1.1.1.10.4.1.1.4.1.1.4.- Gina Lorenza Diez Barroso y Azcárraga Milmo
1.1.1.10.4.1.1.4.1.1.5.- Mónica Diez Barroso y Azcárraga Milmo
1.1.1.10.4.1.1.4.1.2.- Carmela Azcárraga Milmo nació en 1928 y se casó con Alejandro
Burillo Pérez
1.1.1.10.4.1.1.4.1.2.1.- María Carmela Burillo Pérez y Azcárraga Milmo
1.1.1.10.4.1.1.4.1.2.2.- Alejandro Burillo Pérez y Azcárraga Milmo
1.1.1.10.4.1.1.4.1.2.3.- Jorge Eduardo Burillo Pérez y Azcárraga Milmo
1.1.1.10.4.1.1.4.1.2.4.- Emilio Burillo Pérez y Azcárraga Milmo
1.1.1.10.4.1.1.4.1.2.5.- Patricia Burillo Pérez y Azcárraga Milmo
1.1.1.10.4.1.1.4.1.2.6.- Javier Burillo Pérez y Azcárraga Milmo
1.1.1.10.4.1.1.4.1.3.- Emilio Azcárraga Milmo murió en 1972; se casó con (A) Almade
Schandube; tuvo segundas nupcias con (B) María Regina de Surmont, y su tercer matrimonio fue con (C) Nadine Jean. 
1.1.1.10.4.1.1.4.1.3.1.- Paola Azcárraga Milmo de Surmont
1.1.1.10.4.1.1.4.1.3.2.- Alessandra Azcárraga Milmo de Surmont
1.1.1.10.4.1.1.4.1.3.3.- Ariadna Azcárraga Milmo de Surmont
1.1.1.10.4.1.1.4.1.3.4.- Emilio Azcárraga Milmo y Jean
1.1.1.10.4.1.1.4.1.3.5.- Carla Azcárraga Milmo y Jean
1.1.1.10.4.1.2.- Maria del Carmen Vidaurri Valdéz y Vásquez Borrego Sánchez de la Barrera se casó con un hombre muy abusivo por lo que su suegro no lo quería y lo hizo desaparecer.
1.1.1.10.4.1.3.- Maria Daria Vidaurri Valdéz y Vásquez Borrego Sánchez de la Barrera
1.1.1.10.4.1.3.1.- Maria Antonia se casó con el señor Medellín.
1.1.1.10.4.1.3.1.1.- Maria Medellin 
1.1.1.10.4.1.3.1.2.- Medellín se casó con el señor Rivas
1.1.1.10.4.1.3.1.2.1.- Ana Rivas Medellín
1.1.1.10.4.1.4.- Indalecio Vidaurri Valdéz y Vásquez Borrego Sánchez de la Barrera
1.1.1.10.5.- Juan Antonio de la Trinidad Vidaurre Vásquez Borrego y Villaseñor
1.1.1.10.5.1.- Vidaurre Vásquez Borrego
1.1.1.10.5.1.1.- Juan José Vidaurre y Villaseñor fue gobernador de Coahuila y Texas
1.1.1.10.5.1.2.- Francisco Vidaurre y Villaseñor 1834 gobernador de Coahuila y Texas
1.1.1.11.- Maria Venancia Vidaurre Vasquez Borrego
1.1.1.12.- Josefa Vidaurre Vasquez Borrego
1.1.2.- Josefa Vasquez Borrego Imperial
1.1.3.- Juan José Vasquez Borrego Imperial héroe de la insurgencia; era sacerdote, 
1.1.4.- Macario Vasquez Borrego Imperial 
1.2.- capitán Juan Josè Vàsquez Borrego. 
1.2.1.- Bartolomé Vásquez Borrego murió alrededor de 1764 y se casò con María Alejandra Sánchez de la Barrera de la Garza Uribe Treviño Lobo de la Cadena y Díaz Navarro hija del capitán Tomàs Tadeo Sánchez de la Barrera y de la Garza Sosa y de Catalina de Uribe Treviño.
1.2.1.1.- José Francisco Vásquez Borrego y Sánchez de la Barrera de la Garza nació en Laredo, Texas y se casó en Laredo, Tx. el 27 de noviembre de 1792 con María de Refugio Treviño Treviño hija de José Antonio Treviño y de María Treviño.
1.2.1.1.1.- Ramón Vàsquez Borrego Treviño naciò en 1794 
1.2.1.1.2.- Concepción Vàsquez Borrego Treviño naciò en 1796
1.2.1.1.3.- José Francisco Vàsquez Borrego Treviño naciò en 1799
1.2.1.1.4.- José Luciano Vàsquez Borrego Treviño naciò en 1801
1.2.1.1.5.- Marìa del Carmen Vàsquez Borrego Treviño naciò en 1804
1.2.1.1.6.- Marìa de Jesús Juliana Vàsquez Borrego Treviño naciò en 1806
1.2.1.1.7.- Marìa Ernestina Vàsquez Borrego Treviño naciò en 1807
1.2.1.1.8.- Manuel Florentino Vàsquez Borrego Treviño naciò en 1812
1.2.1.1.9.- Marìa Francisca Vàsquez Borrego Treviño Remigia naciò en 1814
1.2.1.2.- Marìa Josefa Vàsquez Borrego y Sánchez de la Barrera de la Garza nació en 1765 y se casò con su primo hermano José Maria Margil Vidaurre Vasquez Borrego hijo de Juan Antonio de Vidaurre y de Manuela Vàsquez Borrego Imperial. 
1.2.1.2.1.- José Francisco Vidaurre Vásquez Borrego y Sánchez de la Barrera de la Garza naciò el 25 de noviembre de 1793 en Laredo, Texas.
1.2.1.2.2.- José Jesús Vidaurre Vásquez Borrego y Sánchez de la Barrera de la Garzanació en Laredo, Tx. el 8 de enero de 1796
1.2.1.2.3.- Alejandro Vidaurre Vásquez Borrego y Sánchez de la Barrera de la Garza nació en 1797
1.2.1.2.4.- Dionisia Vidaurre Vásquez Borrego y Sánchez de la Barrera de la Garza nació en Laredo, Tx. el 9 de octubre de 1797
1.2.1.2.5.- Ana Juliana Vidaurre Vásquez Borrego y Sánchez de la Barrera de la Garza nació en Laredo, Tx. El 19 de febrero de 1802
1.2.1.2.6.- Josefa Francisca Vidaurre Vásquez Borrego y Sánchez de la Barrera de la Garza nació en Laredo, Tx. el 2 de diciembre de 1802.
1.2.1.2.7.- Juana Marìa Vidaurre Vásquez Borrego y Sánchez de la Barrera de la Garza nació en 1804 y se casó en mayo de 1831 con su primo hermano José Santiago Vidaurri y Valdez hijo de Pedro José Vidaurre Vásquez Borrego y Villaseñor y de Teodora Valdés.
1.2.1.2.8.- Marìa Josefa Francisca Vidaurre Vàsquez Borrego y Sánchez de la Barrera de la Garza nació en 1807.


