Somos Primos

October 2005 
Editor: Mimi Lozano
©2000-5

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

 

Honoring contributions of Latino art  to the American culture, the U.S. Postal Service is issuing four stamps in 2005 featuring dances that trace their roots to the Caribbean islands. Click


Content Areas

United States   3

Anti Spanish Legends  27 
Surname  
Montoya 29
Galvez Patriots  30

Orange County, CA  39
  
Los Angeles, CA  46

California  52
Northwestern United States  68
 
Southwestern United States  71
Black  77
Indigenous  80
Sephardic  87
Texas  91 
East of the Mississippi  107 
East Coast  122

Mexico  126

Caribbean/Cuba  144
Spain  152
International  155

Dichos 160
History  162
Family History  168 
Archaeology 174

Miscellaneous 176
Calendar/Meetings
Networking 

END



"An America that is militarily and economically strong is not enough. 
The world must see an America that is morally strong 
with a creed and a vision. 
This is what has led us to dare and achieve. For us, values counts."
—Ronald Reagan 

 

  Letters to the Editor : 

Mr Inclan:
Incredible research. Your research has been most helpful and a Godsend. I have many common ancestors with you and your family. My ancestors on both sides of my family are some of the original Camargo/Starr County settlers.
Oscar Trevino, McAllen, Texas.
(Click to the full letter)
~

Hi Mimi, 
I sent my thoughts to several papers across the country.  I don't know if it will be printed, but my brother John encouraged me to send it to Somos Primos.
 
Loved the last issue.  I'm grateful for what you do.  Affectionately,  Bernadette Inclan



Mimi, I'm impressed of the information one can find at Somos Primos, it's an amazing tool to us. 
Thank you and congratulations,
Luis G. Dessommes Zambrano
Genealogia-Mexico@googlegroups.com

~
Bravo again Mimi!   This is such pertinent and interesting information – I truly appreciate your sharing it with me.  Marion Sheppard 
~
Keep up the good work on Somos Primos, 
you are a great lady. Your Tejano primo,  
George de la Garza  george.delagarza@gte.net
~
Thanks for helping me understand Hispanic heritage.   Tabitha, 12 years old. 

                 rhavelow@cfl.rr.com
   Somos Primos Staff:   
Mimi Lozano, Editor
Luke Holtzman 
Assistant and lay-out designs
John P. Schmal 
Johanna de Soto
Howard Shorr
Armando Montes
Michael Stevens Perez

  Contributors:  

aseguin2@aol.com
CAAGS@hotmail.com

drtl@drtl.org
eventos@genealogia.org.mx
fellow@leagueofruralvoters.org
IBell@trinitydowntown.org
jenninform@aol.com
Latinoheritage@mindspring.com
ron@sfgenealogy.com
stevedota@hotmail.com
Tortelita@aol.com

Jorge Alvarez.
Maurice/Marcy Bandy
Chuck Bobo
Gilbert Burrola
Jaime Cader
Alfredo Valentin Cardona
Bill Carmena
Elizabeth Casas Ray
Bonnie Chapa
Luis Cisneros
Jack Cowan
Harry Crosby
Bea Dever
Edna Elizondo Gonzalez.
George de la Garza
George Gause
Gloria Golden
Johanna De Soto
Ernest Euribe
Jose Ignacio Galindo.
Mery Glez
Benita Gray
Sara Guerrero
Lila Guzman, Ph.D.
Michael Hardwick
Lorraine Hernandez
Manuel Hernandez
Bernadette Inclan
John Inclan
Benjamin Johnson
Larry Kirkpatrick
David Lewis
Cindy LoBuglio
Joseph Lombardo
Alex Loya
Kathie Lui
Joe Martinez
JV Martinez, Ph.D.
Armando Montes
Dorinda Moreno
George Newnam
Paul Newfield
Yolanda Ochoa
Rafael Ojeda
Mercy Bautista Olvera 
Richard Ortiz
Antonio Pascual
Jose M. Pena
Nacho Peña
Roberto José Pérez Guadarrama
Michael Perez
Elvira Prieto
Joseph Puentes
Mike Quintana
Angel Custodio Rebollo
José León Robles de la Torre 
Steven Jay Rubin
Luis G. Dessommes Zambrano
Jo Russell
John P. Schmal
Wanda Seaman
Marion Sheppard 
Howard Shorr
Ed Silveira
Oscar Trevino
Marge Vallazza
Ricardo J. Valverde 
Janete Vargas
Ileana and Rodolfo Velarde
Victor Villarreal
Stewart Von Rathjen
Arthur Walters
SHHAR Board:  Laura Arechabala Shane, Bea Armenta Dever, Steven Hernandez,  Mimi Lozano Holtzman, Pat Lozano, Henry Marquez, Yolanda Ochoa Hussey, Michael Perez, Crispin Rendon, Viola Rodriguez Sadler, John P. Schmal

UNITED STATES

National History Day: "Taking a Stand in History: People, Ideas, Events"
Prepared Remarks of Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales
AOL Latino Tu Vida: Hispanic Heritage Month - Keeping Latino Roots Alive
U.S. Census info for Hispanic Heritage Month talking points 

Four essays on educational concerns by Manuel Hernandez:
     Creating Tomorrows: Latino Education
     Latino Education: The Determining Factor in America’s Future
     Latino Education and The New SAT
     Beyond Sheer Trends: Latino Education
Free book for ESL instructors 

New Orleans: a Geopolitical Prize  
Geopolitical Intelligence Report
A Soldier's Funeral
The untold true story of Guy Gabaldon
Who's a Latino Baseball Legend?

Announcing Nuestra Familia Podcast Series
Top 10 Companies for Workforce Diversity
Dorinda Moreno invited to be included in Pioneer Feminist Directory 

 

           


      NATIONAL HISTORY DAY:  
"Taking a Stand in History: People, Ideas, Events"

Source: California HISTORIAN Fall 2005

Lead students on history trail through National History Day 2006! Theme - "Taking a Stand in History: People, Ideas, Events"

For 26 years, National History Day CNHD) has led the way in helping educators to change classroom teaching of history into active, research-based activities that incorporate in-depth analysis of sources and analytical thinking.

In this school year, 2005/2006, NHD is again leading the way for teachers and students, offering new ideas and aids through their National History Day 2006 Curriculum Book. It focuses on use of the Internet. It offers teaching activities and discussion questions concluding with several dozen sample topics and the "how to" for locating such difficult aspects as primary sources. As always, this year's theme, "Taking a Stand in History: People, Ideas, Events," is broad enough to cover topics ranging from local to world history and from ancient days to recent past.

In 2001, NHD joined forces with the White House and the National Archives to launch a program that revolved around digitalization of milestone American documents. In a 2003 project, funded by the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services, the Wisconsin Historical Society and NHD created American Journeys, a website containing 18,000 pages of primary source documents on exploration and settlement in America from Eric the Red to shortly before the Civil War. NHD produced accompanying teacher source books.

Each year nationwide, more than 700,000 students participate in NHD programs. These young people are from throughout the continental U.S., American Samoa and Department of Defense schools; from public, private, parochial, home-schooled environments, urban and rural. 

Prizes for local, state and national winners are numerous. Sizable amounts of cash are given by special interest groups. Top national winners receive cash, and the NHD grand prize is much sought after-a four-year, full-tuition scholar-ship to Case Western Reserve University.

 
Dear readers, this is an opportunity to promote Hispanic history and heritage at the educational level most in need of  historical awareness, our youth.  With your minimal involvement we can generate inclusion of Hispanic history on a national level and better prepare our young people for a successful future.

Students produce dramatic performances, imaginative exhibits, multimedia documentaries and research papers based on research related to an annual theme. These projects are then evaluated 
at local, state, and national competitions.  


YOU CAN HELP, with an direct AWARD to
YOUR local or state committee 
for a student project on a Hispanic/Latino theme.  

 For  information specific to Hispanic
 INVOLVMENT in National History Day.
PLEASE go to: www.somosprimos.com/nationalhistoryday/nhd.htm

National History Day (NHD) is a nonprofit organization made up of a federation of state History Day programs. One of the unique aspects of the program is that it operates almost entirely with volunteers. The national NHD office is located at the University of Maryland. Each state has a state coordinator who is affiliated with a museum, a historical agency, or some other educational or humanities institution. Each state coordinator has district coordinators that serve as NHD coordinators in their region or district. Thousands of people across the country also support the program by serving as workshop presenters, mentors, and advisers to students and teachers. 

The NHD program serves as a vehicle to teach students important literacy skills and to engage them in the use and understanding of museum and library resources. The program inspires students to study local history, and then challenges them to expand their thinking and apply knowledge of local events to the national, or even worldwide scene. The program also teaches students to become technologically literate through the use of computer and Internet research methods, and the use of technologically advanced applications in their presentations. 

"The true benefits from participating in National History Day go way past a certificate or medal. The program teaches kids the writing, analytical understanding, and reading comprehension skills that will make them a success in life, no matter what their career," 
states parent Susan Moose.

So...GET ON BOARD. Get on the website today. 
Get your NHD 2006 Curriculum Book. 
National History Day
0119 Cecil Hall University of Maryland College Park, MD 20742
Phone: (301)314-9739 Fax: (301)314-9767 E-mail: info@nhd.org   Website: www.nhd.org

http://nationalhistoryday.org/01_about/01.html
http://nationalhistoryday.org/08_others/08_coordinators/lexisnexis/venturacountystarca.htm



Prepared Remarks of Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales  
at the National Hispanic Foundation For The Arts "Noche de Gala"
Washington, D.C., Tuesday, September 13th, 2005 – 8:00 PM
Sent by JV Martinez, Ph.D.

Good evening, Ladies and Gentlemen. 

It's a pleasure for me to be back with you on behalf of President Bush for this annual celebration. Three years ago, I had the privilege of addressing you in my role as Counsel to the President. 

In the time that's passed, I had the honor of beginning a new job as Attorney General of the United States. But Jimmy Smits is in close competition. He's gone from a beat cop to a potential nominee for President of the United States. 

Jimmy's fictional successes on the West Wing – and his real successes as an actor – are both great signs for Hispanics in our Nation. Of course, so are the real successes of countless other Hispanic entertainers such as Sonia Braga and Esai Morales, and those of some of my colleagues in the Bush Administration, including Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, SBA Administrator Hector Barreto, U.S. Treasurer Anna Cabral and Deputy Assistant to the President Ruben Barrales. 

I say these names out loud with pride because I want the American people, particularly Hispanic children, to hear as well as to see that no matter their background or heritage, they too can be successful actors and entertainers, that one day they too can be a Cabinet Secretary or a presidential advisor. 

One day in the not too distant future, there will be a Hispanic Secretary of State and a Hispanic Secretary of Defense charged with our Nation's protection. One day there will be a Hispanic deciding cases on the U.S. Supreme Court. And one day there will be a Hispanic leading this country as our President. 

It is inevitable that these events will come to pass. It will happen not because the Hispanic community is entitled so, but because qualified individuals will have earned these positions of trust with the tremendous help of many others. 

Every time a Hispanic child sees Mel Martinez or Richard Carmona make a decision on the national stage or watches Edward James Olmos or Jennifer Lopez perform in the movies, then the notion that they, too, could be a U.S. Senator, the Surgeon General of the United States, or a Hollywood actor does not seem so impossible to them. 

When I last spoke to you three years ago, I lamented the paucity of positive Hispanic characters appearing on movie screens and television sets. There has been some progress in the intervening years, but not enough. 

I know that you are working hard on this challenge, and I hope that we will continue to improve the opportunities available to talented Hispanic actors and actresses. I'd like to especially thank Jimmy Smits, Sonia Braga, Esai Morales, and Felix Sanchez for their efforts on behalf of the entire National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts. 

But while we might have to wait a few more months to find out if Jimmy's television character will move into the West Wing, we cannot waste a single moment in providing positive role models for the Hispanic youth of today. 

The American dream can quickly become a nightmare – especially when it appears that the only options are gang membership or violent crime. That's why role models, such as Elizabeth Vargas and Eva Longoria, are so important. Whether it is a conversation with a parent, the mentoring of an influential adult, or the example of a television star or movie character...we need role models to counteract the fear and false choices surrounding young Hispanics today. 

I'm sure that one young man here tonight would agree – and not just because he's a fellow Texan. Edward Valdez made the choice to avoid gangs in favor of an education. He's getting that and more as a midshipman at the U.S. Naval Academy. He's one of the future leaders of our Nation and we need more people to have the strength of character – and the positive influences – that Edward relied upon to get him where he is today. 

By the way, Edward is easy to spot tonight...he's the best-dressed person at my dinner table! 

As we gather tonight for this celebration, it's important to remember that the hard work of recovery continues along the Gulf Coast. I know that the thoughts and prayers of everyone here continue to be with all those affected and displaced by Hurricane Katrina. 

It is comforting to know that our Nation comes together in times of crisis. In this most recent tragedy, help has come in all forms and from all corners of the country. 

In moments of unity such as these, many say that Americans forget their differences and focus on the commonalities of our shared experience. This is true, but I also believe that we should remember that those differences – our diversity – make this country great. Our differences have as much to do with the content of our Nation's character as do the similarities of the American experience. 

And so it is appropriate that we gather across our country – especially during this trying month of September – to celebrate National Hispanic Heritage Month. 

Hispanics have contributed greatly to the fabric of this Nation; therefore, a celebration of our heritage is a celebration of America. 

Our beloved America is the greatest country in the world. We must not take her for granted. There is a reason that millions of people – many of them of Hispanic origin – risk their lives to fulfill the dream of coming here. 

The story of America is a story of constant renewal and reaffirmation of our founding ideals and our enduring values – of faith, family, and freedom. These are values that demand the best of every American. 

Whether you are a new citizen that just took the oath to protect and defend the Constitution, or you are a citizen who tracks her roots back to the first wave of immigrants to come to this New World, we must all treasure the opportunities that abound in this promised land. 

This is the fundamental underpinning of Hispanic Heritage Month: a commitment to respect, to treasure, and to take advantage of the opportunities in our great country. In addition, it's a commitment to do everything we can to ensure those same opportunities are available to others. 

That's why Hispanic Heritage Month is a good time not only for reflection, but also for action. Whether it's helping those in need in New Orleans...or sharing the inspiration of your work with a future Hispanic leader...let this celebration be a catalyst for success in our community. 

I urge you to continue carrying the pride associated with this month of special commemoration, into your work every day as a steward of the hope and opportunity with which every Hispanic American has been blessed. 

On behalf of the President, my thanks again to the work of the National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts. May God bless it members, may He guide your decisions, and may He continue to bless the United States of America. 


AOL Latino Tu Vida: Hispanic Heritage Month - Keeping Latino Roots Alive

http://tuvida.aol.com/familia
Dedicated to supporting Hispanic heritage, variety of resources.
http://deportes.aol.com/especiales/hhm/galleries/hallfame Sport's page of Latino super stars
Sent by Bonnie Chapa BunsChapa@aol.com 


U.S. Census info for Hispanic Heritage Month talking points. 

Dear Mimi, 
Please share these U.S. Census data and Stats with your organization friends to use during our Hispanic Heritage Month. Great info to use in our schools and colleges. I hope that many of you call your local Cities, Counties and State to get a "Hispanic Heritage Month Proclamations" Also each one should request in writing to the White House to get an official White House Hispanic Heritage Proclamation. I use these proclamation whenever I speak at schools &colleges. I also try to get our Latinos and Latinas to be keynote speakers to showcase our "Orgullo Hispanos". 

The following are the web sites: 
http://www.census.gov/Press-
Release/www/releases/archives/facts_for_features_special_editions/005338.html
or go to their main page: www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/index.html
The other one is: http://www.census.gov/apsd/wepeople/we-2r.pdf
or go to  www.census.gov/main/www/cen1999.html and click
  "We the Americans" reports for a list of all minorities reports.
Thanks.
Rafael Ojeda  RSNOJEDA@aol.com


           Creating Tomorrows: Latino Education

                    By Manuel Hernandez mannyh32@yahoo.com
 

      There has been a lot of talk within the two major political parties in America on how to win over, sustain and/or attract the ever-growing Latino vote for the up and coming Congressional and Presidential elections. Now that one of America’s most important  cities has a Latino mayor, both political parties have realized that the projections are part of the past and a reality of today. The public relations campaign has already begun and will intensify as we get closer to the electoral race. Latino mega stars from sports, entertainment and the media are and will be lured to serve political interests by campaign directors from both ends of the track. The issues are the same: immigration, health, employment, home ownership and education. But the education of Latinos is without a doubt the front runner of all concerns for American Latinos.        

 There has  been so much said about the Latino high school dropout rate but very little actually done on how to systematically and strategically lower it. . In the United States, there is a twenty-seven percent Latino high-school dropout rate (U.S. Department of Education, February 23, 2005, Press Release). Statistics have not improved since 2001 and have made  small progress in the last three decades. As the Latino school population surpasses the expected five million mark, what can be done to enhance academics in Latinos whose interest in school diminishes once they enter or are   laced in American high schools? What will it take for the Department of Education to define a specific national proposal to be implemented in a nationally coordinated effort? As 2005 reaches its peak, there is still no visible concrete vision and/or improved academic results in the education of Latinos.  

       When students develop an interest in education, they stay focused mentally and intellectually. When they are turned off, they lag and fall behind in the marathon. Latinos are unique immigrants. They are unified by language but diversified by cultural influxes and influences. Latinos teens are different and their interests cannot be taken for granted. In the mainstream English classroom, many Latino teens feel a lack of personal involvement, especially when reading stories, poetry, drama and essays that are far away from their day-to-day experiences. The American and British classics provide comfort and understanding for mainstream high school students. However, for Latino teens whose language, culture and education is generally not portrayed in the writings of William Shakespeare or Edgar Allan Poe, Latino/a Literature provides the context and establishes the bridge between the so-called classics and connects students to ideas and themes portrayed in literature.       For Latino teens to demonstrate confidence,
independence and flexibility in the strategic use of reading skills, they must enjoy reading as a lifelong experience rather than strictly analyzing it with a fixed set of rules. How can students interact with their reading when their choices of literature are far away from their everyday reality? Latino/a Literature is filled with everyday language, young adult characters, conflicts and events whereby students are given the opportunity to make language their own. It is like seeing themselves in a mirror and assessing what, where, how and why they are who they are while developing reading and writing skills necessary to enter and succeed in college. Latino education is the present and future of America. Let us create a tomorrow filled with hope, dreams and a better quality of living for all American teens.          

 

           

   Latino Education: The Determining Factor in America’s Future
    By Manuel Hernandez, 787-448-6080
mannyh32@yahoo.com 


              The numbers speak for themselves. According to U.S. Census Bureau statistics, Latinos are now about 14 percent of the Nation’s population. The total Latino population is approximately 41 million, an increase of close to three million just five years ago. Now that one of America’s most important cities has a Latino mayor, both political parties have realized that the projections are part of the past and a reality of today. The issues are the same: immigration, health, employment, security, home ownership and education. But the education of Latinos is without a doubt the determining factor in America’s future.

          A lot has been said about the Latino high school dropout rate but very little done on how to tackle it. In the United States, there is a twenty-seven percent Latino high-school dropout rate (<I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">U.S. Department of Education, February 23, 2005, Press Release). Since 2001, statistics have not improved and have made small progress in the last three decades. As the Latino school population surpasses the expected five million mark by the end of 2005, what can be done to enhance academics in Latinos whose interest in school diminishes once they enter or are placed in American high schools?  

          There is no doubt in anyone’s mind that an education is the key that unlocks the doors to a whole new world of opportunities. But what can be done when all of us are complacent and passive in the way education is not only seen but also perceived and treated by Latino and American leaders as well. According to Census findings, about 31 percent of Latinos are between the ages of 18 and 34. If the dropout rate is 27 percent, at the present moment, America has more than two and maybe three million young Latinos without a high school diploma. 

          Forget about working in fast-food restaurants. We are talking about thousands of young men and women living off parents, public assistance programs, welfare or simply spending a lot of time at home watching television, listening to music or roaming around America’s streets. The current media bliss is being placed on entertainment, advertisement and public relations. But what about education? We cannot fall into a comfort zone and wait another ten years before we have another major Latino politician in Office. 

          The media moguls will be spending approximately $3.4 billion dollars in Latino advertising this year. They want to catch our attention. All attention right now should be directed towards the Latino dropout rate. When will Latinos wake up, speak out and unite at all fronts to rescue some of those dollars for the education of their children? Fashion and music will not save our children from the street sharks, earthly predators and corner influences. To tell the truth, it is really up to all of us to decide that the issue is education and its role in determining America’s future is beyond any reasonable doubt. The question for all of us is how best to tackle the main issue: education. It is time to set aside all differences and agendas and work intensively to help America determine its future.

 


Latino Education and The New SAT

By Manuel Hernandez mannyh32@yahoo.com

The key to a higher education is changing dramatically, and the education of Latinos needs to make concise and specific adjustments to enhance the academic opportunities of its teens. According to John Cloud’s essay “Inside The New SAT”, “an exhaustive revision” of the SAT’s is meant to “mold the U.S. secondary school system to its liking”(Time, October 27, 2003). These changes are being implemented for the SAT’s this year. The new SAT will have three sections: reading, writing and math. The changes will provoke spontaneous and widespread curriculum changes in the United States that will without a doubt affect the education of Latinos and other American teens as well.

The changes aim to produce better writing skills in students, so the new SAT will require an essay. Of the three new sections, two are interrelated: reading and writing. Recent research (Noyce and Christie, 1989, Burkland and Peterson, 1986 and Uttero, 1989) sustains that there is a strong relationship between the two. But Latino teens that are recent arrivals (one to three years in the U.S.) are at an extreme disadvantage. Because Latino teens have had little or no exposure to the American and British classics, they will surely have difficulties answering the reading section, which will include a fiction passage.

Latinos make up 3% of the profile of students taking the test and score lower than White and Asian American students. The SAT is the ticket to a college education, and the education of Latinos must undergo curriculum changes in reading and writing to meet the current SAT demands. If we are to improve the academic opportunities of our children, Latino leaders in education must set aside agendas, issues and goals and focus on strategies to help Latino teens prepare for the new SAT. 

As the American Latino population continues to grow in unprecedented numbers, the educational development of the largest minority cannot be taken for granted. Latino/a literature written in English by American Latino writers exposes students to issues such as education, family, values, self-esteem, self-acceptance, conflicts in identity, varied approaches to race, language, domestic violence and the preservation of culture and art which provoke students to make their own reactions and responses to literature. Reading Latino/a literature is an alternative to the teaching of literature and a tool that will prepare students for city, state and national testing requirements and will enhance their reading comprehension, literary appreciation and written communication skills in English.

However, for Latino teens whose language, culture and education is generally not portrayed in the writings of William Faulkner or Ernest Hemingway, Latino/a literature provides the context and establishes the bridge between the so-called classics and connects students to ideas and themes portrayed in literature. The Department of Education is undoubtedly working towards the attainment of better academic objectives for all American children. But it is time to include the teaching of Latino/a literature as a “tool” and “bridge” in the English curriculum especially in districts where Latino teens are representative of a strong minority of the school population. Just like the new SAT, the integration of the literature as a “tool” will positively affect the educational outcome of Latinos and other American teens as well.

 

Beyond Sheer Trends: Latino Education

By Manuel Hernández  mannyh32@yahoo.com

There is no doubt about the Latino influence in the United States, but its presence is mostly visible in the world of music and entertainment. Latino actors, actresses and mega-star singers and entertainers have knocked on doors, entered the house and moved in to stay. With more Latino politicians in Office throughout U.S. cities and Congress than never before, the 21st century promises to open new gates of opportunity for the largest minority in the United States. But the social, financial, educational and even spiritual development of the Latino community depends on its vision and its ability to go beyond sheer trends.

In the past, the educational system failed to meet the diversified demands and unique academic interests of American Latinos; this worked against those who wanted to follow the footsteps of a few megastars and politicians who became successful in a house closed to them before. These doors opened because of their commitment to hard work, perseverance and education. In the present, there has been a lot of commitment to information and planning but less commitment to action and results. How can these doors remain open if education serves a community that grows in number but diminishes in knowledge? 

Trends in music are sometimes sudden and unexpected, but changes in education and the core curriculum require much more than sheer trends. Research, scholarly study and scientifically supported evidence are all required to convince those who have the keys to go beyond sheer trends and make things happen. Let us be specific and spearheaded about strategies in which to improve academic standards for Latinos. The current educational standards need to be revised and enhanced with vision and knowledge on how to improve interest in reading, writing and math. The new SAT will have three sections: reading, writing and math. These changes will encourage educational influences in the core curriculum across the United States that will without a doubt affect the education of Latinos and other American teens as well. 

The five states with the largest Latino population deliver about two-thirds of the electoral votes to win the U.S. presidency. This influence has not been taken for granted by politicians on all blocks of the neighborhood. With that kind of influence, Latinos can and will rise above sheer trends and will devise a plan to improve the education of their children. The better educated a community is the more influence it will surely have in all rooms in the house. This week marks the forty-second anniversary of the “I Have a Dream Speech” by Martin Luther King. It all starts with a dream and develops into a vision which will undoubtedly produce a better quality of education for Latinos. 


Free book for ESL instructors 
From: wandaseaman27@yahoo.com

I am writing in the hopes that you would be willing to put my book on your website as a free resource for ESL teachers. I was an ESL teacher for many years and I wrote this book as part of learning about what my students were going through. It is a Young Adult book aimed at secondary students who are experiencing difficulties of changing cultures. 

Teachers can pay 79 cents (American) to download a PDF of 'summer of dolores' and then they can make as many copies of the book as they want. I have made up a web page to link to. http://home.nc.rr.com/rueda/freedolores.html  If payment of the 79 cents is complicated contact Wanda directly.


NEW ORLEANS: A GEOPOLITICAL PRIZE 
Sent By: Johanna De Soto      Source: dall26@inreach.com 


The American political system was founded in Philadelphia, but the American nation was built on the vast farmlands that stretch from the Alleghenies to the Rockies. That farmland produced the wealth that funded American industrialization: It permitted the formation of a class of small landholders who, amazingly, could produce more than they could consume. They could sell their excess crops in the east and in Europe and save that money, which eventually became the founding capital of American industry.

But it was not the extraordinary land nor the farmers and ranchers who alone set the process in motion. Rather, it was geography -- the extraordinary system of rivers that flowed through the Midwest and allowed them to ship their surplus to the rest of the world. All of the rivers flowed into one -- the Mississippi -- and the Mississippi flowed to the ports in and around one city: New Orleans. It was in New Orleans that the barges from upstream were unloaded and their cargos stored, sold and reloaded on ocean-going vessels. Until last Sunday, New Orleans was, in many ways, the pivot of the American economy.

For that reason, the Battle of New Orleans in January 1815 was a key moment in American history. Even though the battle occurred after the War of 1812 was over, had the British taken New Orleans, we suspect they wouldn't have given it back. Without New Orleans, the entire Louisiana Purchase would have been valueless to the United States. Or, to state it more precisely, the British would control the region because, at the end of the day, the value of the Purchase was the land and the rivers - which all converged on the Mississippi and the ultimate port of New Orleans. The hero of the battle was Andrew Jackson, and when he became president, his obsession with Texas had much to do with keeping the Mexicans away from New Orleans. 

During the Cold War, a macabre topic of discussion among bored graduate students who studied such things was this: If the Soviets could destroy one city with a large nuclear device, which would it be? The usual answers were Washington or New York. For me, the answer was simple: New Orleans. If the Mississippi River was shut to traffic, then the foundations of the economy would be shattered. The industrial minerals needed in the factories wouldn't come in, and the agricultural wealth wouldn't flow out. Alternative routes really weren't available. The Germans knew it too: A U-boat campaign occurred near the mouth of the Mississippi during World War II. Both the Germans and Stratfor have stood with Andy Jackson: New Orleans was the prize.

Last Sunday, nature took out New Orleans almost as surely as a nuclear  strike. Hurricane Katrina's geopolitical effect was not, in many ways, distinguishable from a mushroom cloud. The key exit from North America was closed. The petrochemical industry, which has become an added value to the region since Jackson's days, was at risk. The navigability of the Mississippi south of New Orleans was a question mark. New Orleans as a city and as a port complex had ceased to exist, and it was not clear that it could recover.

The Ports of South Louisiana and New Orleans, which run north and south of the city, are as important today as at any point during the history of the republic. On its own merit, POSL is the largest port in the United States by tonnage and the fifth-largest in the world. It exports more than 52 million tons a year, of which more than half are agricultural products -- corn, soybeans and so on. A large proportion of U.S. agriculture flows out of the port. Almost as much cargo, nearly 17 million tons, comes in through the port -- including not only crude oil, but chemicals and fertilizers, coal, concrete and so on.

A simple way to think about the New Orleans port complex is that it is where the bulk commodities of agriculture go out to the world and the bulk commodities of industrialism come in. The commodity chain of the global food industry starts here, as does that of American industrialism. If these facilities are gone, more than the price of goods shifts: The very physical structure of the global economy would have to be reshaped. Consider the impact to the U.S. auto industry if steel doesn't come up the river, or the effect on global food supplies if U.S. corn and soybeans don't get to the markets.

The problem is that there are no good shipping alternatives. River transport is cheap, and most of the commodities we are discussing have low value-to-weight ratios. The U.S. transport system was built on the assumption that these commodities would travel to and from New Orleans by barge, where they would be loaded on ships or offloaded. Apart from port capacity elsewhere in the United States, there aren't enough trucks or rail cars to handle the long-distance hauling of these enormous quantities --  assuming for the moment that the economics could be managed, which they can't be.

The focus in the media has been on the oil industry in Louisiana and Mississippi. This is not a trivial question, but in a certain sense, it is dwarfed by the shipping issue. First, Louisiana is the source of about 15 percent of U.S.-produced petroleum, much of it from the Gulf. The local refineries are critical to American infrastructure. Were all of these facilities to be lost, the effect on the price of oil worldwide would be extraordinarily painful. If the river itself became unnavigable or if the ports are no longer functioning, however, the impact to the wider economy would be significantly more severe. In a sense, there is more flexibility in oil than in the physical transport of these other commodities.

There is clearly good news as information comes in. By all accounts, the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, which services supertankers in the Gulf, is intact. Port Fourchon, which is the center of extraction operations in the Gulf, has sustained damage but is recoverable. The status of the oil platforms is unclear and it is not known what the underwater systems look like, but on the surface, the damage - though not trivial -- is manageable. 

The news on the river is also far better than would have been expected on Sunday. The river has not changed its course. No major levees containing the river have burst. The Mississippi apparently has not silted up to such an extent that massive dredging would be required to render it navigable. Even the port facilities, although apparently damaged in many places and destroyed in few, are still there. The river, as transport corridor, has not been lost. 

What has been lost is the city of New Orleans and many of the residential suburban areas around it. The population has fled, leaving behind a relatively small number of people in desperate straits. Some are dead, others are dying, and the magnitude of the situation dwarfs the resources required to ameliorate their condition. But it is not the population that is trapped in New Orleans that is of geopolitical significance: It is the population that has left and has nowhere to return to.

The oil fields, pipelines and ports required a skilled workforce in order to operate. That workforce requires homes. They require stores to buy food and other supplies. Hospitals and doctors. Schools for their children. In other words, in order to operate the facilities critical to the United States, you need a workforce to do it -- and that workforce is gone. Unlike in other disasters, that workforce cannot return to the region because they have no place to live. New Orleans is gone, and the metropolitan area surrounding New Orleans is either gone or so badly damaged that it will not be inhabitable for a long time.

It is possible to jury-rig around this problem for a short time. But the fact is that those who have left the area have gone to live with relatives and friends. Those who had the ability to leave also had networks of relationships and resources to manage their exile. But those resources are not infinite -- and as it becomes apparent that these people will not be returning to New Orleans any time soon, they will be enrolling their children in new schools, finding new jobs, finding new accommodations. If they have any insurance money coming, they will collect it. If they have none, then -- whatever emotional connections they may have to their home --  their economic connection to it has been severed. In a very short time, these people will be making decisions that will start to reshape population and workforce patterns in the region.

A city is a complex and ongoing process - one that requires physical infrastructure to support the people who live in it and people to operate that physical infrastructure. We don't simply mean power plants or sewage treatment facilities, although they are critical. Someone has to be able to sell a bottle of milk or a new shirt. Someone has to be able to repair a car or do surgery. And the people who do those things, along with the infrastructure that supports them, are gone -- and they are not  coming back anytime soon.

It is in this sense, then, that it seems almost as if a nuclear weapon went off in New Orleans. The people mostly have fled rather than died, but they are gone. Not all of the facilities are destroyed, but most are. It appears to us that New Orleans and its environs have passed the point of recoverability. The area can recover, to be sure, but only with the commitment of massive resources from outside -- and those resources would always be at risk to another Katrina.

The displacement of population is the crisis that New Orleans faces. It is also a national crisis, because the largest port in the United States cannot function without a city around it. The physical and business processes of a port cannot occur in a ghost town, and right now, that is what New Orleans is. It is not about the facilities, and it is not about the oil. It is about the loss of a city's population and the paralysis of the largest port in the United States.

Let's go back to the beginning. The United States historically has depended on the Mississippi and its tributaries for transport. Barges navigate the river. Ships go on the ocean. The barges must offload to the ships and vice versa. There must be a facility to empower this exchange. It is also the facility where goods are stored in transit. Without this port, the river can't be used. Protecting that port has been, from the time of the Louisiana Purchase, a fundamental national security issue for the United States.

Katrina has taken out the port -- not by destroying the facilities, but by rendering the area uninhabited and potentially uninhabitable. That means that even if the Mississippi remains navigable, the absence of a port near the mouth of the river makes the Mississippi enormously less useful than it was. For these reasons, the United States has lost not only its biggest port complex, but also the utility of its river transport system -- the foundation of the entire American transport system. There are some substitutes, but none with sufficient capacity to solve the problem. 

It follows from this that the port will have to be revived and, one would assume, the city as well. The ports around New Orleans are located as far north as they can be and still be accessed by ocean-going vessels. The need for ships to be able to pass each other in the waterways, which narrow to the north, adds to the problem. Besides, the Highway 190 bridge in Baton Rouge blocks the river going north. New Orleans is where it is for a reason: The United States needs a city right there.

New Orleans is not optional for the United States' commercial infrastructure. It is a terrible place for a city to be located, but exactly the place where a city must exist. With that as a given, a city will return there because the alternatives are too devastating. The harvest is coming, and that means that the port will have to be opened soon. As in Iraq, premiums will be paid to people prepared to endure the hardships of working in New Orleans. But in the end, the city will return because it has to.

Geopolitics is the stuff of permanent geographical realities and the way they interact with political life. Geopolitics created New Orleans. Geopolitics caused American presidents to obsess over its safety. And geopolitics will force the city's resurrection, even if it is in the worst imaginable place.


Geopolitical Intelligence Report
New Orleans: A Geopolitical Prize By George Friedman 09-01-2005
Sent by Bill Carmena JCarm1724@aol.com

The American political system was founded in Philadelphia, but the American nation was built on the vast farmlands that stretch from the Alleghenies to the Rockies. That farmland produced the wealth that funded American industrialization: It permitted the formation of a class of small landholders who, amazingly, could produce more than they could consume. They could sell their excess crops in the east and in Europe and save that money, which eventually became the founding capital of American industry. 

But it was not the extraordinary land nor the farmers and ranchers who alone set the process in motion. Rather, it was geography -- the extraordinary system of rivers that flowed through the Midwest and allowed them to ship their surplus to the rest of the world. All of the rivers flowed into one -- the Mississippi -- and the Mississippi flowed to the ports in and around one city: New Orleans. It was in New Orleans that the barges from upstream were unloaded and their cargos stored, sold and reloaded on ocean-going vessels. Until last Sunday, New Orleans was, in many ways, the pivot of the American economy. 

For that reason, the Battle of New Orleans in January 1815 was a key moment in American history. Even though the battle occurred after the War of 1812 was over, had the British taken New Orleans, we suspect they wouldn't have given it back. Without New Orleans, the entire Louisiana Purchase would have been valueless to the United States. Or, to state it more precisely, the British would control the region because, at the end of the day, the value of the Purchase was the land and the rivers - which all converged on the Mississippi and the ultimate port of New Orleans. The hero of the battle was Andrew Jackson, and when he became president, his obsession with Texas had much to do with keeping the Mexicans away from New Orleans. 

During the Cold War, a macabre topic of discussion among bored graduate students who studied such things was this: If the Soviets could destroy one city with a large nuclear device, which would it be? The usual answers were Washington or New York. For me, the answer was simple: New Orleans. If the Mississippi River was shut to traffic, then the foundations of the economy would be shattered. The industrial minerals needed in the factories wouldn't come in, and the agricultural wealth wouldn't flow  out. Alternative routes really weren't available. The Germans knew it too: A U-boat campaign occurred near the mouth of the Mississippi during World War II. Both the Germans and Stratfor have stood with Andy Jackson: New Orleans was the prize.  

Last Sunday, nature took out New Orleans almost as surely as a nuclear strike. Hurricane Katrina's  geopolitical effect was not, in many ways, distinguishable from a mushroom cloud. The key exit from North America was closed. The petrochemical industry, which has become an added value to the region since Jackson's days, was at risk. The navigability of the Mississippi south of New Orleans was a question mark. New Orleans as a city and as a port complex had ceased to exist, and it was not clear that it could recover. 

The Ports of South Louisiana and New Orleans, which run north and south of the city, are as important today as at any point during the history of the republic. On its own merit, POSL is the largest port in the United States by tonnage and the fifth-largest in the world. It exports more than 52 million tons a year, of which more than half are agricultural products -- corn, soybeans and so on. A large proportion of U.S. agriculture flows out of the port. Almost as much cargo, nearly 17 million tons, comes in through the port -- including not only crude oil, but chemicals and fertilizers, coal, concrete and so on.  

A simple way to think about the New Orleans port complex is that it is where the bulk commodities of agriculture go out to the world and the bulk commodities of industrialism come in. The commodity chain of the global food industry starts here, as does that of American industrialism. If these  facilities are gone, more than the price of goods shifts: The very physical structure of the global economy would have to be reshaped. Consider the impact to the U.S. auto industry if steel doesn't come up the river, or the effect on global food supplies if U.S. corn and soybeans don't get to the markets. 

The problem is that there are no good shipping alternatives. River transport is cheap, and most of the commodities we are discussing have low value-to-weight ratios. The U.S. transport system was built on the assumption that these commodities would travel to and from New Orleans by barge, where they would be loaded on ships or offloaded. Apart from port capacity elsewhere in the United States, there aren't enough trucks or rail cars to handle the long-distance hauling of these enormous quantities -- assuming for the moment that the economics could be managed, which they can't be. 

The focus in the media has been on the oil industry in Louisiana and Mississippi. This is not a trivial question, but in a certain sense, it is dwarfed by the shipping issue. First, Louisiana is the source of about 15 percent of U.S.-produced petroleum, much of it from the Gulf. The local refineries are critical to American infrastructure. Were all of these facilities to be lost, the effect on the price
of oil worldwide would be extraordinarily painful. If the river itself became unnavigable or if the ports are no longer functioning, however, the impact to the wider economy would be significantly more severe. In a sense, there is more flexibility in oil than in the physical transport of these other commodities.  

There is clearly good news as information comes in. By all accounts, the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, which services supertankers in the Gulf, is intact. Port Fourchon, which is the center of extraction  operations in the Gulf, has sustained damage but is recoverable. The status of the oil platforms is unclear and it is not known what the underwater systems look like, but on the surface, the damage - though not trivial -- is manageable.  

The news on the river is also far better than would  have been expected on Sunday. The river has not changed its course. No major levees containing the river have burst. The Mississippi apparently has not silted up to such an extent that massive dredging would be required to render it navigable. Even the port facilities, although apparently damaged in many places and destroyed in few, are still there. The river, as transport corridor, has not been lost. 

What has been lost is the city of New Orleans and  many of the residential suburban areas around it. The population has fled, leaving behind a relatively small number of people in desperate straits. Some are dead, others are dying, and the magnitude of the situation dwarfs the resources required to ameliorate their condition. But it is not the population that is trapped in New Orleans that is of geopolitical significance: It is the population that has left and has nowhere to return to.   The oil fields, pipelines and ports required a  skilled workforce in order to operate. That workforce requires homes. They require stores to buy food and other supplies. Hospitals and doctors. Schools for their  children. In other words, in order to operate the facilities critical to the United States, you need a workforce to do it -- and that workforce is gone. 

Unlike in other disasters, that workforce cannot return to the region because they have no place to live. New Orleans is gone, and the  metropolitan area surrounding New Orleans is either gone or so badly damaged that it will not be inhabitable for a long time. 

It is possible to jury-rig around this problem for a short time. But the fact is that those who have left the area have gone to live with relatives and friends. Those who had the ability to leave also had networks of relationships and resources to manage their exile. But those resources are not infinite -- and as it becomes apparent that these people will not be returning to New Orleans any time soon,  they will be enrolling their children in new schools, finding new jobs, finding new accommodations. If they have any insurance money coming, they will collect it. If they have none, then -- whatever emotional connections they may have to their home -- their economic connection to it has been severed. In  a very short time, these people will be making decisions that will start to reshape population and workforce patterns in the region. 

A city is a complex and ongoing process - one that requires physical infrastructure to support the people who live in it and people to operate that physical infrastructure. We don't simply mean power plants or sewage treatment facilities, although they are critical. Someone has to be able to sell a bottle of milk or a new shirt. Someone has to be able to repair a car or do surgery. And the people who do those things, along with the infrastructure that supports them, are gone -- and they are not coming back anytime soon.  

It is in this sense, then, that it seems almost as if a nuclear weapon went off in New Orleans. The people mostly have fled rather than died, but they are gone. Not all of the facilities are destroyed, but most are. It appears to us that New Orleans and its environs have passed the point of recoverability. The area can recover, to be sure, but only with the commitment of massive resources from outside -- and those resources would always be at risk to another Katrina. 

The displacement of population is the crisis that  New Orleans faces. It is also a national crisis, because the largest port in the United States cannot function without a city around it. The physica  and business processes of a port cannot occur in a ghost town, and right now, that is what New Orleans is. It is not about the facilities, and it is not about the oil. It is about the loss of a city's population and the paralysis of the largest port in the United States. 

Let's go back to the beginning. The United States  historically has depended on the Mississippi and its tributaries for transport. Barges navigate the river. Ships go on the ocean. The barges must offload to the ships and vice versa. There must be a facility to empower this exchange. It is also the facility where goods are stored in transit. Without this port, the river can't be used. Protecting that port has been, from the time of the Louisiana Purchase, a fundamental national security issue for the United States. 

Katrina has taken out the port -- not by destroying  the facilities, but by rendering the area uninhabited and potentially uninhabitable. That means that even if the Mississippi remains navigable, the absence of a port near the mouth of the river makes the Mississippi enormously less useful than it was. For these reasons, the United States has lost not only its biggest port complex, but also the utility of its river transport system -- the foundation of the entire American transport system. There are some substitutes, but none with sufficient capacity to solve the problem. 

It follows from this that the port will have to be  revived and, one would assume, the city as well. The ports around New Orleans are located as far north as they can be and still be accessed by ocean-going vessels. The need for ships to be able to pass each ther in the waterways, which narrow to the north, adds to the problem. Besides, the Highway 190 bridge in Baton Rouge blocks the river going north. New Orleans is where it is for a reason: The United States needs a city right there.  

New Orleans is not optional for the United States' commercial infrastructure. It is a terrible place for  a city to be located, but exactly the place where a city must exist. With that as a given, a city will return there because the alternatives are too devastating. The harvest is coming, and that means that the port will have to be opened soon. As in Iraq, premiums will be paid to people prepared to endure the hardships of working in New Orleans. But in the end, the city will return because it has to. 

Geopolitics is the stuff of permanent geographical  realities and the way they interact with political life. Geopolitics created New Orleans. Geopolitics caused American presidents to obsess over its safety. And geopolitics will force the city's resurrection, even if it is in the worst imaginable place. 



A Soldier's Funeral 


There's something to be said for being raised in a small town. What follows is a message from Vicki Pierce about her nephew James' funeral (he was serving our country in Iraq):  
Sent by Tortelita@aol.com



"I'm back, it was certainly a quick trip, but I have to also say it was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. There is a lot to be said for growing up in a small town in Texas. The service itself was impressive with wonderful flowers and sprays, a portrait of James, his uniform and boots, his awards and ribbons. There was lots of military brass and an eloquent (though inappropriately longwinded) Baptist preacher. There were easily 1000 people at the service, filling the church sanctuary as well as the fellowship hall and spilling out into the parking lot. 

However, the most incredible thing was what happened following the service on the way to the cemetery. We went to our cars and drove to the cemetery escorted by at least 10 police cars with lights flashing and some other emergency vehicles, with Texas Rangers handling traffic. Everyone on the road who was not in the procession, pulled over, got out of their cars, and stood silently and respectfully, some put their hands over their hearts. 

When we turned off the highway suddenly there were teenage boys along both sides of the street about every 20 feet or so, all holding large American flags on long flag poles, and again with their hands on their hearts. We thought at first it was the Boy Scouts or 4H club or something, but it continued .... for two and a half miles. Hundreds of young people, standing silently on the side of the road with flags. At one point we passed an elementary school, and all the children were outside, shoulder to shoulder holding flags. kindergartners, handicapped, teachers, staff, everyone. Some held signs of love and support. Then came teenage girls and younger boys, all holding flags. Then adults. Then families. All standing silently on the side of the road. No one spoke, not even the very young children. 

The military presence _ at least two generals, a fist full of colonels, and representatives from every branch of the service, plus the color guard which attended James, and some who served with him ... was very impressive and respectful, but the love and pride from this community who had lost one of their own was the most amazing thing I've ever been privileged to witness. 

I've attached some pictures, some are blurry (we were moving), but you can get a small idea of what this was like. Thanks so much for all the prayers and support."



THE UNTOLD TRUE STORY OF GUY GABALDON

by Steven Jay Rubin
(writer, director, producer)

A feature-length documentary is in the final stages of completion.  It is about the extraordinary exploits of one of the last great living heroes of World War II - Guy Gabaldon - a U.S. Marine of Hispanic descent, who single-handedly captured 1100 Japanese soldiers during the bloody fighting on Saipan in 1944. 

Background: Guy Gabaldon lives in Florida today, but he could hardly be considered retired. At 79, he still has that steely resolve that saw him fight his way across one of the bloodiest battlefields of World War II. Not only is he a popular guest on the inspirational speaker circuit, but the White House nearly sent him to Iraq to indoctrinate U.S. troops in the dynamic of prisoner capture. And on that subject, Guy is quite an expert. During the two months of heavy fighting on Saipan in June of 1944, Guy is credited with bagging over 1100 Japanese - a record that is untouchable in the military history of the United States. 

Guy Gabaldon grew up in East Los Angeles where he spent more time on the streets than at home. He would get into fights and he was thrown out of school at one point, but things began to change when he was introduced to the Japanese American community. Practically adopted by his Nisei school friends, Guy learned about the Japanese culture, its language, and the tight family structure that was alien to him. All of these elements - learned at first hand - would have a dramatic effect on his experiences on Saipan. 

When his Japanese American friends were interned after Pearl Harbor, Guy, 17, joined the Marine Corps, trained at Camp Pendleton, and was assigned as a scout to the 2nd Regiment of the 2nd Marine Division. His unit was then shipped to Hawaii, and then on into the Central Pacific, where he landed on Saipan, nine days after D-Day in Europe. 

Saipan was a rocky, cave-strewn island in the Mariana chain. It was part of the Japanese Empire's inner defense perimeter and it had an airfield within striking distance of Japan. It also had a large civilian population of Japanese and native islanders. The American high command in the Pacific had determined that the Marianas - Guam, Tinian and Saipan were a high priority for the war effort. B-29s were now flying and they needed a base to attack Japan. Saipan fit that bill. 

Guy Gabaldon didn't set out to be a hero. In the first few days of heavy fighting, he simply tried to survive murderous mortar, artillery and machine gun fire. But in succeeding days, he began to go on lone-wolf excursions into the countryside and he brought prisoners back. Japanese prisoners were a bit of an oddity at that time. The credo of most soldiers of the Japanese Army was kill or be killed. Japanese soldiers on Saipan were ordered to kill seven Marines for one Japanese. Thus, the campaign featured one suicide banzai charge after another. Capturing one Japanese was considered a feat - bringing in 1100 was unthinkable. 

But, amazingly, that's exactly what Guy Gabaldon did during the two months of early fighting on Saipan. At one point, he captured 800 in one day - his commanding officer Captain John Schwabe would later dub him "The Pied Piper of Saipan." How did Guy do it? Perhaps it was his language skill - Guy was hardly fluent in Japanese but he spoke the language with a certain inflection that reached into the psyche of the exhausted, hopelessly outnumbered island garrison. He had learned the words on the streets of L.A. with his Japanese-American friends, and those words helped him on the island. Perhaps it was the fact that the Japanese were, in the end, human beings who just couldn't fight anymore. Timing was thus everything. Guy wasn't hesitant to make a point with a hand grenade of a carbine if the enemy proved stubborn. But they eventually came out of their caves and became his prisoner. 

Guy was later wounded after the island was secured. Astonishingly, he was denied the Congressional Medal of Honor - a medal for which he was recommended by Captain Schwabe of the 2nd Marines. He did receive the Silver Star for his valor, but he was not promoted and left the Marine service as a PFC. Being Hispanic, perhaps, didn't help his cause. Racism and prejudice was rife throughout the U.S. armed forces in World War II and Guy was not immune to it. 

Guy returned to the United States, married a Japanese woman who was living in Mexico and became a successful pilot and importer. His story was first told on the television program "This is your Life" in the late 1950s. That program came to the attention of Hollywood and a movie was produced in 1960 entitled "Hell to Eternity." Actor Jeffrey Hunter played Guy. Hunter was your poster boy U.S. Marine - no reference was ever made to his Guy's Hispanic ethnicity. However, the notoriety of the film at that time encouraged the U.S. Navy to award Guy its highest decoration - the Navy Cross. But no Medal of Honor. 

Today, a strong effort is being waged by Congressmen, private business people and friends of Guy to get him the Medal. It would be measured as a sign of respect, not only to Guy, but to the people in America of Hispanic descent. 

Production

Production on "The Pied Piper of Saipan" commenced in late 2003. Guy Gabaldon was enlisted as a creative partner on the project, and he was interviewed, at length, at his home outside Gainsville, Florida. We later interviewed his commanding officer, U.S. Marine Colonel John Schwabe, at his winter home in Tucson, Arizona. 

In June 2004, during the 60th Anniversary celebrations on Saipan, a local DV crew was hired and footage was gathered all over the island. Seventeen additional interviews were completed with returning veterans, local historians and friends of Guys. Guy and his wife had returned to the Island and lived there for many years - so he was well known throughout the Marianas. His autobiographical book Maverick Marine was published in 1990. Much of the footage that was gathered on the island is designed to match combat footage and still photographs taken of the campaign (yesterday and today shots). 

In early 2005, we interviewed a number of Hispanic veterans in Montebello, California. That May, we met Guy in Corpus Christi, Texas and helped celebrate Memorial Day with him. Footage of Guy participating in solemn commemorative ceremonies combined with nostalgic trips to the U.S.S. Lexington - a U.S. Essex-class aircraft carrier, that participated in the invasion of Saipan, sixty one years ago. 

"The Pied Piper of Saipan" is a World War II themed documentary project with mass market and niche appeal. Guy is one of the last great World War II heroes who is still alive and can talk about his exploits. The Hispanic angle appeals to a large U.S. audience - an audience that would also include Japanese Americans, World War II buffs, and fans of the 1960 film that was so popular at the time.


Ted Williams
www2.hawaii.edu/~craigcam/frames/sports.thml

Reggie Jackson 
www.yankeesposters.com


Who's a Latino Baseball Legend?
By RICHARD SANDOMIR
Published: August 26, 2005
Sent by Howard Shorr
howardshorr@msn.com 


When Major League Baseball unveiled its ballot for the Latino Legends team Tuesday, the 60 nominees excluded two of the greatest Hispanic players ever: Ted Williams and Reggie Jackson.

Associated Press, 1941
Ted Williams in 1941. Williams's mother was Mexican, but he never made a point of letting his heritage be known. 

Williams and Jackson's names seem out of place in a group with Roberto Clemente, Orlando Cepeda, Pedro Martínez and Rod Carew, but Williams's mother was Mexican and Jackson's father was half Puerto Rican and played in the Negro leagues.

"I'm not surprised they're not on the list, because it sounds like it was done in a slipshod way" said Keith Hernandez, the former Mets first baseman, who is half-Spanish. "It wasn't well known about Ted, but Reggie Jackson's background was well documented to people involved in the game."

Had baseball made an egregious historical error by omitting Williams and his career .344 batting average or Jackson and his 563 home runs?

Not according to baseball. A spokesman, Carmine Tiso, said it was aware of the players' ethnic backgrounds but applied a litmus test that went beyond statistics: the nominees had to have a direct connection to their Latino heritage. A second spokesman, Richard Levin, said they should "represent the Latin community."

Tiso said: "It's a gray area. It's not an exact science. There may be other players with Latino heritage who may not acknowledge it." He admitted that not all players on the ballot have publicly discussed their backgrounds.

Baseball, which did not reveal its selection qualifications during its Latino Legends news conference, did it yesterday. And while it stated that mlb.com participated in the player selection, Jim Gallagher, a spokesman for mlb.com, said it only made a few suggestions after baseball presented a list of nominees.

