Somos Primos

November 2007 
Editor: Mimi Lozano ©2000-7

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

Dr. Hector P. Garcia
 "Father of the Hispanic Civil Rights Movement"
Corpus Christi, Texas 
Click to article by daughter, Wanda Garcia

 

  Letters to the Editor : 

I have enjoyed reading Somos Primos and am so appreciative of your efforts to document and promote Mexican and Hispanic heritage in the U.S.  
Ellen J. Pedraza, MLIS
pedrazae@gtc.edu

Among Raza, we are blessed with your Somos Primos, established for our general betterment and social advancement.
Gilbert "Magu" Lujan 
 magu4u@hotmail.com

Many thanks Mimi! You are the guardian of our history!  Silvia Ischar 
Editor: print magazine Paratodos

Keep up the great work!
Manuel.Quinones@AMEDD.ARMY.MIL 

Muchas Gracias for a wonderful on-line magazine.  Regards,  e arkin

Mimi,
You are doing a great job editing this important Hispanic site. I am duly impressed each and every time I access it.  I have attached for you an article on the Lozano family in this part of the world. Without question they are accomplished and a great asset to the community.
 
Regards, Norman Rozeff 
Click to article.

Remember, 
History belongs to those who write it.

Dr. Henry J. Casso
projectuplift02@msn.com

UNITED STATES

When I would visit my father at his office, I would never know whom I would meet or what to expect. Most of the political action took place in Papa’s private office. Papa made his deals and planned strategy in this room. Papa’s private office was a reflection of his complex personality. One wall of his private office was painted bright green. Along the green wall, he had filing cabinets and a collection of caps. The other walls in his private office were paneled with teak. The green room had a bed along one wall, many chairs and barrister bookcases filled with books lined several walls. The manual typewriter he used was on a typing stand. A bust of John F. Kennedy kept silent vigil over the happenings in the green room from a credenza behind his desk. A radio that was always tuned to KUNO shared the credenza with the bust of JFK. The strains of the Mexican music along with the cries of the children would reverberate throughout the building.

A gallery of family and political portraits lined every wall. Knick-knacks, plaques, research, letters covered each surface. Papa had small tables filled with stacks of papers and newspaper articles in what I refer to as ordered disarray. The truth was there was no free space on any surface in his private office. I never could figure out how Papa knew where everything was. To the average mind, the sight of all the piles of papers was overwhelming. Dr. Hector would deliver a stern warning to anyone who attempted to touch anything.

His long time assistants Emma Hernandez, Mary Escobar, Rosa Ena Gutierrez and Maria Ramirez would tell me about their frustrations when trying to bring order or some innovation to Papa’s office. On several occasions, Maria Ramirez bravely attempted to dust the green room. But Papa would not allow it. My father was the undisputed king in his office. An article in the Corpus Christi Caller Times described how his assistants would scurry along when my father called upon them to perform some task. Usually bring him water for his medications or fix him a cup of hot tea.1

On many occasions I would have to share the green room with some politician seeking Papa’s blessing, while we waited for my father to finish treating his patients. I would find politicos such as Jim Mattox, Mark White, Richard Borchard, and Solomon Ortiz waiting for Dr. Hector. Not all at the same time though. No one waiting for my father could be bored because there was plenty to look at in the green room. A long time friend Grady Curtis Clark described how on many occasions he would meet with Papa about some community or political issue. Grady said that any politician running for office would come to my father for his blessing. On other occasions his domino-playing friends such as Jose Ronje, Oscar Del Rio, Gilbert Casares, Willie Davila, Mel Ynostrosa always hung around his office as well. Sometimes I would walk into the middle of an American G.I. Forum meeting.

On one occasion in the 1970’s I had just arrived from Austin. When I walked in the office door, my father greeted me; "I would like to introduce you to Governor Clinton." Governor Clinton bounded forward to greet me. Bill Clinton was Jimmy Carter’s advance man. He worked out of my father’s office while in Corpus Christi, Texas. This is how President Clinton and my father came to be good friends.

After Papa would treat his patients, the three of us would go to a late lunch at a Mexican food restaurant called Mi Tierra. Governor Clinton would consume about five baskets of chips. This would really frustrate the waiter who would stare at the empty basket of chips in disbelief. In addition, he ordered two entries. Clinton managed to scarf down both entries and would lick the plate clean. Clinton kept remarking, "I love Mexican food." I was very impressed by Bill Clinton and enjoyed our conversations. The man was brilliant and had total recall. He could pick up a conversation as if no time had elapsed between our visits. When I told him I worked for U.S. Senator Lloyd Bentsen, he stated he knew him well and praised the Senator. Later when Clinton was president, he appointed Bentsen to be his Secretary of the Treasury.

I asked the Governor what his plans were. Clinton replied he planned to run for President. I met him many times during the course of the Carter campaigns.

Papa had high energy and he generated a constant flurry of activity in his workplace. Papa would sit at his desk and was on the phone either with the governor’s office or with Washington about an important piece of legislation. For over 50 years, Dr. Hector effected change all around him while juggling two careers during an 18-hour workday.

Papa was not one easily lost in a crowd. His tremendous energy attracted attention no matter where he was. When Papa would walk into a room, all eyes would turn on him. He was a natural born leader and was very comfortable to be in a leadership position.

He exuded charisma or star quality. This star quality helped attract to his circle the people he needed to get his mission accomplished. During an interview with the Corpus Christi Caller Times, the Interviewer commented to my father that he was very powerful. Papa modestly replied "I am not powerful. I have powerful friends." Journalist wrote about my father that he walked in the halls of power and was a confident to presidents and other power figures.

Many public figures considered my father their friend. Among them were Lyndon B Johnson, Lloyd Bentsen, Bill Clinton, Oscar Wyatt Jr., and many, many others. Papa attracted the cream of the crop of Mexican Americans. Individuals like Ed Idar, Bob Sanchez, Gustavo Garcia, Dr. George I. Sanchez, Vicente Jimenez Jr. and James DeAnda. These men became part of his core group. These individuals inspired by Dr. Hector became leaders in the Hispanic Civil Rights movement. He also had many friends from average walks of life. These were the men who played dominos with Papa every Saturday night. From the group of domino players he chose those who would travel with him through the nation.

Papa kept his family and friends and the American G.I. Forum players compartmentalized. He kept each compartment separate and they seldom overlapped. During their lifetime, they (his friends) would come to love him, respect him, tolerate him, fight with him and even became his adversary. However, in the end most all of them would remain his friends.2

The friendship of these men came above and beyond what normal social etiquette demanded. When my brother died in Mexico, both Lyndon Johnson and Oscar Wyatt sent their jets. Vice-President Johnson provided help along diplomatic channels to expedite the release of my brother’s body. During a political rally, Senator Lloyd Bentsen received a death threat. His beautiful wife, B.A. was at his side. The Senator entrusted his wife to my father for safekeeping. This was the highest compliment Bentsen would pay to any one. My father told me about this touching emotional episode later. He felt honored by the Senator. At Dr. Hector’s funeral, Oscar Wyatt told me that Dr. Hector was the most unselfish person he knew.

Bill Clinton called Papa several times while he was in the hospital to wish him a speedy recovery. The nurses were so excited when the call came in from the White House. Later, when President Clinton learned my father had died; he was one of the first to call to express condolences. Although Clinton could not attend the funeral in person, he sent Gil Coronado as his representative and Clinton eulogized my father. Clinton said about my father, (Hillary and the President) "We had both known him for more than 20 years and he was to us a real American hero…He was a clear voice for Hispanic civil rights, I just wanted to say to all of you we should honor him best by committing ourselves to continue the work of his life. He was a remarkable man."3

In March of 1996 my mother closed my father’s office. It was a very sad milestone for me because I had to face the reality that Papa’s health was declining to a point where he would never return to his office. He died four months later. If the walls of the green room could talk what tales they would tell. They would reveal tales about my father’s compassion and help to others, of his love for his country and his fellow man. Tales of how he raised his people up while attaining the American dream. And I leave this with you!

1 Guadalupe Rangel A giant calls this his home, Corpus Christi Caller, 11/9/1985.
2 Ignacio Garcia, In Relentless pursuit of Justice.
3 Libby Averyt, "Clinton Honors Garcia in Call to Supporters", Corpus Christi Callers Times, 7/28/1996.

Houston, TX (PRWeb) June 1, 2006 -- Dr. Hector P. Garcia, who was America’s first civil rights leader and founder of the American GI Forum, the largest Hispanic Veteran’s Organization in the nation, is the principal in a new documentary.

The documentary, shown recently to AGIF members in Fort Worth, Texas received a standing ovation and was heralded as “a documentary every Hispanic should see.” This DVD or VHS can be obtained from the production company, Digital 2000, Inc., for only $19.95, plus S/H and tax if you are a Texas resident. 

Contact Information: Don Brown
DIGITAL 2000, INC.http://www.militarydocumentaries.com
281-313-0303

BY LISA FRIEDMAN Washington Bureau
Article Last Updated: 08/30/2007 09:08:45 PM PDT

lisa.friedman@langnews.com  (202) 662-8731 
http://www.dailynews.com/ci_6764965 - tophttp://www.dailynews.com/ci_6764965 - topReturn to Top

Sent by Johanna De Soto Casa San Miguel 

The Stars Align: The 100 Most Influential Hispanics


October 2007, HISPANIC BUSINESS Magazine 



Influential Eddie Perez is the mayor of Hartford, Connecticut.

The Hispanic Business 100 Most Influential Hispanics® list always presents a stellar assembly, but perhaps this year – with two astronauts, a NASA engineer, the writer behind the newest Star Trek theatrical film, and the NASA Vision Award-winning writer for two Star Trek TV series – it's more star-struck than usual.

But the list is by no means homogeneous, with designers such as Orlando Diaz-Azcuy, who appears on our cover, rubbing shoulders with C-level executives, while neurosurgeons mingle with behind-the-scenes dealmakers and law enforcement leaders.

The only obvious trait shared by all, beyond their determination and success, is their Hispanic heritage. But, even there, variety is the rule. We surveyed the Influentials and found that a bit under one-third of the respondents report Mexican heritage, another third Cuban, and another third Puerto Rican [keep in mind that responses can include more than a single ethnicity].




Some 34 of our Influentials are female – still not a 50-50 split, but up from the 24 we logged just five years ago. While the visibility and acknowledgment of women's accomplishments have increased, it's tough to say whether our increasing number better reflects a genuine increase in influence or our own enlightenment.

The importance of the Influentials is not just in what they do by themselves, but what their example does for others.

Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez, for instance, is the journalist-turned-professor who helped lead the fight to bring a much-needed Hispanic perspective to the documentary on World War II. She recalls the value of role models in helping young people pursue their own ambitions.

"I wanted to be a nurse when I was in high school, and the reason [why] was because the only Hispanic woman that I knew – who I was close to – who had a college degree was one of my cousins, and she had been a nurse," she says. "I think that speaks to how young people think of role models, or at least how I thought of role models: I saw somebody who looked like me and she was a nurse, so I thought, 'OK, I'll be a nurse.'" 

And while it was writing, not nursing, that burned in her heart, that initial impetus got her into the University of Texas, where she discovered her true calling.

Our list is drawn from several sources, most notably submissions made by our readers and visitors to HispanicBusiness.com, and from people with whom our editorial and research staff have interacted or observed in the past year. We look for people we think are having a great year now or who can expect a great year in 2008; people who are contributing to their communities or professions; people who are generally raising the bar in whatever they do.  You may download the 2007 Hispanic Business 100 Most Influential Hispanics.

'Thrifty Genes' Lead to Hispanic Diabetes Surge
Hispanic Business Magazine, Posted: Oct 23, 2007

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. -- An "epidemic" of diabetes is hitting Hispanics hard, according to experts, reports Hispanic Business Magazine. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) say nearly one in every two Latino babies born in the United States will develop diabetes later in life.

The disease can lead to complications such as kidney failure, blindness, and heart problems. Hispanic Americans are 1.5 times more likely to have diabetes than whites of a similar age, and Mexican Americans are more than twice as likely to have the condition.

So-called "thrifty genes," which allowed their ancestors to survive on less food by storing and slowly burning calories, now pack on pounds with today's deep-fried diets. CDC epidemiologist Nilka Rios Burrows recommends walking more, taking the stairs, and cutting back on sodas and fatty foods.

Sent Howard Shorr howardshorr@msn.com
and Lorraine Hernandez  Lmherdz@hotmail.com

Are We There Yet?  
Mexican Americans in the Age of Hispanics
By Felipe de Ortego y Gasca
Copyright  2005 by the author. 
All rights reserved.
Published by HispanicVista

Sent by Roberto R. Calderón, Ph.D.
Department of History, University of North Texas

ON WAR AND REMEMBRANCE: HISPANICS AND WORLD WAR II 
By Felipe de Ortego y Gasca 
ortegop@WNMU.EDU

Scholar in Residence, 
Western New Mexico University; 
Professor Emeritus of English, Texas State University System-Sul Ross.

Sent by Ricardo Valverde RValverde@ochca.com

Anti-Spanish Legends

The article by Gregory Rodriguez is ALMOST  correct historically
Shaping the Hispanic Debate
Silent Racism: Well-Meaning White People Perpetuate the Racial Divide

Originally published at matt.org 
http://latinola.com/story.php?story=4651

John Schmal JohnnyPJ@aol.com

Please check out the website at: http://wwwSilentRacism.com. If you would like further information, contact me at bt03@txstate.edu.  All the best,  Professor Barbara Trepagnier 
Department of Sociology, Texas State University,  San Marcos, TX 78666  512/245-8054

Source: Victor J. Schoenbach vjs@unc.edu
Sent by Bill Russell rgrbob@earthlink.net

The deadine for completing this survey is November 16, 2007. After that, the survey will be tallied and a report will be prepared. Also note that individuals will be able to submit only one survey on the computer they are using. You may not complete the survey, submit it and then try opening it again.

Let them hear from you!
Carol radred@ix.netcom.com
Sent by magu4@hotmail.com

I found another source of pride for our Hispanic veterans. It is an October 2002 issue of Hispanic Magazine. The feature article touted the premier of the THEN upcoming History Channel TV program entitled, "Hispanics and the Medal of Honor." It aired on October 6, 2002, at 7:00 p.m.

The History Channel (THC) formatted this 50 minute DVD program so that it can be presented to classrooms from grades 5-12. It is available for sale at only $24.95. For more details, go to: http://www.history.com/classroom/admin/study_guide/archives/thc_guide.2007.html

It tells the story of a group of Los Angeles veterans, who have erected a monument in LA dedicated to preserving the memory of Hispanic-American veterans, who distinguished themselves in their military service to the USA.

Of particular interest, they traveled across the country and personally interviewed 5 Hispanic World War II veterans who had earned the Medal of Honor, and/or their immediate family members. The honorees are: 
Rudy Hernandez
Al Rascon
Silvestre Herrera
Lucian Adams
Eugene Obregon

Their memories were remarkably fresh and inspiring. I hope that you can pass this information along to whoever may be able to see this video for themselves, and pass it along to others.

David Tijerina

The University of New Mexico Libraries is issuing a call for submissions to the Premio Aztlán Literary Prize, a national literary award, established to encourage and reward emerging Chicana and Chicano authors.

The competition is open to writers who have published a work of fiction in the 2007 calendar year and whose publications do not exceed two books.  The winner of the prize will be awarded $1,000, and an invitation to give a lecture at an award ceremony, to be held at the University of New Mexico in April 2008.  Recipients are required to be present at the award ceremony.

Renowned author, Rudolfo Anaya and his wife, Patricia, founded Premio Aztlán in 1993, and the prize was reestablished in their honor by the University of New Mexico Libraries.  Past award recipients include:

Reyna Grande (2006) Across a Hundred Mountains
Gene Guerin (2005) Cottonwood Saints
Mary Helen Lagasse (2004) The Fifth Sun
Sergio Troncoso (1999) The Last Tortilla and other Stories
Ronald Ruiz (1998) Giuseppe Rocco
Pat Mora (1997) House of Houses
Wendell Mayo (1996) Centaur of the North
Norma Cantu (1995) Canicula: Snapshots of a Girlhood en la Frontera
Denise Chavez (1994) Face of an Angel
Alicia Gaspar de Alba (1993) The Mystery of Survival and Other Stories
The closing date for entries is Saturday, December 31, 2007. 

Submissions must include: 
* 5 copies of the book
* Letter of interest, or if from the publisher, a letter of nomination
* Author*s curriculum vitae, resume or background information, which must include a list of their published works and any communal involvement with the Chicana/Chicano community.
* Be postmarked by December 31, 2007

Contact:  Teresa Marquez at: andaluz@unm.edu or see our web site at: 
http://elibrary.unm.edu/chipotle/premioaztlan

Submissions are to be mailed to the following address by December 31, 2007:
Premio Aztlán Literary Prize
University Libraries, Dean*s Office
MSC05 3020
1 University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, New Mexico 87131

Sent by Roberto Calderon, Ph.D. beto@unt.edu

If we did all the things we are capable of doing,
we would literally astound ourselves.
-- Thomas A. Edison

On November 15th, 2007 
City of Westminster and Westminster School District will
Celebrate the Orange County Landmark "Mendez Case"

In 1945, California, like many states, had segregated schools, movie theaters, even swimming pools. When the children of Gonzalo and Felicitas Mendez were not allowed to enroll at an all-white Westminster school, the family took up the cause of desegregation of  the Westminster School District. They were joined in this effort by the Palomino, Ramirez, Estrada, and Guzman families, seeking desegregation of  their school districts of Garden Grove, Santa Ana and El Modena.   

The suit claimed that their children, along with 5,000 other children of "Mexican and Latin descent," were victims of unconstitutional discrimination by being forced to attend separate Mexican schools.  

On February 18, 1946, the Federal District Court ruled that such practices violated the children's constitutional rights.  This was the first time that a federal court ruled that separate, but equal public schools wee unconstitutional. 

On April 1, 1947, the school district's appeal was denied. The trial court decision was upheld by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals . 

Mendez et al. set the historical precedent for the 1954 ruling by the Supreme Court when it issued its Brown v. Board of Education ruling, declaring segregation illegal nationwide.  California became the first state in the nation to desegregate  its schools and  win equality in education for Americans of every color.

The stamp was designed by Rafael Lopez, a California artist of  Mexican heritage. His beautiful image conveys that in the light of learning each individual holds their future.   

For information on attending the event, please call Mimi.  Reservation is required because space is limited.  714-894-8161

Harvard expands financial aid for low- and middle-income families
Guide to Scholarship for New Americans and Minorities

'There is no more important mission for Harvard and higher education than promoting equality of opportunity for all,' said Harvard President Lawrence H. Summers. (Staff file photo Justin Ide/Harvard News Office).

Reinforcing its commitment to opportunity and excellence across the economic spectrum, Harvard today (March 30) announced a significant expansion of its 2004 financial aid initiative for low- and middle-income families. Beginning with the class admitted this week, parents in families with incomes of less than $60,000 will no longer be expected to contribute to the cost of their children attending Harvard. In addition, Harvard will reduce the contributions of families with incomes between $60,000 and $80,000. 

The new income thresholds build on the program announced two years ago, which provided that families with incomes below $40,000 would not be expected to contribute to the cost of education, with a reduced contribution for families with incomes between $40,000 and $60,000. (See 2004 release) The number of students enrolled at Harvard from these income brackets increased by 24 percent for the class entering this past fall - the first full year of the program. 

"There is no more important mission for Harvard and higher education than promoting equality of opportunity for all," said President Lawrence H. Summers. "We are fortunate to have significant resources, and there is no better way to use them than to support families seeking to provide the best possible opportunities for their children. These increases in financial aid build on and extend our emphasis on recruiting students from low-income backgrounds, and send a clear signal to middle-class families who have all too often felt that Harvard and other leading universities are out of reach." 

Harvard is also revising its policy on outside awards won by incoming students, ranging from scholarships provided by local community groups to programs such as the National Merit and Gates Millennium Scholarships. Students will now be able to apply these awards to eliminate their summer savings obligations. Previously, outside awards could be used to offset the $3,650 self-help expectation toward the cost of attendance, but did not apply to the summer savings obligation of $2,150. 

Overall financial aid 
"We are very pleased to offer such exceptional financial support to our undergraduates," said William C. Kirby, dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, which oversees Harvard College. "Even before these enhancements, the financial aid budget for next year was projected at $90 million, a 6.2 percent increase over last year, and a 65 percent increase over the past six years. This new initiative will add an additional $2.4 million annually. Although many students and families might find this hard to believe, Harvard is actually more affordable for many students than public colleges or universities." 

Two-thirds of Harvard students receive financial aid, and the average grant award for next year is expected to be more than $33,000, or 70 percent of the total cost of attendance. In the past decade, Harvard has reduced the median four-year debt for graduating seniors from more than $16,000 to $6,400 - less than one-third of the national average of $20,000. 