Bibliografía:

Zorrilla, Juan Fidel; González, Salas Carlos 
"Diccionario Biográfico de Tamaulipas
Instituto de Investigaciones Históricas
Universidad Autónoma de Tamaulipas
Ciudad Victoria, Tam. 1984

Olivares, Arriaga María del Carmen
"Emilio Azcárraga Vidaurreta. Bosquejo Histórico"
Instituto de Investigaciones Históricas
Universidad Autónoma de Tamaulipas
Ciudad Victoria, Tam. 2002
"Los Vidaurre de Coahuila, Nuevo Leòn, Tamaulipas & Texas" written by Anita Rivas Medellín in http://www.somosprimos.com/sp2005/spmay05/spmay05.htm
"Descendents of Don Francisco Sànchez de la Barrera And Dona Maria Duràn de Vzcanga" compiled by John D. Inclan in http://www.somosprimos.com/inclan/sanchez.htm

CARIBBEAN/CUBA

A twenty-two year old nephew, a 2004 graduate at the University of Puerto Rico, on a  visit to the 2004 National Puerto Rican Day Parade to New York City, shared with me some interesting impressions of the Puerto Ricans there and made a few striking remarks about how his perception of a national identity had changed once he left the Parade and reflected on what he had seen and experienced while participating in the largest parade in the United States.

He was dazed at the sight of so many Puerto Rican flags being waved along Fifth Avenue and proudly displayed on tee-shirts, nails, hats, cheeks, heads and in other parts of the human body. In-spite of majoring in Puerto Rican history, it was hard for him to understand how and why Puerto Ricans in New York elected to celebrate and preserve culture without apprehension. He spoke about how excited, proud and happy they seemed after singing the one-hundredth version of "Que Bonita Bandera". I replied by giving Tomas a crash course on New York Puerto Ricans and how I felt the parade reflected a redefinition of a national identity.