In the estimation of baseball's marketing department and its consultants on baseball history, Williams and Jackson never did anything like Alex Rodriguez, whom Tiso quoted as having said, "I consider myself a Dominican."

Tiso said, "It's not that he was ashamed of his heritage, but we felt we didn't find enough connection from Ted to that Latino heritage."

Levin added that Williams's name "would distort the ballot" and "cause havoc" because his ethnicity is not widely known. Fans will be able to vote online at mlb.com and on paper ballots at Chevrolet dealerships.

Samuel O. Regalado, the author of "Viva Baseball" (University of Illinois Press), a history of Latino baseball, said he understood baseball's position, and said that Williams and Jackson were not pioneers for Hispanic players who came after them. 

"But I don't know where the qualifying line is, because most of the recent players aren't pathfinders," he said. "If the criteria were solely based on numbers and on-field achievements, then Williams and Jackson have to be considered."

It is indisputable that Williams said little about being Mexican. He resembled his father, Sam, who was of Welsh-English heritage, not his mother, May. 

"He never made a point of letting it be known," said Williams's nephew, who is also named Ted Williams. "He didn't promote it. He was very friendly with our Mexican relatives on a private basis, but sometimes he shunned them in public because he didn't want it to be known. His mother led an Anglo life in San Diego."

He added, "My father loved to repeat things that my uncle said, and one of them is that he called the family in Santa Barbara 'the Mexicans,' kind of lovingly."

In his 1969 autobiography, "My Turn At Bat," written with John Underwood, Williams said, "If I had my mother's name, there is no doubt that I would have run into problems in those days, the prejudices people had in Southern California."

Bill Nowlin, who researched Williams's early life for his new book, "The Kid: Ted Williams in San Diego" (Rounder), said Williams's uncle Saul Venzor, a Mexican, helped teach him baseball, and that Williams spent time in Santa Barbara visiting his Mexican grandmother, who barely spoke English.

But he said Williams sometimes shunned relatives on his mother's side.

"A lot of relatives felt he was told to turn his back on his background by Eddie Collins and not acknowledge that part of his family," Nowlin said, referring to the Red Sox general manager at the time.

Nowlin and Williams's nephew said they thought he would not have been upset at being omitted from the Latino Legends ballot. But Nowlin said, "I find it interesting that people of Latino origin are fascinated that Ted Williams is one of theirs."

Nowlin said Nomar Garciaparra told him that he and Williams once discussed their mutual Mexican backgrounds. Garciaparra, also omitted from the Legends list, told Nowlin that he told Williams, "God, Ted, I knew I liked you!"

Jackson, whose grandmother was Puerto Rican, said he is "proud of my Latin blood," but not upset at being left off the ballot. But he is offended by any suggestion by baseball about his connection to those roots.

"They have no right to pass judgment on what I claim about my Latin heritage," said Jackson, whose middle name is Martinez. "I just don't run my mouth off about it."


Announcing Nuestra Familia Podcast Series


The "Nuestros Ranchos" Podcast series is no more. . .I quickly saw that my thinking about this project was way too small so it has evolved into the "Nuestra Familia" Podcast series. I along with the members of the planning committee http://groups.yahoo.com/group/podhi/  are trying to recruit artists, actors, and public speakers to read collected Oral Histories and other written works representing our History and Genealogy. I am concentrating on collecting any audio files related to Latino and Native American Genealogy and History. 

Like anything new I'm suffering from some growing pains and will soon, in the next month or two, have a permanent home for this podcast series. In the meantime I have part of the audio files on one site and the newest on another. . .my apologies. 

I have interviews with Mimi Lozano, Gary Felix and Rosalinda Ruiz at this site:
http://nuestrosranchos.net/

My latest interview of Professor George Ryskamp and two short Oral Histories are found at:
http://nuestrosranchos.libsyn.com/

Thank you, Joseph Puentes
LaFamiliaNR@gmail.com



Top 10 Companies for Workforce Diversity
September 2005 
http://www.hispanicbusiness.com/news/newsbyid.asp?fpa=0&id=25358

This comprehensive analysis measures and compares the percentages of minorities (Hispanics, African Americans, Asians, Native Americans, and Women) in the workforce with increased weighting for higher percentages in higher-level positions (Management and Officers). 

Rank Company 
1. Washington Mutual, Inc. 
2. Bank of America 
3. American Express Company 
4. Verizon Communications 
5. Freddie Mac 
6. Pacificare Health Systems 
7. Denny's Restaurants 
8. Wells Fargo 
9. SBC Communications Inc. 
10. Allstate Insurance Company 

Source: www.HispanicBusiness.com


Dorinda Moreno invited to be included in Pioneer Feminist Directory 
From: dorindamoreno@comcast.net

VIRGINIASWATKINS@aol.com
wrote:

Dear Ms. Moreno:

I am one of several people working on a reference work about activists in the women's movement before 1975. We invite you to be included. Of particular concern is reaching women of color who may not have been active in the predominately white feminist organizations, but none the less, accomplished much for women.

I am referring to the Pioneer Feminist Directory, which will be stored on database in the Sophia Smith Collection at Smith College and next year will be published as a book. The Directory will be a research tool for historians, researchers, educators, journalists, women's studies classes, our sisters, our children and grandchildren, and others who follow us.

While we do have information on you from "Separate Roads to Feminism" by Benita Roth, and other sources, we would like to use information in your own words. Following this email will be the questionaire that we use to obtain information. You may fill it out, or if you prefer to write your own story (of between one paragraph and 4 pages), feel free to do so. There are a few essential items that we need: birth date, your most important accomplishments in the movement, year you became involved, and archival information (if you have or intend to place your papers with an institution such as historical society, or library).

In addition we need a street address for you. Thank you for your time. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to email me at virginiaswatkins@aol.com .. The questionnaire (which if necessary we would send you on paper) follows.

Sincerely, Ginny Watkins PS A brochure can be sent at your request.


The Immigrant Policy Center

Read the entire report at: http://www.ailf.org/ipc/policy_reports_2005_beyondborder.htm 
For more information contact Benjamin Johnson at (202) 742-5612. 

The Immigration Policy Center (IPC) is dedicated exclusively to the analysis of the economic, social, demographic, fiscal, and other impacts of immigration on the United States. The IPC is a division of the American Immigration Law Foundation, a nonprofit, tax-exempt educational foundation under Section 501(c)3 of the Internal Revenue Code. 

American Immigration Law Foundation
918 F Street, NW - Washington, DC 20004
202-742-5600



Anti Spanish Legends

Common-Place Spanglocism

 

Common-Place
www.common-place.org vol.3 no.4 July 2003

http://www.common-place.org/vol-03/no-04/los-angeles/
This is a very interesting website. To all appearance, it appears that you are reading a period document, then you realize you are reading a historical analysis with emotionally packed words and historical generalizations, such as  . . .

"And there the settlers proceeded to do with the Indians as the rest of Spanish America so famously did–they worked them, corrupted them, and married with them."   

Using the phrase so famously did obviously implies that  everyone is fully aware and does not need clarification for all the bad  that Spanish America did.  The writer did not see a contradiction in stating that the Spanish both corrupted  and married with the Indians. The association of the two terms in the sentence seems to imply that the act of the Spanish marrying the Indians was somehow on the same level as corrupting them. Curious. . .

" We see emerging in Los Angeles what happened to so many Indians who did not die or whom Europeanization did not sweep into the dustbin of history. They became Mexican culture. Their children would be essentially Hispano-Americano, neither Indian nor Iberian in culture but a hybrid, a mestizo. This was the great idea that, out of the wreckage of Spanish imperialism to which the Catholic Church had attached itself, came from the variously sanctified and base mixings of the Americas: the stunning idea that people were not one thing or the other, nor even some cross between two civilizations, but some new mestizaje, some new way of being altogether. This mixture has been one of the great tensions–sometimes creative, sometimes confusing–in Los Angeles and the other great Latin American cities of the New World." 

One of the final paragraphs concludes the thesis that suggests that those of us whose blood is mixed with Mexican/Spanish blood and indigenous lines should be ashamed of the mixed blood inherited from the wreckage of our ancestors, as a base mixing  resulting in great tensions and confusing status.

I submit that if any confusion exits it is based on a lack of historical understanding. Most Mexican American who have traced their family roots, have found and are proud of both bloodlines.  

Tension exists when historical analysis such as the paragraph above persists in promoting the message that our Spanish grandfathers did wrong in marrying our Indian grandmothers.  This mestizaje embracing both sides of our heritage should be viewed with pride, and perhaps the tensions would disappear.  

Spanglocism
David Arthur Walters sent an essay quite critical of the persistence of Spanish speaking by immigrants. I suggested that it might be of interest to readers because the perspective is not generally included in Somos Primos   David has coined a term to encourage discussion and study of Spanglocism.  

He writes:  " I posted Spanglocism at this site http://ukauthors.com/article13451.html  for the convenience of your good self and associates, in case you want to link to it.  As I mentioned before, I certainly am not angry about the situation although many are, and I raised a few points for them. The bottom line in my opinion is that nothing can really be done about this sort of thing except expand the consciousness of everyone involved. I am not a serious student of Spanish, but I am picking up a few words here and there! The so-called "pockets" are growing: I am seeing many ads in the Southeast now for bilingual employees, so it is no longer entirely a matter, as we say in Miami, "If you don't speak Spanish, drive 40 miles north." 

David Arthur Walters  davidarthurwalters@fastmail.fm    helgalian@fastmail.fm
 
I received this dicho the same day I was responding to David.

EL QUE SABE DOS LENGUAS VALE POR DOS;
HE WHO KNOWS TWO LANGUAGES IS WORTH TWO.   IBell@trinitydowntown.org

 

SURNAME

MONTOYA

 














MONTOYA

(Click for a Montoya descendent)
Tiene su arranque de la provincia de Alava, des( que se extendio por las de Guipuzcoa, Logrono, Bin Salamanca y otros puntos de Castilla, Andalucia ; Continente Americano. Montoya o Montoia, significa en euskera "pastizi juncos". Don Martin Perez Montoya ya, figuraba c Procurador de la'Alcaldia de Sayaz, en la Junta Generi Guetaria, el ano 1397. En el ano 1466, figure en la frustrada toma de Bi Jaen, entre las tropas sitiadoras a las ordenes del Rey Enrique, el Capitan don Rodrigo de Montoya, que se destaco por su valentia. 


Las armas mas antiguas y generalizadas son: EN CAMPO DE AZUR, DIEZ PANELAS DE PLATA. PUESTAS EN PALO. 3, ' BORDURA DE SINOPLE CON EL CORDON DE FRANCISCO DE PLATA.

Asi lo señalan conocidos autores de obras genealogicas. Albcrto y Arturo Garcia Carraffa, en el tomo LV1I1, página 208 de la "'Enciclopedia Heraldica y Genealogica": Juan Carlos de Guerra, en "Estudios de Heráldica  Vasca", página 294: el Conde de Jeruco, en Historia de familias cubanas", tomo V, pagina 176; el licenciado Francisco de Cascales, en "Discursos heroicos de la muy noble y muy leal ciudad de Murcia", pagina 524, y el manuscrito de don Cristóbal de Montoya, del siglo XVII que con el numero 13804, se conserva en la Sala de Manuscritos de la Biblioteca Nacional de Madrid.

Fueron Caballeros de la Orden de Santiago, los siguientes:
Don Fernando Montoya y Caballero, Marqués de Caballero, Madrid, 1850; don Carlos de Montoya y Cardona de Pisa Osorio. Nápoles, 1654; don José Montoya y Hurtado de Corcuera, Armiñon, Alava, 1751; Juan de Montoya y Larraza, La Guardia, Alava, 1547; don Alonso de Montoya y Mujica. Palencia, 1645; don Francisco y don Manuel de Montoya y Ocampo y Diaz Crespo, ambos Capitanes de Caballeria, Villanueva del Fresno, Badajoz, 728; don Pedro de Montoya y Quesada, Maestre de Capo General, Baeza, Jaén, 1655; don  Lorenzo Montoya Salazar y de Cerdena, Valladolid, 1704, y don Fernando de Montoya y Solis, Jerez de los Caballeros, Badajoz, 1817.

A la de Calatrava, pertenecieron: don Juan de Montoya Cardona y Alezandro, Osorio y Bacardi, Nápoles, 1677; don Juan de Montoya y Magnes, Campos y Guerrero, Las Pedroñeras, Cuenca, 1688; don Baltasar y don Caspar de Montoya y Maldonado, Castellano 'o Rojas, Huete, Cuenca y Madrid, 1709, y don Diego de Montoya y Merino, Robles y Alfaro, Orán, 1705. En la de Alcántara, ingresó don Gaspar Ignacio de Montoya y Montúfar, Maldonado y Rojas, Procurador General de la Orden Madrid, 1752.

En la Orden de Carlos III, hicieron probanzas de nobleza para ser admitidos en la misma, don Felipe Montoya y Diaz, Seco y Garcia, de Grijota, Palencia, en 1815, y don Antonio de Montoya y Diaz, Arriaga y Gregorio Justiniano, de Cadiz, el año 1840.

Don Fernando VI, por Real Decreto de 4 de abril de 1747, concedido el titulo de Conde de Casa Fuerte, a don José de Montoya-Salazar y Orbaneja, Regidor Perpetuo de Lima. Don Carlos III, por otro Decreto de 10 dejunio de 1744, otorgó la dignidad de Conde de Villahermosa del Pinar a don Francisco de Montoya y Rangel, Ocampo y Aparicio, Caballero de la Orden de Santiago, recayendo en esta linea por alianza femenina, psteriormente, el Marquesado de Caballero.

Ante la Sala de los Hijosdalgo de la Real Chancilleria de Valladolid, fueron numerosos los miembros de esta familia que acudieron alií a justificar su hidalguia, en diferentes epocas.

A fines del siglo XVII y procedente de la villa de San Clemente, en la provincia de Cuenca, se estableció en La Habana el Capitán don Juan Jerónimo de Montoya, que casó en la Catedral de Santiago de Cuba, el año 1695 con dona Elvira Hemández de Támez y Carvajal, de cuyo matrimonio nacieron entre otros hijos, don José de Montoya y Hemández de Támez que hizo informacion de nobleza en aquella isia el 3 de enero de 1754, y el Alferez don Mateo de Montoya, que dejo extensa sucesion en aquel pais antillano.

En Celaya, radicó desde muy antiguo una familia de este apellido, con descendencia en San Antonio de Texas, en cuyo presidio sus miembros tuvieron cargos militares.

Don Benito Maximo y don Juan Antonio de Montoya Maldonado, fueron Canónigos de la catedral de Antequera de Oaxaca, en 1733 y 1743, y el mismo cargo desempeño en 1723, don Juan Antonio de Montoya; don Baltasar de Montoya Maldonado, fue nombrado Alcalde Mayor de Teozaquaico y Teozoquiico, en 1736; don Nicolas Mariano de Montoya Tesorero de la Real Hacienda de México, y don Benito de Montoya Maldonado Tesorero de tia Real Hacienda de Mexico, y don Benito de Montoya Maldonado, Tesorero de la Catedral ideAntequera, en 1 751.

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

 

Galvez Patriots

Bernardo de Galvez colonial uniform 
How do we promote an "Inclusive American History" to all Americans? 

Lorenzo's Secret Mission nominated for the Golden Spur in Texas


Spanish Louisiana Regiment in the Floridas, 1774-1781

How do we promote an "Inclusive American History" to all Americans? 
The following are communications in answer to Paul Newfield's letter.

Quoting Paul Newfield  skip@thebrasscannon.com:

I think that the scope of the Hispanic contribution to America in winning it's War of Independence against Great Britain depends on a person's view and perception of history. For someone from Concord or Lexington, there is probably no real need to look beyond the limits of his own neighborhood to find an abundance of heroes and events and places that shout out the glories of the winning of the American Revolution. For someone from South Carolina, adventuresome tales of the Swamp Fox will fill the imagination of the listener. New York... Virginia... For those citizen soldiers living in the British colonies, and INSIDE Britain's sphere of influence, the conflict was one of revolution against their sovereign ruler and insurrection against his entire form of government. The war and its consequences were very personal. The Eastern Seaboard Americans were ready to overturn the entire foundations of their society. Personal independence and liberty were strong motivations for those fighters.

On the other hand, for someone participating in that War who was living OUTSIDE of Britain's sphere of influence, say, in Spanish Louisiana, that war was viewed only as following the Spanish king's orders. The war was not about personal liberties, not about fighting for independence. It was just another war of King "A" against King "B", with soldiers on each side dying for their respective kings. Independence and liberty were not significant motivating factors for these people living outside of Great Britain's sphere. 

British West Florida - a British possession only since the end of the Seven Years War - did not share the emotions and traditions and history of the other British "colonies". Spain was ready to snatch West Florida for its own at the first opportunity. And if the snatching were to help the cause of the American Revolutionaries in their fight against the British, all the better. (The very term "Seven Years War" speaks to a broader world view, while the narrower term "French and Indian War" regionalizes the conflict)

Texas and California -- Whatever military contributions there might have been by Spanish soldiers at the time would only have been in the context of King "A" vs. King "B". At the time of the fighting, I suspect that the soldiers carrying the rifles thought little of Liberty and Independence as envisioned by people like George Washington and Thomas Payne.

When the dust settled, the history books would be written in English, glorifying the newly formed nation with tales and stories close to home - from New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Virginia, etc. The only reason that the French received so much attention was because its troops and its leaders [i.e., Lafayette, et al] were on the ground, fighting INSIDE of the American / British zone of battle.

By seeking a greater recognition of the Hispanic contributions to the founding of the country, aren't we really seeking to change the paradigm by trying to place all contributions at parridy? To ~equalize~ the importance of any contribution at the time of the American Revolution, regardless of where that contribution might have occurred? If we attempt to inflate the value of the Hispanic contribution, do we not also diminish the relative value of those who fought to actually establish the country?

Perhaps we should be seeking a different way of posing the question, "Who are we as a nation?"

"He drew a circle that shut me out,
Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout,
But love and I had the wit to win.
I drew a circle that took him in." 
-- Unknown
Paul Newfield

The people in Spanish Louisiana were not fighting for some abstract cause or for some king they had never seen. They were fighting for home, hearth, and family. 

The British planned to invade Spanish Louisiana. Galvez simply beat them to the punch and invaded them first. Letters captured at the Battle of Baton Rouge in 1779 laid out the planned British invasion in glorious detail. 

Take a look at Louisiana. Imagine you are living in New Orleans and the British warship the WEST FLORIDA is daily patrolling Lake Pontchartrain. How secure do you feel? You feel that your life and liberty are under constant threat. 

Baton Rouge, held by the British, is a mere 70 miles away. The British come to New Orleans all the time on shopping sprees. If they come to shop, they can come to invade in a thrice. 

Now, imagine further, that you have managed to capture some British couriers and you know the British are planning an invasion. (Galvez did in fact learn of British perfidy through his extensive spy network.) 

You can talk all you want about King A and King B. When King B is sitting in Spain and you're worried about the British invading, treaties and politics don't mean much to you. 

Consider Galvez's position from a purely human standpoint. In 1779, he was married to a French creole. He had a stepdaughter and a baby daughter. His father-in-law, mother-in-law, and brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law lived in New Orleans. He had been living in New Orleans since Jan. 1776 and had friends galore in Louisiana. The king be damned when you are defending the people you love. 

People fought for many reasons. Some were not the purest of reasons, to be sure. The French were stinging from their recent defeat at British hands. Did they help us because they loved liberty or did they want to stick it to the British? 

Many of Galvez's militiamen hated the British because they had been forced out of their homes in Canada and had come to Louisiana to live. This was a sore spot and many saw the attack on Baton Rouge as a chance for revenge. 
Oliver Pollock was Irish. His reasons for funding the fight against the British is obvious. 

The Spanish contribution is not inflated if you consider that the Spanish sent 10,000 lbs of gunpowder to George Washington at a critical time in 1776. General Washington was measuring out how much powder and lead he had left and deciding when to fight and when to flee based on his available supplies. 

Galvez sent a flatboat flotilla with 9,000 lbs. of gunpowder up the Mississippi in Sept. 1776. (The other 1,000 lbs. went by ship with George Gibson.) The supplies included cloth, medicine, lead, and muskets. 
Bernardo de Galvez opened up another front in 1779, drawing British supplies and troops from the 13 colonies and thereby helping General Washington's troops. 

Galvez fought the Maryland Loyalist forces, Pennsylvania Loyalists, Waldeckers, along with the 16th Foot while colonists were fighting similar units. 

Captain Pickle of the US Navy captured the West Florida on Lake Pontchartrain. Is his contribution to the war any less important because it was outside the original 13 colonies? 

It doesn't matter where the battles occurred. 
The problem is that history books often said that the French were the only foreign power to help in the American Revolution. We remember the Marquis, Pulaski, and Von Steuben but forget others. 

Look. I don't want to change history. I only want the complete story told. Not every British colonist was fighting for liberty. About 1/3 of them were Loyalists, about 1/3 rebels, and the final 1/3 didn't care. 

And sometimes people contributed a great deal without even knowing they were making a contribution. Take Jane McCrea's death. It certainly forced many colonists to make a choice: Tory or Whig? If the British could not protect the fiancée of a British lieutenant, how could they protect the colonists? 
Lila Guzman


Lila wrote:  Hello, everyone. 

A huge "amen!" to educating everyone about the Spanish contribution to the founding of our country. Let's do whatever we can to get the word out. I hope no one takes this the wrong way, but I have to correct something in the rousing call-to-arms email Michael wrote: Today, we Americans are indebted to this heroic Spaniard and his Hispanic army of 7,000 for assisting in the founding of the United States of America by helping to win her independence. 

I'm sorry, Michael, but no. To say that his army was Hispanic is to deny the role of the free mulatto militia, black slaves, Indians, the French (Creoles and Acadians), the Germans, the Anglo-Americans, and even Oliver Pollack (an Irishman) who participated in the march on Baton Rouge.

In 1779, when Galvez marched on Manchac and Fort Richmond (Baton Rouge), his army was a crazy quilt of nationalities and skin colors.

Ditto for the Battle of Mobile (some say the "Siege of Mobile.") If you were breathing and willing to fight for Don Bernardo, you could become part of his military operation.
And as a former member of the US Navy, I have to point out that it wasn't just an army. Don Bernardo had naval forces under his command, too. In Aug. 1779, a hurricane sank his ships in New Orleans harbor and he had to raise them before his troops could set out. Some marched. Some sailed up the Mississippi. He set sail for Mobile in 1780. He set sail for Pensacola the following year.

Additionally, I don't think you can lay all of this at the feet of the Black Legend. When I was a kid growing up in Kentucky, I watched Ricky Ricardo on I Love Lucy. He was the only Cuban I knew in the 1950s. I saw Zorro and was transported to Spanish California. I watched the Cisco Kid (although memories of that show are fainter than the rest.)

Then suddenly--there were no Latino faces on TV. Not until Chico and the Man in the 70s. After Freddy Prinze's death, there were scattered faces--Jimmy Smits and the guy on Law and Order (I've temporarily misplaced his name). Then in the 90s, George Lopez (the other Lopez) was discovered by Sandra Bullock and given a tv show.

What happened? Why did Hispanics vanish from television? Why the resistance? Perhaps there are historical reasons for excluding the Spanish from the history of our founding. There was some attempt by the Spanish in New Orleans to get Kentucky into the Spanish Empire. That may not have set well with some.

Don Bernardo died in 1786. I have often speculated that history might have been told differently if he had lived. The Marquis de La Fayette was around to do the grand tour in the 1800s after surviving the French Revolution. Poor Don Bernardo was not. Perhaps there was a lack of opportunity for promotion of the Spanish cause?
Whatever the reason, I can only give you my anecdotal suspicions. And I rely on your discretion with the following 2 paragraphs.

A Latina writer friend of mine has won beaucoup awards, including a very prestigious one from the American Library Association. She cannot get attention from the major publishers in New York City because they think all Latinos live in barrios, are gang members, and just arrived in the United States. They cannot accept that there are middle-class Latinos with ancestors who have been here since the founding of the US. Hispanic doctors? Lawyers? Coca Cola executives? Whoever heard of such a thing!

I just completed a series of non-fiction books with my husband for a particular publisher. The subjects include: Roberto Clemente, Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, Ellen Ochoa, Cesar Chavez and George Lopez. Why are we going back 50 years on some of those biographies? Why aren't we writing about Antonio Banderas (Puss in Boots in the latest Shrek movie), Don Francisco, Cristina, Alberto Gonzales, General Ricardo Sanchez, Bill Richardson? (We have Governor Richardson's permission to write a children's bio of him--but we don't have a publisher yet.) I don't have the answer. But I am encountering resistance to biographies of modern Hispanics.
In Austin, Texas (my community), Univision was recently the #1 television station in the 18-35 demographics. Yet, was the death of Eduardo Palomo covered by the mainstream media? Not that I'm aware of.

OK, I've finished ranting. 
Lila Guzman, Ph.D.



Hello:
 
Before you read this, I'm generally not given to emotion.  However, some things in life are important enough to invest one's self in.  Therefore, please forgive me in advance if I seem to be too invested.
 
I've read your comments and find this whole thing fascinating.  I'm not a historian, I'm an MBA.  I'm just a guy who spent his life as a corporate executive, government executive, and university adjunct professor.  All of you folks have blazed trails in history and genealogy way beyond my capacity.  Frankly, Mimi infected me with the genealogy bug back in 1994.  Since our first meeting, I have completed my work on my mother's lines, only that.
 
I would like to make a point to all who have read my suggested course of action.  What you read from me was a cut-and-paste, excerpts from a book I've written for my two sons.  Hopefully, the book will be published this year.  I've spent five years on this adventure.  
 
The purpose was to give them and understanding of our roots.  My family settled North America in 1599.  They remained soldiers under Spain until 1821, when the new nation of Mexico annexed New Mexico.  They served as soldiers under Mexico until 1846, when the Americanos took New Mexico.  Our clans then served proudly as Americans in the Spanish American War with dear Teddy, Civil War, W.W.I, W.W.II, Korea, Vietnam, etc.
 
It is not my intent to take anything away from the French, Germans, Blacks, Native - Americans.  Most certainly, I appreciate the Anglo - American colonists that established this great nation.  Without them there would be no United States of America.
 
In short, I'm an American and I really like it.  It makes me feel good.  I'm not anti - American.  I love this country.  With that said, let me now explain my position as simply as possible.  Spaniards under the Empire (White, Black, Brown, Yellow, Purple), Hispanics, Latinos, Hispanos, etc., (all) have given a great deal to this country.  That doesn't make them good or bad, just people who participated.  Those who died to secure this nation's freedom just did their job, nothing more nothing less.
 
To report their doing their jobs in defense of this nation is not to exclude any other group of Americans or others.  It is simply to add to that wonderful list of patriots and those non - Americans that gave so much to make this wonderful place happen.
 
I don't know if I qualify as a true American, perhaps a better term would be a descendant of  families that were very early explorers and settlers of portions of the North American Continent that later became the USA.  Hopefully, this will satisfy Native - Americans that wish to remind all that they were here first or Anglo - Americans who may view themselves as the true American.  What ever the case, I wish them well in their perspective.
 
With that said, I would like to assist in reporting the facts, not fiction.  My intent is not political, but simply to tell the truth.  Like every other group that loves this nation, Hispanics wish to offer their remembrances of those they lost and those that suffered for this nation.  After all, she's worth it!!!!
  
Michael Perez  msphistory@aol.com


Perdona me "dos centavos" (and my Spanish): 
Paul makes very good points. History is a dress designed by the one who wears it. Kind of like a man with a wife. If she is proud of him, she will want the world to know him; if she is jealous of him, she will try to hide him; but almost always she will want to change him to her own personal liking. History is manipulated because it isn't a popular subject among people and thus, easily fashioned without objection. Teaching a balanced or "inclusive" history is far more complicated than prejudices. That would be too easy to correct. It has to do with teaching people something most do not care to know, "so don't make me learn more than I absolutely need to know to pass the test". Isn't that why Lila and Rick used a young lad - to sell the stories (books) about the Southern Campaign of the American Revolution? Who would read them if they didn't include Lorenzo? Hats off! That's the way to sell history. 

Promoting heroes by "race" limits an audience to that same "race" whereas promoting heroes by deeds appeals to all races. While the former may serve to help produce pride in a particular race it does little or nothing to establish historical truth among all races. Said the Marine, "You can't handle the truth" - so it is easier to change truth than to face it and so it is hard for most people to acknowledge that American Independence was fought for and won by many who did not directly enjoy it (i.e. live in the North). I once had an SAR member tell me, "I don't want to hear about TCARA, I want to hear about the American Revolution". Hello?!! 

While it is easy to "sell" exclusive history to someone whom it directly relates, it is another project entirely, to "sell" that history to a disinterested party. And that is the question at hand. How do we "sell' or educate ALL peoples, "exclusively Hispanic" history. Unless you have a targeted customer base, you must make your product appealing to a crosscut of customers at large. That is, unless we want to educate only Hispanics, we must teach an "inclusive history" that has something of interest to everyone (America's History is the most inclusive of any other country's). Otherwise, we only succeed in polarizing our audience. (Isn't that what our schools have done?) I do not believe that is our objective. 

The question begs, how do we promote an "Inclusive American History" to all Americans? 
Pero, este es me "dos centavos". 

Jack Cowan  JVC4321@aol.com


Hi everybody,

Here is my two cents. It is crucially important that in promoting the history of Spain in the United States, those of us who are descendants of her subjects in the United States, do not segregate ourselves with our attitude and the word w e use. It seems to me that not only is the general American public ignorant of the role Spain and her children played in American history, but also most of the Hispanics. Hispanics by and large believe themselves to be victims, that the Anglo Americans came and took over because of their manifest destiny doctrine. In this email Michael, you mention that Manifest Destiny could only go forward if the history of Spain in this country would be forgotten. Here is the thing I discuss in my book, when you study the history of the Hispanics that were in Texas and the Louisiana and the rest of what would be the U.S. in colonial days and not the history of the millions of Hispanics that have come in more recent times, when you read what they, their leaders and representatives wrote, they had a sense of destiny that they would be part of the American Union. Of this everyone it seems is ignorant. The Texas Revolution was first and foremost an original Tejano cause, if not a present day Tejano cause, the Anglo Americans only joined them in that cause, as they themselves said, as brothers. It seems to me that the whole history is twisted up side down, the Anglo Americans were not the enemy of the colonial Spanish settlers of Texas, the Mexicans were, for Texas to be part of the United States was not just the manifest destiny of the Anglo Americans, it was the manifest destiny of the Spaniards who were already in Texas, and they wrote about it. Perhaps if we teach what the Spanish colonial settlers of Northern New Spain in  what would be the United States believed, instead of what their Mexican oppressors to the south believed, our history could be incorporated in to the history of the United States.

At any rate, it has taken me 3 revisions and 420 pages to explain what I mention in this email. Not  for the financial gain that would come of it, I am well provided for as I am now, but for the benefit of incorporating the history of Spain and her children in the United States do I wish every American school would use my book to teach in which I give a voice to the silenced Spaniard Founding Fathers of Texas. We have to begin by recognizing that the Spanish colonials of the US were distinct from the people in Mexico, they were distinct ethnically and racially, generally speaking, their history and struggles were distinct, their situation was distinct, they were isolated from the rest of Spain's possessions in the new world, and they were certainly distinct in their views of the destiny of their land and who the heroes and villains were, who the oppressors, the Mexicans, and their liberators, the Americans, were. But they were very few in number and so today they have been lost to history being replaced by the views, history and views of history of those who, although shared a common language and many surnames, were their oppressor. Never the less, it was them who tamed the wilderness of Texas and not another, and their views views are what their history should be built upon, and their views and beliefs actually form a full part of the United States and are not the views of a conquered people, rather, of a liberated people. I realize I may be ruffling some feathers, but, like I said, it takes 420 pages to explain. 
Sincerely,

Alex Loya  alexloya@integrity.com

I had not read Paul's email,

I agree that we should not inflate the contribution of Spain and her American (United States) colonies in the American Revolution, but I believe it is crucially important that the contribution should be known because the effects of it, which I discus in my book, are completely related and have everything to do with the events that later caused the United States to extend to the Pacific, and to the legitimacy of our present borders. I believe that the participation of the colonial Texans in the American Revolution, and I base this on what they wrote, the histories they wrote, had a profound effect in their own desire for freedom and their sense of destiny, which very few people are aware of, that they were a part of the United States. In our present circumstance, when so many question our borders and their legitimacy, when so many Hispanic newcomers of a different ethnic background than the original Spanish settlers of Texas were, generally speaking, I believe it is essential for the contribution, and the effects of that contribution, of Spain in the American Revolution be taught, also to preserve the identity and the history of those who were the actual colonial settlers of Texas and the Southwest. But, like I said, it takes at least 420 pages to explain.

Alex Loya  alexloya@integrity.com

 

Lorenzo's Secret Mission
lorenzo1776@yahoo.com
writes:

Hi, Mimi, I am in a state of shock. I just got the following email forwarded to me from Marina Tristan at Arte Publico Press.

Lila, My publisher just forwarded this to me: 

LORENZO'S SECRET MISSION (2001) by Lila Guzman, has been nominated for the 2005-2006 Golden Spur Award for Texas Authors -Intermediate Children's Literature division. 

The Golden Spur Award for Texas Authors was created in 2004 by Texas State Reading Association to honor and recognize our state's talented writers -- and to encourage our "older young readers" to READ!

We are honored to include Arte Publico Press, Lila Guzman, and LORENZO'S SECRET MISSION as one of this year's nominees. Winners will be announced at the State Conference on Literacy in Houston this November (go to www.tsra.us for more information).

The next book in the Lorenzo series, LORENZO'S TURNCOAT, is due out May 31, 2006 and focuses on the Battle of Baton Rouge. A hurricane in New Orleans in 1779 sank all the ships in the harbor. Galvez was ready to attack the British (before they attacked him) and had to start war preparations from scratch.

New Orleans suffered two hurricanes in 1779.  I have been watching coverage of the hurricane and cringing. It is true. History does repeat itself.   
Lila Guzman

 

ORANGE COUNTY, CA

October is designated Family History Month
October/November recognized for Dia de los Muertos

October 23: Bower's Museum Dia de Muertos Celebration
George Newnam's Casa de Calaveras, House of Skeletons
History of Dia de los Muertos

8th annual El Dia de la Familia, Segler Park, Westminster, Sept 11
SHHAR at Hispanic Heritage Month Mixer, Bowers Museum, Sept 21
SHHAR at Orange County's Stay Connected Professional Mixer, Sept 29

     Many family history lectures and events are offered at local libraries
  
Fullerton, Brea, Placentia, Yorba Linda, an evening lecture in October

Hispanic Heritage Month Activities at Santa Ana Library: 
3- 2 p.m. lectures

October 15: Archival workshop at the old Court House, Santa Ana
October 15: Fall Harvest Dance, Westminster 
Suggested Family History Month Activities
California Story Fund Project: The Mexican Orange County 



Dia de los Muertos FREE family event
Bowers Museum of Cultural Arts
2002 N. Main St.  Santa Ana
Sunday, October 23th, 12 noon to 4

Outdoors entertainment, exhibits, food (tamales) will make for a fun day.  Face painting and poetry competition will help participants to participate in the festivities.  

Folkloric dancers  and Saddleback High School Guitar Club will be featured performers.

The community is invited to set up ofrendas for public display.  Honor your deceased. Please bring your own set-up for exhibiting.  Tables will not be provided.

Special aspect of the day will be an An outstanding indoor display of full size calaveras fashioned by artist George Newnan will make this day an unforgettable experience. 


George Newnam's
Casa de Calaveras, House of Skeletons
http://www.hometown.aol.com/casacalavera

This educational, multi-cultural walk-through attraction is composed of *five individual scenes which bring to life Mexico's holiday of Dia de Los Muertos, Day of the Dead The total exhibit features 
*19 life-size fully dressed skeleton figures in costumes from all over the world, including Japan, China, and Mexico. Viewers enter the exhibit in total darkness and become totally immersed into each scene aided by black lighting, props, and music.

Filmmaker/Artist - George Newnam, BFA, a graduate from the School of Film & Television at Chapman University in Orange - California, was inspired by the drawings of Mexican artist Jose Guadalupe Posada, when planning and designing Casa De Calaveras - House of Skeletons. Also, his collection of small clay skeleton figures from Mexico played a big part in the development. He had always wanted to bring them to life, but wasn't sure how. The answer was this elaborate exhibition chronicling the spiritual journey of a deceased and fictional skeletal couple named Jose & Gloria Calavera. They were engaged to be married, but tragically, before their wedding day, they were both killed in a freak accident. So during the celebration of El Dia de Los Muertos, The Day of the Dead, their skeletal spirits return to the earth to enjoy the worldly experiences they couldnt' realize when they were alive. George and a small team of people put together everything utilizing such things as: recyclable objects, paper mache, fluorescent paper, paints and clothing, which includes vintage, new store bought and also newly designed costumes.

George, currently working in Hollywood, has also directed short student films and his graduate work, a short film entitled, FEAST was an official selection screened at the 2003 A.K.A. Shriekfest Film Festival in Hollywood, California. Therefore, it is logical that Mr. Newnam use his story-telling skills in creating scenes for CASA DE CALAVERAS -HOUSE OF SKELETONS, bringing drama to re-create the life of Jose & Gloria Calavera.

CASA DE CALAVERAS -
HOUSE OF SKELETONS has been exhibited in whole or in part at the following venues:
MOLAA, The Museum of Latin American Art - Long Beach, CA 2003 
The Huntington Beach Art Center - 
Huntington Beach, CA 2003 
The Boys & Girls Club of Santa Ana - 
Santa Ana, CA 2002
http://www.hometown.aol.com/casacalavera


History of Dia de los Muertos

"First, a Little History"
Source: Tu Ciudad October/November 2005 www.ciudadmag.com

Throughout October and into early November, ofrendas, or altars, are built to honor the memory of the dearly departed.   They wear garlands of marigolds to parties thrown in their honor—colorful gatherings that feature stacks of sugar skulls, masses of candles, and gifts of food and drink. Each year, the start of November marks a playful celebration in Mexico and Central America called Dia de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead. The holiday is a rich and colorful outlet for grief and a way of treating lost loved ones to a celebration in their honor.

Dia de los Muertos can be traced back to the pre-Hispanic Aztecs, who held feasts throughout the year in honor of the dead. According to the history books, native culture blended '' with Catholic tradition: the Spanish, seeking to Christianize the Aztec ritual upon conquering the New World, condensed and moved the tributes, especially two of the most widely ' celebrated—Miccailhuitonti (Feast of the Little Dead Ones) and Miccaihuitl (Feast of the Adult Dead)—to coincide with All Saints' and All Souls' days. Through the years, elements of ' both the Spanish Catholic and Aztec beliefs have survived, some virtually intact, others transformed by their coexistence. The merging of cultural expression blossomed into unique hybrid imagery, signs of which can be found in decorative sugar skulls, playful skeleton dioramas, and intricate paper craft called papal picado, all of which are prominent at this time of year.

Throughout October and into early November, ofrendas, or altars, are built to honor the memory of the dearly departed, with trails of bright yellow cempasuchiles (marigolds) to coax the dead back from the afterlife. Graves are decorated with cross-adorned candles, skeleton dioramas, and mounds of pan de muerto (bread of the dead) as well. The holiday has gained popularity in the United States as immigrants import the tradition and as second-, third-, and fourth-generation Latinos discover it here. Gregorio Luke, director of the Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach, sees Day of the Dead as a way of affirming life by confronting death. "When you make an offering for somebody," says Luke, "you have to remember his life. What did he like to drink? To eat? What were his favorite colors? It forces you to bring that person back because you are reenacting their deeds, their tastes, and their thoughts,"


Researcher Jaime Cader sends information that traces the history back to an Egyptian origins/influences in the Day of the Dead customs of Mexico. " It is taken from the bilingual book "The Days of the Dead -Los Dias de Muertos" by Rosalind Rosoff Beimler (1991).  It starts on page 19 saying: "With the Spanish conquest, a new set of mourning rituals was introduced into Mexico.  The Catholic missionaries who fanned out across the land . . . brought a cosmology parallel in some ways to that of the Aztecs.  

Made familiar enough to be palatable, their ideas came to coexist with rather than supplant existing beliefs.  Saints joined the hierarchy of gods; heaven and hell added (pg. 20) new dimensions to Mictlan; All Souls' and All Saints' days merged with the harvest rites of Mictlantecuhtli.  The Catholic rites had grown out of Egyptian mourning practices commemorating the deceased god of Life, Death, and Grain -Osiris.  By the Alexandrian calendar, Osiris was murdered on the seventeenth day of the month of Athyr, in our November - a time when the Nile is sinking, the nights are lengthening, and leaves are falling.  On those nights the dead were thought to revisit their homes, and people received them with food and lamps to light the way.  The Romans inherited the concept in turn; Bacchus, the Roman god of life and renewal, is Osiris in Roman dress.  As Christianity replaced the gods of Rome, ancient rites were recast.  All Saints's Day, November 1 was established as the time to pray for the souls of dead children; All Souls' Day, November 2, became the day to remember the adults.  The night of October 31 became All Hallows Eve.  Halloween evolved separately from the Days of the Dead, though it remains a close cousin..."

So anyway, here is a start for anyone that wants to do more research on this subject.  Adios por ahora.        Sincerely,  Jaime Cader  jmcader@yahoo.com

 

8th annual El Dia de la Familia, Segler Park, Westminster, September 11
Ileana and Rodolfo Velarde manned the SHHAR table for a wonderful experience.
Hundreds of families enjoyed the entertainment, foods and information
 distributed by many community organizations.




SHHAR participated in the Hispanic Heritage Month Mixer at the Bowers Museum of Cultural Arts, Santa Ana
September 21.


SHHAR Board member Yolanda Ochoa and researcher Gerardo Valdivia share their family information with Cal State University, Fullerton student, Jeannette Flores.



SHHAR participated in the Orange County's 2nd Annual Biggest Hispanic Professional Mixer was held at the Santa Ana Performing Arts & Events Center, September 29.

SHHAR Board member Bea Dever on the left, Gil Flores, Executive Director of the Orange County LULAC Foundation and your editor 
Mimi stand by the table display, encouraging professionals to start family history research.

 




October is Family History Month 
 

The Genealogical Society of North Orange County California is sponsoring a series of beginning genealogy lectures open to the general public as a  celebration of October as Family History Month. 

The lectures are free  and all the presenters are members of the Southern California Chapter of  the Association of Professional Genealogists. 
October 3rd at 7 pm at Fullerton Public Library: Speaker- Norma Keating 
           "How to Start Your Family History" 
October 11th at 6 pm at Brea Public Library: Speaker- Wendy Elliott 
            "Using the Internet for Genealogical Research" 
October 17th at 7 pm at Placentia Public Library: Speaker- Caroline  Rober
             "Genealogy Research in Southern California" 
October 24th at 7pm at Yorba Linda Public Library: Speaker- Beth McCarty  
             "Using the Family History Library" 

In addition, the society will provide a display of genealogical  materials and resources at these libraries during the month of October. Info: 714-996-9511 or stevedota@hotmail.com

Fullerton, Brea, Placentia, Yorba Linda 

Hispanic Heritage Month Activities at Santa Ana Library

In summary: 
Oct. 1st at 2 p.m. Photo Preservation workshop and identify mystery studio photos. 
Oct. 8th at 2 p.m. Author Adam Collings book-talk on "California, West of the West". 
Oct. 15th at 2 p.m. House History workshop, unlocking the heritage of the Santa Ana barrios. 

Event will be held in the multipurpose room on the second floor of the main library in Santa Ana. Please do plan to participate and invite all your family and friends to  this educational event. There is still plenty of room and pass the word to all. 

Ricardo J. Valverde RValverde@ochca.com  (714) 834-8559 
Senior Social Worker, Adolescent Family Life Program, Health Care Agency



The Light Impressions Archival workshop is coming to Orange County!

The Light Impression archival workshop, now in its fifth year, will be held in conjunction with the Orange County Historical Commission at the Old Courthouse in in Santa Ana on Saturday, October 15. The workshop is open to those who work with archival collections, in a professional or volunteer capacity. A variety of topics related to archival management and preservation will be presented in five separate all-day classes. Attendance will be limited, so please make your reservations soon.

When
: Saturday, October 15, 2005 9 A.M. to 4:00 P.M.
Where:
Old Courthouse Museum 211 W. Santa Ana Blvd. Downtown Santa Ana
RSVP: (714)973-6607 (Marshall) or 973-6610 (Sharon)
Cost: $10, Which includes lunch
Parking: Orange County Hall of Administration lot, Santa Ana Blvd. And Ross Street. 
For direction to the old Courthouse, Visit us on the web at www.ocparks.com/oldcourthouse

Archival Products A to Z: What They Are and How to Use Them
Larry Poctor sr, Account Manager, Light Impressions

• Materials and Practices for Photographic Storage
Ray Adams Account Manager, Lights Impressions

• Processing and Describing Your Archives
Robert Marshall Director, Urban Archive, CSUN

• Basic Book and Paper Repair
Sheryl Davis U.C. San Diego

• Funding Sources/or Archives
Felicia Kelley Sr. Program Manager, Calif. Council for the Humanities

        • A City Revived: Santa Ana (lunch)
      
Mayor Pro Tem, Santa Ana



GUADALUPE CLUB OF Blessed Sacrament Church
"FALL HARVEST DANCE
14072 OLIVE ST. WESTMINSTER CA. 92683 "FALL HARVEST DANCE" 
SATURDAY OCTOBER 15,2005, 9:00 PM TO 1:00 AM

MUSIC BY: EDDIE BANUELOS THE SEVEN LATINS 
PRE-SALE TICKETS: $14 PER PERSON AT THE DOOR: $17 PER PERSON
FOR TICKET INFORMATION CALL: LUIS G. MATA            714 893-5757 
NO ONE UNDER 21 ALLOWED


Suggested Family History Month Activities:

•  Display library or other public building featuring research opportunities,  society events,  or Genealogy of Historical Families in the community.

•  Introduction to Genealogy Workshops

•  Family History Fair - classes and or discussion groups related to various topics related to genealogical research.

•  Library Lock in  - This is a favorite event of a Texas Society.  The genealogy department remains open after  the library closes  for those  wishing to do research.   No one is admitted after the library doors are locked but researchers may remain for the extended hours.  The information I receive has not mentioned a time when everyone must  leave.

•  Essay contest for school children.    Essays are judged in age groups.   A small community gave cash prizes and published winning essays in the local news paper,  another group had prizes donated by local merchants.

•  Society members could volunteer to assist  schools, Scout,  4-H,  or other groups with student family history projects.  A genealogist, who was an adopted child researched the genealogy of her adapted family.  She worked with foster children and assisted them researching the history of their foster family or another family they admired.

• Volunteer to provide genealogy related stories for local publications.  Call the newspaper and other media organizations in your community offering to provide material for publication,  if possible talk with someone who does reports on local organizations and events.

•  Develop a list of society members who are willing to speak to local community groups and notify the community that you have speakers available to address their group.

•  The genealogy community is filled with creative people and I am confident there are many more ideas will develop.

The key is to celebrate Family History Month promoting research and the benefits of becoming a member of a genealogical organization.  

Sent by Jo Russell ljrussell@earthlink.net


California Story Fund Project: The Mexican OC 

From: breathoffiretheater@yahoo.com

THE "MEXICAN" OC: TRIUMPHS AND CONTRIBUTIONS OF ORANGE COUNTY’S MEXICAN COMMUNITIES

CONGRATULATIONS are in order. El Centro Cultural de Mexico (in conjunction with Breath of Fire Theater) has been awarded a California Story Fund Grant.

The CALIFORNIA STORY FUND is one of the components of California Stories, the California Council for the Humanities’ statewide initiative that seeks to strengthen California communities through story-based public humanities projects. Through $5,000 grants awarded quarterly through a competitive process, the California Story Fund supports public humanities programs that will bring to light compelling stories from California’s diverse communities and provide opportunities for collective reflection and discussion.

Few people in Orange County have knowledge of the history, positive contribution, or struggles for social justice of Mexican communities. The rich stories of triumph and survival of our ancestors wait to be told to a new generation of Mexican Americans, Mexican immigrant communities, and the other populations residing in the county. 

Our project, entitled THE "MEXICAN" OC: TRIUMPHS AND CONTRIBUTIONS OF ORANGE COUNTY’S MEXICAN COMMUNITIES, hopes to address this void by presenting a play based on stories of Mexican people, past and present, who have challenged the status quo to assert the rights of Mexican communities in Orange County. The work on this project includes:

The collection of oral histories of living Mexican American activists
The researching of historical Mexican figures 
The creation of a play interwoven in Spanish and English, based on the interviews and archival data. 

Community dialogues that will immediately follow 3 play productions

We are looking forward to the theatrical presentation in March of 2006, and there is much work to be done in the months ahead. We are looking to match the funds, $5,000 provided in the grant (a provision of receiving the grant). Project coordinators will be conducting historical research, surveying members of the Mexican community in Orange County, writing an original stage play based upon the stories collected, and producing this play at one or more venues. If you are interested in making a monetary or material contribution please contact:

Fundraising Director: 
Andrea Ramierz 626-665-8102 
cedahliafairy@hotmail.com


Or a contribution of your time and talents, please contact one of the Project Directors.
Project Directors:
Sara Guerrero (714) 785-0764 
Heather Enriquez (714) 397-7818
breathoffiretheater@yahoo.com
www.themexicanoc.org
http://www.el-centro.org/

LOS ANGELES, CA

Pueblo de la Reina de los Ángeles on the River Porciúncula, original site
History of Floods in Los Angeles 
Genealogy Introduction, La Mirada Adult School Class
Early California Wills, Los Angeles 
Southern California Genealogical Society
Los Angeles Under the Spanish Flag  
October 15: 7th annual Latino History Parade & Jamaica 
October 28: National Center for the Preservation of Democracy
October 30: Children's Fall Harvest Festival

 


Pueblo de la Reina de los Ángeles on the River Porciúncula

By Howard H. Metcalfe
Sent by Johanna de Soto and Mary Ayers M3Ayers 
Site of Original Pueblo
http://www.lanopalera.net/LAHistory/LASite.html  

Probable Location of the Original Pueblo de la Reina de los Ángeles on the River Porciúncula
By Howard H. Metcalfe

This article discusses the origin and location of the original pueblo of Los Angeles, founded on September 4th, 1781 and confirmed on September 4th, 1786. This pueblo deteriorated and a gradual abandonment and move to the present location around the current plaza took place between about 1815 (the year of a major flood) and 1835 (the year Los Angeles was elevated to a ciudad) the precise years not being known.

Contents
1872 Description of the Original Pueblo 
1976 Description of the Original Pueblo 
Probable Location of the Original Pueblo 
Counterpoint; Conclusion; Harlow's Sources; Appendix; Notes 

1872 Description of the Original Pueblo
The early history of the city was well described in the first Los Angeles City and County Directory, published in 1872.[1] The relevant portion of the directory is reproduced verbatim below, with the author's comments in footnotes.[2]

Los Angeles City
The City of Los Angeles was founded on the 4th day of September, 1781, in conformity with the laws of Spain, providing for the settlement and organization of towns (pueblos) or municipal communities. The founders of the town had, mostly, if not all, been soldiers;[3] and, although relieved from active service were entitled to and continued to receive pay and rations during the supremacy of the Spanish Government in California. The settlement consisted of twelve families. One of the settlers was a widower having one child, a daughter, aged eleven years. The others were all married and eight of them had children. The eldest of the settlers was sixty-seven years old, one was fifty-five and three were fifty years of age, and one was forty-two and the others were from nineteen--the youngest, an Indian--to thirty-eight. The average age of the twelve male settlers was thirty-nine and two-thirds years. There were eleven married women. The whole number of children were twenty-three, only three of which were over ten years old. Eleven of the children were boys and twelve were girls. The community numbered in all forty-six souls. Of the twelve men, heads of families, two were Spaniards, two mulattoes, two negros, four Indians, one Chinaman[4] and one half-breed (Indian and negro). Of the women, six were mulattoes and five were Indians. The adults were natives of Lower California, Sonora and Sinaloa, excepting the two Spaniards and the Chinaman.

Each family was furnished from the royal treasury, with two oxen, two mules, two mares, two sheep, two goats, two cows with one calf, one ass and one hoe, and to the community the necessary tools of a cart maker. These articles, inclusive of the live stock, were all charged to the individuals or the community at a price established by the Government and that amount was to be deducted, in small installments, from their pay.

For the town site a parallelogram one hundred varas[5] long by seventy-five in width was laid out. Upon three sides of this twelve were house lots, each forty by twenty varas, excepting the two corner lots, which fronting in part on two sides of the square were of a different figure. One half the remaining side of the parallelogram was open, the other half was for the guard house, royal officers and a granery. The location of this town site was above or northeast of the present Catholic Church site. The guard house and royal building which occupied the west half of the southwestern side of the parallelogram were on the opposite side of Main street from Campbell's store.[6] The four lines of the parallelogram instead of running towards the four cardinal points were about equi distant between these points. An irrigating ditch bringing water from the river passed along to the east of and in the rear of and close to those lots on the southeast corner of the square. Thirty fields for cultivation were also laid out.[7] Twenty-six of these fields contained each forty thousand square varas. They were, with the exception of four, which were three hundred varas by one hundred, two hundred varas square and separated by lanes three varas wide. These fields were located between the river and the irrigating ditch and mostly above a line running direct and nearly east from the located town site to the river. The distance from the irrigating ditch to the river across these fields was upwards of twelve hundred varas. At that time the river ran along by where now stands the houses of Julian Chavis and Elijah Moulton,[8] and the easternmost of these fields were close to the river.