Sent by beto@unt.edu 

"DCF recently coordinated the first ever Quinceañera Program for 14 Latinas in foster care," Governor Rell said. "Children in foster care face many challenges. For Latina girls, we can do much to strengthen their sense of who they are and where they are going by re-connecting them to their culture and heritage."

"It is our duty to offer important, culturally specific milestones to youth in our care. We understand that initiatives such as this assist our youth in developing a strong, rich sense of who they are and who they can become," Hamilton said.

The first annual Quinceañera was celebrated on August 18 with a ceremony at St. Joseph College in West Hartford, followed by a reception at the Connecticut Convention Center. The Quinceañera Program will continue to support these girls through educational workshops, college tours, cultural events, and mentoring.

Sent by Juan Ramos, Ph.D. jramos.swkr@comcast.net

Tomás and the Library Lady
Tomás and the Library Lady, a play with music adapted by José Cruz González from the book 
of the same name by Pat Mora, has been an enormous success in theaters and in schools. 
This timely story inspires children to look beyond the confines of poverty, language barriers, 
and cultural intolerance to find joy in reading. 

Tomás loves stories! Grandfather tells them every night during the long summers, when the 
family leaves Texas to pick crops in Iowa. But soon Tomás knows all the stories by heart, 
and that’s when Papa Grande tells him there is a place full of stories he’s never heard of 
before: the library. When Tomás meets the library lady, his life is changed forever. 
Presented in celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month, this is the inspiring true story of Tomás 
Rivera, who grew up in a migrant worker family, befriended a librarian in Iowa, and learned 
to love books and the places they took him. Tomás went on to a successful career in 
academia and became the Chancellor of the University of California at Riverside. Adapted 
from the well-loved book by prolific children’s author Pat Mora, this play can be readily 
understood by both English and Spanish speakers. 
Age Rating: This performance is appropriate for children 5 and up. 

For more information, contact Tomás and the Library Lady 
Produced by Childsplay, Tempe, AZ, Holden & Arts Associates, Austin, TX 

 

DAY OF THE DEAD / DIA DE LOS MUERTOS

A Partnership between the De Young Museum, Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts, SOMARTS and The San Francisco Arts Commission.

Please visit  Digital Offerings, a website produced in association with the exhibit Digital Offerings for the Altar of Life. This website and exhibit are based on the Mexican tradition of Day of the Dead. We are seeking to exhibit images by artists from all over the world that illustrate how the dead are celebrated and mourned in their country, culture, or family.

galleryasst@missionculturalcenter.org
The Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts
2868 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA 94110i

All mole lovers are invited to participate in the 4th Annual Day of the Deads' "MOLE TO DIE FOR" Contest. This spicy competition and mole tasting event will take place: Wednesday, November 7th   at 6:30pm, at MCCLA's Main Gallery, 2nd floor.

For more info and to participate from the contest "Mole to Die For" please visit missionculturalcenter.org or contact Patricia@missionculturalcenter.org - 415.643.2775   

CELEBRATING Hispanic Heritage Month 

Army Reserve 311th Sustainment Command 

SGM Alejandro Avila, Mimi and 
MSG Grace Bermudez

SFC Caesar Madrona
CW2 Antonia Garibay
SFC Oscar Mendez

 'Baldo  Strip Includes What 'The War' Series Mostly Omits
By Dave Astor, Editor and Publisher, Published: September 24, 2007

NEW YORK When Ken Burns' World War II documentary began airing yesterday, the "Baldo" comic strip was already six days into a story line inspired by content the public-television series was mostly lacking.

The "Baldo" sequence, which continues through this Thursday, is about an elderly barber named Benito Ramirez who looks back on his World War II experiences. "Baldo" co-cartoonists Hector Cantu and Carlos Castellanos created the character after learning this summer that Burns' massive "The War" documentary had little content about the huge number of Latino-Americans who fought between 1941 and 1945. (Burns reportedly added some footage about Latino veterans after the complaints.)

"We saw an opportunity to do a story that wasn't being told," said "Baldo" artist Carlos Castellanos during a phone interview from Florida.  "We have this little spot in the newspaper where we can talk about things that might not be talked about elsewhere," agreed Texas-based "Baldo" writer Hector Cantu, also reached by phone.

Indeed, "Baldo" -- a rare Latino-themed comic in syndication -- periodically focuses on topical issues such as immigration, voting rights, health care, lottery scams, and more. The Universal Press Syndicate humor strip also offers plenty of less-topical content as it focuses on the lives of the teenaged Baldo, his younger sister Gracie, his widowed father Sergio, his great-aunt Tia Carmen, and other characters.

"A lot of the strip is fun and family," said Castellanos. Cantu added that in "Baldo" -- as in real life -- most people aren't "constantly going through social controversy. But at times it comes up."

Benito, who lost a leg in the military, is sort of a composite character based on research conducted by Cantu. He found much of his information by studying material collected by Dr. Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez, a former Dallas Morning News reporter who's now an associate professor at the University of Texas-Austin School of Journalism. Rivas-Rodriguez began the U.S. Latino and Latina World War II Oral History Project in 1999.

Cantu, also a former Morning News staffer, not surprisingly confirmed in his research that Latino soldiers fighting for their country faced a lot of discrimination from fellow U.S. soldiers and officers. This was at a time when stores and restaurants in some parts of America had signs like "No dogs and no Mexicans," said Castellanos, who noted that two of Cantu's uncles (one living, one deceased) served during World War II.

A handful of "Baldo" readers didn't believe that Latino-Americans faced discrimination in the 1940s reminiscent of the kind faced by African-Americans. But the "Baldo" cartoonists said reader reaction to the partly upbeat story line (Benito is a resilient character) has been mostly positive -- with the volume of e-mail at least double what it usually is. Many e-mailers talked about the World War II experiences of their own relatives.

Cantu said of the current story line: "I'm by no means pretending that this series is the be-all and end-all of Latinos serving in World War II. It's a snapshot."   Will Benito return to "Baldo" after this story line is over? "We don't know," replied Castellanos. 

"Baldo," which runs in more than 200 newspapers, was introduced by Universal in 2000. The previous year, Cantu was working for Hispanic Business magazine in California and using Castellanos' illustrations in the publication. When Cantu came up with the idea for "Baldo," he asked Castellanos (who he'd yet to meet) if he wanted to draw it.

The two have since met a number of times, but mostly collaborate via e-mail. While Cantu is the writer and Castellanos the artist, they do have some input into each other's work on the comic.

Cantu said it's amazing how much the two have in common -- noting that both are 46, both have three children, both have "beautiful wives," both have similar cars, etc. "We're like a Match.com couple," joked Cantu, whose current day job is editorial director of the Heritage Auction Galleries in Dallas.

Castellanos continues to spend about half his working hours on a thriving illustration career -- freelancing for magazines, book publishers, ad agencies, and corporate clients.

Even as Burns' documentary airs, a "Baldo" animated TV series is being shopped around. Thirteen episodes have been completed, and two of them were shown to appreciative audiences at the San Diego Latino Film Festival this past March.

For more about "Baldo," see the comic's Web site .
Sent by Howard Shorr  howardshorr@msn.com

Editor:  Thanks to Lupe Fisher and Shirley Pitchforth for helping me to gather the complete Baldo series on the topic of World War II Latino involvement. The story is a true account of the loss of a leg by Ben Ramirez.   The information is from the records of the U.S. Latino & Latina World War II Oral History Project, University of Texas, Austin.  

Gilbert "Magu" Lujan
magu4u@hotmail.com
909-984-5238

Grandmother and Granddaughter, Kathleen Carrizal-Frye and Kirsten Rawson
Altars Honor the Past

My altar on the right is to honor a very dear friend. Jose Florencio Gonzalez was born in Marin, Nuevo Leon, Mexico in 1960. He moved to Houston as a child and later graduated from Austin High School. He initially lived in a part of Houston known as Magnolia, home to many families from Marin since before 1920. (My grandparents moved to Magnolia in 1926, and my mother and I were born there.  My maternal grandmother was born in Marin, N.L., Mexico)

Jose founded the Genealogical Society of Marin, N.L., Mexico, in 1999. He had friends, relatives, and fellow genealogists from all over the United States in attendance.

The event grew every year it was held. Many friendships were formed and distant cousins found. Jose worked very hard convincing Marin’s Mayor and commissioners of the importance of genealogy. He asked the locals for copies of photos of their ancestors. He displayed the photos, at the presidencia, sparking interest in those present to post photos of their own abuelos and abuelas.

During the conferencia, side trips to nearby towns and museums were made, along with visits of the town’s church, famous candy-maker, panaderia, and little stores located in homes.

Wheelchair-bound, from a form of MD, Jose spent most of his day in front of his computer working his stock market club, on e-bay selling imported thread and religious articles, and on his genealogical database.

Jose co-authored 4 books on the Baptisms in Marin, N.L., Mexico, and was working on making all the information accessible for free on the internet. He also had intentions of putting the marriages on the same free website.  The baptisms are still on the web at:
http://www.geocities.com/marinbaptizos/years.htm 

Jose research meant so much to fellow Nuevo Leones with roots in Marin, and surrounding towns.  Jose died this past May. I was unable to attend his funeral, held in Houston, 6 hours away from where I now live. I found comfort in knowing I would honor his memory with an altar.

Over the past few months I collected items for his altar and made plans for it’s design.  I reviewed my photos, taken over the years, of our events at the annual Feria/Genealogical Conference in Marin. The memories behind each photo made it difficult picking out just a few to grace the altar.

Since Jose’s passing, there have been so many times I’ve wanted to pick up the phone and call him for advice, or to let him know of another primo for our Lazo family tree.

The information on Jose’ database is just names and dates. Many of the life stories of these ancestors escaped with Jose into the next world.  I will never stop missing my friend, my fifth-cousin, my genie buddy.

Jose, que en paz descansen.

Kathleen Carrizal-Frye   kec1952@sbcglobal.net

Literature

LOS TREINTA Y TRES NEGROS
by 
Vicente Riva Palacio
Translation by Ted Vincent 

Statue of Yanga in park in his city of Yanga

Among the many today who are in families that claim direct descendant to Gaspar Yanga is Isabel Gomez Alvarez, seen here going over family tree with Ted Vincent.

Photos by Ted Vincent, except Isabel Gomez Alvarez and author,  by David  Ryan

Monage of 1999 annual Founder's day Festival to Yanga in his city.  Man holding sword is Yanga for this year's parade.

 Shot from ridge top in rugged Rio Blanco National Park above the small town of Los Reyes which recent study shows is the probable location of Yanga's mountain village.  

Cuentos

Teresa R. Funke is the granddaughter of a Mexican immigrant who grew up in Saltillo and Monterrey, Mexico. She came to America as a young woman and settled in San Antonio, where she married Teresa’s grandfather, who was also of Mexican descent. Though Teresa’s mother spent her first three years speaking nothing but Spanish, when the family moved to a remote part of Idaho, they decided to assimilate into the white culture. Therefore, Teresa’s mother was unable to pass on the language and culture of Mexico to her own children. But Teresa was always very proud to be half Mexican and she took it upon herself to learn more about the Mexican culture. An essay she wrote entitled Una Hija Americana details her struggles to find a way to fit into a culture she had only connections to, yet always admired. That essay was published in a literary magazine and later listed as a Notable Essay by the Best American Essays series.

When it came time for Teresa to write her short story collection, Dancing in Combat Boots, about women in WWII, it never occurred to her not to include an Hispanic woman. Her story Las Estrellas de Oro is based on interviews with her great aunt, Lydia Alonzo. And when it came time to write her children’s series also set in WWII, it never occurred to her not to include a book about the experiences of Mexican-American children during the war. She is also writing a children’s book based loosely on her grandmother’s experiences growing up during the Mexican Revolution. That is the story she has wanted to tell since she was fifteen-years-old and finally got her grandmother to open up a bit about her life in Mexico. Capturing and preserving stories of Mexican immigrants that show how they have contributed to the strength and development of America is important to Teresa.

Excerpt from Las Estrellas de Oro:

¡Ay! It’s hot in the store today. Reminds me of my last summer in Mexico, when I was five. And there she is in the corner, thinking I can’t see her. Thinking I can’t feel what she is doing. She doesn’t know about this instinct I’ve developed, but she also doesn’t know I understand. These ladies are not thieves, just mothers with too many children who haven’t learned to spread out their ration points. She sticks a two-pound bag of sugar into her bloomers, and I shake my head but say nothing. When she comes to the counter with her other goods, I simply charge her for the sugar. She looks as if the shame will kill her. I offer her son a candy. It is not rationed. I can hand it out as I please.

Mexico. My only real memories are of the heat and the way my older sisters held their heads high when they walked along the boardwalks, the way my brothers talked of the things they would do, the fine girls they would marry, as they stocked shelves in my father’s dry goods store. They belonged in a place like this, like San Antonio, far from the dust and poverty and violence of Saltillo, and they knew it even then. America is our home now, and we never complain. Our mother’s eyes no longer burn with worry.

A colored kid comes in. He calls me Boss Lady, and I laugh. I’m twenty-five-years old. By now, the only people I should be bossing are my own niños. But the war has changed things. I will not marry until it is over. Tomás understands that. He’s stationed at Camp Hood, and he knows I love him, but he won’t ask me to walk away from the store. He accepts I will not be one of those soldiers’ wives following her husband from base to base, dumped in some old, ugly place with bad plumbing and windows that won’t close. And I’m sure not going to be one of those heartbroken ladies with a kid or two and a husband off at war. My brother Alejandro is in Detroit working for the defense industry. He tells me I should join him. He tells me about the money I could make, but my place is here. Besides, how could I leave my mamá?

Teresa R. Funke

Author, Presenter, Writer's Coach

www.teresafunke.com

George.Aguirre@SAUSD.US

This is the eighth part of the Hispanic Medal of Honor series which consists of the short biographies of Vietnam War recipients Miguel Keith*, Carlos James Lozada*, Alfred V. Rascon and Louis R. Rocco.

Here we have the stories of four Hispanic-American heroes. One was a member of the United States Marine Corps and the other three were parachutists in the U. S. Army. Of the three parachutists two were medics.

Both Keith and Lozada, were proud members of their respective units and served with pride and honor. They both were wounded in combat, but despite the pain which they suffered from there wounds, they courageously gave their lives for their comrades in similar situations. Both men protected their platoons by attacking the advancing enemy with machine gun fire. While Lozada set up a position and commenced firing, Keith carried his M60 machine gun, which is one heavy gun, and fired upon the enemy. Now, you know the pain that we feel when we have a small wood splinter stuck in our fingers, so you can only imagine what these men must have felt carrying a heavy machine gun with bullet wounds tearing their bodies apart.

Rascon and Rocco on the other hand were medics. A medic would usually go into the battle field unarmed because it was his task to save lives, not take them. Both, these men went into the middle of an intense firefight and saved many of their fellow comrades. They were both wounded, but the lives of their comrades came before their own and they just kept on going saving lives. Rocco was a juvenile delinquent, a gang member who was always getting into trouble until one day when he walked into a United States Army recruiters office and his live changed forever. Most of us know the story of Rascon and that President Bill Clinton bestowed upon him the Medal of Honor thirty somewhat years after his actions, but what I bet that most of you don’t know is why did it take so long. The answer to that will be found in the article which I wrote. You would think that both these men would live normal civilian lives after their ordeal, well think again.

Note: "*" after a name indicates that the person was awarded the MoH posthumously.

Miguel Keith (1951-1970) was a United States Marine who was posthumously awarded the United States's highest military decoration — the Medal of Honor for heroism in Vietnam in May 1970. Despite being severely wounded, he advanced on enemy attackers, allowing his platoon to route the attack of a numerically superior enemy force.

Miguel Keith was born on June 2, 1951 in San Antonio, Texas. He left North High School in Omaha, Nebraska in December 1968, and enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve at Omaha on January 21, 1969. He was discharged from the Reserves on April 30, 1969, and the following day, on May 1, 1969, he enlisted in the regular Marine Corps.

Ordered to the Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego, California, on May 2, 1969 for recruit training, he completed training with the 1st Recruit Training Battalion on July 17, 1969. He was transferred to the Marine Corps Base, Camp Pendleton, California, for individual combat training with Company B, 1st Battalion, 2nd Infantry Training Regiment. On August 1, 1969, he was promoted to the rank of Private First Class.

Upon completion of individual combat training on September 18, 1969 he received orders to the Far East. On November 6, 1969, he arrived in the Republic of Vietnam and was assigned as a rifleman with the 1st Combined Action Group, III Marine Amphibious Force. On April 1, 1970, he was promoted to the rank of Lance Corporal.

While participating in combat in Quang Ngai Province on May 8, 1970, he was mortally wounded in the action for which he received the Medal of Honor. When his platoon was under heavy attack from a numerically superior enemy, Keith was seriously wounded. Despite his wounds, he advanced on the enemy with machine gun fire, killing 3 of the enemy advancing on the command post and dispersing the others. He was severely wounded by a grenade during this charge. In spite of his wounds and loss of blood, he charged a group of 25 attackers, causing them to retreat for cover. He was mortally wounded by enemy fire. His actions contributed significantly to his platoon's success in routing the enemy.

Lance Corporal Keith was buried in Forest Lawn Cemetery, Omaha, Nebraska.

His medals and decorations include: the Medal of Honor, the Purple Heart, the Combat Action Ribbon, the National Defense Service Medal, the Vietnam Service Medal with one bronze star, and the Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal.

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving as a machine gunner with Combined Action Platoon 1-3-2, III Marine Amphibious Force, operating in Quang Ngai Province, Republic of Vietnam. During the early morning of May 8, 1970, Lance Corporal Keith was seriously wounded when his platoon was subjected to a heavy ground attack by a greatly outnumbering enemy force. Despite his painful wounds, he ran across the fire-swept terrain to check the security of vital defensive positions, and then, while completely exposed to view, proceeded to deliver a hail of devastating machine gun fire against the enemy. Determined to stop five of the enemy approaching the command post, he rushed forward, firing as he advanced. He succeeded in disposing of three of the attackers and in dispersing the remaining two. At this point, a grenade detonated near Lance Corporal Keith, knocking him to the ground and inflicting further severe wounds. Fighting pain and weakness from loss of blood, he again braved the concentrated hostile fire to charge an estimated twenty-five enemy soldiers who were massing to attack. The vigor of his assault and his well-placed fire eliminated four of the enemy while the remainder fled for cover. During this valiant effort, he was mortally wounded by an enemy soldier. By his courageous and inspiring performance in the face of almost overwhelming odds, Lance Corporal Keith contributed in large measure to the success of his platoon in routing a numerically superior enemy force, and upheld the finest traditions of the Marine Corps and of the United States Naval Service.

In memory

Miguel Keith has his name inscribed on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial ("The Wall") on Panel 11W Line 132. Henderson Hall barracks Keith Hall, a new barracks at Henderson Hall, Headquarters Marine Corps, Arlington, Virginia was dedicated on March 18, 1983, honoring LCPL Miguel Keith. A bronze plaque in the lobby recounts the heroic actions of LCPL Keith.

PFC Carlos James Lozada (September 6, 1946 – November 20, 1967), was a Private First Class in the United States Army and was killed in action in Vietnam. He posthumously received the Medal of Honor for his actions.

Biography:
Lozada was born in Caguas, Puerto Rico. His family moved to New York City in the early 1950s. They settled down in the Bronx section of the city where Lozada received both his primary and secondary education. He graduated from high school in 1966 and soon married. Lozada then joined the Army, intending to use his G.I. benefits to attend college after his term of service.

The United States at that time was involved in the Vietnam War and on June 11, 1967, Lozada was sent to Vietnam and assigned to Co. A, 2nd Battalion, 503 Infantry, 173rd Airborne Brigade.

On November 20, 1967, at Dak To in the Republic of Vietnam, PFC Lozada spotted a North Vietnamese Army company rapidly approaching his outpost. He alerted his comrades and opened fire with a machine gun, killing at least twenty of the enemy soldiers and disrupting their initial attack. He realized that if he abandoned his position there would be nothing to hold back the surging North Vietnamese soldiers and that his entire company withdrawal would be jeopardized - as a result he told his comrades to move to the back and that he would supply cover for them. He continued to deliver a heavy and accurate volume of suppressive fire against the enemy until he was mortally wounded and had to be carried during the withdrawal.

PFC Lozada was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for distinguishing himself in the Battle of Dak To.

Rank and organization:Private First Class, U.S. Army, Company A, 2d Battalion, 503d Infantry, 173d Airborne Brigade.

Place and date: Dak To, Republic of Vietnam, 20 November 1967.

Entered service at: New York, N.Y.

Born: 6 September 1946, Caguas, puerto Rico.