Most New York Puerto Rican Historians agree that Puerto Ricans have been migrating to New York as early as 1830. But in an interview for Carmen Dolores Hernandez' Puerto Rican Voices in English, a New York poet and historian, Louis Reyes Rivera, stems the migration in the late 1700's:"Puerto Ricans in New York are traceable to the American Revolution and even before, given that Puerto Rico was New England's single largest customer for smuggling Operations which were intended to avoid paying taxes (121)."

Commercial ties and the trading of raw materials paved the way for the early settlers. Towards the latter part of the 19th century, political circumstances proved to be the most important migration factor. Puerto Ricans who were against Spanish rule voluntarily left the Island or were exiled. After the United States obtained official political control of the Island in 1898, more working-class Puerto Ricans came to New York.  By World War II, there were close to 150,000 people of Puerto Rican origin in New York.

Your grandparents migrated to New York in the late 1950's. They were part of a massive immigration movement fostered by the new Puerto Rican Commonwealth Government of 1952 and its political and economic links to the United States. "Los viejos" joined thousands of Puerto Ricans in their quest of the American Dream. The new immigrants founded a Puerto Rico of their own called "El Barrio". "The New York Island" stretched across 96th Street North to 127th Street and Fifth Avenue East in Manhattan. During the summers, "El Barrio" came alive with the sounds of "La Isla Del Encanto". Puerto Ricans brought their music, literature, arts, food and traditions to New York. As American citizens, they felt no need to deny their roots and culture. Spanish was kept alive at home. It was an inexpensive ticket back home, and many that came went back to "La Isla" or became extraordinary elements in the revolving door syndrome.

The first Puerto Rican Day Parade took place on Sunday, April 12, 1958 in "El Barrio". The Parade went National in 1995 to extend its borders and outreach. The Parade was established to create a national conscience and to appreciate the Puerto Rican culture and its contributions to the American society. It also stimulates the study, progress and development of the Puerto Rican culture and art. The National Puerto Rican Day Parade is a yearly event with on-going educational, cultural, social and artistic presentations throughout the year. Close to two million people attend the Parade making it the largest outdoor celebration event in the United States.

My nephew had listened for the past twenty-minutes, but he interrupted me and asked "Ok, that sounds interesting Tio but how is the Parade reflective of a Puerto Rican national identity?" I calmed him down and gave him my personal opinion. Puerto Ricans in New York are holding on to their culture. For us US Ricans, the National Puerto Rican Day Parade is more than just a celebration of sorts. It is an expression of national identity. It's standing up for what we believe in. By reaffirming our Puerto Ricanness as a people, we define ourselves as a nation. Remember Tomas; it is only when you leave the Island that you begin to understand that you are a Puerto Rican. The political mayhem on the Island does not allow you to flavor or even sense a national identity. Just the mentioning of the term nation, frightens Island scholars and academics alike. The four-year three-party political enterprise in "La Isla" entertains itself  with year long, endless and tireless futile debates on budgets, resolutions and foregone nominations. Flags are only pulled up after Tito Trinidad wins a fight or whenever a major Puerto Rican celebrity reaches a milestone or makes history. The red, blue and green politicians attend the National event in New York to make connections or to have an excuse to take a week off from work. Some Islanders will say that there is no need to honor the Puerto Rican flag, but Americans including the Puerto Ricans born and raised in New York honor the Stars and Stripes  in every school, neighborhood and community in the United States.

Puerto Ricans in New York and other cities have a sense of nostalgia because those that left as children take with them the Puerto Rico of their childhood. Those that left as adolescents struggled to adjust to another identity and in the cultural warfare dreamed with the Island every day. The adults that migrated had every day visions with the green plantain fields and blue green beaches and dream of going back and buying a "finquita". They did not have to hide or bury their national identity.

The American way of life celebrates the reaffirmation of national identities precisely because the United States was founded and populated by immigrants. You my dear nephew have had a close encounter of the third kind with your national identity. Thousands of Puerto Ricans will experience the same identity encounter when they migrate to New York City or other major United States cities. 

SPAIN

La Genealogía de Las Islas Canarias
Fabiola de Publicaciones Hispalenses

Odiel Informacion por Angel Custodio Rebollo Barroso 
        Otra vez los restos de Colón
        Carrasco
        Capitán Agustín de la Garza
        La Carta

Fabiola de Publicaciones Hispalenses

Booksellers - Libreros Reunidos, S.L.
http://www.barataria.com/fabiola.html
Sent by Paul Newfield skip@thebrasscannon.com

HERÁLDICA DE SEVILLA. ADOLFO DE SALAZAR MIR. Tomo I. La Catedral.