It is evident that when the town was laid out, the bluff bank which in modern times extended from Aliso street up by the Stearns Mill to the toma[9] did not exist, but was made when the river moved near the town.

The surnames of the twelve settlers were Lara, Navarro, Rosas, Mesa, Villavicencio, Banegas, Rosas, Rodriguez, Camero, Quintero, Mereno and Rodriguez.[10] Subsequent to the settlement of the town, the river abandoned its bed and moved to the west side of all the fields and flowed along where the Eagle Mill now stands, and where Alameda street is now located. The old fields were either washed away or covered up with sand by the change of the river bed. In 1825 the river again left its bed and made a new one nearly intermediate between the two preceding ones.

From its settlement the growth of the town was very slow for a period of fifty years. Its growth was dependent upon the natural increase of the settlers by additional soldiers, as they were from time to time relieved from active service and permitted to make the town of Los Angeles their residence.

About 1836 the town (pueblo) was created a city and made the capital of Alta California by act of the Mexican Congress, and the Governor, Don Carlos Carrillo, during his brief administration made it the seat of the Civil Government. After the expulsion of Micheltoreno it again became the seat of Government under the administration of Don Pio Pico, in 1844, and so continued until the emigration, in August, 1846, of the Mexican authorities upon the occupation of California by the United States forces.

The corporate limits of the city extend one Spanish league[11] north, east and west, and one Spanish league and four hundred yards south from the centre of the plaza. The Los Angeles river, originally called the Porciuncula, flows through the city limits, a little east of the centre, in nearly a south course. Nearly all the buildings and inhabitants of the city are upon the west side of the river.

From some undefined cause the growth or extension of the improved or built up part of the city has ever been in a southwesterly direction. Notwithstanding that for a period of fifty years, until 1832, the town was a quasi military post, the able-bodied male population being on the muster rolls and performing guard duty by day and night at the guard house, and field duty whenever circumstances required, the public square and houses around it fell into decay and ruins, while the accession was mostly on the southwest of the original site. This might have been and probably was caused by the change in the bed of the river, the destruction of the agricultural fields and the washing out and leaving the bed of the river so much where the water was taken out, that the water could not be brought into the original ditch, and the inhabitants were forced to make new fields in the neighborhood of what is now San Pedro street. But whatever may have at first impelled that people to extend the town southwesterly, its growth in time past has been and at present is in that direction. 

Please go to the site for much more information . . . .


History of Floods in Los Angeles 
http://www.lalc.k12.ca.us/target/units/river/tour/hist.html
Sent by Johanna De Soto

Gabrielino Era--The central village of the Gabrielino indians, Yangna, is established near the river and a large sycamore tree, or "council tree". Approximately 200 people live in Yangna, which was near present-day downtown Los Angeles. Recent excavations near Olvera Street have revealed Gabrielino artifacts over 3,000 years old. 24 
1769--Portola Expedition and Juan Crespi document the Los Angeles River. 
1777--Govenor DeNeve selects the sight for Los Angeles on the site of the current City Hall, a few blocks from the river. 
1781--The Zanja Madre dam was built to supply water and irrigation for the young city. 
1811-- Flooding 
1815--The original Plaza is washed away as the river overflows and changes course at Alameda and Fourth Street to cut west across the low land and empty in Ballona Creek. The great "council tree", of the Gabrielino village of Yangna survives the flood. 
1825--Govenor Pico recorded in his diary that the L.A. River changed its course back from the Ballona wetlands to San Pedro. Woodland between the pueblo and the ocean destoryed (woodland along the 110 FWY?). Marshland drained by the new channel. 
1832--Heavy flooding 
1845--Rancho Encino established at the head of the L.A. River. 
1857--Los Angeles Water Works created under the direction of William Dryden. A water wheel was built at the Zanja Madre dam. The Great Fort Tejon earthquake also occurred, Southern California's last BIG earthquake. 
1861-62--Heavy flooding. Fifty inches of rain falls during December and January. Much of San Fernando Valley is under water. City's embankment and Dryden's system are destroyed. 
1867--Floods again spill over the old channel and create a large, temporary lake out to Ballona Creek. 
1876--The Novician Deluge 
1884--Heavy flooding causes the river to change course again, turning east to Vernon and then southward to San Pedro. The Downtown section of the river is channelized. 
1888 to1891--Annual floods. 
1896--Col. Griffith J. Griffith donates over five miles of riverfront property to the city with the expectation that Griffith Park would become a grand riverfront park. 
1899--San Pedro is selected over Santa Monica and Redondo Beach as the official site for the L.A. deep water harbor. 
1904--William Mulholland announces that L.A. will need new water sources. 
1914--Heavy flooding. Great damage to the harbor. Public called for creation of the L.A. County Flood Control District and discussion of channelizing the river begins. 
1921,27--Moderate flood. 
1934--Moderate flood starting January 1. Fourty dead in La Canada. 
1938--Great County-wide flood with 4 days of rain. Most rain on day 4. Red Cross said this was the 5th largest flood in history at that time with 113 lives lost, $40 million in damage ($360 million in 1994 dollars). Recorded as a 50 year storm. Public demands action. Army Corps of Engineers begins channelizing the river with 10,000 workers applying 3,000,000 barrels of concrete by hand. 
1940--Sepulveda Flood Basin and dam is completed to catch excess water before it jumps the channel down stream. 
1941 to 44--L.A. River floods five times. 
1952--Moderate flooding 
1969--One heavy flood after 9 day storm. One moderate flood. 
1978--Two moderate floods 
1980-Flood tops banks of river in Long Beach. Sepulveda Basin spillway almost opened. 
1983--Flooding kills six people. 
1991--Army Corps proposes to raise levees from Rio Hondo to Long Beach to protect against a 100 year flood. 
1992--15 year flood. Motorists trapped in Sepulveda basin. Six people dead. 
1994--Heavy flooding. Estimates range from a 15 to over a 100 year flood. The City of Los Angeles, Department of Public Works, has published a history of the city's flood control system.

 
GENEALOGY INTRODUCTION, La Mirada Adult School Class

La Mirada Adult School is offering a class on beginning genealogical research:
WED. 8:45 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.  ( no fee) 714-670-9279 for info.
Fri. 8:45a.m. to 12:p.m. Excelsior Norwalk (no fee) 562- 868-9858 for info.
Nacho Peña  Ipena777@aol.com


 Early California Wills, Los Angeles 
From: ron@sfgenealogy.com

The TAG project has finished the first two volumes of Early California Wills.

Volume 1. Los Angeles County Wills, 1850-1885
Volume 2. Los Angeles County Wills, 1885-1890
http://www.sfgenealogy.com/tag/9-calwills/index.htm

I saw a few California-Spanish names in both volumes. There are indexes for both. 
http://www.sfgenealogy.com/spanish/

Southern California Genealogical Society

We are very pleased to announce that the complete LIBRARY CATALOG of  books, manuscripts and family histories has been added to the SCGS website.   The catalog holds information on over 30,000 genealogical reference items held in the library. The collection includes materials from every state in the US, as well as extensive special collections (e.g. French-Canadian, German, Hispanic, etc.). The catalog can be accessed at http://www.scgsgenealogy.com/catalogMain.htm.

If you live in the neighborhood or are planning a trip to the library soon, use the catalog to organize your next visit from the comfort of home. Or if you're not able to visit the SCGS library in person, search online for materials that will help complete your family's history, and request lookups
from our Research Team for a nominal fee.

Other recent updates to the SCGS website include: 
1. Free downloadable e-book addendum to Marie Northrop's Volume III. 
This supplement, written by noted Los Angeles historian William Mason, includes a fascinating account of the early history of Los Angeles, in addition to genealogical content.
2. New database additions - Fairfax High Graduation (Spring 1932) and LeConte Junior High Graduation (1929).
3. Details on the October 22 Family History Writing seminar conducted by Tom Underhill and Andy Pomeroy. You can register online, too!

Southern California Genealogical Society
417 Irving Drive, Burbank, California 91504-2408
phone: 818-843-7247  email: scgs@scgsgenealogy.com



Los Angeles Under the Spanish Flag  
From: ron@sfgenealogy.com 

The Southern California Genealogical Society has a "Free downloadable e-book addendum to Marie Northrop's [Northrup] Volume III.  This supplement, written by noted Los Angeles historian William Mason, includes a fascinating account of the early history of Los Angeles, in addition to genealogical content."

The name of the supplement is "Los Angeles Under the Spanish Flag, Spain's New World."
It is available in PDF format at: http://www.scgsgenealogy.com/storage/Northrup3.pdf

Southern California Genealogical Society
http://www.scgsgenealogy.com/

October 15, 2005: 7th annual Latino History Parade & Jamaica 

This day of living history will provide an opportunity to experience the past in the present. This will be a celebration, taking place on the streets of Los Robles and Washington and culminating in a festival in Washington park, which will include entertainment food and exhibitors representing various types of organizations.

For any questions or more information contact
Exhibit Coordinator
626-683-0599
Latinoheritage@mindspring.com


October 28, 2005: National Center for the Preservation of Democracy

The program of he National Center for the Preservation of Democracy will inspire educators and motivate middle and high school students to actively engage in the American democratic process.

111 North Central Ave., LA, CA 90012
Tel: 213-830-1880
Fax:213-830-5674
E-Mail info@ncdemocracy.org
www.NCDEMOCRACY.org


Sunday, October 30 Noon - 4:30 pm Free Admission
Children's Fall Harvest Festival


Come to the Rancho and enjoy activities and entertainment focused on the unique symbols and traditions celebrating harvest throughout the world. A passport of stories will guide you to craft experience throughout the Rancho.

Rancho Los Alamitos Historic Ranch & Gardens
6400 bixby Hill Road, Long Beach, Ca 90815
(562) 431-3541
www.rancholosalamitos.com

 

CALIFORNIA

California Mission Horticulture
LearnCalifornia.org
Oct 8: The Second Annual Fiesta del Rio 
The Census of 1790 California
De La Rosa and Hijar Padre Colony  

Missionhistory.com
California State Census
Monterey Peninsula History/Monterey Symposium
Women's Experiences in the Age of Anza: Pregnancy, birth and infancy
Chicano Representation In California (1985-1992)
Catalan Volunteers Correction
Sequoia Genealogical Society
One last call on Yorba 
Villa De Branciforte Preservation
Dorinda Moreno
Profundo Amor by Joe Olvera

 

 


New Book on California Mission Horticulture has been published  

From: Michael Hardwick hardwic2@cox.net 

.   
The book was published by: The Paragon Agency Publishers PO Box 1281 Orange, CA. 92856 (714) 771-0652 available  www.SpecialBooks.com or through myself hardwic2@cox.net

PREFACE
            Long before Europeans mapped the region, California’s tallest mountains, largest lakes, longest rivers, and oldest trees all had names.  What was labeled wilderness by European explorers was a human homeland for Native Americans.  Native peoples gathered wild plants for their harvests.  They regularly burned the landscape to rejuvenate it.

            Introduction of agriculture through the California Missions changed the ecosystem of California. Natural plantings gave way to introduced ones, and livestock grazing facilitated dispersal of introduced plants.  Native use of fire was curtailed in favor of agricultural pursuits.  California Indians became neophytes, ranchers, and mission farmers. The Missions of Mexico established the pattern for those founded in California. Franciscans introduced agriculture in an attempt to make Missions self-supporting. Planting cereals and grains defined mission agriculture. Crop yields were reported in annual reports.  Little mention was made of ornamental plantings and harvests of fruits and vegetables in the reports.  It is from Mission correspondence and other accounts that a picture emerges of the horticulture introduced to the Missions of California.  Missions located on the coast became experimental stations for horticulture as ships brought plants to them from far away places.

            The Secularization Act of 1833 changed all of this.  Newly-granted ranches focused on livestock. Mission communities disintegrated as did the agriculture and horticulture fostered by them. California landscapes changed again as agriculture and horticulture declined.  Today horticultural plantings around the Missions are on the endangered list.  The Huerta Project at Old Mission Santa Bárbara, described in the Appendix of this book, is propagating and preserving heirloom plants that grew at the Missions.  This gardening effort is a living museum and a resource for those interested in restoring original Mission plant communities.

Regards,
Mike Hardwick
Santa Barbara


The photo of me is at El Presidio State Historic Park in Santa Barbara. I am pointing to one of the Mission-Era grapevines that they have transplanted there.


LearnCalifornia.org



Welcome to LearnCalifornia.org, the electronic resource for students, teachers and everyone else interested in California history! This easy to use site combines the collections of the California State Archives with the power of the Internet to bring you reliable and entertaining information about the Golden State. Teacher lesson plans are provided and aligned with the California Department of Education's content standards for California public schools. Bookmark us to easily stay up to date on new materials! Get started by clicking one of the buttons below." 

LearnCalifornia.org   http://www.learncalifornia.org/default.asp
Sent by Johanna De Soto


October 8: The Second Annual Fiesta del Rio 

The Fiesta is a celebration of the peoples, cultures, history, and environment of the San Diego/Northern Baja region surrounding the Tijuana River Estuary. The Fiesta celebrates the heritage, pride, and cultures of the two countries, Mexico and the U.S., to which the estuary belongs.

For more information contact
Los Californianos, Benita Gray
Phone 858-538-3027
E-mail Gray850@aol.com


THE CENSUS OF 1790 CALIFORNIA
http://www.sfgenealogy.com/sf/ca1790.htm

Sent by Richard Ortiz ol_coach@cox.net
Includes information on: Los Angeles; Missions; Monterey; San Diego; San Francisco; San Jose; Santa Barbara 

According to the compilers (William Marvin Mason, et. al.), this data was taken from the "Revillagigedo Census of 1793," and that the data was originally collected in 1790. The information in the brackets [] has been added by them from church records. Also, the meaning of the caste terms (español, española, india, indio, mestiza, mestizo, mulata, mulato) varied from one year to the next and may not be an accurate description; please refer to Mason's book for a full discussion regarding caste terms. 

The information in the braces {} have been added from Mutnick, Northrop, and Temple's Mission Abstracts. Birthdates have been added for some of the younger children to assist in determining the timeframe of the date of the census for the respective areas.  

 

De La Rosa and Hijar-Padres Colony  
From: ron@sfgenealogy.com 

I have a researcher looking for information on the De La Rosa family who was part of the Hijar-Padres Colony. Is anyone researching that line? Also, for your historical entertainment:

In 1834, Mexican authorities, motivated by political considerations as well as the Russian presence above the San Francisco Bay at Fort Ross, organized a hapless enterprise called the "Hijar-Padres Colony". Recruited from Mexico City and the Valley of Mexico, among those that settled in Alta California permanently were Jose Abrego, Juan N. Ayala, Charles Baric, Mariano Bonilla, Jose Ygnacio Franco Coronel, Jose Maria Covarrubias, Nicanor Estrada, Zenon Fernandez, Gumesindo Flores, Francisco Guerrero, Auguste Janssens, Francisco Castillo Negrete, Jesus Noe, Francisco Ocampo, Simon O'Donoju, Agustin Olvera, Victor Prudon, Jose de la Rosa and Florencio Serrano.

http://www.sfgenealogy.com/spanish/calfam.htm

Padrés (José María), 1830, nat. of Puebla; in '25 lieutenant of engineers and secretary of the commanding general at Loreto; acting commander and sub-gefe político after Echeandía's departure for California. In '30, having been promoted to lieutenant-colonel, he came to California as ayudante inspector of the troop. ii. 607,674; iii.46,52,57,190. In '31 he acted also as inspector of customs; as fiscal in the Rubio case; was the instigator of Echandía's secularization decree; and was arbitrarily sent to Mexico by Governor Victoria. iii. 184-5, 192-3, 197, 304-5, 376; iv. 160. In Mexico he devised the H. and P. colonization scheme, and returned to California in '34 with the appointment of director of the colony in addition to his former position as inspector, which latter he soon resigned. In '35 with his associate Híjar he was sent to Mexico by Figueroa to be tried on a charge of revolutionary plots. iii. 259-69, 272-91, 383, 613, 652, 670. Nothing is known in his later career, though a man of the same name figures at Ures, Sonora, as a petty official in '44-8. Padrés was a man of remarkable energy, intelligence, and magnetism, a most radical republican in the Mexican sense of the term; and one whose influence was long felt in California, through his teachings to the young men who later controlled the country. So well did they learn their lesson, indeed, that in colony times they turned against their teacher when he seemed to have forgotten their claims to office.

Source: Register of Pioneer Inhabitants of California 1542 to 1848 and Index to Information Concerning Them in Bancroft's History of California Volumes I-V, by Hubert Howe Bancroft.


Mission History
http://missionhistory.com/california_mission_links.asp
Sent by Johanna De Soto

Outstanding website . . . These links are only a small sample of what is available.

The Archival Center: The Archival Center of the Diocese of Los Angeles is housed at Mission San Fernando under the care of Msgr. Francis J. Weber. This website is a guide to the Center and how to use it. 

Archives of SPANBORD@ASU.EDU : Spanish Borderlands message board (SPANBORD) archive, February 1995 to present, arranged by month and year, topics listed alphabetically within each month. 

California Central Coast Archaeology: The latest information on the activities of the San Luis Obispo County Archaeological Society (SLOCAS) plus links and information on various Central Coast archaeological projects. 

California History Online: Online survey of California history from the earliest times to the 1930s, by James J. Rawls in cooperation with the California Historical Society. The chapters are available in by clicking on icons on the annotated timeline which appears on the home page, or by clicking on the Text Only link. 

California Missions Foundation:  Homepage of the California Missions Foundation 

California Faces: Selections from the Bancroft Library Portrait Collection

More than 1200 portraits of Californians from the mid-19th century to the 1990s. In the left frame, click "Container Listing" and scroll down to find subjects from the Mexican period such as Juan Bautista Alvarado, Juan Bandini, Josefa Carrillo, Cave Johnson Couts, Richard Henry Dana, William Goodwin Dana, Jose Antonio Estudillo, Pablo de la Guerra, Manuel Micheltorena, Andres and Pio Pico, M.G. Vallejo and his son Platon, and many others. . Part of the Berkeley Digital Library "California Heritage" site. More from this site in Pictorial Resources listed below. 


Portuguese Ancestry
Vol. V No. 2 
July 1995

California State Census, 1852

Lost an ancestor in 1850? . . . . Try checking the 1852 California State Census. Over 50,000 people traveled overland to the gold fields while more went by ship. Census gives the person's residence and most answered with the name of the state from which they came. (CSGA Newsltr Vol 12, #10 Oct 1994.)

 

Monterey Symposium
Friday, October 21 to 
Sunday, October 23, 2005
Northern Symposium- Monterey
Mary Lou Lyon, Chairperson
Phone: (408) 253-9514
E-mail Malyon_1999@yahoo.com



Monterey Peninsula History Overview

Native Americans lived here for millennia from 500 BC to 500 AD, before others from different parts of the world landed on Monterey's shores. We know very little about the First People who settled in the vicinity of what is now Monterey, but we do know what drew them here: an abundance offish and wildlife and other natural resources. The native people hunted and gathered food "eating salmon and steelhead, mussels and abalone, quail and geese, rabbit and bear, as well as a host of other mammals, birds, shellfish, reptiles, and plants." Several of their village sites have been identified and preserved. Historical records indicate that Monterey was "discovered" again by other peoples when Spanish explorer Juan Rodriquez Cabrillo first saw La Bahia de los Pinos (Bay of Pines) on November 17,1542. Many years later, in December, 1602, Sebastian Viscaino officially named the port "Monterey", in honor of the Viceroy of New Spain who had ordered his expedition. His band of 200 men gave thanks to God for their safe journey in a ceremony held under a large oak tree overlooking the bay. An expedition by land and sea brought Gaspar de Portola and Franciscan Father Junipero Serra to Monterey in 1770. There they established the Mission and Presidio of San Carlos de Borromeo de Monterey. Under the same oak tree where Viscaino had prayed, Father Serra said mass for his brave group. A year later, in 1771, Father Serra moved the mission to Carmel, which offered a better agricultural and political environment; the Presidio Church in Monterey, however, continued in use. In 1776, Spain named Monterey as the capital of Baja (lower) and Alta (upper) California. This same year, Captain Juan Bautista de Anza arrived from Sonora with the first settlers for Spanish California, most of them bound for San Jose. Monterey's soldiers and their wives lived at the Presidio for decades. In 1818, Argentinean revolutionary privateer Hippolyte Bouchard sacked the town in an effort to destroy Spain's presence in California. After this shocking event, residents began to expand outside the Presidio, building residences throughout Monterey. In April, 1822, the people of Monterey learned that Mexico had seceded from Spain; California pledged allegiance to the Mexican Government. While Spain had not allowed foreigners to trade with California, Mexico opened up the area to international trade, and Monterey was made California's sole port of entry. Traffic with English and American vessels for the hide and tallow trade became an important part of the economy. A dried steer hide valued at about a dollar was termed a "California Bank Note". The hides were shipped to New England, where they were used to make saddles, harnesses, and shoes. Tallow was melted down in large rendering pots and poured into bags of hides or bladders to be delivered to the trading ships, for ultimate conversion to candles and soap. In 1827, in response to the increasing importance of foreign trade, the Custom House was built in Monterey. The booming trade, especially with New England, brought a number of Americans—called "Yanquis"— to Monterey. Many of them married into Mexican families, and became Mexican citizens. In 1842 the United States established a consulate in Monterey and Thomas Larkin was appointed its first consul. Under Mexican rule, the missions were secularized in the mid-1830s, and many land grants were made to private citizens. An elite class of landed "Califomios" grew up in California. They became the basis for the romanticized vision of Mexican California that was reflected in such novels as Helen Hunt Jackson's Ramona.ln July, 1846, Commodore John Drake Sloat's flagship arrived in Monterey Bay and his troops raised the American flag, claiming the region for the United States. This began a period of American occupation that lasted until the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed in 1848, making all of Alta California part of the United States. This included the land now known as California, Utah, Nevada, and parts of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Wyoming. In Monterey, U.S. Naval Chaplain Walter Colton, was appointed to serve as Monterey's first American Alcalde, a position defined as Mayor and Judge. Colton, a graduate of Yale University and Andover Seminary, was well-known as a just and honorable man and thus was considered well qualified to hold this important position. In 1846, he and Robert Semple established California's first newspaper. The Californian. Colton designed and supervised the construction of the first public building constructed under the American flag, Colton Hall, built to serve as a public school and town meeting hall. In 1849, California's military governor called for a constitutional convention, to be held in Monterey's Colton Hall. The new bilingual constitution was signed on October 13, 1849. On September 9,1850, the U.S. Congress voted to adopt California as the thirty-first state of the Union. San Jose was chosen as the seat for the first Legislature. (The official definition of a State Capital is where the Legislature sits; therefore Monterey never was the State Capital.) After California gained its Statehood, the legislature formed counties. Monterey served as the Monterey County seat of government until 1873, when Salinas took over that role. From 1873 to 1896, Colton Hall was the Monterey Public School. Since then, the building has been used as city offices, police courts, and today, as a museum. Colton Hall is owned by the City of Monterey.

Information courtesy of the Colton Hall Museum, City of Monterey

 


Excerpt: 
Women's Experiences in the Age of Anza:
Pregnancy, birth and infancy
El Rancho Moraga Newsletter
Aug/Sep 2005

Spanish society was based upon the family and young wives hoped for a quick pregnancy. If not pregnant during the first year, a wife was pitied and could lose social status. Many traditions and superstitions were prevalent such as believing that "open kidneys" impeded pregnancy. Prayer and pilgrimage were common to ask for a child.

Once a woman became pregnant, her antojos or cravings were supported, as they believed otherwise the baby would be born with a birthmark in the shape of the desired food. Other superstitions revolved around pregnancy as well. During childbirth the woman usually sat on a chair or on her husband's knees and would blow on bottles, or try to gag herself with her own hair to promote vomits and thus speed contractions. After childbirth, if the family could afford it, the mother would observe cuarentena* a forty-day resting period.

The baby often was baptized early, before the mother had risen, because the Spanish believed that babies who died not baptized would remain in limbo. Baptisms were festive occasions. The selections of Godparents was important, as they were to be spiritual leaders of the godchild, as well as surrogate parents in the event anything happened to the parents. Godparents were usually friends of the parents and the bond between parents and godparents became stronger than that between the godparents and the child, (see note)

Chumash and Ohione births were also important processes, marked by spiritual rituals. What most shocked the Spanish and other Europeans is that Chumash women went to great lengths to lose their first child. If the child were not aborted, it would die immediately after birth. Their superstition told them that if they did not lose the first child, they would never conceive again. The high infant mortality rate controlled the population. Women knew how to induce" abortions, and the curing shaman would help them. Chumash women gave birth by digging a hole whenever labor began, which was lined with straw. Husbands could not touch their wives until the child could stand alone.

Ohione women would avoid fish, meat and salt while pregnant and would shape their newborn infant's head by pressing firmly into the child's forehead and pushing towards the sides. Chumash flattened the child's nose instead, to give them a mark of community. Ohione infants were bathed at least once a day by their mother and carried in a basketry cradle.

Childhood and education

In the Spanish side, the average number of children per family in Los Angeles during the 1830's was 4.4 children, though there is record of fertile families, such as Teresa Hartnell who gave birth to 18 children in Santa Barbara.

The education of children in religion and social roles began as soon as the child was active. They were taught social, cultural and family values and responsibility so they could function in society. Children in the New World were taught skills that were useful in frontier living, such as horseback riding, use of the lasso, etc. as well as more social subjects such as dancing, music, poetry and songs.


 


Chicano Representation In California 

(1985-1992)

By John P. Schmal


From 1962 to 1985, the Chicano community of California had witnessed a revival of its political representation, this following a period of many decades during which Hispanic Americans had little or no representation anywhere in the State. In 1985, seven Chicanos were seated California State Legislature, making up 6% of the total membership of that political body: Chacón, Alatorre, Calderon and Molina served in the Assembly, while Montoya, Ayala and Torres occupied seats in the Senate. At the same time, three Chicano Congressman continued to serve as delegates from California in the House of Representatives.

Arthur K. Snyder and the 14th Council District
The most important events affecting Chicano representation in California during the mid-1980s were taking place in Los Angeles. Between 1950 and 1980, the Hispanic population of Los Angeles County had increased dramatically from 6.9% to 27.6% of the total county population. And yet, at the beginning of 1985, no Latino sat on the Los Angeles City Council or the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.

In the Los Angeles City Council, Councilman Arthur K. Snyder continued to represent a significant portion of East Los Angeles’ Chicano community. Serving since July 7, 1967, Snyder had presided over the heavily Latino 14th District and survived four regular election and two recall votes against younger Chicano challengers. As a result, no Latinos had served on the Los Angeles City Council since Edward Roybal’s departure in 1962.

By 1985, the 14th District, with a population of about 200,000 residents, was roughly 75% Latino and ready for a change in the political landscape to match its own demographic evolution. However, only about half of the 14th District’s 60,000 registered voters were Latino, with the most significant voter strength based in the district's mostly Anglo, conservative Eagle Rock area. The other principal neighborhoods of the district were Boyle Heights, Lincoln Heights, El Sereno and Highland Park, with larger numbers of non-citizen immigrants. 

The stage was set for political change at the beginning of January 1985, when Councilperson Snyder announced that he would retire later in the year. Although Snyder later changed the date of his resignation, he finally left office on October 4, 1985, unleashing a rush of candidates interested in succeeding him. The City Council scheduled a special election in December to fill the position.

Richard Alatorre Joins the City Council
In the special election held on Tuesday, Dec. 10, 1985, Assemblyman Richard Alatorre won 60% of the vote against six opponents, including City Planner Steve Rodriguez, who obtained only 16% of the votes. With this victory, Richard Alatorre thus became the first Latino in 23 years to be elected to the Los Angeles City Council. He took office on December 20, 1985.

Alatorre seemed to be a logical replacement for Councilperson Snyder, given that his Assembly District shared the communities of Lincoln Heights, El Sereno, Highland Park and Eagle Rock in common with Snyder’s domain. While Snyder’s Councilmanic district also included Boyle Heights, Alatorre’s Assembly district also included South Pasadena and part of the City of Pasadena.

Ironically, two weeks earlier, on November 26, 1985, the United States Justice Department had filed a lawsuit against the City of Los Angeles, charging “a history of official discrimination” against Latinos. With this suit, the Justice Department sought to invalidate the City's 1982 redistricting plan as a violation of the Chicano community’s rights as a minority. The civil complaint, filed in federal court in Los Angeles, named Mayor Tom Bradley, thirteen current City Council members and City Clerk Elias Martinez as defendants. 

The suit accused the City of Los Angeles of deliberately drawing political boundaries in such a way as to disperse Latinos over several council districts to intentionally splinter their political power. The Justice Department contended that the redistricting plan – approved unanimously by the City Council in September 1982 – violated Section 2 by dividing an expanding core concentration of Latinos surrounding the downtown area among seven of the 15 council districts. 

As a result of this fracturing, only one council district contained a majority of Latinos and the strength of the Chicano voting community as a whole was diluted. This represented a violation of their civil rights under the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment and the voting rights provisions of the 15th Amendment to the Constitution. The suit concluded that this redistricting plan was “... effectuated for the purpose, and with the result, of avoiding the higher Hispanic percentages in certain districts that would be the logical result of drawing district boundaries on a non-racial basis.” It alleged that their reapportionment plan – approved at a time when no Chicanos served on the Council – violated the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which bars any practice or procedure that abridges a person's voting rights. 

Between 1970 and 1980, the Latino population of Los Angeles had risen from 18% to 27%. But, until Alatorre took office on December 20th, 1985, that 27% of Los Angeles’ population was essentially without the representation of an elected Chicano official on the Council. In contrast, three African-American Councilmen – Gilbert W. Lindsay, Robert Farrell and David Cunningham – sat on the Council, while an African-American, Mayor Tom Bradley, served as the Mayor of the entire city.

Population of LA City in 1970:
Hispanic: 18.3%
Black: 17.7%

Population of LA City in 1980:
Hispanic: 27.5%
Black: 21.5%


On Tuesday, Dec. 17, 1985, Richard Alatorre, three days before he was scheduled to take office as Los Angeles' first Latino council member in 23 years, was appointed Chairman of the Council’s Charter and Elections Committee, which would review the city's controversial reapportionment plan. City Council President Pat Russell told reporters at this time that she appointed Alatorre because he was a Latino and because he had been the Chairman of the state legislative committee that drew up the 1982 California reapportionment plan. 

The topic of redistricting took up a great deal of the Council’s time during the first half of 1986. However, on August 12, 1986, Los Angeles City Councilman Howard Finn died very abruptly of a ruptured aorta. Since 1981, Councilman Finn had represented the 1st Council District, which ran through the northeast part of the San Fernando Valley, including Shadow Hills, Pacoima, Sun Valley, and Sunland-Tujunga. 

Immediately, it was recognized that Finn's death might open the way to the eventual election of the first Latino from the San Fernando Valley to the Council. The Council had adopted and scrapped two plans before settling on final boundaries for revised Councilmanic districts. The 1st District, left vacant by the death of Councilman Finn, was carved from six existing districts and recreated into a new district north and west of Downtown Los Angeles. 

Now containing a 69% Latino population, the 1st District included Elysian Park, Elysian Valley, Chinatown, Lincoln Park, Cypress Park, Pico-Union, Temple-Beaudry, Montecito Heights and parts of Highland Park, Echo Park, Glassell Park and Mount Washington. It also had a population that was 25% Caucasian, 14% Asian and 2% Black. However, although the district had a majority Latino population, Chicanos represented only 40% of the voters, in large part because of its large immigrant population and low voter registration among Hispanics.

Joan Kradin became the Chief Deputy for the newly reconfigured 1st District, which contained a population of 200,000 residents. On October 2, 1986, the Council announced that a Special Municipal Election would be held on Tuesday, February 3, 1987 for the purpose of filling the vacancy in the First District. Soon there were four candidates vying for the 1st District seat: State Assemblywoman Gloria Molina, Larry Gonzalez, Leland Wong and Paul D. Y. Moore, a former aide to Mayor Tom Bradley.

On Nov. 6, 1986, Assemblywoman Gloria Molina, backed by significant political support, announced that she would run for a seat on the Los Angeles City Council representing the newly created, largely Latino 1st District. On February 3, 1987, Assemblywoman Gloria Molina took an early lead and went on to win with 6,711 votes, or 57% of the vote, while Larry Gonzalez placed a distant second with 3,001 votes, or 26%. Gonzalez, who was backed by many influential members of the Eastside political establishment, failed to force a runoff election as many had expected.

On February 27, 1987, Gloria Molina became City Councilperson. She was the fourth woman to serve on the Council and was its first Latina representative in history. Councilwoman Molina would serve as Councilperson for four years. Four years later, in February 1991, Molina would resign her Council position after winning election to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. 

Changes in the Assembly
With Alatorre’s move to the City Council, it was necessary to have an election to fill his Eastside Assembly seat. On April 8, 1986, Richard Polanco, a former legislative aide, won 39% of the vote in the primary election designed to fill the unexpired term of Alatorre. His closest competitor, Mike Hernandez, a local bond and insurance agent, had won about 37% of the vote. Facing the Republican candidate, Loren Lutz, in the June 3rd runoff election, Polanco won his seat as representative of the 55th Assembly District. Mike Hernandez would later win election to the Los Angeles City Council.

When Gloria Molina vacated her position in the legislature in 1987, a new personality stepped forward to fill the void created in the Assembly. Born and raised in Boyle Heights, Lucille Roybal-Allard, a Democrat from Los Angeles, was the daughter of the Congressman Edward Roybal, the pioneer who had opened the door for California Chicano legislators in Congress in 1962. On Tuesday, May 12, 1987, Ms. Roybal-Allard won a special election for the 56th District Assembly seat by a wide margin over nine opponents, easily stepping into Assemblywoman Molina’s shoes. Assemblywoman Roybal-Allard’s district consisted of the Civic Center, part of Chinatown, Little Tokyo, Boyle Heights, unincorporated East Los Angeles and the cities of Commerce, Maywood, Vernon and Bell Gardens.

The County Board of Supervisors
On September 8, 1988, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, charging that the County had committed political discrimination against Latinos. The redistricting lawsuit, filed under the Voting Rights Act, contended that Latinos “have been the victims of official discrimination,” and that this discrimination had effectively prevented them from being elected to the governing five-member board that controlled the budget and services for Los Angeles County’s 8.5 million residents.

The Justice Department declared that the County had “failed to take the action necessary to allow Hispanic citizens a fair opportunity for equal political participation” and that this neglect had “fragmented” the bulk of the Latino population over three supervisory districts, thus diluting their voting strength. The result, the suit continued, was “a disparate and injurious effect” on the ability of Latinos to participate in the political process and elect a Latino to the Board.

The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund and the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California filed a similar discrimination lawsuit against the County around the same time. On June 4, 1990, U.S. District Judge David V. Kenyon ruled that the Board of Supervisors intentionally discriminated against the county's Latinos when drawing district boundaries in 1981. When the new district was drawn up later in the year, it included Highland Park, Boyle Heights, East Los Angeles, Rosemead, El Monte, Pico Rivera and Montebello. The revised district was 71% Latino, in contrast to the 49% Latinos in the old district. The percentage of Latino voters in the district just tipped over the halfway mark at 51%. It was decided that a candidate would have to receive more than 50% of the vote in the January 22, 1991 election. Otherwise, a runoff election would take place on February 19 to match the two persons with the most votes from the earlier election.

Senator Art Torres and Councilwoman Gloria Molina were the two top winners in the January 22 election. When they went against each other in the February runoff election, Molina won with 55% of the vote, becoming the first Hispanic to sit as an L.A. County Board member in 115 years. She took office March 8, 1991

The End of the 1980s
Although their population in the State of California was growing by leaps and bounds, Latinos only constituted 7.9% of all California voters in the 1988 state and national elections. By the end of the 1980s, the Latino community had elected ten people to represent its districts: three in Congress, three in the State Senate and four in the Assembly. But, for all the progress made in that decade, Chicanos still occupied only 5.8% of the total seats in the Assembly and Senate.

In February 1990, Senator Joseph B. Montoya was convicted on five counts of extortion and single counts of racketeering and money laundering. He had made the mistake of taking a $3,000 check from an FBI agent posing as a businessman trying to get legislative help for his shrimp business. With Montoya’s resignation, Charles M. Calderon of Whittier, who had served with the Assembly since November 1982, was elected on April 10, 1990 to the Senate District 26 to replace Montoya. When Calderon left his Assembly seat in April 1990, another election was called to fill that position.

In the campaign to capture Assemblyman Calderon’s 59th Assembly District, two Democratic women stepped forward as front-runners: 37-year-old Diane Martinez, the daughter of Representative Matthew Martinez of Montebello, and Marta Maestas, an aide to Calderon. However, 32-year-old Xavier Becerra, a deputy district attorney and a former aide to Senator Art Torres, also stepped into the arena, as did Bill Hernandez, a member of the Rio Hondo Community College Board of Trustees. The hotly contested ethnically diverse district included the communities of Alhambra, Monterey Park, Montebello, Pico Rivera, South El Monte and a portion of Whittier.

In the election that took place on June 5, Xavier Becerra received 35% of the vote, outflanking Maestas (who received 28%), Diane Martinez (who received 26%) and the other candidates. In the November elections, Xavier Becerra easily defeated his Republican opponent 61% to 35% to take his District 59 seat. Born and raised in Sacramento, Xavier Becerra was a graduate of Stanford University and had served as an aide to Senator Art Torres for several years. 

Once the results of the 1990 census were tallied, the Census Bureau reported that the total population of California had increased to 29,760,021,which would increase California’s representation in Congress from 45 to 52 in the next reapportionment. The Latino population had now increased to 7,687,938, which represented 25% of the total state population. Mexican Americans made up 81% of the Latinos, while foreign-born persons represented 47% of Latinos. Many of these immigrants had not become citizens and were not eligible to vote.

In 1991, California’s redistricting process had to be sent to the California Supreme Court because of the Governor Pete Wilson's refusal to enact any of the legislative redistricting proposals that had been developed. In January 1992, a panel of special masters comprised of retired justices appointed by the Supreme Court presented new district lines and re-drew the boundaries for all California’s legislative and congressional districts. The new districts left many incumbent legislators without their old districts and created seven new congressional seats.

The Elections of 1992
After the redistricting that took place in 1992, a new generation of Chicano candidates came forth to seek political office. A total of seven Chicano legislators were elected to the Assembly, almost doubling their numbers from the four who served before the election. 

While the incumbent Richard Polanco held on to his seat in the 45th District, several newcomers took their seats in the Assembly: Louis Caldera (46th District), Diane Martinez (49th), Martha Escutia (50%), Hilda Solis (57th), Grace Napolitano (58th) and Joe Baca (62nd). Louis Caldera, a Harvard-trained attorney, had captured 73% of the vote in his 46th District which included Boyle Heights, East Los Angeles, Pico Union and parts of Koreatown and downtown Los Angeles. Joe Baca of Rialto was elected to serve in the California State Assembly as a representative of his San Bernardino County district.

With a total of eleven Senators and Assemblypersons in the California Legislature, Chicanos now held 9.2% of the seats in that political body. With their new-found power, the Latino Legislators soon became known as Los Siete (The Seven). At the same time, none of the three Chicanos in the State Senate (Art Torres, Charles Calderon and Ruben Ayala) were up for reelection. 

Even as Chicanos made their spectacular gains in the California Assembly, two more Chicanos were sent to Congress from California. Two veterans of the Assembly, Xavier Becerra and Lucille Roybal-Allard, moved on to Congress, at the same time that Lucille’s father, the renowned Ed Roybal, was retiring.

Postscript: Increased Representation in the New Millennium
Chicano representation would continue to make great strides during the 1990s, especially in the 1996 election. After the turn of the century, the Federal census recorded a significant increase in the Latino population, which then numbered 10,966,556, or 32.4% of the total state population. When Election Day, 2000 arrived, 1.6 million Latinos voted. The end result was that, as 2001 began, 27 Latinos took their seats in the State Legislature, while seven more went to Washington, D.C., to serve their constituency in the House of Representatives.

After the November 2004 elections, the representation of the Chicanos increased to an all-time high of 10 Senators, 19 Assemblypersons and seven Representatives in Congress.

The struggle of California’s Chicano Community in obtaining fair political representation took place over a period of half a century and, in some ways, is continuing. In 1963, Roybal, Soto and Moreno took their respective seats in the Assembly and the U.S. Congress. Between 1963 and 2005, California’s Chicano representation had jumped from three elected officials to 36.


Thank you to Maurice and Marcy Bandy for sending the following correction:
Mandmbandy@aol.com


Catalan Volunteers Correction

In the June 2004 issue of Somos Primos, an article, "The Catalonian Volunteers and The Founding of Monterey", appeared  with several errors which need correction. Father Serra did go  to Monterey on board the ship San Antonio. However no Catalans  were on board. The founding of Mission San Carlos by Father  Serra was witnessed by all the surviving Catalans, twelve in  number, who came to Monterey overland with Portola. The twelve  in addition to Pedro Fages included Seargent Juan Puig, Corporal  Miguel Pericas, Domingo Aruz, Manuel Buitron, Domingo Malaret,  and Antonio Montano, as stated in the article. The remaining  Catalans were Domingo Clua, Pablo Ferrer, Francisco Gumbau,  Carlos la Marge, Valentin Planelis and Geronimo Planes. The  other Catalans erroneously named, (Andres Auguet, Francisco  Cayuelas, Francisco Portella, Antonio Yorba) were all part of the  replacements brought to California by Fages in 1771. These names are documented in AGNM Indiferente de Guerra, Legajo  161B. The two Ortega lists from the spring of 1770 in San Diego both give the names of the twelve Catalan survivors.


Sequoia Genealogical Society, Inc. Volume 32. Number 7, September 2005

SEQUOIA GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY

Sequoia Genealogical Society is devoted to the study and support of family history and genealogy. 
It is the major support organization of the Tulare City Library Genealogy Department, which houses the Inez Hyde Collection. Memberships, which include a subscription to this newsletter and discounts on classes and other activities, are as follows:
single, $20; couple, $22.

Meetings of the Sequoia Genealogical Society are held in the Centennial Room of the Tulare City Library on the first Thursday of all months except for December, January, and February. Meetings are at 7:00 p.m. One other exception is in Summer, when one meeting will be held at a member s home for a potluck dinner at 6:00 p.m. 

 

One last call on Yorba 

Dear Helper-in-all-thangs-Hispanogenealogico

I've gone as far as I can go on Yorba. I finally found a legit doc that places the first of the Catalan reinforcements (no names given) in San Diego in October 1771 (no exact date, but Governor Barry told Fages that they'd left Velicatá and he expected them to get to SD around 3 October). That's a letter in California Archive, C-A 1, pages 73-74

However, my first appearance of Yorba, identified by name, is 10 January 1773, when he was a padrino at San Carlos Borroméo de Carmelo. Maurice gave me that data. So, my last call, do you know of any earlier appearance which was documented?

Harry Crosby  harrywcrosby@san.rr.com

Villa De Branciforte Preservation

Ed Silveira ed@villadebranciforte.org
Founder, Villa de Branciforte Preservation Society www.villadebranciforte.org

My name is Ed Silveira and I am the founder of the Villa de Branciforte Preservation Society. We are located in Santa Cruz, California, north of Monterey county. My Organization is attempting to gain historical preservation status for several adobe foundations and a historic Spanish well in our area . I was wondering if you were aware of any SEQAs or other historical preservation for protection of historic wells? Also their has been a recent archaeological report done on the property that the well has been found on. Do any of you have the capability or know someone that can review this report? 

Some of the finds were of Spanish and native American artifacts. There is a proposed development on this site. We feel this could be the holy grail of the Spanish settlements. There are also two other lots on our hill that have underground adobe foundations. The first findings are of the Cornelio Perez adobe. We also have a map of 1853, that shows the location of the adobes on our hill, including the Perez adobe that has been physically unearthed. We feel that this is a rare opportunity to study these sites before they become developed.

I thank you for your consideration.
Respectfully, Ed Silveira 

 

Dorinda Moreno

dorindamoreno@comcast.net
writes:

Moreno, Dorinda (1939 – ) is a San Franciso raised “chicana/mescalero apache,” whose grandfather fought in the Mexican Revolution in 1910. Her consciousness of feminism grew out of work with other movements, particularly her as a civil rights activist in 1964 – 1965. In 1969, Moreno was at the center of a group of Spanish-speaking women at San Francisco College who formed Conclio Mujeres (CM). She was a single mother of three who had grown up in the Bay Area and returned to school after being in the workforce for a number of years. She had been active in high school in the Mission District of San Francisco. She saw CM as a place for Raza women with higher education to gain support. In 1973, CM opened an office in the Mission District, where Latinos live. In 1974 Moreno was the director of CM’s Library Collection. The Chicana Collection Project was a key focus of CM for a number of years. Moreno protested against the Vietnam War, boycotted grapes with the UFW, and helped develop ethic and women’s studies programs. She published the anthology, la mujer – en pie de lucha, directed a women’s theater, “las cucarachas,” and introduced Frida Kahlo to US and world audiences. Moreno was honored by the United Farm Workers with a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2003, and, in 2005 received "Veterano's Award" from "El Tecolote", a San Francisco based bilingual newspaper along with other community activists. Moreno graduated from San Francisco State in 1973 with a major in “advocacy journalism.” Her children are Rose Rodriguez Gabaldon, Cyn-d Rodriguez Williams, and Andre Moreno Gladden. Archives: Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA and UC-Berkeley, Berkeley, CA. (ABS), "El Tecolote", Accion Latina.


Profundo Amor by Joe Olvera 
From: dorindamoreno@comcast.net

Subject: RE: Digest Number 147

Gente - ya que estamos escribiendo poesias, here's one of my older ones - writ in 1978. Maybe will read it on Sept. 16 at La Fe Cultural Center, where will read my stuff, along with other poetas. Come one, come all. So, here it is:

Profundo Amor
By Joe Olvera

Mi abuelita era una mujer
Graciosa - the matriarch of the
Family tree. Obedient to her 
Husband, she felt, but only
To a certain degree.

Obedience is as obedience does, and
So she demanded the same treatment
From my grandfather, and he agreed
Only because he knew the strength and
The goodness of her soul.

She wore black shawls on her
Head and shoulders, with Mother Hubbard
Styles of dress, and solid-practical
Shoes on her calloused and sickly feet.
She never much cared for Vogues, nor
Fashions of dreamy delights. More at
Home with dark colors, and simple chores
Of the spirit.

She was a deeply religious woman - so church
Was the focus of her life. She never
Learned to read nor write, so would dictate
Letters for me to scribe. Which is
Where I perfected my Spanish-writing skills, 
And learned to see love in the common factors.

My grandmother's mother was in Colorado-
La Junta es la gracia del calor.
Colorado winters-snowy landscapes and
The full brunt of nature's fears.
Bless the silken sky-beladened with snow
Clouds, pregnant with dust and cheery-eyed 
Rain, soon turns to snow in light of creation.

But, my grandmother continued on her way, and
Once, as she walked the streets, a
Rusty nail awaited her diabetic arrival. As fate
Would have it, she stepped on the nail and
Her foot was infected so badly, due to lack
Of medical care, that eventually it was
Amputated. As the poison spread its death
Rays - her leg was off chopped from below the knee.

She took to a wheelchair immediately, since
Gangrene had by now spread to her other leg, and
Splotches of sickly purple greeted her warm gaze
Every morning, as the sun streamed in through her
Bedroom window, and the laughter of children guided
A tear down her hollow cheeks.

She took all this in stride, and would sit on her
Chair, while unable to move about freely, and
Threatened wayward children with swift kicks on the
Butt. Phantom limbs caused her pain and misery, yet
She never complained, nor blamed the living god.

She took to religion in an even stronger way,
But unable to attend religious services at the
Neighborhood Catholic church, she joined
Another sect. On the day of her death, as her
Soul lifted to the sky, her friendly priest
Refused to bless her bones - as they lay and
Rotted in deep confines of grisly hole.

And that, my friends,
Is the end result of life.

Thus, it was so for
My grandmother. Mama Cuy - betwitching, slender
Beauty, who turned to dust. 


 

NORTHWESTERN UNITED STATES

The Huartede Jauregui Spanish Civil War Archive in Reno
Conf. Hispana de Genealogia Oct. 15, 2005 - Lago Salado, Utah 
BYU-Idaho Family History web site 

 

Center for Basque Studies Newsletter 
Fall 2004 Number 70 Pg. 4-5

The Huartede Jauregui Spanish Civil War Archive in Reno

By Jose Luis De La Granja

At the end of the nineties, the Basque Studies Library at the University of Nevada, Reno acquired from a book dealer in Bilbao a large and important archive on the Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939, which had belonged to Jose Maria Huarte de Jauregui (1898-1969) of Navarre. Head archivist of the General Archive of Navarre and member of the Academy of History and the Academy of Fine Arts in Spain, Huarte de Jauregui was a Carlist who participated in the Civil War, achieving the rank of artillery lieutenant in the army of General Franco, and head of the Military Command of Zarautz (Gipuzkoa). The origin of the archive relates to this military post, which allowed him to collect abundant documentation on the new Francoist State that was created at that time in Gipuzkoa, and also numerous documents confiscated in Euskadi under the jurisdiction of the first Basque Government (Bizkaia) and in the rest of the northern zone of the Spanish Republic (Santander and Asturias). This archive focuses on the Civil War, but includes as well the historical periods just prior to and following it: the Second Republic (1931-1936) and the Franco Dictatorship (1939-1975).

In 2003, the Basque Studies Library completed a catalog of the Huarte de Jauregui Archive, consisting of sixty-three pages that can be consulted on the Internet. These thousands of documents, most of them original and unpublished, along with clippings and pamphlets of the period, are kept in some thirty archive boxes that are classified in three categories: the first refers to the Republican area of the Civil War, the second— the most numerous—refers to the Francoist area, and the third—the smallest—includes various Basque nationalist magazines from the 1930s and many newsletters from the Franco faction, published in Paris during the Civil War.

The most interesting documents concerning the Second Republic are political manifestos and electoral propaganda from the right, left, and nationalist parties, produced for the Spanish Parliament general elections of 1931, 1933, and 1936. There is also documentation from unions (mainly, the socialist General Workers' Union), as well as on the religious problem and the Basque Statute of Autonomy, two key questions in the political life of Euskadi during the Second Spanish Republic.

The documentation preserved in this Spanish Civil War archive is immense and varied, though most of it is of a military or political nature. The most valuable part concerns Franco's army offensive in the northern Iberian Peninsula in 1937: first in Bizkaia in the spring, later in Santander in the summer and Asturias in autumn. The military conquest of this industrial and mining territory was very important for the final victory of the Franco faction in the war. What is most interesting about this archive is the abundant documentation on the armies that fought in the north:

the Republican army, within which the Basque army was situated; and the Franco army, comprising the Brigades of Navarra along with the Carlist militiamen. Within the archive are diverse historical documents, such as reports of battalions; official reports on war actions, the Navy of the Basque Government, the Department of Military Information; communications between military commands—for example, many telegrams exchanged by the ministry of Defense, the socialist leader from Bilbao, Indalecio Prieto, and the head of the northern Republican Army, general Gamir Ulibarri, among others.

Among the political documents are briefings, letters, peace proposals to the Basque nationalists encouraging them to abandon the Republican cause, calls to resistance or to surrender (subject of a proclamation of Franco to the Bilbainos asking that they surrender, on the eve of the taking of Bilbao in June 1937), Nazi propaganda against Communism, printed in Spanish in Hamburg, Germany, etc. The archive also contains quite a few pamphlets: those published by the Basque Government of Jose Antonio Aguirre, various on the controversial case of the Basque Catholics and on the international controversy created by the bombardment and destruction of Gernika by the German Legion Condor. The Prancoist version of this event can be read in the Bulletin d'Information Espagnole, published in French by its supporters. There are also many dossiers from the Spanish, French, English and Italian press on the course of the Spanish conflict and its repercussions in the Basque Country. In addition, this archive preserves some notebooks, maps, flags, and many photographs.

The most documented zone of the Basque Country is the coast of Gipuzkoa from Zarautz to the border with Bizkaia, taken over by the army coup in September 1936 and controlled by the Military Command of Zarautz, headed by Huarte de Jauregui from March of 1937 until November of 1939. By studying the copious documents generated by this command, related to the ministers of Franco's government and high commands of his army, one can pinpoint the first introduction of Francoism into the region of Gipuzkoa. The firm political repression is apparent in numerous police reports and in long lists of exiled nationalists or leftists, prisoners, and those who were fined (the fines were camouflaged with the euphemism, "donations for the National Trea- sury"). In addition, the army, Carlists, and the Falange constmcted a new State with a Fascist character with the help of part of the Basque Church, at the same time that the nationalist clergy was retaliated against. The relations between the forces forming the Francoist group were not always cordial and there were conflicts between Carlists and Falangists or between the military and civil powers; for instance, the dispute that put Comandante Huarte himself in conflict with the mayor of Zumaya, who was removed from office and detained by him in 1937. This is a good example of the fact that in Franco's Spain the supreme power lay in the hands of the army. The archive informs us of the visit of Count Ciano, Minister of Exterior Affairs of Mussolini's fascist Italy, to Gipuzkoa in 1939, who was entertained in Zarautz by Huarte de Jauregui with a sumptuous lunch, as can be seen from the menu card written in Italian.