Citation:
For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. Pfc. Lozada, U.S. Army, distinguished himself at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty in the battle of Dak To. While serving as a machine gunner with 1st platoon, Company A, Pfc. Lozada was part of a 4-man early warning outpost, located 35 meters from his company's lines. At 1400 hours a North Vietnamese Army company rapidly approached the outpost along a well defined trail. Pfc. Lozada alerted his comrades and commenced firing at the enemy who were within 10 meters of the outpost. His heavy and accurate machinegun fire killed at least 20 North Vietnamese soldiers and completely disrupted their initial attack. Pfc. Lozada remained in an exposed position and continued to pour deadly fire upon the enemy despite the urgent pleas of his comrades to withdraw. The enemy continued their assault, attempting to envelop the outpost. At the same time enemy forces launched a heavy attack on the forward west flank of Company A with the intent to cut them off from their battalion. Company A was given the order to withdraw. Pfc. Lozada apparently realized that if he abandoned his position there would be nothing to hold back the surging North Vietnamese soldiers and that the entire company withdrawal would be jeopardized. He called for his comrades to move back and that he would stay and provide cover for them. He made this decision realizing that the enemy was converging on 3 sides of his position and only meters away, and a delay in withdrawal meant almost certain death. Pfc. Lozada continued to deliver a heavy, accurate volume of suppressive fire against the enemy until he was mortally wounded and had to be carried during the withdrawal. His heroic deed served as an example and an inspiration to his comrades throughout the ensuing 4-day battle. Pfc. Lozada's actions are in the highest traditions of the U.S. Army and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit, and the U.S. Army.

Military decorations awarded:
Medal of Honor
Purple Heart Medal
National Defense Service Medal
Vietnam Campaign Medal
Vietnam Service Medal

Badges:
Parachutist badge
Combat Infantryman Badge

In memory:
PFC Lozada was buried with full military honors in Long Island National Cemetry located in Farmingdale, New York. His name is located in the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall Panel 30E-Row 045. His name is also inscribed in "El Monumento de la Recordacion" (Monument of Remembrance), dedicated to Puerto Rico's fallen soldiers and situated in front of the Capitol Building in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The Bronx honored him by naming a playground in his honor located behind 175 Willis Ave.

Major Alfred V. Rascon born 1945 in Chihuahua, Mexico, was a medic in the United States Army who was awarded the Medal of Honor - the United States' highest military decoration for his actions near Long Khanh Province during the Vietnam War. In more than one occasion Rascon exposed himself to enemy fire and grenades by covering the bodies of those whom he was aiding with his own.

Rascon is a Mexican national and only child born to Alfredo and Andrea Rascon. The Rascon family, in search of a better way of life, immigrated to the United States. They settled in Oxnard, California, where Rascon received his primary and secondary education. On August 1963, he graduated from high school and enlisted in the United States Army.

Rascon received his basic training in Fort Ord, California, and after completing his basic training he was assigned to Fort Sam Houston, Texas for basic and specialist medical training. After he graduated from his medical training, he voluteered for airborne training and attended the Army’s Airborne school in Fort Benning, Georgia

In February 1964, Rascon was then assigned to Headquarters Company, Medical Platoon, 1st Battalion, 503rd Infantry (Airborne) of the 173rd Airborne Brigade (Separate) stationed in Okinawa.

On May 1965, Rascon and his unit were deployed to the Republic of Vietnam where he served as a medic for a platoon of paratroopers.

The brigade was the first major ground combat unit of the United States Army to serve there. They were the first to go into War Zone D to destroy enemy base camps and to introduce the use of small long-range patrols.

On March 16, 1966, Rascon was assigned as a medic to a Reconnaissance Platoon of the 173d Airborne Brigade. The Platoons mission was to reinforce a sister battalion which was under intense enemy attack near Long Khanh Province. The Reconnaissance Platoon came under heavy fire from a numerically superior enemy force. Several point squad soldiers were wounded and Specialist Rascon made his way forward to aid his fallen comrades. In more than one occasion Rascon exposed himself to enemy fire and grenades by covering the bodies of those whom he was aiding and absorbing the blast and fragments of the grenades with his own body. Each time he would drag his comrades to safety and crawled back to aid someone else. Rascon was so badly wounded that day that he was given his last rites.

Rascon was transferred to Johnson Army Hospital in Japan where he spent six months recovering from his wounds. For his actions, he was nominated for the Medal of Honor. However, his nomination for some unknown reason did not go through and instead he was awarded a Silver Star Medal.

In May 1966, he was honorably discharged from active duty and placed in the Army Reserves. Rascon attended college after he was discharged and in 1967 he became a Naturalized United States Citizen.

In 1970 he graduated from the Army's Infantry Officers Candidate School and was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant of Infantry. He then returned to Vietnam for a second tour, this time as a military adviser. In 1976, Rascon was once again honorably discharged from active duty.

In 1976, Rascon was offered the position of U.S. Army military liaison officer, in the Republic of Panama and he accepted. Rascon has also worked for the Department of Justice’s, Drug Enforcement Administration, INTERPOL (U.S. National Central Bureau), and the Immigration & Naturalization Service.

During a 1985 reunion of the 173rd Airborne Brigade, Rascon's comrades discovered that he never received the Medal of Honor. His former platoon members Ray Compton, Neil Haffey and Larry Gibson, whose lives he saved, sought to correct the oversight and renewed their efforts in favor of a Medal of Honor for Rascon. The Pentagon would not reconsider Rascon's case because so much time had elapsed. Therefore, Rascon's comrades sought the help of Congressman Lane Evans from Illinois. In 1997, Evans gave President Bill Clinton a packet containing the information about Rascon. The President then convinced the Pentagon to reopen the case.

On February 8, 2000. President Bill Clinton bestowed upon Alfred V. Rascon the Medal of Honor in a ceremony held in the East Room of the White House

Rank and organization:Specialist Fourth Class, U.S. Army, Reconnaissance Platoon, Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion (Airborne), 503rd Infantry,173d Airborne Brigade (Separate)

Place and date:Republic of Vietnam, March 16, 1966

Entered service at: ----

Born:1945, Chihuahua, Mexico

"Specialist Four Alfred Rascon, distinguished himself by a series of extraordinarily courageous acts on March 16, 1966, while assigned as a medic to the Reconnaissance Platoon, Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion (Airborne), 503rd Infantry, 173d Airborne Brigade (Separate). While moving to reinforce its sister battalion under intense enemy attack, the Reconnaissance Platoon came under heavy fire from a numerically superior enemy force. The intense enemy fire from crew-served weapons and grenades severely wounded several point squad soldiers. Specialist Rascon, ignoring directions to stay behind shelter until covering fire could be provided, made his way forward. He repeatedly tried to reach the severely wounded point machine-gunner laying on an open enemy trail, but was driven back each time by the withering fire. Disregarding his personal safety, he jumped to his feet, ignoring flying bullets and exploding grenades to reach his comrade. To protect him from further wounds, he intentionally placed his body between the soldier and enemy machine guns, sustaining numerous shrapnel injuries and a serious wound to the hip. Disregarding his serious wounds he dragged the larger soldier from the fire-raked trail. Hearing the second machine-gunner yell that he was running out of ammunition, Specialist Rascon, under heavy enemy fire crawled back to the wounded machine-gunner stripping him of his bandoleers of ammunition, giving them to the machine-gunner who continued his suppressive fire. Specialist Rascon fearing the abandoned machine gun, its ammunition and spare barrel could fall into enemy hands made his way to retrieve them. On the way, he was wounded in the face and torso by grenade fragments, but disregarded these wounds to recover the abandoned machine gun, ammunition and spare barrel items, enabling another soldier to provide added suppressive fire to the pinned-down squad. In searching for the wounded, he saw the point grenadier being wounded by small arms fire and grenades being thrown at him. Disregarding his own life and his numerous wounds, Specialist Rascon reached and covered him with his body absorbing the blasts from the exploding grenades, and saving the soldier's life, but sustaining additional wounds to his body. While making his way to the wounded point squad leader, grenades were hurled at the sergeant. Again, in complete disregard for his own life, he reached and covered the sergeant with his body, absorbing the full force of the grenade explosions. Once more Specialist Rascon was critically wounded by shrapnel, but disregarded his own wounds to continue to search and aid the wounded. Severely wounded, he remained on the battlefield, inspiring his fellow soldiers to continue the battle. After the enemy broke contact, he disregarded aid for himself, instead treating the wounded and directing their evacuation. Only after being placed on the evacuation helicopter did he allow aid to be given to him. Specialist Rascon's extraordinary valor in the face of deadly enemy fire, his heroism in rescuing the wounded, and his gallantry by repeatedly risking his own life for his fellow soldiers are in keeping with the highest traditions of military service and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit, and the United States Army."

On May 22, 2002, Rascon was confirmed by the United States Senate as the 10th Director of the Selective Service, he served in this position until 2003.

On September 1, 2002, Rascon returned to the Army as an Army Reserve Major in the Army Medical Service Corps. His position was Individual Mobilization Augmentee to the Surgeon General’s Office. Rascon served in Afghanistan and Iraq for the Medical Service Corps.

Major Rascon received the degree of Doctor of Medical Jurisprudence, Honoris Causa on May 17, 2003, from the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences' (USUHS) F. Edward Hebert School of Medicine and Graduate School of Nursing. The Army has honored Rascon by renaming their medical school at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, the Alfred V. Rascon School of Combat Medicine.

Rascon has been honored by the American Immigration Lawyers Association and Foundation in Washington, D.C., for his past contributions in the military. The Washington-based CATO Institute also honored him in its annual honors of past and present military contributors of Hispanic Americans.

Rascon resides in Laurel, Maryland and is married and has a daughter and a son.

Among Alfred V. Rascon's decorations and medals are the following:
Medal of Honor
Silver Star Medal
Bronze Star Medal
Purple Heart Medal
National Defense Service Medal
Vietnam Campaign Medal with star
Vietnam Service Medal
Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal
Vietnam Staff Service Medal (First Class)
Vietnam Gallantry Cross
Global War on Terrorism Service Medal
Afghanistan Campaign Medal
Iraq Campaign Medal

Badges
Flight Surgeon Badge
Combat Medical Badge

Chief Warrant Officer Louis R. Rocco (November 19, 1938-October 31, 2002) born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, was a United States Army soldier who was awarded the Medal of Honor—the United States' highest military decoration—for his actions near the village of Katum, in the Republic of Vietnam, during the Vietnam War. Despite being wounded, Rocco saved three comrades from a burning helicopter.

Rocco was the second oldest of nine siblings born to an Italian-American father and a Mexican-American mother. In 1948, the family moved to a housing project in the San Fernando Valley and later to a barrio called Wilmington. He joined a local gang and was frequently in trouble with the law. Rocco dropped out of high school and in 1954, when he was 16 years old, was arrested for armed robbery.

Rocco was in court for his sentencing and during an hour's break he walked into a United States Army recruiters office. The recruiting officer, Sgt. Martinez, accompanied Rocco to the court and spoke to the judge. The judge gave him a suspended sentence and told him that he could join the Army when he was 17 if he stayed in school, obeyed a curfew and shunned his gang.

In 1955, Rocco joined the Army. After completing his basic training, he was sent to Germany. He earned his high school general equivalency diploma during his tour there.

A few years later, Rocco was serving as a medic at Fort MacArthur in San Pedro, California. On one occasion he looked across the room and saw a familiar face. It was Sgt. Martinez, lying on a litter and badly wounded. Rocco made sure the sergeant got special attention and round-the-clock care.

Rocco served in two tours of duty in the Republic of Vietnam during the Vietnam War. His first tour was from 1965 to 1966. In 1969, Rocco, who was by then a Sergeant First Class, returned for another tour of duty in Vietnam and was assigned to the Advisory Team 162 of the U.S. Military Assistance Command.

On May 24, 1970, he was present when a medical evacuation team was sent on an urgent mission to pick up eight critically wounded South Vietnamese soldiers near the village of Katum. Rocco volunteered to accompany the team on the mission. The helicopter in which Rocco and the team were riding in came under heavy enemy fire as it approached the landing zone. The pilot was shot in the leg and the helicopter crashed into a field. Under intense enemy fire, Rocco was able to carry each of the unconscious crash survivors to the perimeter of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam. Despite the fact that he himself had suffered a fractured wrist and hip, and had a severely bruised back, he was able to help administer first aid to his wounded comrades before collapsing and losing consciousness.

Lieutenant Lee Caubareaux, the helicopter's co-pilot later lobbied for Rocco to receive the Medal of Honor. On December 12, 1974, President Gerald R. Ford bestowed upon Rocco the Medal of Honor in a ceremony held at the White House.

Rank and organization: Warrant Officer (then Sergeant First Class), U.S. Army, Advisory Team 162, U.S. Military Assistance Command.

Place and date:Northeast of Katum, Republic of Vietnam, 24 May 1970

Entered service at:Los Angeles, California

Born:19 November 1938, Albuquerque, New Mexico

"WO Rocco distinguished himself when he volunteered to accompany a medical evacuation team on an urgent mission to evacuate 8 critically wounded Army of the Republic of Vietnam personnel. As the helicopter approached the landing zone, it became the target for intense enemy automatic weapons fire. Disregarding his own safety, WO Rocco identified and placed accurate suppressive fire on the enemy positions as the aircraft descended toward the landing zone. Sustaining major damage from the enemy fire, the aircraft was forced to crash land, causing WO Rocco to sustain a fractured wrist and hip and a severely bruised back. Ignoring his injuries, he extracted the survivors from the burning wreckage, sustaining burns to his own body. Despite intense enemy fire, WO Rocco carried each unconscious man across approximately 20 meters of exposed terrain to the Army of the Republic of Vietnam perimeter. On each trip, his severely burned hands and broken wrist caused excruciating pain, but the lives of the unconscious crash survivors were more important than his personal discomfort, and he continued his rescue efforts. Once inside the friendly position, WO Rocco helped administer first aid to his wounded comrades until his wounds and burns caused him to collapse and lose consciousness. His bravery under fire and intense devotion to duty were directly responsible for saving 3 of his fellow soldiers from certain death. His unparalleled bravery in the face of enemy fire, his complete disregard for his own pain and injuries, and his performance were far above and beyond the call of duty and were in keeping with the highest traditions of self-sacrifice and courage of the military service."

                                                            Later years

Rocco made a career of the Army and earned an associate's degree. In 1978, Rocco retired from the Army as a Chief Warrant Officer.

He returned to New Mexico and was named director of New Mexico's Veterans Service Commission. Among his accomplishments were the following; he established the Vietnam Veterans of New Mexico; opened a Vet Center, which provided peer counseling to Vietnam veterans, He started a shelter for the homeless and a nursing home for veterans, and persuaded New Mexico legislators and voters to let all veterans into state colleges free.

Rocco returned to active duty in 1991, during Operation Desert Storm and stationed at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas. There he recruited medical personnel.

When he returned to his hometown, he met the woman who was to become his fourth wife, Maria Chavez Schneider, an assistant director of New Mexico AIDS Services. In 1992, they moved to Mexico and lived for six years in the town of San Miguel de Allende. In 1998, they moved to San Antonio, Texas. On July 11, 2000, Rocco was appointed the new Deputy State Director for Texas, in San Antonio. Rocco became instrumental in promoting Veterans Against Drugs, a growing nationwide program in the schools.

In 2002, Rocco was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. On October 31, 2002, Chief Warrant Officer Louis R. Rocco died at his home in San Antonio. He was buried with full military honors at the Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery in San Antonio, Texas. He is survived by his wife, Maria; two sons, Roy and Brian; one daughter, Theresa; his mother, Lita Rocco and five grandchildren (Del Rocco, Ashley Rocco, Cameron Dubois, James Richard Rocco, Thomas Rocco).

The local government of San Antonio honored Rocco by naming a youth center the Louis Rocco Youth & Family Center. There is also an AAAA National SFC Louis R. Rocco MOH $1,000 Scholarship.

Among Louis R. Rocco's decorations and medals were the following:
Medal of Honor
Bronze Star Medal
Purple Heart Medal
National Defense Service Medal
Vietnam Campaign Medal with star
Vietnam Service Medal
Vietnam Cross of Gallantry
Southwest Asia Service Medal

Badges
Combat Medical Badge
Parachutist badge

I hope that you all are enjoying this series. In next months issue of "Somos Primos" you will learn about Euripides Rubio*, Hector Santiago-Colon* , Elmelindo Rodrigues Smith* and Jay R. Vargas Jr.

1. Background: The Association of Naval Services Officers (ANSO) was founded by the Honorable Edward Hidalgo, then Secretary of the Navy, due to his concerns that Hispanic Officers were not fully represented in the officer corps. So he convened the Hispanic Officer Recruitment Conference in December 1980 to closely examine issues, develop initiatives, and resolve problems that confronted the Naval Services in attracting qualified Hispanics for Officer programs. One of the recommendations was the establishment of an organization of Hispanic Naval Officers that would link the Hispanic community and the Sea Services to attract quality Hispanic Officer Candidates. ANSO was formally established on February 12, 1981 with a mission to assist Officer recruitment and retention efforts in the Hispanic Community; support and nurture our enlisted personnel desiring to apply for Officer programs; and foster the professional growth and development of Hispanic Sea Services personnel through mentoring, networking, training, and educational programs. Currently, a Memorandum of Understanding exists between The Department of the Navy, The Marine Corps, The U. S. Coast Guard, and various non-governmental organizations that have identified the importance of diversity and its contributions to the readiness of the Sea Services. While ANSO was founded upon Hispanic initiatives, it has since evolved into an ALL-INCLUSIVE ORGANIZATION with the only requirement for membership being similar concerns for improving Hispanic representation in the Services. Enlisted, civilians, and officers alike, regardless of ethnic or racial background are warmly welcomed by ANSO to become members and participate in the diversity initiatives shared by all the Sea Services.

www.ansomil.org/forms/Symposium/2007ANSO_Symposium_Trip_Report_Navy_
Marine_Template.doc

Edward Hidalgo (October 12, 1912 – January 21, 1995) was Secretary of the Navy of the United States in the Jimmy Carter administration from October 24, 1979 to January 20, 1981.

Photo: man in suit, tie

http://biography.jrank.org/pages/3894/Hidalgo-Edward-1912-1995-U-S-
Secretary-Navy.html

Edward Hidalgo was the first Hispanic to serve as U.S. Secretary of the Navy. He was named to the position in October of 1979 after a long and distinguished legal and naval career. Although his tenure as secretary was short (15 months), he nonetheless made significant contributions to the Navy Department. In particular, he advocated recruiting more Hispanics into the Navy and encouraging more Hispanics to consider a naval career.

Originally named Eduardo Hidalgo, he was born in Mexico City on October 12, 1912, to Egon and Domita Kunhardt Hidalgo. The family moved to New York in 1918 and a few years later young Hidalgo became a United States citizen and anglicized his name. He attended Holy Cross College in Washington, D.C., graduating with honors in 1933. From there he went to Columbia Law School, where he received a J.D. in 1936.

Hidalgo served as a law clerk in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York until 1937, when he became an associate at a New York law firm. Then America entered World War II where Hidalgo was introduced to the Navy, serving as a lieutenant in the U.S. Naval Reserve from 1942 to 1946. In this capacity he held several positions. From 1942 to 1943 he served in Montevideo, Uruguay, as a legal advisor to the ambassador to the Emergency Advisory for Political Defense. For the remainder of the war he was assigned to the carrier Enterprise as an air combat intelligence officer. He was awarded a Bronze Star for his service.

When the war ended in 1945, Hidalgo was named to the Eberstadt Committee, a special group charged with providing recommendation for unifying the branches of the military. Before World War II there had been no formal unification; the various branches of the military operated independently. The success of the armed forces through close but informal coordination during the war convinced military and government leaders that a formal coordination was essential for military strength. As a lawyer with naval experience, Hidalgo was a natural addition to such a group. Hidalgo received a special commendation for his contribution to the Eberstadt Committee, and he finished out his service as a special assistant to Navy Secretary James V. Forrestal.

At a Glance . . .

Born Eduardo Hidalgo on October 12, 1912, in Mexico City, Mexico; died on January 21, 1995, in Fairfax, VA; divorced twice; married third wife Belinda Bonham; children: Edward, Jr., Joanne, Ricardo, Tila. Education: Holy Cross University, BA, 1929-33; Columbia Law School, JD, 1933-36; University of Mexico Law School, civil law degree, 1959. Military Service: U.S. Naval Reserve, lieutenant, 1942-46; U.S. State Department, advisor, 1942-43, air combat intelligence officer, 1943-45; U.S. Navy secretary, special assistant, 1945-46.

Career: Second Circuit Court of Appeals, New York, law clerk, 1936-37; Wright, Gordon, Zachry & Parlin, associate, 1937-42; Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle, partner, 1946-48; Hidalgo, Barrera, Siquieros & Torres Landa, founder and partner, 1948-65; U.S. Navy Secretary, special assistant, 1965-66; Cahill, Gordon, & Reindel, partner, 1966-72; U.S. Information Agency, special assistant for economic affairs, 1972, congressional liaison, 1973-76; assistant secretary of the navy, 1977-79; secretary of the navy, 1979-81; consultant, 1981-95.