Tamaño 210 x 295. 281 páginas. P.V.P. 35 euros.

HISTORIA GENEALÓGICA Y HERÁLDICA DE LA MONARQUÍA ESPAÑOLA, CASA REAL Y GRANDES DE ESPAÑA. FRANCISCO FERNÁNDEZ DE BETHENCOURT.

Tomo I.   Tamaño 208 x 293. 572 páginas.   P.V.P. 72 euros

INTERNATIONAL 

 Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia   
[Publicaciones periódicas]. Tomo 2, Año 1882

July Family History & Genealogy Conference, Malaga, Spain

Plaza Bolívar con estatua de Don Cristóbal Mendoza
por Gilberto Quevedo Segnini

Desde tiempo inmemorial en todas las ciudades y poblaciones de Venezuela, la Plaza Principal se viene denominando PLAZA BOLIVAR. Así el Gobierno Estatal del Dr. Inocente de J. Quevedo, con sede en Valera, según lo registra en sus ediciones del 21 y 24 de noviembre de 1900 el "Diario Valera", decretó los trabajos de la Plaza Bolívar de Trujillo, noticia recibida con "manifestaciones del más insólito entusiasmo", construyéndose además una Junta encargada de los mismos integrada por el Dr. Antonio José Carrillo Márquez, el General Francisco Márquez y el señor Antonio José Briceño, hijo. Años más tarde, el 5 de julio de 1909 cuando se tomaban providencias para la celebración del centenario de la Independencia, en esta Plaza la Sociedad Patriótica Seccional ante retratos del Libertador y del General Cruz Carrillo, en la Presidencia Constitucional del Dr. Trino Baptista, se procedió a la colocación de la primera piedra del monumento que el pueblo trujillano erigía al Libertador con un encendido discurso del Dr. Melquíades Parra, y por la noche retreta, globos aerostáticos, quemas pirotécnicas, prolongándose la fiesta hasta el día siguiente con corrida de toros coleados en la calle Bolívar. Paso el tiempo sin que aquella primera piedra la siguieran otras con base para el esperado monumento al Libertador.

En 1916 siendo presidente del Estado el General Timoleón Omaña, haciendo honor a su nombre, timonea la idea de un monumento por suscripción popular de los tres estados andinos, "a la memoria del Ilustre Prócer Dr. Cristóbal Mendoza", y al efecto el 19 de diciembre de dicho año en otro solemne acto se colocó "en el pavimento redondel que sirve de centro a nuestra Plaza Bolívar" otra primera piedra que vino a ser la segunda, bajo el siguiente programa: "I- "Quejas del Alma" vals de A. M. Delgado. II- Lectura y Firma del Acta respectiva. III- Himno del Estado. IV- Colocación de la primera piedra por el muy digno señor General Timoleón Omaña. V- "Heliotropo" vals de Laudelino Mejía. VI- Palabras alusivas al acto por el Presidente de la Junta". La Junta que además se constituyó para recabar fondos para la obra, estaba integrada así: Dr. Amilcar Fonseca (Presidente) y Pbro. Etanislao Carrillo, doctores Inocente de Jesús Quevedo, Fabricio Gabaldón y Alfredo Carrillo, con una Junta filial en Caracas compuesta por los doctores Juan Francisco Bustillos, Enrique Urdaneta Maya, Samuel Darío Maldonado, C. L. Febres Cordero y los generales C. Parra Picón y Tobías Uribe, y el coronel Armando Márquez, estableciéndose otras en todas las poblaciones del Estado: la de Pampán quedo formada por Jefe Civil Coronel Antonio María Ramírez y los señores Fernando Segnini Lupi y Luis Peña.

El gran escultor carabobeño Andrés Pérez Mujica fue contratado para la ejecución de la estatua de Don Cristóbal, quien se traslado a Barcelona, España, a realizar su fundición, al no lograrlo se fue a París, donde sí lo consiguió. En Barcelona se ejecutó el pedestal en granito natural. Hasta finales de 1917 no se pudo traer de España la estatua, lo que se hizo por vía marítima desde Maracaibo a La Ceiba y luego a Motatán por el ferrocarril, allí surgieron de nuevo contratiempos por carecer de medios apropiados para su traslado. Solo se pudo traer a Trujillo en 1924 siendo Presidente del Estado el General Vicencio Pérez Soto, habiéndose colocado en el centro de la Plaza Bolívar y se inauguró el 21 de julio de dicho año para conmemorar el aniversario de la batalla librada en Ciudad Bolívar en 1903 por el General Juan Vicente Gómez. El discurso de orden lo pronunció el eminente pampanense Doctor Luis Valera Hurtado. La banda del Estado estrenó con ese motivo un pasodoble titulado "Dr. Cristóbal Mendoza".