The later part of the archive refers to the Franco dictatorship, centered in the years of World War II (1939-1945), and the several rival branches of the Cariist movement gathered around the aspirants to succeed Franco with title of King—Carios VIII, Javier de Borbon Parma with his sons Carios Hugo and Sixto, and don Juan de Borbon. It also focuses on an exiled and clandestine Basque nationalism with its manifestos, pamphlets, and periodicals. These documents end in the 1970s, although their principal compiler, Jose Maria Huarte de Jauregui, died in 1969 in Madrid.


Conf. Hispana de Genealogia Oct. 15, 2005 - Lago Salado, Utah 
From: Lorraine Hernandez  Lmherdz@hotmail.com
 
Hola Hermanos
Para su información, Avinsenle aquellos que esten interesados
Aqui esta el horario para la Conferencia Sabado 15 de Octubre 2005
Se llevara acabo en la Biblioteca de Historia Familiar en Lago Salado, Utah
Estaran añadiendo mas info. en la pagina 
http://familyhistory.byu.edu/hg_conf.asp

August 26, 2005

BYU-Idaho Family History web site 
receives national recognition
  
REXBURG, Idaho- Writer: Melissa Wheeler 
http://abish.byui.edu/specialCollections/famhist/index.cfm
  
Twenty years and 370,987 marriages later, Blaine Bake’s work reaches a culmination.

Bake, a religion faculty member at Brigham Young University-Idaho, has spent thousands of hours visiting county courthouses and viewing microfilms. With the help of several volunteers, he has compiled the most comprehensive index of marriage records for the western United States. This month, 
BYU-Idaho’s Western States Historical Marriage Records Index received national recognition from Family Tree Magazine, which recognized the site as an all-time favorite.

The Western States Historical Marriage Records Index was one of 25 family history web sites recognized by the magazine for their consistency and availability of useful information. Also among the favorites list were several big names, such as FamilySearch.org, Ancestry.com and Cyndi’s List.

“It’s the content and information that people are interested in,” Bake said. “There are no other indexes as comprehensive as we are.” Bake began visiting county courthouses and viewing microfilm more than 20 years ago to create the marriage records index. 

“It’s tedious work,” Bake said. Records must be transcribed from the original documents and then entered into the index. But his work has accumulated 370,987 marriages recorded from Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming. They have indexed 130,000 marriages for the state of Idaho alone. And each month Bake and three student employees enter an average of 1,500 to 2,000 new marriages.

“A marriage is the genesis of a family. You have to get a marriage date and place and then you can build your family,” Bake said. In the future, he hopes to expand the collection to include more states and counties.

The marriage records index is the most visited library web site by off campus users, averaging as many as 5,000 hits a day.

“So much information is compiled by people who do it out of the goodness of their hearts. We are happy to participate and reciprocate for all those nice people who work so hard,” said Martin Raish, David O. McKay Library Director.

To visit the Western States Historical Marriage Records Index or another BYU-Idaho family history sites, please visit http://abish.byui.edu/specialCollections/famhist/index.cfm

 

SOUTHWESTERN UNITED STATES

Books by Edward Soza
Remembering September 16th and Mexican Americans  

Beyond Origins of New Mexico Families
Reies Lopez Tijerina Archive Opened In June at University of NM

 

.

Books by Edward Soza
http://parentseyes.arizona.edu/booksbyedwardsoza/index.html
Sent by Johanna De Soto

Links to:  Historic Past;  Exhibits;  Boxes;  Addendum;  Bibliography;  Endnotes 

Recommended website Alfred Sosa's website
Sent by Ricardo Valverde  RValverde@ochca.com

PART III:  Finding The Progenitor

The most important fact that we can know about a surname is its progenitor. So, exactly what is a progenitor? The word progenitor comes from the Latin pro which means before and gignere which means to beget. So the progenitor then, is the individual whose genes are responsible for the spread of a particular surname. It is important to note that the origin (meaning and geographical location where it was first used) of a surname will not necessarily lead you to the progenitor.

Beginners always ask questions like "What does my surname mean?" or "Where does my surname come from?". Now, if your surname means "mountain lake", should you assume that your ancestors inhabited some mountain lake? If you do, chances are that you will be heading in the wrong direction. If in addition, the answer to the beginners second question were to be that the surname originated in the Navarre region and then spread throughout Spain and the new world. Should the beginner then start looking for a mountain lake in the Navarre region as the birthplace of his remotest ancestors? In all likelihood, this would prove to be a complete waste of time as your ancestor may not have had anything to do with or been anywhere near a Navaresse mountain lake. He may just as easily been born in Portugal and simply adopted the surname because he liked the sound of it.
This may seem obvious now, but a lot of people make this mistake and can spend years barking up the wrong family tree. Remember that you are looking for your own ancestors and not into developing a history of the derivation of a word as a surname, or perhaps a general history of a surname.

Now, that being said, it is still a good idea to check the derivation of a surname, its geographical spread and its heraldic history for some possible clues to your progenitor, but be prepared to discard this information if it should start to lead you astray.

So what's to be gained by finding your progenitor? What you gain is a sense of direction, since you already have the end part of your family tree (yourself or your offspring), knowing who your progenitor was gives you the beginning of your family tree. Thus knowing the beginning and the end of your family tree (or branch) will make filling the rest of the information in between, a lot easier.
Coming Soon: Ten Steps To Finding Your Progenitor

It's a good idea to post a surname query in the Hispanic Genealogy Forum


Remembering September 16th and Mexican Americans  

From: dorindamoreno@comcast.net 

Remembering Sept. 16 and Mexican Americans 
Susan Guerrero, New York Times 
Sunday, September 11, 2005 

My grandfather often spoke to me of the old-fashioned knock-down, bang-up Sept. 16ths of his boyhood, when every town in the Arizona Territory shut down and everybody celebrated, Mexican and Anglo, just like on the Fourth of July. 

He was the son of a famous 16th of September orator and proud of it, although he was just a baby when his father made his last long speech from the back of a flag-draped wagon. 

He often asked me why we didn't celebrate the 16th of September anymore, but I had grown up in Connecticut and had no idea. "I guess they just forgot," he would say sadly. 

Because of him, I think of Sept. 16 not as the day Mexico handed Spain her hat, but as the day of forgotten Mexican American history. It wasn't only the vanished holidays that had somehow congealed into a weeklong supermarket celebration of Cinco de Mayo that upset Tata. He felt that Mexicans were being left out of the history of the Southwest. 

He was not as well educated as his father, going no further than the third grade at a ranch school, and he was an awkward writer. But he was an eloquent speaker, having inherited his father's gift for oratory and trained in it by diligent attendance at his local Toastmasters club. 

These are Tata's notes for a speech he gave in 1972 at for the historical society in Florence, Ariz., a town he had known well as a boy: 

"My interest not only of Arizona history as a whole, but of Mexican American participation in particular. I find where we have lacked so very much writers, who gave Mexican American pioneers very little mention, if any at all. Yet Florence was a half and half population of Anglos and Mexicans. 

"In researching, mostly from old-timers, I can cite that we had quite a number of prominent men in many fields, but history books that I have been able to acquire mention none, at least in Florence. In making reference where events and men are concerned, they read Jack Brown and Jim White and a Mexican or two Mexicans. Bob So and So owned the ranch or farm and had a Mexican for a neighbor. Johnny Du Vois called Soft Drink Johnny came to Arizona in 1876 as a stage driver -- married a Mexican woman. DOES NOT MENTION THE NAME OF THE 

WOMAN'S FAMILY." 
As he would say, it burned him up. 

Even today, the historical society -- to which he was devoted -- has the standard "O Pioneers" kind of exhibits, reproduced in a thousand dusty little museums all over the West and Southwest. There are arrowheads and pottery to represent the Indians, and guns and saddles to represent the cowboys. And to represent the ladies, a bonnet or two, a washboard and a sunburned piano or, in Florence's case, the exhausted-looking organ that Tata's mother played at the Presbyterian church. 

There is nothing there, unless fingerprints count, to recall her or any other of the town's many Mexican settlers. 

In any event, Tata had his own museum, a memento-filled cabinet in the guest room of his house. The museum -- that is what he called it -- had five or six shelves of souvenirs: a clay bust of him by a grandson, a Barry Goldwater lighter, a key to the Playboy Club, hospital I.D. bracelets, seashells, rocks, a rusty spur, ashtrays, matchbooks, cheap plastic trophies, campaign buttons and pill bottles full of soil from the many places he had been, including one that said "unknown," all symbolic of some event, time or trip he did not wish to forget. 

As he grew older, he turned his attention to another kind of remembering, making tombstones for his friends who could not afford one, troweling concrete into a wooden form so that they would not lie in unmarked graves. 

He also collected photos by the dozens of Mexican Americans he had known in territorial days, their houses and the buildings that they had owned, which he kept in a locked, fireproof room off his bedroom. 

Over time, I became familiar with the La Familia Cruz and the Armentas and even with the Lopez sisters, grim-looking in their Gibson girl shirtwaists, who, Tata said, would do all kinds of things with young men under such-and-such a bridge, "especially Adela." So much history had been lost that Tata was anxious not to lose one more speck, even if it meant besmirching a woman's name. 

His collection of photos of now melted adobe buildings included a general store in Casa Grande, Ariz.; its owner, Gin Lung; and his brother, Fatso Lung. When I asked Tata how Gin Lung and Fatso Lung, who were from China, got into a collection of photos of Mexican American pioneers, he said: "Because my mother probably owed Gin Lung money when she died. And because they had no one else." 


 

Beyond Origins of New Mexico Families
http://pages.prodigy.net/bluemountain1/beyondorigins.htm
A website maintained by José Antonio Esquibel
Sent by Bill Carmena JCarm1724@aol.com

This series of pages is designed to provide additions and corrections to the great work of New Mexico genealogy compiled by the late Fray Angélico Chávez (1910-1996), Origins of New Mexico Families in the Spanish Colonial Period. 

This seminal book was first published in 1954 by William Gannon, Santa Fe, New Mexico. A facsimile edition was published by William Gannon, Santa Fe, in 1975. Under the supervision of Thomas E. Chávez, nephew of Fray Angélico and Director of The Palace of the Governors (Museum of New Mexico), a revised edition was published by the Museum of New Mexico Press in 1992. This revised edition included the important addition of "Addenda to New Mexico Families," first published as a series in El Palacio, the magazine of the Museum of New Mexico, from 1955 to 1957, and "New Names to New Mexico," which also appeared in the same magazine in 1957 (September, October, November, December). Both of these related works were often difficult for interested people to locate. 

This web site contains new genealogical information on many New Mexico families that is based on research into primary documents, and highlights additional material published in past and current genealogical journals related to New Mexico colonial families or material from other publications.

If you have corrections and/or additions to Origins of New Mexico Families, please feel free to share that information by submitting it to Jesquibel@yahoo.com . Please submit the source(s) of the new information, providing a complete citation. Brief and relevant direct quotes from the source(s) are encouraged. Indicate the individual's name, or family name, for which you have new or corrected information and provide the page number from ONMF (e.g. Buenaventura de Esquibel, ONMF: 173, or Gabaldón, ONMF: 177). Your submission will be posted under New Items and eventually added to Beyond ONMF Volume 10.

Sorry, but queries will not be posted on this web site nor answered. Links for posting queries related to New Mexico genealogy research are provided.

Watch this site grow as new items are added. Working together, we can continue to enhance New Mexico genealogical research and reduce the duplication of our collective efforts as we extend the lineages of our families. 

As you collect information from these pages for your genealogical files, remember to record the sources. It is important to give credit where it is due and cite all sources. Enjoy!! 

New Items (7/8/05)
Beyond ONMF Volume 1 ½ Beyond ONMF Volume 2 ½ Beyond ONMF Volume 3
Beyond ONMF Volume 4 ½ Beyond ONMF Volume 5 ½ Beyond ONMF Volume 6
Beyond ONMF Volume 7 ½ Beyond ONMF Volume 8  ½  Beyond ONMF Volume 9
Beyond OMNF Volume 10 

About Your Host 
Order: Second Volume of New Mexico Prenuptial Investigations from the Archivos Históricos del Arzobispado de Durango, 1800-1893 (254 pages) 

 
New Items:, Baca, Carvajal, Martín Serrano, Montes Vigil, Perea, Sandoval Martínez, Valdés-Hernández Cabrera (updated 7/8/05) 
Current Projects and Bibliography of José Antonio Esquibel updated 3/1/05 
New Book Collaboration Between Marc Simmons and José Antonio Esquibel "New Mexico in the Seventeenth Century" 
Northern New Mexico Genealogical Group (4/1/00) 
Update on The Spanish Recolonization of New Mexico: An Account of the Families Recruited at Mexico City in 1693, by José Antonio Esquibel and John B. Colligan. (12/1/99) 
Special Features: I. Alphabetical and Annotated Guide to the 1788 and 1790 Censuses of El Paso del Norte 

II. Spanish Surnames Found in the First Book of Baptisms of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe del Paso del Río del Norte, 1662-1688 
III. Comparison of Two Spanish Colonial Censuses of the El Paso Area: 1784-1787
IV. 1803 Census of the El Paso Area, transcribed by John B. Colligan
V. 1806 Census of the El Paso Area, transcribed by John B. Colligan
VI. Prelude to SRNM: Sample genealogical material from the book The Spanish Recolonization of New Mexico
VII. Common Errors in Spanish Colonial New Mexico Genealogy
VIII. The Jewish-Converso Lineage of Don Juan de Oñate 
XI. The Jewish-Converso Ancestry of Doña Beatriz de Estrada, Wife of Don Francisco Vásquez de Coronado
X. Four Additional Lines of Descent from the Ha-Levi Family of Burgos, 13th Century - Present
XI. Sephardic Legacy in New Mexico (4/1/00)
XII. New Mexico Colonial Patriots and the Sons of the American Revolution
XIII. Pasajero Records for Colonial New Mexico Families (Robledo and Montes Vigil)
XIV. “Don Diego Vásquez Borrego: Adventurer and Prominent Rancher of Belen, 1733-1753”
XV. Title of Hidalgo
XVI. Selected Burial Records of Santa Cruz de la Cañada 1726-1749
XVII. Abiquiu Fragment Marriage Book 1756-1769
XVIII. Anthology on New Mexico History: E; Camino Real de Tierra Adentro Vol II

About “New Mexico Roots, Ltd.” and <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Diligencias Matrimoniales (DMs) 
About the DMs of the Archives of the Archdiocese of Durango 
Links to related New Mexico genealogy web site and posting of queries 
Update on <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">The Royal Road: El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, photographs by Christine Preston, text by Douglas Preston and José Antonio Esquibel, Albuquerque: The University of New Mexico Press, 1998. (3-1-99)  

Your comments about these pages are appreciated: Jesquibel@yahoo.com
Web site established 5/1/98


Reies Lopez Tijerina Archive Opened at UNM in June 
Sent by Lupe Dorinda Moreno  dorindamoreno@comcast.net
 
In June the University of New Mexico University Libraries and Center for Southwest Research Special Collections And the Center for Regional Studies celebrated the opening of the Tijerina Archive (featuring the Alianza Movement Papers) and The 38th Anniversary of the Tierra Amarilla Raid Cordially invites you to a reception honoring:

Reies Lopez Tijerina was the special guest at the event. For information concerning the collection, call 277-7171 or 277-3570 or Rose Diaz rosediaz@unm.edu


 

BLACK

Out Of The Shadows, Philadelphia architect Julian Abele 
October 22, 2005, 5th Annual West Coast Summit

 



Duke University Cathedral

 

Excerpt: Smithsonian February 2005
Susan E. Tifft Teaches journalism and public policy at Duke University in Durham, north Carolina. Associate Editor Lucinda Moore Contributed additional reporting for this story. 

Out Of The Shadows


IN THE SPRING OF 1986, Duke University students protesting the school's investments in apartheid South Africa erected shanties in front of the university chapel, a soaring spire of volcanic stone modeled after England's Canterbury Cathedral. The nature of the protest prompted one undergraduate to complain to the student newspaper. The shacks, she wrote, violate "our rights as students to a beautiful campus."

  Julian Abele 
African-American Architect,
designer of Duke University Cathedral

For Duke sophomore Susan Cook, the letter was a call to action. She had told only a couple other classmates that she was related to the man who had designed the Duke chapel—indeed, who had designed most of the original buildings on the school's neo-Gothic west campus and many on its Georgian east campus. She had never met him, but she felt certain that if he were still alive, he would sup-port the divestment rally as wholeheartedly as she did. So she penned an emotional rebuttal. Duke's beauty, she wrote, was an example of "what a black man can create given the opportunity." Her great-granduncle, Philadelphia architect Julian Abele (pronounced "able"), was "a victim of apartheid in this country" who had conceived the Duke campus but had never seen it because of the Jim Crow laws then in force in the segregated South.

That an African-American had designed Duke, a whites-only institution until 1961, was news to nearly everyone. Abele's role was not a secret, as documents in the university archives make clear. But it had never been acknowledged so publicly. Cook's letter changed that. Now, an oil portrait of the architect—the first of a black person at Duke—hangs in the main lobby of the administration building. Even the university Web site devotes a page to him.

The recognition was long overdue. Abele was not the first black architect in the United States, but he was probably the most accomplished of his era. Between 1906, when he joined the all-white Philadelphia firm of Horace Trumbauer, until his death in 1950, he designed or contributed to the design of some 250 buildings, including Harvard's Widener Memorial Library the Museum of Art and the Free Library, both in Philadelphia, and a host of Gilded Age mansions in Newport and Newark City Abele's race, coupled with his self-effacing personality, meant he would not be widely known during his lifetime outside Philadelphia's architectural community The custom of signing sketches with the firm's name rather than an individual designer's also made credit impolitic to claim. "The lines are all Mr. Trumbauer's," Abele once said of the Free Library, "but the shadows are all mine."

Born in 1881, Julian Francis Abele was the youngest of eight in a family of achievers that had long been a fixture of Philadelphia's African-American aristocracy On his mother's side he could claim Absalom Jones, co-founder of the Free African Society, an early (1787) mutual support group for the city's free blacks. His older brother Robert became a physician. Two other siblings were successful sign makers. "Julian's is not a rags to riches story" says Susan Cook, now a senior art director at the advertising agency Foote, Cone & Belding in New York City. 

As a boy Abele attended the Institute for Colored Youth, a Quaker-founded teacher-training school. For his prowess in mathematics he was awarded a $15 prize. He was also chosen to deliver a commencement address. His topic: the role of art in Negro life. After studying at Brown Preparatory School and the Pennsylvania Museum and School of Indus-trial Art, Abele enrolled in architecture at the University of Pennsylvania. He studied architectural design at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts from 1902 to 1903.

Penn's program emphasized the classical methods then in vogue at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, techniques that had found expression in America in the buildings of the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. Abele embraced them. (His public buildings would rely heavily on Greek, Roman and Renaissance conventions while striving to harmonize with adjacent buildings and the surrounding landscape—a characteristic typical of the City Beautiful Movement that grew out of Beaux-Arts methods.) In his senior year, Willing and Able, as he was nick-named, was elected president of the student architectural society, the highest honor his classmates could bestow, and he won student awards for his designs of a post office and a botanical museum. When he graduated from the university in 1902, he was the first black ever to do so. By then, at 21, he had already been listed as an architect in the city directory for a year.

 

Heritage Newsletter 
September 2005

October 22, 2005, 5th Annual West Coast Summit

The 5th Annual West Coast Summit on African American Genealogy will be held on Saturday, October 22, 2005 from 8:30am- 4:30pm at Preservation Park, 1233 Preservation Parkway Oakland, CA. The summit is hosted this year by the African American Genealogical Society of Northern California.

Keynote Speaker: Tony Burroughs, Mr. Burroughs is the author of Black Roots and is an internationally known genealogist with over 20 years of genealogical experience.

Features: Workshops for beginners, intermediate and advance participants; Networking with other West Coast genealogists; Books and supplies available for purchase; Hotels within walking distance from venue.

Registration Information
Registration fee includes lunch and workshop materials
$45 on or before September 30, 2005
$50 after September 30, 2005 
To register: Online www.aagsnc.org
Send a check or money order to AAGSNC,
PO Box 27485, Oakland, CA 94602 
Please visit: www.aagsnc.org  or write to AAGSNC, PO Box 27485, Oakland, CA 94602
Volunteers Needed
If you are interested in heading a committee such as Special Projects, or being a member on one of our many committees, please let us know. Email us at CAAGS@hotmail.com


 

INDIGENOUS

Aztec Books and Calendar Information 
Aztecs in a genealogical tree 
Native American Traditions
With Our Own Eyes
Leather Men
Native American Records Coming Soon

Brazil's Indians turning to politics
Mirando City, TX -- Peyote Capitol 

 


Aztec Books and Calendar Information 
website mounted by www.Amazon.com 
http://www.azteccalendar.com/calendar.html
Sent by Bill Carmena

[[Editor: A couple of fun things, the books that say Look Inside  mean that you can look through the first part of the book , table of contents and illustrations. The Calendar Converter gives you the opportunity of  enter your date of birth to find your Aztec name day.]] 

Aztecs in a genealogical tree 
From: jmcader@yahoo.com

Dear Mimi, I hope that you are doing well. Are you familiar with this website? It belongs to a Spaniard in Spain, and when you click to see the photographs on the maternal side, -you can see that there are Aztec ancestors.

Sincerely,  Jaime Cader  http://www.amirola.com

Native American Traditions
First Weapons-the Art of Hunting Game 
Sponsored by the San Manuel band of Mission Indians.
July 9- Nov. 6, 2005
San Bernardino County Museum (909) 307-2669 www.sbcountymuseum.org

California Council for the Humanities
August 2005

With Our Own Eyes

[[Editor's note: The following article describes one of five youth photography projects funded by the council as part of the California Stories Uncovered campaign. The other projects, in the West Hollywood, Santa Ana, Riverside and San Francisco, will be featured in future issues. For more information, visit www.californiastories.org.]]

They're people form an ancient culture from a small town in Michoacan, Mexico, called San Juan Nuevo Pangaricutiro. Today they live in Paso Robles, in a thriving community of 150 families in the Oak Park Housing complex and surrounding areas. Descendents of Purepecha people who have lived in Michoacan for thousands of years, they have on foot in California and the other squarely in San Juan Nuevo, where they typically go every year, usually for weeks at a time to celebrate Christmas. 

Few people in Paso Robles know about eh existence of the San Juan community. Paso Robles County educator and social worker Pedro Arroyo first learned of it from young boys in his classes. "I kept meeting kids who bragged about being from San Juan and telling me I had to see it. Than one day I saw a group of San Juan boys perform an indigenous dance at a loa event, and I was impressed. After that, people began handing me samples of P'urepecha music and books about the ancient P'urepecha culture." ,

When CCH announced the availability of $30,000 in grants for photography projects with immigrant and refugee youth — part of its California Stories Uncovered campaign — Arroyo immediately knew he wanted to apply, it would be an opportunity to have the young San Juanenses document their community and chronicle their own lives, and for outsiders to find out about this almost-hidden community.

Arroyo's nine-month project, "With Our Own Eyes/Con Nuestros Propios Ojos," began in September 2004 with 15 young people, most of whom he recruited with the help of Cayetano Contreras and his wife, both active in the San Juan community. The project was one of five youth photography projects funded by the Council as part of its California Stories Uncovered campaign.

The young people, most of whom were teenagers or young adults born and raised in Paso Robles, met with local professional photographer Steve Miller, Arroyo and project curator Catherine Trujillo every other Thursday night in the Oak Park Recreation Center in the complex where many of the young people lived. The youths were given Canon cameras and access to an unlimited supply of Kodak black-and-white film. None had previous photography experience beyond using point-and-shoot cameras. One of the first things Miller did was to have the young people bring in their favorite photo. That exercise was eye-opening to project participant Maria Campoverde. "Steve told us to look at the background, to pay attention to the whole frame," the 18-year old said. "He also taught us to take pictures without posing. Before when we used to take pictures with friends, we always posed and smiled for the camera. Now we don't say it's time for a picture, we just take one, and it always turns out more interesting."

Every week. Miller met individually with each young person to go over the pictures they had shot the previous week. "Miller didn't tell the kids what to shoot because he wanted the work to belong to them," said Arroyo. "At first, it was slow going. All the kids got blurry images. But they soon got better. And Steve told them how important it was to shoot lots of film and to focus on things that were important to them. And because we were continually giving them feedback on their work, they were always learning."

About three months into the project, Arroyo and Trujillo began helping the young people develop autobiographies to accompany a final exhibit of their work in April. The youths first drew a life map, showing people and events important to them, and later used the map as a guide for their writing.

In addition to photographing their lives in Paso Robles, eight of the young people took their cameras to San Juan Nuevo Parangaricutiro in Mexico over the winter break. There they photographed everything from a landmark church and Posada celebrations to street scenes and family gatherings. The 1,400-mile journey to San Juan is one that most of the Paso Robles families make every year at Christmastime. For the young people, being in San Juan Nuevo means days of festivities, parties and a lot more freedom than what they're used to at home. "When we're in San Juan, our parents let us do whatever we want to because they know nothing bad can happen to us," Campoverde said.

Project Director Arroyo joined the group In San Juan and kept the kids supplied with film.

For Arroyo, the time he spent in San Juan Nuevo gave him a deeper appreciation for P'urepecha culture.



Archaeology 
September/October 2004
Pg.14

Leather Men


Rock art in Colorado and Kansas has offered up evidence for armored calvary among the Plains Indians. Doctoral student Mark Mitchell of the University of Colorado identified the petroglyphs, which depict leather-armored warriors, most likely Comanche, astride

similarly clad horses. Plains Indians like the Comanche first obtained horses from the Spanish in the mid-seventeenth century. Native Americans also probably got the idea for protecting themselves and their mounts with leather "armor" after seeing Spanish horse soldiers. Leather armor fell out of use as firearms became available to American Indians . in the mid-eighteenth century. Mitchell notes that while the existence of leather-armored horsemen has been long known (a Jesuit priest in present-day New Mexico showed leather-armored mounted warriors battling Apache foot soldiers in a 1720 painting), these petroglyphs are the first depictions thought to be crafted by Plains Indians. "There is some recorded history but virtually no archaeology of the Comanche, which makes these rock-art depictions very valuable," says Mitchell. "They should point us to additional places to look for Comanche sites containing artifacts associated with horses."


The Clf Newsletter 
A Publication of Clayton Library Friends Volume XIX May 2005 Number 2


NATIVE AMERICAN RECORDS COMING SOON

Glayton Library will have some new microfilm concerning Native American records by May. Clayton Library Friends has purchased the following rolls of microfilm at the direction of Clayton Manager Marje Harris.
From the Oklahoma Historical Society (each item is a single roll):
AMD 026 Emmet Starr, Manuscripts, Old        Cherokee Families and their            Genealogies, Index to Surnames, "B-Z." No index for "A."
AMD 028 Emmet Starr, Manuscripts, Old Cherokee
Families and their Genealogies, Family
Histories.
 AMD 029 Emmet Starr, Manuscripts, Old Cherokee
Families and their Genealogies, Miscellaneous
Notes.
(Note: Clayton Library already has AMD 027.)
KA 1 Kiowa Agency Census & Enrollment: Census of Kiowa, Comanche, Apache and Wichita & Affiliated Bands, Undated & 1869-1883 (oClayton Microfilm rolls cover 1895-1939).
KA 2 Kiowa Agency Census & Enrollment: Census of Kiowa, Comanche, Apache, Caddo & Wichita & Affiliated Bands. 1883-1890.
KA 3 Kiowa Agency Census & Enrollment: Census of Kiowa, Comanche, Apache, Caddo & Wichita & Affiliated Bands. 1890-1894.
KA 4 Kiowa Agency Census & Enrollment: Census of Kiowa, Comanche, Apache, Caddo & Wichita & Affiliated Bands. 1893-1901.
KA 52 Kiowa Agency Births, Marriages, Divorces, Deaths, Wills and Related Records (1869-1925): Wills (1890-1924); Cemetery (1896-1924): Vital Statistics (1893-1919):
Births (Undated and 1895-1924); Marriage Register (Volume) (1893-1901); Marriage Licenses (Volume) (1905-1907), Marriages (1871-1901); Report of Legal Marriage (Undated and 1902-1924); Divorce Docket (Volume) (1917-1919).
PA 1 Pawnee Agency Census & Enrollment, letters
and documents sent and received June 4, 1894 through March 28, 1927. Census volumes and lists for the Nez Perce, Kaw, Tonkawa, Pawnee and Oto and Missouri, 1880-1926.

QA 1 Census and Enrollment. Letters and documents received December 10, 1877 to June 11, 1897. Census volumes and lists for the Cayuga, Miami, Modoc, New York, Nez Perce, Ottawa, Confederated Peoria, Potawatomi, Quapaw, Seneca, Eastern Shawnee and Wyandot.
SFSA 1
Sac and FoxShawnee Agency census and enrollment. Letters and documents, sent & received. December 6, 1865 through May 5,
1924. Census volumes and lists for the Iowa, Mexican Kickapoo and Oto 1881-1920. SFSA 2 Sac and FoxShawnee agency census and enrollment. Census volumes and lists for the Citizen Potawatomi, 1883-1921.
From the National Archives:
T 500 Records of Choctaw Trading House, 1803-1824,
6 rolls.
 T 1029 Letter Book of Natchitoches Sulphur Fork
Factory, 1809-1821, 1 roll. 
M 142 Letter Book of the Arkansas Trading House,
1805-1810, 1 roll. 
M 1059 Selected Letters Received by the Office of
Indian AffairsRelating to the Cherokees of
North Carolina, 1851-1905, 7 rolls. 
M 234 Letters Received by the Office of Indian Affairs,
1824-1881, Rolls # 113-18,143-44,185-87,
237-40, and 806-07.
These seventeen rolls represent the records and corre-spondence relating to the removal of the "Five Civilized Tribes" or nations into the Indian Territory (now Oklahoma). The material represented is as follows:
Cherokee Agency, 1824-80
Cherokee Emigration 
Roll #113........1828-36
Roll #114........1837
Roll #115........1838
Roll #116........1839-54
Cherokee Reserves 
Roll #117........1828-40
Roll #118........1841-50
Chickasaw Agency, 1824-70
Chickasaw Agency Emigration 
Roll #143........1837-38
Roll #144........1839-50
Choctaw Agency, 1824-78
Choctaw Agency Emigration 
Roll# 185........1826-45
Roll #186........1846-49
Roll #187........1850-59
Creek Agency, 1824-76
Creek Agency Emigration 
Roll #237........1826-36
Roll #238........1837
Roll #239........1838-39
Roll #240........1840-49
Seminole Agency, 1824-76
Seminole Agency Emigration. 1827-59 
Roll #806........1827-46
Roll #807........1848-59


Extracts: Brazil's Indians turning to politics
The Orange County Register
Wednesday Nov 2004

By Axel Bugge, Reuters
BRASILIA, BRAZIL From isolated villages in the Amazon jungle to far-flung settlements in the vast savannas of the interior, Brazil's Indians are venturing as never before into mainstream politics.

Initial results from last month's local elections show that four Indians were chosen as mayors and five as deputy mayors, while final results are expected to give Indians more than 100 posts.  The numbers may seem small but they represent a jump from the one Indian mayor elected in 2000.

The 1988 constitution, which restored democracy after more than two decades of military rule in 1985, gave Indians the right to vote for the first time in their history.

Although Indian politicians do not yet have one group uniting them, the political aims of their various parties are similar - to get their lands marked off, to have health services and education, and to gain full access to the mineral riches on their lands.

Sebastiao de Souza Konohum, joint coordinator for the defense of indigenous rights at the government's Indian agency, Funai, said the improving results for Indian candidates is largely thanks to better organization.  "We started organizing in 1980 and boosted that; work after the 1988 constitution," said Konohum, himself an Indian from Matto Grosso state. "In the future, our aim is to create an Indian party to look after our interests."'

Konohum expects that more than 100 Indians will be elected in these polls to office as mayors and local council members, up from 89 in the last vote. The full results are not yet ready. Nationwide there are nearly 5,600 municipalities in the country of 180 million.

The latest census in 2000 put Brazil's Indian population at 734,000, up from 400,000 at the end of the 1980s. Those numbers in themselves reflect the political ambitions of Indians as many more were willing to define themselves as Indians in the 2000 census, said a spokes-woman for the Catholic-run Indigenous Missionary Council. Brazil lets individuals define their race.



Mirando City, TX -- Peyote Capitol 

A Rare and Unusual Harvest
Man Collects Peyote Buttons From Cactus for American Indian Rites
By Sylvia Moreno, Washington Post Staff Writer  www.washingtonpost.com
Sunday, September 18, 2005; A03
Sent by: Ernest Euribe Euribe000@aol.com

MIRANDO CITY, Tex. -- In the heart of Rio Grande brush country, Salvador Johnson works a patch of land just east of the Mexican border that is sacred to Native Americans.

Spade in hand, eyes scanning the earth as he pushes through the spiny brush, Johnson searches the ground carefully. "This is good terrain for peyote," he says. "There's a low hill -- the rain starts on top and goes down to water this -- and there's a lot of brown ground."

He stops, points the tip of his shovel at a three-inch spot of green that barely crests the soil under a clump of black brush and announces: " This is what you look for. You look for something that is not ordinary on the terrain. I saw that green."

One of the last remaining peyoteros , Johnson, 58, has been harvesting the small, round plant in and around this tiny community for 47 years -- long before the hallucinogenic Lophophora williamsii cactus was classified as a narcotic and outlawed by federal and state governments. Then as now, it is for use by Native Americans as the main sacrament in their religious ceremonies.

Johnson is part of a nearly extinct trade of licensed peyote harvesters and distributors, at a time when the supply of the cactus and access to it is dwindling. The plant grows wild only in portions of four South Texas counties and in the northern Mexico desert just across the Rio Grande.

But some South Texas ranch owners have stopped leasing land to peyoteros and now offer their property to deer hunters or oil and gas companies for considerably higher profits. Others have plowed under peyote, and still others have never opened their land.

On the ranchland that is worked by peyoteros , conservationists are concerned about the over harvesting of immature plants as the Native American population and demand for the cactus grow.

"Will there be peyote for my children and my children's children?" asked Adam Nez, 35, a Navajo Indian who had just driven 26 hours with his father-in-law from their reservation in Page, Ariz., to stock up on peyote at Johnson's home.

That question and possible solutions to the problem -- trying to legalize the importation of peyote from Mexico, where most of the plants grow, and creating legal cultivation centers in the United States -- are being studied by members of the Native American Church, Indian rights advocates and conservationists.

There are an estimated 200,000 to 500,000 members of the church in the United States. Although 90 percent of the peyote in North America grows in Mexico, the number of ceremonial users there -- mostly Huichol Indians -- is a small fraction of the number in the United States and Canada.

"In effect, you have a whole continent grazing on little pieces of South Texas," said Martin Terry, a botany professor at Sul Ross State University in Alpine, Tex., who specializes in the study of peyote.

The church was incorporated in 1918 in Oklahoma to protect the religious use of peyote by indigenous Americans. Its charter was eventually expanded to other states, and in 1965, a federal regulation was approved to protect the ceremonial use of peyote by Indians. In 1978, Congress passed the American Indian Religious Freedom Act.

But subsequent conflicts between federal policy and state drug laws precipitated the passage of a federal law in 1994 to guarantee the legal use, possession and transportation of peyote "by an Indian for bona fide traditional ceremonial purposes in connection with the practice of a traditional Indian religion." The law extends protection against prosecution for the possession and use of peyote only to members of federally recognized tribes.

"Over the last 40 years, there have been lots of equal protection defenses to criminal prosecution thrown up, with people saying, 'My use of this controlled substance is religiously derived,' " said Steve Moore, a senior staff attorney with the Native American Rights Fund.

One recent case in Utah is being watched closely by Moore's office and other legal advocates. Last year, the Utah Supreme Court threw out state charges against James "Flaming Eagle" Mooney, a self-described medicine man accused of giving peyote to non-American Indian visitors to the church he and his wife, Linda, founded in 1997. Mooney claims to be a member of a Florida tribe of Seminole Indians.

But federal prosecutors are pursuing the Mooneys with charges of illegally distributing peyote and attempted possession of peyote with the intent to distribute. Prosecutors contend that the tribe of Seminole Indians in which Mooney claims membership is not federally recognized and does not use peyote in religious ceremonies. Prosecutors also contend that the tribe revoked Mooney's membership.

"There's not a year that goes by that we don't see a handful of these cases come up," Moore said. "These are sham defenses in most cases, but it always puts the Native American Church and its legitimate use of peyote in the crossfire."

Though not considered addictive, peyote is included in the Drug Enforcement Administration's list of Schedule I controlled substances along with heroin, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), marijuana and methaqualone. Although the DEA acknowledges the importance of the hallucinogenic cactus to the religious rites of Native American peyote users, the agency says the drug has a high potential for abuse and has no accepted medicinal purpose in the United States.

The Texas Department of Public Safety has licensed peyote distributors since the mid-1970s, when the number in the state peaked at 27. It dwindled to nine in the 1990s and to four last year. State records show that only three distributors have harvested and sold peyote buttons so far this year. For the past five years, an average of almost 1.9 million peyote buttons have been sold annually, according to state records.

Besides presenting a certificate that shows a peyote buyer to be a member in good standing of the Native American Church, Texas law also requires a purchaser to show documentation that he is at least one-quarter American Indian. Every buyer who appears at Johnson's house signs a visitor's log and presents the required paperwork.

Nez and his father-in-law, Russell Martin, also brought with them ceremonial items -- a Navajo altar cloth, a dried peyote button, an eagle bone whistle and mountain tobacco wrapped in a corn husk for smoking -- that they use in a short prayer ceremony at the small peyote garden outside Johnson's home. Next to the garden is an open-air shed, surrounded by a locked double fence, as required by law, where thousands of cut plants dry atop wooden tables.

"When you come here, you come to someplace that's sacred," Nez said about the prayer ceremony. "Peyote doesn't grow just everywhere."

Martin, 57, a road man or minister in the Native American Church, purchased 4,000 freshly cut peyote buttons -- azee , he calls it, the Navajo word for medicine. He said his family will use the peyote -- dried, boiled into a tea or cooked into a porridge -- over the next year, starting with a ceremony to pray for his grandchildren as they start school on the reservation.

The ceremonies, which usually last all night, according to Martin and Nez, involve hallucinations which, in combination with their religious beliefs, give them insight into problems they pray over or help heal illnesses or addictions.

Francis Elsitty, 57, a Navajo from Greasewood, Ariz., said he overcame alcoholism in the mid-1970s the first time he used peyote in a religious ceremony on his reservation. "It showed me the path," said Elsitty, who drove to Johnson's home to buy 1,000 peyote buttons for $250 that he said his family will use in a special ceremony to offer thanks for the safe return of his 19-year-old son from a year-long tour of duty in Iraq.

"I saw the burned-out shell of a bar I used to hang out at, and it [the peyote] told me if you want to drink, that's where you belong," he said. "I quit the partying. It's been over 30 years. That's the kind of power it's got. It's a holy medicine."

© 2005 The Washington Post Company


SEPHARDIC

Gloria Golden - Exhibits and Outreach
Delores Nancy Ramona Montoya Montoya Esquibel
De La Garza
Society For Crypto Judaic Studies 2003 Conference Highlights



Gloria Golden - Exhibits and Outreach 
BGDR529@aol.com

Writing "Remnants of Crypto-Jews Among Hispanic Americans" was only the beginning. Reaching out to the greater Hispanic community provided a greater challenge. That goal would be accomplished by exhibiting my photographs and oral histories of descendants of Jews from the Iberian Peninaula, 500 years after their expulsion. What remnants of Judaism remain? How many within the Hispanic Catholic communities actually have this Sephardic heritage from Spain? I have been exhibiting the photographs and oral histories across the country in an attempt to answer these questions.

Although there have been many exhibits, the latest one, ending September 23, was a step in the right direction. Todd Braman, program director at the Peninsula JCC in Foster City, CA, was instrumental in bringing my exhibit across the country, from New York to California. In addition to suggesting the interview for an article in the Jewish News Weekly of Northern California, he connected the PJCC website with the publisher's (Floricanto) website, thus creating greater exposure for my book and exposure for this important topic. The following comment, written in the guest registry of the Peninsula JCC, made the whole exhibit worthwhile:

We enjoyed the exhibit. I brought my children. I wanted them to know more about our heritage. I'm Mexican (from Northern Mexico, Monterrey area). My mother always told us we were "de decendencia Judia."  We were all raised Catholic. My children are Jews. Your exhibit was
a nice connection. I would love to learn more.

Early this summer, my work was exhibited in The Historic Stone Avenue Temple of Tucson, Arizona. This was the original Jewish Temple of the Southwest, built in 1910. According to Eileen Warshaw, Executive Director, the mission of this historic landmark is to "preserve and teach the history of the Jewish experience in the Southwest and to foster intercultural dialogue." She understood that my work was part of that Jewish experience and that there was a need to present this material. 

An important upcoming event will be "Voyages to Freedom (Viajes a la Libertad): The Jewish Diaspora from Iberia to the Americas 1492 -2000. This group presentation will include several of my photographs and excerpts from the oral histories. This exhibition 
has been created by Carlos Vasquez, Director of the National Hispanic Cultural Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The opening reception is September 17, 2pm - 4 pm, and the exhibit will be on view through December 10, 2005.

Several exhibits and slide presentations are scheduled for the coming year, and the hope is that they encourage members of the Hispanic community to find similarities with stories presented in the oral histories and recognize a possible ancestry from Spain.





Delores Nancy Ramona 
Montoya Montoya Esquibel

The first Montoya is Dad's name from a place bordering Colorado and New Mexico. The second Montoya is Mom's name from New Mexico. Great-Grandfather Juan Casias, on Dad's side, married an Indian woman from Taos, New Mexico. I don't know how many children he had. Great-Grandfather had a child out of wedlock. Great-Grandmother raised this child. She inherited the ranch.

The ranch was like a little community where people had names such as Trujillo, Duran, and Casias. All were related. Generally, cousins married cousins, up to the third cousin. Some married first cousins.

Grandmother Molly, Mother's mother, raised me. Molly had some German Jewish heritage. Her father, Felix Martin, was a German Jew. During World War I, Felix Martin was called back to Germany. 

He wanted to take his family, but Grandmother Rita, Molly's mother, wouldn't go. He never came back. Rita was very secretive, and I was raised with the Spanish influence.

Molly married Grandfather Ventura who was a Montoya. His great-grandfather was Agapito Montoya. Agapito and his wife lived in Santa Cruz, New Mexico. They raised two sons and two daughters. Agapito's sons were Martin and Ted Montoya. Mother is from Agapito's lineage. Almost everyone in this valley is related. Martin Montoya was my great-grandfather. The family goes back to Spain and may have been one of the first to settle here. They were told Agapito's grandfather came from Spain. The Queen of Spain sent him to New Mexico. He was not allowed to practice his religion and had to be Catholic. The family, Agapito's lineage, said they left Spain because they weren't wanted there. That's why I think most Spanish here are Jewish. They were made to change their last names. The ancestors came from Spain and were Basque.

The real old homes had thick walls and they could put secret things between the walls. Agapito's home had three fireplaces. During the Pueblo revolt, Agapito hid in the fireplaces. That saved him. They hid objects in the walls. The family never said anything. Even now, some members of the family are secretive. They don't want others to know anything. The relatives looked European.

Grandfather was the boss. Religious things were influenced by Grandfather. He was a Penitente. He told us we had to go to church. He was born in 1899 but never said where he was born. Agapito was born in the 1700s.

Ventura, my grandfather, would go to the morada. I went with him. They went in the back. They had a little kitchen separate from the morada for the women to cook for the men. They did these things secretly. There weren't any windows. They prayed on Friday night in the morada and spent the night there. Ventura went into a back room to pray. As a child it was spooky to me. The windows were covered in the whole house. The windows were small. During Lent, all these men would go in the dark to the morada. They were from Santa Cruz. My son went in once, and they would do chanting and turn on candles in the dark.

We ate pork on the ranch in Santa Cruz. I noticed my Spanish was different. I asked the priest. He said, "Don't worry. Your Spanish is right. I come from Spain and mine is right to me."

My Grandmother Molly said you had to go to Catholic school no matter what. Most of the time, nuns were nice. I couldn't speak Spanish in Catholic schools. I light my important candles on Friday night. Ventura raised me. We didn't do anything on the weekend and rested on Saturday and Sunday. We didn't work on either day and cleaned the house on Friday. I knew Sabbath was Saturday from Grandfather Ventura and Mother, his daughter. The whole community knew this. Ventura said there is only one God who takes care of everyone. Ventura never talked and would visit his family alone.

The family believed in circumcision, including Dad. Most Catholics here do. We'd baptize children a week after birth. Most of us did, and we had a celebration.

If someone died, we brought the deceased home. Afterward people brought food. Coins were placed on the eyes to close them. During the burial, people threw handfuls of dirt into the grave. This is still done. The family used to fill up the grave, but now it's done by the cemetery workers. Mourning was for one year.

Growing up, the villagers observed Sabbath on Saturday and Sunday. Grandmother said Saturday was the Sabbath because it was the day Jesus rested. Catholics celebrate Sunday.

Grandmother and Grandfather stressed the Old Testament. They talked more about the Old Testament than the New Testament. I believe I have Jewish blood. I went to synagogue once and was not comfortable. None of my brothers and sisters are interested. I practiced the rituals with my grandparents.



DE LA GARZA 

Odiel Información. Huelva
Edición viernes 23 de septiembre 2005

Este apellido ha sido una constante de mis investigaciones, por mis artículos en Odiel sobre la familia compuesta por Marcos Alonso y Constanza de la Garza, de Lepe, que según mis datos marcharon a América, con sus hijos Isabel, Luisa, Constanza, Melchor, Sebastián y Francisco. Figuraban como criados el Licenciado Álvaro García de Navia y partieron en 1566. En mis referencias Marcos Alonso había nacido en 1525 y Constanza en 1529.

Los diferentes artículos sobre esta familia publicados en Odiel Información, que después reprodujo la revista de Internet “Somos Primos”, que se edita en Florida, hizo que recibiese muchos correos electrónicos solicitándome ampliación de los datos publicados y ofreciéndome a su vez lo que los interlocutores poseían para ampliar mis conocimientos sobre el tema. Los correos llegaban de Texas, Florida, México, California, Monterrey, etc, ya que el apellido “de la Garza” ó “Garza” simplemente, esta muy extendido por el sur de los Estados Unidos y norte de México.

Intenté investigar en el Archivo Parroquial de Lepe, sin encontrar nada, ya que según me dijeron, parte de este archivo fue expoliado en el siglo XIX y también sufrió destrozos con la guerra civil de 1936.

Pero hace pocos días, mi amigo tejano George de la Garza, me envió un e-mail informándome que en un libro sobre los conquistadores judío-cristianos de Monterrey se decía que Constanza de la Garza y su hermano Antonio, fueron quemados a muerte por la Inquisición en las Islas Canarias como resultado de un Auto de Fe celebrado en 1526.

Aunque mis referencias daban como fecha del  nacimiento de Constanza 1529, ya sabemos que en aquellos tiempos los errores en los escritos eran muy frecuentes, pero si fue quemada en la hoguera en 1526, no pudo marchar a América en 1566. Surgen muchas dudas por saber si había mas de una Constanza de la Garza

He consultado al Archivo de Canarias y me informan que el proceso referente no se conserva en el archivo inquisitorial y que la procesada fue relajada en 1526 cuando ya había fallecido.

Seguiré investigando porque el tema lo merece.   Custodio Rebollo.  



Society For Crypto Judaic Studies 2003 San Antonio Conference Highlights
http://www.cryptojews.com
Report by Kitty Teltsch, this Review fist appeared in HaLapid: Fall 2003
Sent by Bill Carmena  JCarm1724@aol.com

The 2003 conference of SCJS in San Antonio, TX offered a rich mix of scholarly research and personal stories of Crypto-Judaic discovery. And for a few, it was also a time of reunion.

Rabbi Samuel Lerer, now retired to San Antonio after a 51-year career mainly working with anusim descendants in Mexico, led off by welcoming Rabbi Joshua Stampfer of Portland, OR as "my friend for 50 years." The two rabbis had not met for many years but were born blocks apart in the Old City in Jerusalem and each went on to head synagogues in the American Northwest

Early in the conference, Rabbi Lerer came face-to-face with SCJS member Yaacov Gladstone who, as an activist for black Jews, once hitch hiked with knapsack on his back, from New Orleans to Mexico City to meet the Rabbi,  already recognized for his pioneer work.   That was in 1967, reminisced Gladstone, who lives in New York and still works with anusim.  "No, it was 1968," corrected the 86-year-old Rabbi as the pair embraced.

Rabbi Lerer, speaking with youthful fervor, confided that, even as a boy , he felt destined to become a rabbi. He remembered that when he was ordained by the Chief Rabbi in Jerusalem, he was instructed: "Remember to help your brothers wherever they are."  

He likened his mission to ha lapid, “the flaming torch.” It would take him to Mexico's large cities and remote communities as rabbi of a Mexico City congregation. There he found descendants of anusim who had fled the Spanish Inquisition 500 years earlier, many still living hidden lives. Over the years, he taught and converted more than 3,000, returning to Judaism.

For complete report and information about their activities, go to http://www.cryptojews.com/2003_san_antonio_conference_high.htm



TEXAS 

Historic Texas Cemeteries
October 8:  Wittliff  Gallery of Southwestern & Mexican Photography
Scotus College, A Jewel in the South Texas Brush Country
October 15: Project M.A.S.A. 
October 21:  Seventeenth Texas History Forum, The Alamo
Book: San Antonio: The Story of an Enchanted City
October 29:  Seguin Celebration
The Main Street Project
The Study of the Spanish-Speaking People of Texas as Photo Essay  
November 20:
7th Annual Book Festival in Hidalgo, Texas  
White Hat, Black Tales 
Report on September Conference in Laredo
 
SouthPark Mall Tejano Book Festival    
Texans in the Civil War

 



Gossett Cemetery 



http://www.rootsweb.com/~
txkaufma/cemeteries/gossett.htm


Mimi, I hope this will be of interest to some of your readers, it's a link to the Gossett Cemetery which is located in Kemp, Texas. I found my paternal grandfather Luis Cisneros here, this cemetery is mostly Hispanics. I have enjoyed your monthly publication, keep up the good work.

Thank you,  Luis Cisneros punch467@yahoo.com


Historic Texas Cemeteries
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~txcemeteries/
Sent by Johanna De Soto

Death Records 
Texas Death Records 1964-1998 
SSDI - Social Security Death Index 
Ordering Death Certificates 
Obituary Daily Times at Rootsweb 
Texas Obituaries 
Texas Obituary Links 
 
What's New! includes items which haven't yet been added to the county pages of:
McLennan County Texas Cemetery List 
Navarro County Texas Cemetery list 
Roscoe Cemetery, Nolan Co. inventory* 
White Hill, Clay County inventory* 
Denton County Texas Cemetery list 
Liberty County Texas Cemetery list 
Dawson County Texas Cemetery list 
Hidalgo County Texas Cemetery list 
Rock Church Cemetery Hood Co., 
History .....more new stuff 



Wittliff  Gallery of Southwestern & Mexican Photography

presents Testigos de la historia / Witnesses to History,  through February 12, 2006
Modern & Contemporary Documentary Photographers of Mexico

October 8, 2005  Reception at 7:00 pm / Program at 8:00 pm
Exhibit and event admission is FREE

DEMONSTRATING THE DEPTH and vitality of the photojournalistic tradition in Mexico today, Testigos de la historia / Witnesses to History showcases the Wittliff Gallery's important permanent collection of modern and contemporary Mexican documentary photography.  This new exhibition runs through February 12 at the Wittliff Gallery of Southwestern & Mexican Photography, located on the seventh floor of the Alkek Library at Texas State University in San Marcos.

To coincide with Hispanic Heritage Month, the exhibit reception and a special program featuring a discussion of documentary photography by Estela Treviño and Alfonso Morales, two photo historians from the Centro de la Imagen in Mexico City, will be held the evening of Saturday, October 8.

Among the almost 13,000 images now held in the Wittliff Gallery's permanent archives is a significant collection tracing the development of documentary photography--from early giants Manuel Álvarez Bravo, Héctor García, Nacho López, and Rodrigo Moya to the intrepid inheritors of this great artistic tradition: Yolanda Andrade, Marco Antonio Cruz, Maya Goded, Graciela Iturbide, Eniac Martínez Ulloa, Francisco Mata Rosas, Raúl Ortega, and Antonio Turok. Almost 60 images by these important artists are on display.

Highlights of the show include Manuel Álvarez Bravo's "Obrero en huelga asesinado" ("Striking Worker Murdered"), "Subcomandante Marcos, La Realidad, Chiapas" taken by Raúl Ortega in 1995, and a large enigmatic portrait of Che Guevara by Rodrigo Moya entitled "Che melancólico, 1964, Ciudad de la Habana, Cuba" ("Melancholy Che").