Awards: Bronze Star, U.S. Navy, 1943; Special Commendation Ribbon, U.S. Navy, 1945; Knight of the Royal Order of Vasa, Kingdom of Sweden, 1963; Order of the Aztec Eagle, Republic of Mexico, 1980.

After he left the Navy, Hidalgo returned to the law, founding his own law firm in Mexico City in 1948. In 1958 he wrote a book, Legal Aspects of Foreign Investments, which was published in Mexico. He also received a Mexican civil law degree from the University of Mexico Law School in 1959. In 1965 Hidalgo returned to the navy, serving for a year as a special assistant to Navy Secretary Paul H. Nitze. He took up law again in 1966, practicing in the Paris offices of a New York firm for the next six years. Then, in 1972, he accepted a position as special assistant for economic affairs for the United States Information Agency (USIA). A year later he was named USIA's general counsel and congressional liaison.

In 1977 Hidalgo returned once again to the Navy, this time as assistant secretary. Two years later, in September of 1979, President Jimmy Carter nominated him to replace outgoing Secretary W. Graham Clayton, Jr. He was confirmed as secretary of the Navy in October of that same year.

One of Hidalgo's top priorities during his tenure as secretary was recruiting more Hispanics into the Navy. He felt that a naval career could provide young Hispanics with valuable education and experience that they could parlay into long-term service in the Navy, and also use to their advantage once they returned to civilian life. He was particularly interested in encouraging more Hispanic members of the Navy to apply for officer positions. (In 1976 there were only five Hispanic cadets enrolled in the U.S. Naval Academy.) In December of 1980 Hidalgo convened the Hispanic Officer Recruitment Conference (HORC) to help identify ways to make naval careers more attractive to Hispanics. One result of HORC was the establishment of the Association of Naval Service Officers (ANSO). This group, created to enhance recognition and advancement of Hispanics in the Navy, provided encouragement and mentoring for young Hispanics who might want to get onto a career track as a naval officer. The efforts ultimately paid off; by 1986 there were 200 Hispanic naval cadets at the Academy. Under Hidalgo's direction, the Navy also created an advertising recruiting campaign aimed at Hispanics.

Hidalgo left his position in January of 1981 after Ronald Reagan was sworn in as president. Less than a year later he took a consulting position with General Dynamics Corporation, a major contractor with the U.S. Navy. This raised some concerns because during his years in the Navy Department, Hidalgo had helped negotiate a settlement for General Dynamics. The company had filed an $843 million claim against the Navy for cost overruns on attack submarines because of costly design changes. The Navy ultimately settled with General Dynamics for $643 million. Hidalgo was called to testify before a Congressional committee in 1985. The committee determined that Hidalgo had done nothing improper in taking the General Dynamics job, since the division he worked for had nothing to do with the Navy.

In 1989 Hidalgo was named to the President's Commission on Aviation Security and Terrorism. From 1991 to 1993 he served as a consultant to the Mexican government on the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). In 1994 he was recognized by ANSO when a new Washington, D.C., chapter was established. In addition to his military awards from the U.S. Navy, Hidalgo was made an honorary knight of the Royal Order of Vasa by the Swedish government in 1963, and he received the Order of the Aztec Eagle from his native Mexico in 1980.

Hidalgo was married three times; his first two marriages ended in divorce. He had two daughters and two sons. A Washington resident in his later years, he died on January 21, 1995, in Fairfax, Virginia. According to the Navy News Service, at the time of his death, Navy Secretary John Dalton remembered Hidalgo as "a superb Secretary of the Navy … whose years of government service and love for the sea services never ended."

Sources:
Books: Sweetman, Jack, American Naval History: An Illustrated Chronology of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, 1775-Present, Naval Institute Press, 2002.
Periodicals:
Hispanic Times, September 1994.
Miami Herald, May 6, 1984.
New York Times, January 23, 1995.
On-line: Navy News Service,

www.chinfo.navy.mil/navpalib/news/navnews/nns95/nns95004.txt (July 5, 2003).

Other: Additional information for this profile was obtained from the Federal Register Division of the National Archives and Records Service and from the Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States, Jimmy Carter, 1977, 1979, obtained from the Government Printing Office in Washington, D.C.   

—George A. Milite
http://www.navy.mil/navydata/bios/navybio.asp?bioID=94
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hispanic_Admirals_in_the_United_States_Navy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay_A._DeLoach

Sent by Rafael Ojeda

Patriots of the American Revolution

Spanish Louisiana Regiment 

- Prior to going to New Orleans one time w/ a friend of mine, that friend noticed on a map of New Orleans something that said "Spanish Fort". He did a little investigating & found where the site was. After the July 4th weekend was over we headed to the site on the way back to San Antonio. Weren't WE surprised to find in the middle of a neighborhood park half of a star-shaped fort with this plaque at the base of one of the walls. WHat was left of the walls varied in height from 2 to 4 feet in height. Lake Pontchatrain was drained a bit so the fort no longer sat next to the river to protect the town from lakeside attack. Apparently the neighborhood has a festival there at the park once a year. Of course this was prior to the hurricane. 

Here's this website I built for our unit: http://geocities.com/regimentolaluisiana/
Gus Martinez  gus_1813@hotmail.com

SURNAME: Lozano

Lozano Plaza Plaque Dedication

Photo: Assembled Lozano family descendents on the platform of the Lozano Plaza.  

Sent by Norman Rozeff
nrozeff@sbcglobal.net
Harlingen Historical Preservation Society

Among the speakers was Norman Rozeff, researcher for the historic society.  Mr. Rozeff is shown in the photo below addressing the group. He made the following remarks:

Thank you for inviting me here today to share in this historic occasion. Would those here that have the surname Lozano or are related in any manner to the Lozano family please raise your hands. Thank you.

I have known two Lozanos for over three decades. One is Sam, for all three of my children attended Coakley Junior High School where he served as principal. The other Lozano that I have known for many years is Olga. She and I have served on the board of directors of the Harlingen Concert Association for more years than we wish to       
 reveal.

The reason I asked you to raise your hands is to make a point. There are no members of the Lon C. Hill family nor the Weller family, nor many of the pioneer Harlingen families still residing in Harlingen. There are Anglin and Myrick family descendents still here and a few of other pioneer families, but it is the Lozano family that remains a force. A quick scan of the Harlingen telephone directory listings has 50 Lozanos noted. While all may not be related to the Lozano patriarch, Santos, a good many are. In short, the Lozanos like Harlingen and continue to call it home.

On this occasion I wish to say a few words about Santos Lozano. It was during the Mexican French War that his parents came to Texas from Ejidos San Nicolas de los Garzas, now part Monterrey, when he was two years old. From Collins, Texas Santos would eventually end up in Alice where he would come to operate a mercantile store for 14 years. To gain an appreciation of Santos I characterize him with four words beginning with "A".

It was 1905 when he first visited Harlingen, a year after the coming of the railroad and the community's very start. In 1906 he purchased lots on Main Street from the Lon C. Hill Town and Improvement Company. He was Adventurous in this regard. At age 42 or 43 with a wife, Micaela Beasley Lozano, and nine children (Juan B. who would enter the business with him, Guillermo, Santos V., Fivela, Porfirio, Otilia, Alfredo, Micaela, and Sophia), he had to be adventurous to leave an established town and business for a frontier town with unknown prospects. On the other hand he may have read or known of the small fortunes made by first-comers in gold rush and other settlements. He may have considered and taken to heart that old axiom "Get in on the ground floor."

Secondly he was Aggressive. Without knowing whom and how many competitors he might face he constructed a two-story frame building, the bottom floor for a dry goods store and the second story to accommodate his family. [In April 1911 a panoramic 360 degree photograph was taken of the town from atop the Lon C. Hill Building. This photo edited from the whole shows the rear side of the Lozano store and residence. Another portion of the panorama pictures Guillermo's meat market across the railroad tracks on Van Buren Avenue.] Santos must have promoted well and given his customers what they needed, for he prospered in the years 1906 through 1914. In fact his financial success allowed him to move forward with an even more ambitious undertaking.

Ambition is the third A. Not resting on his laurels he possessed a larger vision, and it took shape in the form of the Lozano and Son-1915 Building. This structure designed by capable Brownsville architect Baltazar Torres was impressive indeed. Constructed of brick transported all the way from Monterrey, it occupied nearly every square inch of the triple (75' by 140') commercial lot on which it was situated. It rivaled its only competitor in size, the Lon C. Hill Building a short distance away. That Santos allowed for a large hall on the second floor was truly visionary, for the young town needed a place other than church halls and schools where families could gather for social activities and citizens could assemble for civic affairs. Lozano Hall was to serve the community for many decades.

My last A is for Able. Santos was an able businessman, so much so that he was capable of opening satellite stores in La Feria, Donna, and Raymondville. He was also an able generator of children. If my calculations are correct he fathered nine children by his first wife and two (Edme and another Santos) by his second wife, Tomasa Cantu Lozano. Upon his death at age 90, he left his family a legacy as substantial as the contributions and love that he provided them during his lifetime.

We are gathered here today to recognize the accomplishments of Santos, his wife Micaela who sacrificed her life in the aid and nursing of others, and the Lozano family. It is sad to think that the loss of the Lozano/Pioneer's Building to the ravages of flames was no accident but was likely due to the actions of a demented individual. So it is with somewhat bittersweet emotions that we join together to dedicate a marker for Lozano Plaza. The attractive green swath will now continue to be a key congregational place for the citizens of our community. In closing, we recall those who laid the foundation for the fine community we have become today and cherish the memories of them.

  Harlingen Mayor Rick Rodriguez and Harlingen Historical Preservation Society president, Mary Torres, looking at historical photos connected with the Lozanos in Harlingen. These photos are courtesy of Cheryl LaBerge, director of Harlingen Downtown.

The plaque which was installed at the northwestern corner of A and Jackson Streets has the following wording:

Lozano Plaza was once the site of one of Harlingen's most significant buildings. In 1906 Santos Lozano came to the city and purchased the second commercial lot on Jackson Street. On it he erected a small frame structure to house his general store. In 1915 he employed architect Baltasar Torres of Brownsville to design and construct a large two-story building. S. Lozano and Son was inscribed on its façade.

In the decades to follow the building's first floor housed the family mercantile store, the town's post office, a drug store, C. E. Stone (a Texas dry goods chain), Kattan's Western Wear and other enterprises.

The large hall upstairs first served as a schoolroom and a venue for meetings and social gatherings. Later it was converted to office space, used as a business school, and as a budget hotel. During one of its numerous refurbishments the façade came to bear the name Pioneer's Building.

In February 1981 the building was honored as a Recorded Texas Historical Landmark and a Texas Historical Commission medallion affixed to it. Upon the building's total destruction by fire in 2004, the City purchased the property and cleared it, creating Lozano Plaza. The corner of Jackson and "A" continues to serve as a key gathering place for the community.

Sponsored by the Lozano Family and Harlingen's Downtown, 2007

ORANGE COUNTY, CA

11th Annual Veterans Day Commemoration
A Tribute to Mexican American
Veterans of the Korean War


Saturday, November 10, 2007
10:00 a.m.

California State University, Fullerton
800 N. State College Blvd
Fullerton, California 92831
Campus Location: Titan Student Union (TSU)

Event is open to the public and is
FREE OF CHARGE
*Veterans will be included in a book for educational purposes

Exhibition Malaquias Montoya's Globalization & War - The Aftermath

The exhibition will be displayed until December 10, 2007.

The Office of the Vice Chancellor, Student Affairs at UC Irvine is proud to announce the premiere exhibition of Professor Malaquias Montoya's Globalization & War - The Aftermath.  Depicting the consequences of power and conflict, Montoya's twenty-three creative works facilitate the understanding of the destruction, displacement and loss of culture brought on by man-made conflict and destruction.  Each piece illustrates the human spirit in its most vulnerable state: fighting between obliteration and survival.

Professor Montoya is a leading figure in the West Coast political Chicano graphic arts movement.  His previous exhibits include PreMeditated: Meditations on Capital Punishment, a nationally recognized work that is still touring.  Malaquias Montoya is described by historians as one of the founders of the "social serigraphy" movement in the San Francisco Bay area in the mid-1960's.  His "art of protest" depicts the difficulties and perseverance of humanity and the need to join the struggle to overcome obstacles to peace, equality and justice.

Please join Manuel N. Gomez, Vice Chancellor, Student Affairs, and the UC Irvine Community in welcoming Mr. Montoya and his exhibit: Globalization & War - The Aftermath, Wednesday, November 7, 2007 at 7:00pm in the Crystal Cove Auditorium Lobby located in the UC Irvine Student Center, for a reception and book signing.

Colleen K. Suyenaga
Special Events Manager/Campus Concierge
UCI Hospitality & Dining Services, Student Affairs Auxiliary Services
Phone: 949-824-6025     Fax: 949-824-8017
Email: csuyenag@uci.edu

Sent by Dr. Carlos Muñoz, Jr. http://ethnicstudies.berkeley.edu/faculty/munoz

Images of America 

Calle Olvera De Los Angeles, is the Spanish edition of 
Los Angeles's Olvera Street photo essay written by William D. Estrada ©2006.  
This soft-covered book of 128 pages, filled with 212 photos, 1820s to the 1950s. 
Perfect gift for older relatives, or families living in Mexico.

To Purchase: Calle Olvera de Los Angeles, $19.99, Arcadia Publishing. Available at area bookstores, independent retailers, online bookstores, or through Arcadia Published at  www.arcadiapublishing.com or (888) 313-2665.

For information on how to collaborate with Arcadia Publisher to produce a photo essay  book on your community, click.

When you first go to the database, be sure to click on and read the section labeled Information on the Directories.  Some of the street address directories are arranged by Telephone Exchange Service Areas which is explained in this information section.  The Printing Suggestions section should be read as well.

The city directories included are 1929, 1936, 1938, 1939 and 1942.  1942 was the last city directory published for Los Angeles.  The street address directories cover, May 1956, March 1960, October 1961, July 1962, July 1963, April 1964, April 1965, July 1965, April 1967, April 1968,  January 1969, July 1973, and July 1987.

Michael Kirley, Genealogy Librarian
Los Angeles Public Library
630 West Fifth Street
Los Angeles, CA 90071
mkirley@lapl.org 

CALIFORNIA

"Latino Stories of World War II," a one hour documentary profiling four Latino veterans of that war, will air on KCET, Los Angeles PBS station, on September 20 at 9 pm. The veterans include three Mexican Americans and one Cuban American. Two of the veterans were Eighth Air Force pilots, both shot down over Europe. Another was Guy Gabaldon, the "Pied Piper of Saipan," famous for capturing hundreds of Japanese prisoners. The Cuban American served in a segregated army unit sent to build the Ledo Road in India.

The film was directed by Mario Barrera (mythos@berkeley.edu), and grew out of the oral history project on Latinos in World War II, headed by Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez at the University of Texas. Barrera is Professor Emeritus in the Ethnic Studies Department at UC Berkeley and currently works out of Santa Barbara. His previous films include "Chicano Park" (producer) and "The Party Line" (writer/director).

Sent by Juan Marinez marinez@anr.msu.edu  writes:
Source: Louie Herrera Moreno III <morenolo@msu.edu>

SONS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, SAN DIEGO CHAPTER 
Second Annual Commemoration of the San Diego Presidio Plaque Dedication
Celebrating the Contribution of the Inhabitants of the San Diego Presidio to the American Revolution in the Year of Our Lord, 1780
at 2:00 PM on November 10, 2007
The commemoration service will be held at the Serra Museum flagpole,
and will include the raising of the Betsy Ross flag and a musket salute
Refreshments will be served
For further information contact William Tisch (619) 448-4818 [Tis346@cox.net], or
Philip Hinshaw (619) 448-8858 [philiphinshaw@cox.net]

Sent by Monica Smith

NORTHWEST UNITED STATES

Nevada Church Will Be Reborn as Community Center

Story by Dana Magliari / Oct. 8, 2007

Last week marked the latest milestone in the restoration of Nevada's oldest Catholic church building, St. Augustine's. That's when a new steel roof was completed for the red brick, Gothic revival and Italianate structure that has been a part of the historic silver mining town of Austin since 1866.

he new roof means no more "flown-in insulation," as the building's owner, Jan Morrison, calls the 25 cubic yards of bird droppings that accumulated in the rafters over the years by falling through gaps in the old tin and aluminum roof. Morrison isn't sure how much it weighed, but after a hazmat crew removed the guano, she says, "the ceiling raised up two inches." The porous old roof had also splayed the tops of the walls out by up to seven feet, so they had to be pulled back into position before the new one went on.

Churches thrived alongside saloons during Austin's 19th-century heyday as a silver mining boom town. However, St. Augustine's has stood vacant since 1981, the year a state engineer declared it structurally unsafe. Rather than pay for its restoration, as the local congregation wanted, the Catholic Diocese in Reno shut it down that same year.

Austin's Catholics rebelled by holding their own lay masses inside St. Augustine's and refusing to recognize the authority of Battle Mountain's priest, to whose parish they had been reassigned.

A new bishop assigned to Reno in the 1990s supported restoration, but the diocese, as a religious organization, didn't qualify for public funds. The solution: find a restoration-minded private buyer. Enter Morrison, a local merchant and expatriate from Las Vegas, who bought the church in 2004 for $26,000. Since forming the nonprofit St. Augustine's Cultural Center, she has received $353,000 in state grants to finance the restoration.

Morrison's next task is to reconstruct the bell tower, then restore the 14 murals depicting the Stations of the Cross, painted in the 1930s. After that, she hopes to repatriate old vestments, chalices, and statues currently being held in storage by the Reno Diocese.

The entire project should be finished by summer 2008, when Morrison will open the church for tours. Eventually, St. Augustine's Cultural Center will host community functions, cultural programs, classes, and even the occasional church service.

http://www.nationaltrust.org/rss/

Holiday Fun at the Family History Library

Family history is FUN at the Family History Library! Weigh anchor at the Library and sail the seven seas to Discover Your Family Treasures on Saturday, November 3. Families are invited to come and enjoy activities for all ages designed to introduce your family to family history. The activities run from 1:00 - 4:00 p.m. and are FREE of charge. Check-in begins at 12:30 p.m. Due to a limited number of ‘berths,’ participants must book in advance. To book passage for your family, send an email with each participant's name to FHLClassReg@ldschurch.org or call 801.240.4950.

The holiday season is a time to celebrate families. For the first time ever, the Family History Library and Museum of Church History and Art are teaming up to do just that. The festivities will begin with a major celebration on Saturday, December 1 with food, fun activities and great music. Events will include holiday crafts for families, holiday tradition classes from many countries and ethnic groups, pioneer games for children, caroling and old-time dancing with the Firewood Pioneer Band. The fun will continue throughout the month Tuesday - Saturday evenings in the Family History Library and the Museum of Church History and Art, ending on December 28. The weekly evening activities will include holiday tradition classes, holiday crafts for children, choirs, an international crèche display, storytelling and old-fashioned toy time for children. Come join the festivities with your family. 
FREE RESEARCH CONSULTATION

SOUTHWESTERN UNITED STATES

The gathering was to celebrate the opening of Nuestra Biblioteca, the library's Hispanic Resource Center, and hundreds of Pueblo residents turned out for the festivities.   

The event featured the Sweet Dreams Car Show, where low riders, super-sized pickup trucks and even bicycles were on display and competed for the best shines, remodeling and paint jobs.

The Director's Choice trophy, more than 5 feet tall, went to a 1958 Impala owned by Angelo Romero.

A Buick Regal owned by Adam Vigil of Sweet Dreams Car Club is displayed outside the library during a car show that was part of the festivities.

Inside the library, local officials unveiled the resource center's part of the second floor, noting that the center puts Pueblo far above many other libraries in the state.

• November 10 - Costa Rica and the Pre-Columbian World - Mayer Center Symposium hosted by the Mayer Center for the Study of Pre-Columbian and Spanish Colonial Art. Presenters are from Yale University, University of Kansas, University of Colorado, Smithsonian Institution, University of North Carolina, and Costa Rica. Symposium will be held in the Sharp Auditorium of the Hamilton Building at the Denver Art Museum, 100 West 14th Avenue Parkway, Denver, CO from 9 am to 5 pm. A cocktail reception and viewing of Pre-Columbian galleries will follow the symposium. Cost $50, optional $20 box lunch. Reduced price for non-Colorado participants, students, and Denver Art Museum members. For more information call 720-913-0156.
• November 2007 - "Legacy: Spain and the United States in the Age of Independence, 1763-1848," an exhibit at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery. The National Portrait Gallery is housed in the Donald W. Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture at 8th and F Streets NW in Washington, DC. The exhibit includes portraits and original documents that explore Spain's role in the American Revolutionary War and the development of the United States; and it illustrates the social, cultural, and political influence of Hispanic culture through 1848. For more information, contact the Smithsonian at 202-633-1000. Exhibit continued until February 10, 2008.