ESTATUA ECUESTRE DEL LIBERTADOR

Transcurridos más de 20 años de aquella primera piedra es cuando el pueblo trujillano tiene la certeza de que se va a cristalizar el proyecto de un monumento al Libertador. En 1930 en la fecha patria del 19 de abril el Presidente del Estado General Emilio Rivas decretó como uno de los actos para conmemorar el centenario de la muerte del Padre de la Patria: "la erección de un Monumento de tamaño heróico que contenga la estatua ecuestre del Libertador , hecha en bronce de primera clase y sostenida en adecuado pedestal de granito, en boceto y proporciones de un todo iguales a la estatua del Libertador que luce la Plaza de Bolívar de Caracas. Este Monumento, con los escudos Nacional y del Estado Trujillo y las inscripciones patrióticas pertinentes, conforme a lo establecido en el contrato celebrado en Caracas con el señor Emilio Gariboldi, de fecha trece de marzo retropróximo; será colocada en la Plaza Bolívar de esta ciudad capital e inaugurada el diecisiete de diciembre del año en curso". (Memoria y cuenta presentada por el Secretario General de Gobierno a la Asamblea Legislativa del Estado Trujillo, en sus sesiones ordinarias de 1931. Trujillo, Imp. Oficial, sin numeración de página). Gariboldi copia el monumento del original de Adamo Tadolini, en la Fundición de Vittorio Lera en Viareggio, Italia, realizándolo en tamaño monumental en lugar de heróico.

El mismo magistrado asociándose a la celebración del Centenario de la Reconstitución de la República el 24 de de septiembre de 1930, el 8 de dicho mes decretó pavimentar con mosaico la Plaza Bolívar para que la "Estatua Ecuestre del Padre de la Patria… se destaque sobre un pavimento cónsono con el hermoso monumento". La estatua de Don Cristóbal Mendoza se trasladó entonces a la glorieta de la parte oeste de la plaza.En la prensa de la capital de la república hubo comentarios desfavorables a la ubicación de la estatua de Don Cristóbal, a lo cual Don Mario Briceño Iragorry contestó que con ello se simbolizaba lo que el Libertador le escribió al Primer Presidente de Venezuela: "yo iré adelante conquistando y Usted me seguirá, organizando, porque Usted es el hombre de la organización como yo el de la conquista".

No fue fácil el traslado de este monumento desde los muelles de Puerto Cabello, pues cuando las grúas colocaron el pesado encargo en un pequeño camión que habían enviado de Trujillo, se vió que no era el adecuado para su transporte, por lo que fue necesario contratar con un señor de apellido Finamore su flete. El verlo pasar resultó ser un acontecimiento para los poblados del trayecto, salimos vecinos y escolares con cantos y banderines a rendir tributo de admiración al bronce. Su colocación en el pedestal que no era tan alto como el actual, trajo también sus inconvenientes, pues en aquella época se carecía de implementos adecuados, viendo tanto alboroto un preso de nombre Jesús Abreu, desde el balcón de la Cárcel Pública, para entonces en la esquina noroeste de la Plaza les dio algunas indicaciones y se comprometió a ayudar a hacerlo con ramplas de madera, como lo logró, consiguió su libertad por indulto del magnánimo magistrado.

La primera estatua ecuestre del Libertador la realizó el escultor Adamo Tadolini y se inauguró en Lima en 1859 y según éste modelo encargó una copia el General Guzmán Blanco que fue ejecutada en la Real Fundición de Munich, e inaugurada en Caracas en 1876. La estatua de Trujillo se encargó con las mismas características de actitud heróica, "con bases y adornos de granito ‘boticino’". No he encontrado ninguna referencia de si debajo de la estatua se encontraron algunos objetos, como se hizo con la de Caracas, donde colocaron junto con retratos del Ilustre Americano, medallas, monedas de diferente valor, Historia y Geografía de Venezuela, tomos de leyes, distintas Constituciones, una copia del Acta del 5 de Julio de 1811, colecciones de periódicos de la época y diversas cosas más sin faltar un autógrafo de Guzmán Blanco.El monumento de Trujillo ha tenido tres diferentes pedestales: el original de 1930 menos alto que el actual, de mármol blanco que llego muy deteriorado y que además contenía mucho oxido de hierro, que se modificó dándole mayor altura y revestimiento de mármol gris en la administración del Mayor Santiago Ochoa Briceño, y después al reformarse la Plaza en el gobierno del Doctor Alejandro Sánchez Cortés, cuando a la estatua fue necesario hacerle unas reparaciones de soldadura en la base, por la mala calidad del mármol gris, se revistió con el actual granito natural rojo, trabajo que efectuó el marmolista Luigi Verde, establecido en Valera.