For further information, interviews, or digital images, please contact:
Michele M. Miller, Marketing & Media Relations  m.miller@txstate.edu
Alkek Library Special Collections
TEXAS STATE UNIVERSITY-SAN MARCOS
512-245-2313 

Sent Elvira Prieto,  vira@mail.utexas.edu 
Academic Advisor Center for Mexican American Studies, University of Texas at Austin  


SouthPark Mall Tejano Book Festival    

From: Larry Kirkpatrick  elindio2@hotmail.com 

SOUTHPARK MALL OCTOBER BOOK FESTIVAL
A Tejano Heritage Month Event

Saturday October 8th 10AM-4PM and Sunday Oct. 9th 12Noon-4PM
IH 35 at SW Military Drive San Antonio, Texas

South Park Mall proudly presents Author Dan Arellano with his book "Tejano Roots."  A book about the "Battle of Medina." The untold story of Tejanos who can finally claim their rightful place in the history of our country.

Author Gilda Herrera, "Four Dogs with a Bone and The Trip of the Eight Escapades."
Author Imelda Zapata Garcia, "Cielitos and a Peace in the Corazon."
Author Grady Dubose, With an Autobiography and Two Westerns
Author Joela Jenkins, "A Bucket Full of Prop Wash."

South Park Mall October Book FestivalA Tejano Heritage Month EventSaturday Oct. 8th 10AM-4PM and Sunday Oct.9th 12Noon-4PMIH 35 at SW Military Drive, San Antonio, TexasSouth Park Mall proudly presents Author Dan Arellano with his book, "Tejano Roots." A book about the "Battle of Medina." The untold story of Tejanos who can finally claim their rightful place in the history of our country.Also Authors : Gilda Herrera, Imelda Zapata Garcia, Grady Dubose, and Joela Jenkins each presenting their writings. FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT; Chris Gutierrez Event Manager 1-210-921-0534 chris.gutierrez@am.jll.com or Dan Arellano 1-512-826-7569 darellano@austin.rr.com

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
Chris Gutierrez Event Manager South Park Mall 1-210-921-0534 / 
chris.gutierrez@am.jll.com
or Dan Arellano 1-512-826-7569 / 
darellano@austin.rr.com



Scotus College, A Jewel in the South Texas Brush Country

By Joe Martinez

Most South Texans have never heard of Scotus College, a landmark building in the Brush Country. Scotus College is located in Hebbronville and is the most prominent and historical structure in town. However, many Hebbronville residents, as well as other South Texans, do not know that Franciscan friars setup the seminary college in 1929, after fleeing Mexico to avoid persecution during the Cristero War.

The Cristero War, 1927-29, was a bloody 30-month-long conflict brought about when Elías Plutarco Calles, newly elected president of Mexico, setout to exterminate Catholicism in Mexico. Basically, Calles sought to enforce five anti-Catholic articles in the 1917 Constitution, plus he added anti-Catholic legislation of his own. In response to Calles drastic measures, the Church instructed faithful followers to boycott certain governmental and private enterprises. In the meantime, the Mexican Episcopate voted to suspend all public worship in Mexico, effectively closing down all Catholic churches in Mexico. Not unexpectedly, the Church then resorted to armed retaliation against the government by means of all-out rebellion. This armed conflict is officially known as the Cristero War. The Cristero War quickly spread throughout Mexico and as a consequence thousands of lives were lost. The War came to an end after the inauguration of a new Mexican president, the former governor of Tamaulipas, Emilio Portes Gil, bringing about the ringing of church bells in Mexico again.

In 1929, towards the end of the Cristero War, Franciscans sought refuge in the United States for fear of reprisals from the Mexican government. The Franciscans found sanctuary in three Texas locations, El Paso, Dumas (near Amarillo) and Hebbronville.

Bernardino Madueño, a Franciscan friar, was among those seeking refuge. He was also seeking to establish his own parish in Texas. Madueño arrived in Laredo by train from Mexico, however, this first stop in Texas was a failure since the local priests turned him away. He then ventured to San Antonio, but once there the bishop informed him that he had to wait 8 days for a response. In desperation he traveled to El Paso, but found that Franciscan refugees were already established there and did not want to jeopardize their efforts there. So it was back to San Antonio, only to find out that they had not reached a decision as yet. Finally, he traveled to Corpus Christi where he struck luck. The Bishop of Corpus Christi graciously turned over to Friar Madueño the parish in Hebbronville - fellow friars Pasqual Ruiz and Jose Guadalupe Torres joined the parish soon afterward.

Once in safe haven, the Hebbronville Franciscans setout to build a seminary, with jurisdiction out of Guadalajara, that ultimately would help replenish the priests lost during the Cristero War. Justo Alvarez, a local architect who learned his trade through correspondence courses, was hired to carry out the construction project - in spite of not having formal architectural schooling, he did an excellent job. Concrete blocks needed to wall the building were manufactured on site and the completion date went as scheduled.

Once completed, the college was aptly named in honor of John Duns Scotus, (c.1266-November 8, 1308) a theologian and philosopher. He was one of the most important Franciscan theologians. Scotus taught at Oxford, Cambridge and lastly at Cologne France. He founded Scotism, a special form of Scholasticism, a medieval theological and philosophical works that sought to bridge the gap between religion and reason. It’s generally accepted that Scotus was born in Scotland, but Ireland and England are laying claim to him also. Pope John Paul II beatified Scotus in 1993.

Scotus College at one time had as many as 50 students studying theology. The success of the college prompted certification by the State of Texas. Once seminary students finished theology instruction in Hebbronville, they were ordained by the bishop in Corpus Christi, and afterwards they departed Texas for church assignments in Mexico.. The college closed as a seminary in1957, but the magnificent building stands today as testimony to the turbulent times that engulfed Mexico for most of 1927 through 1929. Today the Scotus College Building is owned by the Guadalajara, Mexico Provisional of the Saints Francisco and Santiago under the direction of Antonio Porres.

The Spanish style three floor structure recently received a $50,000 renovation grant from the Kenedy Foundation. Restoration work has begun and once renovation is complete, the college will be used for CCD classes (Confraternity of Christian Doctrine) confirmations and quinceañera (15th birthday) classes.

The panoramic view from the upper level is magnificent. On the northeast corner, across from the college, is the oldest building in Hebbronville, a building that once housed the first nuns that came to Hebbronville in 1927. The complex, church and Scotus College Building are still run by the Franciscans with jurisdiction out of Guadalajara, Mexico.

(This information was mostly furnished by Friar Oscar Villalobos, Franciscan priest at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, that sits adjacent to Scotus College. Friar Oscar recently conducted a tour of Scotus College for the Texas Cactus Council. During this tour he provided much of the information for this article. Friar Oscar was recently transferred to Mexico City, and he is almost finished writing a book on Scotus College. For information about joining the Texas Cactus Council, contact J. T. Garcia at 361-256-3571) (Photos by William Foerster and Robert McAnear)

Joe Martinez  jcm36@msn.com  Tel: (956) 781-9252
PO Box 4195, McAllen, Texas 78502
 


Project M.A.S.A.Invite  
vira@mail.utexas.edu
 

Meso-American culture has always been deeply rooted in the observation and recording of cosmic events and cycles. This is evident both in the art and mythology of Meso-America. Familiarity of and use of outer space iconography (partially influenced by The Space Race) in the new millennium has provided yet another vehicle for Chicano artists to use for their purposes. Many young Chicanos were inspired to pursue the sciences because of this. Chicano artists have adopted and are using outer space iconography to convey issues of identity, immigration, racial prejudice, politics, etc. The styles and manners are varied, but the thread is universal. Project M.A.S.A. is a national collaboration of Chicano artists that reaches across time and space to represent yet anther side of "La Raza Cosmica".

Project M.A.S.A Participating Artists:

Arturo Almeida, Jesus Alvarado, Rolando Briseno, Enrique Fernandez Cervantes, Ruben C. Cordova, L.A. David, Viola Delgado, Jose Esquivel, Marie Garza, Xavier Garza, Angelica Gomez, Carlos Gomez, Quintin Gonzalez, Ray Gonzalez, Daniel Guerrero, Luis Guerrero, Serg Hernandez, Paul Karam, Joe Lopez, Los Antropolocos, Laura Molina, Mike Molina, Sandra A. Moreno, Cristina Nava, Cruz Ortiz, Jimmy Pena, Carlos Harrison-Pompa, Larry Portillo, Felipe Reyes, Alex Rubio, Shawn Saumell, Raul Servin, Victor Tello, Lawrence Trujillo, Luis Valderas, Vincent Valdez, Deborah Vasquez, Felipe Vasquez, Ramon Vasquez y Sanchez, Gabriel Velasquez, David Zamora-Casas

Project:M.A.S.A.#1  Exhibit Dates: October 1st thru October 31st
Reception: Saturday, October 15th, 6:00pm to 9:00pm
Location: Gallista Gallery, 1913 So. Flores,  San Antonio, Texas 78204    210.212.8606

Website: www.projectmasa.com     Sent by Sent Elvira Prieto,  vira@mail.utexas.edu 
Academic Advisor Center for Mexican American Studies, University of Texas at Austin  


Seventeenth Texas History Forum
Preserving the History of the Alamo

Friday, October 21, 2005 - Alamo Complex, Alamo Hall
9:00 - 9:30 Registration
9:30 - 9:45 Welcome:
Mrs. Madge Thornall Roberts
DRT Historian General
Introductions:

Laura T. Beavers, Chairman
DRT Library Committee
9:45 - 10:25 Preserving the History of the Alamo through Art:
The Alamo, An Illustrated History
George Nelson

10:25 - 11:05 Preserving the History of the Alamo through Exhibits:
The Long Barrack Renovation
Drew Patterson
11:05 - 11:25 Break
11:30 - 12:10 Preserving the History of the Alamo through Archaeology:
Discoveries in the Long Barrack

Steve Tomka
12:10 - 12:50 Preserving the History of the Alamo through Volunteerism:
100 Years of DRT Custodianship
Madge Thornall Roberts
12:50 Closing Remarks

George Nelson
George Nelson is a native Texan from Uvalde County, a University of Texas graduate in art and museum studies with thirty-five years of work in Texas archaeology. Mr. Nelson has been commissioned to create many paintings, dioramas, relief maps and models to interpret historical and prehistoric sites for various museums including: the National Park Service, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department., the Witte Museum and the University of Texas. Presently he is painting seven murals for the Alamo to go into the windows of the Long Barrack, representing Alamo Plaza through seven time periods. He is the author of the award-winning book The Alamo: An Illustrated History.

Drew Patterson
Drew Patterson is an artist and exhibit designer working in Austin, Texas for the past thirty-five years. His clients include Lady Bird Johnson, the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum, the Center for American History, the LBJ Library and Museum, Texas Parks and Wildlife, and the City of San Antonio. He is currently working on the renovation of exhibits at the Alamo. The Long Barrack exhibit will open October 5, 2005.


Steve Tomka
Dr. Tomka received his Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin in 1994. Over the past 19 years his research interests have been split between the archaeology of South America and hunter-gatherer adaptations in Texas. More recently, he has become an enthusiastic student of historical archaeology, including the mission period in Texas. Dr. Tomka was named Interim Director of the Center for Archaeological Research in 2001, and he was named Director in June 2002. Since its founding in 1974, the Center and its staff have conducted the bulk of the archaeological investigations at the Alamo.


Madge Thornall Roberts
Madge Roberts, DRT Historian General, is a fourth-generation DRT member, a retired elementary teacher, and the author of several award-winning books on Texas history: Star of Destiny: The Private Life of Sam and Margaret Houston received wide acclaim, and the four-volume series which she edited, The Personal Correspondence of Sam Houston, was chosen as one of the twenty best books on Texas history of the last decade by the Austin American-Statesman. The first volume of this series received the T. R. Fehrenbach Award. Additionally, she published A Child's View Of Texas History From A To Z for fourth graders. Mrs. Roberts was chairman of the DRT committee that erected the Wall of History on the Alamo grounds and is currently serving on the Long Barrack Restoration Project.

    
The Daughters of the Republic of Texas sponsor the Seventeenth Texas History Forum. Proceeds in excess of expenses will benefit the library's Herpich Conservation and Restoration Fund.

Seating is limited and pre-registration is advisable. No luncheon is scheduled, but for those who wish to have lunch on their own and return in the afternoon, docent guided tours will be available in the Long Barrack.


Registration is $12.50 per person. Forum reservations will remain open as long as seating is available. Please make your check payable to the DRT Library Committee and send  to:
The DRT Library, P. O. Box 1401, San Antonio, Texas 78295-1401.
For more information, please call (210) 225-1071 or e-mail drtl@drtl.org.

San Antonio: The Story of an Enchanted City, I have a great deal about the Hispanics of San Antonio -- their history and cultural contributions to our city. The book is on Internet on Barnes & Noble, 400-page book by Frank Jennings     Sent by From: jenninform@aol.com



Seguin Invitation  

16th Annual Celebration, Open to the public - no admission charge
You, your Family and Friends are invited to attend
What: The Juan N. Seguin Memorial Celebration
When:  Saturday October 29, 2005  @ 4:00 p.m.
Where:  Juan Seguin Burial Site -  Seguin, Texas.

Keynote Speaker and Honored Guest
Ana Carolina Castillo Crimm, Associate Professor of History at Sam Houston State University 
e-mail:  aseguin2@aol.com  


The Main Street Project

The Main Street Project is a grassroots policy and organizing initiative that works to document the economic challenges facing people in rural communities, give voice to their hopes and aspirations and the tools to create change. The Main Street Project works with existing community-based organizations, agencies, and individuals to support innovative approaches to rural economic policy and sustainable development. Through education, training, and organizing, we support rural constituents to develop nonpartisan, civic engagement coalitions that encourage greater political participation.

The Latino Leadership Project
Sent by Elvira Prieto vira@mail.utexas.edu 

"Leaders are made, not born."

The Latino Leadership Project is a project of the League of Rural Voter's Main Street Project and the Center for Civic Participation. This project is one portion of a comprehensive strategy to recruit and support emerging leaders, as we build and strengthen a broad-based movement for political participation/civic engagement in the Latino community.

The Latino Leadership Project supports individuals and organizations as they develop civic engagement projects in their own communities. We are committed to working with community-based non-profit, social service, and advocacy organizations to increase their skills, and raise the level of awareness about the political process.

The Main Street Project and the Center for Civic Participation advocate cross-sector collaboration that promotes empowerment through civic engagement-based on political education and leadership development, regardless of citizenship. We believe that all communities posses talents, skills and assets that can be used to create change.

The Latino Leadership Project works with existing Latino and Latino-Serving Organizations to develop partnerships and collaborations that will ultimately strengthen skills and leadership development in communities with the aim of:

·           Bringing community groups together around issues that affect their community
·           Encouraging community dialogue and activism around these issues
·           Increasing voter registration, education, and mobilization
Building on our work in the 2004 election cycle, the Main Street Project and the Center for Civic Participation will continue to work with the over 60 groups we supported across the country.
 
Para obtener esta información en castellano, por favor abre el documento pegado a este email.
Ana Nájera Mendoza, Research Fellow
Main Street Project fellow@leagueofruralvoters.org


 The Study of the Spanish-Speaking People of Texas as Photo Essay  

Current Exhibit at the Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin:

"The Study of the Spanish-Speaking People of Texas series consists of more than 900 images taken by Russell Lee between April and July 1949 in Corpus Christi, San Angelo, San Antonio, and El Paso.

The Study of the Spanish-Speaking People of Texas series consists of more than 900 images taken by Russell Lee between April and July 1949 in Corpus Christi, San Angelo, San Antonio, and El Paso. The photographs include images of the many poignant, proud, exasperating, joyful, and intimate moments in the lives of people in these Mexican-American communities at a very specific point in time. The images represent a unique visual record for that period, and are unparalleled in their variety, scope, and quality. Among the many subject areas are families, children, schools, churches, housing, migrant workers, professions, trades and vocations, businesses, community organization, health and homecare, politics, and leisure activities. 

The photographs were commissioned in 1948 by University of Texas professor George I. Sanchez to illustrate the Study of the Spanish-Speaking People of Texas. Directed by sociologist Lyle Saunders, the multi-year, socioeconomic study aimed to fill substantial gaps in the data then available about the expanding Spanish-speaking population of Texas. Sanchez and Saunders hoped to educate public officials, bureaucrats, and other powerful and influential Texans, as well as the general public."

For more information please visit http://www.cah.utexas.edu/ssspot/
Sent Elvira Prieto,  vira@mail.utexas.edu 
Academic Advisor Center for Mexican American Studies, University of Texas at Austin  


Valley authors at Seventh Annual Book Festival in Hidalgo, TX 
Sent by George Gause ggause@panam.edu

Hidalgo County Historical Society and Hidalgo County Historical Commission will hosted the seventh annual HCHS/HCHC Book Festival and open house on Sunday, November 20, 2005. 
The event was held from 2 - 5 p.m. at the 1886 County Courthouse and Texas State Bank Lobby at the corner of Bridge and Flora Streets in Hidalgo, Texas.  

This year’s theme is "Music and Memories." Music will be provided by Mario Alemán, guitarist. Some of the authors sharing their memories will be John Mora from Austin who wrote Through My Eyes - A Retrospective, a book about growing up in Donna, Texas; Mona Sizer from Harlingen whose book Border Bandits – Real to Reel is hot off the press, and Jan Seale who will give a slide presentation of photos of Valley flora and fauna from Valley Ark, which is due off the press just before Christmas.  

Twelve-year-old Kirsten Rawson is the youngest author. She and her grandmother Kathleen Carrizal-Frye recently self-published Dia de los Muertos, after three years of avid study of Mexican Day of the Dead traditions.

Glenn Harding and Becky Lee, authors of Rails to the Rio, are from Raymondville. Their book studies the development of several Valley towns as the railroad came to the South Texas 100 years ago. Harding is an avid collector of books on South Texas history.

John Hawthorne from Brownsville will round out the group of eight authors. He will have tee-shirts inspired by his two volumes of Brownsville Ghost Stories, as well as his books.

Books on the history, genealogy, cooking, folklore, literature, plants and wildlife of the Rio Grande Valley will be available for sale. This includes books on South Texas and Northern Mexico, in both English and Spanish. Refreshments will be served. For more information contact Virginia Haynie Gause at 686-3914 or email vgause@panam.edu



White Hat, Black Tales 
By Katherine S. Mangan, 
The Chronicle of Higher Education Research and Books, issue dated August 5, 2005
Sent by Lupe Dorinda Moreno dorindamoreno@comcast.net

~ A Texas scholar digs into the dark truths about the role of the Texas Rangers in early-20th-century border wars

Whether he gallops across TV screens on a steed named Silver or kick boxes drug dealers and other contemporary miscreants, the Texas Ranger is an iconic figure in American culture. But it has fallen to a Texas-based scholar named Benjamin H. Johnson, a 33-year-old assistant professor of history at Southern Methodist University, to help turn the popular images of the Lone Ranger and of Walker, Texas Ranger, upside down.

Mr. Johnson's 2003 book, Revolution in Texas: How a Forgotten Rebellion and Its Bloody Suppression Turned Mexicans Into Americans (Yale University Press), portrays the Texas Rangers as bad guys who terrorized and murdered hundreds -- and perhaps thousands -- of Mexican-born Texans living along the border nearly a century ago.

The book -- and a 2004 documentary based on an incident in the same period -- has now led a Texas lawmaker to introduce legislation this year honoring the Tejano rebels who died at the hands of the Rangers and vigilante groups in the failed uprising in 1915. 

"Ben's book was a confirmation of what we've been talking about around barbecue pits and campfires for years," says Texas Sen. Aaron Peña, a Democrat from the border city of Edinburgh, Tex., who ordered a stack of the books and has handed them out to his colleagues and constituents.

Specifically, the author examines a 1915 rebellion in South Texas called the Plan de San Diego, in which Tejanos, or Texans of Mexican descent, sought to forcibly reclaim the American Southwest for Mexico in a plot that included killing all Anglo males over age 16. The unsuccessful uprising, which included a series of raids on ranches and railroads, provoked a bloody counterinsurgency in which Texas Rangers, federal soldiers, and vigilante groups indiscriminately killed anywhere between 300 and 3,000 Tejanos, depending on whose estimates you believe.

Hispanic scholars have written about the bloody border wars for decades, but it has taken a work written by a young Anglo historian writing for Yale University Press to bring the matter to mainstream audiences. Mr. Johnson has given standing-room-only talks in South Texas, and received dozens of calls and e-mail messages from Mexican-Americans who say his book confirmed accounts they had heard from their parents and grandparents, but never read about in their textbooks.

Mr. Johnson says he did not set out to write a book about, much less trash, the image of the Texas Rangers, now an elite unit of 118 officers, along with nearly two-dozen crime analysts and other personnel, in the Texas Department of Public Safety. He was more interested in the effect that the violence that started in 1915 had on race relations along the border and on the development of a Mexican-American identity. But in a state whose unofficial motto is "Don't Mess With Texas," the book stirred up conflicting emotions.

On the Paper Trail

Mr. Johnson's fascination with this era of Texas history began when he was in the library at Yale University, trying to zero in on a topic for his doctoral dissertation that related to his interest in border studies.

"I came across a mention of the rebellion and bloodshed, and it seemed really big," he says. "The language people were using was terribly similar to what I was hearing when I turned on the news and listened to reports about ethnic cleansing -- at that point in the Balkans. They were using words like 'evaporated'" to describe the widespread killings of Tejanos. 

"I thought 'why am I -- a 24-year-old lifelong Texan and historian -- just hearing about this?'"

As he proceeded with his research, Mr. Johnson found that while he and many Texans -- Anglos in particular -- were learning about the Rangers' unsavory past for the first time, Hispanic authors had written about such abuses for years. In 1958, for instance, Américo Paredes, the noted Mexican-American author who taught at the University of Texas at Austin and died in 1999, wrote about the border's violent history in his book With His Pistol in His Hand: A Border Ballad and Its Hero (University of Texas Press).

Mr. Johnson credits those authors, as well as contemporary historians who write about the border, and he is careful not to imply that he is the first historian to turn the image of the Texas Ranger on its head. Asked about the publicity his book has received, and the flurry of attention now being paid to racial tensions along the border, he says the huge growth in the nation's Hispanic population and the interest in immigration and globalization have made border studies a hot topic. 

For his own book, Mr. Johnson tracked down documents in Texas and Mexico City. The Mexican National Archives are housed in a former federal prison, which created a haunting setting for many long hours of reading. "They actually have the documents in the old prison cells, and the guy gets a ring of thick keys and walks to the cells and opens them," he says. "There's still graffiti in this place from people who were there under considerably less happy circumstances."

He also listened to oral histories recorded over the past few decades by students at the University of Texas-Pan American and Texas A&M University at Kingsville.

Chance encounters led to visits with the grandson of the sheriff who arrested a Tejano carrying a document outlining the Plan de San Diego, as well as the great-grandson of one of the leaders of the 1915 uprising, Luis de la Rosa.

As the true history of the bloody border wars unfolded, the scholar also formed theories about why it had been largely forgotten. For one thing, Mr. Johnson contends, the State of Texas actively suppressed information about the violence. In 1919 the state legislature held hearings that revealed evidence of widespread killings by Texas Rangers, but lawmakers voted not to publish the transcript. (A copy was later unearthed by historians.)

Families that were traumatized by the violence didn't want to talk about it. And until recently, academic historians generally regarded what happened along the Texas-Mexico border a regional matter of little interest to the rest of the nation.

But Mr. Johnson believes the episode reverberated far beyond the disputed border. He argues that the rebellion and suppression that began in 1915, rather than turning Tejanos against Americans, prompted them to claim their rights as U.S. citizens and led to the creation, in 1929, of the League of United Latin American Citizens, or Lulac, the first nationwide Mexican-American civil-rights organization.

At first, that idea seemed counterintuitive. "Why would a prolonged episode of savage racial violence prompt people to claim the same nationality as their victimizers?" He concludes that the Tejanos sought refuge in U.S. citizenship, having realized the futility of trying to achieve their goals through force, and the dangers of being without a state.

"Mexican nationalism and the promise of the revolution had failed them," Mr. Johnson says. "The uprising had been a disastrous miscalculation, and the Mexican government wasn't interested in advancing the well-being of Mexican-descent people of Texas." 

Praise and Disdain

Hector M. Flores, Lulac's current national president, agrees with that conclusion. "Dr. Johnson chronicles a period in history that a lot of Texans are still in denial about," he says. "A war was won, and the Mexicans were the conquered people. The hired guns were the Texas Rangers."

Raised by his grandparents in the tiny South Texas town of Dilly, Mr. Flores recalls challenging his seventh-grade history teacher for her portrayal of events that his grandparents described differently. "All the teachers talked about were the murdering, thieving Mexicans who overran the heroes of the Alamo." His grandparents, on the other hand, warned him that the real bad guys were the Anglo law-enforcement officers who harassed and even killed Tejanos like themselves. 

"Books like Ben's shatter the myths and help us realize how much we've traveled in the last 100 years," Mr. Flores says. "It's better to know the truth, even if it makes you uncomfortable." 

Revolution in Texas is unlikely to be a featured title at the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum, in Waco, Tex. The museum's Web site describes the Rangers as "one of the most cherished symbols of the Lone Star State, a positive and enduring icon of Texas and America."

Byron A. Johnson, director of the museum, acknowledges that some of the Texas Rangers participated in the killings nearly a century ago, but says Revolution in Texas overstates their involvement by failing to adequately distinguish between the official Texas Rangers and independent vigilante groups that sprang up around the same time. "For a while, anyone riding around with a horse and a gun was considered a Ranger," he says.

"There were outstanding periods of [the Rangers'] history and those that were regrettable," the museum director adds. "We want to be sure that the history is accurate so lessons can be learned from the mistakes."

Mr. Johnson is not alone in making Texans feel uncomfortable about their past these days. Last year, shortly after Mr. Johnson's book was published, the Dallas filmmaker Kirby F. Warnock released a documentary called Border Bandits, which told the story of two unarmed Tejano landowners who were shot in the back by Texas Rangers in 1915. The event, which was supposedly a retaliation for an earlier Mexican bandit raid, had been related to Mr. Warnock by his grandfather, a cowboy who witnessed the killings. 

While some Texans complained that these depictions unfairly malign the Rangers, others are angry that such abuses have been covered up for so long. "People find it particularly relevant that an arm of the state was centrally implicated in the violence, and that they continue to be so celebrated," says Mr. Johnson.

Healing the Border

Texans also worry that calling attention to the historical racial strife along the border could deepen divisions between Hispanics and Anglos in the state today. Newspapers have carried angry letters to the editor from readers like Ramon Estrada, a retired electrical engineer who grew up in El Paso and now lives outside of Denver, Colo. He says he is bitter about the way his ancestors were treated and sometimes questions whether he was right to serve the United States in the Vietnam War.

In an interview, Mr. Estrada says that he read about Mr. Johnson's book in The Denver Post, and it brought back memories of stories his now-83-year-old mother told him when he was growing up. "She used to tell us how her father and his friend were killed by Texas Rangers in 1915 for no other reason than being of Mexican descent," said Mr. Estrada. "My cousins and I grew up hating the Rangers, and it used to really bother us when we'd see these TV shows where they were always the good guys."

Even those intent on commemorating the past are moving carefully in doing so.

Mr. Peña, the state senator, talked to both Mr. Johnson and Mr. Warnock at a screening of the documentary in South Texas last year. Afterward, he decided to introduce some sort of commemorative legislation. But he quickly concluded that his initial ideas -- naming a highway or erecting a monument for the victims, or requiring Texas educators to revise their history books -- would prove too divisive.

"The powerful establishment interests need to keep certain mythologies about Texas pure and clean," he says. "They don't want to hear about abuses by the Texas Rangers." 

Instead, he settled on proposing that May 5 -- Cinco de Mayo -- also be designated as a day to reflect on the history and culture of the Tejanos. He plans to resurrect that bill, which died at the end of the session in May, next year and pursue private financing for a monument. "We need to do this slowly and carefully, and with sensitivity to everyone involved," the senator says. 

Aside from setting the record straight about a little-understood period of history, Mr. Johnson hopes his book will show that America "is flexible enough to offer people like [Mr. Estrada] the benefits of first-class citizenship. That's what the founders of Lulac concluded, and I think that the remarkable advances of Mexican-Americans in the last 70 years are testimony to the power of their vision."

http://chronicle.com Section: Research & Publishing, Volume 51, Issue 48, Page A11


Report on September 1-4th Conference in Laredo  by Jose M. Pena 

Excellent!! 

A most interesting thing was that our friend, Joe Martinez,  displayed a huge statue of Jose De Escandon.

On the second day, people were taken to Rancho Los Ojuelos and also to San Ignacio. I am sorry that I did not go on this one, but I heard some nice comments about the trip. Some of the lecturers were Arnulfo Santos, Enrique Benavides, Jose de la Pena, Adrian Martinez, Maria Eva Ramirez, Acela and Rodolfo Martinez, and Victoria F. Uribe.

That afternoon, we all attended different workshops that were held at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (the Mormon Church). I went to a lecture by Jose de la Pena (excellent).and by Laura Gutierrez-Witt.

The next two days were very busy. They started at 9:00 AM and we had many fine speakers. Jose Trevino and San Juanita Martinez-Hunter, from the Laredo Genealogy, guided the different phases of the program. They did a fine job. During the day, we had a number of speakers: Jose Antonio Esquibel, Guillermo Garmendia Lean Galen Greaser (exceptional), Dr. Ramon Dovalina, Dr. Beatriz de la Garza, Dr. Jose R. Juarez, Dr. Andres Tijerina (superb), Ricardo Palacios (excellent), and others. The speakers were great. 

Each of the speakers went into different parts of a historical event. The topics ranged the gamut of the establishment of Laredo, postcards of former Laredo, Guerrero Viejo, descendents of Tomas Sanchez, the General Visit of 1767, the border's action to secede from Mexico, and impact of the 1910 Mexican Revolution.

I was very happily surprised to hear them confirm most of the conclusions that I draw in my book which I hope will be published in November. In some cases, the wording I use in the book seem to be those of the speakers. So, I am happy that I went to conference.

The Laredo Genealogy Society seemed to spare no effort to keep us busy all the time. On two separate nights, we attended parties. They deserve a heartfelt congratulation. (Normita, will you please pass this information to others not listed on the cc list. Thanks)

I was happy to see again and/or to meet a number of people: Jesse and Gloria Benavides, Norma Salinas, San Juanita Martinez Hunter, Jose Trevino, Galen Greaser, Jose De La Pena, George Gause, and a number of other people.

Sorry that George Farias and Arturo Garza could not attend the conference, because of illness. Hope you two get better.  You missed a great conference. Hope you can make the next one.

Regards, Jose M. Pena JMPENA@aol.com
A video tape was made of the entire conference.  I assume that it will be available.  Interested should contact San Juanita Hunter.  For more information, go to: www.vsalgs.org


Texans in the Civil War

http://www.angelfire.com/tx/RandysTexas/
Sent by Johanna De Soto

Do not get discouraged if you have difficulties in finding Hispanic surnames on this site. According to the historian Dr. Jerry Don Thompson, significant numbers of Hispanic were involved in the war. 
"In many ways, by 1863, the Civil War in South Texas had become a civil war within . ." 
http://www.southernnationalist.org/hispanics_in_the_confederacy.htm

Vaqueros in Blue and Gray
Jerry Don Thompson Introduction by Félix Almaráz ... "This new edition fills a conspicuous gap in the saga of Civil War Texas."—The Victoria Advocate ... www.tamu.edu/upress/BOOKS/2004/thompson.htm 

ETHNICITY #2a Contents Irish in US Military History ...
Hispanics in the Civil War. Brochure, 1991. 2 p. Bibfile (Ethnicity). Sevilla,
Exequiel R. "The ... Thompson, Jerry D. Mexican Texans in the Union Army. ...
http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/academic/history/marshall/military/mil_hist_inst/e/ethnic2a.asc

New Mexico Genealogy Mine
... Southwest: Recollections of the Sibley Brigade ~ book by Jerry Thompson;
Civil War ... Union Regimental Index: New Mexico ~ from The Civil War Archive ...
home.ptd.net/~nikki/NM.htm

 

EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI

Descendants of Anthony Mullins (Antonio Molino) Gathered
Oct. 5: Johnson County Kansas, Searching for Your Hispanic Ancestors
Our Hell in High Water
Just how important is New Orleans?
Documents From The New Orleans Notarial Archives
Safekeeping of Sacramental Records 

Hurricane Katrina
Mexican Workers in Jackson, MS Survive Katrina 
Inspection Tour of Arabi
"Hurricane Help For Schools"

Jazz Premiere honors labor leader Dolores Huerta, Michigan
Artes Unidas de Michigan
 




More Than 60 Descendants Attend Mullins Memorial Activities

A TWO-DAY REUNION in Lincoln Co., TN, honored the memory of Anthony MULLINS
(Antonio MOLINO), an Italian immigrant who was an ancestor to two lines of the BOBO family.
He came to Virginia as a part of an attempt to establish grapes and olives in the colony and joined
the regiment of Col. William WASHINGTON in the Revolutionary War.

Our MULLINS cousins are preparing a book on Anthony MULLINS (Antonio MOLINO) who was born in about 1751 in Genoa, Italy, where he was a farmer, migrated to Virginia in 1773, fought for the colonies in the Revolutionary War and later migrated in 1817 to Lincoln, County, where he died on 3 Nov. 1836.

The MULLINS descendants is collecting material for the book now. Since it will cover only the first four generations of the family, this Roots-Cellar will has information on later generations.
Anthony MULLINS Remembered in TN Ceremony

1. Antonio MOLINO (Anthony MULLINS): b: 1751in Genoa, Italy d. 3 Nov. 1836 in Lincoln Co., TN; m: 20 Jan. 1809 in Albemarle Co., VA.
+(2) Sarah REYNOLDS/RAMBLE: b. bet. 1783-1785, VA; d. aft. 1860 in Lincoln Co., TN,

BOBO Roots-Cellar July 2005 Published Periodically for Persons Researching the BOBO Surname Charles H. (Chuck) BOBO, Editor-PublisherE-Mail: FamilyBOBO@aol.comPostal Mail: BOBO Family Assn.3101 Thurman Rd., H-22HUNTSVILLE, AL 35805Phone/FAX: 256-468-5059


Johnson County Kansas

Searching for Your Hispanic Ancestors
Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2005 • 7-8:30 p.m.
Central Resource Library
Marge Vallazza  (teacozygran@kc.rr.com)  will discuss approaches to research, sources, and Web  sites to assist beginners with Hispanic Genealogy. Registration is  requested; call (913) 495-7514.  Learn more about the Genealogy resources at the Library.


Our Hell in High Water
By James Nolan  www.washingtonpost.com
Sunday, September 4, 2005; B01

BATON ROUGE

The real nightmare began last Wednesday morning, when the city cut off the water supply two days after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans. Until then, I hadn't regretted the decision not to evacuate my second-story French Quarter apartment, even when the electricity flicked off in the middle of the storm, plunging the city into darkness and ending most outside communication. I still had hope.

School Busses
 
     
AP Photo/Phil Coale                 
I'm not particularly brave, but I am a fifth-generation New Orleans native raised in a culture that knows how to deal with hurricanes. As a matter of fact, the first light I ever saw streamed from a generator at Hôtel Dieu, the hospital the Daughters of Charity had founded in the 19th century. I was born there during the unnamed hurricane that wiped out New Orleans in September 1947, and was rowed home to the Faubourg Tremé along a flooded Canal Street. So as clouds darkened on Sunday afternoon, generations of storm folklore -- sheer instinct by now -- sprang into action. I filled the bathtub with water, cut the wick on the hurricane lamp, froze water in plastic jugs to keep the refrigerator cool, secured the dilapidated wooden shutters on the front gallery, stocked up on batteries, food and bottled drinking water, and got out the portable radio and the plug-in white Princess phone. Then I opened a bottle of wine. By the time my friends José and Claudia arrived to weather the storm with me, I'd cooked a three-course meal, which we topped off with a bottle of Spanish cognac.

"Here's to Katrina," we toasted, "the Russian spy," even as the TV broadcast its unrelenting instructions to evacuate, evacuate, evacuate.

After Katrina began to pound us at 7 a.m. Monday, the only moment of panic took hold when a  storm shutter tore open and a buckling set of French doors threatened to usher the hurricane into my study. While José and Claudia wired the doors shut, I held them in place with a wooden cooking spoon wedged inside the handles. Then we retired to the back gallery to watch the howling wrath of the storm whip through the brick courtyard. My building dates back to 1810 and has survived two centuries of storms from the Gulf. It knew what to do.

Or rather, the original architects of the city knew just what to expect, and designed houses on brick pilings, windows and doors with jalousied shutters, thick plaster walls and enclosed courtyards. Most of the buildings constructed before 1910 have been waiting during centuries for a storm of Katrina's magnitude, and survived her with iron-lace grace, as did my place. Houses with concrete slab foundations poured on reclaimed swampland, and towering plate-glass hotels and office buildings, were chewed up and spat out. As my mother complained after her suburban home was flooded several years ago, "Honey, things like this aren't supposed to happen anymore. These are modren times."

Nature hasn't changed, but the city certainly has.

Summer camp by kerosene lamp didn't last long. By Tuesday afternoon I was already beginning to hear about martial law, widespread looting and the city's mandate that everyone leave and nobody return. "You have nothing to come home to," the lone local radio station announced to the evacuated. "New Orleans as we know it has ended." Friends from both coasts called to inform me  that the French Quarter was under water, even as I peered down from my balcony into a bone-dry street. When we took a walk around, the Quarter resembled a cross between the morning after Mardi Gras and a grade-B war movie. Choppers swooped overhead, sirens wailed and Army trucks rumbled through the streets. 

I began to notice groups of residents lugging water bottles and suitcases, heading for the convention center. Hours later they straggled back. At this point my chief means of communication was shouting from the balcony, and I learned that there were no evacuation buses. The city had ordered us to leave, but was allowing nobody in to rescue us and providing no transportation out. On Tuesday evening, my skeletal neighbor Kip, a kidney-transplant patient, waded home alone by flashlight from the convention center, where there were neither dialysis machines nor buses to get him to one. His last treatment had been four days earlier, and he was bloating. We had to get him out. 

By Wednesday morning, when the water was cut off, the city was already descending into mayhem. A looter had shot a policeman in the head, a car was hijacked by someone wielding a machete, gas was being siphoned from parked cars, mail trucks and school buses were being stolen, and gangs of kids from the projects were circling the streets on bikes. The social problems in this impoverished city had been simmering for decades; now the lid was off, and the pot was boiling over. 

Despite the orders to leave, roadblocks had been set up, and nobody was being permitted to enter or leave the city. Molly's, a local bar, opened by candlelight and the rumor spread like wildfire: They have ice. If evacuated residents and proprietors had been allowed to return, to take a stand, some public order would gradually have prevailed. Yet the only advice from the city was to head for the convention center.

The city's heavy-handed tactics made me bristle. "We got too many chiefs and not enough Indians," the mayor complained. I knew what that meant: Nobody was in charge. The Homeland Security police state had collided with Caribbean inefficiency, and the result was disaster. I took action. I latched the shutters, kissed my deceased mother's rabbit-foot and cat's-tail ferns goodbye, and in five minutes had packed a bag. In a daze, I was acting out a recurring nightmare: The borders are closing, the Nazis are on their way, grab grandfather's gold watch and run.

I'd heard that hotels might be busing their guests out, and the place to head was the Monteleone hotel on Royal Street, a Quarter institution. So at 5:30 p.m. José, Claudia, Kip and I arrived trailing luggage and low expectations. But it turned out the Monteleone had gotten together with several other hotels to charter 10 buses to the Houston airport for $25,000, to do privately what the authorities should have been doing publicly. We bought a few of the remaining tickets at $45 each. The sweltering lobby was littered with fainting bodies, grandmothers fanning themselves and children seated in shadowy stairways, a scene straight out of "Hotel Rwanda." The last bus out of New Orleans was set to leave at 6:05, the Austrian hotel clerk informed me. I had my doubts.

We weren't the only locals in line. I spotted the legendary jazz musician Allen Toussaint. "Allen," I said, "where did you hear about this?" He shot me a broad grin and walked on, as if we shouldn't talk about such things. By 9:30 that evening the buses still hadn't arrived, much less left and about 500 people were milling around in front of the hotel, guarded by a hotel-hired security force of teenagers in "New Orleans Police" T-shirts with shotguns slung over their shoulders. An obscenely obese man was hauled in on a beeping forklift, and a row of passengers in wheelchairs formed at the corner. A run on the buses was expected, and we were warned that only those with tickets would be allowed to board. Anyone else would be dealt with by the kids with rifles.

Bus headlights appeared at last. A cheer went up. And then a single yellow Jefferson Parish school bus  rattled up, bearing the news that the 10 chartered buses had been confiscated by the state police. We heard on the sly that this bus was offering passage to the Baton Rouge airport for $100 a seat. Allen Toussaint was the first to jump on, and after negotiating the price down a bit with the driver, who I assumed was an evacuator trying to make some extra money, we crouched on the floor and held our breath. Ours was the only vehicle sailing along a dry, unlit highway. Why, we wondered, isn't the city providing hundreds of these vehicles to carry people out by the same route? The authorities may fix the electrical grid one day, but who is going to fix the authorities?

Later a neighbor who stayed behind told me that the 10  chartered buses never did show up. "You mean you all escaped on that stolen school bus ?" she shrieked. The news, she said, was all over town. As in the Battle of New Orleans, the pirates were better organized than the soldiers, and saved our day.

We're now luxuriating in a friend's air-conditioned house in Baton Rouge, taking hot showers and sucking on ice cubes. I'm safe and dry, but however comfortable, this isn't New Orleans. The minute the lights flash back on, I'll be back home, unlatching my shutters and staring down a French Quarter street that I hope stretches as far into the future as it does  into the past. As Stella says to her sister Blanche in "A Streetcar Named Desire:" "I wish you'd stop taking it for granted that I'm in something I want to get out of."

James Nolan, a poet and writer, teaches at the Loyola
Writing Institute of Loyola University in New Orleans.


Just how important is New Orleans? 
From: David Lewis  dclewis@jps.net


The American political system was founded in Philadelphia, but the American nation was built on the vast farmlands that stretch from the Alleghenies to the Rockies. That farmland produced the wealth that funded American industrialization: It permitted the formation of a class of small landholders who, amazingly, could produce more than they could consume. They could sell their excess crops in the east and in Europe and save that money, which eventually became the founding capital of American industry.

But it was not the extraordinary land nor the farmers and ranchers who alone set the process in motion. Rather, it was geography -- the extraordinary system of rivers that flowed through the Midwest and allowed them to ship their surplus to the rest of the world. All of the rivers flowed into one -- the Mississippi-- and the Mississippi flowed to the ports in and around one city: New Orleans. It was in New Orleans that the barges from upstream were unloaded and their cargos stored, sold and reloaded on ocean-going vessels. Until last Sunday, New Orleans was, in many ways, the pivot of the American economy.

For that reason, the Battle of New Orleans in January 1815 was a key moment in American history. Even though the battle occurred after the War of 1812 was over, had the British taken New Orleans, we suspect they wouldn't have given it back. Without New Orleans, the entire Louisiana Purchase would have been valueless to the United States. Or, to state it more precisely, the British would control the region because, at the end of the day, the value of the Purchase was the land and the rivers - which all converged on the Mississippi and the ultimate port of New Orleans. The hero of the battle was Andrew Jackson, and when he became president, his obsession with Texas had much to do with keeping the Mexicans away from New Orleans.

During the Cold War, a macabre topic of discussion among bored graduate students who studied such things was this: If the Soviets could destroy one city with a large nuclear device, which would it be? The usual answers were Washington or New York. For me, the answer was simple: New Orleans. If the Mississippi River was shut to traffic, then the foundations of the economy would be shattered. The industrial minerals needed in the factories wouldn't come in, and the agricultural wealth wouldn't flow out. Alternative routes really weren't available. The Germans knew it too: A U-boat campaign occurred near the mouth of the Mississippi during World War II. Both the Germans and Stratford have stood with Andy Jackson: New Orleans was the prize.

Last Sunday, nature took out New Orleans almost as surely as a nuclear strike. Hurricane Katrina's geopolitical effect was not, in many ways, distinguishable from a mushroom cloud. The key exit from North America was closed. The petrochemical industry, which has become an added value to the region since Jackson's days, was at risk. The navigability of the Mississippi south of New Orleans was a question mark. New Orleans as a city and as a port complex had ceased to exist, and it was not clear that it could recover.

The Ports of South Louisiana and New Orleans, which run north and south of the city, are as important today as at any point during the history of the republic. On its own merit, POSL is the largest port in the United States by tonnage and the fifth-largest in the world. It exports more than 52 million tons a year, of which more than half are agricultural products -- corn, soybeans and so on. A large proportion of U.S. agriculture flows out of the port. Almost as much cargo, nearly 17 million tons, comes in through the port -- including not only crude oil, but chemicals and fertilizers, coal, concrete and so on.

A simple way to think about the New Orleans port complex is that it is where the bulk commodities of agriculture go out to the world and the bulk commodities of industrialism come in. The commodity chain of the global food industry starts here, as does that of American industrialism. If these facilities are gone, more than the price of goods shifts: The very physical structure of the global economy would have to be reshaped. Consider the impact to the U.S. auto industry if steel doesn't come up the river, or the effect on global food supplies if U.S. corn and soybeans don't get to the markets.

The problem is that there are no good shipping alternatives. River transport is cheap, and most of the commodities we are discussing have low value-to-weight ratios. The U.S. transport system was built on the assumption that these commodities would travel to and from New Orleans by barge, where they would be loaded on ships or offloaded. Apart from port capacity elsewhere in the United States, there aren't enough trucks or rail cars to handle the long-distance hauling of these enormous quantities -- assuming for the moment that the economics could be managed, which they can't be.

The focus in the media has been on the oil industry in Louisiana and Mississippi. This is not a trivial question, but in a certain sense, it is dwarfed by the shipping issue. First, Louisiana is the source of about 15 percent of U.S.-produced petroleum, much of it from the Gulf. The local refineries are critical to American infrastructure. Were all of these facilities to be lost, the effect on the price of oil worldwide would be extraordinarily painful. If the river itself became unnavigable or if the ports are no longer functioning, however, the impact to the wider economy would be significantly more severe. In a sense, there is more flexibility in oil than in the physical transport of these other commodities.

There is clearly good news as information comes in. By all accounts, the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, which services supertankers in the Gulf, is intact. Port Fourchon, which is the center of extraction operations in the Gulf, has sustained damage but is recoverable. The status of the oil platforms is unclear and it is not known what the underwater systems look like, but on the surface, the damage - though not trivial -- is manageable.

The news on the river is also far better than would have been expected on Sunday. The river has not changed its course. No major levees containing the river have burst. The Mississippi apparently has not silted up to such an extent that massive dredging would be required to render it navigable. Even the port facilities, although apparently damaged in many places and destroyed in few, are still there. The river, as transport corridor, has not been lost.

What has been lost is the city of New Orleans and many of the residential suburban areas around it. The population has fled, leaving behind a relatively small number of people in desperate straits. Some are dead, others are dying, and the magnitude of the situation dwarfs the resources required to ameliorate their condition. But it is not the population that is trapped in New Orleans that is of geopolitical significance: It is the population that has left and has nowhere to return to.

The oil fields, pipelines and ports required a skilled workforce in order to operate. That workforce requires homes. They require stores to buy food and other supplies. Hospitals and doctors. Schools for their children. In other words, in order to operate the facilities critical to the United States, you need a workforce to do it -- and that workforce is gone. Unlike in other disasters, that workforce cannot return to the region because they have no place to live. New Orleans is gone, and the metropolitan area surrounding New Orleans is either gone or so badly damaged that it will not be inhabitable for a long time.

It is possible to jury-rig around this problem for a short time. But the fact is that those who have left the area have gone to live with relatives and friends. Those who had the ability to leave also had networks of relationships and resources to manage their exile. But those resources are not infinite -- and as it becomes apparent that these people will not be returning to New Orleans any time soon, they will be enrolling their children in new schools, finding new jobs, finding new accommodations. If they have any insurance money coming, they will collect it. If they have none, then -- whatever emotional connections they may have to their home -- their economic connection to it has been severed. In a very short time, these people will be making decisions that will start to reshape population and workforce patterns in the region.

A city is a complex and ongoing process - one that requires physical infrastructure to support the people who live in it and people to operate that physical infrastructure. We don't simply mean power plants or sewage treatment facilities, although they are critical. Someone has to be able to sell a bottle of milk or a new shirt. Someone has to be able to repair a car or do surgery. And the people who do those things, along with the infrastructure that supports them, are gone -- and they are not coming back anytime soon.

It is in this sense, then, that it seems almost as if a nuclear weapon went off in New Orleans. The people mostly have fled rather than died, but they are gone. Not all of the facilities are destroyed, but most are. It appears to us that New Orleans and its environs have passed the point of recoverability. The area can recover, to be sure, but only with the commitment of massive resources from outside -- and those resources would always be at risk to another Katrina.

The displacement of population is the crisis that New Orleans faces. It is also a national crisis, because the largest port in the United States cannot function without a city around it. The physical and business processes of a port cannot occur in a ghost town, and right now, that is what New Orleans is. It is not about the facilities, and it is not about the oil. It is about the loss of a city's population and the paralysis of the largest port in the United States.

Let's go back to the beginning. The United States historically has depended on the Mississippi and its tributaries for transport. Barges navigate the river. Ships go on the ocean. The barges must offload to the ships and vice versa. There must be a facility to empower this exchange. It is also the facility where goods are stored in transit. Without this port, the river can't be used. Protecting that port has been, from the time of the Louisiana Purchase, a fundamental national security issue for the United States.

Katrina has taken out the port -- not by destroying the facilities, but by rendering the area uninhabited and potentially uninhabitable. That means that even if the Mississippi remains navigable, the absence of a port near the mouth of the river makes the Mississippi enormously less useful than it was. For these reasons, the United States has lost not only its biggest port complex, but also the utility of its river transport system -- the foundation of the entire American transport system. There are some substitutes, but none with sufficient capacity to solve the problem.

It follows from this that the port will have to be revived and, one would assume, the city as well. The ports around New Orleans are located as far north as they can be and still be accessed by ocean-going vessels. The need for ships to be able to pass each other in the waterways, which narrow to the north, adds to the problem. Besides, the Highway 190 bridge in Baton Rouge blocks the river going north. New Orleans is where it is for a reason: The United States needs a city right there.

New Orleans is not optional for the United States' commercial infrastructure. It is a terrible place for a city to be located, but exactly the place where a city must exist. With that as a given, a city will return there because the alternatives are too devastating. The harvest is coming, and that means that the port will have to be opened soon. As in Iraq, premiums will be paid to people prepared to endure the hardships of working in New Orleans. But in the end, the city will return because it has to.

Geopolitics is the stuff of permanent geographical realities and the way they interact with political life. Geopolitics created New Orleans. Geopolitics caused American presidents to obsess over its safety. And geopolitics will force the city's resurrection, even if it is in the worst imaginable place. 

© Copyright 2005 Strategic Forecasting Inc. All rights reserved.




Documents From The New Orleans Notarial Archives
skip@thebrasscannon.com writes:

Many of these ancient and irreplacable documents from the New Orleans Notarial Archives were housed in the BASEMENT of the Civil Courts Building in New Orleans. The BASEMENT !!!! Go figure.  I shudder to think of what they might look like right now.

Skip Newfield  skip@thebrasscannon.com

Safekeeping of Sacramental Records 
http://www.archdiocese-no.org/#5
Sent by Bill Carmen

Archbishop Hughes asks all priests who took Sacramental Registers for safekeeping during the hurricane to deliver the registers to the Catholic Life Center, Diocese of Baton Rouge. The registers will be stored safely in an 
air-conditioned vault at the Center. The contact person is Ms. Lee Leumas, archivist for the Diocese of Baton Rouge, phone (225) 242-0224. This request applies only to those parishes that have sustained significant damage and won't be up and running any time soon.



Hurricane Katrina
Like ancestors, Islenos survivors persevere 
September 18, 2005
BY FRANK MAIN Staff Reporter document.write('');
Sent by Bill Carmena JCarm1724@aol.com


ST. BERNARD PARISH, La. -- For centuries, fishermen have spoken an archaic Spanish patois in the villages that sprouted up amid the emerald green palmettos and tawny marshes here.

Their ancestors immigrated from the Canary Islands, a Spanish territory off the Moroccan coast, in the 1760s.

They're known as Islenos, and their blood courses through the veins of at least two-thirds of the nearly 70,000 people in St. Bernard Parish, which is next door to New Orleans and winds down the Mississippi River.

They are the leather-necked oystermen.

They are the hardened refinery workers.

They are the salty politicians with names like "Junior" who are as comfortable on a shrimp boat as in council chambers and don't mind using the F-word.

Fewer than 2,000 Islenos speak their grandfathers' Spanish these days, experts say. But all of them remember the stories of their ancestors' perseverance in the devastating hurricanes of the early 1900s.

Now it is their turn in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

"Our great-great-great-grandfathers lived in palmetto huts, and they got through these damn hurricanes," said one Isleno, Don Serpas, bare-chested as he tinkered with a generator in front of his white clapboard home last week.

He and seven family members rode out Katrina in the attic. "We know how to survive."

Washed away? Not one home in St. Bernard Parish was spared the wrath of Katrina, parish officials say.  Some people rode it out on their boats or in their homes, but most fled the storm. It's still too early to tell how many have died here. But the toll stood at 67 late last week.

Flood surges of up to 25 feet washed over parts of the parish, as counties are called in Louisiana.
In the city of Chalmette, which borders New Orleans, rescue workers have marked many doors with fluorescent orange paint, a sign that dead people or animals are inside.

Twenty-one miles closer to the Gulf of Mexico, there were no homes or businesses to paint.  A Baptist church was nothing but piles of cinder blocks in Alluvial City. A once-bustling general store was a jumble of metal siding in Reggio Junction.  