November 29 - December 2 - "Taos and Santa Fe Trip" with a focus on the Spanish Market. Trip sponsored by the Alianza de las Americas support group of the Denver Art Muesum. For details, email Karen Amundson or call 303-734-9823.

If you have any questions please contact the Center: 720.913.0156 phone 720.913.0005 fax    Mayercenter@denverartmuseum.org email
http://mayercenter.denverartmuseum.org website

The newly launched Mayer Center website includes information on the New World Collection as well as upcoming and past Mayer Center events, publications, trips and research opportunities.

Sent by Virginia Sanchez virginia.sanchez@comcast.net

Although it is not generally known today, colonies of New Mexico Indians can be found in Southern California. In the old days, when the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway crossed central New Mexico, it often hired Laguna Pueblo and Navajo men as laborers.

Some of the workers stayed with the railroad, migrated to California and, upon bringing their families out, settled near one another in small enclaves.

During the Depression and World War II, other Lagunas and Navajos followed them in search of employment. They found it comforting to live among their own people, speaking their language and observing familiar customs.

Extraordinary as it might seem, Hispanic New Mexicans, as early as the 1830s, also began to establish colonies in California, which then still belonged to Mexico. Unfortunately, their tales of pioneering lie buried on the margins of history.

In November 1829, an expedition of 31 New Mexicans under Antonio Armijo assembled on the old plaza of Abiquiú overlooking the Chama River. Each man was a trader and had a string of pack horses loaded with New Mexico-made wool blankets and serapes. Their purpose was to blaze an overland trail to California where they hoped to exchange the woven goods for mules.

From Abiquiú, they rode to the San Juan River, then angled across northern Arizona and, after crossing the Mojave Desert, reached San Gabriel mission outside Los Angeles. The trip had taken just a week under three months.

The New Mexicans made a profitable trade and returned home driving a large herd of valuable mules. The success of Armijo’s venture led to other such trading expeditions that left from either Abiquiú or Santa Fe during the 1830s.

The original trail was altered to swing farther north by way of southern Colorado and Utah to avoid the deep canyons of Arizona that had caused severe problems for Armijo and his traders.

The route became known as the Old Spanish Trail because the Escalante expedition of 1776 had traveled the eastern portion as far as central Utah.

Thus was opened the first commercial trade route from New Mexico to the West Coast. All transport was by long pack trains, since the way was too rough to accommodate wagons. Soon colonists would join the traffic.

In the decade of the 1830s, some men who came with the annual caravans elected to remain in California. Notable among them were the brothers José María Chávez and Julián Chávez.

They had been supporters of the New Mexico Gov. Albino Pérez, killed in the 1837 rebellion. Hence, the brothers with their families fled and took refuge among the Californians.

Julián Chávez would remain permanently, settling in what a century later would be called Chávez Ravine inside the city of Los Angeles. His place was on or near the site of Dodger Stadium.

The other brother, José María Chávez, having learned things were quieter in New Mexico, returned. He became a land baron in the Chama Valley, building an adobe mansion on the north edge of Abiquiú.

Georgia O’Keeffe bought the ruins of that house in 1945 for the princely sum of $10. After restoration, it became her main residence.

In 1838, a group of eight New Mexicans led by Lorenzo Trujillo departed for California. They probably rode with the annual caravan for protection and are mentioned as the first settlers in the region of San Bernardino.

From then on, the tide of emigration from New Mexico swelled. A large contingent from Abiquiú, many of part Indian ancestry, joined the original settlers below San Bernardino.

After some shifting about, these people under the leadership of Trujillo moved down to the banks of the Santa Ana River and founded the community of Agua Mansa.

Among the little New Mexico colonies created by new arrivals on the Old Spanish Trail, Agua Mansa became the undisputed centerpiece. Its fields and herds spread for miles along the river, and its reputation attracted many hardy incoming settlers.

The 1900 census revealed that hundreds of California-born residents in that part of the state had parents who were natives of New Mexico.

How odd that in the 19th century, New Mexicans colonized parts of California, while today a reverse flow of Californians is colonizing upper New Mexico.

Incidentally, the Old Spanish Trail was designated a National Historic Trail by the U.S. Congress in 2002 in recognition of its importance to American history.

Historian Marc Simmons is author of numerous books on New Mexico and the Southwest. His column

Sent by fcflores@aol.com  Frank Flores , Ph.D.

M. Kathryn Peralta, J.D. at mkperalta@yahoo.com

By J.S.C.

María Torres y Sandoval, member of a family of one of the first settlers of Lincoln County and who died in Carrizozo, New Mexico in 1910 at a ripe old age used to relate the following Indian episode which took place in the Village of Manzano1, New Mexico in the year 1858.

Her family, which consisted of her parents, José and Trinidad Torres; three brothers, José, Juan and Doroteo; two sisters, Viviana and Isiquia; a widowed aunt whom they called Yilla and herself. The hamlet they lived in was a high, rock dwelling with a loft and two high, small windows barred with cast iron. The one door was built of heavy timber and could be bolted from the inside.

Tilla’s husband had been killed in an Indian uprising. As was the custom, after her husband’s death she moved in with her sister and family of six who ranged in ages from two to twelve years of age.

María was eight at the time and she remembered clearly the tribulations and hardships they endured by the ever-marauding warring Indians.

Her father, a Genizaro2 had been drafted in the U. S. Calvary during the Civil War to pursue his warring brothers and also served as an interpreter. He also participated in the campaigns against the Confederate invasion of New Mexico.

Once in a great while, when the men folk were not on the hot trails and events warranted it, they would go to their homes to replenish the dwindling larder (the high loft) and also cut and haul sufficient firewood for the hearths.

Some would return only to find the ugly truth that their families had been massacred and their homes had been ransacked-from the bin of cornmeal and dried jerky to the milk goats and cows.

The women went about their daily chores with an alert eye for the impending danger. Before the sun had set in the horizon they gathered the children in the one-room dwelling and bolted the heavy door for the night.

One afternoon just about dusk, as related by Mrs. Sandoval to her children and grandchildren, her aunt Yilla was frying sopapillas3 in an earthenware kettle on the fireplace when she saw a fleeting shadow high on the opposite wall from the one with the barred windows. She turned slowly without uttering a sound and saw the hairs of an Indian who was peering through the opening at his intended prey. The women had forgotten to fetch in the house ladder with oaken rungs fastened with rawhide thongs and the Indian had found it to good advantage.

Yilla who was a hardy woman of steel nerves picked up the pot with boiling mutton tallow and edged up to the wall beneath the window. With a mighty heave of her arm she hurled the pot with hot grease in the prowler’s face. As he toppled down with the ladder they could hear his screams of agony as he groped and stumbled away from the house.

When there was absolute silence from the outside they huddled in a corner to eat their meal, after which they put out the fire and tucked the children in for the night. The elders smoked punche4 and stood watch through the night listening for more unwanted visitors.

As the sun was about to rise the next morning there was a hard knock on the door accompanied by a gruff voice. It was José Torres, the man of the house and he had an Indian child in his arms.

In a battle, the Calvary had defeated a band of Indians and taken many squaws and papooses captive, all of who had been taken to soldiers outfits as refugees. The mother of this child had been killed. Torres adopted him with his commandant’s consent.

The child was christened Toodosa. When he grew to manhood he became an expert hunter with bow and arrow and kept the household well supplied with venison and other wild game including bear. In one of those encounters with a grizzly he was mauled and chewed beyond recognition, and he threw in the sponge as a brave hunter. He died before he could be carried to his loved ones.

After Trinidad told the tale to her husband of what had happened the night before, he trailed the tewa5 tracks of the warriors to the rock barn where they kept their two milk goats, an old mule, one cock and a few hens. There in a heap of cornhusks lay the lifeless Indian with bulging eyes and a blistered face. Torres dug a trench behind the barn and buried him without ceremony6. No more Indians appeared, as was to be expected, so it was assumed that the lone Indian was on a scouting foray or else had strayed from the beaten and retreating tribe of Indians.

When the Civil War came to an end, Torres and his family, and his soldier cronies who had already been in these parts during their tour of duty against warring Indians, decided to come and stake their claims in the uninhabited and virgin lands east of the Río Grande and what is now Lincoln County.

Among them were Col. William Brady, Capt. Saturino Baca, Cristobal Chávez, José Chávez y Baca, Aniceto Lueras, John Mack, Don McKinley, Pvt.Ygnacio Niño Ladron de Guevara, Cpl. Placido Niño Ladron de Guevara, Pablo Pino, Sgt.Jesus María Sandoval y Sena, Apolonio Sedillo, Juan Andres Silva, Joseph Swan and others whose names we do not remember. Torres homesteaded below Nogal where he raised his family. He had many heads of cattle and about 500 burros.

María married Jesus María Sandoval y Sena who continued with the U.S. Calvary stationed at Ft. Stanton, New Mexico as mail carrier and scout on mule back with lead pack mule until he sold the property he homesteaded known as Ojo Sandoval Ranch on the Nogal Mesa. He and his family then moved to White Oaks, where he died in 1898. Sgt. Sandoval we might add was a veteran of both the Battles of Valverde and Glorietta Pass.

Viviana died in childhood. Isiquia married José María Vega, a black Mexican from we think Vera Cruz or Michoacan. After Isiquia died, Vega married his niece, Josefa , the daughter of María and Jesus Sandoval. Doroteo married Veneranda Cordova. Juan married Rita Padilla. José married Tiburcia Telles. José Torres lived to a ripe old age. He was 105 when he died.

J.S.C’s final memory of his grandmother was the following. A musician of old Manzano by the name of José Luis composed a song entitled "La India de Cochiti" and after the Indians massacred him and his entire family, another musician wrote "La India de José Luis" in his memory. According to J.S.C. great-grandmother María used to hum these tunes as a lullaby for her small grandchildren.

Bosque-Larios Expedition of 1675

Fernando del Bosque mounted an expedition in 1675 to explore lands north of the Rio Grande, convert the Indians to Christianity, and take possession of the region for Spain. The expedition started April 30, 1675, from Guadalupe near Monclova, Mexico. Bosque proceeded north and crossed the Salado River near Sabinas. From there the expedition continued to the Rio Grande, crossed it, and advanced to San Pablo, which was probably in present-day Edwards County, Texas.

The Bosque-Larios expedition is the first authenticated missionary expedition to cross the Rio Grande from the south at any point below the Pecos River and to travel into Texas. This diary describes the route of the expedition, the names that Bosque assigned to settlements and rivers, the geography of these sites, and the distances between them. Bosque also describes the Native Americans that lived north of the Rio Grande and the wildlife the party encountered, including fish, trees and plants, and buffalo. The party returned to Guadelupe in June 1675. As a result of the reports and recommendations of Bosque and Father Larios, the Spanish established several missions in the Coahuila district to serve Native Americans living near the Rio Grande.

Document Note: The original copy of this diary is in the Archivo de la Secretaría de Gobierno del Estado de Coahuila in Saltillo, Mexico. It was printed in Spanish in Esteban L. Portillo, Apuntes para la Historia Antigua de Coahuila y Texas (1888). This English translation is from Herbert Eugene Bolton, ed., Spanish Exploration in the Southwest, 1542-1706 (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1916).

Other Internet and Reference Sources

Chipman, Donald E. "Bosque, Fernando del." The Handbook of Texas Online. http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/BB/fboaj.html
Sent by John Inclan  fromgalveston@yahoo.com

Attn.: Mr. Tom Gow,
Field Manager, Río Puerco Field Office
U.S. Bureau of Land Management
435 Montaño Road, N.E.
Alburquerque, New Mexico 87107-4935

Ref.: Initial Input to the BLM Resource Management Plan (RMP) update in Placitas,
1. BLM (5000 Acres in Placitas should be a wild horse/wildlife Park)
1. La Mesa HOA is working coalition with WHOA

Dear Mr. Gow:

We are pleased that you are planning to start the Resource Management Plan (RMP) process for the BLM land in Placitas and the Río Puerco. WE at the Hispano Round Table and the American GI Forum have supported WHOA, together with Ms. Lisa López and her daughter Cindy King, from the beginning of their efforts in support of these horses. We assisted with legislation and were instrumental in making legislators aware of this noble cause. At least 50% of these wild horses have Spanish bloodlines and we consider them to be a State Treasure. My own ancestor, Juan de la Peña from Mexico City was among those who brought the Spanish horses to this area as a cavalryman in the expedition Francisco Vázquez de Coronado, as did my first ancestor to settle in New Mexico, Baltazar Francisco de la Peña, who came to New Mexico with the second troop of Diego de Vargas and was a soldier in the Presidio de Santa Fé, therefore, I have a special interest in seeing these bloodlines protected, as do the vast majority of the members of the Hispano Round Table of New Mexico and the American GI Forum, most of whom are descendants of the original Spanish colonists who settled in New Mexico. This wild horse/wildlife park would be a great asset for Placitas, the surrounding communities and the State of New Mexico and would be a huge draw for tourists.

We wholeheartedly support the WHOA Coalition and the State of New Mexico (through their support, and through their representatives' unanimous votes for SM2 in 2006 and SJM08 in 2007) to keep the wild horses on BLM land in Placitas and the other surrounding areas or Placitas. Because we consider these wild horses to be an important and significant part of the history and legacy of New Mexico, We would like to keep the 5,000 acre BLM property in Placitas as a wildlife/wildhorse park.

We will continue to work together with the WHOA Coalition in order to simplify the RMP process, and we encourage you to consider the fact that we need to move forward with this project, for future generations, to preserve this remarkable area, and to protect the precious wild horses who would be able to thrive there.

We have worked effectively together with WHOA in an informal coalition for at least the last three years and we are impressed with the people of Placitas who have been so dedicated to this cause that they hve installed 4.0 miles of fencing (.5 mile more is currently in progress). We are also especially impressed with the commitment and dedication of Ms. Patience O'Dowd who has worked tirelessly on behalf of the horses. This coalition includes most of the residents of Placitas who have contributed their donations ($25,000 in 2 years) and who have been proactive with regard to safety issues also, and who have given of their personal commitment of time, energy and labor, all as volunteers.

With regard to the other concerns, ATV's, mining, target practice, etc., these are not what we would like to see, but we will be working with this coalition to find compromise positions with regard to SAFETY, for human beings and wildlife; our main concern is to keep the Placitas BLM lands as an open space for all to enjoy.

Atentamente,
Juan José Peña, Chairman
Hispano Round Table of New Mexico
State Vice Commander, Past State Commander
American GI Forum of New Mexico 

Juan José Peña, Chairman, Post Office Box 1275, Alburquerque, New Mexico 87103-1275, Tel. 505-242-8085, Cell. 505-220-9139, Fax. 505-764-8527, E-Mail. Jpena71@comcast.net 

African-American

African Burial Ground National Monument

Location New York, New York, USA
Area 0.345 acre (1,400 m²)
Established February 27, 2006
Governing body National Park Service

African Burial Ground National Monument at Duane Street and African Burial Ground Way (Elk Streeet) in Lower Manhattan (New York City) preserves a site containing the remains of over 400 Africans, buried during the 17th and 18th-centuries. The remains were found during the construction of the Foley Square Federal office building in 1991. Construction was halted in time to properly preserve the remains, and a redesign of the building was ordered to provide adequate room for a memorial. On April 19, 1993, the site was designated a National Historic Landmark.

The site is believed to have been the interment location for as many as 15,000 to 20,000 African-American men, women, and children over the years of its use, which stretched from the 17th century to its closure in 1812. New York Congressman is reported to have dubbed the grounds "our Ellis Island".

The site became a source of controversy in the black community of New York City due to the lack of black archaeologists participating in the excavation. In response, control of the site was transferred to African-American Michael Blakey and his team at Howard University.

On February 27, 2006, President George W. Bush signed a proclamation designating the federal land as the 123rd National Monument. It was the 390th unit of the National Park System.

As part of the dedication ceremonies, Elk Street was officially renamed African Burial Ground Way.

Source of information, and for more information: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sent by Dorinda Moreno

NEW YORK, Oct. 22, 2007 - AIM TV Group announced that in a television first, the impact of Afro-Latinos on U.S. Latino culture will be explored in a special themed episode of the nationally
syndicated show, American Latino TV the weekend of Nov. 3-Nov. 4.

American Latino TV, which is seen weekly in over 100 cities across the U.S., Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico is dedicating an entire episode to exploring the African influence on Latino culture, a topic rarely discussed on Spanish-language or mainstream television.

The special episode of American Latino TV will feature an interview with Lucas Silva, A.K.A. Champeta Man, a filmmaker and record label owner of Afro-Colombian music commonly referred to as, "Champeta."  The show also takes viewers on a tour of one fan's shrine to baseball legend and Afro-Latino, Roberto Clemente. Then the show looks at Panamanian Culture through some well-known Panamanians, it also explores the underground culture of Palo Dominicano, a type of music and mystic lifestyle that also celebrates African Roots.

American Latino TV's companion program, LatiNation, which is broadcast in over 90 cities, is celebrating with a special Fiesta Celebration of Latino parades and festivals across the U.S. Taped on location at the Cinco de Mayo Festival in Denver, LatiNation explores the big business behind the popular quinceñera tradition, then heads out west to the annual Viva Las Vegas and Hootenanny Festivals as well as Los Angeles, Calif.'s huge Fiesta Broadway celebration. Also featured on the show are the massive New York and Hartford, Conn. Puerto Rican Day Parades. Lastly, the producers head south to bring viewers some southern hospitality at Houston, Texas's
Party on the Plaza Festival and Orlando, Fla.'s Navidad Jibara Festival.

"Last season we produced a few segments about the roots of Africa in Latino culture and the response from viewers was so positive we wanted to do an entire episode dedicated to exploring that relationship. It's another example of our shows covering stories that are often ignored," said Renzo Devia, Supervising Producer and President of AIM TV's Maximas Productions.

AMERICAN LATINO TV:
Los Angeles - KABC Saturday nights @ 1AM / Sundays @ 4PM (check listings)
New York - WWOR My 9 Sundays @ 4PM
Chicago - WPWR My 50 Saturdays @ 5:30PM
Go to www.AmericanLatino.tv/wheretowatch for a complete listing on where to watch.
LATINATION:
o Los Angeles- KCAL 9 Saturday nights at 12:30AM
o New York - WWOR My 9 Sundays @ 4:30PM
o Chicago - WPWR My 50 Saturdays @ 5PM
Go to www.LatiNation.tv/wheretowatch for more cities and show times

CONTACT: Margarita Cheng / Marketing Manager
AIM Tell-A-Vision Group / Tel: (212) 627.3192 x18
E-mail: Margarita@AIMTVGroup.com  / Web: www.AIMTVGroup.com 

Sent by Alva Moore Stevenson astevens@library.ucla.edu

Musicians revive colorblind roots
Watson is first black up for Cajun award
Herman Fuselier 
hfuselier@theadvertiser.com 

During a high school speech project in his native Texas, Cedric Watson tried to explain his Creole roots, his fiddle obsession and passion for French music from Louisiana. The class responded with laughter and a racial slur. 

As a teen, Jamie Bergeron drew curious stares when he drove around Acadia Parish with his lowrider truck's stereo blasting an oddball mix of Cajun legend Aldus Roger, rap, zydeco giant Beau Jocque and more. 

Now these cultural rebels have become history makers. Watson, a member of the Pine Leaf Boys, is the first black to be nominated for Fiddler and Male Vocalist of the Year honors from the Cajun French Music Association. Winners of these Grammy-style trophies, called Le Cajun awards, will be announced in ceremonies Friday night at the Heymann Performing Arts Center. 

Photo: photo/P.C. Piazza
Cedric Watson, first black nominated for honors from the Cajun French Music Association. 

Bergeron and his group, the Kickin' Cajuns, make history as the first all-white band to play the Original Southwest Louisiana Zydeco Music Festival in Plaisance. The festival celebrates its 25th anniversary Sept. 1. 

Watson and Bergeron are part of an emerging color blindness that young artists are bringing into local music scenes hardened by generations of segregation, racism and stylistic differences. The irony is that Cajun music and zydeco evolved from a mixture of races, cultures and musical styles. 

Watson, 24, said his nominations made him reflect on the pioneers. 
"When I heard about it, I was surprised because so many black Creoles have set the ground (work) for Louisiana French music, ever since day one when Douglas Bellard and Amédé Ardoin made the first recordings," said Watson in an e-mail from Europe, where the Pine Leaf Boys are touring. "The style that they recorded was the old Creole style of their people. After that, it was always imitated to some extent. 
"Not one person has been able to record those same songs the way that they did. So, the first thing I could think was, it's about time someone black is going to be recognized for their influence on Cajun music." 

Bergeron, 32, is likewise excited about his cultural first. "I'm pumped," he said about the Zydeco Festival appearance. "I take it as an honor and compliment. "We've done some zydeco festivals before where we were the only Cajun band. We were taken in like everybody else." 