La conmemoración centenaria, que tuvo como centro la inauguración del Monumento al Libertador, revistió caracteres apoteósicos. Se pronunciaron en cinco días, del 17 al 21 de diciembre, más de cuarenta disertaciones entre charlas, conferencias y discursos de orden, entre otros por Don Ezequiel Urdaneta Maya, Monseñor Etanislao Carrillo, A. Lomelli Rosario, Neptalí Valera Hurtado, Ramón y Cláudio Llavaneras Carrillo; el discurso de orden del acto central del 17 cuando se inauguró el Monumento estuvo a cargo del Dr. Juan Penzini Hernández. Realmente impresionante resultó el Desfile Histórico, (Reproducción gráfica de las principales batallas y sucesos históricos de la Guerra de Independencia). Lo encabezaba la Banda del estado del Estado, personeros del ejecutivo, de la Brigada Nº 6, del clero; la señorita Rosa María Alizo, elegida Musa del Libertador en concurso promovido por el "Diario de Trujillo", portando la bandera nacional simbolizando a Venezuela; damas portando lo escudos de las repúblicas bolivarianas; 23 damas representando los Estados, Distrito Federal y Territorios, marchando en orden alfabético, cada cuadro con niños de Escuelas portando banderas con inscripciones en letras rojas de batallas y sucesos del país, (en el cuadro trujillano se mencionaban la Proclama de Guerra a Muerte, Tratados de Armisticio y Regularización de la Guerra, Niquitao, Agua de Obispo y Escuque); los escudos que por mucho tiempo permanecieron en el Museo "Cristóbal Mendoza" fueron pintados por Francisco Palazzi. El Ejecutivo del Estado promovió otro concurso entre los poetas trujillanos en el cual triunfó el Br. Eladio Alvarez de Lugo con un bello soneto que estuvo por decreto del Ejecutivo de fecha 11 de diciembre de 1930 en una loza a la entrada de la ciudad en la parte baja de la Cruz Verde; inscrito ahora en una columna rotaría en la parte alta de la Plaza "Andrés Bello". El prolífico poeta Pedro Pablo Maldonado escribió para ese concurso la friolera de cuatrocientos sonetos.

Hubo peregrinaciones de todo el Estado con desfiles escolares, ofrendas florales, etc.; quien esto escribe tiene un imborrable recuerdo de la romería de los pampaneros el día 20, presidida por el Jefe Civil y el Párroco, por haber sido su despedida de muchacho, al estilo de la época, al concurrir con calzones cortos, para su graduación de hombre la Noche-Buena siguiente de flamantes pantalones largos.

Así como se establece que en cuanto sea posible las estatuas han de erigirse mirando hacia el este, también es norma de la estatuaria que cuando el héroe a quien se rinde el homenaje del monumento ecuestre ha muerto en acción de guerra, el caballo ha de estar parado sobre dos patas, y cuando la muerte le proviene a consecuencia de la acción ha de pararse sobre tres, y si no se dan estas circunstancias el equino se posa sobre sus cuatro remos. Tadolini conocía muy bien esta regla, pero la grandiosidad de Bolívar debe haberle impulsado a darle la primera característica a su obra.