A sign to Delacroix Island was gone, along with the rest of the town. It had said, appropriately, "Fin de la Tierra," meaning End of the Earth. Bicycles and washing machines clung to trees.

No dogs hungrily roamed the streets, as in other towns closer to New Orleans. There was no life, except for the sea gulls cawing over the wreckage of the fishing industry and the homes where the fishermen had lived.

The odor assaulted the senses -- a cross between cotton candy and raw sewage. For St. Bernard Parish, the looming question is not just about whether these buildings will be replaced. It is whether a little-known but vibrant Louisiana culture has been washed away.

Louisiana's colonizers

A decade before the American Revolution, Spain took possession of New Orleans and the surrounding lands. 

The Spanish learned the British were planning to invade southern Louisiana, so they sent about 700 recruits from the Canary Islands to populate the province and defend it.

One Spanish fort still looms above the marshes near Yscloskey.

Canary Islanders settled into four parts of south Louisiana, but over time, three of the communities either disbanded or assimilated into the French culture. The fourth, in St. Bernard Parish, thrived.

Islenos here continue to cook a soup called caldo, a bread called pan canario and other dishes native to their island motherland.

And at their wine-soaked dances, they slip on the colorful gowns and brimmed hats of their ancestors and sing romantic ballads in an archaic dialect of Spanish.

In St. Bernard Parish, the names Gonzales, Rodriguez and Fernandez are as common as Smith and Jones in other parts of the South.

"Their speech has features common to the Caribbean and southern Spain," said Arnulfo Ramirez, a linguistics professor at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. "Instead of saying 'dos' for two, they would say 'doh.' "

Most Americans know about the French legacy in Louisiana, but the Spanish influence is everywhere in the New Orleans area, too.

Even in the French Quarter, buildings are modeled on Spanish architecture, down to the pastel-colored stucco walls and the black wrought-iron balconies. Louisiana's legal system borrows heavily from Spain. And foods like jambalaya are based on Spanish dishes like paella.

All over Louisiana, people like Baton Rouge Metro Councilman Darrell Ourso claim Isleno roots.

"In the 1700s, my ancestors settled in Donaldsonville," he said of a Mississippi River town 65 miles west of New Orleans. "But we share a culture with the Islenos in St. Bernard Parish. My 93-year-old grandmother died in 1996. Her first language was Spanish, then French, then English."
'All we have is ourselves'

Others, like Joseph DiFatta Jr., never left St. Bernard Parish.  DiFatta, chairman of the parish council, bears the physical features of an Isleno: salt-and-pepper hair, burly forearms and a strong chin.

"This culture has banded together to help itself," said DiFatta, who survived for three days on the roof of a government building in Chalmette after the storm flooded the streets Aug. 29.

DiFatta and about 80 others who were trapped on the roof had commandeered boats to save 300 or 400 more people, he said, in a makeshift parish command center at a Chalmette oil refinery.

"The U.S. government is there in 24 hours when a foreign country has a disaster," DiFatta spat out in his Isleno accent. "The world ignored us for three days. All we have is ourselves."

That us-against-them attitude will draw residents back to St. Bernard Parish and keep the Isleno culture strong, said William Hyland, whose home in Meraux was destroyed. Furniture in his family since the 1840s was waterlogged.

Hyland, an 11th-generation Canary Islander, is the parish historian and director of the Ducros-Islenos Museum complex.

Towering at 6 feet 4 inches in his rubber boots, Hyland surveyed one of the museum buildings, its walls crushed by a giant water oak.  "At least the Canary Islands flag survived," he said.

Across the lawn, a muddy feral pig emerged from a swamp. To escape it, a member of Hyland's entourage kicked in the door to a mold-filled building. They watched from safety until the pig wandered off.

A hungry feral pig can be a man-killer, Hyland said.  "To understand us, you must understand our animals, our relationship to the water, our Spanish heritage," he said. "We are part of this land."

For years, Hyland has been building a bridge between the people living in the Canary Islands and their distant relatives here in St. Bernard Parish.

In early August, the mayor of Ingenio, a town in the Canary Islands, visited the parish to form a student exchange program. There is still talk of sending a group of St. Bernard Parish high school freshmen to the Canary Islands this year.

Sergio Ramos, who is from the Canary Islands, teaches Spanish at Episcopal High School in Baton Rouge. He planned to drive to St. Bernard Parish this weekend to help in the relief effort.

"They look like us, and they talk like us -- at least the grandparents who still speak Spanish," said Ramos, 26. "Everybody thinks of New Orleans, but nobody thinks of St. Bernard. I want to help my brothers and sisters there."

As he toured the devastation, Hyland spoke in a genteel Louisiana accent peppered with Spanish expressions like "dios mios," meaning "oh my God."

"This was a genuine Isleno fishing village until the hurricane," he said with resignation in Yscloskey. "Oh my gosh, where is Mr. Molero's house, the oldest one in Yscloskey? Where is it? . . . There's Joe's place. The house is gone, but the boat is there. I hope Joe isn't still in there. . . . That was Blackie's marina, all gone. . . . There's the Campos place, nothing left."  'We shall all be back'

Then, on the road back to Chalmette, he visited his cousin Don Serpas and rejoiced that the lanky retired fisherman seemed to be getting along fine after the storm.

Serpas, 64, and his daughter, Kathy, railed at the government for keeping open an underused ship canal called the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet. The waterway runs along the east side of St. Bernard Parish to the Gulf of Mexico.

"They need to fill up that canal with sand," Serpas said angrily. "I'm going to run for parish president to get it done."

Serpas thinks the hurricane sucked up a 15-foot wall of water from the canal. The roiling water tore holes in his driveway, tossed around his trucks and flooded his house. His family spent two days in the attic in 100-degree heat, doing little other than eating sandwiches and sleeping.

Two weeks later, the floors and walls in the house were clean with the smell of Clorox and antiseptic. Liquor bottles lined the kitchen counter. Shrimp was in a cooler. A generator hummed. Life was going on. In the attic were a washstand the family had hauled upstairs, a tarp where they slept, a battery-powered TV set, a stuffed muskrat and oil paintings of swamp scenes by Serpas.

"That's our state bird," he said with a laugh as he pointed to a mosquito in one of his paintings. "He's tough like us."

As Hyland drove back to a friend's home in Baton Rouge, where he is living until he can rebuild in his beloved St. Bernard Parish, he thought of Serpas.

"He is a living vestige of the Spanish colonization," Hyland said. "Spain's presence lives on in the Canary Islanders like Don. Spain will live on in me. We shall all be back."


  Mexican Workers in Jackson, MS Survive Katrina 
By Ana Radelat
Jackson (MS) Clarion-Ledger (September 4, 2005)
Sent by Howard Shorr howardshorr@msn.com 

Mexican workers who don't speak English surviving

HATTIESBURG - Francisca Lourdes Lopez is one of Hurricane Katrina's hidden victims.

A member of south Mississippi's growing Hispanic population, spawned by the growth of the state's poultry industry and a pre-storm building boom on the  Gulf Coast, Lopez said she and most of the people living in her apartment  complex did not know Katrina was heading her way until it was too late.

"By the time we realized what was happening, we didn't have time to buy extra food or go somewhere else," she said.

She said a couple of city workers came by the James Street Apartments last Sunday, where she and about 350 other Hispanics live. They distributed fliers in Spanish, warning of the storm and advising of the precautions residents should take.

"That was it, and we haven't seen anyone else come by since," she said.

Since the storm hit, Lopez and thousands of other Hispanics with limited  English skills have struggled to understand what is happening around them.

Lopez can't understand the public service announcements and steady stream of advisories on the radio telling storm victims where to get ice, water, generators and other necessities.

Since most are undocumented workers from Mexico, local Hispanics are loath to ask city officials or the police for help, even when the trash Dumpster in the apartment building is overflowing with reeking garbage and a band of youths threaten to siphon gasoline from their cars.

"We don't want to buy anymore trouble," said Marco Antonio Alvarado. "We'd rather take care of things ourselves."

Alvarado said James Street Apartment residents cleared fallen trees themselves and sawed them into pieces to burn in hibachis.

"The only thing we need is help with more food for the children," he said.

Adding to the desperation, most of the local Hispanics are out of work, with 10 of Mississippi's 14 poultry-processing centers shut down and construction at a standstill.

"We send most of our money home to family members who depend on it, and now we don't know when we'll be able to do it again," Alvarado said.

In Laurel, a houseful of about 18 Mexican immigrants watched in horror Monday as Katrina almost entirely destroyed a grove of trees across the street.

"We didn't know anything about this until Sunday, when they told us a bad storm was coming, said Pedro Ramos. "And nobody told us it would be this bad."

Ramos said Laurel's Hispanics have survived, thanks largely to a couple of "bodegas," or Hispanic stores, in town, La Veracruzana and Michoacan, which have supplied them with food.

Sometimes they get tips where they can buy other needed supplies.

Elvira Maldonado said she raced to the store to buy disposable diapers for her 3-month-old daughter after a friend told her the Wal-Mart in Hattiesburg was open.

"It's really hurts not to know English," she said.

U.S. Census figures from 2000 say about 40,000 Hispanics were living in Mississippi, but many believe there are many more here now.


Inspection Tour of Arabi 
skip@thebrasscannon.com

Tuesday, September 20, 2005

Hi Catherine,

Nancy and I returned home to Metairie on Sunday (September 18th). Lots of work to do, but the house is basically in good condition, with no damage to speak of.

Yesterday (Monday, September 19th, 2005) I made an inspection tour of my aunt's home in Arabi (St. Bernard Parish), in the Caroline Park Subdivision. It was a disaster. In 1965, I was there when the waters came up during Hurricane Betsy; we were able to wade away from that flooding and later rebuild and return. That was in 1965.

In 2005, I do not have that same feeling about Caroline Park in the aftermath of H. Katrina. In Aunt Gin's house, the waters came up into the attic. The insulation became saturated with water, and as the flood waters receded, the water-logged insulation crashed thru the saturated ceiling into the house. As the waters were rising, wooden furniture floated about the rooms. Nothing remained upright. Besides the debris, the floor was covered with a silty layer of sludge. 

Outside, the land and lawn are ashen color of death. All of the homes there are marked with a large spray painted " X " to indicate that the property was inspected for dead people, and where there were " O "'s it indicated that there were none found. One house, however, showed a " 3 ", and I knew what that meant. In my aunt's area of Caroline Park, it was the Georgia Natioinal Guard who performed this grisley function.  

But my mission to Arabi yesterday was threefold:
1) I had to inspect the house;
2) I had to retrieve certain papers (if possible); and
3) I had to retrieve my uncle's (Msgr. John L. Newfield's) historic
chalice which dates from the late 1700s, and which has a history all of its own. In truth, this was my primary goal, and I knew that I would not leave until I found it.

I did inspect the house; it is a total loss.
I did retrieve those papers - wet but usable.
And, I did retrieve the chalice.

There was so much loose debris in the house, about waste high, that I could not walk about in the house. In order to gain access to the room where the chalice was located, I had to pry off the entire window frame so that I could enter. I removed not only the screen, but the glass and the windows, and part of the framing itself. Then, I could stand upright in that window opening, so as to pry the closet doors off of their hinges with a garden shovel. I cast the doors across a fallen dresser and used it to support my weight inside of the room. I then searched for the chalice inside of that closet, and I found it wrapped in a protective (Ha!) plastic bag, and brought it outside and set it on
the ground.

Although the wood and leather case that held the chalice and patten were so badly weakened by the waters that it fell apart at the touch, the sacred vessels were saved. When I unwrapped the chalice and patten from their protective coverings, I cried.

On the way out of St. Bernard, I stopped in at a military medical facility to get a Tetnus innoculation. While there, I saw Junior Rodriguez coming from a meeting; I asked him, "Hey, Junior, How about a
photo?", and he answered, "Why? Do you have roaches in your house that you want to try to chase them away??" Great sense of humor. I told him that I was part of the Canary Islands group in Baton Rouge, and he told me how caring and concerned the people in the Islands for our condition. He said that there was even a Spanish reporter somewhere about.

That's about the extent of it for my one day visit to "Da Parish". The people there are strong, and I hope that they will be able to come back. There was a building there, with a message painted on the roof, "Chalmette Spirit -- Salt of the Earth". How True!!!

Paul "Skip" Newfield
skip@thebrasscannon.com


"Hurricane Help For Schools"

Dear Colleagues:  The U.S. Department of Education has created a webpage entitled "Hurricane Help For Schools" which can be accessed at www.ed.gov/katrina. It will serve as a clearinghouse of resources for Americans who want to help students displaced by Hurricane Katrina. The webpage is a forum where schools, companies and organizations across the country can come together and work to help students displaced by the hurricane. Companies and organizations can respond to the needs of the students and send resources directly to them, and schools will be able to directly contact the companies and organizations offering assistance.

Thank you, Elizabeth Casas Ray   GLemus@LULAC.org
Director of Hispanic Communication &Outreach 
U.S. Department of Education
400 Maryland Avenue, S.W. 
Washington, D.C. 20202
202-205-2644 



Announcements from Michigan 
Sent by Dorinda Moreno

A jazz composition by MSU Jazz Studies instructor Diego Rivera honoring national labor pioneer Dolores Huerta will premiere in a special concert in East Lansing, Mich., Oct. 5. 

"A Conversation with Dolores Huerta” Wednesday, October 5 
12:15 - 1:30, Brown bag: 4th Floor Conference Room, Michigan State University Library 

Dolores Huerta co-founded the United Farm Workers Union with Cesar Chavez in 1962 and has dedicated her life to the struggle for justice and dignity for migrant farm workers. She remains one of the most powerful advocates and voices for her community to this day and serves as president of the Dolores Huerta Foundation for Community Organizing. 

A jazz composition by MSU Jazz Studies instructor Diego Rivera honoring national labor pioneer Dolores Huerta will premiere in a special concert in East Lansing, Mich., Oct. 5. 

The Diego Rivera Quartet performs "A Salute to Dolores Huerta" on Wednesday, Oct. 5, at 7 p.m. at the Hannah Community Center, 819 Abbott Road, East Lansing. Tickets are available at the door: $20 and $10 with student ID. A reception with Dolores Huerta is also included in the evening's program. The event benefits the Mexican American Culture Endowment in Memory of Pedro Rivera, DO at the Center for Great Lakes Culture/MSU Museum. 

Dolores Huerta co-founded the United Farm Workers Union with Cesar Chavez in 1962 and has dedicated her life to the struggle for justice and dignity for migrant farm workers. She remains one of the most powerful advocates and voices for her community to this day and serves as president of the Dolores Huerta Foundation for Community Organizing. Huerta will visit mid-Michigan Oct. 4-5 for a series of educational programs at MSU and Lansing-area schools, and the jazz premiere caps her stay in town. 

Diego Rivera, on the faculty of MSU School of Music's Jazz Studies Program and member of the "Professors of Jazz" combo, drew from his family's own migrant worker experience in composing the jazz suite. His father Pedro worked as a migrant farm worker in Calhoun County before going on to earn a medical degree at Michigan State University, and serving as a lifelong social activist and working to improve the lives of Mexican Americans. Diego Rivera, a saxophonist, studied under jazz great Branford Marsalis and has performed with the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra, the Dirty Dozen Brass Band and other leading jazz acts. 

The educational endowment in Pedro Rivera's name and the benefit concert help draw attention to the cultural influences and contributions of Chicanos and Latinos have had on the Midwest, its daily life and its culture. National Hispanic Heritage Month is Sept. 15-Oct. 15 and October is National 
Arts and Humanities Month. 

Related links: 
o Dolores Huerta Foundation: http://doloreshuerta.org/ 
o Diego Rivera, MSU School of Music: 
http://www.music.msu.edu/faculty/faculty.php?id=31 
o MSU Museum and Center for Great Lakes Culture: http://museum.msu.edu 
o Hispanic Heritage Month 2005: 
http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/facts_for_features
_special_editions/005338.html
 
o Arts and Humanities Month: 
http://ww3.artsusa.org/get_involved/visibility/visibility_002.asp 


ARTES UNIDAS DE MICHIGAN WEBSITE 

Artes Unidas de Michigan is happy to announce the latest release of its website: www.artesunidas.org

Highlights of this new release include: 

- Online and mail order forms for the full-color print edition of El Calendario de Michigan 2006: The Artes Unidas Calendar of Michigan Latino History, Arts and Culture 

- Artes Unidas Online Calendar of Historical Events - an interactive database of over 2,000 historic events that chronicle our people's contributions to Michigan's art, music and media, political, literary, civic, business and athletic realism dating from the Spanish conquest of Fort Niles in 1782. 

This online version allows readers to contribute historical events they know of in their area of the state. This feature can be found at: http://www.artesunidas.org/history.php 

- Artes Unidas Online Announcements/Happenings Calendar - an interactive announcement and events calendar that allows you to enter events, click ahead to see what's happening this weekend and print out a month's worth of Latino events across the state. 

In development over the next month you'll see...enhanced artist's directory page, education resources, and links. Bookmark the site, visit regularly, and let them know what you think about the Artes Unidas website's new release! 

 

 

EAST COAST

Coming to America! Columbus Day Family Program

Florida Death Index 1936-1998
National Domesticity in the Early Republic: Washington, D.C.

 

Coming to America! Columbus Day Family Program

Monday, October 10 from noon to 4 pm

 

The National Archives is proud to offer a day of fun family programs and activities celebrating the theme Coming to America! Join us for performances, demonstrations and activities throughout the National Archives Experience related to genealogy, immigration, and preserving family history.  Experience the sights, sounds, and excitement of arriving in a new place by attending Destination: America in the McGowan Theater, learn how quilts can tell you the story of your grandmother’s life, design a colorful fraktur, try your hand at stitching a sampler, trace your family’s origin through maps, use copies of original records to apply for naturalization, and create your own family tree!  

 

Genealogy Information Center (Constitution Ave. Lobby)

Noon to 4:00 pm

Are you curious about your family tree? The National Archives is the perfect place to start! Stop by to pick up information on where to begin, what to look for and what resources to use to discover your roots.

 

Performance (McGowan Theater)

Destination: America

1:00pm

Destination: America explores the immigrant experience endured by people searching for a better life in America between 1900 and 1920. The audience is packed into the theater lobby like immigrants packed onto a steam ship heading for America. Once they "arrive," an immigration official comes out and speaks to them in a language they do not understand. Writer and actor Steve Kohrherr expresses the sights, sounds, and feelings of these world travelers in a moving performance. This program was created with support from The Chrysler Museum of Art. (Limited to 100 participants)

 

Activity (Public Vaults Entrance Lobby)

Make a Fraktur

Noon to 4:00 pm

Frakturs, a kind of Pennsylvania German folk-art, are beautifully illustrated documents that recorded marriages, births and baptisms in the 18th century. You can design your own birthday fraktur at the National Archives Coming to America! family day.

 

Demonstration (Public Vaults Entrance Lobby)

Fraktur Artist

2:00 pm to 4:00 pm

Fraktur artist Geraldine Knock-Paul will present "Decorative Arts in Colonial Times” and will demonstrate with audience participation the process of creating a beautiful fraktur. An original 18th century fraktur from the holdings of the National Archives is on display in the Public Vaults.

 

Activity (O’Brien Gallery Lobby)

Make a Family Chart

Noon to 4:00 pm

A family chart is a fun way to keep track of your relative’s names, birthdays and birthplaces and is a perfect place to start exploring your family tree. This is a great activity for children, parents and grandparents to do together.

 

Activity

Create a Map (O’Brien Gallery Lobby)

Noon to 4:00 pm

Show everyone where your family originated on a map of the world and then show where they immigrated to on a map of the United States. Find all the places you, your parents and your grandparents have lived. Connect those cities and you will see the path your family took in their journey across the World to America. This activity is great to work on with the whole family.

 

Activity (O’Brien Gallery Lobby)

Apply for a Naturalization, Land Grant or Pension

Noon to 4:00 pm

Imagine yourself an immigrant in a strange land. Use what you know about your family history to fill out reproductions of original records to apply for naturalization, a land grant or pension. Imagine what it would have been like to fill out the information knowing little to no English, having no documents to assist you and no family around to ask about your history. Live the history that your ancestors experienced. 

 

Activity (Presidential Conference Room Lobby)

Design a Quilt Block

Noon to 4:00 pm

Did you know that the pictures on quilts are symbols that tell part of a story? Or that quilts were used as maps on the Underground Railroad? Choose to color in a traditional pattern such as a Picket Fence or a Monkey Wrench, or design your own quilt square that tells part of your family story!

 

Demonstration (Washington Room)

Annapolis Quilters Guild

2:00pm to 4:00pm

Members of the Annapolis Quilters Guild will be at the National Archives to discuss the historical, cultural and artistic significance of quilts in America. They will also demonstrate some of the timeless skills used in quilting, and examples of historic quilts will be available for viewing.

 

Demonstration (Jefferson Room)

Traditional Sampler Stitching

1:00pm to 3:00pm

Since colonial times, samplers have been passed down through generations and even today artists use the same patterns that their ancestors did.  Artist Alyce Schroth will discuss the history and demonstrate the techniques used in creating samplers. Visitors will view some traditional samplers from around the U.S. and have the opportunity to stitch a row or two on a demonstration sampler.

   

Genetic Science Activities with the Marian Koshland Science Museum

Noon to 4pm in the Public Vault Exit Lobby

Join the Marian Koshland Science Museum of the National Academy of Sciences for hands‑on science activities at the National Archives' Coming to America! celebration. The Koshland museum will offer activities for guests to learn more about DNA, genes, and genetic traits through a series of hands‑on science programs. Geared toward children and families, these activities will show how your DNA and genes have helped you become who you are in a fun and informative way. Programs include.

   

See Your DNA

This hands‑on Science activity gives you the opportunity to see and keep your own DNA. Using a simple procedure, you will isolate visible DNA from your own cheek cells and take it home with you in a laboratory‑grade pendant.

 

Take Inventory of Your Genetic Traits

Ever wonder how you "got" your mother's eyes or your father's chin? Find out how genetic traits are passed on from generation to generation as you take inventory of your own physical traits. From earlobes and hair whorls, to "super taster" abilities, you will learn how these genetic traits can be dominant or recessive, and find out which versions you have.

 

Create Your DNA Alias

Interested in creating and breaking codes?  Learn about the genetic code as you translate your name into a DNA alias. After determining your DNA alias, you can create a bracelet or key chain with your alias encoded on it to take home.

 

The National Archives is located between 7th and 9th Sts. on Constitution Ave. NW .

The nearest Metro stop is Archives/Navy Memorial, serviced by the Yellow and Green lines.

Please use the Special Events Entrance off the corner of 7th and Constitution for all public programs. All events listed in the calendar are free; reservations are not required unless noted. For reservations, e-mail reservations.nwe@nara.gov or call 202-501-5000.

For more information on public programs at the National Archives, please visit www.archives.gov

 

National Archives and Records Administration
Film and Lecture Programs Office
202-501-5000

 

 

Florida Death Index 1936-1998
This index covers the death records in Florda from 1936 to 1998. Most records contain a name, race, death date, death place, gender, birth date, volume number, and certificate number. this collection of records was digitized form microfiche provided by the Florda Department of Health, Office of Vital Statistics, P.O. Box 210, Jacksonville, Florida 322310042. It is important to se the information gathered from this index to obtain a copy of the original record. as original records usually contain more information than do their indexes.


National Domesticity in the Early Republic: Washington, D.C.
http://www.common-place.org/vol-03/no-04/washington/
Sent by Johanna De Soto

Sarah Luria is an assistant professor in the English department at the College of the Holy Cross. She is currently completing a book manuscript entitled Capital Letters and Spaces: How Writers Helped Build Washington, D.C. 

"The fact that everyone in the city helped to build or run the new government led to a new kind of domesticity that was literally shaped by national politics, although in ways L’Enfant and Washington could not have foreseen." 

On November 20, 1791, Major Pierre L’Enfant, planner of the new capital city, ordered the demolition of a house against its owner’s will that stood in the way of what was to be New Jersey Avenue. The home’s owner, Daniel Carroll, belonged to one of the most prominent families who owned the land on which the capital was to be built. This showdown between private property and national government was not at all what the capital’s planners had envisioned. Indeed, L’Enfant and George Washington had hoped that the capital would help create the missing, personal relationship between the far-flung citizenry and the new nation. L’Enfant predicted that a beautiful capital would attract citizens to buy lots and settle there, making the nation’s capital their home. The capital would thus tie citizens emotionally and psychologically to the national government by giving them the chance to invest financially in its future. 

 

 

MEXICO

Pancho's life was inadvertently saved by Boilerplate
My Grandfather, Tlazocamati by Dorinda Moreno
Mexican Army Brings Aid to Victims
Our Neighbors to the South 

The History of Guanajuato 
Ing. Don Pedro Ruiz González, Gobernador de Zacatecas, 1968-1974. 
Family Pedigrees in Mexico and Texas by John Inclan
Genealogia-Mexico@googlegroups.com 
1) Documentos archivo general de la nacion  

2) Argena 1, Argena 2,  Argena 3 
3) Archivo General de Indias - Listas de Pasajeros 

4) Título Relacion de Pasajeros  
5) Nivel de Descripción Unidad Documental Simple 
6) De Elisondo   
7) Hijos de Andres Lozano y Antonia de Gongora    

XVIII Ayuntamiento de Tijuana
Raices Mexicanas - The Russian Molokans in Mexico
The Hidden Magic of Baja California

 


Pancho's life was inadvertently saved by Boilerplate

Modesto Nevares, who was pressed into service with the Villistas, recounts the scene: 
"Suddenly there was a great commotion. Someone cried out that an American soldier had been captured just north of town. This soldier was being led to the hotel where Villa was headquartered. I went outside to see for myself, and a stranger sight I have never witnessed in my life. This American was not a man at all, nor did it seem possible this being could ever be held by any jail, for he was made entirely of metal and stood a head taller than anyone around him. A large blanket was fastened around his shoulders, so that from a distance he appeared as an ordinary peasant. I learned later that lookouts north of the town had tried to stop this metal figure with rifle fire as he approached. The bullets were like mosquitoes to this giant, who, instead of retaliating against the attackers, simply asked to see their leader. Thus he was led down the main street by the lookouts, accumulating spectators as they made their way to the hotel."

Pancho's life was inadvertently saved by Boilerplate
During one of Villa's charges on an enemy position, a machine gunner had a clear shot at Villa. Boilerplate positioned himself between the fusillade and its intended target. Out of a dozen rounds fired, only one hit Pancho in the leg. The mechanical man had prevented the death of General Villa.

www.bigredhair.com/boilerplate/soldier/bp.pancho.jpg
www.bigredhair.com/soldier/bp.pancho.html

[[Editor:  I don't know if this is one of the many legends associated with Pancho Villa, but the picture and the story of this robot was so unusual, it needed to be shared.]]



My Grandfather, Tlazocamati by Dorinda Moreno

Tlazocamati! my grandfather was born in Zacatecas. When 'la marcha de Zacatecas' is played with sounds of booming trumpets and coronets-- it moves me in pride in the history of Pancho Villa and the great Emiliano Zapata...

My grandfather passed on when I was l6, and would hear of the revolution and that he fought alongside villa. he retold stories of being wounded and coming across the Rio Grande to settle in new Mexico. not too long ago at an event in the bay area for Cesar Chavez (where I along with some l0 others received the 'Cesar Chavez legacy award' at the l0th anniversary of his death and unveiling of the Chavez stamp), a special guest was in the audience, Ernesto Nava-Villa, the son of Pancho  Villa. Ernesto, who is nearing 90 years young and is still vital and coherent... and recovering from a recent heart attack.

What an honor, we talked... then Ernesto mentioned places, and I would say oh yes, my grandfather talked about that... then I mentioned a town in New Mexico and he responded, 'I know that place'. then I mentioned my grandfather's name, and his eyes lit up and joyously remarked,  'I knew him' and proceeded to name each member of my family, aunts, uncles and mother who he said was about l4-25 when he last saw them... I could not believe my ears, this man was a friend of my grandfather who passed away when I was just l6. I have a picture of him with my daughter, at her christening... and to think that 'Ernesto Nava-Villa' is still alive and lucid, and whose son Raul also sent me a birthday greeting... 

Ernesto, Raul and I, last saw each other at the 37th anniversary celebration of 'el teatro campesino', with the legendary singer-songwriter of 'Zoot-suit' fame, the great Lalo Guerrero (who passed away earlier this year at age nearing 90.) an era of greats who carried the history of their people, of revolution and struggle. a legacy to pass on to the youth of today.As Zapata said, it is better to die on our feet for our principles and not as slaves of men...

Today, am supporting a project to bring to film, of the history of Chiapas through the eyes of the writer Rosario Castellanos, and which a Zpatista gifted screenwriter the book from which the present day uprising took place, based on earlier resistance in the l800's and later, which is a history not known... all we need is hope, funds, and supporters who believe as we do that these stories must be told. in search of producers and backers for this gold strain that ties us all together in a history of struggle and resistance.


Mexican Army Brings Aid to Victims
http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/news/article.adp?id=
20050908095809990005


Mexican Army Brings Aid to Victims
By ABE LEVY, AP

LAREDO, Texas (Sept. 8) - A Mexican army convoy began crossing into the United States on Thursday to bring aid to victims of Hurricane Katrina. Carrying water treatment plants and mobile kitchens that can feed 7,000 people daily, the convoy bound for San Antonio is the first Mexican military unit to operate on U.S. soil since 1846.

Ricardo Santos, Laredo Morning Times/AP
Texas state troopers and U.S. Army personnel escort a convoy of Mexican vehicles carrying supplies for Hurricane Katrina victims to San Antonio.

Our Neighbors to the South 
Sent by Cindy LoBuglio lobuglio@frontiernet.net
Source: Carmen Zamora Nordlund, President Organizations Leadership Alliance (HOLA)

Mexican troops cross into U.S. for hurricane relief Thursday September 08,
2005 By ABE LEVY Associated Press Writer LAREDO, Texas (AP) A Mexican army
convoy began crossing into the United States on Thursday to bring aid to
victims of Hurricane Katrina.

Carrying water treatment plants and mobile kitchens that can feed 7,000 people daily, the convoy bound for San Antonio is the first Mexican military unit to operate on U.S. soil since 1846.

The first green tractor-trailers, with Mexican flags attached to the tops of their cabs, crossed the international bridge at Laredo at about 8:15 a.m. The rest of the 45-vehicle convoy was in a staging area on the U.S. side in about 15 minutes.

The convoy will be escorted by the U.S. Army and the Texas Department of Public Safety. It was scheduled to leave after the leader of the convoy, Gen. Francisco Ortiz Valadez, greeted the head of the U.S. Army unit in charge of the escort, Brig. Gen. F. Joseph Prasek.

Military engineers, doctors and nurses are among the 200 people headed to San Antonio. The Mexican government was already planning another 12-vehicle aid convoy for this week. It has sent a Mexican navy ship toward the Mississippi  coast with rescue vehicles and helicopters.

Mexico has sent disaster relief aid missions to other Latin American nations, but not to the United States. In 1846, Mexican troops briefly advanced just north of the Rio Grande in Texas, which had then recently joined the United States. Mexico, however, did not then recognize the Rio Grande as the U.S. border. The two countries quickly became mired in the Mexican-American War, which
led to the loss of half of Mexico's territory in 1848.


http://www.guanajuato.gob.mx/ingles/histoinde.htm

[[Editor: This is a brief segment of fascinating history, a perspective on the conflicts in Mexico with the Spanish government.]]     Sent by Richard Ortiz  ol_coach@cox.net 

From around 1760 on, the inhabitants of the province of Guanajuato began to demonstrate their frustrations with the limitations of the colonial system. The first protests took place in 1766, when unhappiness about a number of reforms instituted by Judge Jose de Galvez was manifested in the cry "Long live the King! Death to the Government!", and six thousand people tried to storm the offices of the Crown. The protest had its origins in, among other things, the taxes on corn, flour, meat and firewood, as well as low quality tobacco and the organization of the militia.

The following July, saw events take a turn for the worse with the expulsion of the Jesuits. During three days of unrest, the citizens of Guanajuato stoned the Crown offices, along with those of the tobacco and gunpowder monopolies and took control of the public highway. Jose de Galvez imprisoned 660 people, forbade the possession of firearms to miners and the wearing of Spanish clothes to the natives, as well as reinstituting a poll tax on miners, natives and mulattoes.

In the face of the new government orders, the dissenters adopted another strategy. Young men from the towns of San Miguel el Grande, Guanajuato, San Felipe and Leon formed a 1700-strong "Prince's regiment", effectively forming their own militia.

 

Personajes de la historia 
Gobernadores de Zacatecas 
Por: 
José León Robles de la Torre 

Sent by Mercy Bautista Olvera 
scarlett_mbo@yahoo.com



Ing. Pedro Ruiz González, nacido en Luis Moya, Zacs., el día 25 de mayo de 1928, siendo hijo de don Salvador Ruiz Barrios y de su esposa doña Guadalupe González de Ruiz. Sus estudios primarios los realizó en su tierra natal y los preparatorios y profesionales en la Escuela Particular de Agricultura, Hermanos Escobar de Ciudad Juárez, Chih., hasta recibir su título de ingeniero agrónomo. 

 

Ing. Don Pedro Ruiz González, 
Gobernador de Zacatecas, 1968-1974. 
Foto oficial que se encuentra en la Galería del Palacio de Gobierno de Zacatecas.

Una vez titulado, empezó a trabajar, a partir de 1960, como agente general de agricultura y ganadería en el Estado de Zacatecas, durando en ese cargo hasta 1964. De 1964 a 1967, fue electo diputado federal a la XLVI Legislatura Nacional y al terminar su gestión, figuró como candidato del PRI a la gubernatura de Zacatecas y habiendo resultado electo, desempeñó ese alto cargo en el período 1968-1974. 

Contrajo nupcias con la señorita Ma. Guadalupe Berumen, procreando a Salvador en 1957, a Mauro en 1959, a José Alberto en 1960 y a María del Rosario en 1963, todos Ruiz Berumen. 

Tuve la fortuna de cultivar una bonita amistad con el señor gobernador, hasta llegar a compartir el pan y la sal en la mesa de su residencia en Zacatecas, él, su esposa Lupita, mi esposa Ana y yo, solos los cuatro para platicar de sus realizaciones en bien del Estado y de otras muchas cosas. 

El 15 de enero de 1970, le escribí una carta que en parte dice: “a nombre del pueblo de Juanchorrey, de los organizadores de las fiestas del dos de febrero, y del mío propio, queremos darle nuestro agradecimiento por su gentileza al acordar que la Banda del Estado, tocara en aquel rinconcito del Estado”. 

El señor gobernador tenía la intención de acompañarnos en la fiesta, pero debido a que tuvo que ir a la toma de posesión del gobernador Loret de Mola, acordó que nos acompañara el secretario general de gobierno don Juan Antonio Castañeda Ruiz. El cinco de febrero, ya en Torreón, le escribí al señor gobernador y en parte le dije: 

“El señor licenciado Castañeda, de dotes personales y gentileza especiales, no obstante sus ocupaciones, que me apenó interrumpir, nos mostró algo de lo que se ha hecho y se está haciendo en esa ciudad. Las obras realizadas en la Bufa, esa Bufa que desde su altura parece cantarle al infinito, luce majestuosa su nueva estructura de cantera labrada, así como su flamante iluminación nocturna que en conjunto reflejan la grandeza de los corazones zacatecanos y la laboriosidad y dinamismo de sus autoridades”. Fuimos luego guiados por el señor Lic. Castañeda a visitar las obras de restauración del viejo templo y convento de San Agustín, joya arquitectónica que manos criminales y la acción del tiempo, y las luchas armadas habían destruido. La antigua Casa de Moneda, también se reestructura, y en Palacio de Gobierno se realizan murales dignos de encomio. Por todo, reciba la modesta felicitación de un zacatecano, que siempre está pendiente de lo que ocurre en mi hermosa tierra colorada. 

Su vida fue truncada muy joven, de apenas 47 años de edad y con un futuro brillante. El licenciado Filiberto Soto Solís, a nombre de la Comisión Permanente del Congreso de la Unión, dio la oración fúnebre y criticó: “el sistema político por el que la juventud pide a gritos un cambio; el sistema político que abre un vacío inmenso en torno a la vida de los hombres que tienen vocación de servicio, que estigmatiza para siempre al que sirvió a la colectividad, condena a los altos funcionarios del gobierno al ostracismo, al anonimato, a la inactividad como galardón del servicio...”.

 

 

Family Pedigrees in Mexico and Texas 
By John Inclan fromgalveston@yahoo.com
Suggestion: Do an edit-mode search on any surname of interest

Dõn Francisco Javier de Alcorta
Dõn Francisco Joseph de Arocha and Dona Juana Ramirez Curbelo Umpierre
Captain Francisco Baez de Benavides and Dona Isabel Martinez Guajardo
Dõn  Nicolas Balli Perez II and Dona Josefa Manuela Guerra de la Garza
Captain Pedro Botello de Morales
Dõn Juan Canales 
Dõn Juan de Caliz and Dona Catalina Gomez de Coy (Santos Coy)
The Descendents of Captain Bernabe de las Casas And Dona Maria Beatriz Navarro Rodriguez
(Part 1: Generations 1-5)
(Part 2: Generation 6)
(Part 3: Generation 7)
(Part 4: Generation 8)
(Part 5: Generation 9)
(Part 6: Generation 10)
Dõn Juan Cavazos del Campo and Dona Elena de la Garza Falcon
Dõn Juan Bautista Chapa and Dona Beatriz Olivares de Trevino
Dõn  Pedro Duran y Chavez and Dona Isabel de Baca
Dõn Antonio de Ecay y Muzquiz and Dona Vicenta Vera
Dõn Juan Fernandez de Jauregui and Dona Isauel de Aldama
Pedro Flores- de-Abrego
Dõn Juan Galindo Morales And Dona Melchora Sanchez Navarro
Dõn Blas Maria de la Garza y Falcon and Dona Beatriz Gonzalez Hidalgo
Lord Pedro Gonzalez de Mendoza And Lady Aldonza Lopez de Ayala
Dõn Jose Manuel de Goseascochea  
                            and Dona Maria Francisca Xaviera de la Garza y de la Garza
Jean Juchereau, Sieur de More
Captain Pedro Lozano Rodriguez And Dona Marianna de la Garza y Rocha
Dõn Juan Perez de Onate and Dona Osana Martinez de Gonzalez
Dõn Juan Francisco Martinez Guajardo 
                            and Dona Ursula Ines Catarina Navarro Rodriguez
Dõn J Clemente Perez de Ancira
Dõn
Lorenzo Perez and Dona Adriana de Leon
Dõn Francisco Sanchez de la Barrera and Dona Maria Duran de Vzcanga
Dõn  Joseph-Antonio Seguin and Dona Geronima Flores de Abrego
Dõn Pedro Uribe y Vergara and Dona Ana Lenor Tovar
Dõn San Juan de Urrutia y Allende  and Dona Casilda Retes y Retes 
Dõn Joseph de Urrutia y Escurta  
                          and Dona Francisca Nicolasa Javiera Fernandez de la Garza
Villarreal Lineage: Franciso (1st generation), Diego (2nd) Diego (3) Juan (4th) :
      Alferez Diego de Villarreal and Dona Beatriz de las Casas y Navarro
      Captain Diego de Villarreal-de-las-Casas and Ines de Renteria
Descendants of Juan de Villarreal-de-las-Casas
Jose-Benito Zambrano


Letters and questions to John Inclan from Joseph Lombardo

Hello Mr. Inclan,

My name is Joseph Lombardo and I found one entry on your site which immediately grabbed my attention. For some time I and some other distant relatives have been trying to determine who were the parents of my gggggg grandfather Jose Ignacio Salinas.I have seen him shown as the son of Bartola Pena and Jose Salinas but the fact that he wasn't listed on her will (which I have a copy of) made me doubtful of that relationship. There is an entry in the Seabury book (Escobar transcription) saying that he is tied into Bartola Pena's porcion so I was mystified.

Recently I had a genealogist in Monterrey, Mexico check for me and he said that Ignacio was the son of Francisco Javier Salinas and Maria Rosa Longoria. He said he found records from Monterrey and Guadalajara and I asked him if he could send me a copy of the document proving this relationship, not because I didn't believe him, but because I wanted to be able to prove this to other persons who are also descended from Jose Ignacio Salinas. He said he would send me source copies but proof hasn't arrived yet. Then just yesterday I found an IGI on the Mormon site listing a record from 1743 Camargo, Tamaulipas, MX saying Jose Ignacio Salinas was christened on that date and his parents were Francisco Javier Salinas and Maria Rosa Longoria. Now, I just saw your site and it states the same thing. Could you possibly tell me the source for you of this information. I would really appreciate it and it would end a roadblock in my family tree which I have been stuck at for years.
Thank you very much for your time, 
 Joseph Lombardo


Since my last email several months ago, I have been working on adding to the family tree of descendants of Juan Galindo Morales. As I mentioned previously, we have significant research and I am presently going through a verification process on some of the lineages through Mexican records. Two questions arise. But first, let me acknowledge that I have seen (Somos Primos) where you get very significant informational requests from individuals that identify ancestors in your published family trees. Many of these have no idea how much work is involved and the numerous brick walls that genealogists run into. I have actually contacted a few of these people (Zertuche most recently) and answer their questions or direct them to sources that can answer their questions. I raise this issue in hope that you will take my questions as coming from a committed researcher. In any event, here are my questions:

In Generation No. 6 you show Jose Ignacio Galindo-Davila as having died in 1851. Do you recall your source? I do not doubt you, but I have not been able to find documentation regarding his death. I have inquiries to civil registries in four (4) towns in Coahuila.
Is there any particular reason why you started this lineage at Juan Galindo Morales? I ask because I am working on his father, Jose Galindo and ? Morales. I hope you have the time and information at your disposal to respond, particularly regarding   Jose Ignacio Galindo.


Letters and questions to John Inclan from Oscar Trevino from McAllen, Texas.

You wrote the following (from Descendents of Don Juan Cavazos del Campo):
217. MARIA-MANUELA6 DE-LA-GARZA-GARCIA (FRANCISCO-JAVIER5 DE-LA-GARZA-GUERRA, CLARA-GUERRA-CANAMAR-DE-LA-GARZA4, MARIA3 DE-LA-GARZA, JUAN2 CAVAZOS-DEL-CAMPO, GABRIEL1 CAVAZOS) was born October 27, 1748 in Sagrario Metropolitano, Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico. She married PEDRO-JOSE PEREZ-DE-LA-GARZA January 08, 1769 in Nuestra Sra de Santa Anna, Camargo, Tamaulipas, Mexico, son of JOSE PEREZ and MARIA DE-LA-GARZA. 

Notes for PEDRO-JOSE PEREZ-DE-LA-GARZA:

Pedro Jose Perez purchased Porcion 74 in Camargo from the original grantee, Pedro Josef Lugo, by deed dated Dec. 26, 1787.

Joseph Pedro or Jose Pedro Perez is a direct ancestor on my mother's side. I came to a dead end with him then I found your research. You list him as son of Jose Perez and Maria de la Garza. They were listed on the 2nd Camargo Census. However, Joseph Pedro was not listed. There is a Jospeh Polonia Perez. Is it possible the translator or transcriber made an error. Who would name there child a female's name? What are your sources of information? Do you have any further information on his father or mother? North of Porcion of 74 is another Perez who is the son said parents. I believe this owner and Pedro Joseph are brothers or very close relatives.

Correspondence reflecting networking between Genealogia-Mexico 
a networking group in place that welcomes all researchers.
Genealogia-Mexico@googlegroups.com

eventos@genealogia.org.mx writes:
1) Documentos archivo general de la nacion  
From: eventos@genealogia.org.mx 

El Archivo General de la Nacion de Mexico es el donde se conserva una copia de los microfilmes de la parroquias que la Academia Mexicana de Genealogia y Heraldica y la Sociedad Genealogica de Utah preservan.  Como saben hay dos formatos 35mm y 16mm.
 
La consulta previo registro en AGN es posible.  La FHL permite la consulta a bajo costo en los CHF, en otras palabras la Family History Library y sus sucursales que son los Centros de Historia Familiar permiten la consulta de estos microfilmes pagando la renta del material.
 
Entiendo que la mayor parte del material circula entre los CHF excepto aquellos que estan limitados por ciertas diocesis.
 
Tambien es importante que sepan que cuando una genealogia alcanza el año 1500 ó antes un investigador debe enviar su investigacion a la Division de Familias Medievales. Como saben el IGI no muestra la informacion antes del 1500 DC
 
Ahora la genealogia de Luis Dessommes le cambie el tipo de letra del pie de pagina que me parece que era lo que hace ruido.
 
2) ARGENA 1, ARGENA 11 Y ARGENA 111 
Mexico y Genealogia Documentos archivo  general de la nacion
From: Aaron Andrade 
 
Hola que tal   Soy nuevo en el grupo,  ¿alguien sabe si es posible acceder por medio del
internet a los microfilms de las Fes de: Bautismo, matrimonios etc. que se encuentran en el archivo
general de la naciòn?  Agradecere mucho cualquier ayuda que me puedan  brindar

Hola  saludos a todos los del Grupo . En el Archivo General de la Nacion venden unos CD , que se llaman ARGENA 1, ARGENA 11 Y ARGENA 111, ya estan en la 3a version , al parecer hay bastante informacion yo tengo un CD, de ARGENA 11 , que me regalaron pero no lo he podido abrir , Benicio  auxilios, que es lo que se tiene que bajar del internet para poderlo ver, que no tengo en mi disco duro, tampoco  pude abrir el archivo de Luis Dessommes.  no se que le esta pasando a mi DORITA, QUE  ANDA MUY FLOJITA NO QUIERE TRABAJAR,  me esta aceptando el Adobe, y el Acrobat. los tengo instalados en mi disco duro,  pero no abre los archivos, que vienen en esos paquetes. Seguimos en comunicacion,  suerte,  que la pasen bonito y que DIOS LOS BENDIGA.                       Edna Yolanda Elizondo Gonzalez.

3) Archivo General de Indias - Listas de Pasajeros 
Genealogia-Mexico@googlegroups.com

eventos@genealogia.org.mx writes:

Salvador, Yo creo que muy pocos saben que tu tienes la capacidad de obtener las imagenes del los microfilmes del Archivo General de Indias - Listas de Pasajeros.