Despite these racial firsts, the roots of Cajun music and zydeco can be traced back to a black-white duo whose influence lives on in a new millennium. In the 1920s and '30s, black Creole accordionist Amédé Ardoin and white Cajun fiddler Dennis McGee recorded the Eunice Two Step, Midland Two Step and other standards that still are being imitated today. 

The duo was wildly popular until Ardoin was brutally beaten for wiping his brow with a white woman's handkerchief. He was committed to a mental hospital in Pineville where he is believed to be buried in an unmarked grave. 

White and black French music continued to share similar songs and styles until World War II. That's when Creole transplants, working in Houston and its oil-rich surrounding area, blended urban blues into rural French songs, and zydeco was born. 
Although it later picked up some country and rock 'n' roll flavorings, Cajun music remained close to its traditional waltzes, two-steps and French lyrics. Blues and R&B squeezed nearly all of the French and fiddle from zydeco, which even has strong elements of rap and hip hop today. 

Zydeco's contemporary, ad-lib feel has tugged on the ears of young whites, including Bergeron and Travis Matte, who draw large followings with a mix of zydeco, Cajun, country and rock. Lena Charles, director of the Zydeco Festival for the past four years, noticed that crossover appeal and recruited Bergeron for the festival. 
Charles feels the inclusion of an all-white band doesn't go against the festival's mission of preserving zydeco music and highlighting Creole artists. 
"It's just enhancing the effectiveness of how this culture has been contagious," Charles said. "It crosses lines. It transcends. 

"The diversity of culture has grown over the years at the festival. I really believe the mixture (of people) is what kept us alive over 25 years. Jamie was the right mix for us. It was the right time. It's all about timing." 

Meanwhile, few blacks have entered Cajun music, although young artists like Geno Delafose, Dexter Ardoin and Jeffrey Broussard maintain their family's roots in the old French style. 

In 1995, the Cajun French Music Association recognized the California Cajun Orchestra with its first Prix Dehors de Nous (one outside of us) honor, awarded to bands outside of Louisiana. The late Danny Poullard, a black Creole born in Eunice, was the band's leader. 

Larry Miller of Iota, a CFMA charter member, said Watson is the first black to be nominated in the high-profile Male Vocalist and Fiddler of the Year categories. The CFMA maintains strict guidelines that 75 percent of nominated CDs must be in French for Le Cajun consideration. 

Miller said Watson and the Pine Leaf Boys easily qualify. The energy and commitment to the French language of this young band, the members of which are in their early 20s, has opened more doors. 

Watson and Les Amis Creole, a trio that includes black musicians Ed Poullard and James Adams, are one of nine nominees in the CFMA's catch-all, People's Choice Award. Goldman Thibodeaux, a Creole musician from Lawtell, is also nominated. 


Sent by Mrremap1

The Slaves of Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico

Featuring the slave Miguel de Gracia

By Crispin Rendon, Dahlia Guajardo Palacios and Tony Garcia

This article is the first part of a project we have undertaken that attempts to identify all the slaves found on the CD entitled "Protocolos del Archivo Histórico de Monterrey Nuevo León México Versión, La Sociedad Genealogica de Norte Mexico, http://www.genealogia.org.mx. Protocolos are books of notary public records (assorted legal documents). The records on this CD span the time from September 20, 1596 to November 30, 1893 of which 320 of the 7,520 documents found on the CD referred to slavery. One of the authors (Crispin) has found a slave and slave owners in his family tree. This may explain his interest in the subject of slavery in Mexico, a subject that we do not hear much about. Family histories are quick to point out and gush over founding fathers, conquistadors, royalty and such, no harm in once again honoring them, but what of the forgotten humble slaves. Here is a niche, slavery in Mexico, that begs for an audience. Their stories add color to both our history and family histories. We warn you that some of these records are evocative, so you may not want to read further.

First something about the methods used to find our slaves. The CD consists all the records in one gigantic document. That one document was converted into a 7,520 record database. Those records where queried for all records that contained the words esclavo, esclava, Negro, Negra, Mulato, Mulata and from that subset a new slave database was created. Negro, Negra, Mulato and Mulata where included in the query to capture the few records that did not use the word esclavo or esclava but clearly involved the sale of people. Each record in the slave database was examined and any not referring to slavery were removed leaving a total of 320 slave records. Identifying individual slaves in many of these records is challenging because so many times they are unnamed or only a first name is given. We chose to start this series with one slave, Miguel de Gracia, because he was well identified in the records. His records where divided amongst the authors and translated into English. Recognizing the difficulty of translating Spanish to English with fidelity, especially with this sensitive and archaic material, while we have chosen to present our English translation version only without including the Spanish version, we encourage the reader make a comparison to the Spanish version on the CD. We could have just omitted the translation too, and instead interpreted the records, but think that each reader will come away with more by making his or her own interpretations of the whole documents.

The documents follow in chronological order after this brief outline. In the first document we discover the mulatto slave Miguel de Gracia was born in 1676-7 in Guadalajara, Jalisco in the home of his owner Jeronima Cueva. She donates him to the convent of Santa Maria de Garcia in Guadalajara to work as a Sexton at the very young age of 2 or 3. The second document created 40 years later in Mazapil, Nueva Galicia has the nuns of the convent selling him to Jose Miranda Villa Y Zan a retired royal court judge and mine owner. The third document, two years later has him being sold to Sergeant Mayor Antonio Lopez de Villegas, a mine owner from Monterrey. The fourth document, four years later has him in the will of Antonio Lopez de Villegas as part of the estate. The fifth document, two years later has him auctioned off to Jose Lorenzo Hoyos Y Solar. The sixth and final document, 33 years later is the will of Jose Lorenzo Hoyos Y Solar, in which he calls for his slaves to be freed if his estate has enough money. If Miguel were still alive at that point in time, he would be about 84 years old.

Volume: 11. File: 1. Folio: 200. No. 75, Doña Jeronima de La Cueva, widow, citizen of the City, makes a donation (after her death) to the convent of nuns of Santa Maria de Gracia, from this City, of (a young male mulatto, my slave, that was born in my house, named Miguel de Gracia, that today may be two or three years old, more or less, so that he may serve in the office as a Sexton of the church and provide duties as necessary to occupy him.). The Priest and administrator of the cathedral and convent, Simon Conejero Ruiz, accepted the donation. Before Diego de La Parra, Licensed Public Notary. The witnesses were Lawyer and Priest Diego de Los Rios, signatories for the grantor; Simon Conejero Ruiz and the Lawyer and Priest Juan Martinez Gomez. Guadalajara, November 14,1679.

Volume: 11. File: 1. Folio: 202. No. 76, Antonio de Oliden, Administrator of the Hacienda de San Juan de Los Cedros, Jurisdiction of the mines of San Gregorio, Mazapil, Nueva Galicia, with the power given him by Captain Bernardo Apolinar de Miranda Villa Zan, City councilman of Guadalajara, (to whom the nuns of the convent of Santa Maria de Gracia conferred), the sale to doctor Jose de Miranda Villa Y Zan, of Council S.M., a retired Judge from the Royal Court of Nueva Galicia, an enslaved mulatto of this convent, named Miguel de Gracia, donated by Doña Jeronima de La Cueva, citizen of the City, and that he is about forty two years old, for 200 pesos in reales. Included is the text of the license for the sale, given by Fray Manuel de Mimbela, Bishop of Guadalajara, as the power, granted before Antonio de Ayala Natera, Notary Public of S.M. and which the witnesses signed, Lawyer Francisco Sotomayor, Bachelor Degreed Juan Antonio Jimenez and Jose de Lambaren, and the nuns of Luisa de San Pedro, Prioress; Jacinta de San Cayetano, under-prioress; Maria de La Encarnacion, Josefa de San Antonio, Maria de Cristo, Petronila de San Jeronimo, Maria de La Asuncion, Beatriz de San Jacinto, Magdalena del Espiritu Santo, Josefa Javiera San Bernardo, Manuela de San Pedro, Catarina de San Juan, Teresa de Jesus, Juliana de Jesus; teacher of novices, before Maria de la Trinidad, Secretary, before Ignacio Cayetano Briceño, Notary Public. Witnesses; Carlos de Lomas, (vicar and ecclesiastic judge and Priest of said property.), Ignacio de Oliden and Felipe de La Cerda. Hacienda de San Juan de los Cedros, November 15, 1719

Volume: 11. File: 1. Folio: 207. No. 77, Doctor Jose de Miranda Villa Y Zan, of the Council of S.M. and the oldest high court judge of the royal court of Guadalajara, sells to Sergeant Mayor Antonio Lopez de Villegas, citizen of Monterrey and owner of properties of mines and cattles in his jurisdiction, a mulatto named Miguel de Gracia, 30 to 40 years of age, who was purchased by Antonio de Oliden because he can (for the price of one hundred fifty quintals of greta). Before Ignacio Cayetano Briceño, Royal Notary Public. Witnesses; Bachelor Carlos de Lomas, vicar and ecclesiastic judge and Priest of said property, Ignacio de Oliden and Felipe de la Cerda. Hacienda de San Juan of the Cedros, Jurisdiction of the Mazapil, October 14, 1721

Volume: 11. File: 1. Folio: 340. No. 134, Will of Sergeant Mayor Antonio Lopez de Villegas, taken by attorney Marco Gonzalez Hidalgo Y Maya, priest and rector of the Real de Minas of San Gregorio, Mazapil, examiner of curates and confessor of the diocese in virtue of his powers. Dated in Monterrey on August 9^th this year and whose text is inserted. Declares that he wants to be buried in the parochial of this City, at the altar of San Miguel, dressed in the habit of San Francisco of whose order I profess, with high mass and vigil of the body; a novena in the parish, another one at San Francisco and another sung in Mazapil. Declares that he was a native of the valley of Toranzo, Mountains of Burgos: legitimate son of Pedro Lopez and Ana de Villegas Y Castañeda (deceased for many years in these parts). That he was married in first nuptials with Doña Maria Gonzalez Hidalgo, deceased in February of 1721, who did not have children and of who I left as heir. Estate: two houses with two floors (one near the other, with a street between, making a corner with the plaza) and they are made up of eleven rooms (with a shrine for the saints and other furniture inside). The house in the middle of the block of the street that runs by the spring, contiguous to the foundation to pay for masses for lawyer Ventura Mendez Tovar, and is made up of twelve rooms, (with a corridor of lime and stone, with its patio and orchard that borders on the other street). A silver extractor hacienda, with two furnaces, one powered by water and another by horse, to turn the wheel, and its houses, all of lime and stone, on the water channels, of this City, immediate to the bridges. The Hacienda de Mamulique, with its places with water and summer pastures, with houses (in good shape, with living quarters and galleries) and a vineyard, with cattle, horses and mules. The Hacienda of San Luis, in Sabinas, of 4 furnaces, 2 sharpening vessels, with their implements, and a house of 9 rooms. The mine of San Miguel, on the hill of Our Lady of San Juan, San Pedro de Boca de Leones, and in Nuestra Senora de Dolores. The mine of San Antonio, in the hill of Las Mitras, plus others, according to instruments. Twelve slaves: Antonio de la Trinidad and Teresa de la Cruz, his wife, blacks; Isabel Trinidad, Juan de los Santos, Bernardo, Antonio, Blas, Antonio, Nicolasa Maria, Jose Quintin de los Dolores and Josefa Manuela, their children; Juan Cadena and Miguel de Gracia, mulattos, and Andres de Lorza, (free, old and crippled, without leaving the hacienda that sustains him); what they owe him, according to the accounts book, (because of himself and father Ignacio Treviño, Director that was of the School of this city); two houses in San Luis Potosi and the hill of San Pedro (where he had smelting property); the site of this and a cistern; the summer pastures of San Agustin de la Salada, with purchase from Doña Teresa de Medina, for 2,600 pesos. Declares that on the property of Santa Catarina and its aggregates San Roque and San Martin, etc., property set aside for masses for the arrangement of the grantor prevailed (Lawyer Gonzalez Hidalgo), and today has as I latest possessor the Bachelor Bartolome Jose Gonzalez Hidalgo, Priest, (my brother), with the rent of 2,000 pesos of principal. On the haciendas of Doña Maria declares to have bequeathed taxes of 1,000 pesos each, for annual celebrations and masses to San Jose, (on the altar ordered in the church of San Francisco; and another one in the one of San Miguel, the parochial one). Declares is owed 4,500 pesos from the convent of San Francisco, of San Luis Potosi, of which they owe 225 pesos for a year of rent; and 1,300 pesos to the convent of San Agustin, of the same City, that they also owe, 4,000 pesos to Don Alonso Garcia Cuello, of which they are paying five percent interest. Declares to have accounts with the Lawyer Marcos Gonzalez Hidalgo, (my father, who as of the time was a secular trader like later), of which 16 matched mules remained, on the hacienda, to carry metals, and 500 breeding goats; ordered delivered. Declares that of 4,755 pesos 4 reales he owes to the estate of Don Luis Sanz de Tagle, Marques de Altamira, there has been paid to Don Pedro de la Fuentes Y Campos 1,102, in vaccinated cattle, as authorized by Don Francisco Valdivieso. That some payments of 3 thousand and so many have also been made that was owed to Don Juan Garcia de Pruneda, as authorized by General Don Luis, his father. Declares that I, Lopez de Villegas was exonerated of the commitment of payment of 4,000 pesos of foundation to pay of massed founded by its wife for the houses of General Martin de Mendiondo and of which is chaplain the Lawyer Buena Ventura Mendez Tovar, to whose principal I add the Hacienda of Santa Fe, of Boca de Leones, according to the affidavits of 24 of March of 1716, made before Francisco de Mier Noriega, Notary public and Town officer. Declares that, in life, they donated to the Bachelor Bartolome Gonzalez Hidalgo, (for having brought her up since childhood), one young black girl, Isabel de la Trinidad. Executor and heir the grantor. Before Cristobal Garcia, Judge. Witnesses, Jose de Arriaga, Diego de Aleman and Jose Lazcano. In attendance, Antonio de Guzman and Jose Ramon de Arredondo. Monterrey, February 11, 1725

Volume: 11. File: 1. Folio: 212. No. 78, Approval of the closing of the auction made in favor of Jose Lorenzo de Hoyos Y Solar, citizen and merchant of this City, a black mulatto named Miguel de Gracia, slave, pertaining to the goods of Sergeant Mayor Antonio Lopez de Villegas, deceased, citizen who was of this City and which is being auction off by Bachelor Marcos Gonzalez Hidalgo, their executor, and by Captain Bartolome Lopez de Meza, his proxy. The closing was voiced by Fabian, the town crier and auctioneer, Spaniard with a small amount of Indian blood, in Castilian language, for 180 pesos. Before Sergeant Mayor Pedro de Elizondo, General Lieutenant by appointment of Governor Don Juan de Arriaga Y Brambila. Witnesses Diego Aleman and Salvador Canales. Monterrey, November 22, 1727.

MONTERREY 26/Aug/1760 Volume: 16. File: 1. Folio: 156 NOT 61, Will of the General Jose Lorenzo de Solar Hoyos and Piedra, citizen of this City, legitimate son of Don Santiago de Hoyos and Doña Antonia of Solar Rador, citizens who were from the settlement of Loredo "capital of the four seas Cantabrico, and Archbishopric of Burgos, kingdom of Castile, of where I am from and my parents glory be there also". Declares to have communicated to Don Alejandro de Uro Y Campa, "things concerning the unloading of my conscience". Arranges to be buried in the parish of this City shrouded in the habit of San Francisco. Declares that he was married with Doña Manuela Ignacia de Eca Y Muzquiz (says "of Ca Y Muzquiz) Guajardo, deceased. Children: Jose Lorenzo, "who died at age of nine months", and Doña Maria Ignacia, "whom I married to Don Jose Ortiz de Oteo, who is deceased...Doña Maria Ignacia died without succession and during my life I attended her with all my love being she was my only daughter, only my death will make my soul feel better"; thus like the earth that protect their titles and the cattle, cash account etc. Declares also to be the goods of his wife, by testamentary disposition. Executor: Alejandro de Uro and Campa, Francisco Antonio de Uro and Campa and Jose Ignacio de Treviño. Declares that the remaining goods be applied for the good of his soul, those of their parents and his daughter. Arranges that after his death, asks for license so that in the church of San Francisco of this City, has an altar built and "to place an image of the very miraculous Very Holy Christ de Burgos, leaves an additional thousand pesos, positions in safe property to pay 5 1/2 annual interest" annually sings to his divine Majesty a mass on Friday before Dolores ", with vespers and sermon. If not admitted by the province of San Francisco of Zacatecas, arranges that it be asked for it to be erected in the parish of Salinas. He leaves 100 masses, "for all the souls of those who he has dealt with or contracted with and his servants". He leaves 300 masses for his soul and the ones for his wife and daughter. He arranges for 500 pesos sent to each one of its siblings, Felipe and Maria Buenaventura de Hoyos, married in the villa de Laredo (sic. by Loredo) arranges on his death that freedom be given to Cipriano and Maria Nicolasa, his slaves, "for the love whereupon they have served me". To Maria Nicolasa he leaves 100 pesos "so that with it they can find a new life". He also leaves an average size lot to built a hut "or another moderate lot to live on, with the condition that it can not be sold, but that they and their children live there". Other half of the lot, with another hut, he leaves to Maria Quinteria Hernandez, with other one hundred pesos, under equal condition "for having served me and my wife like that, while staying with". Arranges that the day of his burial 50 pesos is distributed "to the shamefaced poor men, two pesos each one". Requests that the rest of the slaves "are taken care of with love and charity and that if they will be sold, only at a moderate price, having had them for some time I would like them to be freed by their mother or another person who can free them". Comands that if to fulfill his will it is not be necessary to sell the slaves, "I give them freedom... I caution them to all remember to entrust God and that they also remember to commit to the Holy Mother to whom he orders devotion in his house as has been observed, to say every night the holy rosary, that is my will". 

Before the General Antonio de Urresti, "Greater Bailiff of Santo Oficio and his Notary; Sergeant Mayor of the Military services of this Kingdom and Lieutenant of Governor and Commander in chief ". Witnesses, Antonio Marco de Cossio, Juan Ignacio Berridi, Jose Salvador Lozano, Pedro Arguinarena and Bartolome de las Serna. In attendance Pedro Quiros Y Sanchez and Andres de Goicochea.

Dairy Farmer Backs Off California State Park
Story by Margaret Foster / Sept. 17, 2007
www.preservationonline.org

A California state park will remain stench-free for now, thanks to a deal between the state and a farmer who planned a 12,000-head dairy farm near Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park, a town African Americans founded a century ago.

The state agreed on Sept. 11 to pay Samuel Etchegaray $3.5 million for his promise to back off on a dairy farm in Earlimart, Calif., north of Bakersfield.

"I am encouraged by the [Gov. Schwartzenegger] Administration's full-court press this past week to have a tentative agreement signed; however, I have long stated that the negotiations for the purchase of the development rights and my legislation were separate," Wilmer Amina Carter (D-Rialto), who wrote a bill to create a 2.5-mile buffer zone around the park, said in a statement. "Now that the immediate threat of the mega dairies next to the park is no longer imminent, I will hold off sending the bill to the Governor's desk, which will allow time for us to work together to reach a permanent solution for the entire park."

Former Kentucky slave Allen Allensworth (1842-1914), the U.S. military's highest-ranking African American, founded the town in 1908, but lack of water emptied most of its buildings in the 1920s. The 1,000-acre state park opened in 1976 and receives more than 10,000 visitors each year.

"This was just a first step in a move to protect the park," says Victor Carter, president of the nonprofit Friends of Allensworth. "I applaud them for what they did, but I still have hopes that the bill will be signed."

Meanwhile, in Idaho, Jerome County commissioners will soon vote on a proposal to build a massive feedlot downwind of Minidoka Internment Camp, a former Japanese-American internment camp that is now a National Park.

"The powerful odors created by thousands of animals, plus the dust, pests and potential airborne pathogens, will severely degrade the visitor experience at Minidoka and rob us of the opportunity to explore an important piece of our shared American heritage," wrote Richard Moe, president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, in an Aug. 16 editorial in the Idaho Statesman.

Because of the proposed concentrated animal feeding operation, in June the National Trust named Minidoka one of America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places.

© Preservation Magazine | Contact us at: preservation@nthp.org

Art first, ethnicity second Native artists embrace multicultural world

Richard Nilsen
The Arizona Republic, Sept. 30, 2007 

Artist Fritz Scholder once spoke to a group of young Native American students. 
"Stop painting Indians," he told them.  Galleries were full of "traditional" Native American art, and Scholder, who had made a national reputation by painting Indians, felt stereotyped by the label, imprisoned by the expectations of being an "Indian artist." 

"I remember Fritz talking about being an artist before being an Indian artist," Phoenix artist Steve Yazzie said.  Scholder didn't want to be ghettoized in a limiting category. 

Yazzie and 14 other contemporary artists of mixed Native/non-Native backgrounds from the United States, Canada and Mexico make up a new show at the Heard Museum that looks at the way a younger generation of Indians have transcended the issues Scholder felt diminished by.