HISTORY

The Legitimacy of Texas as an American State by Alex Loya
Controlled Immigration in Spanish Louisiana

                                                       Alex Loya  alexloya@integrity.com
                                                       Venice, Louisiana

                                                                          Chapter 8

When one reads commonly written and distributed Texas history and the general understanding of who the original Texans were, among whom the Loya are found, one is invariably given the idea that the original Texans became American only because they were defeated in a war against the United States in which the U.S. invaded the land and the original Texans were dispossessed of their land as a spoil of war. This belief is perpetuated by writers who, for whatever reason, hammer and hammer this idea until the original Texans feel like they were defeated and became foreigners in their own land. It seems almost as if some people actually have an interest and an agenda in keeping the original Texans and their descendants alienated from the mainstream of American society. When one begins to really study Texas history in depth, and the documents written by the original Texans who were actually there, a totally different picture begins to surface. Certainly, there were abuses and crimes perpetrated against the original Spaniard Texans by Anglo-American settlers, like the massacre of 9 original Texans by one "Mustang" Grey for the purpose of stealing some tobacco, or the killing of another old Spaniard Texas aristocrat by an Anglo-American who stole his horses claiming it was his reward for fighting in the Mexican War. But to focus on these incidents perpetrated by thugs and to then paint a picture as if this was the kind of relationship that existed between the Anglo-American settlers and the old Spaniard families of Texas, is really to paint a false picture of that relationship. Certainly, Old Spaniard families who had been given land grants in Texas by the King of Spain did loose much of their real estate, but contrary to what is commonly believed, however, they did not loose their property to the Anglo-Americans as spoil of war, rather, they lost their land in the confusion of war and the transition of governments.

The same thing happened in Louisiana with land grants given by the King of Spain to Louisiana pioneers. Even as I write this, a dear lady who attends the church I pastor in South Louisiana, Mrs. Muriel Buras, is involved in the courts in a dispute over 2700 acres of land her family owns in Plaquemines Parish just south of New Orleans. Mrs. Buras was born on March 29, 1928, and her father was already involved in the dispute over the land before she was born. Mrs. Buras showed me a title to the land that dates to 1835 in which the United States government recognized the claim her ancestor, Hubert Buras, had over the land. Hubert Buras’ father, Juan Pedro Buras (Burat), had been given a land grant by the King of Spain in the year 1793, according to documents in Ms. Muriel Buras’ possession, during Louisiana’s Spanish Period, and the U.S. Government recognized that claim. That Hubert Buras had to put a claim before the government for the government to recognize is an indication that in the transition of power from Spain to France to the United States, which occurred within a period of 20 days between November 30 and December 20 1803, the land that had been granted to his family by the King of Spain had been lost in the shuffle.

After the U.S. Government recognized their claim to the land, Plaquemines Parish remained largely uninhabited. Consequently, at some point, a man without scruples by the name of Andrew Hodge, began to survey the Buras’ family land grant and to sell the property which was not his to people who began to settle in the land. People who paid Hodge for land that was not his soon began to also sell and lease the land to others. Today, Shell Oil, PHI Helicopters, Chevron/Texaco and other such companies have settled in the Buras’ family land grant, and the Buras family has not received one cent for the use of their land. Today they are in the final stages of a legal battle over their land that has gone on for over 70 years! The Buras family was dispossessed of their land grant not as a spoil of war, rather, at first it was lost in the shuffle of governments, and then, because the property was so vast and uninhabited, new settlers just simply began to move in on it. A man with no scruples took advantage of the situation and began to sell their land which was not his to sell.

The same thing happened in Texas. The vast land grants that the King of Spain had given to the early Spaniard settlers were lost by the families who owned them not as a spoil of war, since the original Texans who remained in Texas actually fought for Texas, but in the shuffle of governments. Like it happened with the Buras land grant in Louisiana, because the land grants were so vast and uninhabited, new settlers began to move in on their land grants, including some without scruples, and so they lost their property. Through the years, writers without scruples, have turned this consequence of circumstance to make many among the original Texans feel humiliated and unable to fully embrace this American nation and its culture even years after the fact.

Although for some reason many writers exacerbate this feeling of alienation many original Texans have by hammering the instances of abuse and discrimination which actually occurred, and which always occur when different cultures meet, whether in the plains of Texas or the Italian and Irish neighborhoods of New York, the reality of the relationship between Anglo-American settlers and the old Spaniard families of Texas, was much warmer, friendlier and closer than is generally assumed. When James Bowie moved to Texas from Kentucky in the year 1830, for example, he developed a warm friendship with Lt. Governor J.M. Verramendi. Soon, their friendship became closer when Bowie asked J.M. Verramendi for the hand of his daughter, Ursula Verramendi, in marriage. Lt. Governor Verramendi granted Bowie’s request and, by all accounts, Bowie and his new bride had a good marriage, complete with love letters. When Ursula died on September 27, 1833 as the first victim of a cholera epidemic, James Bowie, the hero of the Alamo, mourned the loss of his Spaniard Texan wife for a long time. The 9 Spaniard Texans who were massacred by "Mustang" Grey that I mentioned before were the friends of Don Ysidro Benavides, and this is one incident that is touted as an example of the awful relationship between Anglo Americans and Spaniard Texans, and how the former discriminated and hated the latter. Yet, Ysidro Benavides’ three daughters, Juanita, Maria Antonia and Martianita married Captain James Cummings, Reverend W.M. Sheely, a Methodist preacher, and Mr. Warren Sheely respectively. To remember and tout the one tragic incident while forgetting the three lifetime relationships that produced descendants for generations is to write revisionist history and it is a terrible disservice to all Texans and to the United States.