Yo extravie unos documentos de los Zambrano que en los registros se llamaron Zambrana y de don Diego de Montemayor cuando viene a Mexico, si fueras tan amable de enviarme las imagenes de esos documentos te lo agradecere, y me dices cuanto $$ te envio o si aun es la misma tarifa de la ultima vez:

Archivo General de Indias 

Código de Referencia ES.41091.AGI/16404.42.3.1//CONTRATACION,5217A,N.4,R.1 

4) Título RELACION DE PASAJEROS 

Alcance y Contenido Relación de los siguientes pasajeros a Nueva España:
- Benito Martín, vecino de Sevilla, hijo de Juan de Valderas y Ana Martín (véase Contratación 5217A,N.4,R.2)
- Mayor Gómez, vecina de Sevilla, hija de Ruy Gómez de Herrera y Leonor Vázquez
- Juan Rodríguez, vecino de Sevilla, hijo de Juan Rodríguez y Constanza Hernández, con su esposa Francisca Rodríguez, vecina de Sevilla, y sus hijos Diego, Ana, Jerónimo Pedro y Alonso
- Francisco Altamirano, vecino de Villarroya, hijo de Juan Altamirano y Ana Jiménez (véase Contratación 5217A,N.4,R.3)
- Diego Flores, vecino de Sevilla, hijo de Hernán Gómez y Catalina Hernández (véase Contratación 5217A,N.4,R.4)
- Rodrigo de Herrera, vecino de Sevilla, hijo de Alonso Ortiz e Isabel Ortiz. Criado de Diego Flores (véase Contratación 5217A,N.4,R.4)
- Francisco Díaz de la Rocha, clérigo presbítero, vecino de Alcázar de Consuegra (véase Contratación 5217A,N.4,R.5)
- Manuel de Herrera, vecino de Sevilla, hijo de Pedro Hernández y Catalina Hernández (véase Contratación 5217A,N.4,R.6)
- Jerónimo Gutiérrez, vecino de Sevilla, hijo de Francisco Gómez y Catalina Ramírez. Criado de Manuel de Herrera (véase Contratación 5217A,N.4,R.6)
- Diego de Montemayor, vecino de Málaga, hijo de Juan de Montemayor y Mayor Hernández, con su esposa Inés Rodríguez 

Nivel de Descripción Unidad Documental Simple Fecha(s) [c] 1548-12-07 
Signatura(s) CONTRATACION,5217A,N.4,R.1 
Volumen 1 Documento(s) 
Productor(es) Información de Contexto 

Notas del Archivero Descripción elaborada por ARCHIVO GENERAL DE INDIAS 
Índice(s) Nueva España
Villarroya
Alcázar de San Juan (Ciudad Real)
Málaga
Altamirano, Francisco
Altamirano, Juan
Jiménez, Ana
Díaz de la Rocha, Francisco
Flores, Diego
Gómez, Hernán
Hernández, Catalina
Gómez, Mayor
Gómez de Herrera, Ruy
Vázquez, Leonor
Gutierrez, Jerónimo
Gómez, Francisco
Ramírez, Catalina
Herrera, Manuel de
Hernández, Pedro
Sánchez, Catalina
Herrera, Rodrigo de

Ortiz, Alonso
Ortiz, Isabel
Martín, Benito
Martín, Ana
Valderas, Juan de
Montemayor, Diego de
Hernández, Mayor
Montemayor, Juan de
Rodriguez, Inés
Rodríguez, Alonso
Rodriguez, Francisca
Rodríguez, Juan
Rodríguez, Ana
Rodríguez, Diego
Rodríguez, Jerónimo
Hernández, Constanza
Rodríguez, Pedro
Rodríguez, Juan
Clérigo presbítero
Sevilla
Criado
Archivo General de Indias 
Código de Referencia ES.41091.AGI/16404.42.3.44//CONTRATACION,5256,N.1,R.53 
Título RELACION DE PASAJEROS 
Alcance y Contenido Relación de pobladores, a Santo Domingo (Isla Española):
Paula Pacheco, natural de Sevilla
Juan de la Cruz, natural de Sevilla
Diego de Villegas, natural de Sasamón (Burgos)
Ana de los Reyes, natural de Sevilla
María de la Paz
Francisco Mejía, natural de Carmona
Alonso de Portes, natural de Yepes
Mauricio Gil, natural de Yepes
Andrés de la Barrera, natural de Sevilla
Melchor de la Barrera, natural de Sevilla
Francisco Muñoz, natural de Fregenal
Francisco Ramírez de Tour, natural de Osma
Antón García, natural de Sevilla
María Castillana, natural de Sevilla
Antón Rodríguez, natural de Sevilla
Isabel de Vergara, natural de Sevilla
Inés de Almansa
Sebastián de Almansa
Alonso de Almansa
Francisco de Almansa
Ana Zambrana, natural de Sanlúcar la Mayor
María Zambrana
Isabel Zambrana
Faustina, natural de Santo Domingo (Isla Española)
Ana Márquez, natural de Sevilla
Francisca de Santiago, natural de Sevilla
Mateo García, natural de Sevilla
Hernando del Río, natural de Santo Domingo (Isla Española)
Diego de Febo, natural de Santo Domingo (Isla Española)
Luisa de Guzmán, natural de Sevilla
Catalina de Guzmán, natural de Sevilla
Dionisia de Guzmán
Juan de Cogolludo, natural de Sevilla
Beatriz de Olvera, natural de Sevilla
Alonso Gómez, natural de Sevilla
Quiteria Vázquez, natural de Sevilla
Luis de Alcocer, natural de Santo Domingo (Isla Española)
Elvira de Mendoza, natural de Granada
Miguel Sánchez, natural de Sevilla
María Jiménez, natural de Sevilla
Bernardo Sánchez
Sebastián Sánchez
María Sánchez
Isabel Sánchez
Ana de Riquelme
Juan de Galarza, natural de Sevilla
María Hernández
María del Pecho
María Betanzo Espínola, natural de Sevilla
Pedro Fernández Pozuelo, natural de Sanlucar de Barrameda
María Fernández, natural de Sanlucar de Barrameda
Pedro Pozuelo Juan de Rivamartín, natural de Rivamartín
Juan del Castillo, natural de Cadiñanos
Albino de Aureta, [sic por Urnieta] natural de Santo Domingo (Isla Española)
Francisco Hurtado, natural de Sevilla
Ana Feliz, natural de Cartagena de Indias
Juana de Alanas, natural de Cartagena de Indias
Pedro de Baldecia, natural de Santo Domingo (Isla Española)
Cristóbal Vecino de Pernia, natural de Medina 
de Ríoseco
Isabel Trezo, natural de Sevilla
Beatriz de Cáceres de Castro, natural de Sevilla
Juan de Castro, natural de Sevilla
Santiago Ramírez, natural de Sevilla
Diego Nieto de Aragón, natural de Salamanca
Isabel Fonseca, natural de Avila
Rafael Nieto de Aragón
Francisco Nieto de Aragón
Antón Clavijo, natural de Sevilla
Isabel Sánchez Donaire, natural de Sevilla
Pedro Sánchez Ballesteros, natural de Zafra
Beatriz López, natural de Zafra
Blas de Carvajal, natural de Zafra
Bartolomé Fernández, natural de Zafra
Beatriz Godines, natural de Zafra
Diego Hernández
Rodrigo Alonso, natural de Zafra
Isabel Salgueros, natural de Zafra
Isabel Sánchez
Pedro Sánchez
María Sánchez 
Inés García, natural de Burguillos
Juan López de Luaces, natural de Peñaranda 
de Duero
Juan Rodríguez de Valderrama, natural de Sevilla
Isabel de los Reyes, natural de Sevilla
Francisco Torrero
Diego Martín, natural de Albaida
Juana Bautista, natural de Sevilla
Ana de Acosta, natural de Sevilla
Diego Daza, natural de Sevilla
Inés Hernández, natural de Sevilla
Ana María, natural de Sevilla
Pedro Martín Bermejo, natural de Llerena
Elvira de Huerta, natural de Llerena
Leonor López, natualde Sevilla
Isabel Jiménez, natural de Sevilla
Ana María, natural de Sevilla
María de Tamayo, natural de Plasencia
Luisa de Contreras
María de la Cruz, natural de Sevilla
Nicolás de Anón
Isabel de los Reyes, natural de Sevilla
García de Carvajal, natural de Santo Domingo (Isla Española)
Saturnino Esqueda Alcocer, natural de Santo Domingo (Isla Española)
Juan Antonio de Saavedra, natural de Madrid
Luis López, natural de Sevilla
Ana de Alfaro, natural de Sevilla
Juana Bautista de Buenrostro, natural de Sevilla
Catalina Bautista, natural de Sevilla
Luisa de Reinoso, natural de Sevilla
María Magdalena
Juan Navarro
Ana Zambrana, natural de Sevilla
Mariana de Vargas
Isabel de Vargas
Pedro Vázquez, natural de Sevilla
Pedro Gascón, natural de Carmona
Juan Bautista de Aguilar, natural de Santo Domingo (Isla Española)
Ambrosio Arias de Aguilera, natural de Santo Domingo (Isla Española)
Francisco Vázquez, natural de Santo Domingo (Isla Española)
Juan Alonso de Vega, natural de Cáceres
María de Muces
Luisa de Ledesma, natural de la Isla Española
Juliana Cornejo, natural de Santo Domingo (Isla Española)
José Agustín, natural de Santo Domingo (Isla Española)
Gonzalo López, natural de Calzadilla
Diego Hernández Cotrina, natural de Cáceres
Beatriz de Ulloa, natural de Cáceres
Beatriz de Ulloa
Juana de Vera, natural de Sevilla
Pedro de Vera
Juan de Vera
Juan Luiz, natural de Cazalla
María Hernández, natural de Cazalla
Hernando Alonso Hidalgo, natural de Zalamea
Isabel Martínez, natural de Zalamea
Bartolomé Núñez, natural de Zalamea
Inés Hernández, natural de Zalamea
Francisco Contreras, natural de la Isla Margarita
Juan de Escobar, natural de Cumbres Mayores
Ana Aguila, natural de Sevilla
María del Aguila
Bartolomé del Aguila
Alonso Bermúdez, natural de Fuentes de León
Inés de Godoy, natural de Sevilla
Isabel Osorio, natural de Sevilla
Juan Ochoa de Larrea, natural de Alegría
Francisca Jiménez, natural de Sevilla
Gregorio de Villela
Marcela de Ochoa, natural de villa de Haro
Sebastián de Najara, natural de Villoslada
Francisco Pérez Herrera, natural de Sevilla
Antonio de Pena
María de Pozana, natural de Sevilla
Ambrosio Arias Aguilera, natural de la Isla Española
Juan de Ayala, natural de Trujillo
Juan Calderón, natural de Trujillo
Diego de Vargas, natural de Trujillo
Francisco de Valenzuela, natural de Cabra
Juan Ruiz Moreno, natural de Sanlucar de Barrameda
María Pérez, natural de Sanlucar de Barrameda
Francisco del Aguila, natural de Santo Domingo (Isla Española)
Felipe Vázquez, natural de Sevilla
Francisca de la Fuente, natural de Sevilla
Mariana de la Fuente
Francisco de Robledo, natural de Martos
Mariana de Villamedina, natural de Martos
Ana María
Cristobalina de Robledo
Francisco Martín Hincapie, natural de Aracena
María González, natural de Aracena
Bartolomé Jacinto
Ana González
Juan Ordoñez, natural de Santo Domingo (Isla Española)
Juan de Saavedra, natural de Santo Domingo (Isla Española)
Juan Bautista de Aguilar, natural de Santo Domingo (Isla
Española)
Andrés Fernández de Castro, natural de Santo Domingo (Isla
Española)
Luis de Brito, natural de Santo Domingo (Isla Española)
Isabel de Bayona, natural de Madrid
Juan Sánchez, natural de Sevilla
María González, natural de Sevilla
Adriano de Eraso, natural de Sevilla
María de Rojas
Josefa Eraso
Tomasina Eraso
José de Catro, natural de Lucena
Bartolomé de Monasterio, natural de Molinar (en el Valle de
Gordejuela)
Juana de Medina, natural de Córdoba
Blas de Linares, natural de Sevilla
Francisco Pedralvarez, natural de Santo Domingo (Isla Española)
Juan Alonso, natural de Sevilla
Diego de Valdecia, natural de Santo Domingo (Isla Española)
Juan de la Fuente, natural de Sevilla
Isabel de Castilla, natural de Sevilla
Magdalena de la Fuente
Isabel de la Fuente
María Gómez
Antonio Ortiz, natural de Cebreros
Catalina Millán, natural de Cebreros
Miguel Ramos, natural de Zamora
Potenciana Sánchez, natural de Zamora
María de Astorga
Juana de la Peña, natural de Sevilla
Francisca de la Peña
Jerónima de Rojas, natural de Sevilla
María de Baumana
Diego de Baumana
María Arisméndez
Bartolomé López, natural de Sevilla
María de los Angeles, natural de Sevilla
Lucas López
Susana de Balcázar, natural de Sevilla
Diego Isasaga, natural de Toledo
Diego de Tóvar, natural de Toledo
Antón García, natural de Sevilla
Bartolomé Jiménez, natural de Sevilla
Vibán Serrano, natural de Sevilla
Miguel de Betuste, natural de Bilbao
Gaspar de Toledo, natural de Alcazar de Consuegra
Juan de Tapia
Francisco de Torres
Leonor del Castillo
Juan de Torres
Ana de Torres
María de Torres
Juan de Vargas
Estefanía González
Juan de Ayala
Antonio de Encinas
Rodrigo de Morales
Juan de la Cueva
Francisco de Medrano
Nicolás de Salcedo
Roque Fernández
Ana María
Antón Pérez
Juan Rodríguez, natural de Zafra
María del Jesús, natural de Málaga
Leonor del Jesús
Juan de Castillo
Sebastián Gutiérrez, natural del Valle (Zalamea)
Alonso Gutiérrez
Juan Gutiérrez
Joaquín Leibantes, natural de Santo Domingo (Isla Española). 
5) Nivel de Descripción Unidad Documental Simple 
Fecha(s) [c] 1597-01-10 
Signatura(s) CONTRATACION,5256,N.1,R.53 
Volumen 1 Documento(s) 
Productor(es) Información de Contexto 
Notas del Archivero Descripción elaborada por ARCHIVO GENERAL DE INDIAS: Índice(s) 
Aguila, Bartolomé del
Águila, María del
Almansa, Alonso de
Almansa, Francisco de
Almansa, Inés de
Almansa, Sebastián de
Anón, Nicolás de
Arisméndez, María
Astorga, María de
Baumana, Diego de
Baumana, María de
Castillo, Leonor de
Contreras, Luisa de
Cueva, Juan de la
Encinas, Antonio de
Eraso, Josefa
Eraso, Tomasina
Fernández, Roque
Fuente, Isabel de la
Fuente, Magdalena de la
Fuente, Mariana de la
Gómez, María
González, Ana
González, Estefanía
Gutiérrez, Alonso
Gutiérrez, Juan
Guzmán, Dionisia de
Hernández, Diego
Jacinto, Bartolomé
Jesús, Leonor del
López, Lucas
Magdalena, María
Medrano, Francisco de
Morales, Rodrigo de
Muces, María de
Navarro, Juan
Nieto de Aragón, Francisco
Nieto de Aragón, Rafael
Paz, María de la
Pecho, María del
Pena, Antonio de
Peña, Francisca de la
Pérez, Antón
Pozuelo, Pedro
Riquelme, Ana de
Robledo, Cristobalina
Rojas, Maria de
Salcedo, Nicolás de
Sánchez, Bernardo
Sánchez, Isabel
Sánchez, María
Sánchez, Pedro
Sánchez, Sebastián
Tapia, Juan de
Torrero, Francisco
Torres, Ana de
Torres, Francisco de
Torres, Juan de
Torres, María de
Vargas, Isabel de
Vargas, Juan de
vargas, Mariana de
Vera, Juan de
Vera, Pedro de
Villela, Gregorio de
Acosta, Ana de
Aguila, Ana
Aguila, Francisco de
Aguilar, Juan Bautista de
Agustín, José
Alanal, Juana de
Alcocer, Luis de
Alfaro, Ana de
Alonso de Vega, Juan
Alonso Hidalgo, Hernando
Alonso, Juan
Alonso, Rodrigo
Angeles, María de los
Arias Aguilera, Ambrosio
Arias de Aguilera, Ambrosio
Ayala, Juan de
Balcazar, Susana de
Baldecia, Pedro de
Barrera, Andrés de la
Barrera, Melchor de la
Bautista, Catalina
Bautista, Juana
Bayona, Isabel de
Bermúdez, Alonso
Betanzo Espínola, María
Betuste, Miguel de
Brito, Luis de
Buenrostro, Juana Bautista de
Cáceres de Castro, Beatriz de
Calderón, Juan
Carvajal, Blas de
Carvajal, García de
Castilla, Isabel de
Castillana, María
Castillo, Juan del
Castro, José de
Castro, Juan de
Clavijo, Antón
Cogolludo, Juan de
Contreras, Francisco
Cornejo, Juliana
Cruz, Juan de la
Cruz, María de la
Villegas, Diego de
Daza, Diego
Eraso, Adriano de
Escobar, Juan de
Esqueda Alcocer, Saturnino
Faustina
Febo, Diego de
Feliz, Ana
Fernández, Bartolomé
Fernández de Castro, Andrés
Fernández, María
Fernández Pozuelo, Pedro
Fonseca, Isabel
Fuente, Francisca de la
Fuente, Juan de la
Galarza, Juan de
García, Antón
García, Inés
García, Mateo
Gascón, Pedro
Gil, Mauricio
Godines, Beatriz
Godoy, Inés de
Gómez, Alonso
González, Juan
González, María
Gutiérrez, Sebastián
Guzmán, Catalina de
Guzmán, Luisa de
Hernández Cotrina, Diego
Hernández, Inés
Hernández, María
Huerta, Elvira de
Hurtado, Francisco
Isasaga, Diego
Jesús, María del
Jiménez, Bartolomé
Jiménez, Francisca
Jiménez, Isabel
Jiménez, María
Ledesma, Luisa de
Leibantes, Joaquín
Linares, Blas de
López, Bartolomé
López, Beatriz
López de Luaces, Juan
López, Gonzalo
López, Leonor
López, Luis
Luiz, Juan
Urnieta, Albino de
María, Ana
Márquez, Ana
Martín Bermejo, Pedro
Martín, Diego
Martín Hincapie, Francisco
Martínez, Isabel
Medina, Juana de
Mejía, Francisco
Mendoza, Elvira de
Millán, Catalina
Monasterio, Bartolomé de
Muñoz, Francisco
Nájara, Sebastián de
Nieto de Aragón, Diego
Núñez, Bartolomé
Ochoa de Larrea, Juan
Ochoa, Marcela de
Olvera, Beatriz de
Ortiz, Antonio
Osorio, Isabel
Pacheco, Paula
Pedrálvarez, Francisco
Peña, Juana de la
Pérez Herrera, Francisco
Pérez, María
Portes, Alonso de
Pozana, María de
Ramírez de Tour, Francisco
Ramírez, Santiago
Ramos, Miguel
Reinoso, Luisa de
Reyes, Ana de los
Reyes, Isabel de los
Rio, Hernando del
Rivamartín, Juan de
Robledo, Francisco de
Rodriguez, Antón
Rodríguez de Valderrama, Juan
Rodríguez, Juan
Rojas, Jerónima de
Ruiz Moreno, Juan
Saavedra, Juan Antonio de
Saavedra, Juan de
Salgueros, Isabel
Sánchez Ballesteros, Pedro
Sánchez Donaire, Isabel
Sánchez, Juan
Sánchez, Miguel
Sánchez, Potenciana
Santiago, Francisca de
Serrano, Vibán
Tamayo, María de
Toledo, Gaspar de
Tovar, Diego de
Trezo, Isabel
Ulloa, Beatriz de
Valdecia, Diego de
Valenzuela, Francisco de
Vargas, Diego de
Vázquez, Felipe
Vázquez, Francisco
Vázquez, Pedro
Vázquez, Quiteria
Vecino de Pernia, Cristóbal
Vera, Juana de
Vergara, Isabel de
Villamedina, Mariana de
Zambrana, Ana
Mestiza
Mulato
Negra
Pobladores
Zambrana, Isabel
Zambrana, María
Zamora
Plasencia
Sevilla
Sevilla
Cartagena de Indias
Cáceres (España)
Zalamea
Zafra
Isla de Santo Domingo
Trujillo
Madrid (España)
Fuentes de León
Bilbao
Cadiñanos
Lucena (Córdoba)
Isla Margarita (Venezuela)
Sasamón (Burgos)
Cumbres Mayores
Sanlúcar de Barrameda (Cádiz)
Avila (España)
Burguillos
Carmona (Sevilla)
Yepes
Aracena
Valle de la Serena
Cazalla
Llerena (Badajoz)
Toledo
Málaga
Peñaranda de Duero
Calzadilla
Albaida
Córdoba
Granada
Cebreros
Molinar (Vizcaya)
Fregenal de la Sierra
Villoslada
Salamanca
Alegría
Haro (Logroño)
Osma
Rivamartin
Martos
Alcázar de San Juan (Ciudad Real)
Cabra
Medina de Rioseco (Valladolid)
Sanlúcar la Mayor


6) DE ELISONDO  

 vmge55@yahoo.com.mx   8/24/2005
Reply-to: Genealogia-Mexico@googlegroups.com To: Genealogia-Mexico@googlegroups.com 
Victor: Si seguimos siendo de la misma familia. Nada mas que te faltó una hija de

ANDRES LOZANO Y ANTONIA DE GONGORA, MARIA EMERENCIA LOZANO
Born About 1722   Of Nuevo Reyno De Leon, , Nuevo Leon, Mexico
Father:  ANDRES LOSANO
Mother:  ANTONIA DE GONGORA
Batch Number:  F079198  Sheet:  001   Source Call No.:  1396285  Type:  Film

Asi aparece aunque nosotros la tenemos registrada como: Maria Esmerenciana Casada con Nicolas de Elizondo de la Garza el 29 Jul 1742 en el Sagrario Metropolitano, Monterrey, Nuevo
Donde tengo registrados a 4 hijos de ellos.

Jose Ramon de Elizondo Lozano 19 Ene 1744, Sagrario Metropolitano, Monterrey, Nuevo
Batch C601492        1731-1768  Source 0605148  Film

Francisco Antonio de Elizondo Lozano 15 Mar 1745, Sagrario Metropolitano, Monterrey, Nuevo
Batch C601492   1731-1768  Source 0605148  Film

Maria Josefa Matilde de Elizondo Lozano 28 Mar 1754, Sagrario Metropolitano, Monterrey, Nuevo  Batch C601492      1731 - 1768  Source 0605148  Film

Jose Simon de Elizondo Lozano 10 Feb 1764, Sagrario Metropolitano, Monterrey, Nuevo  Batch  8906760   Sheet 40   Source 1553336   Film

Saludos a todos y tambien espero que les sea de utilidad Victor M. Gonzalez Elizondo, Mexico, D.F.


En nombre de Victor Villarreal  Enviado el: Miércoles, 24 de Agosto de 2005 12:48 p.m.
Para: Genealogia de Mexico Asunto: [Genealogia.org.mx] Re: Rosa María (María Josepha) DE ELISONDO

Pregunta . . . Luis, No me cabe duda de que definitivamente se trata de la misma familia. Acabo de anexar ese registro a la lista que había enviado previamente.

Estos cambios de nombre no son excepcionales y yo no creo que los párrocos fueran infalibles al registrar sus actas.  Yo he encontrado cosas semejantes que sugieren errores no intencionados.  Ninguna teoría es descabellada.

Yo imagino la escena en donde se presentan los padres de familia a bautizar a su hijo.  Aunque es facil suponer que el párroco de cada iglesia debería conocer los nombres de todos sus feligreses, ¿que tan dificil es que confundiera el nombre de una persona por el nombre de otra a la hora de mojar la pluma en el tintero;  y por vergüenza a preguntar el nombre de alguien a quien se supone que debería conocer a la perfección, a quienes se ha visitado en su casa, de quienes ha recibido su diezmo, etc. o por un simple "lapsus" mental, se le pone María Josepha en vez de Rosa María?

También, en la mayoría de los casos, sino es que en todos, los bautizados ni sus padres volverían a ver la fe de bautismo, ni la manera exacta en que quedó registrado su nombre, por el resto de sus
vidas.  Al paso de los años, a fuerza de llamar a un niño o niña de una manera, quedaría en el olvido el nombre completo con el que fue registrado.  Solo teorías, pero plausibles.

Tal podría también ser el caso de la mamá de Rosa María Elizondo, quien en la fe de Rosa María aparece como María Jpha. Lozano.  Sin embargo, al hacer una búsqueda de sus padres y hermanos se encuentra lo siguiente:

7) HIJOS DE ANDRES LOZANO Y ANTONIA DE GONGORA

FRANCO. XAVIER LOSANO GONGORA
Christening:  13 JAN 1710   Sagrario Metropolitano, Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico
  Father:  ANDRES LOSANO
  Mother:  MARIA DE GONGORA
Batch No.:  Dates:  Source Call No.:  C601491  1668 - 1731  0605147

ANDRES SILBESTRE LOZANO GONGORA
Christening:  07 JAN 1716   Sagrario Metropolitano, Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico
  Father:  ANDRES LOZANO
  Mother:  A. DE GONGORA
Batch No.:  Dates:  Source Call No.:  C601491  1668 - 1731  0605147   Film  NONE

(Mi teoría es que el siguiente registro es el correspondiente al de la
mamá de María Rosa Elizondo Lozano.  Como vemos no es María Josepha
sino Paula Josepha Ana.   En los registros de otros de sus hijos
aparece como Ana Josepha o simplemente Josepha.)

PAULA JOSEPHA ANA LOSANO GONGORA
Christening:  15 FEB 1718   Sagrario Metropolitano, Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico
  Father:  ANDRES LOSANO
  Mother:  ANTONIA DE GONGORA
Batch No.:  Dates:  Source Call No.:  C601491  1668 - 1731  0605147

FRANCO. ANTTO. DE SALES LOSANO GONGORA
Christening:  09 FEB 1720   Sagrario Metropolitano, Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico
  Father:  ANDRES LOSANO
  Mother:  ANTTA. DE GONGORA
Batch No.:  Dates:  Source Call No.:  C601491  1668 - 1731  0605147

JOSEPH SANTIAGO ESTOLANO LOSANO GONGORA
Christening:  10 MAY 1724   Sagrario Metropolitano, Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico
  Father:  ANDRES LOSANO
  Mother:  ANTTA. DE GONGORA
Batch No.:  Dates:  Source Call No.:  C601491  1668 - 1731  0605147

YGNACIA PHELIPA LOSANO GONGORA
Christening:  10 MAY 1724   Sagrario Metropolitano, Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico
  Father:  ANDRES LOSANO
  Mother:  ANTTA. DE GONGORA
Batch No.:  Dates:  Source Call No.:  C601491  1668 - 1731  0605147

FIN.  Espero que esto le sirva a alquien. Victor Villarreal


Raices Mexicanas - The Russian Molokans in Mexico
http://www.folklorico.com/peoples/baja-norte/molokans.html
Sent by Johanna De Soto REALLY INTERESTING GET SEGMENT

The Missions of Baja California, 1697-1849
http://www.timsbaja.com/rjackson/index.htm
Sent by Johanna De Soto MUST GET . . . PART OF A WHOLE WEBSITE WITH MORE ON MISSIONS http://www.timsbaja.com/rjackson.html

============================================================
XVIII Ayuntamiento de Tijuana
http://www.tijuana.gob.mx/Ciudad/CiudadDelRancho.asp

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=es&u=http://www.tijuana.gob.mx/
Ciudad/CiudadDelRancho.asp&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dyorba%2Bfelipe%2Bperalta%26sta
rt%3D80%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26sa%3DN


Tijuanense friend, thanks to visit your electronic page. In name of all those that we lived in this border I reiterate to them that it is a pleasure for us that you has the opportunity to consult, from any part of the world, a little which we offer.

Here they will find the activities of this XVIII City council of Tijuana. They could be witnesses in the agreements at that it is arrived during the town hall sessions. Also, of all the services that offer the diverse dependencies that are for serving to them. Without leaving of side that will be able to establish direct bonding to dissipate any doubt that appears.

I take leave, not without before thanking for the opportunity to show a Tijuana to them with a different face, a safe Tijuana for all those that in her we lived and who gives the welcome them with the open arms.

Jorge Hank R. 
Presidente Municipal

The Hidden Magic of Baja California 
http://www.innerexplorations.com/baja.htm

Sent by Johanna De Soto  Much information.

 

CARIBBEAN/CUBA

El Boricua
RootsWeb's WorldConnect Project, Puerto Rico
First female Cuban pilot Captain Teresina Del Rey honored in WNY
Newly released US Postal Stamps, "Let's Dance"
Passengers to Puerto Rico - 1567 - 1577

 

  
El Boricua's Puerto Rican of the Year, http://www.elboricua.com/ 
Dr. Richard Carmona, Puerto Rican
Surgeon General of the United States
Sent by Mike Quintana Mikeq456@aol.com 


In celebration of Hispanic Month Dr. Richard Carmona, Surgeon General of the United States, has been selected El Boricua’s Puerto Rican of the Year. Dr. Carmona is a ‘self-made’ man, who dropped out of high school, went on to become a military hero, continued his education, became a doctor and a community leader, and is now at the very top of the ladder. He is a true Puerto Rican role model! 


Dr. Richard H. Carmona, M.D., F.A.C.S. (born 1949) of Puerto Rican descent, is the 17th Surgeon General of the United States Public Health Service. Dr. Carmona, a true-to-life hero, was nominated by President Bush (W) for the post of surgeon general and was unanimously approved, by the Senate. Dr. Carmona's life story is one of overcoming adversity and excelling in service to others. Dr. Carmona was born in New York City and raised in Harlem. He was the first child of the poor, Puerto Rican Carmona family to graduate from college. He did so, however, after dropping out of high school and enlisting in the U.S. Army in 1967. While enlisted he received his Army General Equivalency Diploma, joined the Army's Special Forces, ultimately becoming a combat-decorated Vietnam veteran winning two Purple Hearts and a Bronze Star, serving as a medic and a Green Beret. 


After leaving active duty, Dr. Carmona attended Bronx Community College of the City University of New York, where he earned his Associate of Arts Degree. He later attended and graduated from the University of California, San Francisco, with a Bachelor of Science Degree (1977) and Medical Degree (1979). At the University of California Medical School, Dr. Carmona was awarded the prestigious gold headed cane as the top graduate. He has also earned a Master's degree in Public Health (M.P.H.) from the University of Arizona (1998).A colorful character, in 1999, as a sheriff's deputy and SWAT-team member, he came upon a traffic accident that turned into a hostage situation. The man, who police later determined had stabbed his father to death and was on his way to kill an old girlfriend, grazed Dr. Carmona's head with a bullet. Dr. Carmona shot and killed the suspect, earning recognition as one of the nation's "10 Top Cops."   A 1992 cliff-side rescue in which he took part inspired a made-for-television movie. Dr. Carmona has worked in various positions in the medical field including paramedic, registered nurse and physician. He completed a surgical residency at the University of California, San Francisco, and a National Institutes of Health-sponsored fellowship in trauma, burns and critical care. Dr. Carmona is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, and is also certified in correctional health care and in quality assurance. He also directed the first trauma care program in southern ArizonaPrior to being named Surgeon General, Dr. Carmona was the Chairman of the State of Arizona Southern Regional Emergency Medical System, a professor of surgery, public health and family and community medicine at the University of Arizona, and the Pima County Sheriff's Department surgeon and deputy sheriff.

Dr. Carmona has also held progressive positions of responsibility as chief medical officer, hospital chief executive officer, public health officer, and finally chief executive officer of the Pima County health care system. He has also served as a medical director of police and fire departments and is a fully-qualified peace officer with expertise in special operations and emergency preparedness, including weapons of mass destruction. Dr. Carmona has published extensively and received numerous awards, decorations, and local and national recognition for his achievements. A strong supporter of community service, he has served on community and national boards and provided leadership to many diverse organizations. Dr. Carmona is also adamantly opposed to tobacco smoking, and has stated more than once that he wants all tobacco sales and consumption prohibited nationwide. ur Puerto Rican of the Year, Dr. Richard Carmona has been described as 'energetic, caring, productive, humorous and thoughtful" by colleagues. He's got the character, he has the background, he has the inspirational skills, the motivational skills, the organizational skills, needed for his job as Surgeon General. Dr. Carmona is the nation's second Hispanic surgeon general. The first, Antonia Novello (another Boricua), served in the first Bush administration. 


RootsWeb's WorldConnect Project, Puerto Rico
Cardona de Rincon and Valentin in Añasco, Rincon, or Mayaguez
http://wc.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?db=alfredo152&I11.x=41&I11.y=7

If you have family lines with connections to towns of Añasco, Rincon, or Mayaguez in Puerto Rico, go to the site and seach by entering the names of your ancestors who lived in those areas. 
Contact Alfredo Valentin Cardona at AlfredoValentinCardona@yahoo.com



First female Cuban pilot honored in WNY 
Jessica Rosero, Reporter staff writer 09/19/2004, CThe Hudson Reporter 2004

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?BRD
=1291&dept_id=523590&newsid=
12946659&PAG=461&rfi=9

Sent by Lupe Dorinda Moreno dorindamoreno@comcast.net

UNVEILING - A replica of Teresina Del Rey's statue, originated by the late sculptor Mario Santi. Pictured above patriotism and kind-hearted nature. Now, thanks o her friends and family, Del Rey's legacy and image will also be preserved at the West New York Public Library on 60th Street. On Tuesday, a statue of Captain Del Rey was unveiled and donated in her honor by er friends, the Garcia-Berry family. The ceremony was sponsored by the Palisades Medical Center in North Bergen and Mayor Albio Sires.

"It was an easy decision to sponsor the event," said Eurice E. Rojas, director of marketing and corporate development of Palisades Medical Center. "We actively pursued participation because we are part of the community."

The ceremony brought together old friends and family of Del Rey who had not seen each other for many ears. It was an emotional gathering for some, as well as a time of great pride.

Among honored guests in attendance were Teresina Del Rey's son, Johnny Garcia, and her long-time best riend Julia Valdivia, who shared a few words about Del Rey during the ceremony.

"It feels very good to see so many friends, and to bring this bust to the library," said Johnny Garcia. "Everything is beautiful," said Valdivia. "She was my mother's friend and mine. We worked for many years ogether for the Cuban cause, and I am thankful for having the opportunity to attend this beautiful event."

Captain Teresina Del Rey

Teresina Del Rey was born in Holguin, provincia de Oriente, Cuba in 1915. She was the daughter of Angel el Rey, an altruistic and honorable man, and Teresa Baxter, a refined woman of English descent.

Del Rey had always described her parents as disagreeing only on the matters of her education despite their strong differences in character. Her mother wanted her to become a famous concert artist, while her father surely stressed being honorable with a profound conviction.

On Del Rey's part, there was a fascination with aviation from the time she was a child. However, she also felt a pull toward journalism. This led her to collaborate on some of the most important daily newspapers nd magazines of Havana, where she mainly focused on aviation articles and became a member of the international Society of Aviation Writers.

It was from Del Rey's illustrious career in journalism that she was able to fulfill her dreams and become the first female Cuban aviator. After having extensively covered aviation for the press and seeing her enthusiasm or it, one of the pilots she interviewed began giving her lessons. Later she graduated from la Escuela militar e Aviacion de Cuba (the Military School of Aviation in Cuba), the only woman from her era to do so.

Fleeing the newly established Communist reign of Fidel Castro, Del Rey, among other patriots, left for the United States during the massive exile of the '60s and '70s. She spent her remaining years in West New York, here she continued her patriotic duty and her grand humanitarian labor.

Del Rey was the founder of the Fraternity Fragua Martiana, which was responsible for erecting the Monument to theCuban patriot Jose Marti on 54th Street and Boulevard East with the help of local officials. he was also a member of Colegio Nacional de Periodistas de Cuba en el Exilo (CNP) since its inception, hich is similar to the League of Journalists in New York. She was named an honorary member by then- resident Ivan Karenoff.

The ceremony

After opening introductions by Estela Longo, the reference librarian, and West New York Deputy Mayor ose Miqueli, Del Rey's good friend and writer of her biography "Primera Aviatriz Cubana," Dr. Lucila Arcia, shared her memories and told the story of the woman she knew.

"In this book is the story and work of our great friend Teresina Del Rey," said Garcia (who is not related to el Rey's son).

Garcia, who was a journalist and a teacher for 45 years, met Del Rey in the home of a fellow and well- respected journalist. During that time Garcia was looking to establish the Spanish newspaper "La Voz," hich still runs today under the direction of her son and husband. The two women formed an almost instant friendship that lasted for years.

"We loved each other very much," said Garcia. "We even discovered that we were born on the exact same ay at the exact same time, but with a difference of a few years."

Garcia became one of Del Rey's closest confidants. As a matter of fact, it was by Del Rey's request that Arcia wrote the story of her life.

"This woman was the one who opened "La Ruta de Colon" [The Colon Route] from Cuba to Madrid," said Arcia. "Once you read this book, you will see how extraordinary this woman was and how much she was worth."

Two days before she died, Del Rey called for Garcia and gave her a box full of notes written by hand, which told the story of her life. She told Garcia that she was the only one capable of writing her story, and asked her to carry out that final request.

Garcia willingly took on that mission, which she finally completed with the release of "Primera Aviatriz ubana" just last June. The book, which contained many of Del Rey's articles and other writings, took about three years to finish with the help of her family. Garcia refuses to take credit for the book; she said the writings were all done by Del Rey and that she simply put it together. "The credit is hers, and I feel very happy," said Garcia.

However, the Garcia-Berry family felt that more should be done. On the day of Teresina Del Rey's funeral, arcia remembered a man crying. After she approached him, he identified himself as Mario Santi, the artist ho made the Mausoleum for Jose Marti which stands at the Santa Efigenia Cemetery in Santiago, Cuba. He ad known Del Rey for many years as she was growing up, and even saw her fly. The late Santi had taken it upon himself to create a statue of Del Rey. Garcia asked for one as well, which he molded out of iron. It still stands in her house.

After the successful completion of the book, the Garcia-Berry family had two replicas of Santi's work commissioned. One would be donated to the West New York Public Library, and one is for Garcia to take tack to Cuba on the day that it is liberated.

"I guarantee you that I will return to Cuba," said Garcia. "My last wish is to return to Cuba."

After a few more words from old friends and officials, Del Rey's statue was unveiled in its permanent spot n the third floor children's department of the library. This was also a final testament to Del Rey's love of the written word.

"Teresina, we have finished your work. May God have you in his glory, my dear friend," Garcia said.  CThe Hudson Reporter 2004


Cuban Website information
http://www.cubagenweb.org/e-pass.htm

Sent by Janete Vargas
magnaguagno@gmail.com


La base de datos incluye lo siguiente:

1,205 pasajeros que viajaron de Gijon, Asturias a La Habana y Matanzas en 1840-1871, contribuidos por Jorge Piñon Cervera y D. Eduardo Nunez Fernandez. 
35 pasajeros que viajaron de las Islas Canarias a La Habana en 1686, contribuidos por Miriam Rivera y Dave Chudleigh.

706 pasajeros que llegaron o salieron de La Habana de o hacia puertos de origen en España, México y los Estados Unidos en 1842-1876, contribuidos por Lydia Reyes. 
228 pasajeros que fueron autorizados por la Casa de Contratación a viajar a Cuba en 1567-1599. 

España a Cuba, Listas de Pasajeros Antes de 1600

Si algunos de sus antecesores emigró a Cuba de España antes de 1600, debe buscar sus nombres en las siguientes compilaciones de listas de pasajeros.

[E] Catalogo de Pasajeros a Indias - Siglos XVI, XVII y XVIII, Volumen I (1509-1533), Volumen II (1535-1538), Volumen III (1539-1559), Volumen IV (1560-1566), Cristobal Bermudez Plata - Archivo General de la Indias, 1930-19??, Madrid, Espasa Calpe. ISBN: 8474831857 (set); LOC: CS944.R66.1980; Numero de llamada de la Biblioteca Publica de NY # ASM 89-3332; Signatura de la Biblioteca Nacional de España No. 5/13354.

Dos copias de estos volúmenes han sido copiadas en microfilm por la Iglesia Mormón. Los numeros de microfilm, compilados por Martha Páramo, son los siguientes:


September 17, 2005, 
Scheduled Issuance of United States Postal Stamps
"Let's Dance"
in the cities of Miami, FL and New York, NY 
Sent by JV Martinez   jvmart@verizon.net

Showcasing one of four popular dances on each stamp, Latino artists have created designs that express their personal interpretations of merengue, salsa, cha-cha-cha, and mambo, using vivid colors and sinuous shapes to capture the energy generated by dancers moving to the beat.  For more, go to stamps.

As in all cultural developments, music and dance draw on the styles around them as they evolve. Perhaps nowhere is that more true than with salsa, which may owe its broad appeal to its broad embrace. Building on a foundation of Afro-Cuban music and dance, New York Puerto Rican, other Latino, and Anglo musicians—whose influences included jazz and rhythm and blues—adapted and re-worked the Cuban styles, such as mambo, son, and cha-cha-cha, to create a distinctly New York sound. That sound came to be called salsa in the late 1960s. Since then, salsa has traveled very well. Latin American countries such as Colombia and Venezuela have created styles of salsa and recording industries based on the New York model. Musicians around the world, from Japan to Finland, Senegal to England, reinterpret salsa and blend in the flavors of their homeland. The arrival of Dominicans in New York since the mid-1960s brought merengue into the mix of Latino music and dance. With its cross-class appeal, this national dance of the Dominican Republic has also made its way around the world.

Cha-cha-cha:  A native of El Gabriel, Cuba, artist Edel Rodriguez left his homeland in 1980 packing memories from his childhood and making new ones in his Latino community in America. Rodriguez affectionately recalls the family gatherings and special occasions that always meant music and dancing, where revelers showed up with guitars and maracas and sang songs about life and love. Different dances were performed, but Rodriguez remembers that his father and sister were particularly adept at the shuffling 1-2, 1-2-3 beat of the cha-cha-cha. Perceived as more sophisticated and more like the European salon-style danzón, cha-cha-cha was slower and more constrained than the up-tempo moves of its sister, the mambo.

Rodriguez has effectively juxtaposed the warmth emanating from suntanned skin and the sinuous line formed by the dancers’ bodies with the coolness suggested by their clothing and the waving palm fronds. 

Mambo: As a young child, artist Sergio Baradat left Cuba with his parents and immigrated to the United States. Growing up in Miami and New York, Baradat’s life was immersed in the Latino communities of these two cities, and in the cultural traditions his family and friends kept alive. 

Baradat’s image for the stamp evokes the 1950s mambo heyday, when Latin big bands performed for elegant patrons in elegant clubs. Baradat drew on his parents’ memories of starlight and moonlight filtering through the glass ceiling of a nightclub and down onto its polished dance floor—the splintered beams bouncing around the room and off the spinning dancers. The red of the woman’s dress offsets the nighttime purple and gold hues of the ambient light, while a drum-shaped moon seems to join the orchestra’s saxophone and timbales—key instruments to the mambo sound. Known for its up-tempo beat, fast footwork, and fluid body language, mambo laid the groundwork for its offshoots: cha-cha-cha and salsa. 

Salsa: Artist José Ortega was born in Ecuador, grew up in New York City, and now owns a salsa club in Toronto, Canada. His migration nicely parallels the itinerant nature of salsa, itself, which is rooted in Cuba, evolved in New York, and now makes its home around the world. Designing the salsa stamp was a dream come true for him, combining his love of art and salsa. 

As an artist, it is Ortega’s job to observe, something he has been doing every night in his salsa club. He watches the dancers’ bodies assume countless shapes that make for eye-pleasing symmetry, while the music concretizes into the colors, patterns, and flow he shows in his stamp design. Palm leaf shapes suggest salsa’s Caribbean roots; the cityscape refers to its birthplace: New York. To convey a sense of old-style dance hall elegance, Ortega uses art deco motifs. Although he concedes that most salseros dress in tight-fitting clothes, he gives his female dancer billowing skirts to better evoke a sense of movement and musical energy. He has captured his couple in one of the many pauses that anticipates the defining steps of their dance. They are momentarily apart, their arms poised and their bodies ready to reverse direction or execute a spin. And the stars? Well, Ortega maintains you don’t very often move to the salsa beat at high noon. Salsa is a nighttime pursuit, danced at the close of day, when cares are left behind, and it’s okay to live only in the moment.

Merengue: Born in Mexico City, freelance illustrator Rafael Lopez is a committed dancer who spends his leisure time at salsa clubs where he and his wife perform a variety of dances, including the merengue. He has brought his expertise on the dance floor to bear in his design for the merengue stamp.

Poised in characteristic attitude, Lopez’s dancers engage in the short sideways movements typical of merengue. Tension shows in their muscular bodies as they move in tight embrace, their shoulders shifting left while their hips shift right. Their heads face away from their shoulders, and their hands are clasped. A tambora drum, hallmark of merengue, peeks up from the lower right side of the stamp, opposed on the left by palm leaves.

Brought to the Dominican Republic by French and Spanish colonists, merengue descends from a European style of dancing that appealed to the upper classes. Eventually it was adapted by the country’s peasant population, which, included both European settlers and Dominicans of African descent who incorporated the tambora drum and a more rhythmic approach. Losing favor with the elite as a result of this "Africanization," the dance went underground for years, re-emerging in the first half of the 20th century to become the national dance of the Dominican Republic—a seamless blend of European and African styles. 

 

 


Passengers to Puerto Rico - 1567 - 1577

By
Miguel Hernández
Sent by Janete Vargas
magnaguagny@yahoo.com

Following the initial voyages of Cristóbal Colón to the new world which he called, Las Indias, in the mistaken belief that he had come upon territories that were part of India, all persons wishing to travel to and/or to settle in these overseas territories( also known as Ultramar ) were required to apply for and be granted a license. The Archivo General de Indias (AGI) in Seville, Spain has custody of all surviving correspondence and records related to Las Indias including the licenses and the passenger lists called, Libros de Asientos -- literally the Books of Seats. In 1980 the AGI published a book called, "Catalago De Pasajeros a Indias: Siglos XVI, XVII, y XVIII, Volumen V." This volume is comprised of two books, Tomo I (1567-1574 and Tomo II 1575-1577. Luis Romera Iruela and Maria de Carmen Galbis Diez compiled the information in it. To date, this is the only published index of passengers. However, the LDS church has microfilmed the actual Libros de Asientos for the period of 1509-1701 and the microfilm numbers, are included, go to the site:
http://www.rootsweb.com/~prhgs/pass1567.htm

The following is a list of 75 passengers to Puerto Rico only that was extracted from the Catalogo de Pasajeros a Indias for the ten year period between, 1567 and 1577. It would be logical that there were many more Puerto Rico passengers but these all that are listed. The index, in most cases records the name of the passenger, place of birth marital status, title, rank or occupation, the names of his or her parents and the date of travel. Some also list the names of the wife and children if any who accompany the traveler. 
The Spanish surname system (father's surname first, mother's surname second) did not take hold until the late 18th century. Prior to that era people could take whatever surname in whatever order one wished and even a surname that did not belong to either parent. Readers should not assume that simply because they share a surname with one or more of the passengers listed that there is a blood relationship. As experienced genealogists know, a relationship can best be proved through corroborating documents that show a generation by generation linkage.
EXAMPLE: 
1. Cristobal de Sanabria
Native of Sevilla, son of Cristobal de Sanabria and Leonor de Uvilla, Canónigo(high-ranking clergyman) 28 January 1567

2. Antonio Gerónimo: 
Native of Sevilla, single, son of Antonio Parrodo and Luisa de Villa; servant of Cristobal de Sanabria 28 January 1567

3. Gonzalo de Vargas
Native of Madrid; single, son of Diego de Vargas and Doña Elvira 4 March 1567

4.* Lanzarote de Viera
Native of San Juan de Puerto Rico; son of Alonzo Gutiérrez and Isabel Viera 18 June 1567

5.* Francisco Carrásco
Native of Sevilla. Son of Francisco Carrásco and María Hernández; travels with his wife, Francisca García; native of Sevilla and daughter of Alonzo Gómez and Isabel García and their children, Hernándo and Francisco 1 July 1567

 

 

SPAIN

Las Navas de Tolosa by Stewart Von Rathjen
Caballos
Hernan Cortes En La Rabida 
Enigmático Colon

 


http://www.balagan.org.uk/sitemap.htm

Las Navas de Tolosa by Stewart Von Rathjen


LAS NAVAS DE TOLOSA. . . . . . . . . On 16 June, 1212 A.D. was fought
the great battle which broke the Moorish power in Spain. The words Navas means plains. The army of the Moors, said to contain 300,000 regular troops and 75,000 irregular troops was drawn up in a crescent shape in front of the imperial tent. The Christian host was formed in 4 legions. King Alphonso occupying the center, his banner displaying an effigy of the Virgin. With him were Rodrigo Ximenez, Archbishop of Toledo and many other prelates. The force was less than 100,000 strong, some of the Crusaders having left it in the march. ......while they continued the Christian horsemen followed and struck until the bodies of slain Moors lay so thick upon the plain that there was scarce room for man or horse to pass. The archbishop who became the historian of this decisive battle spoke of 200,000 Moors slain while only 25 Christians fell. It was said that a Red Cross like that of the Knighthood of Calatrava appeared in the sky, inspiriting the Christians and dismaying their foes and that the sight of the Virgin banner borne by the King's standard bearers struck the Moslems with terror.

 


Source: 

http://www.alanandsandycarey.com/Domestic/Horses/pages/Wild Horses Running in Thunderstorm.htm


Publicado en Odiel Información el 13 de septiembre de 2005  
CABALLOS

La llegada de los primeros caballos a América se inició en el segundo viaje de Cristóbal Colón y sobre ellos hay una curiosa historia. Se dice que cuando el Almirante escogió a los primeros caballos para llevarlos al Nuevo Mundo, contactó con un mercader de Granada y concertó la compra, pero cuando los embarcaron, aprovechando que Colón estaba algo indispuesto, los cargaron sin que éste los viera y los cambiaron por los caballos mas pencos que había en Sevilla y que no valían ni la mitad que los otros. Cuando los vio Colon ya habían partido y se conoce esta pequeña historia, porque en una carta del Almirante a los Reyes les informó del cambio que había sufrido su ganado.

Desde el principio, el caballo tuvo una excepcional importancia en la conquista americana, por lo que se le cuidaba con mimo, y fue para los españoles una gran alegría que se le aclimataran tan rápidamente y empezara la reproducción.

Cuando llegaron los nativos creyeron que el hombre y el caballo formaban un solo cuerpo, algo parecido a un centauro, pero cuando observaron que alguna veces se separaban y marchaban cada uno por su lado, mostraban no solo su asombro, sino un temor que los acongojaba.

Ante animales “tan terribles”, los indígenas idearon como defenderse de las bestias e idearon cavar unos huecos grandes en el suelo y cubrirlos de ramaje, para que al pasar se hundiera tanto el caballo como el jinete. En la parte sur del continente, se defendían los nativos de los caballos utilizando las boleadoras, que manejaban de forma muy diestra y trababan las patas de los animales.

Los conquistadores cuando observaron el respeto y temor que los indigenas le tenían a los caballos, lo aprovecharon para manifestar su poder y así tenemos que cuando Hernando de Soto y Pizarro fueron a Cajamarca a visitar al Inca, ellos tomaron unos caballos muy inquietos y furiosos y los enjaezaron empleando muchos cascabeles. Cuando en Inca estaba en los baños sulfurosos, se presentaron los españoles armando ruido con sus caballos al galope y Atahualpa despavorido al salir del baño sufrió una tremenda caída.

                                  Custodio Rebollo

 


Publicado en Odiel Informacion el 22 agosto 2005. 

Hernan Cortes En La Rabida
 

Convencido Hernán Cortés que para conseguir lo que quería tenía que pedírselo a Carlos V personalmente, pues aunque dueño de grandes haciendas , percibía que carecía de influencias, decidió emprender el viaje de regreso en marzo de 1528 y en el estuvo acompañado de sus dos mas íntimos amigos, Andrés de Tapia y Gonzalo de Sandoval.Le acompañaron un séquito; tres hijos de Moctezuma, un hijo del rey de Tacuba, y los señores de Cuitlahuac y Culhuacam, además de otros indios “nobles” y acróbatas y malabaristas, en un total de unas cincuenta personas. Llegaron a Palos en mayo de 1528 y la primera visita fue el Monasterio de La Rábida, donde fue recibido por los frailes franciscanos y cuenta la leyenda, que durante el tiempo que permaneció en el monasterio, se encontró con su primo Francisco Pizarro que se marchaba a Perú para realizar la misma labor que él hizo en Nueva España.

De aquí siguió camino por la sierra de Huelva hasta Medellín, para ver a su padre y se encontró con la triste noticia que  había muerto hacía año y medio. Después de estar con su madre, emprendió viaje a Guadalupe donde dió gracias a la virgen extremeña.

Tras repartir regalos en oro y piedras preciosas, continuó viaje para ver al rey y en junio llegó a la corte, que estaba en la capital de verano, en Monzón.

El rey, nada mas ver a Cortés, se levantó y le tomó de la mano para que no pusiera rodilla en tierra y lo sentó a su lado. Le nombró Marqués del Valle de Oaxaca y le concedió beneficios de todas sus conquistas y le encomendó 23.000 vasallos y lo confirmó como Capitán General, pero la tarea de gobernar Nueva España, se la encomendó a Nuño de Guzmán, enemigo de Cortés.

                                                        Custodio Rebollo.



Publicado en Odiel Información el  2 de septiembre de 2005  

Enigmático Colon

El pasado fin de semana estuve leyendo en la Revista de las Fiestas de Montemayor de este año, un muy bien documentado articulo de Rocío Márquez López sobre lo enigmático que siempre ha sido todo lo relacionado con Cristóbal Colon.

Los muy difusos datos biográficos que se poseen sobre el insigne Almirante, en lugar de facilitar nuevas aportaciones y una mayor comprensión de los que tenemos, lo que consiguen es confundirnos y alejarnos cada vez mas, logrando que, en la mayoría de los casos, abandonemos la búsqueda y nos dediquemos a otras investigaciones o lecturas.

Rocío Márquez en su articulo expone el criterio de Jorge Campos que mantiene que Colon pudo ser un corsario llamado “Coullon” que efectuaba sus sabotajes por las costas de Valencia.

La pregunta es obvia, ¿sería el apellido Colon una derivación del nombre del corsario que hacía sus fechorías por el levante español? 

Cristóbal Colon hizo todo lo posible por ocultar su origen y su pasado, lo que ha creado la leyenda de unos dicen que no era genovés, sino portugués, otros gallego, mallorquín o maltés y hasta hay quien dice que turco.

El articulo de Rocío me recordó que hace tiempo leí que los hermanos Pinzón, que también tenían patente de corso, hacían su trabajo por el Mediterráneo, entre Cataluña y Valencia y que tenían muy disgustada a la Reina porque a veces la habían comprometido excediéndose en el mar y creando conflictos con otros estados.

La pregunta que me hago ahora es; ¿se conocerían por aquellos lares Cristóbal Colon y los Pinzones ¿. Porque, de ser afirmativo, puede que fueran incluso compañeros en su “trabajo” y se puede sospechar que la llegada de Colón a La Rábida no fue fortuita, ya que la tesis de que en San Juan del Puerto vivía su cuñada, donde su marido era recaudador de Medinasidonia no se mantiene, porque lo lógico era que el Almirante dejase a su hijo con su tía y no con los frailes rabideños. Esto ultimo creo que lo ha dicho alguien, pero no recuerdo quien.

Tengo mi dudas que Colon y los Pinzones no se conocieran y hubiese alguna trama premeditada entre ellos para conseguir los apoyos que necesitaban.

¿Descubriremos la verdad algún día?

                                                Custodio Rebollo.  


 

INTERNATIONAL 

Pascual World Wide Family Reunion 
Mundo Guanche, Revista digital de Prehistoria de Canarias
Canary Islands Locales and their associated Louisiana Families
Psajeros a Indias, Siglos XVI-XVII, Trabajo de Documentación
Capitan Juan Silvestre Guadarrrama



Pascual World Wide Family Reunion 

From: Antonio Pascual Anton1851@yahoo.com 

A grand family reunion in Ateneo de Manila University on Jan 7, 2006 will bring together primos and primas belonging to an old Philippine family with Eurasian roots and a strong Hispanic heritage. About a thousand descendants of Alejandro Pascual and his wife Marcelina Sengson who settled in the island town of Navotas along Manila Bay in the late 1780's will converge in Ateneo de Manila in Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines. There will be delegations from California, Georgia, and other parts of the world where sixth, seventh and eight generation family members can be found. 

A steering committee based in Manila has been meeting monthly since January 2005 to strategize the reunion. E-mails continue to generate interest from all over the world where the primos reside. An invitation designed to motivate relatives to join the reunion was created. It focuses on the family's rich history from the Spanish era (who we were) down to present descendants (who we are) with corresponding pictures of achievers which include high government officials, CEO's of top corporations in the pharmaceutical and food and beverage industries in Manila, leaders in banking, judiciary, medicine, the arts and beauty queens such as the 1973 Miss World 1st runner-up, and the country's candidates to the 1989 Miss Universe and 2003 Miss International pageants. The Pascual clan in the Philippines is composed of three major branches representing the oldest sons of Alejandro and Marcelina; namely, Doroteo, Alvaro and Mariano who lived in the seventeenth century when the Philippines was a colony of Spain. 


 

Mundo Guanche, Revista digital de Prehistoria de Canarias

Gracias Mimi, Aquí te mando la dirección de la web Mundo Guanche, ES UN GRAN TRABAJO, MUY INTERESANTE Ojala que se interesen en difundirla entre los canarios en el exterior.
Muchas gracias te mando un cariño Mery Glez  meryart@msn.com

La Viceconsejería de Emigración informa del lanzamiento de una nueva revista digital, destinada sobre todo al público infantil, mundoguanche.com, que pretende acercar la prehistoria de Canarias y la vida de los guanches a los niños, mediante áreas lúdicas y divulgativas.

Un video juego sobre los guanches y un trivial con preguntas sobre los antiguos habitantes de Canarias son algunos de los atractivos de esta revista digital, accesible de forma gratuita en la dirección de Intenet " www.mundoguanche.com.

Es una iniciativa atípica, creada y dirigida sin ánimo de lucro por Felipe Lonrenzo, licenciado en Bellas Artes. quien está al frente de un equipo de media docena de colaboradores.

La publicación es rara porque toca un tema de escasa difusión en el medio digital, y atípica por tratarlo de una manera muy novedosa.

Se pretende mostrar la prehistoria de Canarias de forma amena y divertida, con prioridad a la parte lúdica y divulgativa, sin pretender profundizar en discursos demasiados teóricos, pero manteniendo un rigor histórico en los contenidos que se muestran.

Ya se han lanzado los dos primeros números de esta revista que podrás leer de forma amena. Nuestra intención es que nos ayudes a difundir este portal entre los jóvenes y niños descendientes de canarios por su utilidad pedagógica y divulgativa del conocimiento de una importante parte de la historia de las Islas Canarias.

Un cordial saludo, 
Angela Cruz Perera, Gabinete de la Viceconsejería de Emigración
Gobierno de Canarias



Canary Islands Locales and their associated Louisiana Families
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~brasscannon/locales9.html

This is an excellent tool for locating the "home town" of the early Canary Islanders from Paul Newfield . Information was extracted from the Catholic Church Records in Baton Rouge and New Orleans . Enjoy and pass it on to your Primos del  Canarias. Bill Carmena 

Compiled by: Paul Newfield III
3016 45th Street
Metairie, La. USA 70001pcn01@webdsi.com
 

 PASAJEROS A INDIAS, SIGLOS XVI-XVII, TRABAJO DE DOCUMENTACIÓN
http://es.geocities.com/almagacen/emigrantesfdc.htm
Sent by Janete Vargas magnaguagno@gmail.com 

“LA VINCULACIÓN AMERICANA DE FUENTE DE CANTOS: PASAJEROS A INDIAS (SIGLOS XVI-XVII)”.
II JORNADAS DE HISTORIA DE FUENTE DE CANTOS (9 DE NOVIEMBRE DE 2001)

Francisco J. Gutiérrez Núñez, Ldo. Geografía e Historia, (Historia Moderna & Contemporánea)

Este trabajo de documentación fue publicado, junto al artículo del mismo nombre, en las Actas de las II Jornadas de Historia de Fuentes de Cantos (2000), Asociación Cultural “Lucerna”, Ayto. de Fuente de Cantos, Diputación Provincial de Badajoz, 2002, pp. 53-85 (artículo) y 86-110 (documentación).