"Remix: New Modernities in a Post-Indian World" demonstrates the way some Native Americans can, indeed, define themselves as artists first.

That definition is part of a sea change in culture over the past 10 years. Where once Native American artists felt compelled to define themselves against the mainstream, mostly White, culture, they now feel free to engage as part of the global - mostly non-White - culture. Where before they drew a line of exclusivity, they now open up to an inclusive diversity. It's a Tiger Woods world. 

It's what writer Eleanor Heartney, in the catalog that accompanies the show, calls the "Age of Hybridity." 

"These artists represent an inescapable reality of contemporary life, namely the hybrid nature of all identity," she says. "The artists in 'Remix' favor a more promiscuous approach to art and identity. They express a fluid sense of identity, which affirms that there is no such thing as ethnic purity."

Yazzie, for instance, is Navajo and Laguna on his father's side, French, Welsh and Hungarian on his mother's.  "I've come to terms with being in the middle and being mixed race," he said. "That's what my work for 'Remix' is all about."

Scholder, who died in 2005, faced the same issue a decade ago. He was Luiseño on his mother's side and German-American on his father's. When his art left behind the Indian subject matter for which he became famous, he briefly proclaimed himself to be a "German artist," although that was no more descriptive of his work than "Indian."

Heard Museum curator Joe Baker is Delaware, Dutch and English. "That's in terms of blood," he said. "But I have many other influences beyond genetic. And that's the point of this exhibition. We are all, in today's world, products of hybridized experience."  

'Identity politics'
Times have changed. It used to be that Native American artists emphasized the separateness of their Indianness. 

In the 1980s and '90s, Native American political activism tended to focus on the question of authenticity - who was really an Indian - and the assertion of Native political rights. The political commitment of those artists and activists made the current generation's wider engagement possible.

"We shouldn't bash identity politics too much," Heartney said. "It was useful at the time in reminding us that art isn't universal and there's not a single standard of quality. It was useful for that, but it rigidified and became another thing. I remember a performance by (artist) James Luna (Luiseño), who said, 'I don't want to be an Indian anymore.' "

(Luna is one of the contemporary artists whose work addresses many things, not just Native identity. It's about what he calls "hightechpostmodernsurrealisticsubculture.") 

"These artists participate in the artistic dialogues of the larger culture," Heartney said. "Not just rediscovering their Native roots, but very much attuned to the larger debates in the art world."

Shifting values
With the Native Arts and Crafts Act of 1990, Congress meant to give Native Americans a means to defend "the tradition that as an Indian you have significant rights and privileges, a kind of tribal copyright, unwritten but there by way of inheritance," said Gerald McMaster, one of the curators of the show and curator of Canadian Art at the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto. "But that doesn't translate to contemporary art. Under the old way of looking at it, it was no longer a discussion about art, but about how you were defined as a Native artist."

That is, about whether you could legitimately claim to be Indian. The question of the art became secondary.  It is refreshing, he says, that with such artists as those in "Remix," "the issue of Indianness is not the Number 1 question for them. They're interested in other things."

For McMaster, "the making of an identity is a creative act of interpreting, sifting and generating ideas and experiences for both the artist and all members of the community."  He is a full-blooded Cree but now is a citizen of the Blackfoot Nation: "As if I were born German but moved to Indonesia," said McMaster, who calls himself a "mutant Ninja-Injun."  "I've been an urban Indian since the age of 9."  He's also part of the Hybrid Planet. 

"I'm comfortable with the 'world out there,' " McMaster said. "Identity is very interesting, and we realize that our identities shift. There is the 'Capital I' identity, and that's what we present to the world, but there are a lot of other I's in there, too - father, male, Cree, husband, human."  These aren't exclusive identities, but overlapping circles in a Venn diagram.    "Sometimes I just want to be a father," he said. 

International reach
These artists are just as aware of what's happening in Berlin or Prague as what's happening in Santa Fe.  "We're looking for international exposure," Yazzie said, "so I don't think Santa Fe is going to work for me." 

Commercial galleries naturally want to sell work, he acknowledges, so, perhaps museums are the better venue for art that isn't meant as commodity. 

Yazzie, who just returned from London, says he has joined a new collective, called "Post Commodity," with Cherokee artist Kade Twist and video artist Nathan Young (Pawnee/Delaware/Kiowa). 

"We went to the Czech Republic," Yazzie said, "and it was an interesting experience. We were near the border with Austria and doing an installation in a small village that had to do with border issues, like that the ones we have here with Mexican immigration and how the Tohono O'odham nation (straddles) the border in southern Arizona."

Questions of immigration and borders aren't just a U.S. issue, but something that resonates around the world.

"This summer I was in Venice for the Biennale," McMaster said, "and last month at Documenta in Germany. (The Biennale and Documenta are two of the world's biggest showcases for contemporary art.) "What is exciting is the world that is coming, what is being created everywhere in the world today.

"What I'm seeing from these countries, even like China, is so much excitement coming out of there, or Istanbul. It's all influenced by what is going on in the world, in the new media."

"Remix" is a joint venture between the Heard and the George Gustav Heye Center in New York, which is part National Museum of the American Indian. The show will travel to New York after it closes in Phoenix. 

"These artists all have deeply held opinions, world views formed at the intersection of traditional and Postmodern expression, and an urgency to find media and language to express complex ideas," said John Haworth, director of public programs at the Heye Center

"Their work speaks about geographic, generational, cultural and psychological boundaries. They explore the mix of high and low, popular and fine, historic and contemporary, communal and universal."

Baker, the Heard curator emphasizes the inclusiveness of this new direction.  "The human race is fascinating, complex and interesting, and I think our diversity is a fact of life and in interesting fact of life," Baker said. "I'm curious about the world and my expectation of others is that they would share that curiosity."

Reach the reporter at richard.nilsen@arizonarepublic.com  or (602) 444-8823
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/ae/articles/0930heard0930.html

Sent by Dorinda Moreno dorindamoreno@comcast.net 

After my 2 July column on the 1880-1940 U.S. Indian censuses at Ancestry.com, I received many questions about tracing elusive American Indian ancestry. While I can't answer each of you personally, the basic steps and tips below should get you started.

Perhaps you have a family legend that Great-great-grandma Pearl had Indian blood. Usually the story doesn't share a clue whether that blood is from her maternal or paternal side. It's important to note that a specific tribe will not have a master index of anyone who ever had that Indian blood. Nor will the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). There is no "master index." So, how do you go about solving this mystery?

1. Get back to the basics. Most basic research steps apply to any ethnic background. Take classes, read a guidebook, and attend genealogical society educational meetings. Genealogy software programs such as Family Tree Maker 2008 are a boon to keeping track of family details.

2. Work from the present to the past. Begin by contacting your immediate and extended family. You never know who might have family pictures and papers, or know of others who do. You will be linking each generation back in time and proving the connections. Check Ancestry, other online sources, and library catalogs to see if someone has done previous research on parts of your family. Those Indian censuses that Ancestry has posted should be checked for ancestral non-Native American surnames in case you find some possible ties to check further.

3. Place your ancestors in a time and place. Determine this via the records that all family historians use. Include censuses; obituaries; military pension, service, and draft records; and records relating to birth, marriage, and death.

4. When you place your ancestors in specific geographic areas, read a state, county, or town history. What Indian tribes were in that place at that time? Histories also tell of the forced removal of Indians, some to very distant locations. There may be some separate published histories of those tribes that refer to the place where they migrated from.

5. Check for church records. A marriage, burial, or christening entry might yield a special notation that gives a clue to Indian heritage. For each piece of information or copy of a record you obtain, be sure to add a notation that tells you where it came from, (e.g., Aunt Susie Griffin, Ancestry.com, Green County Courthouse, Family History Library, or some other place/person). Add the book, page, microfilm #, or other identifying information in case you or others need to double check that item.

6. Work on the entire family in each generation. You might find that four sisters and one brother were always listed as white. BUT the second brother or a cousin is listed as "I," "In," or even as black or mulatto on the 1900 and 1910 federal censuses. What did that branch of the family know? Do any family members appear on the special Indian schedules for these years? Check for all related surnames in Native American censuses.

7. Did they live within an Irish, Swedish, German, African American, or other community? They may never be listed as Indian. Perhaps they hid that heritage because they were frightened or knew that housing and jobs were more difficult to obtain if their Indian heritage was known. People that did not live as part of an organized group of Indians are often more difficult to trace. The BIA has not had interaction with every group of Indians.

8. There are many records specific to North American Indians that may apply if you can make some family connections to a tribe that had interaction with the federal government. Check libraries and bookstores for guides and online resources. Here are a few places to start:

• The Source: A Guidebook to American Genealogy, rev. 3rd edition, Chapter 19, Native American Research, by Curt B. Witcher, MLS, FUGA, FIGS, and George J. Nixon (Ancestry, 2006.)
• Guide to Records in the National Archives of the United States Relating to American Indians. (National Archives and Records Service, 1981.)
• Native American Genealogical Sourcebook. (Gale Research, 1995, out of print).
• The Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico (Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of Ethnology, out of print.)
• How to Research American Indian Blood Lines: A Manual on Indian Genealogical Research. (Heritage Quest, 1987.)
• Records of the Department of Indian Affairs at Library and Archives Canada: A Source for Genealogical Research. 2nd edition. (Ontario Genealogical Society, 2004)

Earlier Records
If you have proof or even a suspicion that your Indian connection is before many written records exist, the diaries of other area residents, records of religious missionaries, area histories, and town records are just some of the possible items to consult. Don't forget that Indians were the original settlers and later settlers encroached on their space. Neither the Bureau of Indian Affairs nor its predecessors were always able to record information about Indians. A christening or marriage entry in church records might mention the words "Indian," "Native," or other term. The local pastor, storekeeper, or other person might have kept a diary and mentioned the Indians in an area. Determine what missionaries were in the area, whether they were connected to a specific denomination, and where possible records such as diaries, christening, marriage, and correspondence are located today.

One last tip--spelling does not count in genealogy. Stand up and shout this to the world. You will find many variations in both the Indian and other name spellings. Indexes and transcriptions of records may not have been clearly read by the indexer.

Too often genealogists feel stymied by a search for a newly discovered ethnic heritage. Keep this is mind: Research is research. Learn the basics, search all records, and learn about the other records that pertain to that heritage whether it is Indian, Norwegian, or Polish.

Paula Stuart-Warren, CG, a Minnesota resident is a professional genealogist, consultant, writer, and lecturer who is frequently on the road. She coordinates the intermediate course, American Records & Research, at the annual Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy. She writes for several periodicals including Ancestry Magazine. Comments and additions to her columns will reach her at PaulaStuartWarren@gmail.com but she regrets that she is unable to answer individual genealogical research inquiries due to the volume of requests. From time to time, comments from readers may be quoted in her writings. Your name will not be used, but your place of residence might be listed (i.e., Casa Grande, Arizona).

• 13 October 2007, Germantown, Tennessee
  Tennessee Genealogical Society Fall Seminar
• 7-11 January 2008, Salt Lake City, Utah
  Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy, Utah Genealogical Association
•  

TEXAS 

Folklore in Genealogy Research  
Los BexarenosMeetings
November 3, 2007 Meeting  

Presented by Alonso M Perales, Fulbright Scholar in Applied Linguistics                   

Music and songs will be presented as well as folktales of the  Spanish colonial period. Retired after 35 years with the San Antonio ISD. Author of La Lechuza, Cuentos  de mi Barrio published by the Artes Publicas Press, University  of Houston.

Meeting of Los BexarenosMeetings are normally held at 9:30 a.m. every first Saturday of the month       on the first floor, Main Auditorium, of the San Antonio Public Library,       600 Soledad Street, San Antonio, Texas. Visitors are always welcome to attend.  Membership is not required.  Speakers at the meetings are people       with a passion for history, professional historians, genealogists, archaeologists and researchers.                   

Sent by Larry Kirpatrick lindio2@hotmail.com

Gloria Villa Cadena, 
Texas historian, died on October 9, 2007. She was 80. 

The descendant of early Texas empresarios, Gloria was born in San Antonio on December 10, 1926 to Maria Rebecca Urcullu Villa and Nicanor A. Villa, who immigrated during the Mexican Revolution. She married Robert A. Galvan, an Army Air Corps lieutenant, in 1944. After his death in 1956, she raised their eight children alone until she married Carlos C. Cadena in 1969. With her marriage to Carlos came an additional daughter, Tracy. Gracious, sophisticated, and elegant, she raised her children with an iron will and a warm heart. Her experiences as a young widow in the pre-Civil Rights and pre-women's movement of the '50s and '60s led her to insist, successfully, that her children arm themselves with a university education and professional degrees. Her pride in her Spanish heritage made her a keen student and observer of the rich history of south Texas and Mexico and it was reflected in her study and research. 

She was a recognized scholar in Texas history throughout the state and Mexico and a primary source for professional historians, who relied on her comprehensive knowledge of Texas history and meticulous research for their own work. As the historian Oakah Jones, Jr. explained to his university history class, the first thing he learned when he came to San Antonio, "was that all roads (to Texas history) led to Gloria Cadena's house." 

With Angel Sepulveda Brown, she compiled and published the San Augustine Parish of Laredo: Abstracts of Marriage, Book I: 1790-1857 in 1987 and San Augustine Parish of Laredo; Abstracts of Marriage, Book II, 1858-1881 in 1993. At the time of her death, she and Mrs. Brown were compiling a third volume from the parish records of San Juan Bautista Parish in Guerrero, Mexico. The reliability of her research and, no doubt, her charm, led the San Juan Bautista priest to lend its original eighteenth century parish records for her personal use in this project. 

Gloria founded Los Bejarenos Genealogical Society, an organization dedicated to promoting Hispanic history through genealogical research and educational programs. An active member of El Patronatos, she was a tireless sponsor of its scholarship fund and programs. She was a member of the Texas Historical Commission and the Bexar County Historical Commission. Her hand-made Nacimiento, a nativity village scene of more than 5,000 pieces, was for some time on loan to the Institute Of Texan Cultures, and was the subject of numerous documentaries and news reports. SERVICES A Rosary was held Thursday evening, October 11, at Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church, 223 Summit Ave. A funeral mass will be held at 9:30 am, Friday, October 12, also at Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church, with interment to follow at Ft. Sam Houston National Cemetery. Contributions may be made to El Patronato Scholarship Fund or Los Bejarenos Genealogical Society, P.O. Box 1935, San Antonio, Texas or a charity of your choice. Arrangements with the Angelus Funeral Home.

She survives in the love of her nine children, Mary Elizabeth Galvan, Robert A. Galvan, Jr., and wife Karen, Carmen Martin, Catherine A. Meaney and husband, John, Rebecca Galvan, and husband Paul Farrell, Laura J. Galvan and husband Thomas Weaver, David Galvan and wife Brucene, Tracy L. Colborn and husband Jim, and Sara Katz and husband, Steve; brothers Richard Villa of La Jolla, CA., Charles Villa, (COL, USAF, Ret.), Fernando Villa, and sister Carmen Madla; sisters-in-law, Leona Villa, Joan Villa, Rose Villa, Lupe Villa and Yolanda Galvan Kirkland, and husband, B.J. Kirkland, (COL, USAF, Ret.). She is also survived by her grandchildren, Melanie McGee, Adam Moore, Anthony Barton, Shelley Barton, Leilani Galvan, Anabelle Galvan, Robert A. Galvan, III, Gabriela Galvan, Miranda Martin, Peyton Deane, IV, Rachel Meaney, Hilary Meaney, Patrick Meaney, Nicholas Farrell, Carlos Max Farrell, Elizabeth Farrell, Stanley Davis, Jonathon Davis, Sarah Davis, Hillary Weaver, Audrey Weaver, Zachary Weaver, Christian Galvan, Sarah Beth Galvan, Marian Galvan, Matthew Galvan, Adam Galvan, Anthony Galvan, Jennifer Colborn, James Colborn, Simon Katz, Hannah Katz, Jessica Katz and Rebecca Katz, her great grandchildren, John Smith, Christie Smith, Isabella Galvan, and Oskar Neubauer. She was preceded in death by husbands, Captain Robert A. Galvan, Sr., the Honorable Carlos C. Cadena, Chief Justice Fourth Court of Appeals, San Antonio, Texas, and beloved friend, Robert Preston. 

Published in the Express-News from 10/11/2007 - 10/12/2007. 

Sent by realdealt@gmail.com who writes: Gloria was the founder of Los Bexarenos Genealogical Society.  She was a very knowledgeable historian and as a researcher was a "stickler" for accuracy.
 
Editor:  I had the privilege and pleasure of meeting Gloria many, many years, when I first began my family history.  She was a sweet hostess allowing me and Mickey Garcia to sleep in her research room, among her very priced collection of family history data.  She generously offered us full access to all her research data and findings.   It was hard to go to sleep, there was an endless collection of drawers and cabinets to explore.  Those two days was a monumental experience in my family history adventures.

Texas Connection 
to the American Revolution

EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI

EAST COAST

MEXICO

The Guadalajara Census Project, 1791-1930

En muchas ocasiones he comentado en mi columna periodística los libros del Lic. Homero Héctor del Bosque Villarreal, todos encaminados a honrar la tierra lagunera que no lo vio nacer, pero que lo arrulló desde niño, pues apenas contaba con 17 días de nacido en Monterrey, N. L., donde vio su primera luz el día cinco de enero de 1915, siendo hijo del Lic. don Jesús María del Bosque Rodríguez y de su esposa doña Delfina Villarreal de Del Bosque. Fue su hermano mayor el Lic. Jesús Mario, el segundo el doctor César Augusto (que fue médico de mi familia hasta su muerte), luego siguió Homero Héctor licenciado, político, historiador, y el menor Hugo Álvaro, también doctor, todos profesionistas y hombres de honor, amorosos con sus familias, amantes de esta tierra generosa y grandes amigos de los que hemos tenido la fortuna de serlo.

Haré un recuento de los libros que mi amigo Homero me ha dedicado de su puño y letra, que son Aquel Torreón, editado en 1983; Este Torreón, editado en 1985; Semblanza Histórica de Torreón, 1907-1932; La Casa del Cerro, Atalaya de Torreón, editado en 1994; Historia de la Cruz Roja en Torreón, editado en 1994; Historia del Club España de Torreón desde su Fundación, 1918-1995, editado en 1995; Del Álbum de Mis Recuerdos, Narraciones, editado en 1999; y Torreón 1907-2007, Cien Años de Ciudad, editado en el 2007. En todos sus libros domina el color rojo en sus portadas, significando el fuego amoroso que siente por esta tierra que tanto ama.

El nuevo libro lo regaló a la ciudad de Torreón, Coah., como contribución cultural en su Centenario 1907-2007. La edición la realizaron el señor Lic. José Ángel Pérez Hernández, Presidente Municipal de Torreón, el Lic. Rodolfo Walss Aurioles, secretario del R. Ayuntamiento y el Lic. Jorge Eduardo Rodríguez Pardo, director del Archivo Municipal "Eduardo Guerra", estando en el presidium el autor del libro, acompañado por el Presidente Municipal Lic. José Ángel Pérez Hernández, y presentadores el Lic. Ricardo Cisneros Hernández y el Lic. Germán Froto Madariaga, en el vestíbulo del Teatro Nazas.

En el libro se narran episodios históricos de Torreón durante sus cien años como ciudad. Además hace un recuento de los promotores de la cultura de esta bella ciudad, nombrando y narrando párrafos de las obras literarias de Juan Antonio Díaz Durán, de Enrique Mesta Zúñiga, de Joaquín Sánchez Matamoros, de Pablo C. Moreno, de Álvaro Rodríguez Villarreal, de José León Robles de la Torre, de Eduardo González Fariño, de Raymundo de la Cruz López, de Fernando Martínez Sánchez, de Enriqueta Ochoa Benavides, de Adela Ayala, de Pedro Garfias, de León Felipe Camino, de Alfonso Camín, de Lamberto Alarcón Catalán, de Carlos Montfort Rubín, de Alfonso Garibay Fernández y de muchos más, que hacen que el libro resulte, además de ameno, muy interesante por la cantidad de personajes que describe y que no es posible incluir en un artículo periodístico.

Don Juan Eugenio Cárdenas Breceda Torreón, Coahuila séptimo President Municipal, El 20 de diciembre de 1908 se realizaron las elecciones para Presidente Municipal de Torreón, Coah., con sus dos candidatos: don Rafael Aldape Quiroz, que deseaba una tercera reelección y don Juan Eugenio Cárdenas Breceda, resultando triunfador este último, quien tomó posesión de su cargo el día primero de enero de 1909, con un Cabildo de lujo con puros hombres muy importantes en la política local, entre los que figuraban el Lic. don Mauro A. Sepúlveda, como primer regidor y segundo el Lic. David Garza Farías, el quinto don Mauro de la Peña Sr., don Andrés L. Farías y como primer síndico el Lic. Praxedis de la Peña y Flores, entre otros. Y como jefe político continuó don Juan Castillón.