According to James P. Newcomb, who published the invaluable memoirs of Captain Antonio Menchaca, in the Passing Show, San Antonio Texas, in weekly installments from June 22 to July 27, 1907, which we will briefly study, when Sam Houston was governor of Texas his first inquiry of visitors would be, "How is my old friend, Captain Menchaca, getting along?". Juan Seguin was a good friend of Sam Houston, as his father Erasmo Seguin had been a friend of Stephen Austin. When one begins to study the life and relationships of these Spaniard Texan Founding Fathers, it becomes clearly evident that not only were the new Anglo-American Texans and the old Spaniard Texans getting along fine and developing warm friendships and marriages, but they worked together as Founding Fathers of the Republic of Texas. Juan Miguel Aldrete signed the Goliad Declaration of Independence and was a good and trusted friend of Phillip Dimmit, but perhaps the most graphic description of the warmth of the relationship and the depth of commitment to each other and to the cause of Texas is the exchange between Antonio Menchaca and James Bowie, as recorded in Antonio Menchaca’s "Memoirs", on the eve of the Texas Revolution on December 20, 1835::

This depth of friendship and commitment is reminiscent of the depth of commitment expressed by Ruth to her mother in law Naomi, in the Book of Ruth in the Bible. Naomi told Ruth she was free to go because her son, Ruth’s husband, had died, Ruth replied,

"Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me." Ruth 1:16-17

This was the reality of the depth of friendship and commitment between the original Texans, among whom the hispanicized French- Italian Loya were, and the Anglo-American new comers, as expressed in the exchange between Bowie and Menchaca. The many writers who have relentlessly focused on the incidents of discord, which will always happen in all human relationships, have truly done a disservice to the original Spaniard and Anglo Texans alike, and to the United States of America in fostering a feeling of alienation instead of the unity that had been birthed in God’s intent to make this nation one nation under God. Oh, that this message would spread and the original Texans would fully embrace this beautiful country which is theirs and its culture that they helped form!

Controlled Immigration in Spanish Louisiana--
Spanish Xenophobia in Texas--Rise of an Independent Tejano Society. 

[[Extract from SONS OF DEWITT COLONY TEXAS http://dl.tamu.edu/Projects/sodct/Spain.htm ]]
Sent by Johanna De Soto

FAMILY HISTORY

Beyond published birth, marriage, and death notices, newspaper collections are great repositories of anecdotal information on people. Like census records, though, the reader should be wary of any "facts" until you can corroborate them yourself.

If you know or suspect that your ancestor lived to a very old age, you may find write-ups about him or her in the local newspaper. This was the case with my great-grandfather who died just before his 102nd birthday in 1960. While newspaper accounts are notoriously inaccurate in the details, I nevertheless found enough clues to add a sister to his family, and I have the precise dates of his departure from Germany and arrival in the United States in 1881.

Unless your family member was famous (or infamous!), he or she was unlikely to make the front page, but searching the church and social columns, you can find evidence that he was active in a certain church or that she was an attendant at a wedding, perhaps that of another family member. Finally, don't overlook the business and classified sections. If your ancestor owned a business, you may find it advertised in the local paper.

The Ancestry.com OCR (optical character recognition) search feature can recognize names in scanned periodicals and documents with amazing accuracy. You just need to zoom in and determine if it's your ancestor that is highlighted.

Thanks to Marilynn Boosinger of Willits, California, for today's Quick Tip! If you have a tip you would like to share with researchers, you can send it to ADNeditor@ancestry.com.

Quick Tips may be reprinted, with credit to the submitter, in other Ancestry

ARCHAEOLOGY

Sent by Janete Vargas magnaguagno@gmail.com
And related information by 
JD Villarreal juandv@granderiver.net


Photo by Mark Philbrick, 
courtesy of Biblioteca Nazionale, Naples, Italy

Miscellaneous 

Barracks Air Ducts Hide a Trove of Memories