PASAJEROS RELACIONADOS CON FUENTE DE CANTOS QUE EMIGRARON A INDIAS. SIGLO XVI. A = Catálogos de pasajeros // A. G. I. = Archivo General de Indias // B= Boyd-Bowman. // HURT = Publio Hurtado. // MIS = Andrés Martín, Melquiades (dir.): Misioneros extremeños en ..., 1993.  // N = Navarro del Castillo // PNS = Protocolos Notariales de Sevilla. // RSR = Rocío Sánchez Rubio. 


EXAMPLES OF INFORMATION: 
MATEOS, ALONSO (Labrador). Natural de Fuente de Cantos. 1 Tierra Firme 1512 (1ª referencia en destino) RSR (1993), pag. 553 . 

MARTÍN, ALONSO. Hijo de Gonzalo Rodríguez de Luna y de Elvira López, vecinos de Fuente de Cantos, con Andrés de Vargas (hijo de Andrés López y de María López), vecinos de Vargas. 1 Sin datos 1512, Octubre, 5.   A1. Catálogo Vol. I, nº 790 (Sign. I-184), (pag. 57). 

GARCÍA, FRANCISCO. Hijo de Gonzalo Mateo de la Plaza y de Catalina, vecinos de Fuente de Cantos. 1 Sin datos 1513, Mayo, 10.  A1. Catálogo Vol. I, nº 1094 (Sign. I-237), (pag. 79 

MOLINA, GIL DE (Conquistador y Encomendero). Natural de Fuente de Cantos, hijo de Juan de Calderón y Mari Sánchez de Molina. Marchó a México.  Fue Conquistador, se asentó en la Huasteca, y era propietario en Ciudad de México en 1537 (Benítez, José R.: Historia Gráfica de la Nueva España, México 1929, pag. 230), así como encomendero en Tezayuca, aunque fue destituido. Ya viejo vivía al menos en 1547 en México, donde se reencontró con una hija y un hijo, para casarlos (Icaza, Francisco A. de: Diccionario autobiográfico de conquistadores y pobladores de la Nueva España, 2 vols., Madrid 1923, n° 1281). (Citado por BOYD-BOWMAN, Vol. II, pag. 35).  En el Archivo General de Indias, encontramos referencias de un tal Gil de Molina, el cual debe ser el mismo, tanto por las fechas como por la zona geográfica donde se mueve.  1) 1539, Febrero, 21, Toledo. Real Cédula al Virrey de la Nueva España para que provea de un corregimiento a Gil de Molina, vecino de la ciudad de México. (A.G.I. México, 1088, L. 3, fol. 259 v. (Digitalizado). 2) 1541-1543. El fiscal contra Gil de Molina, vecino de México, sobre derecho a la encomienda de Teziuca. 1 pieza. (A.G.I. Justicia 194/1541).(Sin digitalizar). 1 Nueva España (México) 1523.  B  1539, Febrero, 21 (Real Cédula).A.G.I. México, 1088, L. 3, fol. 259 v. 1541-1543A.G.I. Justicia 194/1541 


Capitan Juan Silvestre Guadarrrama
From: perezfru@telcel.net.ve

Deseo Compartir la información encontrada del Capitán Juan Silvestre Guadarrama. Esta hoja de Vida me la enviaron de Los Archivos Españoles en la Red.

Roberto José Pérez Guadarrama

BATALLÓN DE MILICIAS DISCIPLINADAS DE BLANCOS DE CARACAS.

El Capitán don Juan Silvestre Guadarrama su edad cuarenta y cuatro años, su País Caracas su calidad noble su salud buena sus servicios, y circunstancias

los que expresa.

Tiempo en que empezó a servir los Empleos: Cadete 16 Mayo 1774.
Tiempo que ha que sirve, y quanto en cada Empleo: De Cadete 4 años, 11 meses y 22 días.
Tiempo en que empezó a servir los Empleos: Subteniente 8 Mayo 1779.
Tiempo que ha que sirve, y quanto en cada Empleo: De Subteniente 13 años, 3 meses y 14 días.
Tiempo en que empezó a servir los Empleos: Capitán 22 Agosto 1792.
Tiempo que ha que sirve, y quanto en cada Empleo: De Capitán 7 años, 4 meses y 9 días.
Total hasta fin de Diciembre de 1799; 25 años, 7 meses y 15 días.
Regimientos donde ha servido: En este Batallón el tiempo que expresa.
Campañas, y acciones de Guerra en que se ha hallado:

Estubo seis meses agregado a la compañía de Granaderos del Batallón veterano haciendo el servicio Por orn. del Sor. Capitán gral. y Real Acuerdo de esta

Provincia; fué comicionado por mar, y tierra a la costa de Barlovento con encargo de tres Buques en los que llevava 14 hombres de tropa y un Sargto. en cada uno, cuya comisión se le confió con motibo de la Sublevación descubierta en la Plaza de la Guayra, en persecución de los Reos primeros actores de ella, de la que resultó havér aprendido varios de los Sublevados, y personas sospechosas, en la que estubo desde 17 de Julio de 1797 hasta 15 de Agosto del mismo año; y condujo con la custodia correspondiente de la Plaza de la Guayra a la Ciudad de Caracas, uno de los prales. Reos de Estado.

Firma: Pedro de la Rosa

Estan conformes con mi consepto las notas puestas (Palabra Ilegible) Capitán

Firma: Guevara
Valor..............Se supone
Aplicación ... Buena
Capacidad..... (Palabra Ilegible)
Conducta ..... (Palabra Ilegible)
Estado ........ Casado
Firma: Muñoz

Además también conseguí los Nombre e información variada de los Bisabuelos, Abuelos, Padres, Cónyuge e Hijos del Capitan Juan Silvestre de Guadarrama y Freires.. La cual también deseo compartir con Usted:

Don Manuel de Guadarrama, natural de la Isla del Hierro, en Canarias, hijo de Don Bartolomé de Guadarrama y de Doña María de Acosta, otorgó testamento en Caracas el 19/12/1757, habiendo casado aquí el 26/07/1733 (L7,f.55) con Doña Inés María Martinez de Freites y Ramos, que otorgó poder para testar en esta ciudad el 20703/1792, hija de Juan Martin de Freites, Natural de La Laguna, en la isla de Tenerife, y de Doña María Ramos Barrios. Fueron padres de: Doña Juana Rosa y Don Diego, fallecidos jóvenes; Doña Dominga, el Bachiller Don Bartolomé, el Licenciado Don José Manuel, de quien no tengo otro dato, y:

1 Doña María Agustina de Guadarrama y Freites, casada en la parroquia de Altagracia de Caracas el 01/07/1760 con Don José Antonio de Anzola y Garmendia, natural de Azpeitia, hijo de Don Simón Manuel y Doña Francisca Inés.

2 El Licenciado y Capitán Don Juan Silvestre de Guadarrama y Freires, nacido hacia 1755, ingresó de Cadete el 16/05/1774, y en 1799 era Capitán del Batallón de Milicias Disciplinadas de Blancos de Caracas, con calidad de "noble" en su hoja de servicios; casado en la parroquia de San Pablo de Caracas el 13/09/1792 con Doña Andrea de Soto y Rodriguez de la Mdriz, fallecida intestada en la parroquia Catedral de Caracas el 28/0671831, hija de Don Gabriel de Soto y Monasterios, y de Doña Josefa de la Madriz y Muñoz. Fueron padres de:

3 Doña Mercedes Guadarrama Soto, casada con Don Bernabé Planas Espinoza, nacido en Barquisimeto el 25/05/1793 y fallecido el 30/01/1843, Gobernador de Barquisimeto (1832 y 1842-43), hijo de Don José Antonio Planas Anzola, y de Doña María Feliciana Espinoza de los Monteros y Yepez.

(Don Ambrosio Pereira, Autor del Libro: Historial Genealogico de familias Caroreñas)

La Guayra que se menciona en esta Hoja de Vida Militar es actualmente: La Guaira, el principal Puerto del País, queda muy cerca de la Capital de Venezuela Caracas. También es la Capital del Estado Vargas, donde se encuentra el principal Aeropuerto de Venezuela, el Aeropuerto Internacional de Maiquetía.

Y con respecto a la Sublevación descubierta en la Plaza de la Guayra, se refiere a la Sublevación de Gual y España, Patriotas Venezolanos. Como se confirma en Pagina Web de la Universidad de Los Andes en Mérida, Venezuela ( ">http://www.bolivar.ula.ve ) "Segunda Parte. La conspiración de Gual y España en La Guaira

Capítulo Octavo. Fuga de Gual y España

Los Comisionados de La Guaira tomaban todas las medidas tendientes a la captura de los fugitivos ya la seguridad del Puerto. De Caraballeda vino la noticia de que Aranzamendi andaba por la playa "paseándose con un anteojo de larga, vista, reconociendo el mar". Calculando que Gual y España estarían en su compañía, el Doctor Espejo despachó tres pelotones al mando del capitán Juan Silvestre Guadarrama para buscarlos a lo largo de la Costa, dirigiendo una por mar hasta Naiguatá y dos por tierra a Macuto y Caraballeda. Las comisiones llevaban orden de prohibir terminantemente en esos lugares la pesca, el embarco de personas yel envío de cartas a La Guaira, efectuar una revisión de los montes hasta la fila y vigilar la esclavitud. Se alertaba al Jefe de la expedición sobre el hecho de que "bajo la capa de hombre de color puede embarcarse alguno de los reos, teñido de negro", y le mandaba ofrecer, además de las recompensas ofrecidas por la Audiencia de Caracas: 500 pesos de premio al que aprehendiese o descubriese a los prófugos o sus cómplices.

El Comandante Militar López Chávez hizo reforzar la guardia de Presidio y colocar otra en las Trincheras para custodiar el Parque. Se formaron cuatro patrullas para recorrer el pueblo y se colocaron cuatro cañones en la Batería de la Plataforma: uno delante de la Cárcel, dirigido hacia la Puerta de Caracas, y otro hacia el camino de Macuto. Se llamó a los oficiales francos de servicio para su acuartelamiento. Convencido el Doctor Espejo de las veleidades de Don Agustín García en su trato con los patriotas, insinuó al Gobernador llamarlo a Caracas y retenerlo allí hasta aclarar su comportamiento. Carbonell lo llamó y nombró Comandante Interino de La Guaira al Brigadier Matheo Pérez.

Dos días anduvo José María España a salto de mata por los montes de Uria y Los Caracas en compañía de su hijo y del vasco Arrambide, ocultado y socorrido por sus negros. Aun cuando Antonio Ojeda tenía listo su bote para trasladarlo a Curazao, Don José María aguardó hasta el último momento, en la esperanza de que la llegada de Gual a La Guaira hiciera un milagro. El 18 por la noche recibió una carta de éste suplicándole esperarlo para huir juntos. España se trasladó a Camurí Chiquito en busca de Ojeda, despidiéndose de Arrambide, que no se atrevió a seguirlo"

 


DICHOS


Gilbert Burrola and Jorge Alvarez
Dicho's    
books. furniture. garden     370 South Thomas Street  Pomona,   CA 91766     909.623.4414     www.dichos.net       dichospomona@aol.com   

Home and Garden   books,  whimsical children’s books and all your favorite reads.  We also carry a   wide selection of bath and body products including Burt’s Bees, No  Crack Hand Lotion and Kirk’s Castile Soap.   And for your sweet  tooth we also carry olde-time candy of yesteryear including Mary Jane’s, Choward’s Violet Candy/Gum and Atkinson’s Peanut Butter Bars.  

We enjoy talking with our customers directly and enjoy fulfilling-even exceeding their expectations, whether it’s recommending a book we’ve just read or helping you discover new authors and fun titles.

    

 If we don’t have the book you’re looking for we are more than happy to special order it for you at no additional cost. We’re a very special and unique independent bookstore; please stop in when you’re in the neighborhood! You'll find our favorite dichos books:  Dichos: Proverbs and Sayings from the Spanish by Charles Aranda, 32 pp. A goodly collection of dichos, adivinanzas, creencias y chiqillados de Nuevo.  It's All In The Frijoles - A good daily read. Think of it as a "Don't Sweat the Small Stuff" type book, but with a Latino flavor. There's a lot in here that I can relate to, and can recall hearing many of the same 
                         "dichos" from my parents. I'm glad I picked it up! 

A Dios rogando y con el mazo dando. 
Praying to God and hitting with the hammer. 

A juventud ociosa, vejez trabajosa. 
To leisurely youth, laborious old age. 

A quien madruga, Dios le ayuda. 
Who rises early, God helps. 

Acabándose el dinero, se termina la amistad. 
The money running out, the friendship ends. 

Camarón que se duerme, se lo lleva la corriente. 
Shrimp that sleeps, the current carries it away. 

Source: Spanish Pronto!: Dichos, Refranes, Sayings, Proverbs
http://www.spanishpronto.com/spanishpronto/spanishsayings.html

 

HISTORY

Proclamation by George Washington, New York, 3 October 1789
The Frigate South Carolina
Lozanos in the US 1860-1870 and WW1  

 


Photo: http://www.grand69.bravepages.com/

"Can it be, that Providence has not connected the permanent felicity of a Nation with its virtue? The experiment, at least, is recommended by every sentiment which ennobles human Nature." 
—George Washington 

Proclamation, New York, 3 October 1789  
George Washington,  President of the United States of America

Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor--and whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me "to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness." 

Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be--That we may then all unite in  rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks--for his kind care and  protection of the People of this Country previous to their becoming a Nation--for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of his Providence which we experienced in the tranquility, union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed--for the peaceable and rational manner, in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national  One now lately instituted--for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed; and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and in general for all the great and various favors which he hath been pleased to confer upon us. 

And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech him to pardon our national and other transgressions--to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually--to render our national government a blessing to all the people, by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and  constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed--to protect and guide all Sovereigns and Nations (especially such as have shewn kindness onto us) and to bless them with good government, peace, and concord--To promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the encrease of science among them and us--and generally to grant unto all Mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best. 

Given under my hand at the City of New-York the third day of October in the year of our Lord 1789.    Go: Washington




The Frigate South Carolina

America’s Largest Warship
By Jack Cowan

Perhaps the most bizarre story of the American Revolutionary War includes some of the country’s most notable figures. Men like George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Benardo de Galvez, John Paul Jones, as well as the nations of France, Spain, Holland and, of course, Britain figure into the mix of this tale of political toe-stepping and international lawsuits that lasted years after the war was over.

The ship: The South Carolina was the largest man-of war under American command. She carried 550 men and 40 cannon and could throw over five hundred pounds of shot in a single broadside. She rose over 100 feet in the air and stretched 168 feet while drafting 22 feet of water. All who viewed her wanted her, and yet she lay at anchor for three years before she tasted the salt of the Atlantic.

The delivery: The colonies were almost totally dependent on foreign trade, and a war with Briton would make it necessary to have, at least, some semblance of a navy to escort trade ships in and out of American ports. Building such ships in America was very limited as such building yards would make easy targets for British warships. Obtaining the necessary cannon and other war material was even more remote. In January of 1777, the Continental Congress authorized Benjamin Franklin and Silas Deane,  to contract with an experienced ship builder/designer named Jacques Boux to build a man-of-war for such sea duty. To keep French/American involvement obscure from prying British eyes, neutral Holland was selected for construction, Amsterdam to be exact.

Straightaway the cost were far more than the Americans could spare, and ownership of the unfinished ship was transferred several times until it "officially" ended up in the hands of the Chevalier de Luxembourg. John Paul Jones, heavily sponsored by Benjamin Franklin, tried desperately to obtain the ship, but he was considered by the Dutch as too reckless to trust with such an expensive investment. It was not until May 1,1780, that the chevalier would sign a contract with Commodore Alexander Gillon of South Carolina to lease the ship for three years as a privateer. The contract called for one-quarter of the prizes and ransoms received to go to the chevalier, one-quarter to the colony of South Carolina, one-quarter to Gillon, and one-quarter to the crew. Gillon was not unknown politically, having served General Washington and the Congress in the purchase of military supplies, and was highly respected and politically involved in South Carolina as well. On his way to Amsterdam, Gillon traveled, first to Cuba where he exchanged letters of introduction and other correspondence from Juan de Miralles, Spain’s first envoy to America and the secret military intelligence go-between between George Washington and the Governor of Cuba. In Havana, he secured Spanish help in finding sea passage on Admiral Francois Joseph Paul de Grasse’s frigate Fortunee to Brest. Gillon was of Dutch heritage and spoke several languages including Dutch and French, and the fact that he was as good if not better a sailor as John Paul Jones, instilled the confidence needed to gain the trust of the chevalier and, in no less degree, the ire of Franklin.

The challenge: Although both the South Carolina colony and Gillon had made a large investment in the venture, it soon turned muddy. To put the ship to sea, Gillon would have to cross seventy miles of the Bay of Pampus to get to Texel, on the North Sea. The rather unbelievable problem was that the Pampus had an average water dept of fifteen feet while the South Carolina required at least twenty-two. Gillon had to de-mast and off load the South Carolina, seal up the deck and one side of the ship, and laying it on its side, literally drag it to Texel. Once there, and made ready for sail, the marines who were to be provided by the chevalier to man the ship were away fighting in the Battle of Jersey (one of the British held Islands in the English Channel). Expenses from this delay were mounting so as to cause Gillon to contract to carry passengers and military supplies to America in order to raise necessary funds. Having misjudged the ship’s capacity, and burdened with additional military supplies purchased by Major Jackson and Col. James Searle, Gillon had to contract with merchant ships to carry the excess. He also agreed to escort to America. When Franklin learned that Jackson and Searle had used French money to buy military supplies in Holland and contracted with Gillon instead of delivering the money to America, he became enraged. Later, he made it very difficult for Gillon to acquire needed repairs and supplies for the South Carolina in Corunna, Spain and Philadelphia.

For reasons unclear, the merchant ships loaded with military supplies, delayed leaving the dock until winter ice made it unsafe for the South Carolina to linger any longer, and she sailed without them. Finally at sea, Gillon took enemy ships as prizes and sent them to France to be sold as required under his contract with the chevalier. However, the British recaptured the prize ships before reaching France, and the prize money was not realized. The South Carolina soon developed problems of her own and had to put into port in Spain for repairs. Rot from all those years at anchor in the Amsterdam mud had begun to eat away at the hull and many of the crew had become ill. At this point, passengers Jackson and Searle became disgruntled with Gillon’s delay in sailing to America and left the ship to seek other transportation. Charles, the son of John Adams, was in their charge and he left as well. Spain, however, was eager to help the American and accepted guarantees for services rendered, even over the objections of Franklin. Leaving Spain, Gillon again experienced problems with shortages of supplies and put into port at Santa Cruz in the Azores where more guarantees were exchanged for goods and repairs. After "acquiring" replacement marines and sailors to take the place of those who jumped ship or were too ill to continue, Gillon set sail for his homeport at Charleston.

With Charleston in sight, several British war ships anchored in the harbor were alerted, and immediately gave chase. The South Carolina outran the British and was soon looking for safe refuge. That refuge turned out to be the very busy port of Havana, Cuba. After a friendly "business" visit on board the South Carolina, General Bernardo de Galvez was off to Cap Francais to await the return of Admiral Francois Joseph Paul de Grasse from Yorktown to prepare for the invasion of Jamaica. But before he left, Galvez authorized Captain General Juan Manuel de Cagigal to take a military flotilla escorted by the South Carolina, and attack British held New Providence in the Bahamas. The financial arrangements became clouded as Gillon did not speak Spanish and Cagigal did not speak anything other than Spanish. Francisco Miranda, Cagigal’s aide de camp, became interpreter. Soon Gillon and Miranda were fighting over the soon-to-be spoils of war. The South Carolina, being a privateer and Gillon being required to share prizes of war with the Chevalier de Luxembourg, evidently thought he deserved more than Miranda wanted to give. This was probably manifested when the British, intimidated by the huge man-of-war sitting in their harbor, surrendered without a fight. The local merchants, many of whom owned several "enemy" privateers at anchor in the harbor, had been through this before and rather than lose their property to an invading force, persuaded the British commander to surrender. The terms of surrender would preserve private property, including the privateers in the harbor, from confiscation thus reducing the war prizes and with it the expected revenue of the South Carolina.

The welcome home: Having participated in this final campaign of the American Revolution, the South Carolina set sail to Philadelphia as Charleston was still under British control. The ship was received with jubilation and a small but formidable group of disgruntled creditors. Also among the group were Major Jackson and Col. Searle, passengers who had chosen to go ashore in Spain and seek other transportation to America. Even though the three-year contract with the Chevalier de Luxembourg was not yet up, he too was demanding satisfaction as well as the immediate return of the ship due to the lack of expected prize money.

To say that the Commodore had his hands full is a bit of an understatement as Franklin still had hopes of turning the ship over to John Paul Jones and felt that the colony of South Carolina had no business with a separate navy from that of the confederation. It appears "states rights" was very much an issue even at this early struggle toward democracy.

The ship’s bell continues to ring: Eventually, Gillon was judged free of any wrongdoing, but he never returned to the South Carolina. Instead, he gave command to John Joyner, who had served as his second-in-command and instructed him to go forth and seize. However, the British had other plans and were lying in wait just outside the inlet. The South Carolina had been at sea only a short time but had attracted worldwide attention, and the British saw her as a huge propaganda prize. No sooner had the South Carolina hit blue water than three fast British ships closed on her in light winds. After a noble battle, the South Carolina was on her way to New York under a British flag.

The war ended and the South Carolina was taken to England, and shortly after, disappeared from history. However, the money suits would continue for more than ten years. Even Thomas Jefferson got involved and shortstopped the colony of South Carolina’s suit against Spain for money due the South Carolina for the New Province campaign.

During World War II, American Lieutenant William Corbine came upon an old ship’s bell at a jute mill on the Ganges River in India. Engraved on the bell was "South Carolina" and it now proudly rests in the War Memorial Building at the University of South Carolina.

Credits: Neptune’s Militia by James A. Lewis
The Final Campaign of the American Revolution
by James A. Lewis
Spain and the Independence of the United States
by Thomas E. Galvez
Technical assistance by Peggy Jared


LOZANOs in the US 1860-1870 and WW1  
Sent by Kathie Lui  pcdirector@gmail.com 


ALL THE LOZANO'S WHO REGISTERED FOR WW1 IN BEXAR COUNTY, TEXAS
 
Agapito Lozano 8 Aug 1880  White     Not Stated, Bexar, TX   
Daniel Lozano 2 Jan 1894  Caucasian  Mexico  Not Stated, Bexar, TX   
Miguel Lozano 19 Aug 1899  White     Not Stated, Bexar, TX   
Pedro Lozano 28 Dec 1897  Spanish;American  Mexico  Not Stated, Bexar, TX   
Arturo Lozano 17 Mar 1896  Caucasian  Texas;United States of America  San Antonio, Bexar, TX   
Aurelio Lozano 8 Apr 1883  White     San Antonio, Bexar, TX   
Benito Lozano 21 Mar 1897  Caucasian  Texas  San Antonio, Bexar, TX   
Carlos Lozano 10 May 1892  Spanish;American  Texas;United States of America  San Antonio, Bexar, TX   
Cruz Lozano 29 Mar 1889  Spanish;American  Mexico  San Antonio, Bexar, TX   
Daniel Lozano 19 Mar 1873  White     San Antonio, Bexar, TX 
Ermilo Lozano 4 Dec 1889  Caucasian  Texas;United States of America  San Antonio, Bexar, TX   
Eutimio Lozano 1882  White     San Antonio, Bexar, TX   
Falcon Lozano 19 Jun 1888  Spanish;American  Texas;United States of America  San Antonio, Bexar, TX   
Faustino Lozano 15 Feb 1895  Spanish;American  Mexico  San Antonio, Bexar, TX   
Francisco Lozano 24 Aug 1888  White     San Antonio, Bexar, TX   
Guadalupe Lozano 12 Jun 1883  Mexican     San Antonio, Bexar, TX   
Ines Lozano 20 Apr 1892     Mexico  San Antonio, Bexar, TX   
Jesus Lozano 11 Apr 1883  White     San Antonio, Bexar, TX   
John R Lozano 15 Nov 1880  White     San Antonio, Bexar, TX   
Jose Lozano 17 Mar 1894  Spanish;American  Mexico  San Antonio, Bexar, TX 
Jose F Lozano 15 Jul 1889  Spanish;American  Mexico  San Antonio, Bexar, TX   
Jose Maria Lozano 12 Aug 1892  Caucasian  Mexico  San Antonio, Bexar, TX   
Juan Jose Lozano 23 Apr 1881  White     San Antonio, Bexar, TX   
Manuel Lozano 10 Sep 1895  Spanish;American  Mexico  San Antonio, Bexar, TX   
Manuel Lozano 5 Feb 1884  White     San Antonio, Bexar, TX   
Martin Lozano Jan 1880  White     San Antonio, Bexar, TX   
Pablo Lozano 6 Jul 1890  Spanish;American  Mexico  San Antonio, Bexar, TX   
Pedro Lozano 18 Jan 1884  White     San Antonio, Bexar, TX   
Pedro J Lozano 29 Jun 1887  Spanish;American  Mexico  San Antonio, Bexar, TX   
Ramon Lozano 31 Aug 1985  Spanish;American  Mexico  San Antonio, Bexar, TX 
Refugio Lozano 4 Jul 1881  White     San Antonio, Bexar, TX   
Ruben Randon Lozano 20 Mar 1893  Spanish;American  Texas  San Antonio, Bexar, TX   
Santiago Lozano 1 May 1893  Spanish;American  Mexico  San Antonio, Bexar, TX   
Tomas Lozano 21 Dec 1885  White     San Antonio, Bexar, TX   
Valentin M Lozano 14 Feb 1899  White     San Antonio, Bexar, TX   
Zaragosa Garcia Lozano 12 Oct 1895  Spanish;American  Texas;United States of America  San Antonio, Bexar, TX   
Antonio Lozano 3 Feb 1879  White     San Antonio, Bexar, TX   
Bernardo Lozano 20 Aug 1876  White     San Antonio, Bexar, TX   
Charles Lozano Mar 1900  White     San Antonio, Bexar, TX   
Eusebio Lozano 16 Sep 1890  Caucasian  Mexico  San Antonio, Bexar, TX 
Francisco Lozano 13 Mar 1884  White     San Antonio, Bexar, TX   
Gregorio Lozano 12 Mar 1892  Caucasian  Mexico  San Antonio, Bexar, TX   
Henry Lozano 19 Aug 1895  Spanish;American  Texas;United States of America  San Antonio, Bexar, TX   
Ignacio E Lozano 15 Nov 1886  Spanish;American  Mexico  San Antonio, Bexar, TX   
Joe Louis Lozano 4 May 1884  White     San Antonio, Bexar, TX   
Jose Catarino Lozano 13 Apr 1883  White     San Antonio, Bexar, TX   
Juan Lozano 1 Jan 1894  Spanish;American  Texas;United States of America  San Antonio, Bexar, TX   
Julian Francisco Lozano 4 Jun 1885  White     San Antonio, Bexar, TX   
Steve Lozano 19 Dec 1878  White     San Antonio, Bexar, TX   
Edelmiro Carmen Lozano 16 Jul 1874  White     San Antonio, Bexar, TX 
Federico Lozano 17 Jul 1878  White     San Antonio, Bexar, TX   
Gregorio Lozano 9 May 1897  White     San Antonio, Bexar, TX   
Hilbert Domingo Lozano 4 Aug 1900  White     San Antonio, Bexar, TX   
John Lozano 4 Dec 1895  Caucasian  Texas;United States of America  San Antonio, Bexar, TX   
Nicolas Lozano 10 Sep 1896  White     San Antonio, Bexar, TX   
Raphael Rios Lozano 24 Oct 1893  Spanish  Mexico  San Antonio, Bexar, TX 
 

FROM THE 1860 CENSUS. THIS IS THE FIRST CENSUS WHERE LOZANO'S SHOW UP IN THE U.S. OUTSIDE OF LOUISIANA
 
Dolores Lozano Mesilla, Dona Ana, NM 25  1834 Mexico  Male    
Maria Lozano Mesilla, Dona Ana, NM 20  1839 Mexico  Female    
Maria Lozano Mesilla, Dona Ana, NM 5  1854 Mexico  Female    
Manuel Lozano Mesilla, Dona Ana, NM 42  1817 Mexico  Male  
Simon Lozano Mesilla, Dona Ana, NM 14  1845 Mexico  Male    
Francisco Lozano Mesilla, Dona Ana, NM 10  1849 Mexico  Male    
Fermin Lozano Mesilla, Dona Ana, NM 8  1851 New Mexico  Male    
Rebecca Lozano Mesilla, Dona Ana, NM 7  1852 New Mexico  Female  
 
FROM THE 1870 CENSUS, STATE OF TEXAS
 
Eugene Lozano El Paso, El Paso, TX abt 1843  Mexico  White  Male    
Guadalupe Lozano El Paso, El Paso, TX abt 1867  Texas  White  Female    
Joseph Lozano El Paso, El Paso, TX abt 1869  Texas  White  Male    
Luz Lozano El Paso, El Paso, TX abt 1849  Mexico  White  Female    
Maria Lozano El Paso, El Paso, TX abt 1866  Texas  White  Female    
Brano Lozano Precinct 3 Rancho San Pedro, Zapata, TX abt 1851  Mexico  White  Male    
Dolor Lozano Precinct 3 Rancho San Pedro, Zapata, TX abt 1825  Mexico  White  Female    
Francisca Lozano Precinct 3 Rancho San Pedro, Zapata, TX abt 1853  Mexico  White  Female    
Lorita Lozano Precinct 3 Rancho San Pedro, Zapata, TX abt 1855  Mexico  White  Female    
Merso Lozano Precinct 3 Rancho San Pedro, Zapata, TX abt 1816  Mexico  White  Male 
Thomasita Lozano Precinct 3 Rancho San Pedro, Zapata, TX abt 1848  Mexico  White  Female 


 

FAMILY HISTORY

Online Military Indexes & Records
WW II Memorial Site
 
Catholic Culture : Home Page (formerly PetersNet.Net) 
Recommended Websites
Finding Naturalization Records and Ethnic Origins
Family History Projects in Fifteen Minutes or Less
Family Tree Sourcebook
Introducing Ancestry.com Learning Centers  

NARA announces 100% increase for microfilms




Online Military Indexes & Records

http://www.militaryindexes.com/
Sent by Janete Vargas magnaguagno@gmail.com 

A Genealogy Guide: This website is a directory of links to online military indexes and records for USA genealogy research. Included are rosters, databases of soldiers, and listings of military and war casualties. Also included are some links to sources for military records in other countries (for World War I & II). 

Select a Topic... 
Revolutionary War
War of 1812
Mexican War Civil War Records
Spanish American War
World War One (World War I) World War Two (World War II)
Korean War (Korean Conflict)
Vietnam War 






WW II Memorial Site
.... 
From:  Janete Vargas magnaguagno@gmail.com

Megan's article "Memorial Day Is Everyday" brought to mind a website operated by a young man named Frank Everads in the Netherlands to honor WWII veterans. I came in contact with Frank through a WWII chat room that my cousin runs on AOL, WWII Vets and Friends. Frank was looking for the stories of WWII veterans to include on his website to honor them and to keep their memory alive. I sent in my dad's story as well as some of my cousins that served during WWII to be included on the site, and most of the veterans that participate in the chat room have sent in theirs as well. 

I would encourage any veteran, or veteran's family member that has their story, to send them to Frank to include on his site in honor of a fast disappearing generation of brave men. 
Frank C. Everards' website is at www.normandy1944.info.




Check out Catholic Culture : Home Page (formerly PetersNet.Net) 

From: Bill Carmena JCarm1724@aol.com

Catholic Culture : Home Page (formerly PetersNet.Net) Thought this might interest you. 
http://www.catholicculture.org/

Catholiclinks.org - It is no secret that church records are some of the most valuable genealogical resources. If you have Catholic ken, this site will point you to the church libraries and archives worldwide. http://www.catholiclinks.org/archivescatholicklinks.htm

 

Recommended Websites: 

Rootsweb.com: Source for Vital Records 
Sent by Johanna De Soto 
http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/tx/reeves/vitals/births/reeveb
http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/tx/reeves/vitals/births/reeveb17.txt?re=location
 
Website for finding information about your family www.surnamenavigator.org 
Sent by Bill Carmena  JCarm1724@aol.com


HOW TO: THEY BECAME AMERICANS: Finding Naturalization Records and Ethnic Origins  by Loretto Dennis Szucs

From the seventeenth century to the present, millions upon millions of people immigrated to the United States. The resultant naturalization process created a significant number of historical records about individuals and groups. Unfortunately, these records are anything but uniform in nature! An immigrant's desire to become a citizen of the United States might have been recorded on a formal document requiring detailed biographical information. Or it may have been handwritten on a piece of paper with nothing more than the immigrant's name and the date of the event! Immigrants made major contributions to the development of the United States, but many were never formally naturalized! Yet even in cases where naturalization documents are not available, there are plenty of fascinating alternatives that will help to determine an immigrant's Old World origins! Let author Loretto Szucs guide you to these varied and unusual sources in They Became Americans!

Newsletter4@ancestorstuff.com: Retail Price $19.95  SALE PRICE $11.99 Save $7.96 (40%) 

Heritage Newsletter
July/August 2005
P.23-24

More Projects in Fifteen Minutes or Less
by Juliana Smith
Well, it's here. School is out and it's officially summer here in the Midwest, complete with temps in the 90s. So what does that mean for the family historian? Well for me, it means I have to go into hyper-efficiency mode if I want to sneak in any "genealogy time."
So for those of you out there whose time may also be limited this summer (or winter for all of you "down under"), here we are with another 15 family history projects you can accomplish in 15 minutes or less:

*1 Create a Master List of Surnames and Variations
When we're searching databases for those hard to find ancestors, we often find ourselves rotating in any number of variations for that surname, and it's easy to lose track. Keep the list handy by your computer and then just go down the list to get a more complete search than just entering names at random. It serves as a reminder so you don't miss anything and also makes it easier to log what names and variations you've searched for.

*2 Check Mailing List Archives
Ancestry.com sister site, RootsWeb.com (www.rootsweb.com) currently hosts over 29,000
mailing lists and the archives for those lists are searchable online. To prevent missing anything that might be pertinent to our family history, I periodically go in and search the archives for items of interest. The easiest way I've found to search the archive is to go to the mailing list main page http://lists.rootsweb.com and select the list of your choice. Below the subscription information and links are links to either search or browse the archive.

#3 Search a Message Board
Similar to the tip above, the Ancestry.com and RootsWeb.com message boards can be searched (www.ancestry.com/share/) and here you can search all the boards simultaneously.

#4 Build up Some Genealogical Karma
We've all accumulated records that may be helpful to other researchers who are working on the same or similar family lines. Why not throw out a couple of posts on the message boards and mailing lists with some of these records. You may make some other researchers) very happy, and as a reward, you may find that they have collected the records of your ancestor that you've been seeking.

#5 Create a Reading Stash
Summer activities sometimes afford time for reading-
#at the beach, in the car on road trips (preferably not while driving though), lounging in the yard or on the porch (or on hot days curled up in front of the air conditioner), etc. Assemble a tote bag with reading materials so that when the opportunity presents itself, you just have to grab your bag and go.

#6 Search a Data base—Again Try re-searching databases where you have previously been unable to locate an ancestor. Ancestry.com is continually updating databases and correcting bugs that are found in databases. In addition, if you've found new information on that ancestor since your last search, you may be able to better refine your search, identify your ancestor or do a more localized search or browse and get better results.

#7 Create a Visual Impression
Seek out historical photos, postcards, and maps from the places and time in which your ancestors lived. The visual impression you get will enhance your family history and may even provide you with unexpected clues.

#8 Update Your MyAncestry Profile Ancestry.com allows users to create a MyAncestry profile that lists the people you are researching. (Go to www.ancestry.com/myancestry/ or click the My Ancestry tab to get there from any Ancestry.com page.) As databases are added, Ancestry.com automatically searches the databases for you and notifies you via email if it finds a possible match. It is also important to watch the new databases, as those tricky ancestors with misspelled names may require some addition searching. A list of all the recently added/updated databases is available at www.ancestry.com/search/rectype/recent.aspx.

#9 Put on Your Detective Hat
Grab a magnifying glass and look closely at the background in an old photograph, searching for clues. Check out family heirlooms as well. Worn engravings and manufacturers' names may lead to locations and dates for your ancestors.

#10 Learn About Research in a New Location
Have you been holding off at researching a family's origins because you're not familiar with the resources for that country? Grab a book on the subject or check out how-to websites for more information. FamilySearch-org has research guides for many geographic locations available online. (Click the "Search" tab and then "Research Helps.") You don't have to learn it all in one day; start with a chapter or article on the subject and expand upon it 15 minutes at a time.

#11 The Lost Art of Letter Writing
When's the last time you received a letter? Not those pre-fab ones that come in Christmas cards, but a real, live letter. Wasn't it a great feeling? Why not make someone's day and send her a letter. Let a family member know what's going on in your life, and possibly slip in a few family history questions. (You know you will!) Then, don't just mail it off, make a copy first and keep it for yourself with your family history. It's a snapshot of your life and will be treasured by future family historians.

#12 Plan Your Dream Research Trip
Even if you can't take a long trip, or any trip for that matter, right now, start planning it. Pick a repository or some ancestrally related location and start making plans. What will you research? Set research goals, explore card catalogs, and prepare your research-Check prices for rooms and transportation—just for kicks. You may find that your preparations make your dream research trip a real possibility. And even if you have to put it on hold for a year or two, setting goals and reviewing your files may help you to make some breakthroughs in your research.

#13 Back up Your Data
When was the last time you backed up your family history files? If it's been a while, take a few minutes to do it now. If something happens to your computer files down the road, it may well be the best-spent 15 <-^minutes of your genealogical life.

#14 Plot Your Ancestors on a Map
Get a historical map of the area in which your ancestors) lived. Make a copy and using the records you have found, plot their various moves on the map. Seeing where they were at various points in time, may provide clues as to where to look for other records and other family members.

#15 Take 15 Minutes to Pat Yourself on the Back
You are preserving a piece of history. The present and future generations of your family will be able to better connect with their roots thanks to your hard work. Maybe some of these projects will take over 15 minutes, but they can be broken down into more manageable pieces, and you will be making significant progress with little effort.
Copyright 2005, MyFamily.com..


Family Tree Sourcebook 
From 10 tips to get you started to hundreds of resources right at your fingertips, the Family Tree Sourcebook is your ultimate reference for finding your family's history. Inside, you'll discover page after page of exclusive resources to help you: 

* Cut through the confusion of census records 
* Discover vital records--online and off 
* Tap land records, court records, military records and more 
* Uncover volumes about your ancestors with genealogical publications 
* Locate essential family history organizations in your area 
* And much, much more! 

Plus, you'll even get a clip-and-save records checklist! 
Don't wait--visit http://www.familytreemagazine.com/specialoffers.asp?DMsource071905
to order your copy today for just $8 (includes shipping and handling). With help from the Family Tree Sourcebook, you'll be on your way to faster, more successful searches in no time! 
familytree-newsletter@fwpubs.com" familytree-newsletter@fwpubs.com (Family Tree Magazine) 




Introducing Learning Centers  by Anastasia Sutherland Tyler
Source: www.Ancestry.com

Learning Centers are free areas on Ancestry.com where you can learn about various family history topics. Each of the ten learning centers focuses on a family history concept or an Ancestry.com record collection: Court, Land, and Probate records Reference and Finding Aids These topic-focused areas allow you to easily find basic information for each topic, search tips for using Ancestry.com and for finding records in other places, success stories from researchers, pointers on where to look for more information, interesting facts about the topic, and answers to frequently asked questions. You can read articles detailing the use and value of a collection, view sample images, see records for famous people, and get ideas for next steps in exploring Ancestry.com.

For example, the Military Learning Center includes an overview of military records, a list of types of military records in the collection (with specific emphasis on World War I draft cards and Civil War Pension files), a short biography of General George Armstrong Custer (famous for his Last Stand) with links to his military and other records on Ancestry.com, and blank World War I draft card forms to aid my search for those great-grandfathers.

Locating the Learning Centers
Learning Centers are easy to find by clicking on the "Learning Center" tab from the Ancestry.com home page http://www.ancestry.com/learn.On the right-hand side of the main Learning Center page is the heading "Learn More About."  This list gives the names of and links to all the Learning Centers, clicking on one of these links will take you to the welcome page for each center.
From a specific Learning Center, you can access other centers by looking for the "More Learning Centers" text toward the top of the screen and selecting from the drop-down box to the right of the text, or through the search pages for main collections on Ancestry.com.

Learning Centers and Your Family History
Ancestry.com created these content areas so everyone could learn how to better search the website and how to research a specific topic in other locations. Learning Centers provide places where people can find out why they should search specific record types, who might be found in the records, and why the records are important sources of family history information. Rather than providing just a search box and a list of possible matches, as was usually the case on Ancestry.com previously, we wanted people to know the purpose of records and how those records relate to your personal history.

The main idea behind these learning centers is simplicity: The Library on Ancestry.com is filled with great articles on family history by our favorite Ancestry Daily News and Ancestry Magazine authors, but finding all the articles on a specific topic can sometimes take a while. The military learning center includes links to articles focusing on major wars and conflicts that involved the United States. By bringing together the best content for a specific subject, Learning Centers can help you get the most out of your research time on Ancestry.com.

Learning Centers provide information for family historians at all skill levels. Most of the centers cover basic family history topics, thus their content is fairly basic. Some centers, the Court, Land, Probate and the Reference; Finding Aids centers, for example, cover advanced topics and thus include more advanced content than other centers. The more advanced centers include tools to make the information accessible to all skill levels, for example a glossary of legal terms is provided in the Court, Land, and Probate Center for those of us without Juris Doctorates.

The Future of Learning Centers
The current Learning Centers will be expanded as new content is added to Ancestry.com and new articles about the topics are written. Additional Learning Centers will be created as new databases and collections are added to Ancestry.com. Other centers will be centered on specific holidays and hobbies related to family history. The Military Learning Center helped me get to know the types of records that exist for the various conflicts in which my ancestors were involved. I have a good idea which records to search for my third great-grandfather's Civil War service and even found articles from the Library that will help me find more information about the both World Wars and the Korean War.

Anastasia Sutherland Tyler is an associate editor for MyFamily.com, Inc. Her heritage includes German, English, French, Irish, and Scottish ancestry, a fact that may explain why decision-making is always such an internal conflict for her. She can be contacted at mailto: adntech@myfamilyinc.com , but regrets that she is unable to assist with personal research.


LDS MICROFILM VAULTS ON WWW /FYI 

"LDS to put microfilm in vaults on Internet"
http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,605153189,00.html
should be compared with previous information, way back in 2002:
http://www.steamboatlibrary.org/SelbyPortfolio/theorygenealogy.html

"online databases are slowly making the preservation and dissemination of original data obsolete."

"When asked what would be one of the dissemination activities the Church would like to see happen in the future, Brent Thompson replied, 'To have every name that is currently in an index record be linked back to the original record to be viewed online.' . . . "

"Brent Thompson also mentioned that he would like to see 'the work of individuals be instantly linked to one another so that the data one person is collecting is shared with others working on the same branch of a family tree.' . . . "

Respectfully yours, Tom Tinney, Sr.  
http://www.academic-genealogy.com/
Visit NORCAL Genealogy Index: http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~yvonne/NORCAL%20index/


NARA announces 100% increase for microfilms
From $34 to $65 per roll ( from $39 to $68 foreign)  Color microfilm = from $51 to $82 ($85 foreign) [M1930 - color 1930 census ED maps]  No increase for microfiche prices. http://www.archives.gov/research/order/microfilm-pubs.html

Benicio Samuel Sanchez Garcia, Presidente La Sociedad Genealogica del Norte de Mexico
Rancho San Javier 109, Nueva Aurora
Guadalupe, Nuevo Leon, 67190 Mexico 
samuelsanchez@genealogia.org.mx
tel: fax: (81) 1340-0000 (81) 1340-0000 ext. 117 
eventos@genealogia.org.mx




ARCHAEOLOGY

Mexican team to refurbish Egyptian tomb site Chris Kraul
Mexico Latin America . . Remains point to rare child sacrifice

 

Mexican team to refurbish Egyptian tomb site Chris Kraul
Los Angeles Times, Aug. 19, 2005 
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/centralphoenix/articles/0819ext-mextombs0819Z4.html
Sent by John Inclan   fromGalveston@yahoo.com

MEXICO CITY - Mexico and Egypt share a rare historical distinction: a superabundance of monumental pyramids and other relics of ancient civilizations. But although foreign experts have helped lead the exploration of Egypt's rich archaeology for more than a century, specialists from Mexico have never been invited. Until now.

For the first time, a Mexican archaeological team has been selected by Egypt's top antiquities authorities to work in Egypt's Upper Nile Valley.

The group was chosen to refurbish the so-called "Puimre Tomb," or TT39, one of the country's most important unrestored burial chambers. advertisement 
OAS_AD('BoxAd') 


In March, the team, selected by the Egyptian government's Supreme Council of Antiquities and composed mainly of Universidad del Valle de Mexico scientists, will begin a five-year renovation project with the goal of making the site suitable for public visits (it has been closed since the 1920s). They will apply techniques that Mexico's archaeologists have developed trying to preserve its 5,000 pre-Columbian sites, as well as the myriad Spanish colonial churches, convents and palaces.

The benefit for Egypt is clear: The Mexican team will restore a tomb in the so-called Theban necropolis that is in danger of collapsing and being lost forever. The restoration of the extensive tomb could shed light on the reign of one of Egypt's few female pharaohs, Queen Hatshepsut. It was built for one of her top priests around 1450 B.C.

For Mexican archaeology, the effect will be the intangible one of adding to its prestige on the global stage, said team leader Gabriela Arrache Vertiz, an Egyptology professor.

"This project will show the relevance of Mexico's academic excellence, that it can be applied not only in our own country but beyond our borders," Arrache Vertiz said of her team, which visited the Luxor site in May.

The invitation resulted from a professional friendship developed over the past decade between Arrache Vertiz and Zahi Hawass, now the director of the Egyptian government's antiquities council. Arrache Vertiz and her team discussed with Hawass the possibility of working in Egypt. Earlier this year, the council decided to ask the team to work on restoring the Puimre Tomb site.

Mexican archaeologists believe that they can bring unique expertise to the restoration project.

"The tomb has problems similar to those of our pyramids and churches in that it was made with limestone," said Manuel Villarruel Vazquez, an architect whose specialty is structural restoration. "That rock is strong like glass, but can break as easily, and several ceilings are cracked." 

Villarruel currently is restoring a Toltec pyramid that dates from 600 in Queretaro, about 100 miles north of Mexico City.


Mexico Latin America . . Remains point to rare child sacrifice
News 32 Orange County Register, Saturday July 23, 2005

Mexico City: Archeologist digging trough an Aztec temple say they've found a rare child sacrifice to the war god, a. deity normally honored with the. hearts or skulls of adult warriors. The child found at Mexico City's Templo Mayor ruins was apparently killed some time around 1450. 

In a sort of grim cornerstone ceremony intended to dedicate a new layer of building, according to archaeologist Ximena Chavez. Priests propped the child apparently already dead, since the sand around him showed -no sign of movement - in a sitting position and workers packed earth around his body, which was then covered beneath a flight of stone temple steps.

Chavez said Friday that there was no reference to child sacrifices to the war god Huiteilopochtii in accounts written by the Spaniards the 1521 Conquest, showing the heed for exhaustive digs to discover more about the long-controversial subject.

"We are finding things here that writers of the earliest accounts did not mention, possibly because they were writing about things they didn't personally witness," said Chavez, of the National Institute of History and Anthropology. . "This child is unique," said Chavez, "because it is the first child dedicated to Huitzilopochtli." Warriors captured during battles with opposing cities were often, sacrificed to the war god. Children have sometimes been found sacrificed to Tialoc, the rain god.
The discovery announced Friday was also unusual because the child's body was found whole; and accompanied by whistles, collars, ankle bracelets of shells and copper bells - details normally reserved for honorific burials. 

Many sacrifice victims had body parts removed or were dumped willy-nilly into pits. Researchers are still, working to determine with certainty the sex, age and cause of death of the child whose remains were found.  Chavez said the child's killing had to be understood in the context of Aztec beliefs. 



MISCELLANEOUS

Texas Man Aims to Visit Every Starbucks
How to stay young
Burma Shave

 

Texas Man Aims to Visit Every Starbucks

For those of us criticized for our involvement in family history . . . read on. . . 

Excerpt: Texas Man Aims to Visit Every Starbucks
By CHUCK BROWN, Associated Press Writer, Aug 8, 2005
Sent by Paul Newfield skip@thebrasscannon.com

OMAHA, Nebraska - Documenting a caffeine-powered quest to visit every Starbucks in the world has become the mission of a Nebraska attorney. 

Bill Tangeman, 32, of Kearney, who was a journalist before going into law, is making a documentary film about a Houston native who goes by the name Winter, who set out in 1997 to get a caffeinated drink at every corporate-owned Starbucks store on the planet.

On his Web site http://www.starbuckseverywhere.net Winter, who was born Rafael Antonio Lozano, said that as of Aug. 8, he had visited 4,775 Starbucks in North America and 213 in other parts of world. Outside of North America, Winter has gone to Starbucks in Spain, England, France and Japan. There are 5,715 corporate-owned Starbucks in the world, according to the Seattle-based company's August newsletter on it Web site.

Winter said his trek has been satisfactory on many levels, not the least of which is that it has allowed him to be on a nearly constant road trip for eight years.

But having the incessant goal of reaching the next Starbucks provided another benefit.

"Every time I reach a Starbucks I feel like I've accomplished something," Winter said, "when actually I have accomplished nothing."


How to stay young Source: Unknown

1. Keep only cheerful friends.

The grouches pull you down.

2. Keep learning. Learn more about the computer, crafts, crossword puzzles, gardening, selling on eBay, or something else that intrigues you. Never let your brain idle.

3. Enjoy the simple things.

4. Laugh often, long, and loud. Laugh until you gasp for breath.

5. Tears happen. Endure, grieve, and move on. The only person who is with you your entire life is yourself. Be ALIVE while you are alive.

6. Surround yourself with what you love, whether it's family, pets, keepsakes, music, plants, hobbies — whatever has become your passion. Your home is your refuge.

7. Cherish your health: If it is good, preserve it. If it is unstable, work to improve it. It if is beyond what you can improve, get help.

8. Don't take guilt trips. Take a trip to the mall, to the next county, to a foreign country, but NOT to where the guilt is.

9. Tell the people you love that you love them — at every opportunity.

10. Don't sweat the little things.

11. And remember, there's no way you can feel as bad as that person on your driver's license looks!



hiridr@sbcglobal.net writes:

Burma Shave


TRAINS DON'T WANDER
ALL OVER THE MAP
'CAUSE NOBODY SITS
IN THE ENGINEER'S LAP
Burma Shave

SHE KISSED THE HAIRBRUSH
BY MISTAKE
SHE THOUGHT IT WAS
HER HUSBAND JAKE
Burma Shave

DON'T LOSE YOUR HEAD
TO GAIN A MINUTE
YOU NEED YOUR HEAD
YOUR BRAINS ARE IN IT
Burma Shave

DROVE TOO LONG
DRIVER SNOOZING
WHAT HAPPENED
NEXT IS NOT AMUSING
Burma Shave

BROTHER SPEEDER
LET'S REHEARSE
ALL TOGETHER
GOOD MORNING, NURSE
Burma Shave

CAUTIOUS RIDER
TO HER RECKLESS DEAR
LET'S HAVE LESS BULL
AND MORE STEER
Burma Shave

SPEED WAS HIGH
WEATHER WAS NOT
TIRES WERE THIN
X MARKS THE SPOT
Burma Shave




THE MIDNIGHT RIDE
OF PAUL FOR BEER
LED TO A WARMER
HEMISPHERE
Burma Shave

AROUND THE CURVE
LICKETY-SPLIT
BEAUTIFUL CAR
WASN'T IT?
Burma Shave

NO MATTER THE PRICE
NO MATTER HOW NEW
THE BEST SAFETY DEVICE
IN THE CAR IS YOU
Burma Shave

A GUY WHO DRIVES
A CAR WIDE OPEN
IS NOT THINKIN'
HE'S JUST HOPIN'
Burma Shave

AT INTERSECTIONS
LOOK EACH WAY
A HARP SOUNDS NICE
BUT IT'S HARD TO PLAY
Burma Shave

BOTH HANDS ON THE WHEEL
EYES ON THE ROAD
THAT'S THE SKILLFUL
DRIVER'S CODE
Burma Shave

THE ONE WHO DRIVES
WHEN HE'S BEEN DRINKING
DEPENDS ON YOU
TO DO HIS THINKING
Burma Shave

CAR IN DITCH
DRIVER IN TREE
THE MOON WAS FULL
AND SO WAS HE.
Burma Shave

And my all time favorite:
PASSING SCHOOL ZONE
TAKE IT SLOW
LET OUR LITTLE
SHAVERS GROW
Burma Shave

Do these bring back any old memories? If not, you're merely a child. If they do - then you're old as dirt.

END

                12/30/2009 04:49 PM