"El nuevo Presidente Municipal –dice mi libro Cien Años de Presidentes Municipales en Torreón, 1893-1883– era hijo del dueño de la Hacienda de Jimulco don Amador Cárdenas, originario de Monclova, Coah., y gran amigo del presidente general Porfirio Díaz Mori, quien por cierto se hospedó en la Hacienda de Jimulco, por invitación de su amigo y fue atendido espléndidamente por el nuevo Presidente Municipal de Torreón don Eugenio Cárdenas Breceda. El presidente Díaz se dirigía a Ciudad Juárez, Chih., para entrevistarse con el presidente de los Estados Unidos de Norteamérica, William Howard Taft. Ya en la frontera, Díaz fue entrevistado por el periodista norteamericano Creelman, a quien le declaró, dice Guerra ‘que el pueblo mexicano estaba ya apto para la democracia, y que lo dejaría en libertad para señalar a sus mandatarios’. Esto ocurría en octubre de ese 1909, cuando a raíz del libro publicado por don Francisco Y. Madero La Sucesión Presidencial, se ponía en actividad la campaña contra el dictador. Los mismos porfiristas se dividían, pues mientras unos querían de vicepresidente de la República al general don Bernardo Reyes, otros se inclinaban por el señor don Ramón Corral".

"A Torreón llegaron y fueron atendidos por el Presidente Municipal Cárdenas Breceda, los oradores del momento, que hacían vibrar la palabra para hacer resaltar los méritos de los futuros candidatos: el Lic. don Rafael Zubirán se oponía a la candidatura de Corral, pidiendo la renovación; el Lic. Benito Juárez Maza hijo del Benemérito de las Américas, pronunció su discurso muy bien cuidado, e igual hicieron con el fuego del momento don Heriberto Barrón y llenaba el cuadro el Lic. don Jesús Urueta. Fundaron el Club Democrático de Torreón, quedando como presidente del mismo don Felícitos Villarreal, hombre de empresa que era gerente de la compañía metalúrgica. El general Reyes tenía muchos partidarios importantes en Torreón, entre los que figuraban el jefe político don Juan Castillón, el Lic. Onésimo Cepeda, el Lic. Manuel Garza Aldape, don Ciro Meléndez, don Baltazar G. Peña, don Francisco Peña Ibarra y otros más".

Don Luis Manuel Navarro Garza, único presidente municipal de Torreón, Coahuila., que duró siete periodos de un año, consecutivos. Los periodos eran de un año, reelegibles indefinidamente.

Al nacimiento de la Villa del Torreón, en 1893, los periodos de presidentes municipales, eran de un año hasta 1918 y a partir de 1919 comenzó de dos años, hasta 1942 en que comenzaron los periodos de tres años.

Don Luis Manuel Navarro Garza resultó electo presidente municipal para el año de 1899 y logró seis reelecciones consecutivas por los años de 1900, 1901, 1902, 1903, 1904, 1905. A su inicio, tomó posesión de su cargo el primero de enero de 1899 de la Villa del Torreón.

Antes había desempeñado un cargo de gobernador como consecuencia de una problemática coalición de políticos que nombró gobernador a don Luis Manuel Navarro Garza, sin reconocer al que desempeñaba el cargo que era el diputado Telésforo Fuentes. Don Luis M. Navarro se encontraba en Parras y allá le enviaron su nombramiento, "...y al aceptar, se dirigió inmediatamente al lugar denominado Anhelo donde estaban los miembros de la Fusión, y se hizo cargo del mando, y simultáneamente, mientras había un gobernador en Saltillo, el señor Navarro firmó un decreto el 25 de noviembre de 1884 "Estableciendo los poderes del Estado en Paredón, Coah.

El problema lo resolvió el gobierno federal. Para y después de unas elecciones, tomó posesión de gobernador el coronel don José Ma. García Galán el 15 de febrero de 1886 al 15 de diciembre de 1889, quien nombró a don Luis Manuel Navarro Garza, jefe político de Parras y de la Villa de Torreón. Desempeñó el cargo de presidente municipal de Parras hasta el 17 de enero de 1898.

"Con progresos alcanzados por la Villa de Torreón, para 1898 el gobernador creó la jefatura política de Torreón, para la que nombró a don Luis M. Navarro, tomando posesión en enero de 1898 y lo primero que hizo, como jefe político, que funcionaba independientemente del presidente municipal, representando al gobernador. Dotó a la colonia del Ferrocarril de una nomenclatura para ocho avenidas y 14 calles, como sigue:

Calles: calle Viesca, calle Múzquiz, calle Ramos Arizpe, calle Juan Antonio de la Fuente, calle Zaragoza, calle Valdés Carrillo, calle Cepeda, calle Rodríguez, calle Acuña, calle Blanco, calle Falcón, calle Treviño, calle Ildefonso Fuentes, y calle Leona Vicario.

Las avenidas: avenida Ferrocarril, avenida Hidalgo, avenida Juárez, avenida Morelos, avenida Matamoros, avenida Allende, avenida Abasolo y avenida Ocampo.

La nomenclatura se refiere a personajes de la historia de Coahuila o del país, y puede verlos en mi libro Cian Años de Presidentes Municipales en Torreón 1893-1993 que está en el Archivo Municipal y Centro Histórico Eduardo Guerra en esta ciudad.

En 1522 sin muchos problemas Cristóbal de Olid conquista Michoacán para la corona española, dicha conquista mas que una lucha armada, se debió a la administración deficiente y al fatalismo de Tangaxhuan II.

Empezaron a concederse las encomiendas entre 1523 y 1528 por Hernán Cortes, a Don Cristóbal de Oñate correspondió las de Tacámbaro y Culhuacán. La encomienda de Tiripetio y Acuitzio se le otorgó a Don Juan de Alvarado hermano del sanguinario Pedro de Alvarado.

Cristóbal de Oñate era oriundo de Vitoria, capital de Álava, fue hijo de Juan Pérez de Oñate y de Osaña González, llegó como ayudante de contaduría de Rodrigo de Albornoz, se casó con Doña Catalina de Salazar.

En 1529 fue nombrado Capitán de Jinetes de la Plana Mayor de Don Nuño Beltrán de Guzmán quien era el Presidente de la Primera Audiencia de la Nueva España. En su camino para la conquista de los Xaliscas, lo alcanzó Don Cristóbal en Tzintzuntzan donde tenía preso a Tangaxhuan II, exigiéndole todo el oro que pudiera entregarle. De ahí se trasladaron a Conguripo, donde Tzimzicha fue salvajemente torturado y sacrificado en marzo de 1530.

En el curso de esta campaña Beltrán de Guzmán fue requerido para que respondiera por sus atrocidades y crímenes, ocupando su lugar Cristóbal de Oñate, quien fundó Guadalajara y nombrado Gobernador de la región de los Xaliscas, la llamada Nueva Galicia. De Guadalajara se fue con Francisco Vásquez Coronado tras las ciudades de Cíbola y Quiviria. En los seis años Oñate estuvo varias veces en Tacámbaro y en 1538 gestiona ante Don Juan de Alvarado, su vecino encomendero que los frailes agustinos que predicaban en Tiripetio y Acuitzio acudieran a evangelizar su encomienda en Tacámbaro.

Los frailes Agustinos desembarcaron en Veracruz el 22 de mayo de 1533 luego a pie y descalzos llegaron a la capital de la nueva España el 7 de junio de 1533. En 1537 llegan los dos primeros frailes de esa orden a Michoacán fueron Juan de San Román y Diego de Chávez establecieron su casa de Agustinos en Tiripetio. En 1538 y con guías llegaron a Tacámbaro. Eran ocho leguas la distancia que recorrieron en un solo día a pie, descalzos (menos las plantas). Fueron recibidos con muestras de alegría, bailes y mitotes a la usanza. Fueron alojados en la casa de Don Cristóbal de Oñate la cual se encontraba en la "Magdalena". Ahí mismo se dio inicio la construcción de una capilla (la primera) con una pieza grande al lado. Para celebración de la Santa Misa y el salón para catequizar, fue llamado el caserío San Jerónimo Tacamba.

Los misioneros San Román y Chávez siguieron su labor evangelizadora por la tierra caliente y en dos años (1538 y 1539) con el encomendero Oñate construyeron el convento y la Iglesia de Tacámbaro (hoy presidencia Municipal y Catedral)

Las construcciones de la capilla del Mayorazgo, Iglesia, Convento se realizaron cuando estaba Carlos I, el Virrey Don Antonio de Mendoza, de Arzobispo Fray Juan de Zumárraga y de Obispo de Michoacán Don Vasco de Quiroga.

A Fray Juan de San Román lo suple el misionero Fray Alonso de la Veracruz (Alonso Gutiérrez). De 1545 a 1553 que permaneció en su misión, fundó el "Colegio de Estudios Mayores" el primero de América (después de haberlo traído de Tiripetio) Además trae alumnos de ahí mismo entre los que se encontraban Antonio Huitziméngari, hijo de Tangaxhuan II (último Rey Purépecha y ahijado de Antonio de Mendoza, el Virrey), aparte de los alumnos, también trae una copiosa biblioteca, que fue la segunda de la Orden Agustina, luego llevada al Colegio de Guadalajara para evitar la destrucción por la humedad.

A finales de 1553 llega Fray Juan Bautista de Moya sustituyendo a fray Alonso de la Veracruz. El llamado "Apóstol de Tierra Caliente" por los enormes beneficios realizados además de incontables milagros entre los que se mencionan, el haber cruzado el Río Balsas en un caimán, exprimió sangre de una tortilla frente al encomendero Alonso de Ávalos al tiempo que le decía " Vea usted lo que comemos, que no es otra cosa que la sangre de estos pobres indios". En una ocasión cayó desde lo alto de un cerro, saliendo sin un solo rasguño, celebraba la Santa Misa en tres lugares distintos y distantes ( Tiripetio, Tacámbaro y Carácuaro), actos de levitación y el famoso relato del "Bastón de la Parota".

Fray Alonso de la Veracruz, es sustituido en su labor evangelizadora 
en Tierra Caliente por Fray Juan Bautista de Moya.

Otra vista de la Restauración.

Fray Alonso de la Veracruz, es sustituido en su labor evangelizadora en Tierra Caliente por Fray Juan Bautista de Moya.

Catedral de Tacámbaro. Ordenó su construcción Don Cristóbal de Oñate a los Frailes Juan de San Román y Diego de Chávez. A un costado se fundó el Convento (actualmente la presidencia Municipal).

Fuente de algunos datos del presente Artículo por el Sr. Cura Antonio Rodríguez.

Francisco Vásquez de Coronado was born in Salamanca, the second son of Juan Vásquez de Coronado, a wealthy nobleman. As a younger son, Francisco could not inherit the family estates. He therefore went to the court of Charles I, where he secured a place in the service of Don Antonio de Mendoza, newly appointed viceroy of Mexico.

After his arrival in Mexico in 1535 Coronado rose rapidly in viceregal favor. In 1537 he married the wealthy Doña Beatriz de Estrada, daughter of the former treasurer of New Spain. In 1538 Mendoza appointed the young Coronado governor of the northern province of Nueva Galicia.

These were exciting times. The famous survivor of the Narváez expedition, Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, arrived at the viceregal court with stories he had heard of seven great cities in "Cíbola," far to the north. Mendoza, anxious to locate and conquer this reputedly golden land, dispatched Father Marcos de Niza and Cabeza de Vaca's companion Estevánico north. When Father de Niza returned in 1539 with a report that he had found the cities, the viceroy immediately outfitted a great expedition and named Coronado to lead it.

In February 1540 the army of more than 230 mounted Spanish gentlemen, 62 foot soldiers, several friars, and nearly 1,000 Indian allies headed north from Compostela. After a long march across northern Mexico and southern Arizona the army reached the Zuñi pueblo of Hawikuh in July. This spot Father de Niza identified as Cíbola, but to the disappointed Spaniards it was only "a little unattractive village" of mud and stone. Although discouraged by the lack of golden cities, Coronado dispatched several small exploring parties. One group marched west to the Colorado River, while another, under Pedro del Tovar, succeeded in reaching the Moqui (Hopi) pueblos north of Zuñi. A third group under García López de Cárdenas pushed northwest to the Grand Canyon. A fourth party under Hernando de Alvarado explored the upper Rio Grande. In the winter of 1540 Coronado moved his army to the Rio Grande and conquered the Tiguex pueblos near present-day Albuquerque.

At the Tiguex villages the Spaniards heard of a rich land called Quivira somewhere to the north. In the spring of 1541 Coronado set out to try to find this fabled kingdom. Marching eastward across the Pecos River, he turned north onto the Llano Estacado, the great grassland plains of North America; but when he arrived at Quivira on the Arkansas River, he discovered only a poor Indian village. Sickened by his failure to find gold and riches, Coronado left three missionaries to convert the Indians of Quivira and returned to Tiguex, where he gathered the remnants of his army and turned homeward. He arrived in Mexico in 1542, a bitter and disappointed man. For the next 2 decades the Spaniards forgot the northern lands and concentrated on developing their Mexican possessions.

In 1544 Coronado faced charges of neglect of duty and cruelty to the Indians and lost the governorship of Nueva Galicia. He returned to Mexico City, where he managed his estates and served as regidor, or member of the city council, until his death.

Further Reading: The diaries and documents pertaining to Coronado's expedition can be found in such collections as George P. Winship, ed., The Coronado Expedition, 1540-1542 (1896; repr. 1964), and George P. Hammond and Agapito Rey, eds., Narratives of the Coronado Expedition, 1540-1542 (1940). The best biography of Coronado is Herbert E. Bolton, Coronado: Knight of Pueblos and Plains (1949). Also helpful are Arthur Grove Day, Coronado's Quest: The Discovery of the Southwestern States (1940; repr. 1964), and his brief Coronado and the Discovery of the Southwest (1967).
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/f?gmd:0:./temp/~ammem_uaeg: 

Sent by Rafael Ojeda

Commemorative plaque erected outside the church


The Trials of Tlatelolco

In 1521, Tlatelolco saw desperate fighting between the Spaniards under Cortés and the Aztecs under Cuauhtémoc, the lord of Tlatelolco and briefly Emperor of Mexico. The Aztecs were eventually routed and the temples burned.

Santiago, the militant patron saint of Spain whose mythic crushing of the Moors was frequently portrayed in art, was widely credited with the victory and the success of the Conquest.

Later, the church dedicated to Santiago rose from the ruins of the razed temples. A vivid relief showing the saint trampling his foes underfoot, some pointedly in indigenous headdresses, remains in the church to this day.

The College of Santa Cruz

The extensive convento beside the church was also the seat of the College of Santa Cruz, a Franciscan seminary founded to educate the native elite for the priesthood. However, because of their mixed loyalties and considered unsuitability the native students were denied that privilege.  Ironically the educated indigenous eventually became teachers to the Spanish elite.

Text and pictures ©2007 by Richard D. Perry. All rights reserved.  Permission given.

More recent information on Tlatelolco can find found on this site:
http://www.colonial-mexico.com/Central%20Mexico/tlatelolco.html

ESPADANA PRESS
Exploring Colonial Mexico
http://www.colonial-mexico.com

Mani, located 100 kms south of Mérida, east of the Puuc range, was the seat of the powerful Xiu Maya clan. Following the Spanish conquest of Yucatán, Mani was chosen as the site for the first Franciscan mission in the region. The monastery of San Miguel is especially noted for its great open chapel and fine early retablos.

Over the past few years, restoration work has been under way at the 16th century monastery, directed by Fernando Garcés Fierros.* During this exciting project many historic artworks, artifacts and architectural details have been uncovered.

Uncovering the apsidal fresco behind the retablo 

More photos and information: http://www.colonial-mexico.com/Yucatan/mani.html

ESPADANA PRESS
Exploring Colonial Mexico
http://www.colonial-mexico.com

Compiled by John D. Inclan

Generation No. 1

1. JOSEPH-ANDRES¹ REVELES He married MARIA-LEONARDA GONZALEZ-VILLARREAL.

Children of JOSEPH-ANDRES REVELES and MARIA-LEONARDA GONZALEZ-VILLARREAL are:

2. i. JOSE-GERONIMO² REVELES-GONZALEZ.

3. ii. JOSEPH-RAFAEL REVELES-GONZALEZ, b. 12 Jul 1806, Sagario Metropolitano, Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico.

iii. MARIA-ASENCION REVELES-GONZALEZ, b. 20 Aug 1809, Sagario Metropolitano, Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico.

iv. MARIA-DE-LA-CRUZ REVELES-GONZALEZ, b. 19 Sep 1813, Sagario Metropolitano, Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico.

v. JOSE-GREGORIO REVELES-GONZALEZ, b. 19 Mar 1817, Sagario Metropolitano, Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico; m. MARIA-FRANCISCA BERASTEGUI-MONTES, 18 May 1839, Sagrario Metropolitano, Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico.

Generation No. 2

2. JOSE-GERONIMO² REVELES-GONZALEZ (JOSEPH-ANDRES¹ REVELES) He married MARIA-JUANA SANCHEZ-VILLARREAL 27 Feb 1832 in Sagrario Metropolitano, Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico, daughter of JUAN SANCHEZ and MARIA-NICOLAS VILLARREAL. She was born 1805, and died Aft. 1880 in Duval County, Texas.

Notes for MARIA-JUANA SANCHEZ-VILLARREAL:

Children of JOSE-GERONIMO REVELES-GONZALEZ and MARIA-JUANA SANCHEZ-VILLARREAL are:

i. MARIA-ANTONIA³ REVELES-SANCHEZ, b. 04 Nov 1832, Sagrario Metropolitano, Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico.

4. ii. MARIA-FRANCISCA REVELES-SANCHEZ, b. Abt. 1834; d. Aft. 1880, Duval County, Texas.

5. iii. MARIA-ANTONIA-AMADA REVELES-SANCHEZ, b. 16 Sep 1835, Sagrario Metropolitano, Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico; d. 1905, Bee County, Texas.

iv. JOSE-ANDRES REVELES-SANCHEZ, b. 20 Jul 1837, Sagrario Metropolitano, Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico.

v. BRUNO REVELES-SANCHEZ, b. 25 Dec 1840, Sagrario Metropolitano, Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico.

vi. JOSE-ANTONIO REVELES-SANCHEZ, b. 08 Sep 1847, Sagrario Metropolitano, Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico.

3. JOSEPH-RAFAEL² REVELES-GONZALEZ (JOSEPH-ANDRES¹ REVELES) was born 12 Jul 1806 in Sagario Metropolitano, Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico. He married MARIA-GUADALUPE DE-LA-GARZA-MONTES 25 Sep 1831 in Sagrario Metropolitano, Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico, daughter of JOSEPH-ANTONIO DE-LA-GARZA and MARIA-RAFAELA MONTES-DE-OCA. She was born 22 Apr 1794 in Sagario Metropolitano, Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico.

Children of JOSEPH-RAFAEL REVELES-GONZALEZ and MARIA-GUADALUPE DE-LA-GARZA-MONTES are:

i. JUANA³ REVELES-DE-LA-GARZA, m. JUAN GONZALEZ-FARIAS, 27 Oct 1849, Sagrario Metropolitano, Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico.

6. ii. RAFAELA-BERNARDA REVELES-DE-LA-GARZA, b. 23 Aug 1841, Sagrario Metropolitano, Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico.

Generation No. 3

4. MARIA-FRANCISCA³ REVELES-SANCHEZ (JOSE-GERONIMO² REVELES-GONZALEZ, JOSEPH-ANDRES¹ REVELES) was born Abt. 1834, and died Aft. 1880 in Duval County, Texas. She married MARIANO DE-LA-GARZA-SANCHEZ 30 Jul 1849 in Sagrario Metropolitano, Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico, son of JOSE-VICENTE DE-LA-GARZA-MARTINEZ and MARIA-ANDREA SANCHEZ-DE-LA-SERNA. He was born Abt. 1830, and died Aft. 1880 in Duval County, Texas.

Children of MARIA-FRANCISCA REVELES-SANCHEZ and MARIANO DE-LA-GARZA-SANCHEZ are:

i. JOSE-MARIA⁴ DE-LA-GARZA-REVELES.

ii. PILAR DE-LA-GARZA-REVELES.

iii. AMILIA DE-LA-GARZA-REVELES, b. Texas.

iv. ADAN DE-LA-GARZA-REVELES, b. Texas.

v. VALARIANO DE-LA-GARZA-REVELES, b. Texas.

5. MARIA-ANTONIA-AMADA³ REVELES-SANCHEZ (JOSE-GERONIMO² REVELES-GONZALEZ, JOSEPH-ANDRES¹ REVELES) was born 16 Sep 1835 in Sagrario Metropolitano, Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico, and died 1905 in Bee County, Texas. She married BENTURA JIMENEZ. He was born 02 Feb 1800 in Cadereyta Jimenez, Nuevo Leon, Mexico, and died 1903 in Beeville, Bee County, Texas.